DISCLAIMER: JK Rowling created the majority of the characters that appear in this fan fiction and they are now owned by her, Scholastic and Warner Brothers. I get no profit from using them and hope to god she won’t sue me. Once Upon Dream is from the film “Sleeping Beauty,” The music and lyrics are by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence and are used without permission. (Again, hoping not to be sued.)
AUTHOR’S NOTES: This chapter took a LONG time to write. Probably because it’s important. New setting, new direction, etc. I hope you guys don’t hate it. Or hate me because of this:
Five Years Later...
Draco Malfoy trudged dejectedly along the cobbled stones that decorated the old walkway. A few people pushed him from behind but he didn’t bother telling them off. He hadn’t been in the mood for shouting for a long, long time. Besides, the square was always full of Muggles this time of day; he was used to it. They all jostled each other and rushed about; they were always in such a hurry. It was mostly mothers out doing their shopping barely paying any attention to their screaming children.
He wasn’t sure why he insisted on doing this, why he kept torturing himself by coming back again and again. Every time he came here, the same dull ache erupted inside of his chest until he thought it might kill him and he would have to go home. Then he’d lie on his bed trying to convince himself not to go back the next day. It never worked. He always came back. He’d stand, apart from everyone else, and just watch. Every young child, little girls in particular, they all made him feel something that he had never felt before: a great sense of longing. It was like when you were hungry and you had a vague idea of what you wanted, but the kitchens didn’t serve it so the hunger just kept gnawing away at you.
All his life he had never wanted for anything. Money, clothes, toys, and girls were all his. But he had never really cared for any of it. Money was spent. Clothes were ripped. Toys were broken. Girls were tossed aside.
And then for one brief moment, he had something that he had really wanted. Something that he had really loved. He never even knew her name; he only got to hold her once. But he knew from the first time he heard her cry that he loved her. It was a foreign feeling that took awhile to pin down. Love. How strange it was. Had he ever loved anything before or since? He knew, deep down, the answer was clearly ‘no.’
After that day, that horrible day when his daughter had died, he couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed for a long time. Whenever he’d start to feel better, something else would bring him back down. He didn’t have any friends or family to help him through it either. As a result, there was a lot of wallowing and brooding. He’d just lay back and make himself miserable until he couldn’t deal with the pain anymore and would have to make himself a sleeping potion to finally get some peace.
Only recently had he become seized with this strange urge. He was compelled to go from town to town. After a few days in each town, he’d somehow realize it wasn’t the right place and move on. Where was the right place? He didn’t know. It was like he had an itch to scratch but couldn’t reach it. So there he was, in his third town that week, standing in the center of the market, gawking at all the little children.
He wondered what the people he knew at Hogwarts would say if they could see him now. There he was, cold and alone, standing in the middle of a crowded street, feeling as if no one really was near him. They would probably be glad he was miserable. He deserved it after the way he had treated everyone else. Draco didn’t agree. He didn’t think anyone deserved this. He wished he were as guarded and unfeeling as he had been at Hogwarts. Then he wouldn’t be in such a state.
He was only twenty-four years old but he wore an expression that made him look three times his age. He examined the children with dull, gray eyes. Most of the parents would hustle their kids to the other side of the street to avoid him and would keep eyeing him suspiciously from across the street. Obviously, he wasn’t quite so charming looking as he once had been.
To the left of him, an older woman was yelling at a young boy. He wondered briefly if she had ever stopped to consider what she had in that boy and if she did, if she would be screaming at him like that. He supposed most parents didn’t have the time to sit around and think about what it would be like if their baby were dead. They were probably run ragged, beaten, tired, and hoarse from shouting. Not like Draco, who hadn’t really done anything since he had left his home five years ago. Except perhaps, wander around playgrounds, squares and school grounds where he could feel the weight of what he had lost and wait for the day when they’d be together again.
Up ahead, a tiny girl with glowing pigtails was bouncing up and down excitedly as she waited for her mother, who was wearing a large, straw hat and appeared to be looking through her bag for something.
“Let’s go, Mummy, I’m bored,” she whined.
The mother laughed. “In a minute, sweetie.” She didn’t look up at the girl but Draco couldn’t stop looking at her.
He couldn’t see the woman’s face, but Draco bet she was young. Like Ginny would’ve been if she had lived. The child was about the right age too. She was probably four or five. The girl’s pigtails shone in the midday sun; they were strawberry blonde -- a little bit red and a little bit blonde. This was how he pictured his own daughter when he lay asleep at night. Then he’d wake up. There was one important, and painful, difference between this child and his own: this child was full of energy, of life, and his wasn’t. His was dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead. The word echoed in his head.
“Where are we going now?” the girl asked inquisitively. She was hopping up and down as she spoke, almost as if she had jumping beans in her stomach and simply couldn’t stand still. Her eyes were darting back and forth like she was trying to get a good look at every single person in the square. Sometimes her eyes would sort of glaze over and she’d stare off into space like she was seeing something only she could. But she never stopped hopping. She was so alive.
“Back to the hotel,” the woman answered, still bent over pulling things out of her bag.
Draco stood rooted in that spot, watching the little girl. He knew he was being creepy and weird but he couldn’t help it. He had never seen a child that had looked so much like his daughter would have. He felt almost like she was his. His insides yearned for him to go over and take her into his arms. The same feeling he had when he had heard his daughter cry through the thick walls of Malfoy Manor so many years ago. If he could just stand there and never move, then everything would be okay. He could pretend things were all right and be happy. But he knew they’d leave, and then he’d be alone again.
Still, he could dream. In his mind, the little girl was his. They were out for a day of shopping with Ginny, who was the woman searching for something in her bag. They’d walk along the street looking in all the store windows and when the girl saw something she wanted, of course, Draco would buy it for her. Maybe when they walked, he would hold one hand, Ginny the other and together they would swing her back and forth. She’d shriek and giggle like it was a ride. Then they’d go eat in the restaurant down the street a ways, Draco would go get the food for them while his family waited patiently and when he’d come back with it, the child would say:
“Hi Daddy!”
The voice in his head was so real, too real. He tried to shake himself out of his reverie and pay attention to the here and now. It was then that Draco realized he wasn’t day dreaming anymore. The little girl was waving merrily. Her little, round face was pulled up in the biggest smile he had ever seen, almost like she was overjoyed to see him.
Shell-shocked, Draco didn’t know what to do. The rational part of his brain told him to politely tell the girl that he wasn’t her father. But the dream was so vivid, so clear in his mind, he found himself smiling back at her. It wasn’t wrong to allow himself this one indulgence, was it? If it was possible, she grinned even wider and began waving with both hands.
The mother gasped, breaking the spell the child had over him. She grabbed the girl to herself protectively, the way the other mothers had done when they saw him. Then for the first time since he had been standing there, the mother looked up into his face.
Draco felt his heard plummet into the cobbled stone he was walking on. He knew that face. She was older too, but unmistakably the same girl. “Ginny,” he breathed, completely unable to comprehend it. It was her. It was really her. His mind wasn’t playing tricks this time. She was alive.
Alive. Alive. Alive. The word echoed in his head.
Ginny looked at Draco, utter terror written all over her face. Without a moment’s hesitation, she snatched the little girl into her arms and took off down the street, leaving the contents of her bag splayed across the walkway. People yelped as she pushed past them in an effort to put as much distance between them as possible.
At first he didn’t know what to do. He watched her retreating form in disbelief. He was so stunned by what he had just seen. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think.
Then it hit him. He was about to lose them again.
Without another thought, he took off after them at full speed, praying he wasn‘t too late.
He heard the shoppers exclaiming as he ran by but he didn’t process what they were saying. They didn’t matter. They were just blurs of color as he passed. The only thing that he really saw was Ginny. The wind whipped her hat off her head revealing her distinctive Weasley hair, confirming what he already knew… It was Ginny. Her hair flew behind her like a flag waving in the breeze. The bright color shown in the midday sun making it stand out from everything else. He was glad, it gave him something to follow.
“Hey!” a man yelped as Draco collided with him, causing him to drop two, large sodas he was holding. Draco didn’t apologize. He didn’t stop. He couldn’t. He was halfway down the street by the time the man looked up to see what had happened.
“Daddy!” Draco could swear he heard the little girl yell over the mindless chatter of the masses. He could see his daughter’s little hand reaching out from Ginny’s arms. She was reaching out to him.
The simple motion gave him a new burst of energy. He had never run so hard and so fast in his life. Malfoys weren’t known for their physical exertion. His legs seemed to be moving on their own accord. It was almost like riding a broomstick. Ginny’s red-gold hair was the Snitch in the distance. He dove after her without thinking; acting only on instinct. There would be celebration if he caught her. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if he didn’t.
Just like the Snitch, however, Ginny was proving illusive. She was quick; he had to give her that. She dove in and out of shops and wove her way through the sea of people expertly while they only got in Draco’s way. No matter how hard he ran her fiery hair only got farther and father away. Determined not to let her slip out of his grasp again, Draco pushed on. He had spent too many years dreaming of the day he’d see her again; he refused to let her out of his sight. Her hair was only a pinprick of gold in the distance now. His lungs felt as if someone had filled them with lead. His body needed to stop, but he didn’t care. If it killed him, he would find them.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the red flash that was Ginny dart into a doorway. He pushed himself harder and harder to get there in time. Panting heavily, Draco flung himself through the doorway. There throngs of people all trying to get out the same door he had come in met him. They pushed him roughly out of the way as he stood on his tiptoes and craned his neck trying to spot Ginny. He couldn’t figure out which way she had gone. The building was filled with passages and staircases. Some of them lead up, some lead down, but he was sure they all lead somewhere different. Ginny could’ve used any one of them.
Even if he did know which way she had gone, it still wouldn’t be an easy task to locate her. He looked left and right. Now he knew why she had picked this particular place. It was filled with Muggles, all shopping, talking and getting in his way. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Scratch that, needles were too large and haystacks were too small. It was like looking for a grain of sand on a beach.
Draco cursed loudly causing some women to look at him in horror and cover their children’s ears. He grabbed a nearby bench to stand on. He looked in vain for several minutes before finally admitting to himself that she had gone. Miserably, he assumed a normal, sitting position on the bench. Now what?
He still couldn’t believe what had just happened. For the last five years he had thought her dead. Then he found himself face-to-face with her. It was the first time he had actually laid eyes on her since the baby had been born. He kicked a small stone on the ground around. She must think I’m in with Voldemort, he realized. She had probably been running all these years, trying to stay one step ahead of the Dark Lord.
Trying to keep their baby safe...
He couldn’t imagine what that was like. No wonder she had looked so frightened when their eyes had met. He closed his eyes and played the scene over in his head. It was still vivid in his mind. He could picture everything that had happened perfectly like it was a moving photograph. Her first instinct had been to grab the girl, not to fight or protect herself. It had been a knee jerk reaction. She didn’t think anything about crushing the girl into her arms and taking off. She hadn’t given a second thought to the bag that she had been so wrapped up in before she had seen him.
Immediately, Draco stood up as if he had sat on something hot. Her bag! She had left her bag where they had been standing. There might be something in there that he could use to find them again! He rushed back out into the street, hoping someone hadn’t picked it up. It was now the only thing that could link him to his daughter. That ratty, old purse had been transformed into the Holy Grail of his fatherhood.
To his relief, it was lying exactly where she had left it. No one had bothered with it. Some of the contents had fallen out. Draco scurried to retrieve them. He looked down at the items in his hand. They were jars of makeup that he didn’t recognize. Some girl thing, he mused. Inside the bag, there were the usual emergency items: an umbrella, tissues, extra cash, some bandages, Muggle medicine and some other things that were obviously Ginny’s. The things that caught his eye were buried deeper inside. He pulled out some faded books with large lettering and bright pictures on the front: children’s books.
He had never touched anything of his daughter’s before. He turned the first book over and flipped through the pages. Some of them were dog-eared and some of the pictures were colored on. It looked as though someone had read them a lot. The others were all the same. They were Fairy Tales. It seemed she particularly liked stories involving princesses. Those were the ones where the text was the most worn. It was almost illegible, like it didn’t matter because she knew them by heart.
The last one was particularly thick and old looking. Ginny probably had bought it used; he doubted she had a lot of money to spend. He imagined them sitting up at night while Ginny read aloud from the book and the little girl looked on with anticipation, silently mouthing the words as her mother spoke. The book was musty but had a faint smell of perfume on it. Some of the drawings were crude; he hoped Ginny didn’t show them to the girl. He flipped through the pages again as if hoping they would tell him a story about the people who had read the book.
Draco was amazed when, at the very end of the book, the pages offered up a piece of paper that had been folded over many times. He unfolded the paper like it was a present given to him on Christmas morning.
There, in the large, untidy lettering of a child just learning to write was the name of a hotel.
* * *
“Mummy?”
Ginny turned around from packing to look at her daughter. The girl looked so small compared to the large, hotel bed she sat on. Her pink attire was a stark contrast to the deep, blue bedspread. She sat, constantly swinging her legs, staring up at her mother with imploring eyes.
“What are you doing, Mummy?” she asked innocently, trying to get a good look from her perch.
“I’m packing,” Ginny answered as she threw some last-minute items into her suitcase. It never took long for her to pack. Probably since the suitcase had never been completely unpacked since she had bought it. “We’re leaving.”
The girl pouted, her lower lip jutting out from her face. “Why do we always have to leave?” She posed her question in such a way that made her mother’s heart break. They rarely stayed in one place for more than a few weeks, opting to keep moving so the Death Eaters wouldn’t be able to catch them. Ginny knew her daughter needed stability, a real home and friends but those were just things she couldn’t give her. “I want to stay!” she whined. “I like it here.”
Ginny sighed. She crouched down in front of the girl. “You know we can’t,” she whispered as she reached out to stroke her daughter’s hair. “Get your things,” she instructed sadly wishing more than anything that she could give her daughter what she wanted. The girl blinked her big, tear-filled eyes at her mother trying to appeal the decision. When her mother remained steadfast, she jumped down from the bed and retrieved her clothes and books without another complaint.
Ginny ventured into the bathroom where she slowly packed away their toothbrushes again. In the mirror she saw a tired woman forcing herself to do the simplest of actions. She wanted nothing more than to collapse on the floor and sob. It was just as difficult for her to pick up and move again as it was for her daughter. She was a person used to a strong, stable family unit and a caring home. There were days when she wished she could just go back and have her mother cook her meals; her brothers sit around the table telling stupid jokes and most of all for her father to hold her in his arms and tell her he would protect her. But she couldn’t give in to her desire to stay or it might result in losing her child forever. That scared her more than a million different hotel rooms ever could.
Tears fought their way into her eyes. Ginny fiercely tried to hold them back. Once she started, she’d never be able to stop. She was still trying to compose herself when a sharp knock at the door cut through the silence. “See who that is,” she instructed her daughter with a hoarse voice.
In the bedroom, the little girl approached the door with some of her clothes still in her hand. She stopped a few feet away from it to look at the wood quizzically as if it were a person about to introduce himself to her. She was too short to see through the peephole, but that didn’t matter.
Draco nervously stood behind the door. He had run back to his own hotel and retrieved a few necessary items then had come to the hotel named on the paper in the book. Sure enough, when he asked the desk if any redheaded woman with a young daughter was staying there they told him ‘yes.’ He needed to use a few charms to convince them to tell him the room number, but it had been worth it. Now he was standing outside their door, about to see his daughter for the second time in years.
The little girl pursed her lips as she debated what to tell her mother. She hated to lie, but it was the only way. “It’s the maid!” she finally said loudly. She innocently returned to her packing when her mother emerged from the bathroom to open the door.
“I’m sorry we don’t...” Ginny said as she opened it. She stopped abruptly when it revealed the silver-haired man behind it. Draco started to talk. She didn’t hear him. Ginny whipped around to look at the girl who was sitting next to her suitcase. When she saw Draco the girl’s face split into a wide smile.
“Daddy!” she cheered as she ran over, attaching herself to his leg.
He didn’t know how to react to the girl hugging him tightly. He patted her head gently. Her hair was silky smooth just like his. He smiled unconsciously. She looked so happy to see him. Ginny, on the other hand, was wearing an expression mixed with anger and confusion. She glared accusingly at the girl.
Draco would’ve quaked if his mother had looked at him like that. The girl just grinned and said sweetly, “He followed us home. Can we keep him?”
“Ginny, I...” Draco began. He had an entire speech planned. He even brewed some Veritaserum to prove he wasn’t lying. He wasn’t the type to go into these situations unprepared. It was a good thing he was a master at potions and could whip one up quickly.
Before he could even get to his third word, Ginny cut him off by lunging forward and grabbing his arm. She roughly prodded her finger into his forearm and said a spell that Draco had never heard before. When nothing happened, she furrowed her brow. She did it again, poking him so hard that she drew bright red blood but that was all that appeared.
Ginny turned her face up to his, searching for some kind of answers. Then the mask of confusion slowly broke. She looked from Draco to the little girl, who was still clutching his leg, like they were two pieces of a puzzle that had finally fit together. “You’re not a Death Eater,” she said flatly.
“No,” he replied with conviction even though he was sure her last statement hadn’t been a question.
“Can he stay?” the girl asked loudly, visibly irritated that her parents were not paying any attention to her.
Ginny hesitated for a moment. There really wasn’t any reason he couldn’t come with them if he wasn’t working for Voldemort. Her daughter obviously wanted a father as well. The only thing stopping her from saying ‘yes’ was Draco himself. She didn’t trust him. They had never gotten along well at Hogwarts, which could cause problems and he wasn’t exactly known for being the most caring person. What if he got bored of them and left?
Ginny looked down at her daughter who was bouncing up and down with anticipation. She would be crushed. She needed a father. She wanted a father. She deserved a father. Ginny didn’t want to be the one to break her little heart.
After a lot of inner dialogue Ginny finally muttered, “He can stay with us if he wants to.” Thus, leaving it up to Draco instead.
Draco and his daughter grinned broadly at each other. “Yay!” she cheered. In a flash, she had hopped over to the bed and begun to shimmy and shake in the cutest victory dance one could ever hope to see. Even Ginny couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
“If you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” Ginny hissed in his ear so only he could hear. With that, she closed the still open door behind him with a snap.
“I won’t,” he assured her.
Ginny still did not look convinced. She was going to be watching him very closely. If he gave her even the smallest reason to distrust him, then he was gone. She walked over to the bed and scooped up her baby. “Do we still hafta go?” the girl asked.
“No.” Ginny shook her head. “We can stay.”
Draco watched them with interest. He felt a pang in his stomach. They had been together for the last five years. He could only imagine the things they had done together in that time. He had missed so much of his daughter’s life. He was surprised, no, down right shocked that she even knew who he was. If only he had known she wasn’t dead, then he could’ve looked for them. But there was no fixing it now. Time moved on. He couldn’t change it.
When he snapped back into reality, he found Ginny looking at him with an expression he couldn’t read. It was as if she knew what he was thinking. But that wasn’t possible; no one ever knew what he was thinking. He had made sure of it by practicing keeping his face neutral in the mirror at home. It made for a better liar.
“Honey,” she said to the girl in a gentle voice. “Why don’t you play with,” she looked at Draco, “Dr- Daddy for a bit. I’m going to clean up.” They needed some time alone; Ginny knew it although she hated it. She retreated into the bathroom, for what Draco was sure was just busy work and not anything important. She didn’t close the door all the way.
He smiled nervously. Play with her? What did she like to do? He had just met her; he didn’t have any idea what to do with her. The girl turned to look at her father expectantly. It was then that he noticed her eyes. They were exceptionally large and gray, like his. Except where his were cold and harsh, hers were round and twinkling. He couldn’t explain it but this made him feel a tad bit better. At least a small part of him had always been with her.
Still, there were too many things he didn’t know. They were important too. Even a mediocre father would know them. “What’s your name?” he croaked, his eyes filling with tears that didn’t dare fall. He felt horrible. People she casually passed on the streets probably knew more about her than he did.
She clasped her hands behind her back and twisted back and forth. “Cassandra Molly Weasley-Malfoy,” she said proudly.
“That’s bigger than you are,” he whispered, ever so pleased she had added the “Malfoy” at the end.
“Mummy calls me Cassie,” she informed him knowledgeably. “It’s littler.”
“Cassie,” he repeated, testing out the way it felt on his tongue. “Cassie.”
He wanted to take in every bit of her so he would never forget. It was all new to him: her shiny, pig-tailed hair; her bright, gray eyes; her tiny, thin frame wrapped in a pink sundress; the way she never, ever stopped moving even when she was standing in one place. It was important that he knew it all. It proved she was real, not some dream. He was really standing in front of her.
They continued to stare at another. Draco got the impression that she was incredibly bored by him. All he did was sit and look at her intently, which couldn’t be much fun for a five year old. “So what do you want to play?” he asked hoping he wouldn’t mess it up, whatever it was. He wasn’t very good at games. He had never even played them when he was a child himself. His mum never wanted to get his clothes dirty and he never had many friends away.
“Wanna watch Sleeping Beauty?” she asked excitedly. He was so enthusiastic about it, he couldn’t say no even though he had no idea what she was talking about. He nodded while thinking, how does one watch Sleeping Beauty?
Cassie proceeded to grab his hand and haul him toward the bed with strength greater than that of a normal five-year-old, or so he thought. She sat him down on the edge and grinned at him cheekily before turning around. She busied herself by opening up the wooden dresser, revealing a large, black box that he didn’t recognize. Then she went to her pink bag, still all packed next to her mother’s, and pulled out a rectangular-shaped something that she put into an opening in the black box. The box made clicking noises.
Cassie wasn’t surprised by any of this. She climbed up onto the bed with him with great effort since she was so tiny. Then, after a moment’s debate, she crawled into his lap. She made quite a show of finding the perfect spot to sit and getting comfortable. Once said spot was found, she flashed him a brilliant grin. He grinned down at her. He hadn’t actually held her since that night back at the Manor. She was still pleasantly warm and soft, kind of like a large doll. He was a bit surprised at how far from awkward it was, almost like she belonged there. What was stranger was how quickly she had taken to him. He had thought for sure that she would be at least a little bit hesitant around him since they barely knew each other.
Draco didn’t have time to ponder what this all meant, because before long Cassie gasped. Her eyes were riveted to the black box, which wasn’t so black anymore. It was showing pictures and they were moving like wizard photographs. Unlike wizard photographs, the box seemed to be telling some sort of story. The people in the pictures weren’t confined to one frame and they talked. The whole thing made Draco uncomfortable. He shouldn’t be watching people’s lives like that, it wasn’t right. It was like spying.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Cassie asked nervously. She looked afraid that he didn’t want to play with her anymore.
“What is that?” he questioned warily.
It was somewhat embarrassing when his daughter started to laugh. “It’s a TV, Daddy,” she explained. “Muggles watch it. It tells stories, like a book with lots of pictures. See?” She pointed at a blonde woman walking across the screen. “That’s Princess Aurora. She’s Sleeping Beauty,” she said it reverently. Sleeping Beauty was obviously someone who deserved great respect.
At little while into the movie, Draco started to relax. It was more like a wizard painting than anything. The people were drawn onto the box but they moved and spoke like regular people. Cassie kept pointing to the people and explaining things to him. (“That’s Maleficent. She’s bad.”... “See Prince Philip? Isn’t he handsome?”) She was in complete awe of everything before her and didn’t take her eyes off it for a second lest she’d miss a bit.
Draco couldn’t really get into it. It was such a sugar coating of the original tale. And parts of it were so unbelievable. The fairies looked like people with little wings sticking out, nothing like real fairies. And why did they have wands? Fairies couldn’t do wizard magic. For Cassie’s sake however, he kept his mouth shut. He actually spent more time watching her reaction than he did watching the movie. He wore the same rapt, glassy eyed expression when he looked at her that she did when Aurora would come on screen.
He found it particularly amusing that on various occasions, the characters would burst into song. Cassie, on the other hand, didn’t think it was funny. She thought it was wonderful and she’d sing along, loudly and off key.
“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream,” she sang out proudly. “I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. But I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem. But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream.”°
Maybe it was because he had spent the last few years in a waking dream, just waiting to die. Or maybe it was because Draco’s life had changed so much that day. One minute he was pretending his daughter was still alive and the next she was. Now she was sitting in his lap singing cutely. No one had ever been so glad to see him in his entire life, nor had he ever been so glad to see someone else. Whatever the reason, as Cassie belted out the rest of the song, which was really the first part of the song repeated, “But if I know you, I know what you’ll do. You’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream,” Draco was startled to find tears trickling down his face. He quickly tried to wipe them away, afraid that Ginny would come out and see him crying. It was an old habit it had; he didn’t want anyone to see his weakness.
Cassie didn’t turn around to see him but she snuggled closer up against him. He wrapped his arms around her hoping that he wouldn’t wake up tomorrow and find that this had all been a dream.
Fortunately, by the time Ginny reemerged from the other room, his tears had dried up. Cassie was bouncing up and down on his lap as Prince Charming fought the evil sorceress. Ginny looked from Draco to her daughter with a smile. He hadn’t bolted, that was a good sign. And he had sat through all of Sleeping Beauty to boot. Ginny had started refusing to watch it with her daughter. The first hundred times had been enough.
Cassie still hadn’t noticed her mother, as she was so focused on the movie. She always acted as though she had never seen it before and didn’t know what was going to happen. Her little eyes widened in fear as the big, black dragon nearly got Prince Philip.
Ginny sniggered. “Now sword of truth fly swift and sure. That evil die and good endure!” she quoted dramatically in time with the movie. The two adults laughed as Cassie oohed and ahhed at the ending. Ginny pretended to cry when Philip and Aurora kissed and she gave a loud sigh as she quoted, “Oh, I just love happy endings.”°
Cassie grinned widely when it was over. She turned around to her parents and said, “Isn’t that the bestest movie ever?”
* * *
“Cassie! Time for bed!” Ginny called out.
Cassie looked up at her from where she was telling her Daddy about the time her mum let her try on a dress just like Princess Aurora’s and how it had been really good for twirling around real fast. She was rather annoyed to be interrupted. “But Mum!” she whined.
“You can tell me tomorrow,” Draco offered after seeing the look on Ginny’s face.
“Okey,” the little girl said brightly as she ran off to get ready for bed.
“She has too much energy,” Ginny sighed. “We’re gonna have to start feeding her sedatives.”
Suddenly they were enveloped in an uncomfortable silence due to her use of the word ‘we.’ Twenty-four hours ago Ginny had been a single mother and she was already thinking of them as a team. She knew she was mentally jumping the gun; there was a great possibility that Draco wouldn’t be around much longer. Either because he would leave or because would get sick of seeing his smirking face and kick him out. She and Draco weren’t known for getting along. Draco wasn’t known for getting along with anyone now that she thought about it. And it was hard enough for parents who loved each other to stay together. What chance did they have?
“I’m ready!” cried Cassie as she returned, proudly displaying her footy pajamas as if she were on a catwalk.
Ginny saw the smile dance across Draco’s face as Cassie entered. She hoped that meant they had some common ground to work from. That would help, no matter how much they hated each other.
“Get in bed,” Ginny instructed. “I’ll be there in a minute.” She again disappeared into the bathroom, presumably to get ready for bed.
With great effort, Cassie did what her mother said and climbed into the large, double bed. She waved at her father from under the covers. “You going to stay with us tonight, Daddy?” she asked sleepily.
He nodded mutely. He had packed up all his things and brought them over when he came. He didn’t ever intend on going back to the way he had been living. His suitcase was now sitting between Ginny’s tattered, old one and Cassie’s little, pink one. Cassie waved at him with just her hands and eyes peeking out from underneath the many blankets as he went to get his pajamas. He noticed that Cassie was taking up an awful lot of space in the double bed for such a tiny girl and there were only two beds.
That meant someone was going to have to share.
Ginny appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. The yellow light lit her from behind making her hair shine like a halo. “You can change in here,” she said gesturing behind her. “I’m finished.” He smiled gratefully. He hadn’t really wanted to change in front of his daughter. As they passed, he registered that she was wearing boxer shorts and a ratty, old t-shirt with the picture of a motorbike on the front and the words ‘If You Can Read This: The Wife Fell Off’ on the back.
Ginny certainly wasn’t the type of girl he was used to being around. She wasn’t dainty and didn’t own anything that was frilly, lacey or expensive. She cracked jokes and swore when Cassie wasn’t listening. She had spent the last five years living independent of any outside help and she had still managed to raise a happy, healthy, young girl. He wondered if all Gryffindors were like that.
As attractive as she was, he was rather glad to see her crawl into bed with Cassie who squealed and hugged her mother tightly. It would’ve been horribly uncomfortable to have to sleep in the same bed. He just didn’t know how to deal with her. He couldn’t charm her or seduce her. She wasn’t the kind of woman he’d fall in love with, in fact, he was pretty sure there was no kind of woman he’d fall in love with. He knew he should try to get along with her but he didn’t know how to go about becoming friends with her or with anyone for that matter. After all, they were bitter enemies until fate had intervened tied them together forever through the little girl who they had created.
Draco felt a bit uncomfortable after having dressed for bed. His pajamas were made of a rich, green silk that was only used by the finest robe makers. He still had his key to his own Gringotts vault that his mother had set up for him the year before Cassie had been conceived. Even though he didn’t spend half the money he used to, he was still used to a comfortable lifestyle. Ginny and Cassie, on the other hand, had been scraping by for the last few years.
Ginny had a hard time making and keeping money. She even admitted to having done something that most wizards thought was the absolute lowest you could sink. She did a street magic show. All you had do were simple spells like making light come out of your wand and the Muggles coughed the money up. But Ginny didn’t like to do that, so most of the time she did odd jobs, like cleaning houses, to make sure they always had enough money for the next train out of town. Neither girl had much in the way of material items. Everything they owned fit into two suitcases.
But they didn’t look up from their bed as Draco passed. Cassie was already splayed out across the sheets with her eyes tightly shut while Ginny was sitting up apparently her mind was elsewhere. He suddenly felt very foolish for thinking they’d care about something as silly as how much his clothes cost. And that nasty voice in the back of his head pointed out that Ginny wouldn’t know fine fabric if it jumped up and bit her. She had always worn used robes even when she had a family to support her.
They really were two very different people. Deep in thought, Draco lay down and switched off the light. He didn’t think he’d fall asleep quickly since he had so much on his mind. His theory was proven correct when a high-pitched, frightened scream erupted from the other side of the room.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeep!”
Panic flooded Draco. He immediately sat up in bed and turned the light on again. Worried that something had happened, he instinctively looked over to make sure Ginny and Cassie were all right. Ginny was whispering soothing words to a terrified Cassie, who was no more than two bright eyes peering out from behind her mother. She whimpered softly.
“Shhh,” Ginny murmured. “It’s all right, honey.” She stroked the girl’s back protectively. “I’m sure Daddy didn’t mean to turn off the light,” she said pointedly, glaring at Draco.
Draco sighed. All his regrets about how he didn’t know his daughter at all came flooding back to him. Seeing Cassie’s trembling figure only made him feel worse. He looked daggers at the light on the night table as if it was to blame, but in reality he knew it was no one’s fault but his own. He was her father. He should have known that she’s scared of the dark.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I...I wasn’t thinking.”
Cassie turned her large eyes on him like spotlights. She gasped. “Aren’t you afraid of the monsters?” she asked, in awe of his bravery.
“Honey,” Ginny spoke up trying to reassure Cassie that everything was ok. “There aren’t any monsters.”
“Yes there are!” The little girl said fervently. “They live under the bed and hide in the shadows! They come to get you when you’re sleeping!” She heaved a sigh trying to hold back the tears and be strong. “The bad man sent them.” Her voice was no louder than a whisper but nothing short of terrified. That was how he knew she was talking about Voldemort.
Ginny sighed. Instead of arguing, she hugged Cassie tighter. Draco got the impression that this was an ongoing battle, and that Ginny had given up fighting about it. Most young children were frightened of the dark, Cassie’s intense fear was probably related to the fact that they had been running from monsters her entire life. They’d never be able to convince her that they didn’t exist.
Draco knew they’d have a job of getting her to fall asleep now. She was holding on to Ginny for dear life so that Draco was sure Ginny was going to lose circulation in her extremities. And then, he had an idea. He leapt from the bed the moment it struck him. Ginny followed him with quizzical eyes. He went over to his bag and rummaged through it. It was buried at the bottom. He didn’t know why he had brought it. In fact, he never understood why he hadn’t tossed it out. Perhaps it was because he had never gotten to give it to her.
He turned around with a little, white blanket in his hands. It seemed like eons since he had bought it for her. He had sneaked away when he and Lucius had been out shopping for Christmas. She hadn’t even been born then. “Here,” he said holding it out to her. Cassie blinked. She looked from the blanket to her father and back again. “It has monster repelling powers,” he said knowledgeably.
“Wow,” she breathed as she took it to her, obviously impressed with the gift.
Ginny and Draco exchanged secretive glances behind her back. They both knew it was just an ordinary blanket but Cassie needn’t know that. They were willing to say anything if it would get her to go back to sleep. It was the mark of a true parent.
Cassie rubbed the blanket against her cheek. “It’s fuzzy!” she announced gleefully.
Draco grinned, pleased that he had finally done something right for a change. Cassie happily lay down, snuggled between her new blanket and her mother. Draco also returned to bed. This time he was careful not to turn the light out. He was going to have a hard time getting used to sleeping with the light on, but he supposed he could manage. It helped that he could now clearly see across the room. Cassie was pretending to be asleep but only for Ginny’s benefit. With her back turned, Ginny couldn’t see that Cassie’s teeny hand was waving at Draco.
* * *
About an hour after Cassie’s heavy breathing indicated that she had fallen fast asleep, Draco was still wide-awake. He had a lot on his mind and on top of that, he wasn’t used to going to bed so early. It had been years since he had the bedtime of a five-year-old. That wasn’t to say that the day hadn’t been emotionally and physically draining. His body ached for sleep but his mind kept turning things over and examining them from every boring angle. He had so many questions that needed to be answered.
“Can’t sleep either?” said a quiet voice from across the room, startling Draco.
Ginny rose to her feet slowly as she untangled herself from Cassie. “I suppose it’s a bit early for you,” she said gently as she sat down on the bed next to him. He sat up to make more room for her. “She can’t fall asleep unless I go with her.” she nodded her head towards the sleeping child. “Mostly, I just stay up and think about things while she’s out. Although sometimes she tires me out so I’m gone before she is,” she chuckled.
Draco nodded. He quite understood. Ginny looked away uncomfortably. The surreal quality of the situation was not lost on her. Somehow in the eerie, orange light of the lone lamp that light the room things looked even stranger than they had during the day. Neither one of them knew what to say although they were both dying to ask all the questions that had been plaguing them since Draco had shown up on Ginny’s doorstep.
“So...” Ginny started seeing that Draco wasn’t going to. “You weren’t working with Voldemort?” She spoke in hushed tones as to not wake Cassie.
“No,” he said emphatically. “My father put me under some spell...” he admitted sheepishly, since he was rather embarrassed that he had been so easily manipulated. “I assume that’s what they did to you?”
She nodded. “Of course it wasn’t my dad who did it to me.” She assumed a far off look as she thought about her own father, who she hadn’t seen in years. “You must have been hurt.”
“Pissed off is more like it,” he growled thinking about that bastard.
They were engulfed in silence once more. Draco was again struck with how different they were. She had been raised by a loving family. She probably missed them more than anything. He hoped to god that he never saw his father again. And if he did see him, he had some nice hexes planned for the old man.
“Do you miss them?” he asked more gently. Ginny, of course, knew he was talking about her extra large family. She nodded her head again but didn’t speak because it was too difficult. He looked to be on the verge of tears. It was stupid of him to have asked. Of course she missed them. “Why didn’t you go to them for help?”
This was the more pressing issue; something he had wondered about since he had found out she was living alone with Cassie. The Weasleys would go through hell and high water to help their only daughter, unlike his parents. Her brothers would probably take on Voldemort himself for her. He knew at least Ron had already faced Old Snake Face. Surely they were still looking for her. They would want to help her if they knew.
Ginny took a moment to collect herself. “The first thing the Death Eaters did when I escaped was put wards around my house, my brothers’ places, my father’s work, anywhere they thought I would go for help. If I came near them, then they’d be alerted.” Her voice broke slightly. She was acting like Cassie had earlier, trying to hide how much this was hurting her and look strong. “I never tried to reach them,” she said hoarsely. “I never even tried. I knew the wards were there and was afraid I’d be caught so I just ran. They didn’t know I knew so it bought me a lot of time. It took them awhile to realize that they weren’t going to catch me that way.”
Draco was shocked. It had never occurred to him that she wouldn’t attempt to contact the rest of the Weasley clan. It did make sense though; it was probably how she had managed to get out of the country without being detected by the Death Eaters. From the look on her face, he knew that it had been a hard decision for her to make and that it still ate away at her. If she had managed to reach her family then she and Cassie wouldn’t be on the run now but if she had failed she would have lost her daughter and her life as well. If Ginny had become attached to Cassie a fraction of the amount he had, he knew that she had decided not to risk it only because she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her daughter.
“I saw Harry Potter in a marketplace once,” she whispered quietly as her eyes glazed over like she no longer saw the cheap hotel room but the marketplace in question. “For a split second it was like seeing an oasis in a desert. I thought ‘I can tell him I’m alive! He’ll help me!’ I was nearly to him when... when I started to doubt my own eyes. What if he was a Death Eater in disguise? Polyjuice Potion isn’t hard to make.” She looked down at her hands as she plummeted back into reality. She began again this time with a note of sadness in her voice. “I never went up to him. I just watched him walk away. I just...” she searched for the words to explain it. “I can’t lose her. I can‘t.”
“I understand,” he said truthfully. He had lost Cassie and he didn’t plan on every doing it again. He was sure he wouldn’t be able to take it. After a few uncomfortable minutes, he spoke again, hoping to change the subject, “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” She nodded, grateful that he wasn’t going to pursue the topic of her family. It still made her a bit weepy.
“Cassie’s not...” he stopped, realizing he didn’t know how to phrase this. “Well, she’s not normal is she?”
Ginny didn’t answer. She looked at the sleeping figure of her daughter. Draco held his breath. He wished he hadn’t used the phrase ‘normal’ because Ginny didn’t seem to like it. He had just been so eager to ask. This was the thing that he had wondered about most since he had arrived. How had she known that he was her father? If Ginny thought he had been in with the Death Eaters then she wouldn’t have talked about him much and, as far as he knew, she didn’t have a picture to show Cassie.
“No,” she answered flatly after much thought. “No, she’s not.”
“Voldemort wanted to give her powers. My father did the spell. He didn’t say what they were,” Draco informed her.
He was cut off when she replied, “He doesn’t know what they are.” She grinned triumphantly. “And I’m not about to tell him. I’ll assume you won’t either.”
“Nope.” He was at the height of his curiosity now. Ginny was proud that she had been able to keep this secret from the Dark Lord. It was a mystery to him how she had managed to elude the Death Eaters this long; now he got the feeling this had something to do with it. Whatever powers Cassie had, Ginny was able to use them to her advantage.
Ginny knew he was completely in the dark. She was rather enjoying lording it over him. But she wasn’t a spiteful person, so after a few minutes of watching the emotions play across his face, she announced: “Cassie is a Seer.”
“A Seer?” he repeated slowly, still computing this new information. Seers were very rare. Draco’s parents had made sure he was connected with all the finest wizards of the age and he had never even met a Seer. Unless you count Professor Trelawney, and he didn’t. It did, however, make perfect sense. If Cassie were a Seer that explained how she had recognized him, how she knew to leave a note for him in her book and why she occasionally went all glassy eyed. “How long has this been going on?”
“Always, I think. I only just found out about it three years ago.” Ginny’s whole demeanor changed again as she remembered. Her voice was far off and wistful but also sad and a bit embarrassed. “She used to cry all the time. Little things frightened her. I never knew what it was. And sometimes when you’d look at her, it’d be like she didn’t see you. I thought she just had eye trouble; I’d get her a pair of glasses and everything would be ok.
“Then one night, she had just turned three, she woke me up. She had been crying and I couldn’t calm her down. She said, ‘Mummy, they coming.’ I knew she meant the Death Eaters so I figured she just had a bad dream. I told her to go back to sleep and everything would be all right in the morning.” Ginny paused to collect herself. “Not even an hour later, a swarm of Death Eaters kicked down our door. It’s lucky I still had my wand close by. I hurled every curse I could think of at them. They were stunned for a moment so I grabbed a vase or a lamp or something and heaved it at the window. I took Cassie in my arms and we jumped.” She smiled wryly, “Good thing we were only one story up. Huh?
“We left everything behind and just ran. I don’t know how they never managed to catch us. I thought for sure that one of them would apparate in front of me any second and take her away. That was the closest we ever came to being caught. She was good through the whole thing; never cried. The next morning, I found a huge gash on her forearm. When I jumped through the window, she got cut on the broken glass.”
Ginny stopped speaking. The tears were pouring freely down her face now. “There was so much blood. She still has the scar,” she croaked. “I didn’t even notice because I was so worried about escaping. It was all my fault; my fault we almost got captured and my fault she got hurt. I should have listened to her when she told me they were coming.” She wiped the tears of her face and tried to compose herself. “Anyway, that’s when I changed her name.”
“Changed her name?” Draco asked.
“Yeah,” Ginny said with a forced smile. “When she was a baby I called her ‘Molly’ after my mother. It never really fit though. So after she made her first prediction and I didn’t believe her, I changed it to ‘Cassandra’.”
“After the prophetess,” he breathed, finally understanding. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he had studied Greek Mythology. Cassandra had been a mortal girl who the god Apollo fell in love with. He gave her the gift of the Sight. But Cassandra had refused to take Apollo as a lover. He was angry. He couldn’t take the gift back so instead he made it so that no one would believe her predictions.
“Yeah,” Ginny answered absently.
“So that’s how she knew me? She had visions of me?” he asked. Had she been watching him all this time and he never knew it?
“I guess.” She sighed. “She never mentioned having Seen you but she must have.” Seeing that Draco was once again confused she expounded on what she had said. “When she was very young she couldn’t tell the difference between the things she had Seen and reality. It’s only a recent development actually. I remember one time she was so petrified of visions of my brother, Charlie. He had been training dragons and one of them breathed fire...” Ginny shook her head and giggled. “She made me keep the bathtub filled with water just in case.
“I always thought she told me everything that she had Seen. When Ron and Hermione got married she walked me through the whole thing.” She assumed a high-pitched voice and imitated Cassie. “‘Now Unca Ron is getting nervous and sweating a lot. He’s silly.’ I wish I could’ve been there,” she said mournfully. “At least I know they’re ok though.”
He nodded. He was glad as well only because he knew it was important to her, not because he cared about the majority of the Weasley clan. That had been what she worried about most when trapped at Malfoy Manor.
“So,” Ginny said abruptly startling him out of his thoughts. “If she zones out and then gets all scared and says that they’re coming, she’s not kidding.”
“The Dark Lord made her a powerful witch. Now you’re using those powers against him,” Draco drawled, summing up the situation. She nodded proudly. “That’s very Slytherin of you, Weasley.”
She smiled slightly, knowing this was a compliment from him.
* * *
It took Draco hours to fall asleep after his talk with Ginny. Every time she answered one of his questions, it just raised several more. He woke up early the next morning feeling as though he hadn’t really slept at all. Groggily, he rubbed his eyes. Strange noises were coming from the bathroom. They were the reason he was awake at such an ungodly hour.
Like a shot, the bathroom door suddenly flew open accompanied by a loud screaming. All the sleep left Draco as he jumped to his feet. That was Cassie! It was a familiar sound from the night before. He instantly assumed that something was wrong and made motion to protect her.
He was standing in the middle of the room when his eyes locked on the source of the scream. His daughter was running from the bathroom. Her hair stuck up in every direction from sleeping and she was without a stitch of clothing on her. Draco didn’t know what to do. He had never had to deal with screaming, naked children in his life. He just stood, dumbstruck, as she hid behind his legs to protect herself from what was to come.
They both looked up to find Ginny coming out the door Cassie just had. She slammed it loudly behind her causing Draco and Cassie to jump. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at her daughter. “Cassandra Molly, it is time for your bath,” she said angrily.
Draco knew she must be mad since she had used Cassie’s middle name. Cassie either didn’t notice or wasn’t afraid of her mother. She just shook her head fearfully and said, “No. No bath. I clean.” She smiled winningly, trying to convince her mother.
“Come here,” Ginny ordered her.
Cassie didn’t move. She looked imploringly up at her father. “Don’t make me, Daddy.”
Draco felt as though a spotlight had been shone upon him. Cassie was looking at him hopefully and Ginny was looking daggers at him. When he opened his mouth to speak, Ginny seized Cassie’s distraction and grabbed her from behind him. Draco was almost glad. He had no idea what he to say since either way, one of the girls would be angry with him.
Cassie squealed and kicked, trying to free herself from her mother’s grasp. Her attempts were in vain; she was just a scrawny five year-old and her mother a grown witch who had no doubt done this before. “You know,” she called to Draco over the screams of the little girl. “She fools you into thinking she’s sweet and cute with those apple cheeks and all. But,” she punctuated the ‘but’ by violently kicking the door to the bathroom open. “She’s really the devil child.”
The door closed behind them muffling Cassie’s yells. Next Draco heard, there was a loud splash as Cassie was dumped unceremoniously into the already drawn bathtub. “Oh, that was so mean!” she pouted.
Draco couldn’t help but laugh at her; it was the first time he had in a long time.
* * *
° The song Cassie sings is “Once Upon a Dream” from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. The music and lyrics are by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence
° Ginny quotes the fairy, Flora, as the fairies do magic on Philip’s sword to defeat Maleficent’s dragon. The second quote is the other fairy, Fauna, as Philip and Aurora dance. I didn’t write either line. The Disney story adaptation of Sleeping Beauty is attributed to Erdman Penner, additional story by Joe Kinaldi et al.
*
AUTHOR’S NOTES: This chapter took a LONG time to write. Probably because it’s important. New setting, new direction, etc. I hope you guys don’t hate it. Or hate me because of this:
Five Years Later...
Draco Malfoy trudged dejectedly along the cobbled stones that decorated the old walkway. A few people pushed him from behind but he didn’t bother telling them off. He hadn’t been in the mood for shouting for a long, long time. Besides, the square was always full of Muggles this time of day; he was used to it. They all jostled each other and rushed about; they were always in such a hurry. It was mostly mothers out doing their shopping barely paying any attention to their screaming children.
He wasn’t sure why he insisted on doing this, why he kept torturing himself by coming back again and again. Every time he came here, the same dull ache erupted inside of his chest until he thought it might kill him and he would have to go home. Then he’d lie on his bed trying to convince himself not to go back the next day. It never worked. He always came back. He’d stand, apart from everyone else, and just watch. Every young child, little girls in particular, they all made him feel something that he had never felt before: a great sense of longing. It was like when you were hungry and you had a vague idea of what you wanted, but the kitchens didn’t serve it so the hunger just kept gnawing away at you.
All his life he had never wanted for anything. Money, clothes, toys, and girls were all his. But he had never really cared for any of it. Money was spent. Clothes were ripped. Toys were broken. Girls were tossed aside.
And then for one brief moment, he had something that he had really wanted. Something that he had really loved. He never even knew her name; he only got to hold her once. But he knew from the first time he heard her cry that he loved her. It was a foreign feeling that took awhile to pin down. Love. How strange it was. Had he ever loved anything before or since? He knew, deep down, the answer was clearly ‘no.’
After that day, that horrible day when his daughter had died, he couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed for a long time. Whenever he’d start to feel better, something else would bring him back down. He didn’t have any friends or family to help him through it either. As a result, there was a lot of wallowing and brooding. He’d just lay back and make himself miserable until he couldn’t deal with the pain anymore and would have to make himself a sleeping potion to finally get some peace.
Only recently had he become seized with this strange urge. He was compelled to go from town to town. After a few days in each town, he’d somehow realize it wasn’t the right place and move on. Where was the right place? He didn’t know. It was like he had an itch to scratch but couldn’t reach it. So there he was, in his third town that week, standing in the center of the market, gawking at all the little children.
He wondered what the people he knew at Hogwarts would say if they could see him now. There he was, cold and alone, standing in the middle of a crowded street, feeling as if no one really was near him. They would probably be glad he was miserable. He deserved it after the way he had treated everyone else. Draco didn’t agree. He didn’t think anyone deserved this. He wished he were as guarded and unfeeling as he had been at Hogwarts. Then he wouldn’t be in such a state.
He was only twenty-four years old but he wore an expression that made him look three times his age. He examined the children with dull, gray eyes. Most of the parents would hustle their kids to the other side of the street to avoid him and would keep eyeing him suspiciously from across the street. Obviously, he wasn’t quite so charming looking as he once had been.
To the left of him, an older woman was yelling at a young boy. He wondered briefly if she had ever stopped to consider what she had in that boy and if she did, if she would be screaming at him like that. He supposed most parents didn’t have the time to sit around and think about what it would be like if their baby were dead. They were probably run ragged, beaten, tired, and hoarse from shouting. Not like Draco, who hadn’t really done anything since he had left his home five years ago. Except perhaps, wander around playgrounds, squares and school grounds where he could feel the weight of what he had lost and wait for the day when they’d be together again.
Up ahead, a tiny girl with glowing pigtails was bouncing up and down excitedly as she waited for her mother, who was wearing a large, straw hat and appeared to be looking through her bag for something.
“Let’s go, Mummy, I’m bored,” she whined.
The mother laughed. “In a minute, sweetie.” She didn’t look up at the girl but Draco couldn’t stop looking at her.
He couldn’t see the woman’s face, but Draco bet she was young. Like Ginny would’ve been if she had lived. The child was about the right age too. She was probably four or five. The girl’s pigtails shone in the midday sun; they were strawberry blonde -- a little bit red and a little bit blonde. This was how he pictured his own daughter when he lay asleep at night. Then he’d wake up. There was one important, and painful, difference between this child and his own: this child was full of energy, of life, and his wasn’t. His was dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead. The word echoed in his head.
“Where are we going now?” the girl asked inquisitively. She was hopping up and down as she spoke, almost as if she had jumping beans in her stomach and simply couldn’t stand still. Her eyes were darting back and forth like she was trying to get a good look at every single person in the square. Sometimes her eyes would sort of glaze over and she’d stare off into space like she was seeing something only she could. But she never stopped hopping. She was so alive.
“Back to the hotel,” the woman answered, still bent over pulling things out of her bag.
Draco stood rooted in that spot, watching the little girl. He knew he was being creepy and weird but he couldn’t help it. He had never seen a child that had looked so much like his daughter would have. He felt almost like she was his. His insides yearned for him to go over and take her into his arms. The same feeling he had when he had heard his daughter cry through the thick walls of Malfoy Manor so many years ago. If he could just stand there and never move, then everything would be okay. He could pretend things were all right and be happy. But he knew they’d leave, and then he’d be alone again.
Still, he could dream. In his mind, the little girl was his. They were out for a day of shopping with Ginny, who was the woman searching for something in her bag. They’d walk along the street looking in all the store windows and when the girl saw something she wanted, of course, Draco would buy it for her. Maybe when they walked, he would hold one hand, Ginny the other and together they would swing her back and forth. She’d shriek and giggle like it was a ride. Then they’d go eat in the restaurant down the street a ways, Draco would go get the food for them while his family waited patiently and when he’d come back with it, the child would say:
“Hi Daddy!”
The voice in his head was so real, too real. He tried to shake himself out of his reverie and pay attention to the here and now. It was then that Draco realized he wasn’t day dreaming anymore. The little girl was waving merrily. Her little, round face was pulled up in the biggest smile he had ever seen, almost like she was overjoyed to see him.
Shell-shocked, Draco didn’t know what to do. The rational part of his brain told him to politely tell the girl that he wasn’t her father. But the dream was so vivid, so clear in his mind, he found himself smiling back at her. It wasn’t wrong to allow himself this one indulgence, was it? If it was possible, she grinned even wider and began waving with both hands.
The mother gasped, breaking the spell the child had over him. She grabbed the girl to herself protectively, the way the other mothers had done when they saw him. Then for the first time since he had been standing there, the mother looked up into his face.
Draco felt his heard plummet into the cobbled stone he was walking on. He knew that face. She was older too, but unmistakably the same girl. “Ginny,” he breathed, completely unable to comprehend it. It was her. It was really her. His mind wasn’t playing tricks this time. She was alive.
Alive. Alive. Alive. The word echoed in his head.
Ginny looked at Draco, utter terror written all over her face. Without a moment’s hesitation, she snatched the little girl into her arms and took off down the street, leaving the contents of her bag splayed across the walkway. People yelped as she pushed past them in an effort to put as much distance between them as possible.
At first he didn’t know what to do. He watched her retreating form in disbelief. He was so stunned by what he had just seen. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think.
Then it hit him. He was about to lose them again.
Without another thought, he took off after them at full speed, praying he wasn‘t too late.
He heard the shoppers exclaiming as he ran by but he didn’t process what they were saying. They didn’t matter. They were just blurs of color as he passed. The only thing that he really saw was Ginny. The wind whipped her hat off her head revealing her distinctive Weasley hair, confirming what he already knew… It was Ginny. Her hair flew behind her like a flag waving in the breeze. The bright color shown in the midday sun making it stand out from everything else. He was glad, it gave him something to follow.
“Hey!” a man yelped as Draco collided with him, causing him to drop two, large sodas he was holding. Draco didn’t apologize. He didn’t stop. He couldn’t. He was halfway down the street by the time the man looked up to see what had happened.
“Daddy!” Draco could swear he heard the little girl yell over the mindless chatter of the masses. He could see his daughter’s little hand reaching out from Ginny’s arms. She was reaching out to him.
The simple motion gave him a new burst of energy. He had never run so hard and so fast in his life. Malfoys weren’t known for their physical exertion. His legs seemed to be moving on their own accord. It was almost like riding a broomstick. Ginny’s red-gold hair was the Snitch in the distance. He dove after her without thinking; acting only on instinct. There would be celebration if he caught her. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if he didn’t.
Just like the Snitch, however, Ginny was proving illusive. She was quick; he had to give her that. She dove in and out of shops and wove her way through the sea of people expertly while they only got in Draco’s way. No matter how hard he ran her fiery hair only got farther and father away. Determined not to let her slip out of his grasp again, Draco pushed on. He had spent too many years dreaming of the day he’d see her again; he refused to let her out of his sight. Her hair was only a pinprick of gold in the distance now. His lungs felt as if someone had filled them with lead. His body needed to stop, but he didn’t care. If it killed him, he would find them.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the red flash that was Ginny dart into a doorway. He pushed himself harder and harder to get there in time. Panting heavily, Draco flung himself through the doorway. There throngs of people all trying to get out the same door he had come in met him. They pushed him roughly out of the way as he stood on his tiptoes and craned his neck trying to spot Ginny. He couldn’t figure out which way she had gone. The building was filled with passages and staircases. Some of them lead up, some lead down, but he was sure they all lead somewhere different. Ginny could’ve used any one of them.
Even if he did know which way she had gone, it still wouldn’t be an easy task to locate her. He looked left and right. Now he knew why she had picked this particular place. It was filled with Muggles, all shopping, talking and getting in his way. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Scratch that, needles were too large and haystacks were too small. It was like looking for a grain of sand on a beach.
Draco cursed loudly causing some women to look at him in horror and cover their children’s ears. He grabbed a nearby bench to stand on. He looked in vain for several minutes before finally admitting to himself that she had gone. Miserably, he assumed a normal, sitting position on the bench. Now what?
He still couldn’t believe what had just happened. For the last five years he had thought her dead. Then he found himself face-to-face with her. It was the first time he had actually laid eyes on her since the baby had been born. He kicked a small stone on the ground around. She must think I’m in with Voldemort, he realized. She had probably been running all these years, trying to stay one step ahead of the Dark Lord.
Trying to keep their baby safe...
He couldn’t imagine what that was like. No wonder she had looked so frightened when their eyes had met. He closed his eyes and played the scene over in his head. It was still vivid in his mind. He could picture everything that had happened perfectly like it was a moving photograph. Her first instinct had been to grab the girl, not to fight or protect herself. It had been a knee jerk reaction. She didn’t think anything about crushing the girl into her arms and taking off. She hadn’t given a second thought to the bag that she had been so wrapped up in before she had seen him.
Immediately, Draco stood up as if he had sat on something hot. Her bag! She had left her bag where they had been standing. There might be something in there that he could use to find them again! He rushed back out into the street, hoping someone hadn’t picked it up. It was now the only thing that could link him to his daughter. That ratty, old purse had been transformed into the Holy Grail of his fatherhood.
To his relief, it was lying exactly where she had left it. No one had bothered with it. Some of the contents had fallen out. Draco scurried to retrieve them. He looked down at the items in his hand. They were jars of makeup that he didn’t recognize. Some girl thing, he mused. Inside the bag, there were the usual emergency items: an umbrella, tissues, extra cash, some bandages, Muggle medicine and some other things that were obviously Ginny’s. The things that caught his eye were buried deeper inside. He pulled out some faded books with large lettering and bright pictures on the front: children’s books.
He had never touched anything of his daughter’s before. He turned the first book over and flipped through the pages. Some of them were dog-eared and some of the pictures were colored on. It looked as though someone had read them a lot. The others were all the same. They were Fairy Tales. It seemed she particularly liked stories involving princesses. Those were the ones where the text was the most worn. It was almost illegible, like it didn’t matter because she knew them by heart.
The last one was particularly thick and old looking. Ginny probably had bought it used; he doubted she had a lot of money to spend. He imagined them sitting up at night while Ginny read aloud from the book and the little girl looked on with anticipation, silently mouthing the words as her mother spoke. The book was musty but had a faint smell of perfume on it. Some of the drawings were crude; he hoped Ginny didn’t show them to the girl. He flipped through the pages again as if hoping they would tell him a story about the people who had read the book.
Draco was amazed when, at the very end of the book, the pages offered up a piece of paper that had been folded over many times. He unfolded the paper like it was a present given to him on Christmas morning.
There, in the large, untidy lettering of a child just learning to write was the name of a hotel.
* * *
“Mummy?”
Ginny turned around from packing to look at her daughter. The girl looked so small compared to the large, hotel bed she sat on. Her pink attire was a stark contrast to the deep, blue bedspread. She sat, constantly swinging her legs, staring up at her mother with imploring eyes.
“What are you doing, Mummy?” she asked innocently, trying to get a good look from her perch.
“I’m packing,” Ginny answered as she threw some last-minute items into her suitcase. It never took long for her to pack. Probably since the suitcase had never been completely unpacked since she had bought it. “We’re leaving.”
The girl pouted, her lower lip jutting out from her face. “Why do we always have to leave?” She posed her question in such a way that made her mother’s heart break. They rarely stayed in one place for more than a few weeks, opting to keep moving so the Death Eaters wouldn’t be able to catch them. Ginny knew her daughter needed stability, a real home and friends but those were just things she couldn’t give her. “I want to stay!” she whined. “I like it here.”
Ginny sighed. She crouched down in front of the girl. “You know we can’t,” she whispered as she reached out to stroke her daughter’s hair. “Get your things,” she instructed sadly wishing more than anything that she could give her daughter what she wanted. The girl blinked her big, tear-filled eyes at her mother trying to appeal the decision. When her mother remained steadfast, she jumped down from the bed and retrieved her clothes and books without another complaint.
Ginny ventured into the bathroom where she slowly packed away their toothbrushes again. In the mirror she saw a tired woman forcing herself to do the simplest of actions. She wanted nothing more than to collapse on the floor and sob. It was just as difficult for her to pick up and move again as it was for her daughter. She was a person used to a strong, stable family unit and a caring home. There were days when she wished she could just go back and have her mother cook her meals; her brothers sit around the table telling stupid jokes and most of all for her father to hold her in his arms and tell her he would protect her. But she couldn’t give in to her desire to stay or it might result in losing her child forever. That scared her more than a million different hotel rooms ever could.
Tears fought their way into her eyes. Ginny fiercely tried to hold them back. Once she started, she’d never be able to stop. She was still trying to compose herself when a sharp knock at the door cut through the silence. “See who that is,” she instructed her daughter with a hoarse voice.
In the bedroom, the little girl approached the door with some of her clothes still in her hand. She stopped a few feet away from it to look at the wood quizzically as if it were a person about to introduce himself to her. She was too short to see through the peephole, but that didn’t matter.
Draco nervously stood behind the door. He had run back to his own hotel and retrieved a few necessary items then had come to the hotel named on the paper in the book. Sure enough, when he asked the desk if any redheaded woman with a young daughter was staying there they told him ‘yes.’ He needed to use a few charms to convince them to tell him the room number, but it had been worth it. Now he was standing outside their door, about to see his daughter for the second time in years.
The little girl pursed her lips as she debated what to tell her mother. She hated to lie, but it was the only way. “It’s the maid!” she finally said loudly. She innocently returned to her packing when her mother emerged from the bathroom to open the door.
“I’m sorry we don’t...” Ginny said as she opened it. She stopped abruptly when it revealed the silver-haired man behind it. Draco started to talk. She didn’t hear him. Ginny whipped around to look at the girl who was sitting next to her suitcase. When she saw Draco the girl’s face split into a wide smile.
“Daddy!” she cheered as she ran over, attaching herself to his leg.
He didn’t know how to react to the girl hugging him tightly. He patted her head gently. Her hair was silky smooth just like his. He smiled unconsciously. She looked so happy to see him. Ginny, on the other hand, was wearing an expression mixed with anger and confusion. She glared accusingly at the girl.
Draco would’ve quaked if his mother had looked at him like that. The girl just grinned and said sweetly, “He followed us home. Can we keep him?”
“Ginny, I...” Draco began. He had an entire speech planned. He even brewed some Veritaserum to prove he wasn’t lying. He wasn’t the type to go into these situations unprepared. It was a good thing he was a master at potions and could whip one up quickly.
Before he could even get to his third word, Ginny cut him off by lunging forward and grabbing his arm. She roughly prodded her finger into his forearm and said a spell that Draco had never heard before. When nothing happened, she furrowed her brow. She did it again, poking him so hard that she drew bright red blood but that was all that appeared.
Ginny turned her face up to his, searching for some kind of answers. Then the mask of confusion slowly broke. She looked from Draco to the little girl, who was still clutching his leg, like they were two pieces of a puzzle that had finally fit together. “You’re not a Death Eater,” she said flatly.
“No,” he replied with conviction even though he was sure her last statement hadn’t been a question.
“Can he stay?” the girl asked loudly, visibly irritated that her parents were not paying any attention to her.
Ginny hesitated for a moment. There really wasn’t any reason he couldn’t come with them if he wasn’t working for Voldemort. Her daughter obviously wanted a father as well. The only thing stopping her from saying ‘yes’ was Draco himself. She didn’t trust him. They had never gotten along well at Hogwarts, which could cause problems and he wasn’t exactly known for being the most caring person. What if he got bored of them and left?
Ginny looked down at her daughter who was bouncing up and down with anticipation. She would be crushed. She needed a father. She wanted a father. She deserved a father. Ginny didn’t want to be the one to break her little heart.
After a lot of inner dialogue Ginny finally muttered, “He can stay with us if he wants to.” Thus, leaving it up to Draco instead.
Draco and his daughter grinned broadly at each other. “Yay!” she cheered. In a flash, she had hopped over to the bed and begun to shimmy and shake in the cutest victory dance one could ever hope to see. Even Ginny couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
“If you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” Ginny hissed in his ear so only he could hear. With that, she closed the still open door behind him with a snap.
“I won’t,” he assured her.
Ginny still did not look convinced. She was going to be watching him very closely. If he gave her even the smallest reason to distrust him, then he was gone. She walked over to the bed and scooped up her baby. “Do we still hafta go?” the girl asked.
“No.” Ginny shook her head. “We can stay.”
Draco watched them with interest. He felt a pang in his stomach. They had been together for the last five years. He could only imagine the things they had done together in that time. He had missed so much of his daughter’s life. He was surprised, no, down right shocked that she even knew who he was. If only he had known she wasn’t dead, then he could’ve looked for them. But there was no fixing it now. Time moved on. He couldn’t change it.
When he snapped back into reality, he found Ginny looking at him with an expression he couldn’t read. It was as if she knew what he was thinking. But that wasn’t possible; no one ever knew what he was thinking. He had made sure of it by practicing keeping his face neutral in the mirror at home. It made for a better liar.
“Honey,” she said to the girl in a gentle voice. “Why don’t you play with,” she looked at Draco, “Dr- Daddy for a bit. I’m going to clean up.” They needed some time alone; Ginny knew it although she hated it. She retreated into the bathroom, for what Draco was sure was just busy work and not anything important. She didn’t close the door all the way.
He smiled nervously. Play with her? What did she like to do? He had just met her; he didn’t have any idea what to do with her. The girl turned to look at her father expectantly. It was then that he noticed her eyes. They were exceptionally large and gray, like his. Except where his were cold and harsh, hers were round and twinkling. He couldn’t explain it but this made him feel a tad bit better. At least a small part of him had always been with her.
Still, there were too many things he didn’t know. They were important too. Even a mediocre father would know them. “What’s your name?” he croaked, his eyes filling with tears that didn’t dare fall. He felt horrible. People she casually passed on the streets probably knew more about her than he did.
She clasped her hands behind her back and twisted back and forth. “Cassandra Molly Weasley-Malfoy,” she said proudly.
“That’s bigger than you are,” he whispered, ever so pleased she had added the “Malfoy” at the end.
“Mummy calls me Cassie,” she informed him knowledgeably. “It’s littler.”
“Cassie,” he repeated, testing out the way it felt on his tongue. “Cassie.”
He wanted to take in every bit of her so he would never forget. It was all new to him: her shiny, pig-tailed hair; her bright, gray eyes; her tiny, thin frame wrapped in a pink sundress; the way she never, ever stopped moving even when she was standing in one place. It was important that he knew it all. It proved she was real, not some dream. He was really standing in front of her.
They continued to stare at another. Draco got the impression that she was incredibly bored by him. All he did was sit and look at her intently, which couldn’t be much fun for a five year old. “So what do you want to play?” he asked hoping he wouldn’t mess it up, whatever it was. He wasn’t very good at games. He had never even played them when he was a child himself. His mum never wanted to get his clothes dirty and he never had many friends away.
“Wanna watch Sleeping Beauty?” she asked excitedly. He was so enthusiastic about it, he couldn’t say no even though he had no idea what she was talking about. He nodded while thinking, how does one watch Sleeping Beauty?
Cassie proceeded to grab his hand and haul him toward the bed with strength greater than that of a normal five-year-old, or so he thought. She sat him down on the edge and grinned at him cheekily before turning around. She busied herself by opening up the wooden dresser, revealing a large, black box that he didn’t recognize. Then she went to her pink bag, still all packed next to her mother’s, and pulled out a rectangular-shaped something that she put into an opening in the black box. The box made clicking noises.
Cassie wasn’t surprised by any of this. She climbed up onto the bed with him with great effort since she was so tiny. Then, after a moment’s debate, she crawled into his lap. She made quite a show of finding the perfect spot to sit and getting comfortable. Once said spot was found, she flashed him a brilliant grin. He grinned down at her. He hadn’t actually held her since that night back at the Manor. She was still pleasantly warm and soft, kind of like a large doll. He was a bit surprised at how far from awkward it was, almost like she belonged there. What was stranger was how quickly she had taken to him. He had thought for sure that she would be at least a little bit hesitant around him since they barely knew each other.
Draco didn’t have time to ponder what this all meant, because before long Cassie gasped. Her eyes were riveted to the black box, which wasn’t so black anymore. It was showing pictures and they were moving like wizard photographs. Unlike wizard photographs, the box seemed to be telling some sort of story. The people in the pictures weren’t confined to one frame and they talked. The whole thing made Draco uncomfortable. He shouldn’t be watching people’s lives like that, it wasn’t right. It was like spying.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Cassie asked nervously. She looked afraid that he didn’t want to play with her anymore.
“What is that?” he questioned warily.
It was somewhat embarrassing when his daughter started to laugh. “It’s a TV, Daddy,” she explained. “Muggles watch it. It tells stories, like a book with lots of pictures. See?” She pointed at a blonde woman walking across the screen. “That’s Princess Aurora. She’s Sleeping Beauty,” she said it reverently. Sleeping Beauty was obviously someone who deserved great respect.
At little while into the movie, Draco started to relax. It was more like a wizard painting than anything. The people were drawn onto the box but they moved and spoke like regular people. Cassie kept pointing to the people and explaining things to him. (“That’s Maleficent. She’s bad.”... “See Prince Philip? Isn’t he handsome?”) She was in complete awe of everything before her and didn’t take her eyes off it for a second lest she’d miss a bit.
Draco couldn’t really get into it. It was such a sugar coating of the original tale. And parts of it were so unbelievable. The fairies looked like people with little wings sticking out, nothing like real fairies. And why did they have wands? Fairies couldn’t do wizard magic. For Cassie’s sake however, he kept his mouth shut. He actually spent more time watching her reaction than he did watching the movie. He wore the same rapt, glassy eyed expression when he looked at her that she did when Aurora would come on screen.
He found it particularly amusing that on various occasions, the characters would burst into song. Cassie, on the other hand, didn’t think it was funny. She thought it was wonderful and she’d sing along, loudly and off key.
“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream,” she sang out proudly. “I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. But I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem. But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream.”°
Maybe it was because he had spent the last few years in a waking dream, just waiting to die. Or maybe it was because Draco’s life had changed so much that day. One minute he was pretending his daughter was still alive and the next she was. Now she was sitting in his lap singing cutely. No one had ever been so glad to see him in his entire life, nor had he ever been so glad to see someone else. Whatever the reason, as Cassie belted out the rest of the song, which was really the first part of the song repeated, “But if I know you, I know what you’ll do. You’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream,” Draco was startled to find tears trickling down his face. He quickly tried to wipe them away, afraid that Ginny would come out and see him crying. It was an old habit it had; he didn’t want anyone to see his weakness.
Cassie didn’t turn around to see him but she snuggled closer up against him. He wrapped his arms around her hoping that he wouldn’t wake up tomorrow and find that this had all been a dream.
Fortunately, by the time Ginny reemerged from the other room, his tears had dried up. Cassie was bouncing up and down on his lap as Prince Charming fought the evil sorceress. Ginny looked from Draco to her daughter with a smile. He hadn’t bolted, that was a good sign. And he had sat through all of Sleeping Beauty to boot. Ginny had started refusing to watch it with her daughter. The first hundred times had been enough.
Cassie still hadn’t noticed her mother, as she was so focused on the movie. She always acted as though she had never seen it before and didn’t know what was going to happen. Her little eyes widened in fear as the big, black dragon nearly got Prince Philip.
Ginny sniggered. “Now sword of truth fly swift and sure. That evil die and good endure!” she quoted dramatically in time with the movie. The two adults laughed as Cassie oohed and ahhed at the ending. Ginny pretended to cry when Philip and Aurora kissed and she gave a loud sigh as she quoted, “Oh, I just love happy endings.”°
Cassie grinned widely when it was over. She turned around to her parents and said, “Isn’t that the bestest movie ever?”
* * *
“Cassie! Time for bed!” Ginny called out.
Cassie looked up at her from where she was telling her Daddy about the time her mum let her try on a dress just like Princess Aurora’s and how it had been really good for twirling around real fast. She was rather annoyed to be interrupted. “But Mum!” she whined.
“You can tell me tomorrow,” Draco offered after seeing the look on Ginny’s face.
“Okey,” the little girl said brightly as she ran off to get ready for bed.
“She has too much energy,” Ginny sighed. “We’re gonna have to start feeding her sedatives.”
Suddenly they were enveloped in an uncomfortable silence due to her use of the word ‘we.’ Twenty-four hours ago Ginny had been a single mother and she was already thinking of them as a team. She knew she was mentally jumping the gun; there was a great possibility that Draco wouldn’t be around much longer. Either because he would leave or because would get sick of seeing his smirking face and kick him out. She and Draco weren’t known for getting along. Draco wasn’t known for getting along with anyone now that she thought about it. And it was hard enough for parents who loved each other to stay together. What chance did they have?
“I’m ready!” cried Cassie as she returned, proudly displaying her footy pajamas as if she were on a catwalk.
Ginny saw the smile dance across Draco’s face as Cassie entered. She hoped that meant they had some common ground to work from. That would help, no matter how much they hated each other.
“Get in bed,” Ginny instructed. “I’ll be there in a minute.” She again disappeared into the bathroom, presumably to get ready for bed.
With great effort, Cassie did what her mother said and climbed into the large, double bed. She waved at her father from under the covers. “You going to stay with us tonight, Daddy?” she asked sleepily.
He nodded mutely. He had packed up all his things and brought them over when he came. He didn’t ever intend on going back to the way he had been living. His suitcase was now sitting between Ginny’s tattered, old one and Cassie’s little, pink one. Cassie waved at him with just her hands and eyes peeking out from underneath the many blankets as he went to get his pajamas. He noticed that Cassie was taking up an awful lot of space in the double bed for such a tiny girl and there were only two beds.
That meant someone was going to have to share.
Ginny appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. The yellow light lit her from behind making her hair shine like a halo. “You can change in here,” she said gesturing behind her. “I’m finished.” He smiled gratefully. He hadn’t really wanted to change in front of his daughter. As they passed, he registered that she was wearing boxer shorts and a ratty, old t-shirt with the picture of a motorbike on the front and the words ‘If You Can Read This: The Wife Fell Off’ on the back.
Ginny certainly wasn’t the type of girl he was used to being around. She wasn’t dainty and didn’t own anything that was frilly, lacey or expensive. She cracked jokes and swore when Cassie wasn’t listening. She had spent the last five years living independent of any outside help and she had still managed to raise a happy, healthy, young girl. He wondered if all Gryffindors were like that.
As attractive as she was, he was rather glad to see her crawl into bed with Cassie who squealed and hugged her mother tightly. It would’ve been horribly uncomfortable to have to sleep in the same bed. He just didn’t know how to deal with her. He couldn’t charm her or seduce her. She wasn’t the kind of woman he’d fall in love with, in fact, he was pretty sure there was no kind of woman he’d fall in love with. He knew he should try to get along with her but he didn’t know how to go about becoming friends with her or with anyone for that matter. After all, they were bitter enemies until fate had intervened tied them together forever through the little girl who they had created.
Draco felt a bit uncomfortable after having dressed for bed. His pajamas were made of a rich, green silk that was only used by the finest robe makers. He still had his key to his own Gringotts vault that his mother had set up for him the year before Cassie had been conceived. Even though he didn’t spend half the money he used to, he was still used to a comfortable lifestyle. Ginny and Cassie, on the other hand, had been scraping by for the last few years.
Ginny had a hard time making and keeping money. She even admitted to having done something that most wizards thought was the absolute lowest you could sink. She did a street magic show. All you had do were simple spells like making light come out of your wand and the Muggles coughed the money up. But Ginny didn’t like to do that, so most of the time she did odd jobs, like cleaning houses, to make sure they always had enough money for the next train out of town. Neither girl had much in the way of material items. Everything they owned fit into two suitcases.
But they didn’t look up from their bed as Draco passed. Cassie was already splayed out across the sheets with her eyes tightly shut while Ginny was sitting up apparently her mind was elsewhere. He suddenly felt very foolish for thinking they’d care about something as silly as how much his clothes cost. And that nasty voice in the back of his head pointed out that Ginny wouldn’t know fine fabric if it jumped up and bit her. She had always worn used robes even when she had a family to support her.
They really were two very different people. Deep in thought, Draco lay down and switched off the light. He didn’t think he’d fall asleep quickly since he had so much on his mind. His theory was proven correct when a high-pitched, frightened scream erupted from the other side of the room.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeep!”
Panic flooded Draco. He immediately sat up in bed and turned the light on again. Worried that something had happened, he instinctively looked over to make sure Ginny and Cassie were all right. Ginny was whispering soothing words to a terrified Cassie, who was no more than two bright eyes peering out from behind her mother. She whimpered softly.
“Shhh,” Ginny murmured. “It’s all right, honey.” She stroked the girl’s back protectively. “I’m sure Daddy didn’t mean to turn off the light,” she said pointedly, glaring at Draco.
Draco sighed. All his regrets about how he didn’t know his daughter at all came flooding back to him. Seeing Cassie’s trembling figure only made him feel worse. He looked daggers at the light on the night table as if it was to blame, but in reality he knew it was no one’s fault but his own. He was her father. He should have known that she’s scared of the dark.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I...I wasn’t thinking.”
Cassie turned her large eyes on him like spotlights. She gasped. “Aren’t you afraid of the monsters?” she asked, in awe of his bravery.
“Honey,” Ginny spoke up trying to reassure Cassie that everything was ok. “There aren’t any monsters.”
“Yes there are!” The little girl said fervently. “They live under the bed and hide in the shadows! They come to get you when you’re sleeping!” She heaved a sigh trying to hold back the tears and be strong. “The bad man sent them.” Her voice was no louder than a whisper but nothing short of terrified. That was how he knew she was talking about Voldemort.
Ginny sighed. Instead of arguing, she hugged Cassie tighter. Draco got the impression that this was an ongoing battle, and that Ginny had given up fighting about it. Most young children were frightened of the dark, Cassie’s intense fear was probably related to the fact that they had been running from monsters her entire life. They’d never be able to convince her that they didn’t exist.
Draco knew they’d have a job of getting her to fall asleep now. She was holding on to Ginny for dear life so that Draco was sure Ginny was going to lose circulation in her extremities. And then, he had an idea. He leapt from the bed the moment it struck him. Ginny followed him with quizzical eyes. He went over to his bag and rummaged through it. It was buried at the bottom. He didn’t know why he had brought it. In fact, he never understood why he hadn’t tossed it out. Perhaps it was because he had never gotten to give it to her.
He turned around with a little, white blanket in his hands. It seemed like eons since he had bought it for her. He had sneaked away when he and Lucius had been out shopping for Christmas. She hadn’t even been born then. “Here,” he said holding it out to her. Cassie blinked. She looked from the blanket to her father and back again. “It has monster repelling powers,” he said knowledgeably.
“Wow,” she breathed as she took it to her, obviously impressed with the gift.
Ginny and Draco exchanged secretive glances behind her back. They both knew it was just an ordinary blanket but Cassie needn’t know that. They were willing to say anything if it would get her to go back to sleep. It was the mark of a true parent.
Cassie rubbed the blanket against her cheek. “It’s fuzzy!” she announced gleefully.
Draco grinned, pleased that he had finally done something right for a change. Cassie happily lay down, snuggled between her new blanket and her mother. Draco also returned to bed. This time he was careful not to turn the light out. He was going to have a hard time getting used to sleeping with the light on, but he supposed he could manage. It helped that he could now clearly see across the room. Cassie was pretending to be asleep but only for Ginny’s benefit. With her back turned, Ginny couldn’t see that Cassie’s teeny hand was waving at Draco.
* * *
About an hour after Cassie’s heavy breathing indicated that she had fallen fast asleep, Draco was still wide-awake. He had a lot on his mind and on top of that, he wasn’t used to going to bed so early. It had been years since he had the bedtime of a five-year-old. That wasn’t to say that the day hadn’t been emotionally and physically draining. His body ached for sleep but his mind kept turning things over and examining them from every boring angle. He had so many questions that needed to be answered.
“Can’t sleep either?” said a quiet voice from across the room, startling Draco.
Ginny rose to her feet slowly as she untangled herself from Cassie. “I suppose it’s a bit early for you,” she said gently as she sat down on the bed next to him. He sat up to make more room for her. “She can’t fall asleep unless I go with her.” she nodded her head towards the sleeping child. “Mostly, I just stay up and think about things while she’s out. Although sometimes she tires me out so I’m gone before she is,” she chuckled.
Draco nodded. He quite understood. Ginny looked away uncomfortably. The surreal quality of the situation was not lost on her. Somehow in the eerie, orange light of the lone lamp that light the room things looked even stranger than they had during the day. Neither one of them knew what to say although they were both dying to ask all the questions that had been plaguing them since Draco had shown up on Ginny’s doorstep.
“So...” Ginny started seeing that Draco wasn’t going to. “You weren’t working with Voldemort?” She spoke in hushed tones as to not wake Cassie.
“No,” he said emphatically. “My father put me under some spell...” he admitted sheepishly, since he was rather embarrassed that he had been so easily manipulated. “I assume that’s what they did to you?”
She nodded. “Of course it wasn’t my dad who did it to me.” She assumed a far off look as she thought about her own father, who she hadn’t seen in years. “You must have been hurt.”
“Pissed off is more like it,” he growled thinking about that bastard.
They were engulfed in silence once more. Draco was again struck with how different they were. She had been raised by a loving family. She probably missed them more than anything. He hoped to god that he never saw his father again. And if he did see him, he had some nice hexes planned for the old man.
“Do you miss them?” he asked more gently. Ginny, of course, knew he was talking about her extra large family. She nodded her head again but didn’t speak because it was too difficult. He looked to be on the verge of tears. It was stupid of him to have asked. Of course she missed them. “Why didn’t you go to them for help?”
This was the more pressing issue; something he had wondered about since he had found out she was living alone with Cassie. The Weasleys would go through hell and high water to help their only daughter, unlike his parents. Her brothers would probably take on Voldemort himself for her. He knew at least Ron had already faced Old Snake Face. Surely they were still looking for her. They would want to help her if they knew.
Ginny took a moment to collect herself. “The first thing the Death Eaters did when I escaped was put wards around my house, my brothers’ places, my father’s work, anywhere they thought I would go for help. If I came near them, then they’d be alerted.” Her voice broke slightly. She was acting like Cassie had earlier, trying to hide how much this was hurting her and look strong. “I never tried to reach them,” she said hoarsely. “I never even tried. I knew the wards were there and was afraid I’d be caught so I just ran. They didn’t know I knew so it bought me a lot of time. It took them awhile to realize that they weren’t going to catch me that way.”
Draco was shocked. It had never occurred to him that she wouldn’t attempt to contact the rest of the Weasley clan. It did make sense though; it was probably how she had managed to get out of the country without being detected by the Death Eaters. From the look on her face, he knew that it had been a hard decision for her to make and that it still ate away at her. If she had managed to reach her family then she and Cassie wouldn’t be on the run now but if she had failed she would have lost her daughter and her life as well. If Ginny had become attached to Cassie a fraction of the amount he had, he knew that she had decided not to risk it only because she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her daughter.
“I saw Harry Potter in a marketplace once,” she whispered quietly as her eyes glazed over like she no longer saw the cheap hotel room but the marketplace in question. “For a split second it was like seeing an oasis in a desert. I thought ‘I can tell him I’m alive! He’ll help me!’ I was nearly to him when... when I started to doubt my own eyes. What if he was a Death Eater in disguise? Polyjuice Potion isn’t hard to make.” She looked down at her hands as she plummeted back into reality. She began again this time with a note of sadness in her voice. “I never went up to him. I just watched him walk away. I just...” she searched for the words to explain it. “I can’t lose her. I can‘t.”
“I understand,” he said truthfully. He had lost Cassie and he didn’t plan on every doing it again. He was sure he wouldn’t be able to take it. After a few uncomfortable minutes, he spoke again, hoping to change the subject, “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” She nodded, grateful that he wasn’t going to pursue the topic of her family. It still made her a bit weepy.
“Cassie’s not...” he stopped, realizing he didn’t know how to phrase this. “Well, she’s not normal is she?”
Ginny didn’t answer. She looked at the sleeping figure of her daughter. Draco held his breath. He wished he hadn’t used the phrase ‘normal’ because Ginny didn’t seem to like it. He had just been so eager to ask. This was the thing that he had wondered about most since he had arrived. How had she known that he was her father? If Ginny thought he had been in with the Death Eaters then she wouldn’t have talked about him much and, as far as he knew, she didn’t have a picture to show Cassie.
“No,” she answered flatly after much thought. “No, she’s not.”
“Voldemort wanted to give her powers. My father did the spell. He didn’t say what they were,” Draco informed her.
He was cut off when she replied, “He doesn’t know what they are.” She grinned triumphantly. “And I’m not about to tell him. I’ll assume you won’t either.”
“Nope.” He was at the height of his curiosity now. Ginny was proud that she had been able to keep this secret from the Dark Lord. It was a mystery to him how she had managed to elude the Death Eaters this long; now he got the feeling this had something to do with it. Whatever powers Cassie had, Ginny was able to use them to her advantage.
Ginny knew he was completely in the dark. She was rather enjoying lording it over him. But she wasn’t a spiteful person, so after a few minutes of watching the emotions play across his face, she announced: “Cassie is a Seer.”
“A Seer?” he repeated slowly, still computing this new information. Seers were very rare. Draco’s parents had made sure he was connected with all the finest wizards of the age and he had never even met a Seer. Unless you count Professor Trelawney, and he didn’t. It did, however, make perfect sense. If Cassie were a Seer that explained how she had recognized him, how she knew to leave a note for him in her book and why she occasionally went all glassy eyed. “How long has this been going on?”
“Always, I think. I only just found out about it three years ago.” Ginny’s whole demeanor changed again as she remembered. Her voice was far off and wistful but also sad and a bit embarrassed. “She used to cry all the time. Little things frightened her. I never knew what it was. And sometimes when you’d look at her, it’d be like she didn’t see you. I thought she just had eye trouble; I’d get her a pair of glasses and everything would be ok.
“Then one night, she had just turned three, she woke me up. She had been crying and I couldn’t calm her down. She said, ‘Mummy, they coming.’ I knew she meant the Death Eaters so I figured she just had a bad dream. I told her to go back to sleep and everything would be all right in the morning.” Ginny paused to collect herself. “Not even an hour later, a swarm of Death Eaters kicked down our door. It’s lucky I still had my wand close by. I hurled every curse I could think of at them. They were stunned for a moment so I grabbed a vase or a lamp or something and heaved it at the window. I took Cassie in my arms and we jumped.” She smiled wryly, “Good thing we were only one story up. Huh?
“We left everything behind and just ran. I don’t know how they never managed to catch us. I thought for sure that one of them would apparate in front of me any second and take her away. That was the closest we ever came to being caught. She was good through the whole thing; never cried. The next morning, I found a huge gash on her forearm. When I jumped through the window, she got cut on the broken glass.”
Ginny stopped speaking. The tears were pouring freely down her face now. “There was so much blood. She still has the scar,” she croaked. “I didn’t even notice because I was so worried about escaping. It was all my fault; my fault we almost got captured and my fault she got hurt. I should have listened to her when she told me they were coming.” She wiped the tears of her face and tried to compose herself. “Anyway, that’s when I changed her name.”
“Changed her name?” Draco asked.
“Yeah,” Ginny said with a forced smile. “When she was a baby I called her ‘Molly’ after my mother. It never really fit though. So after she made her first prediction and I didn’t believe her, I changed it to ‘Cassandra’.”
“After the prophetess,” he breathed, finally understanding. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he had studied Greek Mythology. Cassandra had been a mortal girl who the god Apollo fell in love with. He gave her the gift of the Sight. But Cassandra had refused to take Apollo as a lover. He was angry. He couldn’t take the gift back so instead he made it so that no one would believe her predictions.
“Yeah,” Ginny answered absently.
“So that’s how she knew me? She had visions of me?” he asked. Had she been watching him all this time and he never knew it?
“I guess.” She sighed. “She never mentioned having Seen you but she must have.” Seeing that Draco was once again confused she expounded on what she had said. “When she was very young she couldn’t tell the difference between the things she had Seen and reality. It’s only a recent development actually. I remember one time she was so petrified of visions of my brother, Charlie. He had been training dragons and one of them breathed fire...” Ginny shook her head and giggled. “She made me keep the bathtub filled with water just in case.
“I always thought she told me everything that she had Seen. When Ron and Hermione got married she walked me through the whole thing.” She assumed a high-pitched voice and imitated Cassie. “‘Now Unca Ron is getting nervous and sweating a lot. He’s silly.’ I wish I could’ve been there,” she said mournfully. “At least I know they’re ok though.”
He nodded. He was glad as well only because he knew it was important to her, not because he cared about the majority of the Weasley clan. That had been what she worried about most when trapped at Malfoy Manor.
“So,” Ginny said abruptly startling him out of his thoughts. “If she zones out and then gets all scared and says that they’re coming, she’s not kidding.”
“The Dark Lord made her a powerful witch. Now you’re using those powers against him,” Draco drawled, summing up the situation. She nodded proudly. “That’s very Slytherin of you, Weasley.”
She smiled slightly, knowing this was a compliment from him.
* * *
It took Draco hours to fall asleep after his talk with Ginny. Every time she answered one of his questions, it just raised several more. He woke up early the next morning feeling as though he hadn’t really slept at all. Groggily, he rubbed his eyes. Strange noises were coming from the bathroom. They were the reason he was awake at such an ungodly hour.
Like a shot, the bathroom door suddenly flew open accompanied by a loud screaming. All the sleep left Draco as he jumped to his feet. That was Cassie! It was a familiar sound from the night before. He instantly assumed that something was wrong and made motion to protect her.
He was standing in the middle of the room when his eyes locked on the source of the scream. His daughter was running from the bathroom. Her hair stuck up in every direction from sleeping and she was without a stitch of clothing on her. Draco didn’t know what to do. He had never had to deal with screaming, naked children in his life. He just stood, dumbstruck, as she hid behind his legs to protect herself from what was to come.
They both looked up to find Ginny coming out the door Cassie just had. She slammed it loudly behind her causing Draco and Cassie to jump. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at her daughter. “Cassandra Molly, it is time for your bath,” she said angrily.
Draco knew she must be mad since she had used Cassie’s middle name. Cassie either didn’t notice or wasn’t afraid of her mother. She just shook her head fearfully and said, “No. No bath. I clean.” She smiled winningly, trying to convince her mother.
“Come here,” Ginny ordered her.
Cassie didn’t move. She looked imploringly up at her father. “Don’t make me, Daddy.”
Draco felt as though a spotlight had been shone upon him. Cassie was looking at him hopefully and Ginny was looking daggers at him. When he opened his mouth to speak, Ginny seized Cassie’s distraction and grabbed her from behind him. Draco was almost glad. He had no idea what he to say since either way, one of the girls would be angry with him.
Cassie squealed and kicked, trying to free herself from her mother’s grasp. Her attempts were in vain; she was just a scrawny five year-old and her mother a grown witch who had no doubt done this before. “You know,” she called to Draco over the screams of the little girl. “She fools you into thinking she’s sweet and cute with those apple cheeks and all. But,” she punctuated the ‘but’ by violently kicking the door to the bathroom open. “She’s really the devil child.”
The door closed behind them muffling Cassie’s yells. Next Draco heard, there was a loud splash as Cassie was dumped unceremoniously into the already drawn bathtub. “Oh, that was so mean!” she pouted.
Draco couldn’t help but laugh at her; it was the first time he had in a long time.
* * *
° The song Cassie sings is “Once Upon a Dream” from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. The music and lyrics are by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence
° Ginny quotes the fairy, Flora, as the fairies do magic on Philip’s sword to defeat Maleficent’s dragon. The second quote is the other fairy, Fauna, as Philip and Aurora dance. I didn’t write either line. The Disney story adaptation of Sleeping Beauty is attributed to Erdman Penner, additional story by Joe Kinaldi et al.
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