I'm Coming For You, Draco Malfoy!

Recompense

The weekend following my father's funeral, I arranged to meet mother in Hogsmeade. We met in the Hogshead Inn because, despite my relationship with Harry, Rosmerta still wouldn't lift my ban on going into the Three Broomsticks. I forgave her, I had put her under an Imperious Curse all those years ago. Though I did also offer her an apology. She no longer glared at me but was clearly uncomfortable in my presence. I understood and left it at that. Not everything was going to be completely healed.

'Darling!' mother greeted me as I found her already seated at a table in the corner. The blessing of a place like the Hogshead was the various types of shady customers ignored our company. 'Are you alright?'

We ordered drinks and some soup and settled into the corner and she discreetly cast a Muffliato around us.

'You're looking well,' she touched my cheek softly and it reminded me of being a child again.

'I smiled, 'yes, I feel well, within too.'

'He's good for you,' she said fondly.

'I think he's good for all of us.'

She raised a wry eyebrow and said, 'but for you especially. You're glowing again. I haven't seen you look like this since before the Triwizard Tournament when you used to rant about your Quidditch matches against him. There may have been tremendous competition between you both but you thrived on it, you became truly alive in those moments.'

'Yes,' I admitted quietly, embarrassed that I should have been so transparent for all this time.

'I'm glad you've both seen it for what it is.' She reached across our small table and squeezed my hand fondly. 'I'm glad you're both free to follow your hearts.'

I squeezed her hand in return, unable to find the words to answer because I suddenly felt overwhelmed by emotion, by the trauma of the last few years. I was happy she accepted me for me and welcomed Harry into her heart too.

'It's over now,' she said softly. 'We can all breathe again.'

I wondered if she was referring to my father's overbearing influence on our lives as much as Voldemort. My feelings for my father were still very complex, even more so after I'd found out what he'd done for me.

Silence fell between us and when Aberforth arrived with two bowls of soup and a basket of fresh bread, we fell into eating.

'You wish to talk?' she said eventually, clearly reading me. I wondered if it had always been this way, whether the masks had been transparent or if they had finally fallen away.

'I've been thinking, mother, about what I want to do when I leave here. There's a lot to consider...'

She waited for me to continue.

'I want to show the world I've changed. That I'm serious about this change, it's not just an image thing about blue hair and rainbow jumpers.'

Mother laughed quietly. 'I rather think that Harry likes your blue hair.'

I laughed too. 'He does... too much...' And I stopped my thoughts from getting distracted by images of Harry burying his nose into my hair and whispering ridiculous nothings into my ear about it. 'I don't suppose it will stay blue forever but I'm enjoying it. It makes me wish I'd known cousin Tonks.'

'Yes, she would have loved it. She probably would have tried to teach you spells so you didn't have to use Muggle hairdye.'

'I like Muggle hairdye, there's something more satisfying in having to go through the process.'

'Nothing to do with Pansy and her pink gins?'

'How do you know about Pansy and her pink gins?' I asked, a little horrified.