Harry opened his eyes and heard the door to Ron's room click open. His eyes were met by blue watery ones.
"Professor Dumbledore," Harry said.
"Harry, it's been a decade since your school days, I believe it would be all right if you called me Albus."
Dumbledore sat on a chair facing Harry and his daughters.
"How are you Harry?"
Harry's eyes began to water. He looked to the ceiling and said, "Not good, not good at all."
"I was just at your house, the doctor called. Ginny died of an aneurysm, natural causes."
Harry did not say anything, he just stared at the ceiling.
"Daddy, who's that?"
Lilly was watching Dumbledore intently.
"My name is Albus Dumbledore, I'm a friend of your mum and dad."
"He dresses funny."
Harry smiled a little at his daughter.
"I do," Dumbledore nodded, "Harry, I was wondering if I could speak to you alone."
Harry hugged his youngest daughter, "Are you going to be okay, for a little while?"
She nodded, "I can take care 'a Eve while you're gone."
"You'd do that?"
She nodded again, this time more feverently.
"Thank you very much sweetheart."
Harry got up, carefully so he wouldn't wake Eve, then walked out of Ron's room and into Ginny's old one.
It was the same as she had left it. Harry felt a pang of guilt, the same pang that hit him each time Ron's birthday passed, or Hermione's. He hated to admit it, he never wanted to, but he did miss her.
Of course at this moment he missed his wife ten times more.
"Why do we have to talk here?" Harry's shaky voice asked.
"Why not? It is, after all, a room that is empty."
Harry sighed, "All right, what is it?"
"Are you planning on going back to the muggle world?"
"What?"
"I would like to know if you planned on coming back."
"How can you ask me that? My... Ginny is gone, I don't care."
Dumbledore nodded, "Then you're staying."
"Don't do that, I never said I was staying!"
"I think it would be best, since it's only a couple of months until young Evelyn gets her letter."
Harry sat on the bed bewildered, "Eve. Eve is getting a letter to Hogwarts."
"Of course, after all she is the child of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley."
Harry hung his head and nodded.
"Who's in here?" Mrs. Weasley entered the room and Harry felt that pang again.
"We should get going." Harry said.
"You're not leaving, are you?" tears formed in her eyes, "You don't have to go, we have enough room for you to stay a while.."
"I don't know Mrs. Weasley."
"Harry, please don't take my grandchildren from me." Mrs. Weasley was on the verge of crying.
"I'm so sorry, of course we'll stay," Harry said trying to get the guilt to leave him, "I just didn't want to inconvenience you."
Mrs. Weasley wiped her eyes, "Of course it isn't, I haven't had a child in this house for too many years."
"Harry," Dumbledore said, making his presence known again, "There was something else the doctor said... He said Ginny was pregnant."
Harry nodded, "We named her already... It was going to be a girl... We were going to name her Molly."
Mrs. Weasley made an unreadable noise, and the door squeaked open.
Lilly was standing there with her ruby red mary-janes on the wrong feet.
"Daddy, Eve's hungry."
"Okay, why don't you and Eve just wait a few minutes, I'll make you something."
"I can make them something." Mrs. Weasley said, "And you too Harry, you look hungry."
Harry was about to object, but he knew better, housework was like therapy to her. He nodded and picked up Lilly, bringing her back to Ron's old room.
"Harry, we shall talk later." Dumbledore said.
Harry didn't say a word, and with that Dumbledore walked down the stairs. Harry closed the door, and looked at his two daughters.
"I need to tell you both something. Your mother and I have kept a secret from you for a very long time. We never needed to tell you, until now. You see, magic is real. Not magic like Sigfried and Roy, a different kind of magic."
Lilly and Eve both looked at their father as if he had just gone insane, again.
Lilly was the first to speak, "You mean like Santa magic?"
"No, not Santa magic. Your mother was a witch, and I... I am a wizard."
"Are you saying we're Wiccan's now?" Eve asked.
"No I... Accio wand." Harry's wand flew to his hand which made both girls jump.
"We didn't tell you because, we didn't know how to tell you really. We lived without magic, and naturally had no use for it, so when you turned four Eve, we realized we had never shown you it, or told you anything about it, and by then we surely didn't know how to break it to a four year old."
"When were you going to bring this up?" Eve looked as though she was quite angry with her father.
"We were going to try and patch things up with the Weasley's after... the baby was born, so it would have been before then."
"The Weasley's are the people here, right? When were you going to tell us that we had relatives?"
"Around the time we were going to tell you about the magic. I know this is a shock, and I know this sounds stupid, but we were just doing what we thought was right for you. People in the magic world aren't like people in our world, there are something's that are... not right. We didn't want you to grow up like some in the magic world do, that because something is a tradition that makes it right. We always wanted better for you."
"Great," Eve brought her knees up to her chest, "You know maybe you could ask us what we think is best for us, we can make a decision... You could have told me."
"What about me?" Lilly stomped her red slipper clad foot.
"Quite, both of you. I know how hard this is on you..."
"You don't know anything." Eve said.
"I didn't know I was a wizard until I was eleven, and any time I would do magic by accident I was punished for being a freak, I know more than you think. I'm your father and I know what's best for you, I've lived through it."
Eve wiped a tear from her cheek, "I just would have liked to have a choice."
"You do. Apparently you've been accepted to Hogwarts, the school your mum and I went to, you can choose to go there, or a regular school."
Eve looked at her father shocked, "Why did I get accepted?"
"Because you're a witch."
"So is it a biological thing?"
"Not always."
"Daddy," Lilly tugged on Harry's shirt, "Am I a witch too?"
"We don't know yet honey, you could be."
Lilly stomped her foot again, "But I want to be special too!"
"You are honey, just because your sister is a witch it doesn't make her any better than you."
Lilly stuck out her tongue at Eve, who in turn rolled her eyes at her sister.
"Now, are we ready to eat?"
The two girls nodded. Harry picked up Lilly and they headed down the staircase to the kitchen. Harry felt quite uncomfortable when he saw his two former best friends sitting at the table talking. Could he ignore them? The better question might have been should he? Harry decided not to ignore them, but to engross himself in the task at hand, feeding the girls.
Harry enchanted the chair Lilly sat on to grow so she could see over the table. Harry sighed as he looked at her shoes.
"Sweetheart, are you going to change those shoes to the right feet?"
She shook her head, "It feels funny."
"Honey I don't think that's good for your feet." Harry said.
"Yeah Lil," Eve said casually, "Your feet are going to grow wrong."
"Daddy!" Lilly said in a panicked voice.
"Evelyn Potter! Don't lie to your sister." Harry rubbed his temples.
Eve watched as her father rubbed his head. She remembered when he had done that before.
*
Eve's mum helped her into her booster seat, then put the cut sausage in front of her. She looked over to her dad and saw him rubbing his temples.
"Harry... what's wrong? Is that a headache or... a headache?" Her mother approached him cautiously.
"Just a headache."
"What's wrong? Why can't Daddy get a headache?" she put her princess fork into a piece of sausage.
"Daddy used to get really sick when he had headaches." Her mother smiled weakly.
"Is Daddy going to get sick?"
"No," she said, but she could tell her mother didn't really mean it, "The reason Daddy got sick is gone now."
Her father turned to face away from his family.
*
Eve watched as her father stopped rubbing his temples and smiled at her and her sister.
"Dad?"
"What is it Evie?" He asked.
"Why did you get sick when you got headaches?"
"Daddy's going to get sick and die?" Lilly's shaky voice asked.
Harry let out a breath, "Eve, could we please have a day where you don't scare your sister to death? I'm not going anywhere Honey."
Eve crossed her arms in front of her and began to pout. She couldn't stand it anymore, being in this room, with these people she didn't know, she ran up the stairs and was about to go into the orange room again but there was another room, and the door was cracked open.
Eve looked to the desk and saw a piece of parchment with her mother's handwriting on it; this must have been her mother's room. She went to the bed and laid down. The room smelled stale, but in the sheets there was the sent, buried deep within, of her mother. She took the pillow and brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply.
"Of all the things I wish we taught you, I wish we would have taught you more about tact."
Her father's voice said. She looked up and saw him, she didn't know why, but just seeing him standing there made her heart jump. She got up and ran to hug him. As she tried to hold onto him as tightly as she could she was able to feel his arms encircling her, making her feel better.
"I used to get sick because there was a really bad wizard that used to want to hurt me, hurt a bunch of people, but now he's gone and he's never going to hurt anyone again."
"I don't want you to leave us."
"I'm not going anywhere. So, are you still hungry?"
She nodded against him.
"Would you like to get something to eat?"
She shook her head.
"You want to keep your death grip on me a little while longer?"
She nodded and she could hear, and feel, him laugh.
"I love you Daddy."
"I love you too Evie."