The sun had set now, and the sky was dark. The music from the marquee could be heard all the way across the garden to the house.

Artemis, still angry with Charlie, had tried getting back into the party spirit, but once Ginny and Harry had finished their first dance, she had found herself unable to engage in small talk. She would have liked to have joined in the dancing herself, but she didn't want to give Charlie the satisfaction of knowing that he'd actually done a good job picking the music without her help. She tried to get herself a drink, but Molly appeared as if from nowhere and forcibly removed the bottle of Firewhiskey from her hands.

He still hadn't spoken to her, then.

Frustrated with herself, with Molly, with Charlie, and with life in general, Artemis had left the marquee and returned to the house, where at least it was a bit quieter. She made her way into the sitting room and threw herself down onto the rug in front of the fireplace, where she used her wand to light a fire. As she watched the flickering flames, she slowly started to feel her temper melt away.

After several minutes, the sound of footsteps on the stairs and the swishing of fabric on the floor alerted her to the presence of someone else in the building. She sighed. She had come here to be alone.

The footsteps stopped outside the door of the living room, which Artemis had left ajar, and a woman's voice called out from behind it.

"Hello? Is someone in there?"

Artemis recognised the voice instantly. She called back, "It's just me, Gin."

"Oh." The door opened, and Ginny Weasley — no, Ginny Potter — walked into the room, the train of her dress brushing the floor behind her. "How come you're not at the party? Are you okay?"

"I'm... I just needed a bit of quiet, that's all," replied Artemis. Ginny came and sat down next to her.

"Me too."

"But it's your wedding!"

"I know. It's just been a really busy day. Tiring, you know. And it's a lot of pressure, everyone watching you all the time, and I just needed a moment to be just me, Ginny, rather than 'The Bride' or Mrs Potter, if you see what I mean."

Artemis nodded. She'd spent much of her youth unwillingly in the spotlight. She could hardly blame Ginny for wanting to get away from it all.

"Have you been having a good day otherwise?" Artemis asked, uncrossing her legs and poking the fire with her bare toes.

"Yeah, mainly," Ginny said. "Obviously, Dad's speech made pretty much everyone cry, but I'm glad he made sure people weren't forgotten."

Artemis made a noncommittal noise. It had been inevitable that Arthur would have made reference to the missing members of the wedding party, but it had still made her feel dizzy when he'd started to reel off the names. She could only imagine how the Weasleys had felt. She had lost friends. They had lost a member of their family.

Their family.

"And Mum's been flapping around all day, but I knew that was going to happen," Ginny continued, with a little laugh. Artemis raised her eyebrows. "But otherwise it's been a good day, once I got over my little wobble before the ceremony."

"What wobble?"

"It was nothing, just a bit of a last minute panic about stuff. Fleur calmed me down, said she had the same thing when she married Bill."

"Did she?"

"Yeah, she was actually really lovely about it. In a Fleur sort of way." Ginny raised her eyebrows, and Artemis laughed. Ginny and Bill's wife didn't always see eye to eye. "But she talked me through it, and made me see sense. And I just thought, she was even younger than me when they got married, and she did it, so why couldn't I? What was I so scared of? So, I pulled myself together and I was okay after that."

"What was it that you were scared of?" Artemis asked, frowning.

"Oh, nothing. That's the point. I just suddenly thought that I was too young to get married, and not ready, and I'd made the wrong decision. That I didn't want to change my name. I just thought maybe I needed more time to find myself before I lost that part of myself. It was stupid."

Artemis didn't think that sounded at all stupid. She looked across at Ginny. Her long red hair had been pulled back from her face, and though the pins had held the curls in place all day, her makeup had faded slightly, allowing her freckles to shine through. All of a sudden, she looked just like the seven-year-old girl who had asked Artemis to help her find mince pies for Father Christmas the first time she had stayed with the Weasleys, half her lifetime ago.

Seeing the expression on Artemis' face, Ginny's eyebrows furrowed, and the illusion vanished. Artemis shook her head and smiled.

"Sorry, Gin. I was just remembering when we first met."

"That Christmas? I remember that." Ginny laughed. "I was so excited that you came to stay, I half-stalked you for two weeks."

"You did. It was a bit creepy."

"In my defence, I had always wanted a sister. I thought that maybe if I tried, you'd like me enough that it could be like we were sisters. And now we are like sisters, so it worked."

"Well, not quite," muttered Artemis.

"Yeah, I guess it was Charlie that did it, really. But I helped."

"I don't know, Ginny. I didn't appreciate waking up to find you in my bed."

"Like I said, Charlie was the one who made it happen." Ginny grinned mischievously. "I always knew he would."

"Would what?"

"Come to his senses. It was so obvious for ages that he loved you. You just didn't realise it. I dunno if he did, either. I did, though."

"Well, you realised before anyone else did, then," Artemis laughed. "You must have been very observant."

"Hardly. I noticed it that first Christmas when you came to stay," said Ginny. "At first I hoped that you'd maybe marry Bill one day, but then I was spying on you—"

"What?"

"— and you were in here with Charlie, and he gave you that necklace you used to wear, and..."

"You were spying on me?"

"Yeah." Ginny looked sheepish. "You're right, I was a bit creepy. You never wear that necklace anymore."

"No."

"How come? Other than it being a bit ugly, of course."

"It's not ugly," Artemis said indignantly. "I took it off just as the war was starting. It was just so blatantly from Charlie, and I was doing such dangerous stuff that I didn't want anyone to connect me to your family if I got caught. And... I don't know why, I just didn't want it to get damaged or anything."

"So you threw it away?"

"No, I gave it to Bill to look after."

Ginny tilted her head to one side. "Where is it now?"

"It's on Fergus' collar," admitted Artemis.

"I can't believe that cat's still alive."

"Yeah, well. He's very stubborn." Artemis looked pointedly at Ginny. "Must be something about the ginger hair."

The two young women started to laugh, giggling like the girls they had been when they first met.

"Why did you need some peace and quiet, anyway?" Ginny asked, once their laughter had subsided. Artemis shrugged.

"Oh, I'm just annoyed with your brother."

"Which one?"

"My least favourite one."

"Percy?"

"Charlie."

"Oh, no. What's he done?"

"It's more what he hasn't done," Artemis said, with a roll of her eyes. "You know, you'd think by now he would be able to stand up to your mum."

"Ah." Ginny nodded. "Well, you know what Charlie's like. He's probably just trying to please everyone all at once. Talking of which, I should probably go back and make sure my aunt hasn't persuaded him to play more Celestina Warbeck."

"No, you stay. I can sort out the gramophone. You enjoy your break from being Mrs Potter."

Artemis said rose to her feet. Before she left, she placed a hand on the top of Ginny's head, in the centre of the flower crown.

"You know, if it's any comfort, you'll always be 'just Ginny' to me."

She left Ginny by the fireplace, and walked back out into the garden, where she found yet another Weasley leaning against the back wall of the house, his face turned upwards to the dark sky and his eyes closed.

"George?"

At the sound of Artemis' voice, George Weasley stood up straight and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Where did you come from?" he asked her.

"Um, the house."

George sniffed. Artemis moved closer to him. Even in the dim light, she could see that his eyes were pink and puffy. She swallowed.

"It's hard, isn't it?" she said, quietly. George nodded. "I get it. All these people, and yet the room still feels empty somehow. You'd think that you wouldn't notice that they're not there, but you do."

She watched as George drew a shallow, shaky breath. He wrapped his arms in front of himself, and placed one hand in front of his chin, his thumbnail between his teeth. He looked lost. Lost and lonely.

"George, do you want a hug?"

George closed his eyes and nodded his head. Artemis wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he leaned down to rest his head on hers, his hands clasping his own forearms behind her back.

They stood there for a minute or so, until George raised his head from Artemis' left shoulder and released his arms.

"Thanks," he said, stepping back from her.

"You're welcome. You know, I get it if you don't want to talk about it, but if you do, I'm here. I don't mind listening."

"I don't want you to miss the party."

"It's fine. I'm trying to avoid your mum, anyway."

"Is she trying to talk you and Charlie into getting engaged, too?"

"Oh, so it's not just us?"

"No, she's just been on at me about Angelina," George sighed. "We've only been going out for ten months, and we didn't even tell anyone about it for the first six. We didn't want everyone to make a big deal about it at the start."

Artemis smiled to herself. She'd been there.

"She seems nice. Angelina, I mean," she told him. "I think I've met her before."

"Probably. At the... Yeah. Probably."

"She knew him?"

"Yeah, we were all at school together. They went on a couple of dates in our sixth year." George's face suddenly hardened and his posture became more upright. "I mean, it wasn't anything serious, just as friends more than anything, and—"

"I'm not judging, George."

George softened. "Sorry. I just always assume that people are judging. Like they think I'm betraying him, or something. Sometimes I feel like I'm betraying him."

"I get that," Artemis nodded. "After Rowan died, I kept thinking that everything I did was betraying her. Like... like she was gone, and I wasn't, and it was so unfair, and every time I did anything that she would have enjoyed I felt like I was taking it away from her. And any time I did anything that I enjoyed I felt like I was sort of... taunting her with my life. Like I shouldn't have been having fun or doing anything that made me feel good because she wasn't there."

A look of understanding had passed over George's face as Artemis spoke. When she finished, he smiled sadly.

"That's how I felt, too. Not so much anymore. I just worry sometimes that I should be doing things to make him proud, and honour his memory. And I know that some people would think that going out with his ex is really not doing that."

Artemis shrugged. "Who cares what people think?"

"I do, sort of. I worry that they're right, that I'm doing the wrong thing. Especially today, when I'm here with Ange and everyone is watching us together and judging.

"Then, after the speeches, I felt so... awful, and I thought that maybe I made a mistake bringing Angelina here with me tonight. I was even thinking that maybe I should end things with her. I was going to ask Bill and Charlie about it, but Bill's off with the little ones, and Charlie was having an argument with you outside, so I spoke to Mum instead. And she said she thinks I'm doing the right thing, and that it would make Fred really happy that I'm with Angelina, but that I shouldn't be messing her around, that if I was going to be with her, I had to take it seriously and do it properly."

"And now?"

"Now I'm more confused than ever." George let out a hollow laugh. "I don't know what to do."

"I think," said Artemis slowly, her eyebrows knitting together, "that it matters less what you do, and more why you do it, and who for."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, are you worried because you don't know what you want to do, or because you don't know what Fred would want you to do?"

"It's the same thing, Artemis."

"Actually, it isn't." Artemis shook her head. "You know, it's true what they say about people you've loved never leaving you. You remember Rowan, right? For years after she died, every single time I had to make a decision, it felt like I had to make the right one for her as well as for me. Because she was always the good and sensible one, and I... I just wanted to make her proud.

"Then, when Tonks went, it all became really hard. Because after that, I had two people to try and please whenever I wanted to do anything, and a lot of the time what I knew Rowan would have wanted would have been the complete opposite of what Tonks would have had me do." Artemis smiled in spite of herself. "Rowan would want me to be safe and sensible and to learn and take things seriously, and Tonks would just want me to have fun."

"So what do you do?"

The answer to George's question was an easy one.

"Whatever I want."

"What?"

"Well, I can't please both of them. So, I just do what I think is best for me," Artemis told him. "I mean, obviously, I hate that Tonks is gone. I miss her every single day, and I wish she were still here with my whole heart, but... It wasn't until after she died that I realised how much I'd been sacrificing to try and uphold Rowan's memory. How much of me I'd lost, and how I'd put myself into this... this cage. And then, I was free. You know, I think that more than anything else, they would want me to be free."

Artemis breathed and blinked back tears. It was far too late for George. He was crying again. Artemis' heart sank. She'd made things worse, not better.

"Oh, George, I'm sorry. I was just trying to help. Forget I said anything."

George shook his head.

"No, you... You're right," he said, and he wiped his eyes. "I just... I miss him. I miss all of them."

"Me too."

"Can I have another hug?"

"Sure."

The two of them hugged again. Pulling away, George wiped his eyes with his cuff, and Artemis wiped her damp left shoulder. George smiled at her.

"You know what Fred and Tonks would want us to do now?" he asked, an almost impish look entering his eyes. Intrigued, Artemis tilted her head to one side.

"What?"

"Get drunk and persuade McGonagall to dance with us."

"Yeah, they would. Let's do it."