7 YEARS LATER

The longer I continued to work at the Ministry, the better I got at managing to balance my work life and my private life. It seemed that experience really was the best teacher when it came to coping with stress. Which was strange considering that I had continued to move up the professional ladder and continued to find myself with more responsibilities and duties on my plate. Not that I was the only one; Percy had only recently been appointed to become the new head of the department. The position came with many more duties that he had anticipated from the moment the whispers of his promotion had begun. One such duty that he hadn't considered as much as he should have was the Ministry minglers.

These damned parties were supposedly an excuse for employees of the ministry from all departments to mingle, to talk and simply socialise. At least that's what we were told but really, they were an overly formal pretentious excuse for people to dress their best and discuss work more. It was nothing like a real party and all it took was attending these parties even once to realise that. That was why the lower level employees chose not to attend these blasted things but those in more senior positions had no such choice. Merlin, I wanted to leave early.

But, not wanting to offend anyone I did my best to maintain a pleasant smile on my face as I listened to the crowd around me talk. They were discussing something about cauldron regulations and I just wanted to go home. Thankfully, Percy shared the sentiment; he approached me silently from where he had been talking to the other department heads and wrapped an arm around my waist. I didn't even need to look to know that it was him. Instead, I did my best not to appear too relieved as we excused ourselves.

Only when I was sure that no one would see, I shot him a grateful smile that he simply returned with an eye roll. We walked between the crowds of ministry workers, careful not to get caught in the trap of starting another seemingly endless conversation. It was as if we were seemingly of one mind, both heading towards the exit of the ballroom without having to say a single word.

But still, only after we crossed the threshold and approached the cloakroom to recover our things, did Percy ask, "Ready to go home?"

"Merlin, yes," I said as he helped me into my cloak. "This isn't exactly our usual Sunday scene."

"It's not," he agreed, slipping on his outer robes and grasping my hand again. "Let's head home."

We hesitated for a moment longer, just to check that we had everything before approaching the nearest apparition point. It would be a disaster if we had to turn back around to retrieve something we'd forgotten. The apparition point had a small queue in front of it because apparently, we weren't the only ones planning on leaving early but we waited patiently for our turn. And then, reaching the front of the line we were off and home in a matter of seconds.

I stepped away from Percy instantly, shrugging out of my outer robes and kicking off my shoes. After hanging the robes up, I grabbed my shoes by the strap and headed straight towards the master bedroom. Magicking my shoes to their rightful place, I proceeded to remove my earrings and began the mammoth task of trying to remove all of the bobby pins from my hair. No doubt I would wake up tomorrow morning to discover that I had somehow managed to miss more than one.

My hair, finally free from it's confines, sprung free and down past my shoulder. With a relieved groan, I leaned back in towards Percy who had at some point snuck up behind me and proceeded to massage the tension from my scalp. "I'm honestly thinking about cutting it all off."

"You've been saying that for years now," he reminded me lowly, pressing a kiss to the nape of my neck. "Every time you go to the hairdressers you say you'll return with short hair but by the time you come back you've only had a couple of inches taken off."

"Do you think it would suit me?" I asked, as I always did whenever I got the urge to cut off my hair. Turning in his arms, I glanced expectantly at his face.

"You'd look stunning regardless," he answered as he always did and I had no response but to lean up to press a kiss to his lips. We both knew that I wouldn't be cutting my hair. Instead of pointing that out, Percy just deepened the kiss while he could. Both of us were aware that we'd be disrupted soon; it was a surprise that we hadn't already been disturbed.

And sure enough – "Mum!"

With a reluctant sigh, Percy drew away from me in time before he wound up getting smacked in the leg by little Rowan who was going through a bit of a jealous phase when it came to sharing me with his father. Instantly I kneeled down and outstretched my arms for our little red-haired ball of energy who clambered into my arms with a giggle. Managing to wrap my arms around him, I rose to my feet and peppered kisses all over his face as he proceeded to giggle on our way out of the room.

Percy was left to follow me as we walked downstairs and towards the front room where I could hear George's voice drifting as he told some outrageous story to our daughter who was far too young to understand a single word he spoke. To both of our surprise, George had quickly become our go to babysitter. As we drew closer to the room, Percy overtook me and Rowan when he heard Molly's giggles fill the room. I shook my head with an incredulous smile; and he said he didn't have a favourite.

I continued my leisurely pace, having to put Arthur down when he started to struggle in my arms. He was instantly off, rushing into the front room after his dad and by the time I soon followed, I found the two Weasley brothers sitting on the sofa and talking, each with one of my children in their lap. And to think, both brothers walked around and publicly declared each other as their least favourite sibling. What a load of rubbish.