IMPORTANT NOTE: The next chapter will be my last, though I think there might be an epilogue. So I want a lot of reviews this chapter, yes? I'll take suggestions for other stories, and I encourage you to read and review my other stories.

Enjoy.

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Age Twenty Nine, Party

The night had not even begun yet, and Lily was already too tired to function. Rose was calling her with a problem at the bookstore, the baby was crying, and the dinner was not finished. Not to mention the fact that she hadn't taken a shower, brushed her hair, or put on any makeup since Thursday. It was a good thing that Scott had not been on site today, and was able to come home when Lily phoned him, frantic, insisting that he report home immediately or his parents would not be too happy with his mess of a house.

She had been up all night last night with the baby, so she could not be expected to clean the entire house on about twenty minutes of sleep. Olivia was her little gem, but she was not a sleeper, that was for sure. Lily swore she got joy out of crying, even at the tiny age of a month and a half.

Lily had done her fair share of crying in the last year. Hormones were a bitch. The extra weight gain had not been too pleasant either…nor had the morning sickness. As much as she had been looking forward to having a baby, the worrying had been a constant problem during her pregnancy as well. Scott had to reassure her at least once a day that she was going to be a wonderful mother. Through all nine months of her pregnancy, he had been extremely supportive and enthusiastic. Once again, he proved himself to be a fantastic husband. He had taken over much of the housework so that Lily could get some sleep after being on her feet all day and going through her ridiculously erratic mood swings, and he was always there to rub her feet or her back when she started to complain.

The fact that she wasn't a very spectacular businesswoman did not factor in to her contentment too well. Her bookstore had kept failing under her supervision, no matter how many famous friends came to read. She just didn't have the skills to keep a good business running. It was good that she and Scott were not tight for money, because Lily hadn't actually made any from her store in months. Thankfully, the royalties from her many books could support a small army of people. Once her pregnancy began to show and affect her work even further, she had no other choice but to go on maternity leave and promote her cousin Rose to general manager. Since then, Lily had just been acting as the owner, and Rose was running everything. Things seemed to be going much better now, and the store was actually bringing in some profits.

Throughout the latter part of her pregnancy and the last month, it had been difficult to find any time to spend with her parents, besides their occasional visits; a ton of people had been in and out of the house since Olivia was born. The only people that hadn't come to see her yet were James and Jordan and their twins Julius and Jessica. Lily's niece and nephew were now five years old, and Lily always enjoyed talking to them over the telephone. It saddened her that she didn't get to see them very often. She was trying to convince her brother to move back to the UK to be closer to his loving family, but he had a secure job in the States. Lily had been talking to Jordan about a move as well and, even though Jordan's parents lived in Utah, Jordan was actually considering Lily's suggestion. Lily's brother hadn't even gotten the chance to see his new niece.

Albus had finally gotten himself hitched. It was to his long time girlfriend, Elizabeth. They had been married in a great cathedral in the heart of London six months ago. (Luckily, that was at a point where Lily's pregnancy had not been so apparent, so she still looked fairly decent in her dress.) Lily had been spending a lot of time with them as of late, and she had also been spending days with her cousin Hugo and his fiancée Guinevere. Guinevere had actually just had a baby as well. She and Hugo had gotten engaged when she found out that she was pregnant. Lily hadn't had a close relationship with her cousin Hugo before she and his fiancée could share pregnancy horror stories, so Lily thought it was nice that this all happened. She never minded forging closer relationships with family members.

Tonight was going to be devoted to Lily's parents and her in-laws. They were coming over for dinner, but that was still not done. Olivia, who had apparently woken up, needed to be tended to first, however. Lily pulled her daughter from her crib to soothe her wailing. Apparently, she was hungry. After Olivia was fed, Lily set her down in her crib and tried not to get into bed herself. Her stress levels were too high for her comfort. She also needed some sleep, since she hadn't gotten any of it for over a month. Sadly, dinner called. The parents were due to arrive in about an hour, so there wasn't much time. It was lucky that she was a witch and that a few quick utterances of Scourgify! took care of the cleaning.

She heard Scott's footsteps on the creaky wooden staircase and he entered their bedroom a minute later. "Everything's in the oven and cut up for the salad," he said, and sighed. The stress had been getting to him as well.

Lily looked at him thankfully. "Thank you, darling. Now I have time to take a shower and actually put something else on besides sweatpants."

"I have to take a shower, too," Scott said suggestively.

Lily chuckled. "As much as I would love that, it's not really possible right now."

"Why not?" Scott wondered. "The baby's asleep."

"Yes, but if she woke up, or something was wrong, we would never hear her."

"If she was crying, I think we'd be able to hear her down the street," Scott muttered.

"Also, we would never be ready by the time our parents arrived," Lily added, ignoring her husband's last comment. "I'll be fast, and then you can take one." She kissed him before heading off to the shower. She was sure that her red hair was more wild than usual, and she couldn't remember the last time she had changed her clothes.

Scott's parents had seen even less of their granddaughter than Lily's had. Mr. and Mrs. Warner had been traveling the world for the past few months, only returning to England to pay a visit to the maternity ward at St. Mungo's when their daughter-in-law was giving birth. They had decided to treat themselves to an extended vacation, so they were covering all of Europe, Asia, and North America. They had finally returned from their extravagant trip last week, and were now on their way to their son's house.

By the time Lily emerged from the shower she could smell the roast in the oven. She wasn't a huge fan of cooking, and she did not have too much of a talent for it. Luckily, Scott was a more gifted chef than she. It seemed that all she was semi talented at these days was writing, and perhaps motherhood.

After a quick check to see that Olivia was sleeping again, Lily headed down the staircase in her bathrobe. She heard Scott slip into the loo behind her. The clock in the kitchen told her that she had a mere thirty minutes to prepare for her parents' visit. With her wand, she lit the assorted candles spread throughout the downstairs rooms and the fireplace in the sitting room. Then, she went back upstairs to get dressed.

Olivia was the best thing that ever happened to her. Lily could not even remember hot she had survived without her daughter in her life. Pregnancy had been no picnic, what with the mood swings, cravings, pain, and weight gain, but the outcome was completely worth it. Sure, there was a lot of nappy changing and sleep depravation, but Olivia brought her joy like nothing and no one else could. She loved to hold her daughter while she was crying, or stare at her when she was asleep. She also loved to watch Scott hold and rock Olivia, cooing to her softly and trying to put her to sleep. All of the late nights, extra weight, and lack of showers were more than worth it. Actually, Lily couldn't wait to have another child.

She had just finished getting dressed when the doorbell rang. Scott was busy levitating the crib into the sitting room, Olivia on one arm and his wand in the opposite hand, so Lily had to go answer the door.

Her parents looked dashing, as usual. As soon as Lily opened the door, she was bombarded with an embrace from her mother. Her parents looked dashing, as usual. They both had such energy to them, even in their increasing age. "Now, where is my little granddaughter?" her mother inquired.

"In the sitting room," Lily replied.

She followed her parents into the sitting room, where Olivia was lying in her crib. Her parents fussed over the baby for a while. "You look horrible," Lily's mother informed her.

"Thanks," Lily replied, rubbing her tired eyes. "That's a wonderful way to greet your hostess. And after I worked so hard to look nice for you."

"Oh, you know I love you, darling," her mother said. Mr. Potter chuckled.

"Yes, well, I think it's time for supper," said Lily, leading her parents into the dining room.

After she seated her parents and in-laws at the dining room table (set with the good china and silver), she went to the kitchen to assist Scott in bringing out the food. He was slicing the roast when she came up beside her. "I'm already tired," she said, leaning up against him. She glanced at the clock. "Can you get supper on the table? I've got to feed Olivia." Scott kissed her before Lily headed back into the sitting room.

It was difficult to be away from Olivia for too long. First of all, Lily worried about her constantly, so she needed to check on her daughter every ten minutes. Secondly, Olivia was a crier. She loved to cry and cry until she was fed or changed, and then she cried some more. That was what occurred when Olivia spotted her mother entering the room: she burst into tears. Lily lifted her from the crib and cradled her daughter in her arms. After she fed Olivia, she took her upstairs and changed her.

"Lily! Your food is getting cold!" her mother called from downstairs.

Lily's grandmother had been having some health problems lately. That was another reason that Lily hadn't been able to see her parents very often: they had been spending a lot of time with their parents in the hospital. Lily had taken Olivia to Grandmum Weasley a few times, but, for some reason, Olivia was not too fond of the hospital. She always began to wail as soon as they walked through the doors of St. Mungo's.

Lily returned downstairs with her baby. She placed Olivia back into her crib for, hopefully, a nap, and took her seat at the dining room table among her family. They all caught up with one another and the interesting things going on in every person's life.

"I'm impressed with this dinner, Lily," Mrs. Warner said.

"Actually, this was mostly Scott's doing," Lily admitted. "I got the deficient cooking genes."

"I'm surprised that I never knew of these amazing cooking skills," Mrs. Warner said. "I could have used your help in the kitchen every once in a while, Scott."

"Yeah, well, that's why I never revealed my powers," Scott chuckled.

"Lily, have you talked to James lately?" Lily's father wondered.

"No, he seems to be avoiding me, since all I can seem to talk to him about is moving back here," said Lily.

As Lily's mother opened her mouth to say something, the doorbell rang. Lily glanced across the table at Scott, telling him silently that she didn't want to get up and answer it. "Excuse me," Scott said, removing the napkin from his lap and getting up from the dinner table.

Lily heard the front door open, and seconds later, a storm of noise swept into the dining room, and two five year old Potter children were racing around the table, clearly chasing one another. Lily's jaw dropped in surprise. Her niece and nephew were running around her dining room, and her brother and sister-in-law were entering the same room with her husband. Lily found herself rising from the table, mouth agape.

"Surprise, little sis," James greeted warmly, wrapping his sister in his arms. He had always given such good hugs. "Mum, Dad, I take it from Lily's expression you didn't let my secret slip?"

"You two knew that this was happening?" Lily asked in shock.

"This was part of my evil surprise plan," James said. "We're moving into that lovely little house five blocks away."

Lily's jaw dropped again before she leapt at James and embraced him harder than she ever had before. "I knew I'd get to you eventually!" she cried. "You can't stay away from me for too long!"

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