Epilogue

Author's warning: the end is fluffy and silly. Readers who want to escape the worst of it are advised to stop reading after the word "weather".

A week later, on the night of the full moon, Andromeda locked Remus inside the cellar room again, this time with a mattress and a blanket. If she doubted that he would remain human, she did not tell him so, and he did not voice any certainty.

She went to her back garden to watch the moon rise. Once it was in the sky, gleaming like a huge pearl, she returned to the cellar to ask Remus if he had transformed. He had not.

They waited an hour, in which Andromeda secured the door to the nursery with three different protection spells. Then she let Remus out of the cellar, and they went to the garden. After a brief hesitation on the threshold of the back door he stepped into the moonlight to let its mild glow wash over him, turning up his face as in worship. Only once before, when his son was born, had she seen him so happy - but this time he would remember it.

They walked to the edge of the pond and gazed at the milky reflection of the moon in its still waters. Sitting down on the lawn, they enjoyed the light and the sounds of the summer night and each other's company, and Remus told her that one day he'd go for a walk under the full moon where people could see him, to claim his proper place in the Wizarding World. And if by doing so he would scare some werewolf-haters who had sent Howlers and letters to the Prophet, so much the better. They laughed, and because there's nothing quite like kissing in the moonlight at the edge of the water, they kissed, too.

After this night, Remus's dreams about the Forest, the dreams in which he was dead and happy, ceased altogether. He abandoned his plans to visit Dolohov in Azkaban to ask him what curse he had used to kill the werewolf. It didn't matter anymore: Dolohov was his past, not his future; he was alive, the wolf was dead. Perhaps one day the Wizarding World would recognise him for what he knew himself to be - for what he had, in fact, always been: not a Dark Creature but a human being.

Or maybe not. But even if he would remain a werewolf in the eyes of others, whether he transformed or not, so be it. He would never let it eat him again. Instead, he realised now to what end he had been called back, what unfinished business it was that awaited him, and what wrongs he had to redress: not his own, but those of his world. He would stand up for the right of werewolves to be human. He had great allies in Harry and his friends, he had a woman who believed in him and a son to make proud, he had children like Gery to help and support.

When Hermione finally got around to looking up the English translation of gral and discovered that it was simply the German version of the Grail, she was greatly puzzled. The Grail was supposed to be a cup, not a stone, and the thought that it could be both at the same time offended her sense of logic. Remus on the other hand, was rather taken with the idea that it was the grail that had made him a new man, as it turned his fight for werewolf rights into a true quest. He decided to interpret the Grail as a symbol for a goblet containing the Wolfsbane Potion. His first move would be a campaign to provide every werewolf in Britain who wanted it, with the potion.

If there was one thing Remus regretted about his second life, it was that his amnesia appeared to be permanent. There was nothing to be done about it. Fortunately, so far his new life had been full of interesting material to create new memories from.

On the day Teddy turned five months old, the Auror, Niobe Green, was sentenced to twenty years in Azkaban. Normally, her use of the Imperius Curse would have led to a life sentence, but taking her personal background into consideration, the Wizengamot considered this too harsh. Andromeda did not agree, but this was mainly because of the incident with the Wolfsbane Potion, which only Remus and she (and Harry and his friends, but they had it from hearsay) knew about.

Shortly after this, Remus finally received the first instalment of Dora's war pension, together with the promise that his own would follow soon after. Meanwhile, the abolition of the Umbridge anti-werewolf legislation was firmly put on the agenda of the new Shacklebolt government. The Minister's own proposal to remove Gower from his position at the Werewolf Support Service and replace him with Remus Lupin once the Umbridge laws were repelled, met with a favourable response.

On Remus's thirty-ninth birthday, Andromeda decided she was ready at last to take the next step in their relationship and asked him to marry her. Remus immediately said 'yes'. The wedding announcement in the Daily Prophet gave occasion to a Howler or two, but thanks to an ingenious disinformation campaign the date turned out to be wrong. The wedding day itself wasn't marred by anything, not even by the weather.

There were two guests Andromeda couldn't remember inviting, but as she admitted to Remus afterwards, it could have been worse. They could have brought Lucius. Remus agreed - but then, he'd never have sent the invitation to Malfoy Manor if he had believed for a second that Lucius would deign to come.

Some time later, Andromeda discovered that the infertility curse Bellatrix had cast on her after Dora's birth had apparently expired with the caster. When her and Remus's daughter managed to be born - a few weeks early - on the first of January of the year 2000, they agreed that the start of the new millennium was an excellent time to declare the war over at last.

If Draco Malfoy ever offered to werecub-sit little Irene Dora Lupin, it falls outside the scope of this story, though it is by no means impossible. But whether he did so or not, all was as well as could be.

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footnote: In the German medieval tradition, the Grail is a stone. Interpreters have even made a link with the Philosopher's Stone, but that remains very speculative.

A/N: And this, as you'll understand, is the end, dear readers. If you put me on your favourites or author alert list, and you haven't reviewed yet, this is your last chance to do so... thank you.