If the Fates Allow

Chapter 26

Reunion

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

(Oscar Wilde)

Before she knew what she was doing, she was in his arms, hugging him as though she wanted to stifle him, clinging to him as though her life depended on it, her head buried into his shoulder, while tears of relief were coursing down her cheeks.

She felt like showering him with questions such as 'how did you survive?', 'where have you been all along?', and 'why didn't you come back?', but for the time being she didn't feel capable of it. And for now it didn't even matter. All that mattered was that he was alive, he was here in her arms, and nothing would part them again... no Draco, no Phaedra, no Dark Lord... nothing. Ever.

Harry could barely hold back his tears, not when Ginny was sobbing in his arms, and not when Amrita was standing just a metre from them, looking at them with a questioning expression... she looked so sweet, her huge green eyes radiated such innocence, such... goodness. Voldemort's granddaughter... yet no trace of evil, no trace of deviousness could be seen on her rosy little face. She was the perfect image of an angel.

And if Voldemort turns up, I'll have to make sure this angel dies... he thought, feeling a lump rise in his throat. Before he knew it, he was silently crying, too. He screwed his eyes shut to close out the image of the tired-looking little girl who stood there unblinkingly, her mouth slightly agape.

"Harry..." Ginny said, sniffing, as she pulled back slightly, when she felt strong enough to speak. "How can you be... how you can you be alive?"

"It's a long story, Gin, and I'd rather not discuss it here. Nausi," he said, turning to the Chief-of-Circle, wiping his tears away, "this is my friend, Ginny. Ginny, this is Nausika, the leader of the Circle."

Nausika shook hands with Ginny and added with a little smile: "Why do I have the feeling that you're more than a friend for Harry?"

Ginny blushed and Harry found it totally endearing. He hadn't seen her blush for ages... He hadn't even realised how much he'd missed it. How he longed to just stare at her and whisper sweet nothings into her ears... but it was impossible. Not here, not now.

"Ehm... Nausi, would you mind if I went back to the Circle now? Ginny and I have a lot to discuss... also, the little girl seems to be tired."

"Harry, she is..." began Ginny, but Harry waved.

"I know. Does she know, too?"

"Er..." Ginny had no idea what to answer, but Amrita made it unnecessary for her to answer at all.

"You're my Daddy, aren't you?" she interjected.

Harry hesitated for a couple of seconds, and then dropped to his knees to be at the same eyelevel with the child. "What makes you think I am?"

"Well..." The little girl started chewing her lower lip, looking extremely thoughtful for a child her age, "you're called Harry. You have glasses. And once I saw a photo looking a lot like you in the Daily Prophet. Wormie has shown me the photo. You looked younger in it, though. So, am I right or am I wrong? Are you my Daddy?"

"Yes, I am," he replied, resting his hands on his knees, not really knowing what to do. Had it been Daffy, he would long have reached out and gathered her into a fatherly embrace, but this child was different. This child had been out of his reach all her life, this child had been the subject of Voldemort's blackmails, this child had been the one for whom Harry had sacrificed the world, and whom he'd have to sacrifice for the world now.

"Are you all right, Daddy?" asked Amrita with a worried expression. Harry was touched to realise that it was his own way of showing worry that he saw on her face... she furrowed her reddish brows the same way Harry had always used to... those stunningly green eyes radiated worry; worry for her father.

God, this little one loves me! Harry's heart screamed and he felt like sweeping her into an enthusiastic embrace, but something still held him back. She loved him, that was clear... and yes, he loved her too, he had to admit. Otherwise he wouldn't have chosen her over the world, would he? But how could this little angel here love him? Him? The worst father ever? Surely Amrita must have regarded him a terrible father who never cared to try and rescue her from her evil grandpa's clutches... not to mention that Voldemort must have described Harry to her as a total scoundrel, a worthless, heartless beast... Voldemort must have set the child against him as much as possible, yet...

Yet this child loved him.

"Yes... yes, I'm all right, sweetie," he whispered, licking a tear that had run down to his lips.

As he uttered 'sweetie', the child's worried expression brightened and with a little yelp of delight she threw herself on Harry's neck.

Harry looked up at Ginny, who was observing them with a touched-and-teary expression, then at Nausika, who seemed to be surprised - she had had, after all, no idea that Harry Potter had another child beside Daphne and Dora (whom she and everybody else in the Circle believed to be Harry's daughter).

Tentatively Harry put his arms around the girl's tiny body, but more carefully than he'd ever hugged Daffy... as carefully as though he feared he'd crush her. He'd never been awkward with Daffy, for it had been so natural that she was there and he could hold her, tickle her, blow raspberries on her stomach without doing her any harm... But this one was different. The curly-haired porcelain doll from the photos had come alive; still, he feared he'd break her if he dared hug her properly.

"See, Ginny, it wasn't really that hard to find him!" Amrita grinned at the young witch over Harry's shoulder.

Ginny couldn't help but smile, even though she knew well enough that Harry must be hurting now. She still remembered what he'd told her about becoming a father against his will, then getting teaser-photos of the baby for a year before Voldemort revealed the cruel truth to him... yet he had chosen to save his daughter and let the Dark Lord flee... Ginny knew how terribly ashamed Harry felt because of this. It must have been very hard for him to hug the child after seven years of only getting photos that conveyed the message 'if you put a toe out of line, she dies, Potter!'. Ginny also knew how much Harry had always hated that Linda for having seduced him on her father's orders, and she knew how hard it must have been for Harry to look at Amrita and realise that she pretty much took after her mother, too... No Potter had ever had red-gold hair, after all... Lily Potter's hair was said to have been dark red, while Amrita's was mostly blonde with a touch of red. She must have inherited it from that Linda, Ginny thought. She didn't know that Harry had long forgiven Linda; neither did she know that Harry had met Linda after their first encounter so many years ago... She didn't know what Harry was feeling, but she had a very good idea that he must be in denial, his soul in turmoil, thousands of emotions clashing in his heart. Love and hate, joy and sadness... and fear. Gryffindor or not, he had every reason to be afraid. Afraid that Voldemort might turn up, afraid that he'd lose his child again...

It was Nausika who broke the silence: "I also believe you should go back to the Circle, all three of you. Here." She fished something out of her shirt and handed it to Harry. "This works the same way as the members' palms. Just put it where you'd put your palm."

Harry took the object from her to see that it was some sort of a medallion on a chain. He had had no idea that Nausika had other means of opening the Circle's secret door, but then again, she was the leader, why wouldn't she have better access to the Headquarters than anyone else?

"Thanks, Nausi," he said and scooped up the yawning Amrita.

"Nausika!"

* * * * *

"So, this is your room?" asked Ginny, looking around. "Your... and Phaedra's room?"

"It used to be." Harry nodded and headed for the little room that had once belonged to Daphne and now belonged to Dora. As he had suspected, Dora wasn't there for Leto had taken her over to her own quarters, given that she was the only adult left in the Circle Headquarters.

"There you go, honey." He placed Amrita on the little bed that now stood in the corner, for Phaedra had put it away to make room for the crib. He tucked her in. "Sleep tight."

"Don't I get a good-night kiss?" whispered the child, her eyelids already closed. "Wormie always gave me a good-night kiss..."

"Wormie? Oh, Wormtail." Harry felt a slight wave of sickness wash over him at the idea of Peter Pettigrew, traitor of his parents, kissing his only daughter good night. Then again... Wormtail had at least kissed her, cared for her, while he, Harry, hadn't even tried to get her out of Voldemort's clutches.

I'm a bad father. A terrible father, he thought bitterly. He knew well enough that Voldemort had made it pretty much impossible for anyone to find out where he was keeping the child, so it was very likely that Harry wouldn't have been able to find her, even if he'd tried... but the point was that he hadn't even tried. Shame on me!

Slowly he bent down and placed a feather-light kiss on the little girl's forehead, to see that she smiled with her eyes shut - she'd felt his kiss and she smiled. And what a sweet smile that was... the typical father-heart-melting smile that he'd so often seen on Daffy's face... But this girl wasn't Daffy, he reminded himself.

This was Amrita, his illegitimate child, granddaughter of Lord Voldemort. Daphne had been brought up by both parents, loved and cared for, but all this little one had experienced through her short life was being shunned, being humiliated, being hurt... and yet she could still smile... could still love.

Suddenly it struck Harry how much this child reminded him of himself: growing up among people who hated him, looked down on him and enjoyed seeing him suffer... it had been the same for this child... maybe even worse than it was for him. The Dursleys after all had never murdered anyone, never sliced his arm open, and even though they sort of terrorised him, it didn't even come close to what Voldemort must have been doing to his granddaughter.

Ginny entered the room - Harry saw it with the help of his 360 degree vision - and walked up to him.

"Wonderful little girl," she whispered, gazing at Amrita, who must have fallen asleep, because she didn't start smiling now that Ginny was there.

"Yeah, she must be... otherwise she wouldn't have got away from Voldemort," he whispered back. "Do you know how she did it?"

"No." Ginny shook her head. "I only met her this morning."

He gave her a curious look. "And why have you brought her here? Did you know who she was, or...?"

"No, I didn't. But come, let's talk." She beckoned to him to follow her out of the room, into the living room.

Harry quietly closed the door behind him and took a place on the couch, next to her. "Fire away."

"I will," she said, "but first you do. I'm very curious to know where you have been all along, when everyone believed you to be dead."

He took a deep sigh. "All right, then. I fell through the Styx and found myself in the Underworld. Hades turned out to be a Quidditch-maniac and kept me there to win matches for Elysium while Cedric was temporarily released to support his parents spiritually."

"So it was true then," she said thoughtfully. "One night I had a very funny dream, in which Cedric told me that you were playing Quidditch in the Underworld. I found this so ridiculous that I didn't believe it."

"Yeah." He grimaced. "I can imagine that. It really sounds stupid, but that's the truth. I sent Cedric to you to tell you I was doing all right and I'd be coming back. This was the only way I could send you a message... I wanted to make sure you wouldn't suffer too much."

A wistful little smile appeared on her face. "I wish I had believed Cedric. Then I would have suffered less."

He reached out to take her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed it back. "Don't worry, Harry... it's over. The Fates Charm expired, I left Draco and he has no other choice but to divorce me... and I have you back."

"Was he very horrible to you?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Just as always." She shrugged, avoiding his stare. She wasn't sure she wanted to tell him about their poor baby. Harry surely had enough problems, enough to worry about and be sad about at the moment, and it wouldn't do any good to add one more, would it?

"Ginny..." he said in a somewhat firmer voice, "I know that look. And it means you're trying to hide something."

"Those are my lines, Harry," she replied with a grimace.

"Yeah, and as far as I remember, you didn't leave me alone until I poured my heart out to you..." he reminded her of her playing the psychologist so many years back. "It's payback time."

She looked up to meet his eyes, but those didn't mirror the mischief of his words, they rather radiated serenity, encouragement and a promise to handle whatever she'd tell him with as much understanding and tolerance as possible.

"Right," she sighed. "He was horrible. He got to know that I'd slept with you and he got more furious than I'd ever seen him... he locked me up in Malfoy Manor and made it impossible for my family to see me. If it hadn't been for our three house-elves, I would still be sitting there, having to put up with his tyranny, perhaps even..." Her voice trailed off, but as her eyes met Harry's, she knew there wasn't any reason for her to not say those words. "...perhaps even being raped by him right now."

His grip on her hands tightened. "Did he...? Did he do it...?"

"No, he didn't... but if I had stayed there, he'd be doing it now for sure."

"What kept him from...? I mean... he's the type who'd do it just to take revenge on you for having cheated on him..."

"He didn't do it, exactly because he knew I'd cheated on him," Ginny replied quietly.

"I fear I don't get it." Harry frowned. "It's not like him to abstain from touching you, or punishing you..."

"He didn't abstain from punishing me, but he abstained from touching me..." She took a deep breath. "...as long as I was carrying your child."

His hands let go of hers, and as she glanced at him again, he saw that his eyes had widened with surprise and confusion.

"Repeat that," he said, suddenly feeling that his mouth had gone as dry as a parchment.

"He didn't abstain from punishing me, but..."

"Not that, the other part..."

"I had a child from you, Harry."

"But... but how? You were... you couldn't..."

"Aesculapius' pool healed you... and healed me, too. It made me fertile."

Harry's eyes widened even more. "It made you... fertile? And we made love right there! I can't believe it!" Suddenly he reached out to grasp her hands again. "And? Where's the child? Is it a boy or girl?"

"Harry..."

"What happened to him... her?"

"Harry..."

"Tell me he isn't in Draco's hands now!"

"HARRY!" she shouted to stop his tirade.

"Yes?" He blinked, his enthusiasm evaporating as he looked into her eyes - into those dark pools full of sadness. His heart sank. He thought he already knew what he'd hear. After all, Ginny had said 'I had a child from you' - in the past tense.

"He's dead. He was stillborn."

"Heavens..." he muttered, his mind reeling. "It happened... about a month ago, didn't it?"

"On the 21^st of May."

"It explains the screams then..."

"What?" She knitted her eyebrows.

"I had a very disturbing dream one night. You were suffering. I... I thought it had been because I was simply vexed after that attack by Cerberus, and I thought it was just the work of my overwrought mind... but... it seems it was real." He gulped. "I'm sorry, Ginny."

"Don't be. It's better for our little son to be dead, because Draco would have killed him anyway."

"Killed him???"

She nodded. "Yes, because... he looked like you. Draco wouldn't have let him live like that."

Harry felt he was going red with anger. "I'll get him..." he hissed, "I'll get him, I swear..."

"No." She shook her head. "Forget it, Harry. Forget Draco. It's over. It doesn't matter what the past was like, all that matters is that the future is ours... I can have children now. As many as you want."

He gave her a sad smile. "For the time being I'm having enough problems with that one single kid sleeping next door."

"What's the problem with her?"

"She's Voldemort's granddaughter."

"I know. And?"

"Voldemort will want her back."

"But we won't give her back," Ginny said, as though it was the simplest thing in the world.

"That's right, we won't give her back... not out of our free will, that is. As long as she's far from him, we are holding the aces in this game, but if he comes for her - and he'll come for sure -, then I'd rather kill her than give her back to him."

"Harry!" she said, scandalised. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"But I do! You have no idea, Ginny... but I do!" he said, his eyes blazing with a passion she'd never seen in them. It was some sort of mad determination - something that almost frightened her. "Voldemort's living off Amrita. If she's no more, then he's no more."

She shuddered. "I don't understand this."

"When Voldemort regained his body so many years ago, he used my blood to do so. But he didn't suspect that it'd make him addicted to it. When he realised it, he had to make sure he'd get more of it... so he ordered that cow Umbridge to send him samples of my blood."

"Umbridge? But... How?"

"Umbridge gave me detention several times. Every time she made me write lines, and she gave me a special quill that used my blood as ink to do it with. Look." He held his right hand up for her. "See those thin white lines? Those are the lines her quill etched into my hand, while it sucked the blood out."

"How dare she?" Ginny breathed, going as white as a sheet.

"She dared, because Voldemort was blackmailing her. The point is that she kept sending him the parchments full of my blood and he used it. But, after a while, he started to run out of it... and then he sent his daughter to me to conceive a child, and he continued using the child's blood. He kept slicing up her arm every time he needed a new dose of her blood."

"So that was why she was moaning that she didn't want to do something..." Ginny said, remembering Amrita groaning in her sleep while they were travelling from Pireus back to Athens. Now she felt even sorrier for the poor child than before. So young, and already being used as a means to blackmail Harry Potter and to make sure that Voldemort wouldn't... wouldn't what??? "Tell me, Harry, what would happen if Voldemort didn't get new doses of your blood... her blood?"

"He'd lose his powers. He'd become worse than a common Muggle," he replied. "You can be sure he won't get blood from me, and I'm not going to let him use even a droplet of my daughter's blood either. I'll prevent it - at all costs."

* * * * *

Draco led the twins into a tavern at the very end of Falaf Alley. The tavern was full of people, given that it was dinnertime. Greek music filled the air - syrtaki, perhaps - none of the three knew what sort of music it exactly was.

"Not bad, not bad," said George admiringly. "I wish mum would let us listen to music this loud while dining."

"There's the owner," murmured Draco and headed for Nikias, who was again having problems with the cash register.

"Um, hello, Nikias, do you remember me?" he said.

The restaurateur looked up, his face red with anger over the malfunctioning machine. When he spotted the blond wizard, however, his angry expression got replaced by a surprised one. "Seamus, right?"

"Seamus???" Fred and George looked at Draco with questioning expressions.

"Well, my real name's Draco, but... it doesn't matter. I'm looking for..."

"Colin? Just met him," said Nikias enthusiastically.

"Colin?" Draco frowned. "You mean... Harry?"

"Er... could be... that pretty witch shouted Harry at him..." said the owner contemplatively.

"Harry?" Fred cut in. "How can that be? He's dead!"

"Well, an hour ago he seemed pretty much alive to me." Shrugged Nikias.

"That bastard!" Fumed George. "He was alive all along, and he didn't even bother to look for Ginny! He knocked her up and he didn't even try to find out how she was doing!"

"Well, that's Potter for you," drawled Draco.

"Shut up, Malfoy, you aren't any better!" snapped Fred.

"I still can't believe it... he didn't even care for Ginny!" George carried on vehemently.

"Ehm... excuse me?" said a female voice and all three of them turned to see a tall and rather masculine-looking woman. "I accidentally overheard some of what you were saying, and it seemed to me that you were talking about Harry Potter and a certain Ginny..."

"What if we were?"

"Well, I just thought you wanted to meet them... but if it's not the case, then I'm not bothering you any longer, farewell, gentlemen..."

"Wait! What do you know about them?" Draco called after her.

She turned back to them. "They met here. And the woman had a child with her."

"A child? So she knows about her baby?" Frowned Fred.

"What?" Blinked the woman. "It wasn't a baby. It was a girl of about seven years... and she claimed to be... wait a minute, how can I know you don't want to hurt Harry or Ginny?"

"You came here to us, sister, and you started to talk about them." Draco rolled his eyes. "But you can be sure we don't want to harm them. These two jerks here are Ginny's brothers and I'm her husband."

"She's married, then?" The woman raised a black eyebrow. "I wonder whether she knows you're looking for her..."

"I bet she suspects it, but... I'm not looking for her for the reason she thinks I'm looking for her... See... she thinks I want to capture her or whatever... but I only want to tell her that her baby - whom she believed to be dead - isn't dead. A long story, but..."

"She believed your child to be dead?" asked the woman.

"Not our child... hers and... Potter's," replied Draco with a grimace.

"Whew, Potter has a whole bunch of children, then..." The woman grinned.

"A bunch of children?" George knitted his eyebrows. "What do you mean by that, lady?"

"Just call me Nausika." Waved the witch. "Anyway, Potter's wife recently had a child, that's one. Ginny had one, that's two. And the little girl with Ginny was Potter's too - that's three."

"So, I'm no better than him, am I?" Draco sneered at the twins. "At least I haven't knocked up every single woman I met."

"Surely because you're impotent." Fred shrugged.

"Am not!" snapped Draco.

"Don't shout, ferret boy, everybody's looking at you already..." Smirked George.

Draco gave the twins a murderous Malfoy-trademark look, and then turned back to Nausika. "Do you know by any chance where Potter and my wife are now?"

She gave him a secretive look. "Perhaps I do."

* * * * *

Leto was cradling her son in her arms, humming a lullaby. Little Dora was already asleep and now occupied the crib of Leto's son. The little boy's eyelids drooped and he yawned.

Suddenly there was some noise outside Leto's door. Could some of the others be back already? - she wondered.

When she had made sure that her son was fast asleep, she gently placed him onto the couch and left her room.

There was nobody in the corridor, but she could have sworn that two or three minutes ago she'd heard footsteps.

Who could be walking around here, where there were only store-rooms and the library? Leto's room was the only inhabited one around.

She had a feeling that she should return to her little 'crèche', but her curiosity got the better of her. Wand out, she crept along the corridor, in the direction she supposed that the 'visitors' must have gone. Of course it could be possible that only those horrible siren-sisters had returned and decided to take a walk around the Headquarters... Nosy folks, sirens - Leto thought. She had never liked them, mostly because her doubtful natural charms didn't come close to the stunning beauty of Nymph, Nympha and Nympho.

Inside the library, Bellatrix handed Voldemort the Book of Athena, which the Dark Lord took with a hungry expression on his face. "Now I shall know... Potter might have stolen the parchment from me, but I shall know where it is, with the help of this little beauty..."

He opened the book.

Hello, Tom Riddle, what can I help you with? a script in the book asked.

"Tell me where the parchment that Potter stole from my servants is," replied Voldemort, slightly annoyed that the book called him by his given name that he hated so much.

Nothing happened.

Seeing the confusion on the Dark Lord's face, Spiro grinned. He was flanked by Goyle and Macnair and couldn't even move, but even the slightest annoyance for the Dark Lord filled him with malicious joy.

"How does it work?" Voldemort growled at him.

"How should I know?" Spiro gave him a particularly cheeky look.

"Who do you think you're fooling?" Voldemort's red eyes gleamed with fury. "Impe..."

"No, my Lord!" Bellatrix held out her hand. "Spare your strength. I'll do it for you."

"Do so, Bella." Nodded the Dark Lord.

"So, how do you make this bloody book answer you? Imperio!" She pointed her wand at young Papafotiu.

Spiro screwed his eyes shut, trying to shake the curse off, but he was fighting a losing battle. He knew he'd always needed about a minute to manage to resist it... if only he could stop himself from spilling the beans to Voldemort for more than a minute... Why weren't any Circle members coming yet? Hadn't they heard when he and the bunch of Death Eaters had entered? Where on earth was everyone?

Come... someone... come and stop this... kill me, I don't care, I'd deserve it, after all I brought a dozen dark wizards into the Headquarters... just stop me from telling him...

Rodolphus Lestrange joined Bellatrix, and with two people casting the Imperius on him, Spiro finally broke.

"Just... grab... a fucking... quill... you moron!" he wheezed.

"How dare you?!" gasped Bellatrix at the insult directed at her Master. "Cruc..."

"No, Bella." Voldemort waved his hand. "We don't want to attract attention by letting him scream here. It is a wonder that the whole Circle of Hermes doesn't already know we're here. On the other hand, I can't blame him." He pointed his spidery index finger at Spiro, "I should have known that this pathetic book wasn't capable of responding to a human voice. But then... how does it recognise who opens it? Hm... most curious. Give me a quill."

"Here, my Lord." Bellatrix handed him a quill and he wrote his question into the book, feeling a bit nostalgic - he still remembered those good old times when he'd created the enchanted diary... Lucius had once told him that a certain girl named Ginny Weasley had used it... For a second he wondered whether he'd ever meet this Ginny Weasley...

As the ink disappeared into the book's yellowish paper, new words appeared: the book's answer in intricate Greek letters that the Dark Lord easily understood: Ask Harry Potter himself.

"Can't it give one a straightforward answer?" Voldemort grunted.

"His Lordship asked something!" Bellatrix pointed her wand at Spiro.

The Greek wizard grimaced and rolled his eyes.

Seeing that Bellatrix was losing it again and wanted to shout Crucio at Spiro, Voldemort grabbed her arm. "Don't. Imperio will suffice again. Of course I could use Legilimency to get the answer from him, but... that requires too much of my powers, and I can't afford to lose any of them now..." He gave Peter a meaningful look, making the short Death Eater cringe.

Suddenly two Death Eaters whom Voldemort had ordered to stand guard outside the library door came in, holding a deadly pale woman.

"My Lord, this wench tried to eavesdrop but we caught her."

* * * * *

"Won't your wife be mad if she finds me here?" asked Ginny, resting her head on Harry's shoulder. She had already told him as much about the past ten months as possible: the memorial ceremony, her not seeing the Thestrals, Draco getting to know about her pregnancy, the story of her escape with the elves' help, her charming her hair to look brown, her meeting Amrita and also their meeting the happy father Buckbeak. She barely realised that it had been she who'd been talking all along, Harry had just listened.

"I don't think Phaedra would be mad that you're here," he murmured, relishing the feeling of having her in his arms after ten months of futile longing. His heart ached at the thought of Ginny having had to suffer from Draco's tyranny, and especially for having lost their baby. He found that he would have been sorry for her even if the lost baby had been Draco's and not his, for it too would have caused her suffering. He wished he could wrap Ginny into some cocoon with himself and remain like that forever - to make her forget all her sorrows and protect her from more suffering in the future. But did she need his protection? Hadn't she gone on a dangerous journey with him to the Row of Gods to gain her freedom and secure her father's safety? Hadn't she fought Death Eaters at his memorial? Hadn't she successfully cast the Time Freezing Charm on Draco? Hadn't she been brave enough to fight for her freedom?

Oh, yes, she had been. He kissed the top of her red head (she had turned her hair back to red) and she looked up at him with her beautiful brown eyes.

"Why wouldn't she be mad?"

"Er... because... well, you won't believe it when I tell you but... it seems that my wife sort of let your husband console her after my so-called death."

"Console her?" She raised an eyebrow. "You don't mean..."

"But I do." He grinned. "And Phaedra has a daughter now. From Malfoy."

She gasped. "I don't believe it!"

"You'd better believe it. She's an adorable three-week old by the name Dora. Fortunately she takes after her mother."

Ginny couldn't help but let out a giggle, even though her heart ached at the thought of Draco having a daughter while she had lost her little son. "So... it's not only us who cheated on them, but they cheated on us, too. Not that it surprises me that Draco cheated on me, I mean, he does that all the time, but... with Phaedra? I can't help but find this hilarious." She nestled herself even more into Harry's arms and whispered: "But it's good to know that you'd never cheat on me..."

Harry felt a lump rise in this throat and some invisible hand compress his heart at the same time.

"Ginny..."

"Yes?"

"There's something I've got to tell you."

She raised her head to look at him with a slightly worried expression. "I don't like that look."

"And you will like what I have to say even less," he sighed. "But I think it'd be really cheating on you if I didn't tell you. You deserve to know... and if I ever want to live with you with a clear conscience, then I've got to tell you."

She knitted her eyebrows, her eyes trying to read his features, but they failed. "What, Harry?"

He took a deep sigh. "While I was in the Underworld, Dumbledore got this funny idea that I was weak..."

"Weak? You?" She blinked incredulously.

"Uh-huh. And to tell you the truth, he was right. There have been so many times when I was weak... when my weakness made me do things I shouldn't have... So, Dumbledore decided that I needed a... support if I ever wanted to face Voldemort again. He thought I'd again... crack up and let him blackmail me... I don't know, but... perhaps he was right. The point is that he decided to arrange for me to join with Linda spiritually."

"Linda? You mean... You-Know-Who's daughter?"

"Yeah. I don't know whether I can really profit from this union when I next face Voldemort... perhaps the whole thing was for nothing, but..."

"What does it exactly mean that you're joined with her on a spiritual level?"

"It means that if I ever call her name, even just in thought, she'll be there inside my head, or something like that, and she'll help me..." He looked down at his knees embarrassedly. "I don't know whether I'd invoke her, or if I did, whether she could help me or not... and apparently when I no longer need her, the link will be automatically broken. I really don't know... it's just..." Knowing that he had rambled totally incoherently, he glanced at her, his eyes trying to convey a message that she didn't understand.

"It's just what?"

"It's just that... in order to establish this link between the two of us we..." He bit into his lower lip, his green eyes boring into hers, and suddenly it dawned on her.

"Oh... This is... this is... weird."

"Weird?"

"Yeah... she's dead, isn't she? Isn't she just a... spirit? How can one do it with a spirit? I mean, those are like Nearly Headless Nick... Everything just... goes through them."

For a second Harry was forced to imagine himself shagging a ghost. He shuddered. "Nooo, it's not like that! I didn't go through her, I mean..." He ran a hand through his unruly black locks, feeling that he had never in his life explained a weirder thing to anyone. Also, he was slightly relieved that Ginny had rather asked an objective question instead of bursting into tears or accusing him of having cheated on her. "It's like... all the dead down there are pretty much like the living up here. They're... tangible, you know."

"Was it any good?"

"Er... dunno. I don't remember a thing of it."

She gave him a quizzical look.

"She used some charm on me... some power that Persephone gave her to... fool me a bit. They all conspired against me: Dumbledore, Hades, Persephone, my parents, Sirius... I felt like cursing them all, but... what good it would have been? It happened and there was no way to undo it. I just thought you ought to know that I felt like shit after I realised that I had been had."

She reached out and cupped his face in both her hands. "The point is that in your heart you were never unfaithful to me. And if this Linda can really help you kick You-Know-Who's ass, then it was worthwhile."

"Heavens, I love you," he breathed.

"I love you too." She smiled, and after ten months, their lips met in a soft kiss.

* * * * *

Spiro gasped, and the woman paled even more as she spotted him. "Spiro! What... what does this mean? You... you aren't... one of them, are you?" she stammered in a beseeching voice. One of the Death Eaters who had apprehended her was fiddling with her wand that he'd taken from her by force.

"Your sister, I presume?" Voldemort said in a mocking tone.

Spiro scowled at the Dark Lord, then turned to the witch. "No, Leto, I'm not one of them. They forced me to bring them here."

"But... why?" Leto's eyes filled with tears. She couldn't believe it was her beloved brother who had betrayed the Circle, and to none other than You-Know-Who himself.

"Because Lord Voldemort wanted to question the Book of Athena," replied Voldemort casually. "Do tell me, girl, are you the only other Circle member here?"

Leto's lips trembled and her knees shook. She gave the impression that she'd faint any second.

"His Lordship asked you something." Bellatrix pointed her wand at the unfortunate young woman.

"Y...yes," Leto muttered.

"Good." Voldemort turned back to Spiro. "I asked you something. Can't this book give a straightforward answer?"

Spiro didn't answer just glared at the Dark Lord defiantly.

"Bella, give his sister a bit of the Cruciatus, it might loosen his tongue."

Bellatrix raised her wand at Leto, but Spiro shouted "No!"

"See, he can be sensible..." Voldemort said in a condescending tone. "Continue."

"It won't give you a straightforward answer. It never does. All it will give as an answer is whom you should ask for the proper answer. It seems you won't find your parchment, ever," Spiro replied with a triumphant smirk.

Voldemort turned his back on him and wrote And where's Potter? into the book.

However, the book didn't respond.

"What now?" he growled with frustration and doubled back to glower at Spiro. "Why doesn't it work?"

Spiro glanced at Mrs Lestrange who was still keeping Leto in check with her wand. "Because... it only answers one question for anyone."

"Have you asked your question already?" Voldemort asked.

"No," sighed Spiro.

"Then go on, ask it where Potter is!"

With a grimace the young Greek wizard wrote the question into the book, and it answered:

Ask Nausika Kondos or Virginia Malfoy or Amrita Rätsel.

"Amrita?" the Dark Lord gasped. "So... she knows where her damn father is!"

"Her... father?" Spiro's eyes widened. Up till now he'd only known about Harry being father to the late Daphne and to little Dora. Who the heck was this Amrita? And couldn't Potter make boys at all? Only girls???

"None of your business." Voldemort waved. "Do tell me who this Nausika Kondos is and where we can find her."

Spiro gulped, willing himself not to talk, but the image of the black-haired female Death Eater torturing his sister kept floating through his mind. He'd had enough of the Cruciatus himself and didn't want to expose Leto to it. He just wished that Nausika and the others would return and kick the Death Eaters' ass, but who knows where they were now? Certainly he had no idea that the whole Circle was out on the streets, looking for him.

"She... she's the leader of the Circle, but I have no idea where she is right now."

Voldemort's eyes narrowed, then he nodded. "You're telling the truth. Well then, I expect..."

But what he expected was never revealed because in the next instant a baby's cry ran through the air. A mere two seconds later, another baby's cry joined in - the first baby must have awoken the second with his wailing.

"Whose children are those? Yours?" the Dark Lord asked the trembling Leto.

"One... one of them is mine," she muttered. "The boy."

"And the other?"

The Greek siblings exchanged a worried glance. They knew it would be risky to tell He Who Must Not Be Named that the other baby was Potter's, given the Dark Lord's well-known hate for Potter...

"Don't tell them, Spiro," whispered his sister.

"He'll find out either way," her brother replied sadly. "With Legilimency."

"Oh..." she breathed.

Young Papafotiu turned to Voldemort. "The girl is Potter's."

Voldemort's face tucked into a devilish smirk. "Indeeeed?"