A/N: Allie, thank you so much for beta'ing this for me! You have been able to help take this to the next level, and I really appreciate your help.

“What is it about going to Hogwarts that everyone finds so special?” an eleven-year-old girl asked her father. She stood, leaning on one arm of his chair, her cheek propped up on her hand. Her brown eyes sparkled and red curls bounced as she bit her lower lip, waiting for a response. Her father looked at her over his newspaper, clearly not prepared for this question.

Anxiously, he cleared his throat, and in the hope to buy some time, folded his newspaper. Over the rims of his glasses he saw that she is still waiting there for an answer, much to his disappointment. “Well, Ellie,” he said slowly, searching for some means of escape. “Hogwarts is where all young witches and wizards learn how to do magic. This alone makes it special, because you can finally join the ranks of your family, your friends, your peers, and make some new friends, too.”

Hoping to dismiss the matter, and his daughter, he returned to his paper and was delighted to hear her feet leave the room. After some time, when he was almost finished reading the paper, he heard a cough at the door. “Yes, Ginny?” he asked, putting down his paper and examining his wife somewhat testily. An adult version of his daughter, Ginny moved into the room along with all five of their children. One by one they came forward to kiss him on the cheek goodnight, the last two being the oldest.

Lizzie, Ellie’s fraternal twin, had black ringlets and her father’s green eyes. It appeared that she, too, had a question for her father. “Who will be at Hogwarts, Dad?”

Recognizing the opportunity to teach his twin daughters a lesson, he drew them in close in an fatherly manner that was rather uncharacteristic of him. “Well, all of your older cousins, Annie and Jack Lupin, and, I suppose, Draco Malfoy’s son. Now remember, Draco Malfoy is a very bad man! You must avoid his son at all costs. Understand, Ellie, Lizzie?” Two nods confirmed that they understood the message, and they moved off to go to sleep.

Finally, he looked up at his wife, only to see tears filling her eyes. “What happened to you, Harry?” she asked, her voice thick with tears. “When Ellie and Lizzie were born, you were such a good father. Now you hardly even look at Sirius, Lily, and James, and this is the first time in years I’ve seen you voluntarily touch Ellie and Lizzie.”

Nonchalantly, Harry turned to a book nearby. “What does it matter, Ginny? We have five kids, and they have a mother, two grandparents, five aunts, five uncles, and over twenty cousins. I’m here, aren’t I? Isn’t that enough?” he demanded bitterly, trying in vain to get his wife to leave.

Ginny’s tears had begun to fall, and she said the words he’d been trying to get her to say for years. “No, Harry, that’s not enough. But if you feel that you can’t even look at your children, tomorrow, after we put Ellie and Lizzie on the train, I’m leaving. Sirius, Lily, James and I will go to Neville and Luna’s, and you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

Before Harry could say another word, although she doubted he had even heard her, Ginny swept out of the room to pack her and her youngest children’s bags. Once she was gone, Harry put his head in his hands and struggled to fight back tears. “Remember, Potter, you’re protecting your family by pushing them away. Now they can’t get hurt,” he whispered to himself.

* * *

The next day dawned bright and cheery for the hundreds of students going to Hogwarts. To Ellie and Lizzie’s dismay, although not to their surprise, Harry did not go with them to the train station, and that action further convinced Ginny that she was doing the right thing by leaving him. Sirius, six years old, Lily, eight years old, and James, nine years old, had no idea that they were not going home for a very long time, and this pained Harry almost as much as the fact that they probably would not even miss him.

Once everyone had left the house, Harry took a deep breath before Flooing to the Ministry of Magic. It took quite a long time for him to reach his destination -- the Auror department -- for many people stopped him along the way to chat, as he was a great war hero.

But at last he reached the Auror department, and did the one thing that would change his and his family’s lives for ever.

“Hello, my name is Harry Potter, and I killed Lucius Malfoy in cold blood after he was let off by the Wizengamot,” he told the shocked secretary for Kingsley Shacklebolt.After a few confused moments, six Aurors pounced on him, dragging him into custody to discover if he was, in fact, Harry Potter, and what he was talking about.

* * *

Daily Prophet, Edition 300, Volume 287
October 14, 2017: Special correspondent Rita Skeeter interviews murderer and hero Harry Potter.

Mister Potter, my readers would love to know why you killed Lucius Malfoy.
Rita, I really can’t tell you my exact motives or the details. What I can tell you, however, is that once Lucius Malfoy was let off by the Wizengamot, something I did and do not believe should have happened, I was extremely upset. A man who had committed many horrible crimes and who had killed and tortured a countless number of people should not go free.

And is it true that your wife, Ginevra Molly Weasley Potter, has filed an annulment?
Unfortunately, yes. The basis is that at the time of our marriage she was not aware of my murder, and henceforth I was withholding lies from her. I’m sure you are aware, Rita, that lies between couples are a footnote on the document “Reasons for Wizard Annulments.”

And what about your children? I understand that you have five.
Yes, I do, and I’d like for them to know that I love them very much. I’ve been pushing them away so that when I came forward they would not be too hurt or miss me too much.

Ah, that’s right, you believed you were going to Azkaban, but you are not. Your thoughts?
Well, I wish that I had known that further examination had shown the Wizengamot that Mr. Malfoy did, in fact, commit the crimes he was on trial for. I would not have pushed my family and friends away if I had known that ahead of time. Obviously I did spend time in Azkaban awaiting my trial yesterday, and now have to perform one thousand supervised community hours over the course of my lifetime.

What will you do now, Mister Potter?
My first order of business is to contact my family in the hopes that they will forgive me. My two oldest daughters, Ellie and Lizzie, are at Hogwarts right now, while my three younger children, James, Lily, and Sirius, are with my wife. They are staying with some friends, and I can only hope that this interview reaches Ginny, as the only reason I am giving it in the first place is so that she might be able to hear what I have to say. It might take awhile, but I would like my family back. And this time I intend on being the father and husband I always wanted to be. At the moment I am staying with some very close friends of my own, as my own home is not fit to live in. In the time after my arrest, my home was raided multiple times, and I am now awaiting for it to be put back in order.

* * *

Ginny put her head in her hands on the Longbottoms’ kitchen table, the day’s Daily Prophet displayed in front of her. While what Harry had said in the interview made sense, she still did not want to believe it. Yes, Lucius Malfoy was a terrible person, but no one deserved to be murdered; Voldemort being the exception. It was hard enough to accept that Harry had killed someone other than Voldemort, and that he had lost his temper to the extent of murder.

Hermione had taken Lily and James for the day, and Ginny’s mother had Sirius. Ginny had been acting as the only parent in their family for so long that once they had left, nothing had really changed. Every now and then she just needed time to herself, especially with this interview.

Ron had said that Harry had contacted him, and had explained everything. But Ginny didn’t want to believe him. Either Harry had suddenly turned into a completely different person, or he had been lying to her for the past sixteen years. She didn’t like either one, and had a hard enough time accepting that the marriage was over.

“What am I going to do?” she moaned into her hands.

“Do you love him?” Luna asked, coming into the kitchen and Ginny jumped.

Putting a hand to her chest, she avoided the question, saying, “Merlin, Luna, you scared me!”

With the dreamy smile she was famous for, Luna asked again, “Do you love him, Ginny?”

Ginny hastily wiped tears that were forming in her eyes as she replied, “I love the man that he used to be, but unfortunately, ‘used to be’ is the key phrase.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Luna replied, bustling around the kitchen to make tea. “I don’t think anyone can truly change. Somewhere in there he’s still the same Harry that you fell in love with in first year.”

With that thought resounding in Ginny’s head, Luna left the room, smiling secretly to herself.

Taking a deep breath, Ginny summoned parchment and a quill, and began to write. “Dear Harry,” she voiced aloud as she wrote. “I’d like for you to prove to me that you never really changed . . .”

Dear Harry,

I’d like for you to prove to me that you never really changed. While I’m sure that you told Rita Skeeter the truth, it just hurts so much that you would push our children and me away from you. I do love you, Harry, I always have. But if you are going to be the man you were in the past five years, I don’t want to love you any more. I want the man who I married, who I fell in love with at Hogwarts. If you can’t give him to me, then I do not want anything to do with you.

Please, at least, try to be a father for our children. Ellie and Lizzie adore you because they remember what you were like before this all happened, James and Lily don’t like you because you were never really a father to them, and Sirius is afraid of you.

I would like Harry James Potter back, please.

Love always,
Ginny