A/N: I know I told some people that I would update a week ago and I knew what I was going to write for this chapter I just could never find the time to type it up. But now I have so here you go.

The weeks that had past since James and Charlotte had started their relationship were great. Nothing could have been better in James' opinion. Well, that wasn't true, it would have been better if Amber had been there but there was only a few weeks left before she came home for Christmas break and he would just have to wait them out like every other parent.

The only thing that wasn't getting better was Sophie's attitude toward James. Although, it was understandable, Sophie's family had consisted of her, Charlotte and Isaac through the girl's whole life. So it wasn't uncommon that Sophie would be protective of Charlotte. Her mum had dated some through her childhood but it had never been anything too serious and Sophie could tell that her mum was serious about James which was something that she wasn't use to.

The only male role model that Sophie had ever had was her dad and according to Charlotte that wasn't a relationship to be proud of. In fact in the weeks that James had been dating Charlotte the kids had not been to their father's house.

So when October came to a close and James came to Charlotte's house on Sophie's birthday James was a little confused to see that Sophie wasn't there.

"Hey," James said when Charlotte greeted him with a kiss, "Where's the birthday girl?"

"She's in the backyard," Charlotte said glumly.

"What's wrong?" James asked, picking up on the mood of the room. Today was Sophie's seventh birthday, she had a party at her grandparent's house with her friends that weekend but James had wanted to come and give her the gift he had gotten her today. To him it was more fun to get gifts on the actually date of birth than it was to get them earlier or later.

"It's David," Isaac said from his spot on the sofa. James had no idea who David was or why Sophie was upset about something he had done.

Charlotte must have noticed James' confused look because she elaborated. "David is my ex-husband."

"Oh," James said as understanding dawned on him. So Sophie was upset about something her father had done, but what? "What happened?"

"Nothing to get upset over," Isaac piped in.

Charlotte threw him a look, "Just because you don't get upset when he forgets your birthday doesn't mean that Sophie won't. You are two different people," Charlotte scolded.

"He forgot her birthday?" James said outraged. He couldn't see how a parent could forget the day that their child was born. Not that he had actually been there for Amber's birth but they celebrated the day she was delivered through the owl post, which was practically the same thing since it was the day she came into his life and it had all of the elements that James imagined would be present at an actual birth: there was crying, anxious family members, a naming process, and many surprises. All in all, looking back, it had been a very good day.

Charlotte nodded. "I tried to tell her not to let it ruin her day but she's not listening to me."

James was starting to see why Sophie was still upset. Sure Charlotte and Isaac had tried to comfort her but neither understood what she was feeling. But he did, not personally but he did have some experience with kids who had an unconcerned parent. "Do you mind if I talk to her?" James asked Charlotte.

"I can't see how it could hurt," Charlotte wondered. "You can try."

James gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile to Charlotte and walked through the house and went through the back door. He saw Sophie sitting on an old swing set, glaring at a blade of grass.

"If you stare at that blade of grass any harder you might set it on fire," James said, walking up beside Sophie. She apparently did not want to be disturbed (or just didn't like who was disturbing her) because she turned her glare from the grass to him for a second before turning back to the grass. That's what he gets for trying to be funny. James sighed and tried a more direct tactic. "Do you mind if I sit here?" James asked, indicating the swing next to her. This time Sophie didn't even look at him, she only gave a shrug of her shoulders to show that she didn't care what he did.

James sat gingerly on the swing and willed it not to break; there was no way that Sophie would warm up to him if he broke her swing set. "Your mum told me why you're upset," James said, deciding to stick with his direct tactic.

"I figured she would," Sophie muttered, sounding slightly betrayed.

James leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, thinking about what to say next. Fortunately Sophie spoke first, "I'm getting myself upset over nothing," she said to the ground. "David might have sent an owl…it just hasn't gotten here yet."

"Maybe," James agreed. "But do you really believe that?"

James received his answer to that question by the way her shoulders slumped even lower.

"It's the others that made him forget." She stated, still looking at the ground. "He's always liked them better than he liked us."

James really didn't know what to say to that, but figured it was best to let Sophie vent with minimal input on his part.

And so she did: "I don't see what's so great about them, their so whinny and they always get me and Isaac into trouble for no reason when we go over there. David would just rather not see us so he doesn't have to deal with us, but we're ten times better than those little bastards of his."

James was a little surprised to hear this little seven year old be so bitter over her half siblings and call them bastards no less. Charlotte would have had a mini freak out if she had heard. Apparently Sophie realized this and she looked hesitantly at James. "Are you going to tell mum I said that?"

"Said what?" James asked, feigning ignorance.

"Thanks," Sophie muttered, turning back to stare at her blade of grass. There was a silence for a moment before Sophie said something that James was not expecting. "You know, I've never seem mum as happy as she has been the last two months."

"Oh?" was all the comment James could muster, as surprised as he was to hear Sophie admit this.

"She's always smiling and happy to see you when you come over; and Isaac is no different. Neither of them understand why I act the way I do," she told the ground.

"Why do you not like me?" James asked boldly, feeling that this would be the only time that he would get an answer.

"Isaac stopped trying to get David to do father/son things with him after the others started being born," Sophie stated in answer to his question. "I learned the basics of Quidditch so that Isaac would have someone to play with and wouldn't miss dad…I hate Quiddich."

"You think I'm going to be like your dad, don't you?" James asked, stunned, not believing that he hadn't seen that coming. "You think that your mum and Isaac will get attached to me and then I'll leave like your dad did?"

"I don't want to listen to mum explain why it's just the three of us, again," was Sophie's sulky answer. "I figured that I would be able to help Isaac and mum better, when you leave, if I didn't get attached to you like they have."

It took James a moment to think of something reassuring to say but when he did it seemed like the right thing to say. "Sophie," he said slowly, "I don't know your dad, but from what I've heard of him I'm can confidently say that I'm not like him. Besides, I'm not leaving your mum unless she wants me to-you wouldn't believe what I've been through to get her to like me."

"What do you mean?" Sophie asked, curiously, finally looking up from her blade of grass to look at him.

James-realizing what he had just said-changed the subject, "Anyway, I know that you don't really like me and I understand why, but I just wanted to give you something for your birthday." As he spoke James pulled a small box out of his pocket and took a moment to enlarge it with his wand before handing the box to Sophie.

She carefully unwrapped the paper and opened the box to take out its contents. "A scarf?" She asked, not unkindly, merely curious to know why he had chosen to give her a scarf.

James shrugged, "It's not just a scarf," he explained. "It's heated."

Interested now, Sophie wrapped the scarf around her neck and instantly felt a warming sensation through her body. "Wow," she whispered.

James smiled. "I thought it might be the kind of thing you'd like."

"It's purple," she observed.

"That is your favorite color, isn't it?" James asked. "They had a lot of different colors in the store that I got it from but I remembered that you said purple was your favorite color."

Sophie looked down at the scarf, "Yeah," she confirmed quietly. "I'm surprised you remembered."

"It's no big deal," James shrugged.

But apparently to Sophie it was something of a big deal, "David thinks that my favorite color is pink," she informed James, "even though I've told him a million times that it's purple."

"It's like I told you before, Sophie," James said standing up from the swing. "I'm not David. Speaking of which, there are two people inside who haven't forgotten your birthday and would very much like to celebrate it."

"Yeah, OK," Sophie said, standing up too. "I'm going to show Isaac the scarf you got me," she said excitedly. "He'll flip when he sees that it's heated!"

A/N: OK so Sophie has some trust issues and they won't totally go away after this chapter but at least she'll act better toward James.

I'm just going to forewarn you that this story is coming awfully close to where I was planning on ending it. Just so you know. But for those of you who are interested I think I've figured out what my next fanfic is going to be about and I'll tell you more about that in the authors note for the next chapter.

Please leave a review before you go.