"What's her name?"

The room was packed with friends and family, all excited to see the new addition.

"Hayley Ann Diggory." Alexis Chosen answered before either of the newborn's parents could.

She stood beside Savannah's hospital bed, smiling proudly down at mommy and baby.

"Ann, after Curt's sister, Annie." Savannah added softly, ocean blue eyes only leaving the beautiful little person craddled in her arms to look sideways at her husband.

He perched on the edge of her bed, hugging her and Hayley to him.

Vannah stroked Hayley's tiny pink hand, pressing another gentle kiss to her itty bitty fingers.

Mrs. Mae stopped in the nursery archway, leaning against the door frame to watch the quiet scene before her.

She had expected Savannah to be taking a nap.

The house was quiet.

Lorraine hadn't known, walking into the nursery, that she would find her seated in the rocking chair with one leg tucked under her.

Savannah didn't notice her presence, content with gazing down into the face of her precious child.

In that moment, it felt just like she were staring into a Pensieve filled with her own memories; except now, the baby in those memories certainly wasn't a baby anymore..

While other children were running around the backyard playing, Hayley sat on the porch step bundled head to toe in puffy, warm clothes and thick baby boots.

She could barely move, but that was okay. She was getting aquainted with the snow right where she was.

Hesitantly, carefully, the small child scooted forward and grabbed a handful of the white fluffy powder.

Hayley patted it in wonder.

"There's mamma's baby," a soft voice cooed.

Grey-blue eyes flickered up to see her mother kneeling at her side; Hayley squished the snow together by accident, forming her first (deformed) snowball. "Brrrrr, mamma."

"Tiggy?"

Crawling swiftly across the floor, Hayley stopped and sat up to look for Tiger in higher places.

"Naaaay!"

Naya, the beautiful black-furred female cat of the house swished her tail and walked away to find a less noisey window to sit by and watch the morning birds from.

Hayley's lower lip pushed out, clearly upset. "Tiggggyy!"

Tiger was being a bad kitty, yes he was.

"Tiggy!" Hayley squealed excitedly as the dwarf orange tabby darted off out of the room and down the hall, trying to make an escape.

Tiger was no kneazle, but he sure was good fun!

Hayley ran down the hall, as quickly as her little legs would carry her.

"ROOOOAR!" She tried to sound big and fierce, but much like their cat (Tiger) she sounded more like a kitten.

A frown fell upon her lips and she stopped, pushing a thick brown strand of hair from her face. "Aunie Roar?"

"Aunie Roari?"

Hayley slowed her pace but began to walk further down the hall, turning into the livingroom where she spotted Rari and Lucy on the couch.

"Hey Hayley," Auntie Lucy waved her over. "Do you want to read with us?"

The toddler nodded eagerly.

Hayley patted Lainie's leg, raising her arms to show she wanted up.

Once settled comfortably on her cousin's lap, the toddler went back to nibbling on her cookie while she watched the scene unfold before her.

Katie and Legend were bickering about the cookies; Katie held the spatula aloft, looking annoyed. "There is nothing wrong with them."

Legend turned his cool green eyes on Hayley and Lainie, his two favorite 'nieces'. "Hayley, tell her the cookies taste like socks."

"Cookies taste like socks," Hayley nodded loyally. "And socks taste good."

Lainie hugged the smaller child closer, giggling at her cuteness.

Hayley sat perfectly still on her mother's lap, watching fixedly as a pair of chasers from opposite teams zoomed past on their broomsticks.

She snuggled closer into her mother's chest, gazing around the pitch. "Where daddy, mummy?"

"Right over there," Savannah took Hayley's little hand in her own and pointed to Curtis.

Hayley nodded. "Where Exi?" The child asked, now trying to find her crazy auntie.

"There's Lexi," Her mother replied, "Look Hayley, there they go!"

As Quidditch fans shouted, cheering on their favorite teams, Hayley exclaimed, "Go daddy and Exi!" clapping with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

"Please be careful, Hayley."

Out shopping with her mommy and auntie Lexi, the toddler soon found herself tied up in a rack of dress robes, wiggling and flailing to get free of the clingy fabric at once.
"Hayley Ann.." Her mother reappeared in front of her, bending down to untangle her.

The little girl twirled, mumbling a quick: "Sowwy, mamma."

"Hey, what about these?" Lexi asked as they approached her, standing in front of a random display.

Vannah cast her a curious look, "Lex, we're not here for sunglasses.. and it's autumn,"

Lexi shrugged and pulled a baby pair, "So?"

Her walls were yellow.

Hayley was much too young to understand what a Hufflepuff was, or meant, or where it came from - "Undah my bed, daddy? Is a Huffinpuff undah my bed?" - but what she did know was that somehow, they were connected to the color yellow. And that's all Hayley needed to know.

Savannah underestimated exactily how yellow the paint would turn out.

"It looks like the sun exploded in your daughter's room." Alexis stated, the tip of a sugar quill in her mouth. "It's blinding."

. . . .

"Vannah?"

"Yeah, Lex?"

"I told you those sunglasses would be good."

Smoothing chocolate frosting over a small finger print left from an eager Diggory toddler, Savannah smiled at the sound of little feet running into the kitchen.

"Mammaa! Is time?" Dressed in a badger costume with a yellow and black ribbon tied around one badger ear, Hayley was ready to celebrate Halloween and her daddy's birthday.

Glancing up at Alexis who was just about finished decorating the cake in all different candies (Muggle and Wizarding alike), Savannah bent down to be on her daughter's level and took her little paws. "Almost. Do you remember what to say when daddy walks in?"

Hayley nodded, "Yesh, mamma!"

As her mother stood, the small child ran from the kitchen to join the close friends and family members flooding their home.

With the cake moved into the living room in the center of a table filled with plenty of snacks and treats and things to drink, Savannah exclaimed quietly, "He's here, everyone!" when the sound of keys turning in the front door met her ears.

As the door opened, cries of "Happy Birthday, Curt!" could be heard, but none compared to the little badger girl running to hug her father, shouting, "Happy Hogoween Birfday, Daddy!"

"Do you want to hold her?" Savannah asked quietly, looking up at Alexis as she entered the room. Frederic stood in the doorway, keeping a comfortable distance.

"Nooo, of course I don't. Why would I want to do that? Silly mummy Vannah." Alexis grinned, emerald eyes sparkling in the sunlight shining through the hospital room window. "But first, open this." She added, setting a bag down on the bed.

"Lex, you didn't need to get her a present." Savannah said, shifting the bundled baby into Curt's arms.

Alexis playfully rolled her eyes, waving a hand dismissively at the new mother.

"Curt, did they give her something?" Alexis asked, "She's talking like a crazy person. Ooooh wait, no, that's just Vannah."

As Curt chuckled, Savannah stuck her tongue out. "Says the girl who took my history book and ran circles around me back in second year."

Bouncing a bit, Alexis moved the bag closer. "Open itttt!"

"Okay, I'm opening it," Pulling out colorful pieces of tissue paper, Savannah gasped at what she found inside. "It's a stuffed Hippogriff."

"Well, duh. Hayley's too small for a real one, sooo until she's three.."

Savannah pulled Alexis into a hug. "It's perfect, thank you."

At two-years-old, Hayley Diggory had just learned that not all people in pictures were little moving figures made up for her own personal entertainment, but rather real living human beings.

Of course, that was only after seeing a picture of her mummy and daddy. Hayley didn't really understand it too much, but she was fascinated nonetheless.

"Who dat?" Hayley asked, pointing tiny fingers up at one of the portraits sitting on the mantlepiece of the fireplace.

"That's Captain Kaika Lockhart," Savannah answered, smiling from the photograph of the Hufflepuff team after the Championship game of 2070, to her own little Badger.

"What have you got there, Hayley?" The little girl's father asked, gazing down at his daughter and the large open book on her lap.

"Looking for Huffinpuff." Hayley answered simply.

Savannah supressed a giggle, leaning against the wall as Curt smiled and knelt to be on Hayley's level. "You won't find it in there, silly girl."

Hayley blinked, puzzled. "Why not?"

"Because that's part of our world, darling." Savannah chimed in, gently taking the Muggle Dictionary and closing it.

"Our world?" The little girl repeated, looking curiosly up at her parents.

"One day, baby girl.." One day she would understand.

"Get your pajamas on, Noah. Then we will read. Go to mummy, she has your pants." Hayley told her baby brother, pointing toward their mother who watched on with a gentle smile, waiting patiently.

As her half-naked baby brother toddled away with nothing but a long-sleeved shirt and diaper on to finish being dressed for bed, Hayley went over to her nightstand and picked out one of her favorite books, opening it to the first page.

A little message was written inside, by the author herself:

"If you keep on believing, everything magical will always be yours - Aunt Sarah"

83. Fearful

On June 4th, 2076 Hayley officially became a big sister.

At first, when Noah and their parents were still in the hospital (she was staying with Auntie Lex and Uncle Fred), Hayley would stand beside the craddle and just peer down at the little bundled baby in obvious wonder.

The day they came home, they let her hold him.

Fearful that she would hurt him, Hayley stayed perfectly still where she sat on the couch as her daddy put Noah in her arms, helping her support his head.

"Hi, baby. I'm your big sister, Hayley," She whispered, "And I love you."

17. Cauldron

"Gran!" Little Hayley Diggory ran at full speed toward her great-grandmother, practically squealing with joy as she was picked up and hugged tight. "Gran! Can we bake?"

"Of course we will! What would you and your little brother like to make today?" Angelina asked, setting the child down and leading both Hayley and Noah by the hand toward the kitchen.

"Hmmmm," Hayley hummed outloud, as if thinking deeply on the subject. "Can we make cauldron cookies, like the way cauldron cakes taste but like in cookies?”

“Well, why not? I‘m always up for a good experiment,” Grandma angelina winked.

88. sweet tooth

"Do you have a sweet tooth, Hay?" 'Aunt' Rosaline asked, placing a batch of home-made lemon squares on a plate as 'Uncle' Remmy helped with another dish, looking rather nervous.

It was the holidays, and everyone had gathered at Grandma Angelina's. Uncle Remmy always looked rather nervous or uneasy, especially in such large crowds, even if they were all family.

Hayley shrugged slightly, "Kinda. Maybe.. I'm not sure,"

"You should try it," Melody McClane encouraged, offering her a piece off of hers. "They're good."

Popping it into her mouth, as Hayley began to chew she made a funny face. "Tangy."

"Daddy?" Hayley said, asking for Curt's attention at the breakfast table.

"Yes, baby girl?" Curtis replied, scooping his little girl up into his lap.

She was pushing seven-years-old, it was amazing how time flew. He could have sworn it was just yesterday they had been in the hospital, waiting for her to join their family.

"I asked Uncle Gabriel where babies come from," ...Uh-oh. "And he said when two people reeeallly love each other, and get married, and decide they want a baby, a magical Herbology fairy puts a magical baby flower seed thingy in mummy's stomach. Is that true?"

"Auntie Regina?"

"Oh," Regina Theodoric turned at the sound of her neice's voice, blue eyes which had been fixed on the night sky now coming to rest on her. She smiled, "I didn't notice you standing there."

The young girl nodded, stepping closer to gaze up at the stars too. "I know.. Aunt Reggie, I always think about cousin Boo when I see stars. Do you think she's up there with them?"

When she spoke next, Regina sounded far away. "Of course, honey. She's playing in the stars."

This answer seemed to satisfy the eleven-year-old. "I miss her."

"Me too."

"Hey, mum?" Hayley said, leaning forward on the countertop as she watched her mother in the kitchen. "I think I want to take Astronomy."

"Do you?" Savannah asked, a curious tone to her gentle voice as she paused mid-step to focus on her daughter, nearly tripping over her own foot in the process.

"Yes.. I think so. For Brookelyn, since she didn't get to. It reminds me of her, I like that."

Savannah came around to her side, pulling Hayley into her arms without saying a word.

After a moment, she spoke again. "I think that's a wonderful idea, love."

"Hayley, please.." Savannah murmured, a look of concern on her face as she and her husband wrestled with the wiggling, fussy child.

It was a rare occasion that Hayley threw a tantrum or got herself worked up, the little Diggory was generally a happy baby. But tonight, 'the terrible two's' seemed to be in affect as the overly tired twenty-two month old faught, kicking and screaming as her parents tried dressing her.

"Hayley Ann," Curt sighed, “That‘s enough.”

Clearly, it was time for bed.

“Shhh, calm down, love.” Vannah whispered, stroking Hayley’s cheeks as Curt zipped up her footie pajamas.

Being a Chaser for the Magpies was no easy job. It was fun, for sure. Curt was practically born on a broomstick; He wasn't complaining. But after a long day on the pitch practicing with the team, he was understandably exhausted.

Vannah hadn't felt right about leaving him to watch their daughter when she'd gone run errands, but he had insisted it was fine.

About an hour later Savannah returned home to find both Curtis and Hayley passed out on the couch, Hayley laying on her daddy's chest fast asleep.

A smile grew on her lips, watching the two nap.

The room was neat and tidy, walls still the same bright yellow her mummy and aunt Alexis had painted them when she was only a little girl. Her trunk laid open on her bed, while she stood over it and checked for the third time that everything was packed.

"You forgot something," A voice said from the door, where her mother, Savannah, stood with a gentle smile. As Hayley tore her gaze away from her trunk, she noticed the book her mum held as she came closer and took a seat at the edge of her bed.

"Thank you, Mummy."