Chapter 5

Later that week, Ginny discreetly flooed over to Hogwarts to collect Albus for the funeral. Harry had agreed to take Lily out for the day. Ginny was still worried about how Albus would adjust to being away at school with so much change already going on at home, and so she had been relieved to find that he had made a friend so quickly, though she admitted privately to Harry that she was very surprised by who it was. In any case, she was determined to support Albus in any way she could. If he didn't want James to know that he was going to this funeral, then they would allow him to tell James about it in his own time. And if it meant escorting him to a very uncomfortable Malfoy funeral service, of all things, then so be it.

They went home first to change into funeral robes. Ginny had spent the morning struggling to charm her hair into a suave up-do that would not attract too much attention. The results were not bad; it seemed she was slowly regaining her magic. When Ginny remembered Draco Malfoy's raised eyebrow- his reaction to her appearance on That Day- she still blushed in shame. Everything about that painful day seemed to have been burned into her memory. Today, though, she was resolved not to embarrass Albus in front of every pureblood Wizarding family that still survived in England and maybe France. She was sure they would all be there. She could do this, she told herself; it was for Albus.

Once she had collected him from Hogwarts, she felt better. As a woman, Ginny might feel inadequate and uncertain these days, but as a mother, she was completely at ease. Albus was a talker, and Ginny was happy to listen. He began the moment they saw each other. Today the topic absorbing all his attention was what to expect at his first funeral. And Ginny-as-Mum was amused to hear herself answering convincingly about what everything would be like, when, in truth, she had only the vaguest ideas about what to expect of a Malfoy family funeral.

"...Will he have gotten my chocolate frog cards yet, Mum?"

"I'm sure he will, Albus. We sent the owl with them yesterday. And you wrote him a nice note to go with them. I'm sure he will really appreciate knowing he has a friend who cares about him right now."

"What should I say to him when we see him at the funeral, Mum?"

"Well, you can shake his hand, of course. And just say anything nice that you think of. 'I'm so sorry,' always works, you know..."

Soon enough, the two of them had arrived at their destination. The service was to be held in the old Malfoy manor chapel. The place was gloomy and imposing, but Ginny had Albus by her side, so she merely stood up straighter and tried to walk with confidence. Inside, the chapel was filled with an ostentatious display of family solidarity. The Malfoy crest, silver and black tinged with green, figured very prominently in the chapel decorations. It was on several banners and carved into every pew. Flowers around the coffin had been chosen to match: white and green with black and silver ribbons. Through the clouds of incense, dim light slanted in from high stained glass windows, each depicting different Malfoy ancestors, some dressed as knights with sword and wand, others who looked like smirking Merlins, and each underscored with Latin or French mottos like "Sanguis Purissimus" and "Le Chevalier Malefoy." A house-elf bowed and then guided Ginny and Albus to a seat in one of the ornately carved pews.

The family filed in just before the service began, and Scorpius gratefully caught Albus' eye. He whispered something in his father's ear, and then Malfoy, too, looked over and nodded ever so slightly in their direction- an acknowledgement. His face was stony and inscrutable. Ginny thought he looked like a man who was trying to hide his pain.

They sat through the service, so different from Dumledore's funeral. His had been planned as a memorial for the entire wizarding community, but Astoria's was clearly meant to be a private, family affair. There was no mention of the circumstances of her death, and very little about her personally at all. It seemed to be an ancient family ritual, partly in Latin, partly in Norman French, with a sprinkling of English thrown in, all performed without any explanation to outsiders. The Greengrass family were present in a place of honor- Ginny recognized Astoria's older sister Daphne up at the front- but they were clearly not the ones in charge of this ceremony.

When the service ended and the billows of cloying incense lifted a bit, Ginny and Albus got in line to pay their last respects and greet the family. Albus seemed hesitant, and for a moment Ginny feared that some former Death Eater would come bearing down on them for holding up the line, but in fact, when she looked around, she did not see any Death Eaters there at all (excepting Draco, of course). Not even Lucius Malfoy was present, in fact. The turnout was rather small, and seemed mostly restricted to family and several members of Slytherin who, like the Greengrass family, had never directly allied themselves with Voldemort. No one seemed to notice or mind Albus' hold up. Ginny squeezed his hand and told him not to worry about what do, but just to follow her lead. And a moment later, she had actually done it: she had politely shaken hands with Draco and said she was very sorry for his loss, and he had thanked her for coming and bringing Albus. Albus merely touched his friend's shoulder and said nothing, but that had been all that was necessary. Ginny's heart melted at the sight of young Scorpius, bravely standing stiff beside his father, with his little face so red and puffy. Poor child!

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It was an emotional day. When Ginny and Albus got home, Harry told them that he and Lily had been out looking at apartments and finally picked one. Lily was very excited about having chosen it herself, and waxed poetic about the lilac walls in the room that would be hers. She wanted to bring Albus there straight away to show him, but Ginny made them wait until after tea. "You really did it, then?" she asked Harry weakly.

"It helped to have Lily with me. She has a wonderful sense of decor, don't you dear?"

Albus was getting excited, too, as Harry mentioned that Lily had talked him into getting a pet, and offered to play twenty questions with Albus to guess what it would be. Ginny excused herself from the table, saying she wanted to change out of her funeral things.

She went up to James's room, which she was using as her room these days, and put her head down and cried. She had been looking forward to all of them moving on, but she did not know it would happen so fast. She had expected Harry's moving out to be a sad, mournful thing- something like the funeral she'd just been to... The faces of Draco and Scorpius flashed across her mind again. What must they be going through right now? Malfoy or not, she wanted so badly to scoop up that little lost blond child and comfort him... She wrenched her thoughts back to the present. Ginny had never expected such a party atmosphere about Harry finding his new place. She even felt a twinge of jealousy. What if the children liked their cool new gay dad with his cool new bachelor apartment and ridiculous Mystery Pet better than their old worn-out mum? Why was she feeling this way? She should be relieved and pleased, after all, that they were spending time together. How long had she been angry with Harry for neglecting his children and dumping all the parenting on her? Ginny forcibly pulled herself together again. She threw on some regular clothes and went back down to the end of tea.

"Are you alright, Gin?" Harry asked when she came back. He had been a bit slow on the uptake lately, but he still knew her better than anyone.

"I'm fine- It's just been a long day. Why don't you all go together to see the apartment now? I think I feel like having a bit of a lie-down this evening. Albus, you can stay here tonight and we'll take you back to Hogwarts in the morning after breakfast. What do you think, Harry?"

"No problem, Ginny. Hope you feel better soon. Take a hot bath, maybe?" he almost gave her his usual peck on the cheek, but when she gave him the look, he remembered to back off. It was an odd situation. His feelings had not changed at all for her- it was the same friendly warmth he had always felt- and it was hard for him to remember that things were different now between them. He had never meant to hurt Ginny. Harry sighed, and then took Albus and Lily through the fireplace. "Number 24 A Meadowlark Street" they repeated one after the other.

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The next morning was a busy one. Ginny returned Albus to Hogwarts and came home just in time to get the morning owl post. She was surprised and delighted to receive a warm reply from the editor of the Daily Prophet. They wanted to publish her article, and could she please come round as soon as it was convenient to discuss writing a regular column in the quidditch section? They were simply thrilled at the idea that she had taken up sportswriting. Ginny got up and danced Lily around the room.

"Mummy's getting a job! Mummy's going to write a quidditch column!" The two of them skipped Lily's morning lessons and went outside to fly around on her broomstick. Lily held on tightly while Ginny flew them in circles, and then Lily got off while Ginny tried a few of her old flying tricks. She almost fell off her broom and began to laugh at herself. "Your mum is seriously out of shape, Lilykins. We need to do this more often!"

That afternoon, she met with the editor-in-chief, Mathilda Codswallop, who was enthusiastic about Ginny's prospects as a writer. Just as Hermione had predicted, they appreciated her knowledge and background as a player, but also her humorous style and the publicity of getting to use her name. They wanted her to start off writing once a week, but anticipated that she might switch to a daily column once she was up to speed. She was welcome to work from home and send in her work by owl as long as she attended a training workshop that weekend and appeared for the short staff meetings on Monday mornings. Ginny had not dared to imagine it could all be this easy. She signed a stack of forms and went home to rearrange her calendar.

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A few days later, Friday evening, Harry came whistling to the dinner table. Ginny's stomach clenched. She hadn't seen him so cheerful in ages. Did this mean...? She didn't know if she was ready to face the prospect of a new boyfriend just yet.

"You seem cheerful," she prompted cautiously.

"I am!" Harry answered. "Have you noticed that I've been working longer hours this week? Well, I didn't want to say anything until I worked it all out, but I've finally done it! I'm not going to be in the auror supervisor office anymore- I asked for a transfer to the auror training office. I'll be training the new recruits now."

Ginny let her breath out. "What- what's that?" she began to laugh. "Oh, Harry! Don't tease me like that! I thought you were about to announce that you'd met someone at work." Lily looked confused, but Harry turned beet red.

"Well no, no I haven't, that's not what I... But...but aren't you happy for me? I think this will be a much better fit than my old job. I'm really excited about teaching. I think I'm going to really enjoy it. It'll be a bit like the DA, don't you think?"

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry, dear. No, that's great. I'm very happy for you. It's brilliant. How long have you been thinking about -" Ginny burst into giggles. "I'm sorry, Harry, I-"

Suddenly the tension broke and Harry started laughing as well. Lily looked very confused, but as her parents both kept on laughing, she burst into giggles too. Soon it was all three of them just laughing and laughing, rocking back and forth, gasping for breath until the tears were streaming down.