"Please dad, please! I want to go to the zoo! You said two weeks ago," here Harry was sent such a look by his five year old son Albus, that he felt the guilt settle deeper into his heart, "that we would go already. And we didn't go."
Harry sighed deeply. Two weeks ago they had been on the verge of leaving, Albus already wearing his red beanie and dark blue duffle coat, when the floo alarm had gone off and Kingsley appeared in the sitting room. "Potter, get here now. The ministry is under attack. You need to fight. I'll take your kid to Molly." Harry had shoved Albus back inside, into Kingsley's arms and without a backwards glance dived into the floo to the Atrium. The attack had been smaller than he'd dared to hope, but it had taken two whole weeks of working very, very late until the situation was under control. Harry, as head of the Auror department, had organised search teams, arrest teams, investigation teams, interrogation teams and a whole lot of other teams, who all reported back to him. It had been a nightmare, especially since four or five of the attackers had not been apprehended yet, and no lead had turned into something actually useful. The interrogation team so far didn't have much luck getting facts out of the criminals either, simply because they didn't seemed to know anything. Whoever had been behind the attack had developed a very vast network of intricate relationships between the cronies and the higher-ups. No one had any substantial knowledge of whom exactly the orders of the attack had come from.
Harry had gone two straight days without sleep, first fighting and then arresting the criminals. Only realising that he had a child at home when he was about to fall asleep on the armchair in the corner of his office and his eyes fell upon the drawings on the side of the bookcase. He shot up, muscles all over his body protesting from the sudden movement and apparated straight into the living room of the Burrow. Molly had calmly pushed him into a chair when he had started to shout for Albus, then gave him a plate of food and a cup of hot chocolate. "Albus is fine, dear. He has been asleep since eight." That had confused Harry for a while. "It's now close to midnight," Molly added without prompting. She had probably dealt with her fair share of overworked men in her life.
After his midnight dinner, he had gathered Albus in his arms and apparated them both home, for some well deserved sleep. It had not been any easier on him the following days, but at least he was able to bring Albus to bed himself, after which he continued to work deep into the night.
Today had been his first day off, and not by choice. He had received a very angry floo call from Molly two days ago, in which she admonished him first for not eating properly, then for not sleeping enough and lastly for not paying enough attention to his son. The last reprimand had hurt enough that he had owled Kingsley and told him he was taking a weekend off. He would deal with the mountains of paperwork he'd no doubt receive on Monday.
The guilt had not subsided yet after a morning of baking cookies and messing around in the kitchen with his son. Clearly Albus had agreed, because he had reminded him of the zoo. "Put on your coat then, we can also drink hot chocolate there." Albus jumped up at that, and gave Harry a hug that made him feel a slightly better. Clearly, he hadn't messed up too badly yet if his son was still willing to touch him. He followed Albus into the hallway, where he helped the bouncing boy into his winter boots. He wrapped the red scarf around his neck, tucking it in to make sure the cold couldn't find its way to the boy's neck. Pulling on his own coat, he shoved his feet into his most warm trainers and apparated away.
It was colder than he had expected when they arrived in Regent's Park, and he carefully slipped his wand from his arm holster to cast a warming charm on his son and himself. "Come on mate." He took his son's hand in his, and smiled when he saw him skipping along happily.
It turned out it wasn't very busy in the zoo, which suited Harry just fine. The less screaming children the better he thought, and he let himself relax slightly for the first time in two weeks. They strolled past the monkeys and vultures, followed by spending quite a lot of time laughing at the antics of the penguins. Harry kept a close eye on Albus, who mostly seemed over the lack of attention of the past few weeks based on his non-stop chatter. Nevertheless, he never let go of Harry's hand and the few times that Harry wanted to point out some animal, he grabbed onto his jeans as fast as he could. Quickly Albus decided it would be even better if his father would carry him, so he asked to be lifted up. "Sure buddy," Harry lifted him up on a low wall and crouched down in front of it. "Up you go!"
"Where do you want to go next?" Harry asked, his hands not leaving his son's ankles; it was reassuring for them both. "Lions!" Came the enthusiastic reply and Harry chuckled. At least that hadn't changed.
"Why don't they move dad?" Albus whined after he had spent almost ten minutes with his face pressed against the window, hoping to rouse the dozing lion to a more awake, and more entertaining, state. "Sorry son, I'm afraid he's not in the mood today. Maybe we'll have more luck next time. Remember last summer? When we caught the lion playing with its cubs? If we're lucky, that could happen again. Come on, let's go for hot chocolate," Harry said and lifted his son up. They stopped for a drink and a snack at the café, and continued their trip to the reptile house, the real reason that Albus liked to go to the zoo; if it was empty enough, his dad would start hissing and talking to snakes. He had even learned Albus some words when he begged long enough, and he looked forward to practising his new words: "beautiful scales".
They entered the reptile house, and Albus sped towards the biggest snake he could find, looking hopefully at this father. Harry shook his head. "Too busy, love, I'm sorry. Why don't you look at the crocodiles first and we'll see if we can find some of the smaller snakes that don't have people watching." Albus trudged of towards the crocodiles, and Harry shook his head, he'd tell his son off for his behaviour, but didn't have the heart to do it today. No, he'd have to be there first if he wanted to take on that part of being a father again. He didn't think Albus would take kindly to having the negative part without the positive part as well. Harry followed him towards the crocodile, but stopped and watched Albus talk rapidly to a boy about the same size as he was. He chuckled, it certainly did not come from him that Al was so social. He preferred to stay with the people he knew, avoided meeting strangers at all costs. Albus though, made friends wherever he went. Harry would have his hands full when he would go to primary school, and insisted on bringing half the class home to play with, because, well, he liked them all. The boys, who were dressed identically except for the colour of their scarfs, Harry was amused to see, hovered in front of the crocodile basin to stare at a swimming crocodile. He kept his distance, glad that Albus started to behave normally again instead of clutching his sleeve.
"I see you are raising your kid to be a perfect little Gryffindor already, Potter" Someone behind him sneered and Harry whipped around at the familiarity of that drawl. He straightened a little more, and looked the man up and down quickly. His eyes shot to the man's perfect miniature replica next to his own son and connected the dots. "Pot calling the kettle black there, don't you think Malfoy? Is that your own scarf? I'm surprised he's not wearing his robes already, or are you not that confident about his house?" It was too easy to fall back into the sneering match with Malfoy, even though he hadn't seen him for neigh on eight years.
"For the record, Potty, I don't care which house my son is sorted into, as long as he is happy. From this conversation, I can assume you will not be so lenient when yours is sorted into Slytherin?" That made Harry think. Honestly surprised, he asked: "you don't?"
The sudden change in attitude seemed to even startle Malfoy into speaking close to civilly with him. "Of course I don't, Potter. I'm not my father," he added, somewhat bitterly. Harry backed down further.
"I didn't mean to imply that you are, I apologise. Why is your son so fascinated with crocodiles by the way?" They both looked over to their sons, who were still talking and pointing in front of the glass. Albus seemed to predominate the conversation, like he always did, but Malfoy's son was smiling and nodding enthusiastically to whatever was being said to him.
"He's never so quick to talk to strangers, he must like your son," Draco said, and Harry, realising that this was the second sentence Malfoy had spoken to him without his usual sneer, tried to hide his surprise to respond politely. "He's very social, doesn't stop talking until he is asleep, sometimes not even then." He looked up when Malfoy chuckled. "Lucky you, I have to coax mine into speaking most of the time. He's terribly shy. He seems to do alright now though."
Malfoy stepped forward towards the boys, and lowered himself in into a crouch, something Harry couldn't have seen him doing ever if you had asked him. Walking forward too, he listened to Malfoy praising his son. "Well done son, who is your new friend then?" Malfoy's boy shrugged, and shuffled backwards a bit, in the direction of his father. Malfoy stopped him with an encouraging hand on his back. "What did I tell you to do when you meet new people?" Malfoy said softly. The little blond boy thought, and then extended his hand towards Albus. Harry had reached the trio by then, and was hit with a flashback of the same situation fifteen years ago. Albus had no such restrictions as he did then, and accepted the hand without hesitation. "I'm Albus, and I'm five!"
"Scorpius" the blond boy responded, and if Harry had been out of earshot, he would have laughed. At least in that sense Draco was like his father. Now he put his hand on Albus's beanie and smiled at Scorpius. "Nice to meet you, Scorpius. I'm Harry. How old are you?"
Scorpius shot his father a quick look, who nodded in encouragement. Scorpius then held up his gloved hand, four fingers stretched out and his thumb tucked in. "Almost five," he then added in a whisper, as if that made all the difference in the world. It probably did.
"Oh!" Albus exclaimed then, "We'll be in school together!" He clapped his hands and turned to his father, "right dad?" Harry nodded, "I'd say so, yes." When that matter was settled, Albus turned back to Scorpius. "Do you want to see the trick I can do with the snake?" Scorpius nodded eagerly and made to walk towards Albus, but both Harry and Draco stopped them. "Now wait just a minute," "What trick?" They spoke at the same time.
"Parseltongue," Harry explained to Draco. "I'm sure you remember that I speak it? What is not explained yet is how Scorpius knows about the snake trick. Albus, what did I tell you about telling others? Especially in a muggle zoo. What if Scorpius was not a wizard?"
"What do you mean Potter? Of course my son is a wizard," Draco interjected.
"But Albus couldn't know that now, could he?" Three heads turned towards him. Harry didn't know how it was possible that these three ganged up on him already, after barely ten minutes of contact.
"Dad, I felt it. I felt the magic. Like I feel in Rosie, and Hugo. They feel different from Muggle children."
"Really?" Harry asked, completely taken aback. He looked at Malfoy.
"Yes, children feel that. How do you not know this? Everyone knows this. Why do you think muggleborns feel uneasy at their primary schools? There's no one there who is magical, they 'feel', for a lack of a better word, differently from the rest of the class. You must have noticed it yourself, surely?" Harry shook his head, and added under his breath "this is not a conversation I want my son to hear." Then, louder this time. "No worries then, Al, let's see the snakes ok? I think we have about fifteen minutes left before the park closes. You can show Scorpius what you know."
The boys ran off, stopping in front of the now deserted anaconda. "Watch," Albus said proudly and let out a low hissing sound that Harry understood as 'hello'. The snake slowly raised his head. Albus repeated his greeting. This time the snake replied, and Scorpius let out a low "wow" at that.
"Come on," Harry told Malfoy, "we need to keep an eye out for the muggles. Rather, you need to keep an eye out. I want to talk to the snake myself. Albus only knows a few words. I guess I can entertain her a bit longer. It seems your son likes snakes too." Malfoy nodded and walked forward. "Still, I want to hear why you didn't know about this, Potter. You owe me the story."
Harry turned on him. "I owe you nothing, Malfoy," he answered coldly, and resolutely turned his back. Stalking over to the snake, he seethed about the fact that Malfoy could still get a rise out of him. He had thought that after years of practice listening to criminals trying to taunt him, he would have his temper under control. Trust Malfoy to prove him differently. Harry shook his anger off, this was Albus's day out, and he would not let it be ruined by any Malfoy, especially not Draco. He figured that today, only today, we'd have to add his given name to his thoughts. There were two Malfoys present now.
He listened to the conversation, Albus had just hissed his new addition to his Parseltongue vocabulary, and the snake looked very pleased with the compliment. It was also his last word he could produce, so he turned to Harry to continue the conversation. Harry was happy for the opportunity to get his mind of the git near the door, so he spent the next couple of minutes hissing and translating for the boys with their noses pressed to the glass. It was a very patient snake. Most snakes got bored very quickly once they got over the shock of a human speaking their language. This one however, waited calmly until Harry had finished translating, and even had some questions of her own. She also, with help from Harry and Albus, taught Scorpius to say hello too, repeating the greeting over and over again until the boy had it right. Scorpius, who had gotten over his shyness when the snake started talking, happily hissed the greeting to his father. Malfoy looked very confused and not a little bit annoyed, but managed to hide it from his son, who he praised again for his accomplishments, both for learning a new word and for becoming friends with a snake.
Harry studied Malfoy while he talked with his son and found he was again surprised by how incredibly kind he was. He had never heard Malfoy talk in anything but a sneer or haughty way until today, and to hear him compliment Scorpius over and over again in that very calm, soothing voice took some time getting used to. He couldn't be anything other than a good father, based on the short period he had seen Scorpius interact with him. The boy seemed happy, although a bit timid, and he clearly adored his father.
He was roughly pulled out of his musings when Malfoy looked up and called out: "Muggles!" Even the snake seemed to understand, because she lowered her head back to the floor and curled herself back up. Scorpius and Albus clearly needed some work on their acting skills though, because they looked so guiltily that Harry shared a look with Malfoy and laughed. He stopped abruptly when he realised he had just shared a joke with the same man who made his life a living hell in Hogwarts.
"We should go," Draco said to break the tense silence that had risen between them. "Us too," Harry agreed. "Al, let's go buddy." Albus, however, didn't seem inclined to leave his new friend's side so quickly and moved towards Scorpius. "I want Scorpius to come eat pizza with us. You said we could after the zoo." Harry shook his head.
"I'm sorry love, I'm sure Scorpius and his dad already have plans. We don't want to trouble them."
"But, dad," Albus pouted, and Harry pressed his thumbs into his brow behind his glasses, the only sign of tiredness he had shown all day. He was not in the mood to deal with any of this. Not Malfoy being a prick, not Albus being whiney and definitely not in the mood to negotiate with his son. "Albus. I said no. We are having dinner with the two of us and that's it."
Harry half expected Malfoy to sneer at him again because of his apparent lack of parental skills, but he stayed silent, looking at Harry with a non-judgmental expression he hadn't seen before.
"Mr Potter is right, we need to go home too, Grandmother is expecting us for dinner Scorpius." He turned to Albus then, "It was very nice meeting you, Albus. I will owl your father soon to ask if you can come over to play with Scorpius. I'm sure he would like that very much." He lowered his voice, as if to convey a greatly kept secret. "And maybe, if you're lucky, I can open the inside gymnasium for you, and you'll be able to go flying with Scorpius." Albus eyes lit up, and Harry wondered how Malfoy had known exactly the right thing to say.
"Can I dad, can I? Please?" Albus asked, bouncing in front of his father. Harry smiled at him, then looked at Malfoy, who shrugged. "I'll owl Mr. Malfoy about it, but I think there won't be a problem." Albus beamed, then turned back to Scorpius to say goodbye.
Malfoy took that moment to step up to Harry, and extend his hand. "For our sons, I would say we should be able to act at least civilly with each other. I assume you don't want to be my friend, whereas I'm also unsure if I deserve to be yours, but I know Scorpius gets lonely in the Manor and he has taken a liking to Albus." He waited then, hand still outstretched, and Harry didn't think the week could turn out any stranger than it had already, so took it. They shook hands briefly, and Harry managed to raise a smile, despite his increasing headache.
"Let's go then Scorpius. Say goodbye to Mr. Potter." Draco took his son's hand in preparation to apparate home. "Goodbye Mr. Potter," he repeated dutifully, and with a pop they disappeared. Harry turned to his son, who hissed his goodbyes to the snake, before also leaving.
Once home, they ordered pizza and spent the rest of the evening playing Muggle boardgames. Harry gave Albus a bath. Just like old times, Albus had signed when Harry washed his hair, and the guilt that had started to subside came back full force. He then dressed the boy in his blue snitch pyjamas and read three fairy tale stories, two of Beedle the Bard and one about the emperor's new clothes. Albus had more of a love for muggle stories than Teddy had shown at that age, so most evenings he had to take out the fairy tale book that Hermione had given him when Teddy had stayed over for the very first time. Harry had been so afraid that the little boy would not go to sleep, or wouldn't stop crying when he was with him, that Hermione had given him her old book. It had all turned out fine in the end, and Teddy had fallen asleep just like Andromeda said he would, but Harry had kept the book. He himself never had had the experience of being read to, so one Saturday afternoon he had taken the book and read it word for word, familiarising himself with the stories he had swore then to tell to Teddy.
Albus loved them, and so he had bought others too, Grimm, Charles Perrault and Joseph Jacobs. It made him laugh, especially after the last incident with Ginny. He couldn't blame the boy that he needed to hide into a fantasy world after that, so he had read to Albus, every single night. Only half a year ago had the need started to diminish, and he allowed others to bring him to bed too. Arthur, or Ron, or even Charlie when he came over from Wales. He didn't like women, and again, Harry could hardly fault him for that. He had been furious with Ginny, but that hadn't helped before and it also hadn't helped then.
Harry looked at the sleeping boy in bed, and stroked his black hair back from his eyes. Haircut soon, he decided then; maybe Fleur would be willing to do it for him. Lion clutched firmly in his arms, dragon was awarded the guard position next to his pillow and Footy, the black dog, had the difficult task of keeping away the monsters under bed. Albus took special care to position the dog with his head towards the bed, so he could be alert all the time. Harry, after assuring him that there really weren't any monsters hiding under bed, had let him.
He pressed a soft kiss on his son's hair, and dragged himself to his office. Eight thirty, he could at least do something productive for an hour or five. With a bit of luck, Albus would sleep a bit more than his regular hours after such a hectic day. Harry could use a bit of a lay-in himself. He sat down and pulled the pile of letters and notes towards him that definitely weren't there this morning. He had also received a very long report on the latest interrogation; he blamed himself for that mostly, he didn't trust other people to do the job better than he did it, so he wanted a word for word repeat. He read through it twice, making notes as he did so. When he was satisfied that he had assessed all possible angles, he moved on to the latest results of the fugitives search. By the time he had worked through those piles, it was bordering midnight, and his headache reached an all time high.
He threw his quill down, angry that he would not get the work done he needed, meaning that it would cut into his day with Albus tomorrow. Maybe… he thought, and he picked up his quill again, maybe he could ask Malfoy if Albus could come over for a few hours. It would only need to be for two, or three hours, tops. He reached for a clean sheet of parchment, and put his quill down resolutely.
Dear Malfoy,
He figured he should start kindly, if he wanted to bring his son over to the man tomorrow, but the words dear and Malfoy in one sentence stayed an awkward combination despite his intentions.
Dear Malfoy,
My son, Albus couldn't stop talking about Scorpius after the zoo visit, so I was wondering if I could take you up on your offer of having my son over to play tomorrow. I understand it might be short notice, and I did not tell Albus about this yet, so please do not feel obliged on that account.
Here he stopped, wondering if he should include his reasoning and if that would increase the likeliness that Malfoy would say yes. Probably not.
I apologise again for the short notice, as well for the time of the owl. I will warn Christian not to wake you.
Harry Potter
He blew on his fingers to whistle for his owl, and tied the parchment to his leg. Whispering a spell, he sent him on his way to Wiltshire, making the flight a lot shorter for him in the cold weather.
Giving up on working any more today, he took a long, hot shower to try and loosen the painful muscles in his neck and back. It worked somewhat, which he took as an improvement and dressed in warm sweatpants. Walking down the stairs to check the locks and spells on the front door, he encountered Christian on the kitchen table on his way back. Hooting unhappily, (he probably was cold) Harry muttered first a warming spell on the owl, then on the bowl of water that always sat in his cage. Taking the parchment, he rubbed a finger over Christian's back and read the letter.
Potter,
Don't apologise for the time, I have not retired to bed yet. I can pick Albus up tomorrow at ten o'clock, if that is suitable for you? He can join us for lunch and you can take him home at a time convenient for you later in the afternoon. If you want him to stay for dinner, please let me know so I can make the proper arrangements.
I will await your owl, since I assume you waited for mine for confirmation.
M.
A relieved sigh left his mouth, followed by a chuckle. M. Should he sign his letters P.? That seemed ridiculous enough. He settled on a quick confirmation, and a polite rejection of dinner.
He didn't sign the letter, but, as he finally snuggled deeper into his blankets that night, he repeated the last sentence in his head.
Goodnight M.