Chapter Text
All was confusion in the Potters' house. The wife, Ginny Weasley, had found out that the husband was having an affair with a former waitress at some place called 'Treats' ,and had announced to the husband that she could not live in the house with him, and, that he was quite a git. She cursed his nose to an abnormal length and almost left the house with her three children Albus Potter, James Potter and Lily Potter, feeling that there was no sense in staying there and that she now hated him almost as much as that death eater Bellatrix Lestrange who nearly killed her back in the days of the war, several years ago.
However, Harry Potter volunteered to leave instead and has been gone for three days, 'auror duties', he told his house elf, though it that was a blatant lie that no one believed. Ginny Weasley has sparsely left her room. The children have been causing havoc all over the house, one house elf has already written a letter requesting new employment at the Deans, another left the premises the day before and the Kreacher was bashing his head in the wall, wondering why he's agreed to stay at the Potter's all those years ago at their wedding.
On the third day after their fight, Harry Potter, head auror with a specialism in defence in the dark arts- the boy who lived, as he was called in society- woke up at his usual hour, that is, at seven o'clock in the morning, not in his wife's bedroom but in his office in the ministry, on quite an uncomfortable leather sofa. He rolled his body over the whole thing, wishing he could fall asleep again, for a long time and so he tried to, hugging his pillow and pressing it to the side of his head with a sigh; but suddenly he gave a start, sat up on the sofa and opened his eyes.
"How did that dream go? Oh yeah, I was in the corridor at Hogwarts, Me and... Ron. And he was saying something about the Romilda Vane. But wasn't that Hermione who's said that in real life? I'm starting to forget." He shook his head with a frown, Ron Weasley had passed away many years, not during the war but shortly afterwards. The two of them, Harry and Ron had joined the Aurors straight out of Hogwarts, Harry had always had the feeling that Ron wasn't as passionate about it as he was. He'd told Harry during one of their missions that the next one was going to be his last: he wanted to settle down, maybe run the joke shop and most importantly, he was going to propose to their friend Hermione who he'd been dating for a few years. He was right about the next mission being his last, but not in the way he'd imagined: he was killed by a rogue death eater, an Avada straight to the chest.
He smiled recalling the dream. "The dream was nice, yes, it was very nice," he said to himself, wiping his eyes. Then, he noticed a strip of light coming from the side of his office window, where the blinds didn't quite cover them and without getting up he tried to grab his wand from the cupboard that was usually near his side and fell, that's when he remembered he wasn't home. "Fuck," he moaned no even attempting to get up and his previous smile vanished from his face, replaced with a frown and a set of knitted eyebrows.
In his imagination he pictured the argument with his wife, not just the several hexes that were thrown at him, those, he could handle, but the words, they were a different thing all together. Now, he was drowning in his own guilt, but also his self-pity, the situation, to him, seemed hopless and irrepairable. 'She can't- she'll never forgive me, I'll be lucky if she ever decides to look in my eyes again after all this,' he thought. 'But it's just been so exhausting and I just wanted someone who didn't know everything I've been through, he didn't know I was Harry Potter. Yes, in that way, I'm not that guilty.'
Then he thought about her tears, those were the worst part, wait, he'd said before that her words were the worst. Either way he'd thoroughly fucked this whole thing up and now the entire Weasley clan would be onto him if they found out.
"What's this?" Ginny had said at the time, carrying a stringy, pearl white thong, which couldn't have been hers as she'd never worn something like it in years. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS HARRY!"
What happened in that moment was what usually happened to people who are unexpectedly caught in something shameful. He had not managed to prepare his face for the position he found himself in regards to his wife now that his shameful actions were revealled. Instead of denying it, asking for forgiveness, even fleeing from the situation (even that would've been better in his mind to what he did): he had involuntarily, and quite inexplicably smiled. A very,very stupid smile too. After that, Ginny had assaulted him, called him every insult muggle and non-muggle and stormed out of the kitchen, and caused their bedroom to look like the victim of a tornado as she packed her bags to leave.
'That smile, maybe she wouldn't have reacted so badly if I hadn't smiled so stupidly-' he sighed. 'Who am I kidding? Even without the smile, I bloody cheated on her, and the issue is, What I did- I actually... I enjoyed it.'