Emma Sophia Dobbs. Emma Sophia Dobbs. Emma Sophia Dobbs.

The name kept racing through Darien's head as he stared numbly, passively at the sleeping bundle of blankets in the playpen, and yet he still could somehow not connect it to the tiny human that laid there, blissfully unaware of the turmoil currently swirling through her father's--hah, father, it was still such a joke--head.

It had been two months almost since this "Emma Sophia" had been dropped on his doorstep, for lack of a better term, and still he couldn't quite wrap his mind around this crazy idea that he had a kid. A kid. What did that mean? It sounded stupid, but he still hadn't the slightest notion of what that entailed.

After the yelling had stopped, his parents had quickly taken the little girl in, knowing full well that there was no way their irresponsible 21-year-old son was going to know what to do with this situation, especially when sprung on him out of the blue as it had been. They had hoped that, some way, a couple months might pass and they could prepare him before handing her over. After all, they were not about to fix this for him, nor start over again on raising children--it wasn't that he blamed them for any of it, but--

What did he do? He still didn't know what to do with this. Here she was. She was home, in his living room, where she should have been, and yet he felt as helpless as ever.

He could have called Derek. He wanted to call Derek, because as much as he hated to admit it, his big brother was smart and level-headed and responsible and everything that he wasn't and that must mean that he would be able to tell him how to do this, right? But that was not an option. Talking to Derek meant that he had to withstand more of the judging stares, the judging tone, the judging everything that said how little respect he had for his younger brother, exactly because of things like this. He didn't blame him for it, but his brother was the one person whose criticisms stung the most. His parents and everyone else could yell at him and berate him all day, but when it was Derek, it was different.

So he had called Dianna. Dianna wasn't so bad as a second option, right? She had the female thing going for her at least, and she was his twin and he trusted her, and--

Christ, he was so out of his depth.

Sucking in a deep breath, he tangled his fingers back through his hair, about ready to pull it all out. "I am such an idiot," he moaned, certainly not for the first time in the past two months.

It had been a while since the Lovegoods had snuck out for a date night on their own. Mostly because it was so very difficult for either of them to spend any time away from little Luna.

Even though the Prophet was a competing paper and Xeno was hesitant to contribute any money to such a typical and oblivious reporting institution, the carnival sounded like such a fun idea that Lucy was bound to love.

Obviously, he wasn’t the only one who thought the Prophet wasn’t worth their time, as there wasn’t nearly the crowd one would expect. Xeno was sure the Prophet would have you believe that everyone was sick with some virus that was sweeping the nation. When in all reality there was no virus at all. He had warned everyone in the Quibbler that a wizard trying to smuggle Siberian Finklephants into the country lost track of his shipment. And everyone knew one bite from those tricky buggers caused mild hallucinations and dizziness. Anyone who read his article knew that finklephants were warded off by drinking chocolate milk. Subscriptions were bound to go up once people realized the truth.

He laced his fingers in his wife’s and leaned over to give her a kiss underneath the twinkling lights of the entrance. “Happy Valentine’s Day love. What would you like to do first?”

Who: Andre and Tiberius
What: International Emergency!
Where: Ministry!
When: Today!

( This man tried to get into the Ministry demanding to see you declaring it was an international emergency-- )

Andre is here at the Ministry. I think he might have that virus going around? He keeps going on about his brother being near death in Istanbul? He refuses to go back to Mungo's. Help?