Pyrrhic Victory

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse.
Warning:Extreme violence, character death.

Victories are always costly.
Those who fought and destroyed Voldemort knew this, and knew the heavy toll they paid.
Everyone had shed tears, blood, and sweat. But all were delirious with the knowledge that they had, after years of toil, sacrifice, and pain, triumphed.
Eventually, the pain receded, and made way for complacency.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were war heroes--decorated, feted, and celebrated wherever they went.
Nymphadora Tonks became heiress to the House of Black, and the youngest auror ever to be awarded the Medal of Merlin.
Ginevra Weasley and her brothers Fred and George were also honored for their sacrifices during the war.
None of them suspected that one of the only virtues evil had, was patience. Especially when it came to vengeance.
Vengeance was swift and terrible.
Hermione Granger was found in the Forbidden Forest, bound to a tree, her arms amputated and her tongue cut out, legs splayed akimbo, violated, her thighs streaked with blood.She was completely catatonic and unresponsive to any attempts to communicate. The Aurors searched her thoughts, and were unable to find any evidence, either of her memories, or her assailants. She was left drooling on a bed in St.Mungo's, a blank slate. When people asked Mr. and Mrs. Granger about their daughter, they said she had died during the war.
Nymphadora Tonks, had, under the Imperius curse, assumed the form of Tom Riddle, and repeatedly assailed Ginevra Weasley, who died from exhaustation and overexposure to the Cruciatus curse. Tonks was found in her regular form, inside the Black ancestral home, stooping over Ginevra's corpse, stunned and unable to account for any events preceding that moment. She was rotting in Azkaban for life.
Ronald Weasley apparently committed suicide. Fred and George disappeared into the muggle world, or so the whispers said.
Harry Potter, when questioned by the press, was understandably heartbroken by all of these events, and expressed his outrage at the unfortunate fates that befell all those he cared about.
However, Harry Potter survived. He was now The Man Who Lived On and On.
Remus Lupin bumped into Harry a few years later, in a pub on the outskirts of London. When he asked Harry how he was, and commented on how reclusive the younger man had become, Harry simply grinned. He had also softly remarked that he had become used to his own company, and preferred his privacy. Remus wished him well, and it was only after he exited the pub something struck him. Harry's eyes--might they have been a different color? Remus shrugged it off as too much firewhiskey, and sauntered off into the night.
Dark curses, just like dark forces, don't just disappear into thin air.
They have to go somewhere--into a vessel, however willing or unwilling.
Evil always survives--it can't be destroyed, it simply goes underground.
And waits.