Epilogue
And so it Ends
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
"Please Mummy… please," the little eight year old red-haired girl pleaded as her mother tried to get her settled down into bed for the night.
Margette Potter glanced at the clock on the bedroom wall - the little hand pointed to 'bed-time'. "It's too late Ginny - it's time you went to sleep."
"But Mummy, I'm not tired. And I want to know about the painting," whined Ginny.
Margette sighed - she could see that her daughter's brain was far too active for sleep to overtake her any time soon. 'Just like her ancestors,' she thought, smiling wryly. 'And me too, if it comes to that.'
Margette glanced at the clock once more. She really needed to get some work done. She was due to give her report to the Academy in just under a week's time, and it would be a big day for her - the culmination of two years research into the effects of Shem-an-na on Welsh Greens. The Magical Creatures fraternity at the Academy awaited her report with great excitement and interest. Ever since the colony of Dragons had chanced upon the Ma-na tree, seeded when a spore was carried into the Forbidden Forest by the wind, and hidden from sight until it was discovered by the keeper following some very peculiar behaviour by the huge magical reptiles, every Magical Creatures expert in the world had waited on her report with bated breath.
She sighed once more, but gave in to the pleading emerald green eyes of her daughter - how could she refuse? She should have known that the little girl's first visit to the Grand Museum would spark a flood of questions, especially when she saw her gazing rapturously at the magical painting of the Anima Summas just inside the museum hallway. She'd been fascinated by the many twists and turns inside the museum, the moving staircases, the dark and mysterious corridors and the Great Hall, and she'd spent some time reading the plaque on the entrance hall wall, which gave a brief history of the museum and how it had been modelled on an ancient school called Hogwarts, in the land of Britain, now long buried deep beneath the Great North Ocean. But it was the painting, most of all, that captured Ginny's imagination.
"Well all right, Ginny. But only for a few minutes."
Ginny grinned and sat up, turned and fluffed up the pillows behind her, and then settled back contentedly. "The rings, Mummy. I want to know about the rings that they were wearing on their fingers."
Margette started to relate what she knew about the rings but stopped when she heard the thudding of feet just outside the bedroom door. Then the door burst open and two grinning bundles of energy burst in.
"We want to listen too, Mum," said Fred.
"But you've both heard it before!" exclaimed their mother.
"But we want to hear it again!" said George.
Margette shook her head in resignation and told the ten-year old red-haired, blue-eyed twins to make themselves comfortable. They jumped up onto the bed beside their little sister and waited expectantly.
"The painting was made a long, long time ago, before the Great Destruction when the Anima Summas were still in the middle of their great quest."
"How long ago was that Mum?" asked Fred.
"Well it's 2003 AD now, and it was painted even before the start of our calendar - that's before year zero AD."
"What's AD mean?" asked Ginny.
"Everybody knows that, stupid!" exclaimed George.
Ginny pulled a face and stared angrily at her brother. "I'm not stupid, George!"
"George!" said Margette. "Don't speak to your sister like that - she's younger than you and doesn't know as much as you yet."
Ginny poked her tongue out at her brother and turned to face her mother once more.
"AD means After Dumbledore, Ginny," said Margette, trying hard to suppress a grin. Her spirited 8-year old was far from stupid.
Ginny nodded and remained silent - even she knew who Dumbledore was.
"Great Matriarch Hermione wrote about the rings in her 'Histories of the World' - she called them the 'Rings of Joining', although no one quite knows what she meant by that. She and Great Patriarch Harry wore them throughout the three years of their quest, and they were sworn to return them to the one they'd received them from. But they weren't able to - he'd returned to the Light with all the other Guardian Spirits of the Old World. The Rings held a strange power, but exactly what it was we don't know, which melted away not long after the final conflict. They wore them throughout the first hundred years of their married lives, and then hid them away in a secret place. She wrote that she hoped they'd never be needed again, but no one knows why. And to this day, no one knows where they are hidden."
"Mummy?" asked Ginny. "The final conflict - that was when they won the war against the Dark Wizards wasn't it?"
"That's right Ginny," Margette replied. "The leader of the Dark Wizards - Lord Voldemort - was banished into the Dark Realm and he hasn't been heard of since."
"But why were those wizards so bad?" asked Ginny. "There aren't any evil wizards now are there?"
"No there aren't, thank goodness." Margette let out a sigh. "Early on in their experiments with the Ma-na, Great Professors Snape and Sprout found a way to alter it very slightly, so that if a person with a highly developed Dark side ingested it, the Darkness would be banished in favour of his lighter side. Ever since then, there have been no Dark Witches and Wizards in the world."
"Tell us about what happened after the great destruction," said Fred. "Before Year Zero."
"I'll just tell you the short version of what happened," said Margette resignedly. "It's all written down in 'Histories of the World', and you'll be studying it in great detail when you go to New Hogwarts next year - and you two years later, Ginny."
Margette settled herself down at the foot of the bed and felt the familiar glow build inside her. She felt it whenever she was badgered into telling her children about the start of their new civilisation - perhaps it was because she was a direct descendant of Harry and Hermione, Ron and Margot, and she never failed to be amazed by their astonishing exploits.
"After the great destruction, the world was completely different from what it had been before. Whole continents sank below the sea and others were raised in their place. The country where we live now - Hermland - was once far below the sea, where it had lain since the last great upheaval consigned it to the deep nearly 12,000 years ago. When the Patriarchs and Matriarchs left New Eden they came here - they called it Nibiru then, like it was all that time ago."
"Why did they change its name to Hermland, mummy?" asked Ginny.
"Well after Great Matriarch Hermione, of course. It was she who undertook the task of writing down the history of the world, so that all who came after would know. She wrote that her own time had been cloaked in secrecy and ignorance, and she wanted to make sure that the same thing wouldn't happen in our time. She was a very great witch." Margette sighed - she would have loved to have met and known Hermione.
"Grand old Professor Dumbledore was the first leader of the colony that survived the destruction. They sheltered in the place called New Eden, where they waited for five years until the convulsions that raged in the world outside the valley started to subside, and the great floods started to abate. Dumbledore split the community of New Eden into four groups, initially.
"There were the Teachers, led by Great Professor McGonagall, who undertook to complete the schooling of the younger members of the community, and to plan for the education of the very young and those who would soon be born into the new world. Then there were the Cultivators, led by Great Professor Sprout. The great Manna Gardens were started by Professor Sprout, helped by the six Great Cultivators who were later to expand the seeding of the Shem-an-na trees to several sites around the world - Neville, Lavender, Parvati, Seamus Dean and Kristen. They laid the foundations to make sure there was enough Ma-na for everyone, and as you know, it is now a part of our staple diet.
"Then there were the Scientists, the branch of society to which your father and I belong. They were led by Great Professor Snape, and they experimented with the Shem-an-na and refined the process of production of the Ma-na. And finally, there were the explorers, led by Great Explorer Sirius Black. He and his helpers, which included Harry and Hermione in the early days, planned the expeditions and then went out into the new world when the time was right, seeking the few survivors who'd been lucky enough to live on high ground in the lands that hadn't sunk beneath the oceans. They also looked for clues that would eventually lead to us finding a solution to the Earth's ills and correcting the terrible cycles of destruction that blighted it.
"The others of the community either joined one of the four groups or helped Dumbledore with the general running of New Eden. Even the few Muggles who'd joined the group lent a hand."
"What are Muggles?" asked Ginny, drawing exasperated stares from her two brothers.
"People like Millie and Arbuthnot Granger - Hermione's parents - and Ceri's Muggle relatives from Wales - and Harry and Hermione's friend Lara. There aren't any Muggles now, of course, but they were people who didn't have any magic."
Ginny gasped, "People without Magic? That's terrible, Mummy!"
"Back in the old world, there were a lot more Muggles than Magical People, Ginny," said Margette. "Rhian thought it was terrible too - she was Ceri's little Muggle niece - but they soon developed their own magic after being put on the diet of Ma-na.
"Then, exactly one hundred years after the start of the New Eden Colony, Grand old Professor Dumbledore decided that it was time for him to rest. He had worked tirelessly, as had all the others, to ensure the new world got off to the best possible start, but before passing into the Light, he handed over the reins of leadership to Harry and Hermione. A lot of the older colonists from the old world joined Dumbledore at that time, and joined him in the Light. George and Molly Weasley - they were Great Patriarch Ron's parents - decided to go into the Light at that time - they were anxious to see their daughter Ginny once more.
"Hermione didn't concern herself too much with leading the colony though - she wanted to start on her great project to produce the Histories of the World, and also to share some of her vast knowledge with the young people who attended New Hogwarts School. So it was left to Harry, aided by their great friends Ron and Margot, and to a lesser extent Colin and Clare, to give leadership during the critical time when the first outlying colonies started to flourish.
"They were good times, but they were also cruel sometimes. More than once, the communities built in the wider world would be destroyed by the remnant volcanic eruptions that persisted for over four hundred years, but they would be built up once more. During those times, the Magical Weasley Company sustained the people and kept up their spirits - Fred, George, Alicia, Angelina and Lee made regular trips to the outlying colonies and provided entertainment and amazing tricks and pranks. The survival of many of the communities have been attributed to the exploits of the Great Troup as they were to become known.
"Another nice little side story of the early years was one of the bi-products of the experiments with Ma-na. Working with Fred and George Weasley, under the direction of Professor Snape, Remus Lupin was able to come up with an antidote that completely cured the werewolf curse. There were great celebrations in New Eden when that happened - Remus and his girlfriend Sioned, also a werewolf, were married as soon as they were cured, and had four lovely children."
"Tell us about the Magical Creatures, Mum," said George.
"Many of the Magical Creatures were saved from the destruction, and were later released into the great forests that sprung up on several of the new large islands. Many ordinary creatures were also saved, although there were some problems initially with the migrating birds. Charlie, Nadine, Demont and Anne-Marie led the group that cared for all the animals, and managed to repair the damage when the surviving migrating birds flew in the wrong direction - north into the cold instead of south into the warm. They magically altered their internal sensors to reverse their north-south directional instincts after the earth changed its magnetic polarity. The most dangerous magical creatures were confined to the forbidden island in the middle of the southern ocean - even now, very few people dare to go there and then only to check on the creatures' progress for research purposes. When they were first settled on the island they were cared for by Great Half-Giant Rubeus Hagrid and his wife, Great Half-Giantess Olympe Maxime.
"Sirius and Ceri eventually settled down on an idyllic island near the equator, and founded a Welsh community there - Gwlad Cymru. They had three children and lived out their lives alongside their great friends, Remus, Sioned and their family. Bill Weasley was a frequent visitor, but made his home in ancient Egypt, one of the few lands to survive the disaster."
"What about Harry and Hermione? What happened to them?" asked Ginny.
"They had three children - two boys and a girl. The two boys married two of Ron and Margot's four daughters, and the girl married one of Fred and Alicia's sons. But you'll read a lot more about the genealogy of the new world in Histories of the World. And at New Hogwarts, there's a special room, called the Chamber of Ancestors, where you can trace the family trees of the first colonists. You'll be able to trace your decent right back to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Margot.
"Like the other original colonists, Great Matriarch Hermione and Great Patriarch Harry lived for a very long time, and they didn't leave the Earthly Realm until they were certain that the new civilisation was well on the way to fruition. But before they left, they made sure that there would be no Gods in the new world - they were determined that their memories, and those of the other patriarchs and matriarchs would not be elevated to the status of deities. Hermione's Histories of the World made sure of that! But there was a risk that that very thing was about to happen almost three hundred years ago, when some misguided Grand Council members decided that Harry and Hermione should be worshiped. They even went as far as drafting a religious text for the people to follow. But that was stopped when a marvellous thing happened -their shining Spirits of Light appeared to our very own ancestor and ensured that corrective action was taken. They said that over time, if a religion were created in their names, it would eventually cause great rifts among the people and would lead to terrible things."
"But I thought they'd gone into the Light," said Ginny. "How could they come back?"
Margette smiled. "They are our Guardian Spirits. They told our ancestor that they had volunteered to keep watch on the Physical Realm to ensure that guidance could be given in special dire circumstances. Every so often, they leave the Light Realm and visit us to make sure that all is well - not that anyone sees them of course - only your long-removed ancestor was privileged to see them three hundred years ago."
"When will they appear again?" asked Ginny tiredly, her eyes now drooping.
"I don't know, Ginny. No one knows. But there's one thing you can be sure of - they're still keeping an eye out for us." Margette looked up to the skylight in the ceiling, her eyes misty as she gazed at the sparkling stars in the cloudless night sky. Ginny, Fred and George looked up as well, trying to see if they could see the spectral forms of their two famous ancestors in the star patterns.
"Mummy," whispered Ginny, "when did Harry and Hermione go into the Light?"
Margette smiled. "She wrote about that at the very end of her Histories of the World. It was the very last chapter. It wasn't a very long chapter - in fact, it was only a few lines, but ever since I read them when I was at New Hogwarts I've never forgotten them. They were burned into my memory, and I can see them now - exactly as she wrote them…
Chapter 3023.
And so it ends…
It ends for the last eight of the original founders of New Eden. But for you, dear readers, it is just the beginning. At whatever point in time you read these words, it is still the beginning - it is for you to experience the great adventure. And never doubt that it is a great adventure.
For whatever you do in life, whatever path you take, be assured that it will contribute to the well-being of this Brave New World.
That which was started so long ago is now in good hands, and it is time for me and my friends to leave the Earthly Realm. Today, we decided to stop taking the Shem-an-na, and wait for the time when we will be reunited once more with all our friends in the Light Realm.
Harry, Ron, Margot, Katie, Oliver, Clare, Colin and I have no regrets and we are content. We look on it as the last great adventure, and we feel truly excited that we will soon see our dear and sorely missed friend Ginny once more. It was she, who gave up her earthly life to save the Anima Summas, who gave us the chance to start this great new civilisation.
And so it ends…
These are the Histories of the World.
Hermione Potter
Professor of Magical History
New Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
August 500 AD."
Margette wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke the last words that her ancestor had written all those years before. Ginny, too, wiped the tears from her eyes. Fred and George just stared solemnly at their mother.
They all jumped when they heard the front door close loudly, and a voice shouted up the stairs. "Margette? Are you up there?"
"Yes, Haroth," shouted Margette. "I'm trying to get these kids to get to sleep!"
There was a loud pounding on the stairs and Haroth burst in, grinning as he saw the scene before him. "Don't tell me - story time?"
Margette grinned. "History of the World time."
"Well now it's sleep time!" said Haroth, bending down to kiss his daughter goodnight. Then he picked up his two sons, one under each arm, and rushed them out from the room struggling and laughing into their own bedroom.
Margette tucked Ginny up in her blankets and then leaned down to kiss her goodnight. As Margette left the room and quietly closed the door, Ginny settled down with a smile on her face, looking up through the skylight - fighting to stay awake in case Harry and Hermione chose that very night to pay a visit. Her eyelids started to droop and she let out a contented sigh as she hovered on the very edge of sleep.
In the corner of the room, hidden behind their protective invisibility shield, two Shining Ones smiled as they looked fondly at their distant relative. They were content - they knew that the future was in good hands. Harry and Hermione nodded and lifted their shield of invisibility just before the little girl drifted off to sleep - just at that moment when she was neither awake nor asleep - leaving her with a shining image of the Anima Summas, exactly as they were portrayed in the entrance hall of the Grand Museum.
They knew, of course, that Ginny would probably think that she dreamt it all when she awoke the next morning, but they also knew that a small part of her would also wonder if her ancestors really had been there to watch over her that night. They wanted to be there that night to witness the event that would mark a turning point in the already excellent fortunes of the new civilisation - they knew that she would grow up to be one of the greatest witches of the age, and they also knew that it was on that very day, when Ginny had become so fascinated by their magical portrait in the museum, that the change had taken place in her that would set her on the path to great discoveries in later life - discoveries that would lead the new civilisation onto an even greater plain of existence.
Then, keeping their eyes firmly on the sleeping little girl, they slowly faded until finally, the room held only little Ginny.
The Anima Summas had returned to the Light - back to their many friends once more.
END
Author's Notes :
There's just one image on my picture board - dawn rising over Hermland - ancient Atlantis.
http://uk.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/animasumma/lst?.dir=/Epilogue+-+And+so+it+Ends
And so it ends. That's it for the Anima Summa series. I thought about writing a fourth book about the years leading up to, and into, the destruction and the early years of the new community at New Eden, but I think that perhaps three books are quite enough for now. But who knows, I might decide to write it at some point in the future - let me know if you think I should.
When I started writing the trilogy, I wasn't sure how it would end up - at least not until I'd finished writing book 1. Then, before I started writing book 2, I wrote the outline of the final chapter of book 3 (Chapter 11 - Into the Light). I really hated having to kill off Ginny, one of my favourite characters, but it was inevitable that she'd have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends. It was at that point that I realised that I'd have to put my natural loathing of Draco Malfoy to one side and start to develop a conscience for him. It's strange, but the books started to take on a life of their own, and I just had to follow it through to its natural conclusion. I hope you think that it worked. (Apologies to my fellow Draco-haters out there).
Most of the things I've written about are real - The mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau is very real, the Egyptian Mythology is as portrayed in ancient Egyptian texts (the Amduat and the Book of the Dead), the Sumerian civilisation is real, as is the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the legend of Atlantis is real - but perhaps only Plato truly knows if the legend is true or not. The Necronomicon is a legendary Dark Arts book, and there are copies to be found on the net - but they are probably fakes. The little hanging valley of Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad is also very real - I took a walk up there only last week, but there wasn't a sign of Harry, Dumbledore and the others - but then, I wouldn't be able to see past the wards that they set up, would I? The solutions to the mysteries I wrote about are entirely the product of my imagination, set against the background of JK's magical world of Harry Potter.
You may have wondered about the strange spells that Harry, Hermione and Voldemort spoke - those strange words are ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian (book 2) and ancient Sumerian (book 3), and reflect the spells enacted.
Now, over half a million words later, it's finished.
I hope you've enjoyed reading the series - I've certainly enjoyed writing it. Once again, a big thank you to those who reviewed and especially to those who reviewed regularly. You've been my inspiration and gave me the impetus to carry on writing the series.
If you've got any questions, let me know on the review board and I'll post a second 'epilogue' with my answers.
I'm still working on my new fic, but it's not ready yet - I had some problems (mainly laziness and a lack of motivation) getting the plot right. I'm not sure when I'll start to post it, but I'll let you know if you leave your E-mail address on the review board.
Hwyl Fawr
A.S.