The Path of Most Resistance

Epilogue: Taking Over

Disclaimer: Premise and characters are the property of JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

Voldemort was defeated over Hogwart's Christmas break in the year of 1997. When classes resumed in the new year all the students who had found reason not to show up for classes in the fall suddenly returned. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Draco, who like his mother had changed his name to Black were among them.

Headmistress McGonagall, seeing the way the winds were blowing, had the staff make follow-up visits to the families of muggle-born wizards who's parents had chosen to keep them away from the Wizarding World the previous summer on account of the war. And with the First-Year class four times larger than it had been at the start of the year she'd held an unprecedented, second Sorting Ceremony.

After it was over an even more unprecedented ceremony took place. It also involved hats, but completely ordinary, unmagical hats, which didn't sing, talk or think. At the instigation of the Invasion of Eight each Year's students placed their names in two hats, one for girls and one for boys, then they drew lots to assign dorms by random chance rather than by House.

Snape heard all about it second hand from Minerva McGonagall during one of her regular visits to try to persuade him that they needed him to return to his old positions as Potions Instructor and Head of Slytherin. Snape insisted that even if he'd been physically capable after the loss of his hand, he still wouldn't return to teaching an endless stream of dunderheads.

The following fall Horace Slughorn retired for a second time and Snape returned to his duties as the Head of Slytherin. Since he insisted that he was incapable of dealing with the idiocy and incompetency of beginning students due to his handicap, Minerva arranged part time teaching positions for the Weasley Twins. They handled Potions for the First through Third years while Snape, assisted by a House Elf, one Winky, taught the upper divisions.

After they graduated Harry Potter and Ron Weasely both joined the Chudley Cannons. Three years later they suddenly resigned and began training as Aurors. When asked Harry said that they'd needed a break from dark wizards after Voldemort. Common wisdom held that he'd quit because he didn't want to show up his fiancee, Ginny Weasley, who had just become the Seeker for the Ballycastle Bats. As for Ron, well, everyone knew he and Harry were inseparable.

To no one's surprise the final member of the Gryffindor Golden Trio opted to attend a Wizarding College after graduating from Hogwarts. What would have surprised the public had they known was that both Hermione Granger and Draco Black were actually enrolled at two colleges, studying both Muggle and Wizarding Law. The same year that Harry and Ron finished their training as Aurors Hermione and Draco set the Wizarding World on it's ear by charging the Wizengamot for gross misconduct. They lost their case, but in the months following dozens of people who had been found guilty without the benefit of a trial, because it was public knowledge that they must be guilty, were given trials. Hermione and Draco successfully over-turned a number of wrongful convictions. Draco publicly refused to represent his father, he told reporters that even Lucius Malfoy deserved representation who actually believed that he didn't deserve to rot in prison for the rest of his life.

Five years after Voldemort's defeat Severus Snape married Narcissa Black, while their involvement had been considered quite shocking at one time, by the time they married the only thing that surprised anyone was how long it had taken them. Draco had been married to Pansy for two years when he gave his mother away.

Meanwhile back at Hogwarts Pomona Sprout, Remus Lupin and Sibyll Trelawney retired, as did the Transfiguration Professor who had taken over Headmistress McGonagall's teaching duties. Neville Longbottom took over Herbology. Luna Lovegood completely restructured the Divination curriculum, making it a theoretical class rather than a practical. She taught that the gift of prophecy couldn't and didn't need to be taught. The trick was being able to recognize and interpret prophecies as the signposts they were meant to be. Pansy Parkinson and Hannah Abbot also returned to Hogwarts to teach Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. While the House system had been irrevocably changed when the students had refused to accept dorm assignments dictated by House it did survive. The four new teachers each went on to become the Head of their respective Houses. Snape only gave up Slytherin upon assuming duties as Hogwart's Headmaster after Professor McGonagall's retirement.

After retiring from teaching, Remus Lupin took up the cause of Werewolf rights. While he made great progress in attaining equal legal status for werewolves, and in ensuring that methods of controlling the wolf during the nights of the full moon were available to all that needed them, there was nothing that could be done to stop the accumulative damage werewolves suffered from their transformations. Remus died from the strain on his health at the relatively young age of sixty-four.

Hermione Weasley nee Granger became the Minster of Magic shortly after she and Ron's third and final child started at Hogwarts. By that point Harry was in charge of the Aurors while Ron oversaw the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Ginny ran the Department of Catastrophes. It took Draco another six years to become Head of the Wizengamut.

The Potters threw a party to celebrate Draco's achievement.

"Sorry we're late," Hermione said as she and Ron arrived. "Work - as usual."

Ron slapped Draco on the shoulder. "Congratulations, you made it... only a half a decade after everyone else."

Draco rolled his eyes, "And I'm still the youngest ever instated. My fifty-fifth birthday is next month, and yes, I do expect another party."

Pansy and Hermione just shook their heads.

"Luna and Neville brought dinner," Harry announced. "It should be on the table by now."

"How are the twins?" Hermione asked Ginny as they followed Harry.

"They still insist that they're going to help their Uncles with 'Weasley's Wizarding Weezes'. Fred and George think it's a brilliant idea... and they graduate this spring so I won't have the school argument anymore."

Hermione gave her a sympathetic look.

"Everyone's here," Narcissa said as the group entered the dining room. "Thank goodness, maybe now I can get these three to quit talking shop." She gestured to her husband, Neville and Luna.

After dinner Draco said. "So we've all done what we set out to. Hogwarts, most major departments in the government. We really did take over the world."

"Draco, haven't you grown-up at all?" Hermione sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you: We are not 'taking over the world'."

Snape found himself remembering a day just five months after Voldemort fell. He'd still been living in the flat and since Narcissa had quietly not moved out, Draco certainly knew where to find him. It had still surprised Snape when the Invasion of Eight showed up on his doorstep.

"Professor, we were wondering if you and Mother would mind providing advise on taking over the world?" Draco had announced.

Hermione had scowled irritably at Draco as the eight teens invited themselves in. Snape had been too shocked to protest. "How many times do I have to tell you," Hermione scolded Draco. "We are not 'taking over the world'. We're just going to change it."

For the first time, Snape noticed Remus Lupin following the teens. He looked as stunned as Snape felt. "May we come in?" he asked with a slightly ironic grin. "They did this to me just an hour ago. I'm still trying to get my head around it... And I've been watching what they've done at Hogwarts and I still didn't catch on."

Once Narcissa had finished playing hostess and everyone was seated the teens presented their proposal.

"We knew what we wanted to fix at Hogwarts," Harry had begun. "We know Hogwarts, how things work, were the problems lie. Headmistress McGonagall is already taking care of problem where some of the teachers aren't particularly competent, which is why you need to come back, she doesn't know anyone else to take Potions. The other big problem at Hogwarts was the segregation of the Houses. Remus convinced us that we shouldn't try to get rid of the Houses all together. We do think differently and we need advisors who understand how we think, what sort of problems we're likely to have and it is good to develop our strengths. We just had to stop the system from making us so suspicious of each other."

"There's no way any of the current students will agree to return to the old system," Pansy took up the explanation. "That's six years before any headway can be made by the staff in going back to the old way, by then we should have teachers on staff to make sure no tries if there's still any interest in doing so."

"And changing Hogwarts will change everything else in time, but we're not planning on waiting for other people to do the work," Neville said.

"But we don't know the world outside of Hogwarts quite so well," Luna remarked. "It's a problem."

"We know some of the things that need to change with Wizarding Society at large," Ron said.

"Imprisonment without trial, the treatment of other magical beings-" Hermione started ticking off points on her fingers.

"You're still the only one who thinks SPEW was a good idea," Pansy interrupted.

"I really think it might be for the best if we didn't scare the beings whose lives we were attempting to better," Luna remarked.

"Dumping kids somewhere and never bothering to check on them," Snape heard Harry mutter to himself. "If Voldemort hadn't killed my parents I probably would have agreed with him on Muggles, the Dursleys were such great representatives."

"Alright already!" Hermione exclaimed. "SPEW wasn't well thought out, I've admitted that! That's the point of this: We need advise because well-intentioned but misguided won't get the job done."

"We didn't go through all this with Voldemort just to have it happen again," Harry said. "We are going to change the world. Wanna help?"

"And now that you're head of the Wizengamot we'll finally be able to implement some reforms to the legal system instead of simply working around the system," Hermione continued. "We've only gotten started changing the world. It's always going to be a work in progress."