Lavender took another lick of her double scoop chocolate cone, savoring the luxurious richness until a small voice pulled her back to reality.
"Mummy, can I have chocolate and vanilla?" asked a small boy with dark hair and pale blue eyes.
His mother ruffled his curls, saying, "Not today, Jonah. How about some sprinkles instead?"
The boy deemed this a reasonable compromise, and his mother scooped him up to "help" her pay the young wizard behind the counter at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. She had never really wanted to be a mother, especially since wizarding society had considered that "the best path for all women" for pretty much her entire life. It wasn't until women like Nympadora Tonks, head auror, and Katie Bell-Jordan, coach of the Appleby Arrows, began making news with their soundbites that opinions started to change. Still, there was a minute part of her that wondered if she and Parvati were missing out.
She looked over to where her wife was enjoying her own pistachio double scoop. "Parv, do you ever regret not having kids?"
The Indian woman nearly dropped her ice cream. "What brought this on?" she asked, answering her own question when she caught sight of Jonah and his mum. Parvati's dark eyes softened. "Lav, we can barely keep a plant alive. I really don't think either one of us were exactly destined for motherhood."
"But don't you feel like you've missed out? Like your biological clock is telling you that you've slept through your alarm? And we've never even talked about what your family must think of us for not having children," she pushed, trying not to imagine little boys with curly blond hair and deep brown eyes.
"Honestly, no," Parvati said, thinking aloud. "We're both career women- you're the youngest chief editor Witch Weekly has ever had, I have my own successful divination firm employed important corporate clients, and together we run a semi-clandestine sex toy business. All this allows us to support a ton of charities and mentor younger witches with similar ambitions while still having a vibrant social life. We have a ton on our plates, and we've used it to do a lot of good, but I don't think we could have done half of that if we'd been busy with toddlers or teenagers. And as far as my family is concerned, my parents and sister don't care as long as I'm happy. They know that I'm not anti-family or anti-children, but they understand that having kids is not for everyone."
Lavender smiled sadly. "I know you're right. I never would have made chief editor if I'd had to take even one maternity leave, and WWW would probably have just been a pipe dream if we busy with dirty diapers and teenage drama. I just can't help but wonder what could have been, you know?"
Parvati reached across the table to hold her wife's hand. "Baby, you can't dwell on the 'what ifs' and the 'could have beens'; if you do, you'll never be happy in the now. And think of all the things that could have gone wrong and kept us apart! What if we'd never told each other how we feel? What if you'd never been attacked by Greyback? What if my parents hadn't moved away from Mumbai? What if I had kept dating Anthony Goldstein and let him kiss me when I didn't want him to? There's some muggle theory Padma keeps trying to explain to me that thinks there's an infinite number of universes in which everyone makes different choices. I don't want to believe that. The only way I would ever want to exist is just as we are now."
The blonde witch wiped her eyes. "I think you're right, Parv. I love us, every part of it. And this way, we can focus on being the cool, fun aunts to all of Padma and Colin's kids! Come on, let's go look at some new baby clothes. She's about to pop, and I want this little girl to look absolutely adorable from day one! We can finish our ice cream on the way!"
Parvati allowed herself to be dragged out of the shop with ice cream dripping down her hand, thanking Merlin that everything had turned out just the way she hadn't planned.
