Daemon wasn't going to ask her to marry him, Lily thought miserably. He had been sneaking looks at Lucy the whole dinner. She wondered if she would have the courage to end it. Merlin's balls, why couldn't Lucy have stayed in fucking Uganda or wherever the hell she was, researching starving underprivileged African werewolf babies.

At least James was coming home. Unfortunately his awful wife was there too. She had been so sure that they would break up ages ago. At her almost-wedding it had seemed like James had been desperately in love with her best friend. Though now that she thought about it she didn't think James would be particularly good for Ariana. As much as she loved her brother, she knew he was a raging manwhore and had never been faithful to anyone in his life. And Ariana needed someone dependable and sensible. Two things that James was most certainly not.

Lost in her thoughts she hadn't realized that almost everyone had finished eating.

"Lily," her Gran said, snapping her fingers in front of her face. "We're going to start cleaning up."

"Coming coming," Lily said jumping up.

"Hey," someone said softly into Lucy's ear.

Lucy forced herself to turn around and smile and the beautiful boy behind her, even though what she really wanted to do was cry a little because even after almost three years he still had the ability to make her weak in the knees.

"Hey yourself," she said, trying to make her tone as light as possible.

"So how was Africa?" he asked conversationally.

"It was really good," she said. "I learnt a lot there."

"I've missed you," Daemon said. The words slipped out of his mouth almost unconsciously.

"I've missed you too," she said. There was a veritable storm raging underneath her calm exterior

"Why did you leave?" he asked. "You were there one day and gone the next. You didn't answer my letters even though you promised we would stay friends."

"I thought I should give you space," Lucy said. "I didn't think it was right-"

"Didn't think it was right to break up with me and then fuck off to Merlin only knows where?" Daemon asked.

"Well you weren't objecting so much when I ended things," Lucy said, suddenly fired up. "You said and I quote 'It's for the best. I was going to do it anyway.' And when I suggested we stay friends you shrugged noncommittally."

"You were breaking up with me," he said, almost angrily. "I was trying to save face."

"You were acting like a twelve year old," she said coldly.

"And you were being clichéd," he said. "What was I supposed to do?"

"I wasn't being clichéd," Lucy said, stung. "I was being truthful. It was me, not you."

Daemon let out something that was somewhere in between a grunt and a snort.

"I was clingy, paranoid and I generally made your life miserable. I didn't like myself by the end of it," Lucy said. "And you ignored me for the last month of our extremely short relationship."

"Well you were right about the paranoia thing," Daemon said sourly.

"Oh please," Lucy said. "Nothing was quite right after Christmas. You couldn't look me in the eye. I still don't know why."

"I was falling in love with you," Daemon said slowly. "And then you ended it."

"I ended it because I felt horrible about myself all the time," Lucy said. "I wasn't sure if I was being an inconvenience or-"

"You could never be an inconvenience," Daemon said lowly.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "It never could've worked."

"If you're all done," Lily said acidly, unexpectedly interrupting their rather intense conversation.

"Sorry," Lucy said, and with an anguished look, walked away.

"I thought you were going to ask me to marry you tonight," Lily said. Her brown eyes shone with such vulnerability Daemon felt incredibly guilty.

"I was thinking about it," he admitted.

"Not anymore though right?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"I'm sorry," Daemon said. "I do love you. I really do."

"Do you still want to be with me?" Lily asked.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. "Do you still want to be with me?"

And although Lily knew he might possibly be in love with her cousin and that she was most definitely second choice, it didn't matter to her. Because second choice is better than not even an option.

"Lucy'll be back in Rwanda in a week," she said, not answering the question.

"Is that a yes?" Daemon asked.

"It's a yes," Lily said. "Unfortunately I think it's an always."

She walked away. She had this odd feeling in her stomach. One that was very hard to describe.

"I'll be around a whole lot more now," Sophie murmured to Albus. They were both standing in the kitchen doing the dishes the Muggle way (much to Sophie's disgust) because Lily said magic ruined them.

Al felt both terrified and oddly happy. Sophie was so incredibly sexy but also so incredibly married.

"That's good," he said, striving to keep his tone neutral when really all he wanted to do at this moment was take his sister-in-law's clothes off.

"We're going to be living in London," she said, her voice husky. "Come visit sometime."

And then, despite his resolve not to have anything to do with her, especially now that she was living in such close quarters, he asked, "Like tonight?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Sophie said, her smile wicked.

"You're beautiful," Albus said, almost involuntarily.

"I know," she replied. She kissed him on the cheek and went back to wiping the large plate that had held dessert. But Al had other, far less innocent ideas. He held her wrist and pulled her towards him. She giggled delightedly and briefly thought that life would've been far easier if she had met this Potter brother first.

"So impatient," she said as he hungrily pressed his lips to her neck.

"Shut up," he practically growled.

"We can apparate out of here and be back before anyone even notices we're gone," she said.

"You have remarkably little faith in my ability to hold out don't you," Albus said wryly.

"No one has the ability to hold out when it comes to me," Sophie said smugly and then gasped as Al's hands found their way under her shirt.

"We had better leave before someone finds us having sex in your sister's kitchen," she said.

He sort of grunted in agreement and they apparated out of the kitchen seemingly inextricably entwined in one another.

a/n: Sorry this has been a while coming. Well not too long but longer than usual. I'm thinking of adding Lily and Albus as characters too but I wonder if that might be a bit too much to write about. Anyway I hope you like it. Please tell me what you think :)