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e p i l o g u e

***

"Fred, honestly, is the blindfold necessary?"

"Very necessary, El," he replied, squeezing my hands as he guided me to our 'surprise'. "Don't worry, we're almost there."

Finally, he stopped pulling me along.

"Is the blindfold really necessary?" came the voice of my mother.

"Very necessary," Fred and my father chimed in together.

"Can I take this bloody thing off yet?!" I frowned. "Are we here?"

"We're here," Fred said breathlessly. "Here, let me take it off for you..."

He untied the blindfold, and my eyes were blinded by the May sunshine at once. Slowly, as they adjusted, I saw my parents standing in front of our old house, which now looked bright and new.

"What...I don't get it..." I said, extremely puzzled at the absence of my supposed 'surprise'.

"Put the key in," Sirius urged.

Pulling the gold key out of my pocket, I pushed it into the keyhole and twisted it. Sure enough, the door flew open. The pieces slowly fell into place.

"You bought my old house?!" I looked at Fred with complete disbelief.

"Sirius offered it to me, actually," he replied. "Said we needed a place of our own. Since they have your grandparents' house, he figured we could live here..."

"Do you like it?" Mum asked. "We fixed it all up for you."

"When...how..." I spluttered, still confused. "Never mind that. Thank you, all of you. This is the best gift ever."

After an extremely long hug, Sirius broke the silence:

"Can we go in? I'm hungry,"

***

The following night, my parents and I were invited to Andromeda's for dinner. We traveled by Floo, and Andromeda and Teddy were waiting for us as we came through the fireplace.

"Good to see you all," she said softly, giving each of us a tight squeeze.

"Teddy's grown so much," my mother gushed.

"Will you take him for a moment?" Andromeda handed off the baby to Mum. "I've got to get the others for dinner."

Others?

As Dromeda disappeared up the staircase, we all sat down at the table. Mum handed Teddy off to me, and I admired his ever-changing hair. He was now changing it to pink, to match my latest hue.

"He must like you a lot," Mum commented, "if he keeps changing his hair to match yours."

I hoped she was right.

Andromeda returned moments later, with Draco Malfoy and the unknown-blonde-girl following swiftly behind her.

My parents had no reaction to this strange sight, but I was in shock.

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