Lily laughed. "You must have confused Remus with Sirius, but yes, they've both left."

"No dear. I don't think I've confused them. I know who Remus is."

Lily looked at Petunia. "I can't believe that Remus has ever done a wrong to anyone."

Petunia looked at her hands and Lily was shocked to see them shaking. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yes dear, I'm fine."

"You look faint. Would you like a cup of tea or something?" Lily looked cautiously at Petunia.

"No no, don't worry about me. I've managed for years already, an old woman can manage just fine."

"Is there something you need to say-" Lily broke off. She didn't know what to call the woman.

Petunia shook her head. "Nothing can cure heartache." And she got up and left. Lily watched her retreating back with wide eyes and then turned back to her tea. What did she mean heartache? All Lily knew was that she certainly wasn't talking about Vernon.

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"Is my dad here?" Will asked, slipping in the door.

"No, why would he be here?"

"Because he's not at home. Is your dad here?" He asked slyly.

"No." Lily smiled slowly. "But Petunia is." She added, grinning as Will glared at her.

"Where'd your parents go?" Will asked flopping on the chesterfield.

"Well my mum is dead and my dad is at the pub."

"By parents I meant your dad and Draco. He's like, a surrogate father. I wish I had that."

Lily laughed. "I wish I had a mum."

"Not if your parents hated each other."

"What are you talking about Will, your parents love each other."

"It's not mutual." Will said, not looking at her.

"What are you talking about?" Lily looked at Will and was surprised to see tears in his eyes.

"My mum doesn't want to be with my dad, she wants to be with Wood, and my dad? My dad just wants to be free."

Lily looked at him. She wanted to cheer him up, but she knew the truth, in her heart. "Well they both love you. At least."

Will looked up and right at Lily. "They're going to get a divorce."

Lily looked at him. She had never before heard of divorce in the wizarding world. It wasn't common, she didn't even know if there was divorce court or any other such thing. "Oh Will!" She said when her voice returned. "Are you alright?"

Will looked at her and smiled. "I suppose all I can do is be alright. Besides," he said, shrugging. "My place will be nicer once it's all over with."

"Where will you be living?"

"With my dad, hopefully. Since I see my mum all year."

"How's Anna doing?" Lily asked, as it suddenly occurred to her.

"She's okay. She's gone over to see Moira. I think they're coming over here."

Lily nodded. "I didn't think they'd divorce, I mean they don't fight very often or anything." She paused. "Do they?"

"No, not really." Will said, leaning back in his seat. "They just don't really talk. Mum does her thing, dad does his and they cross paths every once and a while."

Lily thought back to the summer two years before. Ron and Hermione hadn't been in love then, either. She wondered whether they had only married out of duty when Will put it into words.

"Do you think they got married just because they had kids?"

"I don't know. I think all of us wonder that sometimes though, you know? Like I don't think my parents would have got married if it wasn't for me. I know my mum and dad loved each other, but I don't think they would have married. I don't know about anyone else, but I guess it's just something we wonder about."

Will nodded and looked up as his sister knocked. Lily opened the door and let Anna, Moira and Daniel in. She winced inside, wishing she herself had had a brother or sister. "How are you doing?" She asked Anna.

"Alright. I guess it isn't like they're dead or anything."

Lily and Moira winked at each other over Anna's head. "So now we have two more people who need to get married."

"Well I'm thinking that for my dad, we'll take Millicent Bulstrode, that bartender at the Leaky Cauldron and for my mum, we'll give her Gregory Goyle. He's unemployed." Anna said matter-of-factly.

Lily laughed. "Do you guys know what's up with Petunia?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well she's like, scared of Lupin. I don't get it."

Anna shrugged. "I don't know. Unless she knows he's a werewolf, but she wouldn't know that, would she?"

"I don't think so. Where would she have figured that out?"

"Well he did go to a Muggle school! After he got bit...." Moira said. "So maybe they went to the same school, and your grandma found out and told Petunia..."

They discussed the possibilities for a while until Draco and Harry returned. "Oh hello all of you. What are you doing?"

"Talking." The girls said.

"Nothing." The boys said. They looked at each other and then back at Harry and Draco.

"Nothing." The girls said.

"Talking." The boys said.

"Oh-ho, Harry, I think you have some parental duties to attend to here." Draco said, nudging Harry in the side.

"If I don't acknowledge it, it doesn't exist." Harry said back to Draco, who laughed.

"Have you talked to our dad?" Anna asked.

"Yes. He's partying at the pub if you want to talk to him."

"Partying?" Anna said incredulously.

"I would be if I was in his position." Draco muttered in a low voice. Harry jabbed him in the side, but tried not to laugh.

The kids stood to leave and Harry glanced at his daughter. "Are you going to go with them?"

"I'll get some stuff together, Moira and Anna and I are having a sleepover with Caroline."

"Like a slumber party thing?"

"Oh you are sooooooo behind the times." Draco said. "It's a sleepover, Harry. God."

"Whatever." Harry muttered. "Okay then, well you guys head on home and we'll send Lily on in a minute."

"Going to get your stuff Lils?" Harry asked after the others had gone.

"Yeah, but I was wondering something first. Why is Pet-Aunt Petunia afraid of Lupin?"

"I wasn't aware that she was afraid of him. I don't know."

"Oh. Dad? One more thing. Are you going to marry Parvati?"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I don't know. I didn't really think of it. Why?"

"I want a little brother or sister. Everyone has a twin or a brother or something except for me."

"Yeah. I know how you feel. I wanted a brother so bad. My mum had three miscarrages before she gave up." Draco said.

"I didn't know that." Harry said.

"Oh yeah. They figure she kept losing the babies because Lucius would punch her in the belly." Draco shrugged.

Lily looked at him with wide eyes. "He did that?"

"Oh sure. Why not. It was a convinient place to hit her. And the babies were all girls anyway. Lucius Malfoy didn't need any girl.

"But of course that's not why everybody miscarries." Draco added. "I mean that's not why your mother lost her baby, for instance."

"What?!" Harry and Lily said in unison.

"Oh. You didn't know?" Draco said.

"No! How could she not tell me she was pregnant?"

"Well in Susan's defence, she lost the baby six days after she found out."

"How did she-"

"Went into labour on the field I guess. The medi-witch on duty couldn't save the baby, she didn't bother telling you, you were too stressed I guess."

"Holy shit." Harry said. Lily got up and slipped out of the room silently. She packed a bag and walked out into the snow. She didn't go to Anna and Will's though. She shuffled through the streets of the Old City, as the residents called it, looking at the signs, out in the snow.

"Hey Lily!" She turned and saw Ron coming up. "What are you doing out here?"

"Walking."

"Oh. Do you want me to leave you alone?"

Lily gigled at the ludicrousness of the situation. "No tht's okay. I'm just not ready to go over to your place yet."

"To tell you the honest truth, neither am I."

Lily smiled and looked down at her feet. "Did you know my mum had a miscarriage?"

"No, I didn't."

"Well she did. She didn't tell my dad though. He didn't find out until today. I would have had a brother or a sister."

"That's true." Ron said, waiting for Lily to reach the point she was longing to reach.

"I wish I had a brother or sister! I feel so alone sometimes. Even when I'm with my friends, they all have brothers and sisters, they've been here, in this world, their entire lives." Her voice softened. "And what about me? I didn't have grand parents until a year ago. I don't have any aunts and uncles. I don't have brothers or sister, I don't have a mother and I don't know anything about this world."

Ron nodded. "In a funny way, I know how you feel. Only I'm on the opposite end. I guess when you've done poorly you feel like your dad's whole attention is on you. And I felt like that when I did something wrong, except I had half a dozen siblings to be compared to when I did wrong. And when I did right it just got washed away, because it didn't really matter, my brothers had already done good before me."

Lily looked up. "I guess you're right."

"Not entirely." Ron admitted. "I mean there are good things about my family too. I love them, of course, and they love me. They always will, and that's something that your dad never had until he had you. Unconditional love. But when I was a child I never saw it that way. I just saw a freedom that I had never had, that I never would have. And I envied him. And I still envy him today."

"Really? Why?"

"Well look at it. His house is always full of people. His aunt, his godfather, his friends. He doesn't have to be alone unless he wants to be. And then look at me. My house is empty except at Christmas and summer, my wife is leaving me, and I don't care. I have to kids who love each othe more than they love me. I'm wasted."

Lily laughed. "Aw, c'mon. I love you."

Ron grinned. "Well come on now. Back to my house. We have to get rid of the boys before you can go to bed."