Harry had gotten in quite a bit of trouble after Hermione, Neville and all the others left. Lily had been worried sick when he'd come up, so he was grounded for a week after getting screamed at for nearly an hour straight. He couldn't blame Lily for it, seeing as he was twelve (physically and in this universe) and had gone up against a bunch of Death Eaters.

After that one week was up, the Potters decided to go to Diagon Alley. Harry hoped that this time they wouldn't run into the Lestranges. The only two alive ones anyway. Granted, it wasn't likely. As he was quickly learning, Death Eater attacks were mostly planned out to be efficient, and targeting a large group in Diagon Alley was a bad plan. A couple people in muggle London wasn't undoable.

When they got to Diagon Alley, Lily was frowning at the booklist.

"Lily, I've never seen you frown so much towards an inanimate object before, what's wrong?" James asked, looking concerned. "They aren't reading trashy romance novels, right?"

In response, she handed him the booklist.

"Yeah these are the same ones we - Bloody hell! You mean that twit Lockhart a year above us in Ravenclaw managed to become a teacher?" James exclaimed.

"Yeah, all seven of his stupid books about accomplishments he probably hasn't done." Lily said. "I find it hard to believe he dealt with anything stronger than a mouse and lived to tell the tale."

Vivianne frowned a bit, before perking up. "I wish I could go to Hogwarts this year, I want to see how stupid this idiot is!"

"No, you want a competent DADA teacher." James said. "Otherwise it ruins the subject for you."

"I agree." Harry replied, "And hope you don't get one that wants you dead, because that can also be a bit of a letdown."

Vivianne frowned a bit, before letting out a sigh. "I guess you're right."

"Yeah, Quirell tried to kill me."

"But you beat him and got him thrown in Azkaban." Vivianne perked up again. "See? You learned a lot! I want to-"

"No, you really don't."

"But -"

Lily quickly interrupted with some school concerns. "Now, Hedwig's fine, and Vivianne isn't going to Hogwarts yet, therefore we don't need to go to Eeylops or the Magical Menagerie. We need books, and Harry, do your robes fit?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, my robes are fine." Harry replied.

"Good, it's just the books. Merlin, the Lockhart collection is expensive. We're lucky your Dad inherited a fortune." Lily said.

"I need some more Potions ingredients for my kit." Harry added, before thinking deeply. "I think that's it, honestly."

"Let's get the books first, the Lockhart collection's popular." Lily said, clearly disgusted by the thought of buying it. Then a look of horror passed over her face. Harry was about to ask why, but she answered before he could ask. "Oh Merlin, he's having a signing today."

The four Potters went into the bookstore, it was extremely crowded. Harry saw a woman bump into Ginny Weasley trying to fight her way to the front, but was kind enough to help her put her books back in her bag. The woman exited the shop, clearly exasperated by the crowd. Lily managed to get the series, and tried to get the series to the front desk without going near Lockhart. Harry couldn't blame her.

The four of them quickly bought the books. "Well, if he gets fired by the end of the year, these books will make great kindling." Lily remarked.

Harry couldn't agree more.

They quickly refilled on Harry's Potions ingredients, then went to Fortescue's Ice Cream Emporium.

"What'd'you say? Walk through muggle London?" James joked.

"NO!" the three of them exclaimed.

"We don't want a repeat of last time when we thought you were dead!" Lily exclaimed, "It might be funny to joke around with for you, but how d'you think Harry and Vivianne felt? They thought they lost their Dad! How d'you think they could live with it if it actually happened? We were pretty convinced."

Harry thought back to the other reality. He hadn't known his parents, he hadn't remembered them at all, really. He'd always managed. But now that he knew them, Lily's extreme love for Rusty, James' extremely laid back and joking nature, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stand it. He'd wished the other reality away, not knowingly, for his parents to be alive and well. At least in this reality, he'd have someone to take him and Vivianne in who actually cared.

"Sorry, sorry!" James said, holding his hands up, clearly hoping that Lily wouldn't hit him. She didn't, but she clearly was giving him just the one warning.

After they finished their ice cream, they went to the Leaky Cauldron to floo home.

A/N: K, so I guess I didn't update on Monday...

I'm really sorry guys, Grade 12 was kicking my behind because I got a job, so I fell off the bandwagon, and then all my docs expired, so I lacked motivation to re-edit them, since I was stupid and stored them on here. Then I started university and I'm in a serious relationship now, and I prioritized that. I'm not going to promise constant updates. I'm going to try and do it when I have time to sit down and edit, but I also have end of year papers to write, things to do, and I do prioritize that over this, because getting into law school and securing my future is a little bit more important. I also don't want to put out crap, so I'm editing the chapters a lot because I wrote most of these years ago when I was in grade 9. Yeah, four to five years ago. So, I'm gonna try and finish this eventually, and when I run out of chapters I've prewritten, they're gonna take longer to write, because editing is faster than writing, and I'm in the process of also writing a historical fiction, which is also something I'm passionate about. I promise I'll try to update more than once every year and a half, I'll admit this hiatus was ridiculously insane.

I'm also going to ask that people don't ask me to update sooner/hurry up because it's taking too long/etc. because that kind of saps my will to write and just makes me feel crappy. I get that you want more chapters, and I don't blame you, and 'I can't wait for the next one' is actually really encouraging, but 'why are you taking so long' isn't. Especially because I have stuff that will affect the rest of my life.

As the saying goes, fun is temporary, GPA is forever.

Either way, the next chapter isn't too bad, so I'm probably going to be able to edit that quickly, it's a matter of motivation and fitting it between essays, dates, lectures, etc. Also, I'm planning on going over some of the old chapters and rewriting some of them so they're a bit better once I have time! They might be shorter than we'd all like, but once third year hits, the few I have already written are a fair deal longer, AND I'm going to combine some chapters.

I also have another couple fanfiction ideas that I'm likely to start as soon as I finish Birthday Wishes...in probably like, a bajillion years or something. Marauders' Daughters coming eventually to a fanfiction site near you!

Please don't expect an update for around a week though, because I have a paper due Wednesday, and then I'm packing for Easter weekend. However, I do anticipate one coming soon.