EPILOGUE:

Hermione's POV:

SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER

The sun streamed down, attempting to warm us the best it could with its feeble rays, but the heavy, cold air of London overpowered it with ease.

I've missed England.

It's been seventeen years since our confrontation with the Volturi, and twelve years since Alice and I decided we were ready for children.

We have three beautiful daughters, all of whom age at an accelerated rate, much like their cousin Elizabeth, and all of whom are able to survive on a mixed diet of blood and normal food. None of our daughters can use a wand to channel their magic, but I'd been teaching them how to wandlessly use their magic ever since their minds were advanced enough to learn, and I was confident none of them would have a problem managing the Hogwarts curriculum sans a wand.

Psyche, our eldest, is the perfect mixture of Alice and I, with her petite build, dark silky hair, startlingly vivid chocolate brown eyes and snowy white skin. She's as much of a bookworm as I am and as fashion conscious as her momma. She started Hogwarts six years ago, alongside Victoire, James and Leah's daughter, Nova, and is going into her sixth year.

Minerva, or Minnie as everyone calls her, is starting Hogwarts this year. Minnie is just as tiny as her momma, with long dark brown hair, almost black, and green eyes. Our youngest is Emma Mary, named for both Emma Branden, my wife's mother, and the name Emma Branden gifted on her firstborn baby daughter, Mary Alice.

Emma Mary's wild mass of curly chestnut hair, matched with her tiny frame and sparkling green

eyes, gives her a rather pixie-like appearance- besides her hair, little Emma Mary is nearly identical to what I imagine my wife looked like as a child, minus the slightly more vampiric features, of course, like the lily-white skin that seemed to glimmer almost in the sunlight, irises just too dazzling to be normal and the fact that the four year old girl didn't look a day younger then seven.

All our girls are witches, like me, and like their momma are Seers, though all in different interpretations of the word.

Psyche's Gift was more traditional in the sense of the word 'Seer'. She dreamed inconstant flashes of images, some familiar and some not, accompanied by an omnipresent whispering. Emma Mary's is less so; she doesn't speak prophecies, she doesn't have prophetic dreams or visions and she can't See the future. However, sometimes, she just knows things. Minnie's Gift, though, is the most unusual of our three- instead of the future, like Psyche, or the present, like Emma Mary, Minnie Sees into the past.

Alice likes to call our daughters the three fates, a reference to my fascination with Greek mythology, a result of being named after the daughter of Helen of Troy. Our eldest, Psyche, was named for Greek mythology too.

Crossing through the gateway of Platform Nine and Three Quarters somehow always feels a bit like I'm returning home. The bustling station, complete with screeching owls, complaining cats, pointed witches hats, old-fashioned robes, and so much more, is jam-packed.

"Do you think the others are here yet?" Minnie asks, nervously

Lily Luna Potter, Harry's youngest, is starting Hogwarts this year too, as well as Ron's youngest daughter Aria Weasley, and Fleur's son, Louis Weasley.

"I can see red hair over there," Alice says, peering through the crowd on her tiptoes.

"Yes, that's Ron," I confirm. Emma Mary pulls us after her as she makes a beeline towards Ron, his wife Romilda and three children, Roselyn, Hugo and Aria.

"Hi Ron," I greet one of my oldest friends cheerfully, once we're close enough for him to hear. "Hey Hermione." He greets me back, just as cheerfully.

"We have an announcement," Romilda spoke up. The tips of Ron's ears turned red as he turned to look at his wife, who was looking as stylish as always, this time dressed in a blue rayon dress with a full skirt. She had draped a red floral scarf about her shoulders and pinned a red flower behind her ear.

"You don't have to Milly," he protested weakly, but anyone who knew Ron could tell that he was pleased.

"Hermione, Alice, meet the new recruit of the International Auror Division." Romilda announced proudly, beaming at her husband. A huge smile broke over my face as Alice gasped.

I'd personally had very little to do with the Ministry outside of the occasional butting of heads involved with the creature rights issue- an issue that started, in my opinion, with the use of the adjective 'creature', but Ron had flourished as an Auror.

"Well done Ron!" Alice beamed at my now furiously blushing best friend, and I leaned over to hug Ron tightly.

"I'm proud of you, Ron." I say, softly. "You deserve this."

"Thanks, Hermione," he replies.

"Hermione! Alice!" Harry's voice rises above the bedlam of the platform, and my other best friend hurries over and throws his arms around me. "How's life?" he asks, once he's released me from the stranglehold.

"Same old, same old," I say, with a laugh, "I'm not sure if you heard, but Jacob finally got down on one knee."

Personally, I was surprised it had taken him so long to ask for his imprint's hand in marriage, especially seeing as they'd been dating for what seemed like forever. Bella and Edward hadn't exactly been what you could call 'over the moon' about Elizabeth moving in with Jacob a year ago, but Edward was extremely grateful for the Occlumency walls I put up inside the 'happy couple's' head so he didn't have to witness his daughter shagging the boy who used to chase after her mother, proclaiming his undying love and devotion for her.

Yes, maybe Jacob and I still haven't quite ironed out our issues. We're bound to one day- we do have eons after all, and I have stopped mentally referring to him as the amoebas. Or the pusillanimous little

pip-squeak. Or sorry excuse for a carbon-based life form. Well, mostly so.

"I can't believe Teddy beat Jacob to it," laughed Harry, "he and Leah could probably do a joint wedding with those two. Though Rose would probably try marrying him to Elizabeth instead."

"Both her son and her niece ending up with shifters... poor Rose." Alice laughs.

The train let out a loud whistle, and I kneel down so I can hug Psyche and Minnie goodbye. "Write to us lots," I tell them, sternly.

"Cross my heart." Psyche smiles.

"I promise, mum," Minnie vows.

"And don't forget to have fun." Alice adds, as she gives our daughter a hug.

"We will," Psyche tells my beautiful, lovely mate, with a laugh. Minnie just looks anxious.

"Love you Psy, love you Min," sniffs Emma Mary, hugging both her sisters tight. "Don't leave me!" she wails.

"Don't worry, jellybean," I stroke Emma Mary's hair, getting my fingers slightly tangled in the bushy curls. "They'll be back for Christmas."

That doesn't do anything to calm her down, so Alice pulls a sniffling Emma Mary into her arms. One of her hands reaches mine, our fingers entwining, as we watch two of our daughters step onto the train along with Lily, James, Albus, Roselyn, Hugo, Aria and a windswept Nova, who has just arrived on time, Leah and her fiancé Teddy a few yards behind Leah's daughter.

"I'm going to miss them," Alice says to me, softly, "It feels like I've barely gotten used to Psyche being gone for months at a time, and now Minnie is too." I sigh.

"I know."

It wasn't an utopian existence, we had, in an utopian world, but I'd carved out my place. I had family I loved, friends I loved, a wonderful wife and three beautiful daughters. Dealing with Seth's death had been hard, as was dealing the scars left by the bloodshed and horror of what was now commonly known as the Second Blood War.

I wasn't saying these seventeen years had been peaceful, because that would be a lie. There was trouble stirring in Wizarding Britain. Alice and I had talked about sending our girls to Salem instead, but despite everything, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was still considered the safest place in the world, despite the... incidents that had occurred, back in Nova, Victoire and James' first year. And Hogwarts... Hogwarts had always been, in a way, my home.

I'd learned to live for each moment as it came, to treasure the happy and the peaceful times, and to fight for them during the troubled. The world wasn't a kind place, and there would always be something going on, but in seventeen years I hadn't been faced with any or wars or battles or life threatening situations. Nobody needed me to help save the world. In this moment I was in love, and I was loved.

For now, my life was good. And I would treasure each peaceful day as it came for the gift I'd learned it was. Because this life? This was worth fighting for.