"Teddy! What are you doing?" Harry asks the now three-year-old Teddy Lupin as he toddles quickly around the living room.
His hair changes from turquoise to orange as he giggles and claps his small, chubby hands. Harry smiles and brushes his famously unruly black hair out off his startlingly green eyes.
He picks up the child, who squirms in his arms, demanding to be put down, but is happy to be held by his godfather all the same.
"You're a crazy one, aren't you!" Harry coos at Teddy, who looks brightly at him in return. Harry smiles softly, reminiscing. "just like your father..." he says, his eyes traveling upwards as he gets lost in his memories.
It takes the thump of a shutting door to pull him out of his own head. Harry places Teddy on the floor, where he runs to greet the newcomer, who just so happens to be his surrogate godfather.
"Ah! There's my little guy!" Draco says while lifting the laughing child into his arms, and holding him up above his head.
Teddy shrieks with laughter, and kicks his stubby little feet out. Draco brings him back down to eye level, and kisses his forehead gently, before lowering him to the floor. Teddy has sped off in a flash.
Draco smirks happily at his almost-son, then turns his attention to Harry.
"Ah, there's my-" he walks over to Harry, and kisses him softly. "slightly less little guy." Draco smirks in his signature way, the skin around his eyes creasing as he smiles. Harry punches him lightly in the arm. Draco flops down on the couch, putting his arm around Harry.
"So... how was it?" Harry questions, and is answered by the falling face of the blonde.
"Ugh..." He groans, closing his eyes and bringing the hand that isn't occupied by playing with Harry's hair to his forehead. "they still don't trust me. It's been just over three years..." he pulls his hand from his eyes, and looks at his boyfriend. "I renounced the ways. Everyone SAW me..." Draco says with a huff. He casts a sideways glance at Harry. "God, I'm even dating the guy who KILLED the Dark Lord, and they still think I'm conspiring against them." Harry places a reassuring hand on Draco's arm, right over his Dark Mark, which is hidden under his robes.
"They'll trust you, Dray. They just have to get to know the you I know." Harry says, consoling him.
"What if they don't? What if I'm stuck in this image? In my father's image..." He shudders.
Harry opens his mouth to speak again, but Teddy runs into the room, carrying a box.
"Harry! HARRY HARRY HARRY!" Teddy yells, catching the Chosen One's attention. Harry casts Draco a look that says 'we'll finish this later', before setting his gaze on his godson. Teddy holds up the box for Harry and Draco to see.
"What are these?" He asks in his high voice. Draco smiles, and takes the box into his lap.
"Let's see!" He says brightly the the child. His mood always lightens with Teddy in the room.
Draco opens the box to reveal... well, he doesn't really know what they are.
"Harry..." Draco shows the objects to Harry, who smiles widely.
"Ah, I used to love drawing with these!" Harry exclaims, thrusting a hand into the box to pull out a few long, thin cylinder with a brightly colored tip.
"Uh... what are they?" Draco asks Harry, who snorts with laughter.
"They're called markers." Harry laughs at Draco's puzzled look. "Muggles use them to add color to pictures and stuff. Mostly children-" he reaches down to ruffle Teddy's now platinum hair (Draco colored to be exact) "you can use them on skin too, if you're feeling rebellious." He shoots Draco a flirtatious wink. Draco rolls his eyes, but blushes all the same.
"How do you use them?" Draco asks.
"Well-" Harry takes one marker- a blue one- in his hand. "first, you... uh... take off the cap-" Harry takes off the blue cap, revealing the ink-soaked tip of the marker. Draco's eyes widen in amazement. "and then you draw!" Harry looks around for something to draw on. He sets his sights on a spare pile of parchment on the desk. He takes out his wand "Accio parchment!" And it flies to him, landing with a thud on the table.
"Do you... say an incantation?" Draco asks, and Harry tries unsuccessfully not to giggle.
"Nope. You just... draw." Harry picks out another marker, a thin black one, and starts sketching on the paper. Draco's eyes (once again) widen in awe. Teddy grabs a marker and a sheet of his own, and starts drawing flowers and stars.
"How do they trap the colors in there?" Draco picks up a marker, and examines it. "muggles shouldn't be able to do that!"
"It's not magic." Harry smiles softly. "But you can make anything you can imagine. Try it." He persuades Draco, who has a doubtful look on his face as he uncaps a deep green marker, and sets the tip on paper.
A large green ink mark ebbs out from where the tip touches the paper. The blonde man moves the marker, creating a dark green line on the yellowish parchment. He smiles.
"What are you drawing?" He asks Harry, who is now engrossed in his own project. He looks up, holding the parchment to his chest as Teddy continues to doodle, using up piece after piece of parchment.
"N-nothing." Harry says, a blush on his cheeks.
"Nothing my arse." Draco says quietly, and snatches the parchment right out of his hands.
"Hey!" Harry reaches for his stolen drawing, but Draco pushes him back.
"It can't be that bad!" He tells Harry, who sits down in a huff. Draco smirks, and looks at the parchment, the mischief on his face now replaced by well-deserved awe. "This is amazing!" Draco says, staring at the picture. It's a realistic sketch of Draco, which looks largely just like him. Himself in the picture has a smile on a face that's contorted with laughter. He's wearing his seeker robes, and holding his broom in one hand, and a bodiless hand in the other. He assumes that hand would have belonged to Harry.
"Thanks. The Dursleys didn't like to let me out much. Usually I was left with my schoolwork, paper and pencils. So, I took up drawing." Harry explains. Draco smiles, and leans down, placing a kiss on Harry's forehead.
"It's brilliant." Draco says.
"Thank you." The black haired boy replies, blushing.
"HARRY!" Teddy cries.
"What is it, Teddy?" Harry turns his attention to the child, who now has run out of parchment.
"I want to draw like you!" Teddy says, looking at the drawing Draco has clasped in his hand.
"One day, I'm sure you will." Harry says, softly. Teddy grins.
Draco sits down, and pushes up his sleeves, revealing his dark mark, and leaning his arms on the coffee table, his knees on the ground. Teddy runs over, and looks at the tattoo with peaked interest.
"Draco, what's that?" Teddy points to the skull and snake tattoo... the sign of the Dark Lord. His face pales. He's never shown Teddy his Dark Mark.
"It's nothing..." he reassures Teddy, going to pull down the sleeve of his robes "nothing." Harry reaches out a hand, and stops him.
"Why don't you let Teddy and I make that ugly mark a bit prettier?" Harry asks. Draco smiles, and nods.
"Sure." And they both get to work, Teddy drawing little flowers and stars around the forehead, while Harry gets to work on the rest of the tattoo.
Sweat gathers on his brow as he works the marker, making soft curves lines and harsh straight ones. Soon enough, instead of just a snake curling up into the mouth of the skull, now it's covered with weathered vines, with intricate roses blooming on them. The mouth of the snake now has a sword going up through it, like Harry did to the Basilisk in his second year.
The skull itself also looks weathered now, with strategically drawn cracks and lines, and one of the eyes has a glistening tear coming out of it. Teddy's flower crown gives it a hint of childhood and bright color.
Lastly, as Harry finishes up, he adds something below the now nearly unrecognizable Dark Mark. In his own messy, but endearing handwriting, Harry has scrawled out a quote. 'I am so much more then my father's son.' Draco smiles softly.
"I love it." He says, hugging Harry and ruffling Teddy's hair. "I think all twenty year olds should have a tattoo this amazing!" He says, before looking down at his watch. "Blimey! It's late! Harry, can you put Teddy to bed?" He looks at his now colorful mark. "There's something I need to do." Harry nods, and kisses Draco goodbye, before taking Teddy's hand, and leading him down the narrow hallway.
Draco takes one more glance around, before apparating out of Grimmauld Place, to the nearest muggle town.
-t.s-
"Harry? Are you still awake?" Draco asks as he walks into the bedroom he shares with his scarhead.
"Yeah..." Harry yawns. "What's up?"
"I have something to show you." Harry sits up, his bare chest glistening in the light from the lamp. Draco walks to his side of the bed, and sits down. He smirks, and pulls up his sleeve.
"You didn't!" Harry says, happily amazed.
"Yeah, I did." Draco says, using the hand that isn't clasped in Harry's to scratch the back of his neck.
Now, instead of being just marker ink, the lines and colors that Harry and Teddy had drawn are etched into Draco's skin masterfully. It's still red and the skin irritated, but it's beautiful none-the-less. Harry looks pridefully into Draco's moonlight colored eyes, and kisses him hard and lovingly.
"I can't believe you got it tattooed.." Harry says, running his hand over the slightly raised skin. "it's beautiful."
"Yeah, the muggle tattoo guy was impressed with the mark... he asked me if I really wanted to change it so drastically." Draco says. "He also wanted to alter your handwriting, but I wouldn't let him. I also... added something." Harry looks down below his quote and sees, in Draco's own handwriting, the words
'because of you.' With a small lightning bolt etched blow them.
The next day, Harry comes home with a tattoo on his forearm in Draco's handwriting.
'You're so much more than the wars you've won.' With a small lion with a snake on its back drawn below it.
Based off of a tumblr headcannon. Hope you enjoyed!