The party inside the Leaky Cauldron was going strong, and there were still a good few hours left of it, but I found myself sitting in the side alleyway that led to Diagon Alley, perched on a wooden crate and looking up at the star-filled sky.

It was New Years Eve and Tom and Martha had agreed to have a celebration at the Leaky Cauldron this year. It was mostly at Rachel's constant begging. She'd planned the whole thing out and really put a great argument together for convincing Tom and Martha to go along with it. Although, it was, mainly Tom that she had to convince.

Typically, on New Year's Eve, the pub would get fairly crowded and slightly rowdy with regular patrons, but this year, it was a full on party.

The girls and I had decorated the entire pub with silver, gold and black decorations. Glittering streamers hung around the room, magical balls of light flashing various colors hovered in the air, and Fred had even managed to convince Tom to hang a disco ball from the ceiling, claiming it would reflect the lights beautifully.

"Just for the one night," Tom insisted fiercely. "You hear me, Weasley? Just the one night."

Fred had agreed, but he'd done so with that look in his eyes-the one that told me that he had some sort of trick up his sleeve involving that disco ball.

Music was blasting from inside as well and the tables and chairs had been rearranged to make room for dancing. A silencing charm had been put on the room so as not to disturb guests who actually wanted to keep to themselves in their rooms.

Regular patrons were still allowed in, but Rachel, Kayla, Allie and I had still invited almost everyone we knew. All the Weasleys were here, including Molly and Arthur. My mother was here and so was Lee, Kyle, Kayla's boyfriend Chris, and his friend Alex, who we'd gone out with before. Rachel had even invited Patrick, who she'd hit it off with at Ginny's wedding and who she'd been officially seeing for the past few months.

Speaking of Rachel and the girls, all three of them had lost their minds when I'd told them I was engaged. In fact, I hadn't even had to tell them. Rachel's eyes were drawn to my left hand like magnets the moment she'd walked into the kitchen during our first shift together after Christmas.

"No way!" She'd shrieked so loud that Kyle and I had both actually winced. Rachel had taken no notice, though, as she rushed over to me and took my hand. "Oh, Sophie, I had a feeling he'd be asking you sooner rather than later, and Christmas is such a nice time for proposals. I'd figured it would be then or on New Year's Eve, considering how special last New Year's Eve was for you. But Christmas Eve works just as well! Oh, I'm so happy!" She'd thrown her arms around me and practically knocked me to the ground as I gasped. But then a second later, I was letting out a giggle as I hugged her back.

"Thanks, Rach. I'm happy too."

"There's so much to do, isn't there?" She babbled as she pulled away from me and began listing things off on her fingers. "You'll have to choose flowers and a location and a date and food and-oh! Bridesmaids of course. It's probably rude to assume I'll be one, but I do look best in green. Green would look fabulous on Ginny, too, assuming she's also going to be a bridesmaid. And Kayla will be happy to wear anything but pink. And Allie-"

"Rach, are you planning the entire wedding for Sophie?" Kyle had asked curiously.

Rachel's babbling came to an abrupt halt and there was a short pause. "No, of course not," she said. She looked at me. "Sorry."

"It's okay," I giggled. "I am going to need as much help as I can get. And of course you, Kayla, and Allie will be bridesmaids. How could you not be? I mean, I was also going to actually ask you in a better way than this, but..." I shrugged and fought to hold back a laugh.

Rachel's face brightened again. "Yay!" She cried, throwing her arms around me again.

Now, sitting outside of The Leaky Cauldron while the New Years party raged on inside, I let out a content sigh as I leaned back against the wall of the building and tilted my head upwards towards the sky. I began trying to find the three constellations that Fred had taught me to look for. The Big Dipper, Orion, and Gemini. Usually, the one I could find the easiest and without help was Orion. The other two I still needed Fred's help to locate.

Suddenly, the door to the pub opened, loud in the quiet evening. I jumped slightly and tore my gaze away from the sky to see who was joining me. It was my mother.

"What are you doing out here by yourself?" She asked, tugging her sleeves down over her hands as she shivered a bit.

"Just taking a break," I answered, leaning my head back against the sone wall of the pub as I looked at her.

I had to say, I was a little surprised that she was still in London. I knew she had said she'd stay as long as she had to and that she wanted to work on getting our relationship to the best it could be, but it had been over a year and she hadn't left yet. And our relationship was doing pretty well. I wouldn't have gone as far as saying we were a normal mother and daughter-and I wasn't sure that we'd ever be-but we'd grown closer and I felt as if I'd finally been able to come to terms with all she'd done. I'd finally been able to put it all to rest. And that had come with finally getting answers. All of them, without secrets. And I owed that to Fred. Without him, I may have never found the courage to go after those answers.

"You're okay?" My mother asked, searching my face for any sign of something bothering me.

"Yeah, really." I nodded earnestly. "It was just getting a bit hot inside. And loud. And I just wanted some time to think."

My mother nodded. "I can go back in if you'd like." She half turned towards the door again, but I shook my head.

"No, stay," I whispered.

She smiled and came to sit on the crate beside me, pulling her legs up underneath her with surprising ease.

We sat in silence for a moment before my mother reached over wordlessly and picked up my left hand, examining my ring as she gazed at it seemingly lost in thought.

"I'm so very happy for you, Sophie," she whispered, and I heard her voice catch as she held back tears. "You may still have trouble fully believing it, but I always wanted you to be happy. That's all I ever wanted."

"I know," I answered, putting my free hand over hers. "I do know that now. Fully."

"I should have tried harder," she whispered, wiping her eyes hastily. "I hate that I didn't. You have no idea."

"I know what Eric was like," I told her. "So I can't entirely blame you, even if I wanted to."

My mother sighed and tipped her head back against the wall. "In a perfect scenario-no, not perfect, normal. In a normal scenario, I would've been able to give you advice, help plan your wedding, and do all the other things mothers do for their daughters on their wedding day. But you have Molly and Martha and while I'm so grateful for them and for all they've done-for both of us-I have to admit that it stings a little bit knowing I'm the third best when I should be first." She sighed. "In a normal scenario, you'd also have a father to walk you down the aisle. But again, you have Tom. And I am so grateful that you have him."

It was quiet for a moment as I looked down at my hand, still resting over my mother's. "I want you involved," I whispered. "I do. I want your advice and I want you to come along when I look for a dress and when I make all the important decisions that I need to make."

My mother nodded. "I appreciate that and I'm glad. But we both know it isn't going to be the same. Our scenario isn't normal, as much as we both may wish it."

"If our scenario was normal," I said slowly, "we wouldn't be having this discussion. I wouldn't be about to get married. Or maybe I would be, but to someone else instead of Fred. Someone back in Salem." I let out a dry laugh. "I can't even picture it."

"You're right," my mother said with a bitter laugh. She let out a puff of air. "Maybe it's better this way."

"I don't know if it's better," I answered. "I truly wish I could have had it all. Fred and you. And Martha and Tom and Molly and Arthur and all of my friends. I can't imagine giving up any of my life here, but you know I've always wanted a regular relationship with you. But as we've already established, that would have been impossible. I couldn't have had that with you and ended up here in London."

"Well," my mother sighed, "you do have all of us. We're all here and we do all love you. You and I might not have the relationship we imagined, but you have me and I have you." She reached over and put her free hand on top of mine, layering all of our hands together, one on top of the other.

I nodded. "Thanks," I whispered.

My mother looked at me and sighed as she reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. She leaned in and gave my forehead a soft kiss. "I love you, honey," she whispered.

"I love you too...mom," I whispered back. I noticed the smile on my mother's lips as I called her mom. I hadn't used the word in so long, it almost felt foreign coming out of my mouth. But at the same time, it felt good to say it after all these years.

Suddenly, the door to the pub opened again and Fred emerged, holding two drinks-one in each hand.

"There you are," he said when he saw me, a smile lighting up his face. "I've been looking for you. I was beginning to think you ran away, but instead you've just reverted back to your old habits of hiding in alleys."

"At least I'm not eating from the trash and at least you didn't hit me with the door this time," I said wryly. I sighed. "And at least this time I didn't find any dead bodies behind the trash bins."

Fred's smile faltered for a moment as his gaze dropped to the ground before flickering back up to me and then to my mother. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" He asked.

"No," my mother said briskly, patting my hand and hopping up off of the crate. She smiled at Fred. "She's all yours." As she passed him, she paused and looked up into his face as she squeezed his arm. "Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter," she whispered.

Fred looked down at her in slight surprise. "You've thanked me before," he said.

"I know," my mother answered. "And I'm thanking you again." She patted his arm. "Happy new year, Fred." And then she sent me one last smile before heading back inside.

"Are you okay?" Fred asked, coming to sit beside me in the spot my mother had just vacated. "You seem kind of down."

I nodded as I took the drink he passed me. "I'm okay," I assured him. I tilted my head back up towards the sky. "I couldn't find Gemini or the Big Dipper."

Fred let out a quiet laugh and looked up, studying the sky himself for a moment. Finally, he leaned closer and pointed upwards with his free hand-the one that was closest to me. "Gemini," he finally said, tracing his finger along the constellation.

I leaned even closer to him so I could look straight down his arm at where he was pointing. "There?" I asked, pointing with my own hand and closing one eye as I tilted my head to see better.

Fred let out another breath of laughter and readjusted my hand slightly. "There," he said. "That's the top left." He moved my hand downwards, then moved it in a horizontal line that crossed through the vertical one and then branched off at the end. He did the same for another horizontal line below the first one. "Can you see it now?"

I squinted a bit more and tilted my head again. "I think so." I slowly lowered my arm and continued to look up at the sky.

"You can find it easiest by remembering to look northeast of Orion," Fred said. He glanced at me. "You can usually find Orion, can't you?"

I nodded before turning my head away from the sky to look at him. "You know more about constellations than you let on," I said.

Fred shook his head as he swallowed a sip of his drink. "I told you, I only know these three. Gemini, Orion, Big Dipper. And I told you I know the most about Gemini because George and I made it a point to."

I rested my head against his shoulder and looped my arm through his as I sighed and took a sip of my own drink.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Fred asked.

I nodded. "I'm sure."

"Did your mother say something that upset you?" He asked.

I tilted my head against his shoulder to look up at his face. "You still don't trust her?" I asked in slight disbelief.

Fred sighed. "It's not that. I just...know she hurt you. And it's not something that can be undone no matter how much she may regret it or wish she did things differently. No matter how much of your relationship you've managed to salvage, it still isn't what it once was or could have been."

I let out a breath of laughter. "That's almost exactly what she and I were just talking about. She does regret not having a proper relationship with me and now that I'm getting married she wishes things had been normal between us so that she could celebrate with me properly. But she knows she can't undo it and she knows things will never be the way they should have been between us. She knows that I have your parents and Tom and Martha and that they stepped in and took over what should have been her role. And that still upsets her, even though she knows it's because of her that things ended up this way."

Fred was quiet for a moment. "I've wanted to put as much blame on her as I've put on Eric. I was adamant in the idea that she always had a choice, there was always a way for her to escape him and to get back to you, and that she just didn't try hard enough. I saw all the pain you went through from her leaving and from all that Eric did to you. And she was helping him. She helped lead him right to you. But, really, that was her only chance of seeing you again. Of getting you in her reach and letting you piece together the puzzle on your own so you could understand just why Eric did what he did. Learning that changed you. Learning Elizabeth's story changed you. And so did being here in London. You had to go through all that and learn how to be loved in order to stand up for yourself."

I nodded. "I think you're right. And I told her that if she and I had always been normal and Eric wasn't in the picture, I never would've ended up here with you. I want it all, believe me. I want my mother and I to be close like other mothers and daughters are. But I couldn't have had that and Martha and Tom and your parents. I couldn't have had that and have met you. But I'm glad I do have some semblance of both, even though my mother and I aren't as close as we could have been. I think this is as good as it's going to get and I can live with that. Because I'm pretty damn happy with the way things are."

"Yeah?" Fred asked with a smile, looking down at me.

"Yeah," I said with a giggle. "Although I'm still plenty nervous."

"Nervous?" Fred asked in surprise. "About what?"

"Are you kidding?" I asked, picking my head up off of his shoulder. "You think I know what I'm doing? With any of this?"

"Do you think I know what I'm doing?" Fred laughed. "A lot of the time, I'm just really good at acting like I know what I'm doing." He shrugged. "Just trying to figure it out as I go, you know?"

"So you're not nervous about getting married?" I asked. "Not even a little bit?"

"Not even at all," Fred insisted.

I sighed. "I'm not nervous about actually marrying you as much as I'm nervous about planning the wedding and making sure nothing goes horribly wrong. And then-oh, Merlin, this sounds so stupid..."

"What?" Fred asked with a slight laugh. "Just spit it out."

"I'm nervous about-about being a wife. I've never given it much thought and I don't-I don't know how to."

Fred laughed again-a loud, hard laugh that made his shoulders shake.

"What?" I asked, giving him a look.

"Nothing, it's just that I don't think there's really much to it. What do you think, that I'm going to be expecting you to suddenly start doing acrobatics every day to entertain me? Read me bedtime stories every night?" He laughed again. "I'm not expecting you to do much else besides what you've been doing. All that'll really change is some legal stuff."

"That's what Katie said too."

"And your last name will change," Fred pointed out, taking a sip of his drink. He glanced at me. "If you want it to, of course."

"My last name now is my mother's maiden name," I said. "I think I told you that. She changed it after my father left. I'm glad I don't share a name with him. I wouldn't want the last name of a man I never even knew." I let out a long sigh. "But unfortunately, even my mother's last name isn't enough for me to feel strongly about keeping it."

"It's the name that's connected to the Proctors," Fred said. "Somewhere down the line."

"Yeah," I said slowly, letting a puff of air out of my mouth. "But it's not the same. I don't know. Maybe under different circumstances..." I shrugged and turned to look at him with a wry smile. "I want to change my last name to yours. You've been more of a family to me than my own, so it's only fitting that I share your family name, don't you think?"

Fred smiled and reached out to run his fingers through my hair. "Yeah, I'd like that, honestly." He paused. "Although, now that you've mentioned it, there is one thing you have to do in order to be an official member of the family." He trailed his hand down to the ends of my hair, lightly twirling the end of a strand between his fingers. "You have to dye your hair red."

I laughed. "As much as I love you and your family's red hair, I like my own brown color for me, personally. I couldn't pull off red the same way you do."

"Ah, well, I think you might be right," Fred answered loftily, running a hand through his own hair.

I laughed and leaned against him again.

"So what were you really doing out here if nothing's bothering you?" He asked. "You're not reverting back to your old hermit ways, are you?"

I smiled. "Not entirely." I took another sip of my drink and shrugged. "I just wanted to come out here where it was quiet for a little while. The party's been fun, but..."

"But there's a part of you, however small, that still enjoys some quiet time to yourself," Fred finished.

"Mm," I nodded, looking back up at the sky again. "You can stay here with me, though."

Fred nodded. "It's almost midnight," he commented after a moment. "Shall we go back inside or continue to be hermits out here?"

I laughed and looked over to study his face for a moment. "You want to go back inside," I said. It was a statement, not a question. I knew he wanted to go inside and be around his friends and family and people in general.

Fred shook his head. "Whatever you want. I just know that I'm sticking by you when the clock strikes midnight. I've got to seize the opportunity to get a good snogging in."

"Well," I said slowly, "I don't think there's a problem with going back inside for now and then sneaking away later to be hermits together."

"You know, hermit life has never appealed to me, but if it means kissing you uninterrupted, then suddenly it sounds like the best lifestyle there is."

I laughed and hopped up off the crate I was sitting on. I dusted myself off before holding out a hand to Fred. "Come on," I said, "let's go back and join the party. If we're gone for too long continuously, Rachel will come to find us and you won't get that uninterrupted kissing time. So it's best to make an appearance now so she doesn't go crazy and interrupt us later."

"Good point," Fred said, taking my hand and following me back inside the Leaky Cauldron. The party was still going strong, if not even stronger now that it was nearly midnight. The disco ball above us caught the light and reflected it back around the room. I smiled to myself as I looked up at it.

"I can't believe you convinced Tom to let us hang that up-even if it's just for one night."

"Well, here's the thing..." Fred said slowly, glancing at me as a corner of his mouth turned up.

"Oh no, what?" I asked, looking up at him with widened eyes.

"I put an extended temporary sticking charm on it," Fred admitted. He looked up at the disco ball and grinned. "Tom's not going to be able to get that down for about three months."

I tried to stifle a laugh. "Tom's still going to kill you, even if the charm is only temporary."

"He can't kill me," Fred said confidently. "Not unless he wants to put you into a lifetime of misery. If he cares about you at all, he'll spare me."

"So what are you saying?" I asked teasingly. "That you're just using me to make sure you're safe from Tom's wrath when you decide you want to annoy the shit out of him?"

"That is a plus to being with you," Fred laughed, "but no, I do, in fact, truly love you."

I smiled up at him coyly as I took another sip of my drink. "You do?" I asked, batting my eyelashes over-dramatically.

"Are you drunk already?" Fred laughed. "I thought you'd want to pace yourself."

"Not drunk," I said with a shake of my head. "Lee, on the other hand..." I pointed over Fred's shoulder at Lee, who was loudly singing along to the music, using his wand as a microphone with a Puddlemere United Quidditch flag-most likely courtesy of Oliver-tied around his shoulders. With the hand that wasn't gripping his wand, he was holding onto Allie's hand and twirling her around exuberantly. In fact, she was beginning to look nauseous.

"Bloody hell," Fred muttered as I made a beeline to Allie's side and stopped Lee from twirling her again.

"Aw, Sophie, you're no fun," Lee whined.

"You're at perfect liberty to keep spinning yourself around until you fall over," I said. "But Allie looked about to puke."

"She looks fine to me," Lee said, nudging Allie with his elbow. She grimaced and tried to swat him, but he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "In fact, I think she looks great. Super, even. Completely ravishing."

"Okay, give it a rest, mate," Fred laughed. "We get it."

"You okay?" I asked Allie, who still looked a little unsteady on her feet.

She nodded and finished off her drink. "I'll be okay. I just need to stop spinning."

"You have stopped spinning," I pointed out.

"Then it's the room that's spinning," she giggled.

I gave her a small smile and took her arm. "Come on, let's get you a place to sit and some water."

"I want another firewhiskey," she told me, waving her empty bottle in my face.

"No," I insisted. "Come on." I began leading her over to a table while Fred went and got her a glass of water.

"Drink," he commanded, placing the glass in front of her.

"That's not firewhiskey," Allie pouted.

Fred and I looked at each other before Fred sighed, picked up Allie's empty firewhiskey bottle, and charmed the water to pour into the bottle instead. He placed it back down in front of her. "There you go," he said.

"Perfect," Allie chirped, picking up the bottle and taking a long sip. She didn't even seem to notice that it didn't taste like firewhiskey at all.

"That was clever," I muttered to Fred as Allie leaned back in her chair and tipped her head back against the wall behind her.

Fred smiled and simply shrugged off my compliment. "It's been known to happen occasionally."

"More than occasionally," I told him.

Fred laughed. "Okay, you're right," he said loftily.

I swatted him as suddenly someone announced that it was thirty seconds to midnight.

"Didn't we talk about having a quiet New Years this year?" I asked as we watched the crowd of people cheering in the center of the room.

"You did," Fred laughed. "But I think I told you that staying here this year didn't necessarily mean it would be quiet." He put an arm around my shoulders. "Besides, admit it, you wouldn't want to spend all of tonight away from such a lovely party."

"True," I nodded.

As we stood there, the crowd started counting down from ten, ready to celebrate the new year. I glanced at Fred, who grinned down at me before removing his arm from my shoulders, grabbing my hand and leading me directly into the center of the crowd, towards Rachel, Kayla, Patrick and Chris.

I giggled and rolled my eyes at Fred. "You just have to be in the center of all the excitement, don't you?" I asked.

"You don't like being in the center of the excitement?" Fred asked, feigning shock. "I thought you thrived off of it. I thought you wanted nothing but attention."

I narrowed my eyes at him and shoved his shoulder as Rachel suddenly noticed we were there. She excitedly latched onto my arm and continued to loudly count down to midnight with everyone else, waving her drink around with her free hand.

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

The room erupted in cheers, yells, and the sound of noisemakers as the clock struck midnight and another year began.

Rachel turned away from me to face Patrick. She grabbed him by his collar and pulled him in for a kiss. Kayla pretended to gag from over her shoulder, until Chris tugged on her arm, spinning her in towards him.

"Don't act like you're so bitter," he scoffed, leaning in to kiss her as well. He broke away after a second, only to grin and say, "You're a romantic at heart," before kissing her again.

I turned to Fred with a roll of my eyes and opened my mouth to tell him that Chris had a point, but Fred didn't let me even get a word out before he'd slipped an arm around my waist and kissed me, dipping me backwards as he did so and then pulling me back up.

"Happy new year," he said, pulling back and grinning before giving me another kiss.

"Happy new year," I repeated breathlessly, smiling up at him and running my fingers through his hair as my eyes traveled over his face.

Fred grinned down at me before kissing me once more, quickly. "Which New Years Eve was better?" he asked. "This year's or last year's?" He smiled at me wryly.

"Is that a trick question?" I asked slowly.

"No, not at all," Fred answered, peppering a few more rapid kisses to my lips. "Why do you ask?"

"I spent both New Years Eve's with you and they were equally as great in different ways."

"Despite the fact that last year we got into a huge argument, you had a terrible nightmare, and the hotel staff thought I was murdering you?" Fred asked with a laugh.

"Oh, come on, they didn't think you were murdering me. I wouldn't go that far."

"They did think it," Fred insisted. "They came to the room to check on us. They wanted to come in and look around."

"To make sure nothing was wrong," I answered.

"Such as a murder scene."

"Fred, I meant that they wanted to check that nothing at all was wrong. No matter how big or small."

"Whatever you say," Fred shrugged. He smirked down at me. "But I know they thought I was some kind of deranged serial killer."

"And you want them to think that?"

Fred shrugged. "Don't care if they do, don't care if they don't. It doesn't phase me. I've had people around here think plenty of things about me in the past few years. Even if what people thought did phase me before, which it didn't, it wouldn't now."

"Good point," I answered, looking up at him. "But no one here thought you were a murderer."

"Except me," Fred answered quietly with a shrug. "It felt like that at least, in my lowest moments. I felt responsible for Percy."

I stared up at him in silence as I put a hand on his cheek. "I know."

"But now," Fred said with a smile, "I'm most upset that I acted like such a prat for all of that time. That's not what Percy wanted. He didn't save my so that I could carry on being an asshole and hurting the people I loved. Doing that-and continuing to not care about my own life-kind of put to waste what he did."

"I'm pretty sure several people have told you that or something similar," I whispered with a smile. "Including me."

"Yeah, but now I actually see it for myself and I believe it," Fred answered. He swallowed. "I needed to be reminded that I should have been grateful for all that I did have. I used to hate the idea of people reminding me to be grateful for what Percy did when I was grieving him anyway. But I never really stopped to think that I really should be grateful. Grateful that I had family that would sacrifice themselves to protect me in the first place. Not everyone is always so lucky." His eyes met mine and he stared at me, almost lost in thought for a moment, before he leaned in and kissed my forehead. He didn't elaborate further, but I knew what he was getting at. I had been his reminder.

I let out a sigh and rested my head against Fred's chest as I wrapped my arms around him.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you, too," Fred whispered. He kissed the top of my head again and I smiled. In the next second, Rachel was blowing a noisemaker in my face. When I pulled away from Fred in surprise, she took the opportunity to grab my arm and pull me towards the bar.

"We need drinks!" She insisted. "Celebratory midnight drinks!"

I looked back at Fred with an apologetic shrug before turning my full attention to Rachel.

"So, it looks like things are going well with Patrick," I commented as Rachel grabbed a bottle of firewhiskey for herself and then passed one to me. I uncapped it and took a sip as I waited for Rachel to respond.

She nodded and took a long sip of her own drink before swiping at the back of her lips with her hand. "You know what, Soph?" she asked.

"What?" I asked with a smile. "Since I suspect you're going to tell me anyway. You share everything even when you aren't slightly drunk."

"Hey, at least I'm not throwing up this time," she argued. "I haven't been that drunk since Salem and I was traumatized enough by that night to never be that way again."

I let out a breath of laughter and rolled my eyes slightly. "What were you going to tell me?" I asked, leaning backwards against the bar. "About Patrick?"

"Patrick, yes!" she exclaimed, taking another sip of her drink. She leaned closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I'm pretty sure I love him, Soph. Like, actually love him."

I smiled. "Have you told him that?" I asked.

She shook her head wildly and let out a scoff. "It's been seven months since I met him and he hasn't mentioned it. If he felt the same way, he would have by now."

"You don't know that," I told her. "Maybe he doesn't think you feel the same way."

Rachel considered that as she slowly picked at the label on her firewhiskey bottle. "With you and Fred-which one of you was the one to say it first?"

"Fred," I answered. "I didn't say it back to him until weeks later. I was nervous to even tell him after he'd already told me he loved me."

Rachel sighed. "And Fred told you he loved you how long after you'd met him?"

I did some quick math in my head. "About five and a half months, but why does it matter? Everyone's different, Rach. Besides, Fred and I weren't even dating when he first said he loved me. We didn't officially start anything until after Fred had kissed me and told me he loved me-all in the span of a few days."

"But that's just it. Patrick and I started actually dating shortly after we met at Ginny's wedding. And he still doesn't love me."

"Again, you don't know that," I said. I studied her over the top of my drink. "What happened to the confident, extroverted, fun-loving Rachel that I know you are? You've never been one to be so shy about this kind of thing. Usually I'd be the one to question and over-analyze everything."

"Because this is a big deal," Rachel said, her voice a dramatic whisper as she widened her eyes at me.

I laughed. "Have you told Kayla yet? I'm sure she'd have no problem marching right up to Patrick for you and asking him how he feels."

"I haven't told her and that's exactly the reason why!" Rachel exclaimed. "She'd do it here in front of all of these people too!"

I laughed. "She would!" I sent Rachel a devious look. "I could always just go tell Kayla now if you don't want to tell Patrick."

"Sophie!" Rachel squealed, gaping at me. "Fred's completely starting to rub off on you. You never wanted to involve yourself in other people's business before!"

"Maybe it's you that rubbed off on me," I joked. "You're the one who really wouldn't let me be alone when I first got here. You involved yourself in all of my business."

"And do you regret it?" Rachel asked, staring at me knowingly, her eyebrows raised.

I looked over at her in slight amusement. "No," I answered. "I don't." It was the truth. As baffled as I had been by Rachel's inability to quit trying to make friends with a girl who barely spoke, I was truly glad she hadn't given up on me. I was tactually truly glad that she had been so damn persistent. I smiled at her. "Seriously. Tell Patrick. If anything, tonight's a really good night to do it. If it ends badly, you can blame it on the alcohol."

Rachel laughed. "You're right. I didn't think about that."

I shrugged and smiled. "What would you do without my cleverness?"

Rachel scoffed and rolled her eyes before giving my shoulder a shove. "Piss off," she muttered with a laugh.

I smiled back as I took another sip of my drink and surveyed the room around me. Another year, come and gone. And I was still here. In London. Part of me felt that it would take a long time to get used to that. I'd been on the move for so long-technically since I was five and began moving around from foster home to foster home. Years and years of moving made staying still feel odd. It felt odd, but I no longer felt like I had to keep moving. In fact, I felt the opposite. I felt that I had to stay. And soon, the odd feeling would pass and I would eventually feel one hundred percent at peace with staying in the place I knew I belonged.