Author: MajinSakuko
E-Mail: MajinSakukoyahoo.de
Beta-Reader: Vaughn
Disclaimer: I own nothing, JKR everything else
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing/Main-Chara: HP/DM, SS/RL
Rating: PG
Genre/s: Romance (Slash), Drama, Mystery
Warning/s: implied MPreg
Summary: Everyone has a secret. Harry is no exception.
A/N: This has been written, but not plotted, halfway (well, 5/6 to be precise) through reading HBP
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Harry Potter looked around, noticing all the moving picture frames scattered around the living room he was currently sitting in. He sipped the camomile tea that had been offered to him and hid an inappropriate grin behind the cup. It was just irresistible.
"I saw that," Lupin said gently, as he reclaimed his seat opposite of Harry, putting a plate of scones on the couch table. He didn't seem offended by Harry's amused reaction to the furniture, though, judging by the humorous glint in his brown eyes.
It had been such a long time since Harry had seen Remus happy; well, it had been a long time since Harry had seen Remus at all. It was good to know that he was still capable of smiling.
"Sorry," Harry said, not sounding one bit remorseful, "but seeing Snape all grumpy, trying to get out of the frame," he indicated one particular picture on the fireplace mantel, where a miniature Lupin held Snape's cloak to keep him from escaping, before giving him a kiss on the cheek for obliging grudgingly, "brings back fond memories..."
For one moment, Remus looked indecisive, but then he joined Harry's snickering. The laughter slowly dwindled down until a silence fell that was not 100 comfortable. Harry looked at Remus, who was watching him with a shrewd expression while chewing on his second scone. Any second now, he would ask the question that was burning on his tongue, demanding answers no one had been privy to before. Harry had anticipated (and dreaded) it the very minute he had gone and turned his and Draco Malfoy's lives up-side-down. The prospect of answering to Lupin, normally calm and gentle, but steely if need arose, was not very promising, and Harry found himself wishing for Hermione's cool interrogation tactics. He hadn't thought so four and a half years ago, when he'd finally managed to defeat Voldemort once and for all.
"You didn't come for tea and pleasantries, though," Remus said, quite to the point. "I'm surprised - and quite pleased, don't get me wrong - but why now? And why here? You were gone for over four years, people were - we were worried - after everything that happened..."
He shot Harry a reprimanding look, as if the boy - well, young man now - were his own son who'd come home a little too late without giving a call.
Harry sighed and put his cup back on the small table. He knew he should have returned earlier, but he hadn't been ready to. The strain would have been too much for himself, his lover and his...
"It was time," Harry said slowly. "We wanted to come back." He cast a look over at the door leading to the kitchen.
Remus, noticing it, said, "They're busy catching up. Severus hasn't seen Draco since Hogwarts..."
Harry nodded. "I'm sorry. I kept him to myself for so long."
"Wasn't it..." Remus started, but then stopped abruptly, as if something had occurred to him. He seemed to consider his words for two seconds, before he finished his question, "Wasn't it the other way round? Not you keeping him, but him keeping you...?" he implored, gazing at Harry so intently that the boy would have been convinced Remus applied Legilimency if he didn't know better. When the stare became uncomfortable, Harry averted his gaze and reached for a scone.
"No," he said simply.
Remus wasn't deterred in the slightest.
"We - well, Severus and I, that is - always presumed it was Draco's - initiative, if you will..." At Harry's wince Remus stopped, then said, apologetic, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry - so untactful, I mean, I am interested why you left the wizarding world behind."
Harry grinned and shrugged, relieved that Remus left Draco's initiative alone. The other man didn't know what he was talking about.
"To be honest, we left because it was the easiest thing to do - even if that doesn't sound very Gryffindorish at all. Draco's pregnancy didn't allow him further magical training, and I didn't want to stay too long away from them. Draco didn't like to be alone in London, as well."
"You went for Draco, then?" Remus nodded.
"I went with Draco," Harry clarified, a tad sharply. "Not everything I did was for him."
"Nothing but the last four years?" Remus asked gently.
Harry bristled, but finding no accusation in the brown eyes helped him relax again. Remus was right, in some aspects. People were bound to come to the same conclusions - and the child had not been an accident, after all. Harry wouldn't even think of his daughter as an accident had she not happened on purpose.
"They are my life," Harry said, and the loving gaze in his eyes proved his words right. "I'd do anything for them."
"I understand," Remus said and shot a glance in picture Snape's direction.
'No, you don't,' Harry thought, but didn't say it aloud. 'You can't know the secret because it will remain a story untold.'
Squealing and tiny hurried footsteps interrupted the serene scene as the kitchen door opened and a small dark-haired girl came rushing straight towards Harry, thrusting herself against his legs.
"She's got your looks," Remus remarked with a smile.
"Daddy," she wailed, turning brightly glistening eyes at her father, and, as said father failed to immediately carry out her non-spoken request, shrieked once more, "DADDY!"
"And Draco's charming personality, I see," Remus added quietly, his smile turning into a grin.
Harry threw the other man a glare, before hoisting his daughter up and putting her in his lap.
"What's it? Why aren't you with Papa and Uncle Sev?"
The two men in question were just entering the living room. Draco looked tired (something he did a lot lately), but Snape's mouth was twisted in a way that could only mean amusement, hence Harry's instant alarm.
"Uncle Seb said he puts me in his pot to cook!" the girl wept, producing some heart-wrenching sobs for good measure.
"Uncle Seb," Severus said the name with the right mixture of disgust, loathing and ridicule, "did no such thing. He merely advised your daughter," this was accompanied with a pointed glare in Harry's direction, "to mind her manners - sadly she doesn't have any, though..."
"Severus!" Remus said, shocked that his husband talked to a mere four year old in such a manner, after accusing said child of having none herself.
Severus was nonplussed, coming to stand beside the lit fireplace. Harry looked at his daughter's streaming face, knowing that it needed quite a lot of time to get used to her temper. He slid to the right as Draco plopped down next to him, leaning wearily into his side.
"I wasn't that difficult as a child - I hope," the ex-Slytherin said in a low voice. Not low enough as it turned out.
The girl let out an enraged shriek at being called difficult and tried to wrestle her way off of Harry's lap, but her father was holding her tight around the middle.
"Oh no, you don't," he said sternly. "Behave yourself at once!"
The girl seemed to deflate immediately. It wasn't often that her father reprimanded her, but when he did, she was usually too near her tolerance border. Then she stuck out her bottom lip and pouted for all she was worth.
Harry sighed and shot Severus an apologetic look. Some books on child raising would have been a great idea two years ago. He'd need to look into it; they could probably still do some damage control. Severus simply raised a brow and smirked, as if enjoying Harry's predicament greatly - which he did, without a doubt.
Harry didn't mind the snide remarks and cutting glares anymore, after the Potions master helped Harry out those five years ago. (Harry tightened his grip on his daughter unconsciously.) They had both gained something important - the same thing, as it was, but in a slightly different way - and now they endured each other's presence.
"Daddy?" the girl asked, almost timidly, which sounded odd out of her mouth after hearing her shriek. "Can we go home now? I don't like it here," she added, now more like her earlier tantrum-throwing self, shooting reproachful glances at Severus and Remus.
Draco took his daughter out from Harry's lap before he could reply and set her on his hip, mindful of his stomach.
"You'll have to visit more often," Remus said, standing alongside the young parents and guiding them to the entrance door.
"We will," Harry said, even though his daughter pulled a face as if she'd bitten into something distinctly disgusting.
When they said their goodbyes, Remus' hand lingered on Harry's shoulder for a fraction, before he leant forward and whispered into the younger man's ear, "She really was a gift to the two of you, wasn't she? She bound you together, you and Draco."
Harry's eyes caressed the figure of his mate as he left Remus and Severus' house before him.
"It wasn't our child - not Draco's initiative - that bound us together," Harry replied softly, exchanging a secret look with Severus, "but my sweet little secret."
-End-