Put Your Curse In Reverse [Part 2]

Chapter 11 - Breakdown

"And that," Ginny completed, "is how it all happens."

She dropped the chalk down onto the table and dusted her hands off onto her trousers. Harry—his face burning uncomfortably—looked over towards their daughter. She wasn't hysterically laughing like James had. She wasn't cringing like somebody was smacking her across the face like Albus had done. What was she thinking? Her face was impassive. She was still half-sitting, half-laying in the armchair as she'd been for the past half hour, her ankles propped on the coffee table, a sugar quill held loosely in her fingers. Her brown eyes studied the blackboard—now laden with spells, diagrams, and definitions—as she lightly gnawed on the end of the quill. Harry couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Lulu?" he asked hesitantly. "Do you...understand?"

Maybe it'd been too soon. Ginny had seemed confident that they needed to give Lily nearly all of the proper details this time, but Harry wasn't. And frankly, this entire situation made him feel vaguely nauseated. Had it made Lily feel the same way? Had it frightened her? She was still so young...still a child, still his little daughter. Yes, Harry decided, his heart dropping. He observed his still speechless daughter. Yes, it was too much! Oh, we're rubbish parents, the absolute worse; we've completely tainted her innocent childhood—

"Lily?" Ginny asked. She walked over and waved her hand in front of Lily's face. "You in there?"

Lily gave a tiny jump. Her feet slid from the edge of the coffee table as she struggled to sit up straight in the chair. She yawned a moment later.

"Sorry, what, Mum?" she asked.

"...You were being very quiet. Your dad and I wanted to make sure you were okay. How do you feel about all of this?" asked Ginny.

Lily bit down on the sugar quill. There was a fragile snap as the end portion came off. She chewed it loudly, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"About what?"

"About...all that. The things I just talked to you about for the past half-hour."

"Oh," Lily said. She pointed towards the blackboard with her sugar quill. "I already knew about all of that."

"You..." Ginny trailed off. She looked urgently at Harry, her eyebrows drawn together in alarm. Harry's heart leaped in equal fright.

"What?!" he blurted. "Lily—what do you mean?"

"I know about all of that," she repeated. She took another bite from the sugar quill.

"How?" Ginny demanded.

"Aster told me."

"All of that? She told you all of that?"

"Well, not the detailed diagram about boy parts. That was new. And I was right! No bones! Yes. It's so cool."

She looked oddly pleased with herself and her newfound knowledge. Harry locked eyes with his wife. After a moment of holding their incredulous shared look, Ginny threw her hands up into the air.

"Unbelievable," she said. "I can't believe Padma and Terry gave our daughter the talk."

"Indirectly," Lily corrected.

"I can't believe Padma and Terry indirectly gave our last child the talk before we could," Ginny repeated to Harry.

Harry wasn't exactly fond of giving 'talks', so he didn't feel necessarily deprived, but he was concerned about what Aster might've told Lily. In fact, the idea of those two discussing all of this made him extremely nervous, because there was no telling what sort of lies, misconceptions, and—though Harry loathed to even consider it—bets had sprung up between the two.