Luckily for Mercy the Weasleys and Potters were occupied for some time. They went to a victory party at the Ministry Manor (home of the Minister of Magic). Nemo was engaged with Lucy, leaving Mercy alone with her thoughts. On one hand she was incredibly pissed off at Nemo. How dare he? On the other hand she was afraid of her father's reaction. Truth-be-told, she didn't want to let him down. She had always thought that she wasn't near the daughter that he would have wanted, she was just what came with her mother. She wasn't interested in anything he was, they bonded but not the way he and Nemo had.

While thinking about this she secluded herself from the party. She sat herself in a small corner. She was glaring intently at the wall, completely oblivious to the party happening around her. That was, until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into the face of Harry Potter. He hadn't really changed that much over the passed 6 years. Sure, a few gray hairs here, and a wrinkle there but for the most part he was the same. "How's my favorite daughter," he asked, crouching down beside her.

"Nothing," she lied, looking briefly to his face. He ruffled her hair before continuing.

"Why haven't you joined the party? Is something bothering you?"

"No, I'm just a bit tired."

"Are you getting sick?"

"No, I don't know," she was starting to sweat under the pressure.

"Honey, are you okay?" She felt a great sadness well up inside her.

"Damn mood swings!" she muttered.

"What?" he asked. "I didn't catch that." She felt a hot tear slide down her face. She hoped he didn't catch it. She batted her eyelashes to hide it. "Honey, what's wrong?" he asked. No such luck. The tears started flowing and she couldn't stop. She found herself pressed against the warm, red Cannons T-shirt of her father. He had his arms wrapped around her as she was shaking.

'Oh this is great!' she thought to herself. 'Now Dad's going to feel sorry for me right before yelling at me!' She found that the combination of hormones, her evil brother, Druce, and her father overwhelming and she couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Honey, baby, Mercy," he tried to pry her from his shoulder. Finally he succeeded and looked into her eyes. "Mercy, what is wrong with you?"

"P-P-P-M-M-M-S-S-S," she sobbed out. She wasn't about to let him in on Druce at that moment. As she had expected he stopped. He had no idea what to do.

"Maybe this is something for your mother to handle," he said nervously. She tried to stop him but he was up and over across the room in a minute. He said a few things to Ginny before she came over.

"Do you need anything dear?" she asked, pulling her hair out of her face.

"No," Mercy said, composing herself. "Well, maybe some chocolate would help." Ginny nodded and hurried off to the snack table. Mercy looked over at her father and to her horror saw Nemo next to him. Nemo was whispering urgently to him. Suddenly she heard a:

"WHAT!" she winced and glanced around for an exit. She knew what was coming and it wouldn't be pretty. Her parents would be pissed along with the rest of her family. She saw the open patio door and bolted for it. She was quick as a rabbit and would have made it if it hadn't been for her stupid, idiot cousin. Jonathan grabbed her arm. "MERCY ARWIN POTTER TELL ME THAT YOU DO NOT LIKE A MALFOY!" All eyes turned to her. She gave a forced laugh, hoping to ease the tension in the room. It didn't. Jonathan loosened his grip around her arm and turned to look at her.

"I-I, umm, well, he is a Ravenclaw," she squeaked out. Her father quickly closed the distance between them and was in her face.

"I don't care, no daughter of mine will be fraternizing with a Malfoy!"

"You work with him!" she exclaimed.

"Do you really think that I chose that?"

"You, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione fought with him in the second rise!"

"No we didn't, we were fighting on the same side but we were not fighting with him!"

"He was one of the good guys!"

"No, he was not a good guy, he just wasn't a bad guy. How could I ever hope you'd understand?"

"Don't be condescending Dad and you don't even know that I fancy him anyway, you're just taking Nemo's word on it. It's not fair!"

"Life's not fair but I do know one thing, no daughter of mine will ever be friends let alone go out with a Malfoy. Not as long as I have breath in my body."

"Well I guess it's a good thing that I'm not actually your daughter then!" Mercy ran from the room out onto the terrace. The wind was warm on her cheeks and blew the tears aside. She was angry and upset and depressed and guilty all at once. She hugged her arms though the night wasn't chilly. She didn't stop running till she lost hearing of the house. It was embarrassing; everybody who was anybody was at that party and they all heard her and her father. She collapsed on the ground in a fit of tears. Why did she have to fall for Druce Malfoy? He wasn't that attractive! Sure he did have a cute smile and his blond curls bounced in just the right way.

She looked up at the sky; the stars were particularly bright that night. She bit her lip in an effort to stop crying but hot, salty tears kept falling and sobs still escaped her body. She was shaking; it hurt to hear her father speak like that. That, she guessed was why she had said that she wasn't really his daughter, because she wanted to hurt him.

~Meanwhile, back at Ministry Manor~

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR OWN DAUGHTER!" Ginny screeched.

"What?" Harry asked stunned.

"She's crying now, she ran off. Nobody can help who their crushes are!" Harry was suddenly struck with how terrible he was being.

"Oh shit! I've been a total horses ass!"

"Harry! Watch your language!" Hermione chided. Harry ignored her and rushed from the house in the direction Mercy and sprinted. It wasn't hard to spot her since she was sitting in the middle of the vacant lawn. Her beautiful hair was blowing behind her and he could see her shaking. He was hit by how insensitive he had been. He walked slowly up to her as not to startle her.

"Mercy," he whispered. She didn't turn, simply shrugged. "I'm sorry Mercy," he went on, sinking down beside her. He tried to put his arm around her thin shoulder but she shrugged him off. "I guess I deserve that. Anyway, I'm really sorry sweaty. I guess I just don't want you to have a crush on anyone."

"What about Nemo, you don't seem to have a problem with him and Lucy!" she shot back icily.

"Yeah, it's just different."

"Because I'm a girl? That's such a double standard!"

"Yeah but, well, you're just my little girl and I never want you to grow up. I remember when your little hand fit inside mine and now, well now they're just so much bigger. You've really grown into a lovely girl. That's bad for me because that means that you're going to attract boys like bees to honey." He fell silent.

"Well you're going to have to stop," she said in a strong voice. "I won't have you and Nemo babying me for all time!"

"Well you really don't have a say in it!" Harry said, his temper flaring again.

"Why, it's my life!"

"Yeah, well I'm your father and I'm always going to be protective so deal with it!"

"Jerk off."

"Watch your tongue!"

"Leave me alone! I don't need you right now." Now what Mercy had meant to say was that she didn't need to talk to him right now but that's not what she said. It cut Harry's heart to hear her say she didn't need him.

"Fine, I'll just leave you here to sulk," he got up and turned around. He didn't want her to see the tears in his eyes.

"Dad, I didn't mean that, I just meant I didn't need to talk to you right now," she said in slight annoyance.

"Fine, I'll just leave you here to sulk," he repeated. "Your mother will come out when we're getting ready to go.

"Please don't do this Dad, I don't need guilt on top of everything else!"

"Don't feel guilty then," he didn't say anymore but just walked back to the house. She dissolved again into a fit of sobs.

Harry walked back into the house and sunk into a chair. Ron came over with Sawyer in his arms. He sat opposite Harry. "What happened?" he asked. "You look a wreak."

"She said she didn't need me any longer," Harry said in a low voice.

"That's harsh, here Sawyer, give Uncle Harry a big hug and make him feel better," Ron always knew how to cheer him up when he wanted to. His goddaughter climbed into his lap and she gave him a big hug. Even at 3 she was comforting. He hugged her back.

"Do you feel better now Uncle Hawwy?" she asked in her little voice.

"Much better, thank you Sawyer," he replied, feigning a smile for the small child.

"I'll just leave you and Sawyer here, I believe Hermione needs some help with Luke and Spence." Ron walked over to his wife who was struggling with their two fighting sons. Sawyer grinned up at him with her huge blue eyes. She looked a lot like Ron and the only two traits she had inherited from her mother was her mother's small, delicate nose and her curly, brown hair.

"You'll never say that kind of stuff to Ron will you?" Harry asked the small child. She shook her head and giggled.

"No, Mercy bad girl! She makes Uncle Harry cry!"

"Mercy's not a bad girl, she's just upset," Harry said more to himself then Sawyer. The girl nodded.

"I've got to go and see Sebille," she said, climbing off his lap.

Meanwhile Mercy was still crying her eyes out on the lawn. She had dirt and grass stains all over her cloths and her hair was a mess. Things really seemed pretty bad. What she really wanted was to be back at Hogwarts where she could get away from her parents and Nemo. Nemo was the worst because he took his being a few minutes older then her very seriously. He hammed up the "older-brother-iteis" thing to a whole new level. She cringed to think about what he surely would do to Druce when they got back to school. Druce was incredibly sweet; she doubted if he could really hurt a fly. She sighed. She did feel bad about what she had said to her father. He had taken it the wrong way but she knew that he must feel terrible.

She took another deep breath and got up. She steadied herself and decided to go in and make it up to him. He was going to have to come to terms with this but he shouldn't be totally miserable. She walked back toward the light of the house. When she got to the doors she breathed in one last gust of the warm night air. She smelled the smooth smell of freshly trimmed grass and honeysuckles. The room had grown a bit quieter and she tried her hardest not to make very much noise. She succeeded for the most part, only Parry and Piper noticed she was once more in the house. She had her arms closed around herself and she must have looked a wreck.

She caught sight of Harry sitting on the couch with a sullen look on his face. The pangs of guilt enveloped her and she felt sick She closed the distance between them and stood in front of him for a prolonged second. Seeing that he wasn't going to look up she gave a cough. He looked up. "Oh, it's you," he said this with the smallest bit of bite to his voice. She bit her lip, willing not to cry.

"Look, I'm sorry." His face softened. She looked down at her flip-flop clad feet. "I didn't mean what I said, it came out wrong. I meant to say that I didn't need to be harassed at that particular minute."

"I know, it's, well it hurt to hear that from your mouth."

"We should talk about it but not when I'm a hormonal nightmare," she laughed a little as did he.

"It's weird thinking of you as a hormonal nightmare. I still kind of think of you as a 6-year-old," he answered truthfully.

"I know and that's part of our problem. But," she added quickly: "We don't need to talk about that right now." He nodded and pulled her into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her.

"You'll always be my little girl and you'll just have to come to terms with that. You are getting bigger though," he added, burying his head in her hair. "I love you Mercy."

"I love you too," Mercy whispered.