Hannah leaned forward and wiped at that one spot on the counter that never seemed to want to come out. Tom had told her that it was hopeless trying to get it out, as it had been there forever, and no one else had been able to get it out. But she would. She was determined to get that damned spot off of her counter. That, and the fact the bar was empty, leaving her with nothing better to do. She hated slow days.

She sighed, and found herself wondering once again how she had ended up here. She had only wanted a summer job at the Leaky Cauldron. When her mum had been murdered, it had left her and her father just scraping by, and she'd needed that extra money. She'd planned to study and work to become a healer so she could work at St. Mungo's and help people, but had soon found herself liking her job as barmaid at the Leaky more and more.

According to others, it was only natural that Tom had left her the Leaky in his will. She was, apparently, his best worker. Also, the fact that she was a good-looking young woman would help attract more male customers, presumably.

There was only one problem with this assumption, a widely known one that would keep men from trying to flirt with or even attract Hannah Abbott to them, and this problem came up behind Hannah and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. Smiling, Hannah waved her wand and changed the sign on the entrance to bar to 'closed', before turning to face him.

"You're home early-!" She grinned and looked into those oh so familiar green eyes of his. The ones that reminded her of the new buds on the trees in spring time.

Neville smiled down at her, and shrugged. "I finished grading the sixth years' essays early. Why, do you want me to go?" Teasingly, he pouted at her, and gave her a quick little kiss, resting his forehead against hers. "I can come back later, if you want."

Hannah giggled, and hugged him tightly around the neck. "You're so silly," she planted a small kiss on his neck, "welcome home, darling."

Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott had been together since sixth year, and had been very taken with each other from the very beginning. There were some complications at the very beginning of their relationship, but other than that they had always been perfect.

Yes. Neville was the reason the assumed extra male customers had never appeared when Hannah had taken over as barkeep. Hannah was completely unattainable because of him. Not that they were married , or even engaged. And he was gone 24/5 a week, thanks to his job as Herbology professor at Hogwarts. No, it wasn't him exactly that kept others from pursuing Hannah. It was more the intense feeling of love, adoration, and commitment that seemed to surround them both at all times.

"It's good to be back home," Neville agreed, letting go of Hannah and hanging his cloak on the hook behind the counter.

Hannah smiled, and leaned her back against the counter of the bar. "Anything interesting happening at Hogwarts this week?"

This was a bit of a running joke between them, as they both know nothing happening at Hogwarts now could possibly be as 'interesting' as the occurrences that had happened during their seven years attending.

Neville smiled, and turned back to Hannah. "Well, there is one thing. But I don't think you'll like it very much, considering how jealous you get."

Hannah glared at Neville, getting her arms around his waist and holding him tightly against herself. "What is it..?"

"Remember how all of the girls had a thing for professor Lupin back when he was teaching DADA in third year?"

Hannah paused, remembering. She'd been crushing on Lupin pretty hard as well.. Thinking about her former DADA teacher was getting her started thinking on everyone she'd lost, and she shook the thoughts from her head before they could ruin her good mood. "Yes.. I remember. What does that have to do with- Oh no." She raised her eyebrows at Neville. "You're kidding?"

Laughing, Neville shook his head and kissed her on the forehead before resting his chin on the top or her head. "Not in the least. I guess you could say that I'm the next Lupin."

Groaning, Hannah buried her face in Neville's chest and snuggled into him, smelling that familiar soap and soil smell that had always belonged to Neville. "You've got the school's female population crushing on you.. Oh lord." She tilted her face upwards and kissed his throat quickly. "Please don't run off with some pretty little seventh year, and forget about me."

"Why would I do that, Banana?" Smiling, Neville lifted Hannah into his arms, and Hannah's arms immediately shot up and around his neck to hold herself up. She'd long gotten used to him lifting her, though at the beginning of their little romance she'd been terrified of it.

"Well, you know, I'm not as young as I used to be," Hannah said, grinning "I wouldn't blame you for wanting someone a bit younger."

"Hannah, you're twenty two. If you call yourself old again, I think we're going to have to go and visit Gran."

"Oh no. Please, not that. The last time we did it was so awkward-! She kept pestering me about grandchildren!" Blushing, Hannah thought back to the other week, when she'd had to listen to Augusta prattle on about how she was getting old, and wanted some grandchildren. She'd tried to explain that she wanted children as much as Augusta had wanted grandchildren, but hadn't been able to get more than two words in.

If it had been left up to Hannah, she would be pregnant by now. But there were some complications with that, the main thing being that she couldn't conceive a child. Her and Neville had found out just last year that she wasn't fertile enough to procreate, and she had been on a series of fertility potions ever since. They had been trying.

Thinking about it did exactly what Hannah wanted to avoid earlier; Brought down her good mood. She felt a stinging in her eyes and knew what would come next before the tears even started flowing.

"Oh, oh love.." Frowning, Neville pulled his sleeve over the palm of his hand and wiped her tears. "Don't cry, Hannah.. Please don't cry."

"I can't help it-! I-I'm sorry.." Sobbing, she rested her head on Neville's shoulder.

"Love.. It's really alright. You don't need to dwell on this anymore.. We both just have to accept the fact that it isn't going to happen. And that's alright." He held her at arms length away from him. "All I need is you, darling. It would have been wonderful to have a littlun, but I don't need a child to be happy."

Hannah's voice cracked. She'd wanted a child so badly, even when they were both far too young for it. She loved Neville, but it was going to be so hard for to let go of that particular dream. Having a family with Neville, four beautiful children. Two of them blonde haired and green eyed, one dark haired and blue eyed, and one dark haired and green eyed. She'd wanted them so badly, she'd imagined them all so perfectly- She even had names picked out for them all.

She couldn't tell Neville how much more this meant to her than he thought, because she knew he would never forgive himself for not being able to have children with her. Even though it wasn't his fault at all. So instead, she just stood there and cried into his shoulder, until she didn't have anything left to cry.

Neville was good about it. He held her tightly and let her cry, rubbing her back soothingly and stroking her hair. "I love you, Hannah... Please stop crying."

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Hannah tried and succeeded in stopping her sobs. "I love you, too, Neville..."

"Listen," Neville took her shin and tilted it upwards, forcing her to look into his big, deep, green eyes. "We may not be able to have our own children, but that does not mean in any way that we can't raise and love a child. We can adopt, Hannah. I see no problem with that."

Lowering her gaze to his chest, Hannah thought about it. Adoption would be alright, but only if they adopted the child very young. One year, at the oldest. And she would not be able to give up the vision of the dark haired, blue-eyed little boy she'd wanted so badly, so the child would have to have those features as well..

Hannah sighed, shaking her head. "No, Neville.. But thank you for suggesting it."

"No? But Hannah, why ever not?"

Hannah looked back up at him, then away again. She blushed deeply. "I only want a child if it's yours. If I conceive it with you, and then give birth to it."

Burying her face in his hair, she whispered. "It's not a child I want. It's your child... So if I can't have that, I'll just have to live with it."

There was a long pause, but Neville nodded eventually. "Yeah.. Yeah, me too."

For a long while, they just stood there and held each other, a silent agreement being made between them. There would be no children for them, no family.. But they would always have each other.