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An Impressive Capability to Move On and Start Over

Summary:

New Year's Eve: After everything that happened at the end of the war, everyone comes together to celebrate the end of the year, and more. They are ready to start a new chapter of their lives, though it might take some time to figure everything out.

aka I scrapped the epilogue and made my own

Notes:

This story isn't a standalone. A lot of things might not make sense if you haven't read any of the fics in this series.
Here are the parts I suggest you read before this one: Part 1 or 9, Part 2, Part 4, Part 13 and Part 17

Chapter 1: 1998

Chapter Text

                It didn’t feel real. That all these people they knew were gone. That they would never see them again. It had all happened so fast. One day they were at war, scared for their lives, hiding or trying to keep their life going as best they could. The next, a whole bunch of their friends were dead, but they had peace. It didn’t feel real. None of it did. Even the years they’d spent during the war hadn’t felt real. Grieving what they’d lost was one thing, but moving on from a situation that hadn’t necessarily felt all that real for most of them, except those directly involved, was confusing and seemingly impossible.

                Alicia hadn’t been all that involved. She’d been a member of Dumbledore’s Army in her last year at Hogwarts and she came back to participate in the Battle, but outside of that, she hadn’t really been close to what was going on. She mostly just kept living her life, though scared, worried and in a kind of daze. None of it felt real except the fear. She was never sure that it was safe for her to go anywhere, but at the same time, she knew she was luckier than a lot of others.

                It was a giant who did it. She’d brought her broom for the Battle, and had been smart to do so. Flying was a good way to avoid getting stepped on. It allowed her to see what was going on around the grounds better and send curses from afar. As well as attack the giants from a much better vantage point. She felt practically invincible as she felt the wind through her hair and successfully avoided every hit thrown at her. But it didn’t last. She got cocky and let herself be distracted and didn’t notice a giant’s hand hitting a tower near her. She was thrown off her broom by pieces of wall, fell from a great height and landed on the ground with a scream that would’ve woken up the whole castle had the sounds of the Battle not already filled the air all around them. Rocks trapped her leg and she was officially done fighting.

                She spent the remainder of the Battle afraid that the acromentulas would find her and eat her. By the time it was all over and she was found, it was too late to save her leg. She spent weeks in St Mungo’s, sad and wondering how she’d ever get past that. And then she realised. She could still play Quidditch with one leg. She spent the following months getting back on track, getting fitted with a prosthetic, learning how to walk and move with it. She worked tirelessly and Katie was by her side the entire time.

                She didn’t know how it happened, how she was lucky enough to not only pull through all of these challenges, but also lucky enough that it turned out the straight girl she’d had a crush on for years actually wasn’t straight. She still couldn’t fly, and it was a long way to playing Quidditch again, but she had a great girlfriend and she was happy.

                It had been a scary, difficult and painful year. A lot of the people Alicia knew had trouble making it through and dealt with a lot of issues. She heard how much they all struggled and wished she could’ve been around more to help. May had been tough for her too, and she’d barely gotten out of her room, but after that, she’d been mostly fine. Yes, she’d had setbacks and had wanted to give up so many times, but it was the way it was, things like this took time. She knew what losing her leg implied, she knew every step in front of her to get better and learn to live without it. She grieved that loss, just like the loss of people. Somehow, she managed to keep her head up and move past that. She felt lucky in a way. Her issues were physical. It was clear, it was visible, there was a clear path ahead for her. Others had it much harder as far as she was concerned. George and Ginny dealt with mental health issues. It was messy and confusing and intangible.

                Alicia sometimes woke up with pain in the leg she’d lost and sat on the floor of her apartment staring at the reflection of the other one in a mirror and fell back asleep like that. Ginny admitted to her that even with her routine of being back in school and support group, she still woke up from nightmares and couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards. There was no solution to that, nothing that could help the way a mirror helped Alicia.

                Alicia went to her own support group, with other amputees from the Battle. As well as she was doing with all of it, there were others who had a lot more trouble. Michael Corner had lost his wand arm and had trouble performing the simplest spells. Some of them still could barely get out of bed, some didn’t know how to go on from there, some had their dreams ruined. It broke her heart to hear them talk about it. She felt guilty for handling it all so well. Katie constantly had to remind her that her support to them was what they needed the most, that she was doing enough and that it was okay for her to feel good. She didn’t know if she believed any of that.

                Everyone had their own ways of coping with the aftermath. The months following the Battle saw a lot of changes in how they interacted with each other and how the world worked. They were all trying their best to find their footing in this new reality that was arguably not all that dissimilar to what it used to be in between the wars. Some needed to be on their own a while, some clung to their friends and family, some feared it was only another period of temporary peace before a third war erupted. Voldemort might be dead, but it didn’t magically erase his followers’ beliefs.

                When the end of the year arrived, most of them needed to blow off some steam and just celebrate the fact they’d made it through 1998, unlike so many others. The Battle of Hogwarts had brought many fatalities, but not everyone who was alive when it was over survived the rest of the year. Some fell ill from being exposed to smoke and curses, some took their own life, some were murdered in retaliation. The funerals didn’t stop after May. The remaining months of the year brought as many deaths as the Battle itself.

                So, when the invitation came, despite how strange and unexpected it was, Alicia jumped on the occasion. A New Year’s Eve party, why not. Katie wasn’t sure it was a good idea, because it was at Gregory Goyle’s place, but Alicia thought it might be fun. And nothing stopped them from leaving if it wasn’t. She could walk on her prosthetic leg without a cane now, might as well show that off.

                The house, if you could even call it that with how big it was, was packed. Goyle had invited all of his friends and their friends. Alicia and Katie got word of the party from Oliver. He was dating both Percy Weasley and Daphne Greengrass now. His girlfriend was a Slytherin in the same year as Goyle and so was invited directly by the host. The three of them couldn’t come themselves, but had been kind enough to pass the information along.  There was a lot of room for this thing to get overcrowded and degenerate, but it would certainly not be boring.

                “Welcome to my party!” Goyle said when he saw them. He stayed by the door like a surprisingly involved host considering what this was. “You two were on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team, weren’t you? Oli must’ve told you about this. Glad you could come.”

                “Thanks.” Katie said. “Nice house.”

                “My mom and her friend who lives with us went on a trip to celebrate being free from their husbands since they’re both locked in Azkaban. I’ve got the house to myself on New Year’s Eve, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to have some fun.” He was clearly drunk, or not far from it, despite it still being afternoon. Alicia was having fun already.

 


 

                Harry arrived at the Burrow fairly late in the afternoon. Teddy didn’t care that it was New Year’s Eve and they had somewhere to go, you can’t just convinced a baby to get down for his nap that easily. And then you certainly won’t wake him up because it’s time to go. So Harry had to sit by the crib, all dressed and ready to go, with Teddy’s outfit in his lap, throwing looks at his watch to see how late it was getting, waiting for him to wake up so they could head out.

                He thought he’d be the last one there for sure, but somehow the Lovegoods, who lived closest, managed to get there not long after he did. And Charlie came rushing in as they were sitting down to eat, his clothes messier than ever. Though it didn’t stop him from commenting on George’s hair now half as long as his and Bill’s.

                “I thought my son might be here too.” Narcissa Malfoy said, clearly uneasy in their presence. It was obvious she’d hoped for another friendly face there. Harry was surprised Dromeda had convinced her to come at all.

                “Goyle invited him to a party and since they’ve barely gotten back on good terms he thought he’d go.”

                They’d had to extend the table from the kitchen to the living room to fit all twenty-two of them at it. It was very crowded, and they all sat very close to each other, but they were together, happy and there was nothing more they could ask for. Narcissa even made a joke about how if she could’ve thrown her husband out of the house, they would’ve had plenty of space at the manor for such a gathering, but alas Lucius was on house arrest. Hence why she’d moved in with Dromeda.

                “Draco mentioned wanting to create a counter-spell for the curse that killed Theo, how’s that going?” Daphne said.

                “It’s a process. It takes time and he’s not very patient. But he’s made progress. So far, all he’s come up with is sanaresempra. It makes a person constantly heal. It could have many very useful purposes.” Harry explained. “Draco is frustrated because it doesn’t stop sectumsempra, it turns it into torture. The person keeps getting cut, but it heals. It buys time to help them though.”

                “He’ll figure it out eventually.”

                “I hope you’re right. He keeps saying that Theodore would’ve already, that he’s not smart enough and should’ve been the one to die. It’s getting hard to watch, so I’m wishing for sooner rather than later.”

                “You can’t expect him to be okay so soon after losing two of his childhood friends, one of which he was in love with, Harry. It’ll take time, like it’s taking all of us.” Arthur said.

                “I think Harry meant it more like Draco is pushing himself too hard and he’s out of his depth trying to help him.” Hermione said, once again finding words for feelings Harry didn’t know how to express.

                “Harry is always out of his depth with anything to do with feelings, you’ve said so yourself many times.” Ron said.

                “Don’t think you’re any better. If anything, you’re worse. Lucky I love you anyway.”

                This made everyone laugh. It was the first time absolutely everyone at the table was on the same page, all laughing. It had taken a while. The Grangers, Mr Johnson and Mrs Malfoy were unfamiliar with the rest of them and slightly uncomfortable at first to be surrounded by so many strangers who lived the war a very different way than them. Hermione’s parents had never spent much time around wizards other than yearly trips to Diagon Alley. But as the night went on, everyone felt more at ease.

 


 

                Draco was in the kitchen, getting reacquainted with his friends. Or more accurately the one friend he had who was here and not busy walking around his house drunk. With Crabbe and Nott dead, and Zabini wanting nothing to do with either of them anymore, the Slytherin group had become sparse. Since Goyle was being an excellent host, it left Draco and Pansy alone to discuss, surrounded by a group of Hufflepuffs.

                He was uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to being around so many people anymore. He was a little like that on Christmas too, but Harry and Teddy’s presence had been calming somehow. Pansy was getting along surprisingly well with Hannah, Susan and Ernie. He felt a little out of place in a party of the sort. Which clearly wasn’t Justin Finch-Fletchley’s case as he danced on the coffee table.

                “Is Neville Longbottom here?”

                Charlie Weasley walked in. Everyone waved at him, excited to see him. The guy was pretty popular and no one expected him to make an appearance. He told Alicia he was just popping in quickly before heading to the Burrow for dinner. He made the rounds, talked to a few people, and had a drink with the members of the Quidditch team who were here and not at the Weasley’s, where he should be. He finally found Neville, grabbed his hand and led him upstairs to a guest room.

                “I missed you, hot herbologist.”

                “Is that what you’ll tell your mom to explain why you’re late? That you just had to stop on the way to fuck a plant nerd?”

                “I come directly from Romania, I don’t need an excuse.”

                Charlie was already busy kissing Neville’s neck and getting his shirt off. Neville pushed him down on the bed and straddled him, a grin forming on his lips. He missed him too. They’d been writing to each other, of course, but it wasn’t the same as being in the same room, skin touching skin, lips exploring each other’s bodies.

                Meanwhile, downstairs, a group of D.A. members sat in the living room, where Justin was still dancing on the table. Alicia sat on Katie’s lap on the couch, next to Lee Jordan who looked like he had forced himself to come at all. Padma told them she literally pulled her sister out of the house to bring her here. Parvati hadn’t left the house much at all since Lavender’s funeral, she didn’t really know what to do without her best friend around.

                “Dean, Seamus, why did you even come to this party if all you’re going to do is make out with each other instead of actually hang out with people?”

                “Well, maybe if you could say something actually interesting, Zach, we’d pay more attention.” Seamus said.

                Terry and Anthony laughed, granting themselves punches on the shoulder from Zacharias who sat between them on the floor. Everyone joined in. It felt good to laugh. It released stress and tension like nothing else. Cho thought it helped even more than crying. It certainly brightened the mood more. After months of grief and isolation, it was such a pleasure to be reunited with all of the other members of Dumbledore’s Army, catch up and have some actual fun. It was surprising that it happened at Gregory Goyle’s New Year’s Eve party, but if one thing was certain, it was that a lot of things had changed that year.