Chapter Nine: The War Memorial
After Albus left, Riley quickly, with Rosanna still in her arms, apparated to the one place where she felt she could be alone and safe. She went straight to her Uncle's grave. Colin Creevy was someone she never knew anything about. No one told her about him and she could never find any information in the books except that he was killed in the War.
She missed him. She never knew him, but she missed him. She wished that he was still here. She wished that her own father, Dennis hadn't become crazy and started calling himself Colin. It felt wrong, like Dennis was mocking him.
Riley couldn't explain why she felt better whenever she came here, but she did and she stared blindly at the gravestone as she rocked her baby girl back and forth. As it comforted Rosanna it also comforted herself.
Her tears kept falling. She was devastated that Albus had found out about Rosanna the way he had. The only thought that was running through Riley's head was that Albus might never want to be part of Rosanna's life now. How would she be able to deal with that? How would she tell her daughter that it was Riley's fault that her father refused to see her?
And even if Albus did want to see Rosanna he wouldn't want anything to do with Riley. She knew what she had done was wrong and she knew she couldn't rightly justify it. But the thing was that although she knew she didn't deserve to be forgiven, she so badly wanted to be. Because she realized with a loud sob, she was still in love with him after all this time.
Riley's sobs became uncontrollable and her whole body started shaking. Then she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She thought she was imagining it or that maybe it was a ghost so she didn't turn around. She stayed on her knees in front of the stone until she managed to control her breathing.
When she turned around she almost dropped Rosanna. It was Harry Potter.
"Hello. Riley right?" He asked as he sat down next to her.
"Yes." Riley sniffed. She didn't try to hide Rosanna. She knew that Harry had already seen her.
"What's wrong?" Harry said, because he could see that something more than the death of a loved one was bothering her.
"I screwed up, big time." Riley said and moved to put Rosanna in Harry's arms. "Her name is Rosanna Allie."
"She's beautiful." Harry said. He was surprised of course, to find himself a grandfather, but there was a joy so great that he couldn't explain.
Riley sniffed her tears and laughed. "She has your eyes and hair too."
"I guess she does. It'll be okay." Harry said as he put a comforting arm around Riley and his granddaughter.
"How can you know that? Albus will never forgive me for keeping her a secret. He can't understand what it felt like to feel a prisoner in my own home or how my family was so unkind."
"He may not understand, but I do. I know that it can make you do irrational things. I've raised Albus to forgive and I believe that he will. I think it might take a while for him to come around, but I have complete faith that he will."
Riley tried really hard not to start crying again, but it was inevitable. They stayed there for a long time. Two kindred spirits. Two people tied together by his son and her daughter.