l o n e l y {Harry/Angel}

[dudelsack]

Harry frowned a bit to himself, mind traveling in thought. His brain brought up mostly memories of Ginny, of happier times. He thought of long ago, when she had told him that she was pregnant for the first time. They had been so thrilled, Harry just wished he could feel those sort of emotions through his old memories, happiness seemed unattainable now.

[skyeisthelimit]

As the silence began to grow awkward, Alex decided it was time to speak up again. "How was your day?" she asked somewhat awkwardly. Her father had been obsessed with work ever since Ginny's death. This was the first day in a long time that he had been home early, so Alex felt as though she better make the most of it.

[dudelsack]

"Mmm?" said Harry, suddenly being pulled out of his wanderings in nostalgia. "Oh, right, my day. It was all right, I filed paperwork today mostly. Not the most exciting thing in the world." It had actually been a very dull day in comparison to what he did normally. Haarry was finding himself frustrated, he was waiting for the next assignment. He didn't care how dangerous it was, his thirst for revenge was growing greater with each kill.

[skyeisthelimit]

"Well, at least it's nothing dangerous," Alex said with a small shrug. She didn't know exactly what Harry's promotion had been, but she doubted it kept him any safer than his previous position as an Auror. She worried a bit about her father; Alex feared he might do something rash and get himself killed trying to avenge Ginny's death.

[dudelsack]

"I suppose not," said Harry, his tone something of a sigh. He was tired, but he didn't quite feel ready to relax yet, as if he should still be hard at work. But he did suppose that he had trained himself to work twelve hour days, sometimes even longer than that. Harry wasn't quite sure what his children thought of his recent promotion- he knew that Angel didn't like it, but she was probably the only one that understood what the position was.

[skyeisthelimit]

Alex didn't like the sigh in Harry's tone and found herself frowning slightly. It was almost like her father welcomed the danger. But that couldn't be right, could it? Alex wasn't sure what to think anymore. Her father's behavior was starting to confuse her. Then again, Alex didn't exactly expect to understand Harry's behavior. It was just more confusing than it had previously been.

[dudelsack]

Harry wasn't sure what to say as an uncomfortable silence decended upon them. He wasn't really sure what to do with himself, either. He wanted to be a good example for his kids, but how was he going to do that while having one of the most dangerous professions the wizarding world had to offer? But Harry couldn't give it up, now that he had felt what it was like to kill someone who deserved to die... He wouldn't be able to go back.

[skyeisthelimit]

Alex stared at the television, not absorbing any of it. At last, she turned back to her father, wondering what he was thinking. "Should we have dinner?" Alex asked, trying to prompt Harry into action. She didn't know if her father was waiting for something, but Alex was starting to get hungry so she figured, as long as they didn't have anything to do, they might as well eat.

[dudelsack]

"Um, right," said Harry, standing up. He wasn't sure what he was going to do about that, even with magic he didn't cook very well. He thought about what they had been doing since Ginny's death, and Harry's stomach sank when he realized his eldest daughter had been doing most of the domestic duties around the house. He hadn't really been to the kitchen much since his wife was still alive. "How does a pizza sound?" Harry called from the kitchen to Alexandria.

[skyeisthelimit]

"Sounds good," Alex called back, clicking off the television, since she wasn't really paying it any attention anyway. She headed into the kitchen a ways behind her father. "Do we have any frozen pizzas, or were you planning to order something?" she asked, merely curious as to what exactly Harry meant. Alex leaned against one of the chairs in the room while waiting for her father to reply.

[dudelsack]

"Um, I'm just going to order one," said Harry. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't gone grocery shopping in months, Ginny was the one that did that. And in taking a quick glance in the fridge and freezer he found that they didn't really have much food in the house. Angel must be thinking that he could take care of things again. He picked up the phone, trying to remember the number for the pizza place that delivered- it had been such a long time since he had used a telephone.

[skyeisthelimit]

"Alright," Alex muttered, then watched as her father picked up the telephone like it was a foreign object. "The number's on the fridge," she commented, trying to be helpful. Alex had noticed the list of numbers Ginny had written even more after her death. It was one thing that had stayed around after her death, though it was painfully small. Alex could still hardly believe Angel had given all of Ginny's clothes away. It was difficult to think about.

[dudelsack]

"Oh, right, thanks," said Harry, glancing over the at the door of the fridge, squinting a bit. He figured that it was about time he got new glasses, it was startying to get hard to read things from a distance again. Harry punched in the numbers, waited for the line to start ringing, and then held the receiver to his ear. Once some teenage kid picked up on the other side, Harry order a medium pizza, half cheese and half pepperoni, figuring that would be enough variety for the two of them.

[skyeisthelimit]

Alex waited while her father ordered, pleased that he had left half of the pizza with just cheese. She still liked her pizza rather plain, though she supposed her tastes would probably change at some point. "Are they delivering?" Alex asked after a moment. She couldn't remember if this was the place that delivered or the pick-up place.

[dudelsack]

"Yeah, it'll be about fifteen or twenty minutes," said Harry. He felt a bit out-of-the-loop with things, fifteen or twenty minutes seemed like an awful long time, but he did have to remember that they were muggles. He just hoped he wouldn't get to be one of those senile old wizards that couldn't even use pounds properly. Harry walked over to the fridge, looking at the list of phone numbers in Ginny's handwriting. It had been so long, he had almost forgotten what it looked like. Harry quietly rested his fingers upon the paper, longing for his wife.