One Year Later
"I told you."
"Stop it."
"I was right once again."
"I get it."
"I'm the smart twin. I will always be the smart twin."
"Max, shut up."
Harry and I were bickering as we were heading towards his office. I proved to be smarter than he was. Of course this wasn't the first time I had proven myself. During our teenage years I had told and shown my brother numerous times that I was the genius out of the two of us.
When we got to his office, Hermione was already there. She was behind Harry's desk, looking at all of the paperwork that he had.
"How did it go?" she asked.
"It was true," Harry and I said at the same time.
"Theodore Nott?"
"In custody," we replied.
"And the Time-Turner itself?" Harry took the device out of his pocket and revealed it to Hermione. "Does it work? As in, it goes back further than just an hour?"
"We don't know anything yet," Harry responded. "Max and I wanted to try it out there and then, but wiser heads prevailed."
"Well, now we have it," Hermione said.
"And you're sure you want to keep it?" Harry asked.
"I don't think we have a choice. Look at it. It's entirely different to the one that I had."
Harry handed her the Time-Turner. "Apparently, wizardry has moved on since we were kids."
I scoffed. "Got that right."
"You're bleeding," Hermione told Harry. He went to a mirror to wipe the blood off with his robes. "Don't worry, it'll go with the scar."
I snorted while Harry turned back around and grinned. "What are you doing in my office?" he asked Hermione.
"Well, for one thing, I was anxious to hear about Theodore Nott. I went to look for Max first, but I couldn't find her. So I came here to look for you. I also came to see if you had kept your promise and were on top of your paperwork."
Harry looked at his desk, paper spread out all over. "Ah. Turns out I'm not."
"Not surprising," I mumbled under my breath.
"How can you get anything done in this chaos?" she inquired.
With the wave of his wand, Harry managed to put his paperwork into neat piles. He shot Hermione a proud look. "There. No longer chaotic."
Hermione looked like she was about to scold Harry, which was my cue to leave. I hurriedly got out of Harry's office and made my way to my own office. September was almost here, just one more day until Scorpius would start his fourth year at Hogwarts.
The summer was long and hard for the Malfoy family. Scorpius continued to isolate himself while Draco and I were too busy with work to even sit down and have a conversation. I was hoping that Scorpius would get out of this phase that he was in. I knew that he was a teenager, but it was bothering me that my own son wouldn't even utter a word to me.
I went to my office and packed up my things for the night. I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost seven. I sighed and continued packing my things when I heard the door open.
"Harry, I didn't mean to gloat in your face about--"
"Max."
I stopped what I was doing and turned around. "Draco? I thought you already left."
"I wanted to wait for you," he replied. "I always wait for you."
"Right." I nodded my head and finished packing my things. Once I was done, Draco and I headed out of my office and went home.
As I was walking with Draco, I realized how much I missed being with him. I missed our late night talks, the kisses he gave me, the smiles we exchanged every so often. I missed everything.
When we got home, Draco went to check on Scorpius, who was still in his room, the same spot he was in when we left this morning. I heard the sound of their voices as I went to my bedroom and changed into sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
"You okay, Scorpius?" Draco asked.
"I'm fine," he replied.
"Do you have everything packed?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to talk about anything?"
"No. I just want to be alone."
Draco sighed. "Okay." I heard Draco slowly shut the door. Then, the sound of his footsteps were getting louder and louder. Finally, I heard him coming into the room. "He still won't come out of his room."
"As usual," I muttered.
"He'll come around eventually," Draco assured me. All of a sudden, I felt Draco wrap his arms around me from behind. "I've missed this."
I closed my eyes. "Me, too."
After a few more seconds, Draco pulled away and changed into his pajamas. I took my bag for work and opened it up. I looked through it and noticed one of the folders wasn't mine. I groaned, knowing that I had to go give this to Harry at one point.
"Something wrong?" Draco asked.
"Yeah, this folder isn't mine, it's Harry's," I answered. "I'm just gonna go drop this off at his house. I'll forget about it if I try to wait and give it to him another day."
"Okay, I'll be here," he said.
"And I'll be back soon." I went over to Draco and planted a kiss on his lips. "I love you, Draco. You know that, right?"
Draco stared into my eyes, nodding his head. "Yeah, I do. I love you, too."
I gave him a small smile, then left the room. I went down the stairs and stood in the middle of the living room, Apparating to Harry's front door.
Crack!
I was in front of Harry's home in seconds. His light was on, so I knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to open the door. Thirty seconds later, Ginny opened the door for me.
"Hey, Max. Come in," she said, giving me a warm smile.
"Thanks, Gin," I replied, walking inside. Once Ginny closed the door, I asked, "Where's Harry?"
"Right here," he said all of a sudden. Ginny left the room, giving us some privacy. "What is it, Max?"
"One of your folders just happened to get into my office and into my bag," I explained, handing him the folder. "I would've given it to you later, but I knew that I would forget."
"Thanks," he said, placing the folder on the counter. "How's Scorpius?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "He's still not talking to anyone. What about Albus?"
Harry sighed. "Same as before."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"Who else could be here this late?" Harry asked, going to the door to open it. There was an elderly man in a wheelchair and a blonde teenager at the door.
"Amos Diggory?" I said out loud.
"Great, you're both here," he said in a rather grumpy voice. It reminded me of Mad-Eye Moody. "We need to talk."
"Oh, Merlin..." Harry and I mumbled.
Amos Diggory had been trying to talk to us for a long time now. I had no idea why, nor did I care why. It was getting annoying and irritating for me and for Harry as well.
"Thank you, Delphi," he muttered to the girl, who then disappeared somewhere else. Amos looked at us. "Harry Potter and Maxine Malfoy. It's been a long time, hasn't it?" he questioned. "Anyway, I've been trying to get appointments with both of you for months now. Months. All I do is get the same response over and over! Do you two not understand that I've been needing to talk to both of you?!"
"Amos, we both understand, we really do, but I just got home, Max only came to drop something off, and--"
"I've tried to make appointments at the Ministry. They say that they have an appointment for me in two months. I wait. Very patiently..."
"--and coming to my house in the middle of the night...when my kids are getting ready for their new year at school...it's not right."
"Two months pass, I receive an owl that says you two are on urgent business and that they have an appointment for me in..oh, right, two months' time. You two are shutting me out."
Aggravated, I stepped in. "No, we're not. I don't think you understand how everything at the Ministry works."
Then, Harry spoke up again. "Of course we're not shutting you out. It's just that...as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I'm afraid that I'm responsible--"
"Oh, there's plenty you're responsible for, along with your sister here."
"Sorry?" we questioned.
"My son, Cedric, you do remember Cedric, don't you?"
Cedric.
Just saying his name made the memories flood back into my mind. Of course I remembered Cedric. He was the first love of my life. Not only did I learn to love with him, but I also learned what heartbreak felt like when he died.
"Yes, we remember your son," Harry replied. "His loss--"
"Voldemort wanted you two! Not my son! You two told me yourselves, the words he said were--"
"'Kill the spare,'" I spoke up.
"The spare. My son, my beautiful son, was a spare."
"Mr. Diggory, as you know, we sympathize with your efforts to memorialize Cedric, but--" Harry started to say.
"A memorial? I am not interested in a memorial, not anymore. I am an old man, an old dying man, and I am here to ask you...beg you...to help me get him back."
"What?" Harry and I asked in astonishment.
"Bring him back?" Harry repeated.
"Amos, that's not possible," I told him.
"The Ministry has a Time-Turner, does it not?"
"All the Time-Turners were destroyed," I lied cooly.
Amos sighed. "The reason I am here with such urgency is I've just heard a rumor...a strong rumor...that the Ministry seized an illegal Time-Turner from Theodore Nott and has kept it for investigation. Let me use that Time-Turner. Let me have my son back."
"You know we can't do that," I said.
"Yes, she's right. Playing with time is dangerous, Amos," Harry added.
"Oh, really? Tell me, how many people have died for The-Twins-Who-Lived? I'm asking you to save one of them."
My heart was filled with pity. All I could do was shake my head. "The story about Theodore Nott is fiction. I'm sorry, Amos."
Amos looked at me. "Maxine, I remember when you two met. I knew that you two had a connection, like you were meant to be together. I had never seen Cedric so happy in his entire life. Tell me, did you love my son?"
I felt a lump in my throat. I nodded my head. "Yes, I did love him. But that was a long time ago, Amos. I'm married, I have a son--"
"Yes, I know you're married! You're married to that...Death Eater, Draco Malfoy! How could you fall in love with someone who worked for Voldemort, the man who wanted to kill you?! How do you think Cedric would feel about that?!"
Suddenly, I turned to Harry. "I've got to go," I said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Delphi!" a frustrated Amos shouted.
I ran out of the house, avoiding Amos' eyes, and quickly Apparated back home. When I got there, I opened the front door and slammed the door shut. I leaned my forehead on the door and closed my eyes. My breathing was becoming uneven.
"Max?" I heard Draco say as he came down the stairs.
I opened my wet eyes and turned around with tears streaming down my face. "Draco..."
"What's the matter?" he asked, coming towards me. "Hey, hey, it's okay...it's okay, come here..."
I wrapped my arms around Draco and he did the same. I cried in his shirt. I cried and cried until I couldn't cry anymore.
"What happened?" he asked.
And so I told him everything that Amos Diggory had said. It felt good that I was able to talk to my husband again like I used to.
A/N: So instead of doing my English paper (I've only done one paragraph), I decided to post this!
Anyway, if you're reading this, how would've things been different for Max if Cedric was still alive?
Comment, vote, :)
-A