Hello, loves! Sorry I took a bit longer than usual, my life is slightly hectic at the moment. I work all day and go to school at night, which is a bit draining. But enough excuses, time to give thanks! 51 reviews! Woah. I feel super special. Ya'll are awesome.:)

This chapter gives us a more in depth look into Ginny's missing years, which will continue, so I certainly hope you like that component.


Why does it always seem like a good idea the night before? Ginny's brain questioned as she snuck back through the front door. Thirteen hours ago, she had met up with Dean Thomas. Now, at 8 am, she was sneaking back into her parents house. Oh, this wouldn't go well if she was seen, but all she had to do was…

"Go for another run? Oh, I guess not." her mother stepped out of the kitchen where she was evidently making breakfast. She looked her daughter over and rolled her eyes. Ginny's hair had been straightened, her make up last night had been elaborate, although it was quite smudged today, her jeans were tighter than Molly thought possible, and her low cut, draping, sparkly gray top did not leave nearly enough to the imagination.

"Morning, Mum!" Ginny smiled sheepishly.

"Breakfast will be ready in just a few, I trust you're hungry from your night out." Molly's tone was short, and she was once again cooking the ever infamous bacon.

Not ready to go into the kitchen and pretend that she wasn't there, Ginny wandered through the living room, stopping at the coffee table. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at open book, her own baby book. She laughed a little at the memory some of the pictures held, such as the time her mum had tried to dress Ginny up in a pink, fluffy dress, and Ginny had used her magic for the first time to turn in to overalls, much to her mother's dismay.

Another page showed the whole family right after Ginny had been born, she was just a chubby arm waving from blankets resting in Charlie's nervous arms.

"Gross, Ron," she giggled to herself, the baby version of her brother shoving a finger up his nose, then being pulled out by a young, yet still uptight Percy.

"Your eggs will be getting cold if you don't hurry up, you always hated that." Molly stated from the kitchen doorway, stiffening as she saw what Ginny was looking at.

"Thanks, Mum." Ginny grinned, very easy going.

"Did you enjoy your night out?" Molly asked, going back to the stove.

"I did, went out with Dean, caught up with a few people from school."

"Did you now." Molly sounded uninterested.

"I did! And it was quite fun, saw Seamus, Lavender, Parvati…usual gang."

"And which one did you spend the night with?"

"Uhhh…we all went to Dean's, and just talked for a good, long while."

"And you talked all night?"

"Well, maybe the others left…"

"Ginny, when are you going to find your own flat?"

"What?"

"Your own flat."

"You're kicking me out again?!"

"No, I'm just--this is too hard, Ginny."

Ginny stood up from the table, throwing her bacon back on the plate.

"Are you joking? No! Don't answer! I'm ranting! This is not fair! Not at all! First you kick me out over a nose ring, but then I come back and you kick me out because I'm back! I will not be finding a flat of my own till I'm good and ready! Now you keep cooking, Daddy will be up soon and he will want breakfast and I am going to go to bed hungry because I cannot eat bacon tainted with motherly distaste! And I am a fan of bacon!"

"Ginny, what do you expect from me? You to just waltz back into my world and suddenly all's forgiven? Do you have any idea how upset I've been? How hard it's been for your father and me? Your brothers, too! And now everything is supposed to be okay just because you came back!"

"Is it possible at all for you to look at the bright side?! I mean, at all?! What if I had come back pregnant! Or with a child already!"

"That has been one of my greatest fears ever since you left." Molly said solemnly, "I dreaded you just showing up with a child, you're still a child yourself."

"Mum, I have got to admit, I really, really need your help. That's why I came back. I--I tried to do this whole off living on my own thing, and it really didn't go so well. Really. Really not so well. Mum, please, look at me, honestly, do you think I'm okay?""Ginny, this is all just so much--"

"Mum! Please! Just admit it. Admit that I have totally screwed myself over time and time again, and most importantly, I am coming to terms with it, and now is the time for me to straighten my life out and stop drinking so much and become more responsible!"

"Wow, Gin, that's very…mature."

"Thanks, I heard it on a soap opera in Romania. If you'll excuse me, I have a nasty hangover and am going to go puke now."

Ginny spent the rest of the day and then all night sleeping off her hangover. Molly didn't mind, she spent that time making plans, being the overbearing mothering type, she couldn't stand the state of her family any longer. She accepted Ginny's hangover induced rant for the cry of hope that it was and ignored the fact that there was no actual apology.

It was early Monday before Ginny emerged from her room to shower and come down for food.

"Gods, how long was I asleep?" Ginny asked as she looked around the living room to find two toddlers, and a baby already there.

"Didn't I tell you? I watch the kids while their parents work. Jana and Angelina work part time, but Aubrey works full time, Bill should be here before long with the girls. You know he and Fleur have another baby due in the fall?" Ginny just stared a bit wide eyed at her mother. Suddenly her mother had gone from angry to willing to make everything okay again, which was nice, but strange.

"Oh, and I've gotten rid of all the liquor and you're not going out without a chaperon for three months." Molly added as she went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up breakfast. That attitude was more like what Ginny had grown up with. She sat down cross-legged on the floor between Marty and little Molly and joined in in their tower of blocks. Freddie just watched from his bouncy chair and gurgled, occasionally saying something close to words.

"So I was thinking of starting a job hunt while I've got a stable living arrangement here." Ginny called to her mother.

"Blip!" Freddie inserted.

"No, no you're not. You'll be helping me out, I could use an extra hand or two with the kids, and we'll be making sure that you're completely sober before you start going out into the world."

"I'm forbidden to work?" Ginny called out in outrage.

"What the hell did you expect?"

"When did you become such a potty mouth?"

"Enjoy it while you can, Dominique is a tattler, and Bill will be bringing her and Victoire any minute."

Ginny spent the next few minutes enjoying the company of her niece and nephews, where Freddie squealed six times because he saw some dust and his mind it was hilarious, little Molly repeatedly said "Kin!" at Ginny, thrilling the aunt, and Marty successfully fit a block into his mouth, something that he seemed to find to be very serious, judging by the look on his little face.

It proved to be the last few blissful moments before her older nieces arrived. With a whoosh from the floo, Bill and his two daughters in matching outfits arrived.

"Morning, Gin! How's the hangover?" Bill grinned, dressed up for work.

"Brilliant, I slept through it. I went to bed yesterday morning and got up less than an hour ago. Only hurled twice yesterday from it. How's Phlegm?"

"Don't you mean Fleur? The mother of my two, present children?" Bill asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Right, right, I musta misspoken." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Okay girls, you two be super good for your grandmum and Aunt Ginny." Bill told his two girls.

"But Aunt Ginny's mean!" Dominique cried out, her face as dramatic as her looks.

"She'll be just as nice as you are." Bill said, giving both of them a pointed look.

"Right, I'll be good if they are, right Vic?" Ginny asked her older, smiling niece.

"Right!" the girl chirped, looking pleased.

"Right, Nikki?"

"It's Dominique!"

"Right, then, off to work, bye kids, bye Mum, bye Gin! I'll pick you up for lunch at noon."

"Uh, sounds great, but what are you talking about?" Ginny asked perplexed.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm putting this family back together one sibling at a time." Molly responded from the kitchen.

This was becoming more and more like that mum Ginny had expected to find.

"You have pictures on you." Victoire commented shortly after snack time at the Weasley house.

"Yeah, I do, lots of 'em. They're called tattoos, someone drew them all on with needles." Ginny responded, her eyes big with drama at the needle comment.

"Woah!" Marty interjected, although it wasn't too exciting as that was one of the four words in his vocabulary.

"Mummy says everyone regrets their tattoos by the age of 30." Dominique stated as she brushed the hair of one of the many dolls that had migrated to their grandparent's home.

"Well, then we should give you one! You'll have lots of time before you hate it!" Ginny responded, her eyes bright as she leaned to the little girl who's eyes flashed with terror.

"Ooh, yeah!" the older sister started, "We can give her a tattoo of a unicorn! She never shuts up about them!"

"Anybody home!" Bill called, just arriving.

"Daddy!" Dominique cried, her arms up in the air, "Help! She wants to draw unicorns on me with needles!"

"Who does?"

"That stupid Aunt Ginny!"

"Well, if I'm stupid than you're a poop face."

"All right you two, break it up. Don't worry Dominique, I'll take her out of a good talking to, all lunch long."

"Gee, Mum, think you can make it without me for a bit?" Ginny asked her mother, who was sitting on the couch quietly reading a book for once on a weekday afternoon.

"It's highly unlikely, I only raised seven kids on my own." she scoffed, pulling Freddie's entire fist out of his mouth.

"You've got to be joking, there's no way you could have been so many places!" Bill laughed despite his mouth full of food.

"I'm serious, I don't know why it's so hard to conceive, I traveled, okay? I had seven years to go all over the place! But, speaking of conceiving, what's this I hear about you having a third before long?"

"Yeah, we're hoping for a boy. Due in October. I take it Mum told you? Even though she's having her third kid, Fleur doesn't look like it yet."

"That's true…but if it comes up, tell her I asked when she was due."

"What about you, Gin? Any family plans?"

"As in getting married and having babies and being a good family witch?"

"That's pretty much what I was referring to."

Ginny sighed to buy herself time before answering. Evidently Hermione hadn't blabbed the news Ginny had revealed while under the influence of some very lovely firewhiskey was yet to make it up Bill's branch of the family tree.

"I--almost."

"Almost?"

"I almost got married."

"What happened?"

"Well…

Ginny squinted in the blinding sun, the fact that she was in the middle of a desert with practically white sand was not helping her out at all. Her left had went to it's traditional spot on her forehead, palm up as if she was in silent film and having a very dramatic moment so that her hand could shield at least some of the brightness. In the process, her wrist felt as if it was being taken over by the entire sun.

Sunshine, she thought she wanted it after all that time in St. Petersburg, but now she wasn't sure. And this job? This was not what she was expecting to do for a living. She hated to admit it, especially since this was a muggle tattoo parlor, but she used a little magic on those she pierced so it wouldn't hurt as much.

"Hello!" Ginny's head shot up from the desk she was manning, it was her time to watch over the door as people came in for the day. It was early on Saturday, she wasn't expecting many people till later.

"Hi, are you looking to add to your collection?" she grinned at the guy who'd just walked in, he was quite attractive, with wavy hay colored hair and bright gray eyes and plenty of tattoos. As in, two full color sleeves of them.

"Ah, you must be the new piercer. I'm Sonny." he extended his hand to her, and Ginny couldn't help but blush a little at the warmth of it all.

"You've been dating for HOW LONG?" Nikki questioned Ginny, her voice excited. The girl had dark brown hair with streaks of pink, a chubby girl with brightly colored tattoos all across her. She had been the one to give Ginny her elaborately colored St. Petersburg steeples.

"Six months, and now, this!" Ginny gushed, putting her left hand in her friends face so she could see the engagement ring.

Set in platinum, the rock was an impressive one, and Ginny couldn't stop smiling at it. She had tried to insist it was too big, too much, but Sunny had always like flash.

"But Ginny, what about the…" Nikki let her voice trail off, she couldn't help but feel a wave of panic as she remembered what Sonny had.

"We're working on it." Ginny nodded, sure of herself.

"I'm getting worse, Gin." Sonny said solemnly as he sat up in their bed where had spent the day, today had been tough. Ginny sat on the edge, her face in her hands.

"I know," she said, her voice small.

"I'm so sorry, I hate this."

"No, it's not your fault, it really isn't, I don't blame you a bit! I love you far too much to blame you."

"You are far too sweet. It's a bit unreasonable."

"Don't worry, I'm crazy, too. Look what I did today!" Ginny put her wrist up to show her newest edition to the collection.

"Gin, that's…wow."

"See? Even if you leave me, I've got you with me, always."

"I hope you think of me every time you see that…and so does every guy who makes a pass at you after I'm gone."

Ginny burst into her first fit of genuine giggles since Sonny had started getting worse.

"Oh, Ginny," Nikki started, her clothes uncharacteristically dark a mere six months after the excited conversation over Ginny's ring. "I'm so sorry. Really, I am, if you need anything, anything at all…"

"Actually, I need a break more than anything, thanks, though Nik, for everything." Ginny responded, her face wet with tears but her voice as calm as she could muster. "The cupcakes, the dinners, the days off, the cupcakes again, everything, you've been a great help through all this."

"You're not--you're not gonna leave, are you Gin?" Nikki asked, her tear filled eyes wide with fear.

"I think I'll go to Romania, try and find my brother." Ginny stated. "I'll miss you though, both of you."

Inoperable brain tumor. What the hell is that? Some curse that muggles thought of to hurt each other? He never complained, her Sonny. He was so strong, so fun through it all.

He'd been amazed when Ginny was willing to marry him anyways, marry him with a mark on his head, or in his head as he put it, he'd been thrilled. Told her that she made him feel like a normal person, and that she was the only one.

The irony was enough to make her puke.

"Well, you know how things go, sometimes weddings just don't happen." Ginny stated, giving a small complacent smile and quickly changing the topic.