Meant To Be

Chapter 13

Harry sighed and stretched his back until he heard a satisfying crack. He was exhausted, Wynter had kept him up all night, but she had eventually slept, giving him a few hours sleep. Only now she didn't want to take her nap.

"You have to sleep sometime," Harry said to her. Wynter gazed up at him at the sound of his voice from her play pin, and then abruptly dismissed him in favor of her toes.

"I'm going to be up all night again aren't I?" he muttered to himself. He pulled up a basket of laundry and placed it on the couch and started to fold clothes in neat little stacks. Wynter's clothes, his clothes, towels. Simple. Harry had done it often enough that he could do it blindfolded. Not that he would, blind was no fun at all. Half-blind wasn't better. Thank god he had found that potion in one of the books Hermione had given him to read that corrected his eyesight, now he didn't have to wear those blasted glasses.

Harry finished folding and picked up each stack. "I'll be right back." He said to Wynter and went to put the clothes in their proper places. When he returned to the living room he saw that Wynter was looking for him; turning her head to the side and looking around. When Harry came into view her eyes fastened on him and she cooed out at him. Harry smiled at her as he passed and blew her a kiss. Wynter gave him a little grin and waved her arms and kicked her legs in greeting.

Harry laughed. He could never get enough of his daughter. He could probably sit and watch her for hours and be entertained. The things she did were adorable as were proved by the dozens of pictures he had taken and put in a photo album. He already had a whole bunch of pictures and she hadn't even begun to crawl yet!

He leaned down into the play pin and tugged lightly on Wynter's feet making her smile.

Feeling thirsty he headed to the kitchen to get some water. A sudden shiver went down his spine and he stopped. He tensed and glanced around the room, but he saw nothing. Still, he listened for a minute for anything wrong. Nothing. He looked back at Wynter, but she was fine, playing with a plastic ring of keys.

He shrugged and brushed it off as a chill. "I hope I'm not coming down with something." He said and continued to the kitchen.

xxx

Tom paused in front of the little cottage, an exact replica of the image in front of it. The cottage was light blue with white trim. Flower beds were lined out front, the buds raised toward the sun. Wild bushes grew out front and the sides, obscuring part of the porch and the window. A few steps led right up to a white door. A swinging bench hung from the rafters on the porch.

How quaint, Tom thought with a sneer.

It wasn't exactly what he had thought Potter to be training at, but looks could be deceiving. Though, he found himself disappointed. The thrill had been in the hunt and he had come up with multiple possible scenarios to which he might have to deal with. He had not expected months of searching to lead him to a muggle town with a nice looking cottage, though admittedly it was...rather brilliant.

Tom had been right, of course. Leaving the search to his followers had turned up nothing. Really he should have expected as much. So, as always he had to do it himself. It took him a few months, but here he was, right on Potter's doorstep, literally. And all he had to do was focus on the link connecting them. Really something so simple led him straight here and he hadn't even thought of it before. But thinking about the connection made him think of the fact that there was a connection in the first place. Since he last used it a few years ago to trick Potter, it had gotten stronger, but that was a thought for a later time.

Right now he had a certain green-eyed menace to destroy. Oh, how he was going to enjoy this. He grinned and raised his wand to the door...

xxx