Unconditional with condition
"Do you really think I'll just forgive and forget? A hug here, a tear there? Why? Because it's been a year and a half? Are you really that naïve, mother?"
Those were the very first words that my beloved daughter Ginny said to me, her father, brothers, Harry and Hermione after a year and a half away from her home. I knew I lost her at that exact moment. Not because of her sharp, sardonic words full of cold and disappointment but because of one little word with an enormous weight.
Mother. I was always mum or ma or even mummy. Never mother. With that she just let me know how distanced we have really become.
Oh, how it hurt. More than that time when she didn't talk to me.
"Ginevra…" I started sharply with intention to remind her I'm still her mum but she interrupted me.
She finally let go of that sneering mask she was wearing since the moment she stepped into the Burrow. All the time, while we were hugging her and saying Hello's she didn't even twitch. She just stood there unaffected not saying a word nor hugging us back.
Her face was a mixture of disappointment, sadness and long suppressed anger.
"No mother! I expected something better of you, of all of you! We never had illusions of his family accepting us but you? But you who always claimed to be better than the Malfoy's? Saying you're not prejudiced, that you're happier, that you have friends, that you can rely on your family, that you love each other, that you know how to love! Of you I expected at least a tiny bit of understanding."
She laughed. She laughed such a cold laugh that I had to suppress a shiver.
"Oh, how wrong I was! Fatally. The Weasley's; one of the most kind-hearted and noble families in the wizarding world. They love unconditionally. Isn't that what you said, mother? Love is unconditional. Especially in the family. The family love is the strongest!" She was mocking my words. The words I repeated so many times. "What a farce!"
"Ginny…" I whispered. I was the only one who tried to stop her. All the others were listening to her with sad eyes like they're under some spell.
"You, mother. You and only you gave me that condition. To your own daughter. You broke all the rules of unconditional love."
I still clearly remember that moment. Children came home for Christmas. Ginny's sixth and Ron's seventh year. They hardly stepped through the door when Ron, all red in the face, announced he saw Ginny with Draco Malfoy on the Platform 9 and ¾.
All the family was at home just like a year and a half later. The chaos erupted all around. Everybody was screaming crossways. My sons were forbidding their sister to never speak to their mortal enemy again. Ginny was screaming back to stop meddling into her life. Harry and Hermione were trying to calm them all down. Arthur was clutching his heart and I just stood there.
Finally Ginny turned to me and looked at me with those big begging eyes, filled with hope. Those eyes are haunting me till this day on my every step. The family became quiet looking at me in anticipation. I don't know where I found so much cold in my heart and even this very second I'm so ashamed of my words.
"If you want to still be a part of this family then, tomorrow morning, you will be all packed for your departure to France where you will continue your education on Beaxbatons Academy… or you're not my daughter anymore."
I heard my family's united intake of breath. Ginny's eyes at first got teary but when she got the full meaning of my words, they were dead. Like my demand drank all the life out of her.
My sons seemed scared and shocked (even Ron who was the most fanatical didn't looked happy with my condition), Harry got these winkles of disappointment on his face, Hermione burst into tears and Arthur's eyes had an angry glint. And he's never angry. Never.
I got this indefinite feeling that all this isn't because of Ginny's relationship with Malfoy but because of my cruel words. That was the first time it flashed through my mind that maybe what I did was wrong.
At night I heard Ginny sending a letter to someone but early in the morning she was standing at the front door with all of her belongings. She haven't spoken a word or acknowledged anybody since the previous day.
She left without a single word, without a single hug, without a single tear, without a single glance back.
We sent her a massive amount of letters. We haven't gotten a response. At the end of the school year she send us a few dry and unemotional lines, informing us she'll spend the summer holidays at some friend's house in France. She let us no space for objection.
"He never gave me one condition to fulfil. And he had a chance, you know? He could have demanded to choose him or you. I even wrote him before I left. I said that one single word is enough and I will choose him. But he didn't. And that's the difference between you and him. He knew that would destroy everything between us. He knew my family is part of me. Well, it was at the time. Until you built this giant wall between us, mother. And not just between us. Also between me and my father. Me and my brothers. Between you and dad. You and your sons. You broke this family apart. You ruined my life!" she yelled at me.
I saw the accusing looks on the faces of everybody in the room. They tried to hide them but to me they were clear as never before. Ginny was right. I broke our family apart. At this point I was in tears while my daughter was expressionless.
"Don't say that the time heals all the wounds because I won't forget. I won't forgive. You betrayed me, mother! The betrayal never gets old. Only the revenge can heal it. But don't worry! I won't seek my revenge. And that's why this wound will stay forever. It will never be the way it was between us."
The next morning her room was empty. I never saw my daughter again.
Her brothers of course came to visit me many times. And Harry and Hermione as well. But The Burrow was never again the way it was before. It was never as laud and happy again. Ginny's absence hung over our heads.
Next year I read in the Daily Prophet abut a glamorous wedding of the director of the biggest racing brooms company Draco Malfoy with beautiful and rich heiress Susannah Ainsworth.
About that time Harry, working as an auror, managed to find out, that Ginny lives in New York. There, in some famous New York gallery you could visit her first independent exposition that her boyfriend Sebastian Kent, a successful painter as well, helped to prepare her. In some muggle newspaper I saw her picture. She was dressed in a provocative black dress, holding hands with a tall handsome brown-haired man. They looked happy together. Or maybe I just wanted to see her happy and was imagining things.
I found comfort in this news. Maybe, just maybe I didn't ruin the life's of those two people. Maybe their love was not that strong.
I was shutting my eyes to fact even when the rumours of Mr Malfoy almost not leaving his office, not even for the night and about the couple not being able to procreate an heir came out. New York Times, to which I subscribed hoping to find something about my daughter from time to time, reported about an unnamed female painter being involved into drugs distribution. I didn't want to believe my daughter has anything to do with this 'unnamed female painter'.
My last hopes crumbled to dust a few years later when news about a divorce of Draco and Susannah Malfoy echoed through the wizarding world and shocked everybody. Countless theories from cheatingto money were circling from mouth to mouth. And the loudest those about them not being able to have children. Everybody expected tempestuous and entertaining divorce. Neither Draco nor Sussanah commented on the rumours and the divorce was surprisingly and for those bloodthirsty even disappointingly consenting and short.
A few months later a scandalous picture of extremely inebriated Ginevra Weasley suddenly appeared on the gossip pages. Under the picture was article with quotes of her boyfriend of many years. He said he found her in their bed with her twice her age mentor. After this article many others turned up. Many men confessed the affairs with the eccentric painter while she was still engaged to Sebastian Kent. They all claimed she never wanted anything else than a one night stand, that she was unable of commitment and love. One of them, a poet, said she is obviously keeping her love for one special person.
When the rumours after their divorce became to laud Susannah Ainsworth, divorced Malfoy, finally gave a statement saying they got divorced and for the same reason didn't have children because her now ex-husband was long before their wedding in love with another woman.