Pumpkin!
It was around seven o'clock in the evening that autumn Friday, when Harry parked his car beside his wife's in the garage. Allison straightened up in the passenger's seat, and the moment he turned the ignition off she jumped from the car, and ran through the door that led to the living room corridor.
"No running inside the house, Ally," Harry called after her. He chuckled as he took his briefcase and Allison's Ballet bag from the backseat. He stepped out of the car, hung the key behind the door, and went through the corridor that led to the living room.
"We're home, pumpkins!" Allison yelled to the empty foyer. "Where's everybody?" she asked turning to his father. "Where's everybody?" she repeated, a puzzled look on her face.
"Dunno," said Harry, shrugging. "Call again," he said as he set his briefcase and Allison's bag in the table beside the coat rack where he hung his cloak.
"Come out pumpkins! We're home!" she yelled, and began looking around the room in expectation.
"Don't hold your breath, pumpkin," said a female voice from the kitchen. Allison jumped and turned to see her sister's head poking out of the kitchen door.
"Lil," said Harry surprised. Usually, at this time on a Friday, Lily was at Ballet class with her company.
"Pumpkin!" said Allison and jumped to climb in her sister's arms.
"Hey, girl," said Lily as she took Allison in her arms and carried her inside the kitchen. "How was Ballet class?"
Lily smiled at Harry and he followed his daughters inside the kitchen smiling to himself. Feeling the usual warm he had when he saw his daughters like that. It was the same feeling he had when he got to see Lily dance, or when James had signed to Harry his first book. As if something would inflate inside his heart and make it too big to be kept inside his chest.
When Harry entered the kitchen Ally was seated at the kitchen table and was eating a homemade cookie with the shape of a pumpkin. Lily loved to cook those cookies.
"Been having some time off, have we?" asked Harry as he grabbed a pumpkin cookie and kissed Lily's cheek.
"Looks like?" she asked back.
"Slightly, get down from the table and grab a chair, Ally," Harry said doing that himself. "You don't want to see mum if she finds you there,"
"Oh, mum's not home," she replied as she obeyed Harry.
"Isn't she?" Harry asked Lily. "Home alone?"
"A while ago," she replied turning back to whatever she was cooking.
"Where's everybody?" Harry asked.
"Well, 'Everybody' is the wrong word, because I'm here," she chuckled, and looked at him pretending to be angry.
"Stop it!" Harry told her.
"Alright, I'm having you on," she said laughing.
"So?"
"So, James is at the Weasley's,"
"Which one?" said Harry.
"Bill and Fleur's, something he and Jacques are up to about Weasley's Wheezes and a couple of girls," Harry glared at her. "But it's a long story and I barely know half of it, so don't ask me, you'll have to ask him,"
"Right, mum?" Ally said.
"Getting there, pumpkin," she smiled. "She's at Diagon Alley with Ginny. She said she was going to be late so that we had to manage dinner," Lily finished and kept up with her cooking.
"Did she-" Ally began, but Lily cut her off.
"She said Gina's waiting for you, and that Draco's coming to pick you up in half an hour," she turned around. "SO you probably want to go and get ready," she said.
"Right on one, pumpkin," Ally said getting up to leave the kitchen.
"Been hanging around James, have we?" she chuckled after her.
"Why is my younger daughter going anywhere with Draco Malfoy?"
"Because it's Gina's birthday and she's sleeping over on a pyjama party, so Draco is going to pick her up. And then Ginny and him will take her to Hogwarts for your school year's lunch."
"And how is it that you know all this and I don't?" Harry asked between a laugh and a sob.
"Because mum left a note," she said pointing with a spoon at the note attached on the fridge.
"Oh," Harry said feeling slightly stupid. "What are you doing home? What happened to Ballet class?
"Well, it's a long story, want the short or the full version?" she said turning again to her cooking.
"Short,"
"Well, I got there, changed my clothes put on my pointe shoes, and I'm already stretching when in storms Sebastian king of Ballet and says the corp's dancing dreadfully and that he wants to rehearse with them only. So soloist and us principals could go home. So I came home, and decided to cook a little," she said all this very quickly, and Harry was reminded terribly of Hermione. But he wasn't impressed, for that was something that usually happened when Lily spoke.
Harry couldn't help amazing at how Lily and Hermione were so different and yet so alike. Lily had dark red hair, and almond shaped green eyes. Harry's eyes, and his mother's eyes. Although, when Lily spoke, she spoke with the Hermione determination of her mother, she was a know it all, but yet, James surpassed her at almost every NEWT. Hermione used to say that Lily was more like Harry anyway, for no matter what she looked like or how she spoke like, when she acted, she was a female personification of Harry, and besides, she hated schoolwork. She had been seeker and Captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team and had also been Head Girl, which she found annoying.
Lily had became the youngest Principal Dancer of the London Ballet, and very proud to be so. Their director, who she liked to called Sebastian King of Ballet, though, according to her, believed himself the eight wonder of the world, had chosen Lily out of the whole company to play Giselle that season. And Harry had almost died with pride then.
And yet, Harry still couldn't decide which thing swelled his pride most. Having the chance to see Lily play Giselle in an overflowed theatre or watching her as she caught the snitch against Slytherin.
"Dad!" His older daughter calling him suddenly snapped Harry back to reality.
"Sorry, what were you saying, Lil?"
"I said I'm baking pizza for dinner if that's ok with you,"
"Of course Lil." He smiled. "So, how's it going?"
"How's what going?" she asked.
"The Ballet, how's it going?"
"Not that of a big deal," she said, her back turned to him while she cooked something Harry couldn't see. "The usual, you know, I do well some days, some others I don't and I get pissed, some others I'm doing my best and still isn't enough, and so Sebastian goes in a row about how I'm not concentrating and how I'm making him lose his time. See?" she said as she turned in her heels to look at him. "The usual, only..." she looked at the ceiling in a very "Hermione" way. "Only one thing is different," she said and looked at him. "I'm ... I'm just ... I'm in awe!" she whispered finally. She looked at Harry in the eye and sat in the table opposite to him.
"Explain?" Harry asked her.
"See, it's only, I don't know. You see, I was picked out to play this wonderful part, and I'm so impressed, I can't believe it!"
"Are you scared?" he asked with a calmed tone of voice that was completely faked.
"No, no I'm not scared," she said immediately shaking her head. "It's only, yesterday, some of the soloist were sorting out the days in which each was going to dance, and for a moment I thought, "Well that could have been me." But the thing is, I'm not!" she said leaning her back against her chair. "I'm not, I'm going to be the Principal Dancer of this Ballet, and I'm impressed with myself, and I'm happy to be so." She looked at him expectantly in a way Harry knew only his daughters would look at him; expecting some answer from him that will just make everything look better. Before he could speak something, Lily spoke again, her eyes sparkling with tears. "It's only I can't believe it! I mean, I'm good at this!" she said wiping her eyes. "I'm doing it well, because otherwise that part wouldn't be mine! And I'm just so happy I am doing alright I can't believe it!"
"That's called being proud of yourself," he told Lily with a smile forming in his lips.
"I know!" she said, her eyes shining with tears. "It's just there's something else. I mean, I AM proud, it's only, one thing is also there, and it is awe. You know it's only ... Everyday, in every class I take, I try to give it my best shot, I do my best in each class. And not on one of those classes, do I do it to get this big, I mean, I'm happy I got this big, but it wasn't as if I've been aiming at this part in every class. The thing is, I worked hard, and this part is ... is ... is my reward! And I can't believe this is what I got! It is way much more than anything I could have dreamt of!"
"Don't tell me this was a surprise!" Harry said in disbelief.
"It was!" Harry raised his eyebrows at her. "Well, at the moment, it wasn't," she admitted. "But that was because I was not giving it a good deal of thought. But now I am, and it IS a huge surprise!"
"It shouldn't" said a new voice to Harry's right. Harry saw Lily raise her head and Harry knew, by the expression on her face that she was looking into a pair of green eyes identical to hers.
Harry turned to look to his right and he, too, met a pair of green eyes identical to his. Actually, Harry was almost looking back at himself. His son James, Lily's twin, was a vivid image of Harry, just like Harry had been on his own father. Black untidy hair that stuck in the back, almond shaped green eyes, and dazzling smile, Lily said.
He had left Hogwarts with more NEWTs than Hermione's, and he had taken it to writing. His first book was currently being printed, but he had been given the very first. He had taken it, signed it and gave it to Harry and Hermione, saying that, without them he wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Literally, he said, because he had got printed because of his last name. But he assured them that people wouldn't care once they'd got to read the book. Even if the book was about Harry.
"Shouldn't it?" she asked in a low voice.
"No it shouldn't," said James turning around Harry's chair to grab a cookie and sit on his left. "Everything alright, dad?"
"Alright James," Harry greeted. "You?"
"Terrific," he said and turned to Lily. "No, of course it shouldn't, you're their best God dammed dancer, how could it be a surprise?"
"I don't know," Lily admitted. "I don't even know why this is hitting me so hard right now, I mean, it's not as if it is my first show, or my ever first solo."
"I'll tell you why," said James in another 'Hermione' tone. "Because your life as a dancer is going to change after this Lil, there will be before and after Giselle, for you Lil, that's why."
"I hate it when you rub in my face that you're right Lionel," Lily said crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well, I happen to love it, Josephine,"
"Don't call me that Lionel!" Lily said threateningly straightening up in her chair.
"Whatever you want Jo," James laughed, raising to take another cookie. "You just shouldn't think all that much about it. You're a natural!" he said, then kissed her on the cheek and sat back.
"Thanks!" Lily smiled at her brother.
"No problem," he smiled back. "You'll just owe me one!"
"I owe you nothing, Lionel!" Lily said proudly. "You're still owing me a big one,"
"Does this have anything to do with the -" Harry started, by the first time interrupting in his children conversation, when Ally called from the stairs, with her maximum lung capacity.
"DADDY!"
"Feels like this is a job to..." Lily started.
"SUPER DAD!" James answered, and they both bursted into laugh.
"You can laugh, J, but you're explaining me that thing you're owing Lil when I come back." Harry told James pointing a finger at him and pretending to be angry.
"Me? What can I possibly have done?"
"Maybe you burned a book," suggested Lily raising up again from the table and turning back to her cooking. Harry looked at her and they both laughed.
"Yeah, you laugh because mum isn't here to stand up for me, you evil pair," James said dramatically in his chair. "Wait until we come back Super Dad!"
"Yeah, whatever in the meantime, I have a job to do," Harry laughed and walked out of the kitchen, still listening to his children laughs and smiling to himself.
Ally was sitting in the top of the stairs that led to the second floor corridor. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and seemed to be waiting patiently for him.
"You know, Super Dad," she started. "He usually doesn't take that long," she said with a know it all tone that suggested she was fifteen instead of five. Hermione, Harry thought to himself.
"Yeah, well, that's when he doesn't have any older children keeping him away from his precious little princess," he said raising her in her arms. She laughed heartily, burying her face in his chest. He carried her all the way to her bedroom and placed her in her bed. "What can Super Dad do for you young lady?"
Ally laughed again and sat on her bed to look at Harry properly, Harry sat in front of her and waited.
"You could tell me how did you fall in love with my mum," she asked innocently.
"How I feel in love with mum?" he asked. Ally nodded. "Well, that's some question you asked there pumpkin."
"Go on," she said, sitting straighter. "How?"
"Well," Harry started. Some question, indeed, it was, so much, he didn't know where to begin. "You know how we were the best of friends since eleven?"
"Yes," Ally said.
"Well, thing was..."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
October, 2003
Harry had walked to the park instead of apparating. There were times when he just didn't feel like apparating, or, most of all, when he felt like walking.
So he walked, wrapping the neck of his coat around his neck; this was his favourite coat. And he knew it was her favourite coat as well, though she had never said anything. Actually, she almost didn't say anything since she came back from New York and Venice. Never a word about that, though he died to hear all about it, and would have killed to tell her about the World Cup. But she had not spoken, and he was not going to speak either. All he knew from her was that she had came back with an American boyfriend. But that was something he never understood, how could she settle with someone, when there were still sparks everytime they met. Everytime they spoke, and everytime they touched. She still felt the same way about him, and he was convinced of it.
So, when he had got a call from her, earlier, he had not been surprised. She had appeared in his fireplace, asking if she could see him before sunset at the park. He had not hesitated in saying yes.
They both lived in the same neighbourhood, and a park was there between their buildings. They used to walk around its lake. It was as if in the old times, when walking around the lake at Hogwarts. They used to cross the bridge over the lake and stare at the water without saying a word, because the silence was comfortable enough.
And there she was. Looking at the water and getting lost in its dept, leaning over the bridge in concentration. In such a deep concentration, she didn't hear him coming. He walked until he was behind her and spoke.
"Don't jump!" he said. She was taken out of her reverie and looked at him. She smiled.
"Would you save me?" she said with a smile.
"Not in this suit," he smiled back, his sunglasses thankfully covering the spark in his eyes. She laughed heartily and he walked closer to kiss her cheek. "How are you doing?" he asked.
"Good, how are you?" she asked back.
"Pretty well," he said then started to walk, and she followed suit.
"It's a good looking suit," she said.
"It's a good looking day," he answered.
"It is," she said as they crossed the bridge, and begin to walk around the lake.
"Did you see the DA's Magazine?" he asked. The DA's Magazine was run by Ginny, and it was the most respectable journalistic words those days.
"Are you in it?" she said.
"Yeah, it's just a little piece, it's nice. You didn't see it?"
"No,"
"Yeah, well, Ginny wrote that I'm succeeding because I'm good at this, not because of the scar thing," he said looking at her. "You know, I don't want to change it, but what does she know? Minister from France came by the other day," he muttered. "It was pretty exciting,"
"Well, I'll say I knew you then," she said, stopping slowly in a way under another bridge. "Listen,"
"What?" he said stopping as well, and turning on his heels to face her.
"Walter asked me to marry him," she said, to Harry's indignation, daring to look at him in the eye. "He wants to marry me."
There was an uncomfortably long and deep silence in which Harry didn't know whether to slap Hermione or grab her, shake her by the shoulders and kiss her. In future years, Harry will never be able to understand how he managed to find a way to behave himself and restrain the feeling to do something. Anything.
"Really?" he said looking at the floor instead of looking at her, but careful to keep his face straight ahead, so that, due to the sunglasses, she wouldn't be able to tell if he was looking at her or not.
"Yeah," she said still looking at him.
Another silence came in, but before Harry had to worry about restraining himself the words were out of his mouth.
"And why are you telling me this?" he asked her, not sure if he wanted an answer anyway.
"Because I..." she trailed off, clearly trying to find the proper words to say whatever she wanted to say to him. "I ... just ... wanted to know if you had anything to say." Harry could tell each word she spoke cost her a great effort, but he didn't care.
Harry stepped away from her one or two steps, he wasn't quite sure. He wasn't quite sure of anything at the moment.
"Congratulations," he said coldly, still not wanting - or better not daring - to look at her eyes. "It sounds wonderful. I wish you both-" he took another step away from her. " -the best of luck. I got to go, I got...-"
"Oh Harry wait...-"
"No, I just... I got some business."
"Harry wait!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Why had she told me?" Harry whispered, more than anything to himself. "She told me to wound me, or she told me out of habit, or she told me to drive me mad. I didn't care. If it was a clue if it was a plea, if it was a tease. I didn't care. No, she told so I will stop it. Of course I will."
"So what did you do?" Harry jumped when he heard a female voice at the doorstep. He turned around to meet green eyes again. Lily was standing there looking back at him, clearly having heard the story she already knew so well.
Harry smiled at her, when all of a sudden a flashing memory of a five year old Lily hit him, asking him, begging him to please tell her the story. And the giggles she came up with when she finished sentences for him.
"You should already know that part," Harry told her. "You should already know all of it, by now, actually."
I do," she said walking until she sat at the bed beside Ally. "I just like to hear it from the accurate source."
"Flattering will get you nowhere, Lily," Harry said laughing and leaning against one of the posters in Ally's bed.
"Stop it, and go on with the story," Lily answered. "There's a pumpkin here waiting to hear it."
"What did you do daddy?" Ally asked Harry.
"Well, there was this Ministry Of Magic party, everyone was going to be there..."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry stepped into the room. But he wasn't paying attention to anything. He was looking for her. Someone greeted him and offered to take of his cloak, but he wasn't wearing one, which was very stupid thing to do, since there was a huge rainstorm outside. But then again, he had Apparated. He quickly met Tonks, or rather, she met him. She worked with him, and was currently given the task to introduce him with loads of people she said were "important contacts in the business".
"You're late," she said taking him by the arm and dragging him with her. "There's a lot of people I want you to meet, this is Minister from -"
But whoever minister was that which Harry was supposed to meet, he never knew, for he thought he spotted brown hair at the other side of the hall, and immediately stepped out of Tonks grasp and walked away, not paying attention to any calling after him.
But then someone took his left arm and Harry turned left to meet Seamus looking back at him.
"Hey Harry!" he said. "How's it going? Look, I want to introduce you someone, he's a friend of mine and he's been having some -"
"Have you seen Hermione?" he asked absently to Seamus interrupting him.
"No," he said carelessly. "He's desperate to get some -"
"Harry!"
Of all the people Harry would have like to meet at that place, the owner of that voice was the last one. He turned around to see the stupid American face of Hermione's boyfriend. Even when he had recognised him before he'd turned around, for his stupid accent could be recognised even when he spoke Harry's name. He was making an effort not to sound too American, by trying to turn his accent into sound more British, but his failure had been clear.
"I've been looking for you," he said in an amused tone. "Congratulations on your success. You're all over the place."
"The Boy Who Lived," said an unknown voice at Walter's left, and even when Harry had no idea who it was, he felt like punching the guy straight in the face for calling him that. "I read about you."
"Yes, you and the rest of the world," said a female voice behind Harry. He turned his neck so fast that he heard a sound, but as soon as he saw her, nothing else mattered. She was stunningly pretty. She wore an asymmetric shaped dress. One of the straps was thin and sleek, the other was wider and the same fabric as the rest of the dress, which was all shiny burgundy, in a smooth fabric that was tight in her body. Her hair was tied up in a lot of little buns at the back of her head.
"There you are," Walter said, throwing Seamus aside to kiss Hermione in front of Harry. Harry saw how she tilted her head, so that he'd only be able to kiss the side of her mouth.
"I have to talk to you," Harry said weakly to her, not even sure she had heard.
"We gotta go," Walter said turning to the rest of the crowd. "We're particularly late, good night everyone."
"We just got here," Hermione said in an outraged tone.
"Sweety you just got here," he said amused. "We're meeting the Smiths for dinner at the Leaky Cauldron ten minutes to go," he said signalling his clock at her. "Goodnight kids, have fun!" he said, taking Hermione's arm and walking with her out of the place.
"Lovely couple," said the man that had called Harry 'The Boy Who Lived', and again, Harry felt like punching him.
But Harry wasn't thinking straight. Because she had left, and he had to do something about it, anything. And the thing that occurred to him was, had he been thinking straight, not the cleverest thing to do. But his desire to do something, no matter what that was, to stop her being with him, was more powerful than any wisdom.
For a fleeting second Harry remembered what he had once heard from Dumbledore, explaining how the power that lay inside of him was "at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature". That was it, the thing preventing him to think, to connect his brain to his heart. The thing that wasn't allowing him to realise there was a storm outside the safety of the hall in which he was. The thing that prevented him to hear what Seamus was saying beside him. The same thing that made him struggle away from Seamus, throwing him on the floor, and still not aware of what had happened.
That same thing, had made Harry run out of the hall and into the street outside, in the middle of muggle London, and into the pouring rain.
"Sir, can I get you a taxi, sir?" said a man, attempting to cover his head with a black umbrella. But again, Harry wasn't paying attention. He looked at both sides of the street left first, then right.
And he made up his mind.
He started to walk slowly towards his right. Then all of a sudden he broke into a run. Something made him run even when the rain had him already wet from head to toes. Yet, he ran, like he'd never before had in his life. He could only remember once running like this in his life, but he had tried his best not to remember anything about that night. Though, still, almost ten years after it had happened, he could still see Cedric's eyes blankly opened. And he could still hear the distinct shouts of Death Eaters behind him, attempting to stun him, to kill him.
But he had been thinking properly back then, he had had his mind set into running away. Now, he could not picture anything in his mind but her. And she was with him. And Harry had to stop it. She wanted him to stop it, and he was going to.
How Harry arrived at Diagon Alley, he would never know. But when he turned around, he was facing the small door that led to the inside of the leaky Cauldron. He barely stopped to drag some breath, and stepped inside, his soaking shoes splashing water everytime he took a step.
Again, he heard a voice, this time Tom's, the bartender's voice.
"Harry," he said, thought Harry was not in a state to pay any attention. "Harry, Harry!"
Harry had spotted her. She was in a table just in front of him, with her back to where he was. He could see her with perfect clarity. And never in his life, had Harry been any surer than he was at the moment. He walked resolutely to where she was sitting with the American fool.
He was the first to spot Harry, and his expression was something between shock and amusement, Harry couldn't quite make out, but which, again, he didn't care.
"Hi Harry!" he said in that mixed accent that made him sound so stupid, the moment Harry stepped on one side of the table. "This is Harry," he said to his companions, but Harry wasn't looking at them. His eyes were connected with Hermione's. He wasn't quite paying any attention to the rest of the people in the table. In fact, he wasn't paying any attention to the rest of the world. He could only pay attention to her, to her brown eyes looking back at him. To the way her chest rose and fell everytime she breathed, which she did with an extreme dept everytime. He was only thinking of the redness in her lips, and the way they were slightly open in shock. His only coherent thought was that the rest of the world didn't exist to him, and that, by the look in her eyes, neither did to her.
"Can I offer you a chair, or a towel?" Walter said, with a trace of a laugh in his voice.
"Would you like to dance?" Harry asked Hermione, offering her his hand.
Harry heard Walter breath a laugh, looking sideways at his dinner partner and he was sure for one fleeting second, that it would be best to just take her in his arms and run away with her. But then he knew she wanted to do this, and if he did just that, she would not be able to show how much she wanted to do it.
She took his outstretched hand and rose up from the table, breathing heavily. Never, not for one second did she take her eyes away from his. Walter fell immediately silent, clearly shocked at Hermione's reaction. Not only because of the fact that she was obviously going to dance with him, but because of the fact that she accepted his invitation without the slightest bit of hesitation.
He took her by the waist, as she took him by the shoulder, grabbing at him as if to dear life, not caring one bit about his suit, soaking wet and wetting her own dress as she pulled him closer to her. He gave her hand a slight squeeze, bringing it to his chest, just above his heart. And oblivious to the fact that there wasn't any music going on in the place, they danced. Harry heard the people in the table asking Walter if everything was ok, if they knew Harry. Probably, if Harry had been less concentrated in Hermione, he would have probably turned around and laughed in the man's face. But he was much too concentrated in the two or three steps he and Hermione danced around the same spot in front of her table.
He let go of her waist to grab her other hand, and as if on cue, she hurried to meet his hand. He took a couple of steps away from her, clutching tightly to her hand in his. Harry knew, in some distant part of his mind, that Walter widened his eyes open when he saw Hermione walk along with Harry.
But Harry merely took another step away, before she'd walk along, not for one second taking her eyes away from his. He then turned to look ahead, perfectly aware that she was looking at him, as they walked outside the pub, not looking sideways at anyone, not caring one bit about Walter, and his dinner. Harry walked out of there, staring straight ahead, but just before they'd walk out the door, he took a glance at her. And they smiled at each other for a second. Then Harry turned again to look ahead, and taking them out of the pub.
They walked out into the rain, and they had barely hit the street when they turned around and not even taking the time to look at each other properly, broke into a kiss. Harry had been through a lot of things, had seen many things. He had done things Hermione could not imagine, and some others that he'd preferred she won't. But nothing, nothing ever could have prepared him to the fireworks that set on the moment he brushed his lips against hers.
Not even the electricity that he felt where her hands touched him, not the levitating feeling he had from just being this close to her.
It might have been just rain, water falling from the sky, a rainstorm. But when Harry and Hermione broke their kiss and ran down the street, Harry was sure the rainstorm had turned into an electrical storm.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"And what did you do when you walked away?" Ally asked, snapping Harry back to reality.
"Oh, we ... uh ... we ... er...-" Harry looked at Lily asking for help. Dementors will not make him tell his five year old daughter what he and Hermione had done after walking out of that restaurant and going into his flat. But a cover up story for Ally was another thing.
"They had a talk, Ally," said Lily calmly but clearly amused.
"Oh, right," she said looking sideways at Lily. Lily smiled at her and then turned to Harry. Harry gave her one of his thanks you saved my life looks and looked at Ally again.
"So," he started, determined to end up with the telling. "Your mum went to Italy to solve some things out and I had to go on this mission. My first ever grand mission, you remember me telling you darling, that a dark wizard had killed your grandparents when I was a little boy?" Harry asked Ally. She nodded, and he went on. "Well, I was sent to stop the bad wizard and his friends from hurting any more people, and I was sure that, no matter what would happen with it, she will be there when I'd came home. Well, she wasn't, and as the mission had gone well, they all had this huge party going on, and she wasn't there. Well, that got me angry, and so, I walked out of there and right up to her place..."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
That night all of Harry's dreams came true. And like all happy endings it was a tragedy, on his own device. For he had succeeded. He had cut himself lose, from the past, from Voldemort, from the prophecy. He had finally made himself as he was. He had found the chance to invent himself who he was. He had done it cruelly, but he'd done it.
He was free.
"I did it!" he yelled to the lightened window of her living room. "I did it! I am a wild success! I defeated them all. Him and all the Death Eaters. You don't have to be afraid because of me anymore. I won! Isn't what you wanted, ah? Isn't it great? Are we happy now?" he shook a little his head, as the bottle of Firewhisky he was holding started to spill on the street. "Don't you understand that everything I do, I do it for you? Anything that might be special in me, is you."
And then the door opened.
And he threw the bottle aside and stepped through it. And she was there, waiting for him to step inside. She was waiting to see him. She had her face pink from crying, and her eyes were slightly swollen form the tears, a few of which were still in her cheeks.
"I couldn't do it!" she cried looking at him. "I couldn't marry him!" she said crying in her face. "I can't marry him, I just can't." She raised her head and looked at him. "I don't want to marry anyone that's not you!" she said crying some more.
"You weren't there," Harry said quietly, though what he said had nothing to do with her speech, he could see that, to her, it made perfect sense.
"No I wasn't," she admitted. "Because I was scared to see you," she muttered. "I'm scared still. Because whatever we've had before this, we will lose it. It'll never be the same."
"I know, but what is it like not to feel anything? Isn't it better to be scared and get through it, than not feeling anything?"
"Let me tell you this, she said looking away from him. "Let's say there was a little girl, and, from the time she could understand what she was feeling, she taught herself to fear it, let us say she taught herself to fear daylight. She taught herself it would hurt her. And then one, sunny day, you ask her to go outside and play outside, and she won't. You can't blame her, can you?" she said still not looking at him.
"I knew that little girl," Harry said stepping closer to her, until he was just behind her. "And I saw the light in her eyes, and no matter what you say or do, that's still what I see."
She turned around and met his eyes. She then took him by the neck and embraced him. Harry was too overwhelmed to do anything but embrace her back. He could feel tears in his own eyes, as she cried in the crook of his neck, wetting his suit, but not concerning him one bit.
"Why are you afraid to love me?" Harry muttered in her hair, through the knot tied in his throat.
"Because I'm afraid to lose you," she cried, rubbing her face against his neck.
"You'll never lose me, even if you don't love me," he said. "But all I can do is love you until I make you sure you won't have to fear it anymore."
"We are who we are, people don't change." She muttered.
"Precisely," he said taking her by the shoulders to be able to take her face and make her look at him. "And if the light's been in your eyes before, then it'll always be there."
"Would you be able to forgive me?" she said through her wet eyes.
"There is nothing to forgive," he whispered, caressing her temple. "And if there was, don't you know me already?"
"Harry, I love you," she said with her face so close to his, he was feeling her breath against his face.
"And I love you Hermione, and all the demons on the face of earth will not have restrained me from preventing that wedding."
She looked at his eyes before she gave him a truly and sincere smile. One of those he could not remember seeing since they were fifteen.
"Good," she smiled. "That's what I wanted you to do."
"Go me for succeeding," he said bemused.
"Harry shut up and kiss me," she smiled again.
"Okay," he said smiling himself before finally closing the distance between them with a kiss.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"And then what?" Ally said expectantly.
"Then they lived happily ever after," said another voice from the doorway. And Harry smiled before he'd turned around.
"Hey," he said to Hermione. "I thought you were going to be out late."
"I wasn't," she said. "I just wanted you to manage dinner."
"And a good one it was," Harry said, getting up and walking to meet her. "Can you smell that wonderful cook of my daughter down there?"
"Oh, I can smell it," she laughed as he opened his arms to hug her. "I can almost taste it," she laughed. "But I thought she was our daughter,"
"I bet you can," Harry said hugging her. "As I bet you can also let her be my daughter when she cooks like that. How was your day?"
"Good, how was yours?" she asked hugging him back.
"Pretty well," he said stepping away and kissing her lips.
"Mummy!" Ally said, jumping between them to get to Hermione.
"Hey pumpkin!" she said taking Ally in her arms. "How was your class?"
"Terrific," she said.
"Someone's been hanging around James," Hermione said looking at Lily.
"And you doubt it?" Lily said smiling.
"Oh no, I don't," she said placing Ally in the bed and kissing Lily's cheek. "What happened to your class?"
"Long story, I'll tell you later," she said.
"Daddy?" Ally said, and Harry was suddenly taken back to earth.
"What pumpkin?" he said turning back to the bed and walking to it, taking Hermione's hand in his and dragging her with him.
"Where did you and mummy got your pumpkins?" she asked innocently.
"What do you mean, sweetie?" said Hermione turning abruptly to Ally, though Harry knew what was coming and was sure she did too.
"Yes, where did you and mummy got me, and Lily and James?" she asked.
"Honey, I ... er..." Harry turned to Hermione for help, but she was looking back at him obviously speechless as well. "We ... er..."
"Draco's here!" called James from downstairs.
"YES!" said Ally jumping from the bed and running downstairs. Harry looked at Hermione and out of nowhere they both breathed in relief.
"No running in the house Ally!" Lily called after her.
"Gosh, I didn't know I was holding my breath," said Harry bringing his palm to his chest.
"I know," breathed Hermione. "Me neither,"
Lily looked from Harry to Hermione, and then back to Harry, and burst into laugh.
"What are you laughing of?" Hermione said outraged.
"The look on your faces," she said, hugging her stomach as she laughed. "The look on your faces! Dear Merlin! It was priceless!"
"It's not funny!" Harry snapped at her.
"Of course it is!" Lily said doubling with laughter in Ally's bed. "You didn't see your face! Gosh, it was so good!"
"It wasn't!" Harry said.
"Oh, Harry," said Hermione looking at him. "You are going to have to admit, it probably was," she admitted.
"No, I won't," he said outraged. "Stop laughing Lily!"
"I can't!" she said as she tried to hide her face in one of Ally's pillows. "It was so funny!"
"I'm sure it was darling," said Hermione patting her on the shoulder and crossing the room. "I'll go take Ally to get her ready," she said walking out of the room with a smile on her face.
"Stop laughing, I mean it!" Harry said threatening to Lily.
"I'm trying," she said straightening up.
"Blimey," he said sitting on the bed with Lily. "You never asked that sort of questions,"
"Dad," Lily said, still fighting the laughter. "Have you ever wondered why James never asked that question?"
"No, I haven't," he said truthfully. "Because James, like your mother is a bookworm, so I'm sure he read about it in one of your mother's thousand books when he swallowed her library."
"Well, there it is!" Lily said shrugging. "I'm a twin with James, dad, you should probably consider that James, being as alike to mum as he is, provides me constantly with loads of information I don't ask for. "
"Yeah, well," Harry said getting up. "You have a point there."
"I always have a point," she answered following suit.
"Tell me something," Harry asked her, hugging her as they walked out of the room. "Are you always like this, or is it just with me?"
"A smart-ass? Oh no," she said smiling. "I'm always one. It's nothing personal."