It was almost midnight. The night sky was black as pitch, but in the darkness stood a higgledy-piggledy house from which light streamed through the windows, and music and laughter reverberated through the air. It was if the merriment inside couldn't be contained within its walls and had started to spill out into the garden that surrounded it.

A young woman appeared from thin air and walked up the path, her messy dark hair lifting off her shoulders in the gentle breeze. As she reached the front door, her lips curved into a smile, and she bent down to stroke the titian fur of a marmalade coloured cat who sat under the porch.

"Did you not fancy joining in the party?" she whispered, and the cat purred in response. "No. Me neither."

The door opened to reveal a tall wizard with a heavily scarred but handsome face and long, red hair tied into a ponytail. The woman straightened up to face him, her smile widening further.

"What time do you call this, Artemis?" asked the wizard, smirking at her. She rolled her hazel eyes at him. "We're about to leave."

"Leave?" Artemis wrinkled her nose. "Oh, come on, Bill. Who leaves a New Year's Eve party before midnight?"

"Who arrives at one in the last hour before?"

"Sorry. Ros needed help setting up, and then I went to see my aunt and uncle on the way here. I'd have come sooner if I'd known you'd be leaving this early."

"Well, we're not actually leaving, it's just that everyone's going up to Stoatshead Hill. Mum doesn't want George setting off the fireworks close to the house. Can't say I blame her." Bill grimaced. "The others will Apparate up there, but obviously Fleur can't right now."

Artemis raised her eyebrows. "I'm surprised the others all can right now."

"Enough of them can. That is the downside of having friends with important jobs and babies."

"So next year you'll be boring, too?"

"You are far too sober to accuse me of being boring."

"For now, anyway," said a voice from behind Bill, and his brother Charlie squeezed past him to join Artemis on the front step. "Did you find your rowan tree alright?"

"Yeah."

"How was it?"

"Peaceful."

"Good," Charlie smiled good-naturedly and pressed a glass of a burgundy liquid that smelt like marzipan into Artemis' hands before placing his own into his pockets. "I spoke to Fleur, I thought I'd walk with you. Artemis, you coming?"

Artemis cast a glance inside before nodding her agreement. The party was still loud and bustling, and she wasn't quite ready to join it. A not insignificant part of her suspected that Charlie knew that.

Once she and the Weasley brothers had been joined by Bill's wife, whose hat covered her silver-blonde hair and cloak hid the slight swell to her abdomen, the group of four set off up the hill that overlooked the house.

"I cannot wait to be able to Apparate again," muttered Fleur Weasley, and her husband wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I 'ope that these fireworks will be worth this walk."

"Fireworks are worth any walk," Artemis said. She tilted her head at the couple. "Anyway, Charlie and I were wondering-"

"You were wondering. Keep me out of it."

"- what you two were planning on doing about godparents."

"What do you mean?" Bill asked.

"Well, Charlie thinks you'll pick him, but I think that's kind of unfair," Artemis said, ignoring Charlie's shaking head. "I mean, he already got to be your best man, and he's going to be the baby's uncle. Why should he get to be a godparent as well? You should pick someone who hasn't already had a turn or is related anyway."

"So, someone like you."

"Someone like me, or maybe even actually me. I reckon I'd be good at it."

"Of course you do," said Bill. He exchanged glances with the woman at his side, who had drawn a protective arm across her front. "Yeah, we'll consider that offer. Thanks, Artemis."

"Nice pitch," Charlie murmured, low enough that Bill and Fleur couldn't hear him. "I reckon they'll still pick me, though."

"I bet you a Sickle that they don't."

"Deal."

By the time they reached the top of the hill, the rest of the party guests - Bill and Charlie's family, and several old friends - were already there, in varying states of sobriety. In turn, Artemis greeted the people she knew: the Weasleys, Penny Haywood-Parkin and her Quidditch-playing husband Lewis, Jae Kim and Chiara Lobosca, Ben Copper, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Andre Egwu, Tulip Karasu, Merula Snyde, Barnaby and Ellie Lee, Liz Tuttle, and Hagrid. A little boy with hair the same shade of turquoise as Tonks' had been the night they met, fifteen years before, waved at her, and she found herself having to force a smile in return.

The war Dumbledore had told her would one day come had done so, and had left its survivors with deep scars and losses, of which Bill's face and Ben Copper's left leg had been the least severe. Artemis swallowed hard as she turned away from the boy who looked like Tonks and saw George Weasley setting up the fireworks by himself.

Someone asked for the time, and Artemis' eyes immediately went to her ankle, despite her having not worn a watch on it for years. Beside her, Bill rolled up his sleeves to reveal his own watch, and began to count down from ten, the other guests joining in.

As their countdown reached zero, there was sudden rush of movement, noise, and light. Couples kissed, friends wished one another a happy new year, and George lit the first of his fireworks, which sizzled into the night sky and exploded far above their heads. Artemis felt a soft pressure on her right cheek, and turned to see Charlie at her side, a small smile playing on his freckled face.

"Happy New Year," he said quietly, his eyes fixed on the darkened horizon, where more fireworks had started to appear in the distance, some sooner, some later, as other groups of wizards, witches, and Muggles waved goodbye to the previous century and ushered in the new one.

Their own display was by far the best, with fireworks taking the shapes of dragons and thunderbirds and phoenixes before erupting into bursts and showers, illuminating the sky with two thousand different colours.

All too soon, however, the spectacle was over, and the party guests prepared to journey back to the Burrow or their own homes. Artemis stayed put.

"You go on without me," she said to Bill and Charlie, still watching the Muggle fireworks in the distance. "I want to watch the rest."

Charlie frowned at her. "You sure? I don't mind staying."

"I'll be fine."

"Alright," he shrugged. "I'll get you a hot chocolate for when you get back."

"With marshmallows?"

"Don't push your luck."

Artemis grinned as she looked back out over the view of the countryside, above which there were still Muggle fireworks appearing and disappearing in the distance, small flashes of light in the vast expanse of darkness.

All alone now, Artemis watched the fireworks and listened to the crackles and whizzes and bangs that were the only noises echoing through the January night. The grass at her feet was damp, the air around her was cold and laced with the scents of pine trees and gunpowder, and her lips still tasted faintly of sloe gin. Her fingers tingled, and her toes were numb, and her pulse coursed through her veins as her heart continued to beat in her chest, reminding her how very alive she was in this moment. Not that she needed the reminder. Right now, standing on Stoatshead Hill at the start of a new year, a new century, a new millennium, she felt more alive and more free than ever.

Out there in the darkness lay her future, though what it held, she did not know for certain. What she did know was that it was hers, and hers alone, and it was  filled with places to be explored, mysteries to be solved, and adventures to be had. They were all out there, waiting for her to come and find them. And she would.

For now, though, there were more important things waiting for her: a ginger cat, a mug of hot chocolate, and house filled with music and laughter and people she loved dearly. She smiled and wrapped her cloak tighter around her, feeling warmer already.

And as the last firework disappeared into the night sky, so did Artemis Hexley.

THE END.