Enjoy!


All too soon, it was lunchtime the next day and Harry was preparing to take a dose of Polyjuice Potion. Professor Flitwick had stopped by for a visit and had been pleasantly surprised to see Harry in his natural form. The meal had been a bit more enjoyable with a third person there to supplement the conversation, causing Harry and Blaise to realize that they were starting to wear on each other after practically being locked in the small house for over a month. What would it be like in the next few months, when the weather got colder and Harry was no longer able to escape to the outside when he felt imprisoned?

Not pleasant, Harry and Blaise learned by the end of their fourth month together. More and more often, the pair had resorted to quarrelling when they saw each other and fights started over the most miniscule of things. A particularly epic fight occurred when both of them tried to change Leanne's diaper and neither would back down.

"It's my turn!" Harry shouted.

"We're not taking turns! You should know by now that you're only responsible for the blood feeds and nothing else. Stop acting like it's your duty to be involved with the rest of her care and stop interfering with my parenting!"

"Duty—Interfering—" Harry sputtered. "Did you ever stop and think that I might actually want to be involved and do more than just the minimum that's required? That I want to do this for reasons more than just feeling like it's my duty?"

"And why would you?" Blaise demanded. "Why do you want to be so involved? She's not your daughter."

Harry froze at the last comment, mouth opening and closing as if it wanted words to come out but nothing was vocalized. After a few seconds, the wizard in female form turned on his heel and stormed out of the nursery, taking care to make sure the door closed quietly despite his anger. Leanne was already crying and didn't need to be disturbed more by a door slamming.

At least Blaise was still aware of his presence, Harry thought over a cup of tea. On some days, it was difficult to be sure. Recently Blaise had taken to ignoring Harry, going as far as to not even look at him. Harry was sure that the only reason Blaise had paid attention to him today was because Leanne was involved and because the Polyjuice had worn off a few hours ago. Lately it seemed like the only time Blaise could stand to be in Harry's presence was when he was in the body of Harry Potter, not Rose Zabini.

While Harry was mulling his thoughts over his drink, Blaise was trapped in his own thoughts. He couldn't understand why Harry was so insistent on sharing Leanne's care equally. The Boy-Who-Lived was only duty bound to handle her blood feedings and Blaise had tried to explain multiple times that he didn't need to do anything else.

So why did Harry still insist?

If Harry truly cared about Leanne and wanted to share the responsibility of taking care of her solely because of that, he would be a good father in the future. After all, if he was going to such lengths to care for a child he had no connection to, Harry would probably do anything to make sure that any children of his own blood were safe and cared for.

A month later, it seemed that most of the fights had passed and the pair of wizards had realized that sometimes silence was the key to keeping the peace in the house. The weather outside was abominable, but now that Harry had staked out a place inside the house he could escape to, he and Blaise were getting on better.

"Tomorrow's Leanne's six-month birthday," Blaise commented after breakfast, having waited until Harry was sufficiently awake to bring up the subject. If there was one thing he had learned after five months of living with the wizard, it was that Harry wasn't capable of carrying on a conversation until after he had been awake for an hour or so. "I trust you remember what that means."

It took a few seconds but then Harry nodded. "Leanne moves from daily blood feedings to weekly ones. Are you sure that it's always six months on the dot?"

Blaise nodded. "Think of it like a werewolf transformation. They transform as soon as the moon is at a certain point in the sky. Leanne will stop accepting daily feedings from the minute she takes her first blood after becoming six months old and start developing beyond eating and sleeping."

"And peeing and pooping," Harry added with a small grin. Blaise made a face at his crudeness but nodded. "I can't wait to see what kind of personality she's going to have."

The other occupant of the house merely rolled his eyes before casting a spell that would wash the dishes. Magic made things very convenient but it wasn't utilized very often by Blaise and Harry, who had started doing things by hand just to have something to do.

"She'll be perfectly behaved," Blaise said. Harry snorted at that.

"Sure, she will. Because there's such a thing as a perfectly behaved child," he remarked. "Stop deluding yourself."

"It's not a delusion," Blaise said. "She's my daughter and my daughter can do nothing wrong."

"Your daughter does nothing but eat and sleep," Harry pointed out. "Of course you think she's perfectly behaved now but that delusion is going to be shattered as soon as she starts speaking. Mark my words. She'll be stubborn for sure, since both of her parents were."

Blaise glared at Harry and with a flick of his wand, he cancelled the spell that was washing the dishes.

"Just for that, you can wash the dishes," he said before heading into the living room.

Harry shook his head as the dark-skinned wizard left and stood to gather the dishes that were still on the table. Leaving the conversation like that was so typical of Blaise Zabini but to be honest, that was probably one of the things he loved about the man.

A cup clattered to the floor as the words ran through Harry's mind. Loved about the man? Loved?

"What did you break this time?" Blaise called from the other room.

"Nothing," Harry called back and cast a quick Reparo on the cup that had fallen. In seconds it looked as good as new.

When had he started to love Blaise? Sure, Harry had been finding Blaise attractive over the past few weeks but he had still considered the man a friend and nothing more. Even through their fights, Blaise had still been a friend. When had the friendship turned to romantic attraction?

As Harry absent-mindedly washed the breakfast dishes, he began to realize what was happening with Blaise was similar to what had happened with Ginny. They had been friends for a while and then suddenly, Harry realized one day that his feelings had gone much further than that.

Well crap.

The situation with Ginny had been simple enough, since Harry had been aware that she harbored some romantic feelings for him as well. Some of those feelings still remained between the two of them, which is why they had been able to maintain an on-and-off relationship over the past few years.

With Blaise, it was a little more complicated. It wasn't that Blaise was a fellow wizard, since Harry had no reservations about that. After all, what mattered the most to Harry was the friendship that had formed before the relationship, not the gender or the general attractiveness of a person.

No, what made things complicated was the fact that Harry had no idea how Blaise felt about him. Harry didn't even know if Blaise saw him as Harry and not just Harry Potter in Rose Zabini's body.

Harry also had to take his current body into account. It would be cruel to ask Blaise about his feelings when Harry was still in Rose's body. There would be no way Blaise would be able to give him a straight, honest answer about his feelings until he had spent time with Harry in his wizard form, not just in the body of Rose Zabini. Harry still suspected that Blaise hadn't truly accepted that Rose was dead.

Yeah, it was a lot more complicated this time.

Harry finished washing the dishes and put the thoughts out of his head. There was no use in trying to figure things out now. Maybe in six or seven months, when they were able to leave this house and this situation they were in behind.


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