So Long and Goodnight
written by: albe-chan
DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction and I do NOT own Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned, I am making no money from this, and any similarities with real life are purely coincidental. This work will contain MATURE THEMES, such as coarse language, mature subject matter (scenes containing graphic sex, non-consensual sex and sexual acts, nudity, etc.), and mildly graphic violence. Please, if you are not over the age of 18, or of majority in your country, DO NOT READ THIS! You have been warned!
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Chapter Six - April
Sunday evening came after a long, trying week. Lily had done her utmost to maintain the facade she was trying anything and everything to get pregnant with her husband's child. She even went so far as to book an appointment with her mother in law's personal Healer at St. Mungo's to get a check up and make sure there wasn't anything physically impeding her ability to get pregnant, inviting Cordelia along for 'support'. Lily had grit her teeth as the older witch had sighed and rolled her eyes, but acquiesced. The redhead wanted a witness to a Healer telling her she was healthy and able to get pregnant, and knew Thaddeus wouldn't believe anyone but his own mother to confirm whatever Lily might claim the Healer said.
She'd then, after that uncomfortable dinner the night before, been subjected to a night of her husband's increased determination to knock her up yet again. He'd taken her very rough, and left fingerprint bruises on her hips and teeth marks on her breasts after the second round, and Lily had faked her own completion as she fought the urge to push him away It was one thing to submit to his sexual whims, but quite another to pretend she enjoyed it as much as he had. She'd snuck out of bed after Thaddeus had fallen asleep and retched silently after performing a round of vigorous Cleansing Charms on her person and taken a dose of potion Scorpius had owled to her that assured she wouldn't get pregnant, no matter what, and wouldn't show up on any tests.
The redhead set her shoulders as she headed up the walk to her parents' place, pasting a cheery smile on her face that didn't quite reach her eyes, and rehearsing what she'd talk about that was new in her week. Which, if she was honest, was very little. She had no desire to share her appointment with Cordelia's personal Healer she'd attended that morning, concerning her general health and aptitude for childbearing. And even if she did, if she weren't lying to anyone who might betray her facade about even wanting to be pregnant by her husband, that would be more awkward than she'd care to share with her family.
She settled instead on telling her mother about the accomplishment she'd made in, at last, making pastry that seemed 'almost as if it were properly done by a House Elf'. Although undoubtedly in far less unflattering words. Settling her shoulders at a relaxed, confident angle she'd perfected long ago, Lily breezed into her parents' home.
She could hear that everyone was in the kitchen, and Lily didn't hesitate to join them all, wondering what was for dinner. The redheaded witch usually ate two helpings of everything at Sunday dinner normally, but now that she was to 'bring herself to the peak of health' to be able to bear a child to term for her husband, as her dreadful mother in law had put it, she was doubly looking forward to the food. It would be the first time in what felt like ages she wouldn't have to worry about anyone ever finding out she'd gorged herself on her mother's excellent cooking, and she couldn't help but feel grateful the Healer had told her she was actually underweight, and that she should make sure she was eating plenty, and exercising, to stay in the best shape.
Lily's smile melted into a genuine grin when she reached the kitchen to find her mother, wooden spoon in hand, berating her eldest for sampling the food before it had been set upon the table. "Hi Mum, hi Dad," she said, and Harry grinned at his daughter, setting the Daily Prophet aside. Ginny swatted James's hand with her wooden spoon again, and her eldest brother ruffled her hair affectionately as she approached the pair at the stove.
"Just making sure it's up to your normal, excellent standards, Mum," James said in a placating tone, and kissed Lily's cheek in greeting. "Hey, Lils."
"How are you, honey?" her mother said, pulling her into a hug and Lily sighed, breathing deep the smell of her mother, basking in the maternal warmth the other redheaded witch exuded.
"I'm fine, Mum," she said, mussing her brother's hair in return once she'd been released. "So what's the verdict, Jamie? Has Mum lost her touch in the kitchen yet?"
Ginny pursed her lips at the insinuation, but James chuckled. "Top notch as always," he declared. Lily followed him to sit at the table, hugging her father around the shoulders.
"Anything interesting in the paper?" Lily asked her father, sitting down beside him, sliding out the portion of paper he'd already finished reading.
"Never anything worth mention," Harry Potter replied, and smiled at Lily. "And we both know, the things they do write about aren't always necessarily the truth."
The redhead kept her smile in place even though she was hurt by the reminder, yet again, that she had somehow married the enemy. Not just because her husband's grandfather had, technically, been a Death Eater in the Second Wizarding War, but because her husband himself was a writer for the Daily Prophet who, she could admit, at times toed the line of being rude, even to his father in law, in print. "It depends on your version of the truth," Lily said, like she always did, even when Thaddeus used to accompany her to Sunday dinners and her father had made snide remarks about the paper her husband had dedicated his career to. The routine was an old, almost traditional one. Her father read the paper, complained about it, and Lily vaguely stuck up for her husband, or at least tried to deflect the issue.
Harry merely shook his head, but kissed Lily on the cheek. "You look tired," her father said, looking at her properly as he pulled back from the hug. The redheaded witch looked away.
"It's been a long week," she said simply. Even if she wasn't working full time, she still had the full time job of making sure she never, ever, got pregnant with her husband's child, not to mention the natural stress that came from the days she did go into work. "You look tired too, Dad," she joked, indicating the frown lines around his mouth and the wrinkles that deepened when he laughed around his eyes.
Harry rolled his still vibrant green eyes, but smiled. "You know me, trying to stay out of your mother's way," he replied, then glanced at where James was being berated by his wife after he'd just, foolishly, suggested she should take lessons from his mother. "And," he added, smiling conspiratorially with Lily, who leaned closer, feeling a rush of excitement like she hadn't felt since she was little, when her father had told her some adult secret she mostly never understood, "there's something else."
"What?" the redhead breathed, even as Ginny broke into James and Cleo's personal fight, instantly jumping to her daughter in law's defence and making her son roll his eyes.
Harry leaned closer, one eye on his wife, and murmured to Lily, lips barely moving, "I've taken a new active position within the Auror force." Lily's mouth dropped open of its own accord, and she almost choked on her own tongue at the force of her gasp. Her father had been behind a desk since she could properly recall, once he'd become Head Auror, and both Lily and Harry Potter knew it was Ginny's desire for her husband to remain out of harm's way, considering he did happen to have a slight hero complex that, at times, made him act recklessly. But Lily couldn't fathom how her father had ever found a way to wriggle back into active duty, knowing his wife of so many years would be furious.
"Dad, d'you really think you should-?" Lily began softly, not wanting to point out that her father hadn't been an active Auror in a number of years, but remind him he wasn't ready for action either, but she was cut off when Albus stormed into the kitchen.
"This had better be a fucking joke, Dad!" he declared, slapping a lavender coloured Ministry note onto the table. Lily glanced at it briefly, ascertaining it contained the same news her father had just shared with her, then glanced up at the scowling face of Harry Potter.
"Albus, language," Ginny scolded, even as she snatched the message up before James had finished reading it, Cleo doing so over his shoulder as well. "And what on earth could have you so upset as to come barreling in, swearing, and…" She trailed off as her mouth opened and Lily braced herself for the worst, sending her father a last glance of pity. "Harry James Potter, why does this say you're going to be on active Auror duty next month!?"
"Gin, relax," Harry said, perhaps foolishly, as Ginny slammed the lavender coloured parchment back onto the table, looking furious, wand clutched tightly. "It's not what everyone's thinking. Calm down." He sent his second son a glare. "Albus, sit," he said, even as the younger version of him stood there, all but vibrating with rage.
"Dad, you know you're way too old to be out in the thick of things," James said candidly, and Lily bit her lip to keep from grinning, even as the tension in the room put her instantly on edge.
"Yes, thank you, James. I am aware," Harry replied dryly. "Look, everyone sit, we'll eat, and I'll tell you all about this great idea Kingsley and I came up with."
So everyone sat while a silently fuming Ginny served dinner and over the next hour, Harry explained in great detail just what his new active role would entail. And by the time pudding was served, and the tension had bled out of the room, Lily was certain she was going to be sick. Because Harry Potter, being the hero-complex having person he was, had found someone else to save, or hopefully more than one someone if the statistics he'd dug up were anything to go by. Her father had gone, to her horror and with the Minister for Magic's approval no less, and created the Domestic Affairs branch of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
It was to be a team of regular law enforcement witches and wizards who'd trained enough to be almost-Aurors whom Harry would personally train even more for the next year in close quarters combat and mild hostage situations. And they, Harry included for the first six months at least, would go out on calls, usually anonymous tips that were left by concerned family members, in cases where domestic abuse or violence was happening, including cases of neglect against children or the elderly.
Lil knew that last bit was obviously her father's idea. She'd heard all about his difficult years, growing up around his Muggle relatives, but the fear that choked Lily made it impossible for the redheaded witch to realize the difference the DA would make for the good of wizarding kind. All Lily could think, even as she listened through the buzzing in her ears to her family all discussing Harry's latest attempt to ditch his desk for good, was how awful it would be if she ever had some damn Magical Law Enforcement Officer show up at her home. And how, if that ever did come to pass, how much worse things would get should Thad ever be accused by some Ministry approved Law Enforcement Officer of striking her. Her husband would, certainly and without a doubt, think she'd reported him herself. The redhead cringed internally, because that could only bring about one thing; retribution.
And then one thing occurred to her, something Thaddeus had growled with cold, cruel pleasure against her ear when she sobbed and shivered under his merciless fists and cutting words. According to her very pureblood husband, in a marriage such as theirs, where they weren't simply bound together like most witches and wizards, but literally bound to one another through very traditional Old Magic as was pureblood custom, no third party could interfere in their marriage. If neither of them ever said a word, and nothing that might raise suspicion occurred outside their home, Thad vowed that even under Veritaserum, nothing he did to his wife while inside their ancestral home could be proven, documented, or even attested to by a third party outsider. Only those bearing the name of Nott could speak on what went on behind the closed doors of Nott Hall, and Lily had learned quickly to keep her mouth shut. Not to mention the same and disgust and self pity she felt were far too heavy and dark to burden anyone else with kept the truth sealed under her tongue and behind her plump lips.
Surely, if what Thad had told her was true, and what she knew herself to be true, having witnessed the utter ignorance of others within their home, in the early years when they still entertained and would be stumbled upon arguing by guests. Even in those instances, Lily had found it odd no one had ever overheard her being shouted at by her husband behind an unwarded, un-Silenced door before it was opened. But, Lily knew, if those kind of pureblood enchantments held, that would make it that much harder for her father to help people too afraid or too downtrodden to seek out help on their own. She was intimately familiar with just how charming and funny and what an absolute delight an abuser could be, especially when play-acting for the public. But knowing those same enchantments would save her a headache and embarrassment and pain, no doubt, kept her holding her tongue.
Instead, Lily listened as she pushed the food around her plate, barely taking any of it in, until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked up, startled, as her mother made to clear her plate. "Is everything all right, honey?" he mother asked, brow furrowing for a beat, even as her brothers made bets on how long it would take Harry to get hexed in the face while Harry scoffed at his sons' lack of faith in his ability. "You seem troubled, Lily," her mother said softly. The redhead sighed silently, shoulders sagging the tiniest bit when her mother brushed a delicately soothing hand over Lily's crimson tresses. But instead of faltering, the redhead locked her emotions up tight like a proper pureblood princess and pasted on her rueful smile.
"I'm fine, Mum. What about you?" she prompted, getting up and helping her mother clear the table."I know you're worried about Dad," she pushed, smiling wider, even as her cheeks ached. Ginny rolled brown eyes and sighed dramatically.
"Sometimes I wonder if he's even really worth the trouble," her mother teased fondly as they set the dishes to being washed in the sink. "I swear that man is going to be the death of me." She flicked her wand at the roasting pan. "Now, since we haven't gotten a chance to catch up, honey, tell me about your week," Ginny said brightly. "How did your pastries turn out?"
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