Chapter two
When Harry woke up the next morning he still felt pissed because of Ginny, betrayed cause of Ron, and now seething with anger at the nerve of Lucius Malfoy.
Harry had a hard enough time forgiving Draco of all of his wrong doings, but that didn't put the two on a friendship status. Now the older Malfoy wanted to play at being his friend? It was something hard for Harry to grasp. So he lay in his bed, thinking about his options.
He could of course ignore Lucius all year and otherwise just be a jerk to him, or Harry could take Lucius up on his offer to start anew.
Set a good example for his son, or teach his son to be a bastard.
The answer seemed obvious when Harry laid it out plain like that but he still didn't want to give in to Lucius. A part of him wanted Lucius to still be the conniving Wanker that he had been, but Harry couldn't deny something about his whole essence just seemed different.
Almost nothing had changed physically for Lucius, he still looked like the thirty year old that Harry had known five years ago, hair long and body lean, but something else was different.
Harry was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a thump from the room next to his, James getting out of bed. Harry resigned himself to getting out of bed and walked next door to find James standing next to his bed sleepy looking.
"Morning sleepy head." Harry greeted with a smile and James rubbed his eyes.
"Morning," James returned and the two went through the closest semblance to their normal morning routine he could get. Taking a shower, getting dressed, brushing teeth, then going to the Great Hall for breakfast. Harry would have to see about getting some sort of fridge in here so they could privately share meals, for now though, the Great Hall was fine.
Harry carried a still sleepy James to the hall, it was later than Harry thought it was so there were only a few people still left in the hall. Lucius Malfoy was one of them.
Harry cringed a bit when he was Lucius and almost considered turning back, but he had James in his arms, he couldn't do that, so Harry took a seat.
James scooted between him and Lucius and Lucius gave James a kind smile. Harry was glad when Lucius didn't try to start a conversation over breakfast and instead quickly packed up and left the great hall.
"Does he not like me?" James asked in a confused voice.
Harry ruffled James hair, "he likes you fine." Harry said. If James would older than maybe Harry would sit him down and tell him everything, but right now James didn't need to know much. Harry was fine with keeping him at the minimum.
Harry was always impressed with how James could judge a character so Harry was starting to think that maybe Lucius wasn't all that bad as James didn't seem to have a bad opinion about him as the boy did on several of the people Harry didn't like.
After breakfast Harry went to go check out his classroom with James, it was larger than the old DADA class and had a better office attached to it, but it was incredibly messy and looked like it hadn't been used in years.
"Ready to clean?" Harry asked as James waddled into the room next to him.
Harry let James run off to lunch with McGonagall who had come by the class room to see how they were doing and now Harry sat at his professors desk at the head of the room covered in dust and thoroughly tired. They had gotten about half the room cleaned with the extra stuff being moved to the file cabinet. James was getting anxious so Harry would let him go walk through the castle for the rest of the day and make friends with more paintings.
Unless you were prone to getting into trouble like Harry had been it really wasn't that dangerous of a school so he trusted James in it.
Harry blew a stream of air over the desk and watch as the dust lifted into the air and then settles in various places, a lot of it coming in a loop and landing on Harry's already grime covered tee shirt.
The shirt came off so Harry could clean it with a scourgify and he pushed his glasses up further on his nose as he shook out his shirt and surveyed the room.
A rap came at the frame of the door as Lucius Malfoy announced his presence. Harry swore and pulled his shirt over his head.
"Lucius," he greeted rather coldly.
Lucius made his way into the classroom, a swagger in his walk as their usually was, but he wasn't dressed as regally as Harry remembered so his intimidation came down a level beneath his thick teaching robes.
"Good afternoon Harry, I wanted to see how the class was coming along." Lucius said, standing at the other end of the desk from Harry.
"It's fine, as you can see." Harry replied and wished that he had something to busy himself with so he had better means to ignore the man.
Harry had to admit that there was a glow about Lucius that made him scream friendliness, but it was so different that he seemed like a different person. Like Lucius Malfoy's twin brother or something absurd. Harry knew though, that it had probably been Hogwarts to change him so drastically. All the teachers were a little bonkers here and Lucius acting like his best friend was definitely a little off the wall.
"Do you need any help?" Lucius asked and the words that formed at Harry's lips were almost immediately 'no way', but as he looked around the room he took the answer back.
"I suppose I need some help dusting." Harry mumbled and though Lucius didn't smile, his eyes lip up and his hands went to deftly put his even longer blonde hair into a sleek ponytail, keeping it out of his face.
"I would be happy to do that." Lucius said and Harry handed him a few of the dusting rags he'd been using. Harry preferred to clean all by hand which was a little off putting to Lucius but he never said anything.
It struck Harry that Lucius was much younger than he remembered. As he packed unnecessary things out of the classroom Harry thought about when he had last seen Lucius Malfoy. The man had been rigid and only smiled when he needed to, he had reminded Harry of a noble lord- an old noble lord.
Harry had often forgotten that Lucius wasn't Draco's father when they were going to school together. Lucius was barely ten years older than Harry and had only just turned thirty five where Harry was about to turn twenty four. Lucius was energetic and had a childish look in his eyes, like he was making up for a decade of his life that he had wasted serving the dark lord. Maybe that's exactly what he is doing, Harry thought.
"Why did you decide to come teach here?" Lucius asked, trying to make conversation as the two worked. Harry was still mulling things over in his head and didn't really want to have a conversation but still decided to humor Lucius.
"I decided to introduce James to the wizarding world. We didn't have much reason to stay in the states." Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders as he looked through a few curious items on some rotting shelves in the back of the room.
"You lived a muggle life style?" Lucius asked with intrigue as he brushed the dust from everything he could find, doing a very thorough job.
"I didn't want to see anymore magic in my life time after I defeated Voldemort." Harry said with a slight frown at the words. He had almost forgotten his vow to never come back to the wizarding world.
"So, why did you break the vow?" Lucius asked and Harry let out a long sigh.
"I married Ginny Weasley and we got a divorce, I didn't want to live in our old house so I thought I would come somewhere more familiar and inviting." Harry explained it as he had to everyone that asked. It was a popular question and had even been in an article by Skeeter who had jumped at the opportunity for another interview with the boy who lived.
"Oh," was all Lucius had to say at that. Harry heard the questions that were on his tongue though, just like everyone else Lucius probably wanted to know why James was with him, or why he and Ginny had gotten a divorce, but unlike everyone else Lucius held his tongue. "Are you enjoying being back at Hogwarts so far?" Lucius asked instead.
Harry nodded mainly to himself, "I suppose, I think it's a good environment for James. Though there were a few unanticipated surprises." Harry said, referring to Lucius though if Lucius was phased by it, it didn't show.
"It is a great place for someone to grow up, I don't think a professor has ever had a child at Hogwarts. If you ever need anyone to watch James than I'm more than happy." Lucius offered and Harry froze in his tracks.
"Didn't I tell you to stay away from us yesterday?" Harry asked, not wanting what he said to be forgotten. Harry felt oddly dominant over Lucius even if Lucius was the elder of the two.
"I guess you did, I apologize then for the offence. It was just a suggestion." Lucius countered, trying to make up for what he had said. Almost like a teenager would say something without thinking and then say something else to cover it up, Lucius did it in a more refined manor though. "If you want me to leave it's perfectly fine."
"No, you're alright. I just would rather I slowly integrate this new you into my life. It's quite the shock for you to be so friendly all of a sudden." Harry said and Lucius didn't reply.
The two worked in silence for a long while, obviously James had gone off the search the castle. Harry was sweating through his shirt from heavy lifting and Lucius had shed his teaching robes and now stood in slacks and a white button down. Both were very small, Harry was surprised by the previous Slytherin seeker's petite and feminine frame. Harry was still lean and muscular from his days in Quidditch but that was more recent that Lucius's.
When the classroom was finished Harry practically fell into one of the desk chairs with sweat rolling down his arms in beads, Lucius transfigured a piece of parchment into new shirt and handed it to Harry who gladly accepted it, stripping and pulling the clean one on, not noticing the eyes that watched his rippling muscles with the actions.
"Thank you." Harry said and Lucius took the seat next to him.
"Do you have any teaching robes?" Lucius asked as he undid the top two buttons on his button down, revealing a milky white collar bone and what appeared to be a completely bare chest.
Harry shook his head and pushed his hair out of his face, "No, I didn't even think about it. Do I need them?" Harry asked, they seemed hot and heavy and Harry would much rather wear his slacks and button downs.
"No, but they're suggested." Lucius said with a shrug. "Do you want to come into Diagon Alley with me in several days? I need some books from flourish and blotts and I was going to take a look at the brooms." Lucius said, catching Harry's interest with the mention of brooms.
"Brooms? A broom for you? Aren't you a little old to be playing Quidditch?" Harry asked, not answering his question quite yet, trying to think it over while slightly stalling.
"I'm old? I didn't think thirty five was old, and I don't play Quidditch. I do enjoy riding a broom and the occasional Seeker's match though." Lucius clarified and Harry's mouth practically watered, a seeker's match sounded heavenly right now.
"We'll need to have a seeker's match sometime." Harry said and as soon as the words were out of him mouth he wished he could take them back, he had just agreed to still be on terms with Lucius at a later date. "Yes, I'll go to Diagon Alley with you." Harry agreed and a small grin broke across Lucius's face.
"We'll have to get you some teachers robes." Lucius announced and Harry grimaced.
Four days later waking up was an even slower process for Harry, because the first thing he remembered when he woke up was his plans to spend the day with Malfoy.
Harry couldn't remember what had ever made him agree to that and so again Harry waited until James was up before he got up. James had been excited last night when Harry told him he'd be staying with McGonagall all day and was struggling to get dressed when Harry walked in.
"McGonagall said she would teach me more magic today!" James exclaimed, the professors name coming out more like mig-oni-gle with his four year old speech. Harry listened as James talked about all he did yesterday and by eight thirty they were both walking down the corridor to the Great Hall. James was in a blue tee shirt and the smallest khaki pants Harry had ever seen, while Harry was in dark washed blue jeans a red button down.
Lucius was sitting at the head table when he walked in but unlike yesterday Lucius stayed seated as James snuggled in close between them.
"Are you ready to go after breakfast Harry?" Lucius asked and Harry nodded, not really hungry now that he was again reminded of what he had agreed upon yesterday.
James and McGonagall had gone off somewhere before Harry was done with breakfast, Lucius and Harry were the only ones left in the great hall.
"You don't have to go if it will make you uncomfortable Harry." Lucius said with a touch of solemnity in his voice.
"No, no, I agreed to go so I will." Harry said with a sigh and finished up his breakfast and stood to leave. It had been three days and Harry found Lucius a lot more manageable than he had originally thought. Lucius would help Harry clean and organize his classroom and they would chat amiably throughout, it just seemed that spending an entire day with the man might be a different story. "I'll meet you by the front entrance." Harry said and Lucius nodded his agreement.
Today will be a long day.