A/N: See you back on January 18th.
Al was surprised how calm he felt as Ellie finished getting ready to go. She fastened the necklace holster her dad had made her and slid her wand in it.
"You're staring, love." Ellie turned to look at him.
"You have that effect on me," Al moved to stand next to her in his small bathroom.
"You're rather captivating as well," she smiled up at him.
Al pulled her to him and let himself enjoy holding her as her arms slid around his waist. He should be nervous, panicked even, stress cleaning every square inch of his flat, but somewhere along his journey with Ellie, Al realized he was changing, he was a different person than when he first met El, a better man.
"Care to meet my sisters?"
Ellie grinned, "I've always wanted sisters."
Al laughed, "Lily will love you. That's all she's ever wanted too."
They stepped through the grate and into Al's childhood home.
"She's here! She's here! She's here!"
Al rolled his eyes as Lily came sliding on her socked feet into the sitting room. She'd been out of Hogwarts nearly a year but he still couldn't wrap his head around how a woman stood where his baby sister had been before.
"El, this is my little sister, Lily. Lils, this is my girlfriend, Ellie."
Ellie held out her hand to Lily who promptly knocked it away to hug her.
"Has Al told you how much I love new sisters?"
Ellie blushed, "He did mention you always wanted sisters."
"Be nice Lils," Al pulled Ellie back to him. Then he gave Lily a pointed look. "We should talk, you haven't responded to my letters."
Lily didn't meet his eye, "Been busy."
"We'll talk," Al smiled at her.
Ever since Lorcan had called off his relationship with Lily just before they finished school she'd been distant, and while Al was easily distracted, he was not completely oblivious to how far away Lily had pulled herself.
Al led Ellie to the back garden where he was sure everyone would be. It was his mum's favorite place to entertain.
Al turned to talk to Ellie when a squeal interrupted him and little hands were pulling on his jeans.
"Hey, buddy!" Al scooped up his nephew. "El, this is my nephew, Johnny. He's Teddy's boy."
Johnny looked critically at Ellie before his eyes fell on her wand hanging around her neck. His hair started to turn white as he dove for it with outstretched hands.
"He's a Metamorphmagus?" Ellie's eyes were the size of saucers as Al pulled his nephew out of reach.
"Just like his father and grandmother," Vic came walking in from the back garden. "You must be Ellie. I'm Teddy's wife, Victoire. It's nice to finally meet you."
Ellie took Vic's proffered hand and smiled, "You too. I've heard a bit about everyone from Harry and Ginny, but meeting you all is much nicer."
Vic laughed as Johnny's eyes went green to match Al's. "We're a right crazy lot, but we do try to save some face."
"Speak for yourself," Jamie called out from the patio.
"Let's go introduce everyone to you," Al shifted Johnny in his arms and took El's hand.
On the patio, they found Jamie and Allie stretched out on a blanket on the lawn, Harry, and Teddy at the grill, and Ginny orchestrating the rest of the dishes as they floated out the kitchen window and onto the set table.
"Ellie!" Ginny held out her arms and Ellie immediately moved to hug her.
"Everyone, this is Ellie," Ginny turned to her family. "I'm quite fond of her so be nice."
"You remember Ted and Jamie," Al stepped up beside Ellie to hug his mum. "This is Allie, Jamie's fiance."
Allie smiled and pushed her dark blonde hair over her shoulder as she stood from the blanket. "I'm so glad to meet you. You had Jamie completely flabbergasted at wearing your wand in your hair. He didn't stop talking about it the whole day."
El laughed as she shook Allie's hand. "I was pretty put out when I got my wand and it was so short in comparison to my dad's. So he and my grandma tried to find ways to help me feel better, and Grandma had the idea of giving me ways to wear my wand like jewelry."
"I think the necklace is a great option," Allie nodded to El's wand before sliding Johnny from Al's arms before he realized it.
"Hey!" Al reached back for his nephew but Allie jumped away.
"Don't interfere, Al," his mum smiled at Johnny as Allie set him between her and Jamie. "I'm hoping this will encourage then to have kids sooner. I want more grandchildren."
"Give them time, Gin," Harry chuckled as he turned off the grill. "They aren't even married yet."
Ginny winked at him and Al shook his head with a chuckle.
"So, Ellie," Jamie tickled Johnny's cheeks as he spoke, "Tell us what it's like growing up in Canada."
And that more or less created the exact situation Al had hoped for. His siblings listened captivated as Ellie shared stories about growing up in St. John's, and by the time dinner was finished it felt like Ellie had been around for as long as Vic and Allie had.
Al noticed Lily quietly excuse herself and slip into the house. He waited a few moments before squeezing El's hand and following after his baby sister.
"I'm fine, Al." Lily's voice sounded from the kitchen.
"No, I don't think you are." Al loved Lily, but her determination to put on a good face no matter what was getting tiresome.
"Al, you've been gone for nearly three years, I've changed from what you remember." Lily started the dishes.
"Yeah, you have," Al chuckled at how different Lily looked from what he remembered when he finished Hogwarts. "But I've changed too, and I'm working to be outside of myself more. Which means I'm noticing that you aren't fine."
Lily ignored him as she fussed with the dishes.
Al pulled out his wand and started drying and putting the dishes away as they came out of the rinse water.
"It's alright to be hurt."
"I'm fine, Al." Her voice was tight and Al knew he was making progress.
"You know, Ellie talks about letting the bad things that happen to us be a part of what makes us more compassionate in the future."
Lily clenched her jaw and Al kept going. She needed to break out of this lie that it didn't matter. She needed to let it matter, if only for a few moments before she could move on.
If he'd learned anything from El, it was that the emotions he felt mattered, and what he did with them mattered more.
"And part of developing that compassion is being able to forgive so you can move forward unburdened."
"Forgive?" She screeched at him.
Al felt relief, he'd managed to get her to stop hiding.
"You expect me to forgive him for planning a life with me and then weeks before all those plans are supposed to become a reality to take it all back? Forgive him for saying he didn't think he ever really loved me? Are you insane?!"
Al chuckled, "There is potential that I'm insane, but I'm telling you because forgiveness was what Teddy shoved down my throat when Jamie and I were having our falling out, and..."
"That's completely different!" She cut him off. "You're brothers, you had to fix things so you didn't wreck our family."
"No, Lils," Al pulled her down to the kitchen table and stopped their dishwashing line. "We had to forgive each other so we didn't wreck ourselves. Lorcan has no clue how long you're harboring this grudge, and it's only hurting you. He's living his life. He's doing the things he wants to do. And what are you doing Lily?"
She looked down at the table and shook her head.
"Hating him is only hurting you. I'm not saying anything he did was right. And trust me, if you'd told me what happened when it was actually happening I probably would have hexed him and taken Aunt Luna's wrath for it. Don't pretend like what he did was alright, but stop hurting yourself over it. Forgive him for you. Forgive him so you can move on. Forgive him because you love yourself more than you thought you loved him."
And then it was as though his baby sister was suddenly back, clinging to him as she cried about scraped knees and broken toys. Al held Lily, grateful to finally see some emotion back in his fiery little sister. She'd be alright, he was sure of that now as she let all the emotions run through her tears.
"Thank you," she sniffed before conjuring a handkerchief. "I really needed you to say all that."
"That's what big brothers are for."
"No, that's your specific specialty," Lily gave him a small smile. "You've always been the one to call me out. Teddy always wants to give me time to come around on my own, and Jamie wants to make me feel better with fun and jokes, but you are the one who comes in, wands blazing, and lays it all out on the table for me to see."
She wiped her eyes again, "Thank you."
"I love you, Lils, and I want to see you happy." Al rubbed her shoulder and smiled. "Now let's finish these dishes so we can make Mum bring out dessert."
"There's a reason you're my favorite," Lily grinned.
"You say that to all three of us." Al rolled his eyes.
Lily stuck her tongue out at him, "And it's true every time I say it."
Al let the conversation move to happier things as the finished the dishes. He hugged Lily once more before they returned to the back garden and claiming a spot next to El on Jamie and Allie's blanket.
"You're a good brother," Ellie said it quietly as Jamie told a story from work.
Al smiled at where Lily sat with their mum and dad, "She's a good sister."
"It'll make you a good father."
She said it with such nonchalance that Al wondered if he'd imagined it as the words rendered him unable to speak. But while they were terrifying words, they were also emboldening words.
He placed a small kiss on her cheek. He wanted to be a good father, with a very specific woman by his side.