I put down the letter. "Ginny wrote me." I said to Cor.

"No way!" she exclaimed, racing over to see it. "I can't believe this. I just love her. Even if she's a jerk- this letter seems fine. She's trying to fix things. I'd love to meet her."

"If I ask her to meet here for a cup of coffee, will you not... go crazy?"

"Not embarrass you?" she asked. "I guess, I could..." she smirked.

"Thanks." I said. I wrote her a reply on a piece of parchment.

Ginny,

I am also not working on Friday. Would you care to meet for a cup of coffee at my flat?

Sadie

I pulled out my Tweeter Twig like Harry had asked, and took it in my bedroom while I ate a quick dinner. I discovered how to use it- you took a twig off the little branch and wrote what you wanted, then it would send. My words came out in my thick, stubby letters:

Thank you for the flowers and the gift.

I waited a little while, until it let out a little chirp. I picked it up, and in Harry's rushed, sloppy handwriting was a reply.

I'm glad you like them. How was the rest of your day?

Fine. I got a letter from Ginny.

What did it say?

That she would like another chance to meet me and that we've started off on the wrong foot.

Oh. Are you going to meet her?

I invited her to my flat on Friday for coffee. Is that okay? Should I have checked with you before I made plans?

No, it's fine. I just find it interesting. I wonder what her motivations are.

Do you think they're bad? Is she coming to be mean to me? I sort of get the feeling she wants to make things at least neutral for us.

Ginny, in her nature, isn't mean. She's not always very nice, but I'm usually the receptor. She's just closed off, and protective of her life.

Should I be nervous?

No. To be honest, I'm glad she's going this.

Me too. How was your day?

Seeing you was the best part.

Same for me.

I can't wait until we're... out about this. I want to be able to see you whenever I want to.

Me too. Three quarters of an hour is not enough.

I've been doing a lot of thinking.

This was the part that I hated. Even though he had just told me how he wanted to tell people about us, I was still self conscious.

About what?

Telling the kids. I want them to know before my birthday.

So we have three weeks.

Yes. Is that all right? I think it would be best. It would be a great birthday present. And then we will be away for a week so I can work on Teddy if he doesn't respond well.

Okay. That makes sense. Whatever you think is best, you know your kids' limits.

Things could change, but so far I think that's the best idea. I was a little worried about Lily today, I thought she was about to pull into a seizure, but she shook it off.

Maybe she is growing out of them. I'm going to suggest the Muggle doctor to Ginny on Friday.

Thank you.

I told him about how I wanted to stay up later to talk, but I really needed to go to bed. He understood and we promised to talk later. We talked a lot that week using the Twig, and it was probably one of my favorite gifts ever. I spent many nights up too late talking to him.

You think about our future a lot, don't you?

Yes. Don't you?

Sometimes. I don't like to think about the future too hard, because I never really know what will happen. What do you think about?

I plan, mostly.

Plan what?

Silly stuff.

Now I knew he was avoiding my question, probably because he was embarrassed. I didn't think it was embarrassing... I just was curious.

Please tell me.

I see introducing you to my children and them being happy. I see a small, dark haired, green eyed baby running around with Lily. I see many mornings spent in bed, the warm sunlight on us, quiet because we don't need words.

The thoughts he had just given me filled me up with a great feeling of potential and hope for the future.

I see them too. Thank you.

I was nervous for Ginny coming on Friday. I cleaned the whole apartment as best as I could. I made sure that we had a range of teas and went down to the bakery in Diagon Alley to get some pastries. "Is the queen coming?" Cor asked, laughing at me.

I sighed, and laughed bitterly. I was nervous- more nervous than I'd been meeting Harry. "I'm so nervous."

"You'll be fine." she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "And I'll be on my way as soon as she gets here. I won't stick around and bother you. But how long do you think it'll be?"

"Hopefully less than an hour. I don't know..." I paced around the room. "Thank you for leaving. I know that you really want to stay."

She nodded. There was a knock on the door, and I got up to get it. I knew it was her without looking through the peep hole. I opened it, and she stood waiting. The baby, with curly dark hair and a medium complexion, was in a carrier strapped to her chest. It was asleep- she, was asleep. Margot. "Come in." I said.

"Hi, Ginny." Cor said, talking very fast, "I'm going to leave so I don't bother you, I just wanted to say that I love your work- you're an amazing Chaser."

"Oh." Ginny said, "Uhm, thank you."

"Anyways, I'm leaving. see you later, Sadie."

I nodded and locked the door behind her. This would be awkward. I didn't know whether to talk first or let her talk. After a beat, she didn't say anything and I was sick of the heavy silence. "Tea?" I asked, and turned a kettle on to boil.

"Decaf?" she asked.

"I have some." I said, and moved the teas I bought to the table. "You can sit." I was so nervous, my hands were shaking. I got out two mugs from the cabinet and tried not to drop them.

"You don't have to be nervous." she said, and I could sense some annoyance, though it wasn't completely evident in her voice. "I'm just a person."

"I'm sorry." I said, and set the mug of steaming hot water in front of her. "There you go." I poured my coffee and got the pastries out.

"I just wanted to reintroduce myself... I think that I was a bit of a... bitch."

I nodded. "I'm kind of glad you did." I said. "I don't want to have a bad relationship with you... I mean, to be honest, I don't think a well developed relationship is necessary, but once I'm a part of your kids' lives, we should see eye to eye on... well, kid stuff."

"Yes." she agreed. "We should. And Harry made it sound like you wouldn't be going anywhere fast."

"No, I don't think so. We will probably tell Teddy, Jay, Al and Lily on his birthday."

She nodded. "He sounds like... he is happy. Which is good, because he really is a good bloke. We don't have the greatest relationship for a bunch of reasons and I don't know what he's told you and what he hasn't... but that is just residual of what led to the divorce. The flowers, they are from him?"

"Yes." I said. I was interested in hearing her side of the story, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to push. I was still afraid of her, because I knew she had a lot of influence over Harry and the children. I knew, that if she wanted it enough, she could get me out of all of their lives.

"He was always good at that- the little stuff, flowers and gifts." she said. "And he treats the children very well. He is a great father, which is all I can ask from him anymore."

"He is." I said. "I got to take care of both Al and Lily a few weeks ago, and he... it's obvious he cares for them a lot."

"When Al... broke his leg?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"He is too clumsy." she said. "Thank you for putting him back in piece."

"Of course."

"And Lily... when she had her... episode."

"Her seizure?" I asked, trying to get her to say it. "I don't understand why it's such a big deal."

"If the press... knows, then we will never hear the end of it."

"It's not a terrible disease." I commented. "It's not contagious and you didn't do anything to cause it. I'm a Muggle-born, so I know a bit about it, but the Muggle doctors have done a lot of research about seizures in the last couple years and have a lot of good drugs out there that you could try and put her on. I know a few doctors out there and could get her a discrete appointment soon."

She shrugged. "I am wary of Muggle medicine. They tried to use some of it on my father once and he almost bled to death."

"I'm sorry." I said. "But this is a highly developed, well running part of their medicine- I promise she won't die. You don't have to go with her- I'd be happy to go with her. They have medicine that she could take every day and it would reduce her seizures- she would be normal for you."

She clutched Margot closer to her. "I think you don't truly understand it because you are Muggle-born, but the press here would go wild about Lily. People here are so behind in their ideology. They still have the mindset that if I birthed a child that is not... perfect, I did something wrong. And it will complicate her life- especially when she goes to school, people will know too much about her already, simply because she is my and Harry's daughter. I don't want anything else to get out there."

I sort of understood where she was coming from. I nodded. "I agree... that maybe she shouldn't have every thing about her in the tabloids, but it might motivate St. Mungo's to put some funding an deffort into seizure research. Lily isn't the only one getting them- on Monday a little boy was in with one worse than hers. He was in really rough shape."

"I know that I am lucky." she said. "But I won't make my daughter be a spokesgirl for something. We will have to agree to disagree."

"Fine." I said. "Just... as a Healer I think about things like this differently than you do as her mother."

"Of course you do." she said. "Tell me about yourself."

"I'm twenty seven." I said. "Muggle-born, I was in Ravenclaw. I'm a pediatric Healer."

She nodded, and I felt her eyes evaluating every piece of me. "You're more timid than he usually goes for. You're shaking just talking to me." I put my hand down on the table so it wouldn't shake anymore. I was embarrassed about that.

"I just know that you have a lot of power over the whole situation."

"You're right." she said. "And I'm not sure I like you very much... you're too technical and timid. But I think you have the best interests in mind for my children and you make Harry happy... so I think you can stay."

"Thanks."I said, although I wasn't very thankful.

"I should get going." she said. "Naptime is almost over and I'm about to have a screaming baby on my hands. Thanks for tea."

"Of course." I showed her to the door and she was gone. I flopped down on the couch, not wanting to think about it that much. it explained a lot to me- a lot about why Ginny acted the way she did and how she worked, but there was a lot that was still missing. I would have to get it in bits and pieces from Harry as we were already doing. I just wanted to fall asleep. Cor was back about ten minutes after Ginny had left. I was almost asleep.

"How'd it go?" she asked, sitting down.

"Fine." I said. "She said she doesn't like me that much but I make Harry happy and I have the kids' best interests in mind so I get to stay."

"Oh." she laughed bitterly, "I'm glad she gets a say in who her ex-husband gets to date..."

I just shrugged. "It went well enough. We got to talk stuff out. She's stubborn as hell." I said. "I want to know the whole story of the events leading up to the war but I have to wait for Harry to tell me because I don't want to push him because he's such a moody git."

"He'll tell you soon." she said.

"I know."

I vegged on the couch for awhile, this week had kicked my butt. I had been up too late talking to Harry and hadn't slept enough. I drifted in and out of sleep for awhile, until there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it." Cor said. We didn't have visitors often, but I was too tired to care. "Oh, it's you. Come on in."

I looked up to see Harry standing over me. "Hey." he said. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yeah." I said, sitting up. "Is everyone okay? Why are you here?"

He sat down next to me. "I sent a few messages to your Twig- you just didn't answer, so I wanted to come over to see you."

"Oh." I said, and leaned my head on his shoulder. "Hi."

"Hello." he said, kissing me. "You look ill."

"Just tired." I told him. "I think I was up a little too late this week."

"Sorry." he blushed. "How was the tea with Ginny?"

"Fine." I said. "She said I'm too timid. And she doesn't like me that much but I make you happy and I have the kids' best interests in mind so I get to stay."

"Oh, that was nice of her to decide that." he said. "I brought sandwiches."

"Wow. That was nice. Thanks." We went to the table to eat. He got an extra one for Cor, and we invited her to eat with us, but she said she wouldn't take any of our time together. She was a good friend.

"So, I have some kind of bad news." he said.

I turned to him and braced for it. "Everyone's okay, right?"

"Oh, yeah. It's just that Teddy's going to be home tonight and I told him I'd spend some time with him since we haven't done that in awhile because it's been crazy with Ginny away and then I've been spending my free time with you and I really just owe the kid a night."

"Okay." I said. "That's fine."

"And then he'll go with his Gram tomorrow so maybe we can go do something tomorrow and you can sleep over tomorrow night?"

"I'm working Sunday night." I told him. "I'm filling in for someone. I start at seven."

"My kids come back around seven, so maybe you could just stay there and get ready at my house? Then maybe we won't run out of time, as we always do."

"Sounds like a plan." I said, leaning into his frame. "Let's go to the beach."

"The beach?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. "I'm not really a ... sand person. I sort of save that up for my holiday and don't do it for the rest of the year."

"Passing up a chance to look at me in a bikini, I see how it is." I nudged him.

"Well, you know, there is a pond in the woods at my house. I've taken the kids down there before... very nice to swim in, a little cold, but very nice."

I laughed, and was so happy he'd come to visit me. "I'll consider it."

"Now I've got to go back to work and sit through a four hour debriefing with my superiors. So much fun."

"You know how to live." I joked.

"I sure do. Anyways, I'll see you around lunch time tomorrow."

"Sounds good." we kissed good bye, and he was gone.

Author's Note: So you guys blew me away with the reviews for Chapter Eight- and then I was a little disappointed after Chapter Nine, to be honest. I mean, I got six reviews- great ones, I might add, but I was a bit let down after getting thirteen for the previous one. As I've reached ten chapters, I'd like to thank the people who have reviewed my story on a regular or semi-regular basis: Selesteant (my first review ever!), RoxanneAteTheCookies, lcd619, Cereburus of the Three Swords, hushpuppy22 (even if you don't love it), Mistakened First, and bolondteri. If I left you out- give me a shout and I'll fix that. Keep reviewing and you'll keep getting chapters! Simple as that!