Author's Note:

What?! An update? And you didn't have to wait six months? Well, maybe magic does exist. lol

*H*H*H*H*H*H*H*H*H*H*H*

"Mmmmm" Pansy moaned as she finally took the first bite of her burger.

The foursome was huddled around his small kitchen table; none willing to roam any further before eating. "Damn! The fish is good," Harry exclaimed, happy to be eating a proper meal.

"Told you," Parkinson responded with a smirk.

"Okay, so you told us that your grandmother lived nearby but you didn't really explain how exactly you found the restaurant," Hermione said.

Ginny smiled and bumped shoulders with her girlfriend to prompt her to speak."Come on, 's a funny story," she cajoled.

The raven-haired witch sighed but quickly relented."Alright, fine, but you owe me."

"Yes, of course, I would expect nothing less," the ginger replied happily, clearly accustomed to her Slytherin ways.

"As I said, my grandmother lived always insisted we visit but wasn't very attentive once we got the time I was ten, I figured out how easy it was to get out of the house, and so I did.Unfortunately, the neighborhood was were like only two or three shops, and they all knew my , I couldn't go had a park, and it is lovely. So of course, everyone in the neighborhood was there regularly. Which meant I couldn't really go there only left the muggle world," she said.

"That had to be frightening," Hermione commented."I can't imagine doing that for the first time alone. I mean, Professor McGonagall and my parents were both with me the first time I went to Diagon Alley."

"Hagrid went with me," Harry volunteered between bites.

"Yes, well, I was alone…," the raven-haired witch continued.

"And she was terrified," Ginny interrupted.

Pansy gave her girlfriend an exasperated look, but the ginger just grinned back. "Yes, I was terrified, and why wouldn't I you can imagine, being raised by a family such as mine, I'd heard horrific things about muggles.I might not have risked it at all, if I hadn't been so knows, I wouldn't have eaten otherwise."

"Why," Harry asked with a frown given his own home life growing up, he always had an ear out for child abuse or neglect.

"Oh," the witch responded with a wave of her hand as if it were nothing."I've been on diets for as long as I can remember. Mother thought I was a bit of a pudge. So, she always restricted what I put a mild withering curse on me when I was ten, because she was afraid that I'd overindulge after I went away to school."

The other couple's mouths dropped open at that revelation, and Ginny gave them a quick shake of her head to warn them off from saying anything. Pansy continued, oblivious to the horror of the others."I really didn't know where to go, so I just wandered.I eventually found myself in front of Pauly' , it had a different name back then. It smelled heavenly."

"The food called to her," Ginny said dramatically.

"I was lost," her girlfriend said dismissively.

"It was fate!" the ginger exclaimed.

Parkinson rolled her eyes."Do you want to tell this story?"

"Yes!" Ginny said raven-haired witch motioned for her to take over as she gladly returned to her meal.

"So, there she was, only ten years old and about to had no idea what to order at a muggle restaurant and no way to pay. Too afraid to talk to anyone, she lingered outside the door until the staff felt sorry for thought she was an orphan waif and didn't want her to die in front of their for business," she said conspiratorially as Parkinson rolled her eyes again."They had no choice but to feed her."

"My first burger," the other woman said wistfully.

"She, of course, loved it," Ginny went on."She loved it so much that she learned to get muggle money and how to use it."

"How?" Hermione asked.

"My parents gave me an allowance which was automatically deposited into a Gringots account. I just had them exchange some of it into muggle currency whenever I had the didn't care as long as I paid them generously for the service.I got the feeling they did that kind of thing all the time," Pansy explained.

"And so," Ginny interrupted eager to get back to the story."She then gathered up all her courage and went back and ordered a meal all by herself."

"Are you sure you aren't a Gryffindor," Harry laughed.

Parkinson snorted in derision."Hardly.I was too afraid of muggles and my parents to actually eat there.I always ordered take out and would just find a place to hide and eat it," she responded.

"She didn't even eat inside the restaurant until after the was then that she learned she was already a regular," Ginny concluded with a laugh.

"Pauly's was a lifeline when school was out," her girlfriend commented. "Mother was absolutely obsessed with my diet."

"That harpy might have actually managed to kill you, if you hadn't married Enzo," the ginger remarked scowling.

"You're married?"Hermione asked.

"Widowed," Pansy responded softly, frowning at the sudden remembrance of her grief.

Ginny put an arm around her and pulled her close."That's part of the problem," she said to her friends."Her parents let Daisy live with Pansy after she got that Enzo is gone, they want her back."

"My parents don't care about only had her as a backup after my betrothal to Draco fell apart in our sixth I managed to marry well anyway, they lost complete interest in her," Parkinson spat with a sneer. "They couldn't get rid of her fast left her after our wedding reception and didn't even tell me.A house elf found her wandering amongst the was only three!I can not let them have her."

"Of course not!" Harry exclaimed vehemently.

"How can we help?" Hermione asked.

"My parents can't find out about me," Pansy answered with a shaky breath."They'd never let me see her again."

"It's worse than that," Ginny spoke girlfriend opened her mouth to speak."No, we need to be honest. They can't help us, if they don't know what we're up against."

Pansy looked like she wanted to argue but thought better of , she closed her eyes and nodded."Just don't drag it out," she requested; then rested her head on Ginny's shoulder.

"Of course," the ginger replied turned back to her friends with a serious look on her face."Ok, listen up.I'm only going to say this once. So, pay attention, keep quiet and save your questions for the end," she concluded giving them both a stern other couple quickly nodded their agreement.

"So, as you know, Pansy's pureblood, Sacred 28, yada yada," she started. "While that has a lot of also has its drawbacks, particularly if you're biggest among them being that they tend to follow the old second being that the law hasn't kept up with the times, so no one can legally stop them from following those old this means for Pansy is that her marriage contract stipulated, if her husband died before she was able to conceive a viable child to him, her 'custody' would revert back to her parents."Her friends gasped, but she stilled them with an upraised finger before continuing.

"In other words, they wanted to retain the rights to remarry her, and they intend to do so as soon as her mourning period is over. That's in seven months. Until then, her parents' word is they found out about us…"Ginny took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before continuing. "They could marry her off to anyone who was willing to pay a respectable bride price and who could keep her in line. He could hide her in some country manor in order to protect Daisy's prospects at marriage.I mean, that's the reason they had her in the first place, right? A spare in case Pansy didn't work out," she said with disgust."And, Pansywould just….disappear, entirely at the mercy of her new husband."

"Fuck!" Harry breathed

"But at the end of her morning period, won't she still be in a similar position?" Hermoine asked, "She'd still have to get married so someone, right? And what of her sister?"

"Very good questions, Miss Granger," Ginny said primly.

Hermione preened briefly before realizing the jest and sticking out her all laughed, which eased the tension in the room.

"Sorry, Mione. I couldn't resist," the ginger said with a cheeky grin."And they are actually good questions."

"Thank you," her friend replied with a chuckle then motioned for the woman to continue.

"We already have a man set up to request her hand as soon as it's 'll stipulate in the marriage contract that Daisy is to become a legal ward of his will offer to pay for her education and she becomes an adult, he'll also cover her dowry, but her parents will receive any bride's price or titles acquired through the marriage. He'll also include a provision for Pansy. Should he die before her, she would remain a member of his estate would cover any expenses she had for the remainder of her other words, once they marry, both Pansy and Daisy would be safe and free."

"That still leaves a lot of variables," Hermione commented with a frown."What if her parents pick someone else?Or if this man changes his mind? And what is he getting out of this? What does he expect from Parkinson? Does he know about you?"

"Salizar!" Pansy complained."I forgot how annoying it is when she did that." She lifted her head and sighed."We'll do what we can to encourage his success, but he is a good prospect, especially for a second 's a second son but from a prominent French pureblood family, and he'll be making a very generous offer.I trust him implicitly.He's getting nothing from this than our 's doing this for me and , he's helped raise her since she was expects nothing from either of , he knows about Ginny. He is my husband's closest frie…" her brow creased as she stumbled over the word.

Ginny reached over and took her hand."It's ok. It's tell them what you told me when I asked if Enzo and Jacky were friends," she raven-haired witch still seemed reluctant to speak though.

"Come on, Parkinson," Harry said with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Don't keep us in suspense."

The other woman lifted her chin haughtily and answered. "I told Ginny, of course they're friends but calling Jacques anything less than Lorenzo's husband would be an insult to them both."

"Then why did he marry you or was he also attracted to women?" Hermione asked, "Were you with them both? Do you have children?"

"Merlin, help me," Pansy mumbled before answering."We met in Italy, by chance, and became wanted to help me get away from my family so, as he said, I could follow my , neither were attracted to me or women in , I don't have any children."

"Yes, she does," Ginny blurted."She has two stepchildren, Mitzy and Moppet."

"Which are French bulldogs," her girlfriend corrected.

"Uh…sorry to interrupt," Harry said cautiously."But can this chat wait for later?I think we need to focus on the problem at , what do you need right now," he asked.

Shooting him a grateful look, she replied, "I need to know who it was that saw us, what he saw or thought he saw, and I really need to know what the hell is in those photos."

On the "case", the auror replied, "So, we need to find the photographer. I didn't recognize him, but maybe one of you will."He lifted his wand, a few moments later, a pensive flew into the room, settling on the table. He then extracted a memory and placed it into the bowl.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" he asked.