Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is JK Rowling's. All else is mine.
Beta: The amazing Aisling.
A/N: You may all hate me for starting yet another story when I have two others to work on, but this was an idea that I had to do. So here it is. Read and review, please!!
Title: A Father's Love
Summary: Draco comes back to Hogwarts to teach potions five years after graduating. Harry Potter is teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. That is until he meets Harry's little girls.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Returning to Hogwarts
Draco stood at the steps of Hogwarts, gazing up. He loved this place. It had been his only true home. Not like Malfoy Manor…
Draco shook his head. "Don't think like that," he muttered to himself.
He closed his eyes and forced a smile on to his face as he jogged up the steps. He could feel his stomach twisting, as he got closer to the Staff room. He had gotten a job as the Potion's Professor. Draco had earned it and he knew it. He had spent the last five years since graduation becoming a Potions Master. He was just as good as Severus had been. Of course, now that some idiot Death Eater who missed the old days had killed Severus someone had to fill in his position.
Draco rounded the last corner and entered the room. He was the first one there, so he took a seat close to the end of the table. The meeting was supposed to start at 8 o'clock and it was getting close. Only a few minuets later, all of the other teachers entered. Minerva McGonagall was Headmistress, so she took the seat at the head of the table. All the seats were filled except for one. Draco remembered hearing that Harry Potter had become the DADA professor only 2 years after they had graduated. To the best of his knowledge, the man was still teaching here. Draco snorted to himself. There had been rumors that the Boy-Who-Lived-Again had begun teaching at Hogwarts, because it kept reporters and the like away from him. Draco would never think of telling anyone, but once he left Hogwarts the only time he got to see Harry was in different publications. Once he stopped appearing in them, Draco had no idea what to do. See, Draco had had a crush on Harry Potter for as long as he could remember.
"But, Daddy, I don't want to." A small girl's voice could be heard above the soft chattering of the professors.
"Megan, just please behave yourself. I don't want to hear it, Mackenzie. Just listen to me, please," a man's voice pleaded.
Harry Potter walked through the door with three little girls: one on his hip, and the other two holding his hands. The youngest girl, the one on his hip, looked as if she would fall off at any moment. The older two were twins and looked sullen. Draco was momentarily speechless. Who knew that the Savior of the Wizarding World had three little girls? Draco answered his own question after seeing that none of the rest of the staff looked shocked. Of course, the only empty chair was next to Draco.
"Potter," he greeted.
"Malfoy," Harry responded.
Harry sat down with the littlest girl in his lap after he had conjured two small chairs for the other two.
Draco got a good look at Harry's three girls. They were all very pretty. The youngest one had straight black hair that looked very silky. She looked around three or four years of age. The color of her eyes reminded Draco of Severus's. They were a deep black. However, instead of looking as if the world was out to get her, they held warmth and happiness. The two twins were identical. They both had shoulder-length hair that was curly and bright green eyes that screamed mischievousness. They both looked around 5 years old. Draco figured that they would become something like Junior Marauders. With a shiver, Draco realized that they reminded him eerily of the Weasley twins: two of the biggest troublemaker to come to Hogwarts. The Marauders alone out classed them. Draco absently wondered what the school could expect from these three.
Draco was shaken from his observations as McGonagall introduced him as the new Potion's Professor. Everyone, including Harry, clapped politely. Harry smiled at him, but his eyes were bright with what looked like unshed tears. Something had upset him, badly, and Draco had no idea what had happened.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
After the meeting, Draco tried to catch Harry before he disappeared back to his rooms or wherever it was that he disappeared to. Unfortunately, he missed him. Draco walked down the hallway muttering to himself. He had spent the last five years out of touch with everyone from his Hogwarts days. He had no idea what had become of his mother, father or his friends. He had had no idea what had happened to his godfather until a few days ago when he found out that he had been killed. All he had known was that Harry Potter had won the war, but that was it. So when he happened upon Minerva, who offered to catch him up with everything that had happened since he left, he accepted.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Harry sighed as he sifted Alicia, his youngest daughter. He could hear the twins arguing quietly behind him. He had known that Draco was going to be replacing Severus, but actually seeing Draco in the chair that Severus had always sat in had affected something. He was also angry with himself, because he was supposed to be mourning Severus, not lusting after some other man! He may have had a crush on Draco Malfoy during seventh year, but now was not the time to be doing anything about it. Severus, his husband of five years, had been killed only months ago, and yet here Harry was already turning his attention to someone else.
"Daddy!" both Megan and Mackenzie yelled at the same time. This caused Harry to visibly start.
"Yes, girls?"
"Aren't we here?" Indeed they were. Here were Harry's rooms that all four of them shared. Harry had been so caught up in his inner turmoil that he had not noticed the entrance to his rooms till they had almost passed. He didn't remember walking up four flights of stairs, but then he had been thinking of Draco and Severus, not concentrating on where he was going. He quickly gave the password, and they all went inside. The girls tore off for their rooms, and as soon as Harry set Alicia down, she followed them. Harry headed over to his desk, where a letter sat. On the front, written in a very loopy script, was his name. Harry recognized that writing, and sat down to read a letter that he really didn't want to.
I My dearest Harry,
How are you these days? Besides missing me, of course. I dream about you every night, my angel. I cannot wait to see your beautiful face again. You can leave those dreadful brats behind. /I
"Dreadful brats! Those are my children, whom I happen to love very much," Harry angrily muttered.
I It is time for you to get over the loss of your… husband. You deserve someone better. Someone like me. My love let me sweep you off your feet and really appreciate you. How beautiful you will be carrying my child. /I
"I'd sooner carry Voldemort's child than yours, you egotistical jerk."
I Let us arrange a time to get together, or better yet just come to my place.
I love you, /I
"I'm sure you do. You also seem to love my money and my fame."
I Nathan Fluttner /I
Harry let his head hit the table. Gods. How he hated that man.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Draco followed Minerva to her office. As she was now Headmistress, she had Dumbledore's old office. The first thing he saw upon entering was Albus Dumbledore's portrait.
"My dear boy, how are you doing?" Albus was pleased to see Draco. Draco was among his favorite boys, the other two being, of course, Harry and Severus.
"I am fine, Professor. Thank you."
"Oh, no need for such formalities, Draco. You are now a professor as well. Hello, Minerva."
"Hello, Albus." Minerva turned back to Draco.
"Please sit down, Draco. We have to discuss where your rooms will be, and your responsibilities. After that, why don't we just catch up?" She smiled at him.
"That sounds great."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"Daddy, did that mean, nasty man write to you again?" Megan walked up to her daddy and pulled herself up and into his lap.
"Yes, he did, sweetheart."
"Oh." The little girl scrunched up her nose. "I don't like him at all. Why does he write to you? You don't like him, but he keeps talking to you. And he is so mean to us and Father in his letters." Megan looked up at him with her bright green eyes.
Harry was struck, as he always was, at just how smart his little girl was. She must have inherited that from Severus. She enunciated all of her words. For a five year old, everyone said that she spoke with amazing diction. It was true. She was also amazingly perceptive. Mackenzie was a different story. She was also very good with her words, but she was about as perceptive as Harry was, and that was not a compliment. The two of them were the perfect compliments of each other. Where Mackenzie was loud and rash, Megan was quiet and thought things through. Where Megan was willing to go along with the crowd, Mackenzie stuck up for what she wanted.
Alicia seemed to be the perfect combination of both him and Severus. Harry couldn't help but be proud. Severus and himself were the girls' only parents. They hadn't even needed a surrogate mother, because of Harry's gift. Because Harry had so much power, he was able to carry their children. There were no other person's genes in their children. It was only his and Severus. Harry, for a second, found himself thinking of the only other man whose children he would even think of carrying, and it was definitely not Nathan…
"Daddy!" Harry shook his head.
"Yes, love?" Megan giggled.
"You did it again."
"What did I do?"
"You went off and just sat there for five minuets doing who-knows-what!" Megan was laughing pretty hard by now.
"Sorry."
"I still don't get it, Daddy. Why does that man keep writing to you?"
"Because he does what he wants to do and what works for him. He doesn't care what other people want, think, or feel. "
"Oh." She wiggled her nose
Harry sighed "Yeah. Oh."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
After finding out that his new rooms would be on the fourth floor, (only one other teacher had rooms on that floor), and that he would be assuming the position as Head of Slytherin, Draco and Minerva spent some time discussing all that had gone on while Draco was traveling. They had finally reached the topic that Draco was truly curious about.
"What happened to people like Weasley and Granger?" Minerva looked for a moment as if she would cry.
"Harry defeated You-Know-Who and they were his best friends. But as soon as he decided to ignore his fame, and get away from the public, they left. They acted so disgusted with him. It was awful. Harry was ready to kill himself over his ex-friends. The only reason that he is okay today is because he has the greatest children and the sweetest husband."
Draco's head shot up. "Husband? He has a husband?"
Minerva smiled sadly. "Had, Draco. He had a husband."
"What happened to them?"
"They were killed recently." Draco sat quietly for a moment. Minerva could see the moment when Draco figured out who Harry's husband had been.
All of sudden, it made sense to Draco. The man had just been killed. Harry's youngest girl reminded him very firmly of Severus. He thought that Minerva had told him that her name was Angelina or Alicia or something like that. Harry looked as if he would cry when he was looking at Draco, who had become the new Potions Professor. The puzzle pieces had practically arranged themselves for Draco. Harry's husband and the father of his children had been Severus Snape.