Chapter 470: The Last Song

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17 June 2005, Cornwall, Britain

The weather really was beautiful for a day in June. It wasn't exactly a surprise, since Harry was the one who manipulated the weather to be this perfect, a small gift for Daphne, who had wanted this day to be perfect.

He had to admit that the view was beautiful. The hill sloped gently beneath his feet, soft grass bending under the summer breeze, overlooking the Cornish coastline like something pulled from a painting. The sea stretched into the horizon, waves rolling lazily onto the golden shore, glinting beneath the sunlight he'd shaped just for today. The sky above was clear, impossibly blue, and the salty tang of the ocean mixed with the faint scent of wildflowers growing nearby. Lanterns hung in the air, charmed to drift slowly, casting a warm, steady light that danced with the wind.

It was peaceful. The murmur of laughter, the soft notes of a violin warming up, the sound of children running in the grass. It truly was a beautiful day. Daphne stood next to him, her eyes leaking small tears, and he casually opened his hand, creating a small magic circle, conjuring her a handkerchief.

She gave him a slight smile and wiped her eyes. "Thanks, Harry. I'm sorry I'm such a mess."

"You have every right to be. You spent your entire childhood not believing that this day would come."

She stayed silent at that, probably not seeing the point in saying everything. After all, Harry knew that he was right. He didn't expect her to hold her composure. After all, she'd been told for most of her life that her sister's time was barely more than a ticking clock. It had driven most of her ambitions for years, hoping to be a healer or curse breaker to save her life.

She had confessed to him that she kept fearing that the curse would return one day, that it was all just a temporary measure. They had removed the damn thing over a decade prior, and now, Astoria glowed, without any signs of weaknesses, and stared at her groom on her wedding day.

Of course, the fact that the groom was Draco Malfoy still made her irritated, "She could do better than him, though."

Harry snorted, "Daph, if you had your way, no one would be good enough for your sister. They love each other, and you have to admit that he has changed a lot since our Hogwarts days."

She grunted non-committedly, and Harry really wanted to burst into laughter. She had spent over three months in a row just spying on the poor boy day and night. Harry had been sort of dragged into it. Honestly, Draco had grown up a lot since then. He apparently had a mind of business, since he shadowed his mother's shops before his majority. When he got access to his family vault, he started investing in a lot of shops in Diagon Alley, spending most of his time managing them. He even started to expand into the rest of Europe, with Arcturus helping him out a bit. They hadn't seen anything worth being concerned about, and the boy seemed to purposefully avoid politics. There were some awkward moments, which Harry was still trying to remove from his head, but overall, the Malfoy Patriarch had gotten their approval, very reluctantly in the case of Daphne.

"I know," the blonde sighed, "It's just that she'll be busy now with her new life, probably have a few children."

Harry immediately knew where she was coming from. After Daphne finished her education in Beauxbatons under a false name, she joined him as a curse breaker on a lot of expeditions. They travelled everywhere, explored the traces of every lost magical civilisation they could find. The various forms of magic they encountered were a huge boon for Harry's exploration of magic. It was far better and more productive than staying in a dusty room studying tomes written by people who barely understood concepts, or something was outright incorrect. Honestly, Harry's notes on most magics were probably more dangerous than any artefact in the world.

Still, whenever they took breaks between expeditions, they spent the most time with Astoria, telling her tales of what they found and their adventures. Most of their friends, the ones who knew about their survival, moved on with their lives. They sort of grew apart. Blaise and Tracy just felt like strangers after so many years, and Perseus and Angelina got married and were busy with their daughter. They visited Arcturus, who looked very good for his age, from time to time, but it just wasn't the same. Daphne's parent had gotten a bit cold since the whole 'faking their deaths' thing and knowing that they couldn't do anything about it without sounding insane.

That meant that Astoria was probably their last connection to the world. She'd even been Daphne's maid of honour during their wedding. This was more than just her sister moving on; this was the last tether to this place being snapped, and she knew it. "She's living her life, Daph. You always knew that you'd need to let go eventually."

"I know. But she's just my little sister."

Harry didn't answer and just watched the ceremony take place, without anyone even noticing them. He didn't expect the World Tree to have been that powerful. He thought that it would have been more like a notice-me-not charm when they looked at them, but it acted like a Fidelius Charm of all things. People just knew, deep down in their souls, that Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass were dead, and nothing would tell them otherwise, even if they stood right in front of them.

Daphne leaned her head against his shoulder, her fingers laced tightly with his. They stood there quietly, watching as Astoria and Draco exchanged vows in the sunlight, golden rings glinting, the murmur of the officiant lost beneath the breeze.

"She's radiant," Daphne murmured, her voice low and uneven. "She really is."

Harry squeezed her hand. "Just like her sister was on her wedding day."

Daphne gave him a tired smile, eyes still wet, but brighter now. "That was different. We didn't have the big ceremony. Just a tree, a lake, and barely more than a dozen people there. I think my mother wanted to throttle you."

"Hey," he protested, "It was romantic."

"Maybe, but that doesn't make up for how you proposed, you ridiculous man."

"I stand by that proposal," Harry whined.

His wife gave him an unimpressed look, "You literally threw the ring at me and shouted, 'Catch! I'm proposing."

"I only shouted because of the noise," he protested.

"That noise was an Aztec temple collapsing behind us, and I caught it before I even realised that you were asking me to marry you."

"How was I supposed to know that the idiots imprisoned a demon in their temple, and you have to admit that as far as proposals go, this one is far more memorable than some dinner in a fancy restaurant," he said, grinning like it was some sort of win.

Daphne groaned into her hand, but her lips were twitching despite herself. He knew that look, mock exasperation, trying not to laugh. It was one of his favourites.

He wasn't exactly an expert when it came to handling emotions, never had been, probably never would be. But he knew this much: she needed a distraction.

So, he stood up, dusted off his robes, and held out his hand, "Come on, let's go."

She blinked up at him, confused. "Go where?"

Harry gestured vaguely toward the soft music playing below. "Let's dance."

Daphne frowned. "Harry, you hate dancing."

"I do," he admitted while grinning. "But come on, you deserve to dance at your sister's wedding."

That earned him a soft smile. Daphne slipped her hand into his, letting him pull her down the hill, toward the clearing where the grass was already flattened by dancing feet.

As the music rose around them, muffled by magic but still clear enough to follow, they stepped onto the edge of the clearing. No one turned to look. No one noticed the man who'd saved the world or the woman who'd helped him do it. The enchantment of the World Tree still held strong. They swayed in silence for a moment, their rhythm unhurried, natural, like they'd done this a thousand times before.

Daphne rested her head against his chest, eyes drifting toward the newlyweds twirling a few feet away, their laughter easy, their world simple. "She looks happy," she murmured, almost like she didn't believe it. "She doesn't need me anymore."

Harry didn't say anything at first. He just held her a little tighter. "It's her wedding day, love. It's the start of the rest of her life. And sometimes… sometimes, we need to let go."

"How's that little student of yours, the Shafiq girl?"

Harry saw the change in topic for what it was, but decided not to press her, "She's good, far brighter than I expected, to be honest. I'm mostly leaving her to her endeavours, but I like to check in on her every now and then."

"You're not planning on revealing yourself to her?"

"What would be the point?" Harry replied, "The whole goal, in my opinion, is to have her create her own magic, understand it, and grow with it. It's why I only left the bare minimum in terms of instruction and filled it mostly with magical theory. She's doing well so far, specialising in Alchemy and curses, of all things, but she seems to make it work."

It had been a bit of a whim to leave his lab in the Undercroft. His personal books might be worth a fortune alone, even disregarding the contents, but he had wanted to leave something behind for Hogwarts, to make his mark on the castle. Sure, he bound to books to remain in the lab, and had used his divination, which he finally started to use properly after years of practice, to see who would find it first and their potential. Sarah Shafiq was a diamond in the rough, and he just helped push things along a bit.

"Are there any chances of her joining the idiots protesting the World Tree?"

He knew why she would be concerned. He had expected it, really, given what happened during the time-travel fiasco, a decade prior. With the World Tree separating the magical world from the Muggle one in everything but name, muggleborns were the ones who paid the price for it. They were angry, as they thought that this situation was unjust, that they were lower-class citizens in an alien world, while being unable to go back. Family relations were strained, as they were unable to perceive magic.

Harry arranged for the artefact, the modified time-turner, to find its way to the Department of Mysteries, which Penelope Clearwater would one day use to travel back to the past, inevitably creating the World Tree that she sought to destroy. Time would handle the rest, as it always did, he could feel it essentially telling him that his role was over.

As for the World Tree, it had done its job splendidly. War between mages and muggles would never happen, the material plane would be protected from multiversal threats, but it wasn't without issues, and it definitely wasn't perfect.

Harry shrugged, "There are always chances of anything. The future isn't set in stone, but it's pretty unlikely. In most timelines, she opens a shop custom-made selling elixirs, and she'll end up being approached by the healer's guild for her work studying curses. Not a bad legacy to have, huh?"

"I suppose it's better than people swearing by your balls," she teased back.

Harry flushed at that. He didn't know when it had started, but for some reason, people just started coming up with swear words involving him, a bit like they did with Merlin. It was extremely awkward, to say the least, especially the ones involving his balls. It made him extremely uncomfortable. He was sure it had to be someone messing with him.

He didn't say anything and just growled. His wife burst into laughter, "Oh, come on. Stop pouting."

"I am not pouting. I'm brooding."

She chuckled back at him before continuing to dance in silence. They must have been at it for a while, just dancing, enjoying the wedding, until Daphne looked up to him, and then, with a voice barely above a whisper, she asked, "Is it time, then?"

"It doesn't have to be," Harry retorted, "We can wait, if you want to."

"Come on, Harry. You're bored out of your mind, and we both know it. We didn't find anything new in the last few expeditions."

"This isn't about me, and I do have a few leads on an old workshop in Siberia. This is about you, about us. This isn't a decision to make lightly. I can wait for as long as I can."

The blonde shook her head, "I know you're trying to be understanding, and that's why I love you, but we don't have a place here, not anymore. I can feel it. Everyone is moving on with their lives, and the world is running out of mysteries for you to solve."

Harry was a bit proud of that one. With some actual free time on his hands, he dissected most magics he could ever encounter, going so far as to hide in guilds under his invisibility cloak to learn. It was fun, while it lasted, and while there was a lot more magic to explore, he found that there were very few things he encountered that he couldn't come up with on his own. Branches of magic had their own anchors, their own principles, which everything was based around, and after learning them, everything else seemed a combination of these rules. He wasn't a master in their magic, but he could come up with similar spells to their own, the same way he used a spatial expansion charm as the pillar of his space manipulation.

 "Daph, you're emotional, and it's not a good idea to make a decision this big while you're in this state. Let's just wait for a bit until you're thinking clearly before revisiting the topic. We have enough time to do whatever we want, and moving to other universes isn't exactly a thing to do recklessly."

Daphne glared at him, "I am thinking clearly. I'm probably thinking more clearly than I ever have before. I've been delaying this for years, and now it's time. We don't have to stay there long. We could come back after a few months, and no one will probably notice."

Harry released a deep sigh, "Fine. I'll need a while to prepare. The multiverse isn't exactly a kind place, and there are entities there that far surpass what the Light or the Dark ever were. I'll do my best to find a safe place for our first trip, but until then, you have every chance to back out."

Sure, he sounded concerned, but he couldn't hide the small tinge of excitement from his voice. This was something he had dreamed of doing for years, when everything just became so mundane. There was an infinite number of universes, infinite opportunities to learn and research magic, and to be honest, he was getting bored.

Still, he didn't want Daphne to make a decision hastily and end up resenting him, which is why he wasn't jumping at the chance. He had brought up the idea a few times, and his wife did seem interested, but it never went beyond that. Harry knew that she felt like something was keeping her here, and for all he wanted to explore the universe, he could easily stomach feeling restless for Daphne's sake.

The blonde gave him a tight hug in response, "Thanks, Harry."

They just kept dancing, with Daphne staring mostly at Astoria in both pride and sadness. The dancing slowed, and people started to walk away. The blonde spoke up sadly, "The song is ending."

Harry knew that she didn't mean the actual music, and answered her, "Perhaps. Our song is ending, but the story never ends."

She smiled at that, a small, quiet thing, no tears now, just the kind of peace that came when a decision stopped hurting. "Then let's write the next one."

And so they stood there, hand in hand, watching the last rays of sun dip below the Cornish sea. Around them, lanterns began to flicker one by one, like stars pulled gently to earth. The music had softened, the crowd was beginning to thin, but the moment lingered.

This wasn't the end.

It was simply the turning of a page, the start of a new chapter in a story still unfolding.

And Harry couldn't wait to share it with Daphne.

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AN: That chapter was much harder to write than I expected. The story is almost over. I was tempted to just end it here, but I think I have one more chapter in the tank.

A lot of you asked me to continue the story. I decided to do so with Harry and Daphne's adventures across the multiverse. In this case, we're starting with Westeros, and while I know that they're very OP for this setting, I have a few things in mind regarding the lore that I want to explore, or more accurately, that I want Harry and Daphne to explore. Anyway, I wanted your opinion as to continue it here, or in a separate book altogether. I'm leaning towards the latter as this has already been pretty long (over a million words), and it would be nice to keep this as a Harry Potter fic only.

I'm also planning to release a new story soon called Arcane Tinker. I'll let you all know when I do it. I'm pretty open to suggestions, so please let me know if you have any and also please let me know what you think.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.