Coda
TERRY BOOT LONGBOTTOM is dreadfully restless after the war ends, and has great difficulty settling down. The idea of attending Hogwarts for a year is considered but firmly rejected. He recovers entirely physically in terms of his ease of movement, but he has scars, mostly on his neck, shoulders, and chin. (Along with the scars he acquired from Amycus, he sports quite a collection.) He is unfailingly polite but distant to Hermione and Draco, doing nothing to seek them out, and taking great pains to make it clear to all and sundry that he's not carrying a torch for her, no. The slight distance that developed between himself and the rest of the old ISS crew remains. He maintains his warmest relationships with the Longbottoms, whom he genuinely loves, Fred and George, who worry a good deal about him, and Luna.
He leaves Albion and wanders extensively for five years. However, this is always in short forays, as he always apparates back in time to spend the full moon with Luna. He takes odd short-term jobs to support himself, lives out of a knapsack, and resists any attempts from Alice and Frank to give him money, and he gets more and more quiet, scruffy and hard-bitten looking.
Luna always welcomes him back, treating him just as she always has. Besides regular journal private messages to him, she sends him an owl letter once or twice each month, with charmed sketches in the margins, and these letters are practically the only thing he keeps. Slowly, he begins to fall in love with her. He fights the feeling for a long time, feeling guilt because of Colin, but finally one day, unlike all the other times he has stayed with her, he doesn't leave the room as the Professor in the morning when she wakes up naked next to him. Instead, he transforms back into himself and simply looks at her, his heart in his eyes.
She smiles and reaches for him. And that will be that.
Once he and Luna become lovers (she was his first), it takes two or three more years for her to convince him she really does want to marry him. He fights bleak periods for the rest of his life, and often resorts to being the Professor for awhile when he does, but once he and Luna are together, he settles down in Albion. It takes much time and trouble for him to find a job he can bear to keep without abandoning it after a month or two (Fred and George are endlessly patient with continuing to line up opportunities for him) but eventually, he finds a job as a personal assistant to an extremely wealthy, eccentric Runes researcher, and their eccentricities mesh beautifully. As he begins to relax and believe in his own happiness, his friendships become less distant. Terry and Luna spend several weeks at Moddey Dhoo each summer, where Terry teaches their two daughters, Rowen and Betony, to fish and swim. Despite his great fears about his fitness to be a parent, and his anxious questions to Frank and Alice about every aspect of their upbringing, he is an excellent father.
He is always be willing to provide advice and mentoring to anyone wanting to become an animagus.
He leaves Albion and wanders extensively for five years. However, this is always in short forays, as he always apparates back in time to spend the full moon with Luna. He takes odd short-term jobs to support himself, lives out of a knapsack, and resists any attempts from Alice and Frank to give him money, and he gets more and more quiet, scruffy and hard-bitten looking.
Luna always welcomes him back, treating him just as she always has. Besides regular journal private messages to him, she sends him an owl letter once or twice each month, with charmed sketches in the margins, and these letters are practically the only thing he keeps. Slowly, he begins to fall in love with her. He fights the feeling for a long time, feeling guilt because of Colin, but finally one day, unlike all the other times he has stayed with her, he doesn't leave the room as the Professor in the morning when she wakes up naked next to him. Instead, he transforms back into himself and simply looks at her, his heart in his eyes.
She smiles and reaches for him. And that will be that.
Once he and Luna become lovers (she was his first), it takes two or three more years for her to convince him she really does want to marry him. He fights bleak periods for the rest of his life, and often resorts to being the Professor for awhile when he does, but once he and Luna are together, he settles down in Albion. It takes much time and trouble for him to find a job he can bear to keep without abandoning it after a month or two (Fred and George are endlessly patient with continuing to line up opportunities for him) but eventually, he finds a job as a personal assistant to an extremely wealthy, eccentric Runes researcher, and their eccentricities mesh beautifully. As he begins to relax and believe in his own happiness, his friendships become less distant. Terry and Luna spend several weeks at Moddey Dhoo each summer, where Terry teaches their two daughters, Rowen and Betony, to fish and swim. Despite his great fears about his fitness to be a parent, and his anxious questions to Frank and Alice about every aspect of their upbringing, he is an excellent father.
He is always be willing to provide advice and mentoring to anyone wanting to become an animagus.