(A/N) Again, a bit short, but at least it was quicker? This is more of a filler, but embedded in there is some important information... Anyway, hope you enjoy. Nothing belongs to me, of course. Please review? (A special thanks to Blackened Silver, who I think forgot to sign in, to getting me off my arse and finishing this chapter, so thank you. :) This is dedicated to you and to the 23 people who have this story on alerts and the 8 who have this on their favourites.)

Being at home on a permanent basis had its advantages. The first and most important of which I was sat it front of at the moment: the television. I sighed, my fingers curling around a steaming mug of hot chocolate. There was nothing better than a sofa, some mindless soap opera and hot chocolate with marshmallows after a crazy day at work. Mmm.

Being at home also had its shortcomings, of course. I'd honestly forgotten how many brothers I had those were able to Apparate in and out of the house without a problem, and I was realising this fast. Jules couldn't cook and his girlfriend, Fran, was off on some tournament to Prague, so he was home for dinner practically everyday. Rob's head had popped up in the fireplace at least six times this week, giving Dad repeated heart attacks, and Henry, of course, was still firmly ensconced at home. Home felt like King's Cross. And here I was thinking Mum and Dad were lonely after we left for Hogwarts. The only ones who hadn't dropped by in a while were Jem and Lea, but Mum had picked up on this, and they were due over for dinner any minute.

I yawned as I heard the fireplace in the next room roar and felt around for the remote to switch off the television.

"Ella? That you?"

"Hey Jem." I called. He stuck his head around the door and grinned. "How's tricks, baby sister?" Dropping a kiss on my forehead, he asked, "Where are the future grandparents?"

"Kitchen, I think. Mum's making lasagne and pumpkin stew."

He pulled a face. "Eugh. Why the stew? She knows I hate it."

"It's Lea's favourite food." I shrugged. "I think the woman carrying her grandchild takes a bit more precedence than her firstborn son this time round."

"Great," he groaned. "Last time we were here Mum filled one of those massive Tupperware things Grandma gave her to the brim and we were eating it with everything for weeks. Lea seems to think that it's a rule that if she wants to eat something, I'd better eat it and love it too. I can't even say anything 'cos she's pregnant, and I'm scared she'll kill me if I do."

"You think this is fun, Jeremy?" screeched an irate voice from the next room. I laughed as Jem winced. "Jeremy, huh? Someone is not happy."

"Ella!" Lea held out her arms as she came into view. To be fair, that's a slight lie. Her belly came into view before she did and she waddled over for a hug.

"Don't mention how big she is," he whispered in my ear, and then, so she could hear, "I'll go look for Mum and Dad."

Lea's quite a bit shorter than me and my little niece/nephew didn't help matters, so I was doubled over as I hugged her. "I missed you," she sobbed. I was slightly confused. She may have known me from when I was a toddler, but she wasn't usually the hugging type and to miss me? Really? I put it down to hormone imbalance.

Pulling back she smiled. "Come on," she grabbed my arm and started pulling me to the kitchen. "We went to the Mid-Witch yesterday and we have news." she waggled her eyebrows at me.

"News? As in the gen-?" I was cut off by a screech. My mother had flung herself across the room at Lea and the two women stood clutching each other for few moments. Mum pulled back, mumbled 'You're showing', let out a sob and pulled her back in again. Dad shuffled around at the side with his son, looking awkward.

"Henry's got an emergency at work, he's sorry he can't make it," he offered. Jem nodded.

"We've got some news." Lea pulled away from Mum. "We went to the Mid-witch yesterday and they took a look. I know I said that i wanted to wait ti find out what it was, but i couldn't." She smiled at her husband and bit her lip. "It's a girl."

Mum let out another sob and blew into a tissue that Dad offered her. "That's wonderful, my darlings."

"It's also a boy."

You could have heard a pin drop. Mum was frozen, tissue clutched to her face, leaning on my father. Dad looked shell-shocked. And as for me, well, surprise is putting it very mildly.

"Can that even happen?" choked out Dad.

"'Course it can," Jem laughed.

"At the same time?" he looked really worried now.

"Dad, you do realise there are two babies?" Lea cut in, smirking slightly. "One being a girl and the other a boy?" she nodded encouragingly.

Dad went crimson. "Yes, yes, of course. Congratulations." The penny dropped and Jem and I snorted.

"Congratulations!" I yelled throwing an arm around each of them and pulling them in by the neck. Which proved to be slightly difficult considering my brother was almost a full foot taller than his wife.

Mum still hadn't said anything. She stood at the side, her saucer-wide eyes flicking from Jem to Lea to her abdomen.

"What are you talking about?" she finally got out, the pitch of her voice shooting up. "Twins?"

Lea burst out laughing as she was pulled into another bone-crushing hug. "Yes, a boy and a girl."

"Oh, my babies." Mum sniffed. "And my grandbabies." She dabbed her eyes with the tissue and straightened up. "I'll make you some extra pumpkin stew, Lea, since you're eating for three. Jem, be a dear and pass me that Tupperware box."

I was ecstatic. I had a niece and a nephew. I would have happy-danced if that wouldn't have caused Dad to put me in St Mungo's psycho ward in a heartbeat. Oh, sorry, I wasn't supposed to call it that now that I was an employee of the Ministry. I meant St Mungo's Janus Thickley Spell Damage Ward. Of course.

Cee was practically jumping up and down when I told her. She found the whole childhood-best-friend-to-crush-to-love-of-life scenario with Jem and Lea too good to be true and gushed at the mention of them.

Was it bad that I hadn't yet told my mother I had a date, but my colleague, who I'd known for all of a month and a bit, knew the whole story? Oh well, she was probably the closest friend I'd had who was remotely interested in giggling over guys with, so that's just what I was going to do.

We had had more than enough to cope with recently. The chaos at the World Cup had caused problems, and then there was the Horntail fiasco in which Crouch was torn between the Ministry's overzealous health and safety regulations and the fact that contestants had to be physically challenged and intimidated. There was Percy Weasley, who thankfully wasn't actually with us all day due to Crouch taking a liking to him. Unfortunately, this gave him the authority to lord it over us, not that he would have needed a reason in the first place of course. And then there was Barnaby Fletcher, our joint secretary, who reckoned he was Merlin's gift to witches. He wasn't, unless the word 'gift' is synonymous to the word 'pest'.

But I digress. My point had been that during the Hungarian Horntail saga, we were in meetings with dragon keepers from the sanctuary in Romania on a regular basis, and we just so happened to meet Charlie Weasley. Who now happened to be Cee's boyfriend. Since then, gossip had become the main focal point of our lunch hour. I wasn't proud of it, but hey, if I had a good girl friend, I was going to make the most of it.

She was sitting at her desk, her feet propped up and a small bag of sandwiches on her lap.

"Cream cheese and salmon? Or hummus salad on malt bread?" she asked as she rifled through the bag. "One of each?"

I nodded, walking over. "Thanks." I took a big bite of the cream cheese sandwich. "You make the best sandwiches."

"Your mum's a dab hand at them too," she laughed. She bit her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. "Barnaby asked me out again today."

I snorted. "Is he alternating the days he asks us or something?"

"Statistically, the more times he asks, the more likely he is to get one of us to accept."

"Realistically, the more times he asks, the more he pisses us off."

She grinned. "True that, though I'm sure he means well."

"Who means well?" I craned my neck to see who was at the door. I grinned when I saw Oliver, and turned around on my perch on Cee's desk to face him.

"Afternoon, Woodster,"

"Hey, Oliver,"

He lifted his hand up in greeting and leant against the doorframe. "So what's the gossip, ladies?"

"Oliver, what are you doing here?" I asked. "I thought you had training?"

He shrugged. "I needed to hand in some of my International Sporting Border Clearance forms in, and Blundell gave me the evening off."

"Nice one," I nodded, taking another bite. "Are you going over to your parents' house then? Get a proper meal."

"I can cook, you know. Not like you. Your repertoire barely extends to that sandwich you've got in your mouth."

Cee chuckled. "That was me, actually." Oliver grinned at her. "See?" he said.

I scoffed. "I've tasted your cooking, if you can call it that."

"Excuse me?" he eyebrows shot up into his hairline.

"Would you like me to tell Cee here the story of the pasta you forgot to cook or the sunken fairy cakes you made for your parents' anniversary?"

"Neither." He grinned at me sheepishly.

"So I ask again: are you going over to your parents' house? 'Cos I think Mum has some clippings and things that your mum wanted to see. I can owl her if you like?"

He glanced at me. "I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks to grab a bite, actually."

"Oh," I said.

"Is that okay?" he asked, his eyebrow cocking slightly.

"Yeah, sure. Fine," I said. "Eight at the usual place?"

He nodded. "See you then. I have to go now, couple of things to pick up from Diagon Alley. I just came to ask that, actually. Bye, Diggory!"

Cee nodded back and looked at me pointedly after he closed the door behind him.

"What?"

"Well. that wasn't awkward at all, was it?" she said, rolling her eyes to indicate that it clearly was.

"What are talking about?"

She eyeballed me. "Have you even told him about Nick?"

"What about Nick?" I was confused. What did that have anything to do with anything?

"Does Oliver know about your date?" she pressed.

"Erm, no? I fail to see why he would care." I said, taking the last bite.

She rolled her eyes at me.

"What?"

"Never mind," she sighed. Her hand went into the brown bag again as she selected another sandwich.

"Pass us one." She handed me another triangle and I munched on it happily. I loved malt bread. "Tho, shup whizz oon zargely?"

"Pardon?"

"Sorry," I laughed at the horrified look on your face. "What's up with you and Charlie?"

She looked at me for a moment without blinking. "Good, he's coming to England, actually."

"Yeah? For what?"

"Dragon delivery. It was supposed to be Scothron," I nodded, that's what I had heard. "But Charlie managed to find a way." She blushed.

"Let's not talk about Charlie anymore, shall we?" she smiled. "Blushing doesn't suit me."

I laughed. "It's sweet."

"Let's talk about the Big Date." Now it was my turn to blush. "What are you planning to wear?"

"Jeans?" I shrugged. "We're going to some Muggle place."

"Jeans?" she shrieked.

"I mean a dress?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Do you even own a dress?"

"No?"

There was groan and a bang as her head hit the table. Suddenly, her head shot up again and her eyes gleamed. "Okay, Ella, we're going shopping."

Bugger.

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