"Harry, don't say that," Draco said softly, tracing a pale finger through the wet path tears left behind on his lover's cheek. He moved to the edge of the bed beside the crying man and pulled Harry to his chest so that the damp cheek was pressed to his heart. Draco slowly rocked them back and forth, hoping and praying that Harry would take calmness from his actions, from the steady beat of his heart or the words he whispered into soft, dark locks. As Harry's cries died down, Draco lifted his face and bestowed it with soft kisses, small pecks of reassurance. Harry nuzzled him softly before finally sighing and laying his head down on the blond's strong shoulder.
"Thank you," the brunet whispered, his words caressing Draco's neck. The other man nodded and tightened his arms around Harry.
"Talk to me . . . I'm here," he offered, hope in his voice. Harry felt so strange; this situation was the last thing he would have expected in the world. Draco Malfoy, of all the people in the world, was comforting him, assuring him, and wiping away his tears. He was not sure if he should pull away or embrace his past rival fully. The idea of accepting this man as his own was almost as frightening as the aspect of losing his family. "Talk to me."
Harry bit his lip and thought of what to say, all the while ignoring the tears that were suddenly in his eyes and the lumps in his throat that had arrived with his tortured thoughts. "I . . . know I shouldn't think like this, but . . ."
"Are you scared?"
Harry whimpered and pushed his face into his lover's neck. He felt smooth hands run up his back and thread through his hair. His head was tipped back and lips met his gently.
"It's alright to be scared, Harry," Draco told him, holding his gaze as more tears spilled from reddening green eyes. "You know that. You just have to try your best."
"I can't be optimistic about this. I just know I'm going to lose. If we don't settle this out of court or if we do, I'll lose either way," Harry cried and Draco wiped his cheeks. "She has a good, valid case against me, Draco. She's the neglected mother of my neglected children and this is going to show! I've hardly been there for her and the children. I've always been on some bloody case halfway around the world and –"
"Harry," Draco interrupted gently. "I've seen you with Lily. You can't possibly convince me that she feels neglected or that you're a bad father. I know you love your children and Ginny knows it, too, and that's what will show."
Harry just shook his head and pulled away. He scooped his boxers up from the floor and pulled them on. Draco did the same, but when Harry continued to stand in the middle of the room, he opted to sit back down on the edge of the bed.
"She wants full custody, Harry, and, yes, as the mother of the children, she has leverage, but if you opt for shared custody, the result will be more in your favor."
"That's only if I can find a case to argue!" Harry snapped back, glaring at the other man who stared unblinkingly back.
"Do not even try to take this out on me, Potter. It's not my fault you married a bitch," the blond snarled with distain, crossing his arms.
"Take that back."
"No."
"Take it back."
"I can honestly do no such thing, Harry," the brunet was told by a cool blond absently gazing down at his fingernails. "My experience with her is that of a man butting heads with a spiteful woman. I cannot see her the way that you've seen her and I refuse to do such a thing. She's been a bitch to me and I like it that way."
"You give the worst apologies on the planet," Harry huffed.
"That wasn't an apology."
"I know," Harry said, lowering himself into a sitting position on the carpet. "I just wish you knew why I loved her."
"I wish that you knew that people change or that they were not what they always seem to be," Draco replied. "I'm sure you loved her, Harry, just as I'm sure that you still do, but you have to take into account how the two of you have changed and drifted apart from one another."
"You sound so wise," Harry chuckled bitterly.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, my mother gave me the same speech when I told her Pansy and I were divorcing. She seemed to think I was heartbroken."
"Were you?"
"A little, but I never truly loved Pansy. She's a beautiful woman in many ways, but I was never in love with her and it was rather easy to let whatever feelings I had for her go when the prospect of being with you popped up." The blond smiled then suddenly let his head fall back with laughter. "See, I couldn't possibly have told my mother this. I sound so cold and heartless."
"Well, didn't you tell her what you were going to do?" Harry offered.
The blond continued to smile. "Look at you, already making excuses for my mistakes. I'm wearing you down, Potter." Harry smiled sheepishly as Draco looked at him thoughtfully. "Harry, it's one thing to say that you're going to do something and then it's another when you actually do it. I hurt her and I knew it and there will never be anything I could ever do to make it up to her."
"She still loves you."
"I assume so and it makes me feel horrible. I feel like I've ruined her life . . . and Scorpius'."
"Scorpius?"
Draco shrugged. "He hates me for what I've done to his mother. He's so cold to me. It's like the second coming of Lucius Malfoy."
"With fire," Harry added thoughtfully.
"With fire," Draco chuckled. A pregnant silence followed their words, but neither man spoke as they stared at one another. Finally, Harry crawled back to the bed and with his hands gripping the edge, he kissed the lounging blond softly. "What was that for?"
Harry shrugged and kissed him again. "We're both just so screwed. I thought we might need this."
Draco mulled the thought over in his mind for a moment as he accepted another kiss. "I guess you're right."
"She played for the Harpies for three whole seasons after Albus was born?" Draco gasped, gaping at Harry and his two best friends as they sat around the Weasleys' kitchen table. They had been mulling through numerous records of custody cases and going over anything that could possibly help Harry.
"You make it sound like she's the Devil," Ron chuckled, smiling widely at the thought of his sister with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork . . . maybe even that thin beard and mustache.
"No, we've already established that's me," Draco responded as he scrawled something fiercely across a roll of parchment. "But she can't possibly call Harry a negligent parent when she appears to have been home for her children less than you in those years, tramping around with bloody Harpies all around the world when her newborn was at home. She has no case against you concerning negligence without looking like hypocrite herself."
"Worse, maybe," Hermione offered. "Since the children were so young when she wasn't there."
"I don't think that's fair," Harry said softly. "I wasn't there a lot of the time."
"Harry, you're my partner and if I had enough time to spend with my kids, you sure as hell did," Ron snapped. "Stop exaggerating. You were always there for the big stuff and you always Apprarated home when you were needed."
"Well, my job is dangerous. What if . . . I die," Harry said, the phrase more of a statement than a question.
"Well then, it looks like shared custody would no longer be an issue," Draco snarled, sarcasm dripping off every syllable. "Besides, Quidditch was a pretty dangerous sport and she risked it when her children needed her most."
"She doesn't play Quidditch anymore," Harry insisted. "Now is the time that counts the most. I go on three month cases and she stays home."
"When you take the long cases, Harry, Albus and James are at school with Rose and Lily and Hugo spend all their time together, either here with me or your house with Ginny," Hermione told him sternly. "Even then, they spent more time over here and they constantly talked to you through letters and the floo network."
"She can't possibly take the children away from you," Draco said before the brunet could argue any further. "You are a wonderful father and you can ask the children if they were ever wont for your affection or attention. Besides, you make the income in the family. Ginny has not worked in a few years."
"And you're Harry Potter. The name should be enough," Ron laughed as he stood and walked to a counter that had a plate of cookies on it.
"Hush, Ronald," Hermione chided.
"But he's right," Draco commented, earning shocked gazes from Harry, Hermione, and Ron. "What?"
"What?" Harry and Hermione asked.
"Yea' wha'?" Ron asked through a mouthful of cookies. "I'm righ'?"
"I guess I think Ron's right," Draco confirmed, nervously glancing at the group. "Harry, your name goes a long way."
"Yeah, but I'll look like an ass for taking advantage," the man said.
"I'm sure you'll look like an ass for many other things, so no worries then," Draco said causing everyone but Harry to lapse into a fit of laughter. The laughing only ended when a loud thump and what appeared to be a small explosion sounded from above and alerted the group.
"Excuse me," Hermione said, hastily bustling out of the room and into the hall. While on the steps, they heard her calls. "Hugo, what the hell are you doing up there?!"
"Sorry, Mum!"
"Don't you 'sorry, Mum' me! Why do I smell mashed potatoes?! Oh my – Ron, get up here!"
The redhead was gone in a flash and Draco burst into laughter once more, Harry joining him.
"I never realized your friends were so funny," Draco commented absently as a few unusual thumping sounds resumed above them. Harry smiled and shrugged. The brunet pulled his glasses off and crossed his arms, leaving the thin frames dangling by his elbow. "I never realized that they could accept me or your relationship with me so easily."
Harry knew silver eyes were watching him cautiously for any sign of a wince or other telling reaction to the word "relationship" and he idly wondered about it himself, but found it did not bother him in the least. In fact, he found himself rather eager towards the relationship he knew Draco had planned for them. The blond was calculating, even devious in a sense when he set his mind to something, Harry knew this, so a relationship would be no different; Draco would learn everything there was to know about keeping him happy and he knew that he would be expected to do the same. And, considering how anal Draco was about everything, Harry suspected the blond already had the waltz they were going to dance to during their wedding reception picked out.
"Well, I guess it's easy for them to accept you," Harry replied, "because they both think you're sexy."
Draco perked up at this and twisted the end of his long ponytail with the tip of his fingers absently. "Really?"
"Don't be surprised that someone finds you sexy," the brunet laughed.
"I'm just surprised that Ron does!"
"Oh, don't be flattered," Hermione said as she came back into the room, followed by the redhead leading her son by his ear. "He'd find flannel pajamas sexy if he had the chance to stare at them for long enough."
"Not my fault you own sexy flannel," Ron chuckled, pushing his son to the kitchen sink. "Now wash up!"
It was then that Draco noticed the young man was covered in potato skins and he placed a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. "W-What happened?"
"Hugo was taught a faulty spell to create alcohol from potatoes," Hermione answered in a clipped voice so scary that Draco was almost afraid to laugh.
"I guess that went awry?"
"Only because Cousin Fred sucks," Hugo mumbled and earned a tug of his already red ear by his father.
"Is Lily covered in potato skins as well?" Harry asked with a smile.
"No, she ran in terror when the potatoes began to glow blue," Hermione said. "She's currently in our bedroom playing with Ronald's new owl, Apollo."
"Maybe we should just leave you outside until you stop smelling like potatoes," Ron suggested to his son, who glared up at him with amber eyes that clearly screamed, "No!" However, Ron just tugged the
boy away from the sink, chucked him out the back door, and closed it. "See you tomorrow!" he said through the screen.
"Ronald!" Hermione gasped, rushing over to the door. "Don't listen to him, Hugo! We'll let you back in before tomorrow."
At this, Harry burst into laughter and bellowed at his friends until he had tears in his eyes.
Finally, after hosing of Hugo with his wand and letting the boy back upstairs, Ron settled back at the table to speak with the others about the custody hearing.
"By now, Ginny has probably already talked to Al and James about this," Harry said.
"Why do you say that?" Hermione asked. "Did they send you an owl about it?"
"Actually, no," he replied, his voice a bit down. "We usually owl back and forth at least once a week, but they haven't answered my owls or sent any themselves."
"Don't get down about it, mate," Ron told him. "They've obviously heard only one bullshit side of the story, you just need to go to the school and give them the other . . . uh, without the bullshit."
"Good one, Weasley," Draco smirked. "But I think you're right, again. Harry, your sons need to hear everything from your point of view. You need them to assure them that they're not losing a father just because you and their mother are no longer together."
"Is that what happened with you and Scorpius?" the brunet asked and Draco looked away before nodding slightly.
"At first, he acted like he wanted to do with me, which he still somewhat does, but then he lashed out – actually, he still does that, too. We never really got along," Draco admitted, a deep frown on his face. "But I talked to him and told him that I would always be in his life because I loved him. He just grunted at that, but he's been acting better. I did wonder for a little bit if he actually hated me or if it was just the Malfoy in him, but I'm sure it's just the Malfoy."
Author's Note: Another end to another chapter; one I really don't like but just had to write. I keep wanting to revise stuff and that's why it's taken so long to post. I wrote and deleted like a page of crap and still have nothing to show for it. Oh well. I think I don't like this chapter because it just cements the tone change in this story. The moods going a bit down and I think that's because the next chapter will be a little emotional with Albus and James and the custody hearing. Oh, and if anyone could just be a dear and tell me some legal mumbo jumbo and what usually goes down in a custody hearing or any kind of hearing at all, it would be much appreciated. I'll even write you a fic and all just to save the embarrassment of not knowing what the hell I'm talking about! -DMH
