He saw her the other day, playing with the most gorgeous little girl in the park. The little girl's long curly blonde hair placed high on her head in pigtails, trailing after her as she chased her mother. Her steel-blue eyes shining brightly with each of her melodious giggles that floated on the wind into his ears.

He looked to the little angel's mother, she was ingrained deeply into her memory, and he remembered her fondly. She was as beautiful as he remembered her, her luscious curves still looked soft and inviting, her hair was the same as always, curly, bushy, untamed and slightly poufy. He could hear her sweet bubbling laughter as it carried over to him on wind, along with her daughter's giggles of joy.

But what struck him most were her eyes, they lit up with what appeared to be happiness but were still tainted by a deeply hidden, and powerful look of pain. It was as though no matter how big or how much she smiled, a small part, deep within her heart would never warm and her eyes would still hold the pain that she so desperately fought to hide.

She had noticed him, ever since he had sat on the bench, watching as she played with her daughter. She was torn between snatching her daughter up and rushing back home as fast as her legs could carry her and simply staying there and sucking up her urge to bawl as the wound she had worked so hard to close re-opened at seeing him. She chose to stay, hoping that by doing so it would seem like she was over him and that his presence there didn't affect her in the slightest.

She was lying to herself though and if he could still read her as well as he once could, then he knew as well as she did that she was hurting badly but her damned Gryffindor courage would do nothing less than stay and show that she wouldn't break down simply because her past came to haunt her.

He was captivated by her dismissal of her pain and the way that she preferred to rub salt into her wound rather than rushing off to stitch it shut again. He watched them for awhile before he found himself moving toward them, his legs carrying him to meet the little blonde-haired wonder.

She saw him get up and start to approach her and her sweet little one, a determined look on his face, scaring her as he stepped closer and closer to her pride and joy. She quickly rose as she saw him kneel in front of her child.

"What is your name, sweetheart?" he asked the little angel when he reached her.

"My name is Sasha and my mummy says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." she responded quietly.

"Well Sasha, your mummy is right about that but I'm not a stranger. You see, I used to be very good friends with your mummy." He said just before the woman he loved quickly grabbed their child and hid her behind her body, almost like she was protecting her from him, like he was some sick criminal.

He watched as she kneeled down and whispered to their daughter, "Sasha, do mummy a favor and go sit by the picnic blanket while mummy talks to her friend."

"Yes mummy!" replied the Sasha before she scamper away to renew her playing once again.

She turned her chocolate eyes to meet his steel-blue ones, her face molding into a mask of absolute indifference as she regarded his presence.

"What do you want? What are you doing here? Didn't you decide years ago that you wanted nothing to do with myself and Sasha?" she fired questions at him, her anger laced into her words.

"Hermione, I've realized, obviously many years too late," he said, glancing behind her to look at Sasha before returning his eyes to hers, "that I made a mistake all those years ago, but it was because I was frightened, we were young, still at Hogwarts and going to be parents! Anyone in their right mind would've been scared out of their wits at knowing that! I panicked, and did what I did best then, I ran and tried to follow the steps my parents wanted me to take but it only resulted in unhappiness for me and those who I surrounded myself with."

He grasped her hands, still staring deeply into her eyes and whispered, "Do you know why? It's because she wasn't you. She cared about nothing that didn't involve money, sex or power. She had no joy, she didn't laugh or smile. I didn't love her! I was still in love with you! I wanted only to be with you!"

She looked at him, tears in her eyes before she blinked them away, wrenching her hands from his grasp, her anger returning before she exploded at him, "DID YOU THINK IT WAS EASY FOR ME?! I was a SINGLE TEENAGE mother! I was kicked out of my home! My friends were disgusted with me, they supported me out of pity only when they found me living on the streets, begging for money to feed Sasha! You LEFT us! And that evil witch you left us for? You MARRIED her, just finalized your divorce last week, didn't you? Boo-hoo you, am I right, love? Stuck in a loveless and unhappy marriage for years while I struggled to keep myself partially alive enough to give your daughter what was needed for her to SURVIVE!"

She stared at him, any and all traces of tears gone from her face; her eyes alight with fury, anger and the smallest trace of the urge to murder glowing in them. Her hair crackling with energy as she breathed heavily, before continuing her tirade much more quietly, her eyes connecting with his again, "You're too late. It took many years but Sasha and I are fine now, we're happy, no longer hungry and we have a roof over our heads. You weren't there when I needed you or when our daughter needed you and now, now we don't need you at all. You're much too late and because of that, you will never know the wonderful little angel you helped bring into the world."

She walked away from him then, collecting her things and grabbing Sasha before walking away forever.

He fell to his knees, the tears streaming down his face, watching as the love of his life and their child walked away from him.

"HERMIONE! SASHA!!" He cried out, falling to the ground, his heart breaking as he realized that he had lost them.