The Safe Wizards

49: Epilogue

Jasper hugged an emotional Harry. With the dark-haired man's back against his chest, they watched the stagecoaches leave for Ilvermorny. Teddy had turned eleven four months earlier and was now starting his first year at the American School of Magic.

The previous nine years had been the happiest the two men had ever experienced, and Teddy had been an essential part of that happiness. They had written England out of their lives, even though Harry had followed the turmoil in the British magical community. English wizards had been torn apart by the fall of the Safe Wizarding Party. Some had wanted to continue with the country's historic system of government while others had wanted to reform it. After two years of political vacillation, Blaise Zabini was elected prime minister and proposed a new constitution, approved at the ballot box, that reduced inequality within the magical community. After five years in office, he stepped down, leaving to his successor a more peaceful and resilient country.

The first six months in Forks had also been complicated. Bill had taken over the job of refurbishing Harry's house in Forks, but refused to talk to him or Jasper. Finally, the situation had improved when Teddy entered the La Push school with Victoire. The children were very close and asked to see each other a lot. Bill's animosity made the situation untenable, especially for Jasper. Fleur had finally sat the three of them down at a table. The conversation had been heated, but productive. They had come out of it calmed and on good terms. As a result, and with the help Jasper had offered Arthur, their relationship had only improved. Bill was much more efficient in his work and finished the house by Christmas. Jasper, Harry, Teddy and Andromeda were able to move in a few days before Christmas Eve and had the Cullens and the Weasleys over to celebrate the holidays.

On the Weasley side, George had decided to open a new joke store in Seattle. He hired Lee Jordan to run the London store, Ron to run the Seattle shop, and Arthur to handle the administration. The man had really struggled with the loss of his wife and daughter as well as Fred and had thought for a while about taking his own life. Alice's ability to foresee this and Jasper's ability to sense it had repeatedly prevented him from committing the irreparable. At the insistence of his children and Harry, Arthur accepted Jasper's help and made a habit of calling him when he felt his dark thoughts returning. Taking care of the stores and his grandchildren were finally what got him back on track. His children had decided to stay close to him, so Ron and Hermione lived on the second floor above the store, George on the second - which he had partially rehabilitated as a laboratory - Arthur on the third and Percy on the fourth and top floor of the building.

Hermione had enrolled in an international law school and had become an ambassador. She and Ron had married two years after arriving in the United States and were now the parents of three children: Rose, six, Hugo, four, and Anna, two. Percy had found a position in the MACUSA office in Seattle and had fallen in love with his secretary, Penelope. The two had married the year before.

The Cullens started out in their usual way, Carlisle working at the city hospital and Esme setting up shop as an interior designer, but in the meantime they both got a foothold in the magical world. Carlisle had managed to get a job as a doctor in the wizarding hospital and was providing expertise to the mediwizards for patients who needed treatment with Muggle techniques. By dint of his assistance, the team offered him training in the use of healing potions. His status as a Muggle vampire prevented him from casting healing spells, but not from using potions. Esme had teamed up with a mage-architect and their partnership had quickly become well known for renovating exceptional and unusual homes.

The children had gone to high school in Forks and settled there. Rosalie and Emmett spent a year and a half there before graduating and then opened a luxury car garage in Seattle. Alice and Edward did two and a half years before starting a fashion label for the seer and joining the joke store for the telepath. George had decided to open up a Muggle side of his store and was having a lot of fun creating things without magic... or almost.

Jasper had only been in high school for six months, graduating at the same time as Harry. Thanks to his companion, he had enrolled at Seattle Magical University in history. There he earned a master's degree in the history of American magic, followed by a dissertation on the interrelationship of the history of magical and non-magical societies in North America. His work had immediately interested the histomages, who had commissioned him to continue his research on other continents.

Harry, on the other hand, had decided to pursue a double major, one in broom making and the other in business administration. He finished his studies after three years and then spent six months as an intern in a well-known manufacturing shop. Five years earlier he had started his own business and his brand of brooms - which he tested himself, making a point of pushing them further and further - had quickly become a worldwide success. Harry had not abandoned Teddy, however, and always made sure to drop him off or pick him up at La Push school, with Andromeda rounding him out. The little boy had quickly befriended the children on the reservation, especially Seth Clearwater who was three years older than him. Harry went to great lengths to change the treaty. Through perseverance and with the help of Andromeda, who had approached Charlie Black, he was able to get Teddy's friends to come and play at his house with an adult from the pack, and Jasper was able to go to the reservation to bring or get their son. After two years, the little wizard had begun to call the empath 'papa', much to his delight. Andromeda had agreed to let him adopt him and become one of his legal guardians, just like the two wizards. His origins had been told to the boy by all those who had known his parents, but that did not stop him from considering his godfather and Jasper as his fathers.

Relations with the reservation had definitely been mended when, on the full moon after his seventh birthday, Teddy had turned into a werewolf for the first time. Harry and Jasper had accompanied him out of the house, giving him reassuring words and running with him while Andromeda had gone to find the pack. The wolves came running, and although they couldn't communicate with him as they did with each other, they immediately made him part of their pack. Harry and Jasper had stayed with them all night and then spent the day with him the next day, helping him recover from his transformation with great love. The two men had taken up the habit of running with the wolves on full moon nights and then putting down the next day to stay with their cub as they affectionately called him.

Teddy's departure for Ivermorny made the couple sad, nostalgic and worried, but at the same time it filled them with pride. Teddy was a very polite child, diligent in his work and always smiling in spite of the difficulties he could sometimes encounter with his lycanthropy. They hoped that everything would go well for him at school and were a little worried that neither the pack nor they would be there to accompany him, but the director had assured them that everything would go well and that he would contact them if necessary.

The departure platform emptied and Jasper put an arm around his companion while grabbing their travel bag and a portkey that the histomagic institute had obtained for him to make the necessary trips for his research. Determined to cheer up his man, he had planned a week's vacation just for the two of them on the island of Esme before they traveled together to South America for his work. Harry had agreed after giving Teddy an owl and making him promise to write to them as soon as he was settled in his dorm.

Harry didn't have time to explore the house that night, as his lover attacked his lips and undressed him as soon as they walked through the door. The dark-haired man was always amazed that his soul mate still had the same effect on him as when they first met and that he still managed to arouse him with a few words, kisses or caresses. With time, they had explored different practices and alternated roles, both enjoying taking or being penetrated. That night, it was Jasper who slowly and lovingly thrust into Harry, deliberately keeping a calm pace while making sure to make the dark-haired man cry out with each stroke by hitting his prostate at a precise angle. They made love for hours, then Harry fell asleep in his arms, happy and satisfied.