Bitter Chocolate - (A 'Veronica Weasley' sequel) || Draco Malfoy

64 - The Time Travelers

I looked back at my son, fear clutching at my heart.

It couldn't be true, yet... somehow it was all starting to make sense.

Those strange boys in the kitchen warning me not to go to China. I hadn't known what to think; thought it must have been some kind of practical joke at first. But the boy - my son - had looked so remarkably like Draco, and the things he had told me would happen, happened.

So, when George suggested we went to China, I declined, instead insisting on staying on in Russia for a bit longer before going straight to Japan.

"What was it about China?" I asked curiously, getting to my feet so that I could pace the room.

"You picked up a virus that slowly killed you. Fourteen years of dying, Mum! I spent my whole life seeing you get weaker and sicker. It destroyed Dad. It left me and Freida without a mother."

"No," Draco shuddered, suddenly crossing the room towards me.

"Oh god," I breathed, burying my face in my hands just as I felt arms go around me.

"But you're okay, you're here. Is that such a bad thing?" Draco murmured, pressing his lips against my forehead.

I could feel his panic.

"But we had a little girl, Draco," I whispered, my whole body trembling at the emotions flooding through me.

"No, no we didn't." He said firmly, tightening his arms around me as if he was frightened I would disappear. "We just had Scorp. There was never another child because we didn't live that life where you die. Thank Merlin."

"But I did!" Scorp cried. "I'm not the same Scorpius you sent off to Hogwarts. I'm Scorpius: brother of Freida, best friend of Albus Potter, godchild of Uncle George and Aunt Luna. I am the son of a dead mother. I don't know this life. I don't know you!"

"How can this be? And how could you let our son get hold of a fucking Time Turner?" I bellowed, stepping back from Draco so that I could angrily smack his arm.

"Don't be mad at him, Mum," Scorp pleaded, "he was missing you. He said he was tempted to use it but he never did because... because-"

"Because I knew how disastrous messing with time could be." Draco finished for him, sighing dejectedly as he drove a hand through his hair. "Fuck, this is such a mess."

"Do you guys normally swear this much in front of me?" Scorp asked bewilderedly from where he sat.

I looked down at him, horrified. He really wasn't the same Scorp. This was the Scorp that warned me about China in the kitchen on Draco's wedding day. Which made me wonder what happened to the other Scorp? Did he still exist? And a daughter, I had had a daughter?

I felt an unexpected wave of grief wash over me, as though I was mourning something or someone that was never there.

"Ronnie?" Draco said, looking at me, his face full of anguish.

"We've got to fix this, Draco," I said sadly, glancing down at our terrified son. "We've got to put things right again."

I could see Draco shaking his head out of the corner of my eye. "No," he said, sounding desperate. "No, Ronnie, please. I'm not going to let you die!"

"Our little girl needs to exist!" I cried. "We need to get Scorp back to where he belongs. And for that to happen, we've got to go back in time and make sure I go to China and get sick."

Scorpius and Draco both looked at me; identical baffled faces.

"My head hurts," Scorpius sighed.