For once, Daphne caught Harry breaking into her house, a bit more than a week after he had spent a day in her house. At least he had the decency to seem ashamed as she passed him a coffee mug, feeling just the tiniest bit smug about herself as the radio, for once actually working, played soft music in the background, just low enough as to not bother the sleeping Lilian.
"Early morning?", he asked, picking up the sugar. Daphne shrugged, sipping her Earl Grey.
"I could ask the same to you,", she lied, diverting her eyes, his half-whispered confession while with a fever running through her mind. Harry simply laughed, leaving the sugar behind. "You always put way too much sugar on it."
"Look who's speaking, miss two and a half cubes or it's literally undrinkable.", Harry sipped at his coffee, and Daphne made a vague, outraged sound. "No, no, let me guess. How dare I?"
"Exactly, how dare you? Two and a half cubes sweetens it perfectly!", Daphne huffed, leaving her tea behind as she approached Harry, who, for once, wasn't sitting in her counter like the eighteen-year-old he had been. Some old, instrumental music started playing, and Daphne recognized it - it had been one of the first few songs she had heard after the war, wasn't it? As Daphne wondered if Harry would recognize it as well, considering they had heard it together while cleaning debris, he chuckled.
"If you say so,", he told her, sipping his coffee once more before setting it aside, facing her. Harry offered her a mock curtsey, and Daphne giggled as if she was still a schoolgirl. "Would you offer me this dance?"
"I don't see why not,", Daphne replied, accepting his offer. To her surprise, as they did their best to avoid hitting the kitchen table and the counters, he was still a good dancer, if not the most gracious one she had ever danced with.
Daphne had taught Harry how to dance. The song that played on the radio someone in other debris-cleaning shift left behind had started, and Daphne had quietly started to hum it to herself, quietly matching the music's rhythm to her wandwork, which had somehow caught on Harry's attention. He had frowned, and when she caught him frowning, Daphne had hissed at him, asking what he was looking at - to which he shrugged. "I never saw anyone match wand movements to music, it's all", he had told her, and Daphne had taken offense. Somehow, that had led her into teaching him how to dance, and the two of them then had been scolded by McGonagall, who for some reason didn't assign them new cleaning pairs.
Lost in memories, Daphne was brought to present day by Lilian's soft, sleepy voice, and she froze, just like Harry. She looked at the doorstep just in time to see her daughter appear, black hair a mess and emerald green eyes filled to the brim with sleep.
"Lilian, sweetheart,", Daphne called, letting go of Harry's arms to go to her daughter, trying - and failing, as always - to tame her hair with her fingers, forgetting about the frozen Harry watching the scene unfold as she went down to her daughter's eye level. "It's a bit early for you to be awake, isn't it?"
"I had a nightmare,", Lilian sniffled. Daphne kissed Lilian's forehead softly, and rose up. Lilian's eyes followed her, and fell into Harry, behind her. "Who's that?"
Daphne gulped, and turned her head to see Harry looking at her and back to Lilian, green eyes clearly completing the puzzle she had never told him about. She looked back to her daughter, the same green eyes on another face focused on her, and rose up.
"That's a friend of mine, sweetheart. Here, why don't you sit while I prepare you…" Daphne paused, guiding Lilian to the table, eyes staring at Harry. "How do you feel about pancakes?"
Lilian offered her a bright smile, one teeth missing and making her look more like the child she imagined Harry had been.
"Yes!", she told Daphne, and Daphne hummed. Harry, meanwhile, offered a tight smile, pushing his shirt's sleeves up and looking to Lilian.
"Would you mind if I helped your mother, miss…?", Harry asked, and Daphne decided to leave him to try, at least, grabbing the ingredients. Well, ingredients wasn't the best word for it - it was a ready-made box, one of those quick just add water things.
"I'm Lilian, who are you?", Lilian asked, and Harry smiled, but not as tightly as before.
"I'm Harry.", he replied, and when Lilian nodded, he went to help, touching her arm quietly, eyes filled with questions. "Is she my…?"
It had been a whisper, but Daphne didn't want Lilian to hear it.
"Later, Harry. She still has to go to school.", Daphne interrupted. Harry looked to her ingredients, and shook his head. "Sorry all of us can't cook."
"Can I assume from now, then?", he asked, and Daphne gave him the floor, offering a quick look to Lilian before smiling. Harry followed her eyes, and nodded to Lilian. "Lilian, do you want to help me, maybe?"
Lilian looked to Harry and to Daphne, and Daphne simply nodded, quietly going to the table.
"You don't have to go if you don't want to, sweetheart,", Daphne told, sliding to the seat in front of Lilian, and the little girl nodded.
Unfortunately, she had the Gryffindor tendencies of her father, because Lilian rose up, approaching Harry carefully and making Daphne sigh silently, levitating the stool she had gotten from Astoria so that Lilian would be able to see what was going on on the counter.
Watching as Harry played along with Lilian, easing her along, teaching her, however, hurt - because that was a side of his she'd never had seen, a side only probably Ginevra Weasley knew. Daphne was jealous.
She should have told him, but at the same time, it would've hurt him, because his friends would have never accepted them (and if she said she'd never saw Granger smirking, way too smug, when they briefly crossed paths on the Ministry, she'd be lying.), nor would they have accepted Lilian. Daphne knew she shouldn't care so much for appearances, but it was the way she had been raised.
When they were done, there was freshly brewed tea for Daphne, warm coffee for Harry - Daphne had to stop him, when he tried to use the damn machine -, and hot chocolate for Lilian, the three of them with a stack of pancakes each. Daphne ate in silence, only the soft sound of the radio still going, punctuated by Harry asking Lilian about herself, and her daughter volunteering the information without a care in the world. When Lilian was finished, she excused herself to get dressed, and Harry at least had the decency to wait until they heard the door to Lilian's room carefully closing.
"You didn't answer me,", he told her, and Daphne drunk whatever there was of her tea before answering.
"She is yours, yes, but that's as far as I go with her around here,", Daphne offered, rising up, glad she had dressed up as soon as she had woken up, putting a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. She looked at Harry, and took a deep breath. "Would you like to take her to school with me? We can talk after I drop her off. There is a nice coffee shop near the Ministry."
Harry looked at her, something brewing in his eyes, but Daphne decided to not dwell on it, sending the dishes to wash themselves.
"Why…?", he started, and Daphne shook her head. He could wait a few more minutes - after all, what was it when compared to the years he hadn't know anything?
They stayed in tense silence until Lilian came out of her room, dressed and with only the hair to do. Daphne solved that issue quickly - the braiding spell had been one of the first she learned - and Accio'd the schoolbag to her hands, giving it to Lilian.
With that, they were off, Harry one step behind, watching quietly Daphne and Lilian. There was a pit growing in her stomach with every look Lilian sent Harry, who participated in conversation (a very neutral theme of homework and school; in a way, it let him know how smart she was, and Daphne hoped he got that.) carefully, and if Daphne paid more attention, she could notice the subtle Auror interrogation techniques he was using - and which they had turn practicing, so Harry would know what to expect and what to say -, but she brushed it off.
When Lilian arrived at her school, a mere twenty minute walk from her house, she kissed her daughter's forehead and let her go, Harry wishing her a good day in school before she went off. They watched for a few minutes, until Daphne was sure she was well inside the school, and made her way to the back alley she used as an apparition spot. Harry, however, as soon as they arrived there, stopped Daphne in her tracks, grabbing her arm.
"Why?", he asked, and Daphne bit her lower lip. "Why didn't tell me?"
"I didn't want to burden you,", she replied, softly, letting herself go of his grasp. Before Harry could speak again, she Apparated away, in a back alley behind the coffee shop. She waited for Harry, and he was soon to follow, looking confused. Daphne indicated with her head the inside of the building.
She rarely, if ever, drunk coffee - but Daphne had a feeling she'd need it. Daphne made their order, shushing Harry when he offered to pay, and they sat in silence while they waited, both seemingly trying to grasp words that had been kept purposefully quiet.
When Harry rose up to pick their orders, Daphne's eyes followed a beetle floating lazily around, before she snapped her attention to Harry, who slid her a paper cup.
"Ask.", she told him, taking a sip of her coffee. Harry seemed to grasp for words. Daphne couldn't guess what his question would be - why Lilian? Why hide it? Why break up with me? Why didn't you want to burden me? were all possible options.
"How old is she?", he asked, in the end. Daphne blinked, surprised, but let her coffee aside.
"Lilian is six.", she replied, sipping her coffee once more. It was bitter, but Daphne could use some of it. "And before you ask, yes, she is named for your mother. I thought it... Fitting."
"Let me guess,", he started, playing with his cup. Harry had always needed a distraction for his hands, to soothe his mind. "Her middle name is Arachne?"
Daphne smiled against her will. Of course, once upon a time, they had briefly discussed children's name. Harry insisted on having a kid named for his father and godfather, and Daphne had told him at least one kid would be named for her grandparents. They settled, in the end, for having a girl named after her grandparents, with whatever name he would choose. They both knew, even then, the name would be Lily.
However, that would have happened in a perfect world - a perfect world where Lilian would be the older sister, with two little brothers named for people important to Harry, but like hell she wouldn't have fought to make their names hers, too -, and as such, it was not Lily Arachne Potter who existed, but Lilian Arachne Greengrass.
"Lucky guess,", she told him, fingers drumming on the table absentmindedly. Harry put his hand on top of hers, the gold band of a wedding ring glinting in the morning light, and Daphne felt the smallest twinge of guilt. "Go on, keep asking, we have work to go."
Harry took one moment to think, but Daphne could guess what was next.
"Why did you hide her?", he asked, and Daphne paused.
"You weren't happy with me,", she started, and Harry opened his mouth, a protest ready to leave his lips when she rose a hand. "No, let me continue. You weren't happy, Harry. I saw it in the way you reacted when Weasley made a commentary about me, about my allegiances. I saw it in the way you looked like a kicked puppy in the rain, and I hated it. I did it for you."
She stopped, letting Harry process it, his green eyes clouding for the briefest of seconds.
"So when I found out I was pregnant, I panicked. I knew you'd be unhappy, that Lilian would be under scrutiny, and… And I didn't want her to lead the life I had. So I broke things up with you,", Daphne said, memories flooding her mind and leaving her as bitter as the coffee she was drinking when she remembered what happened next. "But, I mean, not like you cared, right? You were marrying Ginevra three months later, anyway. That were some great news for you, Harry."
Harry paled, and they both looked at each other. Daphne had cried herself to sleep during the first announcement, but it was the second one - the one that told the world that he'd have a kid - that made her burn the newspaper, carefully keeping the smoke away from the direction of Lilian's room, where she slept fitfully, having just fallen asleep, rage tinting her world. Maybe that was part of why she had decided burning the newspaper was a good choice - after all, Harry wasn't hers, not anymore.
"Ginny thought she was pregnant, and I didn't think it was right for a kid to be raised without their parents. I still don't,", he told her, sipping his coffee and averting his eyes. Daphne blushed slightly. "Then she turned out not to be, but I… Partly, I didn't want to see what the newspaper would say, partly I felt pity."
Daphne nodded, and his thumb started to make circles on her hand. Daphne would have pulled it in, but it was so familiar and full of warmth.
"So you don't love her?", Daphne asked, her heart trying to fly away from her ribcage.
"That's a hard question to answer, but…", he stopped, thinking for a moment. Daphne's heart wanted to create wings. "I don't think I'd ever quite love someone as much as I love you."
Daphne wanted to burst, to sing and scream, but she took a deep breath, instead.
"We're veering off course,", she told him, instead. Harry simply smiled.
"Of course we are. Well, how come I never noticed a kid around? Kids tend to leave messes behind them,", he pointed out, and Daphne smirked.
Harry had first started coming to her house a few days after the news announced Ginevra was pregnant with his second child, and Daphne, whose own kid was sleeping in her room, after she had been forced to attend an urgent Unspeakable meeting, had come to a mess of a house and Harry Potter burning coffee in her kitchen.
For one brief moment, Daphne had panicked. It had only been made worse by Harry potter, smiling softly.
"Lots of child toys around, hm?", he had asked, and Daphne could've bitten off her tongue.
"Tracey had me babysit her kid and I didn't have time to organize the house,", she had lied. Daphne could have told him back them, but just the thought he could leave his wife for her and their kid, leaving behind three people broken and with a fresh, breaking news edition of the newspaper scared her. "Just give me a second."
Harry had laughed them, saying something along the lines of her being a clean-freak and not tidying up her house, and she had hexed him in turn.
"Tracey's kid,", she replied, simply, back to present day. Harry nodded, and looking at the time in the coffee shop's clock, Daphne rose up. "I have to go. Work awaits me, and it awaits you, too."
Harry held her wrist, and looked at her with familiar green eyes.
"Can I see her again?", he asked, voice soft. Daphne nodded quickly, and he let her go. "Thank you."
His thank you was a prayer, almost as if she had saved him somehow; Daphne simply smiled and went on her way.
So, I'm bad at math. Theorically, for all this to happen in a canon timeframe, Lilian would have to be five. However, if we ignore this and think that Lily Luna was born a year later than what Rowling said was her canon birthday, we're still right on time. That was my mistake, sorry about that.