Chapter 1 I Want to Marry You

Draco closed his eyes as he listened to his father drone on during the meeting. If he was honest with himself, he would say that he often feel asleep during meetings. This time however, he didn't want to look at the letter before him.

Aurora had his brain and Katherine's combined, clearly. Severus Snape, the Potions Master who could cure even the Darkest of curses, was considering her for an apprenticeship. He wanted to know more about Draco's daughter.

This was a huge honor. Snape was the most prestigious wizard in Europe that one could earn an apprenticeship from. Draco should be writing parchment scroll after parchment scroll about how great his daughter was. He should say what her favorite subject was, her greatest accomplishment, why she was interested in using potions to fight the Dark Arts. The only problem was that Draco had the answer to none of those questions.

He didn't even know that she had gotten NEWTs in Potions and Defense. He had assumed, but he didn't actually know for sure. What else was she taking?

"Am I boring you, Draco?" Father drawled when he didn't pick up on the silence. Someone must have asked a question.

Draco jumped and opened his eyes to see all the board members staring at him. Well, at least he'd only have to say it once. "I quit."

"How could you?" Mother said weakly when he returned home to find Father still screaming. Pansy didn't want to deal with Draco either. "You embarrassed—"

"Embarrassed?" Father yelled. "Embarrassed isn't a strong enough word to describe what you have done! We have built our entire lives—"

"I miss Rory," he said thickly. Four glasses of wine would do that to a bloke.

His parents stilled at the name of their granddaughter. They always tensed and changed the subject when she was brought up. However he could never remember saying he missed her except as a casual afterthought during a less serious holiday like Halloween.

Father frowned. "Is it her birthday?"

"Her birthday is in May." Mother said with grief instead of anger that Father was off by a good seven months. Draco wondered if she even knew the exact date.

"Then what's the issue?" Father asked. "Because—"

"Because she's my daughter!" he snapped. "She's my daughter, and I barely know her!"

Father rolled his eyes. "You see her what? At least ten times a year. Katherine chose to keep her, not you. It is not your—"

"She kept her because I wanted her to," Draco admitted for the first time in over seventeen years. Katherine was so scared that she had wanted to terminate. He told her to do what was best and not to act out of fear. She took his words to heart. He himself didn't. "She was scared, and I knew she would regret it—"

"Are you insane?" Father asked incredulously.

"Lucius!" Mother started to cry. Draco knew that she loved Rory but felt that her birth ruined his life, even though he turned out exactly like they wanted him to.

"Shut up, Narcissa!" Father thundered. "This is about Pansy, isn't it? She made her choice—"

"This is about my daughter!" he yelled. "I left her for this! For a bloody company—"

"We can't all be maids." Father laughed bitterly. "She probably bought that house through government assistance."

Draco thinned his lips. Katherine wouldn't even accept money from him. She worked for everything she had, including their daughter. "I'm leaving."

Mother knocked on his door as he was packing his things. She always was the peacekeeper. Draco turned to see her with some sort of scrapbook. "You don't have to go, Draco. We could—"

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend." He needed to see Aurora as soon as possible.

"Oh." Mother tried to smile and then handed him the book. It was a photo album. "I know you think that we don't care for her…"

Draco opened it to see picture after picture of Aurora's infancy. He knew for a fact that most of these pictures were taken by James Potter, but the fact that they had them… Draco ran his finger over the picture of him holding Aurora the day she was born. He looked so scared. "Do you ever look at them?"

Mother hummed and nodded before turning back a few pages. "Do you remember this? It was the summer before…"

She couldn't even finish the sentence. It was the summer before Katherine got pregnant. The Potter's hosted a ball for her sixteenth birthday, her coming out party. Traditionally, she would dance with different wizards, dating back to when there were still marriage contracts. Then, they would ask her parents to court her. Katherine only danced with him that night.

They had very strongly resembled the couples that they used to make fun of. Draco could barely keep his face a few inches from hers, while Katherine was smiling so much she looked like her face was going to split. In the background, he could even see Lily holding James back from trying to cut in.

Now, they barely kissed. They occasionally had sex when they knew Aurora was sleeping.

"I told Lucius to start planning the wedding that night," Mother said, almost dreamily. "We thought for sure you would propose soon after graduation…"

Instead, he got a crib for his graduation present. His parents were finally willing to let his one year old sleep over from time to time. But not Katherine, meaning it only happened once, when Katherine had the flu and didn't want her daughter to catch it.

Draco wiped his eyes, even though he hadn't truly realized he was crying. "I messed up, Mum."

"The two of you should have gotten married." Mother shook her head, still offended that sixteen year old Katherine was too overwhelmed with motherhood to throw a teenage marriage on top of it. "Is there anything we can do to get you to stay, Draco? I could talk to Pansy."

"I'm not staying," Draco said firmly. He flipped half a dozen pages and stopped at a photo of him and Katherine giving an eight month old Aurora a bubble bath. "This is where I should have been. I have to set things right."

"No." Mother sighed tiredly. "We do. Do you think… we could meet her?"

Draco could never say no to his parents, especially over something like this. They could finally set things right. "Yes."

Even though he often treated it like a bed and breakfast, Katherine's house always felt like home. Therefore, Draco had no problem showing up unannounced. He even threw his suitcase in her room as she snored the morning away.

For nearly an hour, he sat at her kitchen table, trying to act like nothing was wrong when everything was. Normally, he would have slipped into bed with her. She would have sleepily moaned and tangled her legs in his. Then the real fun would begin.

"What are you doing here?" she said in surprise as she stumbled into her kitchen. He was forcing himself to eat breakfast and read the paper like nothing was wrong. Maybe he didn't have to say anything. He could just never leave.

He raised his eyebrows, trying to act like she was the odd one. "It's a Hogsmeade weekend."

"And?" They hadn't seen each other since the summer. She had every right to be curious. It was late fall.

"And I want to see my daughter. And my…" Where they even together anymore? Draco never considered them "broke up," but he knew Katherine had boyfriends, just like he had had girlfriends. What were they? "Katherine."

"Gee thanks, my Draco." Her eyes became a bit distant as she thought about the general awkwardness that was their lives before she yawned and started heading for the coffee pot. "I usually don't go until noon during my lunch break."

"Take the day off." She worked too much. And as much as he hated to admit it, it wasn't often that he spent the entire day with Aurora. His daughter wasn't a kid anymore, and he was almost afraid to be alone with her. Aurora was old enough to know this wasn't normal.

Katherine smiled to herself and closed her eyes as she took a whiff of the fresh coffee she was making. He got the strange vibe that she was laughing at him. "I have the day off next Hogsmeade weekend. Sorry, Drakey Poo."

"I'll be there." Because he was unemployed… How long before she noticed that he wasn't leaving anytime soon? Draco tried to think of the longest he had ever stayed. Once, he stayed from Christmas to the New Year. Other than that… And it was nowhere near Christmas.

Katherine pursed her lips, clearly not believing him. "Oh? Taking some time off work?"

You could say that, he thought to himself. Draco took a deep breath, wanting desperately to tell her everything. When they were kids, he felt like he could. Now, he felt like he was still a kid, and she was the grown up who would frown at him for being so irresponsible. "My parents wanted to have dinner with you, your parents, and Aurora tomorrow night."

Katherine nearly choked on her coffee. The mug tumbled for a moment in her hands. "Are they dying?"

Draco rolled his eyes. Mother acted like she was. "No. Magic hasn't found a way to destroy such evil."

"No, I mean it," Katherine started rambling. "Because I thought the last I'd see of them would be Lucius flipping me off on his death bed, and Narcissa never wanting to see me again for ruining her son's life and her husband's death."

"Katherine." He wanted everything to be as it should be. His parents should be in Aurora's life, as he should be. "You've never stopped me from seeing Aurora, no matter how mad you've been at me. I'm hoping the same curtsey extends to my parents."

"Sly Slytherin," Katherine mumbled. She wanted to say no so badly that he could feel it. "You'll have to ask Rory, Draco. I haven't really known what to tell her about them over the years, so I'm not sure what she thinks of them."

Draco sighed. The easy part was over. "Thank you."

"Dad!" Aurora had a boy with her, and Draco felt himself involuntarily become rigid. She was sixteen. Just like he and Katherine were. "I didn't know you were coming!"

"Yes." Draco narrowed his eyes at the boy. A scrawny little thing. A scrawny little boy that would destroy his daughter's life. She was too young, just like they were. "Who's your friend?"

"Prescott Weasley." Draco forced himself to shake the boy's hand. Since when was Aurora interested in dating? Last year, she was still asking him, her father, to be her Valentine. "Rory and I were discussing the cauldrons for Potions Club. Not all of them are up to the Ministry's regulations."

"Draco's family owns a broom making company," Katherine said lightly when it became clear Draco only wanted stare the boy down. "Do you know anything about those, Pres?"

"Loads. Did you know that the Ministry is thinking of setting an age restriction on Firebolts?" When the boy pushed his glasses up, Aurora smiled like she thought he was being cute. Katherine smiled too, adoring both of them.

"Yes." Draco clenched his teeth together, trying not to yell that Aurora was not allowed to date. "Yes, I do."

As the boy droned on and one, Draco couldn't help but remember when he was sixteen. The memory only made him angrier at Aurora's boyfriend.

Draco hooked his arm around Katherine's waist when she tried to sneak out of his bed at four in the morning. "You need to lay off the chocolate frogs," he growled in her ear, grinning as he waited for her elbow him in the stomach. Instead she tensed and turned to face him. "I'm joking! You were the one complaining at dinner that your skirt didn't fit."

Her eyes filled with tears as he ran his finger over the indentation from the buttons on her stomach. "I…"

"I'm sorry." He didn't sound sorry at all. He was just sore that she didn't want to sleep in his bed until breakfast. Honestly, she looked…

"I think I'm pregnant."

Draco sat up. His blood ran cold. "What?"

"I haven't gotten my period in three months," she whispered.

"Three months," he repeated. "And you're just saying something now?! What are we going to do?!"

Oddly enough, his words didn't comfort her. Katherine put her face in her hands and started crying hysterically. He pulled her into a hug, and she continued to cry into the late morning. What were they going to do?

"I almost forgot!" The little bastard threw a few sickles on the table to cover their meal. "Hermione Granger is doing a book signing! I have to go!"

"Thank Merlin!" Draco didn't care if the boy heard. Aurora did not deserve to feel the same fear he and Katherine felt. She shouldn't be dating. "Aurora, what the hell was that?"

"Prescott Weasley," she said stiffly. She had every right to be angry, but Draco felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack. He was finally willing to take responsibility, and he felt like a scared sixteen year old again. "My boyfriend. And you shouldn't be rude to him, Dad. He's very nice."

"I didn't know Professor Binns was capable of procreation," he tried to joke. Aurora only glared at him, but he couldn't help it. He desperately wanted to flee and was forcing himself not to. "Guess what, kiddo?" At least that earned him a smile. "My parents are going to be joining us for Sunday dinner."

Her face fell. "What?"

"They want to meet you. The last time they saw you, you were still in nappies." Draco forced himself to smile, despite the reason why they hadn't seen her in so long.

"Oh…" Aurora glanced at Katherine, wanting her mother to save her. Unfortunately for her, Katherine was a doormat when it came to Malfoys. And he took advantage of it every chance he got. "It's such short notice…"

"They'll be at dinner with Lily and James. So you won't have to go out of your way." Draco suddenly felt guilty as fear flickered in his daughter's grey eyes. He wondered what she thought about his parents. Aurora was too kind to tell him.

As he predicted, she put on a bright, fake smile. "Okay."

"Mum." Draco felt anxiety squeezing his chest. Katherine sent him a small note after dinner last night. They know. "I… I don't think I want to go to the Potter's Yule Ball…"

Mother was the easy one. She looked at him with concern and felt his forehead. That's how rare it was for him to not want to be around Katherine. "Did the two of you fight? You didn't break up, did you?"

Father snorted and started digging into his breakfast. "That'll be the day."

"The two of you are young." But Mother was already looking devastated. Wait until she learned the truth. "One day, when you're both older and ready…"

"We didn't break up." Draco gulped. His throat felt dry, but he was too afraid of being sick to drink anything. He had to tell them. Because if they went without him… He was actually surprised the Manor wasn't flooded with howlers. "We… We're going to have a baby."

"Excuse me?" Mother said breathlessly. Father stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth. He voice was quieter than a whisper, so she was clinging to the hope that she heard him wrong. "What did you just say, Draco?"

"We're going to have a baby." He felt the tears already start to tumble out of his eyes.

"No." Mother shook her head quickly. "No. You are not. This isn't funny, Draco. Far from it."

"She's pregnant." Don't make me say it again, he pleaded in his head.

"She will terminate." Before this moment, he had never seen his father look scared, ever. "It'll be over quickly. She'll be sad for a while, Draco, but…"

He had felt the baby kick for the first time on the train ride home. Draco dug his nails into his palms. "It's too late."

"Shut up, Narcissa!" Mother had started to cry rather loudly. Father's eyes widened with panic, and he did the only thing he knew, throw money at a problem to make it go away. "We'll find a healer willing."

Draco didn't say anything when Father rose from his seat to start quietly donating to St. Mungo's. Mother eventually ran off to cry by herself. He had never felt more alone.

"Meet the people who resent me for being born?" Aurora snapped. Draco had brought home dinner to find Katherine arguing with their daughter through the fireplace. "And who does Dad think he is? Prescott is a good boyfriend! He was the type your parents would forbid you from seeing when you were sixteen. Hell, he still is!"

Well, he supposed he deserved that one. "He just worries." Katherine was always on his side. For once, it made him sick to his stomach. Aurora was right. "When I was your age—"

"You were four months pregnant. I know." Aurora rolled her eyes, annoyed at what Draco was sure was a constant lecture for the poor girl since she had entered puberty. "Because of him!"

"Just give it one meal. If it goes badly, then your dad will understand if you don't want to see them."

"And not speak to me for six months!" Aurora yelled. Draco couldn't ever recall being angry with her. Instead, he often got embarrassed because of how little he knew her. He never thought she would think he was angry with her. "I'm like a toy to him! He only sees me when he wants to play! And then when things get too hard, he bolts. Why do you give him equal say in my life?"

"He's your father," Katherine insisted. At least someone thought so.

Aurora sneered and then laughed. "Has he ever been?"

"Aurora Katherine," her mother lectured. "He loves you so much—"

"He loves himself more!" Ouch. She was never given a reason to think otherwise. "I'm not going to smile and act like Lucius and Narcissa are my grandparents. And I certainly am not going to let the Malfoys push me around like you do!"

And like that, Aurora was gone. Katherine groaned and hung her head before stepping away from the fireplace, only to see his horror stricken face. "When did you walk in?"

"At 'meet the people who resent me for being born?'" He couldn't even deny her words. His parents barely even spoke his daughter's name.

"I'm sorry," Katherine whispered. She actually looked guilty, and even though he knew it wasn't her fault, Draco found it easier to blame her than to tell the truth. He was a terrible father.

"You didn't want to get married," he accused. Just like Pansy. Neither of them thought he was husband material.

"We wouldn't have made it. We were sixteen." How many times did he have to hear it? He was responsible for a lot, like why they weren't married now, but he didn't think that they wouldn't have made it just because they were sixteen. They could've been happy now.

"I love you!" Why hadn't that been enough? For either of them? "And you pushed me away!"

Katherine's face flushed with anger, causing Draco to realize that for the first time, he pushed her over the edge. "How the hell did I push you away?! I've given you chance after chance while our daughter kept getting her hopes up that one of your long weekends with us would last forever! You could never even tell her when you were coming back unless her birthday was near! Because it was whenever you felt like it, Draco! It's always been whenever you felt like it!"

"You left too!" he couldn't help but shout. "I come back from France, and your parents say you ran off to be a maid in a bloody hotel!"

"Three months after you said you would!" Katherine screamed as she tried not to cry. "You expected me to wait! I wanted to be her mum! I didn't want to go to college and let the house elves take care of her for four years! After I went back to Hogwarts! I didn't want her to feel like a mistake! You were gone for months! If I stayed, she would've been practically raised by her grandparents and house elves."

"So now it's my fault?" he yelled. He was angry because what she was saying was true. "I wanted us to be a family! You never invited me to this happy little life you've made with her! Face it! You wanted her all to yourself!"

Those were Mother's words, not his own. She's always been too attached to the girl and threw her life away because of that over attachment. He never took the time to think about it. It was too easy to let Katherine do everything, and Katherine loved Aurora so much that she was more than willing to.

Katherine finally allowed herself to cry. Her words hit him just as hard as he wanted his words to hurt her. "Why did you need an invitation?"

Draco tensed. Why did he need an invitation? Because deep down, he was still sixteen, still too afraid to grow up. So he did what he did best. He left.

And then he did what he did second best. Return and act like nothing happened. He even brought Aurora's favorite dessert, strawberry shortcake. Something that always annoyed Lily Potter, who hated his guts ever since Katherine was nearly five months pregnant.

"You know I've been preparing for this all evening." Katherine's mother tsked and shook her head, glaring at the cake that Aurora was going to choose over whatever she was serving. "Like I have ever forgotten dessert on a Sunday evening…"

James Potter had his back to Draco's parents. He was preparing drinks at the liquor cart, something Draco had never seen him do. It was always the house elves' job. He must really not want to look at his parents.

But James cracked a smile at the sight of him. He stopped hating Draco the moment Aurora was born. As much of a fuck up that he was, he gave James Aurora. Therefore, James couldn't bring himself to hate him. They even wrote from time to time.

"Oh my goodness!" He winced at the sound of his mother's voice. "You look just like me! Look at her, Lucius!"

"I see her, Narcissa." Father sounded bored, but Draco saw him fiddle with his wedding ring, the only sign that he was nervous.

"Absolutely gorgeous!" Well, she didn't have the name Narcissa for nothing. Draco thought they looked nothing alike. "Draco! Why didn't you say anything?"

"Her face is more Katherine…" But now that she was getting angry, Draco saw a bit more of his mother in his daughter. They were both women who were not to be messed with.

"Mum sent pictures. All the time. You never looked at them?" Aurora asked hotly.

"How's the hotel, Katherine?" Father drawled. That ring was about to wear his skin off. "Clean?"

"I manage it now," Katherine said flatly. She and Father hated each other with every fiber of their being.

"Really?" Father said, doing his best to sound bored. Draco thought he sounded more shocked than anything else. "They let someone without basic education run it?"

"And who's fault is that?" James was finally ready to fight.

Draco winced as Father raised his eyebrows. To this day, he still thought that Katherine should have had an abortion. And he wasn't shy about saying it either. Draco held his breath when Father glanced at Aurora. "If she hadn't chosen to breast feed, she could have finished with Draco."

"Guess who is applying for an apprenticeship with Severus Snape?" Lily boasted out of nowhere. "He doesn't take applications from just anyone, you know."

"Good thing she doesn't look like you," Father muttered. Mother slapped him on the shoulder, but Draco had no idea what he was talking about. "What?"

"This is why he's acting like this!" Mother hissed. Katherine frowned at Draco, who decided the best option was to study his shoes. They went to school with Pansy, who used to whisper jokes whenever Katherine passed her in the hallway sixth year. Oh the irony...

"Alright, what's up?" James Potter may have made his peace with Draco, but his parents were another story. "The only reason you're here is because I thought my granddaughter was going to get an apology. If that isn't the case, you can leave."

Silence. Aurora looked down on his parents with an expression that only a Malfoy could manage. Katherine was getting paler by the second. She knew what was coming.

"Apologize?" Father was absolutely livid, causing Mother to start crying. Draco wondered if it was for Aurora or for her son. "Shut up, Narcissa! Katherine should apologize! She ruined Draco's chances of becoming an alchemist! She hid her pregnancy until it was too late!"

His parents didn't want him to be an alchemist. They often erupted into laughter when he brought it up as a kid. They wanted him to follow in his father's footsteps, which he did.

"GET OUT!" James screamed. Katherine froze as he pulled Father towards him by his jacket, causing Mother to shriek as James drew back his fist.

Father couldn't take it anymore. There was only one reason his parents were humoring him with the idea of getting involved in Aurora's life again. "YOU ARE MARRYING PANSY PARKINSON, AND THAT'S FINAL!"

"You are the best thing that ever happened to me." Katherine cupped their daughter's face in her hands the next morning, and Aurora sunk into her arms. She had ran off in the middle of last night's events. Draco hadn't even noticed.

In fact, he was so low right now that he was stooping to listening in on the steps. He even had on Katherine's invisibility cloak.

"I just…" Aurora was too confident for the quiet, mousy voice she currently had. Or so, Draco thought. "I just thought if I went, maybe he would want to stay. Nothing I ever do makes him want to stay…"

"Rory." Katherine rested her chin on Aurora's head, so she wouldn't see her glistening eyes. "Don't do that to yourself."

"You do." Oh God…

"I want better for you," Katherine said quietly. "I guess I have a funny way of showing it…"

Aurora pulled away and wiped her eyes. "I have to go back to school."

"How are you feeling?" Draco asked nervously. Katherine was leaving school at the end of April. It was better, he supposed. People were constantly staring, which didn't bother her unless she heard a laugh.

"Just peachy." She took a deep breath and groaned at all the stairs she had left before she could head upstairs to bed. "Seriously? I can't be the first idiot to get up the duff at school. McGonagall probably picked a House location with all these stairs for that reason."

"Yes. I'm sure Dumbledore let her move Gryffindor's House location that has been in the same place for hundreds of year just because McGonagall felt judgmental." Draco put a hand at the small of her aching back and was tempted to tell her to crack open a book so that she would know that Gryffindor Tower had always been Gryffindor Tower. "Skip class tomorrow. I'll bring you your notes and food."

Katherine turned to him and smirked. "Tomorrow's Saturday."

"Oh." Two weeks. He had two weeks before she left. He couldn't remember ever not seeing her every day.

Sometimes she could read his mind. Others he could be balling his eyes out, and she would think he was mad at her. Katherine bit her lip. "I'll be back in September," she lied. Well, at the time she didn't know it was a lie. She didn't know how fiercely she would love her baby. "Then you'll want to send me back to the sprog in a box."

"No, I won't." He did his best to swallow back tears. His parents didn't want him seeing her on the weekends before the baby. Her parents didn't want him to see her period. "I want to get married."

Katherine's eyes widened, and she put her hands over her belly, the reason why she was always near tears, always overwhelmed. "You can't do this to me. This is too much! You can't—"

"Katherine!" She always wanted to bolt when things got too hard. In less than a month, neither of them knew that he would be the one who always wanted to bolt. "I-I love you! We'll be a family—"

"We won't make it." Everyone said that. They couldn't disagree on where to eat in Hogsmeade without rumors flying around that they had broken up. But this was the first time he heard it from Katherine. "Not like this. We're having a baby. Our parents hate us. My parents don't even want you over when its born! And you want to throw marriage into the ring?"

"If we're married," he pressed, "our parents won't be so angry. Your dad told me not to abandon you."

"No." She sniffled and started walking away as fast as she could in her state. "I'm not getting married because I have to. As some insurance policy that you won't bail on me! Fuck you!"

At that moment, Draco remembered being so angry with her that he barely spoke to her for the two weeks that they had left. They weren't alone together for over two years after Aurora came. And that was only because Katherine ran away.

Now that he was sixteen years older, he wished he had chased after her, that he had promised that he wouldn't abandon her. But that would've been a lie, wouldn't it?

"If I knew you were engaged, I wouldn't have slept with you this summer." Katherine shivered and drew her mug closer to her. Draco wanted to hug her but felt like he couldn't.

"I'm not engaged." Because Pansy also said no. She saw right through him as well. He didn't love her. He had just wanted to please his parents. He had never even intended to tell Katherine, if she had said yes. "Severus contacted me about Rory's apprenticeship. He wanted to know more about her, and I realized that I couldn't tell him much."

That was the final nail on the coffin. When he bought that ring, all he could think about was how it wasn't Katherine's taste, that they should be married with more kids than he could count right now. Instead, he didn't even know his only daughter.

"She's just like you," Kat said thickly, holding back tears. "You haven't even noticed."

"Then I guess she's never going to forgive me." He wouldn't have forgiven his father. Lucius was cold and distant, but at least he knew his son. Draco never thought that he would be a worse father than his own.

"She'll forgive you if you talk to her, Draco. Because she knows how much of a big deal that would be for you." Katherine was always trying to make things right. She always wanted him to be a real father, and he ignored her. For what? Money? Lack of responsibility? No. He just didn't want to face his own fears. Being a distant friend was easier than being a father.

"Can I stay here for Christmas hols?" Draco asked when he really wanted to ask Can I stay forever?

Katherine looked at him long and hard. She was going to say no. He just knew it. It was already too late. "You can sleep on the couch."

Draco almost laughed, although he wanted to scream with nerves. But she didn't say no. This time, she didn't say no. She was giving him a real chance, not just with Rory but with her, for the first time since they were kids.

"I guess I'll have to get used to that." For a moment, he could see it, like he could when they were kids. He could see a future with her, a fairy tale future. This time, he eouldn't tease her about laying off the chocolate frogs when they were fooling around in bed, and she wouldn't drop a bombshell that would send his whole world crashing down.

He had to be brave. For once, he had to be brave. If not, he would lose her forever. Katherine was out of chances. "Because I don't want to marry Pansy. I want to marry you."

Happy Valentine's Day! This was one of my poll choices, and although its losing, watching Gilmore Girls with my mom made me want to publish the first chapter. If you want to see this chapter from Katherine's point of view, read chapter 18 in my story Katherine the Great.

I don't think it would make sense to list this ask as a crossover, but let me know if it should be.

Any Gilmore Girls fans reading this? What do you think?