Younger
We were younger once.
And we hated each other. Your father was a bit of a twit in his youth, and despite your grandmother eventually becoming the woman she did…
Well. I’m sure you don’t want me to belabor that. It’s hard to relive the terrible times, and you both overcame so much that your grandfather put us through.
Anyway, I don’t suppose your father and I could have been further apart originally. I mean, you know the history of the family and he has explained the view he was raised to have of Muggles before we… became close. I don’t suppose we ever would have fallen in together if not for the Yule Ball in my fourth year.
It was my first serious date, and I was terribly nervous because it was with Viktor Krum (he was a big deal back then - Seeker for the Bulgarian World Cup team). He wasn’t very talkative, but he danced so gracefully and was very polite and respectful, and eventually, I realized I was having actual fun! I was such a serious girl, and I realized that with all the pressures we were under at school, I never let myself just be free to have fun.
It was all ruined that evening by the Prime Minister. He was just Ronald then. None of us could have imagined what he would become, then, but I think if I could go back now and watch it as an adult, the pettiness and the bitter jealousy that simmered in him would have made a bit more sense.
I would find out much too late that he was lashing out at me because he liked me, but at the time his words just felt cruel and hateful, and he turned what had been a beautiful night into one that would always be bittersweet.
As I was running from the hall crying, I ran directly into your father, fell on top of him, and hit my forehead on his chin. He had knocked his head against the floor so hard that he didn’t seem to know where he was at first and we sat on the floor in the dim hall for a few moments, him groaning, me crying, both bleeding slightly. Finally, we looked at each other and seemed to consider the circumstances, who we were, who we were with, and all of it just began to tickle us until we were snickering, then giggling, then just crazy cry-laughing together. I mean, it’s hard to explain, but it took something that mundane to show us that all bets were off here at Hogwarts.
Anything could happen.