Father and Son

Author note: Thanks to my wonderful beta. Carmen, you are the best!!!

~ Father and Son ~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I know I can be a little stubborn sometimes,

A little righteous and too proud.

I just wanna find a way to compromise,

'Cause I believe that we can work things out.

I thought I had all the answers, never giving in,

But, baby, since you've gone

I admit that I was wrong.

All I know is I'm lost without you,

I'm not gonna lie.

How am I gonna be strong without you?

I need you by my side.

If we ever say we'd never be together

In the end you wave goodbye -

Don't know what I'd do.

I'm lost without you!

Lost without you

by Delta Goodrem

~Chapter 1~

Ginny leaves

August, 2015

'I won't allow my wife to meet with this fucker!' Draco shouted at his wife.

'I don't care what you allow me to do. I'm not your possession, Malfoy!' Ginevra shouted back at him.

David closed the door silently. He and his twin sister sat on the floor in front of the doors to the living room of the Manor, where their parents were arguing. His twin Diana looked at him anxiously. He knew why. When his mum started to call his father 'Malfoy', she was more than angry with him. The two of them had been shouting at each other for twenty minutes. Diana grabbed for David's hand and he squeezed hers. They always did reach for each other when one of them needed support.

It was always bad when their parents had a row, but this time it was worse than the usual arguments. Over the month, Ginny and Draco had started to snap at each other for every little thing and for no reason. Their fights had increased, and then there had been a few weeks of silence between the couple.

Until today, when it all exploded. The house elves had vanished immediately at the screaming of their master and mistress, and David and Diana, alarmed by the sudden screams and shouts, had come to the living room to find their parents fighting inside. They didn't dare to interfere. Glass had been broken by the looks of it. Ginny and Draco both possessed uncontrollable tempers. And once they were raging, you couldn't tell how it would end. Amaris, the twins' elder sister, had once mocked that their parents would end up killing each other one day.

The angry voice of their mother sounded through the closed door:

'You are an idiot, Malfoy, if you can't see that there's nothing between me and Harry!'

'There was, once!'

'He's married! We both have family!' Ginny pointed out, desperately trying to talk some sense into her raging husband.

'I don't care!'

'Yeah, that's obvious! You don't care! You don't care that I'm married to you, that I'd never cheat on you, or that I'd never leave you and my children for another man. And Harry and me: that was years ago! But you are stubborn and blinded by your jealousy. You don't trust me! We've been married for sixteen years now, and you still won't trust me!'

'I trust you! It's this bloody Potter guy that I do not trust!' Draco shouted back at her.

'I don't know why I married such a stupid, arrogant prat like you! I should have listened to my mother!'

'Perhaps you should have! Because then, you couldn't have made a fool of me by fucking famous scar-headed Quidditchstars!'

Inside the living room, Draco was standing opposite his wife in a heap of glass pieces that she'd flung at him.

She suppressed a scream of anger. Her face was glowing red and her dark eyes sparkled dangerously.

'You know what? Stay here and get sick of your jealousy. I can't stand you any longer! I'll leave!'

'Yeah, go to your dear weasel mother, again. Then my house is finally clean of the bloodtraiter scum you and your family are!'

'Don't you dare talking to me like that!' Ginny whispered, pure hatred in her voice.

Before Draco could take in what she was doing, Ginny had drawn her wand and threw a number of curses and hexes at him.

When he was lying on the ground she went to him and whispered in his ear: 'I'll go to Harry!'

She stormed out of the living room, ignoring the pleading and crying of her twins, and apparated.

That was the last time they had seen her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'Father? It's a week now, that mum is gone,' David interrupted the silence at the breakfast table.

The dining room of the Manor was, thanks to Ginny, a warm, comfortable room, but since she was gone, it wasn't warm at all. The whole Manor was silent, dark, and cold without her. None of her children knew where she was, and their father refused to tell them anything.

David, Diana, and their elder sister Amaris looked at their father.

He wasn't himself, either. David knew he wasn't sleeping and he barely ate anything. He hadn't left the Manor since, only leaving his room to eat with them.

Draco Malfoy put down the Daily Prophet and looked back at them. His features were hard and cold.

'Your mother has left us. She preferred to live with someone else. If you wish to follow her, I won't keep you here. You can go and live with your blood-traitorous mother and her new lover!'

'Don't call her that!' David shouted. 'You know exactly why she left. Because you always shouted at her. She didn't go to a lover or something. She's just gone because she couldn't stand it anymore to argue with you. She loves you, father!'

Draco snorted.

'Perhaps once,' he said and opened the newspaper again.

'Dad!' Amaris pleaded.

'You have to find her! Please, just apologize to her. I know you regret your fight, you always do!' Diana said desperately.

'Don't you understand?' Draco snapped at them. 'She won't come back! Not this time! She has left for good, and no apology will bring her back.'

'You already tried!' David suddenly pointed out.

Draco said nothing, but his silence told them, David was right.

'Then we'll soon have to decide where to live,' Amaris mocked and stood up from the table, her black hair swinging after her.

While David and Diana looked exactly like their father with their light blond hair and their grey eyes, their sister was raven-haired and had deep blue eyes. Still, she had inherited the mocking, aristocratic, and arrogant manner of her father. Or even more, her grandfather.

'She's lying!' Diana said, trying to convince herself of that. 'Daddy, you won't get divorce, will you?' she pleaded, looking at the back of the newspaper that hid her father's expression.

Draco sighed.

'Promise it, no, swear it!' David demanded.

'I have already sworn that! Sixteen years ago, just like your mother did!' Draco snapped.

'Obviously neither of you does care about that anymore!' David pointed out and rose from the table, indicating his sister to follow him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the meantime, Ginny was sitting in the warm, country-style kitchen of Harry's residence. She had always liked it, because it had the style of an old farmer's house and very much reminded her of the burrow. She was sipping her tea while watching the children of Ron and Hermione play in the garden. Every Saturday they were at Harry and Luna's so their parents had a bit of free time, and since Harry and Luna still hadn't any children, they loved it to have them at their house.

Luna walked in, carrying a laundrybasket, and saw her best friend gazing out of the window.

'You miss your family, don't you?' Luna asked, startling her.

Ginny nodded.

It was even harder than she had previously thought it would be. But she was trying to prove a point to her husband. Three days ago he had brought up the courage to come to the Potter's and ask for her. She grinned evilly as she thought back to that evening. It was perfect, though she hadn't planned it like that. When he had entered the living room, she had been sitting on the sofa next to Harry with Ron's youngest son, Harry's godson, that they were baby-sitting, sitting on her lap in his cute blue pyjamas. She had immediately recognized the feeling that rose in Draco's eyes as soon as he had seen them. It was hurt! She knew there was nothing worse for Draco than the thought of losing her. She knew that he was addicted to her, but Ginny felt that Draco needed her more as a possession than as his love. He had scowled at Harry, and then asked to talk to her alone. When they had been in the hallway, he had just looked at her and said:

'Come back, Gin. Please come back home!'

Home! She had been close to giving in. Yes, she had wanted to go home with him, to her beloved children - but it would have been the same. Draco would still have made rules for her. Would try to imprison her in the Manor. He had to learn that she was not his possession, but a free person. That she wasn't to be taken for granted, and that he could lose her anytime.

'I don't think I will!' she had sneered at him. 'I'm enjoying it so much to have threesomes with Harry and Luna!'

Draco's expression had become livid again.

And then the shouting had started up again. After having woken up the whole neighbourhood, both had stormed off into different directions.

'Why do you do this to yourself?' Luna asked with a caring expression. Her dreamy eyes were fixed on the children in the garden. 'I couldn't sleep a night without Harry next to me!' she said. Though she seemed absent-minded, Ginny knew that Luna's thoughts were fixed on their conversation.

Ginny snorted.

'You can't tell me you two actually sleep at night! I'm sleeping next door, you know.'

Instead of blushing, Luna just grinned.

'Yeah, he is crazy about me,' she said dreamily.

'That's an understatement,' Ginny said. 'I envy you!'

'Have you stopped sleeping with each other?' Luna asked innocently.

Ginny shook her head, smiling at her best friend.

That was exactly what she liked with Luna. She was always so righteous. Pretending it was the most normal thing in the world to talk about sex like it was just the weather.

'Only the last few months. But actually, I meant that you two are so crazy about each other.'

'Draco is crazy about you, too!' Luna insisted.

'Perhaps he has really gone crazy.'

'Ginny, he's probably already regretting what he said. Wouldn't it be sad if he hadn't been jealous?'

'I don't know what you mean,' Ginny said confused.

'He cares about you; he loves you. That's the only explanation why he got so angry about Harry and you meeting. And you have to admit that it looked strange for him. You and Harry met so often and he never knew anything about it. Ginevra, don't let that secret destroy your marriage. I told you, I don't want it if that's the price you pay for it!'

Ginny looked up at her.

Luna was looking seriously at her, nearly angry.

'It's not about the secret. This is about his lack of trust in me. About how he has been treating me the last months, no the last years. He has changed so much, Luna.'

'Funny. I always thought he has never changed,' Luna said in an airily voice and smiled.

Ginny stared after her when she left the kitchen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'They are all talking about divorce!' Diana said desperately.

'I know. They say it had to come this way sooner or later. Nobody really believed it would work,' David said.

His voice was quiet. He was deep in thought.

While his sister sat in an old armchair, he was pacing up and down in the old library of Malfoy Manor.

'I talked to granny, and she said she and grandpa won't try to help us. They once told mum that she should end this marriage as soon as she couldn't handle it anymore,' Diana sniffed. Tears were starting up in her eyes.

David sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head onto his shoulder, her hair tickling his cheek.

'Don't cry, please Di, don't do that to me!' he said annoyed.

He hated it when girls cried, especially his sisters.

'I just thought at least granny and grandpa would help us!' Diana sniffed. 'And I can't understand why Amaris won't help us! They're her parents, too! Why doesn't she care?' Diana cried. David rubbed the arm of his twin sister.

'She does. She's just not the type to cry about it. Haven't you noticed that she, too, has locked herself up all day?'

Diana nodded.

'And I've heard her talking to her boyfriend. She doesn't know what to do anymore, and she's not used to that.'

'Why is it that Sky is the only one Amaris is talking to about her feelings?' Diana asked.

'She's like father. That's the reason he's so miserable. Mum is the only one he can talk to about his feelings, and now that she's gone, he has to cope with it on his own.'

'So what are we doing now?' Diana asked, looking up at him.

'We've got to talk to them. They have got to talk to each other.'

'Perhaps we should lock them up in a room together until they've made up with each other.'

'That could last weeks, you know. They're both far too stubborn.' David scowled.

'I wonder why mum won't come back even when dad apologized to her?' Diana said.

'He probably hasn't!' David pointed out. 'They probably just argued again.'

'Do you think they don't love each other anymore? Do you think mum's in love with Uncle Harry?'

'I don't know, Di. But I don't think mum would cheat on father.'

'We have to go to Uncle Harry. He's got to talk to dad!'

'Father won't listen to him. They hate each other! And mum could be there, you know.'

The only reason the twins hadn't been at Harry's house yet was that they feared their mother could really be in love with him now.

'Still, we have to go there. We've got to find out!'