A Life of Lies
Chapter 9 - The Aftermath of a Drunken Night
A/N - Woo so nearly done, this chap and one more then the epilogue! For some reason I never count the epilogue as a real chapter, I don't know why because it is one…oh well!
DISCLAIMER: I think it's fairly obvious that I own absolutely nothing except the idea for this story which isn't even entirely true because it was inspired by a song…
Anyhow, enjoy!
When Harry Potter stumbled into Hermione Granger, formerly Weasley's house at 6.30am on Sunday morning he wasn't surprised to find her sitting on her sofa reading a book.
Hermione looked up when the door opened, Harry had a key of course, her mouth opened in shock when she saw the state he was in, "Harry you look like shit, what happened?"
Harry frowned and caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror for the first time since his duel with Draco, he had little cuts all over his face from the glass he'd smashed, Draco had looked worse when they had gone their separate ways, the punch had bruised and the splinters of wood had given him similar cuts, there was the burn on his chest from the boiling water too, Harry's stomach churned with guilt, he shouldn't have let his anger take control of him like that, he hadn't let that happen since Voldemort's soul had been inside him.
"Draco." Harry muttered, and he walked over to the sofa Hermione had just been sitting on and sunk down onto it, Hermione frowned, she conjured up a bowl of something and a wet cloth, she told him to lie down on the bed and dabbed at the cuts as she spoke to him, "Tell me what happened."
"We duelled." Harry said, Hermione immediately looked worried but he said, "We're both fine, he's worse off than me but he'll live."
"I don't have to ask what you duelled about." Hermione said, dabbing his face with a little more force making him wince, she glared at him slightly, "The whole power thing, you're both men, you both want to be the one in control."
Hermione had a point there, but Harry wasn't going to let her know that, "We duelled about the fact I was jealous when I saw him with Astoria and the fact I wasn't having sex with Ginny." He shot a glare at his best friend at these words.
Hermione groaned, "Severus just can't keep his bloody mouth shut." She complained.
"So? How did it end?" Hermione asked, assuming it was with Draco storming off in anger or something similar. Harry snorted, "In a motel bed in the Hogs Head."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "You duelled and caused each other all this pain and then had sex?" She asked, scoffing at the silliness of it all.
Harry winced as Hermione pressed the cloth down hard on one of the bigger cuts, she shook her head, "You two definitely have a love/hate relationship."
Harry rolled his eyes, "No." He argued, "It's more of a hate/sex relationship."
Hermione actually laughed at that, "Well that makes for good aggressive sex then." She said, ever the optimist.
Harry groaned, "Exactly! Which is the problem, it was amazing sex, and it was with a man, and I'm married to a woman! A woman whom I have a child with and who is my best mate's little sister!"
Hermione watched him for a moment thoughtfully, she put the bowl and the cloth to the side, "You want my honest opinion about your…predicament?" She asked after finding the right word.
Harry nodded, "Harsh but true is what I really need right now." He said, practically begging for her to shout at him and say he'd been an asshole and deserved to die. It would make him feel crap which was what he needed.
Hermione sighed, "I think you're screwed. You have to tell Ginny and even her patience won't get you two through this, you clearly have stronger feelings for Malfoy than her and if you don't tell her you're going to be living a lie, which you can't do." Hermione paused and Harry sensed a but was coming, she didn't say anything for a few seconds as her eyes searched his, Harry looked at her pointedly, "But…"
"But," Hermione began, "If you tell Ginny she'll leave you, you have no idea what will happen with the custody of Lily, she may or may not tell Ron the reason but if she does you run the risk of losing your best friend and the entire Weasley family."
"So basically what you're saying is I fucked up so badly I'm going to mess up possibly every single part of my life." Harry said, feeling even worse than before at this news but he had asked Hermione for harsh but true and she had definitely delivered.
Hermione nodded, a sincere look on her face, she joined him on the sofa, lying down next to him and hugging him, "Except me." Hermione said brightly, "Hey, we can be divorcee's of a Weasley and be hated by the entire clan together!" She said.
Harry frowned, wrapping his arm casually around Hermione, "The Weasley's hate you? Since when?" he asked.
Hermione sighed, "Since Friday night, I was going to tell you at our usual Monday drinking session but since you're here now…" She trailed off for a moment, "Ron came by Hogwarts looking for me, apparently someone in my office said I was there, he needed me for something to do with finalising the divorce papers, only he found me in a comprising position in Severus's office."
Harry's eyes widened, "How comprising?" He asked curiously.
Hermione smacked Harry on the arm but they could both tell her heart wasn't in it, "Comprising enough, he of course ran home to his Mother and the entire clan turned against me, except Ginny of course but when this knowledge comes out I think that may change."
Harry sighed softly, his hand gently running up and down Hermione's arm in a comforting motion, "Why do people have affairs?" He asked. Hermione shook her head against Harry's chest, "I have no idea." She said honestly.
At that point the fire roared to life and Ginny's voice called out, "Mione, you there?"
Harry and Hermione jumped up immediately, "Shit!" Harry swore under his breath, "Cover for me!"
Hermione nodded and walked over to the fire, "Morning Ginny." She said with a smile.
"Is Harry there?" Ginny asked, she sounded worried.
Hermione nodded, "Yeah, he turned up drunk out of his mind last night after duelling with Malfoy." She lied easily and rolled her eyes at Ginny.
"Oh God, he's such an idiot sometimes when he's drunk." Ginny said and Harry had an inkling she was rolling her eyes too, "Is he there just now?" She asked.
Harry shook his head at Hermione and she said to Ginny, "No, he's still asleep, the potion I gave him last night kind of knocked him out, I'll send him over to Hogwarts once he's woken up and eaten something."
"Okay, thanks a lot for that Hermione." Ginny said. Hermione smiled again at the woman, "No problem Gin." She said and with another roar the fire in the grill went back to its normal orange coloured flames.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you Hermione." He said genuinely, "You saved my life."
Hermione smiled a little sadly at him, "You know I'd do anything for you Harry." She said, joining him once again to lie down on the sofa.
"I said I loved him last night." Harry said out of the blue and Hermione was startled by that, "Really?" She asked to which Harry nodded.
"We were really drunk, we both said it, but I can't remember who said it first, I think it might have been me." Harry said, the memories of their drunken night scattered around in his head, he groaned, "I was drunk but I think I meant it."
"You realise this means you really have no choice, you've got to leave Ginny." Hermione said and Harry felt a sense of déjà vu, this felt like the many conversations they'd had about how Hermione had to leave Ron. In this case maybe Harry had to take his own advice and do as Hermione said. After all she'd left Ron and she came out of it alright.
"We didn't talk after." Harry continued, trying to make sense of the jumble of memories floating around, "We just lay there and then we both left, we said we'd talk about it later, I don't know where he went." Harry sighed, "Back to Astoria probably, he's not like me, he can go home and pretend he didn't just have sex wit his ex-lover, I can't do that, Ginny would know for sure that something was up."
"You're more human than him." Hermione joked lightly but Harry thought she wasn't that far away from the truth.
"So do you think we're officially going to be disowned from the Weasley family tree?" Harry asked, standing up and pulling her up with him, Hermione nodded dully and Harry sighed, turning on the small radio in the corner of the room. Hermione smiled at him as a song came on and he pulled her closer to him to dance.
Ever since Ron had left during their horcrux hunt all of those years ago and they'd shared that dance in the tent it had become a thing, when they were sad they would dance, most of the time they'd go out somewhere but since it was nearing 7am on a Sunday morning Harry doubted any nightclubs would be open.
As Hermione had promised Ginny she gave Harry a potion to get rid of his headache and the aches and pains from the alcohol and the duel, Hermione checked the clock as she put some pancakes on the pan to cook, she wasn't that good at cooking but pancakes were a speciality of hers. Harry loved breakfast at Hermione's.
"Give it 3 minutes and they will smell the pancakes and be in here." Hermione said, talking about her children, she glanced at the clock again and Harry chuckled as he heard movement from upstairs, Hermione put two pancakes on a plate for Harry and he helped himself to some fruit and yoghurt to have with them, at least he was being partially healthy. When Harry took his first bite the sound of padding feet rushing down the stairs could be heard and the gaggle of children appeared in the doorway still in their pyjamas.
Heading the crew of hungry children was the eldest, 9 year old Rose, aka mini Mione as Harry had christened her. Harry was the Godfather to all of Ron and Hermione's children. Rose was tall, like Ron but in every other aspect she was Hermione, her dark wavy hair wasn't as bushy as Hermione's had been but her hazel eyes were identical to her mothers. The twins, Nicholas and Samson were the opposite, for 7 year olds they were very small, but they had been born 2 months premature which Hermione had always said was the reason why. The boys were identical twins, both of them had the Weasley red hair, but it was more of a brown-red than a distinct red like Ron's hair. They again had Hermione's eyes. The two boys were lurking behind Rose and standing to the side, clutching a toy rabbit close to her chest was the cutest child Harry had ever laid eyes upon. 6 year old Guinevere or Gwen as everyone called her. Gwen's hair was shorter than Rose's, it stopped just after her shoulders and she was the only one of Ron and Hermione's children to inherit Ron's blue eyes.
"Pancakes!" Rose exclaimed, walking into the kitchen and sitting down at the table, Hermione chuckled, "Yes Rose, its pancakes for breakfast." The younger 3 children followed their sisters example and sat down at the table with Harry as Hermione put a large plate of pancakes down in front of them.
As he ate pancakes with his best friends and her kids who he loved to bits Harry forgot his problems, but that didn't last long. The moment his pancakes were finished Hermione stood up and hugged him, "Do it now and let me know what happens." She said, kissing him on the cheek as he left with a wave to the kids.
Harry left the family home and apparated to Hogsmeade, he trailed his feet heavily behind him as he walked up the path, he wasn't particularly looking forward to breaking his wife's heart.
When Harry got to their quarters Ginny wasn't there and neither was Lily. His first thought was that Draco had told Astoria who had told Ginny but his fears were squashed when he saw them all outside, he must have missed them because they were around the lake under an old tree. Harry walked over to the little group, Draco was sitting with Astoria leaning against him, watching his kids like everything was fine. This made Harry's inside squirm angrily. He glared at Draco when he saw him, glad to see an angry purple bruise on his face. When Harry reached the group he addressed Ginny and Lily, "We need to go back to Grimmauld place." He said and although Lily whined about it Ginny saw something in Harry's eyes that said he was serious. She stood up immediately and said goodbye to Draco and Astoria dragging a grumpy Lily to the apparation point.
Harry turned and shot a look back at Draco, a warning look that clearly stated 'you know what I'm about to do'. The family apparated back to the Black manor and Harry sent Lily upstairs to play. After pulling Ginny into the dining room he put silencing charms on the door and turned to his confused and worried wife.
"I cheated on you Ginny." Harry said, the guilt was probably clear on his face because he couldn't keep it out of his voice.
Ginny stared at him emotionlessly for a moment, "Oh." Was all she managed to say. Harry turned away from her as he tried to gather his thoughts, "I slept with someone last night."
Harry turned back around to face her and saw her nod slightly at him, "I see." She said, her voice wasn't cold but it didn't contain any other emotions either. Harry felt like his heart was being wrenched out of his chest when he saw her frustrated hands rub angrily at the tears she couldn't stop from falling.
"It was Draco, wasn't it?" Ginny asked although she knew the answer before any words fell from Harry's lips, "Yes." Harry said simply, Ginny gave him another fractional nod, without another word she left the room and Harry watched her walk up the stairs, he figured she just wanted to be alone so he let her go. He sighed, leaning against the hard wooden wall, he had screwed things up so badly with her, she had always been too good for him.
Harry closed his eyes and let his mind be blissfully blank for a minute but it literally lasted a minute because she walked down the stairs with her Hogwarts trunk in hand, she gave Harry a small forced smile, "I just wish I could be what you need." Ginny said, the defeat in her voice killing Harry, but in the end he knew it would have been harder to live with himself every day knowing he was living a lie.
Ginny put her trunk down and walked over to Harry, she held her hand out, it was clenched shut like she was holding something. Harry frowned but held his hand out, Ginny unclenched her hand and dropped her engagement and wedding ring into his open hand. She looked at them sadly for a lingering moment, "I need to get away, Lily is your responsibility now." She simply said and just like that she picked up her trunk and walked to the door.
Harry watched her go gracefully, just the way he'd expected Ginny Weasley to go, not that he'd ever thought if she left it would be under the conditions it was. This was something he hadn't anticipated happening, ever.
Harry sighed deeply, the despair settling in, he felt like he was carrying a huge weight in his stomach, he figured metaphorically he was and that the weight was the guilt. Harry was ashamed of the wreck his life was in as he grabbed a piece of parchment from the table in the entrance hall, he pulled a quill out of his pocket and dipped it in the ink next to the pile of parchment. Harry closed his eyes for a moment before writing the short letter to Hermione,
Hermione
I told her everything, she handed over her engagement and wedding ring and said Lily was my responsibility now. She had her trunk with her. I don't know what it was but I just got a feeling, I don't think she's ever coming back. If it's all right with you Lily and I might move in for a while, being with Rose might do her some good and God knows that I need you.
Love, Harry.
Harry tied the note around his owl, parsnips, leg and sent him off out of the window to Hermione, he hoped she'd have a quick reply. Harry couldn't face his daughter right now not in this state. He walked over to the back door of the house and sat on the step, looking out to the pretty little rose garden and the makeshift Quidditch pitch, he'd never felt like such a failure before.
Harry wasn't sure how long he had been sitting there for but the sky had started to cloud over and droplets of rain began to fall from the sky, standing up he walked back into the house, slamming the backdoor with a little more force than necessary.
As Harry sunk down into the couch, wishing he could just melt into it his owl flew through the open window with a reply from Hermione, he snatched the parchment and gave parsnip an owl treaty. On the back of his note to her Hermione had written,
Harry,
God, that's awful but I suppose you knew it might have gone down like that. I'm sorry anyway. Of course, you and Lily are more than welcome here for as long as you both need. I think you're right, being with Rose could help right now, it will be hard for her if Ginny really isn't coming back. Like I said outcasts need to stick together, I've put a steak roast on for tonight if you two want to join us then, hope to see you soon,
Hermione.
Harry was relieved at the reply and gathered his things quickly, he went up to Lily's room and did the same, packing a large bag for her, she was excited when he told her they would be staying with Hermione and the kids for a while and Harry didn't have it in him and didn't know how to tell the 8 year old girl that her Mother probably wouldn't be at her 9th birthday in a months time.
As Harry left the house with Lily he realised that the metaphorical bomb that he'd been going on about in his head had just exploded and now he was left to pick out all the recognisable pieces from the wreckage.
TBC.
