Hey guy's, thanks for your loyalty throughout this ff. This is the last chapter of the story and I'm hoping you all enjoy it. I hope you don't mind but as with each of my ff's I put tidbits of my own opinion in on things that I believe will be a help in matters of life and happiness. These things like I said are my own opinions and beliefs. I do not profess or try to pass them off, to be things you have to believe. The next (last story of the series) is not finished yet. I'm on chapter 49 and have a ways to go yet. I have sadly decided that I will be posting it in the +16 section as there are a couple steamy chapters; certainly nothing sinful; and darkness with violence that maybe should be rated for a more mature audience. I'm really hoping that all who have followed this ff will please come over when it comes out. Thank you once again for your loyalty.


Harita; Hey Harita, thanks for reading and commenting. I do try to keep some of the ff upbeat and laughable when it fits. Thanks again.

Droo; Hey Droo, thank you so much for your time you take to read and comment. Don't break my heart now; I don't expect elaborate posts from my readers. You told me everything I love to hear. Thank you so much. I know you are very busy, and the mature over 16 isn't your responsibility to watch over, but I'm really hoping you come over and follow my last ff of the series when I get it up.

narnia_potter; Hey Rachel, thanks for reading and commenting. I'm glad I fixed it for everyone. My ff's have a lot of dialogue in them so I try to write in ways that explain things on its own. I'm glad I was made aware of the difficulty in understanding that part. Please always let me know if there are any problems or mistakes so I can fix them. I hate how embarrassed I get when I go back and find stupid mistakes that weren't corrected. Thanks again Rachel your loyalty is very much appreciated.



Chapter 23

Out Of The Past And Into The Future

Kingsley asked if the McKinnon’s are any relation to the McKinnon’s who died in the first war.

“Yes, they are. In fact, they are the very same McKinnon’s. As you know; Ottery St. Catchpole was a friend of my dad’s, who had been sent to Albania, by Professor Dumbledore. He and his better half, Kelly, devised a club that sent made up stories over airwaves. Some were coded messages in the form of short stories to Dumbledore to keep him apprised of Voldemort’s plans as he found out about them. Kelly found out that the McKinnon’s were marked as couples of great interest to Voldemort. Professor Dumbledore received Ottery’s coded story, and deciphered it. They were able to stage their death and get away just before the Death Eaters attacked their home, and destroyed it.

It was a mistake on the Death Eaters part making up a story saying to Voldemort that the couple committed suicide and destroyed their own home, rather than go with them to join Voldemort. When Voldemort learned that the McKinnon’s were alive and living in the USA, he killed the Death Eaters that lied to him. Then he sent Travers and the other wizards, witches, dragons and giants to harass the McKinnons and kill them.

The couple tried to protect everyone, but the onslaught was too great. When the volcano erupted, the people were all in the big cave. They were all afraid, naturally, and then they remembered the McKinnon’s magic, and tried to kill them. However, they were quick to put a memory charm on them, and then they were safe to live in harmony, such as it was, with the rest of the community. Now, he is the Mayor of Xanadu, and she is the Village Doctor.

Molly had her hands folded across her bosom and was smiling just as if she had just witnessed one of her children taking their first steps.

“Harry, we are so proud of you. You’ve done great things everywhere you’ve gone. You remind me of Albus Dumbledore when he was your age. He had traveled all over learning and doing great things. He had to return much earlier than he wanted so he could take care of his younger brother, and little sister. Such a sad story that, but still, look what he accomplished during his lifetime. I think we’ll just have to get used to what you’re able to do.”

Harry smiled out of embarrassment. “Thanks Mrs. Weasley, but I’m not…” As Harry was trying to stop Molly from saying anything else George ran over to him with a quill and a bit of parchment.

“Harry! I didn’t realize… I mean I should’ve gotten this sooner! Thank goodness I can still ask for your autograph before you go off doing something else wonderful. Please just make this out to your favorite…”

Molly slapped his hand down and was about to yell at him, but cracked up laughing herself. “I’m sorry Harry, if I’ve gone on a bit…”

“A BIT? You made him sound better than Tarzan!” complained the red headed prankster. He rolled his eyes and exaggerated a huff.

“What is it with you and Tarzan?” demanded Percy. “You act like Tarzan is a real person. At least Harry is real, and the things he’s done is real. That other Tarzan stuff is just Muggle fantasies.

“Percy! Say it ain’t so!” He feigned his heart breaking. “Of course I know he isn’t real ya scrawny know it all. I was just trying to stop Mum from going on before she turned Harry’s face permanently red.

“OK boys that’ll be enough.” said Bill. Listen Harry, thanks for trusting me to build your house, and setting me up as your representative for the mine. It is hard to believe you’ve done all this by yourself in the four years you’ve been gone.”

“I knew I could depend on you Bill. Thanks for all your hard work. We can’t wait to see it.” Harry said humbly.

“Harry, I’m thinking that maybe you don’t need me for your partner. You’ll be able to do much better without me tripping you up. I’ll just be in your way.”

Harry sat up so fast the room spun. Ginny grabbed hold of him and pulled on him to keep him from standing up. “Listen Ron; I won’t have it! If you don’t want to be my partner, than that’s one thing. But, I won’t let you belittle, or kick yourself. Ever since I met you and became best mates I wanted to be as good as you. Now I finally feel that I am, because I realized that none of us because of our successes or failures are any better or worse than anybody else…” He looked at Ron and made himself calm down so Ron wouldn’t think he was just yelling at him like his mum. “Look Ron, all you need is to lose your inhibitions.”

“I don’t have inhibitions.” Ron defended himself quietly with his head hanging.

“Don’t hang your head. You’ve done loads to be proud of, and yes … you do have inhibitions. Do you know what you want out of life? I thought it sounded like you did when we were talking to the Pastor today. What happened? It’s your inhibitions trying to set you back.”
“I don’t have inhibitions!”

“Why are you still living at home? Why don’t you have a job you want? Why haven’t you asked Hermione to marry you while I was gone? Face it Ron… you have inhibitions. If you know what you want out of life, than mate, you gotta find a way to make it happen. Now get out of here. I don’t want to see your face again… for another four hours. Go on mate! You and Hermione need to go get her parents and bring them back so you don’t miss your own wedding. I want to get married tonight, and I want you and Hermione with us. But, we’re not gonna put it off till you make up your mind.” He laughed at Ron’s red face.

Ron looked hard at Harry for a minute, and the room was silent wondering what would happen next. Then Ron laughed and pounded Harry on the arm. “Course I wanna be partners, just try and stop me.” he grabbed Hermione’s arm and pulled her off of her chair and headed for the door grinning from ear to ear.

Harry looked at Ginny and was telling her they still had a lot to do yet. We need to get the house set up with groceries. I’ll call Kreacher and see if he wants to be at our house or if he wants to stay at Gimwald Place. And we need to find out arrangements for Andromeda and Teddy to get to the church for the wedding. Molly said Charlie was going over to get them and taking them straight to the church, and Bill said he and Fluer was going to get the groceries and put in the house.

At the mention of Kreacher’s name Hermione stopped and came back with a surprised look on her face. “Oh but Harry, surely you set Kreacher free didn’t you? I can’t believe you’d keep that poor Elf all alone at that house all this time! It isn‘t good for him. You do remember what he was like before he joined us in the war. How has he been getting paid?”

Ron took her by the elbow and turned her back to the door. “Come on Mione. We’ll talk about that later. Not that it isn’t important, just your parents are expecting us; we need to get going.”

Ginny looked at Harry and asked him in a, by the way Harry, sort of way. “You said before you left here that you had to find out what you was missing inside, and you wanted to find out about yourself. Did you find what you was looking for? Will you tell us?”

He looked at her and seen Ron and Hermione turn around to listen. As a matter of fact everyone was watching and listening. He looked back into her eyes and swallowed with difficult and softly answered.

“Yes, I can tell you if you need to know before you’ll marry me. I’m simply to humbly serve anyone who needs me or asks for my help…”

“Just like a House Elf.” chided Hermione. “At least you’ll get a first hand feeling of how they feel.”

Harry looked at her, obviously stung by her zinger. “It’s not anything like that Hermione.” he said quietly but with fire in his eyes. He didn‘t have to defend himself, but he had to set her straight. “It is by their own choice that they enslave themselves to humans. It keeps them humble, which is what they live for. Of course some people take advantage of their servitude and abuse it. I don’t imagine Dobby was the only one to want freedom, but it was a very few that wanted freedom.

It dishonors their society to go against their principles and ask for payment and compensation. When it is given to them, they give it away. They don’t want to be mixed up with the human ways. They’re pride sets them apart from us. They are far more able to take care of themselves without our money and interference. Their magic is supreme compared to ours. To force money and compensations on them is the same to them as saying we’re better than you. You have to accept our way and you need us and our money to survive. How long will it be before the Ministry decides that they need to be taxed? Dobby was abused, mistreated, and he was miserable. He lived a life of slavery as you put it, because that’s what his master made it. His servitude and humanity was stripped from him, and made into a slave. That’s the way you see them Hermione, as slaves. But they’re not, they’re servants to humankind. Exactly the way we should all be to each other.

No, Hermione, I’m not like a House Elf as you think of them, but yes, I am in the way they think of themselves. There’s a difference between being a servant to the needs of your fellow beings, doing what they need for the sake of humanity, and being forced to doing what someone commands you to do as master over slave. I will not enslave myself to any man or woman, but I will be a servant to anyone who needs me, or asks for my help.

And about Kreacher, he has all the comforts he wants. Right after the war was over, after I had all I could take of being slapped on the back, and pulled all over the place being hugged and kissed and celebrated over, I called for Kreacher on my way up to bed. By the time I reached the tower, he was there waiting for me. He turned down my bed, and had a plate of my favorite sandwiches with a glass of milk. Before I could say anything he started begging me not to set him free. I told him I would never set him free for his own protection. I told him there would be people who would capture, and torture him to tell everything about me and the Order. He said it wasn’t about protection and safety that he could take care of himself. It was about him being too old to find someone to take him as a servant. He wanted to stay in servitude to me for the rest of his life.

Now, to answer your questions; Firstly, you just don’t seem to understand that forcing freedom on these humble creatures would change their way of life. You will actually be enslaving them by forcing them into the life you want for them. And secondly, no, he hasn’t been alone. You haven’t been to Gimwald Place since I left? I hired a staff of people who lost their homes to Death Eaters, to clean and keep it up for the Order. Kreacher is the foreman and he runs the house. There is a bolt of cloth there for him if he wishes to make clothes for himself. But, he understands that I cannot ever give him his freedom, for his own safety. I simply couldn’t let him go into the world without being indentured to me, but I respect his way of living. And when I told him this, he was so grateful he cried.”

At first Hermione was taken aback at Harry. She would debate him on the pros and cons of setting Elves free another time. However, she was concerned that he was worried about Kreacher being captured and tortured. She gently put her hand on his arm to put out the fire in his eyes. She didn’t like being looked at with that fiery stair. “Harry, you’re being paranoid. Kreacher wouldn’t be captured and tortured. The war is over, and he’d be perfectly safe. I think that you’ve been through so much before the war, and doing what you had to do, and then not even giving yourself time to recover from all that, you left for a journey that was too much for you. I just can’t help but think you’re being paranoid.”

“Hermione, I know what I’m talking about. And going through what I did didn’t make me paranoid, it made me aware. Something about all this stuff happening makes me feel like it was before the war with Voldemort. Something isn’t right. I can feel it.”

“But Harry, Voldemort is dead. You killed him. We don’t have to worry anymore.” she said with sickening sympathy in her voice.

“Hermione I know what I feel and I feel like when Voldemort was alive. Of course I know he’s dead, I killed him. Don’t make me out to be some kind of war hero, who can’t stand the hardship he went through and burnt up his mind with the rage and killings, and can’t stop living his past.”

“Harry, I’m only…”

“Hermione, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting all my life for this day. Harry and I have things to do. And if you don’t leave now to get your parents, then you won’t be able to join us. Either way, I’m getting married tonight. If you are too, then leave now.”

Ginny had unyielding steel in her eyes and voice, without even a trace of a friendly smile to soften her delivery. Hermione stood in shock at Ginny’s blow.

“Come on Mione. Let’s go. We can talk to him later about this. Let’s get your parents.” He pulled her out of the house and was gone.

Nobody had anything to say to Harry. They looked at him as a tired war vet, and left him and Ginny to take care of what they needed to do.

“They don’t believe me Gin, none of them. It’s just like always before. Nothing’s changed at all. He put his weary aching head in his hands. His heart was sick with grief and the disparity in his life.

“I’m not Mr. Gloom and Doom Gin. I’ve been able to survive all my life going by my instincts. I know it’s not over. I feel it in every fiber that fought against him. I know what he feels like, the way he thinks, the kinds of things he diverts to, and I just feel him in all this. And I can’t help but thinking about what he said to me before he died. Something isn’t right. I keep thinking on it to try and figure it out. He said only he was going to live forever. At first I thought he meant that by me thinking I could kill him, that sense I knew his secret that I would be able to live forever. But, I’m wondering if he meant that at all. Maybe he meant that he would be able to come back. He had already assured himself a way to come back. Otherwise, he would have Disapparated away right then. He wouldn’t have taken a chance that I might possibly kill him. But he knew he had to kill me. But if I did end up killing him, it would get the heat off of him for a while until he perfected his plan.”

He looked at Ginny with pleading eyes, wanting desperately for her to believe him. “If it’ll make you feel better knowing Love, I believe you.” She helped him ease his throbbing head and body lie down on the couch. “You only have to freshen up a bit for the wedding right? How about you lie here and sleep until Ron and Hermione get back. I’ll go make myself beautiful, and then we can finish getting ready at the church. You can’t see me in my dress until you see me coming down the aisle to you.” She leaned over and kissed him passionately. “I love you.”

As his body called to him and demanded sleep and rest; he looked into her eyes, and breathed in her aroma which was his life-force. “It helps Gin; you believing me matters the most. I love you more than I’ll ever be able to tell you.” His eyes closed and he slept with the images of the last war going through his mind, just as he did for a couple years now. He knew that someone wanted him dead. Everywhere he went there was always someone coming there to kill him. How did they always know where he was? He would figure it out; he had to even if he had to do it by himself. It’s sad that everyone condemned Professor Dumbledore for keeping everything to himself. Harry understood now, that it wasn’t by choice, but rather because nobody believed him, not even his closest friends and family. It was the same for Harry now. Everything was starting over just like before, only it was Harry by himself and not Dumbledore. At least he had Ginny and her love. That gave him everything he needed to go on and do what he must do. Find Voldemort and kill him once and for all.