A/N: Thanks for reading and following and reviewing! We are quite close to the end now so hang in there and enjoy!
~o0o~
"You are going to fight for her, right?" Ginny's voice was small and unsure as she looked at the man sitting across from her. She'd give anything for a time turner to fix all of this.
"That's what we need to talk about Ginny. I don't think I can," Lucius sighed. He had been constantly worrying over what to do, but saying 'goodnight' to Lacey had made up his mind, "She doesn't know me anymore. And you can't force love on someone that doesn't believe it ever existed with you. This all happened due to very specific circumstances that I am now aware of, which leads me to believe that without recreating that for her and putting all of us back through hell, there would never be any 'normal' way for the two of us to date. I think it is better if she heals without any distraction and continues on with her life."
"You are being so selfish!" Ginny yelled into the quiet room, "You need to be with her!"
"Do you not think that this is one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make?" Lucius' blue eyes turned cold, "I am in love with her, and I think I always will be, but right now the only thing I can do for her is to help put Pansy to justice and leave Lacey to be. If she remembers, then I will be the luckiest man alive. But if she doesn't, then I am not about to confuse her by trying to force her to remember. I would rather her be completely indifferent to me than hate me."
Ginny crossed her arms; as sad as this was, she understood where he was coming from. As it was, Lacey already had a lot to re-learn and find out about everyone, including her and Sirius, "But what about Draco? They have become so close…"
"I will let him make his own decision, but I believe that the only thing I can do is wait. I'm going to spend some time at my home in France, away from all of this, finish this divorce and let Narcissa free of me, and do what I can to help find Pansy. I have reason to believe she may be in Paris. She has friends there and I should occupy my time with something productive instead of moping at her bedside," Lucius finished.
"It's cowardly," Ginny sniped bitterly.
"Call it what you like, but it is taking all the courage I have to do what I think is best for Lacey. Now, I think it's time that you get back to your mutt. I do hope our paths cross again soon, Ginny," he gave her a small smile and she reached out and touched his hand for a moment before she headed home.
~o0o~
2 Weeks Later
"Hey, babe, you ready for today?" Ginny asked, walking into Lacey's room at St. Mungo's with a huge smile on her face.
"More than ready. I can't wait to get out of here!" She sighed, stretching in the bed. Today was the day of her discharge from the hospital. Everything had flown by for her in a haze of visits and tests and long talks with her friends. She had learned quite a lot now that it was clear to her and everyone else that she wouldn't be getting the last two years back in memories anytime soon. Ginny and Sirius had come as quite a shock to her, as did the fact that somehow the seemingly perfectly matched Hermione and Remus were no more and he was with Narcissa Malfoy, for some reason she wasn't entirely ready to accept. As nice as the woman now seemed when she came once to visit with Remus, Lacey was firmly stuck on Hermione's side, even though she didn't really care for her in the first place.
But that wasn't the only strange news to Lacey. She had been told about the Harpies dissolving as a team, and that she was now on Puddlemere, and had gotten the job through Draco Malfoy, who visited often. She was growing to accept that somehow she had become more than acquaintances with him in the past two years, and he seemed to genuinely care if she was okay. The news of Puddlemere also came with the heartbreak that Oliver Wood wouldn't be seeing her, that he was getting married to someone else. That took Lacey a few days to get over as she lay in bed and drank disgusting healing and blood replenishing potions. The color eventually came back to her face, she started to get stronger, and her bones began to mend.
Lacey was sad when after a few days her Dad and brother and sister left her bedside to go back to Ireland, but she had plenty of company on most days. Fred came nearly every day and sat with her, as did Ginny. Sometimes Harry stopped by to update her on the case of her fall that had caused all of this. Of all of the lost memories, this was the one she was most confused about when trying to piece the story back together. She learned that her broom had been enchanted with spells placed by Pansy Parkinson and Astoria Greengrass. Lacey had known both girls in school, but had never interacted with them much. She had no idea what had warranted them trying to kill her and almost succeeding. No one wanted to talk about that it seemed, but when she pressed Draco, he said something about how they didn't like her being friends with him, since he had dated both of them. Once again, she was shocked at how close she had become to a guy she never wanted much to do with, but stopped asking questions. She was alive, with a job still waiting for, and surrounded by friends and family.
And she was finally going home.
Ginny had worked tirelessly with the others to turn the apartment above Slug and Jiggers back into the home Lacey once knew two years ago. It took days of cleaning and repairing things from the rampage of Pansy and Astoria when they took over it, but soon it was as if she had never left. A week earlier, Lucius had helped gather Lacey's things from the house he had bought for her and sadly put the estate back on the market. He and Ginny had agreed that if he had to leave, it was best that she walk directly back into her old life, just the way it used to be.
"Surprise!"
When Ginny and Lacey walked into her apartment, it was filled with her friends, all raising glasses of something bubbly in her direction. Ginny helped her best friend to the well-worn couch to sit down, since walking was still a struggle for her after the fall.
"You guys, this is amazing!" Lacey beamed, looking around at Harry, Ron, Hermione, the Twins, and Draco. She squeezed her best friends' hand in thanks.
"'Mione stocked the cupboards for you," Ron told her.
"And Harry and I put up a lot of wards for protection. You'll be safe, we promise," Draco said. He had become friendly with the 'golden trio' since the accident, and was determined to keep things this way since he found out that his father wasn't even going to try. They had gotten into horrendous arguments about it and currently weren't speaking to each other.
"It means a lot. Thank you," she tried not to cry. They had stuck by her, addled brain and all. Fred sat down on the couch next to her and placed a glass in her hand.
"To Lacey!" He cheered.
"To Lacey!"
~o0o~
Lucius had always had a certain fondness for his expensive scotch, but he was starting to become worried that he was developing a very bad habit with how much he had gone through since he left for Paris.
It had only been a few weeks, thinking it would be easier on him if he was away from London and away from Lacey, but it had been excruciating for him, making him realize that his desperate love for her was not likely to fade.
He spent his time corresponding with the Auror department at the Ministry of Magic in his search for Pansy, but today he was quite certain that this would all end. He had alerted Potter and Weasley as well as the wizarding authorities in Paris before he headed to the last place on his list to look for her - a small chateau on the outskirts of the city. He and Pansy had spent a lovers' weekend there once, and he only hoped he was right about his hunch.
"I took you days longer than I expected," Pansy opened the large door to the old estate before he could even bring the head of his cane to knock against the wood; clearly whatever wards she had placed had alerted her to him.
"You have been expecting me?" Lucius tried to remain calm. The second he saw her, anger filled him when he thought of Lacey plummeting to the hard ground of the Quidditch pitch.
She beckoned him in, her black hair loose and flowing down her back, and her lipstick blood red, looking every inch the evil seductress that had caused this whole mess. From her appearance, Lucius knew that she had indeed been waiting for him. "Yes. I wanted you to come. Especially after I head about what is going on with Lacey."
Lucius had tried to keep tabs on Lacey through Draco, but since he and his sons' last argument, he gleaned very little information from him. He tried to sound aloof, but he was anxious for information, "Oh?"
"Yes. She's doing well. Unfortunately. Her and her new little lover…"
"She has a lover?" Lucius couldn't help but ask; the mere thought made him feel physically ill.
"One of the insufferable Weasleys. Apparently they've been spending a fair amount of time together," Pansy sighed, looking at her claw-like oxblood nails.
Lucius was instantly relieved; he didn't know who her source of information was, but Lacey spending time with a Weasley hardly meant they were lovers. Pansy was simply trying to incite him, which she had almost achieved. He just needed to keep her talking.
"Then you also must know she had no memories of me," Lucius continued.
"Which I guess is better than nothing, even if it isn't what I intended," the wicked girl smiled at him, "And after all, you are here now, which I assume means that you have thought about what I offered you?"
"What exactly did you intend, Pansy?" Lucius locked his jaw, ignoring her question. He knew that Pansy was trouble, and that she had certainly been jealous of Lacey, but was she really capable…
"She's alive, Lucius. That isn't what I intended," Pansy made herself very clear, her eyes darker than he had ever seen them.
"Why would you want to kill someone? You know that most certainly means Azkaban," Lucius was in disbelief. He had once been in love with this woman, or thought he had been. He had cheated on his wife and betrayed his son for her. He had been so blind.
"Why won't you come back to me? I was never going to let Astoria have you-she was just stupid enough to help me. And you are getting divorced now and Lacey has moved on. You love me!" Pansy moved closer to him, putting her hands on his chest, but he backed away as if burned.
"Don't you dare touch me! I may have thought I loved you once, but that was the biggest mistake I ever made. I could never love a woman as malicious and deranged as you are," he told her, drawing his wand out from his walking stick and pointing it at her.
"You've killed people, Lucius. You have no right to judge me…"
"Oh, but I do. I feel remorse for every single moment of my time spent under Voldemort's thumb, but you…you don't feel a shred of guilt," his hand shook as he raised the wand at her.
"Of course not, she was just a stupid slag that deserved what she got!" Pansy spat and Lucius raised his arm to flick his wand and stun her.
"LUCIUS, STOP!"
He felt a body crash into his, nearly knocking him to the ground. When he pushed the man off of him, he realized it was Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter had his wand trained on Pansy, who fortunately could not reach her wand on the table behind her.
"Pansy Parkinson, you will be tried for attempted murder, use of dark magic and dark artefacts, among other charges, and you will held in Azkaban until the time of your hearing," Harry Potter stated, motioning for Ron to help him out, and the redhead used his wand to magically bind her hands behind her back.
"This isn't your jurisdiction, Potter," she spat in his face, her eyes continuing to fall on Lucius, who was picking himself up off the ground.
"But it is mine," the third man who had accompanied Potter and Weasley spoke up. He was from the French division of the ministry, and quickly explained as much, causing Pansy to bite her tongue for a moment.
"Rot in hell you little harpy," Lucius told her as the three men led her out of the chateau, thanking him for getting a confession out of her. When she was gone and the room was finally free of her yelling, he sank down to the floor on his knees and for the first time in a long time, cried until he could no longer catch his breath.
A/N: Thank you for reading!
