Author's Note - I'm sorry to do this at the top of the update. I considered putting it at the end, but I need you to read it.

I love writing. This story is one of my favorites, and last week I considered yanking it. It was an extreme reaction to a vile review that was left on my birthday of all days. I'm glad I counted to ten a few dozen times in every language I've ever studied instead. I don't want to pull any of my stories.

That said, I am not lazy. I update when I can. I receive no monetary reward for writing here. This is not my job. It is an outlet.

I have a stressful life. I do not spend it lazing about eating bonbons.

I have one daughter with special needs and another that is outstripping her teachers abilities to keep up with her educational needs. They always come first for me.

There are other facets of my life and various familial demands that all come ahead of writing time.

I also have my own health to consider. I have Congestive Heart Failure. Not fun. I have an exercise schedule that is the closest thing to set in stone that my life allows. Even with medication, there are good days and bad days.

Last week was very demanding. I had no time to spare. I would have preferred to write. Believe me.

I don't mind requests for updates. I don't mind whining. I don't mind cute attempts to trick me into writing more. If it's your birthday, I will put in an extra effort if I have the time.

I will not accept personal attacks. The review was most certainly an attack. This guest reviewer didn't leave a name, so this is a general statement.

FanFiction writers, myself included, work hard on the stories we write. We invest large parts of ourselves into these stories. A good review can make a writer's day.

Remember that we are people. Please.

It costs you nothing to be kind, and it makes all the difference. A kind word might have found me writing late at night instead of trying to deal with the emotional upheaval the unkind words provoked.

I appreciate every one of my wonderful readers. I love the reviews. If you have questions or just want to communicate with me, I am available on Tumblr. The name remains the same.

Thanks,

Anna

Theo watched Draco and Hermione vanish and sighed. He felt the muscles in his shoulders finally ease. He could breathe easy again. His cadre of friends were safely on their way to their various homes, and he only had to take Luna on a short walk to her home. He relaxed. They'd survived the insanity of the Weasley wedding.

"The last wedding here ended on a much less appealing note." Luna gripped his arm and led him toward her home. "I think we should celebrate this major success with some wine."

"I think we might need to clarify your definition of success." Theo shook his head as they walked along the path toward her home.

"There were no deaths. No one was running for their lives." Luna slid away from him and spun in a circle. A cloud of glowing fairies spun around her and flew off into the night. He felt something tighten in his chest. She'd lived through that. She'd been terrorized and held hostage.

"How do you do it?" Theo clenched a fist against his midsection. "How can you stand to be around us?"

"The joy is in the journey." Luna grabbed his hands and pulled him along the trail to a place where the trees and other plants blocked out the light. "There is darkness. Does yelling at it change it? Does bemoaning it change anything?"

Theo frowned. He wanted to argue, but it serves no purpose. She wouldn't let him settle into his own gloomy thoughts.

"Even in the darkness, there is light." She called forth a blue flame and held it in the palm of her hand. He examined her dreamy expression and realized that she had made a choice to be his light. He pulled her close to his side and watched as she coaxed the flame into different shapes. A sense of peace filled him.

Millie smiled at Greg as they said their good nights under her chaperone's watchful eyes. He was smiling. The tension he usually carried in his shoulders was gone. He looked lighthearted for the first time since fourth year. She smiled up at him.

"Thank you for accompanying me to the wedding." She pressed her fingers into the cup of his palm. "I had a wonderful time."

"Was it the chaos?" Greg shook his head. "Because I would like to have a little less of that at ours."

Millie smiled as her father's elf cleared her throat. The creature was not subtle.

Greg bent over her hand. He was perfect in his manners. Millie grinned.

As soon as he took his required half step back, she flung herself into his arms. He made an odd squeaking sound as she wrapped her arms around his waist. He was so adorable.

"I love you, Greg." Millie whispered and pressed a kiss on to his cheek. She felt him still in her arms. They'd never said the words in her home.

"Millicent." Her father came out of his study. His patience was at an end. "The boy is not your husband yet."

"I will be." Greg's fingers flexed on her shoulders as Millie pulled back. "Because I feel the same way. I really do."

Blaise smirked at the mirror. His mother's face was wreathed in a happy smile. Yep, he was done. His mother was going to find out about Susan. He needed to accept his fate.

Susan had disappeared into the vastness of the Bones' manor in search of wine, but he didn't need libations. He didn't need the alcohol. His mother had assured him he would know when the right witch came along, and she was right in her assertion.

"We don't have to get married right away." Susan smirked at him and leaned against the door jamb. "So, we know. No one else does."

"You're my witch." Blaise swallowed around the lump forming in his throat. Didn't she want him.

"I am." Susan shrugged one shoulder in elegant dismissal. "Where is it written that we have to bind our lives at the realization? Why can't we enjoy learning about each other before we stand before a large group and declare it?"

"We could have a long engagement." Blaise nodded. "My mother will hate it, but she's practical."

"I don't want some hideous family ring that belonged to a Borgia." Susan poured a glass of wine. "Unless it has a curse for me to play with."

"I'll find you something all your own." Blaise smirked. "We can save the vaults of cursed jewelry for when things get boring."

"You have met our friends." Susan grinned.

"So, in a century or so, you can curse break to your heart's content." Blaise chuckled.

"To long engagements and elaborate curses." Susan raised her glass slightly. He echoed the movement.

He glanced back at the mirror as they moved into a very formal sitting room. There were only misty figures in the far distance.

Hannah stroked her fingers through Neville's hair and smiled down at his sleeping face. He looked so young and so relaxed. It was a relief to see him this way. He spent far too much time fretting over the people he cared about. Neville Longbottom was no carefree youth. He could worth for England any day.

They'd seen Augusta home before heading to her small flat. It was, of course, the right thing to do. Neville would never be one to shirk his responsibilities.

The usual tea they shared after a night out was cooling on the tray because Nev had crashed. She tucked a pillow under his head. He needed some down time.

Their official status as an engaged couple still made the poor guy nervous. The longstanding agreement between their families proved no hardship. She had never wanted anyone else. Neville felt right.

It was the wedding that made the whole thing difficult.

Her muggleborn mother wanted a big wedding, but Longbottoms married at the stones. Trying to find a happy medium hadn't seemed important until now. It was time to set a date. They would have two ceremonies just like Hermione.

It would be a new Longbottom tradition. She smiled and summoned a blanket to cover Nev. They were going to have a good life.

Hermione smiled when Draco joined her in the bed. The mattress sent her sliding gently toward him as he settled next to her. He was wearing pajama bottoms and nothing else. She needed to thank the elves for somehow improving the heating system in the old tower.

"My father spent half the night staring at my arm." Draco draped the very same arm over her waist. "I think he was scared."

"The world is changing around him." Hermione sighed and traced his fingers with her own. "I'm sure he is concerned, but he came there to help your mother save me."

"So, he isn't a total loss?" Draco's breath stirred her hair and sent a shiver down her spine.

"It would appear that he wants to build something, not tear it down. I suppose we will find out." Hermione rolled over and looked at the fringe of hair that had fallen in her husband's eyes. "I don't think he will be the one to give us grief, and, if he does, we can always set Luna loose on him."

"Susan's the scary one." Draco smirked. "Zabini was so confused, I was sure he'd been hit with a Confundus."

"He will adapt." Hermione grinned and slid her hand along the smooth skin of her husband's chest.

"I wish you'd wait for me before running straight toward a duel between two very frightening witches." Draco cupped her cheek. "My family isn't safe. They don't throw jelly legs and bat bogeys."

"Your family is impressive. They were both trying to incapacitate the other. It was a fierce display, though. I'll give you that." Hermione leaned into his hand and enjoyed the warmth of his fingers against her skin. "I didn't want you to have to deal with the aftermath if one of them had been hurt."

"I'd rather have you whole." He stroked her hair back from her face and stared at her intently. "You're the one that matters."

"I am whole." She smiled and pushed in closer to the warmth of his body. "I think Arthur is the most damaged by today's events. That wasn't what I wanted."

"I know things got a bit out of control." Draco smirked at his own understatement. "In the end, I think it's a good thing. Nothing short would have found my father sitting at a table with a Weasley."

"They are a wonderful family." Hermione smiled at Draco's raised brow.

"Most of the Weasley family seemed acceptable." She could see his lips twitch as he tried to hold his face still.

"You don't have to like all my friends." Hermione ran her hand down his far side, and fought the urge to tickle him as he tried to move away from her fingers.

"I think the ginger brigade may be an acquired taste." Draco took a deep breath as she stilled her hand on his side. "Perhaps under better circumstances."

"We are going to have a great many chances over the next few weeks." Hermione grinned. "Weddings are so unifying."

She felt him shudder dramatically under her. Being with him was so easy and natural. She didn't have to struggle or worry. She knew there would be trouble coming from some of her friends.

Accepting this relationship was difficult for them. They couldn't comprehend the joy found in trusting her magic.