Chapter 5: Happily Ever After

Hermione and Neville stood outside her parents' home in Hampstead, their arms wound about each other. After languorously kissing each other goodbye for several minutes, the newly intimate couple gazed down at the mangy old boot held between them – a Portkey that was going to transport Hermione all the way to Australia.

"I want to go with you!" Neville pleaded.

Hermione just let out a throaty chuckle and cupped her lover's cheek. "Nev…." she murmured softly. "It's going to be hard enough for me to lift the memory curse and have to explain to my parents what I did or why they can't remember a year of their lives. It wouldn't be fair to them for me to spring the fact that I have a new boyfriend on them."

Neville grinned as winningly as he could. "I'd help them understand…."

"And I appreciate and love you for that. But…. I feel like this is something I have to do on my own." Smiling, Hermione played with the nape of his neck. "Besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say."

"Except didn't we already do that?" Neville pointed out. "All of last term?"

Hermione smirked. "We weren't together then, love," she pointed out, ever technical. Swaying onto her tiptoes, she grazed her lips along his. "…. I love you. Please know that."

Neville nodded and dove in to kiss her again, feeling his girlfriend giggle into his mouth.

Harry glanced at his watch. "Nearly time, old girl….."

Neville graciously stepped back to join Harry and Luna.

Hermione grinned weakly. "Wish me luck!" She clutched at the mangy old boot, waiting expectantly. At last, the Portkey began to glow blue.

Neville suddenly dashed forward, took Hermione in his arms and snogged her hard, breathless. Hermione's brown eyes popped and she squeaked in surprise, nudging against his strong chest, but then Neville was greedily fisting her smart bum in his large hands and with a gasp, Hermione let him hike her leg up in one fluid motion to curl about his waist.

The kiss deepened, and with a moan, Hermione relented. Her eyes fluttered closed and as the pair of Gryffindor heroes embraced and kissed, the glowing Portkey spun the couple faster and faster until they disappeared into thin air.

Harry glanced to his lover, who was smiling almost knowingly.

"I knew Neville wouldn't let her go off on her own…." Luna began to glide serenely back towards the house. She turned back once, almost as an afterthought. "Coming, love?"

Harry swallowed hard and nodded.

Within seconds, they were upstairs in the master bedroom and snogging heatedly. Frantically undressing each other, Harry rolled Luna onto all fours and lifted her bum to the sky, prompting her to spread her legs for him. Rubbing his stiff erection against her buttocks, Harry mounted his lover and mated with her the same way he had seen Neville mate with Hermione.

Harry and Luna humped each other frantically, the unflappable Ravenclaw witch's cries actually growing louder and more and more pitched, the faster they fucked.

"You….. wench…" Harry growled, seizing a lock of her blonde hair and lifting Luna's head as he took her fiercely. "You mad….. beautiful…. woman….."

"Yessss… yes….. Oh, yes, Harry, this is wonderful!" Luna bubbled, canting into him eagerly. The bed squeaked in protest beneath them, and the headboard thumped against the wall. Now that they were alone in the house together and would be for some time, they could be as loud as they wanted. Cupping her cheek, Harry brought Luna's face to his and he kissed her bruisingly, continuing to thrust into her arse. He was pumping his hips in weak little bursts now, until at last, with a shudder, he came inside her.

Sagging on top of Luna, Harry finally pulled out and rolled his lover onto her back. Her porcelain cheeks were flush and her silvery eyes had darkened considerably.

"Huh. So that's how Blast-Ended Skrewts shag…."

Harry laughed and descended his lips down onto hers. Grinning into his mouth, Luna wove her fingers into Harry's dark hair.

They made love once more.

The summer passed all too quickly, and on next September 1st, the pair of lovers that made up the Quartz Quartet were on Platform 9 and 3/4s, ready for the off.

While away retrieving her parents in Australia, Hermione and Neville had discussed remediating their respective seventh years, and both come to an agreement that they would inquire with Professor McGonagall. Not only did the Interim Headmistress and their Head of House say Yes, she added an extra incentive: Neville and Hermione were made Head Boy and Head Girl of Gryffindor, respectively.

Watching his best mate and her new lover from where he hid in the shadows of this stone stantion, Harry marveled at how Hermione and Neville had already achieved the intimacy of couples who could speak with very little to almost no words. The Gryffindor partners were huddled together, speaking in low tones of how they would command the Prefects once they were both on the train.

Feeling a silky palm brush his cheek, Harry let Luna turn his face away and pull him back into another long, slow kiss. The hero and the Ravenclaw odd duck embraced and snogged tenderly for several minutes. When they broke apart, Luna's eyes were the saddest Harry had ever seen them.

"You don't have to do this…." she pleaded, searching Harry's eyes. "You could get on the train right now, and McGonagall could draw up a class schedule! You know she would! I'd vouch for you!"

Harry grinned sadly and pecked her on the lips again. "It's not for me, love. But I'll come and visit. And I promise I'll write."

"You'd better," Luna grinned broadly. She looped her arms about his neck. "Now: deep breath – and…." They sank into another long kiss.

When they broke apart again for air, Harry was dazed.

"Luna….?"

"Y-yes…..?"

"…. Will you marry me…..?"

She looked at him, the pensive expression on her face leaving Harry unable to tell if she was shocked by his impulsive proposal.

Before Luna could answer, the clock struck 11.

Harry and Luna broke apart. "Get on, love."

Luna scampered over to where Neville and Hermione were waving her over, and the three friends boarded the train. Harry walked along the window of their compartment, waving farewell.

"Bye, Lu! I love you!"

Luna yelled something back, but over the blast of the train whistle, Harry couldn't hear her.

From the way her very-kissed lips moved, though, Harry thought Luna might have said Yes.

The following summer, two couples stood before each other in the sight of family, friends and a minister, on the country slopes of Devonshire, in the shadow of the Rook, Luna's childhood home. In the near distance, the remains of the homestead that had once belonged to the slaughtered family of purebloods, the Weasleys, dotted the landscape.

Following her arrival back at school, Luna had written Harry several weeks later. Having considered his proposal of marriage, she said Yes, on the condition that they wait to hold the wedding until after she had finished school. In their duties as Head Boy and Head Girl, Neville and Hermione worked well together, growing ever closer in their new intimacy as romantic partners. At graduation in May, Neville, in hthe speech of his life, had asked Hermione to marry him. Surprised, Hermione had declared her lover quite mad. Then she tearfully had thrown her arms around him, kissed him senseless, and happily accepted.

Having paired off, the group of friends had decided that nothing would make them happier than to get married together, in a double wedding.

Interim Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt, having blessed the unions, smiled between the two couples. "I now pronounce these couples husband and wife. You may kiss."

Taking Neville's hand, Hermione smiled broadly and laughing, looped her arms about her…. husband's neck. Neville softly pulled her close and kissed her deeply, feeling his bride's lips open under his, like flower petals bursting into full bloom.

As for Harry and Luna, it was the new Mrs. Potter who took the initiative, pulling her husband flush into her by his lapels and snogging him senseless. When they briefly broke apart, Luna just shrugged.

"It was the Nargles."

Harry chortled. "Bother those Nargles!" And he swept his bride into a dip and kissed her back.

Later, no one could be sure who cast it, but sparkles of magic now swirled about both kissing pairs of newlyweds, picking up a gust of wind that caused Hermione's bridal skirts to billow and she clutched Neville closer in surprise, deepening their marriage embrace.

And as Harry and Luna Potter, and Neville and Hermione Longbottom embraced and kissed, fireworks whizzed and exploded with a magical shriek into the evening sky above the hills of Devonshire.

Departing their joint reception later, it was customary for the bride and groom to mount a broomstick and fly off together, to symbolize the embarking upon their union. The newlywed Longbottoms were, needless to say, quite nervous, to partake in this sacred tradition. Though Hermione had told herself that the only way she would ever be persuaded to mount a broomstick was when she was legally wed. And seeing as she was now a married woman….

"I'll drive…." she promised Neville softly. Neville seemed only too happy to let his wife take the lead; he had never been back on a broomstick since his infamous wipeout on the Quidditch pitch their first year.

Harry, in contrast, sat astride his broomstick expertly, tugging Luna on behind him. His wife wrapped her arms tightly around his middle and kissed him on the cheek before Harry kicked the ground and they lifted off. Over the wind rushing past his ears, he could hear Hermione let out a startled shriek, even as she followed him in taking to the skies.

The two pairs of newlyweds sped towards their joint honeymoon and the sunset. Cupping his cheek, Luna turned her husband's face back to hers and kissed him soundly on the mouth. The last thing Harry saw before he closed his eyes was the sight of Neville and Hermione similarly embracing, savoring their wedding kiss.

The Just-Married brides and grooms flew onward, towards the rest of their lives, disappearing into the purpling evening sky.