Chapter Two: Confessions

“Merlin, no!” Ginevra exclaimed, bringing down her niece’s hand and staring at her with equally wide eyes. “I would never…!” Her aunt broke off, withdrawing from Rose and placing her hand on her heart, her eyes filling up with tears. “I would never do that to Harry. Never.”

“Then who? When?” Rose asked, trying to believe her aunt but unable to figure in the timeline.

“Never mind who, Rose! It was just after the war, long before Harry and I were married…” Ginevra whispered and to Rose, it seemed like she was looking not at her strong-willed Aunt Ginny, but at a much younger girl, a girl her own age or maybe a little older, a girl who had made a mistake and didn’t dare admit it in too loud a voice.

“But, but you and Uncle Harry… you were together during the war… you can’t have been with someone else after the war and not have cheated on him,” Rose argued in a small voice.

Her aunt closed her eyes, struggling to keep her breathing even. “After the war,” she began, “Harry asked me to marry him. I was only sixteen and I… I was terrified. I loved him, I honestly did, but I couldn’t possibly consider marrying anyone before I’d even graduated Hogwarts. The only problem was there wasn’t a Hogwarts to go back to. Harry didn’t seem to understand that I wasn’t ready, and I ran off.”

“Where?” Rose breathed, shocked to be hearing anything of the sort from her favorite aunt. Why had she never heard any of this before?

“Diagon Alley initially. I didn’t really know where to go, you see. The war had only just ended and it was still incredibly dangerous on the streets. I was actually considering going right back home when I ran into… a former classmate. We had never been friends, but after our final year, we weren’t exactly enemies anymore, either. We got to talking. He was looking for a flatmate to split the cost with and I was looking for a place to stay, somewhere Harry and my family wouldn’t find me, somewhere I could take a step back and just think.”

“So just like that? You just moved in with him?”

“Yes. Oh, don’t look at me like that, Rose, it wasn’t like that. We had separate rooms, for God’s sake! It was impulsive, I know that, but I didn’t feel as though I had any other options,” Ginny explained, rising from her chair and moving towards the sink, wringing her hands nervously. Once again, Rose was struck that her aunt was behaving more like a teenage girl who’d made a mistake and trying to make excuses than an adult woman. “I- we- we were flatmates for almost a year before I finally went back to Harry.”

“What made you go back?”

Her aunt smiled at that, her lips twitching upwards but tears were streaking down her cheeks. “Because it was Harry,” she murmured in explanation.

“This flatmate of yours, did - did you love him?”

“Yes,” Ginevra whispered, staring out the window at the kitchen sink. “Yes, I loved him, but I had loved Harry practically my whole life. He was so good and so utterly more than I deserved, and he knew and he still wanted me.” Her aunt’s voice broke as she bent over the sink, bringing a trembling hand to her lips and, whispering so softly Rose was sure she wasn’t meant to hear, “How could I say no?”

Rose swallowed, watching as her aunt crumpled inside, shedding tears over a boy she’d known for less than a year, who she had loved and still seemed to miss so much. “Do you regret it?” she asked a little breathlessly.

“Regret what?”

“Marrying Harry instead.”

“No.” Her voice was steady, full of such conviction that Rose couldn’t help but believe her. “No, I have never regretted loving Harry. I have always loved him and I know I always will. I just wish I didn’t love someone else at the same time. It’s unfair to them both.”

“You said he knew. How did Harry find out?”

Rose cringed as her aunt laughed humorlessly. She bit her lower lip, staring out the window as she rocked back on the balls of her feet before turning and facing her niece who still sat at the kitchen table, hardly daring to breath. “He found me. He was worried; I’d left so suddenly and without a word that he couldn’t help himself. We were in the living room, watching the Muggle telly when Harry Apparated in. He was floored, I’ll tell you that.” Ginny chuckled bitterly.

“Was he very angry?”

“No, a little heart-broken certainly, but no, he wasn’t angry. We went out on the front stoop and talked. He apologized for pressing me so much and I cried my eyes out. I didn’t want his apologies. I wanted to be brave enough to marry him, to make us both happy, but I still wasn’t ready. I was still so scared. Harry kissed my forehead, told me to be careful and take as much time as I needed. He promised not to tell Ron or anyone else where I was staying and then he made it very clear that were anything to happen to me, he’d be the first one breaking down the door.” Ginny’s lips twitched upwards at that, smiling sadly. “He still loved me and I was so grateful for his patience with me. He came by to see me every few days, and it wasn’t long before he realized that my feelings were becoming less and less indifferent towards my flatmate. I was breaking his heart and still, he never blamed me, never so much as pointed a finger at me. That, more than anything else, is why I went back.”

“Because no matter what, he still loved you,” Rose breathed.

“Yes, and it was much more than I deserved.”

“This other boy, do you still love him?” Rose asked, hardly daring to breathe, afraid she’d asked too much.

“Yes,” her aunt whispered in a soft voice.

“What was his name?”

Ginny swallowed, her throat suddenly bone-dry as she raised her head to meet her niece’s questioning eyes. “Draco Malfoy.”

Rose sucked in a breath, images of the school bully her father always told them about running circles around her mind, a blush coming unbidden to her cheeks as she thought of the son, the son she’d originally come here seeking advice about. “D-Draco Malfoy? As in Scorpius’ dad?”

Ginny nodded once, a shadow of a smile flickering over her face at her niece’s open-mouthed shock.

“But dad hates him,” Rose exclaimed.

Ginny chuckled then. “Yes, I’m well aware,” she answered dryly.

“You just moved in with a boy your family hated?”

“Well, they certainly would never think to look for me with him, would they? Well, except Harry, of course, but he always was able to figure the strangest things out.”

“Why? How could you just trust him like that? After what he did in the war? His… his family?” Rose demanded, her questions coming out more insistent and harsh than she intended, but they were the very doubts that had been plaguing her concerning her budding friendship with Scorpius. Their two families were just too far apart. Surely it was impossible. To think that her aunt had actually befriended a Malfoy, had trusted him and even fallen in love… it was all too much to make sense of, Ravenclaw or no.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted him so readily; I wouldn’t have initially, but before I ever went back to school for my sixth year, Harry had told me everything about how Draco had only been trying to protect his family. Voldemort had threatened to kill them and that’s why he did the things he did. For that entire school year, I never looked at him quite the same; I couldn’t. The day I ran into him in Diagon Alley, he was just trying to get out on his own. He loved his parents and was grateful they were safe, but he was trying to get away from the stain of his family name, of his father’s and his crimes. He was running away from his identity and I was trying to outrun my future. It wasn’t a difficult decision to make.”

“Do you still think about him?”

“Almost every day. He had become my best friend at a time in which I was terribly confused. I didn’t dare name one of the children after him, though.” She laughed then, her expression suddenly sobering as she spun to face her niece. “You mustn’t tell them, Rose! Harry knows but Lily and the boys… you can’t breathe a word…”

“Never. I’d never tell a soul,” Rose assured, straightening in her chair and meeting her aunt’s puffy-eyed gaze.

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Her aunt’s face broke out into a genuine smile and she swept Rose into a swift hug, kissing her cheek and thanking her even as two tear drops stuck to her niece’s face. “Thank you, Rose. Thank you,” she breathed, squeezing her tightly.

Rose sucked in a breath, awkwardly patting the older woman on the back. “It’s alright, Aunt Gin, don’t cry.” Her aunt’s shoulders shook but she quickly pulled back, swiping at her eyes as she smiled down at Rose.

Just then, the front door opened and Rose’s neck whipped back to see her uncle and two cousins walking in the front entrance, carrying an armful of wrapped packages. “Hey, Rosie,” Harry called, grinning at her like a schoolboy as he kicked the snow off his boots.

“Hey, Uncle Harry,” Rose called back, trying to calm her breathing back down to normal so as to not give anything away. She watched as her uncle clapped an arm on James’ shoulder, whispering something in his ear, and soon both boys snuck off down the hallway, to hide their mother’s Christmas presents no doubt. Harry turned back to the kitchen, his eyebrows knitting together in concern as he caught sight of his wife’s blotchy eyes. He strode towards her and easily wrapped her in a hug, forgetting his niece’s presence as he bent his head to rest his forehead against his wife’s. “Are you alright?” he breathed, green eyes bright with concern.

Ginny gulped, nodding her head up and down and turning her face into the crook of her husband’s neck. Rose could only watch the scene unfolding before her, unable to help noticing how tender their embrace was and the way Harry’s arms tightened protectively around his wife before kissing her cheek and whispering soothingly in her ear. He didn’t even know what was upsetting her but he comforted her all the same. They were perfect for each other, Rose thought, but even as she watched them, she couldn’t help but think of the other man her aunt had loved and wonder if it were possible that they’d been perfect for each other also.

Author notes: Reviews appreciated! Thanks again to Miss Opal for the great beta!