Who knew that labor could last so long? 21 hours. That's how long it took for me to finally give birth after I got to the hospital. 21 hours!

There were a lot of screams and a lot of tears. I said a lot of not so ladylike things to Colin and dug my fingernails into my mother's hand as if I was holding on for dear life.

It was the longest 21 hours of my life. I thought it would never end. I was sure that the baby would never come, that I would push and push and nothing would happen. It wouldn't matter how many women had successfully done it before me, I would fail at it.

But of course I didn't. And after that final push, her crying filled the room and I saw my daughter for the first time.

They placed her in my arms and I was sure I'd never seen anything so beautiful in my life. She was perfect. She had a thin layer of dark hair on top of her head and big blue eyes. I never wanted to let go of her. I wanted to hold her forever and protect her and make sure nothing bad ever happened to her. She was mine.

Colin was standing beside my bed, eyes wide, staring down at her. There was a small smile on his face. "She's beautiful," he said. "Just like you."

"Would you like to hold her?" I asked.

He nodded and I handed her to him.

"She's so tiny," he said.

I nodded in agreement.

"What are you going to name her?" he asked.

I watched as my parents went out to tell everyone in the waiting room that I'd finally given birth. "I have no idea. I can't decide."

"Should we name her after someone? Like our mums or something?"

"Your mum is Jacqueline, right?"

He nodded.

"Fleur Jacqueline," I said aloud. I didn't really like the sound of that. "Jacqueline Fleur," I said instead. I paused, letting that sink in. "Jacqueline Fleur," I repeated. I glanced up at Colin. "What do you think of Jacqueline Fleur?"

"I like it," he said. "We can call her Jackie."

"Jackie," I said, holding out my arms. "Come to mummy, Jackie."

Colin handed her back to me. "Hello, Jackie," I said. "Do you like your name?"

Just then, my parents came back in the room. "Guess what," I said. "We named her!"

My mum clapped her hands together. "Zat's wonderful! What's 'er name?"

"Jacqueline Fleur O'Brien," I responded. "We named her after our mums."

"It's beautiful," my mum replied. "Just like 'er." She turned to my dad. "Don't you zink, Bill?"

He nodded. "So do we get to hold her now or are you two going to keep her all to yourselves forever?"

I handed her over to my parents, yawning.

"Get some sleep, Vic," my mum said. "You must be exhausted."

So I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off to sleep.

Over the next few weeks there was a constant stream of visitors to Shell Cottage. Friends and relatives came to admire the baby and shower her with gifts.

Sleep became a foreign concept. I honestly thought that I would have to give up on my schoolwork and say farewell to any hope of passing my N.E.W.T.s or graduating. It was just too much to do along with caring for a newborn.

Luckily for me, my mum was there to help me out when I needed it. Not too much, she wanted me to learn responsibility. But at 3 o'clock in the morning, when I'd fallen asleep on top of my Potions textbook or something, sprawled out on the living room floor, she was always willing to go check on the crying baby.

And then there was Colin. He was honestly a lifesaver. When he wasn't at school or at work, he was at my house, always willing to look after Jackie when I needed to finish an essay or practice a spell.

One Saturday afternoon, I was sitting on my living room floor, practicing transfiguring a small statue to make it "come alive."

Colin was sitting on the couch, holding Jackie and staring in awe as the small stone man danced around the room.

"That's brilliant," he said. He'd moved past the stage of being freaked out by magic and now just thought all of it was amazing. He never seemed to get tired of watching me practice spells and he was constantly flipping through albums of moving photos. He'd also developed quite liking for Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and other Wizard candy.

"Vic," he'd said the day before, his mouth stuffed with chocolate frog, "why didn't you tell me you were a witch sooner? All of this magic shit is so fucking awesome!"

I'd rolled my eyes and told him not to talk with his mouth open.

I watched as the statue spun around in circles, faster and faster, before falling down and becoming motionless once more.

I stood up, setting my wand down on the coffee table, and went to sit down next to Colin, taking Jackie from him. He turned to look at me and my breath hitched in my throat. His big green eyes were staring into mine, a lazy grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, and I wanted to reach out and fix the lock of black hair that had fallen out of place. But I didn't.

"What are you staring at, Vic?" he asked. "Having trouble resisting my good looks, are you? It's understandable. I've been told I'm a sex god."

I laughed. "Who in the world told you that? And how many drugs had they been taking?"

"I think it was you. No drugs required," he replied, his grin getting bigger.

I rolled my eyes. "I guarantee that I said no such thing. You're so full of crap, Colin O'Brien."

He smirked, his eyes moving around the room until they locked on my wand. He reached out and grabbed it, examining it carefully. "I still don't get how all that magic comes out of this twig."

"The magic doesn't really come out of the wand," I told him. "It just channels the magic. It's possible to do magic without a wand, but only really advanced wizards can control it. It can happen to any witch or wizard on accident though, especially when they're younger and haven't started school yet."

"Interesting," he replied, continuing to exam the wand.

"You know what would probably make you piss your pants in excitement?" I asked him.

He set the wand down and turned to look at me. "Megan Fox asking me for sex?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Colin. I was talking about you going to Diagon Alley with me."

"Diagon Alley? What's that?"

"A major wizarding shopping district. If you think the stuff around here is cool, then you should seriously see this place."

His eyes widened. "Will you take me there?"

I shrugged. "Sure. We can go there sometime next week since it's the Easter holidays and you don't have school."

He smiled. "Awesome."

"Which reminds me, my mum wanted to know if you wanted to come to my grandparents' house tomorrow for Easter dinner?

"That'd be great," he replied. "My mum has to work, like she always does, so I don't have any plans."

"You'll have to drive us there though," I said. "The rest of my family will be traveling by the Floo Network, but you obviously can't do that."

"I better get going," he said, standing up. "Mum left me a long list of errands she wants me to do." He bent down and kissed Jackie's forehead and then turned to me. "What time do you want me to get here tomorrow?" he asked.

"Probably about nine," I replied.

"Okay. See you then."

The next morning I woke up at 7:30. I stumbled out of bed, still exhausted from spending hours the night before trying to get Jackie to sleep. The rest of my family was still asleep because they didn't have to leave for the Burrow for hours.

I showered and pulled on a pink dress and heels and curled my hair. I loved being able to fit in my clothes again. I put Jackie into a tiny, floral dress

At 8:55, I heard Colin's car pull up. I hurried outside before he could honk the horn and wake up my entire family. He was leaning up against the passenger side door, cigarette in his mouth. I opened the backdoor and carefully placed Jackie in her car seat. Colin took one last drag before dropping the cancer stick and smashing into the ground. He opened the door for me and I slid in.

"So where exactly are we going?" he asked, as he situated himself in the driver's seat.

"The Burrow," I replied. "It's right outside of Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon."

"Alright," he said, starting the car.

"You're gonna love it there," I told him. "Lots of magic stuff."

When we arrived a few hours later, nearly my whole family was there. Almost immediately, Jackie was taken from me by of my aunts and I knew I wouldn't see her again for ages.

I spotted Teddy across the room. "I'm gonna go say hi to him," I told Colin.

Colin frowned slightly. "Alright," he said. "I'll just have a look around then."

I made my way over to Teddy. "Hey," I said.

He had been to my house a couple of times with Andromeda since Jackie was born, but we hadn't really had much of a chance to talk. The kiss hadn't been mentioned since the night it happened, three weeks before and it was definitely the elephant in the room every time he was around.

"Hey," he replied. "I see you brought Colin with you."

I nodded. "He didn't really have anywhere else to go. His mum has to work."

"Are you two…?" he trailed off and looked at me expectantly.

"I'm not going to respond until you complete that sentence."

He looked annoyed. "Fine, are you two back together?"

"No, "I replied. "We're not."

He looked relieved.

We chatted for a few minutes, but our conversation was interrupted when Rose and Lily came and dragged him away.

I sighed and looked around for Colin. He was nowhere to be found. Instead I accidently made eye contact with Roxanne. I quickly looked away. She, however, got up and started walking in my direction.

"Hello, Rox," I said awkwardly.

"Hey," she responded. She stared at her feet for a moment, picking at her thumb. She looked back up. "Your baby's really cute," she said quickly. "Er… I was just holding her. I hope that's okay."

"It's fine," I said. "And thanks. She is quite cute."

She bit her lip. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I've been an idiot. Not long after we got in that stupid fight, I'd forgotten why I was even mad at you. But for some reason I was too stubborn to apologize to you. But now I finally am. Sorry that it's months late."

I smiled slightly. "I'm sorry too. I've missed you a lot."

"I've missed you more."

We hugged and then we sat down and began filling each other in on everything that had happened since January.

Colin found us a few minutes later. "Hey, Roxanne," he said, sitting down next to me and swinging his arm around my shoulder. I pushed it off.

"Hello, Colin," said Rox politely. She'd only met Colin a few times and I could tell she wasn't too fond of him.

"So have you two finally made up then?" he asked. "It's about time. Vic's always whining about how you hate her."

"Where have you been, anyway?" I asked.

"Well, I went outside for a cigarette…"

Rox and I wrinkled our noses in disgust at the same time.

"… and this little brown thing that looked like a potato with legs came and started trying to attack me. The all these others started to join it and I couldn't get them to go away. But luckily your dad showed up and stunned them with his wand."

"Fred was supposed to de-gnome the garden," said Rox. "Where is that idiot?" She got up. "I'm going to find him."

"See you later," I said.

I turned back to Colin. "Did they hurt you?"

"No," he replied, looking offended. "Of course not."

I rolled my eyes. "If you say so."

"Did Roxanne say that they were gnomes?" he asked.

"Yup."

He shook his head. "They don't look anything like the gnomes my grandma used to have in her garden."

"Those Santa Claus things with fishing rods are not real gnomes," I said. "They look ridiculous."

"Not as ridiculous as a potato with limbs," he replied, laughing.

I smacked his arm playfully. He grinned sadistically and then began to tickle me.

"Nooo!" I howled. "Stop! Don't make me hex you!"

"I'm not scared of you," he replied, continuing with his form of torture.

"Stop! Colin, stop!" I squealed. I squirmed out from under him, rolling off the couch and onto the floor.

I stood up, giggling. "I hate you."

He grinned. "You do not."

Shaking my head, I sat back down on the couch. "Touch me again and I'll hex you."

He poked me.

I pulled out my wand. "I warned you," I said, giggling even louder.

His arm snaked around my waist, as he pinned me against the arm of the couch, trying to wrestle the wand from my hand.

"Be careful!" I cried, laughing hysterically now.

For some reason, I chose that moment to look up. I immediately spotted Teddy sitting on the other side of the room, staring directly at us. He didn't really look jealous. He just looked sad. He immediately looked away when he saw me staring at him, directing his attention back to Rose and Lily.

I turned back to Colin, no longer in a playful mood. "Come on," I said, "let's go see if my grandma needs any help in the kitchen."

A lot of you asked for a quick update and your wish is my command!

I hope you liked it! Reviews are appreciated!