Text Cut: <3

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Originally Posted by Les Mots

Well.
I'm hooked.
Your writing is brilliant.

O:

*HUGGLES* w00tthankyou! <333

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Originally Posted by JeshieRAWR

And I would have never expected a Parvati/Harry relationship, but I never really have seen them together before in a story, so I can't wait to see how you play it out! (:

Eep. Don't expect too much.

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By the way, I love the little Up next: thingy, hahhah, it makes me anticipate the next chapter!

Keep up the amazing work!

LOOOL, I thought it up on-the-spot. xD

Thank youu. And I shall try. <3

Chapter 3:
{ t h e b e g i n n i n g o f a n e n d }

“That you, Harry?”

It was Harry alright. She could pick out that shade of hair and those startling green eyes in a crowd of a hundred. She almost breathed a sigh of relief: if truth be told, she hadn't expected him to come home, straight from work. Their fight at breakfast that morning had been terrible and, such fights beginning to become a norm, she knew that it wasn't often he was eager to come home in the aftermath of one. Usually, he would return late in the evening, by which time she was madder than ever.

“It's me,” he said, and Parvati knew from his tones that he was still in a rotten mood. He'd been in one since the day Gregory Mancentt, a convicted death eater, had escaped prison. Even after the defeat of Voldemort, the aurors remained dedicated to bringing to justice all who had used the Dark Arts to injure or maim or kill, during the Second War. She knew the news of Mancentt’s escape weighed on Harry - being Head of the Auror Office, he took it as a personal failure - and his severe mood swings were, in part, a result of it.

But it wasn't just that. If it had been, she could have blamed him for all that had been going wrong in their relationship, in the past few months. But how could she? Her secret, safe and hence all the more nerve-wrecking, had never let things be alright.

You can do this, Parvati, she told herself. You can calm him down, you know he loves you, you know you love him. You can make things right.

The thoughts sounded hollow.

“How was work?” she asked as she descended the staircase. He looked thoroughly unshaven and it hardly suited him, but there was no time for trivialities like that, now. She stood there, waiting for a response, but when he did not reply, Parvati sighed – clearly, she had asked the wrong question. She tried again.

“What are you thinking?”

He looked up, and gave a shrug of sorts. "Not much."

Parvati bit her lip. “Harry,” she said softly.

He didn't respond, and her patience disappeared.

“Cut it out!”

He looked up. “What is your problem?” His voice was uncharacteristically angry. Parvati knew the signs: it did not happen often, but here came, she was sure, the kind of anger he bottled up and then let out in one, mad rage. He just needed an excuse. Her temper, for one reason or the other, almost always provided it.

“It’s not your fault, Mancentt escaped." Parvati's voice was furious. It was as if they had both decided there was no need to make any sort of peace. "Stop trying to make your life miserable!"

“Stop trying to sound as if you understand!” Harry retorted. “You don’t even realize how serious this is, how a madman’s on the lose, you have no idea, you’ve never lost anything to death-eaters, you –”

“That doesn’t mean –” Parvati cut across, stung, but there was a yell from upstairs before she could do complete her sentence, and it was followed by an onset of bitter crying.

Harry groaned. “Do something about her!” he said, irritated.

“Don't you dare act like our daughter is my responsibility alone,” Parvati's tones were far, far from pleasant. If she noticed that some - perhaps most - of the anger had gone out of his voice, she gave no sign of it.

"It wasn't my intention to imply that." For once, his tones softened. It wasn't enough to calm Parvati down, however. She was bright, she was fun, but if there was one thing she wasn't, it was simple-to-calm-down. "Then don't imply it," she said, arms crossed against her chest. "Okay?"

Harry rubbed a spot on his forehead. "Ever heard of a thing called patience? You seem to have lost whatever of it that you did have."

He hadn't meant to sound as if he was finding fault with her. For better or worse, though, that was what the statement came out sounding like. “Don't take out your disappointment on me, Harry James Potter!" Hands on hips, Parvati glared daggers at him. “It's not my fault that that bloody death-eater broke out of prison, it's yours.”

A stunned silence followed [and Harry wasn't the only person stunned in the room.] Parvati stood there, a little shocked at what she had said, wanting to take her words back, wanting to apologize, wanting to reach out... and knowing that, perhaps, this was how it was supposed to be, and this was how it would have been if she hadn't -

He stood up, and left the room.

She bit her lip.

*

Up next: Anyone seen Ginny?