The Many Musings of Albus Potter

xxiii. deers

xxiii. deers

The last person Albus expects to see on a random weekend is his mother.

When Professor McGonagall told him he had a visitor in her office, he'd half-expected it to be Harry, or even James. He had come prepared with the thorniest jabs, a nonchalant, effortless sort of expression to steel him from himself. Because try as he might, he cannot stop himself from missing his family. His father, especially.

But when he sees Ginny Weasley sitting on the chair across from Professor McGonagall, he stops short. She stands up, walks over and engulfs him in an embrace so tight he worries that she's actually trapping him into a Dual-Apparatition stance. But she pulls away just as quickly and he's left with her familiar, motherly smell of freshly washed linen and lilies.

"Hello, love," she whispers.

Fuck, it's only been seventeen days. He can't allow himself to crumble at a moment of weakness. Of course they'd send his mother; while his relationship with Harry has been fraught all his life, Ginny has been somewhat of an anchor. Albus used to cling to her as a baby, apparently. Screamed if anyone tried to touch him. As a boy, he tried to push her away but there was a forceful quality to her that she must've inherited from her own family – perhaps it was because she'd grown up with a kind of love that was demanded and given freely, excessively, even. No transactions required. Ginny was never discouraged by his sulks and glowers. She'd reel him back in by suffocating him in her arms as she had done now, pulling him in and refusing to let go. To his own surprise, he melted right into them everytime.

He can't now. He just can't. Even if he wants to.

"I'll leave you two to it," Professor McGonagall says, pausing to give Ginny a suspiciously meaningful look. She taps her fingers against Albus's arm with a quirked, 'hold-your-fire' eyebrow and walks out of the office, the door shutting automatically behind her.

The silence immediately stifles him. Albus shuffles towards the spare seat across from the one Ginny had been sitting on just moments ago. She follows and sits across from him.

"You can't force me to come back, mum." He dares himself to look her squarely in the eyes. "I'm an adult now."

"Legally," she corrects him, somewhat stiffly, he thinks. "You're still a child in many ways."

Albus rolls his eyes. "You know, if dad wanted to send you over to play nice, he should've told you not to borrow some of his favourite phrases."

"Albus," Ginny says and it's her tone that makes his back arch up uncomfortably. He's always found that she has a way of commanding him that Harry's always failed at. It's because he knows she sees through him, doesn't play into his hands the way dad does. "We're going to have a productive conversation today. You need to leave whatever anger you have aside and listen to me."

He opens his mouth, thinks better of it, and shuts it again.

"Fine."

"Good." Ginny sits back and clasps her hands together. "Harry noticed some of his old stuff was missing."

Albus says nothing.

"Al," she says, gentler now, "I know everything. About Draco and Harry. You don't need to protect me with your silence. Your father and I haven't kept secrets from each other for a long, long time. I think that's why we've lasted as long as we have."

He steels his shock but he can't manage the anger that bursts out. "And you're okay with that? With - Merlin, mum, Draco Malfoy practically confessed that he wanted dad to leave you and go, fucking, I don't know, frolick in his manor with him? Abandon his family? You're okay with that?"