A/N: Some were a bit... well some misunderstood the last chapter. I've studied the law (it was my major at one point) and the only way for a biological parent to *not* get custody is if the parent is found to be a detriment to the child's physical or mental well being. It doesn't matter if they aren't involved in the child's life; Especially Draco's case where he never signed over custody. If he wants to take her, he can, Harry knew that, then did what he did.
"Strapped for cash? With the Black family estate, and well everything his parents had given him... there's no way he could be out of money..." Ron whispered.
He, Hermione, his father, and his mother all sat at the kitchen table.
"Maybe he doesn't want to spend that money. I mean after all it would be quite a nest egg if Eve got the Black estate and Lilly got the Potter's money when they got older." Arthur suggested.
"But he makes so much money as a chef... it doesn't make any sense." Hermione said.
"He could have a gambling problem." Ron said.
"Not Harry, besides, do you think Ginny would allow that sort of thing?" Hermione asked.
"I never thought Ginny would be the type of girl to marry a guy who was in love with another girl, I guess I was wrong..." Ron said.
"Ron... We don't know what happened then. We can't judge." Hermione said.
"Considering you were the girl he was in love with, one would think-"
"I don't care. This isn't about that. Something's been troubling Harry, he keeps mumbling strange things under his breath."
Just as they were to go on with their conversation on what must be wrong with Harry, they heard a noise come from the stairs, they all sat still for a while, when they heard nothing else they continued.
Once they had spoken more than they ever wanted to, they decided that telling Dumbledore of the situation was the only thing to do. They were cleaning the table when Harry entered the house, didn't say a word, and went upstairs. They were in the middle of saying their goodbyes when Harry ran back down the stairs.
"Where are they?"
"Who Dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"My daughters. They aren't in any of the rooms upstairs." Harry said, the panic rising in his voice.
Arthur shook his head, "Surely-"
"They aren't there." Harry said forcefully.
Hermione quickly walked out of the house and started to scream their names. Harry followed her, yelling loudly.
"Didn't you notice they left?!" He asked.
"No, we didn't hear anything from them, we were at the kitchen table." Hermione walked quickly into the woods that surrounded the house, wand at the ready.
They frantically looked around the wood, which seemed to take an eternity, until they saw Lilly sitting on the ground in the middle of the forest floor.
"What's wrong with you!" Harry yelled, "Where's your sister?!"
Lilly seemed to not want to talk to him at all, but after he stared at her for a few moments, she pointed to where her sister was walking away.
"EVE! You stop right there!" Harry ran after her as Hermione stayed with Lilly.
"I don't want to talk to you, I HATE you!" She yelled as she walked on.
"I don't care! You're coming back home where it's safe." He said as he got to her and stood in front of her.
She screamed loudly and kicked him and hit him as hard as she could. Harry just stood there taking it until she was finished. When she tired herself out she plopped down on the forest floor.
"You didn't deserve Mum." She said angrily.
"You'll find no argument from me." Harry said as he sat down on the ground across from her.
Lilly approached and sat down next to her sister. Hermione stood by, her wand still in her hand.
"Why did you come out here?"
"We were running away!"
Harry nodded, "Okay, and why did you feel the need to run away?"
"Cause we hate you!" Lilly said.
"Ahh, well that's a good reason. You mind telling me if there's a reason as to why you hate me?" Harry said, he was still panting a bit, but was trying to catch his breath.
"Because you didn't love Mum." Eve said, her eyes seemed to be fixed on a spot on the ground.
"How could you say that?" Harry said genuinely hurt.
"They were talking, they said you were in love with Hermione and not mum. How could you? She loved you!"
Harry looked up to see Hermione's eyes grow wide with a look of horror on them.
"Girls I love you very much, and I hope this will be the only time I have to say this. Shut it. You know nothing of what you are talking about. Hell they don't know what the fuck they are talking about. You want to know the truth, the painful harsh truth? When your mother married me, she wasn't in love with me."
They both shook their heads, looking rather pale.
"Your mother wasn't perfect, I'm sure as hell not perfect. We weren't in love when we got married. That's the truth. You want to know another truth, we did later. Later we grew to love each other. And if there were any way I could give my life for hers I would do it in less than a heartbeat. I know that you want your mother here. I know that you wanted it to be me instead of her. To tell you the truth I wish it were me too. I wish I were dead an you had your mother. I wish I were a better father. I wish I could mean half of what she means to you. I can't. I can only be me, I can only be your father. I'm sorry I can't be what you need. But I love her, and I love you."
"What about her?" Eve said, suggesting Hermione.
Hermione was standing there, away from them, silently crying.
Harry looked down to the spot his daughter had found so interesting before, "I'm not perfect. I'm sorry."
Lilly wiped the tears from her eyes and hugged her father tightly.
"I love you daddy. I'm sorry for running away."
He held her, sighing in relief and nodded.
"I'm sorry too." Eve whispered. She then hugged him and said almost silently, "I'm glad you're here."
Harry exhaled deeply, and let a lone tear fall from his face.
* * *
In order to heal you have to hurt. It's an idea Harry once thought stupid, brought on by masochists to give meaning to their lives. He now found it to be truth. His daughters were not over their hurt, they would never get over the loss of their mother. But a great amount of pain had to be brought on for them to get to where they were.
They were sad at times, especially Ginny's birthday, or their anniversary, but the majority of the time they were happy. They were getting over the fact that they would not see their mother, and instead being happy that they were able to be with her for as long as they had. Memories of their mother, and his wife, were no longer sad to look on, but happy. They felt happy when they remembered her, and sadness rarely crept in.
It had been four months since the woods, and four months since Harry saw Malfoy last.
They were still living in the burrow, but they weren't alone. Hermione had since moved into Bill's old room, after her house exploded. She had the habit of writing negative things about Voldemort, and up and coming evil wizards who wanted to be like him. Which would be fine, but one or two found out where she lived and blew it up to make a statement. Luckily she was no where near the building when it happened. She was chasing after Crookshanks who was chasing after a mouse. Once Crookshanks got lucky, and the mouse didn't, she carried him back home. As he licked his chops quite satisfied with himself she turned the corner and saw a pile of rubble where her house should have been. Molly wouldn't take no for an answer, and forced -er- asked, Hermione to live at the Burrow. At least until they found the parties responsible.
Eve had decided not to go to Hogwarts. It just about killed Mrs. Weasley to hear it, she actually had to be subdued, while Harry just smiled and nodded. She instead decided to go to a muggle boarding school, called Tumesbrild Academy. Her favorite subject there was math, and she was surpassing all of the other girls her age. She wrote, and was written to, every day. She wrote to her father, and to her sister, although the letters to her sister were much shorter.
Lilly had decided at the ripe old age of three that she would be going to Hogwarts. She even had an extensive conversation with Dumbledore about it. Of course most of the conversation consisted of 'can I sleep where mummy slept' and 'when do you serve chocolate cake?'
Harry was just having a wonderful time of getting to know one daughter through letters, and the other through playtime. There were times he missed Ginny so much he could hardly breathe, but those would pass, and time would go on. And he was getting to know Hermione and Ron again. Ron and Luna had amazingly enough stabilized each other's craziness. And both were looking
forward to the winter, when Ron would start coaching and they would start trying for a baby. The thought of Ron as a father used to frighten Harry, but he now welcomed the new crazy addition to the Weasley clan. Hermione, Harry had learned, was in three or four very serious relationships, but they would soon end when the question of marriage would come up. Apparently Hermione had found it hard to commit. But she was happy because she had her job of reporting the truth, and Crookshanks to come home to. And Harry found that he was happy when his friends were happy.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were very happy. Not only was noise back in there house, where it belonged, but they got to play 'adventures' with Lilly. Lilly would decide they needed to go on a quest to find the Broom of Purpenhugen, and they would go around and find clues and fight off monsters until they found the Broom of Purpenhugen, which looked amazingly like Mrs. Weasley's kitchen broom. They were finally Grandparents, and they wouldn't give it up for anything.
Harry's life wasn't going to change entirely, it had always been a formula. He would find happiness, and something would come and make it all come crashing down.