Family Portrait
By: Inktasticx
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, and various other publishers, including, but not limited to Warner Bros., Inc., Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, and Raincoast Books. No copyright infringement is intended and no money made from this fanfic.
Warnings: mPreg, language, infidelity…adjusted timeline
Harry/Draco - Harry/Ginny - Draco/Astoria – Ron/Hermione and others mentioned.
Summary: They say that love conquers all, but what about those who are left behind to suffer in its wake? As secrets are revealed and truths emerge, their lives are turned upside down and families are torn apart.
Family Portrait
Prologue – Three Little Words
June 2010
/
"I hate you!"
It was only three little words; three little words which held a powerful punch that went straight through the heart of a father.
Moments later the thundering sounds of footfalls running up the stairs were heard, followed by the violent slamming of a door that shook the home; rattling the portraits and paintings that hung on the rebuilt walls of the Potter Cottage.
After the violent display, the house became quiet, matching the mood of the sleepy Village, Godrics Hallow, outside.
Inside of the kitchen the father sat at the table alone, his emerald eyes on the spot where a chair, now vacant and toppled to the ground, once stood. Just seconds earlier, which seemed to have been years ago to the man, his son had occupied that chair.
He sighed warily, feeling much older than someone on the threshold of thirty. With shaking hands he picked up the cup of cooled tea that sat in front of him. As he took a sip he wished, not for the first time in the last three months, that there was something stronger in the cup – much stronger.
With a grimace he lowered the teacup, unable to swallow around the lump in his throat that refused to go away.
"Are you happy now, Harry?" A voice hissed sharply from the open doorway of the kitchen, where a red haired woman stood, her narrowed brown eyes seemed to drill into the side of the dark haired man's head. "And you plan to do that to Lily and Albus?" She spat, pushing herself from the wall but made no move to enter further into the room. "To tell them that- that you're-"
"I wanted to tell them all together, not separately and certainly not today!" The man, Harry, finally spoke up, his voice rough and thick, "Term just ended for James, for Merlin's sake, this was your idea, Ginny!"
"James would have noticed something – with your little sleepovers and all," she said snidely, "appearing in the morning and disappearing at night would not work on him."
Harry said nothing in response, because he knew that she was right. Their eldest son was far to cleaver for his age and it would not have taken him long to see that something was going on wrong between his parents. The young wizard had already become suspicious when only his mother, at her own request, picked him up from Platform 9 ¾ alone.
With another sigh, Harry stood from his seat and began to make his way out of the kitchen.
"Going back to him then," Ginny commented needlessly as she stepped aside to let him pass, her brown eyes trailing him as he went towards the fireplace in the family room.
He reached into an old brass bowl that sat on the mantle and took a handful of the silver powder that it contained. Harry went to throw it into the dying flames but his movement paused midway, "If he wants to talk to me…" he began, trailing off.
Sighing, Ginny was unable to hold onto the anger that had just boiled her blood moments ago, "I'll firecall you right away."
With a nod, Harry tossed the floo-powder into the flames which flared to life in a green inferno. "Thanks for the lavender." He said at the last moment before he took a step forward.
"Maybe it'll help you; it worked for me…"
"I remember," and with that he stepped into the magical flames and disappeared.
Once more the house sunk into silence as brown eyes turned to the unusual clock to hung above the mantle, and sadly watched as the hand that held a picture of her husband, soon to be ex, began to make its way from her and the rest of their family.
Shaking her head she turned away and headed up the stairs to comfort her eldest child – and herself.
/
At number 12 Grimmauld Place a blonde haired man sat before the dusty old fireplace. His leg that was covered with dark slacks made from some sort of expensive material, bounced up and down with nervous energy. His worried grey eyes that shown like pools of mercury in the dim light, stared into the open mouth of ashes and dead coals.
When the hearth irrupted in emerald flames he was out of the leather seat and darting towards the fireplace faster than one could blink.
"Harry?" He asked attentively, before his arms were suddenly filled a shaking and sobbing mass. Ignoring the soot that was beginning to cover his expensive attire the blonde gathered the dark haired man into his arms.
"Harry?" He tested again, when he received no verbal response.
"Just hold me, Draco," Harry managed, pressing his face into the once pristine silk white blouse, "Please just hold me."
Draco's arms tightened around Harry, "I have you, love," he murmured into the unruly mass of dark hair as one of his hands rested on slightly protruding abdomen of his lover.
"I have you both."
Beta wanted and needed! Thanks for reading ~