AN: Sorry it took so long to update this, somehow all my ff email alerts were getting sent to my spam so it took me a while to figure out that my beta had sent me the edited docx of this chapter.

Chapter 16

"America was great!" Hermione was telling us at Uncle George's wedding. She'd arrived just hours before the ceremony. Now it was over, and we sat at a table surrounded by dancing couples. "We've all been working so hard and having so much fun." She went into more details, but I wasn't listening.

I was watching all the people around us. George and Angelina were so happy. Bill and Fleur were caring for little Victoire. Percy and Audrey were twirling around smiling. I tried not to notice your mother dancing with one of George's friends.

"Harry. Harry! Are you listening?" Hermione got my attention.

"Hmm yes, America was great."

Hermione sighed. "I was trying to tell you about one of my colleagues, Rehtaeh."

"'Rehtaeh', what sort of name is that?" I asked.

"It's Heather backwards," Hermione explained. Ron and I exchanged a look, before looking back at Hermione in distaste. "She's American, alright?"

"Oh." That explained it.

"Any ways, she's really nice. I think you'd like her."

"Oh great, now you're trying to set me up? No thanks." I shook my head.

"Fine. Be like that." Hermione crossed her arms.

"I'd better go dance with my new sister," Ron said, getting up.

"So you seem to be doing really good," Hermione said.

"Yeah I am. I've been keeping busy with work, and Teddy."

"Thats good. And you've been keeping an eye on Ron for me?"

"Yes." I rolled my eyes.

A moment later a small boy that couldn't have been older than seven came over to Hermione.

"Would you dance with me?" He asked her, reaching for her hand.

She smiled. "Of course." They went over to the floor, awkwardly swaying.

I chuckled at how silly they looked. Then I noticed you mother dancing and with Angelina's cousin. I looked away and began tearing little bits of my napkin.

Hermione was back soon but only sat down for a second before gasping in horror. "What is he doing?"

I followed her gaze and saw Teddy across the room by the cake. His trainers were off, right next to his dress coat, and he was in the middle of taking off his shirt. Mrs. Tonkswas a few feet away with her back turned engaged in a conversation.

Hermione and I rushed over just as he was discarding his shirt and pulling at his belt.

"Teddy, what are you doing?" I asked, trying to stop him.

"It's hot!" He pouted, pushing my hands away.

"You need to stop." Hermione ordered, picking up his clothes. "Come on, put these back on."

"No!" Teddy protested. "I won't!" His voice was getting louder and people were starting to notice.

"Please Teddy, I can put a cooling charm on you," Hermione offered, getting out her wand.

"No. I hate clothes!" He continued to fight to get his belt off. The dancers nearby stopped to look at the spectacle and began chuckling.

"Teddy, shh." I tried to quiet him, but he only got louder.

"I hate clothes! I want cake!"

Finally his grandmother noticed and came over.

"Only good quiet boys that keep their clothes on get cake." Hermione said.

I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore, I tried to hide it behind coughs.

"Teddy, what's going on?" His grandmother demanded.

"I don't wanna wear clothes!"

George and Angelina had come over now and started laughing. Teddy noticed and beamed proudly at them, standing up tall to showcase his bare chest.

"Teddy, you have to put your clothes back on." His grandmother said.

"But I don't waaant to! I waaaant cake!"

Mrs. Tonks turned to the bride and groom. "I'm so sorry about this." She picked up her grandson as he thrashed and screamed in protest. He grabbed hold of the table cloth behind her back and, as she pulled him away, he dragged the tablecloth with them.

Before any of us could do anything to stop it, the cake and all the platters were dragged right onto the floor. The cake landed with a splat, becoming flat and sending the gold frosting into the air. All of us lucky enough to be in the front got blots of it all over our dress robes.

Everyone turned to the bride and groom as they came to look at their ruined cake. They stared, then turned to each other and began laughing. I joined in and soon everyone was laughing hysterically. Angelina leaned over, and picked up some cake with her hand. She turned to George grinning.

"Here you go." She threw the piece right at him. She still had her superb Quidditch aim. It hit him right between his eyes, exploding into a mushy mask all over his face.

He wiped his face and declared "This means war!" He filled both his hands with a glob of cake.

"No!" Angelina laughed. She pulled me in front of her using me as a shield.

"You think that would stop me?" George said. Before I could do anything the cake was covering my face too.

I cleaned my glasses, then got a handful of the mess, and threw it right at his face. He Ducked, and it instead hit Percy, who was right behind him. Percy's shocked expression had us all laughing.

"Are you just gonna take this?" Audrey asked him as he just stood there in surprise. He made no response, so Audrey came over and attempted to throw some cake at me. Her throw was pretty good, but I dodged and it got Ron in the stomach instead.

Ron looked all the men surrounding him, and yelled. "Attack!"

And from there it became a full on food fight.

Cake was thrown from side to side, a couple tables were knocked over, and some people even started rubbing the frosting in each other's hair.

All the older folk went outside to avoid it, except for your grandmother. She stood at the rear, wand raised ordering us to stop. Next to her stood the photographer, gleefully taking pictures every second.

Eventually it died down. We did run out of cake. It was all smeared over our nice clothes and into the floor. We stood around covered in frosting, laughing and wondering what we were supposed to do now.

"To the garden!" George yelled. He took Angelina by the hand, and they slid out of the room.

We followed them outside, trying not to trip and slide through the mess.

In the yard garden George was sending fireworks off into the sky. Everyone soon joined in. Hundreds of sparklers shot into the black night, lighting up in neon colors.

The bride and groom shared a final kiss before disappearing into the night under the bursts of color.

…

"We've heard that story plenty of times before," James pointed out.

"It's still funny." Al and Lilly were laughing.

"But I've never told you what happened after George and Angelina left. It's not as amusing, but it is important to the story of your mother and me."

…

After the newlyweds had departed, we all cleaned up ourselves up and the huge mess in the reception hall. Everyone was laughing and having a really great time. I was so busy cleaning up that I wasn't watching myself and bumped right into someone.

"Sorry," I told them, and then I saw it was none other than your mother.

"It's alright," she said, smiling at me a little. "You've still got icing in your hair," she pointed out.

"Oh." I quickly cleaned it off with my wand. "Thanks."

We stood there just looking at each other for a moment. I was unwilling to leave, yet unsure what to say. Thankfully she spoke first.

"Well, uh... How have you been?" She seemed unsure what else to say, but I could see at the same time that she was truly curious for my answer.

"I've been pretty good. What about you?" I'd been told very little about what was going on with her at the time.

"Great. I'm loving Ireland."

"Oh yes, I heard you got on to a Quidditch team there."

"Yes, I got very lucky," she said. "I'm one of the chasers, but it's a very minor team there. I do hope to move on."

"Hmm, good luck."

She smiled at me a little. "Harry, I'd hoped that we could maybe..." She trailed off, looking away. Then turned back and held up a hand. "Could we be friends?"

"Friends?"

"Yes." She looked me straight in the eyes. "I know we have a lot of past, but I've tried to move on, and I hoped we could at least be on friendly terms."

I looked down at her, into her brown eyes.

Could I be friends with her? Could I ever just be friends with her?

But then I thought of the alternate option.

Could I endure another two years like these?

"Of course we can," I agreed smiling at her sincerely for the first time in years.

"Great." She beamed at me. "Well I'd actually better go now..." She looked around. "But it was good to see you."

"You too." And as I watched her walk away I wondered at what had just occurred.

AN: Thanks for reading. I've got to be honest, I've basically lost all interest in this story. Just updating for you guys. So please send me a review so I know I'm not wasting my time. I'm seriously considering just dropping the whole thing.

Happy holidays!