Chapter 1

Hermione walks into her daughter's room, having heard the sounds of the girl sobbing her heart out over something. They were the only ones in the house, she had taken the day off from her store to pick her up from the train and decided that it was wasted effort to try and return to work for maybe the three hours that remained before she had to come home and cook supper anyway.

"Isabelle, whatever is the matter?" Hermione says softly, walking to her sixteen year old's bed, worried that something is really wrong. The girl was like her mother, strong and resilient outside, but tenderhearted. Hermione sits and places a hand on the girl's shaking shoulders. Isabelle dives into her mother's arms.

"Mama, Ricky broke up with me. He said that I was holding him back and that he had found someone that would do everything he wanted to." Isabelle gets out between sobs. She and Richard Corner had been dating since the summer before fourth year. Isabelle was completely shocked and delighted when he asked her out. Her parents were not of the same opinion. Both of Ricky's parents were in Hermione's year. Michael Corner was in many of her more advanced classes and had hit on her considerably over the course of said classes. Mandy Brocklehurst was one of the Ravenclaw snobs that made Luna's life a living hell in school. Michael and Mandy had seen this as a boon; Isabelle took after her mother, the smartest of their year and very powerful.

Both Hermione and her husband thought the parents of their daughter's boyfriend were social leeches and their son would exploit Isabelle at the nearest chance that it would gain him something. This, they tried to keep silent as they thought that she was mature enough to make her own decisions in this realm. As the old adage goes, 'you can't help who you love'.

"Honey, calm down and tell me what happened." Inside Hermione is rejoicing. Now after sting goes away, maybe Isabelle will be able to see that he wasn't right for her. Until then though, they will have to be supportive. That might be more difficult for her father. Hermione knows that he will try, for her and Isabelle's sake, but he will be too happy about this to hide it for long.

Isabelle looks up and Hermione dries her tears. The first heartbreak is always the hardest. She cried buckets of tears over her first breakup, not that she and they were anything but friends at the time, but she had nursed a hope that it would turn towards something more. Then again, what did she know of real love at ten.

It was not until her fourth year that she really found out about her husband returning her feelings.

"We were riding home on the train and Ricky was trying to "move us along". When I moved his hand away from my pants for the fourth time, he called me a prude and that he didn't need a little girl for a girlfriend. He walked out with all his stuff and turned to tell me that if I will not allow him to, then he will take Laney Goyle up on her offer and walked away. I held it together until I got up here."

"Isabelle, what I am about to tell you, is the truth. Being called a prude is nothing to be ashamed of. It just means that you know that you are not ready or that the other person is not the right one. I was called the same thing as well as a host of other names by many people over the years. It is better to let the names roll off your shoulders, if you know that you are acting in your own best interest. If Ricky can't see that he lost something very important today, than he is an even bigger fool than your father and I thought he was anyway. I would hazard a guess that he will be back on bended knee begging for your forgiveness and another chance, very soon.

What you need to think about is what you want in a boyfriend." Hermione pats the girl's curly hair. Isabelle is calming down and becoming more herself.

"Mama, tell me how you and Daddy met and fell in love." She asks in a soft voice, almost sounding like she did when she was years younger, asking Hermione to let her stay up another hour or to read yet another book to her.

"This will take a while, Darling. Are you sure?" Hermione asks, knowing that she needed to get downstairs soon to take their supper out of the oven. "How about we tell you the beginning tonight before bed and continue until we got together?"

Isabelle nods her head eagerly and Hermione smiles before getting up to take the homemade lasagne and garlic bread out of the oven, before George gets in from the joke shop.