Epilogue
***
“Professor Dumbledore!”
The shout echoed across the courtyard at Hogwarts and the tall black haired witch about to enter the main doors turned around with a hint of a smile on her face. “Harry! I see you escaped the hordes of adoring fans.”
The wizard in question groaned “I’m thinking of going into hiding.”
She actually laughed “I'm sure you’ll handle it.” He grinned slightly. He stood in silence for a minute and she broke it. “I presume you came here for something?”
“Yes, well, Ginny and I are getting married”
“I had heard. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” He started looking at his feet as if he was nervous. “Well, it’s just, we can’t seem to get any peace from anybody and I was wondering, how did you keep manage to keep your wedding quiet?”
“Why don’t you come in and get a seat.” They moved inside and Harry looked around as they walked through the halls, noticing that it felt like years since he had been here when in reality it had been less than a year. In her office he discovered it was still much the same as when Dumbledore had had it except it was much tidier. She sat down on the opposite side of the desk from him and didn’t say anything for a minute while she gathered her thoughts. She gazed out the window when she started speaking, obviously reliving her memories as she spoke.
“We waited a year until I had finished school and we spent the summer in a villa in Italy. When he went back to Hogwarts for the new school year, I gained an apprenticeship in Egypt.” A wistful expression came over her face and Harry was sorry to jar her from what were obviously happy memories. A slight blush came over her cheeks as she realised she was drifting. “A couple of months later he joined me for Christmas and we decided to go on a trip down the Nile.” She smiled to herself. “He proposed to me on Christmas Eve. It was the middle of the night and the stars were shining above us.” She smiled again. “It was perfect. The air was warm and it felt like we were in a world of our own. I wanted that night to last forever.” She paused, once more caught up in the memory. “I decided I didn’t want to wait so I convinced him to have the wedding on board the boat we were travelling on.”
Harry smirked at this revelation. “Yeah you were good at that.” She blushed and he looked amazed, never having seen much of her beyond her professor’s mask. “We were all a bit shocked when we saw you in the pensieve.”
“Anyway” she carried on, obviously embarrassed. “We owled ahead my friends and his brother and at the next stop they joined us and we hired a local minister. It was hurried but at the same time it was perfect. The ceremony was at sunset and I remember it was glorious. I really don’t remember much else about it except there was no where else I’d rather be. ” She smiled wistfully again. “I suppose I was paying too much attention to Albus to notice anything else.” She laughed softly and her grin widened when she saw the uncomfortable look on Harry's face. The grin however soon disappeared and she sighed. “I don’t know if I can help you. Very few people knew we were dating so it was easy to keep the wedding secret. The hard part was acting like we weren’t together in public.” A sad expression came over her face.
“I'm sorry.” He genuinely was for bringing up what must have been a sore point. “It’s alright. I learned to live with it, besides, it was worth it.” She shook her head as if to get rid of those thoughts. “Why don’t you pick a date and send everyone you are inviting a portkey so only they can get to the wedding. It can’t be leaked if no one knows where the ceremony is. Unfortunately you’re going to have to live with the publicity for a while.”
Harry thought about it for a moment and grinned at her. “I like it. I’m sure the twins would love to help organise it.” She chuckled softly and Harry felt his curiosity overcome him again. “How did you do it? I mean you kept your relationship quiet for years.” She laughed again. “Albus wore some truly awful disguises when we went out together and we often went on holiday in the muggle world so we weren’t spotted. When I had our children most people assumed I had married a muggle and after a while the job at Hogwarts opened up. Over the years there have been some rumours but they died down and eventually no one thought twice of us spending a large amount of time with each other especially after I became deputy.”
Harry looked amazed “Really? It was that easy?”
She laughed. “It wasn’t me they were interested in so most people didn’t pay all that much attention.”
“And that never bothered you?”
“Of course not.” she looked slightly surprised at his reaction. “Harry, Albus was and still is everything to me. Some things are worth the sacrifice.”
He stared at her for a long moment and finally said “Yeah some things are.” He stood up. He moved round the desk and quickly hugged her before she could object. She was speechless and he let the words tumble out. “Thank you.” A tear started forming in his eye. “I just wanted to thank you, both of you” he glanced at the portraits of the former headmasters “for trusting the three of us with your secret. It was an honour that not many people get.”
She smiled at him. “Your welcome and I’m sure if Albus wasn’t pretending to be asleep he would say the same thing.”
Harry laughed. “Well I’d better go” he eyed the piles of letters on her desk and added “I’ve got to see some people about a wedding” He hugged her again and this time she hugged him back. He walked towards the door and bowed towards the portrait of Albus who was no longer pretending to be asleep and received in return a wink of twinkling eyes. As he walked towards the apparition point he thought how lucky he would be if he and Ginny had a relationship as loving as Albus and Minerva’s.
A/N: Well that's it finished. I hope you enjoyed it and I want to say one last thank you to all of you who have stuck with this. I've learned a lot and hopefully I'll get a couple of my plot bunnies written up soon.
Jenni.
but i guess some things we just have to live with. 
