Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. The poem mentioned is The Road not Taken by Robert Frost. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Pairing: Harry X Ginny, former Harry X Draco, Albus X Scorpius
Juxtapose
When the mediwitch put the newborn Albus in his arms, Harry felt like meeting his mirror. While James was the perfect mix between Ginny and him, Albus was the living version of his baby's portrait from his lone family album.
Beside him, the mediwitch was rattling off Albus' weight and height and how he was a healthy baby with complete body parts. Harry tuned her out. He was too busy being mesmerized by the small life he held. No matter how many times he did it, he still regarded it as a miracle. Absently, he wondered whether his dad had held him like this as well and felt the same awe he did.
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Since he went to Hogwarts, Harry has always loved Christmas day. Yet, after he has a family of his own, it was nothing sort of sheer joy.
Currently, he was watching his children opened their mountain of presents. Later, they all would go to the Burrow to celebrate Christmas with the Weasleys. But morning was always spent at home, opening presents together.
Tearing another wrap, James gave a shot a joy when he saw his new broom. Ron told him once that James could make the same amount of noises as a group of elephants and nothing showed it better than Christmas morning. He went through the wraps and ribbons with an unbelievable alacrity, while making a cacophony of noise. Sometimes, Harry wished he could have someone to tell him, whether his father had acted the same way.
In other hand, Albus was the perfect opposite of James. He opened his wrap carefully, and made far less noises upon the gifts inside. Still, there was no mistaking joy in his sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks.
Lily, the smallest of them all, was still too young to understand what the commotion was about. Ginny opened her presents for her, but she was more interested on playing with the torn wraps and ribbons James produced.
Looking at them, Harry remembered another kid, locked on his cupboard in Christmas morning. He could smell the wonderful breakfast outside and the fresh pine of Christmas tree. He would hear the laugh and shoot of joy his cousin let out upon opening his mountains of gifts. Yet, for him, Christmas morning was being alone on his small cupboard with no breakfast and no present, wondering why Santa has forgotten him once again.
Harry renewed his promised. His children would grow up loved and cherished. They would have better life than him.
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Albus sent him an owl the first night he was at Hogwarts. The sorting hat has put him in Slytherin and he terrified that his dad would be disappointed. On the brighter side, the boy he befriended in Hogwards Express was also in Slytherin. His name was Scorpius Malfoy, and Albus was certain they would be the best of friend.
Ginny perplexed. She was so sure the Malfoy brat would be a bad influence to his son. But Harry remembered another sorting when the hat suggested Slytherin, and another blond boy who offered a dark hair one his friendship.
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When he saw the two of them came out of the train for summer holiday, a blond head and a dark one standing so close together, laughing and talking so fast, Harry remembered an old Muggle poem about the road not taken.
Once, it could have been Draco and him. He wondered whether they would become best friend if he had taken Draco's hand that day. He mused whether Draco would defect from his family and aid him in searching horcruxes if he had chosen to become a Slytherin.
Then, he kept this rumination for another day, pasted a smile on his face, and moved forward to greet his children.
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When he came back to Hogwarts for the repeated seventh year, he found out that when McGonagal said every student was welcome, she was meaning literally. Thanks to the war, the number for his year has been drastically reduced. In the new spirit of houses' unity and since it seemed like a waste of place to separate them into their former houses, they were placed together on a temporary dorm in a formerly unused wing. Somehow, he drew the shortest straw and ended up rooming with Malfoy.
He did not know how they became friend. Yet, became friend they did. Maybe it was because the war has changed Malfoy. He was a sarcastic, annoying person, with a sharp tongue and inherent pride, and he always would. But he has lost some of his malicious streak along the way. Or maybe it was him that changed. The war has shown him that not everyone and everything was black and white.
In another hand, he could clearly tell when they officially became more. It was a rainy day and the common room was full. He was lying on his front at his bed, trying to do his Transfiguration homework. Malfoy was sitting in the floor near his head, absorbed on his reading about rare potion. Then unconsciously, he began playing with the pale blond strands. He didn't know exactly why or how he has found the courage, but when Malfoy lifted his head to tell his to stop petting his head, he dove down instead and kissed Malfoy's lips. They became a couple afterwards, even if they limited the knowledge to themselves and their shared bedroom.
He was not quite sure what broke them up. The seventh year was finished. He has been accepted in the auror program, while Draco was expected to help his father managing the family estate. Ron started to drop more and more hints about the expectation that he would resume his relationship with Ginny. Narcissa has found a nice foreign witch from a pure blood family. He was afraid to lose the Weasley family. Draco was afraid to disappoint his parents. He could not respect Draco's family and Draco hated his adopted one. Maybe it was one of those, or maybe it was an amalgamation of them all.
But when Albus, with fear clear in his eyes but undisputable tone in his voice, informed Ginny and him that Scorpius and him were a couple, and he planned on moving in with Scorpius after Hogwarts, Harry started to wonder that maybe actually there was a way for Draco and him to stay together years ago. Maybe actually, there was a future for them.
Ginny protested and screamed. James waged a cold war against his brother. Lily thought it was romantic. Harry could not hold his blessing, when once he walked the same road. In the end, with the stubbornness Harry was sure inherited from him, Albus still moved out to Malfoy Manor.
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Every Sunday, they had standing lunch appointment in a nice, small muggle restaurant that Albus has always loved. Sometimes, Scorpius or Ginny would join them. Most of the time, it was just the two of them, father and son.
Albus told him about his training as a potion master. Harry invariably thought that if Snape were still alive, he would have a heart attack on the thought of a Potter as a Slytherin and potion master. But maybe the man would tribute it to the use of his name as Albus' middle one.
Other time, Albus also told him about Scorpius. This topic usually made his eyes dancing, and his hands moving to emphasis one point or another. Scorpius has decided to help his father manage their estate. Scorpius bought him a new broom. Scorpius told him they would spend the next summer on France. It drove home to Harry that his baby son has grown up.
Still, sometimes Albus complained to him about his in laws. He told him about the fights Scorpius had with his ailing grandfather regarding the continuation of family line. He compared the formal, cold atmosphere on the manor with their warm, relax one at home. They had a formal dinner every night there with a bunch of spoons and forks, the Malfoy family wore robe every day at home and conversations in family room were a battle of wits, where every sentences and tones have a second and third meanings.
Harry remembered his own home in Godric Hollow, and those of his own in laws, the Burrow, where everyone talked and laughed at the same time at meals. He thought about how Ron and his siblings could fight over a trivial thing and then forgave and forgotten it five minutes later. He pictured how in Godric Hollow they all used muggle clothing daily, because he felt more comfortable that way and his children used to emulate him.
He decided that he had taken the right decision. Ginny was the easy and comfortable road and he did love her. Besides, she had given him three wonderful children, his pride and joy.
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When Albus came home with all his belongings, Harry first reaction was that he could not believe it, followed closely by desire to hex Scorpius Malfoy to hell for whatever he has done. Ginny hugged Albus and the look she threw to Harry clearly said she knew Malfoy could not be trusted and was generally bad news.
When half an hour later Scorpius Malfoy came from their fireplace, Harry was too busy hiding Ginny's wand to hex the boy himself. However, he told Scorpius that Albus was in his old bedroom and he better solved whatever problem between them. Moreover, he better did it soon, because he maybe old, but he was the one who defeated Voldemort.
Two hours later, Albus came out from his room, Scorpius' hand on his, and his trunks levitated behind. He kissed his mom, hugged his dad, told them not to worry, and went back to the manor. Since then, no matter how Harry insinuated that he was curious, and Ginny nagged Albus to tell, he never told them about the reason of the fight, only that it has been solved.
Albus however, told Harry in one of their weekly lunch, that it was Draco who came to Scorpius and knocked some sense on his head when he heard about the fight. Scorpius told Albus his dad said something was too precious to be let slip away and they should fight harder to stay together, since being in love, unfortunately, did not equal with having no problems.
When he heard this, Harry wondered if he was not the only one who sometimes curious what his life would look like supposed they were still together. Maybe sometimes, regret also crept into Draco's heart. He could not decide whether this made him felt better or worse. After all, there was no going back to the crossroad they have left.