A year later, Luna and I graduated from Hogwarts together with Hermione, who had returned to complete her education after taking the previous year off to help Harry and Ron find the Dark Lord's Horcruxes.  As soon as the end-of-year feast was over, I proposed marriage to Luna.  She was hesitant at first because she wanted to be free to study magical creatures everywhere in the world, but when I promised to follow her and take precautions against having children, she accepted my proposal.

I did follow her, but when her studies led her to Africa, I decided to part company from her for a little while to do a study of my own.  All the great apes had been studied by observers who had lived with them, but none of these observers had lived as one of the apes they were studying.  As an Animagus, I could do this; so I travelled to the south shore of the Congo River, the only habitat of bonobos.  I wandered around until I found a group of bonobos, and there I pitched a tent and magically turned its interior into a comfortable dwelling.  Then, after studying their communication while in human form, I transfigured myself into a bonobo.  At first the group was wary of me because I was a stranger, but after a few days I was given an opportunity to gain their trust.  I heard a band of poachers approaching.  I erected a magical barricade to protect the bonobos from the poachers and signalled to them to hide, while I stayed behind and faced the poachers.  They shot at me, but the barricade stopped their bullets, and the poachers, rightly suspecting me of having magical powers, fled in terror.  The bonobos then realized that I was on their side; so they accepted me into their group.

Bonobo society is matriarchal: a male bonobo's rank is largely determined by the rank of his mother.  Male bonobos sometimes do struggle for dominance, but unlike common chimpanzees, who often kill each other, bonobos' power struggles are rarely violent and never fatal.  Several times I was challenged, and each time I submitted immediately, thinking that my low status would make me unattractive to females.  In most animal species, the loser of a power struggle must groom the winner to appease him, but each bonobo to whom I submitted groomed me to console me!  Since I was with bonobos instead of chimpanzees, I would be in no danger – or so I thought.  A couple of months after I had joined the group, a female, who must have known that I was at the bottom of the male hierarchy, presented her backside to me as an invitation to mate.  Since in my mind I was human, the prospect did not thrill me; so I declined.  She called for reinforcements, and three other females heeded her call.  I ran into my tent with the four females in hot pursuit.  I quickly changed back into human form just before the four females barged into my tent and started searching for the male bonobo I had been.  I joined in the search to minimize the damage they would do.  Eventually they gave up and departed.  At this point I decided to terminate my studies and rejoin my wife.

I now had something to occupy myself with while Luna continued to study magical creatures: I wrote a book called "My Life as a Bonobo".  To obey the International Statute of Secrecy, I pretended that I had worn a bonobo costume.  I submitted my book to a Muggle publishing company and they published it.  It sold well and was translated into several languages.  The Swedish version was made into a movie by the producer who had made the movie "My Life as a Dog".

A couple of years into our journey, Luna met Rolf Scamander, a young man whose grandfather had written the book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".  He was visibly taken with her but, seeing that she was already married, he quickly married another woman, and the four of us became good friends.

During the course of her studies, Luna eventually learned that Nargles and the other creatures her father had told her about didn't really exist, and she sent him an owl telling him about her findings.  Fortunately he believed her.  Hermione, who had visited him together with Harry and Ron, had told him that what he thought was a horn of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack was actually an Erumpent horn, which explodes if it is shaken.  He hadn't believed her at first, but after receiving Luna's owl, he decided to be on the safe side and carry it into his backyard.  Not long afterwards, there was a slight earthquake in the vicinity of his house, and the Erumpent horn exploded, making a large crater in the ground.  Had he not moved it out of his house, it would have demolished the house and either injured or killed him if he happened to be indoors at the time.  He immediately sent an owl to both Luna and Hermione, thanking them profusely for having saved his home and possibly his life and inviting them both to visit him and bring their spouses.  Luna and I were too far away to do so at the time, but that was soon to change.