It was strange for Albus to come home to find Atria in the living room mulling over papers. After all, a desk job pushing papers was everything she wanted to avoid when approaching a career. But as it turned out, opening a zoo was much more difficult that Albus could've imagined. Nevertheless, Atria always seemed thrilled with herself at the end of the day.

She glanced up when he came in. "You're home!" She pushed the files aside and stood up to greet him.

Albus laughed. "We should make it official. Technically it's not our home, it's yours and Rose's."

She rolled her eyes, her hair slowing shifting from a bluish grey to purple. "Please, Rose spends more time downstairs than you do," she said, referring to the flat Albus and Scorpius were supposed to be sharing. In truth, Albus spend most nights in the girls' flat and Rose spent a lot of time downstairs. "Maybe you should just move in," Atria suggested. It had been two months since they had all graduated and in the last few weeks Atria had begun to insist that it would be easier on everyone for him and Rose to switch places.

"I don't think Rose and Scorpius are quite there yet." Albus plopped down on the sofa, pulling Attie onto his lap. She brushed back pieces of his unruly hair as he spoke, "and I'm not sure I like the idea of my cousin sharing a bed with my best friend."

"Rose could say the same thing," Atria leaned in and trailed her nose along his jaw. His breath was quickly becoming shorter and more uneven. "Is it different because she's a girl?" She gave him a hard look but it was difficult to take seriously because of how soft she felt against him. She knew exactly what she was doing as well, sinking farther into his lap. "That doesn't seem right," she whispered against her jaw.

"Hm?" Albus was too distracted to focus on anything she was saying.

"Aren't you listening?" She chastised lightly.

Albus glared at her playfully. "Don't pretend to be so innocent." He gripped her waist, making sure she couldn't go go anywhere but closer to him. Her nose tickled and finally he gripped her face so she had to look at him. "You're trouble." He whispered before kissing her. It started out light and fun, but grew heated as her hands travelled up his chest.

"But you love me anyways," she smiled against his lips. She sounded confident, but he knew it bothered her sometimes. He was joking, but a lot of people accused her of causing trouble when she hadn't done anything.

He pulled away and looked at her seriously. "Of course I do. Just like you love me even though I'm an arse sometimes." She laughed softly and he felt it rumble through her entire body.

"Mm…" she mumbled incoherently. "What time is it?" She kept running her hands over his shoulders. He leaned back, pulling her with him.

"Nearly seven."

Atria groaned, resting her head against her shoulder. "Rose will be home soon."

"Maybe she'll go to Scorpius's place." He replied hopefully, following Atria's train of thought. "Then we'll have another couple of hours to ourselves."

"You know she always comes up here to drop things off."

Albus ran a hand up and down her back. "Worth the risk."

"I'm not sure she'll see it that way."

"She doesn't have to see anything. That's what bedrooms are for." He teased, knowing it was a losing argument. Attie didn't even bother responding to his crude suggestions, she just curled into him more. "How are things with the zoo?"

"Alright." Atria sighed. "I have the property all settled, but the trouble is getting muggle animals. Amazingly, the Ministry is more worried about kangaroos than dragons or hippogriffs." Albus barked out a laugh. "Honestly, do they think a kangaroo will be more difficult to handle than a dragon?"

"The last time you "handled" a dragon, you were poisoned."

Atria grinned. "Only a little."

"How many animals will there be?"

He felt her shrug. "Maybe one hundred or so to start. And most of them will be class XX, XXX, or XXXX."

"You know I have no idea what you're talking about." Albus remarked drily. He usually didn't bother to stop and ask what she was talking about especially when she got going about the specific animals. She seemed to forget that he stopped taking Care of Magical Creatures after third year. He would swear that sometimes she made up names of creatures just to mess with him.

"Oh you know, X being the least dangerous and XXXXX being the most dangerous. I think we shall start with a happy medium and leave the boring and most dangerous ones off to start."

"So… no dragons?" Albus could dispel the hopefulness from his voice.

"Not to start. But your Grandmother had been helping me with large expansion charms, like they have at the Burrow. And Aunt Hermione has been helping with extension charms so the creatures have plenty of space and we can add on later."

Albus let out a long breath. "This is a lot happening all at once."

"How was your day?"

"Not too bad. A lot of it is running plans from one bloke to another but I like it and I'm learning." Albus pulled her closer, overtaken by the realization that they were building their lives together. It was was so new and only in the early stages that he hardly noticed that they were making long terms plans about their careers and living status. It all felt so natural.

"Did you hear James and Amanda have set a date?"

Attie laughed. "Your mum is in a right state."

"January," Albus shook his head in disbelief. "What happened to waiting a couple of years?"

"That flew out the window very quickly." She giggled as Albus ran his hands through her soft purple hair. "I think when they realized the ridiculousness of travelling together, living in the same building, but being apart they thought 'why not'."

"So with a date set the team manager will let them stay in the same room?"

Atria shrugged. "I suppose so. And if not, then they only have to wait a few months."

"I don't think they've waited for much." Albus mumbled suggestively. The longer they sat like that the more relaxed he became. He sank into his tiredness, nearly falling asleep.

"It's barely 7:30," Atria murmured.

"Being an adult is tiring." Albus laughed softly.

Atria pulled back. "You know you don't have to work." She ran a finger over his jaw.

"I want to," Albus reminded her.

Atria leaned back in. "Then quit complaining." She teased. "And when we do move in together, it's not going to be in a small flat. We're going to have a proper house."

"You mean a manor." Al raised his eyebrows.

"Not quite as large as the Malfoys, but I miss having a large house."

"Me too." Albus admitted. "But don't tell my mum that."

Atria sighed. "Do we have any food here?"

"Have you gone shopping?"

Atria snorted. "No."

"Then we don't."

"Damn."

"We have marshmallows," Albus mused. "We could light a fire and roast them."

She chuckled and tucked her head under his chin. "How did we become so domesticated?"

"We're not." Albus argued. "Normal people don't roast marshmallows for dinner or spend their days trying to figure out how to cage the most dangerous creatures on this earth."

"I'm not trying to cage them!" Atria protested.

"Do you ever think about getting married?"

Atria pulled back, shocked by his question. She stared at him with an open mouth. Was he trying to propose? "Where did that come from?"

"Just thinking about James. I never thought he would get married."

Atria bit her lip. "I never thought I would get married. Even after we fell in love, I never thought a happy ending was in my future. But I'm glad that it is."

"So you want to get married?"

Atria ran a few fingers through his black bangs. "Eventually."

"We could marry tomorrow if you liked." His voice wavered and he looked down.

Atria smiled. "We're not ready for that. Or at least, I'm not. I love you so much… but I don't think we're done growing together and somehow marriage seems like approaching the end game. We're nowhere near the end. I want to enjoy our relationship and dating. I want to enjoy being young and free."

Albus frowned. "And marriage is a chain?"

"Not really. But it's settling down."

"And that's bad." He sounded defeated. Albus was pulling away from her and it was important that she make him understand.

"Not bad. But not something I'm ready for. Albus, please understand. I will marry you. We're going to be married and live in a big house, but no picket fences, they're stupid. Maybe we'll have kids. We'll be incredibly happy and be together forever." Her voice was pleading and cracked.

"But you don't want to start forever now."

He was trying understand, but he was confused.

"I'm not ready for forever. Not after everything that's happened this past year. I'm not Amanda. I can't just jump off a cliff and believe love will be there to catch me. I want to build a love that lasts and that won't happen if I jump without thinking."

Albus let out a long sigh, but it sounded light which made Atria breath easier. "I know. I know that. I'm not ready for marriage either…"

"You just wanted to fight?"

"No, I just wanted to see where you stood. A part of me hoped you'd say you would marry me tomorrow if I asked."

"Ask me in three years when our lives aren't so crazy. I'll say yes in a heartbeat."

Albus barked out a laugh, "You really think our lives will be less crazy in three years?"

"No. But maybe I'll handle the crazy better."

"Cheers to that."

Atria laughed and glanced towards the kitchen. "We need drinks."

"Firewhiskey?"

She scrunched up her nose. "I think wine would be nice." Atria leaned in to kiss him. His mouth opened immediately and his hands cupped the back of neck, tangling in her soft, purple hair.

"Oh!"

Atria and Al broke apart as the front door banged open and Rose and Scorpius tumbled in laughing. Albus flounced back into couch and groaned as Attie clutched her chest.

Scorpius did a double take when he noticed the pair sitting together. "Oh," he swallowed, "you're both here."

Albus raised his eyebrows lazily. "Of course."

Rose blushed and detangled herself from Scorpius. "Have you eaten? We were going to go out for supper."

"Really?" Atria laughed. "It seemed like you were going to get really comfy inside."

Rose's cheeks turned even redder and Scorpius glared at Attie. "We were thinking of ordering in. So have you eaten?" He bit out.

"Nope, what were you gonna order?" Atria asked happily.

Rose dropped her bags and kicked off her shoes as she replied. "Chinese, but if you had a different idea…"

"We were gonna roast marshmallows!" Atria jumped up and tried not to trip over the coffee table as she bounded towards the kitchen. There was no reason marshmallows couldn't be an appetizer for Chinese.

Scorpius, ever the snob, made a disgusted face. "That's disgusting."

Atria rolled her eyes. "Maybe you would like caviar instead…" she sniped.

"I'll order the Chinese," Rose said quickly as she fiddled with her cell phone.

"We really need a bigger apartment," Atria mused randomly as she reached into the cabinet to grab the half-empty bag of marshmallows. She glared at the bag for a moment, wondering who ate the marshmallows. She stopped at the counter to unclip the bag and watched Rose step over Albus's legs as she rambled on the phone, ordering a number of entrees. Rose huffed when Al tried to trip her up. Scorpius was hanging up his and Rose's jacket, tapping at his phone screen becoming slightly frustrated with the muggle device.

Atria popped a sugar pillow in her mouth and grinned, marveling in the scene before her.

Every day, there was always a moment where things seemed too good. She just had to stop and take it in every once in awhile. All of the crap of the past seemed to big to just disappear as easily as it had. Sure, there had been that little whelp from the Ministry who had wanted to dredge everything up, not just for Attie, but for the Potters as well.

"What are you grinning about?" Albus had wandered over to her, stealing a marshmallow. Atria batted his hand away.

"I was just…" Atria sighed.

"Taking a moment?" Albus slipped his arms around her from behind.

"Yeah," she let out a long breath.

"You've been doing that a lot recently." He pressed his nose into her hair.

"I go through every day worried that someone's going to come and get me…" Atria shook her head, "it lessens with each passing day, but that fear is still there. When I make it through one day I'm so relieved, but I worry about tomorrow and the day after that."

"We sorted this out months ago. You're in the clear." He turned her around and smiled. The look in his eyes was almost as though he was trying to will her to relax and be happy.

"I guess I'm still adjusting. I've never been in the clear before." It was a strange feeling.

"Well, you are now." He said slowly and forcefully.

A disgruntled groan came from the living room. Scorpius was giving them a reproachful look. "You two aren't going to start shagging in the kitchen, are you?" Albus rolled his eyes and stepped away.

"No," he drawled. "Just chatting."

"I've ordered the food!" Rose jumped up.

"Thank Merlin, I'm starving." Atria mumbled around a mouthful of marshmallows.

Rose laughed and looked between her and Albus. "I love you lot."

Everyone looked at each other for a few moments.

When Atria couldn't stand the emotional tension, she said, "We're not going to have a group hug, are we?" Albus looked down on her and then lunged, his arms coming around her, pulling her in tight before she could protest. "Hey!"

"Group hug!" Albus shouted. Atria felt Rose and Scorpius come into the hug.

"This is silly," Atria choked out, as her friends smushed her.

"No, this is good." Rose sniffed.

"Are you crying?" Albus scoffed.

"We're having a moment!" Rose snapped.

Atria laughed, "There's always some type of moment."

"We have very emotional lives." Rose explained. "Crazy lives, really. I wish Amanda was here."

Atria barked out a laugh, "Please, she has the best deal out of all of us. A job with a Quidditch team, a flat with her boyfriend, and she gets travel around the world."

"True."

"So… can we stop hugging now?"

Scorpius pulled back. Rose gave her one last squeeze before letting go.

"This is going to be a good year." Rose said firmly.

"It's June," Atria said drily.

"Then we're halfway there!" Rose punched her fist into the air. "Everything is going well and our lives are going to be great…"

"You're getting ahead of things."

"No, I'm not!" Rose insisted. "I know things are tense sometimes, but we just have to remember that we all love each other."

"Why is this turning into a lecture?" Albus groaned.

"It's not!"

"Let's get some plates," Atria suggested, leaving the little group meeting.

"But I wasn't finished," Rose pouted as Scorpius guided her back to the living room.

"Just let it go," Albus said comically. "Can't we just say that things are going well and be done with it."

"Alright."

Atria carried four plates over to the coffee table. "Things are going well." She confirmed and then went back for forks, because who really knows how to use chopsticks? She glanced back at the others would were plopping into their usual spots.

She had been humoring Rose and Albus when she agreed that things were going well, but that was the truth. And for the first time in her life, she wasn't dreading what happened next.

The End

A/N: Sorry that this chapter took so long to update. But the novel is finished and it was hard to write the ending because that means it's over!

I would like to thank Cap92A, AstoriaRedfern, and Diana Black 12 would your amazing support and continued reviews!

I encourage everyone to check out my my short story The Hogwarts Express, because in my opinion, it's the best story I've written and I'm super proud of it :)

Thank you to everyone who read this story! Happy reading and writing! - Alex