Hello all! I'm going to explain a couple of things before you read. It's not my fault if you don't read this! The XXX in the middle of the chapter are where Harry and Draco do not explain what happens to the girls aloud, alright?
Otherwise, I do not own the characters, aside from the ones mentioned in my notes at the bottom. This takes place after the War; I do not think it follows the The Deathly Hollows book, I did mention Remus at one point in here.
This is written for my beloved best friend, Kim; thank you for being my inspired, my shoulder to lean on, and everything in-between.
I hope you enjoy.
Hint: If you bribe me enough, I might tell you what happens on Christmas morning.
A Little Wetness Never Hurt
A pair of ten-year-old girls ran down the hallway in Malfoy Manor, eager to get to their destination; but for different reasons. The younger of the two was enthusiastic to hear the story of how they - her papa, her father, her sister, and herself - had become a family, while her older twin sister wanted to be snuggling with her family on Christmas Eve.
Upon reaching their parents' bedroom door, the brunette ten-year-old opened the door; letting it hit up against the wall, as she and her blonde haired twin rushed in and flung themselves onto a bed. Sitting against the green pillows covering the mahogany headboard was their papa: a black haired, emerald eyed man. He was simply known to them as 'Papa', their Father called him 'doll face', their godmothers and godfathers simply called him Harry, to everyone else he was the Savior of the Wizarding World, the Man-Who-Lived.
"Papa!" they cried simultaneously, launching themselves into Harry's open arms.
As they hugged him, they crawled underneath the covers and upon becoming comfy, the blonde quietly asked to be told the story of their adoption six years ago. "Papa… would you tell us how we became apart of the Potter-Malfoy family?"
The brunette girl nodded in agreed as Harry looked at her, then smiling, "Of course, Jai, I'll you the story of how you became your father's and my daughters. It all started six years ago, when Draco and I returned to England from studying at Kunnskapen University in Norway 1…"
Draco Malfoy cringed as he felt the trickle of water from wet snow hit the back of his head. He had been watching with rapt attention as Theodore Nott and Ronald Weasley threw snowballs at each other as if they were still eleven while their respective girlfriends, Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger, sat demurely on the sidelines watching on; that was now interrupted.
As calmly as he could he turned around to find the person who had launched the accursed ball of ice, who was wearing a smile on his face. "And you did that why?"
His boyfriend smirked. "Come on Draco, let's play."
Draco raised an eyebrow at his petite fiancé's sudden burst of exuberance, before he smirked, "Play? I'll show you play."
With that Draco charged at his boyfriend knocking them both to the ground. They landed in the two feet deep snow in a fit of laughter; Harry Potter on the receiving end of the tickling fingers of the former Slytherin, until Draco silenced his love with a kiss as the fingers ceased their ministrations.
Harry wrapped his arms protectively around the bulky form that was Draco Malfoy, who was remarkably dressed in muggle jeans, jumper and jacket. This was the real reason he had hit Draco…he was hoping this would happen.
It had been a few years since they had graduated and with there finally being peace in Harry's life, or what could be called peace, he had accepted Draco's proposal of marriage.
While distracted with kissing the black haired man beneath him, Draco didn't see the snowball Ron had made and launched at the pair. Much like Harry's own snowball, it hit Draco square in the back of the head, earning Harry a face-full of the white haired ex-Slytherin (not that he minded that much).
As soon as the white haired man disentangled himself from his black haired counterpart, he glared at the laughing pair of males: the red haired Weasley and his own best friend.
"WEASEL!" Draco shouted, which earned him the attention of Hermione and Luna, who immediately stood up from their spot and moved further away from the boys to continue their discussion.
Once the girls were aside, Ron had two snowballs flying at him. Ducking, Ron missed the first snow ball, but Theodore was unlucky and got in smack-dab in the face. The second snowball hit Ron where his jacket didn't quite cover his jeans, immediately wetting his shirt and lower back. He cried out indignantly, "Hey!"
"This means war!" cried Theo to the couple.
When Ron turned around with another snowball in process of being made, he went to throw it, only to discover his best friend and "ferret face" had disappeared. Scanning the snow for footprints and not finding any disturbed the red head. "Where'd they go?"
Hermione sighed, silently thinking, 'I wonder if he was a blonde in a previous life…' before she said aloud, "Ron, they probably used an invisible charm."
"I got that, Mione," was the reply, "but there aren't any footprints."
While Ron was distracted by his girlfriend, the invisible-charmed-Harry pulled Ron's jacket away from his neck while his fiancé gently placed a snowball at the back of Ron's neck before the two sneaked away.
As water began to trickle down Ron's neck, he flipped out and threw the snowball in his mitten covered hands randomly, and hitting Harry by chance. The invisible charm disappeared and Theodore hit the black haired Man-Who-Lived with another snowball.
Freely laughing, Harry quickly made snowballs with use of wandless magic (he had taught himself how to use it) and began throwing them at the pair of guys. Draco stepped out from underneath his own invisibility cloak and joined his fiancé in retaliating against Ron and Theo.
Soon the guys got fed up with just being guys, so Ron nudged his head towards the girls, still chatting on the sidelines. A grin crossed Theo's face and Draco nodded, while Harry was distracted by the conversation the girls were having.
"Girls against boys!" cried Ron as he launched a snow ball at Hermione, who immediately retaliated with her own.
Before the fight got much further, Harry protested, "But it's just Mione and Luna! That's four against two, Ron; that's unfair!"
Theo rolled his chocolate eyes, muttering something about Gryffindor who liked keeping things fair, while Draco's mercury orbs sparkled with mischief as he launched a snowball at his petit fiancé.
Harry's sputtered at the mouthful of ice he received after he turned around to persuade Theo and Draco to support his endeavor to make the teams fair.
"I think you're on the girls' team, hon," Draco replied. "That way the teams are even, just like you said."
Emerald eyes narrowed at the silver haired man. "Let's make this interesting; if we – me and the girls - win, you owe me. If you guys win, they I owe… well, just Draco."
The smirk on Draco's face widened. "You're on, Ry."
The snowball fight started off with the teams playing fair; until Ron built a snow barrier between the groups, which led to Hermione's snow fortress, encasing the two girls and Harry from the guys' meager snowballs. The snowball soon began to be made by magic, which had been started by Hermione. It was when Theo began hexing the snowballs to hit, reform, and hit the target again, that the girls and Harry decided to play dirty. The snowball fight continued as such until Luna and Harry and Hermione were cornered by the hexed snowballs.
"Alright!" cried Draco, "Surrender and we'll call off the snowballs."
Hermione, Harry and Luna all passed glances at each other: no way were they going to go down to a bunch of measly hexed snowballs. While Hermione and Harry began to softly discuss attacking strategies, they heard Luna calmly mutter, "If only there were Snow Yetis 2 around… I'd give anything for one to trample over those three."
A pair of wicked smirks crossed Harry and Hermione's faces as Harry began to create snowballs designed to distract the guys from the big picture; Hermione focused her energy on creating a snow version of a Snow Yeti. 'Thank Merlin for Luna and her wonderful mind,' thought Harry as the creature the creature emerged from the snow and with a growl made towards the boys.
Draco watched the creature swiping at Theo's hexed snowballs with fear. Why the hell had he ever tried to get on Granger's bad side?
With that the boys screamed and took off running.
A huge grin crossed Harry's face with delight while Hermione and Luna hugged each other, talking about the sheer brilliance of the Snow Yeti. While the three were still celebrating their victory, the Snow Yeti rounded up Draco, Theodore, and Ron and brought them back to the three adults… who were acting more like five-year-olds instead of level-headed adults.
Harry sauntered up to his defeated platinum haired fiancé, his fingers playing with the collar of Draco's soaked coat, and softly whispered in his ear, "I believe we won, Dray… you owe me now."
"So it seems," replied the wet and now-shivering Lord Malfoy.
Theodore invited them all to Nott manor; which had been demolished during Voldemort's First War and rebuilt after Voldemort Second War, for hot cocoa and a light dinner. Luna didn't have to accept, seeing as she was nearly always over at the manor, while Hermione and Ron took him up on the offer.
While they four were discussing plans for afterwards, Harry patted his wet-fiancé's head, then softly cleared his throat and said, "I think we should get you cleaned up before you get pneumonia, sweetie. Let's head back to your manor, alright?"
Draco nodded and was hoisted to his feet, immediately clinging to his petite fiancé like a koala bear, as Harry told their friends that they would have to pass on hot cocoa at Theo's in order to make sure Draco didn't get sick.
Saying their goodbyes, Harry side-long-apparated Draco to Malfoy Manor, where they were greeted by the squeaking of a houseelf, Twinkle, who immediately took their outer wet clothing and began to clean them while ushering them into their bedrooms to clean up.
Upon entering a bedroom that Narcissa, Draco's mother, had deemed 'theirs', Draco was dispelled of his clothes as Harry wandlessly removed them. Draco immediately tugged at his fiance's own clothing and whimpered, "Not fair…"
Harry shook his head before he too discarded his clothing and the two wandered into the tub, which could have been deemed as an Olympic pool at the sheer size of it. As Harry locked the door, he immediately found himself pressed against, Draco's flesh meeting his own in sweet caresses, nips, and gropes.
"Dray… Draco…" he moaned as his fiancé found the particular spot on his neck that made him shiver with delight, "Honey… need to get washed… must… get warm…"
Draco protested against Harry's neck, but managed to get both of them inside the tub before Harry immediately started washing them. He pouted at the love-of-his-life's actions, but knew he could keep them busy… while they busied themselves 'warming up' in the tub.
It was then that the twins' father, Draco Malfoy, entered the room from the shower; both the girls looked at each other before peering up at their papa, and inquired, "Father was primping again, wasn't he, Papa?"
Harry laughed at their language skills and thought, 'Theo must have taught them that word… there's no way that Luna or Hermione or Ron would have. Remember to thank Theo later.'
Draco grumbled about being clean and looking presentable; while his husband and daughters snickered, before he dried his white locks and clambered into bed, scooping up the brunette twin, Giselle, and setting her in his lap while Harry pulled Jai into his own lap.
"On with the story!" cried the Giselle, and Jai immediately agreed.
Smiling down at the twins, Harry replied, "Alright Giselle… well, after we got, well, cleaned up from our snowball fight with your godparents, your grandma Cissy came in…"
When they exited, roughly an hour later, Narcissa screeched at the two of them for coming in dripping all over her lovely rugs. Once her shrill screeches died out, she immediately want to know if they were warm enough, did they have frostbite, were they hungry, and all the other questions that mothers have after her child or children come home from being wet.
The couple managed to sneak away from the overbearing Lady Malfoy; Draco grabbed an old navy felt trench coat his father had never worn and a crimson velveteen coat with fur lining the top of it and sating decorating the insides for his adorable fiancé before they successfully … their escape.
Once they were out of the Manor, they disapparated together and apparated to a nearby garden adorned in snow, where upon entering, Draco murmured into Harry's ear, "Since you won, Ry, what can I do to please you for the evening?"
"Who said it was just for the evening?" inquired his black haired fiancé, who wore an adorable innocent face with his head cocked to the side.
Draco immediately caught on to the hint Harry was implying and immediately pulled the lithe body of his fiancé against him, gently whispering, "I have plans for us later tonight, but what can I do to please you until then?"
Harry giggled, like a schoolgirl on a date with her crush, wrapped his arms around Draco's chest before he murmured back, "I would like a cup of hot cocoa to start off with…"
With that said, the two wandered off into Coffea Rostir, where Emma 3, the very-pregnant barista, greeted them with a bright smile, wearing a Santa-hat, and offering a sample of raspberry chocolate mochas. Accepting them, the two studied the coffee list and menu before placing their orders with Trevor. Draco had settled with a white chocolate mocha and blueberry scone while Harry choose to a Godvia hot cocoa with a slice of banana nut bread.
They tucked themselves into a comfy corner booth and cuddled before their purchases were brought to them and their reveled in the warmth and flavors of their food and drinks. While they munched, Draco softly whispered, "When do you want to start planning the wedding, Harry? If we don't start, I fear we will end up with my mother in charge of everything and I don't think either of us wants that."
Harry sipped his hot cocoa before thinking aloud, "I would like to have a spring wedding… right after the snow melts… perhaps in early April?"
They continued to discuss wedding ideas and jotted down things they needed to decide on later, while electing to have Harry dressed in white robes, while Draco would wear black, their flowers would be lilies and baby's breath. They agreed that Remus Lupin would hold the honor of preceding over the wedding and Theodore would be Draco's best man and Ron would be his second best man, while Luna and Hermione would serve as Harry's … well, bridesmaids.
After handsomely tipping Emma, the two wandered to a frozen pond, where they rented ice skates and Harry attempted to learn how to ice skate from Draco. The 'lessons' resulted with Harry landing on Draco more often than skating, but they loved every minute of it.
Upon returning their rental ice skates, Harry tugged on Draco's hand, gaining the white haired man's attention.
"Do you want to have children, Dray?" he softly asked.
Before Draco got the chance to respond, Harry spotted something because he grabbed Draco's left arm, pulling the arm into his chest and with his left hand, Harry pointed to some birds that were feeding out of the hand of a blind man who was seated on a park bench. "Isn't that sweet, Dray?"
Instead of replying with a nod or verbally, Draco pulled Harry in front of him and wrapped his arms around him, pressing his chest into Harry's back. Softly, he pressed a kiss to Harry's neck before he whispered, "Of course the blind man feeding the birds is sweet, honey. And yes, I would love to have kids, Harry."
With that out of the way, Harry's nervousness was replaced with relaxation and a look of absolute serenity that Draco had only seen on Harry a couple of times. The most recent was when he had informed the entire Weasley family, Hermione, Luna, Theodore, Remus, and a few select others that he was gay and dating Draco, and they all had accepted Draco into their tight-knit family. He hugged his fiancé tighter, deeply inhaling the sweet scent of snow, vanilla, and mint that was unique to Harry.
Turning around in the embrace, Harry looked into Draco's mercurial silver eyes and inquired, "Could we go to the adoption center now, Dray? I really want a child of our own…"
Hearing the longing in Harry's voice as well as recalling the poor treatment of the Dursleys, Draco buried his face into the side of Harry's neck and murmured, "…as long as you pay me back… later."
A huge grin swept across the face of the Man-Who-Lived and he immediately kissed Draco, leaning on the balls of his feet to do so, before tugging the current Lord Malfoy across the bare landscape, decorated in a layer of pure white snow; footprints were the only blemish to the endless snow covered garden.
Despite the sun having already set, it was still early in the evening, around six o'clock, when Harry and Draco made their way up to the magical child adoption agency in Diagon Alley. As they entered, they were surprised to find no one at the front desk, but quietly made their way through the agency, in search of someone who could answer some questions for them.
They were discovered gazing at the children by an old lady with silver gray hair tied in a braid down to her waist. She was roughly five-foot-four and fairly plumb, carrying a child wearing green footsie pajamas with silver stars and moons covering the material. The child was clearly unhappy; it seemed to be due to the locks of brown curls being wet… perhaps it was that he or she had just been washed against their will.
"Can I help you gentlemen with anything?" the elderly woman asked them, surprising them both. "My sincerest apologies that you won't be seeing the children on their best behavior because we are preparing them for bed."
Harry waved his hands immediately, "It's quite alright. We just wanted to see the children as they are… if that's alright with you, Madame?"
She smiled, "Of course, sweetheart. Feel free to look around. I have to get this young one back to her twin sister… she hates baths because of the separation from her twin."
"May we follow you?" requested Draco.
She nodded before saying, "How impolite of me, I am Olivia Barton; I am in charge of the children as well as running the facility. This young one is Giselle, her sister is Jai. 4 May I inquire as to your names, gentlemen?"
Draco cut in, "I am Draco Malfoy, and this is my fiancé, Harry Potter."
"My word!" both men heard her whisper, brown eyes widening at the infamous names. "It is a pleasure and an honor to meet you both!"
Gently shifting the unhappy four-year-old in her arms, she whispered, "Giselle, don't you want to say hello to these gentlemen?"
A pair of emerald eyes that matched Harry's own turned to look at them, peering curiously before ducking her head: "'Ello." Giselle's brown locks were drying, becoming soft curls that Harry was itching to touch.
Turning to Olivia, she tugged on the blue sweater the woman was wearing, "Me wan Jai."
Both men blinked at the slight slurring of speech as well as incorrect grammar and thought it was due to the little girl being tired.
Chuckling, Olivia waved her hand, ushering both men into a room where just a pair of small beds were squashed together and a younger woman was reading to a blonde haired little girl.
"JAI!" Giselle happily cried, emerald eyes lighting up, before demanding to be put down.
Once on her feet, she tripped over her own feet as she made her way to the beds, immediately hugging the tiny blonde haired girl, whose blue eyes intently and curiously studied the two men and Olivia before tugging her sister onto the bed and told her where they were in the story, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Harry and Draco glanced at each other, choosing the skim over the part where they had learned about the girls' problems from Olivia.
xXx
While the twins were having the story read to them, Olivia tried to usher Draco and Harry out of the room: "Why don't I introduce you to other children in the facility? I am sure they would suit you more than these two…"
Draco's silver eyes hardened as they landed on the woman, "I think Harry and I know what we are looking for, Madame."
Olivia gulped, showing her fear at having displeased the two men, but immediately rushed forward, "You must understand, sirs, that these girls have gone through a lot. Both of them were found abandoned in a wrecked building; it looked as if their parents had run into trouble with You-Know-Who. When we received the two, they wouldn't talk to us, they wouldn't eat, they wouldn't respond to the other kids, they wouldn't do much of anything. Within the past year we have gotten Giselle to learn how to speak; however she has a speech impediment, and has trouble walking do to part of the wrecked house falling on her right leg. Meanwhile, Jai has magically had her eyes corrected from Nystagmus 5 just recently; we are not certain if it is a family trait, but we have our suspicions that it may have occurred in a magical backlash. Neither of them has shown magical outputs either."
xXx
Squeezing his fiancé's hand, Harry's emerald eyes turned to meet Draco's own silver eyes. They knew these girls were going to be apart of their tiny family as soon as the paperwork was filled out.
"We want to adopt them," they said in harmony as they looked at Olivia, dead-serious.
Before she could utter a word, the blonde haired little girl - Jai - loudly announced, "You're telling it wrong. Snow White doesn't die when she eats the apple. She is put to sleep and when Prince Charming kisses her, she awakens! You suck at telling stories!"
Snatching the storybook from the woman's hands, Jai turned to her sister, tugged her hand and led them over to Harry and Draco, who were discussing paperwork with Olivia. Upon tugging on the red velveteen coat Harry wore, his emerald eyes landed on the sapphire blue ones that belonged to Jai.
"Would you read Elle and I this story?" she asked, holding up the book with one hand, her sisters' hand with the other.
Squatting to her level, Harry gently took the book and said, "I would love to read you Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."
That said, the two girls dragged the black haired Man-Who-Lived to their beds, promptly kicking the other woman out and snuggled up to him as if he were their real father. Draco pulled out a camera from one of his many coat pockets and took a picture of the three of them; stealthy sneaking it back into coat before Harry could notice. Turning his attention back to Ms. Barton, the two of them left the three to finish the fairytale while they hashed out paperwork and the details involved.
Harry paused in his storytelling to allow Draco to explain what had happened once they had fallen asleep; three pairs of eyes shifted to the white haired Lord Malfoy as Draco softly cleared his throat, "While your papa was reading you the muggle
fairytale…"
Draco and Olivia decided that he and Harry could pick the girls up the next morning; Draco had told Olivia that he wanted the girls to be his fiancé's Christmas present; to which the elderly lady swooned and told him what a sweet boyfriend he was. Finishing up the paperwork, Draco crept back to the room, to find his fiancé asleep with both the brunette and blond clinging to him.
Smiling at the picture they made, Draco quickly removed the two girls from his fiancé, tucking them in and tucking loose locks of hair behind their ears, before scooping Harry into his arms and pulling his mother's coat on his tiny fiancé before he left the facility, carrying Harry bridal style to Malfoy Manor. Once there, Draco wandlessly and wordlessly enchanted the coats and outer clothing off, before helping them both into bed and pulling Harry close to him before he drifted off to the land of nod.
1: Kunnskapen is Norwegian meaning knowledge
2: Snow Yeti; I owe Zylarai for the idea.
3: Coffea Rostir is an actual coffee shop; I work there! Emma is my own character.
4: Jai, Giselle, and Olivia Barton are my own characters (with some help from Zylarai).
5: Nystagmus is an actual disease; if you are interested in more information, look it up.