Notes: Gah! I completely forgot to post the last three chapters. :( I finished this story in July! I'm posting the chapters all at once, so I don't have to worry about the flames. It's probable that I won't edit this story for a long, long time, or at all...
Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Stars
Three days had passed since my father found me. I couldn't help but notice how his health got worse quickly.
Uncle Ron, Luna, my father, and I went to live to the old Lovegood house, which was near where Uncle Ron and I used to live. It was where Luna grew up, and still lived. The house was rather strange, colored in gaudy tones, and it had two stories. There were three bedrooms, so we all were rather comfortable.
My father and I spent the days outside, walking or sitting against the house. He would tell me stories, and I would tell him about what I could remember of my early childhood. I let him open my mother's old trunk, but asked him not to tell me what was in there, since I would check it out when I was older.
We looked at a small album of pictures that had my mother and me, which wasn't in her trunk. We laughed, we cried, and we got to know each other. It was something I've always kept in my heart. Those days with him.
"So you finished school, already?" my father asked one day.
I nodded proudly. "Yup. They said I'm a very smart boy, I would only have to do a course at high school and be done with it. But I want to go to Hogwarts, so I'll wait until later for that. I'm so anxious to go to Hogwarts! Mum has read me a lot of history books, and even quizzed me!"
He laughed, and seemed to become younger when he did so. "Sounds like something she'd do."
"Mum and I always studied something," I told him. "The colors, the clouds, the plants, and then the more complicated things." He chuckled again, as if I had said something funny.
We were quiet for a few moments. "I left a letter for you, in your mother's trunk. When you are older, you'll know what it says..." He smiled sadly at me, and turned to look at the darkening sky. A few stars were starting to shine.
Still, somewhere deep within me, I felt weird. It felt strange having him around, since I had only known him from pictures and my mother's memories, which often portrayed him as flawless. I hadn't thought about it before, mostly because I had never had another person distorting that role.
A strange feeling of guilt washed over me whenever the four of us had lunch or dinner, or Uncle Ron would join us. I felt like I was betraying him, and that I was betraying my father as well.
On the fourth night, my father and I sat outside to watch the stars. It was one of the things I enjoyed doing with my mother, and so I told him. I showed him how much I knew about the constellations, and he said I was a lot like my mother. He didn't remember much about the things he learnt at school.
I sat at his side, against the wall, and held his hand. "Father?" I said with a little bit of difficulty. "Would you and Mum be mad at me... if I want them... if I want Uncle Ron and Luna to..."
My father chuckled, and looked down at me. His eyes seemed distant, almost dull. "Ron is... like a brother to me... And I think it would make him happy if you let him be your father. And, I know Hermione would never be angry at you if Luna became your mother."
"Wouldyou be angry?" I asked.
He smiled. "Of course not. It's great to have a second chance," he said, though at that time, I didn't understand his words. "I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner," he added, moments later. It was becoming a habit of his. "I'm proud of you. And of your mother. You've inherited her strength."
"You were going to marry her," I stated, remembering what Uncle Ron had told me.
My father nodded, a sad smile on his face, his eyes more distant than before. He leaned against the wall and chuckled. "I was so scared of proposing," he said, laughing quietly. "I had just defeated a dark wizard, and I was so scared of proposing to your mother."
I chuckled along with him, finding it amusing. It was true. Everyone referred to him as the Boy-Who-Lived, the Savior of the wizarding world. The Chosen One. The Hero. But he was just a man, a man with a hard childhood, who had been wanting to live. And when he finally was able to be normal, he discovered he was dieing.
Without realizing it, there were tears flowing freely on my cheeks. It seemed unfair. What my parents went through. What my uncle went through. What war did to them...
My father's hand felt a little bit limp. I looked up at him and sighed. He had fallen asleep again. He did it quite often, those days. His body couldn't handle too many activities, not with his illness. I shook him, to wake him up. But he didn't. "Father?" I called in a whisper. "Father, wake up... D-dad?"
But he didn't wake up. Never did.