She moves toward the door, surprised. She isn't expecting anyone today. She brushes her hair behind her ears, sighing. She's been working hard lately, hoping to become a professor at Hogwarts. As she moves to the door, her eyes land on the picture on the wall. Harry and Ginny are standing in it, in front of the Burrow. His arm is around her waist, and she's leaning into him. Ginny's other arm is linked with her brother's, and her brother's arm is locked around the waist of a brown haired girl. They all look so happy. The picture was taken four years ago.

"Ron?"

She's surprised to see him, to say the least. She hasn't seen or heard from him since he broke up with her and married Lavender. It had hurt her badly. He had said he loved her. Then he left. He had left, and hadn't even explained it. The next she heard, he had a baby girl. She looks at him, and slams the door in his face.

"Wait, I need to talk to you! I need to see you! Please!"

He sounds desperate, like a man who is broken. She softens slightly, and opens the door. She studies him. He's gotten taller, if that was possible. He looked distinctly older. She fights back a smile, realizing that there's dirt on his nose. How did it get there, she wonders.

"Where's Lavender? And your daughter?"

She's curious in spite of herself. She wants to scream, to kick him out and tell him to never come to her doorstep again. But she knows she won't be able to. He has always been her biggest weakness. His eyes are solemn, desperate. She sighs and sits down in a chair in the living room. Her eyes follow his as he copies her. He's silent for a long moment.

"Lavender left. Annica and Andrew are with my mother."

He's reaching into his pocket, passing her a note. She recognizes the handwriting of his wife, that stupid, annoying woman. The two of them have never gotten along. Even in school. There was always something. The fact was, Lavender was mean when she wanted to be. She was every bit the mean girl in school, gossiping and spreading rumors… Oh, how she had despised the woman. She reads the note, her eyes widening.

"Explain this to me, please."

She thinks back to what he said. Andrew. He has a son as well? She wonders how old he is, if he looks like him or Lavender. She wonders the same thing about the girl. Annica, he said her name was. Annie and Andy. How cute. She wants to gag from the cuteness of it, until she remembers that Lavender left them. All of them. Because she couldn't keep pretending, because she didn't want to keep him prisoner any longer. Because of some other girl. She wonders who she is.

"I didn't want to leave you. I didn't want to hurt you. But I felt I had no choice. She tricked me. She slipped me a love potion at our graduation party. Two days worth. Remember that I was missing for a bit? I slept with her, without realizing that I didn't want to. I screamed at her when I came to my senses, got mad at her for tricking me, and I came back to you."

She stares at him as he speaks. Lavender had sunk that low? She was so desperate that she slipped him a love potion? How pathetic. The vile woman was so pathetic. She suddenly felt that she knew how the story ended, but she nodded. She wanted to hear him say it.

"A few months later, she turned up at my flat. She was pregnant, it was a girl, and she was mine. She had the papers, had the proof. I couldn't deny it. She told me that if I wanted to see the baby, I had to be with her. Only her. I left you, I married her, and I was miserable, waiting. The baby was born, we named her Annica. She looked just like me. Any chances that the test had been wrong were shot. I was stuck."

She listens as he continues to speak. There it was, the reasoning behind him leaving. Somehow, it did make her feel better. It wasn't his fault. She had tricked him, and then blackmailed him. That devil woman. She wondered about the second baby.

"In public, I pretended I loved her. At home, I wouldn't touch her. I wouldn't kiss her. I was still so in love with you, thinking of you. A couple of years went by, and I started to give in to weakness. It wasn't because I loved her, but because I wanted a woman's touch. I needed something. The whole time I pretended it was you. I called your name. After that, it became a regular thing. Each time I pretended it was you. But I didn't call your name again. She got pregnant once more. A boy this time. We named him Andrew."

She knows the rest. It isn't hard to figure out. It got to be too much for Lavender. The fact that her husband didn't love her got to her, and she finally gave up. She left him with the children, and had probably removed her memory by now. She looked at Ron.

"I'm the other woman, aren't I?"

She knows she is, but she wants to hear him say it. She wants to hear him acknowledge that he still loved her when he left. That he still loves her to this day. She knows she should feel sorry for Lavender, but she can't bring herself to do it. Lavender has caused her too much pain, forcing him to end things and marry her instead.

"Yes, you are."

She looks at him, sighing softly. He's expecting her to let him back into her life without a care. He's expecting her to let him and his children into her life as if things never went wrong. The thing that scares her is that she wants to.

"Can I see Annica and Andrew?"

She watches him nod, and she stands up. She moves to the fireplace, and he's not far behind her. She reaches for the floo powder, and he slides his arm around her waist. His lips meet hers, and she sinks into it, remembering the last time she kissed him. When she pulls away, she knows that she will let him back into her life. She will love his children like they're her own. And all because love is more powerful than pain and deception.