Hello, and thank you for starting to read my story! This is going to be a SLASH fiction and if you don't like that then don't read this :) I don't know how long this is going to be but I have finished about seven chapters already and I am just getting started. So enjoy and PLEASE review!

UN BETA'D BTW.

Longer Summary: When Draco Malfoy meets Harry Potter – recently widowed with four children in his care – things start out very differently. Is this how life could have been? And what is going on with the mysterious animal attacking small children?

- Chapter One -

October 16th

The man who was struggling along with four children, clearly couldn't cope, thought Draco as he sat on the play-park bench. Draco himself prided in being able to look after Scorpius though his internal voice was telling him to be fair – it was probably a lot harder with four. The man let his children run off to the play-area, except the girl balanced on his hip, and then he swivelled round to find somewhere to sit. That was when Draco realized that he knew the man well, it was Harry freaking Potter.

Ah, yes, he had heard all about Harry in the newspapers recently and he found himself actually feeling sorry for the man. Harry's wife, Ginny, or the Weaslette as he always thought of her, had recently died leaving him to bring up their three children and one adopted child. The adopted child was the son of his old Professor Lupin and, if rumours were indeed true, also the son of his cousin. Albus would probably be around four making, Lily two, James five and Teddy about six.

Then suddenly those amazing green eyes locked on his and they just stared at each other for a full second. God, he missed those eyes from when he was at school, God, he missed Harry Potter. Pansy was always going on, every single time she saw Potter's picture in Witch Weekly, about how beautiful those eyes were. Draco always took that opportunity to remind her that she was happily married to Blaise and should keep her eyes (and thoughts, preferably) to herself.

Now he realized that Harry was walking towards him with the small girl – gosh she was cute – and his heart flipped. He wasn't really sure if he was quite ready to see Potter after all this time. But now Potter was only a few metres away and looked like he was about to say something, so Draco seemingly had no choice.

"Hello, Malfoy, mind if I sit there?" Harry asked Draco with a small smile, which Draco at once noticed looked rather weary.

"Be my guest," he replied with a small smile.

Harry sat down with the girl, Lily he supposed, on his lap and they both watched their children. Albus and Scorpius, Draco noticed, and he was sure Harry did too, were playing very happily together on the see-saw. James and Teddy seemed to be building a sandcastle in the sandpit which looked a little like Hogwarts. Eventually Draco plucked up the courage to say something.

"Sorry to hear about your loss, Potter," he said.

At once he regretted saying those words as the tears formed in Harry's eyes and then slid down his cheeks. His wife had died less than a couple of months back so Draco had rubbed salt into a raw wound. As another tears ran down towards his lips Draco sighed heavily, angry with himself for making things awkward.

"Shit, Potter, I'm really sorry for mentioning that, I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry," Draco said quietly. Before he knew quite what he was doing he had stretched out a hand and placed it on top of the one on his daughter's back. There was a moment of pregnant silence before he awkwardly removed his hand and looked back at Scorpius who was now on the swings with Albus.

The baby suddenly giggled a little and Harry adjusted her on his lap but she reached out her arms for Draco. Draco gently pushed her arms down a little and said, "No, Lily, Draco doesn't want to hold you."

"Mama!" Lily said in a very young voice, "Mama!"

Sensing that tears were welling up in Harry's eyes again Draco said, "Can I hold Lily for a bit, Potter?"

When Harry had left for the park that morning he had never suspected that he would be handing over his baby willingly to an ex-death eater. But as Draco took Lily and began to cradle her in his arms he realized that actually it was alright to hand her over. Draco seemed to actually be quite good at holding children and she giggled when he lifted her up and down in the air. They sat in silence for a little longer before Lily started clamouring to be put down so she could go somewhere.

Draco set her gently down on the floor but she wasn't finished with him as she grabbed his hand. Lily pulled him gently by the hand and Draco took a quick look at Harry who just shrugged and nodded before letting himself be led away. Lily led him over to the swings where he lifted her into the special baby one. Then Draco slowly began to swing her back and forth whilst she laughed with delight and Harry watched. As Harry slowly walked over Draco was glad that Lily was too young to properly understand that her mother was dead.

Draco smiled at Harry who sat down on the normal swing the other side of Lily and just watched them together. Then, when it looked like he was just about to say something, their two boys ran over laughing happily.

"Daddy! Daddy!" cried Scorpius happily, "Can Albus, James and Teddy come over tonight for tea with their Daddy and sister? Please?"

"Now Scorpius as much as I would love to invite them all over I'm sure that they can't come over tonight because they are probably busy. Maybe some other time," Draco said, thinking that Harry probably wouldn't want to come over to his house.

"Oh, please Daddy," Albus cried, "Mummy would have let us go over to Scorpius' house..."

Harry looked upset again and so as to save the situation he said quickly, "Why don't you go play a little more and we'll make an arrangement between us alright?"

Once the two had run off Harry started to speak saying, "I'm sorry about my son, Draco, it's just he hasn't seen any of his friends in a couple of months because... you know. Also he tends to get a little over-excited, I'm sorry," Harry apologized.

"It's fine Harry. You know I don't mind if you and your children come over tonight... if you want that is. I mean I get it if you're busy or something but the offer most certainly stands. Scorpius hasn't made many friends since I pulled him out of nursery when Astoria..."

"Did she leave you?" Harry asked.

"She died, Potter, she died about a year ago," Draco said quietly. "I've been raising Scorpius ever since. Look, I think both our sons could do with having some fun tonight, so you really should come on over."

"Well, if you're sure..."

"I am 100% positive," Draco replied with a smile. "I'll open the floo network at around six tonight then you can all come through. Just make sure you say Malfoy Manor and then you'll be able to come through the fireplace. Is that alright then?"

They parted their separate ways at the park, both with very excited children, who couldn't wait for that night. Teddy and James wouldn't stop giggling about some joke between themselves from the park and Albus insisted on carrying Lily all the way back to the car on his back, even though he wasn't that great at walking himself. When they were finally all strapped into the car – which took at least ten minutes – Harry drove off back to their house in Godric's Hollow.

At home the normal chaos when they had to go anywhere at all ensued as per usual. For a start the three boys were all ridiculously filthy from their play at the park so the quickest thing to do was to get them all in the bath. That sounded very simple and with one maybe it would have been but there were three young boys.

For a start the call of "bath time boys" roughly translated in kid's language to "hide and seek". James had managed to somehow get up into the attic and hide the ladder so Harry had to make one out of Lily's wooden rocking horse. This resulted in him falling to the floor a fair few times because she had kind of forgotten that rocking horses tend to rock. When he had finally got James in the bath he just had the task of getting the other two into the bath as well.

The next one he found was in his own bedroom somehow on top of the four-poster bed canopy. Teddy had somehow managed to get up there and it didn't take him as long from there to find Albus. He had decided to go for the brilliant hiding place that was under his duvet and it took Harry such a long time to find him. When all three were in the bath more trouble led from there onwards. He had made a pretty stupid mistake by letting James pour the bubble bath in the bath which meant there were about ten metres of foam covering the bathroom.

Harry had left them to get into the bath together but when he came in two minutes later he couldn't actually see either three of the boys. He could however hear their giggling as they splashed about and with a groan he fought his way through the foam. Several reducing charms later and he found himself able to actually see two raven haired boys and one with brown hair. They had a brilliant system once they actually got to this point however which he employed that night.

Harry would squirt shampoo on his, James and Teddy's hands and then they would each rub it into the person in front of them's hair. Then they would rinse the hair of the one in front of them before applying the conditioner as well. Then they would do a final rinse and voilà, three boys with perfectly washed hair. Eventually they would all get out of there and then would be the infamous towelling session.

All three boys would be lifted out of the bath by Harry, as they were on this particular night, and then they would run. Lily waddled out of the nursery as Albus ran past starkers and giggled when she saw her father run by seconds later. As she fell over onto her bottom, a wet-haired Teddy in just his pyjama bottoms, came running by. He stopped briefly and then grabbed her onto his back in an awkward piggy back and began to run round and round again.

"RIGHT! If you are not all in the boy's bedroom by the time I count to three then no one is going tonight! One... two... three!"

As he stepped into the boy's bedroom James ran past him into it too meaning that they were all finally in one place. But unfortunately this was by no means over because now there was the horrible ordeal of deciding what to wear.

"I'm wearing my Chudley Canons Quidditch Robes!" insisted James.

"I'm wearing my Dobby clothes!" insisted Teddy.

"I'm wearing my Merlin Halloween Outfit!" insisted Albus.

"Princess Clothes!" insisted Lily.

When the clock struck seven they all were lined up by the fireplace dressed up as themselves. Harry was dragging a comb through the boy's hair and finally they all looked presentable enough to be taken out. Harry kissed each of them on the head and then said, "We're going to go through one at a time. I shall go through with Teddy then with Albus then James and Lily. Got it?"

It took five minutes to get them all through to the other side and by the time the last two got through the Floo Draco was full out laughing at them.

"Well, now that you've had your daily exercise, Potter, what do you say that we all get down to actually having some food?"

The dining room that Harry had been expecting them to eat in was the not the one they eventually did. Draco led them all through to a much smaller dining room where they were all comfortably seated round a circular table. Then the house elves appeared and Harry knew at once who had organized the food for the evening, and who had organized very little.

Plates of jelly, ice cream, cakes, biscuits, sweets and other such children's food and then there were a couple of salads, potatoes and sensible foods. The younger ones of course went mad over the unhealthy food at once with shouts of glee and began talking loudly. Harry cast a muffliato around him and Draco so they could actually hear themselves think and maybe talk too.

"So, Potter, how come you don't get a little more help with the children from the Weasley's or someone? And why is Teddy living with you anyway?"

"Well, the Weasley's all have their own lives and they don't need me constantly reminding them of their loss of... Ginny. Also they look after the children when I have to work so I would never ask anything more of them. I mean I would maybe ask for a little more help from Ron and Hermione but they have two children of their own and they live in Australia now with Hermione's parents. Teddy's living with me because Andromeda is pretty ill now so I said I would take care of him. He's been living with me on and off since he was six months old and fully since he was three. I wouldn't let him stay with anyone else for the world."

Draco nodded and then asked, "Do you want some wine Potter?"

"That'd be nice," Harry said removing the muffliato charm to find out what their children were talking about. As Draco was pouring the wine for Harry, Scorpius chose that moment to ask an awkward question.

"Harry, do you love my Daddy?"

"W-what?" he stammered back, caught off guard by the question, whilst Draco spilt the red wine all over the table cloth.

"I love Albus, I love James, I love Teddy, I love Lilly and they all love me back. So do you love my Daddy?" asked Scorpius with a small smile.

"I..."

"Scorpius, hurry up and eat your food and then you can go show your friends the cool toys you got for your birthday."

When the children were gone in a whirlwind of hyperactivity later the two men went through to the Living Room to continue their drinks. It was a pleasant conversation that they all shared until they both decided their children needed to get some sleep. When they reached Scorpius' bedroom they found all five children passed out asleep in Scorpius bed, tucked up together.

"You know, Potter, I wouldn't mind if you just left the children to sleep here tonight. You can stay in one of the spare rooms if you like but I just think it would be easier than waking them all up and then trying to extract them all from the bed. What do you say?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind. You wouldn't believe how crabby Lily can get when she's woken up before she wants to be..."

Harry was led from the room by Draco and along the corridor by him until they reached a pretty nice room. "There are spare pyjamas inside the chest of drawers as well as everything else you could need in the bathroom. Also if there is anything you want during the night then call from Winky and she'll appear and help you. So... good night then Potter..."

"Good night, Malfoy," he replied with a small smile.

Harry changed into a pair of the silver pyjamas in the chest of drawers – it didn't escape his notice they matched Draco's eyes – and then lay down to bed. They were silk pyjamas, he had silk sheet, the bed had been warmed before he got into it and so it took him a matter of seconds to fall asleep. With a small smile to himself he snuggled underneath the duvet and fell asleep very deeply.

October 17th

When Harry awoke the next morning he remembered at once that it was Sunday but couldn't for the life of him remember where he was. He looked up at the huge bay window and knew from that it must be about six because the sun was just coming up. But if it was only about dawn then why had he woken up? The answer came in the form of a loud giggle from the doorway and Harry sat up at once.

In the doorway were all five of the children laughing together but trying their hardest to keep quiet. "Morning Daddy!" shrieked Albus running and jumping into the bed. Seconds later and he was buried in a pile of children including Scorpius.

There was a sharp laugh from the doorway and Harry managed to manoeuvre the children so he could see the doorway. Standing there, in just a pair of green silk pyjama bottoms was Draco laughing at him. He walked over to the bed and said, "Alright kids we need to leave Potter to actually get up and you can all come downstairs and I'll make you all pancakes."

Four out of the five kids jumped off the bed and started to run towards the door but Teddy, the oldest and therefore the wisest, asked, "Mr Malfoy, why do you call my Daddy "Potter"? His name is Harry, why don't you call him that?"

"Potter and I have always called each other that. It's like our own nicknames for each other or something," Draco said with a smirk at Harry. Harry smirked back.

"So... can we call you Malfoy and Potter then?" asked Albus with a confused look on his face.

"We-"

"From now on we'll call each other by our first names, alright guys?" Harry said with a laugh. "Now you all go follow Draco and get some breakfast then I'll get up and dressed."

"Come on you lot," Draco said with a smile, "Harry, there are some spare clothes in the drawers if you want to take whatever you need. See you downstairs."

Harry watched as he hoisted Lily up onto his hip, and then Scorpius grabbed his hand whilst the other boys all clamoured around him. He chuckled to himself as he heard his children asking incessant questions to poor Draco. Harry opened the drawers to see what there was and found basically brand new clothes. It was lucky, he thought to himself, that he was basically the same size as Draco was.

I would genuinely like to know what you thought of this so please review! Another chapter will be up soon enough but please

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