Choices

Choices

Chapter Three: Some things never change

2019 - St Mungo's Hospital, Special Ward

I wish he would open his eyes again. I don't care if they're bright and cold, or filled with that horrifying fire, or cloyingly benign. As long as I can see them again...

But I know that's never going to happen. It's been ten years. If he were going to wake up at all, he would have done so already. Still, a woman can wish.

Colin keeps telling me that I should let go of the past. Oh, did you know we just had our fifteenth anniversary last week? Funny, really, how these things happen. We got together because of Harry, you know. Both doing publicity for his endless campaigns.

I remember everything I did, back then. I still think they were the happiest days of my life. I was content, I was loved, I was working for a worthy cause - and then it all fell down.

Hermione was right, we should have never let him personally execute Tom Riddle. You were never the same after that. But then, Hermione's always right. She's the first-ever Muggle-born Minister of Magic, after all.

By Merlin, I do have a tendency to believe what I fabricate, don't I. Harry told me that, seventeen years ago, sounding indulgent and amused. I remember thinking that in his case, there's not much to fabricate. Most of it is true. I remember you shaking your head at me when I told you so. I remember.

Hermione tells me that she is tired. She says that it is a difficult position, and that she understand him a lot better. She also says it's too late for regrets now.

She was a good choice for Minister. I doubt that anyone else could have kept it together for so many difficult years. She says that it's lucky, really, that the power structure automatically reversed itself when he di - was gone - otherwise she would have been operating under a shadow. But it's really a lot more likely that he reversed the power structure for her. It's not like he hasn't done it before.

Stop torturing yourself. What happened to Harry was not your fault. We all agreed it was for the best, didn't we? We were going to save the hero, and prevent him from sinking further into Darkness. If it was anyone's fault, it was mine. I should have had more faith in Harry. I should have talked to him. I should have stopped that bastard Malfoy from ever setting foot in his home.

I feel a little sorry for Draco, sometimes. His fate is even worse than an Exile's. He can see the magic all around him, but not use it. He can't even show his face in public for fear of bringing shame to the Malfoy name. I wonder if Harry intended for this to happen. Probably not, as humiliation was never his style.

Sorry about the rambling. Let me indulge my obsessive tendencies, if just for a while. How are you, anyway? The Mediwitches say that your brain has started to shut itself down, piece by piece. They say that it might be kinder to let you go. I can't allow myself to believe that, anymore than I can allow myself to believe that Harry's de - gone. He looks so alive, it's almost like he's just sleeping.

You're a Weasley, Ron. Don't give up. Hermione refuses to remarry, Fred and George have named one of their products after you, and even Percy comes to visit you every week. We're all waiting for you to come home.

I'll go now, and tell everyone that - that you're all fine. Goodbye.