Halloween was suddenly upon them.
Five years ago, a group had lobbied the Ministry to call the day Harry Potter Day, and to make it a national holiday. Harry had been quite embarrassed and had campaigned vigorously to call it Dumbledore Day instead.
In the end, they reached a compromise and, in typical wizarding fashion, agreed to call it “Celebration of Victory Enjoyed Nationally Day”, or C.O.V.E.N. day.
This had marked Harry's entry into politics and started him down the road that, just two years ago, had resulted in him reluctantly becoming the youngest Minister for Magic in history.
People still called it Harry Potter Day though, and it still embarrassed him.
The day was celebrated the world over, but the highlight was the festival and evening fireworks at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The school grounds were thrown open to the public and the biggest wizarding festival in the world was set up. Magical rides that hung in the air without any visible means of support took children and adults alike screaming through the twists and turns of a rollercoaster. Performers and actors worked through the crowd performing elaborate pantomimes and dramas. Jugglers and acrobats put on death defying shows, and a multitude of stalls lined the large grassed paddock.
The climax was the Weasley twins’ fireworks spectacular. Every year they would showcase their best and newest creations in the sky above the great lake and awe the hundreds of wizard families who came to watch.
The twins had outdone themselves this year. The fireworks were beyond incredible. Dragons swept through the sky on wings of fire trailing shooting stars, then fought burning demons and bright heroes in battles exploding with effects; sometimes winning, sometimes not. Massive rainbow coloured pinwheels cartwheeled overhead and off into the distance where they grew fainter and fainter until flaring up for a final burst before they disappeared. Minute after minute, the night was chased away by bigger and bigger explosions that drowned out the startled gasps and appreciative ohs and ahs of the crowd, and left many people hastily blocking their ears for fear of deafness. Hogwarts itself was represented in a detailed display whose burning image made Harry feel a slight twinge of unease.
“Wait for the finale,” shouted George, who was standing nearby.
Suddenly a deep male voice, magically amplified, boomed out over all the noise of the crowd.
“AMORSMORDRE!"”
Something vast, green, and glittering erupted into the sky, banishing all the other fireworks. A colossal skull and a snake, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, appeared in the sky.
The Dark Mark.
Instantly Harry’s wand was in his hand, and he wasn’t the only one. All around him people were screaming and wands were drawn. His unofficial bodyguard of Aurors rushed to surround him with their wands pointing in every direction. Mothers grabbed their children and clutched them to their chests.
Then Harry noticed something was wrong with the symbol people had come to recognise and fear as Voldemort’s signature. Instead of the snake protruding from the mouth of the skull like a tongue, it was quite rudely sticking out of the skull’s nose! The skull itself was not quite right, as it somehow conspired to look cross-eyed.
Harry turned to Fred and George and saw they didn’t look worried at all. They stood watching the sky, smiling as if nothing was wrong.
“You didn’t!” said Harry, looking back at the skull.
Slowly the image blurred. The skull seemed to swell and the snake straightened. Many people stopped panicking and turned to watch what was happening. The skull continued to change until it no longer looked like a skull at all.
It looked like a giant love heart with an arrow sticking through it.
Then it burst into the brightest light yet, making everyone shield their eyes and blink for minutes afterwards. Harry, wand still in hand, felt something fall onto his head and he instinctively caught it. It was a lolly. All around him, people were talking excitedly, some happily, and others angrily, but nobody was screaming anymore. Children began to run around and collect the candy that was drifting to the ground like soft feathers.
“What did you think?” asked Fred, looking at Harry.
Harry opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a shrill yell from behind him.
“What the blazes do you think you are doing, you two?” shouted a bushy haired witch, rushing towards them, wand held out dangerously in front of her.
“Calm down Hermione. Just a bit of fun,” said George, warily eyeing the wand pointed directly at his chest.
“Yeah, we figured it was appropriate,” added Fred, smiling broadly.
“APPROPRIATE? YOU SCARED PEOPLE HALF TO DEATH!” she shouted, angrily waving her wand to emphasise her words. “IT WAS THE MOST INAPPROPRIATE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!”
Harry could not help smiling at the sight of Hermione scolding the twins. He was still shaking slightly from the adrenaline overload fear had given him a few moments ago, but relief now made him smile in spite of himself.
“Don’t look too scared to me,” commented George, nodding towards a group of children running past. “Looks like they thought it were a great lark.”
“A LARK!” she shouted, ignoring the children. “YOU THINK CONJURING THE DARK MARK IS A LAUGH?”
“Well it was, wasn’t it?”
Hermione looked as if she was going to start shouting again, or explode, but changed her mind and visibly got control of herself before continuing.
“Conjuring the Dark Mark is against the law,” she said.
“But it wasn’t actually the Mark,” laughed Fred.
“That’s not the point-” started Hermione.
“Actually," interrupted Harry, "it is the point.”
Hermione was obviously upset but he did not want this to turn into a public row.
“What?” She turned on him. “You of all people should be the last to defend them over this. What about Dumbledore and all the others that were killed under that horrid thing?”
Harry put his wand back into a pocket of his robes, and started to unwrap the sweet he had caught.
“Dumbledore might not have thought it was a lark, but he would have enjoyed the sweet,” said Harry popping the lolly into his mouth. “And more to the point, we have all been scared of that thing for far too long. The Death Eaters are gone and, when they were here, fear caused more damage than their wands.”
Hermione look thoughtful, but still ready to argue.
“It’s like saying Voldemort’s name, Hermione.” Harry added calmly. “Everybody was too scared, but that just made it worse.”
He looked over towards the twins.
“I thought it was great, but next time I could do with a bit of a warning. Do you have any idea how much trouble this is going to cause for the Ministry tomorrow?”
“Wouldn’t have been a surprise then would it?” they laughed, and walked away. "Wait for next year!"
“I swear I am going to have Kingsley lock them up one day,” said Hermione, watching them stroll away.
Harry laughed and grabbed her into a hug. Once she got over the initial surprise, she hugged him back warmly, to the scandalous looks of passers-by.
Many people still thought it was inappropriate for the Minister of Magic to be so close and personal with the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but then his father in-law was head of Muggle Relations, a brother in-law was high up in the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and he was close personal friends with a dozen other people in the Ministry.
Most people knew Harry’s history, and claims of nepotism rarely made the papers anymore, so he was not expecting a report of him hugging Hermione to cause any trouble, not with the fireworks stunt sure to grab headlines.
“Oh Harry,” said Hermione, releasing him and stepping back, but still holding his hands. Tears were in her eyes now, in place of rage. She looked like she wanted to say more, but Harry stopped her.
“It’s all right Hermione,” he said. “It’s all gone now. We caught them, and he is not coming back.”
“But we didn’t get them all,” she said seriously.
Like him, Hermione did not believe Snape was dead, and the two of them and Ron knew at least one Death Eater who had escaped. There were bound to be more; ones that nobody knew about, or new ones that fell for old lies. Ron had wanted the three of them to dedicate their lives to becoming Aurors and chasing them all down. Harry had not felt the need he once had to avenge all the people that had lost their lives, and then Hermione had distracted Ron with a set of red haired twins that took up all of his time. Ron made a much better home husband and Quidditch player than Auror anyway.
“No, not all of them, but close enough,” Harry said. “Close enough.”
Later, Harry left the other officials and special guests, who were raving about the fireworks finale, and went looking for Ginny and his family. He found them near the edge of the lake with the rest of the Weasley clan. Molly was yet again scandalised by her sons, and even Arthur thought they might have gone a bit too far this time. The children all thought it was fantastic and were busy swapping and eating the sweets they had collected.
They said their goodbyes and started to move off towards one of the many exit points. Harry found himself looking back over his shoulder at the school that had shaped so much of his life. Ginny saw this and turned to him, again anticipating his needs before he had even thought them out himself.
“Go,” she said, taking the baby from him. “I’ll take the children home and put them to bed. You go, but don’t stay out too long.”
Harry kissed her gratefully and turned to walk back towards the lake. A few people called out greetings, or waved, while others just watched as he walked by.
As he approached the white marble tomb where Dumbledore lay, he found himself wondering if here was the best place to hold celebrations. It did not seem right to have people laughing and having fun so close to a place that brought him so much sadness.
A small white fence now stood around the tomb to keep people off. Several streamers hung from the pickets, and Harry idly pulled at one.
“Hello professor,” he said, finally looking directly at the tomb.
He wanted to say more, to talk about everything that had happened in the years since he had watched, powerless, as Snape threw the killing curse that ended this great man’s life. As always his throat tightened, and he found he could not go on. Time had not healed this wound, and probably never would.
Abruptly he turned and walked towards the main gates. Once he was past the magical barrier he would be able to Apparate home, and he felt an urgent need to see his children put to bed, and to hold his wife closely.
As soon as Harry appeared, he knew something was wrong. Instead of standing outside his house in Godric’s Hollow, he was standing in front of a grey wall. For a confused second he was not sure what he was looking at, and then he recognised it.
It was not a wall, but a towering marble headstone, and the name on it was Tom Riddle.
Ripping his wand from his robes he spun around and dropped into a crouch, just as a blow slammed into the side of his head. He cried out in pain and slumped to the ground, barely conscious.
Through blurred vision, he saw a figure standing above him holding a club in the air, ready to strike again.
“Hello Potter,” drawled a voice from Harry’s past. “Have you missed me?”
Then Draco Malfoy brought the club down onto Harry’s head again, and Harry saw no more.
The Return by bajab
Chapter Notes: Hopefully the whole story won't go missing with this chapter - which has happened three times before!
Thanks again to Perfect Imagination for the beta.