Waking up an hour earlier than normal, Draco was up at nine that morning, in time to watch as Harry gave Eiona a bath. Normally she was given a bath before bed, but she hadn't gone outside or gotten very dirty, so they had forgone the bath in lieu of sorting through baby shower presents. But it was Sunday and they went to visit Lucius on Sundays, so she needed a bath. And she needed it done right away, because they needed to be home after lunch, so that Draco could take a nap.
An afternoon nap was quickly becoming the new routine for Draco. To Harry, it was a bit scary that Draco slept until nine and then was down for a nap by two, and it had Harry somewhat worried. But Harry wasn't too worried, because Healer Smith said it was normal to need to rest even more now that Draco was seven and a half months pregnant. In fact Smith recommended it, because Draco's blood pressure had been creeping up lately, like it had when pregnant with Eiona.
Afternoon naps, long soaks in the tub, and less stress were all recommended, along with watching his blood pressure; Draco just added the blood pressure charm when he checked his blood sugar, so it wasn't an inconvenience. Taking a nap in the afternoon meant that he was back up by dinnertime and refreshed enough to spend an hour or so awake afterwards. And it meant he was up early enough to witness morning bath time. He wanted to help, so he sat in a chair and watched while Harry tackled the toddler with soap as she played with her bath toys.
"I have a bit of good news," Harry said, working the shampoo potion through Eiona's thick hair, dodging an errant flying toy boat. She liked to send her toys in a whirl around her while she bathed and said whirl didn't always confine itself to the surface of the water, thanks to her innate magic. There were toy fish, flowers, and ants in with the typical mix of bubble coated boats and rubber ducks.
It was a special magical shampoo that was designed to help troublesome hair stay in a neat formation, instead of just going everywhere the way Eiona's hair tended to do on its own. Her hair didn't naturally fall in ringlets, having a much wider curl to it, but the tighter curls were the only style they had found so far that managed to keep her wild head of hair under control. It had worked wonders, almost eliminating the need for constant hair care charms. In order to work, the hair had to be set into the desired confirmation with it in, before being washed out. Thus Harry was combing through a section of hair, wrapping the lock around his finger, before letting the ringlet go and repeating the process.
"Oh, and what's that?" Draco asked, looking adoringly at the two most important people in his life. A rubberized flower flopped out of the tub, creating a soapy puddle. Draco picked it up and plopped it back in the tub, to join the many other bath toys.
"It's about your father. I got called into the Minister's office to talk to Fawley, Friday."
"And you're just telling me this now? When is he coming home?" Draco asked excitedly.
"Calm down, we're not that far yet. It's good news, but they aren't ready to release him. I wanted to wait until after the baby shower, because I knew you'd be excited and that it would over shadow the party," Harry admitted.
Harry had recently given his much promised interview with the Daily Prophet. He went on record saying that Lucius had served enough time and that he wanted his father-in-law home on house arrest. He even promised to personally ensure Lucius didn't get into any trouble, if the wizard were released. Needless to say Draco was very pleased with the resulting article.
With the newly elected Fawley in the seat of Minister for Magic and his campaign promise to free lesser Death Eaters, Harry's interview set off a media storm. Fawley put pressure on things to move forward from his end, sending his newly formed parole office into overdrive to complete the paperwork. Psychological evaluations were conducted this past week and court dates scheduled. And Lucius was bumped ahead to first in line to go home.
The biggest setback to Lucius' freedom turned out to be the fact that he wasn't yet convicted of anything. With the Motor Neurone disease, his trial had been set back. His lawyers were ready to put on the trial of the century, but why bother with all of the costs when Fawley was willing to let Lucius off with house arrest? Still, there was the principle of the matter with Lucius unwilling to admit to being a murderous Death Eater, even if it meant he could go home. Fawley, for his part, didn't want to lose the chance to use Lucius with his famous son-in-law to be the poster inmate for his new house arrest program. Therefore Fawley put pressure on the prosecutor to come up with a deal both sides could agree to.
A possible plea deal between Lucius and the prosecutor's office was one of the many things Fawley had wanted to talk to Harry about on Friday.
"Fawley is offering your father a deal. If he pleads guilty to no more than the acts he's already admitted, then he'll receive time served plus house arrest for the rest of his life. It's a very good deal; I think he should take it," Harry explained.
"And then he'll be coming home? He could be home next week?" Draco asked excitedly, jumping the gun.
"Hold on, the system doesn't work that fast. The prosecutor has the weekend to put together the deal. Your father's attorney should have it sometime tomorrow, but even if they sign it there is a lot of red tape they have to work through. This is the first case; they don't know how it's going to work."
"Oh." The air was let out of Draco's sails and he slumped a bit in his seat. At that moment a toy frog made a break from the tub, crawling up onto the rim, before jumping straight onto his considerably rounded lap. He was so lost in thought that he barely noticed the charmed frog, instinctively grabbing it and restraining it like he would a chocolate frog. "How long do you think it will take?"
"That depends."
"On?"
"Well there is a lot of public interest in the case; pressure from both sides. House arrest and parole are muggle concepts without much wizarding precedent. The whole concept is untested and it's unknown how tightly the parolee needs to be magically bound or what restrictions need to be made. If your father is willing to be their test case and try out a whole series of different levels of restrictions, he could be here part time the week after next."
"The week after next! Does Mother know? Does Father?" Draco was excited again. The toy frog croaked right along with him, equally excited.
"No, not until Monday, but you can tell them today if you want."
"Yes. Now we have to hurry up and go!" With that Draco flung his arms upwards, his grip on the frog loosening at the top of his arc. The frog took the opportunity to break free, jumping back into the bath.
"Alright, but keep in mind that he'll only be home part of the time at first and there will be lots of restrictions."
"Part time? What does that mean exactly?"
"Well you know how I said I'd be personally responsible for Lucius?" Harry asked and Draco nodded. "And you know how the opposition jumped onto that with saying Lucius should be bound to me and have to be where I am?" The story was practically the only thing in the papers this week, with everyone who was anyone jumping in and having their say in the matter. Few people were willing to go on record saying Harry should be denied anything, but the staunchest opposition were saying to let him put his money where his mouth was. The news that Harry had moved into Malfoy Manor meant that it would be convenient for him to personally watch Lucius at all times.
"Yes, but you're an Auror. Your boss Robards is on record saying that my father can't be allowed to come into work with you, so a magical bind will not work," Draco replied.
"Yeah, but they've come up with a better idea. Instead of binding him to me, they are just going to release him into my custody when I get off of work. I'll have to take him back with me when I go to work in the morning. They only want to do it for a month or so, while they are experimenting with the terms and restrictions. It would mean he could come home with me after work a week from tomorrow, instead of waiting in jail while all that red tape is cleared away. If things work well, they'll probably cut that part short and let him stay here without me."
"So we would only have him nights and weekends?" Draco asked.
"Yes, but just for the first month or less and it would mean getting him back right away."
"Alright, I'll talk to him about it. Is there any way you want to stay home from work for the next month?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I can't take the time off. I need my days off for you and our son. I already told them I plan on taking the entire month of March off."
Draco perked up a bit at the memory of Harry telling him about the plan to take off the first month of their son's life from work. It was more than Harry had taken off for Eiona.
"There, is this alright?" Harry asked, forming the last ringlet on Eiona's squirming head.
"Yes, stand back," Draco replied, pulling out his wand and casting the setting charm on the hair potion just as Harry leaned away. It was important to act quickly, before the curls could be messed up. Although Eiona stayed put when someone was actively doing her hair, she often dived into the water the moment she was let go.
"Alright, all done, Princess," Harry announced.
Eiona squealed and splashed, sending water all over herself and her dad. Then Harry rinsed out the hair potion, cleaning behind her ears while he was at it.
"Just think, my father should be home permanently before this baby is born," Draco said.
Cleaning in between Eiona's toes and scrubbing extra on her dirt-stained knees, Harry replied, "Yeah, maybe he can help sort through all that stuff we got yesterday."
"Mother already has an elf sorting through it, you know, putting up the things we won't need right away and putting the new covers on the old things."
"Draco, if you are half as picky about Orion's room as you were about Eiona's, there is still a lot of work in store for me."
Draco waved Harry off and conceded, "I guess not all of that fuss was needed, especially not right away, but it is nice to have."
"Yes it is. And perhaps now that we know what we've been given, you will get around to picking the theme and color palette so that I can paint." Harry was rinsing the suds off of Eiona, almost done, and deflecting the swirling toys into a pile by the drain.
"I'm not doing Quidditch or muggle vehicles, so you can just get those ideas out of your mind right now."
Harry let the water out of the tub. "Why don't you just get it over with and choose the Orion constellation, like we both know you want to. It will match all of the space patterned things we were given and we can add in a flying saucer with an alien inside. It will be cute."
"I haven't decided; all that midnight blue is too dark for a nursery. I might go with a forest scene and portray the story of Orion the huntsman. All of the owl and toad things will match that. Even the crup things wouldn't be out of place in a forest," Draco replied, handing Harry a towel to wrap around their daughter.
Eiona yelled for her toys, complaining about the lack of bubbles and water now that bath time was over. Harry wrapped her struggling limbs in the towel and handed over her favorite toy ant, to stop the wriggling. "Oh, I hadn't thought of that," he admitted.
"Did you want stars then?"
"Oh yeah, I thought stars would be cool. We could have a giant sun and moon and a few constellations and aliens. Oh, and a rocket ship; definitely a large rocket ship. It didn't occur to me that the background would be too dark. Come on, off to the nursery; time to dress Eiona for the day," Harry said, hefting the towel covered toddler out of the bath.
Draco complied, and together they turned down the hall in the direction of Eiona's room.
Author's Note: Which nursery would you rather see; the astrological one Harry described or the forest one Draco did?
And then there's the elephant in the room: Lucius coming home is obviously next. Harry hasn't seen him since Christmas, since he's been too busy lately to volunteer at the hospital. What do you think Lucius will have to say to Harry? What should Lucius do upon his return home? Wash and spend time with his family are obvious, but what personal endeavors has this man left behind? His job, his hobbies, his favorite foods and drinks, or his daily routine? Does anyone have any ideas?
I think the hardest part about writing a story is writing the end. I know this one ends with Lucius coming home (actually slightly after), but writing his home coming is proving challenging. To top it off I'm at the point of my PhD where I feel like quitting; I just want to go back home and relax. But I've made an important decision: when I finish, I'm going on vacation. A long vacation. I'm going to take a year off and chill and spend two months of summer bumming around the beach in Hawaii. In conclusion, I could really use some inspiration right about now; to finish this story, to finish my PhD, and to make it to the beach. Please leave me some inspiration.