The Sawyer House In Appleby, Lincolnshire

Rachel took a few steps back, and she looked down at herself. She felt awful, standing before her, completely nude, with nothing to cover her. Which was the same about this whole situation, she had nothing to cover herself up for this.

"I'm sorry..." she said, sounding rather remorse. "I guess we can pay for any medical costs, if you need to."

"Serenity, calm down. I can take it from here, okay? You just go back home and take care of Dianna... and if she needs to go to the hospital, we'll pay for any bills."

"I don't need money. I have plenty of that." Serenity said, rather shakily. "It's the only thing I'm really doing well in, actually.. Rachel, the only thing I want is that you don't drink around Dianna anymore. I can't have her being around you like she is if you're going to do that. If you drink around her again, doesn't matter if you give her any or not, I'll have you arrested for giving alcohol to a minor. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Rachel felt like she was a child, being once again. "Do you want something to eat or drink before you go? Or, would you like to go home now. And-oh..." Rachel looked down at herself.

"I should put on some clothes..."

"I think I'll just go. And.. You probably should." Serenity said. "See you later, Rach. Nice seeing you, Nicolas." With that, she was gone, apparating straight out of the house.

Nicolas put his hands on his hips, and slowly turned to stare at Rachel. He looked disappointed and hurt. "I can't believe how irresponsible you are! How could you do that?"

"I-I didn't realize it!" Rachel managed to squeak outer. "You don't realize these things when you're drunk and besides..." It was Rachel's turn to place her hands on her own hips.

"YOU'VE done some pretty 'irresponsible' things when you're drunk. Honestly, you know how many times you just come home from The Leaky Cauldron, and you send everything into chaos?!"

"Do you know how many times I've come home from a long day at work just to hear your drunk bitching? And now you've gone off and given alcohol to a minor! Do you know how badly that could damage her?!"

"I was drunk, and I regret it now! God, Nick! What happened to the man I love?! Honestly, you're so impossible, and pretentious, a-and you think you're so smart, and you care more about your fucking job than me or your family!!" she screamed. She then reached out her hand, and smacked him soundly across the face, before rushing upstairs to change and pack an overnight's bag of clothes. As soon as she could, she apparated right out of the bedroom.

Of course, all the kids overheard this whole situation.

Nicolas ran upstairs to follow her, but by the time he was up there she had left. "Fucking BITCH!" he hollered, not even caring about his children and their impressionable young minds at this point. Now he was just going to rant to himself. He paced around his bedroom, stomping angrily with each step. "Just care about my job, huh? I have that job because you're too much of a lazy ass and just stay home all fucking day... I have to make sure I work hard to provide for this fucking family..."

Sophia was laying down on her bed, with her eyes closed.

A good friend of hers had a proper name when things like this happened: a shitstorm.

And what a perfect word to describe the turmoil that was inside of her.

She even had a stomachache, and a pretty bad headache to boot. Sure, it was always very frustrating when her parents were drunk, but they had NEVER gotten into such a big fight before. Never.

She often heard of some of her friends complaining about when their parents argued, and now, she truly understood what they meant. Or even more so.

And there was nothing she could do about it but sob into a pillow of hers.

Rachel had been staying at Kelsi's house for a couple of days now. She still hadn't feel quite comfortable coming home yet. However, there were still important matters to discuss with Nick.

Luckily, that could be done over the telephone. With Kelsi being a Muggle-born at all, it made perfect sense to use to communicate with occasionally. And, it was more easy and convenient than owls, sometimes, Rachel thought to herself as she dialed her own phone number.

Nicolas answered the phone quickly--he happened to have one on the desk in his office, where he was now, sorting through paperwork. Since Rachel was nowhere to be seen, he'd had to stay home from work the past two days. He didn't know where she was, but he was operating under the assumption that she would be back soon and was merely staying at a friend's house. That was the only way he could keep himself from worrying. "Sawyer residence," he said simply, wedging the phone between his ear and shoulder.

After this period of separation, the sound of his voice almost startled Rachel. But, she was stuck now. Rachel took a deep breath, and she began speak to him.

"Hey, Nick? This is Rachel. Um..." she paused to bite down on her lip-a nervous habit of hers, before continuing to talk.

"Uh... I don't think I'm going to be coming for a while. At least until the school year begins-I'll take them to the train, I guess. But... I guess that's about it. Do you want me to take everyone to Diagon Alley in a day or two?" she was saying all of this in a very flat voice.

"It's alright. I've been saving up my vacation days, so I'll just stay home with the kids. Uhm... you can take them to Diagon Alley and to the train if you want, or I could do it. Whatever makes you happy," he said in an equally flat voice. He was trying not to upset her.

"Here, I'll take them shopping, and to the train. But, I think if you just watch them for the rest of the days, it will be okay. But..." Suddenly, Rachel's voice grew very small and timid on the other line.

"I'll need the money..."

Nicolas took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. "I'll look over their supply lists and see how much they need."

"We don't have to buy everything knew, you know!" Rachel said quickly. "I was thinking about it, and we can just reuse their old textbooks, and uniforms. But, you know..." she trailed off.

"No, it's fine. I get reusing old textbooks, as long as they aren't in terrible condition, but they're going to have to get new robes. Kids with hand-me-down robes were made fun of all the time when we grew up. Remember those Weasley kids?... but anyway, it's not that big of a deal for new robes, since I just got a bonus and I'll be making more since I just got promoted."

"Oh yes, I almost forgot you were promoted..." Rachel breathed. She paused for a moment, thanking. "Thank you very much, Nick.." she half mumbled this, before hanging up.

Nicolas sighed, setting the phone back down on the receiver. "Love you too," he murmured to himself before continuing to organize his papers.

Upstairs, in the attic converted into Sophia's bedroom thing, a meeting had come to order.

Sophia, being the oldest, thus being the most wise, mature and bossiest, was sitting at the head, on top of her bed. She looked down upon the fellow rather sad faces that sat below her. Some of them were staring down at the floorboards, picking at the cracks in between, others were staring out the attic window, one of them, James, just look particularly savage.

Mostly, they all had the air that they would be rather any place on Earth than being upstairs.

"Er, right." Sophia cleared her throat. "Uh, meeting's come to order.

"What's the point of being here?!" James snapped at her. "We all know they're going to end up divorced or something anyway!"

"No, don't say that!" Sophia said sharply right back at him, mostly for the younger kids there sake. She realized there was a chance they might be separated, but things had to seem positive as always.

"He's right, you know," grumbled Emily from her corner darkly. Despite all her squealing about she thought certain men looked like Greek Gods, she was rather realistic about these sort of stark situations. "Didn't you hear the way they insulted and cussed at each other the other night ago?"

"You're right, but that doesn't mean they'll get a divorce! All couples fight!" Will pointed out. All he wanted was a more positive atmosphere.

"Husbands don't call their wives 'fucking bitches.' And you know that's true." Victor argued.

"Not in front of Hayley! And stop fighting with each other! We need to work something out!" Sophia shouted at them, desperately trying to call them all back into order.

"But we do need to work out, Sophia? We're going to school in less than a week, and then we can put it out of our minds, for the time being." Victor said.

"You're right, but we still need to talk..." she mumbled, much more quietly. All the fighting subdued her, along with the rest of the kids.

They just sat their in silence. Outside, a bird chirped, and there was a creaking noise somewhere in the house. Finally, Anthony spoke up and broke the silence.

"Sophie's right. It's not like we're leaving tomorrow." he said.

"Exactly!" Sophia jumped in again. "And, I guess you're all right in a way, but, the point is that we can't break under the tension. We have to stay strong, and not let it get to us. If we do, then it will just more chaos around the house."

"You're sounding like Mum, you know." Emily said to her in a very dark voice.

"I miss her..." Hayley said, with pursued lips, and everyone else murmured in agreement.

"We should find out when he's coming home, so we know how long to stay low for." Will suggested.

"Oh, I already know. I heard Dad talking to her on the phone. She isn't coming home until it's time to drop us all off." Anthony spoke up again.

"That's such a long time!" Victor complained.

"Hey, you were the one who said it was only less than a week!" Will snapped at him, and that managed to shut him up for the time being.

"Stop it, you two, or I'll kick both of you out!" Sophia warned at the two of them, holding up a finger. But James just stood up, and stretched his arms.

"You don't need to kick ME out, Soph. I'm already leaving." He retreated towards the door. "If anyone asks where I am, I'm hanging out at Charlie's house, okay?" With that, he marched right out of the attic.

"I'm sorry, Sophia." Emily stood up as well. "There isn't much that we can do, you know. It's not like we're The Parent Trap kids. We'll just muddle things up." And she left. A minute later, Victor went too, with a sad nod.

"Well..." She looked desperately at her remaining siblings. "What do you suppose we do?"

"I think I'm just going to go outside for a while." Anthony said, and he gave her an apologetic look, and a quick hug before leaving. Hayley followed suit with him.

Finally Will smiled weakly at her. "I'll still in here as long as you want, Soph." But Sophia shook her head. "Thanks Will, but I need some time to think." Will simply nodded, and gave her a hug as well, and he left to give her some space.

Sophia just flopped down on her bed with a long sigh. That meeting did not go as well as it expected.

Her period was very late, that month. No, it was beyond being late-it hadn't come at all.

It seemed as though she had been needing to go to the bathroom all the time, and her breasts were to sore to even touch.

The very idea of eating was completely disgusting to her, and she would sip water or milk.

But, she didn't even need a test to know what was going on it. She had seen it in her own mother enough times, through the year to understand what was happening to her.

By the sixth week, as Sophia got up from crouching by the toilet, she was fully aware that Hugh's child was growing inside her.

"Hey Mum, do you want to go on a walk with me?"

It was the very last day of August, and as a parting gift, it had given the Sawyer household a pretty and peaceful evening. Most of her younger siblings were on the train, most likely arriving at Hogwarts shortly, there was finally a sense of quiet in the house.

The kitchen window was wide opened, with a soft breeze batting around the curtains gently. The dishes had all been put away, and the a soft light had filled the sky, as the son was preparing to set soon.

Sure, Sophia hated to spoil such a wonderful evening with her 'problem', but she knew that if that she didn't tell her mother now, then she would have to let the baby do the telling itself.

Rachel consented, but she was still rather suspicious, as the two of them wandered around the hills and the river bottoms in silence. At first glance, it seemed as though the two of them weren't talking as to enjoy the tranquility, but there was really a sense of tension floating between them.

Finally, after the two of them climbed a small hill, and spent a couple moments gazing at the picturesque view, Rachel finally cut in.

"You might as well tell me, Sophia. I know something is up." Rachel said, actually sounding rather calm. But, this through Sophia a bit off guard.

"How do you know that?" she asked, treading forward carefully.

"Because you'd be talking my ear off. So, you might as well do the talking now."

Another period of silence, except for a pair of birds, singing a rather melancholy song to each other. Sophia opened her mouth, shut it, and then she finally revealed that Gof awful truth, she had been concealing for a month.

"You're going to be a Grandmother." And that was all she said. But that was enough to make Rachel whirl around at her, her blue eyes blazing up at her daughter.

"You didn't!" she said, her voice shaking with the strain to control herself from yelling.

"Well Mum, you were correct when you said that 'something was up.'" Sophia replied, sounding as bitter as an old woman, who watched her life being wasted away.

Rachel was just silent from shock for a moment, as she stared at her daughter in disbelief. But, there was always the period of calm before the storm.

"Oh my God Sophia! Haven't I taught you shit?!" Rachel yelled, with salty tears welling up in her eyes. "Are you that fucking dumb?! Don't you know anything?! Don't you remember how many times I warned you not to end up as a fucking nobody like me?!"

Rachel couldn't help but saying those cruel things. They were stemming from the pain that she had in her own late teenage years. She then collapsed ont the grass, her skirts blowing everywhere, as she just sobbed like a child.

A crying woman had joined the sing-song of the two birds. Everywhere else was completely silent and serene.

After a few moments, Sophia stepped in, trying to lighten the mood. This however, was a rather big mistake.

"Mum... you sound like the one who's having the baby." she said gently. Rachel stood up and glared at Sophia darkly in reply.

"Sophia, don't act like an imbecile! You're too smart than that! This is absolutely the worst time to be joking around! Do you realize that you are PREGNANT?! You, a beautiful woman who could do so much is going to be wasting all her potential on a baby?! Sophia... honestly! I am so disappointed with you! You have had all the means to go out and achieve your dreams, and then you just tossed them away as if they were rubbish!" Rachel yelled at her, her face turning red, and her eyes like a flame of blue fire.

More silence, and then some sniffling coming from the daughter.

Rachel sighed, and then she walked over, and embraced Sophia in a tight hug.

"No no no... I'm sorry for making you cry, but Sophie..." Rachel backed away, and cupped Sophia's chin in her hand. "Look what you have gone and done for yourself."

Sophia was just crying softly for a few minutes, before speaking up in a shaking voice.

"Y-you won't kick me out, right? I-I don't want to end up l-like you did..." she said wobbly.

Rachel shook her head furiously, her hair flying around.

"No, of course not! I would NEVER kick you out... but, that doesn't mean you're going to be completely dependent on us."

Sophia just nodded in reply, and Rachel waited a minute before talking.

"I'm sorry for speaking so harshly to you... I..." she took a deep breath. "I don't want you to end up as a housewife, with so many kids like me... of course, it has been a blessing, but... I had other dreams and ambitions, too. And that path certainly isn't for you." Rachel chuckled to herself, remembering how she would brag about becoming an Auror or Minister of Magic or some other crazy dream.

"I-I won't." Sophia stuttered.

"I know you won't. But Sophie, you realize you're going to have to work extra hard now. I will let you stay, and your baby too, but you will have to earn your keep. I will not allow you to sit around, and not do anything. You're going to have to go hunt down those dreams, even with that baby. You'll have to move out eventually, as well. I love you, and I want the best for you. That's why I'm telling you this. Do you understand? I don't want you to end up as a nobody."

Sophia simply shook her head yes. It was too much of an effort to talk.

Rachel sighed again. "You are too smart for this, and I am not okay with this baby... but, we all have challenges in life, and I want you to face yours head on. Don't go and get married to the first man who asks you, even if it gives you security. Just work hard, even if you're going to have that damn baby."

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"...May I just stay out here for a bit." she asked, sounding surprisingly timid.

Rachel nodded. "Yes, you may. Be back in soon, though." And with a heavy heart, she turned around to make her way back to her house, to deliver the news to her husband, a new Grandpa.

Sophia was feeling much better than she had in weeks. Finally, her morning sickness had stopped, for the time being anyway. She had felt like eating, so she fixed herself a omelette, a piece of ham, and a green apple. As she ate all of this, she was surprised at herself. Had she always eaten this much?

After she stuck her plate in the sink, she decided that she would have herself a small walk. So, for about an hour, she wandered around the place, exploring old places just as a creek bottom or a sunny hill; places that haunted her childhood. She reached over, and plucked out a small daisy. Without realizing it, she tore out the petals, thinking about her position.

Yes, she was certainly feeling much better. The morning sickness really just made everything more miserable, and she wanted to do nothing but lay around all day. Now, she was able to think properly.

It was inevitable that the baby was going to come, and there was no stopping it. But let it come. Let her parents be grandparents, her siblings aunts and uncles. Let her be a mother. Everything would work out in the end.

But she wasn't going to sit around and do nothing, however. She had plans to make and carry out, a life to lead.

Now, as she was making her way back home, she began to wonder. Sophia knew what she wanted to do, and where it would be. But there was this money issue. She didn't have much of it herself, and she wouldn't be able to ask her parents for it.

Gringotts was also out of the question, as she lacked the collateral for the money. And, she wouldn't want to be tethered to the Ministry for the rest of her life. She would rather give up her dreams all together.

The house was in eye shot, and Sophia vaguely wondered how her brothers and sisters were doing at Hogwarts, how they were enjoying their classes, professors-

Professors. Specifically, Professor Slughorn. As an 'alumni' of the Slug Club, Sophia knew that Slughorn would always give her a leg up for her and her ambitions. All she had to do was write a polite letter, and enclose some cookies, and she would have that man wrapped around her pinkie.

With sudden zeal, Sophia marched back to the house, and up to her attic, to pen a letter.