Wanderer

Epilogue

AN: So I lied... I know I said it was the end in the last chapter!! And I meant it (kind of) at the time. But I love writing these characters and this love story. This epilogue expands the focus of the original fic, and explores, in brief, new and existing dynamics that I wish I'd included when I first wrote Wanderer. A lot has happened since I last updated! I graduated from Oxford University and got into Cambridge to continue studying!!! Every now and then, I got a notification for your lovely comments and they kept me going. I'm very grateful for you all.

This is dedicated to two people. One, a very special friend of mine, someone who has supported me throughout this fic, who believed in me and motivated me to write even when I didn't believe in myself. Lojy, this is yours, because you deserve a hug and I can only hug you via the medium of fanfic. Two, the loml who taught me what love was in practise and not just poetic abstract. Lotsa love, E x

Check out my new Dramione fanfic Morrigan, an Oxford University Magic AU!! A little more mystery and less angst than this one, but hopefully you enjoy it :)

And they all lived happily ever after

The world had changed. It was inevitable that a war would change things, but sometimes, the world they now lived in didn't resemble the one they'd left behind. The shadows seemed darker, the cold, colder. There were fewer people in the streets, in the corridors. Words were harder to come by, more difficult to string together to say the right things. Loss was easier to feel than happiness.

But they slowly learned to live again. They slowly learned to love again.

It took time. Rebuilding would always take time; they had to find the pieces of themselves again, slot them back into place, or throw them away completely if they were broken beyond repair. And some of them were broken beyond repair. The world had changed, but like a phoenix, it rose from the ashes of its demise: proud, and strong, and new.

Hate and evil are destructive, but love is eternally regenerating. The world learned to love again and in turn, it was rebuilt.

oOo

June 2000

"-no, no, Giles, you need to add rose thorns, not rose petals," Draco said, tapping the desk by the student's cauldron. Giles glanced at him, cheeks flushed, hair static, and nodded determinedly, squeezing past his friend to rush back to the store cupboard.

"But Professor!" a boy on the next row exclaimed, pushing his sleeves back up to his elbows. "Didn't Zygmunt Budge swear by rose petals? That's what it said in the reading you set us!"

Draco spun around. "Yes, Budge is the reason Potioneers switched to rose petals. He encouraged their wide scale usage in the late sixteenth century. Whilst he was a key component in the development of a number of prominent potions, including the Polyjuice Potion and the Sleeping Potion, it's since been proven that rose thorns have a much higher potency."

"By who!" another student demanded.

"By my predecessor," said Draco. "Severus Snape. One of the greatest Potioneers to ever live, and not just because he claimed to be. Ask Harry Potter if you don't believe me."

He smirked slightly at the surprised silence of the class. "He's available by owl, or if you say you need a hero three times in the mirror, sometimes he appears. Just a warning, it's hard to get rid of him after that-"

"Professor Malfoy!"

"Yes, Fion?"

"I think I've done something wrong!"