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"Nev," she repeated, stepping towards a stunned Neville, "is this an engagement ring?"

Neville opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He nodded.

"Oh," Hermione said.

There was a pause, as they looked at each other nervously.

"Is it for me?" she asked.

Neville looked at her as if she'd gone mad, before laughing.

"Of course it is," he chuckled. "Who else would it be for?"

"Were you going to propose to me?"

"Well, yes. That's normally what happens when someone buys an engagement ring for someone," he laughed.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I think my brain has decided to go on holiday. I can't get my head round this."

"I'm sorry if you think this is too fast or anything, but I talked to your Dad and he thought it'd be a good idea," Neville babbled. "It's just I really want to be with you forever, and what's the point of waiting around to propose if I know I want to marry you now? It doesn't make any sense. I never felt this way about Luna. I'm sorry! I shouldn't mention Luna at a time like this. I don't know why I did! I just-"

"Nev, it's ok," Hermione interrupted. "I don't think it's too fast. I want to be with you forever too. I'd love to marry you!"

"Really?" Neville said, relieved. "I'm just sorry the proposal wasn't as romantic as I planned. And that it wasn't even a proposal really."

"That's ok," she laughed. "Things don't really happen like they should with us, do they? Remember our first kiss?"

"I thought we agreed that that didn't count!" Neville said. "Remember our other first kiss. That was much better. In fact, don't count that as your proposal. Go to your room for ten minutes. I'm going to do this properly."

"You really don't have to, Nev," she protested.

"I want to," he insisted. "I'll call you when I'm done."

"Ok," she smiled, kissing him. " Before you do though, I just want to say sorry. You can be friends with Bernard if you want to be, and I'll make an effort with him, although I can't promise I'll ever be that close to him."

"That still means a lot," he replied, kissing her back. "Now, off you go, and no peeking! This is going to be so good, it'll make your cave picnic look rubbish!"

"I don't think so," she laughed.

"We'll see!" he teased. "Just you wait!"

...

In her room, Hermione couldn't sit still or stop giggling. Casting a muffilato charm on the room to make sure Neville didn't hear her and think she was insane, she jumped up and down on her bed, laughing and squealing. Eventually, she grew tired and flopped down on her back, still laughing to herself. If someone had told her a year ago that she was going to marry Neville Longbottom, she would've laughed. That shy, awkward boy she'd helped in potions? No way! He'd been nice enough, but nothing special. He'd changed a lot though. So had she, thinking about it. He'd probably never even thought of marrying her either. She'd been bushy-haired, bossy and looking back on it, she'd probably been quite patronising towards him. Actually, although she hoped she wasn't patronising, she was still bushy-haired and bossy. Some things hadn't changed.

"Nearly done," Neville called from the living room. "Just give me another five minutes!"

Life with him was going to be great! She was actually looking forward to it, unlike how she'd felt when she was engaged to Ron. With Ron, she'd known that when she accepted his proposal, she was going to have to spend her life cooking, cleaning and popping out babies. With Neville, she had no idea what was going to happen. It was strange that she should find that so exciting. Normally, the idea of having no plan scared her, but she knew things would work out somehow with him. They'd probably carry on working at Hogwarts, have a couple of kids, maybe get a house nearby. She wouldn't want the children living at the school. Maybe they'd even leave Hogwarts altogether. Neville could do something with plants, and she could maybe tutor or something. Perhaps she'd write a book. It had always been one of her goals to write a book and get it into Hogwarts' library, as nerdy as it sounded. Whatever they ended up doing, she knew they'd be happy.

...

Back in the living room, Neville was pacing back and forth. When he'd told Hermione he'd be ready in five minutes, he'd finished preparing the room ages ago. He just needed to work out what he was actually going to say to her. He'd already messed this up once, so he needed to make it perfect this time. The trouble was, he'd never been very good with words, as he'd proved by mentioning Luna in his first attempt at a proposal. He'd got better at it as he'd grown up; after all, he couldn't be a teacher if he couldn't find the right words to encourage or scold his pupils. Hermione was a different kettle of fish though. He knew she didn't like the really romantic stuff, like really flowery language or poems. She thought it was soppy and silly. Surely a proposal had to be a bit like that though? It was all too confusing!

He had to think of something to say quickly. Hermione would be getting restless in her room. As soon as that thought crossed his mind, a head of bushy hair peeked round the door. It looked bigger than usual actually. Had she been bouncing on her bed or something?

"Are you nearly ready?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the floor as to not ruin her surprise.

The moment he saw her, he knew what he was going to say. Even if it was a bit too soppy for her, she'd have to deal with it. He was just going to tell her exactly how he felt.

"Yeah," he replied. "You can look."

Hermione raised her head and gasped. She hadn't expected him to change the living room a lot, but it was actually nearly unrecognisable. She'd expected candles, dimmed lights, and maybe some flowers. They were all there. What she hadn't expected was the shimmering words "Hermione, I love you" hanging in mid-air, her little pensieve projecting Nev's memories of them onto the walls and the ceiling bewitched like the one in the Great Hall, so it looked like the sky. It felt like they were in a Hermione-and-Neville bubble, their own special world.

Now came the hard part. Neville cleared his throat.

"Hermione, I know you hate this sort of thing, but I thought it'd be a good way to show you how much I care about you. You understand how difficult some of these charms are! The fact that I didn't give up when your ceiling looked like parquet flooring shows how desperately I wanted this to be perfect. You deserve nothing less than perfection, because you're perfect yourself. You're patient, you're kind, you're gorgeous, you're intelligent, you're every positive quality you could ever think of. I'm so unbelievably lucky to have you, and I promise I'll try and find the words to really say how much I love you in time for our wedding, if you say yes! Hermione Granger, will you marry me?"

Hermione was crying by this point. She hadn't thought she would; it was a very Lavender thing to do, but when it came to it, she couldn't help it. She loved him so much, he loved her too, and they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. She couldn't think of anything better.

"Yes," she finally managed to choke out. "Of course I will."

Neville slipped the ring onto her finger, and held her close to him. He sighed contentedly. This was how things were going to be forever.