None of your scars can make me love you less -- 1998

This was the first time I had been able to celebrate anything for the past handful of years.  I was still very careful about how I behaved.  I had to watch myself.  I had been alone for far too long and I had scars on my body that I was ashamed of.  The fights with Peter... the fights with myself.  I was in the kitchen reading the old family recipe for my mum's best birthday cake ever.  I was going to succeed in baking this.  Of course, before I was captured, my baking was... questionable.  I doubt it would be any better now, but I wanted to do something normal.  Something I had not been able to even attempt doing in years.  I was busy mixing some flour into the bowl with wet ingredients -- realizing I needed a bigger one -- when I heard someone behind me.  As I was dumping the mixture into a bigger bowl, I turned slightly.  I saw my beautiful daughter.  She reminded me so much of her mother.

"Hey, sweetie," I said to her, having gotten comfortable with calling her something like that nearly the instant I met her.

I had just woke up and went into the kitchen to find my dad moving something from one bowl to another and the kitchen table covered with various ingredients and measuring cups. Really, it was a mess. "Hi dad." I replied, looking around more. "What are you doing?" I asked with a slight laugh.

I looked at her.  "I can tell by that laugh that your mum must have told you stories of me in the kitchen," I said to her, grinning.  I had not had anything to smile about for years... it was hard to stop.  though, in all honesty, it was hard to get it started in the morning, too.  I had to put on my game face.  It was a necessity to make sure everyone was okay and believed that I was okay.  That I was still the same man I was before.

"I'm going to make the best cake ever, by the way," I added.  Yes, things were still hard out there -- Voldemort was still at large -- but I had to find ways to make the best of every second I had with my family after I had none of them for so long.