Chapter 4
Harry returned to his flat with a large amount of pictures of him and Lucy clasped in his right hand as he unlocked the door with his wand. And the typical charm of alohomora.
The photos in his hand were wizard photos where the people in the frame moved. Harry remembered his first encounter with a wizard photo, on the train to Hogwarts, a long time ago. A chocolate frog card, with the wizened Dumbledore on it. It had been a long time since he had eaten a chocolate frog. They had been Ginny's favorite treat. Harry had forgotten that. Thinking of Ginny brought his attention to the photo on his wall. A picture taken with a Muggle camera, since Hermione's parents were Muggles she liked to experiment with muggle photography. A moment frozen. At Hermione's 20th birthday party. A tender moment as Harry had leaned over to Ginny and kissed her cheek/
Even in the black and white photo. Ginny's eyes sparkled with delight. Her lips parted in a laugh. That sweet laugh. How Harry missed its singing tone. Ginny's hand was in the air waiting for his head to return where it had been so she plunge his face into Hermione's cake.
He smiled at the memory.
A few days later everyone was invited to a "Welcome Home, Lucy" party. Everybody the Weasleys had ever associated with, except for the dead were there.
Hermione floated around on George's arm. She could be seen flaunting her engagement ring to all her old Hogwarts peers.
Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan were standing together reminiscing about the years at Hogwarts.
Harry noted that in the group of four, Dean Thomas held Parvati's hand. Lavender and Seamus were standing closely together in a way that obviously said they were together and very happy. Even from his slight distance from the group, Harry could see Parvati's eyes look over in the direction of a flustered teenage nanny. And a small child. Always flickering back and forth between the nanny and child and whichever one of her friends was speaking.
The four disbanded once after a while and Parvati walked up to Harry. Though rather slowly because the small child had wrapped her arms around Parvati's leg.
"Hello Harry." She said.
"Hey Parvati." Harry responded "You look good." And she did. Her dark hair was cut to a bob around her chin. But the style worked on her. Harry thought.
"This is my daughter, Kashmira." Parvati said pulling the arms of the child off of her leg. And held Kashmira up so she could meet Harry.
Kashmira rested her head on her mother's shoulder. She was tired. Harry could see the similarities between mother and daughter, their eyes, brown and shaped like almonds. With the same warmth and energy. Though somewhat muted in Kashmira's tired little face. Kashi's hair was braided in two, and tied with pink ribbons. Matching her flowery sundress.
Parvati and Harry talked for a long time. Until it was impossible to ignore that fact that Kashmira was tired and getting cranky about not being at their home. Harry and Parvati exchanged addresses.
She lived in London, worked for the ministry on an International level. The pay was good. The nanny was a live-in. So Kashmira, the nanny and Parvati left. Leaving Harry in a reasonably good mood. Hermione hurried over to Harry.
"Harry, what happened to you?" she asked "I haven't seen you this happy in a long time"
"I don't know." Harry was startled to realize he had a large grin plastered on his face and couldn't seem to change his expression.
Ron and Luna were busy. They were busy unwrapping presents and watching people fawn over the newest Weasley. But the highlight of the evening was when Mrs. Weasley held her new granddaughter for the first time. This was not her first. Bill and Fleur had had four children. Two were towheaded like their mother. The other two were vibrantly freckled and had flaming red hair like all the rest of the Weasleys.
Harry was finding that Parvati was easy to get along with. They were fast friends. Harry even thought there might be a slight romantic potential to the relationship. But immediately felt guilty after thinking this because of Ginny. Ginny who had been cremated. Ginny, his love. Ginny who was dead and couldn't love. He had said he wouldn't love anymore. But now he wasn't so sure.