Choices

Maeve Rees

Ginny woke up to the sound of Harry starting to fuss, they had slept for quite some time and it was now mid-afternoon, he was probably hungry. She picked up Harry and considered waking up Draco too but there was little reason to, as she looked down the street there were still plenty of witches and wizards going around so it was better for them if they stayed in the hotel room for the moment and he had no idea what to do.

She, at least, had a vague idea.

"Awake I see!" Mrs. Rees greeted her when she passed the armchair by the telly.

"Yeah, Harry made his wishes very clear" she joked, Ginny liked Mrs. Rees, eccentric as she seemed back in the alley, the older woman had been very helpful and kind to them.

The older woman laughed "Ah! I remember that age, my youngest would let me know he was hungry from the other side of the house" Ginny smiled, leaving the woman to her memories.

"Let's see where Mrs. Rees put the baby mush" she refused to call that food, but Mrs. Rees looked surprised when she reached for formula, so she imagined that at one year old, babies moved to that mush with the static picture of some way too happy child and had quickly changed course.

She spotted the mush in a small box by the bed, when she opened it was cold like a freezing cabinet back home and remembered Hermione talking to her dad about the muggle fridge, she figured this was it. She took the one with the image of a pear, hoping that fruit would be better than the meat ones.

When Ginny turned the room's extra bedding had been turned into a semi-circle on the rug and Mrs. Rees looked at her guiltily "I'm sure that if we are careful and put everything back in their place it shouldn't be a problem."

Ginny laughed and put Harry down on the rug, he looked happy to see the mush and tried to reach it.

"Oh, what an independent boy," the older woman cooed at Harry "but not yet, you should let mummy help you for some more time"

While she knew Mrs. Rees had made assumptions about them and that those assumptions benefited them, it still was so strange to hear the woman call her Harry's mother, like she was stealing someone else's place.

Ginny forced herself to ignore that feeling for now, uncapping the mush instead, gently bringing the spoonful to Harry that seemed very interested in getting the mush on his hand and then all over his face. She could barely tell how much he was actually eating from the ones she couldn't prevent him from hijacking.

Mrs. Rees put a hand to her shoulder as she tried to avoid the baby now dirty hands "You don't need to stress about it, it's natural at his age to want to play with food, good even"

Ginny turned to her, looking unsure "But what if he isn't eating enough? It's more on his hair than in his mouth"

The older woman just smiled "If he is still hungry then he will let you know, just trust his instincts, it is strange with your first child, I know I still worry about mine from time to time, but you'll see, you just need to work together, all of you" and with a look, indicated the still sleeping Draco.

Ginny felt very unsure about that, the idea of ever fully trusting Draco Malfoy hit an open wound way too soon, he was selfish and intolerant and vain, they didn't get along, had different views on everything and he had caused so much pain, he was a Death Eater for fuck's sake. He also prevented her from going against Voldemort to be certainly killed.

Ginny almost hated him for that the most.

The way he looked at her, a blank stare on red-rimmed eyes, longing to be far away, it didn't help that the new clothing highlighted how bad he let his health get throughout that terrible year, even now a pained scowl marred his sleeping face, like someone who hadn't slept right for weeks and was now hurting because of it.