A/N: Sorry that it took so long for me to update, I just got this great book called Graceling and with reading it and homework I haven't had that much time to write.

It was wedding season for the Weasley's, the time of summer were the children who were at Hogwarts-which there were none at the moment, but habits were hard to break-would be able to come and not miss school, but it wasn't so early that people would have to break plans to attend. On this day Al was marrying Flora Longbottom. The wedding season at the Weasley's was always a fun time, though the last wedding when Rose had married Scorpius Malfoy was a little awkward for all that were involved but as the alcohol started pouring everyone had loosened up enough to act civil and even enjoy themselves.

This wedding was a lot less tense as the Longbottoms and the Potters had no past grievances with each other. James had been chosen as one of the groomsmen along with Scorpius Malfoy. Flora-who was blond like her mother, eliminating all redhead/Potter jokes that would have been directed at Albus-was a very sweet girl that Al had known since they were kids.

The wedding had run smoothly leading to James's favorite part of any wedding; the reception. James loved the reception of weddings because it was the part of the wedding where all the tense traditional shit was over and everyone was relaxed and enjoyed being together as a new-extremely larger-family. Plus the adults always drunk more than they should and it was nice to have blackmail for later. In fact, James was still holding onto a picture from Rosie's wedding where Harry, Ron, and Draco were doing drunken karaoke. None of them remembered it and James the rest of the family were waiting for the opportune moment to unearth that memory.

At the moment things were just starting so nothing interesting was happening. Amber-who had been the flower girl in the ceremony-was running around playing with Romulus Lupin covering the dress that Flora had given her for the ceremony with dirt and grass stains. James had never expected her to keep it clean for long.

He noticed the blond woman while the food was being served. She was sitting with a group of people that worked with Flora. Unfortunately, Freddie had noticed James noticing her.

"She's cute," he commented, nodding toward the blond.

James nodded.

"You should go and talk to her," Freddie stated.

"No."

"Why not?"

"She's eating," was James's excuse.

"So what until after she eats; you can ask her to dance."

"I don't think so."

"Why not?" Lily, who was sitting at their table and had over heard their conversation, could not help but to give her two cents. "You haven't dated since Amber came around," she pointed out, "It'll be good for you to try and get a date; shake off the rust."

James glared at her, "There is no rust and I don't remember asking for your input in this conversation."

"Well, I gave it anyway because you needed it. You can't avoid trying to start a relationship forever."

Freddie nodded his agreement. "She's right," he said, "though she could have said it with less words," he looked at Lily when he spoke next. "Starting a relationship, Lily? You couldn't have just said dating? It would have seen a whole lot easier not to yawn if you had just put it simply."

"Excuse me for trying to use a better vocabulary!"

And they were off; bickering amongst themselves. James tuned in and out and caught words like "not helping" and "nosy." Apparently Lily had said something that Freddie couldn't think of a good comeback for because there was silence and then he said, "Stick's and stone's can break my bones but words will never hurt me," in a very childish manner.

"I never really understood that saying," James mused, stupidly drawing the attention back on himself. "I mean," he went on when he had their attention. "I would rather have a tongue thrown in my face than a rock. A rock would hurt like hell but a tongue would only be wet and squishy."

There was silence after he said this. Lily looked at her older brother like he was an idiot and Freddie actually considered James's words.

"Be that as it may," Lily said, trying to redirect the conversation. "She's done eating now, you should ask her to dance."

"I already told yo-" but he didn't get to finish because Freddie pushed him from his chair while Lily chanted, "ask her, ask her, ask her." James knew he had lost this argument.

He walked over to the blonde's table, looking back once with a pleading expression but Lily and Freddie only looked on encouragingly.

He knew that they were right and there was no reason he shouldn't ask her to dance, but he was rusty, no matter how much he denied it.

"Excuse me," he said to the blond when he reached her table, "I'm James Potter."

She smiled, no doubt recognizing his name as the Quidditch star he was. "Emily Stevens," she introduced herself.

"Would you like to dance?" he suggested. Emily eagerly accepted. They danced and talked and James was starting to think that maybe this hadn't been such a bad idea; Emily seemed like a nice enough girl. Though that all changed after about half way through the reception.

He and Emily were sitting at a table talking when Amber ran up to him. "Daddy!" she yelled jumping in his lap and throwing her arms around her neck. "Teddy's taking Lita, Leslie, and Rom to the orchard, can I go too?" she pleaded.

"Sure, sure," James agreed.

Amber kissed his cheek and ran in the direction of the orchard where James could see Teddy and the others waiting for her.

He turned back to Emily who looked stunned. "What?" he asked, very confused by the look if shock on her face.

"You have a daughter?" she asked.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"When where you going to tell me this?"

"I didn't realize I had to tell you my life story when we were just dancing at a wedding."

"But what if we started to date?" she asked. "Would I have gotten to meet her before our first date?"

"Hell no!" James yelled and Emily looked offended. "Amber's four; I can't introduce every woman I date to her. Can you imagine how confusing that would be to her?"

"I just wish you would have told me that you were a dad," she said.

James just shrugged, "What would it have mattered?"

"Listen James," Emily said. "I'm not looking for anything difficult. I just wanted a good time."

"I'm something difficult?" Instead of answering Emily just walked away. Lily and Freddie ambushed James as soon as Emily was gone. "Where you guys watching?" James asked suspiciously.

"We were keeping an eye on you," Freddie said.

"You did well James," Lily complimented.

"Well?" James scoffed. "She ran away!"

Lily snorted, "It doesn't matter she was just the practice girl. Now that you've gotten through that you'll be able to date again."

"I doubt that, you saw the way she ran away when she found out about Amber. Apparently guys aren't the only people who don't like to date a person with a kid."

"James," Freddie shook his head. "A girl would have to be crazy not to like Amber. And if she can't handle you being a dad then you shouldn't be with her anyway."

"Freddie's right," Lily agreed.

"I won't have time to date," James argued. "I can't go out and leave Amber alone."

"She won't be alone," Freddie disagreed. "One of us will watch her."

"James," Lily said solemnly. "If you can find girls to date I will gladly volunteer Freddie to watch Amber."

"What!" Freddie yelled while James laughed.

A/N: I got the sticks and stones part from a conversation I had with my brother he was the one who said that he would rather have a tongue to the face than a rock and I promised that I would give him credit. Review please.