Annabel woke up to an incessant tapping noise that was coming from a very small window just above her head. She was in a completely unfamiliar place, that had fire orange walls and Quidditch posters all over it. Despite that, she was feeling extremely calm. She stood up from her bed and realised that the source of the tapping noise was an insistent owl that was trying very hard to get to her. She opened the window, letting the little owl come inside it. It was the weirdest looking owl she had ever seen, as some of its feathers were vibrant pink, while some others where black and white. The tiny owl delivered her a letter and then collapsed exhausted on her bed. Annabel than spotted a water bottle lying next to her bed, and offered some of that water to the tired owl, who started to drink it as if its little life depended on it. She then turned her attention to the letter, but absolutely nothing could have prepared her enough for its contents.
Dear Sister,
I hope that you and Holly are doing all right and that Kore hasn't got into too much trouble to find you. I guess that now that I know that my niece is a witch like me, I can freely talk to someone from the family about all the madness that has happened with me during the past couple of years. Yes, that is right, I'm currently pursuing my sixth year at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is just the best wizarding school in the entire world! My house is Pukwudgie, which is the warmest and nicest house in the entire school.
Now, dear sister, you and I need to have a little chat - how come Harry Potter - from all people - happens to be Holly's father? And how come you never told me about it!? How did you meet him? Is it true that he has a dragon tattoo on his shoulders? Can you imagine my face when I saw yours and Holly's picture all over 'The New York Ghost' and the 'The American Charmer'? I was so shocked! None of my friends believe me when I tell them that you are actually my sister - even though we have the same surname and all. Even when I showed them a picture of us together. They told me that I must be faking it to get attention. Can you believe that? Would you mind asking Harry to send me a couple of autographed pictures of him, so I can shut them up once and for all?
I wish I had access to a time-turner to write you a proper letter and tell you all about my best friends, my new boyfriend and my life here at Ilvermorny, but unfortunately, I need to finish a 40'' inch essay due tomorrow about the different properties of magical roots that originate from the Campus Elysium, Meadows of Asphodel and Tartarus - and lots of crap that I probably will never end up using. Anyway, send a hello to my favourite niece for me, and if you tell Mr Potter about the existence of my poor self, I will probably become the first American witch that will literally die of excitement.
Lots of Love from your baby Sis,
Emily Morelli
Annabel read and re-read the letter. It was definitely Emily's handwriting, she was sure about it. Her sister was a witch - just like her daughter was also one. She had never seen this coming. Harry entered the room.
"You finally wake! What wonderful new!" he said, giving her one of her favourite smiles. "How are you feeling?"
Annabel stood up, hugged him and gave him a little peck on his lips.
"I'm feeling much better. Where is Holly?"
"Holly is fine, she is playing with Teddy downstairs. Andromeda was kind enough to bring him over again..."
"Where am I?"
"We are at the Burrow. Ron and Ginny's parents' family home...you have been sleeping here for almost twenty hours."
"Oh..." she said surprised. "You won't believe the letter I just received..." Annabel said shoving Emily's letter in Harry's face. "My sister Emily is a witch. She is a witch, and she is asking for your autograph... what the heck?"
Harry chucked a laugh and quickly scanned the letter that Annabel's sister had sent.
"How interesting..." he said carefully examining the letter as if he was checking for its authenticity. "This is unexpected. I am certainly not going to send her my autograph, but I would love to write her a letter..."
"You want to write to my sister?" Annabel raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Yes, she is my sister-in-law now, isn't she? Nothing more natural than me wanting to get to know her..." Harry said with a smile. "And I never had a sister-in-law before, especially not one so young and American. So this is bound to be interesting..."
"Shame you don't have any siblings for me to nag and request some dirt on you..." Annabel sighed.
"That is half true... well you know Duddley better than me, I guess... and Ron and Hermione are probably better than siblings for me in this aspect. I'm pretty sure that Hermione would be delighted if she ever receives a letter from you, Bel."
"I will write a letter for her, then. I really liked your friends, Ron, Hermione and Neville... they were all really nice to me. Although yesterday, I had a feeling that your giant friend didn't seem too pleased with my presence..."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Bel. I'm sure that Hagrid will love you once he gets to know you. He just likes Ginny a lot, and he is also a little bit of a mother hen with me. But I'm sure that once he sees how nice you are and how happy you are making me feel, I'm sure that he will be giving us his blessing in no time."
They remained quiet for a brief moment where he played with her now long hair, and she got herself cosied around his shoulders until he decided to break that silence.
"We need to talk about what happened yesterday between you and Geoffrey..." he said raising her chin so she would look him in the eyes.
"I don't really want to talk about it, Harry..." she said trying to avoid looking him in the eyes despite his efforts.
"How about that condition where you stated that we should not keep secrets? Was that one-sided? Just valid for my secrets?" he asked her smugly.
"This is different..." she said trying to hide the shame that she was feeling.
"Bel, I know he assaulted you. I saw everything he did when I looked inside your mind..."
"You did what?" Her eyes opened wide in shock.
"Sorry Bel, I had to know what was making you feel so panicked... you weren't able to speak, and I had to ensure that you were safe..."
"So every time I don't want to tell you something you can just go ahead and read my mind like it is an open book?" she said, feeling annoyed.
"Now Bel, you are been very unfair with me. I never used this on you before, not even when I had all the reasons in the world to do it - I do respect your privacy. But at that particular moment, I just had to know what was going on. You should have seen how panicked you were."
Annabel gave a long sigh of resignation.
"Right... so you saw what Geoffrey tried to do with me. What else there is to talk about?"
"There is everything to talk about. Firstly, how are you feeling? Is there anything you would like me to do?"
"How do you think that I am feeling, Harry?" she asked while she walked away from where he was as if to have some space. "I feel emotionally drained from our conversation, and for what followed it. The Geoffrey that I knew - or the Geoffrey that I thought I knew - would never attempt doing something like that..."
"Would you like to report what happened to the authorities?" Harry asked seriously.
"No. Definitely not. I don't want to report this. I don't think that Geoffrey was in his right mind when this happened..." she said determinedly.
"Are you sure, Bel? His mind seemed to be working perfectly well for me," Harry asked with a hint of frustration in his voice.
She nodded silently.
"Even if you don't want to report it, please allow me to call Ron here so we can both collect and file the evidence... just in case you change your mind sometime in the future..." Harry pleaded.
"Thank you, but no thank you, Harry," Annabel answered determinedly. "Geoffrey has been isolated for a long time now... no wonder why he is doing so many weird things. And he is Holly's father as well, and nothing really serious happened. I don't feel like pressing any charges. It was not like he really did..."
"It doesn't matter! He would have done it if you haven't managed to escape... you were so lucky, can't you see that?"
"But he didn't do it in the end. And we can't really say for sure what would have happened, can we? It was nothing but a little scare in the end. Besides, it was probably my fault... I shouldn't have asked to be left alone with him"
"This is not your fault, Bel, do you understand?" he said bringing her near to him. "It is never the victim's fault! You were brave... you were lucky. You managed to get away with nothing but some of his own blood on your lips. But things could have turned out so much different... with the silencing charm I placed on that door, me and Alicia would not be able to hear anything. You could have screamed for help and we wouldn't know what was going on... but Geoffrey is the one to blame here... he should have known better than to do that to you."
Annabel started to slowly let go of the tears that she had been restraining. Harry hugged her. Annabel still had Geoffrey's blood all over her lips. Harry didn't want to wipe it off before in case she decided to press charges against him. But now that he saw that wasn't going to be the case, he made a handkerchief with his wand, wet it with magic and started to carefully wipe her face. He sat down on Ron's bed and placed her on his lap.
"I'm not sure if I will ever feel comfortable leaving Holly with Geoffrey now that I saw what he almost did to you."
"Harry... he is her father as well..." she said after she dried her own eyes. "We can't keep him away from her forever..."
"We should keep him away from her if we think that he might a danger to our Holly. And that is exactly what I think he is now." Harry passed his hand on his head with frustration, leaving his hair even messier than it usually was. "I can always ask Kreacher to follow them around without being seen... but leaving Geoffrey alone with Holly after that... don't even ask me to be okay doing that, as I'm sure that I never will be able to do it from now on."
"For now you can do as you wish... I don't feel like I'm in my right mind to make any decisions like that at the moment..."
"But I must insist to hear your insights on some things that I need to decide now. For example, your house magic-proofing implementation is finally completed. My original plan was to move you, Holly and Geoffrey, there, and have two Aurors there with you all the time. But this was before us making up... and certainly before Geoffrey did that to you..."
"I don't want to see Geoffrey anytime soon Harry. I need some space to get my head around what just happened... can we please carry on living with you for the meantime? I'm really enjoying our life together there... but I would love to visit my house to pack some things that I need. You know, Valentine's day is approaching, and one of my bakers quit last week. I will need to work, there is no way around this, and I am not even taking new orders - just to honour the ones we already got."
"That is perfectly fine," Harry said giving her a big smile. "We can grab your things later today. I'm going to increase the security on my place though... maybe I will ask for Ron or Hermione to be my secret keeper..." Harry whispered the second bit of the sentence to himself.
"This doesn't mean that I'm agreeing to remove Geoffrey from our life, Harry. He was right... he has the right to see Holly. Can you organise this somehow..."
"I will try to organise something, ok? Though, mind you that this is far from being on the top of my priorities," Harry said with a sigh. "And as long it doesn't involve getting Geoffrey alone with her..."
"Fine. I trust your judgment. I'm sure you will do what is best..." Annabel said snuggling him. "And we probably should go ahead and tell Holly that you are her father without Geoffrey's presence... because I know that I have been delaying this for far away too long, and this is starting to get silly now. What do you think about it?"
"That is what I have been trying to get you to do this whole time. So yeah, I'm totally up for that. We tell her whenever you think it is the right time."
"Right... "
They stayed in silence until Annabel broke it by starting to cuddling him. They stayed there, just enjoying the soothing feeling that came from it. Until she decided to break the hug and give him one of her unique sly looks.
"But right now... can you read my mind and see what I would really rather be doing?"
Harry raised his eyebrow in surprise. He couldn't resist her invitation and looked down at her big brown eyes to see what was hiding within. He smirked smugly when he saw her lustful thoughts that were all directed to him. He did not know how she was able to switch from the serious topics they have been discussing to feeling so horny like that, but he wasn't going to complain about it.
"Do you want to do that now? You cannot be serious!" he asked baffled, but he also felt the excitement of the situation starting to take over his body, nonetheless. "You are such a naughty girl, Bel... so horny, so insatiable. What should I do with you, hmmm?" he said removing his belt.
"I don't know..." she said with a fake innocent smile. "You tell me..." she said biting her lips and taking him over the edge just by doing that.
She looked so sexy, that he could hardly resist any longer. He cast a couple of privacy spells on the room and looked back to her, who had already laid down at Ron's old bed and was throwing him an inviting look.
Going down the stairs of the Weasley's household holding Annabel's hand after being up to no good with her in Ron's old bedroom and finding his best friend playing with his daughter in the garden was a peculiar experience. Especially when that friend gave him a knowing smirk that told Harry that he knew exactly what he and Annabel had been up to. Ron had been busy entertaining the kids by coordinating a hide and seek game. Molly and Andromeda were talking and having a tea together when Harry entered the kitchen with Annabel.
Andromeda waved and muttered a hello to the couple. Molly tried to ignore their arrival, but Harry cleared his throat to announce their presence.
"Hi Molly, do you have any lunch leftovers by any chance?" Harry asked to the Weasley's matriarch.
"Of course, Harry dear. Do you want me to heat it up for you?"
"No, don't worry. I can do it. It is for Bel..." Harry said before he walked over the place where he knew the food would be.
"Oh, Harry! Please, I'm fine..." Annabel tried to save him the trouble to fix her some food.
"Come on, Bel, you need to eat something. It has been more than a day since the last time you have eaten. You must be starving..." he gave her a look that told her that he would not be easily persuaded on this regards. "Besides, you don't want to be rude by not even trying Molly's famous beef stew."
"All right, I see that I can't argue with you, right?" Annabel said helping herself to a place on the dining table where Molly and Andromeda were seating.
Molly moved uncomfortably in her own seat, while Harry happily moved around her kitchen heating up some of the lunch leftovers with a charm. It took only a few seconds for him to bring over the plate with food for her, who slowly started to eat it. Annabel could sense the heavy atmosphere in the air, feeling pretty much like the white elephant in the room. She knew that she could not really blame the Weasley's matriarch, as she was Ginny's mother - and she knew that the whole situation was really beyond awkward.
It was Andromeda who decided to break the ice by starting to talk again, asking Bel a question about her catering company. Annabel answered her promptly and praised Molly's food. Harry was pleased enough with how the interaction between them was going, and even though he knew on his heart that Annabel was probably never going to be fully approved by Molly Weasley, mutual respect was all he could wish and hope for. Harry was about to leave them to it and join Ron and the children outside in the garden when an unexpected visitor arrived at the Weasley's fireplace.
A young man that Harry would be able to recognised anywhere in the world - long platinum blonde hair neatly tied away behind his ears - Draco Malfoy seemed to look more and more like his father every year that went by. Harry and the witches present in the kitchen all looked at him with surprise, as his visit was unannounced. Besides, a Malfoy visiting the Weasleys household was certainly not a thing that had ever happened - at least not during the last three hundred years.
"Potter... the man I needed to see," Malfoy said with the usual arrogance present in his voice. "You are quite hard to find, and my owl was struggling to find your place..."
"Draco, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Harry asked surprised.
"Apparently your idea of forcing me to attend to those boring meetings from the Law and Enforcement Department have paid off after all," Draco said, looking from Annabel to Harry with a sneer. "I believe I have some information that is of your interest."
"Let's find somewhere private," Harry said leading the way to one of the bedrooms - the one that used to belong to Fred and George - so they could have some privacy.
"This place is worse than what I had anticipated, and I tell you what, I had very low expectations about it..." Draco said examining the worn bunk bed of the twins room.
"If you came here to criticise..." Harry stared giving Draco a severe stare, but Draco never let him finish his sentence.
"I believe that I know the identity of the witch who attacked your Muggle at the museum..."
"Do you?" Harry asked surprised.
"Yes, I do," Draco said removing some pictures from his pocket. "Her Grandfather brought her over to a ball that my family threw at Malfoy Manor during the war..."
Harry immediately grabbed the pictures from Draco's hand to have a better look at them. He recognised that witch straightway. Her long and unmistakable red-hair adorning her dedicated face. She was wearing a traditional silver ball gown that went up to her knees. After he saw one picture where she was standing alongside Draco himself, it was clear that they were about the same age.
"I don't remember seeing her in Hogwarts..."
"It is because she's obviously never been there. She went to Koldovstoretz Academy. She is related to the founder of that school through her mother's side of the family..."
"And by their association with Voldemort. I'm guessing they are not a family from the light side," Harry said observing the picture with greater attention than before. His eyes lingered on the old man with a trimmed red beard, which was starting to become white, and assumed that he was likely to be her Grandfather.
"Was he a Death Eater?"
"No, he definitely wasn't. I'm sure that he was important enough to be in the inner circle if he was, and I don't recall seeing him in any Death Eater meetings .." Draco said frowning his eyebrow as if he was trying to remember the man in question. "But he certainly supported the cause..."
"Do you know her name?"
"Carmen Garcia the heir of the Nikolyukin and Garcia families. You are an Auror... you probably might have heard about the illegal traffic of human body parts for the brew of illegal potions..."
"I know this is a serious issue in South America..." Harry said frowning his eyebrow and crossing his arms around his chest, worried. Could that be the reason why they were after Holly? To sell some of her body parts in the black market?
"It is a well-known secret, that Carmen's father's family has controlled that cartel for years and years," Draco said in a low voice and pressed both his hands on Harry's shoulders. "She is not someone you want to mess up with. That said, I hope you can remain discrete and conveniently forget that it was me who gave you this information."
"You know, we receive anonymous information all the time. Don't worry, nobody will dream that you are helping me figure things out." Harry had his hand placed on the door handle and was about to open the door of the room when he changed his mind and turned back to face Draco one more time. "Er... Draco?"
"Yes?" Draco Malfoy frowned feeling intrigued.
"Thank you very much for coming here to share this with me... this case is..." Harry paused looking around as if he was trying to find the right words to describe it. "Catching these criminous and having Holly safe means the world to me."
Draco gave him a short nod in acknowledgement.
"Don't thank me, Potter, thank my wife Astoria, who convinced me both to research her identity, and to come here to share it with you." He looked at the window, trying to avoid Harry's eyes. "Unfortunately we have yet to be blessed with children of our own, but I imagine that if we had I would do anything in my power to keep them safe..."
"I thank you nonetheless, Draco. Your wife seems to make you a better person. I wish you both all the best," he said before they left the room and Harry was able to walk Draco to the Weasley's fireplace.
A couple of days passed by since Draco Malfoy informed Harry about the true identity of the witch who had tortured Annabel and tried to kidnap Holly, but the Aurors remained completely clueless about their motivation on the crime, and they seemed as far away from capturing that unusual gang as they had been before knowing that information. The only progress that seemed to be happening was that Gawain Robards and Kingsley Shacklebolt decided to arrange some meetings between the British Ministry of Magic and some other foreign authorities to seek help with that case. However, despite his claims, Harry was refused entry to these meetings by Mr Robards.
"Harry, you asked for my permission, and I said no - and that is my final answer, please stop insisting!" Robards was trying hard not to raise his voice. Kingsley, Gawain and half a dozen Ministry officials were standing in the lobby, as they were on their way to catch a portal key that would take them to a meeting with the Russian authorities.
"But..." Harry was about to start, but Gawain cut him off by raising his hand and giving him a harsh look.
"If you want to be more involved in the investigation, it is fine with me - but then you need to hand the security of your family over to somebody else. You should be there with them now. Not here."
Harry was about to protest when Kingsley touched his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down.
"Harry, you need to agree that Gawain has a point. Doing both witness protection and case investigation would be too much for anyone to handle. Take this chance to focus on your family. We are a team, we work together, you need to trust that we are going to do the best we can to catch them..."
"It is not that I don't trust you..." Harry said apologetically.
"I know... it is hard to leave things in the hands of other people. But I promise that I'm going to personally keep you updated about the progress on this case, Harry. Now we need to go - we don't want to leave the Russian president waiting..." Kingsley said checking his watch.
Kingsley had been true to his word about keeping Harry updated on the case progress - or any lack of it - as Harry would receive a daily letter from the Ministry himself, detailing everything he knew about the case to Harry.
Even though he wouldn't deny that he was glad to have all that time to spend with Holly and Annabel, this feeling of having his hands tied and not being able to do anything to catch the people who had tried to murder the woman he loved and kidnap his daughter was making him insane.
The fact that they were not able to leave the house very often did not help to lighten his mood. The fact that his house did not have a big outdoor space also made the cabin fever feeling that he, Bel and Holly were constantly feeling increase. They did go out, visiting Hagrid once and Teddy and Andromeda twice, but Harry felt a little bit wary of doing these outings too often, as he knew that it made them more vulnerable when they were in transit from one place to the other in case of a possible attack.
After Annabel retrieved her baking tools form her house, she had been constantly busy at Harry's kitchen, testing some recipes that she was going to do for some orders her company had for Valentine's Day. She had been so focused on her baking, that she seemed to have forgotten that she had decided that it was time for Holly to learn the truth about Harry being her true father. The four-year-old girl had been asking about Geoffrey's whereabouts less and less often every day that went by, and Harry couldn't help but feel like this was the best moment for them to have that conversation with their daughter.
He was reading some old articles about the human body parts trafficking in South America at the breakfast bar, occasionally observing Annabel finishing decorating a batch of heart shaped small cakes that would need to be delivered to a famous department store. The treats were going to be a giving away present for the customers who would shop there on that festive date.
"What is inside these? It is smelling lovely!" Harry said looking at the small cupcakes that she was now frosting.
She smiled back to him before she answered.
"I'm glad you liked it, because you were my inspiration for it," she said and she grabbed one of the little cakes that were ready and offered for him to try it on. "It is a treacle tart cupcake... it is one of the three flavours that I'm making for that Valentine's day project I told you about..."
He took a bite of the cake that she was still holding for him to try, and he felt in heaven.
"This is... wow! You know that I am not very fond of cupcakes, but I think that you just made my new favourite dessert..." He grabbed the cupcake from her hands, making her smile widely at him.
"You know... this client that I am doing this special Valentine's treats for was our first big client. They were doing a cocktail at their store at Regent Street and I remember that I was so anxious that I couldn't even sleep the day before. But when the trays started to come back all empty I felt so ecstatic and happy. I knew then that we had nailed it!"
"I wish I were there to share that moment with you..." Harry said walking inside the kitchen in order to be able to pull her to a hug.
"There will be many good moments for us to share, I'm sure," she said letting him hug her, but at the same time avoiding touching him as her hands were dirty with buttercream. "You, Holly and me... there is nothing that can tear the three of us apart now."
Harry answered her by bringing her closer and giving her a passionate kiss. Annabel answered accordingly, and as usual for them, it was escalating quickly. Before any of them realised, she was sitting down at the breakfast bar, her legs wide open hugging Harry, who was trying to remove her clothes.
"Harry, we should stop..."
"Why...?" he asked tightening his grip on her legs and not making any movements, showing he had zero intention of stopping.
"Because..." she started, but let a moan escape her lips as she found it hard to focus whenever he was kissing her neck. "Holly is awake upstairs..."
"She is with Kreacher..."
"Yes... and she is going to be hungry soon, which means that we should clear this mess and start thinking about dinner..."
"Don't worry, have you forgot that I am a wizard? I can do that in a second..." he said intensifying the pressure his body was making against her crotch.
"I think we should stop... and ask Kreacher to make dinner tonight," she said trying to move away from his tight grip. "And go upstairs and tell Holly that you are her father."
Only after hearing that last sentence was Harry able to let her go. A wave of excitement was taking over him.
"Do you want to do this now? Are you sure?" Harry asked even though he feared that she could still back down from her word.
"Yes, I'm sure. I've been delaying this for way too long now. I just wish that... we could have done this in a different way. But... after what he did..." she avoided his eyes, but Harry didn't need to read her mind to know exactly what she meant.
"It will be fine. You will see. We both have bonded really well. She is going to love it, I'm sure..." he said trying to pass some of the confidence he was feeling to her. "How are you feeling?"
"Super nervous? I fear that she is going to hate me for not telling her earlier..." Annabel said trying to adjust her shirt and wash her hands, which were still sticky from the frosting. "At least I have some cakes to bribe her to love me again if she decides that she is going to hate me forever after that..."
"Don't be silly. Come here," he said turning her around so she would face him. "The bond the two of you share is too strong... there is nothing that can break that. She will love it, I'm sure. You don't need to be scared..."
"I can only hope that you are right about this..." she said giving him a weak smile before they turned to embrace the complicated task ahead of them.
Both adults were sitting on beanbags on the floor facing a young four-year-old that was sitting on the red footstool that belonged to her temporary bedroom at Harry's place. She was looking expectant to them, and the adults were exchanging nervous glances among themselves. Even Harry, who had been so chill about telling Holly the truth, could feel the tension that arose from that awkward situation.
"Holly... do you remember when you asked me and Geoffrey where the babies come from?" Annabel started trying to look confident.
Holly nodded. And then she looked extremely ecstatic.
"Are you going to say that I'm going to have a baby brother or a sister?" the little girl said looking hopeful with the possibility.
Both Harry and Annabel gasped at her assumptions, making some of their tension fade away.
"No Holly, unfortunately, that is not the case," Harry said giving Holly an apologetic look. "I would be delighted if that was..."
Annabel, however, looked shocked about this idea.
"Talk about yourself... I would be panicking if that was the case..." she said glaring at him.
Harry gave Annabel an apologetic look before he turned to Holly again.
"I'm sure we will be able to convince her to warm up to this idea later," Harry winked to Holly who winked back at him. Both father and daughter then shared a smile that melted Annabel's heart.
"Well... what we would like to tell you, Holly, has nothing to do with new babies around... but it is about the circumstances around how you were born. Can you remember what Geoffrey and I said to you when you asked us where the babies come from?" Annabel asked, feeling somewhat more relaxed now.
"The Daddy put a seed inside Mummy's tummy..." Holly said frowning her eyebrows as if she was trying to figure out what they were trying to tell her.
"Yes... that is right. The thing is... when you were made, it wasn't your dad Geoffrey who put the seed inside my tummy. It was Harry. This means that Harry is your Dad..."
Holly turned her head from one adult to the other trying to understand what they just tried to explain to her. Both adults looked at her expectantly in return, waiting to see her reaction after she heard the news.
"But... my dad is my dad... right?" Holly asked confused.
"Darling... I know it must be very complicated for you to understand... but in reality, what it means is that you have two dads instead of one. Your dad Geoffrey, who raised you, and your dad Harry - who put that seed in my tummy that later became you..."
"And I didn't know about your existence at that time Holly… when you were growing inside your Mummy's tummy," Harry felt an urge to say to the little girl who was still looking from one adult to the other. "But now that I know that I'm your dad, there is nothing that can set me apart from you..."
"But my dad is my REAL dad, right? You are just my pretend dad..." Holly said as if she had finally reached a conclusion.
"No, Holly... Harry is your real dad... your biological father. Geoffrey is your step-father..." Annabel said begging with her eyes for the little girl to accept the truth.
"But... I don't want to! I don't want him to be my dad!" Harry tried to suffocate the sour feeling that seemed to have been born in his chest when Holly pointed at him. Holly looked angry for the first time since they had brought that subject to her. "I want to see my dad... my REAL dad!"
"Holly... we already talked about this..." Annabel pleaded once again, but this made the little girl feel even angrier.
"I WANT MY DAD! I NEED HIM!" Holly started to cry in a tantrum. Harry tried to touch her to calm her down, but he felt his hand burnt with a display of accidental magic coming from his daughter. "GO AWAY! YOU ARE NOT MY DAD! I WANT MY DAD!"
At this point, Holly had thrown herself on the floor while she was crying her lungs out asking for seeing her dad. Annabel had tried to approach her as well, but her hand had also burnt the same way that happened when Harry tried to do the same. Annabel and Harry exchanged a pained glance, asking each other what should they do now. Harry sensed that Annabel was about to lose it as well, as she fought against the tears that were trying to leave her own eyes and he dragged her out of the room so they could exchange a couple of words and decide how they should proceed with this unexpected turn of events.
"Everything went wrong!" Annabel said finally allowing the tears to leave her eyes.
"She did not take it as well as I was hoping she would..." Harry said concerned.
"She hated it! I knew that Geoffrey should be present for this..." Annabel said crying hard on Harry's shoulders. He comforted her the best way he could.
"We couldn't know that she would take the news so bad... I feel like we should call Hermione here so she can calm Holly down for us a bit. She is always good knowing what to say and what do..."
"Well, you better magically make her appear then because we clearly need some help now..."
"Right... I will be right back," Harry said before he went down the stairs in order to use his floo network to bring his best friend to help him out once again.
Annabel stayed in her doorway, spying the little girl by the door gap that was still semi-open. She saw that Holly was slowly calming down and putting herself to bed with her dinosaur Teddy tightly on her arms. It was then that she heard quick footsteps climbing up the stairs followed by the sight of Harry closely followed by Hermione. Annabel made a shush gesture for both adults.
"She is tucking herself to bed," Annabel whispered to Harry and Hermione.
Harry and Hermione went to the place where Annabel was standing to also spy the young girl who was somehow still sobbing, but at the same time almost nodding off at that point.
"What a heartbreaking scene..." Hermione was the first one to say something after it was clear that Holly was sleeping. "Shall we go downstairs to grab a drink so the both of you can explain exactly what happened?"
Annabel and Harry exchanged a glance and silently nodded in agreement.
"...and then she started to scream and tell us that she wanted her real dad, not me... because I'm only her pretend dad..." Harry said almost crushing the tea mug with his hands.
Hermione could clearly see how much these harsh words, ones so casually said by the four-year-old, had affected him. Even Ron, who had also decided to come around after hearing Harry's desperate call for help at their kitchen fireplace, seemed touched by the impact that it had on his best friend.
"That really sucks mate. She really should be taught how to measure the power of her own words..." Ron said feeling sorry for his friend. Annabel was about to answer him back, but Hermione beat her getting there first.
"She is just a kid, Ron... they say whatever comes to their mind. They don't have a filter as we adults have - or that we should have, taking you as an example."
Ron was about to say something back, but Annabel cut him off before he had the chance to open his mouth.
"I feared that something like that would end up happening after we told her... that was why I really wanted Geoffrey to be with us when we did that revelation to her, but he..." Annabel felt somehow unable to finish her sentence, but all those present knew what had happened and completely understood what she wanted to say.
"Bringing him anywhere near you after..." Hermione started to say, but she also felt unable to say out loud what Geoffrey had tried to do. "That would be inconceivable. I think you did the right thing leaving him out of this, Anna..."
"I could not agree more with you, Hermione, " Harry said drinking some of his own tea mug. "I don't want to see that man anywhere near you or Holly if I have anything to say on this matter," Harry said looking straight to Annabel in a tone that showed her that he would not give this up very easily.
"But Harry, he is also her father! He helped me to raise her through all these years. And Holly loves him. And after today, I think that it is very clear that if we want her to accept you in her life, we mustn't hide him away from her like we have been doing..." Annabel said determined to give Geoffrey a chance.
"Bel, that man tried to assault you! Holly might consider him to be her father, but I can't allow him to get near you or Holly with a clean conscious..."
"Harry, he doesn't need to be left alone with her... and you have magic and he doesn't," Annabel tried to reason with him.
"Even so, I still don't like this," Harry said crossing his arms in annoyance. "And I don't think I will be able to refrain myself from punching him if I ever see his miserable self again..."
"Harry, I'm not saying that you are wrong for being cautious, but Anna has some good points. And if it is too hard for you to guard Holly while she is meeting up with Geoffrey, I and Ron can easily do this job for you."
Harry nodded in defeat.
Hermione and Ron stayed there for a little while before they decided that it was time for them to get back to their own place. Before Hermione left she made sure to corner Harry and whisper to him when Annabel wasn't looking.
"That offer that we made you is still open..."
"What?" Harry asked confused.
"Honestly? You are worse than Ron sometimes!" Hermione said with annoyance. "About Valentine's day..."
"Oh, that!" Harry said remembering the offer that both his best friends had made to him - for them to look after Holly, so he could take Annabel to a surprise date or to a small holiday. "I'm not sure if that is a good time now... with Holly not accepting the news as well as we expected her to do..."
"She will warm up to the idea eventually, Harry. You know how children are... they change their minds very easily. One day they say I love you, and the next day they hate you because you refused to let them play another game of Exploding Snaps," Hermione tried to comfort him, but he gave her a long tired sigh before he answered her.
"More than ever I hope you are right, Hermione. I really do..."