There are a couple of things you should know about me before you hear my story, a few details that we should get out of the way in advance.

1) My parents are two of the most famous witches and wizards in the world. Want to know who they are? See the next point.
2) My name is Lily Luna Potter. I was named after my paternal grandmother and a friend of my parents. (Yes, that's right. My parents are Harry Potter and Ginevra Potter (formerly Weasley).
3) I come from one of the largest families in the world.
4) My father is of mixed blood. My mother happens to be from a pureblooded family though. (Blood purity doesn't mean anything in my family, much to the chagrin of the other pureblood families in our world.)
5) I'm twenty-six years old. (Alright, so technically I'm not twenty-six yet but in my mind when you're less than six months away from your birthday then you round up; if you're more than six months away you round down. Not everyone will agree with that theory but that's mine.
6) I'm in a relationship with a single father who just might be a complete and total nutter.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking right about now. You're wondering why if he's a nutter I would let myself be involved with him. You're probably also thinking that someone who is, in fact, nutter probably shouldn't be raising a child. Was that close? Wait, don't answer that. I'm sure it is. Most people would wonder both of those things.

What you have to understand is that Bradyn isn't the dangerous kind of nutter. Sure, the man is a bit off but he's not violent or anything. He just has this tendency to say and do things that are quite bizarre. And he apparently has a habit of attracting bad luck like no one else I have ever seen before. To be honest I can't help but have some sympathy for him. After all, if can't be easy to have so much of your life full of a seemingly never ending chain of unlucky events. And as for his being a parent? Well, he happens to be a marvelous parent.

My cousin Rose is always asking me why I would want to date a man who has a child. To be honest it doesn't bother me any. You don't actually choose who you have feelings for, do you? So the man I happened to have feelings for happened to have a child. I have to say that it was an adventure to be involved with someone like that. Now, I realize you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about since you don't know anything about them but sometimes I have the tendency to get ahead of myself. Comes with the territory of having a rather large and often times hectic family.

I actually met Bradyn while shopping in Hogsmeade with Rose, ironically. He had been shopping with his daughter, Shayna. Rose had been trying to figure out what she should by for one of our cousins or their upcoming birthday (trust me, it can be difficult when you have as many cousins as we do, when you want to try to come up with a gift for each of them that isn't too similar to the one you bought for another one) and we had separated. And it was actually just outside Gladrags that I was, quite literally, basically thrust into their lives.

Now, I couldn't tell you what it was that had upset Shayna if my life itself were to depend on it. I hadn't been able to hear that part of the conversation because she was already upset by the time that I had arrived on the scene but as children so often will she had turned and took off, running from her father and had, quite appropriately, slammed directly into me and nearly knocked me on my arse. And while it wasn't as though I get bumped into every second of every single solitary day it has happened far too many times for my liking. And many more than I care to admit.

I had reached out and grasped onto her shoulders before she could tumble to the ground herself when Bradyn came over. He smiled and apologized and had Shayne apologize to me as well to which I told him that it was perfectly fine, that children could often be quite difficult to handle and that he shouldn't worry about it. He had smiled at me, thanked me for understanding, apologized again and let his daughter away. And it sounds really funny to say this now but I have to admit that I had adored his smile. There was something very innocent about it and somehow adorable and attractive at the same time.

We ran into each other again in Hogsmeade about a week later in the Three Broomsticks. He joined me for my drink, we talked and really, don't you all know by now how relationships start? They just start without any true rhyme or reason to it most of the time. People will just come together or they won't. In this case we did. To be honest it isn't even that interesting of a story to find out how we met so I do have to apologize if I bored you with it. It happens and I do apologize.

But, as I was saying before, Rose often wondered why I would want to date someone who had a child. In her mind you should want to be with someone that you yourself might have children with someday and not have to take care of their child with someone else. And yes, I suppose that's a very good theory when you're fifteen or sixteen but as an adult that doesn't really matter. As a matter-of-fact I adored Shayna and she and I got along rather well.

Rose took it upon herself to ask me once again why I was involved with a single father as we were putting on the finishing touches of our makeup so we could get our arses out of the house and into the yard for the wedding. Now, before you go and start to assume that I myself was the one getting married I'm going to inform you that no, I was not the bride. Nor was Rose.

Our cousin Victoire was actually the bride. After having dated Teddy Lupin, my pseudo cousin and my father's godson for quite some time they were finally becoming a married couple. Of course that meant that my aunt Fleur had been driving herself mad with the wedding details and Victoire had insisted on helping Rose and I choose out our dresses for the wedding. Merlin forbid that we didn't fit in as well as she wanted us to in her lovely wedding. It all had to be perfect, of course. (In a lot of ways Victoire was almost exactly like her mother and as thus tended to worry about how people looked so we were basically her dolls for some time leading up to the 'big day' which was frustrating but something I could definitely handle.)

"I don't understand why you consider it to be such a big deal," I said, watching Rose as she clipped back some of the hair from her face and gazed at herself in the mirror.

"I just think that perhaps you should want to date someone that doesn't have a child," she told me for what seemed like the millionth time. "Don't you find it even the slightest bit bizarre to be dating an older man raising a daughter on their own?"

"You make it sound like Bradyn is as old as my father," I scolded, clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth and nudging her with my shoulder. She glanced over at me, narrowing her blue eyes like I had just insulted her greatly. "He's not all that much older than me," I continued, rolling my eyes a little bit at her. "And no, I don't find it all that odd to be honest. I actually enjoy spending time around Bradyn's daughter. Shayna is a marvelous girl."

She sighed, leaning back from the mirror and rolling her eyes at me as I had done to her. She placed her hands on her hips much like her mother would do whenever she thought someone needed a good scolding and shook her head a bit. "Fine," she finally said. "I'm not sure that I actually believe you but I'm going to just have to accept what you say and leave it alone. For now." She dropped her hands from her hips to motion towards the doorway. "I'm going to make sure that victory hasn't driven Dominique insane making her rush about making sure that everything is alright. Why don't you go make sure that Teddy isn't getting cold feet or anything? Make yourself useful."

Sometimes Rose liked to believe that because she was a whole year older than me that she was able to boss me around as much as she liked which was ridiculous, of course. And furthermore she seemed to forget sometimes that I was bigger than her, a fact I reminded her of as I flicked one of her ears. "Very well. I'll go check on dear Teddy but only because I'm sure he's so nervous his hair is a proverbial rainbow right now, not because you asked me do." I know, the image of someone with rainbow hair is rather amusing but unfortunately for Teddy that's what happened sometimes when he got nervous. First it would change colors rapidly- purple to blue to red to pink to green- and then, all at once, it would literally look like a rainbow had vomited up its colors all over him. It was rather amusing. To us, of course. He didn't seem to share that sentiment.

Rose gave me a look that could probably make a bird stop in midflight and reached up to rub her ear. I merely smiled at her as I headed out of the room, rubbing my palms on my dress as I moved down the halls of Uncle Bill's house to find where the groom-to-be had decided to hide himself while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

I found him just outside the door, pacing back and forth next to the wall, his hair not only rainbow but nearly neon in color which could only mean that he was just about ready to have a panic attack. "You alright over there? Not going to drop dead, are you?"

Teddy stopped dead in his tracks and looked up at me, his face much younger than his years and somehow beautiful as opposed to answer. His eyes, a bright shade of blue- brighter now with his anxiety- were as wide as saucers as though I had awoke him from a deep trance. "What?"

"You look like your heart is just about ready to stop. You going to be alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine." He ran his hand over that rainbow-colored head of hair and started to pace again.

"You wouldn't by any chance just be nervous, would you?"

"Nervous? Now, what could I possibly be nervous about?"

"Oh…how about you're about to take that long walk into marriage? The fact that you will officially no longer be a single man? The fact that Victoire will be your wife soon?"

"You're not helping."

"I know." I smiled at him and moved so I could press my arm against the building and lean against it. I couldn't lean my body against it because then I would just get my dress dirty and while it could be easily cleaned with a spell it would just upset the bride to have to have the time taken out to do so. "Don't worry. I'm sure she's as nervous as you are."

"She doesn't seem nervous," he argued. "She just seems more bossy than usual."

"That's how she handles being nervous. You know that."

"Yeah." He smiled a little, the corners of his mouth tilting up just slightly and he came to a stop almost abruptly, nearly right in front of me. "So, you bring a date to this mess, Lil?"

"No, no. I'm here solo." I shrugged my shoulders slightly, my hair blowing into my eyes as I stood there. "Bradyn hasn't really met most of my family so you can imagine how awkward that would be. You don't just throw people head first into a mess of Weasleys." I smiled at him, shrugging my shoulders slightly again. "And there's his daughter to consider. She'd find it quite boring. Very, very boring."

"Yeah, I imagine that she would." He reached up then, tucked my hair behind my ears in the very same brotherly way he's done since as long as I can remember. "You know, I might just have to meet this guy of yours," he teased, the corners of his mouth curling up again. "Make sure that he treats you well; make sure that he's worthy of my little cousin."

"You know," I said slowly. "Calling me that might be a bit odd considering you're marrying a cousin of mine. Unless, of course, you want to call yourself my cousin from my father's side. Then it doesn't seem a bit creepy or incestuous."

He tapped my nose with his index finger almost like he was scolding me and let out this startled laugh that seems to come straight from his toes. "You know, as much as the laughter feels good, you're not really doing much to make me worry any less."

"Liar. The laughter is always a help."

"True." He wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, pressing a kiss against my forehead. "I mean it, Lil," he whispered against my skin. "He better be good to you. He'll have a dozen very angry cousins ready to hex him until he's purple with yellow spots if he doesn't."

"He's a good guy," I assured him. "A very good guy. Don't you worry yourself about my. I'm fine. I always am." From inside the house Rose called out to me to make sure Teddy was ready and in his place because the whole deal was about to begin.

He laughed a bit, warm air blowing against my skin. "I suppose it's a little late to back out now, eh?" he teases, stepping back from me. His hair slowly shifted back to the brown color it naturally is, his eyes still bright though not nearly as bright as before. "I think that Vikki would kill me if I did anyway."

He smoothed his hand over my hair, tucking the strands that were loose behind my ears. "Thanks, Lil," he said quietly. "The laughter really did help." He kissed my forehead again, nerves making him act now more than anything.

I patted his chest to let him know he had to move and he stepped back from me, taking a slow and deep breath and then turned to head over to where Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur had set up the chairs for everyone- Mum kept telling me this reminded her so much of Bill and Fleur's wedding. He tried to keep his steps calm and even but he was still nervous. It was so, so obvious.

"Oi, Teddy?"

Teddy turned to look at me over his shoulder, arching one of his eyebrows at me in question. "Yeah?"

"Can you actually turn your skin purple with yellow spots?"

He blinked at me for several moments, almost like he didn't understand exactly what I was saying and then threw his head back and laughed, long and deep.

It was a nice sound.