Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XV. Friends.

Times like this were limited between them all. In their own personal lives, they are already incredibly busy so when they did have the time off at the same time they always spent time together. They never even cared what they did on these rare days, most of the time it was them just meeting up and chatting about their crazy school years. After all, nobody had just as crazy school years as Harry James Potter, Hermione Jean Weasley (formerly Granger) and Ronald Billius Weasley. No matter what they did, they always ended up in the middle of something which mostly was never good.

They had all been through a lot together and this is probably why their friendship never fizzled out and also probably why two of them were now married to each other. Harry can't deny that it was awkward for a few weeks once Ron and Hermione first got together but then again he wasn't the right person to complain. He was after all married to Ron's little (and only) sister. There were times when they had fought a lot and didn't speak to one another but they somehow drifted back together again like nothing had ever happened between them.

They really couldn't ask to have better people to call their best friends.

Harry himself worked a lot since he was the Head Auror now in the Ministry since Kingsley Shacklebolt had retired a couple of weeks before. Hermione worked a lot as well in the Ministry but in the Department of Magical Law as opposed to where Harry worked. For eighteen months Ron had also worked alongside Harry but he eventually crumbled under the workload and left the post to work with George. The pay might not have been as good but he wasn't going to complain. Ron had been used to having almost no money so it wasn't anything new to him.

They were all happy and living their lives albeit a lot more peacefully but neither were ever going to complain about it. They had already had too many insane encounters throughout their school years and now actually relished being a bit more normal. They never would be normal though, they were all famous considering they had joined forces a lot and if they hadn't then the horcruxes wouldn't have been destroyed and therefore they would still be in the middle of a war.

The peace was nice, but there were the odd few occasions where they missed breaking rules (occasionally laws) to do something. Not much had changed between them all look-wise. Harry's hair was still midnight black and was impossible to tame and his very individual scar had never faded. Ron still had that flaming ginger hair that was a signature for the Weasley family along with his impressive height. Hermione's hair was still on the borderline of being classed as an afro but one thing had changed about her and it still made the two men chuckle slightly.

At the start of their school years, Hermione had the largest set of front teeth and she was bullied for it. She'd always been bullied since she always got amazing grades in her exams and never seemed to stop studying- but her teeth made everything worse for her. One day their biggest rival Draco Malfoy had cast a spell on Hermione that caused her teeth to grow at an alarming rate and she had to be taken into the hospital wing. Instead of asking for them to be put back to normal- she had managed to trick Madam Pomfrey into giving her a perfect smile.

They did miss school. Not the learning side of it (well, everyone but Hermione), but the whole experience. Not many kids got to say they went to a school of Wizardry and Witchcraft so they were already incredibly lucky. On top of that they made great friends along the way and also fell in love. Yes, they missed all of this but if they were all being completely honest they missed the shenanigans they always got themselves into. Even when they weren't trying to get in the middle of something they ended up in it anyway. They had just come to accept it.

Right now the three of them were sitting in the Hogs Head laughing loudly over a specific memory. The old pub hadn't changed in the slightest. It still smelled horrible, that same insane bartender was here and there was the occasional goat walking around. They could have gone to the Three Broomsticks instead but they had been here many times and lots of memories were created.