Eight Potter/Malfoy Love Children at Ministry Gala
That was the headline of the next morning's Daily Prophet. The article went on to tell a completely fabricated story about Auror Harry Potter and Lord Draco Malfoy's secret and long lasting affair. It started in nineteen ninety-seven back when Scorpius Malfoy was mysteriously conceived during the war. It continued in nineteen ninety-eight when Caelum Malfoy was conceived inside the Ministry holding facility; Harry's insistent searching for the father was an elaborate cover-up all along. After Draco Malfoy was released in nineteen ninety-nine, the affair went on behind Ginny Weasley's back; likely made easier by Ginny Weasley's intensive touring schedule with the Holyhead Harpies. The affair continued right up until present, with a new child born every year to the couple.
It was all hushed up, so that Harry Potter could keep the affair secret from his long term girlfriend, Ginevra Weasley. The cover up had only ended now, because Ginevra Weasley had walked in on Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter in the mist of their lovemaking. Ginevra Weasley had called off her looming wedding to Harry Potter the moment she found out, which was why Harry Potter was coming forward with the children now. Draco Malfoy was not present at the gala, because he was very heavily pregnant with Harry Potter's triplets. It was supported by Scorpius Malfoy's quote that he knew all along, which was offset in enlarged letters, so that the eyes of anyone just glancing at the article would jump to it. It was written by Rita Skeeter and came complete with a dozen photos of Harry and the children during the gala.
That was the first of a long list of Malfoy children centered news articles. It was followed up by more speculation and more photos from the gala. The Quibbler was the first to break the news that Harry Potter had only cheated on Ginevra Weasley once with Draco Malfoy. The torrid love affair had conceived Scorpius Malfoy, but the other children were all the result of a runaway male pregnancy ritual. It was unheard of for more than an extra two children to be produced, but when dealing with Harry Potter, the exception was to be expected. Harry Potter had agreed to the male pregnancy ritual with his lover, because of his fear that he wouldn't survive the war; he'd wanted to leave behind an heir to finish the job if he didn't manage to kill Voldemort.
Harry decided to go with Xenophilius Lovegood's version of events, because it kept Voldemort's name out of the conception of his children, without painting him as a horrid cheat. Draco had told the children the truth about their conception and up until now, it had been widely believed that his first child had been created by Voldemort using some unknown Death Eater's semen. Draco really didn't have a problem with telling that part of the story, but Harry preferred to let people think his children were conceived in love rather than in evil. Therefore when Harry did get around to responding to reporter inquiries, he basically just confirmed Lovegood's account and said to read the Quibbler for more inside information.
Once old Rita Skeeter realized she had been scoped by a less sensational rendition of the story, she dug up everything she could find out about the Malfoy children. There were records of Scorpius and Caelum Malfoy. Yearly photographs of the oldest two Malfoy children turned up revealing children who looked healthy and happy, if a bit poor. The children were always dressed their best when they went out, so there was nothing too horrible in the photos. It was clear, however, that the Malfoy children were quite poor and that Harry Potter was not properly providing for them.
From there Rita Skeeter only got more vicious. The hag actually managed to get interviews with the guards of Azkaban prison who had seen the Malfoy children visiting Lucius Malfoy. The dementors were gone, so there were proper wizards guarding the prisoners now. Those guards had witnessed eight very shabby looking children arrive into the Azkaban yard via a special portkey. The consensus from the guards seemed to be that all of the Malfoys showed up in rags twice a year to visit Lucius Malfoy. At least no one had taken any pictures of it.
"I remember one year I saw Lord Malfoy with a little black haired baby. Its hair was a mess, but the clothes looked presentable, that's why I remembered it. It was a yellow set of pajamas with a duck on the front, nothing fancy and it didn't look new, but it wasn't too bad. Then the next year Lord Malfoy came back with a new black haired baby, wearing the same pajamas! It wasn't the same kid, because the other one was there too and a year older. The following year, Lord Malfoy came back with a third black haired baby, wearing the same pajamas. Then last year there was a little blond baby, again wearing the same yellow ducky pajamas! I swear he only had the one presentable outfit of each size and was pulling it out especially for their biannual visits," one particularly observant guard was quoted as saying.
When Harry asked Draco about it, Draco had denied taking the children out in rags, but did confirm the story about saving a few descent pieces of clothing for their excursions. The yellow pajamas were ratty now and had been retired, but luckily Harry had already given Draco new clothes for Carina before their most recent trip. Carina had been dressed in a new pink jumpsuit this year. Harry noticed that Skeeter didn't mention the fact that the Malfoys had all shown up in fairly new decent looking clothes for their latest visit.
Of course the papers blamed Harry for neglecting his children. Draco and the children were matters of public curiosity, but Harry was the one who had cheated on Ginny, abandoned Draco and the children, and left the Malfoys in squalor. It didn't matter to Skeeter and the other reporters that Harry was trying to make up for the neglect now by buying the children everything they needed. Now Ginny knew his secret, so it didn't matter if he doted on the children; before, when he was keeping the children locked away and out of sight, that was what really counted.
What bothered Harry the most was the article that accused him of defrauding the Ministry. During all of these years without Harry around Draco had received twenty galleons per month and medical insurance for Caelum. As Cael's biological father, Harry should have been paying for that all along, not footing it off on the Ministry to pay. Of course Harry didn't know he was Cael's father at the time and now he was perfectly willing to repay the Ministry, but he refused to explain to the papers why he had done it in the first place.
After the article in the Quibbler, Harry had confirmed that he had willingly and knowingly created Scorpius with Draco. Maybe Harry might have been confused when Caelum came along without repeating the ritual, but after Abraxas was born in a year Draco hadn't been raped or tortured by anyone, Harry really should have figured out that Cael and Brax, like Scorp, were his. Harry didn't want everyone to know that Draco had kept the existence of the youngest six children from him, so instead he stewed in silence and left the papers to speculate.
Of course Harry's boss wanted to see him after that particular Skeeter classic. Bourke Covington was the new head Auror and had only been in the position half a year now. He was Harry's old partner from his training days and Bourke said he couldn't be seen playing favorites with Harry. Of course Bourke didn't think that Harry was guilty of fraud and believed Harry that it was all a misunderstanding. Harry agreed to get it cleared up and if he did, Bourke would leave it at that.
Getting the child support debt cleared turned out to be complicated and involved a ton of forms. Harry ended up hiring his regular tax attorney, Mr. Shafiq, to do it for him, especially because he needed his past six years of taxes re-filed with more dependents. By the time Mr. Shafiq got it all added up and the proper forms filled out, it worked out that the Ministry actually owed Harry back far more money in over-collected taxes than Harry owed in past child support payments. The medical insurance canceled itself out, because as a Ministry employee, Harry's children were entitled to Ministry health insurance.
Tonight when Harry arrived at the Malfoy Manor after a long day of detective work at the Ministry, Draco was waiting for him with Aries on his hip, who was nursing. Aries didn't nurse much, but he still drank from Draco at least once a day. The other children were all outside, playing on the playground or riding their bikes, except for Carina, who was in the muggle toy seat playing.
"Harry, I think I should tell you about something," Draco said as Harry leaned in and gave Aries a kiss on his head.
Draco was just starting to show and Harry almost reached his hand out to touch the swell of his unborn child, but he stopped himself before it was too late. Ever since the rape at the Ministry, Draco didn't like being touched, especially by men. Narcissa and the children could touch Draco without a reaction, but not even they dared being too touchy feely with him. Harry had asked Narcissa about it and she had confirmed that Draco still gets overwhelmed by too much touching, even from them, but that Draco absolutely can't stand to be touched by strange men, even briefly on the hand. Draco hadn't come into contact with very many men since the rape, but there were the two visitors from the Ministry and lots of guards at Azkaban whose hands Draco really should have offered to shake, but hadn't.
"Alright, what is it?" Harry asked, picking Carina up from the muggle entertainer.
If they were leaving the room without an adult, it was best to take the two babies with them. Cassy and Cyg were playing outside with the rest of the kids, but the older children could watch out for them alright. And if something did happen, Scorp and Cael were always really good about alerting an adult right away.
Draco started walking upstairs with Aries and Harry followed with Carina. "I should have refused it, I know. Malfoy pride dictates that I refuse something like this and send it back. But I haven't refused anything in so long and it is just so nice that I set it up and told Cassy and Lyra they could keep it. I thought you ought to know; I'm sure you will find out soon enough anyway."
"What is it?" They were at the top of the landing now and heading right, towards the girl's room.
"I think this is partly my fault. You know how the papers started saying all of those awful things about you abandoning us to live in squalor without child support?"
"Yes, what did you do?" Harry asked warily. Draco had paused just outside of the door to the girl's room.
"Well Rita Skeeter sent me a letter, addressed to me, not you; I didn't steal your mail."
"Please tell me you didn't talk to Skeeter!" Harry exclaimed exasperated. Draco swallowed and gave a curt nod. "Why? I hate that woman. I don't want you to tell her anything about us."
"Well her family and my family are old friends. Her older sister went to school with my mother. She's always been good to our family and published pro-Death Eater stuff back when our family was into that sort of thing."
"Of course. And I bet her husband and your dad were old drinking buddies too or something like that. I'm sure after they left the pub they tortured muggles together for fun."
"Not quite, but you seem to have the picture."
"Great. Just great. What did you tell her?"
"Well she said she had a lot of readers who were writing in wanting to get our children gifts. The announcement of the arrival of a new pureblood is typically accompanied by gifts. All of the other pureblood families send things, trying to compete for favor and standing. With announcing six new Malfoy children and eight new Savior spawn, it's understandable that there have been such inquiries."
"Alright, gifts, right. What did you tell her you wanted?"
"I shouldn't have written it; I realized that half an hour after I sent the owl off and it was already too late. It's just that for the past six years I've taken whatever anyone has been willing to give us without complaint. I reacted on autopilot before realizing that we have you now and that it'd be better if other people didn't realize we were so bad off before."
"What did you write Draco? You still haven't told me."
"I wrote her that you had just gotten our boys new furniture sets, but that our girls could use new sets too. The ones you got are nice, but they are really little boy sets. One piece of furniture is within the typical price range for the gifts and I immediately thought of it. In hindsight I should have asked for absolutely extravagant things like silver rattles and unicorn fur blankets. Maybe brooms for the older children; you know, things we don't need. But I wasn't thinking and I was still on dirt poor mode; it's harder to turn off than I thought."
"Calm down and just relax, Draco. I assume it's through this door; can I see?"
"Yes, you might as well," Draco said opening the door. Harry entered the room and looked around while Draco continued to speak. "They were mostly from your friends, so you might want to send thank you cards of your own. I've already written mine up, but I didn't send them yet."
The room was filled with a white wooden furniture set with pink heart accents painted on. There was a bunk bed complete with princess bedclothes and matching sheer pink lace curtains for the bed and windows. There were matching wardrobes, chests of drawers, bedside tables, bookshelves, and toy chests; two of each of course. The only thing there was one of in the room was a vanity desk with a large mirror; it was perfect for little princesses to play dress-up with. It was a lot of new furniture, but it was a very generously sized room and it all fit inside nicely. It made the room look better, because before it had looked empty and with Harry's duplicated furniture and Draco's duplicated linens.
"I put the other furniture up in the attic," Draco said, seemingly thinking about the same thing.
"Why? It's duplicated furniture; shouldn't you vanish it, to stabilize the other duplicates? The fewer duplicates the more stable."
"You can't just vanish a duplicate; it doesn't work like that. You can't undo the duplication charm. The items are forever linked, so that damage to one seeps in and eventually corrupts all. That's what got the toddler beds; eventually the damage sustained to each individually added up and combined to jeopardize the internal structure."
"Are you sure? I've always thought vanishing a duplicate undoes the duplication."
"No, vanishing the duplicate can lead to the original disappearing; that's what happened to the changing table. I ended up with more nappies than could fit in just one and with three babies, I thought it would be nice to put a second changing table downstairs. It was fine for years, but when Lyra was a baby it was in bad shape, because it was muggle and cheaply made. It started disintegrating, especially the one that was down in the drawing room, because the kids collided with it often. One day it broke so badly I couldn't repair it. I vanished it and duplicated the other one to replace it. There was another duplicate for a moment, before both copies flashed out of existence."
"That's too bad. I guess you've really become an expert on duplication charms."
"I had to be. After the first bed I tried to duplicate went wrong and produced a pair of beds damaged so severely that they weren't salvageable, I picked up a book on duplicating theory and taught myself."
"Which beds are you talking about? The toddler beds?"
"No, the regular single bed you brought us over from your house. It was a Black family heirloom, so Mother and I were sore to lose it, but there was nothing that could be done to salvage it. That's why we had to duplicate the large bed into three, so that we all had a place to sleep."
"Right. And you have to keep any excess duplicates?"
"Yes and keep them in a safe location, so that they aren't damaged," Draco confirmed. "But don't worry, because eventually Aries and Carina will need beds too."
"And the next one too," Harry agreed. "So who all sent this? And if it didn't come from one person, why does it all match?"
"The Lovegoods sent the first piece—the bunk bed—to thank you for supporting the Quibbler's version of events and giving them more details than the Prophet had. You helped them sell a lot of magazines and it sounded like his daughter considers you a personal friend. He wanted to show you how much he appreciates you; hence, the largest piece. The Lovegoods started it off so when the Longbottoms went in next, the owner of the shop already knew what set to sell Augusta; she bought the vanity, to thank you for all of the help you have given her grandson. The chests of drawers came from the MacDougals, who claimed to know you from work—"
Harry interrupted Draco, "Isobel MacDougal is an Auror. She was one of the junior training guards and you were always talking about how nice she was to you."
"Yes, I remember Isobel; I didn't realize she was a MacDougal."
"Yes, well it's nice of her and her family to send something."
"It is. Mrs. Shacklebolt, as in the Minister for Magic's wife, sent the wardrobes. She must like buying frilly dresses, because they each came with a few." As Draco spoke, he pulled open the doors to one of the wardrobes and revealed a neat row of fancy dresses in white, beige, yellow, pink, red, lilac, and lavender. "It's not unheard of for rich old ladies to send their favorite thing along with the gift. I think dresses really are Mrs. Shacklebolt's favorite, because there are another set of similar dresses for Cassy in the other wardrobe and she sent a dozen dresses for Carina. Can you picture sending a baby a dozen ridiculous frilly poufy dresses? She'll never have occasion to wear them all before she outgrows them."
"Well maybe the next one will be a girl too and we'll be able to use them."
"It's possible, but male pregnancies do tend to produce a slightly higher proportion of boys than straight pairings."
"Oh, is that why only three out of our eight have been girls?"
"Yes. Now what did I forget to tell you about? Oh yes, the toy chests came from George, Angelina, Bill, and Fleur Weasley. I think Fleur bought them and George filled them with toys. I told the children they can't have anything in there until after you check everything out and make sure it's safe. I remember the last time I was at that joke shop they were selling telescopes that punched you when you looked through them; it's likely that there are dangerous things in there."
"Ly and Cassy got new toys and the boys didn't? That's not fair. If it's stuff from the joke shop, I can go pick up some for the boys of the same items. Otherwise, I could ask George where he went shopping."
"There are toys for all of the kids. There are only toy chests for Cassy and Ly, but inside each are four boxes of toys, each with a different name on them. I didn't want to go through it and get hurt myself, but it looks like he made an effort to buy gifts that are both gender and age specific."
"Now that sounds like Angelina's doing. George probably supplied all of the WWW merchandise and Angelina filled in the rest."
"Well the kids were excited about it. Ly was most excited about the dresses and Cassy the vanity, but the rest of them are waiting for those toys. The Weasley gift actually made the Abbott family gift that arrived behind it seem like a letdown."
"What did Hannah get then? Haven't we already covered everything in the room?"
"No, but we're getting there. The Abbotts sent the bedside tables. The bedclothes, however, came from my family."
"Your family?"
"The Rosiers and Crabbes are related on my mother's side. The Goyles and the Flints are related on my father's side. The Mulcibers and Notts are old family friends and my horrible aunt Bella was married into the Lestranges. None of their families came out of the war with their family members or Gringotts vaults intact, but they've all sent me small things for Scorp and Cael before. They didn't know about the other six and they could never afford to send much, but they, more than anyone else in the wizarding world, knew that Mother and I were poorly off. Their small gifts helped me get by before and if we really needed something we couldn't afford, we'd turn to them.
"They still can't afford extravagant gifts now, but they each purchased a set of linens, except for Mrs. Lestrange," Draco continued, Aries still suckling at his breast. "Mrs. Lestrange purchased both crib sets; she's doing a bit better than the others, because she publically went on record claiming that she was always in total disagreement with her two sons and her daughter-in-law. Of course she never stood up to them, but she was old and the Ministry saw fit not to completely wipe the old woman out."
"What crib sets? There aren't any cribs in here and I only see two sets of bedclothes; that isn't much for all of those families to have purchased together."
"Oh, there aren't just the two sets; there are eight complete sets, one for each child. Mother and I already set up the boy's beds and the cribs with the new sets. And Mrs. Crabbe sent a few spare white sheets as well; I think she remembers what it's like to have a toddler who wets the bed. I swear Vince must have wet the bed until he was nearly off to Hogwarts."
"Seriously? Crabbe was a bed wetter?" Harry asked chuckling.
Harry was quickly becoming aware of the many issues with bed wetting. When he came over early on weekends, Cyg and his wet bed had to be cleaned up before breakfast. Draco had shown Harry how to cast the charms to remove the odor, dry the bed, and freshen the toddler up. Harry had suggested using the overnight nappies muggles made for older children, but Draco had never heard of doing such a thing and Cyg had protested. Cyg didn't want to look like a baby wearing nappies, especially because none of the other children had ever worn them.
"Yes; that's why Greg and I never wanted to have sleep overs with him."
"Right. Let's go check out the other bed sets," Harry suggested, taking Carina with him to the nursery. Draco had finished nursing Aries at set him down, so he toddled along beside them babbling happily.
The new crib sets were certainly in better condition than the old ones, but Harry didn't particularly care for either. One crib set was unicorns and the other was abraxans and they were both a bit loud and gaudy for a baby, although Aries seemed to like his. From there they went to Brax and Cyg's room; the dragon sets were rather cool with flames extruding from the dragon's mouth that writhed like a holographic projection. The bed and window curtains were a fiery red and combined with the golden hue of the dragons, it reminded Harry of Gryffindor colors, but he didn't mention that to Draco. The new sets brought the room to life in a way that the plain old sets didn't. Now the rooms no longer looked identical and it wasn't blatantly obvious that all of the furniture was duplicated.
Next they went to Scorp and Cael's room. The battle scene between the dark wizards on one side and the light wizards on the other made Harry's blood pressure rise as he prepared to spring into action. Only there was no more threat in the room than the ugly holographic fight scene depicted on the blanket. Harry didn't know how anyone would ever be able to sleep with that on their beds, but at least the matching curtains were a nice shade of dark blue. Harry started making plans to buy matching plain blue bedspreads once Scorp and Cael start complaining of trouble sleeping. But at least the medieval style castle complete with princess in the background of the battling wizards gave Harry and idea.
"Draco?"
"Yes?"
"Next time, could you tell Skeeter that our girls really need goblin made tiaras and our boys need goblin made swords?" Harry asked. "Or something equally outrageous and extravagant, as if the only thing I haven't provided was rare magical artifacts."
"Alright, if you will do a favor for me."
"What?"
"Get rid of the pet Bicorn your dear friend Professor Hagrid sent to be a pet for our children. I managed to chain it up outside, but Mother is deathly scared of the beast."
"He didn't?" Harry asked with a gasp. Knowing Hagrid as he did, he probably should not have been surprised by the fact that Hagrid had sent the children such a dangerous and potentially lethal pet. Although, it did only kill married people and none of the children were married, nor were he or Draco. Draco's mother was the only one on the property at any risk from the creature.
"You know he did; giving a bicorn to a group of children isn't my idea of amusement."
"I'll get rid of it and have a talk with Hagrid. Maybe the Ministry will want it to harvest horns for polyjuice potion…"
Arthur's Note: Next chapter Harry will visit Lucius and Brax will get glasses.
The highest number of votes was for Carina being able to talk to snakes/animals, so I'm going to see if that fits. I'm thinking she might start talking to the peacocks on the Manor grounds.
Several people were concerned that I described Cygnus as the mediocre middle child. Maybe that was a little harsh, because Cyg isn't dumb or talentless, but in this group he doesn't stand out on either ground. Brax, Carina, and the new baby are all super intelligent geniuses when it comes to school. Scorp, Cael, and Lyra all have that Potter natural intelligence and don't have to study and aren't at all bookish. Now I didn't describe Lyra as a genius and I don't see her being as gifted as Harry's mother, but she's close.
In a group of nine children with 6 being highly intelligent, the only slightly above average Cyg looks mediocre. Cassy and Aries are both less intelligent, meaning average, when it comes to typical school learning, but they both have artistic and magical talents to offset that and make them stand out. So in that group, Cyg seems middle of the pack and even a little behind in some things, since he was the one born prematurely. It is only when the kids are older that they realize that Cyg is incredibly well-rounded, charismatic, out-going, and has a flair for business. I also see Cyg as one of those people who is always changing, never settling, so he might spend five years on a business venture with Fred II, then spend five years researching snails, and turn around and use the snail research to make better invisibility cloaks or something. Everything he does somehow turns to gold, bringing him in a profit. With all of those kids, they need someone to restore the family fortune and that someone is Cyg.