She was running, she realized, through complete darkness. She wasn’t running from something, as was the custom in her nightmares, but towards it. Doors suddenly surrounded her, and she screamed as they began to spin. The red crosses blurred together until there was just a gash of crimson running across her vision. Her hand flew to her mouth as she felt like she might be sick.

When they finally stopped spinning, she ran to each one and shook the handle, but they all remained firmly locked. By the last door, she was crying and shaking and pleading with some unseen force. Whatever it was, she had to make it understand.

The last door burst open, but before relief could flood into her heart, she caught sight of who had opened it. Her mother stood in the doorway, and behind her a sea of redheaded people. They all shook their heads, yelling in befuddled language.

“I’m sorry,” Ginny moaned, sinking to the floor.

Her two sons pushed past her other family and stood in front of her mother, crying.

“No,” Ginny whimpered. “No, you must understand.”

But they shook their heads and spoke words she couldn’t comprehend.

She caught sight of Harry pushing through the crowd, and his dulled green eyes found hers. For a moment, they flashed a brilliant and terrible green, not unlike their color in his adolescent years. But it somehow reminded Ginny of something else – of a spell she hadn’t seen performed in twenty years. Avada Kedavra.

She awoke, gasping and shaking under a sheen of cold sweat, to the sight of a brilliant moon pouring into the bedroom. She gathered the sheets to her chest and looked down at the man sleeping beside her.

He was breathing peacefully, sleeping on his stomach with a smile on his face. She hoped he was dreaming about her.

Ginny reached down and ran a hand through his blond hair, slowing her breathing and her racing heart. She felt his body rise and fall beneath her hands, and a contented sigh escaped her lips.

Of course, the burning green of her dream paralleled her confrontation with Harry. Part of her was still so in shock from it that she couldn’t face it. She had never been more frightened in her life than when he had clenched his fists in a blind rage and shattered the giant mirror in their bedroom with raw magic. Even after he had calmed down several hours later and found her curled up on the couch, he had been colder than she had ever seen him. Of course, she could understand that. It simply saddened her that he chose now, once she was leaving, to give up his apathy.

Even more than the awful flash of green, the sobbing faces of her sons shook Ginny. They had been confused and hurt, to say the least, when she told them gently over Christmas that she and Harry were getting a divorce. James had gaped at her for a moment before burning a hole through her heart with a withering stare. He had turned on his heel and run up the stairs, making sure to slam the door loudly behind him.

Albus’s emerald eyes had filled with tears, and his bottom lip shook. “Don’t you love us?” he had whispered pitifully.

It made Ginny’s chest shake with silent sobs just to think about it. She had gathered him in her arms and cried. “Of course I love you.”

She hadn’t tried to explain where she was going or with whom. That was something she would try to tackle over the Easter break. Someday, she hoped fervently, they would understand. Perhaps after they had suffered broken hearts as well, although she hoped such a fate never befell them.

A loud tapping broke through her thoughts, and Ginny whirled in bed to look behind her, still clutching the sheet to her body.

A large brown owl was swaying gracefully in the nighttime wind outside their window, and with a feeling of dread seeping into her chest, Ginny slid out of bed and made her way towards it.

She pushed the glass open and the bird swooped into the room, landing softly on the back of Draco’s chair. She approached it hesitantly, afraid of what its deathly sharp talons might bear.

“Hello, Idris,” she crooned, reaching out a hand to stroke him. He hooted quietly, holding out his leg.

Ginny took the letter, breathing deeply before cracking the seal. She recognized the scrawl, still untidy after so many years.

Ginny,

The boys are back at Hogwarts. They were glad to see you. I’ve enclosed the papers finalizing everything. I suppose we’ll see you over the Easter hols. We’ll talk about you coming home then.

Give Lily my love.

Harry

She let the second piece of parchment fall out of the envelope and unfolded it. There, in tiny print, was her name and his. Her name looked oddly lonely without “Potter” slapped on to the end of it. The gradual ache building in her chest made her wonder if she had made the right choice.

She turned around as Draco moaned softly in his sleep, rolling over and reaching blindly for her. No, she was right to be here.

Tears stung her eyes as she looked upon the letter once more. His letters were a little shakier at the last sentence.

Give Lily his love, she thought bitterly. Of course now, once he couldn’t have her, Harry was interested in loving Lily. Now that she was Draco’s, Harry wanted to be the father. The irony tore at her inside.

And then there was his open denial of her leaving. We’ll talk about you coming home then. How could he think she would return? After the horrible things he had said and the poisonous names he had called her, how could he ever believe that she would come back?

After his fit of blind rage, in which he had raised his fist and only recoiled at the sound of her scream, he had treated her with a cold indifference, speaking as if she were simply going on holiday.

She tossed the letter in the crackling fire and slipped the paper into Draco’s desk drawer. Idris tilted his head and hooted sharply, but Ginny shook her head.

“I won’t be replying,” she told him.

He fixed a glare on her, but swooped out as quietly as he had come, and Ginny crawled back into bed and nestled into Draco’s arms.

“You’re certain it’s safe for her?” he muttered nervously, tugging on his gloves.

Ginny laughed, continuing to dice up the vegetables. “Of course it’s safe. She’s been flying since before she could walk.”

His mouth opened slightly, color draining from his face. “What were you thinking?” he demanded. “Children can’t fly when they’re that young!”

Ginny threw him a smirk over her shoulder. “As adorable as the concerned father look is on you, will you please hurry up? She’s really looking forward to this.”

Draco slumped into one of the kitchen chairs, rubbing his face miserably. “What if she hates me?”

Ginny bit back a laugh and turned around to face him, wiping her hands on her jeans. “Don’t be thick. We’ve been here for a month. She already adores you. You’re just afraid to see it.”

“I’m rubbish at this father shite,” he insisted.

She lowered herself into his lap, perching on his knees, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re wonderful. You both love flying. Just take your daughter flying. It’s something for the two of you to bond over. Just try? For me?” she added, letting her ponytail of red curls brush against his neck.

His eyes darkened and he moved forward to kiss her. It was slow and sweet and made Ginny tremble. Oh, she could get used to being kissed like this. The delicious tingles traveling up her spine felt almost dangerous.

“Ugh,” moaned a small voice behind them. “Bloody-”

“Watch your language, you,” Ginny cut her daughter off, whirling around in Draco’s lap. She looked adorable, with her red hair in braids and clad from head to toe in orange Quidditch gear. Draco groaned somewhere near Ginny’s ear.

“What is she wearing?” he demanded, pushing Ginny off his lap and standing up. “The Cannons?”

Lily smiled proudly. “I love the Cannons.”

“But they’re awful!” Draco said, aghast. “What about the Falcons?”

Lily’s lower lip was jutting out and her jaw was set defiantly. Ginny threw Draco a sharp look. Her daughter’s eyes were churning a dark, turbulent gray, and it made Ginny nervous.

Before she could say anything consoling, Draco crouched down before Lily. “What do you say we go out and I buy you brand new Quidditch gear? I know green’s your favorite color.” He smiled at her, and swept a fallen wisp of hair away from her eyes. Lily’s face broke into an uncertain grin.

“All new gear in green? No one ever lets me have me have green! Especially not Dad – I mean Harry.”

She caught her mistake quickly enough, but the fallen look on Draco’s face and the frightened one on Lily’s were enough to break Ginny’s heart. Ginny had told Lily that it was okay to call Harry her dad still, but the girl had insisted on calling Draco “Dad.”

“If he’s my real Daddy, I want to call him Daddy,” Lily had insisted on their first week in Prague. It made Draco smile uncontrollably every time she did.

“Come on, little dragon,” Draco said consolingly, taking her hand. “Go upstairs and change, and we’ll go buy all new Quidditch things.”

She smiled brightly and turned to run back up the stairs. Draco stood up and shrugged.

“It’s bound to happen,” he said softly. Ginny crossed the room and hugged him tightly, threading her fingers through his hair and kissing his cheek.

“You are incredible.”

“Once, you said I was perfect,” he replied cheekily, pulling her back and taking in her face.

Ginny laughed tearfully, pushing at his shoulder playfully. “I was young and naïve then. Everything seems perfect in Paris.”

“We should move there,” Draco murmured, burying his face in her neck.

Ginny laughed throatily. “Very sneaky of you, by the way. Offering green Quidditch gear. Already have her set up for Slytherin, do you?”

“You noticed that, eh?” he replied, smiling smugly.

“If you’re kissing, stop it!” Lily’s voice yelled from around the corner.

“We’re not, I promise!” Ginny called back.

“Thank Merlin,” she sighed, marching into the kitchen in her magenta winter coat that made her look like an employee of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

“You ready?” Draco asked uncertainly.

Lily just smiled and walked past him towards the stairs. Draco raised his eyebrows in a look of disbelief but hurried after his daughter as she cleared her throat from the corridor.

The two had strolled back in from their shopping trip and flying session pink-faced and laughing, and the sight had tugged at Ginny’s heartstrings. They had spent the better part of a month getting to know each other, Draco the hesitant father and Lily the confident, eager to please daughter. It was easy to see, after over a month in Prague, that Lily loved Draco just as much as Ginny did. Never had she been around someone who was so interested in making her happy. He courted her as he had courted Ginny ten years previously, taking her to the zoo and movies and to have snowball fights outside the Dragon. Everything he bought her was a shade of emerald, and Ginny had never seen her daughter so happy. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who wanted to be wanted.

The bartenders of The Dragon came to enjoy Lily’s presence nearly as much as Draco said they loved Scorpius’s. Draco would not let her stay past nine, as he might have with his son, but only, as he told Ginny, because he didn’t want any of “those arseholes” leering at her.

Near the end of January, on a day when Draco was out doing business for the Dragon, Ginny spent the day unpacking the last of the belongings she had brought back over Christmas. Removing each item from its box, Ginny felt a strange twinge in her chest. Harry had stayed with Ron and Hermione while she spent a few days packing up what was hers and Lily’s and spending time with the boys. But when Ginny pulled out an old jumper of Albus’s that she had packed on accident, she curled up in Draco’s chair for nearly an hour and cried.

Around noon, she wandered down the corridor to ask her daughter if she wanted some lunch. Her bedroom had once been the broom closet, but Draco had magically expanded it to serve as her bedroom. At any rate, the cramped room constantly served as a reminder to Ginny that they would need to figure out another arrangement sooner rather than later.

She pushed open the door to see the girl lying across the floor, poring over an old photo album Ginny had thought to bring with her to Prague. Lily looked up and gave Ginny a small smile.

“Hey, sweetie,” Ginny said softly. She crouched down beside Lily on the floor. “What are you doing?”

Lily rubbed at her eyes roughly. “Just looking at pictures,” she replied.

Ginny nodded. She looked down at her family waving at her, her mother in the front, kissing a squirming James on the cheek while Lily and Albus laughed. She heard Lily sniffle beside her, but when she looked up the girl wore a straight face.

“I miss Grandma,” Lily whispered.

“It’s okay to miss people, honey,” Ginny told her, taking her into her lap and kissing her temple.

“But I like it here. Daddy’s here. I like him,” Lily insisted.

And that’s where Ginny saw the flaw in her plan. Lily didn’t want to leave Draco, and she associated leaving for England with leaving her new father.

“I don’t want to leave him, Mummy,” Lily said into her mother’s chest. “I reckon he needs us.”

“I reckon you’re right,” Ginny replied. “But I’ll talk to him, yeah? I know you love everyone back home.”

“But if we go, Daddy will come with us?” Lily whimpered.

“Yes, angel. Yes he will.”

There was something else churning in Lily’s eyes, and Ginny could tell she didn’t know how to broach the subject. Perhaps she was too afraid of the answer. Ginny knew better than to press her on it.

But it frightened Ginny, because with that unreadable look, Lily also stared at her with a faint omniscience, like she had as a newborn. It made Ginny feel like her daughter could see right through her.

Ginny didn’t work up the courage to bring up the subject with Draco until three days later, when Lily was outside playing in the snow and they were both in the kitchen. The silence between them was oddly comfortable, a stark contrast from the strained ones between Ginny and Harry.

“Draco,” Ginny began uncertainly. She felt like she was uncertain all the time now. As if everything hung in the balance of her choices as of late. “I found Lily going through the family album a couple of days ago.”

He looked up, not because of her words, but because of her tone. His eyes were concerned and his pale brow furrowed as he lay down his book. He nodded for her to continue.

Ginny took a deep breath. “She misses England. It’s her home, and she needs to be there. But she doesn’t want to go without you.”

His blank stare burned through her, as it had in The Dragon when she had said Lily was his, or that night in his bed when she had told him she loved him. By now, it had ceased to frighten her, but it still set her nerves further on edge with each passing second.

Oh God, please. I left everything behind for you. Couldn’t you just leave behind one thing for me?

She knew that if he chose to stay behind, she would have to as well. She didn’t know what she would do with Lily, but she couldn’t go back now. She needed him, and she had a feeling Lily did, too.

“I left England behind a long time ago, Ginny,” he replied softly. His response was not an answer, merely a statement. And even though Ginny knew this, it broke her heart to hear him say it.

“I know,” she blurted. “I know. But, Lily…”

He nodded. She could tell it was incredibly difficult for him to consider such a thing.

“And, if nothing else, don’t you want her to go to Hogwarts?”

He looked up at her, and in an instant, Ginny knew that had been the wrong thing to say. “I don’t give a shite if she never attends that bloody school,” he said coldly.

“No, Draco, I didn’t mean-” she pleaded. “Please, just…for Lily?”

He stared at her for a long time, and she forced herself to keep from breaking eye contact. At last, he nodded slowly, reaching for her hand.

He traced circles across her palm with his thumb. “For Lily.”

Author notes: You guys have been great with the reviews. I hope they continue! :)