The Foundation Stays

Epilogue

10 years later...

Samaira and Agastya were bouncing on their heels in excitement, breathing down Angad's neck as he tried to read past their favourite debatable topic in the Harry Potter series. They had waited a long and patient wait (or maybe not that patient) for their little brother to read the first six books--he was such a slow reader, they complained, forgetting he was only ten against their thirteen and fourteen--and now that he was finally there--

"Nearly there," said Agastya encouragingly.

"Nearly there," echoed Samaira. "You've reached the right page, too."

'I'm sorry,' he said in a thick voice. 'I'm sorry I left. I know I was a--a--'

He looked around at the darkness, as if hoping a bad enough word would swoop down upon him and claim him.

"We have found several of those words," Agastya said.

"I still stand by traitor," added Samaira.

"That doesn't cover--"

"Let me read," protested Angad. "I can't read if you keep talking."

Samaira and Agastya exchanged a couple of shh's.

'You've sort of made up for it tonight,' said Harry. 'Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life.'

'That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was,' Ron mumbled.

'Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was,' said Harry. 'I've been trying to tell you that for years.'

Simultaneously they walked forwards and hugged--

Angad looked up.

"This is the part?" he asked. "Harry forgiving Ron?"

"Yes, Harry forgiving Ron after all that," said Agastya. 

"Don't you think it's idealistic? Don't you think it's idealistic?" demanded Samaira.

Angad, who wasn't entirely sure what idealistic meant, tried to get out of answering with a, "Hm."

Samaira was having none of it. "What d'you mean, hm? Yes or no?"

"What's idealistic?" Angad was forced to ask.

"Too perfect," obliged Agastya. "Too--ideal. Idealistic. Something that's not likely to happen in real life."

"Exactly," said Samaira. "What Harry did, forgiving Ron--don't you think it's too ideal? If Harry was real, how could he forgive his best friend who walked out on him when he needed him so much?"

"Because Ron was his best friend," said Agastya. "I think Harry would have forgiven Ron even if he was real."

Angad nodded. "Me too."

"I don't," said Samaira. "But then, I have seen the world more than you two kids have."

"You're just one class higher up," scoffed Agastya.

"I've been a teenager way longer," said Samaira superiorly. "Pre-teens really have zero brains."

"I've known men in their thirties, also, to have zero brains, Sammy," said Ritika, who was passing by. "It's funny."

"Mum, Angad reached the part where Harry forgives Ron." Samaira went jumping to her biggest fellow Harry Potter nerd. "Like Agastya, he says he thinks this was what would've happened in real life, too."

"Good." Ritika smiled at Angad, eyes twinkling. "A pair of optimists, I see."

"They're childish, they're unrealistic, that's not the same as being optimists--" Samaira paused in her indignation as Rohit came down the stairs with Jassi and Hardik. "Dad, Uncle Hardik, Uncle Jassi--you tell me--if someone deserts their best friend when he needed him the most, can his best friend ever forgive him? Isn't that something that happens only in books?"

"Don't you think some people like that exist in real life too?" Agastya hollered over.

"You've chosen very suitable people to ask that," muttered Rohit.

"What?" asked Samaira.

Hardik and Jassi exchanged a tiny smile.

"Yes, they do exist in real life," said Jassi wryly.

"See!" Agastya came bounding over in triumph to Samaira, who didn't look awfully pleased.

"Or maybe the ones that do are straight out of a book," Hardik told Jassi magnanimously. 

Jassi aimed a kick at him. "Why must you always be so cheesy?"

"Dunno," said Hardik, draping an arm around him. "You always have that effect on me, Jass."

"Yeah. Very straight out of a book, you and me."

"And Rohit's the writer," said Hardik, getting excited.

"I'm the what?" Rohit asked.

"The writer--"

"Never mind, Rohit bhaiya. Hardik's being stupid and irrelevant as always."

Rohit looked back at the pair at the foot of the stairs, Hardik trying to strangle Jassi and Jassi tried to get in a kick, and decided not to point out to Jassi that if he was Hardik's best friend, maybe he was more stupid and irrelevant than he thought, too.

It was surprising how well two idiots fit together. But mostly, it was perfect.