I rubbed my thumb against the picture frame. The picture inside was one with my father, my mother holding a one month old version of Jake and I. It's the only family picture I have. The only one with all of us in it, but that was a long time ago, now I was an 18 year old girl with an annoying twin brother, three cousins who drove me nuts, and a boyfriend.

"Ah, life without a daddy. It sucks!" I looked over my shoulder to see my cousin Melanie staring at me. She too grew up without a father, the only difference; she was happy about it. Her father had been a death eater and although he turned good at the end of the war I knew she would have trouble forgiving her father for all of his mistakes. One of those mistakes just so happened to be Melanie. He had gotten drunk at a party Gwen had brought him to. Apparently, he got a little too drunk, because not long after came Melanie.

Draco had begged Gwen to take care of Melanie in the apartment she shared with her husband George Weasley. He didn't want his parents to know that he was now the father to a little girl and the fact that Gwen had left the house and didn't really communicate with her mother and stepfather, Gwen was the perfect option.

When we had to leave, Melanie came with us, not because Gwen was taking care of her but because it turns out Melanie was also a half-blood, a daughter of Panacea, the goddess of healing.

She had long blond (almost white) hair, pointed features, grey eyes, full lips, and the same bored expression that she and Christa seemed to be so famous for. She walked over to me and looked over my shoulder at the picture. Even as she looked at the picture her face remained with the same bored look on it.

"Cute" She said. She backed away, and I realized because she was so tall it had only taken a few steps before she found herself standing back in the doorframe of my room. "Tell Aunt Gwen I'm going to the library for me."

I rolled my eyes, I knew for a fact she wasn't going to the library, she was probably the last person to ever go to a library even if she was forced to.

"That's the worst lie ever." I stated, "Where are you really going?"

"I'm going to see Julian." The bored expression disappeared from her face and turned into one of pure joy. Julian was a son of Ares that Melanie had been seeing for a while. Aunt Gwen wasn't very fond of him so Melanie often had to sneak out to go see him. Of course if Julian was another other guy, Melanie would have dumped him to please Aunt Gwen, but Julian had somehow managed the impossible. Made Melanie fall in love. Someday Melanie will tell Aunt Gwen about her relationship with Julian, and Aunt Gwen will have to accept it.

"I'm so nervous!" She stated for the thousandth time that day.

"Hey this was your idea, not mine." I raised my hands in defence and she gave me an irritated look.

"I know that, but I mean I haven't seen him in so long, and I know I never really lived with him anyways, but I mean this is a big deal, because it means he'll know about you guys too."

"It was bound to happen someday, sweetie. Zeus has been planning a war on Wizards and the minute he decides to get an army of half-bloods to attack, everyone is bound to know who we are."

"Right, that stupid war he's planning. I really hope he doesn't go through with it." She looked at me sadly and I smiled at her. She had really grown up in the last few years. She no longer always had the same bored expression, and she had cut her long hair into a short pixie style. She also ended up telling Gwen about her dating Julian finally and now the two of them were getting married.

I looked at the giant mansion in front of us and motioned for her to go first. She looked at the manor and it was obvious just how frightened she was. "Come on pixie, it's not going to be that scary."

She looked at me for a second and walked to the front door. Melanie looked at the doorbell for a second before reaching out and ringing. Soon after the door was opened by a small house elf.

"Why hello there! Mind bringing us to Draco Malfoy, we have something very important to discuss with him.

The house elf nodded and bowed so low his nose touched the floor. He brought us to a room, that I guessed was a living room. Sitting in one of the chairs reading a book was Draco Malfoy.

"Master Draco, Winky has brought you two guests. They told Winky they need to speak about something important with you." The small house elf squeaked. Draco looked up from his book and looked at us confused.

I looked at the small house elf and said kindly, "Thank you Winky."

The elf ran off and, Draco said, "May I help you?"

Melanie began playing with her thumbs nervously and I elbowed her in the ribs.

She groaned and turned her head to glare at me. She cleared her throat and began, "Well, er…you see I'm getting married and...I thought it would be nice if my father were to walk me down the aisle."

Draco gave her a questioning look, "And what would that have to do with me?" He drawled.

"Well you see…er…my name is Melanie Malfoy." Draco's eyes grew wide and he looked at her in shock.

"Melanie." He said quietly, he looked at me and took in my appearance. "Megan." He stood up and placed his book gently on the coffee table before walking over to Melanie and squishing her in a bear hug. He let go of her and did the same to me, "OOF, can't breathe." I managed.

Draco let go of me and chuckled. "I've missed you both so much. And Melanie, you're getting married?"

Melanie nodded and smiled happily at her father, "His name's Julian, he's a son of Ares."

"How'd did the two of you meet?"

"There was this monster attack on Half Blood hill and this one monster was about to kill me when he jumped on its back and stabbed right in between the eyes with his sword."

Draco looked at her in concern, "You didn't get hurt during the battle, did you?"

Melanie shook her head, and pointed towards me, "This one did thought, she was in a coma for two weeks. Got me worried sick."

"I would have been in that coma for much longer if Mel hadn't fixed me up. She's a really good healer."

"Well I would assume, considering the fact that her mother is the goddess of Healing." I voice said from the doorway leading to the hallway. I turned around to look at the person. It was a petite woman with long brown curls falling down her back. Her eyes were a warm brown and she smiled as she looked at Melanie and me. "Draco has told me so much about you, Weren't there another two of you thought?"

She was talking about Jake and Christa, "And Aunt Gwen of course."

"Plus cousin Lucius, Aunt Gwen had another kid" Melanie added, smiling kindly at Astoria, her step mother.

"Oh my, that means Gwen had to take care of 5 kids, that's must have been hard for her." She looked sincere.

"I suppose it was when we were younger, of course she had friends who were always ready to help her. And when Jake and I grew up we were able to take care of ourselves and help out with the younger ones. She lives near the burrow now, we don't live with her. Jake, Christa and I share an apartment in Hogsmeade, Melanie lives with her fiancé and Lucius, to tell you the truth, the kids immortal now. He ditched being mortal so that he could marry Hecate, the goddess of magic." I said all this in one breath and I sucked in a bunch of air when I was finished. Draco and Astoria looked stunned for a second but they just shook their heads and smiled at us.

"How about some tea?"

"It's okay I'm fine." I said, I wasn't really a tea person. I preferred a cup of coffee or even a mug of hot chocolate, but certainly not tea.

Melanie shook her head and said, "No thank you, anyways we really must be off, I have to tell other people about the news." She reached inside her back pocket and pulled out a sheet of folded paper, "Here's my address, if ever you want to come visit by floo sometime. It was so nice seeing you again, daddy." She hugged her father, waved politely at Astoria and turned around and began walking to the door.

I waved bye to the two of them and jogged to go catch up with Melanie.

.

.

.

Every head in the great hall turned to look at us as we entered the room. All those you weren't Gryffindors began to murmur about my presence and I rolled my eyes.

Bloody Quiditch fame. I thought.

Melanie began to walk to the Gryffindor tower, towards were Jake and Christa sat. She sat down next to Jake and grinned at them. I jogged over and sat in front of Jake, right next to James. Melanie lifted her hand to show them the engagement ring on her finger. Christa grabbed her wrist and pulled Melanie's hand closer to her. Her eyes grew wide and she said, "No way!" Christa squealed in delight and said, "Oh my gods, you're getting married."

Jake looked at the ring on Melanie's finger in shock, "Holy crap, you've grown up."

James chuckled next to me and said, "Congratulations'." He turned to look at me and his face turned serious. Jake, Christa, and Melanie were too busy freaking out over the wedding to realize that me and James were talking about something probably totally off topic. "Have you heard?" He didn't wait for my answer and continued, "A bunch of ministry workers have been killed, and each person that is killed, the murderers leave a giant misty lightning bolt right above their house shine."

Jake, Christa and Melanie had stopped talking long enough to hear what James had said and all exclaimed, "WHAT?" at the same time. We all looked at each other and I knew we were all thinking the same thing, the war that Zeus had been planning had begun.

"Yea, dad thinks it might be another war, he says its more than one person doing this; he thinks it a whole army of people. Some of the Aurors have been killed too."

"One of my dad's employees was killed too." Fred said from the other side of the table.

"Your dad thinks there's a war coming?" Someone asked in a panicked voice said. I turned my head to see a pretty red head looking scared. I looked at her carefully and realized she was the person my brother believed was Lily Evans.

James shrugged and said, "That's what my dad told me."