As promised, I returned to the Chateau the next day. I wasn't able to give Draco a warning in advance when I'd be arriving because using the portkey was contingent on Len's work schedule and my parents' availability to watch my daughter. Once I was free to take the portkey, I wasn't expecting Draco to be waiting for me when I got there.

But when I arrived, a little face was staring at me.

"Scorpius?" I called to the boy hiding on the staircase. He had grown so much from when he was a little baby. He had a round face with features that echoed Draco's and observant heather grey eyes that matched the color of his collared shirt.

I began to approach him. "Scorpius, you probably don't remember me. But I took care of you when you were a baby-"

As soon as my feet hit the stairs, he bolted to the second floor.

"Oh, dear," I sighed. I hurried up the stairs after him, worried that I had scared him. Children do tend to be scared of strange women holding giant medical bags.

I stood at the intersection of hallways on the second floor and looked around. "Scorpius?" I called again, but he was nowhere in sight.

"You saw Scorpius?"

I jumped a little at the sudden appearance of Draco behind me. A coat was draped across his shoulders that was as black as the dark corners of the mansion. This gloomy Chateau really puts me on edge, I thought as I adjusted my long white jacket.

"I caught a glimpse of your son," I said, calming down a little. "But he ran from me."

"He does that lately," Draco grumbled.

"I shouldn't be surprised. Even though I took care of him when he was a newborn, I might as well be a stranger now."

Draco nodded for me to follow him to the dining room. "Don't expect him to warm to you anytime soon."

I chuckled. "Hm. Typical Malfoy." Draco glanced back at me, and I expected to see venom in his eyes- but instead I saw depth, like I had barely touched the surface of a bottomless ocean. Like there was so much he wanted to say to me but couldn't. I decided to keep any further teasing remarks to myself.

I examined Draco's arm again at the dining room table. Since yesterday, the table had been cleaned and polished, and the cloth chair covers had been removed. I laid out my testing supplies on it and began my screening procedure on his arm. I was going to start with a curse detection charm; then do a series of toxicity tests. Once that was done I was going to re-wrap Draco's Dark Mark with proper medicine and a better sling. I explained it all to Draco, to which he replied a gruff "fine".

The tests all came up bad. Really, really bad. I had to consciously fight the disappointed facial expressions I wanted to make and worked in silence. It was incredibly tense.

When I was applying diluted white ivy poultice and murtlap essence to the wound before re-wrapping it, Draco finally said something.

"Are we going to talk about what happened between us?" He asked bluntly.

I blinked in disbelief. "...Your wife is freshly buried and you want to rehash our one night stand?"

"You know better than anyone that she was barely a wife to me."

I focused on wrapping his forearm in a new cast, and did not look at him. "What we did was disrespectful to her. I… I did not return here so that we could resume our relationship. If that's what you're thinking," I said sharply.

"I made no such assumption," he replied. "Cearly, things have improved in your marriage now, if you have a child."

"Well...A child doesn't fix things," I muttered. "...Apparently, nothing I can do will fix things." I glanced at Draco's puzzled expression. "I am getting a divorce," I confessed quietly.

I almost expected him to laugh. After all, he called it from the beginning that Len was no good; and Draco loved being right. But as I secured the cast on his forearm, Draco placed his hand on mine.

I froze instantly from the contact- both the suddenness, and the sensation of his skin. My mind emptied itself of everything but Draco's hand.

"I'm sorry," he said.

I blinked. "It-it's not because of you. You don't have to feel sorry for me," I said indignantly.

Draco looked at me very seriously- and I realized him holding my hand wasn't a romantic gesture. It was sympathetic. When he realized that I would not reciprocate, he moved his hand away.

I flusteredly readied the materials to fashion a sling for him that would keep the cast in place. "Since I told you about my divorce, it's only fair that I ask… what made you finally quit drinking?" I asked in a low voice.

"It's a long story," Draco said, and he left it at that. When he noticed my skeptical expression, he snarled, "Don't give me that look. The reason why I went to rehab had nothing to do with you. I did it for myself."

"Oh." I was surprised that his sobriety was self-driven. I didn't question him further about it. But as I secured the sling around his shoulder, he seemed more distant than before. I could tell that whatever the reason was, it was something he could not tell me.

Using the portkey on the weekend was tricky. Len was home, which meant I wasn't able to leave the house easily without a barrage of strangling, possessive questions in the realm of "where are you going?". So I had to wait until he was asleep to quietly sneak out to use the portkey in the hallway of my apartment building.

I hadn't served the divorce papers yet. There was never a good time. I didn't want to do it when my daughter was home. I think I was just dreading finding out what his reaction would be.

Coward. Coward coward coward.

Because of all the sneaking around I had to do, I ended up arriving at the Chateau a little past midnight, and was disheartened to realize that Draco probably wasn't even awake at this hour.

Just as I was about to head back, I heard the eerie sound of footsteps coming from the second floor. Well, somebody was awake.

I tread up the stairs lightly in my ankle boots. Standing at the top of the stairs was none other than little Scorpius in his pajamas.

"Scorpius," I whispered kindly. "What are you doing awake at this hour?"

The boy peered at me, not saying a word. Then, his head sharply turned to the right, like he had heard some noise only perceivable to him, and ran.

"Oh, Merlin." I put down my medical bag to pursue the boy. He was fast, and knew the house's sprawling corridors much better than I did. Needless to say it was a pretty hopeless chase.

I spotted a bare foot disappearing into a doorway and followed. I did not realize that I was in the east wing of the house, and the room he went into was in fact Astoria's until I was already inside.

I got a chill as soon as I entered Astoria's room. It was almost exactly as it was five years ago, with its bare white walls and expensive furniture. Her jewelry was out on the dresser, spread out like someone had been taking inventory. The enormous bed still had linens on it for some reason, like it was waiting for Astoria to return.

"Scorpius?" I whispered, looking around for the boy. I checked under and around the bed with no success. I spotted Astoria's tall wardrobe at the far wall. I had never seen her open it, because, well, I had never seen her out of bed. I hoped I wasn't invading a dead woman's privacy by opening it.

The wardrobe was still full of her clothes. I looked upon beautiful blouses and gowns of jewel hues that I had never seen her wear, but I was certain she looked beautiful in. They still smelled like her, too.

My heart nearly stopped when I saw Scorpius's face hidden behind the skirts.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. The little boy was curled up in the wardrobe, his knees to his chest. I knelt down. "Scorpius, you should go to bed," I said gently.

"...I wanna see mum," he replied. Those were the first words I had ever heard him say, and I was struck by how sad his voice was. He was just a little boy who missed his mother. He likely came here just to feel close to her, and smell her scent.

"Oh, dear," I sighed. "A wardrobe is no place to spend the night. Come along, I'll help you to bed."

Scorpius's eyes lit up. "Mum."

"No, I'm not…" I trailed off when I realized Scorpius was not looking at me, but past me. Slowly, I turned.

A pale, misty apparition of a woman stood in the middle of the room framed by the blue moonlight coming in through the window. Her feet hovered above the ground as if she was entirely weightless. She was terrifyingly beautiful.

"Astoria," I said her name in a gasp. The ghost gave me a tight-lipped smile.

"Well, well," her ghostly voice echoed throughout the room, "Erica has returned."

Scorpius emerged from the wardrobe. I could hear his little teeth chattering from the chill. I expected him to run to his mother. Instead, he took one look at her and ran from the room in fright.

"Poor boy," Astoria tutted. "He waits all night in that wardrobe for me to show up. Ironically, he's afraid of ghosts." She shrugged her translucent shoulders.

I could certainly understand why he was scared. Astoria's cheeks were pointy and gaunt, and her skin was covered with black veins. She was likely in the exact state that she died in three weeks ago; night gown and all.

"Astoria, I…" I didn't know what the right thing to say was. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" She barked, smiling. "I'm so much happier now that I'm dead. Seriously! No more pills and potions being constantly shoved at me. No more pain."

I shifted uncomfortably. "I… I have something I should tell you. Something I feel really, really awful about..."

Astoria rolled her ghostly eyes. "I know you and Draco slept together."

My stomach dropped. I opened my mouth to reply, but the only thing that escaped was a silly mixture of 'huh' and 'what?'

"Huwhat?"

"Oh, please. It was obvious when that American ninny suddenly started coming instead of you. Draco sulked about the house even more than usual." She gave me a condescending look. "Besides, he told me."

I was starting to really feel the chill in the air. I wrapped my arms around myself tightly. "When?" I couldn't understand why she wasn't more upset.

"Hmm, about two years ago. Right around when I shattered that pensieve of his." She giggled, and it sounded like marbles rattling in a tin can.

"Wh...why did you d-do that?" I asked, shivering beyond my control. "Wouldn't destroying it make his feelings for me come back?"

Astoria said, "That was the point, idiot."

I frowned, confused.

"Ugh, this is so fucking tedious to explain," Astoria groaned. "Look. I knew as soon as Draco and I were married that he would always be obsessed with you. And to be honest, I didn't really care that he was in love with someone else. Because all I needed him for was a baby. So I gave him the Erosphere to help things along. When I became pregnant I had to make the proper arrangements before I died. I needed my child to be taken care of, and there was no way in hell Draco could do that on his own. You and I both know he has daddy issues," she added playfully, like we were two girls gossipping at a sleepover. "And that's why I summoned you. I knew the two of you would hit it off. In fact, I was secretly hoping you would."

I was freezing to the bone and deeply confused. "I… I'm sorry, what? Why would you do that for him?"

Astoria groaned in a ghostly howl again, frustrated that I wasn't getting it. "Don't get me wrong, I despise the man. But he gave me a child. It was really quite generous of me to send you to him, you know, so he wouldn't have to be entirely miserable."

I took in a shaky breath."Y-you summoned me all those years ago b-because you wanted me to be with Draco?"

"Obviously!" She roared. I thought I was about to have a heart attack. "And then you left! I thought that smashing that damned pensieve would make Draco wake up and go after you, but he didn't. He said he felt 'too guilty'. Like I give a damn!"

She hovered towards me, menacing and cold. "So forget that werewolf husband of yours. You're meant to be here."

"I-I can't!" I argued, my breath coming out in clouds. "It isn't that easy. You… you expect me to just drop everything and live in exile with him?" I didn't want to say it, but the idea of living in a house haunted by Astoria sounded infinitely unappealing.

Astoria smiled, but it was far from sweet. "You don't have to live in exile. All it would take is getting Potter on his side."

Astoria backed off a little, and I was able to breathe again. "The Ministry of Magic would be receptive to an appeal if Harry requested it. If you let The Ministry know you're removing his Mark, and if you get a testimony from Potter, you could get his exile lifted. Then, you get your happily ever after."

Astoria was asking a lot of me. Writing to Harry Potter? Appealing to the Ministry of Magic?

"I… I don't know if I can d-do all that, Astoria-"

"DO IT!" She boomed loud enough to rattle the furniture. "Or I'll fucking haunt you forever."

After screaming in my face, Astoria disappeared into a wall of mist.