Chapters 61-70

The Foundations Relationships are Built on

Lois sighed into her white chocolate mocha. ‘I will admit that their situation does seem a bit peculiar to me, what with his probation and her apprenticeship. But I assure you, I’ve seen relationships based on much more questionable foundations.’

Ron swallowed any disrespectful remarks about his former potions teacher that he might have been tempted to make, and observed Lois’ face instead. He had noticed before, that sometimes, when they talked about relationships or about Alina, a shadow would cross her face, and her lips would press together into a hard line. He guessed that she was thinking about Alina’s father in those moments. Normally that made Ron shut up quickly. He didn’t feel any more comfortable today, but something prompted him to speak all the same.

‘How was it between you and Alina’s father?’ he asked. ‘Did you ever think about getting married?’

Lois put down her mug. Her face went very still. Instantly Ron regretted his question. Had he spoken too soon? Just a few weeks ago, he probably would have blundered on right away. But now—today of all times, he thought with wry amusement—he remembered the many times Hermione had snarled at him to THINK FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE before he opened his mouth. And he bit his tongue. Hard.

Lois toyed absently with the mug in front of her, turning it this way and that.

‘He…he told me that he was working on his PhD in sociology. At that time in my life this held an enormous appeal for me. A ‘real’ man, so much older than I was. And an ‘intellectual’. In my eyes he had to be terribly brilliant in order to be working on a PhD. He was my first crush and my first real love, all rolled into one. A…dangerous combination. And of course I was young and stupid and careless.’ She counted the words off on her fingers.

‘Looking back, I guess I could have noticed that something was wrong. His…studies did not make him happy. He appeared to be under a lot of pressure all the time. I think he was very ambitious, but he worried too much to be truly brilliant. He lacked the…well, I guess you’d call it ‘Gryffindor’ daring.’ Lois shrugged. ‘I thought he was merely brooding in an attractive, darkly academic way.
‘We argued often. He wasn’t comfortable with my friends, or with going out. All the usual things young people do, clubbing, cinema, even watching TV…he didn’t like that. At first I took his attitude for intellectual disdain, and tried very hard to live up to what I thought were his expectations of me.
‘Then…incidentally just a few days after a major row, I found out that I was pregnant.’

Lois’ eyes grew dark, her thoughts obviously far away. She shook herself, as if she had to bodily force her mind back to the present. For a moment Lois gazed pensively at Ron, as if she was trying to see though him or into him, trying to read his mind.

‘I think he must have been a wizard,’ she said at last. ‘When I went to his flat to tell him that I was pregnant, the flat was gone. The button of his doorbell at the main entrance, the sign with his name on it. Inside the building the whole bloody landing with the door to his flat had disappeared. I thought I was going mad. ‘Then I went to his university. The faculty had never heard of a graduate student working on his PhD with the name he’d given me. The few acquaintances we’d gone out with together…none of them really remembered him. They did recall going out with us, but they were vague about his name and about what he was studying. When I asked if they knew where he had gone, they kind of shrugged their shoulders and suggested that maybe he’d accepted a job somewhere or his family had moved. Or ‘something’.
‘Whatever. He was gone. I was alone. I was sixteen and I was pregnant.’

Her eyes misted over. ‘Damn,’ she said softly. ‘I didn’t mean to cry.
‘But if this …’ She forced a smile and gestured at the air between them. ‘If this thing between us is supposed to lead anywhere, you deserve to know the truth about Alina’s father. Or as much of the truth as I am able to tell you.’ She paused, and when she continued, her voice was harsh with bitterness. ‘I can’t even tell Alina the name of her father, Ron. Because he lied to me. He never even told me his fucking name.’

oooOooo

The visitors’ entrance to the Ministry of Magic was an old-fashioned telephone box. Ron stepped behind it and drew Lois closer to the wall of the building it nestled against. Smiling at her, he drew his wand.

‘I’m only casting a quick ‘Do-Not-Notice-Us’ Charm, so we can pull on the robes,’ he explained the deft flick of his wand and a few muttered words.

Another wand-turn, and the handkerchief-sized robes he had pulled from his bag changed into heavy fabric spilling over his arms. ‘Here you go.’

Feeling self-conscious, Lois slipped into the Bordeaux-coloured robes.

‘How do I look?’ she asked and twirled for him.

‘Stunning,’ Ron mouthed. Judging from his dumbstruck expression, he was completely sincere.

Lois laughed. Ron might be a couple of years younger than she was, but she appreciated his straightforward honesty, and even his sometimes painfully naïve bluntness very much.

‘You don’t think the others will mind—that I’m not in Muggle clothes?’

‘Well, you are—only underneath.’ Ron grinned at her. ‘I think.’

‘This is not the appropriate moment for any comparisons between Muggle and magic underwear, Ronald Weasley. But honest? Do you really think it’s okay?

‘Of course it is okay. There’s no law against Muggles wearing robes. And besides, I told you. You’re beautiful!’