Chapter Text
A contingent of aurors were sent to Malfoy Manor to check into the Devil's Snare that the Dark Lord had 'accidentally' stumbled into. How the Malfoy patriarchs had spun the story so that the Dark Lord just happened to show up at their house without their knowledge or approval was beyond anyone's understanding, but they somehow still wormed their way out of trouble once more. After a minute of looking at the plant, the aurors called in the entire department of Unspeakables to handle the murder plant instead. It took a week before the ministry released the official word to the papers that Voldemort was most assuredly dead. It took another month for the wizarding society who'd been lied to one too many times to believe them. Apparently, the plant now had its own private room down in the Department of Mysteries by the end of the next week.
Cassie and Neville did accidentally get married to their complete shock and horror. After a lot of yelling, mainly between Snape and Augusta Longbottom, the two teens shrugged it off, not really seeing the big deal if they didn't treat it like a big deal. After discussing it together, they decided to just look at it as a very long engagement until they decided if they wanted to throw a big party and call it more official. Snape kept the divorce paperwork in his desk drawer for the next three years just waiting for them to ask for it. They never did…
They did however almost immediately remove Neville's mark that had appeared on both of their arms. Even if it was different, it just had too many bad associations with any kind of mark in that location. No one ever did figure out why the Death Eaters all lost their marks suddenly. It was eventually attributed to Voldemort's very fortunate stumble into the murder plant. No one really understood either why several of the worst Death Eaters just randomly showed up at the ministry to confess to their crimes…claiming their brain felt like there was an itch they couldn't scratch if they didn't confess, and it was driving them insane.
Madam Longbottom was both so extremely proud of her grandson and murderously angry that she'd been both kept out of the loop and because of what all they'd done that she couldn't bring herself to talk to anyone for a week, though she did hug Neville and Cassie several times. At the end of the week, there was an odd article in the Daily Prophet commenting on why one Madam Augusta Longbottom, pureblood lady of the realm, member of the Wizengamut, upstanding member of their society, would walk straight up to Dumbledore's grave and spit on it. After that, she welcomed Cassie to the family and made plans for them to stay at Longbottom Manor for part of the summer and Black Manor for the other part.
Tonks and Remus ended up having a much bigger wedding than they'd planned once Madam Longbottom and Professor Sinistra got on board with planning. Molly Weasley even got over the lies told her by Dumbledore enough to offer to cook the food, and begrudgingly let Ron and Ginny stay at Black Manor for a few days over the summer. Cassie had a blast standing up for Tonks at her wedding, even if she had to wear a dress and heels (still very impractical if one had to run for their life). She was also not surprised, but very amused, when Severus was roped into standing up for Remus.
From the start of that next summer and into the future, Tonks and Remus lived for part of the year in Black Manor and part at Hogwarts were Tonks decided to stay on, in her true form, as the DADA professor and where Remus could run his shop that was doing extremely well. Snape and Sinistra were moved into Black Manor by Kreacher before the term even ended. They really didn't have a say in it, not that they didn't want to though, no matter how much Snape grumbled. Somehow the house just seemed to expand to fit their needs as more people moved in, when Tonks and Remus gave birth to Teddy Lupin, and when Kreacher eventually caved to Cassie's insistence that they really needed to hire another couple house elves to make his life easier...one of which was a very over-enthusiastic Dobby. Snape and Sinistra stayed at Hogwarts for another few years before they quit to start their own apothecary just down the street from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes (their best clients) in Diagon Alley. As far as anyone knew, they never did get married. Sinistra at one time admitted that they'd done a bonding ceremony at some point but was very vague on which one it was or if it was even legal.
Over time, the British wizarding world did eventually get very worried when Harry Potter didn't return, especially after when he should have graduated. Viktor Krum still swore to anyone who asked that Harry had a wonderful experience at Durmstrang and living with his family during his last couple years at school. After getting tired of being hounded about it, Ron told the papers that Harry had moved to America to start a career in kneazle breeding. Cassie cursed his hair bright green for a week for that and Lavender made him sleep on the couch. It probably helped the story more than hurt it when the Quibbler occasionally printed 'Potter Sightings' in various countries where Harry was always accompanied by his pet crumple-horned snorkack. As much as it grated on Cassie that they were talking about a baby who had never lived past his infancy, she thought that if he grew up anything like Padfoot, Prongs, or Moony, then he'd probably really appreciate it and find it hilarious.
Five Years After Voldemort's Defeat…
"Nev! I'm home!" Cassie sighed and toed off her shoes before heading into the sitting room where Neville was busy marking fourth year Herbology essays. He'd just taken over from Professor Sprout and felt like he was doing a massive amount of catch-up to take over from the long-time professor.
"You're home early…how did it go?" He looked up from his papers that were spread across the floor where he was sitting and leaning against the couch.
"Ergh! It didn't!" She grumbled and kissed Neville's forehead before sitting on the couch behind him. "The client decided he didn't want someone of my 'pedigree' in his house," she said with a roll of her eyes.
Neville sat his marking on the floor and turned around to lean against her legs. "How did they find out about Voldemort? I know there was that rumor right after the bastard died, but I haven't hear anything recently."
"You mean right after you killed him…" she grinned, loving the grimace that always got.
"Well, yeah, but your 'close association' with such light families as mine and the Weasleys seem to keep Skeeter off the trail at least," he grinned with a wink.
"No, it was Regulus the idiot had problems with," she sneered angrily.
Neville frowned, with indignation written on his face. "Er…should I owl Hermione, our resident solicitor, or is the 'idiot' not still in one piece? I'm sure Severus would be a help if we need to flee the country."
Cassie snorted in amusement. "I'm sure he would, and would probably insist on joining too, which would mean Aurora would tag along, and Tonks would have to join her best friend, which means Remus and Teddy too, then the twins wouldn't want to be left behind, and Draco and Luna would probably already be there when we got to wherever we were going. That effectively shuts down a huge chunk of Diagon Alley now that Draco and Luna own the robes store."
"And Ron, Hermione, and their families would burn down the ministry so we could return and they wouldn't have to move," Neville laughed. "Yeah, going on the run sounds like more trouble than it's worth, for us and Britain."
"Yeah, besides, I was purely professional and cool-headed; you would have been proud of me," she said smugly.
"Riiight," he said slowly. "Not that I don't believe you, and not that I'm not always proud of you, but really? This person spoke badly about Regulus."
"Well, technically he said that he didn't want a chick-Death Eater in his house and that Regulus was the worst of the Blacks by happily joining with the dark, just like his murderer older brother. So, I did my breathing exercises," she grinned at him, showing that she had actually read the book on meditation he'd gotten her for her birthday. "And I calmly said I would head back to Gringotts and have them send out another curse breaker."
"I'm guessing Ironsides didn't take that well…" Neville raised an eyebrow, knowing his wife and her goblin supervisor had a bit of a love/hate relationship.
"Nope!" She popped the 'p' with a smile. "He insisted that we both go back out to the idiot's house and see what exactly it was he had a problem with. Ironsides thought I should have been able to diffuse the situation and convince him to let me remove whatever cursed object he seems to have stumbled onto in his house."
"Uh huh…"
"Well, the man immediately started in on how Gringotts was slipping to hire a Death Eater and if Dumbledore had lived…"
"Merlin," Neville's eyes widened. The goblins did NOT like Dumbledore for some reason, not that he didn't agree wholeheartedly.
"Yes, he said that if Dumbledore had lived then lowly creatures like the goblins would be in their rightful places with the house elves," she finished.
"Do not repeat that to Kreacher or we really will need to flee the country. Insinuating that house elves are somehow lower forms of life, especially lower than the goblins…Merlin, Kreacher will murder him," Neville looked around to make sure none of their house elves happened to be in the sitting room.
"Ironsides almost did," Cassie snorted in amusement. "I was perfectly professional, but Ironsides flipped, threatened his life, and blacklisted him from ever hiring a curse breaker from Gringotts again. He'll just have to take his chances with someone freelance to handle his curse now."
"Wow…go Ironsides…" he nodded in respect.
"Also, I got a bit of a raise once we got back to Gringotts and Ironsides calmed down. Apparently, I can be cool-headed in the face of stupidity," she grinned at him.
"Well…there's a first for everything," he laughed and leaned up to kiss the protest from her lips. "So…what are we going to do to celebrate?"
"Hmm…go see Ginny's team play Viktor's in the quidditch game this weekend?" She grinned and nibbled his lip.
"We were already going to do that…" He chuckled and stood to slide onto the couch over her.
"Hmm…not sure then…I really can't think of anything," she said, already removing his shirt and throwing it on top of the essays.
Neville stopped her to grab her wand and throw up some ridiculously strong privacy wards. "Worried Sev will walk in on us again?" She laughed, really having enjoyed the chaos and drama when that happened even if it had been highly embarrassing.
"Love…I may have killed a Dark Lord, but your godfather still scares me," he chuckled and bent to kiss her soundly.
The End...