The hooded figure was none other than Aragorn, now king of Middle Earth. He said he had a dream to come back to the Shire and visit his old friends, and decided to follow it.  Arwen had stayed back at Gondor with the promise that she would come later. Legolas had demanded for explanation, as everyone else had earlier.  It was decided that the Valar had granted Aragorn such a vision, and it was also decided that everyone had been much affected by their journey to still expect to see ringwraiths around every bend.

  The shock of the moment was soon replaced with happiness when Merry pointed out that all the remaining fellowship was together once more.  Everyone even seemed to forget that the two youngest hobbits had slight chocolate stains on their mouths and that the roots of Legolas's hair were sopping wet.  The kitchen at Bag End was now filled with happiness as the young hobbits were swung around in the air by Aragorn, Sam put on tea and made food for everyone, and even more stories were told, once again with the youngest hobbits falling asleep in mounds at their fathers feet, and now with Poppy and Merry falling asleep in the arms of Gandalf, who had taken them when the fathers had went to help Sam carry back in the tea mugs and then been reluctant to give them back.

Months passed quicker than anyone could've expected.  Rosie had came back to Bag End with her youngest children to find a full house, and didn't mind to keep it that way seeing as who the guests were.  Sam and Rosie had convinced everyone to stay until at least Frodo's birthday (as far away as it was) except Diamond, who wanted to stay with her relatives.  Pippin tried not to let it get to him, but Frodo had caught Merry telling his younger cousin that everything would be all right more than once when the two thought they were alone.

Life carried on, and everyone was happier then they ever thought they could be.  Merry and Pippin often had to leave on jobs that came with the title of Thain or Master but they would always return to a bustling Bag End as soon as they could.  The young hobbits found themselves being showered with gifts and stories while everyone else was just happy to be together again. 

It was September before anyone had hardly even noticed it.  The crisp autumn air had the scents of pies and spices added to it as usual, and Poppy and Merry often came in from out of doors with their older brothers and some of Sam's young hobbits, leaves sticking out of each set of curls each night when they sat down to eat their supper. 

For Frodo's birthday it was planned that a special party be held, a party of magnificence similar to Bilbo's 111th party several years ago, except with just the group that had been living in Bag End for the past months as guests.  Gandalf had even conjured up some fireworks, although how he did it was a mystery to everyone.

The party night came, and the only thing that anyone was sad about was that it hadn't come sooner.  Other hobbits in Hobbiton, old friends of Bilbo and Frodo's, had ended up coming also, but no one seemed to care that their once exclusive guest list had been broadened a bit.  Everyone had ate and was drinking their third and fourth ales and munching on the last morsels of food on their plates when Frodo stood up to give his speech.  He started out by naming everyone that had shared Bag End with him for the last several months, starting with Sam and just getting ready to end with Poppy and Merry when he realized that they weren't sitting at any of the tables.  He glanced over at Gandalf and said, "Where are those two anyways?"  Before he had even finished his sentence he saw a huge burst of flame, and then two huge eagles, made in the liking of Gwaihir and Landroval no doubt, flew over the heads of the astonished hobbits, making everyone sit in awe.  After a few minutes of flight the eagles exploded into sparks of every color that came down right to the tips of the hobbit's noses and magically vanished in front of their eyes. 

The clapping from the one hundred and forty four guests was as phenomenal as it was the first time that a firework of that magnificence was set off in the party field. 

Over to the end of the party field stood two hobbits that were hardly recognizable.  Their hair was standing on end and their faces were black with soot.  Two faces turned to each other and grinned huge grins, happier than ever of their plan, thinking it was the first time one of a wizard's fireworks had been set off by hobbits.  They also thought that they were to get off scot-free, making everyone happy, especially themselves.

They were wrong however, and they knew so when a hand grasped one of each of their pointy ears and pulled their faces to look the firework's maker himself in the eye.  "Meriadoc Brandybuck and Poppy Took, I might have known." Gandalf said, smiling. The two young hobbits flinched when they heard Gandalf's words, fearing the worst of punishments, but instead found a smile.  "History does repeat itself." Gandalf said to himself before leading the two young hobbits to their fathers.  Pippin and Merry smiled happily at their little ones, pulling them onto seats by themselves and settling down to see the rest of the fireworks.

Frodo finished his speech and then sat down at the table with the rest of the hobbits with applause surrounding him.  Fatty Bolger stood up and started a toast to all the free folk (most especially hobbits) of Middle Earth, and everyone joined in that still had enough sense to hold up their pints. 

As Frodo looked at the silhouettes of his two youngest cousins, their hair sticking up straight in the air, their fathers who were keeping both their hobbits close to them on that night, Sam who had Rosie sitting close to him, their children either asleep on their laps or leaning against their parents with an amazing love, and lastly everyone else in the fellowship, all with their special traits showing and all wearing smiles.

Frodo looked to the heavens and thanked the Valar that he had been allowed to come back to the Shire.  He had thought often over the past months at night if he was ready to go back yet, but now knew that it would be a while before he could.  That night Frodo would remember forever, how happy he was to be here to experience the memories once again, to cry tears of happiness over how history repeated itself, to relish in the memories that he was going to get to be a part of, but most importantly to be home once again surrounded by his loved ones.