Title: I'm Ready

Characters: Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.

Pairing: Hermione/ Neville, mention of Harry/ Draco

Word Count: 2, 092

Prompts: [Pairing] Hermione/ Neville. [Dialogue] "Angry people are not always wise". [Word] Bride. [Plot point] Marriage. [Era] Trio.

AN: Written for The Insane House Challenge, the 365 Prompts Challenge and February Event – Library Lovers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments).

If I remember correctly, JK Rowling said that Hermione's parents got their memories back after the war but I decided to go against that.

The Sorting Hat rarely made mistakes; it didn't make any mistakes what so ever if the hat was allowed to say for itself. But that didn't stop people from wondering how it had gotten to certain decisions. Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom were two examples of people whom the other students wondered about. No one wondered why Gryffindor had been the house for Harry Potter. There was no doubt that he was brave. Hermione and Neville both had traits which made them suitable for other houses; she could have as easily belonged in Ravenclaw because of her intelligence and he in Hufflepuff. Maybe that was the reason that they so easily found each other; both of them felt that they were being questioned by the rest of the students but never by each other. Hermione could still remember the first day that the two properly spoke to each other.

It was the day after everything had happened with Quirrell; Harry was still at the hospital wing and Ron were back in his dorm resting. Hermione had gone to the library and read the paragraph about Nicholas Flamel with a heavy heart. The book said that he was alive but Hermione knew that he wouldn't be for very long and, even though she had nothing to do with it, she couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty.

"Hey Hermione," she looked up from the book and felt her cheeks go red as all the blood rushed there. Neville didn't look as if he had been paralysed only hours before but then again, if Hermione remembered correctly, there weren't supposed to be any negative effects. "What are you doing?"

His blond hair laid flat on his slightly too big head and his eyes stuck out in an awkward way. Hermione only noticed it because her own teeth didn't seem to want to grow straight either. He was a chubby boy and the insecurity seemed to radiate from him in a way which made it impossible to miss. Hermione pushed her curly brown hair behind her ear and lifted the book ever so slightly. Neville nodded and pointed towards the chair on the other side of the table where sat down only after she nodded yes.

"Is it a good book?"

Hermione nodded her head again. A part of her wanted to ask Neville if he had read it but then she remembered that she had paralysed him and kept the question inside of her instead. The twelve-year-old girl took a deep breath as she tried to find the words. It wasn't hard, not really, because all she had to say was that she was sorry. But for some reason, those words didn't seem enough. You tell people that you're sorry when you've accidently walked into someone or when you've by mistake taken something of theirs. But it didn't feel like the right thing to say when you were trying to say that you regretted paralysing someone.

"Are you okay?" she asked eventually and Neville nodded. "I'm really sorry about paralysing you. But we really needed to get to Fluffy and stop Snape… Well, stop Quirrell."

"It's okay, Hermione, I get it," Neville said once she looked down on the table with a frown on her face and began correcting herself. "You needed to stop him from stealing the stone. I'm not going to say that I would have done the same thing because I'm not as brave as you are but you did the right thing."

Hermione laughed. "You're braver than you think."

"Thanks Hermione," his cheeks quickly turned into a shade of red and he fidgeted with his fingers which laid on the table. "Who's Fluffy?"

But that was years ago. Hermione had been twelve at the time and Neville had been eleven. They were now nineteen and eighteen and that meant that a lot of things had changed. A lot of things had developed. A knock on the door made the young woman turn around and she told whoever was on the outside to come in; a young man with messy black hair, green eyes which he had been told numerous of times reminded people of his mother and round glasses which did bad job at hiding the lightning shaped scar walked in through the door.

"You look lovely," he said and gestured towards her white dress. "How are you feeling?"

Her curly, brown hair still had a mind of its own even if it wasn't as bad as when she was a child. Somehow, with plenty of product, she had managed to make it more manageable and it laid perfectly over her shoulders. Harry had seen the dress plenty of times and Hermione couldn't have come up with someone better to go buy it with her. Neither of them really knew what they were doing but it had been a good day never the less and she had walked out with the right dress; she barely thought about the fact that her mother was meant to be doing that with her. Hermione released a deep breath and she began fidgeting with the engagement ring which glistened as the light hit it. Soon she would be wearing two rings.

"I'm fine, at least I think so," she turned around and looked at herself in the mirror again. "I'm nervous."

Harry laughed and Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking what he thought was so funny. "I'm sorry love, I just find it funny that this makes you nervous, being a bride, considering everything that we've gone through."

Hermione put her hands on her hips and turned around. Harry, even if he didn't think so himself, had a good fashion sense. He didn't get a chance to think about clothes and what suited him when he was younger nor during the war but afterwards, when he had the money to buy clothes for himself and when he weren't on the run anymore, it was as if an entire different world had opened up to him.

"The fact that I've been through dangerous things doesn't mean that I can't be nervous about getting married," she shook her head and reached for the glass of champagne which stood on the table next to the mirror. "Besides, at least I didn't procrastinate investigating my own sexuality for several years."

Harry rolled his eyes as if saying really. "I was getting killed almost every year from the time that I was eleven. I didn't exactly have time to sit down and dig deeply into whether or not I was bisexual."

"Yeah, yeah… you keep telling yourself that love," Hermione ignored that Harry rolled his eyes, took a clean glass, filled it with champagne and then she offered it to him. "Speaking of that, how is Draco?"

There were plenty of glasses on the table already but most of them had been used by either Ginny, Fleur and Luna. But they had all gone into different rooms and were getting ready. Hermione had reminded them time and time again as they helped her with her make-up, her hair and her dress. But they had all, in various ways told her that she deserved to be pampered and that they would have plenty of time to get ready themselves. Although Hermione had mumbled and said that they better be ready, she had to admit to herself, if no one else, that she loved the attention. As a child, she had never enjoyed it but had from the age of eleven often found herself getting more than enough for the entirely wrong reasons according to herself. This was the first time when she felt that she wanted the attention and that she was given it for all the right reasons. Harry took one of the free chairs, placed one leg on either side of it and rested his arms against the back. He could barely hide the smile on his face as he tried to appear nonchalant while answering.

"He's good, yeah he's fine. We're fine."

"So, you're fine," Hermione put the empty glass on the table. She could feel her hands shaking but she did nothing to hide it. What point was there to try and hide something from the person who knew her better than anyone? Well, almost anyone. "I must admit that I never in my wildest dream ever thought I would see the two of you getting along much less willingly being in a romantic relationship."

"So, you thought that you were more likely to marry Neville than I was to fall in love with Draco?" seconds later Harry nodded and waved his hand as if trying to get the sentence away from the room. "Never mind, that makes sense. I mean, if you ever asked me who I thought you would fall for then I wouldn't have guessed Neville but at least you two didn't hate each other's guts."

Hermione nodded. She wouldn't have guessed that she would have fallen for Neville either. She wasn't even sure that they would stay friends after that day at the library but somehow, they had; at first, they met at the library where Hermione helped him study, realising that he was much more intelligent than he could show, and then they started having meals together. That's when she got to see him spend time with people he was comfortable with and she saw a whole side of him which he could never reveal otherwise. And all while they learned things about each other which few people knew, they grew up. At the age of sixteen, Neville had lost weight and were taller than before. His blond hair was messier than before and his teeth no longer stuck out in various directions. Hermione's brown hair wasn't entirely out of control anymore and she had gone from an awkward child into a beautiful young woman. Hermione didn't know how long he had been feeling about her the way she had about him when they first kissed. She didn't even know that it was going to happen until it did. She hadn't planned anything.

"Well, you and Draco were both angry people at the time for different but valid reasons," she said as her eyes became glossy and she began losing herself in her memories. "Angry people are not always wise."

"You shouldn't let Malfoy push you around like that," she insisted as they sat next to each other on the couch. They were the only one left in the common room and the burning fire was the only source of light. "And you should never ever listen to him. Whatever he told you, he is wrong. You are amazing."

Neville smiled and nodded. His cheeks turned slightly redder but due to the lack of light, Hermione couldn't tell exactly how red. "You're amazing too, Hermione."

This time, she was the one who blushed and ducked to avoid his gaze. Neville didn't look at her with intensity but with a kindness which felt more intimate than any type of intensity. There was a kindness and a vulnerability in them which made her feel special. It didn't matter if they were alone or if they were in a room full of people. When Neville looked at her, everyone else disappeared and they were the only two people left.

"Can I kiss you?" Neville looked as if his eyes were going to pop out of his head when she asked but that didn't stop him from nodding his head. Hermione felt a ridiculous happiness inside of her as she hesitantly leaned forward, wishing that she had thought this through, and then felt their lips collide.

That first kiss hadn't been their best kiss. But then again, Hermione thought, first kisses weren't special because they were remarkable. First kisses were amazing because of what they represented, they meant something because that small act represented such a huge change in the relationship between two people.

"Hermione," when the young woman opened her eyes, she noticed that the door had been opened and a blond man who she had once called her enemy looked inside looking uncharacteristically unsecure. "Are you ready?"

So much had changed over the last few years. People had turned out to be different than what she believed and she could honestly say that a lot of those changes had scared her. Hermione hadn't been ready for half of those changes. But this was different. Hermione nodded. She had never been more secure about anything in her entire life. "I'm ready."

The end