"I haven't been this nervous since James was born."
"You said that about talking to James," Draco informed him flatly, his mercury eyes following his pacing lover back and forth across the hall.
"Shut up. I know that. I was there," Harry snarled in respond and the blond just smiled at him.
"Sit down. You'll make me nervous, too, and then what will we be?"
"Worry-warts?" Harry suggested, plopping onto the bench next to the other.
"No, we'll be Hermione," Draco chuckled, pointing his finger towards the other end of the hall to guide Harry's gaze to his fretting friend. She was trying to push down the back of Hugo's stubborn hair, scolding Lily for spinning around in circles and bumping into Ministry officials, scolding Ron for doing the same thing, and struggling to keep her cool – as cool as Hermione could get – under the unnecessary pressure. "Poor 'Mione. She won't be satisfied until her hair's almost as silver as mine."
Harry laughed and allowed his head to fall on Draco's shoulder. He closed his eyes and felt a hand on his leg. He let himself fall into a state of calm; allowed himself to merely focus on the sensation of another's warmth connecting with his instead of the hearing that was scheduled to begin in less than ten minutes or the Ministry hallway they waited in or the sounds surrounding them or even the feel of the wooden bench beneath him. Just the warmth.
"I love you," was whispered in his ear along with a gentle kiss and he smiled.
"Thank you," he told his lover. "Thank you for everything."
"Don't," Draco ordered sharply. "I'm selfish and I did it all for me."
"Well, thank you for your Malfoy obnoxiousness."
"No problem," the blond chuckled, pulling away and folding his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the wall. He tapped his toes on the black marble floor and gazed around the hall. "Where's your wife?"
"Dunno. She's supposed to bring the boys from school about five minutes before all of this starts so that I can talk to them," Harry sighed, opening his eyes and allowing the world to come back.
"Do you think they told her about you seeing them a week ago?"
"Dunno," he replied again.
"Well, the hearing starts in two minutes according to all these clocks in here. You think she's just being a bitch?"
"Draco," Harry said in a chiding tone.
"What? It's just a logical theory," the ex-Slytherin hissed with a smile. Harry punched him lightly on the arm, kissed him, and shook his head at him. "What?"
"Do you think I'm in love with you right now?" he asked, a small part of himself finding satisfaction in the expression of surprise on the other's face towards the unexpected question.
"I can hope that, but sometimes . . . I doubt that's going to happen," he admitted, closing his silver eyes – and his emotions – from Harry's gaze.
"Why?"
"Why do I doubt? Isn't it obvious?"
"No, I mean why do you love me?" Harry asked, leaning closer to the other just as Ginny and his other children appeared in the hall. "And don't give me that bull about obsessing over me since you were a child."
"I thought you believed that 'bull'," Draco sighed, staring nervously at the clocks. "Don't you have a custody battle you should be worried about?"
"I want an answer afterwards, Draco," Harry told him as he stood and began to walk away. He stopped about a yard away Ginny and his children before he turned back to Draco. "I'll tell you why I love you when you tell me the same."
Harry had only been able to hold them for what felt like less than a minute before Ron tapped him on the shoulder and told him the hearing was to begin. He closed his eyes for a moment and gritted his teeth before kissing each child on the forehead; nuzzling soft, red hair, ruffling an unruly dark crown, looking into bottomless emerald pools . . . He gave Albus his final kiss and held him close before finally allowing Draco to pull the children away from him. Both parties had already agreed that the children had no business being in the room during the hearing, forced to hear all the sordid little details of their parents' squabbles. It was also agreed that neither Draco nor Neville were to be allowed into the courtroom; only the immediate family was admitted which included not only Ron and Hermione, but Molly and Arthur Weasley as well. Neither grandparent voiced any opinion towards either side.
Draco kissed his ear – a spot that Harry recently noticed the blond tended to frequent with kisses – and gave him a loose hug before turning to the children and promising multi-flavored ice cream cones. Harry smiled at the sight of Neville actually attempting to catch up with the blond's long strides and even the trotting of the kids, but the smile soon faded when Ron's hand was once again on his shoulder.
When he walked into the large, atrium-like room half-expecting to face that lone wooden throne, adorned generously with chains and buckles, but – instead – was greeted with a large expanse of purple carpeting, two wooden tables that had one chair each, a circle of comfortable looking recliners, and a raised platform housing a table and five rather regal looking chairs. A Ministry official Harry did not recognized pointed the family members to the surrounding chairs and Harry and Ginny towards their own individual tables. Harry laced his fingers together and set his folded hands on top of the table and Ginny did the same ten feet away from him.
"Excuse me, Auror Potter?" Harry looked up at the source of the voice and the Ministry official smiled crookedly at him. "Uh, hi. I was just wondering; would you be comfortable with allowing a few reporters from the prophet into the hearing? There's a crowd of them outside in the hall."
"No!" Harry barked, causing the other man to jump back in fright. The official quickly scurried away and left Harry to glare angrily at his fingernails for the next ten minutes.
"All rise for the entrance of the Honorable Deciders," an androgynous voice from nowhere boomed into the room. Harry stood and took a deep breath . . . and then another . . . and then another until he felt dizzy. Several old wizards and witches paraded into the room, their robes such a violent orange one would assume the Chudley Cannons had vomited them up, and Harry was suddenly very angry that they had the nerve to be so tacky on such a serious day. They stepped onto the platform, stood behind their seats, and continued to stand even as the voice ordered, "You may be seated."
Harry sat and jumped up again immediately afterward when Percy Weasley Apparated beside his table with a loud, echoing crack.
"Sorry about that," the redhead murmured to him as he conjured a chair and pulled a roll of parchment and a quill from his robes. He nodded to the Deciders and they nodded back respectfully.
The orange-clad witch that stood in the middle of the line turned her attention back to the broken couple and she smiled. "I would like to explain the basics of this hearing. Seeing as there are such few wizarding custody battles – as traditional wizarding families tend to fight it out amongst themselves – it is rare for the five of us to get together . . . How long has it been, Rododgeus?"
"Fifty-two years, Ursula," the stoic man at the end of the line of Deciders replied.
"Ah yes, it has been a long time. I was actually happy to hear that someone had finally decided to deal within logical means instead of tossing hexes and curses every which way to see who gets a child for some random holiday. I commend the two of you," the old witch said, her smile wide and wispy as if speaking at a wedding instead of at the evidence of a divorce. "Anywho! Let's move onto business! Mortimer, refresh our memories of this case."
The Deciders took this time to take their seats, all except the one that stood to the right of Ursula. Mortimer cleared his throat and grumbled out, "We are gathered here today to witness the union –"
"Mortimer! What in bloody batwings are you saying?!" Ursula cried out, tugging Mortimer's tangerine sleeve. "This is a custody battle not a Muggle wedding service!"
"What?" the old man bellowed, squinting down at the frantic woman. Harry gaped at them and pinched the crown of his nose in frustration. How he utterly hated the quirkiness of the Wizarding world in that moment and, had he not been so disgusted, he would have sympathized with Percy who was forced to keep a written record of this conversation. Harry could barely turn his head to the sound of the rushed scribbling of a quill across parchment.
It was decided amongst the Deciders that Mortimer was to sit and allow a witch with a squeaky voice to state the case instead.
"We are gathered, not for a union, but for the disbandment of a marriage and the arrangements to which children and properties are distributed –"
"What properties?" Harry asked. The squeaky witch squeaked at the interruption and stared down at him as if she could not believe her eyes.
"Why the money and land Mrs. Potter proposes under the list of her demands," the Decider squeaked.
"What land? My parents home?!" He swung his gaze in Ginny's direction, but she continued to stare at the Deciders with a stony expression. "No way in hell. When was this proposed?"
"Well, um . . . Since five o'clock this morning," the Decider squeaked cautiously. "We cannot take the proposition back, Auror Potter, and it must be Decided upon."
Harry could hear the whispering of his two best friends behind him and calmed himself with a few more deep breaths. "Fine."
"Good. Now then, the party of Ginevra Weasley-Potter requests full custody of the children she now shares with the party of Harry James Potter along with a payment of alimony and the land in the village of Godric's Hollow which we assume a house resides on," she squeaked as Harry attempted to channel Scorpius' Lampedes abilities towards Ginny's hair. "And the party of Harry James Potter requests shared custody of the children he shares with the party of Ginevra Weasley-Potter. Is that correct?"
"Yes," Harry and Ginny said together. The squeaky witch sat down as the witch in the center, Ursula, smiled like a giddy school girl.
"Well now," Ursula began. "We will begin with the questioning of each parent, then we will give them each a chance to plead their case, and finally, after a brief recess or a long one depending on what we get for lunch, we will Decide. We will question Mrs. Potter first. Morty, do you think you're up to it?"
Mortimer stood once more and cleared his throat. "Ashes to ashes. Dusk to dusk –"
Ursula yanked him back down and the stoic one known as Rododgeus spoke up. "How long have you and Auror Potter been married?"
"Thirteen years," the redhead replied in a voice just barely loud enough to be heard by the entire room.
"How would you describe your marriage to Auror Potter?"
Ginny bit her lip in hesitation before answering while staring down at her folded hands. "As deteriorating."
"Elaborate."
"When we began, we were madly in love with one another and now . . . that's not how it is."
"Who fell out of love first?"
Ginny's stony face fell and Harry attempted to swallow the uncomfortable lump in his throat. "Harry did. I still love him, but he doesn't feel the same for me."
"When did you first notice his lack of love for you?"
Harry found himself wanting to defend Ginny from the cold Decider's even colder words as tears began to slide down her freckled cheeks. "Um, maybe . . . three years ago." Harry's eyes widened; had he really been so oblivious for three years? "When he became the Head of the Auror department . . . I can't fault him for working hard, but he began to ignore me."
"Ignore you? I see you have an accusation of negligence here," the Decider said, shuffling through the papers before him.
"Yes. Um, he would take long assignments – longer ones than he had had even before he became Head Auror and . . . when he came home, I would feel hungry for his attention or acknowledgement. I felt a lack of love," Ginny finished, pulling her hands from the table and wrapping herself in her arms.
"Do you feel he has committed the act of negligence for which you accuse him of towards the children?"
Ginny bit her lip again. "He was away for months at a time. Once he was even gone for half a year. They were without him for a long time and work kept him very busy," Ginny said and Harry wiped a hand down his face. "He was always too busy for me and, I think, too busy for the children."
The Decider, Rododgeus nodded towards her and asked no further questions. Instead, he leaned over to whisper in Mortimer's ear who whispered into Ursula's who whispered into the squeaky voiced witch's ear who whispered into the ear of the last and the least spoken of the Deciders. He was the only Decider that had dark hair and not merely locks of translucent white and he seemed to be the only Decider as serious as Rododgeus. He nodded at whatever the squeaky voiced Decider said and cast a gaze towards Harry.
"Auror Potter," he began in a low, raspy voice. "What is your relationship with the Death Eater Draco Malfoy?"
Harry continued to stare at the man as if he had yet to ask a question. After an awkward moment of silence and the slow processing of the question in Harry's mind, he replied, "What?"
"What is your relationship with the Death Eater Draco Malfoy?" the raspy voiced Decider asked again.
"What?" Harry snapped suddenly after recovering from shock. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"The Deciders do not have to explain themselves," Ursula said, smiling in a girlish way that reminded him of a certain toad woman. "Just answer the question. What is your relationship with the Death Eater Draco Malfoy?"
"Don't call him a Death Eater," Harry ordered sharply, causing the panel of wizards and witches before him to bristle.
The Decider with the raspy voice leaned forward to enhance the glare he sent Harry's way. "Seeing as he was a Death Eater at the time of the Dark Lord's demise and has done nothing to atone for his behavior but toss out a few names and aptly manage the funds of the Ministry –"
"'Aptly manage'?! He's the one that signs your fucking paychecks!"
"Auror Potter!" the Decider known as Ursula belted out as she shot out of her chair and onto her feet. "We will not tolerate this type of insolence! I suggest you reign in your temper and answer the question before we rule to Decide without your testimony."
The whispers behind Harry increased as he breathed harshly through his nose and glared at the five before him. Finally, he forced his shoulders to drop and leaned back in his chair. "Draco Malfoy is my . . . boyfriend."
The two witches shared a meaningful look before Ursula smiled at him with acidic glee. "Tell us, Auror Potter, how long have you and Draco Malfoy been in a relationship; sexual or otherwise?"
"Since the night when Ginny left me . . . About four weeks ago," Harry gritted out through his tightly clenched jaw.
"No extramarital affairs, Auror Potter?"
"Never a one, Honorable Decider," he replied. "But I was led to believe my wife was having one with a close family friend."
"Are you saying this is what turned you to that man?" the squeaky Decider squeaked.
"No. Alcohol turned me to that man that night."
"Tell us of your relationship with the Malfoy," the raspy Decider demanded, causing Harry's eyes to flash.
"In what aspect?" he bit out.
"How committed are you to this man? How much does he influence your everyday life? Are you in love with him?"
Harry stared at the other man in shock and rage. "How dare you ask such things? You speak as if he's the next Dark Lord! Draco does not control me and this has nothing to do with a custody hearing!"
"It has everything to do with this hearing, Auror Potter," Ursula informed him, her smile widening more and more like the frog's with each passing minute. "You are currently . . . what is the term for it, Rododgeus? The one the young kids use?"
"Shacking up?" the stoic man provided.
"Yes!" she giggled in triumph. "You, Auror Potter, are currently shacking up with a dangerous man and yet, you expect to raise your children around him."
Harry's hands curled into tight fists and only his strict training in discipline prevented him from pulling out his wand. "Draco is not dangerous."
"He comes from an old and powerfully dangerous wizarding family."
"You cannot condemn him for the sins of his father!"
"Sins he, himself, committed when giving his services to the Dark Lord."
"He was barely seventeen when all that happened! He had no control of his life!"
"And you were barely seventeen when you defeated the Dark Lord and you managed to control your life and your decisions very well."
"How can you people sit here and condemn him at a custody battle for my children?" Harry snarled. "How can you five dare to judge him when the entire assembly of the Wizengomat – and not just a group of out of work, senile geezers and crones, but real judges gave him complete amnesty?"
"Regardless of what the Wizengomat has ruled," the cold Decider, Rododgeus, droned on, "it matters not that he has been forgiven in those judges' eyes. He still has the potential and the knowledge for great harm and it is impertinent towards your children to not assume the worse of him."
Before Harry could respond, the Decider known as Ursula stood once more and announced, "It has been decided that there will be no individual testimonies or case pleadings, but only a brief recess where there will hopefully be tea, and then we will return to inform you two what we have Decided."
Once again, Harry's indignation was interrupted by the out of nowhere voice. "All rise for the exit of the Honorable Deciders."
Harry remained seated as the five stood and paraded out of the room, their swishing robes of orange seemingly less comical and more like the flames of hell. He jerked when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Hermione's worried face. Tears were in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him and they rocked back and forth slowly for the next few minutes until he finally pulled away. He stood and looked away from the other people in the room, especially Ginny. He did not think he would be able to face her and control his magic. He could barely control it now as it was.
He heard Ron's angry tones towards his sister, but could not register the words in his mind.
When he took his seat once more, he gained an empathetic glance from Percy, but looked away from the redhead to his hands. They were shaking and he could not make them stop.
"All rise for the entrance of the Honorable Deciders."
Once everyone was successfully settled in their seats, the Decider known as Ursula stood from her center stage chair and smiled at both Ginny and Harry. "We have Decided and we grant legal custody of the children, James, Albus, and Lily, to the party of Ginevra Weasley-Potter, but we grant the party of Harry James Potter visitation at least every other weekend unless otherwise authorized by Mrs. Potter. Concerning the other propositions given to us, we have Decided to grant the party of Ginevra Weasley-Potter an alimony of five hundred Galleons to be paid by Auror Potter every month as well as the property residing in Godric's Hollow. You all are dismissed. Please have a nice day."
"What a lovely wedding," the Decider, Mortimer, sighed.
Author's Note: That was so hard to write 'cuz I didn't want to do it, but I had to. I'm sorry! -DMH
