"...well, that explains some things..." says Miranda.

"MY PAPA," hollers Catherine.

He scoops her up. "Yep."

"People'll just assume she's a Squib -?"

(Catherine pats her papa's cheek and now he has lemon sauce on it.)

"Yeah. But we don't want her expecting a letter, so we're going to explain as soon as she's old enough to understand -"

"Well, she might be a Muggleborn."

"Shouldn't count on it."

"It's vanishingly unlikely. I did check that the birth father wasn't a wizard - so I could duel him, mostly, but also so she'd know -"

"Duel him for what, not marrying Rebecca himself?"

"Rebecca didn't want to marry him, but for getting her pregnant in the first place, absolutely."

Nod.

"I can't decide if this makes you more or less irresponsible."

"I think I am clearly more impulsive and less irresponsible."

"Is that why you wouldn't say why -"

"Yep."

Rebecca kisses her husband and collects Catherine to napkin lemon sauce off her hand.

He Vanishes it off his face.

"Did you already know that," Miranda wonders vaguely at Timothy.

"No one told me."

"Not what I asked!"

"...the official story would have required conduct that would have been very out of character for both of them, so I concluded it was probably a lie, checked that no one involved was presently being unduly pressured somehow, and then decided they'd explain themselves when it suited them?"

"It sounded weird to us too and we hadn't even met Rebecca."

"I would personally be upset if people thought I was irresponsible enough to have created such a situation but -"

"It doesn't cost me anything to be thought irresponsible, I'm not angling to rule the world."

"I was a little worried you'd all feel like you'd been - pressured into loving Catherine more than you would've -" says Rebecca.

"She's still family."