This was what happened when she let herself be genuinely happy, even for a moment.

She had managed for exactly one year, two months, and one day to avoid seeing Sioni. Some of it was luck. Most of it was careful and deliberate planning. The box of letters had been burned, her diaries were all missing multiple pages, a stray page of a calendar that had a note of S: 2:15 in one corner had been tossed in the bin. She had not seen him. She had even managed to avoid any sort of social event with the entire team where Sioni might have shown up.

She had been sober for one year, two months, twenty one hours and thirty seven minutes.

It had hurt at first to know he was down stairs from her and all she had to do was walk down and see him. All she had to do was go with Kaleb one day and sit with the other wives to watch him play. It would have been so easy to fall off the wagon. Every day it got a little easier. There had even been days she only thought of him once. They were rare, because of their daughter, but she felt like that was unfair. She could not rid herself of Charlie not even if she wanted to.

She said nothing for a few moments but mostly stared at him bewilderedly trying to find some words. Anything to say to him. Did she apologize? No it had been better that she did not see him. They didn't have a romance they had a destructive obsession that was tearing her apart. No matter how bad it was for her she wanted nothing more than to take his hand, and have him hold her close to him while they watched the children play. But they couldn't. She was going to stay strong.

The silence lasted a few minutes longer before she finally answered. "It's fall, Sioni."

Grace held the stuffed dragon up to cover her face. "Mummy!" She squeaked, small fingers clutching Frank desperately leaving tiny depressions in the push red fabric. "We don't talk to strangers."

"You're right." It pleased her that her daughter remembered at least one lesson she'd tried to teach. "But Sioni is not a stranger. He plays quidditch with your father." He was much more important than that. He had been more important than that. But, Grace had a tendency to repeat everything she saw or heard, so one had to be careful around her. 'It's getting late," It was not late, it was just after one thirty. "We should probably head home. Charlie will need to go down for her nap soon." She drew her younger daughter closer in towards her chest away from Sioni.

She frowned at the love of her life. He was going to make things difficult again. He always did. "Please don't."