The Letter
My response to Fanfic Challenge #1
Dear Harry,
I saw you with her today. That beautiful young woman� Eleanor�
I can�t believe that our life has taken this road. Some days I wake up and feel as though I�m dreaming, as though the past twenty years has been some surreal other reality.
I�m amazed at the person you�ve become. The person I�ve become. How we�ve changed. How we�ve stayed the same.
When we first started dating I knew that I could never be with anyone else. You were the one for me. You always would be. You still are.
I�m glad you kissed me. Glad you stayed at the lab. Glad you loved me and married me.
And now I watch you with her. And it makes me think. I wonder how things might have been different. I wouldn�t be where I am right now if you�d left.
I don�t mean the physical place I�m at right now, this battered old desk that�s followed us through three homes. The one you insisted that we take with us even though one of the legs had fallen off. You insisted you�d fix it. And you did. Five months later. After it had spent three months in the garden and I threatened to barbecue it.
Even now it still wobbles. But it�s become a part of us just like so many other things. I can�t get rid of it now.
In a way it reminds me of the clock. You know the one, it was in the antiques shop in town and I pointed it out to you one day when we were walking by. Two days later it was gone. Twice I wondered to you what had happened. It had looked like one my grandmother once owned.
Nearly six months later I opened a birthday present from you, and there it was. The clock.
You hated it. But you loved me. And the clock stayed.
Then Eleanor came along.
We were so happy, Harry, so happy.
When she came along you changed. It wasn�t necessarily a bad change. You just became different, you seemed more protective somehow. Little things concerned you in ways you�d never bothered with before. It was sweet if a little alarming at times.
She stole your heart.
The night we celebrated when you were made a professor I knew you were thinking of her. Physically you were with me, but your mind was elsewhere. But then again, so was mine. We left early that night and I didn�t mind. We didn�t need to be there, we needed to be at home. Together.
Now it seems like so much time has passed since those early days in our relationship. I still remember them as if they were yesterday. When you caught me off-guard with a kiss. When we stayed up until the small hours of the morning eating Chinese. When you proposed with a single red rose. When you got food poisoning on the honeymoon. When our daughter was born.
I�ll never forget the look on your face when you first held her. We�d squabbled over names, but you took one look at her and I agreed.
Eleanor.
Now she�s grown up. A beautiful young woman. I watch her hanging onto your arm as you walk up the garden path together. Our daughter.
I�m so proud, Harry.
When she came along you never stopped loving me, but I suddenly had competition. No, not competition, a companion, someone to share your love.
When you fell in love with me it took time. You fell in love with Ellie the moment you laid eyes on her.
I�m glad, Harry.
I�m glad you fell in love with me. I�m glad you became my husband. I�m glad you and I raised our daughter.
I love you Harry.
Nikki