What We Forget

What We Forget

By Harlette003

Never in my life have I been so sure of myself as when I see him standing there waiting for me. I walk slowly towards him, thinking the whole time.

He has gorgeous eyes, wonder where he gets them from... but then, I know where. Everybody does. They say he gets his eyes from his father. No wonder his mother fell in love with him...

He holds out his hand and I smile. How long have I waited to take that hand once again? Too long, I know.

"I have so many things to tell you..." I whisper. Why does my voice sound so distant? Oh well, never mind.

"You have all the time in the world to tell me." His eyes crinkle in silent laughter.

I touch his hand and he looks down at it.

"Do you know, Gin?" he asks me. "Do you know what you are leaving behind?"

I frown. "Behind? I leave nothing behind."

"Yes, you do, Gin. Look and see."

He holds out his hand and points back the way I came.

I turn, trying to see as he does.

There, sitting in a room. My mother and father, my brothers, Hermione, Harry...

Hermione is holding something. I cannot see what it is.

"Do you see?" he drops his hand and watches me.

"What?" I ask, turning to face him. "My family?"

"Yes."

"But I can leave them. They can get on without me. They will understand. I need to be with you."

"Look closer."

I look back at the room. I realize there is a bed with somebody in it.

"Is that me in the bed?"

"Yes, but that is not what you are looking at." I can feel him smiling behind me.

Is he teasing me? I wonder.

"What?" I furrow my brow in confusion. "What am I looking at? I just want to rest... with you."

"I know, love."

My eyes wander over my family. Mother, Father, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Harry.

My eyes slide to the bundle in her arms.

"What is Hermione holding?" I ask. "I cannot see."

As I say this, the bundle comes into focus. A baby is wrapped in a soft looking blanket.

"Can she survive without you?"

I am getting confused. "Who?"

He raises his arm again and points at the little girl.

"Who is she?"

"Do you not know?"

"No."

"Who does she remind you of?"

I look and truly take her in; a wisp of platinum blonde hair, intense grey eyes.

"You," I say.

He grins at me. "Very good."

I am starting to get annoyed. "I don't get it, Draco."

"What has happened in the recent past?"

Changing the subject? "You died. In the final battle when Harry killed Voldemort. Your father killed you and then I killed him."

"And?"

What? I think. "Umm, Hermione and Ron got married."

I see him smiling amusedly down at me. "You are deliberately forgetting so that you won't feel guilty for leaving her."

"What? What am I forgetting?" I cry in frustration.

"What else?"

I look back to the room.

The little girl is reaching out her tiny little fists toward something. Me, I realise. Hermione pulls her arms back into the confines of the baby blanket, a much-pained look on her face.

Then I hear voices. They are distant, as though I am hearing them through a thick fog. Though they are not as far away as Draco's voice.

"Hermione, why do that?" I hear Ron.

"I have to." this is Hermione. "What if... What if she gets too close and she realises... that... that she's..." Hermione's eyes glisten as if she is holding back tears.

I study myself more closely. I look so fragile, so pale, and so sickly; the overly white hospital sheets tucked right up under my chin.

"She's not gone yet," my mother says in a shaky voice. "She's just a little tired. She'll pull through just as any Weasley should. She'll be fine. You just wait."

With that, my mother bursts into tears and flings herself into my father's waiting arms.

I look back to the baby. "She's mine, isn't she?"

"Yes."

"Before you died, that one time we slept together... I hated going through that pregnancy without you there with me."

"I know, love."

I sigh. "I have to stay for her, don't I?"

"Do you want to stay for her, Gin?"

I turn to see a searching expression in his eyes.

"Yes," I finally say.

His eyes crinkle again. "It is not time for you to leave her. It is not time for you to tell me everything."

"I know."

I realise that I am okay with this. I don't want to leave him but I know I must.

There are tears running unchecked down my cheeks. They feel oddly comforting, as if them being there just means that I am going to be okay. I do not look but I know that these tears are running down the face of my unconscious self as well.

"I'll see you when the time comes." His voice sounds strangely more distant, even though he has not moved an inch.

"Draco?"

"Yes love?"

"When will that be?"

He smiles and lifts his hand to my face, wiping away a tear.

"When you are ready."

He moves his hand to point once again to the hospital room and this time I follow it, walking slowly back to life.

As I get to the threshold, I turn one last time to see that he is gone.

"Goodbye, Draco."

And I step back to my daughter.

* FIN *

6