It was raining again. Angry, rumbling clouds swirled gray in the sky, occasionally set off by a deep gash of light. Ginny was curled up catlike on the windowsill, her eyes taking in the overwhelming gloom with a sense of understanding.

It wasn’t sadness that penetrated her soul. She had transcended sadness quite some time ago. Acceptance was her burden now. She had accepted around the time that the sadness faded that this was her life and would always be her life.

Her heart clenched at the thought of the train station a month ago, when they had dropped off the boys for school. Through the fog, she had seen them first. She had averted her eyes, pretending she hadn’t, but she couldn’t deny the flash of the boy’s white-blond hair, and Ginny had thought she might throw up there on the platform.

Sighing, she unfolded her legs and padded into the kitchen. He was bent over the sports section, the rest of the morning paper left discarded on the counter.

“How’d the Cannons do?” Ginny asked faintly as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

It took him a moment to answer. “What?” he asked, looking up and blinking his dull green eyes owlishly. “Oh. Bloody lost again.”

“That’s a shame,” Ginny replied, grimacing as she tasted the weak coffee.

Harry nodded, flipping the page.

“Any post from the boys?”

“No. None since Saturday,” Harry mumbled.

Nodding, Ginny stirred her coffee and left the room without bothering another venture. She hadn’t been expecting mail from the boys, but she often felt as if she should be saying something, and Harry preferred it if she asked him questions that were easy to answer.

She dropped onto the sofa, sighing heavily over her coffee. She remembered, with an ironic sense of wistfulness, when they used to fight and scream. It used to happen all the time. Or rather, she fought and he stared at her, preferring to sit through the yelling instead of battling with her. But as she grew tired of it, they reached an unspoken agreement to coexist in a state of nothingness. Ginny rather thought she preferred the screaming to the nothingness.

“Mummy!” A squeal came from upstairs, and then the pattering of light footsteps. Moments later, a redheaded figure burst into the room and bounced onto the couch.

Ginny smiled effortlessly, putting down her coffee and gathering her nine-year-old into her arms. “Good morning, sunflower,” she chuckled, hugging Lily tightly.

“Are we going to Diagon Alley to visit Uncle George today?” she mumbled into Ginny’s robe.

“Well, I suppose,” Ginny replied, heaving a fake sigh.

Lily giggled, sitting up. “And could I get some things from the store?”

Ginny looked down at her daughter sternly. The girl’s eyes were on her lap, but Ginny knew all too well that they were twinkling with mischief. “Would you like a few Wonder Witch products?” Ginny asked innocently. “Or maybe a nice Pygmy Puff?”

Lily’s head snapped up, her blue eyes round in horror. “No!” she screeched.

Ginny laughed. “We’ll see, okay? I don’t know if your brothers could handle any more pranks from you, missy. Now go get dressed.”

Lily’s somber nod was quite the contrast from her explosion off the couch and up the stairs.

Ginny smiled after her. Her third child often seemed so very different from her brothers. Where she had once thought her sons were opposites – James was loud and arrogant whilst Albus was shy and thoughtful – Lily was from another world entirely.

She occasionally showed signs of affection, but was more likely to be caught jutting out her chin and stamping her foot. Lily would stand her ground to the point of recklessness.

There was undoubtedly some Weasley in there. Ginny often thought she could see a bit of Fred flash across her daughter’s face. But the mischief that seemed to radiate from Lily was a different brand than what was typical of a Weasley child.

Even her hair didn’t match up with the bright Weasley red. It was a lighter, faded shade of fire, as if she had been born with sun-kissed locks.

Ron often joked that Lily must have a bit of Hermione in her, for the girl was incredibly intelligent when she asserted her thoughts, but Ginny thought she was more shrewd than intelligent.

There was something about Lily that Ginny couldn’t pinpoint. George had once said it was her eyes. Lily had the most expressive and unusual eyes any of them had ever seen. They were like the sea – in a troubling instant they could flash from the most serene dark blue to a turbulent stormy gray that especially frightened James and Albus.

In any case, the daughter that had broken her heart ten years ago was now her reason for existing. Hermione said it was natural, now that the boys had left, that Ginny center her life around her last child. But Ginny had always felt a little differently about Lily. There was just something unusual –

Lily burst back into the room, dressed in her black skirt and ridiculous knee-length emerald socks, her favorite Muggle clothes. “I’m ready!”

Ginny smiled bemusedly at her daughter. “Don’t you think you’re a little old for those now?” she asked, gesturing at the socks.

Lily simply raised her eyebrow at her mother, and Ginny gave up, rising from the couch laughing. “All right, all right. Forget I said anything. I’ll go get dressed.”

After Ginny grabbed her purse and keys, she stuck her head in the kitchen to say goodbye to Harry. He was still reading the article on Puddlemere United.

“I’m taking Lily to Diagon Alley,” she told him.

“Good, good,” he replied, not even bothering to swallow his toast. “We’ll see you later, then.”

Ginny grinned happily as her daughter skipped through Diagon Alley, her long red hair streaming out behind her and her absurd socks catching odd looks. Ginny ran after her, both of them shrieking and screaming with laughter as they hopped from puddle to puddle left by the storm. They were pink cheeked and nearly soaked when they stumbled into George’s store.

“Look at the two of you,” he exclaimed. “Always scaring away my customers!”

“Uncle George! Do you have any of those Biting Toilet Seats left?”

George looked down at her fondly. “A munchkin after my own heart. Why don’t you check in the back?”

Lily ran off. George turned to Ginny. “She’s an odd one, your girl.”

Ginny smiled. “That she is.”

For a moment, George didn’t return the smile. He sometimes made Ginny uneasy, with how perceptive he had become in the past nineteen years.

Lily bounced back into the front room, carrying two innocent looking white toilet seats. “Can we get these, Mum? Please, please?”

Ginny tore her gaze from George’s face and looked down at her daughter, whose blue eyes were shining hopefully.

“Lily, honey, I don’t think you really need-” Ginny began, watching as those eyes instantly turned a ferocious gray.

“But Mum!” Lily exclaimed, clutching the toilet seats more tightly.

“They’re on me,” George intervened. “What kind of uncle would I be if I didn’t aid my niece in a little prank?”

Handing over the seats, Lily smirked at her uncle. Ginny’s heart nearly stopped in her chest. She knew that smirk. She just hadn’t seen it for ten years.

Ginny tried to calm her pounding heart as they made their way back through Diagon Alley. Lily was happily clutching her purple bag of purchases, but Ginny couldn’t help stealing glances at her every few seconds.

She was so preoccupied that she almost knocked into a woman strolling down the street, before Lily pulled her to the side.

“Mum, watch out!”

Ginny looked up, startled, into familiar wide blue eyes. “Luna?”

“Ginny!” her friend exclaimed, throwing her arms around Ginny’s neck. “I was just going to come see you tomorrow!”

“What are you doing here?” Ginny asked, breathing a sigh of relief as her heartbeat began to settle down. “I thought you were in Africa or something.”

“Oh, I was. I met the most amazing man, and now we’re going to be married. But I had to come back, because Daddy doesn’t really like Africa much and wanted us to get married here,” Luna gushed. She looked down at Lily. “You must be Lily. I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. You have the most peculiar green aura about you,” she added thoughtfully. “I haven’t seen one like that since I was in school.”

Lily looked delighted, while Ginny’s stomach did another flop. “Thanks!”

Luna smiled graciously at her, tucking a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear. Ginny grinned at the sight of her earrings, which had thin purple leaves dangling from them, a creation from Africa, no doubt.

“Anyway, Daddy suggested I take one last trip before I get married, with a girlfriend of mine. So I was hoping you’d like to come with me.”

Before Ginny could reply, Lily blurted, “Where are you going?”

“To Prague,” Luna answered. “Daddy says it’s the most beautiful city in the world. It’s where he and Mother met.”

Ginny contained a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn’t Paris. “How long were you thinking, Luna?” she asked. It might be nice, she thought, to get away for a little while. To have a break from Harry and spend a few days with one of her best friends.

“Just for half a week. Kael and I are going to be married next month, so I have to come back to finish planning. We’re trying to get an African spirit to marry us, you know.”

Lily stared at Luna in awe as Ginny considered. Half a week wouldn’t be difficult to arrange. “That sounds great, Luna. When do we leave?”

“Saturday,” she replied. “I’ll pick you up, yeah?”

Ginny nodded, waving goodbye. “I’ll see you, then.”

Lily looked reluctant to leave, but followed her mother while waving enthusiastically at Luna.

As they made their way to the car, Lily tugged at her mother’s sleeve. “How did she know my favorite color was green?”

Harry didn’t have any objections to her going away for a few days. She left directions on what to cook for Lily and what to do if she got into one of her brooding moods. But besides that, he just stared at her blankly and nodded.

Ginny and Luna Apparated to the wizarding center of Prague, each clutching an overstuffed suitcase and brimming with excitement. They checked into the inn where Luna had made reservations, which was small but quaint, and set out to enjoy their first day in the city.

Luna jabbered on about this museum and that, passing by parks and restaurants and shops, and pulled Ginny into exhibit after exhibit. Ginny smiled and followed her friend through all the displays, but by the end of the day she was tired and extremely bored.

They returned to the inn and changed for dinner, and Ginny insisted that they wear the nice dresses they brought and go out to a fancy place.

As they stumbled along the cobbled streets in their ridiculously high heels, arm in arm, Luna continued on about the lectures and museums they had seen that day.

“Dr. Posner was just brilliant, didn’t you think?” Luna said dreamily. “He was the first to suggest the existence of the Winged Arcitule, and I’ve always firmly believed-”

“Luna!” Ginny exclaimed exasperatedly, coming to a stop in the middle of the road. “Look, I know you love all of this stuff, but look at this place! We’re in the most beautiful city in the world, where your parents met, and we’re attending these talks about supposedly non-existent creatures! It’s your last time as a single woman! What do you say we have a little girl fun?”

Luna stared at her, her mouth forming a perfect little “O.” As a breeze blew her blonde hair up into the air, a wide smile began to spread across her face. “All right, then.”

Ginny giggled, grabbed her friend’s arm again and looked around for the nearest place that looked like it served alcohol. A sign hanging from one of the archways, while somewhat somber, caught her eye.

And without another thought, Ginny stumbled into The Sleeping Dragon.

Author notes: Reviews of any and all kinds are appreciated.