[A⁄N: Sorry for the long absence (or at least it feels long. School has warped my brain). I've already started on the next chapter and I'm very excited for you to read it. I'll just say that the fluff is over. And with that, I have to get back to math homework! Summer classes for the win!]

Moving into the house had proved to be an easier task that I initially thought and we were done very quickly. The night of the 2nd, I was surprised that we were actually going to be able to spend our first night there.

We got Mira to sleep in her Slytherin bedroom and continued the chore of unpacking dishes in our kitchen after everyone had gone home.

"Happy to be home?" Draco asked, putting some plates into the cabinet. I looked over at him and smiled.

"Elated," I said. I was currently trying to figure out the best way to arrange the pots and pans on the hanging rack above the island but was having no luck.

"Don't say it so half-heartedly," Draco said. "This is our home. Our home, Hannah. This is where we're going to raise our kids spend our life together."

I sighed. "I guess I'm just. . . Still really overwhelmed by everything. It's all so real now."

Draco abandoned the plates and walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my cheek.

"I wish I could just make all of your anxiety go away," Draco said.

"Maybe I'll feel better once I get back to work," I sighed. "I think I needed the distraction."

Draco kissed my cheek. "But you were so excited for vacation."

"I was excited to be with you," I said. "I ended up doing so much stuff I've barely spent time with you that was interrupted by your parents or various members of my family."

Draco spun me around and lifted me up onto the island. He then leaned forward and kissed me.

"What?" I asked.

"We're alone now," he said kissing my neck. "All alone in our big house. . . And our daughter is sleeping." He moved his hand up my thighs to the waist band of my jeans.

"Draco, we're in the kitchen," I said.

"So we are," he said kissing my neck.

"We can't shag in the kitchen," I said.

"We can do whatever want wherever we want," he said.

888

"You will find a dress," Ginny said. "Say it."

"I will find a dress," I said.

"And you will stop stressing about life," Hermione said.

"I will do my best to stop stressing about life," I said.

Hermione frowned at me. We were back at King's Cross putting them on the train to go back to school.

"Harry, if your sister starts acting out again, please pull her back together," Hermione said.

"I'll do my best," Harry said.

"And tell Kristen I said 'hi,'" Ginny said.

"You know I will," Harry said. "And you do great at conditioning."

"I kick ass at everything. You already know," Ginny said. "Plus it'll be easy since next game I get to whoop Draco's ass all across the pitch again."

Draco didn't hear Ginny's insult as he was currently in the process of changing a diaper.

"Mira don't you know it's impossible to hold a conversation with your dad if you're being all adorable and cute in your stroller?" Ginny said.

Draco sat up from Mira's stroller dirty diaper in hand.

"All done. Was someone talking to me?" Draco asked.

"Never mind, the moment has passed," Ginny said dismissively.

Draco tossed the diaper into a nearby rubbish bin and then leaned down and pulled Mira up from her stroller.

"Don't give your mum too much trouble while I'm gone," he said to her.

"Oh! Hey, Draco!"

I cringed at the voice.

"Andy. Hi," Draco said. "How was your break?"

"It was so awesome. I was glad to finally get home and see my family and junk. I was telling them all about you," Andy said.

I hoped I didn't look as annoyed as I felt, but then she turned to Mira.

"MJ! Wow! I haven't seen you in forever. You got so big since I babysat," Andy said.

In Draco's arms, Mira turned away and reached out to me. "Mummy."

I took Mira away and smiled at Andy.

"She probably just needs a nap," I said, smiling politely at Andy as Mira laid her head on my shoulder. If ever there was any doubt she was my child it had all been dispelled in that moment.

"How was your break?" Andy asked.

"Oh, it was pretty quiet. Wedding planning and all that. Oh, and Hannah and I just moved into our new house," Draco said.

"Aww, you guys have got a house. That's so cute," Andy said.

"Yeah, that's usually what people do when they get married—move off on their own into a house," I said.

"Yeah, but you guys aren't married yet," Andy said.

Andy must've thought I was an idiot. I knew exactly what she meant by that and I was having none of it.

"But we will be, in June," I said.

"Yeah, but for now," Andy started.

I opened my mouth to tell her off, but Draco cut me off.

"You know what, Andy, I will catch up with you on the train. I'm just going to say goodbye to my fiancé and my daughter," Draco said.

"Right. Duh. I'm being totally intrusive right now. My bad," Andy said. "See you peeps later."

Andy smiled and walked off.

"That's Andy?" Harry asked.

"Yes. I despise her," I said.

"I can imagine," Ron said. "Hitting on Draco right in front of you like she doesn't care."

"That's because she doesn't care. She's awful," Ginny said. "She once told me that 'sometimes girls get pregnant on purpose to keep a man around' and I said to her 'you do realize that Hannah's been one of my best friends since I was five and that I'm dating her brother?'"

"To which she responded, 'yeah, but do you honestly think Draco would've stayed with her if there weren't a baby involved?'" Hermione said.

"You never told me she said that," Draco said.

"It was on the last day before break. We didn't feel the need to," Hermione said.

"Why do you think she didn't say hello to us? It's because I told her off," Ginny said.

"Using a lot of very colorful words and vulgar gesturing," Hermione said.

"Hannah's like my sister and I don't like when people take badly about her behind her back," Ginny said.

"Not to mention the fact that you're incredibly confrontational," Ron said.

Ginny frowned at him as the train whistle blew.

"Try and stay out of trouble," Harry said to Ginny.

"You know she won't," Hermione said as she hugged Ron one last time.

"I'm leaving now, Mira," Draco said. "Bye bye."

"Bye bye, Daddy," she said.

"Jesus, you're adorable," Ginny said.

Draco pecked Mira's cheek before giving me a kiss as well.

"I'll see you in February," Draco said. I nodded. I had to redo all of my higher Wizarding education this month thanks to my run in with Lestrange. It was going to be tough, but I was sure I could manage. It would be a while before I got back to Hogwarts though.

We put Draco, Hermione, and Ginny back on the train and as it pulled away it finally started to sink in that vacation was over and that it was time for us to get back to our lives as responsible, working adults in-training.

888

I loved living in Godric's Hollow. My neighbors were very kind, and thankfully not the kind of people who were going to run around shouting about who had just moved into the neighborhood. There was a small daycare there where I was able to place Mira without any trouble and they were very discreet about her being there.

People in Godric's Hollow already knew the drill. My parents had been living here in secret when they were murdered after all and no one wanted a repeat of that.

When I wasn't home I was busy studying and reading at the ministry and crying to Tyler over lunch about there not being enough hours in the day.

And then I came home, and that was always the worst.

Living alone with a one-year-old was a much bigger monster than I thought it would be. It had been different before when Harry and Ron were living with me in the guest house, and Mrs. Weasley was more than willing to help me with her when I stayed at the Burrow. But now I was by myself. I was completely on my own. When Mira needed to be entertained, I had to do it. If I was in the middle of cooking dinner and she needed a diaper, change I couldn't ask for a hand to help me.

What I needed was an extra set of hands, eyes, and legs to help me.

Weekends were my only reprieve from the chaos tornado that was Mira. But on Saturday I spent the morning at the ministry doing more studying and the rest of the time I spent studying at home while Mira had a play date with Teddy or hung out with Bill and Fleur who wanted to prepare for life with a baby.

Draco spent every weekend at school, studying for the upcoming NEWTs. The time for us all slacking off was over. We were all buckling down into adult life.

At the end of January, I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief after I finished and passed all of my exams. Now that I had finished the extra studying, I would finally have a small bit of free time to do things like get rid of the desire to slam my head through a wall.

I couldn't wait until Draco was out of school. Single parenthood was not the life for me.

"Mummy up," Mira said, tugging on my shirt.

"In a minute, sweetheart. Mummy has to finish putting up this gate so you don't kill yourself on the stairs," I said.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another. Mira had successfully learned to climb the stairs which meant I was now in the process of baby-gating my stairs. In addition to learning to climb the stairs, she'd also taken an interest in running around the house and pushing things off of tables and climbing onto surfaces that shouldn't be climbed on. Not to mention my poor cat, Aria was terrified of her. Any time Aria crossed Mira's path, Mira would pull her tail.

I now firmly believed that Mira was going to be a Slytherin.

As I finished locking the gate in place, there was a knock on my front door.

"Mummy, up," Mira said still tugging at my shirt.

"Just a moment," I shouted to the door.

"Mummy, up. Up. Up. Mummy, up. Mummy. up," Mira repeated.

"Oh, for the love of Godric Gryffindor, do you understand how annoying it when you keep repeating things like that?" I asked her as I picked her up off the ground. The obvious answer to that question was no. She was Slytherin like her father after all. That meant she was ambitious. If repetition produced the desired result she was going to keep repeating it, even if it drove me insane.

There was a knock on the door again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," I said walking over to the door. "Who is it?"

"Your favorite people ever," Harry said through the door.

I pulled it open and he walked inside, Ron, Kassia, and Neville in tow.

"Really nice place you've got here," Neville said.

"Thanks. I like it, though it's quite big for it to only be three of us," I said.

"Well, that's only for now," Kassia said. "Years from now you'll wish it was just the three of you again because you'll have so many children."

"Nope. Not my job. I'll leave the job of having dozens of children to Ron and Harry. Weasleys after all," I said.

"You're so hilarious," Ron said tossling my hair. "Your mummy's so hilarious, Mira!"

"Ron! Ron!" Mira cheered excitedly, struggling to get free of me to get to her favorite uncle.

I released her and practically flew into his arms. Icould already feel a massive weight being lifted off my shoulder.

"We got you a present," Neville said holding a big brown box.

"You didn't have to get me anything. I always pass my tests," I said.

"It's a play pen, for Mira. So you can sit her down and not worry about her terrorizing everything," Harry said.

"Oh, well that is a gift I can appreciate," I said.

"And we're going to make you dinner," Neville said. "You always look so stressed out these days. We figured you could use a bit of a break."

"You guys are my heroes," I said. "I need a break. I'm exhausted and my daughter just learned to use the stairs."

"So how are things going on the potty-training front?" Harry asked.

"Sometimes she takes her diaper off, smears her poo on the walls, and I cry a little on the inside," I said.

"I'd probably cry on the outside," Ron said.

"I did once, because my emotional stability isn't what it used to be these days. But then I took a picture of her, smearing poo on my walls and one day that's going to be a picture she'll wish I'd never taken and I'll have my revenge," I said.

"Brilliant," Kassia said.

"I wonder if our parents have and pictures of us smearing poo on walls," Harry said.

"I doubt it. Thankfully, I know for a fact that is a trait she inherited straight from her dad who also like to take his diaper off," I said.

"Excellent," Kassia said. "I've just mentally added that to my list of blackmail."

Neville and Harry had migrated toward the living room and were currently setting up her new play pen. And that's when I saw something curious.

"Neville," I said, walking over to him. I grabbed his hand and examined it. "Neville, is this a wedding band?"

"Oh! That's right! I kept meaning to tell you at work, but you've been so busy," Neville said. "Bree and I got married."

My jaw dropped. If it hadn't been attached to my face it would've been rolling around on the floor.

"You got married? When?" I asked.

"We eloped over Christmas break, It was a spur of the moment thing, really," he said.

"Eloping usually," I said. "I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"Well, you've been so busy with work and studying and all that I never got a chance to," he said.

"You couldn't have written me over the holiday?" I asked. "I am completely outraged."

"Well, I apologize. If you manage to get over it, during the Hogwarts Hogsmeade trip in February we're having a bit of a house warming party. We moved into a flat over the Three Broomsticks. Your fiancé said he's coming," Neville said.

"I suppose I'll come then, even though everyone knew but me," I said. "I'm glad you told me. I was sending out invitations this weekend. I would've hated to send her one that Brenna Jameson instead of Mrs. Brenna Longbottom."

"Longbottom is such an awkward surname," Kassia said suddenly.

"No one can even pronounce your last name, Kassie," Neville said.

"That's how we roll in Poland, motherfucker," Kassia said with a nod.

"Hey, are you inviting, the Dursleys?" Harry asked.

"After much deliberation I have decided that I will. They did raise you after all, and let me live in their house for the summer while I pregnant and heartbroken," I said. "And, at the very least there's no way they're going to be worse than the Malfoys if they decide to come."

"You know they won't reply via owl, right?" Harry asked.

"That's why I'm sending theirs through the muggle post with a self addressed stamped envelope," I said. "Hermione showed me how."

"They'll appreciate that after the letter they got from Mrs. Weasley a few years back," Harry said. "I didn't know you could fit so many stamps onto an envelope."

"She didn't know any better and it's not as if my dad really had a clue either," Ron said.

[Chapter title credit to Bruno Mars for the song "The Lazy Song."]