Three months later, Harry brought a visitor with him.

Scorpius peeked out from behind Astoria's skirt, eyeing the new boy with uncertainty.

"Teddy, this is Mrs. Malfoy," Harry said. "And that's her son, Scorpius. He's your baby cousin."

"I'm not a baby," Scorpius interjected.

"Harry's just being silly," Teddy said airily. "He always says things like that."

Harry smiled at Astoria who was already looking brighter.

That night, the two boys bonded over Teddy's magic. Scorpius was in awe of the older boy who could change into anything in the blink of an eye. Teddy boasted about his adventures at Hogwarts, glad to have an adoring fan stare up at him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. He showed Scorpius how he could use his wand to float things and make water.

"I'm pretty awesome, huh?" he asked while wiggling his brows.

"You are," Scorpius gushed. "You're so awesome. Do you think I'm awesome?"

Teddy scrutinized Scorpius with narrowed eyes. "Well… not yet," he hummed. "But I'll make you awesome. So don't worry about it. That's what big cousins are for."

"And," Scorpius continued excitedly, "when I grow up, I want to be just like Harry Potter, okay?"

"Hey!" Teddy exclaimed. "Me too! See? We're already the same!"

Astoria stifled her laughs against her hand and her eyes were bright with tears. This was the first time Scorpius had interacted with anyone other than family and close friends. This was an amazing milestone.

"He's wonderful, Harry," she gushed. "Teddy's wonderful."

"I know," Harry said while puffing his chest out proudly. "He's like my firstborn."

Scorpius looked up when he saw movement in his periphery and his face lit up with a wide grin. "Daddy!" he crowed, jumping up on his feet and running over.

Harry and Astoria whipped their heads around to find Draco leaning against the doorjamb with his arms folded against his chest. A vague smile was directed at his son. "What?" he asked the boy.

"You have to meet my cousin!" Scorpius insisted while pointing at his new friend. "See? His name's Teddy."

Draco looked up at Teddy and nodded once. "Hello."

Teddy's face twisted into a loathsome scowl and he purposefully turned his back to Draco.

Harry and Astoria looked at each other in bewilderment.

"He doesn't seem to like me," Draco remarked to Scorpius.

"Oh," Scorpius groaned in dismay. He ran over to Teddy and crouched down next to the boy who was sitting hunched over. "You don't like him?" he asked hurriedly. "He's nice, Teddy. He's my father. He's very nice."

"He's not," Teddy snapped. "He's awful. Everyone says he's the meanest."

"Teddy," Harry interjected in a stern tone.

"It's true," Teddy argued.

"Oh man," Scorpius mumbled to himself as he pushed himself up and ran to his father again. "Father!" he whined. "What did you do?" He couldn't lose his new friend like this!

Harry had walked over to Teddy by then and sat down next to him. "That's not fair, Ted," he said quietly, keeping this conversation between them. "Who told you that Mr. Malfoy was mean?"

"Everyone at school says so," Teddy whispered. "You said he wouldn't be here."

"You have never met him," Harry lectured. "If you have never met him before, how do you know what he is like? You can't just take other people's word for it. Scorpius is kind, isn't he?"

Teddy shot up to his feet and spun around to face Draco. "Why haven't you ever visited me?" he snapped.

Draco appeared taken aback. "Pardon?" he asked.

"You're my cousin too, aren't you?" Teddy kept going. "You're my family, aren't you? Why won't you ever visit me?"

Draco didn't quite know what to say to that. "I… didn't really know you existed," he said frankly.

Teddy gasped dramatically as he brought up his arm to point an accusatory finger at Draco. "Did you hear that, Harry?" he squealed. "He's mean! He didn't even know I existed! I told you so!"

Draco massaged his temple in defeat. Kids were so incredibly difficult to understand.

So Teddy broke the ice between Harry and Draco. From there on in, it was smooth sailing. There were many hoops that they needed to jump through. Because of Draco's involvement in the war, his travel privileges had been revoked. That took nearly six months to rectify. Then came the hassle of moving funds and finding a secure job. Since the effects of the War were mostly confined to Europe, Draco and Astoria had very little trouble with employment. Then they had to figure out schooling for Scorpius. He was terribly sad when he realized that he would not be able to go to Hogwarts. But Harry knew that prejudices ran high and, upon hearing the Malfoy name, Scorpius would have an incredibly tough time with his peers and professors. The stigma around ex-Death Eaters was not easy to expunge.

"Hey, Draco," Teddy dragged out with a sweet smile. Draco knew that a singsong voice meant nothing good. He ignored the boy studiously. Teddy sidled over to Draco with Scorpius in tow until they were both seated on the couch right up close to the man who was sorting through some documents. "Can I ask you something?"

"No, you may not," Draco murmured absently.

"Come on, Dad," Scorpius urged even though he had no idea what Teddy was talking about.

Draco sighed in defeat and turned to face the two boys. "Teddy, stop influencing my child. Scorpius, stop following him around," he ordered. "You two are such a pain."

"But I just want to see your Dark Mark."

Scorpius reeled when he heard Teddy say this. The words, coupled with Draco's sour expression, had all the makings of a thorough grounding. "I don't," the young boy squeaked. "I don't want to see it."

Teddy scowled at Scorpius, then turned his sweet smile at Draco. "Please?" he asked. "Just a peek."

"We should go," Scorpius whispered hurriedly while tugging at Teddy's hand. "Let's go play something else, okay? Okay, Teddy?"

"Not okay," Teddy retorted, his stubbornness coming out in both his stance and his speech. "I want to see. It's just a tattoo. I just want to see it!"

Draco raked a hand through his hair before making a disparaging sound with his tongue and unbuttoning the cuff of his shirt. He rolled his sleeve up and held his pale arm out for the boys to see.

Teddy was the first to scurry in to take a close look. Scorpius soon followed, albeit with a bit more caution. Before long, the two boys had their fingers tracing the very faint etching of the inactive Dark Mark.

"Happy?" Draco asked tiredly.

"It's so scary," Teddy whispered.

"Scary," Scorpius agreed.

Teddy looked up at Draco with wide eyes. "You're pretty cool, Draco. I'm telling all my friends at school," he said with a sure nod. "No one will say anything bad about you then. Just wait until school starts again."

"Cool? Really?" Draco echoed as his lips curled up into a lazy smirk. "This is just sad. There's nothing cool about it. Don't tell them anything. No need to get into trouble, alright?"

"I'm not ashamed of you," Teddy said with an affected sniff. "I know people don't like you, but I like you and Astoria and Squirt."

And so, by the end of two years, everything was nearly set in stone and the Malfoys were going to move on with their new lives.

"Alright, so here's the plan," Harry conspired as he wiped Scorpius' cheeks dry. "Study really hard and write me lots of letters to let me know how you're doing."

"I don't want to go," Scorpius sobbed. "I'll miss you and Ted so much."

"I have a feeling we'll miss you more."

Scorpius hugged Harry tight as he thought about refusing to let go. "W-will you write back?" he sniffled. "Please?"

"Of course," Harry groaned. "Of course I'll write back!"

"When can I come home?"

Harry stifled his sigh. This was just not fair. He stroked Scorpius' back gently. "I don't know," he murmured. "I hope it'll be soon. I'll fix things here and then you can come back. There is just a lot to fix."

"But you can do anything, right?"

Harry pulled back to look at Scorpius as he nodded.

"Okay," Scorpius exhaled. "I believe you."

"We'll be right here."

Then Scorpius turned to Teddy who pulled him into a rough hug. "I'll miss you, Squirt," he murmured.

"I'll miss you too," Scorpius said earnestly. "Come visit me, okay? When school's over for summer, you can stay with me."

"Alright."

Meanwhile, Harry hugged Astoria goodbye and shook Draco's hand. "Have a safe trip. Let me know how things go," he said.

"Thank you, Harry," Astoria smiled. "This is incredible. I hope you realize how thankful we are."

"One step at a time, right?" Harry murmured, flicking his eyes at little Scorpius who was crying anew while clinging to Teddy. "We'll change things," Harry promised her and Draco. "Don't worry about it. He's going to have an amazing life, hmm?"

"We'll make sure of it," Astoria answered.

"Later, Potter."

"Yeah. Later, Malfoy."

"And that's that," Teddy grinned triumphantly. "Now everyone's back together!"

Draco snorted in derision. "I tell you, Potter, for two years, he had this phase where he wished you were his dad instead of me," he muttered.

"Father!" Scorpius hissed.

"What? It's true," Draco maintained. He looked back at Harry with a raised brow. "That was when he was fourteen. Can you imagine it? I even contemplated shipping him over to you because he was being an unmanageable brat."

"Everyone goes through that," Teddy said, waving Draco down. "I hated Harry all through Sixth Year. Remember that?"

"All too well," Harry said under his breath.

James, Lily and Albus were too consumed in their thoughts to consider adding to the conversation. They simply ate quietly while digesting everything Teddy had divulged.

"But he's still pretty awesome, huh?" Teddy asked Scorpius while jerking his thumb at Harry.

"For heaven's sake, you two," Harry grumbled. "I'm going to leave if you keep talking like that."

"You haven't heard the worst of it," Draco snorted. "He kept telling everyone at school that he was all buddy-buddy with you."

"Oh my goodness," Scorpius muttered while trying to disappear into the couch he was seated on. He looked up at Teddy piteously. "Let's talk about something else?" he pleaded.

"Gladly," Teddy laughed. "So these," he threw an arm around Albus and gestured at the other two Potters, "are Harry's ungrateful little imps. Say hello."

Albus smiled sheepishly while Lily and James glowered at Teddy.

Scorpius cleared his throat out of nervousness. "I've… um, I've always wanted to meet you all," he said.

"And we've never heard of you," James finished. Then he trained a disapproving eye on his father who ignored him with practiced finesse.

Scorpius simply brushed it off, however. "Rightfully so," he said. "My name's not something people throw around in a casual conversation, after all."

"Hmm."

"So… what do you all do?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Teddy claimed. "Isn't that lovely?"

"Shut up, loser," Lily growled.

"At least I have a job, hag."

"Hey, now," Harry was quick to intervene. "We're in public. A modicum of maturity will be greatly appreciated."

Teddy stuck his tongue out at Lily who graciously ignored him and turned to Scorpius instead. "Well, I just finished my NEWTs last year and I haven't decided on what to do yet," she told him. "James works as a medical representative. He's sort of a mediator between Muggle and Wizard medicine. And Al reads and writes all day long."

Scorpius nodded eagerly through it all. "That sounds great," he said with sincerity. "I'm still in school so I don't have a job either. Nothing wrong with that." He directed that last statement at Teddy.

"Yeah, you're studying to be a lawyer," Teddy drawled. "Huge difference."

"So this is really your first time in London since then?" James asked.

"Yes," Scorpius answered. "It's strange, right? Back home, it's quite hard to come by magic. So it's weird to be… here. Kind of cool."

"Didn't you go to a wizarding school?" Albus asked in awe.

"Of course, of course. But we hardly had more than twenty of us in one year. It was very small. Nothing like Hogwarts." Scorpius smiled wryly. "That must have been fun, right? Hogwarts?"

"Oh, here he goes with his sentimental crap." Teddy rolled his eyes. "Hogwarts this, Hogwarts that."

After an enlightening dinner, the Potters bid farewell to the Malfoys and Teddy before starting their trek home. Everyone was silently contemplating the events, of course. Harry was overwhelmed from the sudden reunion and his children couldn't quite understand why they hadn't known about this before.

"Does Mum know?" James asked carefully.

Harry's gaze trailed to the ground.

James exchanged loaded looks with his siblings. So there was the reason. "Does Mum have to know?" he pressed on.

Harry shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

He had never told Ginny about this development because he knew how she felt about the Malfoys. He knew how everyone felt about the Malfoys. But that was all in the past. Perhaps everyone had adopted the forgive and forget attitude by now…

He knew he was only trying to fool himself with that thought. He was in so much trouble.

"We won't tell," Albus murmured. "It's okay, Dad."

Harry shook his head. "I should have told her a long time ago anyway." He smiled up at his kids. "Don't worry about it, alright?"

"They aren't bad people," Lily remarked. "We saw them with our own eyes, right? Scorpius is actually quite pleasant. So I don't see why everyone should get huffy over it. It's not like he did anything."

"Hmm."

They got home and got ready for their movie by changing into their sleepwear and conjuring up blankets and pillows in front of the television. Once they were settled down in their places, the screen flickered bright and the smell of buttery popcorn wafted through the room.

"Stay awake for this one, Dad," James added just as the opening credits rolled over the screen.

"Ha ha," Harry said derisively. It was hardly his fault if every single movie he watched put him to sleep just half-hour in.

Sure enough, half-hour later, he was knocked out cold and curled up on the couch.

James slid down onto the ground to sit with Albus and Lily who were sharing a bowl while ardently watching the suspense-thriller that was on screen. "Hey," he whispered.

"What?" they asked.

"About Malfoy. What's up with that, you think?" James murmured. "Mum doesn't know. I bet Aunty Hermione knows nothing. Think things were really that bad?"

"Probably," Albus replied. "It was a tough time after the war. It's the same after every war. People need someone to blame."

"So… do you think all that stuff about Draco Malfoy isn't true?"

Lily finally looked away from the television. "They probably are true," she figured. "But that's no reason to run him out of the country, is it? He was my age when it ended. I can't imagine what I would do if all that stuff happened to me."

"Mum will be pissed," James tsked. "I can't believe Dad didn't tell her."

"It's fine," Albus mumbled absently. "I'll talk to her."

James and Lily rolled their eyes over top of their brother's head. Mummy's pet to the rescue.