Thanks for all the hits and reviews? Always appreciated! I just figured. . .whoa, JK, 19 years is a loooong time for an epilogue, so let's see where these characters are right now! I can tell you right now that I'm not going all the way to 19 years. I figure I'll stop either with a wedding or a kid. Or maybe just after a year. Only time will tell! Let me know if there's a particular character you'd like a vignette on, though I'm sure you can see that there is a bit of an advancing plot going on.

Poor Neville. He really got shafted in this last book, didn't he?

Grams was proud of him. It was unbelievable. He'd never thought the day would come when his Grams was proud of him. She was downstairs at that very moment, cooking him dinner.

He'd passed the NEWTS, too. Well, some of them anyway. Unbelievable as well, as much because he'd been living through that horrible time and unable to study as because it was difficult.

He stared at his face in the mirror. Somedays he didn't even recognize himself when he looked. His face was leaner now, scarred in places, though at least the bruises had finally faded. But it was mostly his eyes, he thought. They weren't bewildered anymore—there was a confidence that he was fairly certain had never been there before.

But, as his Gran called him and he turned to face her, his elbow his the Rememball which fell and rolled across the floor. As he looked at it, he promptly hit the corner of the desk and careened into the door.

Well, maybe he was confident, but he was definitely still clumsy.

"NEVILLE!" Gran yelled again. "There's a young lady waiting to see you and you really shouldn't be keeping her waiting!"

"Coming!" Neville responded as he limped out of his room. He couldn't imagine who would come to see him. At the feast plenty of girls had wanted to talk to him, but he didn't think any of them knew where he lived.

"—hat. It reminds me of the Lundelows. Have you ever seen a Lundelow?"

Without even seeing the holder of the voice, Neville's face split into a broad grin. He picked up his pace a bit, skidded around the corner. Gran would frown at him for scuffing up the floor, but he could live with that.

"Luna!" he said, arms spread wide. The blonde girl smiled back at him, or rather, at a blank spot slightly above his head.

"Hullo, Neville!" she said brightly. "I was just telling your aunt about how her hat reminds me of the Lundelows. Actually, of a Lundelow nest, because Lundelows, of course, look more like—"

"Look, Luna," Neville said, laughing gently. "Why don't I—er—give you a tour of the place?" He could see the steam beginning to come out of Gran's ears, and he knew where that could lead to.

"Sure," Luna agreed. She smiled up at him as she came to stand next to him.

Neville wasn'tquite sure what to show her. They didn't exactly live in a mansion. But he took her to the garden out back. He thought she might like to see that, with all of the bright colored flowers and the butterflies.

"So, Neville, what will you be doing now?"

"Now that the war is over?" he asked.

"No."

"Now that we've finished school?"

"No."

"Well, I don't know," Neville said, confused not only by what she was talking about, but also was he was going to do. "What about you?" he asked, desperate for some kind of a clue.

"Oh, I suppose that I'll work for the Ministry. They need to set up a new line of Aurors," Luna said. "Mr. Kingsley said that he particularly liked my patronus."

"You're going to be an Auror?" Neville asked, unable to believe that dreamy Luna was going to make a living hunting down dark wizards. She giggled a little, that light, happy sound of hummingbirds.

"Of course not!" she said. "I'm going to train them."

"Oh," Neville nodded his head. He sat down on a stone bench in the middle of the garden. Luna Lovegood, training Aurors. And Neville Longbottom. . .Neville Longbottom,what? According to the Daily Prophet it was Neville Longbottom, hero of the Wizarding World, defeater of Nagini, and leader of the Hogwarts Rebellion. But that wasn't true, and he knew it, and so did most of the students. It was Ginny Weasley who had started the rebellion and he'd joined because, well, not much of a secret was it, anyway, he fancied her.

And as for Nagini, well, he hadn't meant to do that, either. It was just that Harry was lying there, and Ginny was crying. . .he couldn't stand there and watch her cry, he just couldn't do it. So he'd stepped forward, and while he was out there

But now what was he going to do. Luna knew where she was headed, Luna Lovegood knew what she was doing, and he hadn't the slightest idea.

"Oh, look!" Luna said suddenly, pointing up to a dark speck in the sky. "A Windermole!"

But when Neville followed the line of her finger, all that he could see was an owl. A very big owl, granted, but still just an owl. He let out the worried sigh he'd just realized he was holding. Of course. It had only been a week, and already he'd found that he'd need to readjust to being around Luna.

The owl, unfortunately, did not have the time to readjust to Luna, and hooted curiously at the waving girl as it dropped a letter into Neville's waiting hand. It actually paused for a moment, mid-flight, to stare at the girl, as if unable to accept that a young witch would actually wave at an owl.

While Luna was otherwise occupied, Neville turned the letter over in his hands, wondering who would have sent it. There was no writing on the outside, just his name, no clue to who could have sent it.

Trembling, he ripped it open, more excited and nervous than he could remember being. The letter drifted free of the envelope and slowly floated to the ground. He tracked its progress, and blinked when a thin white hand snatched it out of the air before it reached the ground.

"Dear Mr. Longbottom," Luna read. She smiled, not seeming to realize that the letter wasn't directed to her, no matter the salutation. "As an exceptionally promising member of our growing body of alumni, I am writing to inform you of a vacancy that has recently arisen among the staff at Hogwarts. Our current professor, the much esteemed Batinah Sprout, is looking to retire in five years, and would like to begin immediately phasing out her course load, beginning with the incoming first years, so that in five years her successor will be capable of teaching all classes and will prove as knowledgeable in the subject matter as herself.

This, and the subsequent rise of myself, Professor Minevra McGonagall, has created a dramatic need or a new Herbology Professor, as well as a new Head of Gryffindor. Due to your previous demonstrations of academic excellence and the courage you have shown in the face of recent trials, I would like to extend to you the privileged opportunity to interview for this post.

I dearly hope that you will consider us as you look toward a future career.

Most Sincerely,

Minerva M. McGonagall

P.S. Neville, dear, don't let Luna leave without giving you the small package that she is holding within her purse."

Luna frowned, and delicately folded the letter up. Neville was still blinking in shock. She turned to him, still frowning. "Neville," she said slowly. "I do believe that this letter might have been directed to you, and not to me." She handed him the letter.

Neville grasped it, still unable to believe. Him? A professor at Hogwarts? And head of Gryffindor? Him? Neville Longbottom?

He couldn't do that, not possibly. Not be a professor, not even of Herbology, always his best subject. And yet. . .and yet Hogwarts had always been the one place that he felt at home, where he was able to shine. Even in the last year, with the war and the running, with the Carrows dogging him at every step and Snape turning a blind eye (he still couldn't accept that the git had been doing good, no matter what Harry said).

"Will you do it?" Luna asked. Neville swallowed. He was nodding, and he hadn't even realized it. The frown left Luna's face, and she quickly engulfed him in a large hug. "That's lovely!" she exclaimed. "We'll both be teachers!"

When she let him go, Neville let out a long sigh. The blonde hair was different than the red hair he'd always hoped to embrace. The arms were a bit thinner. But that lavender scent had an allure all of its own. . .

"Well, I'd best be getting home," Luna said chipperly. "I told Father I was picking blackberries, and he'll wonder where I've gotten off to. He's been dreadfully protective ever since Voldemort captured me."

Neville was about to let her walk away when he remembered what McGonagall's letter had said. He reached out and grasped her upper arm.

"Luna, wait!" he said, but when she turned o face him he found his tongue stuck in his mouth, unable to form the words. "Do you—erm—that is—d'you reckon you might. . ."

"Oh, that's right!" Luna said brightly. Reaching into her purse (more a small suitcase than anything else, in Neville's mind) she pulled out a hastily wrapped package and handed it to him. "This is from Harry. I just saw him yesterday, at the Burrow, and mentioned I'd come here. See you later, Neville!"

And this time she did skip away. As she left, Neville noted with some distraction that she was wearing two different pairs of socks.

He opened the package slowly, not exactly sure what he would find. A note covered whatever was inside the package.

Hi, Neville,

I hear you might be teaching at Hogwarts next year. Smashing! It looks like Ron, Hermione and I will be back there, too. . .but taking classes! We never did take our NEWTS or anything. . .Hermione's positively green over it, and I reckon Ron's not too pleased.

Anyway, I have this tiny favor to ask, since you'll be a professor and all, and have more freedom than us lowly students. See, there's this wand, and it needs to go in Dumbledore's tomb. You can't speak a word to anyone, Neville. I'd come see you myself, but Mrs. Weasley won't let any of us out the door.

Thanks, Neville, knew I could count on you! See you in the fall, right, mate?

-Harry

Neville's eyes were wide as he pulled the simple wand out of the package. A wand? To be buried with Dumbledore? He had no idea what that meant. Shrugging, he placed the wand back inside, and tied the package up.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time he had to do something strange because of a friendship with Harry.