The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later

----------------The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later. final chapter, "Will you marry me?"----------------

The headlines in the Daily Prophet the next day were almost free of nonsense as all of the Wizarding world was so shocked at the story that was told by Hermione at the press-conference.

How Draco escaped and how Wormtail helped him, the capture of Lucius and Wormtail and Neville being alive, Neville's progress with the Thought-Uniter root and Harry's capture and finally Draco's capture and how he now was nothing more than a harmless mental patient, ready to be shipped to St Mungo's.

Any other human would find talking to the press exhausting, but Hermione was too happy that all her friends were safe and unharmed; especially Ron.

She laughed as she remembered how they had bickered back in the old days about the dumbest things.

She walked down the corridors of Hogwarts, on her way to Dumbledore's office as he'd sent her an owl, saying he wanted to speak with her about something important.

"Cherry-Cola," Hermione said and the passage to Dumbledore's office opened.

She walked up the spiral staircase and remembered the last time she'd been sent to the headmaster's office back in sixth year for having jinxed Proffessor Trelawney's feet, making it impossible for her to walk more than six feet without falling.

Trelawney had reluctantly agreed to letting Hermione back into Divination because there had been so many "freakouts" since Trelawney had predicted that "a dark wizard would make things explode" and thirteen students had left and never come back.

Hermione joined the class again as she was very interessed as to see Trelawney's face when her prediction proved wrong.

But her prediction wasn't wrong; Dean Thomas accidentally mixed the wrong herbs with some of his Frogsbreath from Potions class and made his teapot explode and send more of the explosive juices hit several other objects which also exploded.

Hermione was very irritated about how Trelawney pranced around the room saying "I told you so", so she couldn't help jinxing her feet.

The walk down the ladder was very interresting for Trelawney, especially since Hermione had done such a good job that even Professor Flitwick had a hard time removing the spell.

So she was sent to Dumbledore's office, but all he did was laugh heartily at her prank and said it was about time someone put a hex on that woman!

Hermione laughed a little at the memory when she knocked on Dumbledore's door.

"Enter, Ms Granger," Dumbledore said and Hermione came in and sat down, feeling like a student again.

"You wanted to see me, Albus?" she asked.

Albus hadn't aged a bit in these ten years and he still had the most kind eyes on the planet.

"Yes! I wanted to ask for your help in arranging a "welcome back to life" party for Neville Longbottom here at the school," Dumbledore said and twirled his beard.

"Oh! What a lovely idea! I'll be glad to help. What do you need?" Hermione said.

"I need to find all of the Gryffindors that were in your class and even though I have found a coulpe of them myself, I can't find the ones that have moved out of the country, even with owl post, I'm afraid," Dumbledore said.

"I'll find them easily! It won't take me two days to get them together! When does the party take place?" Hermione asked.

"In a week. I was wondering if we should use the Great Hall for the party or if it would be more appropriate to have the party in the Gryffindor common room?"

"That would be great, but won't the students mind?" Hermione said.

"Yes, maybe. Right then! The Great Hall it is," Dumbledore said.

"Ok, I'll get to work right away, Albus."

Hermione found everyone easily as she had access to the Persons directory at the Ministry and invited everyone personally as she Apparated directly to their houses.

Dean Thomas was living in France, working as a lawyer for some big time fashion creator and was very happy to hear Neville was still alive and Apparated back to the Ministry with Hermione.

Seamus Finnigan was let out of prison (he'd been making a living as a forger of all sorts of things in the Muggle world until the Ministry found out what he was doing.) just for the party and Ron invited Fred and George, but was a bit put off when Percy invited himself.

Fred slipped him a cookie that turned his head into a coconut for a while.

Harry found Lavender Brown in Germany, working as a Psychic and she too loved the idea of the party.

She helped Harry find the rest of the class and when Friday, the day of the party, came, it was Dudley's job to get Neville to Hogwarts.

They were staying at Harry's house and had been walking around Hogsmeade for the day when Dudley suggested they stop by Hogwarts for a little visit.

But just before they entered, Neville turned to Dudley.

The setting sun was still warm behind them, but the wind was growing colder and colder as the autumn progressed.

"I know we haven't gotten to really catch up, because of the whole Malfoy thing, but I was hoping we'd do that tomorrow. I want to know all about what has happened in your life since I "died"," Neville said.

"Of course we will! And after that, I'll show you my bed back home," Dudley said and grinned before kissing Neville.

"Oh, will you? I can't wait," Neville grinned back as they opened the doors to Hogwarts and walked through the crowd of students, some recognising Neville and whispered things like "that's the guy that killed He-who-must-not-be-named" and "I hear he's a Telepath and wiped out Draco Malfoy's mind!".

Neville and Dudley could hear their thoughts and smiled as they made their way to the Great Hall.

Dudley opened the doors and a loud "Surprise" ecchoed in the big room and Neville almost jumped back.

"Oh my God!" he said and smiled as his old school friends hugged him and patted his back and welcomed him back to the world of the living.

There was a big banner in the Gryffindor colours floating in midair with "Welcome back from the dead, Nev" in golden letters.

The tables were already filled with all sorts of food and deserts, ready to be eaten.

Dobby popped up next to Neville and tugged at his trousers.

"Mr Longbottom Sir? Dobby wanted to say thanks for whacking the Dark Lord and saving us all!" he said, just as eager as he'd always been.

"Thanks alot, Dobby!" Neville said and patted his head, making Dobby light up like a Christmas tree.

Fred and George came up to Neville and offered him some sweets, but Neville remembered the Canary cookies and gracefully declined.

Ron, Harry and Hermione came up and gave him a few extra hugs.

McGonagall and Dumbledore began asking him how horrible it must have been to battle both Voldemort and Malfoy.

"I always knew that boy was rotten to the core," McGonagall said and looked very displeased, shaking her head.

Snape came up and Neville felt his heart skip a beat when he saw his old fear again.

Even though he'd seen him at the Ministry a few days ago, he hadn't really gotten used to seeing him.

"Good work on the Dark Lord, Longbottom," he said a bit stiff as if he still thought Neville was incompotent.

"Erh, thanks, Professor," Neville said, equally stiff.

"Now, how did you solve the mystery of the Thought-Uniter root, anyway?" Snape said and smiled, seemingly very interessed.

The two chatted away and forgot their pasts in a matter of minutes.

Hermione was talking to Seamus and Dean together with Harry when Ron came up and asked to speak with Hermione.

"Now? But I'm talking to..."

"Please. There is something I have to ask you," Ron cut her off.

She sighed, but followed him through the crowd outside into the cold air where the stars had begun to come out and the sky was deep purple and the clouds were golden and pink.

Ron paced, thinking about how to ask her this very important question.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked at her.

"I've been talking to Wormtail for a few day when he was under Veritas, and according to him, Tristan died back then," Ron said.

Hermione felt her heart sink; she'd been hoping their son might still be alive somewhere.

"It's ok. I got over it a long time ago, even if it still hurts to think about it," Hermione said.

"I was hoping we could have another try at parenthood," Ron said.

Hermione looked up at him and barely believed her ears.

"What are you saying, Ron?" she asked.

He stepped closer to her and took her hands and kissed them.

"Will you marry me again?"

Hermione's heart was doing kickflips and she couldn't speak.

Ron looked at her.

A tear fell from her eye and she swallowed the big lump in her throat and hugged him hard.

"Of course I will!" she said and cried happy tears and laughed.

Ron hugged her back and laughed too.

She looked at him and right now, she loved that freckled face more than her own life.

Thank you, Neville, she thought.

Thank you for setting me straight again.

Without you we would still be bitter and this would never have happened.

"You're welcome," Neville's voice sounded in Hemione's head and she laughed even more as she and Ron walked back to the party and immediately announced their engagement.

Everyone roared in approval and joy, making the Great Hall more alive than it had been in years.

In the middle of it all, Dumbledore found Dudley and pulled him aside.

"Colin told me about your situation a few days ago," he said.

"My situation?" Dudley asked, confused.

He'd loved being in the wizarding world so much he'd completely forgotten about his normal life in the Muggle world.

"Your unemployment! And I wanted to offer you the job as Caretaker of Hogwarts," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes.

Dudley smiled hugely and hugged the old man.

"Thank you! I'll take it!" Dudley said and rushed off to tell the others.

The party didn't die out until there was a knock on the door the next morning when it was time for the students to have breakfast.

The following months were perfect!

Harry went back to teaching, Neville returned to being one of the best Aurors in the Ministry and Dudley loved his new job, even though Colin still gave him the creeps from time to time.

He stayed at Hogwarts together with Neville until they were given a loan from Harry to buy and remodel a house in Hogsmeade (The Shrieking Shack, to be more precise) and before a year had gone by, Ron and Hermione were pregnant.

Harry visited Draco at St Mungo's from time to time and saw the progress he was making even though he had a long way to go before he was sane again.

One day, a Tuesday, in July, Hermione came to visit Dudley and Neville.

Dudley was at work and so was Ron, so it was just the two of them sitting on the front porch of the house.

It was a warm day and the wind was blowing softly.

"I wanted to thank you, Neville," Hermione said and drank some of her tea.

"For what?" Neville asked.

"For telling me not to throw away my life, back in August," she said.

"Oh, that. Well, that's the most important thing I've learned in my life," he said.

"There is no reason for putting things off. If you love someone, tell them. If you don't, you may loose them forever and therby you loose a piece of youself. Life is too short for waiting. Go out there and have fun, because it really is better to burn out than to fade away," he continued.

Hermione smiled.

"Why not just fade away with the person you love?"

Neville thought about it for a while.

"I guess that's just as good," he said and leaned back in his chair and they watched the sunset.

--------------------THE END-----------------------------