AN: Been a long time coming. Just two more words before we finish: thank you.

The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - 1995

"I'm glad I get to do it," Lily Luna told Harry, as she began to drag him along as much as she could underneath the fabric, "because you're just like Dad, only younger like me, which means you're also more fun in some ways. Dad never plays pranks with me or anything. We use to play tea-party and things when I was little. He never does pranks with James or Al because they're bad enough as it is, but you'd think I'd be different! Anyways, I'm sure you'd like something to remember me by, so I've decided to give you this."

Harry was handed the furry, fluffy ferret. It blinked doe eyes at him, squirming for a few moments before sliding out, scampering up his arm and nestling itself around his neck and shoulders.

"See! He likes you. Perfect."

"Um ..." Harry followed Lily Luna down another corridor into a dead end, wondering when she had turned into such a chatterbox.

"Oh! Hmm. Well, I suppose this way hasn't been built yet. Maybe it happened after the Battle of Hogwarts. Trust me, they had to do a lot of rebuilding. And Professor Binns talks about all of it! Every single stone, I swear. It's horrible! Worse than Goblin Wars."

"Right," he agreed. It did sound worse.

"Almost theeeere!" she sang, causing a ghost who was flying by to stop and peer awkwardly in their direction for a few seconds. She giggled quietly. "Oops."

Harry followed a skipping Lily Luna to the door of the Hospital Wing just as Dumbledore had finished his conversation with Hermione and his past self, who had travelled back in time as well. Dumbledore stopped, peering in their direction for a few moments, and Harry swore he could feel his heart fail.

"Well," the ancient wizard said quietly, perhaps to himself. "It has been an odd day." Then he turn and strode away.

Lily Luna caught the door before it swung shut, smiling sadly. "Guess this is good bye for now, then."

"Guess so." They hugged, and Harry stepped through the doorway as Lily Luna closed it behind him.

"Tell me everything," said Hermione Granger, shaking Harry's shoulders slightly. "Everything, and don't leave a single thing out."

"Um, alright, but I'm pretty sure we don't have much time left …"

Lily Luna rejoined her family at the front of the school. She eyed the runes her mother and Rose were tracing onto the ground with interest and plopped herself down on the ground.

"Well, how'd it go?" asked James Sirius glumly.

"I gave him Draco," Lily Luna smiled benevolently.

Her parents exchanged a look. "Alright then," Harry said to his daughter. "That's fine. You didn't do anything else, did you?"

She shook her head, her red hair swinging about her shoulders as she did so. "Nope!"

"Then let's go home."

The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Present Day

Albus, James, Rose, Hugo and Lily sat outside the office of Headmistress Minerva McGonagall.

"We're in so much trouble," Hugo mumbled sadly. "I hope she doesn't expel us."

James snorted, "As if. We're the some of the best students in the whole school! She can't afford to get rid of us!"

"I'm glad you think so," interrupted the Headmistress herself. "You remind me a lot of your grandfather in that respect. But don't think that excuses your behaviour today. What you did was reckless, foolish, and quite possibly one of the stupidest things any Hogwarts student has ever tried to accomplish."

"And … ?" James asked, grinning.

"And I'm also glad you're back safely," she softened. "I know your hearts were in the right place."

Hugo and James shared a discreet high-five. It wasn't discreet enough.

"Don't think that this means you won't have detention with Professor Longbottom until the end of the year," McGonagall finished brusquely, and the children began a half-hearted protested before she quelled them with a sharp stare.

Lily Luna turned to her father and mother, who were standing in the doorway, "Do you think that Malfoy the ferret is waiting at home for me?"

Harry and Ginny Potter exchanged a glance, wondering how to tell their young daughter that even magical ferrets didn't have a long enough lifespan to have lasted 25 years.

When all was said and done, there were a number of things to be noted.

1) There was a small litter of four ferrets in the Potter home now, each named distinctly after a House Founder and each the descendants of a ferret named Malfoy. (Lily Luna was absolutely delighted with the new additions, to say the least.)

2) People still made jokes about the resemblance between Albus and his father, only now there was the deliberate reference to the event that had occurred all those years ago in Hogwarts. (People also make jokes about the Headmaster's vanishing beard, but never to Head Mistress McGonagall's face.)

3) Up in a secreted alcove of the Astronomy Tower, you would sometimes find one Rose Weasley, speaking in hushed tones over a clear, shining mirror. If you were to look in said mirror, you might find one Severus Snape. And if you did, you certainly didn't hear it here.

THE END.