Forgotten Yesterday
Chapter 3: Hindsight
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any characters borrowed for use in this story.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ginny spun around quickly her wand drawn as she heard the familiar sound of a wizard apperating. She let out an exasperated sigh when she came face to face with Harry and Kaitlyn in the middle of her kitchen.
"Harry James Potter, I have told you a million times not to scary me like that!" She dropped the wand to her side.
"Sorry Gin, You're just so cute when you're mad at me." He sat his daughter on the ground. "Could you do me a huge favor?"
"Watch Kaity for a few days?"
"Um… Yeah."
Ginny knelt down and held her arms out. "Where is my favorite goddaughter?"
Kaitlyn ran into Ginny's arms. "I missed you Aunt Ginny."
"I missed you too, baby."
Kaitlyn pulled back a distinctly mischievous glint in her eyes. "Is Claude around?"
Ginny smiled and walked to a small stairwell off the kitchen. "Claudia Livinia Malfoy! Get down here!" She called then turned back, "She'll be down in a minute."
"What did she do now?" Draco pushed open a door and entered the room. "Oh… Hello Potter."
"Hello Malfoy."
Ginny watched the exchange between her husband and her friend with barely veiled amusement. Since the day Dumbledore had told him Draco was on their side Harry had been waiting for the betrayal. It had never come. He and Ron had both almost boycotted the wedding. Fortunately one of Molly Weasly's patented howlers threatening disownment was all it had taken to secure their unenthusiastic participation. After the ceremony, when they had ambushed Draco and forced him to swear on his own life that he wouldn't betray her, they finally decided to accept he was on their side. School and childhood rivalries, though, were hard forgotten.
"Whatever it is I swear I didn't do it!" A small platinum blonde head bounced down the stairs her arms crossed over her chest. She caught sight of the room and broke into a smile. "Uncle Harry!" she ran and was swept up in her godfather's arms. He dropped her quickly when she caught sight of her cousin and squirmed. "Kaity, how long are you staying?"
"A couple days."
"Great come on." Kaity was quickly grabbed and pulled up the stairs a just audible 'Bye daddy' following her.
"So." Draco took a seat at the island, "Which of my former acquaintances are you going to kill this time?"
"Play nice, Draco." Ginny sat beside him, "So who are you going to kill?"
"No one." He pulled out a stool opposite them. "It's not that type of mission. I have to go bring someone back to the wizarding world."
"Who?"
"Snape wouldn't tell me. All he said was she gone to Hogwarts around the same time as us. At the leaving feast she found out her parents had been killed by deatheaters. She left and never came back."
"I can't remember anyone whose parents were killed by deatheaters at the leaving feast." Ginny wracked her brain.
"Neither can I. Plus," Draco added, "If her parents died that way around that time she must have been muggle-born. The deatheaters didn't start randomly killing wizards till at least four years after we were at Hogwarts."
"I know. That's why I was thinking about…"
Ginny quickly realized who he meant. "Harry, no. If something like that happened to her. We would have known. We… It couldn't be."
"I don't know. I don't even have any pictures of her after fifth year."
"Ok, I feel a little out of the loop now. Who are we talking about?"
"Who was the muggle-born girl in your year? She got better grades than you? Head girl?"
"Ohhhhhhhhh." Draco thought a moment. "Can I tell you guys something?"
"Of course Sweetie." Ginny laced her fingers into his.
"Well, hindsight is 20/20 and… You remember that year I was still being a prat? It's tradition for the head girl and boy to share a common room. Well, we did. We were never there at the same time so it was never really an issue but on the rare occasion she was I always tried to bait her, to piss her off. Don't give me that look, Potter. I liked making people mad. But that year it was different. She wouldn't even react to me. She'd just pick up her stuff and go to her room whenever I said anything. Until one time I think it was before Christmas. I said something about you and Ron not protecting her any more. Well she started crying and ran away.
"That scared me. I made a lot of people angry but I never made anyone cry before. So I followed her up to the astronomy tower. We talked a long time that night. She told me how you and Ron got girlfriends and forgot she existed. That she hadn't spoken to either of you in two years and a lot of other stuff I swore I'd never tell anyone."
"I never even realized." Harry hung his head. "How could I have not realized?"
"We all were thinking of other things. I remember she left the leaving feast early but I never found out why."
"And now she's dying."
"What?!?" Ginny gasped
"That's why Snape is sending me after her." Harry closed his eyes a moment. "She's dying and we never even knew because we were too wrapped in our own little worlds to notice she'd even left."
"Alright Potter, as much as I enjoy seeing you suffer," Draco stood and stepped beside where Harry sat. "Aren't you being a bit hard on yourself?"
"Draco's right Harry."
He smiled and looked up at his friends. "I know. I really should go now."
"Good luck." Draco called as Harry apperated away. "You'll need it."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comments, Criticisms, Etc.
