Unspoken
"Two years… I want to go now!"
Ginny heard the words as they fell from her youngest child's lips, several paces away. Lily always had been impatient, it was nothing new, what with two older brothers and a host of cousins to compete with. But for some reason, this time it felt different. Ginny suddenly found herself despairing over the prospect of an empty house in two years; she doubted she and Harry would know what to do with themselves. She smiled wistfully. This had to be what her own mother had felt like, holding her hand as tightly as Harry now gripped Lily's, that year before she had started at Hogwarts and moaned and complained so vehemently. Ginny felt a pang of heartache as the memory connected with the present, and handed off the trolley she was pushing to James.
*.*.*.*.*
As the Hogwarts Express rounded the bend and disappeared, Ginny leaned her head on Harry's shoulder for a moment. The other parents and families who had come to see their students off crowded toward the exit. Ginny was content to wait until the masses had cleared out. Ron, Harry and Hermione settled into the chairs just off the platform for a chat, and Ginny drew Lily away from Hugo for a moment.
"Mummy, what is it?" Lily asked, all evidence of her sour mood from earlier gone.
"Nothing really, dear," said Ginny, smiling as she hugged her daughter. Lily's small arms clung tightly around her neck, and Ginny hid several soft tears in her daughter's hair, the same shade as hers. Things had been simple when the kids were younger, when her days consisted of playing endless games with them and making all their dreams come true. Her heart ached knowing she wouldn't always be able to do that; it wouldn't always be that simple and Lily wouldn't always stay this little.
There were so many words tumbling over themselves in Ginny's mind that she wanted to say, but she didn't even open her mouth because she knew Lily wouldn't understand. She knew children at Lily's age couldn't wait to grow up so they could experience the world, but… Ginny would give all she had if Lily would never have anything to regret, never have her heart broken, never have to see the dark side of the world. But she knew if that happened, Lily wouldn't really be living.
"I love you, Lily."
