May 2005
Madame Rosmerta glanced up from behind the bar of the Three Broomsticks where she was topping off a few pints of ale. She smiled to herself as she spotted familiar faces strolling in. Then again, having worked in the pub for the past twenty five years, she had come to recognize almost everyone that came in. She was particularly fond of the majority of the party that was seating themself at a booth within her line of sight. One of them, however, she was still a little leary around. She had had good reason to not trust Draco Malfoy after he had used the imperius curse on her nearly a decade ago. But her trust in Harry Potter had lead her to be at least a little forgiving of the slim, pale man. If the Chosen One himself could grow to love him, surely he wasn't as bad as she had assumed? She whisked the pints in front of her to the wizards lined up along the bar before heading over to the booth of four.
"Evening gents, what can I bring ya?" She offered kindly, looking down at the men. In her mind she still thought of them and saw them as the school boys who had spent a good chunk of their school years in her establishment.
"Four butterbeers to start, Rosie," Ron replied genially.
"Coming your way then, you boys just holler if you need anything else," She offered before heading back to her station behind the bar.
As she walked away Harry felt the need to murmur, "Careful Ron, don't want to go making 'Mione jealous that you still fancy Madame Rosmerta."
"Oh, shut up. I don't fancy her anymore. I'm not a specky pubescent git anymore, alright? I just like her in a friendly way," Ron insisted irritably.
"If you say so," Neville added with an amused smile, "So aside from potentially still making her jealous over 'Rosie', how are things with you and Hermione?"
Ron rubbed a hand over his stubbly jaw and half smiled, "Well, pretty good. As good as ever anyway. That's actually part of the reason I wanted to talk with you lot tonight."
The three men all sat up straight, at attention. They leaned forward, elbows on the table, dying to know what Ron was about to say. Just as Harry was about to demand that Ron spit it out, they were forced to lean back as the butterbeers floated down onto their table.
"Ron, out with it. We know you've got something to say, so spit it out already," Harry demanded impatiently after they had all grabbed their glasses.
Ron smiled and murmured, "I'm planning on proposing to Hermione."
Instantaneously, the men cheered their congratulations, their encouragement and pride barely distinguishable as they talked over one another and clinked their glasses together.
"When are you going to pop the question?" Draco asked.
"No clue."
"Well how are you going to do it?" Neville replied
"No idea."
The men deflated significantly. Neville and Harry shook their heads.
Draco, on the other hand, appeared sympathetic, "I'm guessing you were hoping to get some help in deciding when and how to propose?"
Ron's cheeks reddened as he nodded, "How did you figure out how to ask Harry?"
"Yeah, how did you?" Harry asked, turning to his now husband with a little smile.
Draco glanced at Harry with an affectionate smile before explaining his thought process to his friends, "Well, I knew it had to be at the Forest of Dean. Harry always went there when he needed to clear his head or be at peace. So that part was easy. When was a little tricky. We don't really have many significant dates for us, aside from the day he showed up at my door. But I didn't want to propose then, since that wasn't just the start of us but the end of something that had been very important to him. I wanted to have it be a date entirely independent from our history together. So, I opted to be all deep and metaphorical and proposed on the summer solstice at sunset, to show how we would see each other through the dark and the light."
Neville laughed, "You're such a hopeless cheeseball."
"I know, I know," Draco admitted unabashedly.
"He forgot to mention that he made the ring himself out of a violet," Harry added.
"Not a lily?" Neville teased, "Sadly lacking in the sentimentality there, Draco."
"There weren't any lilies growing in the forest, okay?" Draco rolled his eyes.
"It's lovely no matter what it was before. You could have transfigured a silly little stone and I still would have loved it," Harry murmured as he leaned over and kissed Draco's cheek.
Neville and Ron both rolled their eyes good naturedly, pretending to be bothered by their displays of affection.
"Okay," Ron interrupted the two husbands, "So how do I go about being sentimental with Hermione. Women love that kind of stuff, but I don't know the first thing about being that romantic. I just can't think of anything that would be significant to us."
"Certainly can't do the day you two finally got together," Harry quipped, "It would be a bit depressing to get engaged on the anniversary of the war."
"Right," Ron agreed, "Leaving me clueless about the when. Any thoughts on the how?"
"Well, perhaps not how, but where. Maybe you could sneak into Hogwarts and propose in the Room of Requirement? Not only did you first kiss there, but Dumbledore's Army met there," Neville suggested. "I'm sure I could help you get in."
Ron frowned slightly, "As sweet as that is, I don't really fancy going back to Hogwarts just to propose to Hermione. I know that's where it all began, but it doesn't seem right."
"Could always propose in the library," Harry smirked before finishing off his first pint.
They all rolled their eyes at this and booed at the comment for being too predictable and rude. It was Draco's turn to think of a location, "Shrieking Shack perhaps? I remember when you two were half flirting with each other there in third year."
"You mean when you told me that it was my dream home because my family slept in one room?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.
Draco flushed slightly, "Um, yeah."
Ron gave him a solid glare for a moment before smiling slowly, "I'm just giving you shit. It's not a half bad idea, better than the Room of Requirement anyway." Neville rolled his eyes at this, "But I still don't think it sounds quite right."
"What about here in Hogsmeade? It's a pretty enough place. It doesn't need to be somewhere significant to the two of you," Harry suggested.
Ron shrugged, "If I can find a place of significance though, I would rather do it there." He paused as he mulled it over momentarily whilst taking a swig of butterbeer, "Maybe that river, the one where I taught her how to skip rocks when we were on the run."
"Right before you turned yourself into a huge prat and ran off?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but still that's a happy memory," Ron pointed out, "I think I could make it sentimental enough for her."
"I mean, romance isn't exactly your forte, but you could pull it off," Neville encouraged.
Ron rolled his eyes, "No need to be a dick about it. What about you and Hannah? You've been together ages too, when are you going to get hitched?"
Neville shrugged, "When we have the time. Frankly, I'm so busy with teaching and she's been studying like crazy the past few months to get certified as a healer. Poppy has been talking about retiring and Hannah's eager to take her place. She's been bored with just working menial jobs. She's been needing to find her calling. I think healing just might be it."
"She's got a knack for remembering the herbs and potions. She'll be able to pass that test without issue, I can practically guarantee it," Draco said with resolve. He had been helping her study the work for a few months. She was geared up to take the exam to get her license in a month. Draco truly believed in Hannah's abilities. "So once things have settled down a little, you two might just settle down yourself?"
"That's the idea. Not like there's any need to rush into things, y'know? How are you two doing with married life by the way?" Neville asked as their empty glasses floated away back to the bar and a second round of butterbeers replaced them.
Harry held Draco's hand on the table and smiled fondly at him, "Not too shabby."
"Well, everything with you has been wonderful," Draco said honestly before turning from his husband to their friends, "But we've been looking into starting a family and it's been rough."
"You have?" Ron asked with a shocked expression. "Why didn't you mention it sooner?"
"Well, it hasn't gone anywhere," Harry explained, "There's not exactly a lot of wizard children up for adoption, and it seems like it would be difficult if not impossible to maintain a statute of secrecy with a muggle child. Witches are rarely surrogates, and I'm not about to ask a witch we know to do it, that would be too weird. Not to mention legally complicated."
"Blimey, what are you planning on doing then?" Ron asked curiously.
"We put our name in at the European Wizarding Adoption Agency, but they warned it could be up to a decade before we have a baby. There's plenty of names on their list and not enough children coming through. Dean and Seamus are on the list as well," Draco said.
"I'm sorry it's so difficult," Neville said apologetically, seeing the irritation on both of their faces. "Couldn't you use a muggle surrogate?"
"I mean, we always fancied at least two kids. So maybe the second one we can go with a muggle surrogate, but we'd rather be sure of the first being magical if we can. But it's looking less and less likely that that will happen," Harry said as Draco squeezed his hand.
"Well," Ron said holding up his full pint of butterbeer, "To lady luck: may she smile on our path as we try to start our families, eh?"
"I'll drink to that," Neville said eagerly as they clinked their glasses together.