Disclaimer: I sadly do not own any of the characters; they belong to JKR so please let's not sue!

It's Time to Grow Up Potter

Chapter Fourteen

The Drop Off

'Thoughts'

"words"

Early the next morning Harry woke with a start as the alarm rang loudly in his ear. He quickly turned it off and sighed as he looked down at the toddler still asleep in his arms.

Olivia had originally started out in her own room, a beautiful deep pink room that closely resembled a sun set over the ocean. She had a big girl bed set up against the far wall with a teal comforter with a plush deep ocean blue carpet. Bookshelves, toys, and a large wardrobe lined the walls. That was the room her Pop Pop had designed for her, but she had refused to sleep in it when she noticed her daddy was not to sleep there as well; therefore, she crawled out of her warm bed and joined her daddy in his room for the night.

It was late into the night when Harry and Draco had finally settled into their room of a deep forest green and a darkened cream. Harry had taken the four-poster bed standing against the left side of the room while Draco claimed the one resting against the far wall. The room was quite spacious with a private bathroom and a full bath through the door on the right side wall.

The boys had just lain down for the night when Olivia had come bursting through their door in tears and ran to her daddy. She refused to sleep in her new room and Harry had been too tired to refuse the child so she had spent her first night in the castle wrapped in her daddy's arms.

Harry sighed once more lovingly caressing his daughters head before glancing over at Draco who, surprisingly, had not awoken at the sound of Harry's alarm. For the past several nights now, Draco would wake at every small sound emitting from Harry and would worriedly observing him before being assured that everything was fine and once more falling into sleep. Harry gently moved the dreaming little girl against the wall and silently crept into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Today was the first day of class for his last year at Hogwarts and Harry was nervous. Not so much about the classes themselves, but about how Livvie was going to react to an entire day away from her daddy and Draco. Albus had worked things out so that Olivia was to stay with Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary while they attended classes. It was a good plan, but one that made him uncomfortable none the less. Ever since the little girl's parents had died she had become rather clingy. She had to know where he was and what he was doing at all times or she would become quite hysterical. It also did not help matters that since she had come into his sole custody, she had experienced some rather traumatic moments. He had no idea how she was going to handle an entire day away from him.

Harry had voiced his worry to Albus, but the old man said only that she would be fine and whatever happened Poppy, who had five grown children of her own, could handle it. When Harry still looked unconvinced he, Remus, and Severus all promised to visit her during their free periods.

Harry turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. 'I guess we will just have to wait and see.' He quickly dressed before reentering the bedroom to wake Draco.

"Hey, get up."

"What? Harry? I wanna sleep. Go away." Draco mumbled before rolling over and covering his head with his pillow.

"Draco, if you don't get up now you won't have time to shower before your first class." Harry glanced at the clock, scowling it was already 7:00 and he wanted to get to breakfast early so they would have plenty of time to drop Livvie off before classes started at 9:00. "Draco you have to get up. I thought you wanted to drop Livvie off with me?!?"

"Adu" Draco muttered from under his pillow.

"What? I can't understand you like that. If you ant to come you need to get your arse out of bed…now!"

Draco rolled over glaring at the clock. "Fine, but just so you know, I was not ready to get up yet!"

"Oh, wow, you didn't make that obvious." Harry sarcastically threw over his shoulder as he headed toward Olivia's room to gather fresh clothes for the day.

By the time he returned running water could be heard coming from the bathroom. Glad that Draco was finally up and moving, Harry moved to the bed and checked on the slumbering child before grabbing the diaper bad off the desk and returning to Olivia's room to pack for the day.

Harry was bewildered by what to pack for her; he had never done anything like this before. Besides, what if she needed something he forgot to pack?

In the end Harry had six complete outfits, a full pack of pull ups, two pairs of shoes, her favorite blanket, teddy, and doll baby, five juices, four packets of snacks, three books, coloring books and crayons, a jacket, an extra sweatshirt, hat, gloves, and a list of instructions for Poppy on her likes, dislikes, allegories, nap schedule, and just about anything else you could think of.

Needless to say, by the time Draco entered the living room with an alert baby on his hip he was faced with one strung out Harry Potter.

"Harry, love, what are you doing exactly?"

Harry nervously ran a hand through his unruly hair. "I am trying to get everything down so that Poppy will know what to do if-"

"Harry stop!" Draco interrupted; "You don't need to do this; she knows how to care for a child."

"I know, but she doesn't know how to care for my child!"

"Harry, put down the quill. It's not even like we will be that far away. If she has a question, all she has to do is come to the classroom and ask. It's not a big deal."

"I know, it's just, what if she needs me, Dray, and I'm not there?"

"She will be fine. Now," Draco plopped the child down on her daddy's lap earning a squeal of delight, "Take your daughter and get her dressed. I will clean up here so that when she is dressed we can head off to breakfast."

"Alright." Harry gathered up the child and dressed her in a navy blue corduroy jumper with a light pink tea shirt. He then gently brushed her hair and pulled it up into pig-tails on top of her little head. "Alright, sweetheart, let's go show Draco."

Olivia bounced excitedly on the bed until Harry lowered her to the floor and she immediately took off running for the living room. "Draco! Draco!" Said man turned, caught her as she ran forward, and swung her high into the air. She laughed happily and gave him a kiss. "Look! Daddy did it!" she exclaimed batting at her right pig-tail.

"It looks wonderful, my dear." Draco stood her back on the floor. "Wow, don't you look pretty today. Are you ready to spend the day with Madam Pomfrey?"

"Okay."

Draco picked up the diaper bag and the accompanying tote that contained Olivia's belongings and departed for the Great Hall.

Once again Draco left Olivia with Harry as he went to join the Slytherin table. 'I'm going to have to talk to the Headmaster about allowing me to sit with Harry at Gryffindor. He doesn't eat much when he is so focused on getting her to actually eat instead of playing with her meal. With the two of us, it is so much easier.' He could tell Ron and Hermione were trying to help, but neither had the heart to scold her properly. Ron would do just about anything to make the small angel laugh and Hermione found her adorable no matter what and every time she said 'No!' she would smile and ruin the effect of Harry's reprimand. This resulted in Harry eating hardly a bite and Olivia thinking she had discovered a new game. 'This isn't going to work the way it is now. I just must speak with Dumbledore.'

At a half after 8, the heads of the houses began distributing the time tables. Draco looked down at his and groaned. He had Ancient Ruins first thing. He tried to catch a glimpse of Harry's schedule but never got the chance, but going by the look upon his face, it wasn't good. But then again, the look could have been because Ron had just given Livvie a large bite of chocolate.

Draco stood and gathered Olivia's bags. They had roughly a half hour to drop Livvie off and gather their books before class's started.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, "Just give me a minute to get her cleaned up." He quickly wiped off her face and hands while Draco charmed her jumper clean.

They left the hall once more under the eye of every student at Hogwarts. It seemed as though everyone wanted to have a look at Harry's little girl.

The rumor mill was over flowing with speculations about how Harry had received custody, if she was really his cousin or the product of teenage lust, and about what the hell was going on between Malfoy and Potter.

The closer they got to the Hospital Wing, the more anxious both Harry and Olivia became.

They entered the infirmary just as Madam Pomfrey came bustling out of her office.

"Hello, dears. Mr. Malfoy if you would please place her bags in my office. Thank you."

Draco moved to do as he was told while Madam Pomfrey went to get Olivia from Harry's clutches.

When he returned, Olivia was crying so hard her face was a deep red and she was clutching Harry with everything she had. Harry was trying to tell Pomfrey where everything was and go over the list while at the same time calm Olivia enough to hand her over to the witch. He looked like he was on the verge of crying himself. Harry looked so sad. Draco felt his heart clench at the scene, but he knew they had to leave her. There was no way she would sit still and be quite all day while they were in class; no they definitely could not take her with them.

Draco returned to the office and retrieved her beloved blanket. He then went back out into the main ward and gave it to Harry who, in return, wrapped it around the devastated child. Harry then proceeded to rock the sobbing toddler until she fell asleep.

"Harry."

"Hummm."

"You need to give her over to Pomfrey now or we will never make it to class. She will be fine." Draco made a move to take the child from her father's arms.

"What if she wakes up and I'm not there?"

"She'll be fine; besides, you can stop by at lunch and check in on her if it makes you feel any better."

Draco collected the child and led Harry into the office. He tucked the little angel into the cot by the desk and kissed her forehead lovingly. Harry stared down at her for a little longer running the pad of his thumb across her head.

"Harry, we have got to go."

"Okay." He leaned down and placed one last gentle kiss on her rosy cheek whispering, "Be a good girl, Livvie. Daddy loves you."

Draco nodded at Poppy before leading the distraught father from the room.

Closing the door to the wing softly behind him, Harry turned and buried his head in Draco's chest letting go of the tears he had been desperately holding back minutes ago. Draco let him rest in his arms for as long as he needed. Eventually Harry pulled back, wiping his eyes, and said, "I think we are late."

"It's okay. I had Pomfrey write us notes. Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah. It's just hard leaving her there when she begged me not to. She's scared that we won't come back or something and- I mean can you blame her? I just- I just cant – I can't stand to see her hurt like that and know that I caused it and could so easily fix it and make it all better for her."

"I know, but part of being a parent is helping her to not be afraid anymore. She is scared now and maybe everyday this week she will be scared as well, but every day you will come back to her and then she will eventually learn that not everyone disappears when they go away. She has to learn it sometime. You can't be there every second of the day." Draco squeezed Harry closer to his body offering him more reassurance.

Harry stared back, eyes glistening, "When did you get so smart?"

"I am a Malfoy." Draco smirked as Harry snorted with laughter.

'Merlin, I love that laugh.' Draco thought as they walked side by side down the hallway to continue their day.

Over 2,000 words! REVIEW! Part 2 of this chapter (Anticipation) will be posted shortly, sorry for the cut; it was just getting too long.