Chapter 28: Epilogue

Harry, Hermione, and Ron sat in sullen silence as the Hogwarts Express rumbled back to merry ol' London. To say that the school year had been hellish would be an understatement. Harry remembered the train ride last year. It had been bitter sweet. He may have been heading back to the Dursleys but he had just had the best year of his life. He had discovered magic, made new friends, and even defeated Lord Voldemort, winning the house cup in the process.

That was last year though and this time there was no silver lining. How could everything have gone so wrong?

To start with, thanks to his and Ron's foolishness Mr. Weasley had been demoted at the Ministry of Magic from head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office to an assistant position. This humiliation was exacerbated by the foul influence of Lucius Malfoy who was leveraging his prominent position in the magical community to inflict whatever harm he could on the Weasleys. Now their already precarious financial situation was cast into even more uncertainty and all because of a stupid stunt with a car. Somehow Harry doubted he'd be invited back to "The Burrow" for the holidays.

Besides Ron and his home problems, poor Hermione had fared little better. Thankfully, after the Chamber of Secrets was closed most of the insults had subsided, but she was still kept at arms length by the rest of the girls. The stress from being ostracized in this way had caused her impeccable grades to slip and she found herself doing quite poorly on her exams; a first for her. Naturally as their tutor, Harry and Ron had also performed dismally. If they even passed their classes was as good as anyone's guess. To make matters worse, in addition to being considered a pariah by the student body, Hermione had apparently been placed on some sort of wizarding watch list. What this meant for her future Harry wasn't sure, but it wasn't a good thing he knew that much.

As for Harry himself he had lost nearly everything. He wasn't able to enjoy his classes as he had spent all year chasing after Link. He hadn't been able to enjoy quidditch as it had been cancelled early due to the attacks from Slytherin's heir. He hadn't been able to uncover the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. He was never able to satisfactorily clear his name after he was ousted as a parseltongue. He suffered a humiliating defeat during the dueling tournament. And to cap it all off his entire reputation was ruined thanks to Lockhart's ridiculous rumour mongering.

Lockhart was another issue entirely.

Harry had been dreading today for some time. Besides being the day he was sent back to Private Drive, today also marked the release of Lockhart's new book. Nobody had read it yet, but Harry had been able to parse out enough details to know that he wasn't going to like it. Evidently, Lockhart had constructed this narrative that Harry was a bullying, ego driven monster who had tried to frame Link as Slytherin's Heir. Initially most people laughed the rumors off as simple sensationalism but over time he noticed people looking at him differently. Even Colin had stopped hanging around him.

It was true that he had been following Link around and asking people about him, but he never actually accosted him in the hallways or anything! And so what if Hermione tried to literally become his girlfriend, she had apologized! And while Ron had confronted Ginny a few times over her friendship with Link, it wasn't that strange if you thought about it. He was just worried about his sister. It all just seemed so unfair…

While the once Golden Trio was stewing in their misery, the cabin door opened and Neville poked his head in.

'Hey Harry, Ron.' said Neville, distinctly ignoring Hermione.

'Hello Neville, what's up? Want to join us?' Harry asked hopefully.

Neville licked his lips and looked around the room nervously, his eyes lingering on Hermione briefly.

'N-No I'm good thanks. I just wanted to stop by to give you this…' he handed Harry three copies of a green and black book. They all recognized the two figures on the cover and Harry groaned.

'Where did you get these?' asked Harry in a drained voice as he took the books from Neville.

'Malfoy. He-he bought a whole bunch of them. There's a big pile of copies for everyone to read out in the dining car.'

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, the colour fading from their faces.

'Just thought you should know.'

At that, Neville retreated from the room and quietly closed the door behind him. Left alone again, the three looked at the books in Harry's hands. For a while nobody said anything.

'H-How bad could it be right?' said Ron with false bravado.

Taking a book from Harry, they all started to read in silence. Page after page; they kept reading until the sun had set and the sky was filled with stars. Ron was the last to finish. Looking up at Harry and Hermione, Harry thought that he had just had a stroke.

'Wha-why is- what?' sputtered Ron incoherently, his short-circuiting brain unable to form sentences.

'Yeah.' agreed Harry sadly.

It was everything Harry had feared and more. He hadn't realized that the book would contain so many photos. In particular, photos of him losing in spectacular fashion to the boy he had supposedly been trying to destroy all school year.

'At least they changed most of our names.' managed Ron after his brain fog had cleared.

Harry nodded, though it didn't do much to obscure anyone's identity. Harry Potter's "troll like side kick" had been name changed to Donald Geasley and the "flame haired temptress" became Finny Geasley.

'They did it so that they wouldn't have to pay any royalties I suspect.' said Hermione emotionlessly. She looked very tired, 'That's why I'm…Garboine Quanger.' she said, wincing.

'B-But they kept Harry's name.' said Ron looking befuddled.

'He's famous enough that they can argue it's a matter of public record.' continued Hermione in the same dead voice, 'In any case, all the students know who is who. From there, kids will tell their parents. Parents will tell their friends, etcetera. Everyone will know.'

At that moment the three heard uproarious laughter coming from outside their cabin.

'I-I'm dying mate! Gar-Gar-Garboine! Gar-Garboine Quanger!'

Hermione sighed and put her head against the cool glass of the window. They would all have to leave the cabin soon to change out of their school uniforms and from the sounds of things, they weren't the only ones to have read Lockhart's book.

A bead of sweat rolled down Harry's face.

Maybe being with the Dursley's for the summer won't be so bad after all. Thought Harry as the laughter in the halls grew louder.

THE END

Author's Note:

Well. That's it. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story! I'm sure I messed up the structure, grammar, and pacing so please be sure to tell me so in a review! Special thanks to Tracey for some help editing. Here are some fun facts:

-This was my first fanfiction. I've written silly little short stories before, but never put anything up for others to read.

-To this day I don't know why I wrote this. I'm not a huge fan of Harry Potter or Zelda. I really have no idea.

-Originally Epona was going to be in the story, but I cut her because this drivel was long enough already. Plus, her sections were boring. "Link went to the stables and rode his horse…again."

-The whole "Link replenishes himself by killing" thing is pretty cliché I'll admit, but I wanted to take as many gameplay mechanics from the Zelda games as I could and the fact is that Link gets health and magic from the monsters he kills. I don't know. Maybe there's a better way to blend that aspect of Link with the story, but I couldn't think of one.

-Zelda was going to show up at the last moment and use her illusion magic to save Link from Dumbledore but I changed my mind and had Lockhart win in the end. I like the idea of pretty much all of the antagonists winning. Except for Voldemort. I couldn't think of a way for him to win AND have Ginny survive.

-I really like the idea of Link's interference at Hogwarts screwing up Harry, Ron, and Hermione's life. If you think I was too harsh on them, you should have seen my other ideas. Hermione was going to be expelled, Ron's family was going to lose their house, Harry was going to be forced to spend his fortune bailing them out, etc. Good times.

-Originally there were going to be three McGuffins – I mean…"crystal pieces". But, I cut the third piece because it wasn't very exciting. If you're curious, the third piece was going to be hidden in Hogsmeade. That crotchety old man who was unhappy over his garden from Chapter 2 had it.

-I set things up for a sequel but I doubt I'll ever write one. Not that I didn't have fun writing this story, I just don't know if I care enough about the third Harry Potter book, y'know? But who knows. If this story does well (which I doubt, but stranger things have happened) I'll write a sequel.

-If I do write a sequel, bear in mind that I don't upload stories chapter to chapter. Instead I wait until the whole thing is finished and edited before uploading. Not that I'm an expert, but I think that periodic updates are antithetical to good storytelling. I think readers like having the whole story so they can read at their own pace. Besides, there is nothing worse then getting invested in a dead story. What this means is, I might not write anything for months, only to upload a whole story one day. Speaking of which, I'm already finished writing another story I'm just editing it down to a manageable length. So maybe expect that in a few months or so. [EDIT: That story is up! It's title is "All for One and Spiders for All". It's a Spider-Man/My Hero Academia crossover. Give it a read if you literally have nothing better to do, although honestly I think just breathing and sitting motionless is a better use of your time.]

Thanks again for reading!