"Daddy? I can't sleep." Harry looked up from the paperwork that was sitting on his desk to his daughter, standing at his home office door. "I had a bad dream."

Gesturing his daughter over to him, the little blonde girl ran and climbed onto her father's lap. He remembered how much he hated getting nightmares, hell he still hates it when he gets nightmares. Meaning, anytime Meredith had a bad dream, he was putty in her hands.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked as she snuggled herself into his chest.

Their matching green eyes met when Meredith asked what she always asked whenever she woke up from a nightmare. "Can you tell me about you and mummy falling in love?"

"Of course." Kissing the top of her head, he started. "Once upon a…."

"Daddy, that's not how you're supposed to start the story." She giggled into his chest.

"Just making sure you're listening. Alright, Daddy was an on a horrible date…."

The restaurant was full of couples enjoying their meal and time together. Well, most of the couples anyway.

Harry Potter was sitting at a white-clothed table across from a woman who was just another pretty face. And for all intense and purposes was a Harry Potter fangirl. Another one.

They were all sneaky, the fangirls, making themselves seem like they truly did want to know the man behind the many nicknames. But instead, the second he ordered the appetizer, they started to ask the Harry Potter questions.

"What was it like? Defeating You-Know-Who?"

"Did you actually kill a basilisk when you were only twelve years old?"

"Were you truly the youngest seeker to ever play at Hogwarts?"

"Why don't you play quidditch professionally? Why aren't you an Auror?

"Could you really perform a Patronus in your third year?"

"Why didn't you ask me to the Yule Ball? We went to Hogwarts at the same time."

And by the time the entree would show up, Harry would be three drinks in. But this time, he escaped when he went to the restroom. And this time, fate was there, making sure he left with his future wife.

"You know if you are that miserable, you could just bail." A beautiful silky voice said after he left the bathroom.

Turning his attention to the voice, he found an old crush of his that he had after being partners with her during Defense of Dark Arts during their sixth year. Daphne Greengrass was the only one to disarm him while dueling. He never acted on it with everything else that he was going thru. With stalking Malfoy and actually becoming better at potions then Hermione, for once. He didn't even have time for the short-lived relationship he had with Ginny also to try to get to know Daphne.

"Daphne, how have you been? Who are you here with?"

The Valentine created for date nights. There were no tables for singles or third wheels. The owner wanted everyone to feel like it was always Valentine's Day. Something Harry found nauseating. Valentine's Day has never been a holiday that Harry had found necessary. But his date, Tara, had picked the restaurant after he asked her out on a date. Another thing he was finding nauseating.

"I'm here with Cormac."

"And you want to leave just as badly as I do?" Harry asked, remembering how Hermione was after spending twenty minutes with the guy during Slughorn's Christmas Party.

"You have no idea."

Finding his waiter, he paid the bill for him and his now not date and held his hand out to Daphne. "Let's get out of here."

The two left the restaurant without either one of their dates seeing them going. When their feet touched the sidewalk outside of the heart filled restaurant, the two started laughing.

"I can't believe we just did that," Harry said as the two began walking to the apparition point.

"I can't believe you still paid for the bill," Daphne commented, rolling her eyes. "You were so miserable."

"Can't be that much of an ass. This way, it's more likely she won't go to the press that I left her alone at the table."

Shaking her head at him, Daphne felt her stomach rumble. She left before she could even get a bit of food in. She was only ten minutes into her date with Cormac McLaggen, when she left the restaurant. And that was including from him picking her up at her loft to sitting at their reserved table.

"Merlin, I am starving."

"Me too," Harry said, looking around the street they were on, seeing if there was anything that sounded good. "It looks like there is a pub right over there."

Daphne followed his gaze and saw the four-leaf clover, her stomach growled louder when she pictured shepherd's pie and a pint of beer. "Let's go."

The two walked to the Irish pub and immediately felt overdressed. They were both dressed to the nines for their dates they were supposed to be on. Everyone inside the pub was wearing typical Friday nightclothes. Jeans and t-shirts. There were women wearing dresses, but they weren't cocktail dresses. There were men wearing suits, but they were wrinkled work suits.

Harry was wearing a new charcoal grey three-piece suit, with an emerald tie to match his eyes. He never was a suit man himself, until he took his seats on the Wizengamont. Suits became his new regular, and they were better than dress robes.

"Do we want to stay or just feel overdressed?" Harry asked, turning his attention towards Daphne. He never gave himself a good look at her when they were at the restaurant—not wanting to be inappropriate, checking out another man's date when he was on a date himself. And now he was kicking himself for not giving Daphne his full attention.

Daphne's cocktail dress fit her like a glove, hugging every curve on her body. The navy blue material made her complexion glow. Her perfectly curled hair fell down her naked back. She wore little makeup seeing as the goddess of beauty would be jealous of her.

"I'm too hungry even to care if anyone thinks we're overdressed," Daphne said with a smirk resting on her lips as her eyes caught Harry's. She wasn't blind, and she knew how men looked at her. Most of the time, she didn't care if she found them staring. Staring, she could ignore. Unless the man was Harry Potter, then she wanted him to stare as long as he liked as long as he acted on it.

Nodding his head in agreement, he guided Daphne by the small of her back to a corner booth where they could talk. Once they sat down, Harry couldn't shake the tingling feeling out of his fingers after he touched Daphne's skin. Her warm, smooth skin.

But before he could think anymore about Daphne's skin, a waitress showed up at their table. "A little dressed up for our pub, don't you think?"

"We were both on horrible dates with other people and ditched them to be with each other," Harry said, looking at Daphne matching his smile with hers.

"Well, you two make a very nice looking couple, the children you will make." She said while pulling out her notepad, not seeing the blush forming on both of their faces. "What can I get ya?"

"I would like a pint and shepherd's pie," Daphne answered while Harry looked down at his menu.

"You know what? I'll have the same." The two shared another small smile as the waitress walked away. "Should have we corrected her?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Daphne played with the napkin that was on the table. She was never one to act on her feelings. If she did, she probably would have tried to be with Harry a long time ago. Not a year after they graduated. "There's no point too. It's not like we are ever going to see her again."

"This is true."

They sat at the corner booth all night, talking about everything under the sun. From their favorite colors, favorite class during Hogwarts. How Daphne was an emergency room healer at St. Mungo's, something she had always dreamed she would be. Harry's search to figure out what he truly wanted to do with his life after realizing being an Auror was not what he wanted.

What they didn't notice was how they were always touching in some way. Fingers were brushing against the others. Hands were touching the other's shoulder or leg when they found something funny. The touches weren't noticeable to each other, but to everyone around them, they were.

"You could be a teacher, you know," Daphne mentioned as the two started their walk to an apparition point. "I heard you were quite a good one during the fifth year if the rumors are true, of course."

"That they are," Harry laughed as Daphne's eyes widen ever so slightly. "If you want, I can tell you what rumors are or aren't true."

Looking around the abandoned street, her eyes finding a clock telling them it was 3 a.m., "Now I would say yes, but it is far later than either of us realized."

"Oh shit, it is!" He exclaimed after his eyes followed hers to the clock, ruining what turned into the best night of his life.

"I should probably go home and get as much sleep as I can before my shift."

"When's your shift at?"

"Seven."

"Ouch, four hours of sleep isn't much," Harry said, as Daphne returned his suit jacket to him. He didn't remember giving it to her, yet he did know that he liked it on her much more than on himself. "Go home, get some sleep."

"Will do. Goodnight, Harry."

"Goodnight, Daphne." And with that, Harry watched her as she disappeared out of his sight.

Seven hours later, Daphne found herself holding in a yawn for the umpteenth time during her shift. When she arrived, she hoped for a slow day. A couple of broken bones that only needed a simple flick with her wand, and she could find herself in an on-call room to sleep. But the second you wish for a slow day, you receive the opposite.

And boy, did she receive the opposite when a whole team of quidditch players brought to her emergency room. A freak accident with a bludger going out of control during early morning practice. There were not just a couple of bones that needed fixing. It was bones that needed to regrow because the nitwit team healer messed up a simple bone fixing spell. Brooms found in places she never wanted to find a broom.

"I don't understand how quidditch is still even allowed. Horrible sport." Daphne groaned as she took a seat behind the nurses' station.

"Maybe because it is the best sport ever to be invented." She turned around quickly, thinking alone quidditch player heard her and was ready to debate. But instead, she was stunned.

There stood Harry Potter, holding two cups of coffee from the coffee shop across the street from the hospital.

"What are you doing here?" Daphne asked, standing up from her comfy chair and taking the coffee from him.

A broad smile grew on his face as he watched her take multiple gulps of the hot beverage, "I figured you needed some coffee since I kept you out pretty late last night."

"I appreciate it," Daphne said, pulling up a chair for Harry, mainly so she could sit back down. "It has been a crazy morning."

"Something with quidditch players?"

"Accidental bludger malfunction."

"Ah, I remember those from my Hogwarts day," He said before his eye widened with glee. "Maybe I should be a quidditch player." He watched as Daphne pulled out a large pile of papers. "What are those?"

"The charts of the cases I took care of today," Daphne said as she listed off the many injuries that she dealt with.

"Alright, alright. Stop!" Harry exclaimed with a spark of laughter, making everyone turn and see Healer Greengrass laughing with Harry Potter. "I won't be a professional quidditch player."

"Good." She said her voice filled with laughter, setting the charts back on the desk before flicking her wand to file them. "Now ,have you picked a career yet? Or are you just going to find an elderly, widowed, rich woman to be her trophy husband."

Shaking his head at her antics, Harry answered honestly, "I actually sent an owl to Professor McGonagall, seeing if there is a need for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts. Maybe I'll be able to break that curse."

"Harry! That's amazing!" And then she did something that was out of character for her to act towards someone she just met. She pulled him into a tight hug, going to kiss him on the cheek. Not expecting him to turn his head and their lips landing on each other. And once he did that, everything she felt for the man in her arms, hit her.

Both Daphne and Harry's worlds stopped; they were the only ones in the emergency hospital room. There in each other's arms, all they wanted to be was each other. Something neither realized the night before. The two horrible dates they were on turned into something unique and all they ever wanted with someone they least expected.

"Mummy and daddy fell in love with each other with that one kiss," Harry said looking, down at the now sleeping little girl in his arms. Smiling softly, he slowly and carefully carried the young girl back to her bedroom. Kissing the top of her head, he walked out of the bedroom to his own to find his beautiful wife of seven years sitting on the bed starring down at her growing stomach. "I had to tell the story to Meredith again."

Laughing softly, Daphne sat up straighter in bed, patting the spot next to her, "It is her favorite bedtime story."

"I know, but she actually corrected me multiple times while I was telling her the story. She fixed whatever I mixed up. We need to tell her a different story." Climbing into bed and resting his hand on Daphne's pregnant belly.

"We should just write it down and teach her how to read with it."

"That is an excellent idea. Now, are the twins keeping you awake?"

"Yes, I think the boys need a bedtime story as well," Daphne said, laughing as she watched Harry adjust himself down closer to her stomach.

"Daddy was on a horrible date." The laughter grew from Daphne's lips as Harry repeated the story he just told their daughter.