* * *

Out in the front garden Hattie stared up at the stars her mind full with questions. Why did she have to come home? Why didn't Charlie say goodbye? Why isn't she with Charlie? Her eyes landed on the star her father was named after and it was as if a surge of electricity flowed through her veins.

"Why do you have to be such a brat?" Charlie's voice echoed all around her and faded into the distance. In the centre of a field, the grass stretching up to her waist Hattie spun around to try and locate Charlie. "All I do is try to help you and your way of repaying it and your gratitude is by being a little, whinging brat. You're not a baby anymore Wendy."

"I'm not a brat!" She shouted.

"Yes you are! An attention seeking brat!"

Hattie spotted a figure breaking through the grass, heading straight towards her. Their dark hair and sharp face soon coming into focus the closer they got. Unlike Hattie's white but rather stained nightdress, the boy was dressed in dark clothes and their skin was tanned unlike her pale skin. "I don't think you're a brat," he said, softly.

Dallin Winter smiled gently, unlike his infamous smirk, this was a kind and loving smile, but one laced with something else. A deeper meaning. His eyes were not dark and brooding like they used to be, instead they looked tired and the dark bags beneath them hung low. He took one of her hands in his, stopping her quivering fingers. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have done what I had done. I— there isn't really an acceptable excuse other than the fact that I really wanted you to be my friend. It was always me and the lads and my parents kept bugging me about getting a girlfriend and I went about it in a totally wrong and disgusting way. I can't ask you to befriend me once again but I hope that you can find some way to forgive me."

"Dallin, I-"

He leaned close and pressed a short kiss to her cheek, letting his hand slip from hers. "You don't have to say anything." And with that he turned away fading into dust right before the girls' eyes.

"Dallin!" Hattie shouted, diving down onto the ground where he disappeared.

Her stomach dropped and she shot up, finding herself on the damp morning grass. Goosebumps dressed her skin and her breathing was jagged. The sky was a dreadful grey and looked just about ready to let the heavens drop. But something about it made her want to stay out there.

Was she really a brat?

Is that why she couldn't stay with Charlie anymore?

Did Charlie hate her?

"Hattie, dear Merlin, why are you out here? It's about to rain! Please tell me you weren't out here all night."

Hattie turned her head towards Remus who had exited the house to put the rubbish in the big brown wheely-bin. He dumped the black sack in the bin and helped the girl up. Immediately she burst into tears, them rolling down her cherry coloured cheeks that were freezing from the cold.

Remus held her in his arms. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed, clutching his chest. "I'm so sorry, dad." Sirius and Remus has agreed that she could call them both dad because of their relationship now.

Remus rubbed her back in soft circles, "for what, Hattie?"

"Being a selfish, attention-seeking brat. Everything I've done!"

"You're none of those things," he told her, "none at all. Why would you think that?"

"Because Charlie didn't want me anymore. Because I am all of those things." Hattie let herself be picked up by Remus who held her cold body in his arms and carried her back into the house for some warmth. He tucked them both up under a blanket in the living room and wiped her tear stained cheeks.

Remus the said, "Charlie doesn't think you're a brat, darling. Or selfish. Or attention-seeking. He was just finding it difficult with work and making sure you're okay. I don't think you realise how many times a night he would get up and check on you. He'd do it every hour and a half. And every night he found your arms bleeding. You say you don't do anything but perhaps you do it in your sleep. Maybe you itch it? He was growing too tired and he can't be like that with the dragons. It was best for you to come home."

"He didn't even say goodbye!"

"He couldn't face it, Hattie. You're one of his most important people and to admit that he couldn't cope is such a difficult thing to do. You know that yourself. Saying goodbye would have torn him apart." Remus explained. Hattie twiddled with the buttons on his jumper.

"I'm not a baby. I don't need checking every hour or so. I'm an adult remember." Said Hattie not coming to terms it's the idea of Charlie not being able to cope. It didn't seem possible. Charlie never showed anything of the sort. It came out of nowhere, or at least it did in her eyes.

"But darling—"

"I know, I know. I need it until I'm fully better." She sighed and flicked his button. "I miss him."

"I know you do, darling, and Charlie misses you. We get letters each day from him asking about you. Why don't you write to him? I'm sure he'd want to hear from you. Or use your diaries?"

Hattie nodded her head and kissed his cheek, "I'll do it later, dad, I'm just really cold and you're really warm."

Remus chuckled and kissed her forehead pulling the blanket up to cover more of them. The living room door burst open and Sirius swaggered in with his arms wide. "Ah look! It's my favourite people!" He grinned, shouting loudly. He joined the pair and cuddle up to them just as James and Peter stuck their heads around the doorframe.

"Hey! What about us?!"

"Yeah, yeah, love you too but you're neither my daughter or my mans so..."

"We're over Padfoot."

"But prongs!"

"I'm not your daughter or your mans so we're done, babe."

"Come snuggle Prongsy, I'm sorry."

"What about me?" Peter asked as James cuddled up next to Sirius and wrapped his arms around Remus and Hattie too.

"You can join, Wormy," smiles Remus patting the seat beside him. Peter grinned and jumped up and down, rushing towards his friends and cuddling up, Harry later joined them as well.

Lily, who had been in the garden during this time wasn't expecting to walk in and see a massive group hug. "I live in a madhouse," she muttered leaving the room as soon as she saw. She shook her head in disbelief. "I don't even know whether I'm married to James. Wait yes I do, but I'm not just married to him, I'm married to Sirius, Remus and Peter too. Why'd I bloody do this to myself?"