Author's Note
Hello lovely readers, so many of you who read The Other Woman were hoping for some Faye/Andrius stuff and here it is. Reading The Other Woman will give you background to the characters and their relationships whilst at Hogwarts but it isn't essential for reading. Although if you haven't read it, I'm not sure how you ended up here to be honest. Anyway, this is set twelve years after The Other Woman. Hope you enjoy.
8th July 2036
"It's just weird, you know," Andrius sighed, swirling the contents of his glass. "If it hadn't been for that one damn fall, she would probably be one of the most important people in my life right now." He looked tired, more tired than Rose could ever recall seeing him in the past. It wasn't that his physical appearance was any less perfect than usual – although if you looked closely, there were faint bruises under his eyes and his skin had a slightly waxy quality – it was more something within his eyes, something lacking. Rose couldn't help but wonder if he had simply lost hope.
"She still thinks about you sometimes," Rose murmured, unsure if she should say anything at all. But she couldn't not speak, not when he looked so... lost. "She never talks about it but sometimes I catch her staring at the photograph of your graduation day." It was true, the photograph was even a little worn around the space where Andrius was laughing with his friends. To an unknowing eye, he looks happy.
"What difference does it make Rose?" he sighed forlornly. "She's getting married in a few weeks. She's moved on, like she should have. I'm just the pathetic old man who can't let go," his words were laced with a bitterness so uncharacteristic that his guest flinched.
"You're hardly old, Dri," she muttered softly. "And of course it matters, it means she still remembers and that you still mean something to her. It doesn't matter that she's moved on, it matters that she hasn't forced herself to forget completely. You will get through this Dri, you'll get through it and find someone else, someone who loves you and makes you happy because you're a good person. Not to mention devilishly attractive and smoother than chocolate," she teased. His face remained blank. "It's just come as a shock to you, that's all. Seeing her after so long... It was never going to be easy."
"I haven't seen her since we graduated Rose. Ten years. I haven't seen her in ten years; I haven't spoken to her twelve. Don't you think that if I was going to get over her I would have done so already?" he snaps. "Just… I think I need to be alone right now," he sighs brokenly.
"Andrius Phineas Malfoy," Rose snaps. "You have been alone for an entire decade – and no the spree of one night stands you went on does not count. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and either go and do something about it, or get over it. You life isn't going to make itself better whilst you sit inside and mope. Do something Dri, or by Merlin I will force you to take therapy that you should have done years ago!" she huffs, at her wits end with dealing with the youngest Malfoy.
Taken aback by Rose's outburst, Andrius blinks owlishly at her for a moment. So this is what it must feel like to be one of Rose Malfoy's children. She has a point. He knows she has a point. He has been trying to convince himself to do something for the last twelve years. After his world came crumbling down unexpectedly at the end of his Fifth Year, less than a week before his sixteenth birthday, he had tried. He had tried everything in his power to fix things. But she hadn't responded. Letters had been returned unopened, doors had been shut in his face, words had been ignored on the rare chance he was even able to muster any. He had tried. And he had failed.
Faye Rivers had moved on. She had left him behind. And he couldn't handle it.
She was his once-in-a-lifetime love. Fate had thrust them together reluctantly, the terrifying prospect of becoming parents before they had even finished school. It was an accident, it was an accident that Andrius had, for a few short months, wondered if it wasn't the best accident to have ever happened. Of course he wasn't prepared, of course he had freaked out and wanted nothing to do with it… but eventually he had come around to the idea. That accident had brought him Faye. And at the time, she was all he needed.
But fate was cruel too. Fate had given him hope, had given him this gift of a girl, this chance to be a better person because of her. And fate had taken it all away. One fall. That was all it took for his whole world to crumble at his fingertips. One fall. The end of an accident he hadn't wanted to happen. The end of a life that could have been.
Faye Rivers was his once-in-a-lifetime love. But Andrius Malfoy was not hers.
He had known, of course, that she was getting married. It was all over the news – Holyhead Harpies Chaser, Faye Rivers to marry Assistant Coach of the Wimbourne Wasps, Thomas Harding. He couldn't exactly miss it. This first time he had read the headline he thought he was going to faint, or vomit, or most likely both, and had to make a hasty retreat from Rose and Scorpius' living room. He is still convinced they left the Prophet open on that page for him to see so that he didn't come across it in public somewhere for the first time. And he can't quite decide whether he is grateful or if he hates them for that.
But he had made his peace with it. Or so he had thought.
Seeing Faye in the flesh for the first time in ten years was never going to be easy. But somehow he always thought he would have some warning. Some time to prepare himself if they ever did meet again. He never thought he would simply step out of Flourish and Blotts and almost get knocked over by her as she laughed with her friend about something inconsequential.
She had looked happy, relaxed, carefree. So different to the girl he remembered from the last two years at Hogwarts that he almost didn't recognise her. She was at peace. And he was in no position to jeopardize that. Not again.
He had seen the echo of that tormented girl in her eyes when she locked eyes with him. He had watched as the smile slipped off her face at the sight of him. Her whole world seemed to cloud over and Andrius' heart broke all over again. They hadn't spoken. Neither had known what to say. They had just stood there, air thick between them like the static before a storm.
And then her friend had tugged on her sleeve and she had given him a half smile before disappearing down the street and leaving Andrius drowning in memories and misery. She was no longer his to care about. She hadn't been for years. So why did it feel like letting her walk away from him in that instant was the worst thing he had ever done?
"Andrius?" Rose prompted him from his thoughts.
"I'm not going to therapy Ro… Just let me mope until the wedding is over. Then you can pester me about my life again," he sighs. "Don't you have to go and pick up Leo and Lyra from your parents soon?"
"I'm sure my parents won't mind keeping them for a little longer," she hedges and he can hear the unspoken offering in her words: do you want me to stay? Sometimes he wonders what he would have done with Rose. The summer after his Fifth Year was a spiral downwards and he hates to think where he would have ended up had it not been for her. Rose was always the one pulling his head out of his ass when he was being an idiot. She called him out when he wanted nothing to do with the child in Fifth Year; she stopped him from screwing up his life during Sixth Year when she wasn't even at Hogwarts anymore; she made sure he graduated Seventh Year with Outstandings and Exceeding Expectations in all his subjects and ever since she has been his backbone when thoughts of Faye and what could have been plague him.
He owes her some much and he has no idea how he will ever repay her.
"It's okay Ro, you go see your kids. I'm going to be fine. I promise," he smiles softly. And he means it. He will be. He has made it these twelve years without Faye by his side; he can carry on without her. He will be okay. It is not like he has been miserable for the entirety of the past decade after all, it's just the wedding, the certainty it brings with it that Faye will never be a part of his life again, that is bringing him down.
"If you're sure," Rose nods, gathering her robes and pressing a kiss to his cheek before successfully attempting to ruffle his hair. She is the only one that can get away with that. "I'll see you in a few days then," she adds. "Astoria will have your head if you're still in a slump for her birthday party," she teases.
"It still disturbs me that you're on first name terms with my mother," he huffs, making her laugh as she steps out into the summers evening. "I'll make sure to be on my best behavior," he drawls and her laughter continues to echo down the pathway from his front door.