Waving his wand frantically, Harry vanished the smoke that filled the kitchen as quickly as he could. The clock read a few minutes until six, and Draco was due to return from his appointment any second. Harry did not fancy listening to the sneers about his abysmal cooking when that happened. Thankfully, the flat was smoke-free an entire thirty seconds before Draco Apparated into the living room.

"D-aco!" Teddy called, hurrying over. "D-aco, there was fire!"

"Excuse me?"

Harry groaned. Of course Teddy would give him away. But as Draco's frown turned to him, Harry tried to look nonchalant. "It wasn't a fire. It was like the size of a match."

"A what?"

"Like the tip of a wand. Tiny. Not even real flames."

Draco scoffed. "I should've known better than to trust you with flammable materials."

"I'm not-" But Harry stopped as Draco strode past him into the kitchen, Teddy in his arms. "Whatever."

A few minutes later, they were all seated around the table, fried chicken that was absolutely not born of fire on their plates. Teddy took such an enormous bite that he couldn't even close his mouth to chew, and Harry had a very sudden understanding for Mrs. Weasley's exasperation at Ron all the time. By the look of disgust on Draco's face across from him, Harry was sure he wasn't alone.

"You know, Teddy's almost two and a half," Draco said after several minutes.

"Yeah?"

"We ought to start toilet training him."

"Oh. Is he a bit young? When do kids normally toilet train?"

"He's actually right about the average age for children to start."

"Hm." Harry swallowed a bite. "Has he been acting like he's ready? I don't think he even knows what a toilet is for."

"It doesn't matter. It's our job to make him ready."

"Is this another one of your independence obsessions?"

"I am not obsessed with independence," Draco snapped, eyes narrowed. Neither had talked about Draco's drunken night weeks ago, but ever since then Harry had noticed a distinct defensiveness about Draco anytime the subject arose. With pursed lips, Draco continued, "I just don't think babying Teddy forever is going to do him any favors."

"Does that include sleeping with you?" Harry teased. "I've seen him with you in the mornings sometimes. You ought to relax about trying to get him to grow up."

Draco's mouth fell open. "Why in Merlins name would you think it's okay to look in my bedroom while I'm sleeping?"

"Oh my-ugh, it's not like that. I check on Teddy every morning before I go to work, and when he's not in his bed or on the couch, where else would I look?" Harry chuckled at Draco's sour grimace. "You know, it's probably not the end of the world to let Teddy lead us a bit with some things. I don't think he's going to be ready to toilet train."

"Noted," Draco said stiffly. "I think I'll give it a shot this week, however, just to see how it goes."

Harry shrugged. It didn't really affect him, he supposed. With a glance at Teddy, Harry sighed. "Come on, Teddy, take a few more bites, please? Then you can be done."

"He ate pretty well today, so don't push it. Otherwise, we'll just end up with a meltdown."

Regardless, Teddy was already shoving another huge bite into his mouth, and Harry finished his own dinner with a grin. As he moved to start the clean up, he listened to Draco introduce Teddy to the idea of wearing underwear and sitting on the toilet. But as Teddy only asked if he could be finished eating at the end of Draco's speech, Harry wondered just what Draco was getting himself into.

x-x-x

"Isn't Teddy a bit young to be toilet training?"

"That's exactly what I said."

"Malfoy's mental, I swear. I don't know how you stay sane."

"He's not that bad, really." Harry yawned, checking the clock. Once they returned from their break, there would only be another half hour until they were dismissed for the physical training that ended their day. "We may as well go back, there's only a minute left."

Ron shrugged, following Harry as they made their way back to the bland conference room where most of their instruction on department policy took place. Necessary as much of it likely was, it never ceased to be endlessly boring. But as their instructor, a thinning old Auror named Lawrence Planters, shuffled in, his words had everyone sitting up a little straighter.

"Azkaban." He reached the head of the table and unrolled a thin scroll. "Not quite what it once was."

Harry and Ron exchanged a quick glance. It was common knowledge that the dementors had been banished, but much else about the wizard prison was unknown, save for that it had required a huge sum of gold to remodel.

"Once upon a time," Planters said, "there was little Aurors needed to know about the prison. You capture the dark witch or wizard, take them there, and leave them in the spindly hands of the dementors. Now, the Ministry is in the final stages of creating and entire subdepartment to fill the prison with Aurors of a special training to maintain the facility."

"Who is watching the prison now, sir?" one of the trainees asked.

"Currently, it's a poor hodgepodge of those from regular law enforcement as well as the Aurors that we can spare. It's the Ministry's hope that, once some foundations are set, there will be a separate training program for Aurors that wish to specialize in guarding the prison."

"When will that take place?"

"At this time, most of the policies for the prison, prisoners, and Aurors have been signed off on, which I will be going over in detail in just a moment, although they are quite straightforward. As for the subdepartment I mentioned, I believe the administrations are hoping to have the framework in place by the end of the summer. The ideal is to accept a fresh wave of Azkaban-Auror hopefuls into a year-long training program at the conclusion of this year's winter holidays."

Harry frowned, surprised. The Ministry always took ages doing anything they already knew how to do. To set in motion a brand new program on the scale that it would have to be for refurbishing Azkaban with specially-trained guards...Harry expected another year or more before even hearing news of change.

"The Ministry has pushed for these reformations to be swift," Planters continued, correctly interpreting the murmurs that broke out. "Swift but as correct as possible, as there has been increasing...unrest inside the prison." He paused, scanning through the scroll in his hand. "Now, let's run through these policies. To begin-"

"What sort of unrest are you talking about, sir?" Harry asked.

The old Auror looked up, frown deepening the wrinkles in his face as he lowered his scroll. "Well, those in Azkaban for...well, it's the Death Eaters and their sympathizers that are causing much of the trouble. Those that were imprisoned before the dementors' leave know there is a weakness in the system now, and those that arrived after are only giving strength to the revolts. It is making the containment of these parties more difficult than I think many imagined." When no one else spoke, Planters returned to his scroll. "So, to begin, we will..."

Harry's mind immediately began to wander, thinking of what the unprepared Ministry staff must be struggling to handle behind the prison's new walls. It was how Lucius Malfoy had been murdered, riots in the prison that were led by those most devoted to Voldemort.

"I know what we'll be doing is considered dangerous or whatever," Ron muttered in Harry's ear, "but I don't fancy having to handle that on a daily basis."

Harry shook his head, agreeing.

"It won't be long before there's a break out, mark my words," Ron said darkly. "Maybe you and Malfoy toilet training Teddy early isn't mental. Not compared to the nutters that sign up to guard Azkaban of their own free will."

When Harry returned home that afternoon, however, he wondered just how much merit Ron's sentiment really had. Draco was pinching the bridge of his nose as he leaned against Teddy's bedroom door frame, looking all the part praying for patience, as Teddy himself screamed from somewhere behind him.

"So..." Harry cleared his throat and tried not to smile when Draco opened his eyes to look at him. "Er, how did toilet training go?"

Draco expelled a huge breath he had apparently been holding, frustration coming out in a low whine. "If he would just have a single success, he'd catch on immediately. But he just...refuses to tell me when he's about to go. He's had to be cleaned up eight times today."

"Does he just not tell you? Should you maybe try to remind him instead?"

"Oh, yes, Harry, you're absolutely right," Draco said sarcastically. "I couldn't have figured that out myself, definitely not. No, I just let him wander the flat all day expecting him to just tell me when he was ready on Day One of toilet training. Thank Merlin you're here to set me straight. Where would anyone be without The Boy Who Knows All to help us-"

"I was just going off what you've told me," Harry snapped.

"Well, I have reminded him and taken him to the toilet every half hour to sit and try, but after the first few times, he began running from me and turning it into this insane game-"

"Have you guys been out today or yesterday?"

"Out?"

"Yes, Draco," Harry sighed. "Like outside. For him to run around, get some fresh air. He's always a nightmare when he's cooped up. Besides, seeing other kids would be good for him. He's around adults all the time. He should hang out with other kids."

"I-" Draco cut himself off, rubbing his eyes as he glanced back into Teddy's room. The screaming had stopped, replaced with the sounds of subdued playing. Draco's hands dropped back to his sides. "We haven't been out much this week, no. There's not a good park that I know of for magical families only, and Teddy doesn't remember to keep his magic in check all the time."

Harry nodded, having encountered similar issues in the past. "But still, you should try. It keeps him sane and more likely to listen."

"I know, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't parade around for muggles a child that can change appearance at will and turns birds into chickens."

Harry snorted. "When has he done that?"

"The last time we walked to the market, unfortunately." Draco sighed, walking toward the kitchen. "On top of that, however, with toilet training, I didn't fancy dealing with accidents while outside."

Rolling his eyes, Harry made his way into Teddy's room while Draco readied for work. The little boy looked miserable. Eyes puffy from his crying and lips pulled back in a grimace, Teddy moved a handful of figurines around the carpet beneath him while making little noises on their behalf. When he caught sight of Harry, however, Teddy's face split into a smile and he launched himself into his godfather's arms.

"Ha-wee! You back!"

"I am! And I heard you've had a rough day-" Teddy nodded vigorously. "-so what do you say you and I go to the park?"

"Park?"

"Yes, sir."

"Park!" Teddy squealed, taking off to run a few laps around his room. Harry let the sight fill him up, but his smile faltered as Draco appeared in the doorway looking irritated.

"You're taking him out?"

"Yep."

"After everything I just told you?"

"...yes?"

"This is going to be a disaster."

"No, it won't be." Harry crossed his arms. "We've been to the park before. You're just scared of a little parenting."

Scowling with the same intensity Harry remembered from Hogwarts, Draco's ears turned bright pink as he stiffly said his goodbyes to Teddy. Without another look at Harry, Draco stomped to the living room and Disapparated.

Harry shrugged. "Alright, Teddy," he said, turning back to the toddler. "Let's get moving, hm?"

Not quite caring how furious it would likely make Draco, Harry changed Teddy into a clean nappy before they left. Teddy needed the energy release more than he needed to be toilet trained. Besides, a few hours' break from what was probably a very stressful day for the little boy would do Teddy good.

Harry Apparated them to the only park he knew about in London, a muggle one that was between his old flat and the market he had used to frequent. It was large and almost always busy, making it easy to conceal or hide any magic Teddy might let slip in the chaos. Harry hadn't been there in a few weeks, as he and Teddy had been enjoying the open grassy area outside their building for simple games of chase lately. They both took a deep inhale of the playground's smells the moment they arrived, stepping out from the shield of a large rosebush. Teddy's face lit up at the large, wooden structures and metal attachments, quivering with excitement at Harry's side. He gave Teddy a nudge, and Harry released Teddy's hand, watching as he vanished among the other children.

Everything was fantastic until the stair incident.

Barely an hour had gone by and Harry was already beginning to wonder about making their way home for dinner when it happened. He spotted Teddy at the base of a narrow set of stairs that led to a short but twisting slide. A smaller child, perhaps a year and a half old, was carefully climbing the stairs a few steps ahead of Teddy. Harry could tell from how Teddy was shifting back and forth on his feet that he was growing impatient, but before Harry could do more than take a few strides closer, the stairs abruptly flattened into themselves, turning into a wooden slide. Teddy fell backwards to his bottom, the smaller child's chin smacked the wood, and together they both slid the meter down into the dirt. Teddy giggled, but Harry heard the smaller child begin to cry.

"Oh my lord! Emma!" A muggle woman was lifting the child into her arms in an instant, also reaching down to help Teddy to his feet. As Harry hurried over, the woman's eyes met his. "Did you see that? The stairs just...they just collapsed!"

"Er..." Harry brought Teddy to his side, hand tight around his wrist. "I-I-I thought this was a side, wasn't it?"

"No, no, these were stairs!" the woman said, now staring wildly at the wood. "Look, you can't even tell anymore! Must be those tax cuts I've been hearing about; no quality these days, and now look! Children can't even play without worry of the country falling apart on them!"

"No, I really think it was a slide-"

"A wooden slide?"

"I-I'm sorry, we've got to go." And turning as fast as though trying to Disapparate, Harry began to drag Teddy away from the frightened woman. As they drew closer to the rosebush and away from the muggles, Harry hissed at Teddy, "You cannot do magic around muggles, Teddy, you know that."

"Wait, wait, wanna stay!"

"I know, but we can't-"

"Wanna stay!"

Feeling the eyes of the nearest muggles turning to watch him drag a screaming child toward the bushes, Harry's entire body grew scorching hot as he lifted Teddy into his arms. Teddy whined.

"Teddy, it's nearly dinnertime anyway, we're not-"

"WANNA STAY! NO!"

Gritting his teeth, Harry all but ran to the backside of the bush and Disapparated.

x-x-x

So exhausted after work, the park, fighting dinner, and struggling through the tantrums that littered Teddy's bedtime routine that evening, Harry found himself already mostly asleep with the light on when Draco Apparated at the foot of the couch. Likely thinking Harry was asleep, Draco turned off the single light in the room and made his way to the kitchen.

"You were right about the park." Harry hadn't meant to talk, let alone blurt out perfect insult fodder for Draco to use against him.

"Ah...what?"

"You were right about the park," he repeated flatly. "Teddy turned a set of stairs into a slide and got another little kid hurt. The mum was frantic, thought the country was going to the bin. So we left, but Teddy was screaming like a lunatic so it looked like I was kidnapping him. So you were right. I shouldn't have taken him."

The silence was longer than Harry expected. Perhaps Draco uncharacteristically needed a moment to line up the perfect jibe.

"I wouldn't blame yourself too much," Draco said. It was uncharacteristic, the understanding in his voice. "I have to think that raising a magical child in the heart of a predominantly muggle city is probably just hard. I'm sure it happens to loads of other magical families. Was the other child hurt badly?"

"I don't know...I think she just bumped her chin, though."

"Well, no real harm done. Children get hurt at parks every day. I'm sure she's fine."

"Maybe."

Harry rolled over, facing the back of the couch. His failure was still sticking to him as he listened to Draco unload his things before closing the bedroom door. Perhaps Draco was right and this was a common issue among magical families with small children, but it didn't make Harry feel any better. Not only had he gone against Draco's warnings but he had also let Teddy down. Harry sighed. No more parks. Teddy would just have to be okay with Harry and Draco for his only company.

x-x-x

"Ha-wee?"

"Mm?" Harry struggled to consciousness. "Teddy?" The clock read just after two in the morning, finally Friday. "Wha's the matter?"

"Dere's water in my bed."

After Harry had failed to put Teddy down for bed in underwear two nights in a row, Draco had been obnoxiously insistent that Harry do so. For all Draco's pushing for the toilet training nonsense, it appeared that Harry would be the one changing the sheets in the middle of the night. But he didn't want Teddy to think he was annoyed at him, so Harry simply yawned as he helped clean up Teddy and his bed in the darkness.

"I seep wif you?"

"Er...not tonight, Teddy."

"Cause my bed got wet?"

"Because if you wet the couch, it'd be a lot harder to clean than your bed, that's all," Harry said gently. "You're not in trouble."

Teddy nodded, climbing under his covers. "Stay?"

"Okay, but just for a minute or two, okay?"

"Otay."

A minute or two turned into four hours, and it was only by chance that Harry happened to hear his alarm beeping from the living room in time to shower and leave for work. His body ached from being twisted up with Teddy in his minuscule toddler bed, which made work a living hell. For six straight hours Harry, Ron, and the other trainees sat in metal chairs for theoretical exams on paper, and it was only after that when Harry's cramped muscles finally received the stretching they desperately needed in his physical exams. He didn't perform quite as well as he usually did, but as he didn't come in last, Harry didn't count the event as a loss. But after the misery of work, Harry wanted nothing more than to crash onto the couch and not move for the entire afternoon.

His fatigue vanished as he Apparated into the living room, however, replaced with intense curiosity.

Someone was singing.

Careful not to make a sound for fear of disrupting, Harry crept his way across the carpet to Draco's open bedroom door, from where the music was drifting. Was that a guitar?

"Think I'm...I'm lost in the undergrowth,
So much I woke up.
I love you all the same."

The melody was slow, an odd weave of sorrowful and optimistic. And as Harry came to stand in the doorway, he fought the instinct to gasp in surprise.

"But you stole the sun from my heart," Draco sang, crouched on the floor of the far wall with a muggle guitar in his lap. Teddy sat directly in front of him, smacking the word sporadically.

"You stole the sun from my-
You stole the sun from my heart.
You stole the sun from-
You stole the sun from-"

Draco's eyes rose then, meeting Harry's and sharing the surprise there.

"I have...I've got to stop smiling.
It gives the wrong impression."

His hand stopped strumming, letting the final note hang in the air as he continued singing softly, eyes leaving Harry's to look back at Teddy.

"I love you all the same."

Teddy immediately sat back on his heels, clapping as he hummed with delight. "Again, again!"

Draco smiled, but he stood and began to shelve the guitar. "Not just now, little one. I'll be needing to leave for work soon."

Teddy giggled, rolling onto his back.

"I didn't know you played the guitar," Harry said.

"I suspect there's a lot you don't know about me."

"You're pretty good."

Not quite suppressing a smirk, Draco turned his attention back to Teddy. "Do you need to-Teddy did you just wet yourself?"

Happiness gone instantly, Teddy's face turned stony. "No."

"I can see your pants."

"NO!" With everything his little legs had, Teddy leapt to his feet and bolted for the door. Much as Harry would have liked to watch Draco chase a soiled toddler around before he went to work, Harry stepped in Teddy's way and grabbed his arm. He immediately turned into goo, sinking to the floor and kicking his feet. "NO!"

"Come on, Teddy, it'll just take a-"

"NO!"

Harry looked up at Draco, who was cleaning the carpet with his wand and muttering under his breath. Not caring to catch the bad end of that, Harry took care of Teddy, carrying him by the arm to his bedroom and wrestling him out of his wet clothes, wiping him down as much as you could wipe down a wild animal, and stuffing him into a fresh shirt and shorts. As if a switch had been flipped, Teddy's screams died down and he hugged Harry, who returned the embrace a little bewildered.

He left Teddy's room as the toddler opened a discarded book, dropping to the floor. Harry nearly smacked into Draco, who was seething in the hallway.

"I'm going to win," Draco growled. Teddy, turning the pages of his book, didn't seem to have heard or cared.

"You sound ridiculous."

"He's not stupid. He knows what he's supposed to do. He just won't. Thinks I'm just going to give up if he wets himself enough, well we'll just see-"

"Just give it a rest then," Harry said, chuckling at the completely deranged look in Draco's eyes. "He just must not be ready."

"You could help me instead of putting him in nappies when I'm not around," Draco snapped as he turned on Harry suddenly.

"What? I don't-"

"I know you do. I count what's in the drawer."

"That's...that's completely mental."

"The point is, you imbecile, you're sending Teddy mixed signals. I was sure you'd be bested by a lot of things but even I never imagined that a toddler would have been one of them."

Draco left Harry to fume alone in the hallway to leave for work then. Harry's mind was racing, chasing different possibilities that would shove Draco's stupid toilet desires up his nose. He watched Teddy giggling at the pictures in his book for a few moments. Then it struck him, exactly how he was going to beat Draco on his own turf. He crouched down next to Teddy with a wide smile.

"Hey, Teddy, how would you like to learn a new game?"

x-x-x

Hours later, Harry read through one of his textbook on the couch but kept glancing at the clock. At half past nine, Draco appeared. Entirely too pleased with himself, Harry dropped the book right away and said, "Guess who didn't have a single accident the whole time you were gone."

"It's hard to have an accident when you're wearing a nappy," Draco scoffed.

"Count them," Harry said with a smug grin. "Go on, go count like a madman."

Frown deepening, Draco did just that after a moment's hesitation. He disappeared into Teddy's dark room, not making a sound as the seconds ticked by. When he emerged, Draco's eyes were narrowed.

"What did you do?"

"I tried."

"You probably just got lucky like you always have. Achieving the same feat for an entire day rather than a couple hours would be more reflective."

Harry opened his mouth to retort but was sidetracked when Draco abruptly offered him something. He took it, finding a scrap of parchment with an address on it, somewhere in southern London.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Since Teddy's most recent park fiasco, I've been asking around at work where a good alternative for magical children would be," Draco said, not looking at Harry in favor of scanning the bookshelf. "That address is for a park protected by what will appear to be an abandoned burial house. It seems to be the most popular one and the most secure."

"Wow, I...well, thank you."

Shrugging, Draco retrieved a book off the top shelf and made for his room. "Now you can quit whining and take Teddy for all the socialization you think a child could possibly need." Tossing a quirked brow over his shoulder, he added, "Maybe it'll help you, too, Mr. Cupboard Under the Stairs."

Harry groaned.