Hey Lovelies! Sorry it's been a whole week! I have been pretty beat up, and then school on top of it was making sleep a bigger priority. You have to sleep to heal right? Anyway...This one is a little filler to get to the heavier stuff that is up next. Harry and Narcissa have been together six whole months! Wow! Okay, so that's not a lot, but it's a long time to be a secret! Without further ado, and sans anymore apologies here is, Bless the Broken Road, Rascal Flatts...

Chapter 11 – Bless The Broken Road

It didn't take until all of the snow had melted before Cissa was starting to find her self getting annoyed with the fact that Harry was no longer working. Instead he was there all the time. When he was reading, or relaxing she didn't mind, it was just like it had always been when he came home from work, but it was the other times. The times when he found himself growing bored, those were starting to drive her mad.

Cooped up together in the house was not going to work out for them, but she wasn't sure how she was going to bring it up to Harry. She knew that he was happy with the way things were now and she didn't want to take that happiness away from him. She looked up as the door to the study opened. "I have an idea!" He sat on the corner of her desk so that she focused on him instead of the letter she had been writing.

"Oh? What's that?" She looked up at him, and he could see the beads of hope in her eyes. No matter how hard she had tried to hide it from him, he knew that she was getting annoyed.

"I know now what it is that I want to do. I want to develop a defensive system that is better than what we were taught in school. I want to combine muggle defensive techniques with our magic, and create a program that will teach everyone to defend themselves against both kinds of attacks." He was already extremely excited about what he could come up with, but Cissa's response wasn't what he was expecting.

"Um," her smile faltered a little, "That's wonderful, but it's just that, we don't need strong defense if there is no real threat to our society." She looked up at him, "Is there?"

"No!" He crouched down in front of her so that he could look up into her eyes. "Narcissa, I promise you, you are safe. I won't let anything happen to you, or anyone in this family."

"I know." She cupped his cheek in her hand and smiled, "If this is really what you want, then by all means, don't let me stop you!" She laughed and then she stopped to face him again. "Darling, do you know muggle hand-to-hand combat?" His smile faltered a little and she chuckled. "I thought not. Luckily I know someone who does!" And with a swish of her cloak as she rounded the door she was gone.

Harry was left standing in the study utterly lost. She had up and left without a word as to where she was going, or whom she was contacting. The sound of a child's laughter was enough to bring him out of his thoughts. "Aunt Cissa!" He heard Teddy squeal and then the patter of footsteps coming down the hall. "Uncle Harry!" The boy bounded into his arms.

"What are you doing here little man?"

"He came with me." Cissa had followed the toddler back into the room. "His grandmother was just changing into something more suitable." She held her arms out and Teddy leaned away from Harry towards her.

"What do you mean more suitable?"

Instead of answering she nodded towards the door where Andi stood in workout clothes, wrapping her hair into a tight bun. "Alright Potter, my sister says you want to learn muggle self-defense?"

Harry stood there dumbfounded, he looked at Andromeda for a long time, and then he turned to the blonde clutching his godson. "You left and went and got Andromeda?" She chuckled and he turned back to her sister. "And you know muggle self-defense?"

"Yes. I've lived in the muggle world since I was seventeen years old, I know self-defense. Cissa says you want to learn, and I'm offering to teach you."

"Teach me? You can teach me?"

By this point Narcissa's chuckle had given way to laughter. "Harry where did you think Nymphadora learned to fight like that? It surely wasn't her father!"

"I guess that makes sense, but Andromeda, I can't ask you too,"

"Nonsense! I spend the majority of my time with a four-year-old! I could use a little hand-to-hand combat! Alright," she walked around him in a slow circle and then whipped her wand from the holster on her left forearm, "first things first. This outfit will never do, workout clothes are a must!" She summoned some Harry's dresser as Cissa quietly led Teddy out of the study.

Two hours later Harry was lying flat on his back in the transformed study, and Andromeda was standing over him. "That was crazy." The brunette laughed as she helped him to his feet.

"That was nothing! That was just day one. Not to mention you haven't even begun to work on magical defense yet. Dueling is going to hit you just as hard."

Harry groaned, working with Andi was hard enough, and it wasn't like he was out of shape. Dueling was going to be a nightmare. "I don't even have a dueling partner yet, so I have to find one of those first."

"Oh yes you do. You have a couple in fact. Narcissa was one of the best dueler a Hogwarts had ever seen, at least until Hermione and Ginny came along. I'm sure that she and 'Mione would both love to help."

"Really? I knew Cissa was the brightest witch of your guys' age, but I didn't know she dueled?"

Andromeda laughed, "Oh yeah, she duels. She's better than Bella ever was."

"I'm not that good…" They looked up to see Cissa and Teddy both standing in the doorway, the former looking around with wide eyes, "What have you done to the study?"

A flick of Andi's wand turned everything back to the way that it had been before. "You didn't actually expect me to teach him in the study did you?"

"Yes! Or the library, it has more room! I didn't expect you to totally change things in here! I had work on the desk, where did that go?"

Harry moved stiffly to the desk, and glanced down at the papers strewn across it. "Everything you had earlier is still here, but you're right. We do need somewhere to practice that doesn't interrupt our daily lives." He picked up her calendar and started flipping through it. "Your schedule is pretty light in the coming weeks, what do you say to a remodel of this old place?"

"It's your house Harry, you can remodel it if you want to remodel it." She laughed when he ducked his head, obviously forgetting that he was an adult, and that everything surrounding them belonged to him.

A grin split across his lips and he chuckled, "I have an idea," he sauntered forward and wrapped her in his arms before kissing her slowly, "move in with me."

"What?" She pulled away from him. "You want me to actually move in here?"

"Well," he shrugged, but he didn't let her escape his arms, "you practically live here anyway, and I would love it if you would help me remodel the place to your tastes as well as my own. I want this to be your home Narcissa."

There were tears welling up in her eyes, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Andromeda scoop Teddy up and disappear. Leaving the two of them completely alone in the house.

She smiled a watery smile up at him, "I've never had anywhere to actually call my home. I went from living with my parents and at Hogwarts to living at the Manor. And that place was never a home, I never got the chance to make it one." Her smile fell from her face as she got lost in memories of the past, but the pressure on her arms when he squeezed drew her eyes back up to his. "I'm sorry." Her smile returned as he brushed his thumbs over her cheeks to dry her tears. "You're waiting for an answer."

"It's alright love. I can wait." He was holding her close to him, trying to give her the space she needed, but at the same time wishing she would just agree to stay.

"No," it was a whisper, and he was shocked when he looked down at her, but she leaned up and pressed her lips to his. "I meant no, you can't wait. And I don't want you too. I'm saying yes. I will move in with you."

"Really?" He couldn't keep the relief out of his voice. "I was so nervous you were going to refuse. Saying that you needed to keep the Manor, that you didn't want to rush this, that things were fine the way-"

She cut him off by sealing her lips to his again. "Harry?"

"Yeah?" His eyes were closed and they had only pulled far enough apart to speak. "Shut up." They didn't make it up the stairs to their bedroom, instead the next they found themselves curled up together on the floor in the study when Kreacher popped in to tell them that dinner was ready.

The next few weeks went as well as could be expected Andromeda was no longer beating Harry quite as terribly at hand to hand combat, and Narcissa had begun teaching him the proper ways to duel. By the beginning of February, and Narcissa's birthday, she had managed to completely change Grimmauld Place into a home that was comfortable for the two of them to live in.

She had gotten rid of most of the darker elements of the place, and attempted to bring a bit of light, and a bit of each of their personalities to the place. She still hadn't officially moved in with him. It was easier during the remodel for them to spend part of their time in the Manor. But now it was her birthday, and instead of receiving a gift from Draco she had informed him that she had one for him.

The little party of four met for dinner in one of the nicer muggle restaurants that Harry and Narcissa had begun to frequent in London. None of them were too keen on the entire wizarding world finding out about either one of their relationships.

"Happy Birthday Mother." Draco kissed her cheek as he and Hermione joined them at their table. "Has it been a good one?"

She smiled and took Harry's hand under the table, an action neither of the other two missed. "One of the best." She shook herself before she got carried away and turned to her son. "I actually have a gift for you Draco."

"But it's your birthday, we brought you something."

She chuckled, "Which I will graciously accept, after I give you this." She pulled a dark, leather bound sleeve from her bag and passed it across the table to him. When he opened it his eyes grew wide and Narcissa and Harry couldn't help but smile.

"Are you serious Mother?" He looked up from the file and across at her. "You're giving me the Manor?"

"I am, and as we sit here the elves are moving all of my things out. The place is yours darling. Congratulations."

Draco and Hermione exchanged a look and then the blonde man turned back to his mother. "You're moving out? You don't have to move out, you are more than welcome to stay. In fact, I insist that you stay Mother please."

Laughter came from his left and he looked to see Hermione covering her mouth with her hand. "Draco, I think she's going to be just fine. I highly doubt that she would leave if she didn't have somewhere else to go."

"What?" He looked at her incredulously before turning to Cissa. "Where are you moving to Mother?"

Harry spoke up for the first time since the other two had arrived. "With me. She's moving in with me. I asked her a few weeks ago, and now that she has remodeled the place it is just as much her home as it is mine."

"Ooh you remodeled?" Hermione starting badgering Cissa with questions about what she had done to the house and Draco and Harry were left to speak alone.

"Harry?"

"Hmm…" He looked up from the menu as Draco called for his attention. "Yes?"

"Did you really ask her to move in with you?" He looked across to where his mother and his girlfriend were talking excitedly about something that she had done to change the place. "This isn't some sort of joke? You actually want her to be there all the time?"

"She's there all the time anyway. If it weren't for the remodel neither one of us would have been at the Manor at all since Christmas." He sighed and looked at the other man, "Are you okay with this? With her and I becoming even more serious?"

Draco thought it over for a minute and then he smiled. "You make her happy, and I think she's good for you too. She made you grow up a bit more, but you also relax around her. I want to know one thing Potter."

Harry, who had been looking across at the women, jerked his eyes back to Draco when he had called him Potter. "What's that?"

"Do you love her?"

Harry locked his gaze with Draco's and nodded. "Yes. I love her."

"Then I have one more question." He let his gaze drift back across the table, "How long are you going to hide her away?"

"Excuse me?" Harry was startled. What kind of question was that? "I'm not hiding her away!"

"You are. You don't want the wizarding world, her world, your world, our world, to know about the two of you. That's hiding Potter, no matter how you look at it."

Harry sighed, "You're right. I know, I'm just scared. I can handle the bad press, I can deal with having people call me names, and treat me different. But I don't want that for her. I want to protect her. I want her to feel safe, to feel like she can do anything."

"You already give her all of that, and you might be surprised to find that she is tougher than she looks."

Harry laughed, "Oh that I know!"

"Then stop hiding her away. I think the world may be ready."

Harry nodded, "Soon. It'll be ready soon."