Astoria had, once again, asked for a weekend with Lilian. Daphne let her, even if it had been barely two weeks, because she knew how much Astoria had always wanted many kids running around the house, and she was unable to have more than one. Lilian didn't mind, too - aunt Astoria, apparently, bought the best kind of candy, and honestly, what else a six-year-old could use as a measure? -, and as such, this was how Saturday morning found them, Daphne carefully braiding Lilian's hair as the girl kicked the air.
Part of her allowed it for Astoria. Another part of Daphne allowed it in the vain hope Harry would come to her, but she figured it'd probably not happen. Would his wife even let him get out of the house, after what she had learned? The answer was a very probable no.
Of course, Daphne realized with a sigh, as she heard the door open, is that she was thinking about Harry Potter, who her sister's husband had spent six years talking about non-stop. Harry Potter, who broke the rules and stole the House Cup from Slytherin in her first year. No, Daphne wasn't still bitter about that.
"If you're looking for coffee, you're going to have to do it yourself,", she told him, not taking her eyes off the dark hair her daughter shared with Harry. Lilian looked up, curiously, and Daphne gently shushed her into looking forward once more at the same time Harry appeared on the doorstep, eyeing the garishly pink backpack on the floor. "I'm busy."
"Alright, ma'am,", he replied, and smiled to Lilian, producing a book and setting it on the table, sitting on the chair in front of her. Daphne gave it a once over, noticing it was a simple coloring book. "I thought you'd maybe like it?"
It was a question, unsure as the dark terrain he walked on. Lilian carefully picked up, and Daphne kept an eye on the braids she mechanically made and another on the book. It was a simple book, truly, bought in a newsstand, drawings of princesses with large eyes staring back in monochrome. Lilian hugged it against her chest, and the smile on her face could probably unfreeze an iceberg.
"Thank you, uncle Harry,", she told him, and Harry blinked, surprised. "I love it!"
Harry offered Lilian a small smile, and the girl jumped off her chair, braids coming undone as she went for her pencils. Daphne sighed, and motioned for the coffee machine. Harry nodded and went up to it, starting to try and work out the buttons while Daphne quickly spelled her daughter's hair. She was making a move to help Harry not make her kitchen stink of burnt coffee for an entire day when someone knocked on the door, and Harry sent her a confused look.
Daphne bit back her panic with a smile, and Lilian, Merlin bless her innocence, was running to the door, pencils forgot and book open, drawing just barely colored in. She spelled the items back to Lilian's travel backpack, the girl herself already chattering with Draco.
Harry raised an eyebrow at her, but Daphne was more worried that she was not hearing her sister's voice.
Astoria had a story of sickness, the curse in their family showing its claws on her - she had been homeschooled until her third year because she had been deemed too sick to come, and then it was a year at school and a summer of recovering -, and as such, even having one kid had been terrible. It was why Daphne didn't mind sending Lilian to Malfoy Manor, but normally Astoria was able to pick her up. As such, seeing Draco instead of Astoria was… Worrying, to say the least.
She met Draco halfway, Lilian running for her backpack. At least he was polite enough to ignore Harry, nodding to Daphne.
"Where is my sister?", she asked, anxiety rising within her, and if by the lazy smile Draco offered her, there was nothing to worry about.
"Tori thought it'd be a bad idea to bring her gift this time, considering it flies,", Draco replied, and all anxiety Daphne was having was swiftly substituted by anger.
Lilian, however, was happy. Daphne wasn't.
"Aunt Tori bought me a broom?", she gasped, and Daphne shot Harry a murderous glare when he started giggling like a schoolchild. Draco, at least, seemed amused by this entire scene. He messed her carefully spell-made braids and smiled, looking to Lilian's green eyes.
"A broom and a small Quidditch set,", he replied, making Lilian squee. Daphne pinched the bridge of her nose.
"What do we say, Lilian?", she asked, wishing she could spell away Harry, who seemed way too happy about all this. Lilian, seemingly startled at Daphne, smiled sheepishly, and thanked Draco, who simply smiled. "Very well done, Lilian. Now, go with uncle Draco and obey him and aunt Astoria, alright?"
"Alright!", Lilian turned and hugged Daphne, and Draco picked up the garish pink backpack. It didn't suit him at all, and had been only part of the reason she had deemed that Lilian's travel bag. "See you soon, mom! Bye, uncle Harry!"
Draco raised an eyebrow to that, and Daphne offered him a strained smile.
"Not so fast, young lady. Let me accompany you and Draco to the door.", Daphne sent a look that, she hoped, conveyed the stay quiet she wanted to tell him, and followed Draco and Lilian to the door, Lilian almost flying forward to the hallway. Draco, however, stopped by the door, Daphne inside and he outside, both quiet.
It had always been a Slytherin tradition to not break the silence, to see whose will was stronger than the other, to see if words could be conveyed through looks. Daphne would be forced to lose.
"Don't tell Astoria,", she almost begged, and Draco nodded. "You know how she felt about me and Harry. She was..."
"Like a kid seeing her favorite toy broken, yes. I was there when you told her,", he reminded her, and Daphne nodded. He looked behind her. "Does he know?"
"I told him.", Daphne replied. Draco simply stared at her. "Do not tell Lilian. She's not ready."
"Is anyone ever? I'll pass the memo to Tori.", Draco adjusted the backpack on his shoulder. "I'll bring her back Sunday night."
As if noticing the conversation had ended, Lilian turned back to Daphne, waving to her.
"Bye, mum!", she said, and Daphne chuckled, watching as Draco and Lilian went to the stairs. He'd Apparate from there, as always, and as soon as Daphne hear the pop sound, she closed the door, looking behind her and sighing, resting against the door, eyes closed. Harry was in her kitchen, and Draco had seen it. sure, she trusted his word of not telling Astoria, but Lilian was a wild card.
Astoria had been the first one to find out about them - quite literally, actually, considering she had been patrolling the halls and had caught them in a broom closet -, and had been very happy her straight-laced sister had started dating, especially after the war.
The war had not been kind to them, considering her parents, before the Dark Lord's fall, had been thinking of selling Daphne and Astoria to some old, stuffy lord in the Continent. When their parents had been caught after the Battle of Hogwarts and carted off to Azkaban, Daphne accepted the family duties gracefully and promptly ceased all negotiations, letting Astoria marry Draco whenever they wanted (please, she knew her sister) and letting herself be free for half of summer, visiting the muggle places she had never been allowed to go before returning to Hogwarts for cleaning duty, and Daphne had been paired off with Harry Potter, of all people.
Then, of course, everything else had happened, and it was those sort of decisions that led her to rest against a door, her daughter gone for the weekend and her daughter's father waiting in the kitchen. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, straightening her back and going to face the fire she had created.
Harry, at least, didn't seem to bother with the wait, but Daphne apologized all the same as she slid into the chair in front of Harry, and he simply smiled, sliding her a cup of tea.
She rose an eyebrow at this, but took a sip all the same, the familiar taste of Earl Grey filling her mouth.
"It's no problem, it was…", Daphne had a very vague idea of what was to come. "It was fun."
"I'm sure it was for you,", she replied. "She's a Seeker, by the way. I don't like to let her play because she takes too many risks, like someone I know."
"You can say she's like her father,", he pointed out, and Daphne cracked a smile. It would be a surprise if Lilian didn't end up on Gryffindor, and it would make, hopefully, her parents spin in their Azkaban cells. "Lilian seems like a good girl."
"She is.", Daphne took another sip of her tea, Ginevra's words spinning in her mind. Stop trying to steal my husband, Greengrass. "What did Ginevra say? I'm sure she must have confronted you."
Harry's smile fell.
"I'm relegated to the couch, and I barely convinced her to not divorce me. Said the kids needed their parents.", he played with the handle of the mug, eyes not facing hers. "That seemed to convince her. But Ginny doesn't want our kids together, or me in public with Lilian."
"So, you're playing pretend with her?", Daphne asked, trying to quell her heart. It wasn't exactly appropriated to grow excited with the news that a marriage was failing. "For the sake of the children?"
"Basically.", he then looked up to her, one hand reaching across the table, and Daphne, almost automatically, put her hand on top of his. "Ginny did say, however, that after the children go to Hogwarts, I can be freed of her, if so I wish."
"Freed? That makes it sound like you're in Azkaban.", Daphne joked, but she knew it wasn't a prison sentence for him. No, it was for her - a gift from Ginevra to Daphne, from a certain point of view. From hers, a curse of sorts.
After the children go to Hogwarts meant all the children - including the one who wasn't even born. That'd mean that, at earliest, if Harry and Ginevra didn't have any more children, Harry would be able to live with her when Lilian was seventeen - long past after any age she could be raised. Ginevra, in the end, would have the last laugh, and Daphne distantly wondered how she hadn't been put in Slytherin.
"A marriage and three children pretty much are,", he replied, and seemed serious suddenly, as if lightning had struck him. "Sorry. I'm avoiding the subject."
"Which would be…?", Daphne questioned, sipping her tea. He started making circles with his thumb against her skin, the movement familiar and comforting.
His eyes were showing her favorite aspect of Harry - serious, focused, when he needed something that was just in front of him, just shy of his reach. She had loved seeing that facet when he was in the Auror training, trying to find a piece of information he needed, and Daphne felt almost revered that facet was now hers to savor.
"After Ginny told me that, I… I decided I'd spend this weekend with you and Lilian.", he offered her a bitter laugh, but Daphne didn't flinch, he should have asked, instead of barging in. His eyes fell to her hand. "Try to know Lilian more, you know? Try to…"
Daphne stayed silent. He seemed to need that moment to regain his thoughts, to join two plus two to make four. When his eyes rose to hers, there was a strength she had seen for only a brief moment in the battlefield.
She had participated in the Battle, sure. Daphne had escaped the dungeon the Slytherins had been forced into as soon as she made sure Astoria would be alright, and ran to the thick of the battle, leaving her Slytherin tie behind in the steps. She had fought her friends' parents and fought with people she had never talked to, and had had a glimpse of Harry before he was swallowed by the masses once more, but Daphne had never truly forgotten it.
"Try to get you back. Try to see if you loved me.", he replied, so quiet she almost didn't hear him speak. Daphne's heart fell.
"Wasn't that already established?", Daphne asked, voice as soft as his.
"I need to hear it."
"I love you. I never stopped loving you, and seeing you with Ginevra hurt me more than I would have liked to say it did.", Daphne bit her lower lip, and Harry rose up, chair scraping the tile floor, the warmth of his hand leaving hers, an imprint burning in her skin as he approached. "Harry?"
"I love you too,", he told her, kissing her, and Daphne was eighteen once more - free and without a care in the world as she kissed Harry once more. When they separated, needing air, his forehead touched hers. "We have the entire weekend to ourselves."
"Then, perhaps, we should get started with it.", Daphne suggested, kissing him, her thoughts of morality gone through the window. Ginevra had let her do that, in a way, hadn't she, when she let Harry get away for the weekend?
Harry simply smiled, and as she rose up, guiding him betweens kisses to her bedroom, she thought this, perhaps, could work.
If you are interested in a prequel, I published one titled "Earl Grey, little sugar", set during 8th year.
