FIC: I Don't Belong Here (Harry/Draco)

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Title: I Don’t Belong Here
Author: pervyunitwins 
Prompt: PROMPT # 172
Adapted from: Overboard, the 1987 film.
Pairing: Harry/Draco, Harry/Ginny, mention of others
Word Count: ~37,200
Rating: NC-17
Contains (Highlight to view): Epilogue compliance, to an extent; events rearranged and changed to suite the story line. *Mentions of het; no actual het. Character death; not Harry or Draco*
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: hollys_tree, I was trying to decide what prompt I wanted to pick, when I came home one night and just turned on the television. Not five minutes into watching, a movie starts playing. I think great, but I’m sleepy so I hit record and head to bed. The next day, I start the movie and low and behold, its Overboard. I immediately think of your prompt. So that’s how I decided to pick your prompt. hollys_tree, I hope you like this story. I actually followed your prompt pretty closely, to my surprise. It almost seemed like this story did not want to be completed because I kept running across impediments. Some bad, like falling sick a couple times. Some good, like starting two new jobs. I went through three computers while writing this fic (RIP laptop). I thank the mods for being so understanding and giving me all the extra time I needed. You are seriously the best! Thanks to my friend S, for helping cut a huge chunk that needed to go. A huge thanks to my beta N, for being so great and putting up with me. And to my BFF, G, who lent me her laptop, HER LAPTOP, when mine failed. I gave you a back story on how Harry became a single father, I hope you don’t mind.
Summary: Harry is a single dad and cursebreaker. He agrees to take a job for Draco Malfoy. Things don’t go as plan. He somehow ends up with a new husband. The wardrobe may or may not remain cursed to this day.



Harry stormed into his house in a rage. He could not believe how much of a wanker Draco Malfoy still was. One would think that after more than a decade, Malfoy would have matured, but it was not the case. Harry stomped through the hallway into the kitchen and summoned his owl, Isis, before quickly penning a note to Molly. Once Isis had flown out the window, Harry turned to his cupboards. He needed a drink. He rummaged through the back to one and came away with a bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhiskey. In short order he had retrieved a glass and Harry was soon throwing back a shot of firewhiskey. He knew he should not be drinking firewhiskey so carelessly; it should be savoured. He also should not be hung over when he collected his children from their Grandmother’s house in the morning. Neither of these two very sound reasons stopped Harry from refilling his glass and downing another shot, however.

Malfoy had always managed to get under his skin. The Slytherin always seemed to know just which buttons to push to bring Harry’s temper to its boiling point. Today had not been any different. The arrogant blonde had had the audacity to claim that Harry had not done his job properly or quickly enough, and therefore had refused to pay his fees. He poured another measure of firewhiskey, snorting as he thought over the last three days working for Draco Malfoy, his boyhood nemesis. It was a ridiculous notion, but nonetheless it had happened.

After that third shot had joined the others to warm him from the inside out, Harry’s mood soured and his thoughts drifted to the events that had led him to where he was now. He thought about his children, probably now sleeping peacefully in their Grandmother Molly’s house, their bellies full of delicious home-cooked food and hot chocolate. He thought about Ginny, his dead wife. He thought about his past career as an Auror. How had things become so messed up that he had ended up as a widower and single father of three working for Draco Malfoy?

~

Harry could still remember the jubilation he had experienced after defeating Voldemort. Yes, he had felt a bone-deep weariness as if he had not properly slept for years. There had been gut-wrenching grief for the many that had not made it through the Second Wizarding War, and the survivor’s guilt because he was alive and Teddy’s parents were not, Fred was not, Moody was not, Colin Creevey was not, Cedric was not. But somehow all of that was overshadowed momentarily by the fact that a great evil that had plagued the world was finally dead and gone, never to return and torture and kill again. Later everything had been dealt with; beds were found and put to good use (in more ways than one), funerals were arranged and attended, and people found ways to handle the aftermath. Trials were held, and Harry was called in to testify at more than one. He had seen a counselor for a time during the summer immediately after the final battle, and had helped to rebuild Hogwarts that summer as well. But come September, he did not join Hermione and the rest of his year when they returned to finish their schooling at the new and improved school. Instead, Ron, Neville and Harry accepted an offer made by the Auror Corps to some of the students who had fought and survived the final battle at Hogwarts, commencing Auror training in the autumn of that year.

Harry’s thoughts took him back to the night before Ginny went back for her final school year, when they had agreed to get back together. And so it was that night Harry had lost his virginity. It had been nerve wracking and exhilarating at the same time, the mere memory caused him to down his fourth shot of liquor. Harry and Ron had gone to see Ginny and Hermione when their days off coincided with Hogsmeade weekends. Ron was able to see Hermione more often since she was of age, and therefore allowed more freedom to leave the castle. A time or two Harry and Ginny got into a tiff over this issue. Harry, being an Auror in training, saw it as logical that only the “eight year” students got these privileges, however Ginny saw it as unfair. They often disagreed about a variety of issues, leading to one or two breaks during Ginny’s final year, however, they always ended up getting back together, believing that their love mattered more than whatever “trivial” thing they had fought over.

Harry and Ron attend the one year anniversary tribute held at Hogwarts in May of 1999. The Ministry pressured Harry into delivering a speech, which he reluctantly agreed to. He was grateful for Hermione’s assistance, and spoke with aplomb despite his reticence. Soon after the anniversary, Harry returned to Hogwarts for Ginny’s and Hermione’s graduation. The ceremony was unfamiliar, due to Voldemort’s various machinations disrupting the end of each school year, however Harry thought Ginny looked beautiful as she went up to a raised platform and received a certificate of completion from the Headmistress. She had her long red hair pinned in some sort of intricate knot at the nape of her neck and she wore the traditional graduation robes well, just a glimpse of her delicate cream coloured dress was visible when she walked. Harry, in that moment, felt full of pride and his love swelled for her.

Two weeks before his 19th birthday, Harry Potter got down on one knee and asked Ginevra Weasley to marry him. She gasped and began to cry, but after a few false starts finally managed to get out a “yes”. The next day they announced their engagement to the Weasley family. Harry got many a pat on the back; a few were sure to leave bruises. He got a pensive look and an “I hope you two will be happy together” from Hermione. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears and enveloped Harry in the warmest hug he had ever received from her. Mr. Weasley was a little misty-eyed when he shook Harry’s hand and welcomed him into the family. “Don't be silly, Arthur. Harry has been part of the family since I showed him how to cross the barrier on Platform 9¾ all those years ago.” Harry’s own eyes stung a little at that. Ginny was busy showing off her engagement ring.

In August of 1999, after Ginny’s birthday, Ron announced that he was leaving Auror training. He was going to be helping George at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. They were going to develop a product line for the Ministry; mainly for the Aurors and Unspeakables. Shortly after Ron’s announcement, Neville informed Harry that he had been accepted into the University of Birmingham's special Herbology programme and would also not be returning to Auror training. Deciding not to let either of these absences affect him, when Harry started his second year of training, he worked harder than he ever had before, and because he no longer had a madman trying to kill him at every turn, he was actually able to study and receive good marks. Even Hermione was proud of him when he asked her for help setting a study schedule.

By the time Christmas rolled around in 1999, Harry was close to the top of his class in Auror training, with high marks in Combat/Duelling as well as Stealth and Tracking. Ginny was successful in the Quidditch tryouts and achieved a place in the Holyhead Harpies reserve team. Christmas was spent at the Burrows as always, however on New Year’s Eve, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione decided to spend the night in London at Ron’s suggestion. His reasoning was made clear when, at the stroke of midnight when Hermione turned to him for her kiss, he dropped to one knee, holding a ring in his hand and wearing an earnest expression. Hermione had tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face when she nodded a “yes” to Ron’s unspoken question. The fireworks and cheering would have drowned out any words. Harry and Ginny turned back from their embrace just in time to see Ron slip the ring onto Hermione’s finger, a stunning sapphire surrounded by a cluster of small diamonds. Many congratulations were passed between the couples.

May that year rolled around pretty quickly, and with it Harry and Ginny’s wedding. It was a bright sunny morning as the bells filled the air signalling the wedding. Harry waited nervously next to Ron at the altar. When the music started, everyone turned to the doors of the church. Gabrielle entered, wearing a flowing cornflower blue gown and holding a bouquet of white roses. Hermione followed, and as during the Yule Ball in fourth year, she looked stunning in a similar blue gown, her own bouquet in hand. Luna completed the complement of bridesmaids, also wearing blue, but a brighter, cyan blue, that complemented her pale complexion. She made her way down the aisle skipping, a huge smile on her face, as she scattered white rose petals on the floor. The music swelled, and Ginny walked through the double doors at the back of the hall at last. Harry caught his breath as he saw her. She looked absolutely gorgeous; her long red hair was down and framing her face, a short veil was held in place on top of her head by a crown of small white roses. Ginny had refused to wear Aunt Muriel’s tiara, claiming that she would never compare to how Fleur had looked in it, though Harry knew that it was because it was not really her style. Her white dress hugged her torso, flaring out near at the waist. In her hands she held a bouquet of white lilies. She seemed to glide across the church towards Harry, and before he knew it, she was next to him, smiling and eyes glistening. They turned to the bonder and the ceremony began.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of these two faithful souls...” The ceremony passed by on a blur, all Harry was aware of was Ginny’s hand in his. “... and I declare you bonded for life.”

The bonder waved his wand above Harry and Ginny’s heads and a shower of silver stars fell upon them, surrounding them briefly in a waterfall of sparks. When they faded away, the newly married couple turned toward each other and shared a brief kiss, only becoming aware of the guests’ cheers, applause and wolf-whistle as they pulled apart. Harry grinned, correctly assuming the whistle came from George. The newly wedded couple turned toward their guests smiling, and then ran out of the church. They quickly boarded a horse-drawn carriage and they were driven back to the Burrow, where the celebration would take place. Once back at the Weasley’s home, the couple had only a few minutes alone together before the crowd started arriving, and they shared a private moment of joy and laughter.

“Can you believe we’re actually married?” Ginny asked as she poured them each a glass of champagne once their giggles had subsided.

“Not really. I’ve never felt so grown up.” Harry took the glass that Ginny offered him and downed it in one, triggering more giggles from his new wife.

“Are you planning to be drunk at your own wedding, Mr. Potter?” Ginny demanded, mock seriously.

“Maybe, Mrs. Potter.” Harry answered as he poured himself more champagne. He turned back to his wife and saw her eye widen.

“Now that will take some getting used to.” Ginny threw back her champagne and held out her glass for more.

The rest of the day swept by in a flurry of wine, roses, good food and dancing, all under a tent set up in the Weasley’s garden. Harry recalled his surprise at seeing George escorting Angelina Johnson as his date, but he was pleased to see that they seemed to be a good time. Hell, Harry was having a good time. The party lasted long into the night; little by little the older guests seem to wander away to seek out their beds. Before long it was close to midnight, and just Harry, Ginny and a few of their close friends still lingered. Ron and Hermione were cuddled together in a corner chatting quietly, Luna was still dancing after she had convinced her father to go home and rest, and had managed to get Neville and Dean to dance with her. George and Angelina finally excused themselves, George claiming that he was going to see that his date made it safely home; he threw a surreptitious wink back at Harry before the two left the tent.

Before he realised it, Ginny was leading Harry away from his friends. They headed to the house, and from there they floo’d to Grimmauld place. Kreacher had been hard at work making a few rooms not only liveable, but even romantic. Harry and Ginny spent their wedding night in their new, hopefully temporary, home. That night, little to their knowledge, they conceived their first son.

Ron married Hermione that December. It was a wonderful winter wedding, and two people could not have looked so in love. When Hermione walked up to meet Ron at the altar, they both had happy tears in their eyes. Later, before Harry had to lead a seven-months pregnant Ginny home, Ron confessed that his tears had been because he could not believe that Hermione had not only consented to marry him, but that she had actually walked down the aisle and gone through with it. Hermione caught the tail end of his confession and she proceeded to kiss him silly.

James Sirius Potter was born on the 28 February, 2001. (Harry takes a sip of his firewhiskey at the memory of that stressful delivery). Harry could not have been happier when the Mediwitch placed a squirming pink baby in his arms. Some of the love that he had to give was immediately transferred to the little human in his arms. Ginny looked exhausted and happy.

Two month after James’ birth, Ginny started talking about returning to the Harpies. In May she went back to training and James spent his days with Molly and his nights with Harry. June rolled around and Harry sat his exams. He excelled at the practicals, but was terribly nervous about the written portions. He needn’t have worried; thanks to the study habits that Hermione had drilled into him he passed! Harry graduated Auror training at the end of June. They had a big party for him at the Burrows. Molly ended up babysitting James that night to allow Harry and Ginny to celebrate alone together afterward.

That August, Ginny got the news that she was going to be a mother again for her birthday. She smiled and smiled. Harry, however, could see the tears that she was holding back. She had been scheduled to play at the last game of the season in November. That was now impossible as she would be close to five months pregnant. A month later, Hermione announced that she was also pregnant.

Albus Severus Potter was born on 28 March 2002. James was a little over a year old and he was overjoyed to have a brother. Albus looked to have inherited his father’s unruly mop of hair, and when he was a year old, it was confirmed that he was to have his father’s eyes. Later it would also be confirmed that he was to have his father’s horrible eyesight. Ron and Hermione’s daughter was born on 2 May 2002, on the 4th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. They named her Rose Jane Weasley.

Three months after Albus was born, Ginny returned to her training with the Harpies. Harry took almost a month off work to spend time with his two boys. In the year after Albus’ birth, Harry loved his job as an Auror; however he didn’t get to spend much time at home with his kids during the week, so he reserved his weekends solely for them. Harry and Ginny were still living at the Burrow with Molly and Arthur, so Molly could watch the boys when Ginny and Harry were away. Ginny was full time with the Harpies; playing almost every game. In August of 2003, Ginny scored a goal seconds before the snitch was caught by the opposing team, securing a win for the Harpies by a margin of ten points. Mass celebration ensued, made even more special for Ginny since the match took place the day before her birthday. She was so excited to have won the team that victory, and that night she and Harry had their own private celebration.

At the end of September of that same year, Harry was badly injured on the job. When Ginny arrived at St Mungo’s and saw her husband’s condition, she promptly fainted. The Healers set up a cot next to Harry’s, and ran some tests, concerned about her reaction. When she came around, she was informed that she was pregnant. Harry, though heavily injured and under sedation, was still conscious of the look of complete devastation that passed over her features before she managed to cover it up with a smile.

Harry recovered quickly, but Ginny had to withdraw from Quidditch once again. In December they were informed that Ginny was to have a girl this time, and her whole demeanour changed, almost like a switch had been flipped. She immediately wanted to go and buy pink dresses and dolls. Harry and Ginny made plans to move out of the Burrow once the new baby was old enough. Ginny convinced Harry to have a house built for them at Godric’s Hollow.

Lily Luna Potter was born on 13 June 2004, a bit past her due date. James and Albus weren’t very sure of their new sister. Hermione's second child, Hugo Arthur Weasley, was born on the 31^st October of that year. The house in Godric’s Hollow was completed soon after in November and in December the Potter family hosted the entire Weasley family for Christmas. When January rolled around, Ginny was talking about returning to Quidditch. She had the Healers perform a hysterectomy when Lily was born, without Harry’s knowledge, so there would be no more children this time to interrupt her career.

Because of Ginny’s love and dedication to her sport, Harry had to slowly cut back his hours as an Auror to spend more time taking care of his kids. He took his children to watch their mother play. She was a brilliant player, and a pleasure to watch on a broom. It came as no surprise when she was picked to play for England at the 425th World Cup to be held in France in August of 2006. England made it to the semi-finals, but Bulgaria beat them 190 to 180. Ginny was crushed, but felt a great deal of achievement just to have participated.

Ginny was able to use her position to get tickets for her family to attend the final. The Weasley brood took up the entirety of a private box. James was beyond excited to be present at a World Cup. Albus’ excitement fed of James’, while Lily was ambivalent, though she was happy to sit next to her mother instead of having to watch her. During the second half of the game, Harry looked over at Ginny and noticed he looked a little pale. She said she was feeling a little lightheaded. She passed Lily, who had somehow managed fall asleep during all the noise, to Harry and went to get some air. Harry was absorbed in the match; no matter what, Quidditch always succeeded in giving him a thrill and a sense of nostalgia. In the midst of a particularly exciting play, Harry turned to make a comment to Ginny, only to realise she had not returned. He gingerly handed over a still sleeping Lily to Arthur and went in search of his wife.

Harry found Ginny lying on the ground in the hallway surrounded by a small crowd. One woman was performing a Rennervate on her, with no apparent success. The world seemed to fade away. He tried to reach his wife, but arms reached out to restrain him when Mediwitches started appearing. There was a roaring in his ears; Harry could not make out what they were saying, but when he noticed their shaking heads, he sagged in the arms of the strangers holding him back.

Ginny’s funeral was at the end of August, and was attended by many. She was a popular player, and had many fans, and also had a big family. James cried silently, Albus sobbed heartbrokenly, while Lily, poor, innocent Lily would not stop asking why everyone was crying and when her mum was going to come home. “Is she playing on her broom Daddy? When is she going to come play with me?”

The Healers had said that Ginny had died of an undiagnosed brain aneurysm. There was no way of knowing that she had it; nothing they could have done once it ruptured that day in France. She had died quickly; she likely would not have felt much pain for long. Harry tried to take comfort in that, but how was he to explain that to his children?

Harry turned in his resignation to the DMLE in September, as he had not been into work for weeks anyway. He needed to be home with his children; helping them deal with the complete absence of their mother, helping them get dressed in the morning, changing them, feeding them, playing with them and putting them to bed at night. Harry found himself a widower and a single father at the age of 26.

~

Harry took another shot of firewhiskey as he remembered the ordeal of becoming a single father, and he felt a few tears escape as the grief at losing his wife resurfaced. It had been nearly four years, but it still hurt, though over time, he had realised that the love he had felt for Ginny had not been a passionate love, but familial love. And wasn’t that disturbing since he had fathered three children with the woman he basically considered his sister. He now understood that to be the reason why he never minded when she went away for Quidditch, and why he preferred spending time with his children, but not with her. Harry thought that Ginny must have felt the same way, because she always wanted to go back to playing Quidditch. He sometimes took comfort in the fact that she had died in a Quidditch Stadium, the place where her true passion lay.

For two years Harry had dedicated himself to his children. After the second anniversary of Ginny’s death, his friends told him that enough was enough. He rarely left the house and he never did anything for himself. So it was that Harry started helping out Bill with some of his curse breaking. He would tag along and assist with cases outside if his Gringott’s assignments (the Goblins would never have considered hiring Harry; they still held a grudge over his break in). Harry started taking night classes in curse breaking as well. After having an early dinner with his children, Molly or Andromeda and Teddy, would look after James, Albus and Lily. Even though he arrived home late, he always made sure to check on his children and gave them each a goodnight kiss. Sometimes Teddy would spend the night; he was a Potter family favourite.

When Ginny had been gone three years, Harry commenced work as a freelance curse breaker. Initially his cases were commonplace, simple jobs; the clients were misguided fans wanting the Great Harry Potter to attend their houses. When he made it clear that he would not tolerate this kind of behaviour, more serious work started coming in. His first legitimate job had been in Yorkshire; someone in Sheffield had come into possession of a cursed bracelet. It had been passed down to a Mrs Miller from her dead mother-in-law. Apparently, the deceased woman had not liked her son’s wife very much because if Mrs Miller had worn the bracelet for longer than three days, her hair and teeth would have fallen out. Luckily, Mrs Miller noticed the effect the bracelet was having on her and called Harry. Harry was able to lift the curse on the bracelet and the Healers were able to reverse the damage the curse had started to wreak on the woman.

His next serious case had been in London. A John Smith of Bow Road had found a cursed dark artefact and he had fallen under its power. His sister noticed the drastic change that came over her brother and had contacted Harry. He was able to lift the curse, which had caused Mr Smith to not only gradually become evil, but slowly he had been turning into a gray skinned creature intent on stealing anything gold by any means necessary. Mr. Smith had come frighteningly close to murdering his sister for their mother’s gold ring she wore. Harry restored Mr. Smith to his old self and had turned over the dark artefact to the Department of Mysteries.

Harry’s reputation began to grow as a very competent curse breaker. He was able to send his children to the local Muggle primary school during the day while he took on cases; as long as they didn’t exhibit strong signs of magic they were safe there and they were learning. His case load seemed to grow and grow, and he had difficulty turning away clients for fear that they were in life threatening situations. He tried to make it home to his children in the evenings, but he often had to rely heavily on Molly, however, Angelina, George's wife was pregnant with their first child and was having a difficult time of it. Angelina’s parents had passed away during the war and Molly wanted to be there for her. Persuading Molly to look after his children, taking her away from Angelina, became increasingly difficult, particularly when they found out that Angelina was carrying twins. Molly had cried for days at the news. Andromeda was also not available, as she had reconciled with Narcissa over the years. Once Teddy had left for Hogwarts, the two sisters spent their time travelling the world, sending Teddy and Harry odd gifts from the places they visited.

James appeared to be taking after his namesake. He was always getting himself in trouble at school for some prank or adventure he had embarked on. He made friends easily and his friends hung on his every word followed him adoringly. Harry had to search him daily for any WWW products he should not be taking to a Muggle school. Albus, however, was very reserved, always keeping to himself, and seemed to be scared of his own shadow, never wanting to try anything new. Harry had had the hardest time convincing him to attend school. Lily was very quiet; she rarely talked and when she did she tended to whisper what she had to say. Harry, Molly and her brothers were the only ones she felt comfortable enough to be as loud as she wanted. Harry didn’t know what to do with her.

He did not even want to think of the state his house was in. Harry did not have time to clean. Every now and then he threw a cleaning charm here and there, but it was never enough. He liked to cook, but rarely had the time, so everyone in his household subsisted primarily on any takeaway he managed to pick up before heading home, or meals Molly sent over when she had the time.

It came as a bit of a surprise when Harry was contacted by Draco Malfoy one morning in March of 2010. From what Harry could gather of his owl, Malfoy had managed to trigger a curse on an old wardrobe left over from Voldemort’s time at the Malfoy Manor. Harry had considered not taking the case, but did not want to be petty. It had been more than a decade since the war ended. He figured Malfoy would have matured since their schooldays, or he would not have wanted to hire Harry otherwise. He could not have been more wrong.

~

Harry had written back to Malfoy agreeing to take the case. They arranged for Harry to visit Malfoy Manor on the morning of the 8th, after he had dropped his kids off at school. Harry hurried to get his kids dressed and fed that morning, as he did every morning; no matter how early he woke up, it seemed that he was always running late. Albus tended to eat his breakfast extremely slowly because he was distracted by something or other, usually a book. James bolted his breakfast down like the growing boy he was, while Harry had to struggle to get to get Lily even to eat a few bites, let alone the entire contents of her plate. As he himself ate his breakfast, he also made sure that his satchel was packed with his curse breaking tools – books, potions, talismans and anything else that might come in handy. He dropped the children at their school with only a couple minutes to spare. After walking a safe distance, Harry found a nice dark alley and Apparated to Wiltshire, just outside Malfoy’s home.

The walk up to the main gate was rather long, lined on either side by tall evergreen topiary sculptures. Harry was surprised to note that they were not as menacing as he remembered, and wondered if the designs had been changed. He remembered that on his previous walk up the drive, the trees seemed to have claws reaching out to him and his friends. Once he arrived at the wrought iron monogrammed gates, they swung open to allow him entrance. Harry took a few deep breaths to fortify himself, after all, this particular house did not hold very pleasant memories for him. He continued up the walkway to the manor, noticing that the gardens were as dark and forbidding as they had appeared during Harry’s capture. Everywhere he looked there was green with splashes of colourful flowers. Harry briefly wondered what beauties the main gardens held, only to be startled from his thoughts by a few squawks; he turned quickly with his wand drawn only to see an albino peacock chasing another. Harry shook his head and chuckled at himself as he put his wand away.

At the front doors of the manor, he only hesitated for a moment before bringing up his hand to knock. He only had to wait a few seconds before one of the big doors opened and he was greeted by a house elf. “Bitsy is bidding Harry Potter a good morning,” the elf bowed. “Harry Potter is to be following Bitsy to Master Draco.” Harry thought of Kreacher who had died shortly after James was born. He stepped through the threshold as he shook away thoughts of the long dead house-elf and followed Bitsy.

The house elf lead him up a flight of stairs and down a long hallway through the left; they made a few turns until Harry was certain he would not be able to find his way back to the main entryway on his own. Finally they reached a set of ornate double doors and when Bitsy knocked, Harry heard a muffled “Enter”. Bitsy opened the doors and bowed, ushering Harry into the room. When he stepped in, he got his first look at Draco Malfoy in more than a decade. He had not seen the former Slytherin since testifying at his trial just after the war. Malfoy still had rather angular features, but Harry could no longer call him pointy. He was still rather thin and tall, unfortunately an inch or two taller than Harry, and Malfoy was still rather pale. He also still held himself with an air of snobbery and a sense of entitlement. Maybe some things didn’t change.

Malfoy uncurled himself from the chair he had been sitting in and strode towards Harry. “Took you long enough to get here. You’re late. I will be deducting that time from your hourly rate.” Harry gaped at Malfoy. Maybe a lot of things hadn’t changed. Maybe he was going to regret taking this job. “Right, enough twaddling. This way.” Malfoy pivoted on his pointed boots and walked towards another set of doors, which lead to a bedroom. Clearly the room where Malfoy had been waiting was a sitting room. The bedroom room was richly appointed in creams and greens. Harry took an educated guess as to whom this room belonged to before Malfoy spoke and confirmed it. “These are my private quarters so I would appreciate it if you made this a speedy job, as I hate to be made uncomfortable in my own rooms.” He looked pointedly at Harry; Harry nodded. “Pansy and I were looking through the house when we found this wonderful wardrobe in one of the rooms upstairs. We moved it down here, but the moment I opened it, I felt a jolt go straight up my arm.”

Harry stepped up to examine the wardrobe in question. It was a large, ornate piece decorated with intricate carvings. “Did you use a spell to move it down here?”

Malfoy snorted. “Obviously. Even if it were not too heavy to lift, I’d never do something so pedestrian as lifting.”

Harry sighed. It had definitely been a mistake to take this job. “I’m merely asking because I am surprised that the curse placed upon it did not activate when you first cast a spell on it. It means that the curse is tactually activated, therefore it will be a more powerful curse.” Harry was satisfied that Malfoy looked properly worried. “Did you think to go to St Mungo’s to be checked over in case you obtained any damage when the curse activated?” Malfoy shook his head. “I’d make that a priority then. While you do that, I shall run some diagnostic spells and by the time you return, I should know what curse this wardrobe is under.”

Malfoy seemed to hesitate, afraid of leaving Harry alone in his house, let alone his bedroom. Then he nodded, resolved. “Right. I’ll just pop over to St Mungo’s then.” He began to move toward the door. “I should warn you that Pansy is usually underfoot at the manor, so do not be surprise if she comes round looking for me. And she usually likes to stick her nose in anything and everything.” Then he hurried away.

Harry sighed again. As if his job were not made difficult enough by Malfoy’s demand of speediness, he might have to deal with another troublesome and nosy Slytherin. He set his satchel down and quickly busied himself casting diagnostic spells on the wardrobe. He quickly confirmed that the curse had indeed been activated when touched. Next he found out that the effects of the curse were a variation of the Dementor’s Kiss; he curse would not suck the soul out of the person, but instead it would slowly lock the person’s mind and soul inside their body. The victim would have been aware of everything that was going on around them, but be unable to move or act or talk. It was a rather nasty curse and if the curse had been transferred onto a person, it would have taken powerful blood magic to break the curse. Harry had come across it in his studies; he never expected to encounter it. But here it was. He figured Voldemort would be twisted enough to cast such a curse on an object in the house of his ‘hosts’.

Luckily, the years had dulled the curse slightly. If Harry was correct, Malfoy should not have any lasting damage, but he’d rather be safe and have the staff at St Mungo’s verify that. The jolt that Malfoy felt when he touched it was not supposed to have happened, probably due to the years the curse had laid dormant. If Malfoy had brought the wardrobe down to use after the war, he would not have felt anything after touching it. Instead the more he used the wardrobe, the more the curse would take effect until one morning upon awakening, he would have been unable to control his body.

Harry turned to his satchel and withdrew a few books. As he leafed through some of them, he wracked his brain for the name of the curse. He could only remember a few of the basics of how to break this particular curse and he would need the name to find the rest of the details. After nearly a half hour of searching he finally found what he was looking for. The wardrobe was under the Inlaqueatus anima curse. The results were just as he remembered, and the counter-curse seemed pretty complicated and time consuming. Various breaks would be required in order to let different aspects of the spell-work to take effect. Malfoy was not going to like this. The breaking of the curse would take at least three and a half days if he started right away, at most a week if he was interrupted by any nosy Slytherins.

Harry sighed yet again and began the first stage of the curse breaking. He needed to remove the touch activation. It would not do to have anyone stumbling into the wardrobe and accidentally setting the curse off. It was a rather simple procedure, but it took a lot of concentration. Thankfully no interruption came until he had finished casting. He had just lowered his wand and wiped the sweat from his brow when he heard a noise behind him. He whirled around, wand raised.

Pansy Parkinson looked momentarily startled her expression quickly. “So Draco wasn't pulling my leg; Harry Potter really is in his bedroom. And what a state you’re in; all flustered and sweaty.” She giggled and stepped further into Malfoy’s bedroom. “How’s the curse breaking going? Set off any nasty side effects?” Parkinson looked around Harry at the wardrobe and examined it, as if she expected it to be oozing blood or something equally sinister.

“No, Parkinson. I’ve only just completed the first stage.” Harry hoped that if he was forthcoming Parkinson would quickly grow bored and leave him to his work. He needed to finish the next three stages so they he could be home by six. The magic needed to settle overnight after the third stage; for 12 to 15 hours, no more.

“Please, call me Pansy,” she waved her hands at Harry. “No need for all this surname business. That’s some kind of foreplay for you and Draco that I’d rather have no part of. So what exactly does the curse on the wardrobe do?”

“Alright, Pansy it is,” Harry said tentatively. “Well, the curse on the wardrobe activates by touch.”

Pansy gasped, “But Draco had his hands all over it the other day after we moved it into his room.”

Harry nodded. “Yes, which is why I set him off to St Mungo’s to make sure he had not been badly affected. Given that the curse was meant to take effect little by little, I doubt there is any permanent damage, but better to be safe than sorry.”

Pansy sighed in relief. “Oh thank Merlin. I am glad I didn’t touch that vile thing. I told Draco it gave off an evil aura, but he wouldn’t listen. He found it rather handsome; said it would fit in with his decor.” She looked around the room. “He’s right of course, but it wouldn’t do to have Draco cursed just for some pretty bit of furniture. Go on then, what else does that wardrobe do?”

“Well...” Harry trailed off because at that moment Malfoy strode back into the room.

“You’ll be happy to note that the Healers gave me a clean bill of health, Potter. Took them long enough. I thought I was going to die of boredom; they left me waiting so long for some results or other. Oh, Pansy, I see you’re already making a nuisance of yourself. So, Potter, finished yet?” He stopped right next to Harry and looked at the wardrobe curiously. “Is it safe yet?”

“No. While touching it will not necessarily get you cursed, the curse has not been broken yet. I have identified which curse the wardrobe is under, but the counter curse is quite lengthy and will take a few days to sort, maybe a week.”

Malfoy turned back to Harry in disbelief. “That’s absolutely not acceptable. I demand that you get this done in the least amount of time as possible. I dare say that moving the wardrobe is not advisable, so you being in my private chamber, fiddling about, isn’t really appealing.”

“Look, Malfoy, there is nothing I can do. The process is lengthy. I can do my best to get it done in three and a half days, but that would require that I have as few interruptions as possible.” Harry pointedly looked from Malfoy to Pansy.

Malfoy sighed in exasperation. “Fine. I shall do my best to keep myself and Pansy out of your hair. Just hurry things along. Please keep me informed of your progress.”

Harry gave Malfoy and the curious Pansy a swift explanation of the curse and what he had done so far. When he explained that he had to let the magic settle overnight, Malfoy looked annoyed, but kept silent.

“Before I perform the next few steps, I was wondering if I could use an owl to make arrangements for my kids this afternoon.”

Malfoy reluctantly agreed. “Write your note and then call for Bitsy. She’ll make sure one of the owls sends your missive. Now come along Pansy, we have to let Potter get to work or he’ll be here all week.” Malfoy had to practically drag Pansy out of the room. She looked as if she could spend all day asking questions and just generally making a nuisance of herself. Harry hoped Malfoy kept her away as promised for both their sakes.

After writing Molly to ask her to pick up the kids and keep them with her a few hours, Harry got back to work. He wanted, no, he needed, to be done by six or he was sure he would never hear the end of it.

As Harry was casting the spell that would allow the magic to settle the curse overnight, he heard a clock somewhere chime six. Seconds later, Malfoy walked into the room. “Are you finished for today, Potter? I need my rooms back.”

Harry began to gather his belongings and answered, “Yes, I’m all done. I’ll be going now. I’ll be here tomorrow no later than seven.”

Malfoy looked appalled. “Potter that’s practically the crack of dawn.”

“I can’t leave the wardrobe for longer than fifteen hours. And I prefer to be on the safe side. Besides, today I was here only a little bit past eight.”

“Yes, but that was because I knew I wouldn’t have a late night last night. Today however...”

Harry finished putting away his books and looked at Malfoy, “Then I suggest you make tonight an early night as well. I’ll see you at seven.” He left Malfoy fuming. He got lost a few times before he made it out the front doors, but it had been worth it for that exit.

Harry knew that seven would be pushing it at his house, but tomorrow would be Tuesday, so he could get Luna to come over and get his children to school. They liked her because she was fun, and Harry had to admit that that was one of the reasons he liked her as well. Once he was able to get outside the Manor wards, he Apparated to the Burrow, and he and his kids had dinner with Angelina, George, Molly and Arthur. By the time he made it home, James, Albus and Lily were all dead on their feet, and it was a simple matter to get them all bathed and into bed. James fell asleep immediately, Albus picked up a book and began reading Lily a bedtime story. She fell asleep halfway through. When he went to go check on Albus, he had fallen asleep while reading; he still wore his glasses. Harry removed them and tucked him in. A quick look in on James and Harry headed to his own room. He sent Luna an owl and received a reply as he was brushing his teeth. She would come; just as he knew she would. Harry had gone to bed thinking how he wished he did not have to rely so heavily on other people for the care of his kids, but he needed his job to stay sane.

Before James and Albus had been old enough to go to school, they had all been slightly miserable. When the two boys had gone off to school, he had developed a better relationship with them. Lily had clung to Harry as if she were afraid to lose him like she lost her mother. Harry had put off sending her to school for a year after she was old enough to attend. Hermione had convinced him that it would do her good to interact with other people; that it would help her to know that if she left and came back, Harry would still be there. So Lily had reluctantly gone to school. For the first week she had been so happy when she finally came home. By the second week, she was happy to go to school. She even made friends. Then she went into year one. Lily slowly started closing up; she no longer came home chatting a mile a minute about all the things she had learned and done at school. Harry had not known what to do. Hermione told him it was just a phase. Her teacher had assured him that she still did her school work. Harry sincerely hoped Lily would get over it soon.

~

The next morning, Luna arrived as Harry was buttoning his shirt. He let her in and she immediately went to the kitchen and started cooking. “You don’t have to do that. I am perfectly capable of making breakfast,” Harry protested as he finished doing up his shirt.

“I know Harry, but I like to cook. I’ve found it keeps Wrackspurts at bay.” Luna had already located flour, eggs and milk and was busy making pancake batter.

“Good to know. So how’s Rolf?” Harry asked. He put the kettle on and rummaged around his kitchen looking for some tea.

“Wonderful. He’s getting ready to go on another expedition. His newest book will be out in September. And I’m pregnant.” Luna began to hum and located the tea for Harry.

Harry almost didn’t hear Luna’s last sentence. When it finally caught up to him, he whooped and spontaneously picked her up and whirled her around the room. She was giggling when he set her down. “That’s spectacular news Luna. Congratulations! You and Rolf must be so happy.”

“Actually, he doesn’t know yet.” Luna bit her lip and looked slightly worried. “I’m afraid to tell him because I don’t want him to postpone his trip. And I’m supposed to go with him. I think he might want me to stay behind or cancel the expedition all together. The expedition isn’t even all that dangerous; we are only going to Romania to study dragons this time.”

“No, not dangerous at all,” Harry deadpanned. “Wait, am I the first person you’ve told?”

Luna went back to smiling. “I’ve only just found out yesterday. And you’re the first friend I’ve seen since I heard, other than Rolf, but he’s also my husband. So yes, you’re the first person I’ve told. Tomorrow I’m going to have dinner with my dad and I’m going to tell him then.”

Harry was stunned. He felt such love for Luna in that moment. She really had become one of his good friends over the years. He could not help but think about the mural she had painted in her old room. “Luna, I’m honoured.” He hugged her again. “But I do think you should tell Rolf before you tell anyone else. Explain to him how you still want to go on the trip. Then check with your Healer to see if taking the trip is safe in your condition.”

Luna nodded. The kettle whistled then, and she prepared a pot of tea and went back to cooking. “I’m so glad I told you. You have a good head on your shoulders. I’d hate to see the Wrackspurts wreak havoc with it. I’ll bring you some dirigible plum and dandelion tea for you next time I visit. Now sit down and have some tea. You can have something to eat too and then be on your way. You’ll need me to stay all day, right?”

Harry gulped down some tea before answering, “Yes. Thank you so much for doing this Luna. I hate to ask this of you, but the kids love you and everyone else is busy.”

Luna waved his gratitude away, “Don’t worry about it Harry. I love your children. Plus its good practice for me, yeah.” She unconsciously put a hand on her belly. She smiled and a far way look came over her. After a moment she shook herself out of her spell. Harry smiled back nodded.

Harry finished his tea, and ate Luna’s pancakes. He went upstairs to wake his children and say goodbye. They were downstairs eating as soon as he mentioned Luna and pancakes.

“Right, I’ll try to be back by eight tonight to put you lot to bed. Luna will be waiting for you all after school. Make sure you mind her and try not to get into trouble.” He kissed and hugged his kids; he even included Luna because he was still happy with her news, before grabbing his satchel from the sitting room and left the house.

Harry knocked on the Manor doors at ten to seven, and was admitted by Bitsy, who lead him to Malfoy’s rooms. He was rather amused when Malfoy had looked less than pristine; it seemed he had had a late night after all. Harry got down to work immediately, and Malfoy hurried to get out of his way, mumbling something about keeping Pansy out of his hair before leaving. Harry cast spells all morning and only took a brief break at around one in the afternoon for some lunch and tea that Bitsy brought him. When he expressed his surprised at being fed, Bitsy merely said that Malfoy had not said not to feed him. Harry smirked and thanked her profusely.

He was back to work by half past one, the half hour break would no harm. Harry continued casting; he was now on the fifth stage of the curse-breaking. Malfoy came in at six to ask if he was done for the day, but Harry only shook his head. He thought he heard Malfoy say some rather nasty things about him, but had been too busy concentrating.

Harry finally finished at a quarter to eight. He had just lowered his wand when Malfoy walked back into the room. If Harry didn’t know any better, he would have said that the git had been waiting right outside.

“Potter. Bloody hell, what is taking so long? Are you finally done?” Malfoy demanded. “I want my room back.”

Harry wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve. He was in dire need of a shower and some food. “Yes, I am done.”

“Brilliant. How much do I owe you?” Malfoy moved to a desk at the corner of his room.

“No, Malfoy, I’m done for the day, but there are still three more stages to remove the curse.”

Malfoy made an exasperated sound. “For Merlin’s sake, Potter. How much longer is this process going to take?”

“As I explained yesterday. The least amount of time it will take is three and a half days. At most a week. But seeing as you have done an excellent job so far of keeping yourself and Pansy out of my hair, I think I can be done in another day and a half.”

Malfoy looked like waiting that much longer to have his rooms to himself would cause a great amount of pain. He exhaled slowly, “Fine. If you’re done for the day, I would thank you to leave.”

Harry only nodded in response. He grabbed his satchel, gave Malfoy a quick wave goodbye and turned to leave. Then he remembered. “I’ll be round tomorrow at ten. The spell needs to settle a little longer this time.” Malfoy looked slightly relieved at not having to wake up ‘at the crack of dawn’. Harry only took three wrong turns before finding his way out of the Manor that night.

~

He was home at 8:03 , and his children attacked him the second he walked through the door. They were fed and bathed and in their pyjamas.

“Alright you lot, say your goodbyes, then off to bed with you. I want a quick word with your Aunt Luna before she heads home.” James, Albus and Lily all politely said goodnight to Luna, though Harry didn’t actually hear Lily as she whispered her farewell. Then they all went upstairs, James and Albus looking as if they were racing each other, while Lily trailed behind in a more sedate pace, as if wanting to prove to Harry and Luna that she was civilised, unlike her brothers.

Luna and Harry were left alone in the entryway. “Thank you so much for minding my trolls, Luna.” Luna laughed. “I know they can be handful and there aren't many that can handle them. You’re a really treasure. I’m sure you are going to make a wonderful mother.”

Luna got misty eyed, “Stop that Harry, you’re making me blush. You know I love your trolls. And Lily looks so much like her mother that sometimes I feel like I’m talking to my old friend again. She is wise beyond her years that one.” Harry smiled sadly at his friend. “Anyway, enough sad talk. You must be exhausted. I left dinner under a warming spell for you in the kitchen. Eat it as soon as you’ve put the kids to bed.”

“I will, Luna. Thanks a million.”

“It’s not a problem. How much longer is this job going to take? Will you need me to mind the children tomorrow as well?”

Harry thought about for a moment. “Actually, if you can pick them up from school and stay with them a while after that, I would appreciate it. I should be home in time for dinner. And if all goes well, this job should be done by Thursday night, if not a little sooner.”

“Alright, I can do that. I’m off now. Wish me luck with Rolf.”

“Good luck,” Harry said as he hugged his friend goodbye. “Rolf is going to be so happy. Don’t worry about it.” Luna gave him a kiss on the check and was gone.

By the time Harry climbed the stairs, his kids were only just managing to keep their eyes open. He tucked James in and gave him a kiss, which James didn’t even scrub away, he was so sleepy. Harry did the same to Albus, while he removed the book still in bed with his son. When he went into Lily’s room, he tucked her stuffed unicorn next to her, pulled the covers more fully over her, kissed her and sat a while with her. She quickly fell asleep with a smile on her lips.

Harry ate the dinner Luna had made; it was delicious. He noticed as he ate, that his kitchen actually looked clean. Luna must have done that, she really was a gem. He went to bed that night, hoping that nothing happened to postpone this job; he wanted it done as quickly as possible.

~

The next morning, Harry got up early. He felt like spoiling his kids a little because of the weird hours he had been keeping, so he made three custom fry ups. James only ate scrambled eggs, Albus was going through a poached eggs phase, and Lily refused to eat eggs at all because she said they were baby chickens and she did not want to eat baby chickens. On the other hand, both boys hated mushrooms, but she adored them, Albus and James both like tomatoes, but James preferred them un-grilled, and Albus and Lily liked sausages, but not bacon. As for James, he preferred bacon, extra crispy. Thankfully they all enjoyed the beans and the toast.

The smell of a cooked breakfast must have woken his kids, because they all came storming down the stairs shortly after Harry had finished cooking. As soon as they saw the massive amounts of food set out on the table, they went crazy. James wanted tea, which Harry let him have a little of with loads of milk and sugar. Albus and Lily were both content with some hot cocoa. Harry ate whatever his kids didn’t eat, and drank at least three cups of tea. He would need them all to deal with Malfoy.

When everyone had finished eating, Harry helped Lily dress. He told his children that Luna would pick them up after school and stay with them until Harry returned. He was surprised that he actually managed to get his kids to school with more than three minutes to spare, returning home to find he had some time to kill before heading to Wiltshire. So Harry attempted to do some cleaning; he did the washing up left from breakfast and tidied the kitchen a bit. He wanted to try and keep it how Luna had left it. Harry went into the sitting room and almost walked right back out. Toys were everywhere he looked; on and under the couches, his favourite armchair, under the end tables, and on the mantle. There were even some dangerously close to the hearth; luckily no one had tried to light it.

Harry sighed and decided to try and gather as many as he could. He had only made it through half the sitting room, even with some cleaning charms that he vaguely remembered Ginny or Molly teaching him, when an owl started tapping on the window. It was Ron and Hermione’s owl Archimedes. Harry let the owl in, retrieved the letter he was carrying and fed him an owl treat.

The letter was brief:

Harry,

You free for drinks tonight? Mum and Dad say they’ll take the kids since George and Angelina want to come out too. Meet us at the Flying Dragon after you drop off your three at the Burrow.

Ron

Harry quickly calculated how long it would take him to finish the steps he needed to get done that day on Malfoy’s wardrobe. He looked at his watch. If he left in ten minutes, he could be at the Manor just before the promised time; he hoped Malfoy did not mind. The first stage of that day’s work would require at least two hours. The stage after that needed only 30 or so minutes, and then he could take a brief break for lunch. The penultimate stage took precisely 3 hours and 33 minutes. Then Harry would need to ward the wardrobe since no one could go within a three feet of it, as it would be the most volatile right before the final stage of the curse breaking. There was no telling what could happen if someone touched it. That should take no more than ten minutes. When he calculated that he would be able to leave Malfoy Manor shortly after five, Harry smiled. He turned over Ron’s note and wrote a quick affirmative response:

Ron,

I can be there around six. I look forward to seeing you all tonight.

Harry

Sending the note off with Archimedes, who had waited patiently for the reply, Harry then went in search of his satchel and left post-haste.

~

As before, when Harry had arrived at the Manor he was greeted by Bitsy, who took him directly to Malfoy’s rooms. Malfoy was not present, so Harry got down to some serious spell-casting. One o’clock quickly rolled around, and Bitsy stopped by with a small lunch for Harry. He ate quickly, carefully considering the next step since it was to a rather tricky process, though not as lengthy as others he had done. Harry began casting at exactly 1:26 pm. He had been completely focused on his work that he did not notice that Malfoy had quietly come in at around a quarter to five. Malfoy, apparently, had seen Harry deep in concentration and had not bothered to alert him to his presence, choosing to quickly and quietly slip into his en-suite. Harry finished casting at 4:59 pm, looked at his watch and after a quick calculation was pleased that he had performed the next-to-last step in less than the prescribed time. It was a good sign for having performed it correctly. He took a moment to drink some much needed water; curse-breaking was thirsty work, especially the spells that had to be done in a certain amount of time.

Harry took a deep breath and began to cast the shielding spell that would encase the wardrobe in a protective covering so that no one would be able to touch it. He was nearing the end of the special incantation when Pansy had burst into the bedroom. Harry tried not to break his concentration or stumble on his words. Pansy nodded a quick greeting and then proceeded directly to the door of Malfoy’s bathroom. She opened it without knocking and revealed a naked Malfoy with his back turned to the door. Harry’s mouth had dropped open. It took a moment for Malfoy to notice he was then being observed. In that moment, Harry had time to notice that Malfoy had a rather strange tattoo on his right buttock. If Harry’s sight had not been mistaken Malfoy had a griffin tattooed on his derriere.

As soon as he had taken this in, Malfoy gasped, “Pansy, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He quickly grabbed a towel and covered himself up.

“Well, Draco, darling. You were taking entirely too long. I had to come and check that Potter hadn’t done you in or something entirely more pleasant.” She turned and winked at Harry.

“That doesn’t mean that you had to barge in on me in the shower!” Draco yelled, stalking out of the bathroom and towards Pansy.

“Oh do calm down, Draco. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. And given that Potter here is man,” another wink for Harry, “I’m sure it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before either.”

“Pansy, I know you practically live here, and I don’t mind having you here, really I don’t, but I don’t appreciate it when you barge into my rooms without knocking, especially when I am in the shower.” Malfoy had pulled at his hair in frustration splattering water droplets everywhere, including on Pansy.

Pansy wiped the water off her face. “Draco, dear, if you’re going to yell and scold me, at least dry your hair first.” She quickly threw a drying charm at Malfoy. “There, that’s better.” Malfoy spluttered indignantly for a minute, before throwing his hands up in frustration. Harry had never seen Malfoy without his hair plastered to his head with massive amounts of hair gel. He absently noted that it looked really soft and rather nice. “Oh and if you’re going to continue to lecture me in the presence of poor Potter there, you might want to put on some clothes. It’s rather rude of you to still be naked.” Malfoy whirled around to face Harry, his eyes widening as he remembered Harry’s presence, despite Pansy’s earlier reminder.

“Potter! What the bloody hell are you still doing here? I was sure you would have been done by now.” Malfoy crossed his arms in front of his chest. Harry quickly glanced at his left arm, noticing that while the Dark Mark was still there, it had faded considerably. This action seemed to anger Malfoy further, however. “Potter! Are you done or aren’t you?”

Harry cleared his throat, “I was just putting up a quick ward around the wardrobe to protect anyone who came near it. The final stage will need to be performed tomorrow at 3:33 pm. Luckily it only takes 13 minutes to cast as it’s not a very difficult spell to perform.” He gestured to the wardrobe.

Malfoy’s eyes widened again when he caught sight of the wardrobe. “Potter, what have you done? I was given to understand that you could lift the curse from it without damaging it! It looks positively ravaged, damaged beyond repair!”

“It’s not. It’s just the effects of the spell used to break the curse. You see...” Harry tried to explain.

“No!” Malfoy had thrown his hand up. “Leave, just leave. I wanted that wardrobe saved, Potter, not destroyed.”

“You don’t understand. It’s not...”

“No you don't understand. That wardrobe has been in the Malfoy family for almost a century. It belonged to my grandfather, who died of smallpox when I was very young. And while you, being the archetypal Gryffindor that you are, may think that sentimentality is beyond my Slytherin heart, you would be mistaken. Now leave and don’t return. I will find another curse breaker to finish this job. Then I will find someone who can hopefully restore the wardrobe.”

“Malfoy, please you need to let me finish explaining...”

“No, I don’t need to let you do anything. But you need to leave. Now!” Malfoy summoned his wand and cast some sort of spell that made the Manor wards take Harry and deposit him outside property boundary. His belongings followed him shortly after.

Harry stood staring at the Manor gates for a moment in disbelief. Then a message had flashed before Harry:

And if you think for a moment that I will be paying you for your ‘services’, you are sorely mistaken. And don’t expect a good review from me either. I was thoroughly dissatisfied with your performance and I will not hold back when expressing my opinion.

Harry’s blood boiled. He briefly considered sending a note to Malfoy regarding the importance of not touching the wardrobe, but rejected the idea. Malfoy deserved whatever he got if he dared touch that bloody piece of furniture. He should have known not to take on this job. He Apparated away and stormed into his house, dearly needing a drink after the last three days. Thoughts of joining Ron, Hermione and the others evaporated and he had set about getting drunk.

~

Harry was now completely and utterly inebriated. The alcohol had lessened his anger considerably. He was still miffed at Malfoy for refusing to pay him, but he could remember the last couple of days with a sort of detachment that did not immediately make him want to throw something breakable against a wall.

Harry took on final shot. ‘What was that now, six, seven, five?’ He didn’t know and he didn’t care. He felt better. He went off to bed telling himself that he would speak with Ron and Hermione in during lunch and vent. That and this many shots of firewhiskey would put him to rights and he could go on with his life.

The next day, Harry went and had lunch with Ron and Hermione.

“Malfoy is such a prat! He hasn’t matured a bit. Can you believe what he did? He was completely overreacting. The curse was merely reacting to feeling threatened. Only a complete idiot wouldn’t realise that.” Harry sat in a pub near the Ministry, where Hermione worked, and nursed a bottle of ale as he ranted about Malfoy to his two best friends.

Ron took a swig of his lager before he answered, “You’re completely right, mate. That bloody bastard deserves whatever’s coming to him if he dares touch that wardrobe.”

“Ron!” Hermione objected.

“What? He was being a moron. The curse set a trap and the dunce fell for it.”

Hermione sighed, “You may have a point, but that doesn’t mean that we have to wish something bad happens to Malfoy.” Hermione sipped at her lemonade.

“Fine, Harry and I will wish ill on Malfoy and you just sit there and hope his idiocy doesn’t kill him.” Ron chuckled into his drink. Hermione just shook her head at her husband.

Harry had a good time laughing with Ron, imagining all the horrible things that could happen to Malfoy if he should touch the wardrobe, which ranged from getting his perfect hair mussed to being maimed. In deference to Hermione, no death was mentioned.

After lunch, Harry returned to Godric’s Hollow. He spent the rest of the day with his children. There was an after school snack, crafts and much mess making involved.

~

Draco was livid. He could not believe that he had trusted Harry Potter, the bane of his existence since the age of eleven, to break the curse on his antique wardrobe. What had that trust earned him? Three days of having to put up with that pillock in his private chambers and a ruined wardrobe. Said wardrobe now stood in his bedroom as a reminder of how wrong he had been. Draco could not stop staring at it in horror. Every time he got a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye while going about his daily tasks, anger would slowly overtake him again. It was less than one whole day after he had thrown Potter from the Manor and he still had a ruined wardrobe. He dearly wished he knew where Potter lived so he could go and berate him some more. Draco was sure that would make him feel just a little better; maybe he would hex him as well just for a laugh.

It was as he was considering what hex he would use, that Pansy barged into his room, without knocking, yet again.

“Draco, darling, what are you doing? Are you staring at that wardrobe again? You know that when you do, you seem a little unhinged, don’t you?”

“Shut it, Pans. Potter mutilated this priceless antique, and all you can do is make fun of the way I stare at it.” Draco took a few steps towards the wardrobe, considering what he was going to do with it. “I suppose I should call another curse-breaker to finish what Potter started. Or I could just Incendio the thing right here and now. In its current state it would be a mercy.”

Pansy rolled her eyes at her overdramatic friend. “I think you should have Potter come back and finish the breaking the curse.”

Draco turned to look at Pansy with a look of incredulity on his face, which transformed into a sneer. “Why? So he can finish destroying the wardrobe? I think not.” Draco went back to looking over the piece of furniture. “Oh Pansy, just look at it. I wonder if the inside of it is as badly damaged.”

Pansy straightened and looked seriously at her friend. “Draco, I wouldn't touch it if I were you.”

“Nonsense Pans, Potter neutralised the touching aspect of the curse, remember? About the only thing he did do.”

“Yes, but he also mentioned something about the curse being volatile.” Pansy took a few steps closer to her friend. “No, come away from the wardrobe and let’s find someone to finish the job, since you won’t have Potter back.”

Draco waved her away. “In a moment Pans, let me just check the extent of the damage.”

Before Pansy could stop him, Draco had grabbed hold of one of the handles to the wardrobe doors and wrenched it open. At first nothing happened and Pansy breathed a sigh of relief. Draco had time to shoot a smug look at Pansy before he was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of black smoke. Pansy’s eyes widened in panic when the smoke dragged Draco into the wardrobe. Then there was a crack and both the smoke and Draco disappeared. Pansy was left staring at a damaged and empty wardrobe.

~

Friday afternoons were traditionally when Harry and Ron were in charge of the children. Hermione would go off and do something that did not involve being a mother, and Ron would help Harry look after five rambunctious little monsters. This Friday was no different. Hermione and Ron came by with Rose and Hugo. Harry’s three were thrilled to see their cousins and all of the children immediately ran off screaming excitedly to the back garden. Harry prepared tea for the three of them, before Hermione went off. Ron and Harry decided to check the little hellions, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the children outside.

After dinner, Harry and Ron settled the children in front of Harry’s television (Harry thanked Hermione every day for making it possible to work around magic). They watched a cute movie about an old man who wanted to make his deceased wife’s wish of travelling abroad come true. Lily at first seemed to take it rather hard, but then got lost in the story.

Ron enlarged James’s bed so all three boys would fit. They promptly fell asleep once they were down. Harry went to do the same to Lily’s bed so she could share with her cousin, Rose. Lily spent an excessive amount of time brushing her teeth and Harry could tell that she wanted to talk to him alone. Harry went into his bedroom, sat on his bed and waited for his daughter. Lily knocked softly on the door, though it was ajar.

“Come in sweetie,” Harry gestured for her to come and sit on his lap. Lily tentatively settled herself.

“Daddy” Lily whispered without meeting Harry’s eyes.

“What’s on your mind, honey?” Harry waited patiently for his daughter to unleash her worries. It sometimes took a minute for her to gather her thoughts.

“Daddy, I don’t want you to end up old and alone like the man in the movie.”

Harry was stunned. “I’m not alone, I have you and your brothers to keep me company.”

“I know Daddy, but you need a mummy too. You need someone to share your dreams with, like the man in the movie had. If you want I could help you find someone. Ollie’s mum from school just got a divorce. She’s pretty. She even has red hair, like mum.” Harry did not know how to respond. Lily misinterpreted his silence. “Or... or perhaps you’d like to find us another daddy. Zoe, she’s my friend from school, she’s got two daddies. The others make fun of her, but I think it’s nice. She tells me how one of her dads knows how to cook and the other is really good about organi…, organi... about keeping things clean. And… and she says that her Brynn daddy knows how to plait her hair real nice. So I was thinking, if you don’t want another mummy, maybe you could find another daddy.” Harry was flabbergasted. He had no idea that his six year old daughter thought about these things. Before he could think of what to say Lily continued. “I asked James and Al and they wouldn’t mind if you found a mum or a dad as long as you found someone who could cook and play Quidditch.” By this point Harry was too floored to speak. He looked down at his daughter and she smiled up at him.

Lily hopped down from his lap and headed for the door. “Daddy, I love you and I just want to you to be happy. Please think about,” she paused to yawn, “what I said. Goodnight.” And she was gone. Harry heard her walking down the hall to her room. He was too overwhelmed to think at the moment so he decided to go downstairs, have a few bottles of lager with Ron, and watch the local news. It was always good for a laugh with goat’s birthdays being featured, and a few feel good stories. He would think about what his daughter had said later - much later, he hoped.

The news show as nearly over and Harry shared a few laughs with Ron when the feature had been the annual road race (a brown and green toad named Gremlin had won).

“And in breaking news,” the newsreader began, “Police are asking for public assistance in identifying a man who was found this morning wandering just outside the village of Godric’s Hollow. He appears to be suffering from amnesia. Harriet Jones is on the scene at Godric’s Hollow Medical Centre with more.”

The picture changed to that of a room inside the medical centre. A middle-aged woman stood in front of the camera. “Thank you Dan, Harriet Jones here. A Good Samaritan went to offer assistance to a man wandering around Godric’s Hollow this morning. When it became clear that the man could not remember his name or any other personal information, the Good Samaritan called in the Police who brought the unidentified man here to Godric’s Hollow Medical Centre. The man that was brought here is in his late twenties, around 1.87 metres tall, has white-blonde hair and he has the most startling gray eyes. We shall be showing images of him briefly so that anyone who recognises him can come forward and help us get in touch with his relatives and loved ones.” The picture went dark for a second and suddenly there was a video of Draco Malfoy lying in a hospital bed. He looked lost and slightly afraid. Harry and Ron reacted simultaneously as they both spit out the beer they had just sipped. Harriet’s voice continued over the footage of Malfoy, “If anyone recognises this man, please take the time to either call the number on the screen or come down to the hospital. This is Harriet Jones reporting for News 4. And now back to you, Dan.” Dan repeated the number and went on to wrap up the news.

“Blimey, Harry! That’s Malfoy!” Ron turned incredulous eyes towards Harry. Harry could only nod in response. “What do you think happened to him? Could he be faking it?”

A thought suddenly hit Harry as he continued to stare at the television. “That stupid git must have touched the wardrobe. Since the curse was not completely broken, it must have caused him to lose his memory. But how the hell did he end up here?” Harry turned to look at his best mate. “Damn it Ron! I forgot to place the wards around the wardrobe so this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.” He got up and began to pace back and forth. “Do you think I should head to the hospital in the morning and tell them I know who he is?”

Ron sat back and considered Harry’s predicament. “I think you should use this opportunity to get back at Malfoy. Maybe… maybe you should tell him that he’s your butler or nanny or something.” Ron looked around the room pointedly. “You could get him to clean up your house or something. I bet Malfoy has never done any cleaning in his life.”

Harry briefly wanted to protest, but he remembered how angry Malfoy had made him two days ago. It would suit Malfoy if Harry used him as his maid. Then he thought about what Lily had said upstairs. Maybe he could use Malfoy as a type of nanny for his children as well. Harry was angry enough to ignore any problems that might be presented by introducing him to his children.

“You know what Ron, I think I have an idea. I’m going to go down there tomorrow and tell them that Malfoy is my husband.”

Ron’s jaw dropped. “There’s no need to go so far, Harry.”

“No, hear me out. If I go down there and claim that he’s my butler, I doubt they would believe me. For one thing, he’s better spoken and had better manners than me. They would see right through that lie.” Ron nodded in understanding. “But if I tell them that he’s my husband and that we met at boarding school, it would be slightly more believable. And I could still get him to do all the housework.”

“I know I’m the one that suggested it, but I’m now having second thoughts. What if he gets his memory back? Or what if someone comes looking for him?”

“If he gets his memory back, great! He’ll know that it was all a trick and he won’t be able to tell anyone because he’ll be too humiliated about it. His mother is away with Andromeda, and they communicate once a month, if that. Pansy would be the only one that knows he was missing and she would never think to look here.” As Harry spoke he was getting more and more excited about the idea. “It’s perfect Ron.”

“Mate, you’re scaring me a little. However, I think you’re also right. I I say do it! Malfoy deserves to be taken down a peg or two.” Ron looked around as if making sure no one was listening. “Just make sure we keep it from Hermione as best we can.”

Harry nodded. “Oh and see if you can borrow some cleaning and cooking books from your mum. Malfoy probably won’t remember how to do those things.” Ron agreed to stop by the Burrow in the morning to get some books from Molly, and then stop by to watch the kids so Harry could go and get Malfoy.

An hour later, Hermione arrived to pick up Ron and their children. They left, each with a sleeping child in their arms. Ron gave Harry a wink before Apparating away.

~

The next morning, Harry fed his children then sat them down to explain about the visitor they were likely to have later in the day.

“So I’ve decided to get you lot a new, erm, daddy.”

Albus freaked out. “But dad, we like you. We don’t want a new daddy. Please don’t leave. We’ll be good from now on, promise!”

Lily had looked enthusiastic about the idea until she heard Albus, then she looked completely terrified. James did not say anything, but appeared to be on the verge of tears.

Harry rushed to explain, “No, no, no. That’s not what I meant. I’m still going to be your daddy. That will never change. And I will never ever leave you. I love you three with all my heart and nothing will change that either.” Albus looked a bit reassured, but still appeared suspicious.

James finally spoke, after wiping away a few stray tears. “Then what do you mean, dad?”

“Lily and I had a talk last night. She suggested that it might be nice to have a second parent in the house. So I’ve chosen someone who I think you might like. He’s a bit odd and might need some teaching. He’s lost his memory and he believes that he and I are married,” Harry explained. ‘Or he will once I talk to him,’ he added silently.

“Why does he think that?” Albus asked once again his calm self.

“Because he was hit with a curse,” Harry tried to sneak a bit of honesty into his explanation. “We’re going to pretend that he’s your daddy and teach him how to be a good parent, and if we like him, we’ll see about keeping him.” Maybe that last part was a fib, but Harry needed his children to cooperate. He doubted they would get too attached to Malfoy, what with Malfoy being, well, Malfoy.

“And what’s this man named?” James demanded, now looking a bit angry.

“His name is Draco Malfoy.”

“Like the constellation?” Albus really was very well read.

“Yes, like the constellation. His family likes to name people after constellations. In fact, he’s related to Aunt Andromeda.” Albus nodded, as if that explained a lot.

“So do you want us to call this Draco Malfoy daddy as well?” James wanted to know.

“Well I think it would be nice of us to play along with him until he gets better. So you can call him dad, daddy or father.”

“And we don’t have to keep him if we don’t like him?” James asked sceptically.

“That’s right. If it turns out that we don’t like him, when he regains his memory, we don’t have to keep him.” James nodded seriously. “Your Uncle Ron will be here shortly to watch you guys while I go and pick, um, Draco up.” He was going to have to get used to calling Malfoy by his first name. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

He looked over at Lily because he had not heard from her about this situation. She just smiled widely at him. Then suddenly she rushed him and gave him a big hugs and a kiss. “Daddy, I’m so happy. I hope he knows how to plait my hair.” She whispered into his year as he hugged him. There was no going back now that he had gotten approval from his children. He just hoped Malfoy... Draco did not make his three most treasured people miserable.

Harry helped his children get ready for the day as they waited for Ron to arrive. James and Albus dressed themselves, but they needed a few pushes to brush their teeth. Lily brushed her teeth happily every morning and night, but she tended to need help with buttons and zips.

Ron arrived shortly after ten with a bag similar to the one Hermione had carried around during their Horcrux hunt. “Mum sent round quite a few books. She thinks you’re going to go on some cooking and cleaning spree.”

“Thanks, Ron. Just arrange the books on that bookshelf Hermione insisted I add to the kitchen. It’s been empty for years. Get the children to help. They’ll enjoy arranging them I think.” Harry walked with Ron into the kitchen and they both stared at the empty and dusty bookshelf.

“Right, well I’d better look for a dusting spell first,” Ron said as he began to take the books out of the bag and piled them on the table. Harry chuckled weakly. Luna had either overlooked the shelf when she cleaned earlier in the week, or Harry just had fast accumulating dust in his house. “So did you tell your kids you were bring them a new daddy?”

Harry went about fixing tea for Ron as he told him about the conversation he had with this children.

“Wow,” Ron took the mug of tea that Harry held out to him, “they’re taking it better than I expected.”

“Yeah. James is determined to dislike him, I think. Lily is ecstatic. And Albus is going to hold back judgement until he has met and interacted with Mal… Draco, I believe.” Harry looked at the clock and quickly gulped down his tea. “Well I better go and get my new husband. Merlin, I’m going to have to get used to that. I’ll send the kids in as I leave.”

~

When Harry arrived at the medical centre he asked at the reception for where the man who had appeared on the telly the night before was.

“Are you here to gawk? Because if you are you won’t get past me.” The receptionist looked frazzled and completely capable of taking Harry down if he even looked at Malfoy wrong.

“No, I know the man. His name is Draco and he’s my husband.” Yes, that was going to take some getting used to.

The woman sighed. “Oh thank heavens. He has been a menace. Take the lift to the third floor, go straight then take a left. There should be a nurses’ station there. Ask for the John Doe. The doctors and nurses will be glad to have him off their hands.”

“Sounds like him,” Harry muttered as he turned to follow the receptionist’s instructions. She must have heard him because he heard a chuckle as he waited for the lift.

At the nurses’ station, he asked for John Doe as instructed. The nurse there was just as suspicious of Harry’s intentions as the woman from reception. He explained that his name was Harry Potter and that the John Doe was his husband and that his name was Draco.

“Draco what?”

“Sorry?”

“His name is Draco, I am assuming that’s his first name, what’s his surname? Do you have any identification for him?”

”Oh, er. His name is Draco Potter.” And didn’t that sound weird. “We had a row a couple of days ago,” that was an understatement, “and he packed his things and said he was going to stay with his mother until I decided that he deserved to be treated better and went to apologise.” Even though it was not true, it at least sounded like something Draco would say. “He took his things with him, if you didn’t find his identification with him, it must be lost. I’m assuming that since you found him outside of town he never made it to his mother’s. She lives in Wiltshire. He must have gotten into some sort of accident.”

“Be that as it may, we need to make certain that you truly know him and aren’t just some weirdo.”

“Can I see him? Maybe if he sees me, it will trigger his memory.” Harry half hoped it did.

“I’ll have to ask the doctor. Wait here.” She walked off and Harry sat in a chair to wait.

Ten minutes later the doctor finally came out to meet him. “Mr. Potter?” The doctor held out his hand.

“Yes.” Harry stood up and shook the proffered hand.

“I’m Dr. Kapur. I’ve been treating the John Doe who was found just outside of town. I understand that you’re claiming he’s your husband. Is there any way that you can verify this?”

Harry gave it some thought, and then something came to him. “He has two tattoos. One on the inside of his left arm, rather faded, of a skull and snake.” The doctor nodded. “The other is located in a more private place.” Harry blushed a little and leaned in to whisper: “It’s of a griffin and is on his right buttock.”

“Alright, I’ll let you in to see, Draco, you say?” Harry nodded. “Right this way.”

Harry followed Dr. Kapur down a hallway and to room number 317. The doctor paused with his hand on the doorknob and took a fortifying breath before opening the door.

“Great, finally someone answers my summons. Please, these sheets are completely unbearable. I have been telling you since yesterday that I need better sheets. These are scratchy and are irritating my skin.” Draco Malfoy was sitting in a hospital bed and he was wearing one of those horrible hospital gowns. “And another thing, can I have some proper clothes? This robe, or whatever it is, covers nothing. I was shivering all night long. It’s positively frigid in here.”

“Mr. Potter. I’ve told you before that the sheets and the gown are all standard issue and I’m a doctor and there is nothing I can do about sheets and gowns. I’m here to treat the patients.”

“Then get whoever is in charge of the sheeting. I demand decent bedding at the very least.” Draco took a deep breath as if he was getting ready to start another tirade, no doubt about the food or bedpans or something. But he suddenly furrowed his brows and looked at the doctor in confusion. “Wait, what did you just call me?”

“I called you Mr. Potter. That’s your name. Your husband here,” Dr. Kapur gestured towards Harry and Draco seemed to notice him for the first time, “has come to claim you and take you home. He has given us to understand that your name is Draco Potter and that you are married to him, Harry Potter. Do either of those names sound familiar to you?”

Draco continued to frown. “I, I believe so. Yes, Draco does sound familiar. Yes, I do believe it suits me. And the name Harry Potter seems to be ringing a bell. But are you sure he’s my, my husband?”

Harry stepped forward, deciding a little acting was in order to convince the amnesiac Draco and the doctor. “Darling, don’t you remember me? We meet a boarding school when we were eleven. And while we didn’t get along at first, we later realised how suited for each other we were. We married and even have children.”

“Children?! I’m a father?” Draco looked mildly alarmed.

“Oh yes, and the children adore you and are missing you. I’m sorry for whatever it was that I said that upset you. You know that sometimes I can be an idiot and say things without thinking,” Harry approached the bed and took Draco’s hand, “but you know I love you, so please forgive me.”

“Idiot, yes. That sounds like something associated with the name Harry Potter,” Draco mumbled. “But how can I be certain that you’re telling me the truth? Draco sounds like my name, but Draco Potter just doesn’t seem quite right. Are we newly married? Maybe I’m just not used to the new name.”

“No darling, we’ve been married for nearly ten years. Our anniversary is coming up in May.” Harry tucked stray strand of blonde hair behind Draco’s ear. “And you are just as handsome as the day I married you.” In for a penny, in for a pound; that was Harry’s motto.

Draco looked slightly unsettled. “Prove it! Prove that we’re married. Tell me something that only a husband would know.”

Harry leaned in closer and whispered into Draco’s ear, “You have a tattoo of a griffin on your right buttock, because that’s your pet name for me. You’ve always told me how wild and, um, magical I am in the bedroom.” Harry pulled back and grinned suggestively at Draco. That’s right, the full monty.

Draco looked scandalised. “I, I have to go check something in the other room.” He pulled his hand out of Harry’s grip and scrambled out of bed and rushed into what Harry assumed was the toilet. Draco returned almost immediately. “What do you know, there is a tattoo if a griffin on my right arse cheek.”

“Great,” Dr. Kapur exclaimed. “Now that it's settled, we’ll fill out your discharge papers and you’ll be free to go. Mr Potter, why don’t you get changed. Your belongings are in that dresser near the window. I’m just going to step outside with your husband for a brief word.” Draco nodded numbly and headed to the indicated dresser.

Once outside the room Harry wanted to know more about Draco’s amnesia. “Will Draco regain his memory doctor?”

“Yes, it’s almost certain that he will. Most amnesia patients usually do. Unfortunately, the time it takes to regain their memories often varies. Sometimes it could be years before all of a sudden they remember who they are. But it could only be days. You could take him home and some trigger could cause his memories to come flooding back.” Harry doubted that. “Just be patient and don’t get frustrated when he doesn’t remember things he used to do or people he use to know.”

Harry nodded. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“No, thank you. Your husband was driving the nurses and I mad with all his demands; the scratchy sheets, the horrible gowns, the appalling food. We are so glad you came to claim him.”

“Yes, that does sound like him. He is rather high maintenance.” The doctor snorted at the understatement.

Draco chose that moment to come out of the room. He was dressed in expensive black trousers and a nearly immaculate white shirt; exquisite leather loafers completed the look. In his left arm he held a bundle that included a blazer and Harry suspected his wand. At least he hoped it was his wand.

“Great, darling, are you ready to go?” Draco only nodded, he seemed to be a bit dazed.

“Alright, Messrs Potter, if you’ll just come with me to the nurses’ station we can get the discharge papers taken care of.” Harry signed some papers and then took Draco home. They left a whole floor of smiling doctors and nurses in their wake.

~

Harry had driven his car to the medical centre. When he led Draco to his car, Draco stared.

“What in heaven’s name is that contraption?” Draco shrank away from the vehicle.

“It’s a car.” Harry opened the door and motioned for Draco to enter. “Get in and I’ll drive us home. There are a few things I have to explain that I couldn’t do in front of the doctor.”

Draco immediately balked. “I don’t think that, that thing looks very safe. And what do you mean you have to explain things? Are you going to tell me that you’re not my husband after all? Because if that’s the case, I demand you take me back to the medical centre. No, on second thought, take me to a more reputable place. Where they have proper sheets and clothing and where the eggs are not runny.”

“That’s not what I meant. We’re married, but there are some aspects of our lives that the doctors and nurses don’t need to know about.” Draco blanched. Harry sighed and shook his head. “Get in,” he looked around, “I’d rather not discuss this in the middle of a car park.” Draco finally did as Harry asked and got in the car. Harry went around and got in as well. “Right, so fasten your seatbelt and we can get going.” Draco looked at Harry puzzled. Once again Harry sighed and he leaned over to fasten Draco’s safety belt for him.

“At least now I feel a bit more secure. However, if one thinks upon it, it’s quite troubling to think about being in a contraption that requires a ‘safety belt’.” Harry ignored that and started the car. Draco yelped, and when Harry turned to look at him he pretended nothing of the sort had happened.

Harry reversed out of his space and then started the journey home. It would be a short trip so he quickly explained to Draco about the fact that they were wizards, and could do magic. He gave a brief explanation about the wizarding world. He told him about Hogwarts, where they had met. When Harry pulled into his driveway and looked Draco, it was to find an astonished and slightly disbelieving look on the blonde’s face.

“I’m not sure if I should believe you. However, I have felt slightly off these last few days. Almost as if something was missing. And I don’t mean my memories.” Draco turned to Harry. “So how does this magic thing work exactly?”

“Er, well, we learned a bunch of magic and spells and things at Hogwarts. I’m hoping since magic had been a part of you for your entire life it shouldn’t be something that you can just forget, even if you lose your memories. It has to be something ingrained. I’ve done magic many of times when I didn’t mean to.” Harry reached over and took the bundle that Draco was still carrying. He unrolled it and indeed found Draco’s wand. “Here, this is your wand. Take it.”

Draco took it gingerly and held it as if it were a snake that would bite him at any moment. “What do I do now?”

“First of all, you have to hold it properly,” Harry took out his own wand and demonstrated. Draco copied his grip. “Great, now give it a wave.” Again he demonstrated and gold sparks flew out from the end of his wand. Draco’s eyes widened and a look of awe graced his face. Harry could not help but think that he kind of had a weird pointy beauty about him in that moment. After the sparks faded, Draco gave his own wand a wave. When green sparks flew out of the end of his wand, he actually laughed. Harry laughed with him; he could not think of a time when he had seen Draco Malfoy be so carefree. “See? It comes naturally. Let’s try a spell. Can you remember the charm to light your wand?”

Draco scrunched up his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them back up and murmured “Lumos.” The tip of his wand lit up brightly. He smiled just as brightly. “I did it! Will you look at that? Oh Harry, it’s wonderful.”

“Yeah, even after years of being in the wizarding world, every now and then I cannot help but be amazed by magic still.” Draco looked at Harry askance. “That’s a story for another day. Now come on, the children are waiting for us.” Harry got out of the car and, after seeing Draco just stare at the door uncertainly, he went around and opened the door for him. There was an amusing moment when Draco tried to get out without removing his seatbelt, but that was quickly sorted after Harry laughed and Draco just glared at him.

Harry turned to his house and presented it to Draco. “Welcome to the Potter House.” Draco examined the exterior of the house. It was a three story, grey bricked house. The third story likely was the attic. While the front garden was small, it was well maintained and he said so. “Yes, gardening is something I enjoy when I have the time. I like getting my hands dirty.” Draco scrunched up his nose at that.

“It’s a nice enough house. I rather like the red front door.”

“Yes, you insisted upon it.” The lie came rather easily to Harry. As if Draco Malfoy, Prince of Slytherin would ever paint his front door red. “And I liked it too.” Harry led Draco up the front path and into the house.

When Draco entered the house, it was as if he had stepped into a different world, a much messier and disorganised world. “There is no way that I live in this, this filth. There has got to be a mistake.”

Harry looked around his house from a stranger’s perspective. “Yes, it is rather messy,” he admitted sheepishly, “But you have been gone for a few days.”

“What does my absence have to do with cleanliness?” Draco took a tentative step forward and peeked through the first doorway. It was a parlour, and while relatively tidy, it looked rather dusty and unused. “Just look at the state of this room!”

“What about it? It’s clean! We rarely use this room, only when Muggles come over or when we have visitors that aren’t friends or family.”

“You think this is clean? I dread to see what your idea of unclean is.” Draco moved on to the next room. It was the sitting room, and it was a complete disaster. There were toys strewn everywhere, dishes and papers atop of any available table. Clothes were even piled in a corner; Draco could only assume that they were dirty because no sane person would do that to clean clothes and it was inexplicable as to what they were doing in the sitting room of all places! “Merlin’s beard! What happened in this room? Did a tornado blow through here? I didn’t think we had tornados in England.” Draco stepped over a pile of empty greasy boxes. He did not know what they had contained.

“Like I said you have been gone for a few days.”

“Again I fail to see what that has to do with the state of the house.” Draco came upon a great big window-like box and just stared. “What is this thing?”

“That’s the telly. I’ll explain how to use it later. And the reason that your absence explains the state of the house is because you are usually the one that does most of the cleaning. And most of the cooking, though I sometimes cook breakfast or I order us some take away for when you don’t feel like cooking.”

Draco looked appalled. “I do most of cooking and cleaning. I find that hard to believe.” He continued to walk around the room, sidestepping any piles of toys and other things. What in name of Hades was a kettle doing next to the fireplace? “I must be dreaming,” Draco mumbled as he stepped on something squishy. “If I close my eyes and count to ten maybe I’ll wake up in a huge and soft bed in a mansion somewhere.” He did and nothing happened. He was still a very messy sitting room.

Suddenly he heard what sounded like a herd of horses thundering down some stairs. Draco turned towards the doorway and two small bodies suddenly threw themselves at him with shouts of “Dad” and “Daddy”. He was almost knocked over. Thankfully there a wall nearby and he used it as a way to stay upright. Draco noticed a third child standing to the side and scrutinising him. The boy looked a lot like Harry, but with different coloured hair. The two children clinging to him finally detached themselves from his legs and he was able to get a good look at them. The other boy, younger than the first, was the spitting image of Harry, glasses and all. Something clicked in the recesses of his brain. He must recognise this child then. The other child was a little girl, she had red hair was smiling shyly at him. Red hair? Unthinkable. How could she have red hair, if his own hair was a perfect platinum blonde? She must be adopted. He would have to ask Harry later. He looked at all of the three children in front of him and it was then that the number finally hit him. Three? He was the father to not one, not two, but three children. He started to feel a little faint.

“We have three children?” He asked rather redundantly. Suddenly he remembered that Harry had not specified how many children they had at the hospital. “It is only three, right? There aren’t any more hiding somewhere?” At that moment there was a noise coming from across the hall. His eyes widened. Please let that be a beloved pet of some sort. Seconds later a red-haired man walked into the sitting room, munching on a biscuit. For one wild moment he thought this man was his child as well, but that could not be. He looked old enough to have his own children, and Draco knew, he just knew, that he was not old enough to be a grandfather.

“Yes Draco we only have three children. This is Ron,” he motioned to the red-haired man. “He’s my best mate and the godfather of our children.” It was not a lie. “And these are our lovely children. Lily Luna and Albus Severus, Al for short, are the two who were so overjoyed to see you they couldn’t contain themselves. And that’s our oldest. Can you remember his name?”

Draco thought for a moment, trying to remember. “Er, Scorpius?”

The boy looked appalled. “Scorpius? You think my name is Scorpius? It’s James! James Sirius Potter!” James harrumphed and stormed out of the room. For some reason that seemed familiar to Draco, as if he had seen such a reaction before.

Harry laughed nervously. “Don’t worry about James. He’s just a little sensitive right now. When you left for your mother’s he took it the worst. Thought you had abandoned him.” Harry ignored his children’s shocked faces because of his lying. “Now come on, I’ll finish giving you the tour of our house.” Harry took Draco’s hand and led him towards the stairs.

Ron finished his biscuit and produced another. “I have to be heading back to Hermione and my own two hellions. Nice seeing you again, ah, Draco. Glad you’re back. I hope you get your memory back soon. I’ll firecall or owl you tomorrow Harry, to see how things are going.” Ron stepped towards the fireplace, grabbed a bit of floo powder and he was gone in a flurry of green flames.

Draco stopped momentarily to stare. “Oh wow.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it soon. Come on let me show you upstairs.” They climbed the stairs, Lily and Al trailing behind them. “Here’s the children’s bathroom. This is Lily’s room.” Lily must be a clean child, Draco thought since the room was relatively clean compared to the rest of the house. Maybe she takes after me and is not adopted after all. Al and James share this room.” Harry tried to open the boys’ room, but it was locked. “Don’t worry, James’ll be over it by lunch.” Harry turned a corner. “We have a couple guest rooms for when relatives come to say during the holidays sometimes. When James is old enough, we might give him own room. And here is our room,” Harry opened the door to the master bedroom. Draco stepped into a big room with a good sized four poster bed.

“I like the bed.” Draco said as he continued to look around. Clothes were everywhere and the bed was nice, but unmade. None of the decor matched. The bed curtains were green, but the sheets and duvet were red and the window curtains were white. What had he been thinking when decorating this room? This would not do! He turned back to Harry to tell him that things had to be changed, but he noticed that his husband was blushing.

“I, ah, like the bed too,” Harry replied. Draco blushed at that for some reason. He refused to think about the things he and his husband had gotten up to in that bed; especially in front of the kids. “I guess we both really liked four poster beds, particularly after spending all that time in the dormitories at Hogwarts with their four posters.” Draco nodded and looked away. He noticed a door and went towards it. It led to a large bathroom, however, it too was in complete disarray. Something had to be done about the state of this house. He dreaded to think that Harry expected to him to be the person to do that something. Draco went back out into the bedroom and three faces turned towards him. He smiled tentatively. “Right, let’s go back downstairs and I’ll show you the kitchen and you can get started on cooking us lunch.”

Draco’s eyes widened. “Lunch? You want me to cook lunch?”

~

Harry was sitting with his three kids at the kitchen table. They were waiting for Draco to cook them lunch, however Draco was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He had taken out a whole chicken from the refrigerator (that appliance had interested him to no end), and then tried to cook it in the oven. That didn’t work out because he could not figure out how to cook it. And all the while he was complaining.

“This is disgusting. Does raw chicken really look like this? Oh this is the grossest thing I have ever held.” Draco had gripped the chicken by its legs and only with two fingers of one hand.

“Nonsense, darling, you’ve done this hundreds of times,” Harry said. “Your lemon chicken is really quite delicious.” Harry looked at his children; Lily was watching Draco with interest, Albus was smiling and swinging his legs as he took turns observing the goings on and reading his book; James was trying so hard not to laugh. Harry was in a similar situation as his eldest.

Draco found it hard to believe that he had ever seen a raw chicken before, let alone turned into something edible. “This isn’t going to work. This thing is too big anyway. It would probably take too long to cook.” Draco stuffed the chicken back into the refrigerator. He went to wash his hands all the while holding his nose away from his ‘sullied’ hand. “Now, how about some sandwiches for lunch?” He looked through the cupboards until he found a loaf of bread. “Alright, what else do I need for sandwiches?” He once again approached the refrigerator. “Hmm, there is some lettuce, tomatoes...”

“I don’t like tomatoes.” Lily said, audibly for once. Harry was a bit taken aback by that.

“Alright, no tomatoes.” Draco moved to put them away.

“Wait, Al and I like tomatoes,” James piped in.

“Fine, tomatoes for Al and Scorpius.”

“HEY!”

“I mean James of course. Oh look cheese. And maybe some pickles. How about some ham? Where is the ham?”

“Sorry, there’s no ham.” Harry said. “In fact, I don’t think we have any cold meats, but there might be a container with egg salad somewhere.”

Draco pulled out a container, opened the lid and sniffed the contents. “I think I found it. Is there any watercress?”

“Somewhere...”

“Right... Ah, I think I found it. Alright, so its ploughman’s for James and Al. Lily how do you feel about egg and watercress?”

“I’ve never had an egg and watercress sandwich before.” Again Harry was surprised to hear her reacting so well.

“Well, you absolutely have to try it. Then you will know for sure how you feel about it. So, egg and watercress for Lily and myself. Harry what would you like?”

“I’ll take a ploughman’s as well.”

The three Potters watched as Draco cut the ingredients to perfection. All those potions classes really paid off. However, when it came to assembling the ploughman's sandwiches, they were rather messy. The egg and watercress sandwiches looked well enough, but there was a lot of egg left on the counter, along with watercress and breadcrumbs.

Draco presented his creations to his audience rather proudly. Maybe he could cook after all. He set his own sandwich down on the table and sat down. He took a bite and again he was proud. It tasted rather good. “Right, Lily, take a bite of your sandwich and tell me what you think.” Lily looked at her food uncertainly, but finally did as instructed. She chewed thoughtfully for a second then swallowed. “Well, what do you think?”

“I… I think I like it.” She took another bite just to be sure. “Yes, I like it.” Draco beamed. Harry was once again disarmed by Draco’s smile.

James was poking at his sandwich suspiciously. Harry would have bet that if it had not been prepared in front of him he would have torn it apart to see what was inside of it. Albus was now too busy reading and ignored his sandwich. Draco was having none of that. “Alright boys, eat your lunch. I didn’t just slave to make it in order for it to go to waste.” Albus sighed and put down his book. He took a bite of his sandwich.

“It’s rather good.” He said after he swallowed his bite.

James looked reassured by this statement and finally took a bit of his own sandwich. “S’not bad,” he said around a mouthful of food.

Before Harry could admonish him for talking with his mouth full, Draco beat him to it. “We are not hippogriffs, we don’t talk around a mouth full of food, young man. Am I understood?”

James nodded and went back to eating his food.

Harry was surprised that James had not tried to immediately defy Draco. He was so busy pondering this that he did not notice Draco was looking at him expectantly until the blonde cleared his throat. Harry turned towards him and Draco raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the sandwich in front of him. Harry took the hint. He finally took a bite of his sandwich. “Well, it may not be the best looking sandwich I have ever seen, but it’s quite tasty.” Draco just smiled proudly and went back to eating his food. Harry stood up, grabbed small bags of crisps for everyone and placed a carafe of orange squash on the table. He sat back down at the table and summoned five glasses. When he lifted his wand to have the squash pour itself, Draco stopped him.

“Wait, let me try. I think I remember the spell.” Draco took out his own wand and waved it. The squash indeed poured itself into the five glasses. Draco took a sip of his squash with a satisfied smile on his lips. The Potter ‘family’ had a rather peaceful lunch that day.

~

The peace that has lasted during lunch did not hold until dinner. Two hours after their nice family meal, James and Albus were yelling at each other. Apparently James had hidden Al’s book and would not tell him where it was. Lily was running around the house yelling that she had two horrid brothers and she dearly wished she has a lovely sister. Frankly, Harry was surprised by her behaviour. First, she talked at a normal decibel to Draco, and now she was screaming. Draco was standing in the middle of the sitting room, looking horrified. Harry momentarily felt sorry for him, then he thought about how odious the Slytherin usually acted and he stopped.

“Go on Draco, you have to discipline the children. We wouldn’t want them to think they run the place,” Harry said as he took a seat.

Draco turned to him in consternation. “You expect me to handle this situation?”

“Of course, you’re usually the stern one. I’m a softy.” Harry waved a hand at the arguing boys, “so do hurry and take care of our screaming children before the neighbors choose to investigate.” There were wards that took care of noise level, but Draco did not need to know that.

Draco braced himself and decided to deal with the easiest problem first. When Lily next came running into the room, Draco caught her. “Now Lily, if you want to be a lady, you cannot behave in such a fashion. You have been behaving like, like, like a boy.” Lily immediately stopped yelling and looked appalled. “Good, now sit on the couch until I have dealt with your brothers. Then we shall begin your first lesson on being a proper lady.” Lily nodded and did as she was told.

Draco then turned to Harry’s sons. “James Scorpius Potter!”

That certainly got James’ attention. “My middle name is Sirius! Not Scorpius!”

“Right, my mistake. But that is not the issue. You will give your brother his book at once, or your father and I shall not buy you a broom until you are 25!” James looked dismayed. He quickly took off upstairs and returned moments later with Al’s book. “Excellent. Now apologize to your brother and do try not to be so horrible in the future. Harry and I expect you to be an excellent seeker and we would hate for that not to happen simply because you were a misbehaved child.”

James looked surprised. “How do you know I want to be a seeker?”

“I’m your father; of course I know these things. Just as I know your favourite colour is currently blue,” James’ eyes widened in surprise, “and that you spend entirely too much time outside.” Draco then turned to Albus. “Albus you really shouldn’t always have your nose buried in a book. You’ll miss all the things happening around you. I want you to go outside and play with James. James, do show your brother come fun games will you.” Draco held out his hand to Al and the boy gave him his book. The boys went toward the back garden rather timidly.

Harry was amazed at how well Draco had handled his children. If he didn’t know any better he would say that Draco had been dealing with them for ages.

“Now Lily, the first thing you should know is that ladies always have good posture. Do try to sit up straight.” Lily followed Draco’s instructions and sat up. “Excellent. A lady always stays calm, cool and collected. So what you did earlier wasn’t proper behaviour for a lady. If two uncouth boys fight in front of you, you should remain calm and if at all possible try to defuse the situation without resorting to yelling or, worse still, violence.”

“What does diffuse mean?” Lily asked from her perch on the couch.

“It means to reduce the danger or the tension, the bad feeling if you will, of the situation.” Lily nodded in understanding. “Good, now that you’ve had your first instructions, why don’t you help me decide what we are going to make for dinner tonight.” Draco held out his hand for Lily and she took it. “I supposed I’m going to have to use one of those cookbooks I saw in the kitchen earlier. I simply cannot remember a single recipe.” And off the pair went, leaving Harry alone to his own musings.

~

Dinner turned out to be just as pleasant as lunch. While it still did not look very pretty, Draco ended up making lemon chicken and it had tasted divine. Potions skills really must transfer into the kitchen. If only the opposite were true; Harry would have had a better time of it in Potions after having cooked all those years for the Dursleys. The chicken was served with roasted potatoes, slightly burned, but that could be explained away by the fact that Draco had never used an oven before, and a salad. For pudding they had ice cream, which had been in the freezer.

Draco looked rather smug throughout the whole meal. Harry guessed he was proud of himself for having cooked such a good dinner. Harry and the children complimented him quite a bit.

After dinner was over, Harry sent his children to pick out a film to watch. He helped Draco clear the table, putting all the dishes into the sink. He was about to go into the sitting room when Draco stopped him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Draco had his arms crossed over his chest.

“To watch a film with the kids.”

“What is a film?” Harry opened his mouth to explain. “No, that can wait. I believe that since I slaved away all afternoon making a lovely dinner, that it’s only fair that you should do the clean-up.”

“But, but,” Harry spluttered.

“No buts. Fair is fair.” With that Draco left the kitchen and Harry was left with a sink full of dishes, pots and pans.

~

Later that night, Draco found himself alone with Harry in their bedroom after having tucked the children in for the night. Draco stood in front of the bed watching as his supposed husband gathered his pyjamas and explained why it seemed that all of Draco’s clothes were missing.

“You took all of your clothes with you when we had that row. You must have lost them when you got into whatever accident caused you to lose your memory. Let me see if I can find some item of clothing that you might have left behind.” Harry began to rummage around his dresser until he came upon an old pair of Ron’s pyjamas that he had left behind one night or other. “Here we are.”

Draco could not possibly have owned bright orange sleeping clothes. “Those cannot be mine!”

“Of course they are. Here go ahead, put them on and you will see that they fit.”

Draco took the offending garments and looked around the room, uncertain that he wanted to undress in front of Harry, even if he was his husband. All he saw was mess and more mess.

“Go ahead; I’ve seen you naked hundreds of times.” Harry waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Go to that corner over there and turn around. And close your eyes as well!”

Harry sighed and did as Draco wanted. As he stood by the wardrobe, he heard clothes rustling; once the noise had stopped he turned back around without being told.

Draco was dressed in the bright orange pyjamas and they clashed horribly with his hair. They were almost the right length, but were a bit too big for his slight frame.

“Harry Potter! These garments cannot possibly be mine.”

“Of course they are darling. But they are old. From before you lost the weight.” Harry was a bit worried about how good he was getting at this lying thing.

“Weight? You mean to tell me that I used to be fat?” Draco looked aghast.

“Not fat, per se, just a little fuller. I think it was the stress of being a new father. And I know that colour doesn’t suit you, but you always claimed that they were very comfortable.”

Draco lifted up his leg, “Was I also shorter?”

“Yes, kind of. It all had to do with the weight issue.” Harry moved toward the en suite, “Well, love, I’m going to shower.”

Fifteen minutes later Harry came out of the shower, wearing his pyjama bottoms and a singlet. Draco was standing by the bed, looking uncertain.

“Which side of the bed is mine? I cannot seem to remember.”

“Er,” Harry had not thought about having to share his bed with the blonde so he quickly came up with another lie. “Doesn’t matter. We only sleep in the same bed when we have sex.” Draco blushed. “And then it doesn’t matter what side we landed on, we are usually too exhausted to care. You see you have a bad back from when you took a fall down the stairs last summer. You’ve been sleeping on the couch in the sitting room because you claim it’s better for your back.” Draco looked at Harry sceptically. “It’s true. Look, we keep the extra bedding in the wardrobe.” Harry went to the wardrobe and produced a duvet and a couple of pillows. “Unless you’re feeling frisky,” he winked at the blonde and Draco shook his head emphatically, “then I will help you get settled downstairs.”

Once everything was settled and Draco was also tucked in, Harry returned to his bed and promptly fell asleep.

~

The next morning, Harry was woken up entirely too early to the sound of Draco rummaging through the drawers inside his room.

“What the blazes are you doing? And at,” he looked over at his bedside clock, “six in the morning on a Sunday?”

“I woke up an hour ago and couldn’t go back to sleep. I’ve been looking around the house and noticed that there aren’t any pictures or portraits of me anywhere. No wedding pictures, pictures of me with the kids, pictures of my parents or even pictures of me and you.” Draco looked around the room, walked over to one of the night tables and began to rummage through its drawers.

Harry thought quickly. “I believe you took the picture we had of us together in here with you when you left the other day.” He got out of bed and stopped Draco. “We recently painted and house,” he had painted the house, “and we put a lot of things up in the attic. Why don’t you go about your day and I’ll go up and try to find our pictures. Now did you bring up the bedding? We don’t like to let the children know that we sleep apart.”

Draco nodded and pointed to the bench at the foot of the bed. Harry went over, picked it up and began to sort the duvet and pillows into the wardrobe. He straightened up and turned towards Draco.

The Slytherin had a strange look on his face. He pointed at Harry, “You! And, and the wardrobe. Something is familiar.”

Harry tried not to panic. An outrageous lie popped into his head, “Yeah, you use to like to have sex in the wardrobe. You were a kinky bugger. You still are on occasion.” Harry smirked.

Draco shook his head. “Stop with your crazy sex stories.” He threw up his hands.

Harry took Draco by the arm and pushed him toward the en suite. “Why don’t you take a nice bath. I’ll clean your clothes, leave them on the bed and go make breakfast. Yes, you’ll have to wear the same clothes you had on yesterday. But we’ll go into town after breakfast and buy you some essentials until we can take a proper trip to London. How's that?”

Draco frowned but nodded. “I suppose that acceptable.”

“Great. Now go. I’ll be in the kitchen. The smell of breakfast cooking will likely wake the children, but I’ll let them know you are not to be bothered until after your bath.” Draco went into the bathroom and Harry went downstairs to make a floo call.

“Ron!” Harry yelled once his fireplace was connected to Ron and Hermione’s. “Ron!” He hoped to Merlin that he would not wake Hermione as well. A few more calls of his name and Ron came ambling into room, looking sleepy.

“Bloody hell, Harry. Do you know what time it is?” Ron dropped down to fireplace level and glared at his friend.

“Yes, but I need your help. Draco’s asking about pictures of us and the children and stuff. Do you think you can come up with some fake ones or something?”

Ron blinked at Harry for a second before the problem seemed to finally reach his sleepy mind. “Er, I think so, but I might have to tell a person or two about your secret. Mainly, George.”

“That’s fine as long as it isn’t Hermione. I don’t want to think of the kind of lecture we would get if she were to find out about the whole Draco thing. Do you think you can have the pictures by dinner?” Ron paused for a minute to think, then nodded. “Great, come over for dinner without Hermione and kids, and bring them. I think I can distract Draco from the topic until then.”

“Alright mate. I’m going back to bed for another hour or three.” Ron got up and shuffled sleepily back out of the room. “Bloody crazy. Why would someone be up at this ungodly hour on a Sunday,” Harry heard his friend mumble before he removed his head from his fireplace and went to make breakfast as promised.

~

Harry ended up making pancakes for breakfast with a variety of fruits. There was tea for the adults and even though Harry gave the children the option of tea, they all opted for cocoa. Draco seemed to really like the pancakes, if the fact that he had three was any indication.

When they finished breakfast, Draco reluctantly took care of the clean-up. After the point he had made at dinner the previous night he had little choice. Harry waited until Draco was done washing the dishes by hand to point out that he could have used a spell to get them done. Needless to say, Draco was not amused.

Harry hurried out of the kitchen claiming he was going to help the children get ready.

"Lily, James, Al, we're going into town to buy your dad some clothes." The three Potter children looked momentarily confused until they realized that he was referring to Draco and not himself. Then they promptly burst into a chorus of cheers. They loved going into town because Harry usually took them for lunch at the pub and to the ice cream parlour afterward. As if they were a herd of wild horses, they galloped out of the sitting room and up the stairs to get ready. Harry followed at a more sedate pace.

He helped James get ready first since he tended to want to wear the most outrageous clothes whenever they were to leave the house. Two weeks ago he almost walked out of the house in singlet and shorts when the temperature had been particularly frigid. Once a proper set of trousers and a light jumper were picked out and waiting for James on his bed, Harry turned towards his second son. Albus usually forgot items of clothing when they were leaving the house. He was either too preoccupied with a book or deep in thought. This time it looked as if Albus was forgetting his socks. He already had his shoes on. Harry helped him remove them, put some socks on and put the shoes back on. He surveyed his two sons and once he was satisfied that they were dress properly, he left the room to help Lily.

Lily tended to take the longest to dress when they were to leave the house. Harry thought it was because she was worried that since she didn't have a mother to help her dress, that she would somehow pick the wrong thing. As Harry neared his daughter's room he heard her speaking eagerly to someone. Harry frowned. When he peeked into her room, Harry saw that Lily was speaking to Draco as he expertly plaited her hair.

"Daddy, do you remember who teached you to plait hair?"

"I am getting flashes of long blond hair. I believe it was my mother who taught me." Draco emphasised the correct term for Lily. "I think I used to help her get ready in the morning sometimes when I was younger." Draco finished and secured Lily's hair. "There, all done. Now stand in front of the mirror and let's see how good you look."

Harry watched his daughter hop down from the bed and stand in front of her wardrobe mirror. He noticed that Lily looked perfectly coordinated in a green shirt and light brown skirt. Harry was amazed at how much older his little girl looked. He was getting a bit teary eyed when he realised that Lily was the spitting image of her mother. He completely missed Draco's instructions on what colours Lily should wear because of her colouring. Draco mentioned something about shoes and Harry decided that Draco might have dressed his little girl, but he would be damned if he let him help her with her shoes.

Harry knocked and then walked into his daughter’s room. Lily turned towards him smiling.

"Look dad! Draco, I mean daddy, fixed my hair."

"Well, don't you look beautiful. You look like the perfect little lady." Lily positively glowed at Harry's compliment.

~

The trip to town was enjoyable for everyone. Draco got a few pair of trousers and various shirts, as well as some undergarments. Harry kept making suggestive comments to Draco while he was selecting his clothes, when his kids weren’t listening. Draco also bought a comfy pair of trainers and some house slippers from the bargain bin. Harry was not letting him spend an exorbitant amount on anything, claiming that they were on a budget and could not spend beyond their means. He was surprised how quickly Draco got over not being allowed to overspend.

Once all their purchases were made, the children wanted to know if they would be having lunch at the pub. Harry pretended to mull it over before nodding. The children cheered and headed straight to the Howling Hollow. Things were a little chaotic at first with all the children trying to talk over each other, but once their orders were placed and the dishes brought out, everyone settled down to eat. Afterward, Harry led the way to the Hollow Bowl, the ice cream parlour.

Draco paused outside the shop before going in. “That’s the fifth shop I’ve seen today with the word hollow in its name.”

“Yes, when we first moved here, you always made fun of that little quirk.” Harry grabbed Draco’s arm and dragged him into the shop. “Now come on, I know you’re dying to feed that sweet tooth of yours.”

Once everyone had their ice cream cones, they took a turn around the square. Without meaning to, Harry and his children headed towards the cemetery. It was only natural, since every time they came into town, Harry always took them to visit their grandparent’s graves.

Lily pushed the kissing gate open, walked through it and began to wend her way toward the now familiar graves. James and Albus followed.

Draco paused outside the gate and turned towards Harry with a questioning look. “My parents are buried here. We usually visit when we’re in town. You don't have to come if you don’t feel comfortable.”

“It’s alright, I’ll come.” Draco hesitated for a second then took Harry’s hand and walked through the gate heading towards where the children had gone. As they made their way through the cemetery, Harry was surprise to note how good it felt to have someone hold his hand. When they reached the graves of his parents, Harry looked around to make sure no one was looking before conjuring up a bouquet of lilies for them. Harry told the story of his parents’ death, mainly for Draco’s benefit, but also because the children always liked to hear it when they visited the grandparents they never got a chance to know.

When they got back to the house, Draco asked the children if they wanted to help him pick out and make dinner. Harry remembered to tell him that they might have Ron and his brother over for dinner. Draco merely nodded. Harry went upstairs to his room and was glad to have moment alone. He could not help but think that Draco was more observant and more considerate than he had made the world believe back at Hogwarts.

~

Ron and George arrived shortly after 6 o’clock that evening. George handed Harry an envelope before anyone came into the room. Harry was about to vanish it to the attic when George handed him another packet with a salacious wink. There was hardly a moment for him to worry before he could make out the sound of people making their way towards them. He vanished the envelope and packet knowing he would have a chance to better examine them tomorrow.

The children were particularly happy to see George because they knew that he always snuck them merchandise from his shop. Harry was never able to catch him at it, but for days after George’s visits, he had to be on the constant lookout lest his children manage to catch him off guard and turn him into a canary or something of the like.

Dinner went surprisingly well. George kept everyone entertained with tales of how his wife, a firecracker if Harry ever knew one, and his mother were constantly either at odds with each other, banded together against him, or doing something else equally crazy.

“Once I came home to find that Mum and Ange were knitting tea cozies as they cried over a telly show they had watched earlier,” George chuckled in recollection. “I knew that if I stepped into the room I would be drawn into whatever craziness they had created, so I turned straight around and joined Dad in his shed.”

Draco had made another delicious meal; roast lamb with mint jelly and steamed vegetables. There was even a rhubarb crumble topped with cream. It all looked delicious. Everyone complimented Draco on his cooking; even Ron, though he looked ill while doing so. It must have been hard to say something nice to the Malfoy who had made their lives so difficult when younger.

George and the children managed to sneak out of kitchen after dinner. Harry and Ron were left with the clean-up, Draco stayed to supervise. Even though he did not know many cleaning spells, he certainly noticed if Harry and Ron’s were not adequate.

Later, everyone was gathered in the sitting room to have tea or hot cocoa. Once the children started showing the tell-tale signs of a long day, Harry asked Draco to take care of bedtime while he had some time with the lads. Draco looked a bit put out.

“Go on, love,” Harry coaxed. “Why don’t you take up some of those books in the kitchen with you so that you can brush up on your household charms. Maybe you can finally get the house back to your usually standard.” Draco looked affronted, but he did as Harry suggested.

When he was sure he was alone with Ron and George, he cast a Muffliato just to be sure they wouldn’t be overheard.

“Alright, Harry,” George said. “Tell me everything. Ron was very vague this morning when we talked. Granted, he was with Hermione, but he could have given his brother more details. This situation you find yourself in is fascinating.” Harry gave a brief explanation of how Draco came to believe that he was married to Harry and that they had three children together. “And he believed you when you told him at the hospital?”

“I was pretty convincing,” Harry could not help but blush as he remembered the tattoo he had claimed to have intimate knowledge of. George smiled knowingly, though Harry did not know why. “Why don’t I get us some beers and you can tell me now it’s been going at WWW? I am your main investor after all.” Harry got up and headed towards the kitchen.

“I’m surprised that you haven't read the monthly investors’ reports, Harry!” George acted put out.

Harry snorted. “I would if you actually produced such reports.”

“That’s right, I always keep meaning to, but seeing as there is only one investor, I never see a need. I do see you more than once a month after all.” Harry shook his head and grabbed the beers. Ron started to fiddle with the remote for the television. He worked with his brother so had no interest in listening to anything to do with WWW. For this reason, Ron did not notice his brother slip a package that was suspiciously similar to the one he had given Harry earlier, between the cushions of the couch.

Harry returned and the men spent a good hour or two drinking and talking. By the time Ron and George got up to leave, Harry was fairly tipsy. When Ron tried to help him clean up the bottles, it became fairly obvious that Ron was in a similar state since he spilled a half empty bottle over Harry.

“Sorry, mate.” Ron made to dab at the wet stop on Harry’s arm. “Let me…”

“Don’t worry about it. Go home. I’ll be fine.” Ron nodded and George helped him get out of the house.

Harry walked upstairs. Draco was in his bed, wearing Ron’s old pyjamas; they had forgotten to buy him new ones. He was also sound asleep with a book on cleaning charms over his chest. Harry walked towards the bed and decided to see if he could mess with Draco. He started to take off his clothes. Once he was down to his pants, he leaned over Draco and shook him lightly. Draco’s eyes jolted opened and he looked around in confusion. Then his eyes landed on Harry who was looming over him.

“Hello, darling. I was hoping you were still awake,” Harry said as he leaned closer.

Draco scrunched up his nose. “Harry you smell of dreadful. Are you drunk?” Harry leered at him and he pulled the covers up to his neck.

“Only a little. But that’s not important. What’s important is that you’re here in our bed and I think it’s time we both got a little action.” Harry waggled his eyebrows suggestively and tried to pull the covers away from Draco.

Draco’s eyes widened. “Don’t you think we’re moving a little fast?”

“Fast?” Harry exclaimed. “We’ve been married for nearly ten years. Besides, you practically mauled me on our first date.”

“We did it on our first date?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a date since we didn’t make it out the door.”

“I’m a slag,” Draco mumbled.

“What?” Harry asked.

“Nothing.”

Harry smiled and again pulled at the covers. He intentionally overbalanced when he finally pried them away and fell onto Draco. “Maybe I am a little drunk. No matter, that will just mean we can take things slow.” Draco shrank away from him looking nervous. Harry decided to take pity on the bloke. “What? Aren’t you in the mood? Fine, I understand. You’re probably tired and would like to get some sleep.” Draco nodded with gusto. Harry got up and walked towards the wardrobe. “That’s alright, another night then.” He got the extra bedding out. “Here you are then. Off to your couch. We really should have your back looked at so we can get back to sleeping together every night.” Draco didn’t even object, he took the bedding and practically ran out of the room. “Good night, love,” Harry said as Draco closed the door firmly behind himself.

Draco made his way downstairs and into the sitting room. He made up his bed on the couch and lay down, however, he felt something poking him. He looked between the cushions and found a package. It had his name on it. He unwrapped it and found a note:

Draco,

Here’s something to help you recollect some memories, or create new ones.

George

Beneath the note was a book. Draco opened the plain brown cover and nearly dropped it in his surprise. Good god, it was a gay sex book. He was mortified. He looked around for someplace to hide it, but quickly realised that the children would likely come across it if he left in the sitting room. For this reason he placed it under his pillow to deal with in the morning. Draco once again lay down. As he thought about what was under his head, he remembered what Harry had said. “I’m a short, fat, slag,” Draco told the ceiling.

~

The next morning Draco again woke up early. He took his bedding and his offending book and decided to wake up Harry as revenge for making him feel so abysmal the night before. He walked quietly into the room and placed the book in the drawers that Harry had said were his and where they had placed his new clothes the day before. He then opened the wardrobe and placed the bedding inside. He slammed the wardrobe door shut. Harry bolted awake, wand in hand and looking around wildly. When he caught sight of Draco he mumbled, “Wha' was that?”

Draco smiled sweetly. “Sorry, did I wake you?” Harry nodded. “Well no matter. Now that you're awake you should get up and make breakfast. Then you need to find those pictures you promised.” Harry just groaned and lay back down. Draco marched over and pulled the covers off his husband. “Tsk, tsk. None of that. Up you get. You promised to find them yesterday, and since you didn’t, you have to get up early and find them today as penance.”

Harry knew, he just knew, that Draco was doing this out of revenge. He reluctantly got up and went to relieve himself. When he found that he had a slight headache, he wanted to blame Draco, but he knew it was because of the alcohol he had consumed the night before. Harry took some paracetamol and went to make breakfast. As he was leaving the room he noticed that Draco was smirking. Bloody bastard.

After breakfast, Harry dropped off his children at school. He took Draco with him to show him where the kids spent most of their weekdays.

When he got home, he trudged up to the attic to ‘find’ the family pictures. The first thing he did was gather all of Ginny’s things that he had stored up there in the attic when she died, put them in a corner and cover them with his invisibility cloak. It would not do if Draco decided to come up and found them; the jig would certainly be up then. Harry then sat down to look at the pictures that George had provided. Ron must have told him to make Draco look fat in some of them out of spite, because there was a few where Draco looked ‘fuller’. Then he came upon one that should have been him and Ginny on their wedding day, but instead it depicted him and Draco dancing closely. Harry could see why George chose to alter this one; Ginny had hardly been visible because she had her head on Harry’s shoulder and was facing away from the camera, however the effect of seeing Draco Malfoy, bane of his childhood existence, tucked against him was rather jarring.

Harry then turned towards the package that George had given him. He opened it to find a note and a book. The note read:

Harry,

Here is a little something in case you need it. Maybe to create some new memories.

George

Harry opened the book and his mouth dropped open. “George! Oh for the love of... How could he even think...” He did not know what to think. He wanted to hide the book and go back downstairs, but when he looked at his watch he realised that he had only been ‘looking’ for half an hour. Not enough time had gone by. He set the book aside, conjured an armchair and decided to just wait it out until lunch. Maybe he could catch a nap. He settled in and tried to nap. Ten minutes later he was still awake and curiosity finally got the better of him. He picked up the book and decided that just skimming it would do no harm.

Three hours later, he was in possession of knowledge he never thought he would need. Not that he needed it now. At that moment Draco called up telling him that lunch was ready. Harry rushed to hide the book. He picked up the pile of pictures he had ‘found’ and went to have lunch.

Lunch would have been an uncomfortable affair for Harry, given what he had just spent three hours perusing, if not for the fact that James had somehow managed to sneak a Weasley product into their lunch. Both Harry and Draco’s hair turned a bright red colour. Harry immediately burst out laughing when he saw Draco’s new hair. Draco just looked confused, until he realised that not only was Harry’s hair red, but his was as well. Then he went ballistic, promising revenge on George Weasley. Harry quickly managed to turn his own hair back to normal, but he decided to leave Draco as he was until he figured out it out for himself.

Harry left Draco fuming and went to pick up his children from school. When James saw Draco he roared in glee. Lily was furious on Draco’s behalf, she apparently loved Draco’s soft platinum hair. That first prank seemed to open up the floodgates. Albus slipped something into Harry’s tea that made him croak like a frog for an hour and somehow managed to frame James for it. Lily decided to get back at James for the stunt he played on Draco and turned her oldest brother into a slug for three hours. Harry had to keep his usually sweet little girl from pouring salt on her own brother, croaking all the while. All were then hit with a voice changing bomb, except for Lily who had stormed away in a huff when Harry hid all the salt in the house. Draco spoke like a little girl for the rest of the day. Harry himself sounded like Hagrid. James had a very soft and delicate voice, no matter how hard he tried to yell. Albus sounded, funnily enough, like his namesake Snape, which creeped Harry out to no end.

That night after dinner, Harry was showing Draco the pictures, some of them were hilarious, given that George or whoever created the pictures must have used some old Prophet pictures. He was trying hard not to laugh at one in particular of Draco holding a baby Lily and it looked like he was about to cry from relief. Harry knew had been the expression Draco had worn after his trial had been over and he had been cleared of all charges.

There was suddenly tapping on the window; it was an owl from a new client asking for his curse breaking expertise the next day in Lancaster. When he told Draco that he was going into work the next morning, Draco freaked out.

“You can’t leave me alone with those hellions! You saw the chaos they caused this afternoon.”

“Don’t worry, Lily will protect you.” Draco glared at him. “You can handle it. You’ve handled it before. I am surprised that it’s been this long before a job cropped up. It’s nearly been a week since my last client.” Harry tried hard not to think that his last client was now his pretend husband and that he was going to leave his children alone with said pretend husband. “Besides the children will be at school most of the day. I’ll be back in time for dinner, I hope.” Draco’s eyes widened in worry. “I usually am,” he quickly reassured him.

“Fine.” Draco began to walk away. “But don’t blame me if you come back to a crater instead of a house.”

“Don’t be so melodramatic. Everything is going to be fine.”

~

Harry came home the next night after a successful job to find that Draco had plates for hands and dinner was going to be a bunch of messy looking sandwiches. Draco had made James prepare them since he was the one that turned Draco’s hands into plates. Harry sighed and spelled Draco’s hands back to normal. James got no dessert as punishment. It had been too much to hope that nothing would go wrong. On the bright side, when he went into his room, it was to the surprise that Draco had finally gotten around to using some cleaning charms; the room was spotless.

~

Time went by and the Potter household quickly settled into a routine. If Harry didn’t have a job to report to in the mornings, he cooked breakfast and packed the children’s lunches. If he had work, Draco took care of breakfast. Whichever adult was available would drop the children off at school. Harry would study if he had no job. New curses were constantly being created and Harry had to stay up to date. Draco would clean or sometimes help Harry with his studies. The Potter children would be picked up after school and do their homework. Then Draco would cook dinner. Family time was had and the children were put to bed. Harry went to his room and Draco slept on the couch.

After about a month of this, Harry had a near miss with Hermione. She sent an owl asking Harry and to bring his lot over for dinner on a Friday. He got out of it by claiming to have a date. He sent his kids. He then felt guilty for lying to his friend, so he took Draco to buy new pyjamas. While not a date, he allayed some of his guilt.

~

Meanwhile, Pansy was enjoying Draco-free time. She had moved into Malfoy Manor. Her family house was positively dreadful at the moment, what with her father in Azkaban and the succession of lovers she kept, which she didn’t try to hide. She did not worry too much about her friend because he always tried to stop her fun, and besides, Draco always managed to land on his feet. One month after her friend’s disappearance, Pansy grew bored and would have gone out looking for Draco, if she had not received an owl from Theodore Nott. He was back in England after nearly 10 years abroad and he wanted to meet up with Pansy.

One week later, he too was living at Malfoy Manor. The two of them had a grand time together, going out nearly every night, drinking, and on occasion having crazy parties. Luckily, Draco had ordered the house elves to listen to Pansy, otherwise things would have gotten complicated.

Six weeks after Draco disappeared, Pansy received a firecall from Narcissa Malfoy.

“Pansy, dear, how are you?”

“Oh, Mrs Malfoy!”

“Please, Pansy, I’ve told you to call me Narcissa.”

“Alright then Narcissa. I’m splendid. How are you fairing? How’s your trip going?”

“Oh, it’s been wonderful. Andy and I positively love Europe. She’s convinced me to take one of these cruises that Muggles are so fond of taking, so I’ll be unable to contact anyone for around four weeks. That’s why I wanted to firecall and talk to Draco.”

“Oh Narcissa, I’m sorry, but you’ve just missed him. He left about an hour ago on a shopping trip,” Pansy lied easily.

“Oh dear. Then he won’t be back until nightfall. We both know how much Draco enjoys his shopping expeditions. Pansy, be a doll and tell him I’ll be unreachable for a month. I’ll firecall again once Andy and I are back from our cruise. Tell him we’re both well and that we love him.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to pass on the message. Talk to you again in four weeks.”

“Thank you, dear. Au revoir,” Narcissa was gone a burst of green flames. Pansy went to find Theo and figured she had another three weeks before she really had to start looking for Draco.

~

April was nearing its end and Harry feared that not only was he starting to like Draco, but he might be falling the tiniest bit in love with him. He quickly got over the fact that Draco was a man. What really bothered him was that the Draco he knew was a complete prat. The man that he was now living with as a married couple, while still rude and occasionally bratty, was rather endearing. To make matters worst, their whole relationship was based on a lie. Harry knew he was doomed the second Draco found that out or regained his memory.

Draco on the other hand, was finally coming to terms with the fact that he was married to Harry and that they had three wonderful, if occasionally troublesome, children. He was even starting to see why he married Harry in the first place. With each day that passed, Draco became more and more attracted to his husband. Despite the fact that he fell asleep to thoughts of Harry and that book that still remained hidden, he was still too nervous about being intimate with him.

There were three days left of April and Draco was busy helping the children get ready for their weekend away with their cousins, Rose and Hugo, though Draco was still uncertain how they were related to Ron Weasley and his wife, if Harry claimed that Ron and Hermione were only his good friends. It was Rose’s birthday on Sunday and the entire Weasley clan, sans the matriarch her still pregnant daughter in law, were heading off on a camping trip. Harry had taken on a particularly long case so would be unable to go, and Draco had decided to stay with his husband. Mainly because he had yet to meet (or re-meet) any of the Weasleys except Ron and George. Draco paused as he sorted the laundry to ponder why he had not met Hermione at least. Ron had been over quite a few times since Draco lost his memory, but Hermione had not. Odd. Draco’s wand went off next to him alerting him that it was time to go collect the children from school.

Two days later, when the children arrived home from school, Draco gathered their luggage, shrunk it and sent them through to Ron’s house. “Be good, mind your manners, listen to the adults, and wish Rose a happy birthday!” Draco shouted at his children as they floo’d away.

Even though he had been alone all morning, the house now seemed empty. He looked around for something to clean or tidy, but everything was in order. Draco decided to go upstairs and find something to read. When he stepped into the master bedroom, he went directly towards the drawer where he kept the book George had given him. He had not looked at it since the first time he had seen it, but now he found himself curious about it. With no children in the house and the promise of hours alone, it was the perfect opportunity.

Draco had a couple hours before he had to start dinner, so he settled onto the bed and began to flip through the book. It was all rather fascinating and intriguing; some parts made him flush all over. Just the thought of doing some of the acts depicted on the pages with Harry gave Draco a little thrill. He must have been tired from three days of packing for his children, because he fell asleep. The book dropped from his limp hand and onto the floor, landing slightly under the bed. He slept through the time he was supposed to start dinner and dreamed naughty dreams of his husband.

~

Harry came home from a long day of curse breaking expecting to find dinner. Instead he was created with a dark and empty house. He knew James, Albus and Lily were gone for the weekend, but Draco should have been at home. Harry wandered through the ground floor wondering where his ‘husband’ could be. It was when he found no one in the kitchen that a sudden thought hit him. What if Draco had recovered his memory and left? Harry dropped his bag and ran up the stairs, more scared than he cared to admit that he might have lost his chance. He opened the door to his room and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Draco sleeping on the bed. He approached quietly and observed him for a moment.

The man really was more handsome than Harry had first believed. Yes, his features were slightly pointed, but not as angular as they were at Hogwarts. They were more… aristocratic, he would call them. And he knew that sounded completely silly. Harry believed Draco’s best feature had to be his hair. It glowed and shone unnaturally in any sort of lighting. He had even seen it gleam in the darkness. Despite the two months that they had spent as a ‘married’ couple, Harry had never gotten the opportunity to verify if those platinum strands really were as soft and silky as they looked.

Harry bit his lip, trying to stop himself, but in the end he could not resist reaching out his hand and brushing a stray strand away from the sleeping man’s face. Draco must have sensed his touch because his eyes fluttered opened. Harry did not move his hand. Draco smiled sleepily.

“Harry, you’re here.” Harry nodded and smiled back. Draco caught hold of his hand, brought it to his mouth and placed a kiss on the palm. Harry gasped at how sensitive his skin suddenly felt. “I was dreaming about you,” he admitted to Harry.

“Is that so? And what was I doing in our dream?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Draco smiled wickedly. Sleep had quickly evaporated now that he had the object of his dream in front of him for real. “But instead of telling you,” Draco tugged on Harry’s hand and the brunette tumbled on top of him, “why don’t I show you?” Draco leaned up and captured Harry's mouth in a tentative kiss. Harry froze, uncertain of how to react. When it looked as if Draco would pull away because of Harry's lack of response, he was spurred to action. Harry put all of his pent up feelings into deepening the kiss. He plundered Draco’s mouth with passion.

Draco returned the kiss with vigour. Moments before, he had been dreaming about Harry’s kiss; the reality was so much better. His hands began to roam up the muscular back of his husband, up and up slowly until he was gripping Harry’s shoulders. Harry’s tongue began to run over his lips, begging entry and Draco granted it.

Harry could not believe how wonderful and easy it was to kiss Draco. It felt so natural; they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Draco was matching his passion degree for degree. The intensity was slowly increasing and Harry felt a need to be skin to skin with the man he was kissing. He gradually began to unbutton Draco’s shirt. Draco helped to divest himself of the offending garment once it was completely unbuttoned. Meanwhile, Harry pulled his own shirt over his head. When their naked chests touched, they both gasped. The desperation that Harry was feeling increased and he began to try and free Draco of his trousers.

In the course his trousers being removed, Draco began to panic a little. He felt like suddenly everything was moving too fast, despite what his dream and his body were telling him.

Draco abruptly pushed Harry away, “Wait, wait. Just wait.” He re-fastened his trousers and looked around for his shirt. When he located it he put it back on but did not button it. He ran his hands through his hair and gave Harry a pleading look. “I think we’re moving too fast. I know we’ve been married for nearly a decade. And I know I’ve been here with you for nearly two months now, but I just need more time. I’m sorry.”

Harry did not know whether to be frustrated or thankful that Draco had stopped him. He knew that if they had actually done something more, the guilt would have gotten to him. It also made him feel like he should tell Draco the truth, and soon.

“Don’t worry about it, Draco. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. I understand. This all seems new to you, mainly because of your memory loss.”

Draco launched himself at his husband. “Oh Harry, you’re the best. You truly are the best husband I could hope for.”

That statement made Harry feel like the lowest of the low. Draco, not knowing of his inner turmoil, covered his face with kisses. Maybe it was time to tell him. “Draco, wait, listen.”

Draco pulled back, but only to give him a sly look. “Just because I don’t want to take things further at the moment, doesn’t mean that we can’t go back to snogging silly.” The blonde once again threw himself at Harry. Harry tried to protest, but once his mouth was otherwise occupied, thoughts of coming clean completely evaporated.

~

The children came back Sunday night talking a mile a minute. They regaled Harry and Draco about their weekend as they ate another delicious dinner, cooked by Draco. After dinner, they all quickly began to wilt. The weekend had left them completely tuckered out. Harry had an easy time of getting the boys to brush their teeth that night. They were quickly tucked into bed and snoring before Harry had turned off the lights.

Meanwhile, Draco was helping Lily into bed. Once her teeth were brushed, she gratefully climbed into bed and allowed her Daddy to pull the covers over her. Draco turned to leave thinking Lily had fallen asleep when he heard her call out.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, darling,” he turned back.

“Please don’t ever leave us. I think I love you.”

Draco was touched. “I think I love you too, Lily. Don’t worry, daddies don’t leave their children. Especially of they are as fond of them as I am of you and your brothers.” Lily settled down after being reassured and fell right to sleep.

~

The four weeks that Narcissa said she was going to be on the cruise passed entirely too quickly for Pansy. She had been busy with Theo. They had even moved Daphne Greengrass and her sister into Malfoy Manor for a bit. Pansy had not known how incredibly difficult it was going to be getting the sisters out of the manor. They fancied themselves mistresses of the place, just because Astoria might or might not still have an arrangement with the Malfoys. Since Lucius was in Azkaban, it was all up in the air.

Pansy had only just gotten them to leave with the help of a house elf or five when the fireplace flared green.

“Pansy, dear. How are you? Where’s Draco? I am dying to tell him all about my trip. Andy would like to say hello as well.”

Pansy jumped out the chair she was in and approached the grate. “Narcissa! How pleasant it is to see you! I am sorry to say that Draco just stepped out. He agreed to go out to dinner with Astoria Greengrass. They have reservations in London so I have no clue when they’ll be back.” Pansy lied easily.

“Oh, how terrible it is that I just missed him again. No matter, I’ll try him again in a couple of days. No use him trying to reach me since we are not too long in one place. Tell me, how has he been? Has he been eating right? He’s not spending too much time moping about that wardrobe is he?”

“Oh no. He hired a curse-breaker to remove the curse, and it’s as good as new. I have not seen him starve himself at all,” which was technically true. “He will be sorry that he missed you again.”

“Well I must be off now. I had only popped in to say hello. Give me best to my son. Tell him I’ll fire call again soon. Good-bye Pansy, dear.”

“Lovely to see you, Narcissa. Ta for now.” And with a swirl of green flames Mrs. Malfoy was gone.

Pansy got up and hurried out the room lest the woman decide to call again. Maybe she should start investigating the whereabouts of her friend. It had been almost three months after all.

~

Draco was a bit disappointed when his and Harry’s tenth anniversary passed by without celebration, however, Harry had been in Scotland at the time because a nasty curse needed breaking. From what he gathered, Harry had to call in one of Ron’s brother’s as backup. Draco wondered how many brothers Ron had.

Before he knew it, it was June. It had almost been three months since he had lost his memory and almost nothing had come back to him. It was true that while at first he thought he did not belong in this place, this home with Harry and with three children, he quickly grew used to the routine and the presence of all four Potters. It was also true that when Harry had taken him into town for a bit of shopping, he had had to restrain himself, lest he spend too much, which was odd, if what Harry told him was true and they had always been modest in their spending. But he dismissed it once Harry had mentioned in passing that Draco had been spoiled as a child before his parents passed away.

Draco had become more and more secure in his relationship with Harry. This was part of the reason that he regretted that Harry had not been present during their anniversary; he had felt ready finally spend the night with his husband. Draco just hoped an opportunity would soon present itself.

It was nearing noon on June 5th and Draco was busy cleaning the kitchen as the children played in the back garden. It was a Saturday hence they had no school. Harry was in London dealing with some minor curse and had promised to be back for lunch. He had just finished spelling the dishes to clean themselves when he heard the floo flare up in the sitting room. Hoping that it was Harry, he rushed in covered in suds only to find a bushy haired woman stood in the middle of his sitting room.

Both of them stared at each other for a moment until Draco realised who this woman had to be.

“Hermione, right? You’re Ron’s wife.” The woman looked surprised.

“Ron?”

“Yes, a tall red-headed man with lots of freckles. If you’re not Hermione then Harry has some explaining to do. Why else would a lovely curly-haired woman be floo’ing into our sitting room on a Saturday morning?”

“Your sitting room?”

“That’s right.” Draco was starting to fear that this woman was either not Hermione or had hit her head while travelling by floo. “Now are you Hermione or aren’t you?” Draco asked with a little trepidation creeping in. He was trying to think of how he was going to get the children to safety if this turned out to be a mad woman.

“Yes, I’m Hermione. I’m just a little startled to see you.”

“That’s odd. I do live here after all. Have done for, oh I don't know how many years.” Hermione’s eyes widened. “Well, do make yourself at home. I’ll just go prepare some tea.” Draco went back to the kitchen. He was happy to see that the dishes had all been washed and were waiting in a stack for him to direct them to their places. He waved his wand and they began to sort themselves out. Behind him he heard Hermione gasp. He figured she was probably impressed with that household charm. “Yes it is a rather complicated charm, but it’s just a modified packing charm mixed with a little intent. Now for the tea. Do sit down. I was going to bring the tea out to you in the sitting room, but seeing as you’re here...” Draco trailed off as he put the kettle on the stove and fished out two mugs from the cupboards.

“You seem very familiar with the kitchen,” Hermione observed.

Draco thought it was a bizarre comment to make. “Well, I do live here. And I hate to admit it, but the kitchen is very much my domain. The only time Harry uses it is when he’s making breakfast or when he knows he has to do the washing up.” Draco placed the two mugs on the table along with a bowl of sugar, a small jug of cream and two spoons. The kettle whistled so he busied himself preparing a pot of tea for a moment.

“The kitchen is your domain?” Hermione kept asking odd questions.

“Yes, I do almost all the cooking. I don’t know if this is true for every household, but the children tend to spend a lot of time here, either eating, doing their school work or just making nuisances of themselves. Therefore, I spend a lot of time here.” Draco brought over the pot and pour tea into both mugs. He added sugar and milk to his and Hermione doctored her own. “Now tell me, to what do I owe the visit? I supposed you must be here to see Harry, but he’s stepped out for a moment to deal with a curse. If it’s something I can help you with, do tell. Otherwise you are welcome to wait for Harry. He should be here soon.” Draco looked at the clock on the walk and gasped. “Oh dear, very soon actually. I better start lunch or it shan’t be ready by the time he returns.” Draco began his preparations for lunch; chopping vegetables and placing them in a pot of water to boil. He had some of the leftover roast beef from the night before and some tomato paste. It would all make a lovely stew. He also had some bread he had baked on Thursday.

When everything was at a stage where all he had to do was wait, he turned back to Hermione. He had practically forgotten she was there. “Sorry about that.” He apologised. “Would you like more tea?”

Hermione shook her head and raised her mug to indicate she still had some. “I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I didn’t know I could either at first, but Harry assured me I could. And wouldn’t you know it after a day or two; it all came back to me. The recipe books helped,” Draco waved towards the bookshelf in the corner. “I was surprised as anyone when taking care of the children also came back to me. I love the little tykes. Well they are my children after all. Despite how much I didn’t want to accept it at first. But again Harry assured me. He really is the best husband.”

Hermione had been about to take a sip of her tea when she suddenly spit it out. Draco automatically waved his wand to clean it; the children were always spilling things. “Husband?” Hermione managed to croak as she recovered.

“Yes, Harry,” Draco spoke slowly as he would to one of the children when they didn’t understand something, “my husband. You know the tall black-haired man that lives here; has a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. The father of my children.”

“Your children?”

“James, Albus and Lily. My children.”

Hermione put her mug down and goggled at Draco Malfoy. “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that Harry Potter is your husband.” Draco nodded. “And that James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna Potter are your children.” Draco nodded again. “The children you have together with Harry.” Draco nodded for a third time. If he didn’t know any better he would have said that it was Hermione who had amnesia and not himself. “Alright, so according to you, how long have you and Harry been married?”

“It would have been ten years this past May.” Hermione just stared.

At that moment before either of them could say anything more, Draco heard the floo flare in the other room. “Oh that must be Harry.” He rushed out of the room. Sure enough, Harry was ungracefully stepping out of the grate. “Harry!” Draco exclaimed, rather happier than usual to see him. He greeted his husband with a rather deeper kiss than usual.

Harry chuckled when they broke apart. “Whoa, love, what’s this all about?” There was a movement behind Draco and his eyes widened when he caught sight of Hermione. “Hermione,” he said rather nervously. “What are you doing here?”

“Molly sent me to pick up some books. And I was greeted by Draco here,” she nodded at the man still in Harry’s arms. “Can we talk?” She looked at Draco again. “Alone, please.”

“Oh of course,” Draco began to walk towards the kitchen. “I’ll go check on lunch.” He rushed out. Draco got the impression that his husband was in some sort of trouble with the woman. She looked formidable and he did not want to be in her vicinity when she was angry. He unconsciously rubbed his cheek for some reason. He had just made it back to the kitchen when he heard a shout from the sitting room.

“HARRY JAMES POTTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Harry must have cast a spell to muffle Hermione’s tirade after that because Draco heard no more after that.

The children came running into the kitchen moments later.

“Was that Aunt Hermione we heard? James asked.

“Yes, she’s here to talk to your Dad.”

“What did he do wrong this time?” That was Albus.

“I’m sure I don’t know. Does your Aunt Hermione come and yell at your Dad often?”

“Only when he’s done something she doesn’t like,” Lily answered.

“Oh. No matter, we’ll let them have their fun.” The children giggled. “Go on up and wash up. Lunch is almost ready.” The three little Potters took off. Lily seemed to catch herself running because she stopped, smiled guiltily at Draco then continued at a more sedate pace.

Some time later, the children were seated at the table waiting for Harry. Draco told the children to stay seated and went to look for his husband. As he approached the sitting room, he saw the two friends arguing, but all he could hear was a ringing in his ears. He waved his arms wildly to get Harry’s attention. His husband saw him, stopped Hermione and told her something. He then waved his wand and the ringing in Draco’s ear disappeared.

“Harry, are you alright? The children and I are waiting for you to have lunch.” Draco went to Harry and took his hand.

“Don’t worry, Draco. We were just talking.” Draco flung a suspicious look at Hermione.

“It didn’t seem like talking to me.”

“It was nothing. Right Hermione?” Harry shot Hermione and imploring look.

“Whatever you say,” she moved toward the fireplace.

“Oh Hermione,” Draco called out to her, “you’re more than welcome to stay for lunch.”

“No, that’s alright. Ron and the children are waiting for me.” She stepped into the grate and took a pinch of floo powder. “Harry, I want you to tell him. Tell him today.” She threw down the powder and was engulfed in green flames.

Draco turned toward his husband. “Harry, was she talking about me?” He nodded affirmatively. “What is it that you have to tell me?”

“I’m hungry. Let’s have lunch.” Harry pulled Draco toward the kitchen.

Draco dug his heels in, trying to stop Harry from dragging him away. “Harry James Potter, you will tell me what you need to tell me, right this second.”

Harry sighed. “Draco, I’m hungry and was just yelled at by Hermione for almost a solid half hour. Let’s eat. I’ll tell you once I have some food in my stomach and have spent a little time with the children.” Draco felt slightly guilty so he gave into his husband’s wishes.

~

After lunch, Harry stood up and began to clear the table with the help of the children. Draco quickly sent them off to play once the sink was full of their lunch plates. He wanted some alone time with their Dad. Draco sat down and waited for Harry to be done with the clean-up.

Once Harry finished, he dried his hands on a towel and turned toward Draco. “There’s something I have to tell you. But just give me a minute.” Draco waited. “Er well, you see...” Harry was facing him, but he was not looking at him. The calendar on the wall caught his attention. “You see, the reason that Hermione was berating me so harshly was because I forgot that today is your birthday. And seeing as you have amnesia, there would have been no way for you to be mad at me about it.”

Draco looked surprised. “It’s my birthday?”

“Yes.”

“It’s my birthday!” Draco exclaimed. “Are we going to celebrate? Can I have a cake?” He looked excited at the prospect of a cake.

“I will try to arrange something. Why don’t you go upstairs and get changed. We’ll go into town and see what’s going on.”

Draco jumped out of his chair and gave Harry a quick hug. “I’ll need at least a couple hours to get ready. I need a long bath and a good shave. Time to pick out what to wear. Oh and time to do my hair just so.”

Harry chuckled, “Go, you have time. It’s still early.” Draco ran off upstairs, forgetting all that he had taught Lily in his excitement.

Harry paced up and down the kitchen, he would tell Draco the truth, but it was his birthday. Yes, Harry was being a little selfish in wanting to spend it with him, but just a little.

~

While Draco was getting ready, Harry floo’d Molly. He explained that he had a date, he blushed and stammered at the right moments and convinced her to watch the children that night, maybe keep them overnight as well. He then sent a note to George, asking him to purchase some Honeydukes chocolate for Draco. It arrived as he was explaining to his children that it was Draco’s birthday and he was going to take him out while they spent the night with their Grandmother Molly. They were a bit disappointed that they would not get to celebrate. Harry told them to sit on the couch and watch the telly while he popped over to a bakery on Diagon Alley for a cake. He stopped by George’s shop and picked up the chocolates that he had purchased for him. When he popped back into the sitting room, he gave the chocolates to his children, told them to wrap them and that they were to give them to Draco in the morning. They rushed off to do as they were told.

Draco came down, looking rather dapper, yet casual and perfect for a night spent out in a small town like Godric’s Hollow. He looked around to find that the ground floor was dark, and scrunched up his brows in confusion. No one was in the sitting room so he continued into the kitchen. That’s where he found the four most important people in his life with a lit birthday cake. As he entered, they began to sing for him. Once their song was over, they made him blow out the three candles that Harry was able to find. Everyone had a piece of cake, which turned out to be chocolate, Draco’s favourite.

Afterward, the children floo’d to the Burrow and Harry and Draco set off towards town.

~

Meanwhile, Pansy was pacing up and down the drawing room. She had been unable to locate Draco. It was his birthday and his mother was sure to call again. She thought about leaving and pretending to be out with Draco; it was his birthday after all. In fact, Pansy had resolved to do just that, when there was a flare from behind her.

“Pansy, my dear.” It was Narcissa. “Where’s my son? I want to wish him a Happy Birthday and tell him how sorry I am to not be with him on such an important day.”

“Oh Narcissa,” Pansy turned around to face the fireplace. “You will not believe this, but he’s gone with Theo into London. We’re all throwing him a surprise party at one of the clubs there, and Theo is in charge of keeping him occupied until it starts. I’m on my way to finish getting ready.”

Narcissa looked disappointed. “That’s terrible. Not the party, but the fact that I missed him once again. Alright Pansy, dear. I’ll floo again on Monday, 3 pm your time. Make sure he’s here.” She was gone in a puff of green flames.

Pansy began to panic. This time she had two days. Only two days to locate Draco before his mother tried to contact him again. There was no way that Pansy could cover up his absence again. Narcissa was bound to get suspicious. She had to do something.

~

Hours later, Draco was slightly tipsy, but he still managed to hold his own against the local darts champion. With one final throw, he actually beat the old codger. He was a big bear of a man with mutton chop sideburns, named Alec McGregor. Draco cheered, but stopped when he saw how angry the man was. Suddenly McGregor laughed. “Ach, Draco, you won fair and square, but I’ll be having a rematch when I’m less into my cups.” He held out his hand and Draco shook it, readily agreeing to a rematch.

Draco ambled back to the table where a smiling Harry was waiting for him.
“Congratulations on your win, love.” Draco gave him a quick kiss. Harry caught his hand and held it. “I know you deserve a better birthday celebration than playing darts in an old pub...”

Draco interrupted him, “Nonsense, Harry. I love it! This is the most fun I can ever remember having.”

Harry laughed, “But you can’t remember more than the past three months or so.”

“That doesn't matter. I can feel it in my heart. This night is going to be one of my fondest memories.”

“If that’s the case, let’s order more champagne.” Harry caught the eye of a barmaid and motioned for another bottle of champagne.

“Oh Harry, but it’s so expensive.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s your birthday, you deserve it.” The champagne was brought to their table and Harry refilled their glasses. “To you, love,” Harry raised his glass. “Happy Birthday!” Draco clinked his glass against Harry’s and took a sip of the bubbly champagne.

They finished the bottle and walked home hand in hand. The walked in silence, just enjoying each other’s company. Suddenly Draco thought of something.

“Harry!” Harry hummed in question. “How old am I turning?”

Harry smiled. “Well, your about two months older than I am, and I’m turning 30, so it’s pretty safe to say that you, Draco Potter, are now 30 years old.”

“Wow. I suddenly feel old.”

“Oh, you’re not so old. I don’t see any wrinkles yet. Besides, 30 is young for a wizard.”

“Prat! I should hope that I don’t have wrinkles. And that thing about wizards is good to know.”

Before long they reached their house. They went in and Harry made his way upstairs, still holding onto Draco’s hand. He wanted to kiss his fake husband for a bit. It’s what Draco would want, after all, and it was his real birthday.

They reached the bedroom and things proceeded much as they had since that weekend the children been away. There was a lot of snogging, some groping and lots of moaning. Harry had Draco pressed against the bed and was position between his legs, kissing him deeply as he frotted against the writhing blonde. Unexpectedly, Draco swept Harry’s shirt over his head, then removed his own shirt. He then continued kissing Harry. Draco pressed his naked chest against Harry’s and reached for the fastening of Harry’s jeans. This time it was Harry who stopped proceedings. He pulled away slightly and looked down at the man he had been snogging. He almost groaned when he saw how positively wanton Draco looked, with his kiss swollen lips and pleasure blown pupils. He almost dove back in and continued, but he had to be sure that Draco knew what he was doing and it wasn’t just the champagne talking.

“What exactly are you doing?”

Draco grunted and continued to fumble with Harry’s jeans. “I would think that was plainly obvious.” He finally got them open and let out a triumphant huff. He attempted to push them down Harry’s hips, but his husband was not cooperating.

“Wait, wait, stop for a second.” Draco reluctantly halted what he was doing and stared resentfully at him. “What are you looking to accomplish by removing my clothes?”

“Harry, are you really that dense? I want you naked. That’s what I am seeking. Now please do as I want, and remove this offending garment. Honestly, jeans do look nice, but they are so difficult to remove at times.”

“And why do you want me naked?”

Draco rolled his eyes. “Harry you are ruining the moment. I want you naked. Then I want you to help me get naked and then I want us to have sex.” Draco crossed his arms over his bare chest. “There, is that enough? Can we get on with it? It’s my birthday and this is what I want.” He pouted and looked adorable while doing it.

“I just want to be sure that you’re sure. That it’s not just the champagne clouding your judgement.”

Draco looked at his sappy husband and his anger and annoyance disappeared. “I’m very certain. This would have happened on our anniversary, but someone had to work. We’re alone now. I want you. I love you Harry Potter and I want you. Right here, right now.” Draco reached up, grabbed the back of Harry’s head and brought him down for a kiss.

When they had to come up for air, Harry looked down at him with a tender look. “I love you too Draco Malfoy. You can never know how much.” Before anything besides the confession of love could filter into his mind, Draco was being kissed again. After that clothes were quickly discarded, and soon Draco had a very naked and very aroused man atop him. He himself was equally naked and the feeling of being naked in bed with the man he loved was entirely too much. His cock throbbed between his legs as Harry ducked his head to nip at his nipples. Hmm, that was interesting. He gasped when Harry took a hold of said cock and gave a few quick pumps.

Draco summoned the lube that he had tucked under the pillow earlier and passed it to Harry. Harry stopped wanking him and put it to use and before he knew it, a finger was at his entrance, probing. Harry’s finger circled Draco’s rim, spreading lube before Harry applied light pressure and slipped it past the first ring of muscles. Draco felt the stretch, it was slightly uncomfortable, but nothing major. He felt Harry’s finger slide in further and made himself relax. Harry paused a second to let Draco get used to the sensation of having a finger inside him. When he felt Draco relax completely, he began to move his finger in and out. He was looking for Draco’s prostrate, but could not reach it, so he switched to two fingers in on the next thrust. After only two thrusts, he was able to locate Draco’s gland. He heard the blonde gasp in surprise and continued to stimulate his prostate until he was moaning. He added a third finger to further prepare Draco, wanting to ensure he was fully stretched.

“Harry, Harry, I think, oh, I think I’m ready.” Harry withdrew his probing fingers. Draco moved his legs further apart and Harry settled himself between them. He slicked his own thick cock with what remained on his fingers and lined himself up. He slowly and gently pushed in, until just his head disappeared into the waiting entrance. Harry gave Draco time to adjust before pushing in a little bit more. He continued as such, pushing and pushing until he was almost fully inside Draco. The feeling of being inside Draco was amazing. He was so tight and his cock was engulfed in heat. He wanted to move so badly, he then watched the blonde’s face. He waited until Draco lost that look of concentration and looked up at him before he pulled back and thrust back in again.

Draco thought that the feeling of a cock inside of him was slightly odd, definitely new, and not entirely pleasurable. When Harry began to move in and out of him, aiming for his prostate, he started to feel a slight build-up of sensation; travelling straight to his erect and red prick. He wanted to touch it desperately, but decided to hold off a little longer.

The room filled with Harry’s groans and grunts and Draco’s moans and whimpers after a particularly hard and well placed thrust.

When Draco was about to give in and wank himself along to Harry’s thrusting, he felt a strong hand wrap around his leaking cock. Harry had taken the problem out of his hands, quite literally. It took a moment, but eventually Harry managed to move his hand in time with his hips. Draco gave himself over to the feeling of being filled and having his dick stimulated at the same time.

Harry watched Draco throw his head back and close his eyes, enjoying the sex they were having. The look on his lover’s face helped his orgasm along. Before long, he began to thrust erratically and the hand that was wanking Draco’s cock stilled. His orgasm hit him suddenly, the pleasure shooting straight through his cock and filling Draco’s hole with his come.

Draco felt Harry’s orgasm happen inside him. It caused him to shiver and pleasure overwhelmed him. He slapped Harry’s still hand away and began wank rapidly, seeking his own release. Harry remained semi-hard inside of him, his cock pressed against his prostate. That coupled with his own hand moving on his prick caused his orgasm. He shot onto his chest. He continued to milk his cock until the last remnants of his climax dribbled out.

Harry instinctively moved out of Draco and almost landed on top of him in his exhaustion. The two lovers lay side by side, Harry on his stomach and Draco on his back, for some time, panting and recovering. Harry was the first to catch his breath. He turned towards the man lying next to him and smiled. “That was amazing. Wonderful. You were wonderful,” he said between breaths.

Draco moved his head until he was able to see his husband. All he could do was smile sappily. Harry managed to get the covers over them and they promptly fell asleep.

~

The next morning, Draco and Harry were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table, sipping their tea and sharing a secret smile when the children floo’d through. Draco was surprised when they weren’t immediately surrounded by their three offspring. Draco heard them running upstairs. Moments later he heard them running back downstairs. Then it was Draco that was surrounded by three smiling youngsters who all had their hands behind their backs.

“What do we have here?”

“We all have presents for you.” James answered.

Draco smiled widely. “Well, let have them then.” James handed him a small lumpy package. Draco opened it and found a top that looked to be made of glass. “What is it?”

“It’s a sneakoscope. But it’s not an ordinary sneakoscope that lights up and spins when someone is doing something untrustworthy nearby. It’s from Uncle George’s shop. It’s supposed to talk too. So if one of us is trying to tell a big fib, it’ll say something like “Truth fears no question” or something. Uncle George gave it to me last week. I figured you would like it.”

“I do like it. And it will come in handy.” Draco set it on the table and turned towards Albus. Albus handed him two packages. They both looked suspiciously like books. The first package was a book.

“It’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It’s a collection of wizarding fairy tales. You probably had a copy as a child, but can’t remember them now because you lost your memory,” Al explained.

“Thank you, Al. I’ll start reading them tonight. How would you three like it if I read them for you, as bedtime stories.” They all nodded eagerly. He then opened the second package. It was a box of fine chocolates.

“Those are actually from me.” Harry said sheepishly. “I know you have a sweet tooth and it’s the best I could do since I forgot it was your birthday yesterday.”

“It’s alright Harry. I forgot too.” The children laughed Draco placed a peck on Harry’s cheek. The chocolates and book joined the sneakoscope on the table. Lily was left. She handed Draco a small square package. He unwrapped it and found a small box, inside the box was a leather cuff. It had his name burned onto it.

“We made them at school. There was a visiting leatherworker explaining what he does. And almost everyone in class got to make something. I wanted made this for you, Daddy. Do you like it?”

Draco smiled through tears at his daughter. “I love it. Will you help me put it on?” Lily did. “I’ll never take it off. I love all my presents.” He hugged each of his children. “Have you eaten breakfast?” They all nodded. “Great, bring down your school work and we’ll make sure it gets done before it gets forgotten.” They all groaned and trudged out of the kitchen. Draco took the opportunity to thank his husband properly for his gift with a kiss.

~

Pansy was having a hard time remaining calm on Monday. It was nearing 3 o’clock and she had had no luck in locating Draco. It was as if he had disappeared from England entirely. Or maybe she just didn’t have the necessary connections to have the entirety of England searched. She had hope that Draco could not have gone far. She had thought him off on some tropical beach relaxing, but Great Britain had no tropical beaches! Pansy had not slept a wink thinking that Draco had been laying a ditch somewhere, in need of assistance because he was cursed, trapped in his own brain, unable to move. He had probably died of starvation or dehydration. And now his body lay decomposing!

Pansy was wringing her hands trying not to think of her best friend’s corpse. The sound of the floo coming to life nearly had her jumping out of her skin. She knew it was Draco’s mother, expecting to finally speak to her son. There was nothing for it; she would have to tell the frightening woman the truth.

“Pansy! Where’s my son? Don’t tell me he just stepped out. I gave you specific instructions to let him know I would be floo’ing at this exact time.” Narcissa already sounded angry.

“No, that’s not it Mrs. Malfoy. You see, Draco has been missing since the beginning of March.” Pansy braced herself for Mrs. Malfoy’s wrath.

It started out innocently enough with Narcissa asking for clarification. “What do you mean my son has been missing since March? Pansy, I do not appreciate these kinds of jokes. Please inform my son that I’m waiting. I expected this kind of thing from him, but not from you, Pansy dear.”

“It’s not a joke. Unfortunately, I’m telling the truth.” Pansy proceeded to explain how Draco had touched the cursed wardrobe without the curse being completely broken. She then insisted that she had been looking for Draco for months, with no luck.

“Pansy, dear. Are you telling me that my precious Draco has been missing for three months? Three months! And you have been unable to locate him?” Pansy could only nod meekly. “You must not be trying hard enough. I would come through immediately and launch an appropriate search, however, we both know the floo does not work that way. I will have to request an emergency portkey. Expect me in a week or less, depending on how accommodating the French Ministry shall be.” Pansy did not doubt that they would jump to do Narcissa’s bidding. “Goodbye, Pansy.” With one last withering look she was gone.

Pansy sat in front of the hearth, shaking a little. She did not want to know what sort of fate awaited her if Draco was not found.

~

A week later, Draco remained ignorant of the search his mother was undertaking. He was too busy caught up in the feeling of being a newlywed. He knew that he had been married to Harry for a decade, but it felt like their marriage was just starting. He blamed it on his memory loss.

He was no longer sleeping on the couch. His nights were spent tangled with Harry in their bed, whether they had engaged in sexual activities of not. His days were spent caring for his house and his children. Ron had stopped by on Friday with his children and Draco had found out that he was a formidable chess opponent. On Saturday, while Harry was away at work and the children were dropped off to see their Grandma Molly (Draco had as yet to find out why they referred to her as such), he decided to take up whittling. He walked into town and found a couple books on the subject at the local library. He gave it a try the Muggle way, but soon gave up. He then owled Ron about it and he was able to provide him some books on magical whittling. So on Sunday he gave it a try and found he was much better at it.

~

Another week went by and Narcissa had still not located her son. Pansy was also trying harder to locate Draco. She began to send owls to friends, friends of friends, family and distant relatives all around England asking if they had spotted a Draco.

It was not until 13 days after Narcissa’s return that Pansy got an affirmative response from a friend of a cousin twice removed who lived in Godric’s Hollow. This friend claimed to have seen a man who matched Draco’s description living at the Potter residence, just outside of the town proper. Pansy decided to keep this information to herself until she checked it out. She did not want to give Narcissa false hope; she found it highly unlikely that Draco would be living with Potter, not after the way he treated the Saviour throughout their years at Hogwarts and at their last meeting. Two days after receiving the message, she finally got a chance to go to Godric’s Hollow.

It was the morning of Sunday, 27th June when Pansy began her trek to Potter’s house from the acquaintance who had been so nice to receive her. As she approached the house, she heard a bunch of children running and squealing in delight. She cringed. Children made entirely too much noise. She could also make out the rumbling laugh of a man. Must be Potter, she thought. That laugh was followed by an all too familiar laugh. No, it couldn’t be!

Pansy rushed forward the last few feet. She came to a dead stop when she saw her friend lifting a little girl up and twirling her around. She was giggling in delight as two boys, her brothers Pansy presumed, played with a puppy that had a ribbon tied around its neck. A new pet, then. As she watched, Draco put down the girl who rushed over to where her brothers and the puppy frolicked. He then turned towards Potter and gave the man a kiss! By this point, Pansy was close enough to hear what Draco and Potter were saying.

“Oh, Harry! He’s perfect! What shall we call him?” Draco leaned into Potter and the black haired man placed his arm around his shoulder.

“I think we should let the children decide.”

“I don’t know. I kind of want to name him Toto.”

Potter threw his head back and laughed. “This wouldn’t have something to do with a certain film about a wizard we saw the other day would it?”

“Maybe.” Draco said evasively. “But I think it’s a fitting name.” Draco turned away from Potter and towards the three children and pup. “Look at how the children...” He trailed off as he caught a sight of Pansy. He froze and then recognition flared in his silver eyes. “Pansy. PANSY!” He pulled away from Potter and rushed towards her. They met at the entrance to the front garden. He engulfed her in a hug. “Oh Pansy, it’s been so long. I, I...” He trailed off again and his eyes widened. He turned around and gave Potter an accusing glare. “I don’t know what I’m doing here, Pansy. It’s as if I’ve suddenly woken up from a very odd and long dream.”

Pansy took her friend’s hand. “Draco, come with me. Your mother had been frantic searching for you. You’ve been missing for over three months.”

Draco looked dazed. “Right, missing.”

Pansy began to pull Draco away. The little girl ran up to Draco, but Potter stopped her before she exited the garden. “Daddy! Daddy where are you going? You can’t leave!”

Pansy continued to lead Draco away. She could feel the wards preventing her from disapparating. She needed to move Draco farther away.

By the time she felt the wards melting away, she and Draco were staring at three crying children and one very stoic Potter. Just before they disappeared, Pansy could have sworn she heard the little girl screaming: “You said daddies didn’t leave!”

~

Draco was back in his manor. His mother had hugged him and thanked Pansy, reluctantly, for finally locating him. Questions were asked, but he felt too mentally exhausted to answer them. The moment he saw Pansy, his memory had come rushing back to him. It had momentarily eclipsed the past three months of new memories. When he had looked at Harry, no Potter, after his memories had returned he had felt a mixture of emotions; contempt, dislike, betrayal, fondness, and worst of all, the inkling of love.

As Pansy had dragged him away, his heart had broken a little bit when he heard Lily’s accusation. Daddies did not leave. Yet he had left. But no, he was not her real father. It had just been pretend. Or he had been fooled, tricked, into acting as her second parent. So he had no right to feel guilty, he told himself as he entered his rooms. He walked into his bedroom; everything was as he had left it. Nothing had been moved, not even the wardrobe that had caused the whole mess in the first place. He knew now not to touch it; instead he conjured a shroud and threw it over the offending piece of furniture. Draco would have to get rid of it or hire another curse-breaker to finish the job Potter had started.

Potter. Harry Potter, the Saviour of the wizarding world. The man who had been his husband for more than three months, the man whose bed he had shared for the past three weeks. Draco could not help himself; he collapsed onto his bed and let himself weep, just a little bit, for everything he had lost. A whole life, a family, it seemed, gone in a space of a minute. He felt himself being carried away from reality by sleep and he let it engulf him. Perhaps things would seem better after shutting himself off for a while.

~

Draco tried to adjust to his usual style of living, however, he found himself growing restless after sitting for even 20 minutes in silent reading. After a week, he had forbidden the house elves from cleaning his room. The simple task of waving his wand to set his things to rights, settled him down in the mornings. His mother and Pansy thought he was acting as he had in the past, but they did not know about the whittling he did out in the garden. Or that on occasion he helped the house elves pull weeds in said garden.

Manual labour became a way to the escape not only Pansy, but also a life he no longer felt was his. Sometimes he felt overcome with the feeling that he no longer belonged in Malfoy Manor; that he was better suited to a house in the country with a husband, three children and a puppy. For this reason, he cleaned and toiled in the garden when his mother and Pansy weren’t looking. He still felt betrayed and didn’t want to forget that feeling when his thoughts turned to a certain green-eyed bloke with three darling children.

Two weeks after his return, his Aunt Andromeda stopped by for a visit. She was less reluctant to probe at Draco’s time with Harry. At her insistence, he finally told her everything. She comforted him, and then left him for a minute to his thoughts. Not half an hour later, his mother was in the room, rushing to his side and enveloping him in a motherly embrace. He only just held onto his composure by thinking instead of the betrayal that he felt towards Harry.

The next day, he made the house elves let him cook lunch. They were adverse to the idea to put it mildly. On the third day of his cooking lunch, they realised that the act made their master happy; instead of trying to convince Draco to leave the cooking to them, they began to help him. They would provide the ingredients for the recipe he was trying that day and bring him the pots, pans or utensils he would need. Little by little, Draco became more adventurous in his cooking. Before long he ventured into Diagon Alley to purchase cookbooks. He even went as far as to visit a Muggle bookstore, Waterstone’s, to buy more cookbooks.

Draco spent the days cooking; he missed having someone to cook for. He remembered how it had felt to be needed by Lily, Albus and James. Without him cooking, they would not have been able to fend for themselves. As he cooked, he thought about the delight in Lily’s eyes when she found out he could do her hair. He thought about reading them bedtime stories. He remembered Albus’ love for books and any story really. And James, fun loving James. He always had a trick up his sleeve.

He tried not to think about Harry. Those memoires hurt too much. So he cooked, mainly for himself; sometimes for his mother. And sometimes for the house elves of all things.

Another two weeks passed in this manner. It was the middle of July before Draco realised it. His mother decided to go and visit her sister for a few weeks since Draco seemed to be doing so well after his memory loss. Teddy had been back from Hogwarts for a few weeks and Narcissa wanted to see him, making Draco promise to visit them before she left. With his mother gone, Pansy soon discovered Draco’s new penchant for cooking.

At first she made fun of him, and then she tried to get him to stop and join her in a life of leisure once again. When he refused, she invited Theo Nott and the Greengrass sisters to stay at Malfoy Manor. Draco was forced to act the host.

Theo was annoying, at best. The Greengrass sisters were another issue altogether. Astoria hovered over Draco as if she were a horse fly and he the horse. There was no moment of solitude for him while she was around. Daphne brayed loudly at anything remotely funny and ate all of Draco’s favourite biscuits. After a week of putting up with their presence and being dragged from social event to social event, he had had enough. He threw the sisters out. Pansy was both shocked and delighted.

“Oh Draco, you’re just wicked.”

“Pans, those two harpies were getting on my last nerve. I’m glad that my father’s stay in Azkaban at least prevented a marriage between me and that appalling Astoria.” Draco shuddered at the idea of being bonded to that… that witch. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” Draco walked out. Pansy called out to him, but he ignored her. He needed to cook; it would relax him after the week he had had to endure.

That night, he finally convinced Pansy and Theo to try something he had cooked. After that, Pansy no longer tried to stop him from cooking. She instead spent every moment in the kitchens with him, flipping through Witch Weekly or doing her nails, while telling him the latest gossip.

When Draco wasn’t in the kitchens he had to put up with Theo who, since the departure of the Greengrass sisters, had begun to flirt outrageously with him. Draco suspected that Pansy had let it slip that he may or may not have had a ‘thing’ with Potter while he was missing. The only reason he put up with it was because Theo always tried anything he cooked and was brutally honest about how it tasted.

~

Meanwhile, Harry had let his house go to the dogs. Quite literally. Toto, the name had stuck even if the namer had not, had run amuck in the house. His children could barely muster the energy to feed the dog and take him out to the garden to do his business. They were all depressed after Draco’s departure. Harry should have known his life had become too good to be true. When did things ever go the way he wanted them to? He wished every day that he had followed Hermione’s advice and confessed everything to Draco before his memory came back. Maybe then he would have had hope that the Slytherin would have stayed. Now he and his children were left to a seemingly empty house in complete disarray.

Harry was sitting at his kitchen table one morning, more than a month after Draco had left with Pansy, when Lily came into the room.

“Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s your birthday today.”

“Oh is it? I hadn’t noticed. Should we do something to celebrate?”

“I think… I think we should go and get Daddy back.” Lily said tentatively.

“What did you say?” Harry was not sure he had heard his daughter correctly. Since Draco left she had reverted back to her extremely timid self. Under Draco’s care she had started to bloom into, Harry believed, a future Gryffindor, of all ironies.

She took a deep breath and straightened her back. “Dad, I think we should stop moping around and go and get Daddy back. We love him. I love him. James and Albus love him. And I can tell that you love him very much. We should all be brave and go and see if we can get him back!”

Harry was taken aback. “What if he doesn’t want us anymore?”

“We won’t know unless we try, Dad.” Lily took his hand and pulled at it. “Come on, get washed and wear something nice. I’ll round up the boys and get them clean as well. We want to look our best if we are going to go to Malfoy Manor.” Harry had told his children Draco’s background. “We might not have a huge house, but we have a home and we have love.”

Harry finally stood up. He felt buoyed by his daughter’s words. “Alright, Lily. Get your brothers. We’re going to get Draco back.”

She whooped and ran off to do as Harry said. Then he went to do as she asked. They all did indeed need to look their best if they were going to persuade Draco to give them a second chance.

~

It was the last Saturday in July and Draco was in the garden enduring some painful flirting. Theo was being too audacious by half. Pansy was just sitting with an amused smile on her face as she flipped through a silly romance novel. Draco was just about to tell Theo to bugger off when he felt the wards shift. There were people just outside the gates wanting entrance. Moments later, Bitsy popped into existence in front of him.

“Master, Harry Potter and three little humans is being here to see you. Is you wanting Bitsy to let them through?”

Draco was astounded. Harry was here, with his children, to see him.

“Potter’s here with his brats?” Pansy exclaimed. “Of course they are not to be allowed entrance. Not after what they did to Draco. And Potter calls himself a hero.”

Bitsy bowed and was about to leave when Draco stopped her. “Wait! Let them in. Lead them to the blue drawing room and tell them I will be there momentarily.” Bitsy bowed again and was gone with a pop.

“Draco you can’t seriously plan on talking to Potter.” Theo said taking Draco’s hand. “What he did to you was appalling! He used you like a house elf. And those brats of his helped! What’s more, he took advantage of you and seduced you.”

Draco scowled at Theo and wrenched his hand away. “He did not seduce me! Where are you getting your information?” Pansy had the decency to blush with guilt. Draco shook his head. “I should have known you couldn’t keep a secret.”

“That doesn’t matter now, darling. Theo’s right. Why have you agreed to see Potter? He’s probably here to trick back into his house.”

“Then maybe I’ll let him.” Draco finally stood up and began to walk towards the Manor.

“You don’t mean that! You belong here! Not in some hovel in some hick town!” Pansy hurried after him.

“You deserve to be surrounded with riches, and you most certainly should not be treated like a house elf!” Theo was fast on Pansy’s heels.

“They treated me a whole lot better then you two do!” Draco finally reached the back door only to be presented by the figure of his fake husband and fake children. Lily was smiling, Albus as well, while James was trying hard not to act happy to see him. And Harry was trying very hard not to look hopeful. Oh Harry. Draco had to stop himself from launching himself right into his arms.

“Potter, Lily, Albus, Scorpius, how nice to see you all again,” he said civilly.

“My name is not Scorpius,” James said.

“Right how silly of me, you’re John.”

“James!”

“Oh yes, James.” James was now fighting back a smile.

“Daddy, I mean Draco, we’ve come to win you back,” Lily stepped forward bravely. “We love you and miss you and want you to come and live with us again. I very much would like my Daddy back. Dad is hopeless at doing hair.” As if to prove her point, the wind picked up and threw her loose hair into her face. She smiled and Draco noticed she had a tooth missing.

“You’ve lost a tooth.” She nodded. Draco wondered what else he had missed.

Harry took a couple steps towards him. “Draco, I know I don’t deserve you after what I did, but I love you. I also know I cannot possibly offer you a manor, but I have a home. Won’t you please consider giving me,” Lily cleared her throat and Draco tried not to laugh, “sorry, us, a second chance?” All three children looked at him imploringly. “We all miss you, even Toto.” Draco laughed through the tears that he had not realised had started to fall. He actually took a step towards Harry, ready to give him his second chance.

“He’s not going anywhere with you!” Theo stepped in front of Draco, wand drawn. “You’ve done him enough harm. There is no possible way you could give him all that he needs, all that he deserves.”

“Draco, who is this, this ruffian?” Harry asked, becoming angry.

“No one,” Draco insisted as he tried to step around Theo.

“I’m not 'no one'. I’m his boyfriend.”

Draco snorted. “Hardly.” He drew his own wand. “Now step aside before I hex you.”

Theo turned to him in astonishment. “You cannot honestly expect me to believe that you want to go back with Potter after everything.”

“You can believe that I most certainly do want.”

“Then you’ll have to get through me.”

“Gladly.” Draco cast petrificus totalus before Theo could even blink. He fell away with a thump and Draco was free to run into Harry’s outstretched arms.

“You cannot possibly know how much I’ve missed you,” Harry whispered into his ear as they hugged.

“Not as much as I’ve missed you and your brats.” Harry laughed. Then he pushed Draco slightly away.

“But Nott’s right. Why would you come back to me after I tricked you?”

“Because I love you, you fool.” Draco said and tried to kiss Harry, but he pulled away again.

“But what can I possibly give you besides messes to clean and children to look after?” Harry looked tormented.

“Just give me what you had been giving me up until the moment I left. A family, a true home.” Draco looked at the three smiling children that surrounded them. “And if at all possible, a blond child would be nice.”

Harry smiled and finally let Draco pull him into a kiss.

~FINITE~



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