When two am rolled around the next morning, Harry was once again awoken by Draco's elf. "Harry Potter, sir," Dipsy squeaked, poking Harry on the shoulder. "You must wake up, sir. Master Draco, sir, said to tell you that there is a fire, sir." Because she wasn't Harry's elf, she was free to lie to him. And she had to lie, since Draco had ordered her to. She was Draco's elf and had to do as Draco said.

Harry jumped out of bed on high alert, before he even processed what the elf said. "Huh? Wha? A fire?" he asked, canceling the wards and flinging open the door to his room, wearing nothing but his pajama bottoms.

Leo was on the other side of the door, up on his knees, banging on the door, and yelling an indistinguishable string of babbling. He fell forward as the door opened, landing hard with an "Oof."

Draco was standing a few feet back, his arms crossed with an extremely angry looking scowl on his face.

Harry picked Leo up and asked, "Where's the fire?"

"It's about to be in your bed, you insufferable arse," Draco answered coldly. He moved only to hand Harry the bottle of warm breast milk for Leo, which the baby would not take from him. If Draco was doing the feeding, Leo wanted it from the source, but the milk was already in the bottle, so it was too late for that. Dipsy had woken Draco when Leo had refused to take the bottle from her, instead screaming at the sight of her. Leo was still cutting his second tooth and in no mood for the impersonal feeding of an elf. The baby wanted the comfort of a warm human body cuddling him as he fed.

Harry took the bottle and instinctively inserted it into Leo's mouth, without knowing what was going on. "Huh? Seriously, how bad is it? You take Leo out of here and I'll try to put it out." As he said this last bit, he held Leo with bottle in mouth out for Draco to take back, but Draco's arms were once again crossed in refusal.

"There is no fire, but if I wanted to start one in your room, your wards wouldn't stop me. They may keep me out, but they will not keep the flames out," Draco threatened, purposefully not specifying that he could use his elf to bypass the wards to do so, just like he'd used his elf to wake Harry up. He didn't want Harry to find wards against his elf, or he wouldn't be able to contact the wizard at all in an actual emergency. Besides, he had no plans on harming Leo's PaPa; the threat was all talk.

"Wait, seriously? There's no fire?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yes, seriously."

Draco cast a privacy bubble around Leo's head, so that the argument that was to come would not be heard by their son, who was greedily sucking down the milk from the bottle.

"Why is your room warded against our son, Harry? Could you even hear him knocking?" Draco asked, his tone so scalding hot that Harry jumped as if burned.

Harry had not in fact heard anything from the hallway. After Draco's first night here he'd sound proofed his room, so that Leo's crying wouldn't wake him. "The room has been soundproofed for ages and I've slept with wards up since the war. I didn't specifically lock you two out or anything."

"And what if there really was a fire? You would just burn away up here without us knowing or we would die down there before you even realized we needed help."

"Sorry."

"Sorry is not good enough. Not nearly. Not even close. I cannot even wipe Leo's arse with a, 'Sorry.' What right do you have to lock us out? I haven't locked you out of either of our rooms."

"Well it is my house," Harry defended himself.

"And it is my son you are endangering with your selfish habits. I came up here hoping that last night was just a onetime deal." Here Draco was leaving out that his main reason for walking up two flights of stairs in the middle of the night was because Leo needed to be fed. The options for feeding the baby seemed to be either have another human employ the bottle or let Leo go hungry until Draco made more milk. He didn't like to see his son suffer, so he went with waking Harry up. "I thought maybe you warded you room while you wank. Maybe you wanked yourself to sleep and then forgot to cancel the wards. But no, you weren't wanking, were you? You have your room permanently warded against us. You do not trust either of us, even though Leo is only six months old. What are you afraid he will do? Crawl up here and puke in your room?"

"No…"

"Do you think I should be warding my room against everyone and everything too? Is there some dark force in this house I am not aware of?"

"No."

"Do you think you need to ward your room against me?" Draco asked.

Harry didn't know what to say to that. There was a time when he would have answered in the affirmative, but now he didn't think so, not really. But he did not manage an answer quick enough before Draco continued on.

"You do, don't you? Why in the world would you need protecting from me?"

"Er…"

"That's rich, Harry James Potter, really rich, you twat. You, the Savior of the Wizarding World, the Boy Who Lived, the Most Powerful Wizard in the World, the Chosen One, the Defeater of the Most Powerful Dark Lord Who Ever Lived, lives in fear of me. Why did you even let me into your home if you are so scared of me?"

"Leo…" was Harry's one word answer; the only word he managed to squeeze out in the middle of Draco's rant.

"Yes, Leo, exactly. You let me in because I had Leo. And then instead of being a man about it and admitting that you are a spineless, gutless, eunuch and asking us to find somewhere else to live, you decide to ward your room and put both of us in danger. In reality you have proven to be a bigger piece of shite than I had even imagined possible. You are worse than my father, the Dark Lord, and all of the Death Eaters combined ever said you were." None of those people had ever said Harry would put the life of a child at risk for selfish reasons, only that Harry was a blood traitor and might bring about the destruction of their world. The last was rendered obsolete by the end of the war and the middle one no longer mattered to Draco. The former he thought unforgivable.

"That's harsh, don't you think?" Harry asked, feeling like he'd just been punched in the gut.

"No, I think that was an understatement. And to think, the Dark Lord was counting on your hero complex luring you in to save Leo. If there is any part of him left out there, it is kicking itself in the arse, because obviously you wouldn't have come for your own son. That plan was doomed to failure in so many ways."

"Now wait a minute…" Harry protested, but Draco kept up the tirade.

"No, you listen to me. This is absolutely and unequivocally unacceptable. I cannot and will not tolerate this. I should be the one warding my door against you. You are the more powerful one. You are the more experienced one. You are the one who has always started everything, not me."

"What are you talking about?" Harry shouted over Draco.

"What am I talking about?" Draco shouted back, face red in anger and tendons straining. "I'm talking about the fact that I happen to be a virgin, while you clearly are anything but. If the papers are to be believed, you fuck anything that moves."

"You know as well as I do that you can't believe anything you read in the Prophet!"

"What about the fact that you are engaged to Weasley, but you keep coming on to me? I didn't get that from the Prophet. You did that weird rubbing up against me shite like a crup in heat, for Merlin's sake! Yet you have access to my room, and I am banned from yours. You could walk into my room any night while I am asleep and immobilize me before I even know you are there. But do you want to know why I haven't even locked my door, besides the fact that I want Leo to be able to reach me in an emergency?" Here Draco paused to take a breath long enough for Harry to nod. "Because I trusted you. That is clearly something that you cannot say about me in return."

Harry's mouth was open in shock, from the accusations, admission, and even more so from the revelation that Draco was in fact a virgin, which was just beginning to register. He had overheard Draco and others claim as much. He had even suspected it was true, but now Draco was actually confirming it to his face. He could read Draco like a book, so he knew Draco was being honest about this. There was not even the slightest doubt in his mind otherwise.

"Right, you don't trust me," Draco continued, when Harry remained speechless. "Do you honestly think I would harm you? You cannot seriously believe I pose a threat to you, can you?" His tone was imploring, but hard. He wanted Harry to answer correctly, but he was hardening himself against his fear that Harry would not.

Harry shook his head and began to protest, "Ah, I…" Draco had saved him from Malfoy Manor on Easter, after all.

"You do, don't you? You think I might actually do that to Leo. I cannot believe this shite." And with that, Draco turned and took off down the stairs, leaving Harry still holding the baby and the bottle.

Harry was left in a state of disbelief. He stood there for several moments processing Draco's last words. Draco hadn't said that he couldn't believe Harry thought he'd do something to Harry, but to Leo. Was Draco implying that the only reason he didn't try to hurt Harry was because of their son? That Draco wouldn't do something that would hurt his son, but he didn't care about Harry, other than as Leo's father? In a way that made sense, because if Draco killed Harry, Leo would suffer. Leo would lose one parent to murder and the other to Azkaban. Draco was not the sort of parent who would do that to a child.

That rational stung Harry, because he thought he and Draco had been getting along. He was developing feelings for Draco and he'd hoped Draco was developing them for him in return. He wanted Draco not to want to kill him, because of how Draco felt for him, not because of how Draco felt about Leo. He thought they had gotten passed that stage and he was hurt now, thinking that they hadn't.

Leo dropped the empty bottle, let out a loud burp, and spit up a mouthful of milk. The milk dribbled down Harry's chest, getting caught in his chest hair. The little Malfoy managed to instinctively avoid his mess as he lay his sleepy little head down on Harry's shoulder.

It was only then that Harry moved. He ignored the bit of baby puke coating his hairy chest, but he did grab a shirt from his dirty clothes pile to wipe the remainder of the milk from under Leo's chin. Kreacher popped in behind them and dealt with the bottle and soiled shirt as Harry took Leo down the two flights of stairs to the nursery, with plans on laying Leo down in the crib to sleep. However, what he saw when he entered the room stopped him in his tracks. Already the playpen, Leo's favorite stuffed duck, half the shelf of books, and the entire changing table were gone and Draco was rummaging through drawers, pulling clothing out and stuffing it into the nappy bag; the same nappy bag from which it had all originated just a few short months ago.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"I'm leaving. I cannot stay here with you," Draco answered, without looking up from his task. He wasn't just taking a few pairs of pajamas for the night, but almost the entire drawer of pajamas. He was sorting through them though, picking out a pair he wasn't particularly fond of and putting it back, so that the drawer was left with just two pairs, before closing it. Then he moved on to the next drawer and did the same with Leo's play clothes.

"Where are you going? You can't go back to your parents in Austria!" Harry protested.

"No, I won't go there." Draco removed an outfit that had been given to Leo by the Weasleys and put it back in the drawer, along with the shirt Harry had purchased that time they'd gone to buy swim suits for the boys. He was about to leave it at that and take the rest of the shirts, when the one his father had bought jumped out at him. It wasn't a bad shirt, but he was almost as pissed at his father as he was at Harry, so out of spite he added that shirt to the drawer too. Let Harry and my father have each other, he thought. There was also one his mother had purchased which read, "Grandfather's Pureblood Pride and Joy," which he also put back, thinking it would annoy both his father and Harry to leave it here.

"Then where? You can't just take my son and not tell me where you're going." Harry clutched the sleeping child in question tightly to his chest, fear creeping in. He couldn't lose Leo, not when he'd so firmly fallen in love with fatherhood. His son and Teddy were the most important people in his life right now. He thought it should've been Ginny, his fiancé, but he couldn't give two shites if she left him, while he couldn't bear the thought of losing Leo. He didn't want to lose Draco either, but he had no claim to Draco. He had a claim to Leo and he was going to hold onto it fiercely and hope that where Leo went, Draco would follow.

"I never said I wouldn't tell you where we are going. We are going to the lake house. I know I'm not allowed in the Manor, but they let us in the lake house last week."

Was that only a week ago? To Harry it felt like longer. It was already one of his happiest memories and he thought it would always remain so. Such awful things had happened in the large manor house, but only an acre away such wonderful memories were made. Despite his fondness for the place, he couldn't let Draco take his son away. "You can't go there!" Harry struggled for an excuse as Draco picked out the pair of shorts that Harry had let Leo dump cereal on. They were slightly stained, although the elves had gotten it clean enough that one could only tell something had happened to it in the right light, so back in the drawer they went, along with the matching trousers to the outfit Lucius had bought. "There's no bed or kitchen. Where will you sleep? Where will you eat? Where will the elves cook? There's only a loo and a living room."

Draco paused in his task to look up and finally meet Harry's eyes. He looked crushed as he answered, "For tonight, I will sleep on the sofa, since I am not proficient at transfigurations; it is beneath a Malfoy to do so, but conjured beds are so uncomfortable. Tomorrow I will ask around and see where I might stay. Maybe Regan has forgiven me."

"But I thought we were getting on. Can't you stay? We can talk and try to work this out. You said that's what proper parents do: they talk to each other and work their problems out. We just need to have a family meeting and talk. We can get over this and be civil again, can't we? We were becoming friends, weren't we?"

"Obviously not. Friends do not ward each other out," here Draco left out the fact that he'd been neglecting to visit some of his friends, because he wanted to do more than just erect a few wards between them and his son, "nor do proper parents. This relationship between us seems rather one sided to me: it's all give and no take. I dedicate my life to raising your son and you cannot even be arsed to watch him for half an hour."

"What are you talking about? I watched him all Tuesday!" Harry protested. It had only been for a little over two hours, but they were two very long and hard hours. He hadn't realized before how much constant attention Leo demanded or how fussy and prone to crying the baby was when not getting his way. It was easier to watch Leo when Teddy was around, because Teddy occupied a good deal of Leo's attention. But without Teddy and without any other adult for backup, entertaining the baby had fallen solely on Harry's shoulders. He was just beginning to appreciate how much effort it took to do Draco's job, when before he'd assumed Draco sat around doing nothing all day.

"I am referring to Sunday. I have had several people mention to me that you left Longbottom and the Abbott girl to watch Leo, when I asked you to."

Harry hadn't realized he'd been found out. Now he wondered if Draco knew where he'd actually been during the time he was supposed to be feeding Leo and if part of Draco's current anger at him was caused by his spying. But he also didn't want to give away the goose if Draco didn't already know. He stood there trying to think of a way to formulate a question that would determine what Draco knew, without giving himself away. But he didn't come up with anything in the few seconds before Draco plowed ahead. He was beginning to realize that Draco was not easy to placate when angry.

"But as I was saying, I do all of the bending and going out of my way to be civil to your friends, while you glower when mine come over," Draco continued.

That wasn't entirely fair, since Draco was in part referring to Dane. Of course Harry was going to glower at the wizard who was stealing his baby-daddy away from him.

"You were incredibly rude to Regan and she is about as nice and pleasant as my friends get." Draco had been building resentment for two months and now that it was spewing forth, he let it flow. "I haven't dared invite any of the others over, for fear of how you would react. I cannot even have my mother over, because my father is afraid you will attempt to have her arrested, even though she has never committed a crime in her life."

"Hey now, I didn't do or say anything wrong to your mum that one time."

"Nor did you follow my wishes for you to stay behind and wait for me. You had to be nosey and see for yourself. You couldn't trust me that she wasn't hurting her only grandchild. I feel like you are constantly watching me and critiquing everything I do. I go out of my way to try to be a proper little blood traitor and read all the best blood traitor books to our son, but it's not good enough for you, is it? Nothing I ever do is good enough and I'm sick of it. I cannot and will not continue to live like this and that is why I must go. There, we talked," Draco finished.

"Don't go. Please don't go. I'm begging you," Harry pleaded, locking eyes with Draco.

"I cannot bear to stay. I can barely stand the sight of you right now without wanting to smash your nose in and slap you across the face. I will not do so, for my son, but I will not be able to sleep while I am under the same roof as you." Draco's tone was cold and accusing.

"But why?" Harry's voice was desperate.

"Because I misjudged you. I thought you were a better person than you are. I made a mistake in coming here."
"You didn't make a mistake. I want you here." After growing up with the Dursleys, Harry lacked the self-confidence to negate the other statement. Everyone had built him up with so much praise after the war that he'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop for months. He just hadn't expected it to come from Draco, who had never been one to overtly praise him. Draco had been one of the few people not to put him on a pedestal and that was something he'd liked about the wizard.

"And I wanted to build a family for my son. I honestly came here with the intentions of doing right by him and putting all of our fighting and disagreements in the past. But I guess I fell for the Harry Potter hype like the rest of the world, because the person I was hoping you were deep down is not the type of person who would put our son's life at risk by erecting needless wards without even having the guts to tell me that he is scared of me. I bet you turned Longbottom against me too. He was fine with me Sunday morning, but he ran away from me on Tuesday night at the garden. You must've said something to him before getting him to feed Leo for you. Not only did you not do as I asked, you bad mouthed me to your friend. Some Gryffindor you turned out to be. I know Slytherins who would have done better."

Draco's assessment of his character hurt. Harry was taken aback again by the accusation that Leo was in danger because of his wards. "I'll teach you the counter spells. I didn't know they were a problem. I'll take them down. I'll only put up wards that allow you and Leo through. Please, I'll do anything, but please don't go." He would've dropped to his knees, but for the sleeping child still in his arms. The news that Neville had been caught spying nearly went in one ear and out the other, except for the mental note Harry made that Neville really was not an option in future spying missions. Later he would wonder why Draco hadn't said anything before and if he really was getting anything over on the wizard, or if he was just making himself look bad when he tried.

"You won't be too scared to sleep at night, knowing that I could be coming for you?" Draco asked, looking away so that he wouldn't have to be hurt by the look he expected to find in Harry's face. He thought the truth of Harry's fear of him would be visible on Harry's face, so instead of looking, he opened the next drawer and began to go through Leo's socks. He would leave the dingy ones here for Harry, so that Leo had clothes during those weekend visitations they'd agreed to way back when.

"Draco, look at me," Harry demanded, waiting until Draco looked up from the socks. When hurt grey eyes met freshly understanding green ones, he answered. "No, I won't. You didn't give me a chance to say it earlier, but I know you wouldn't hurt me. You couldn't. You didn't. My life was in your hands. Not only mine, but that of Hermione, Ron, Dean, Luna, and even Mr. Ollivander and that goblin. You could've turned us over to Voldemort, but you didn't. You helped us escape and you gave me the final clue I needed to defeat him. You played a bigger part in ending the war than anyone gives you credit for."

"I don't want the credit. I just want Leo to be safe. He was not safe and I thought if I let you go, you would make the world safe for him. And…"

"And what?"

"And I could not allow his PaPa to die; not when I could prevent it." Draco broke the eye contact, unable to admit the full extent of his hopes and dreams, or as his father would call them, his unhealthy obsessions.

"You did prevent it, Draco, you saved me and my friends. For that I will be eternally grateful, but I am even more grateful for the son you have given me and for the chance you have given me to know him. I want him here with me. I want you here with us. I like our living situation the way it is." Harry tried to put all of his heart into this declaration, hoping that showing his emotions would tip the scale and Draco would stay. It didn't even matter how embarrassing it was to admit this.

Draco abandoned the socks, closed the drawer, stood up, and looked at Harry, studying Harry's face for sincerity. "You do?" he asked.

"Yes, I do."

"Good, because I did not really want to go. We will stay, if you will dismantle the wards. I will unpack the nappy bag in the morning," Draco replied, holding his arms out for their son.

A huge smile lit up Harry's face. Instead of handing Leo over, he shifted the baby's weight into one arm and used the other to hug Draco.

Draco melted into the hug for a minute, allowing himself the comfort of Harry's arms, even though it belonged to the Weasley girl.

Harry's heart was soaring, he was so happy. He pressed his lips to Draco's and silently wished Draco could sense through the kiss how he felt about the other wizard. He wasn't yet able to put those emotions into words, but he knew he felt something.

Unwilling to let Harry get away with taking advantage of him again and with the baby in between them to dampen the mood, Draco did not let go of his senses and melt into the kiss the way he wanted to. He turned his head away, breaking the contact of their lips. He reached for Leo, supporting the sleeping head and the limp body, as he pulled them both out of Harry's arms. "You need to stop doing that. I will not be your side of arse that you toy with when Weasley is away. If you really wanted me, you would have dumped her. I cannot handle this emotional ride with you anymore. One minute you want me and Leo and the next you are off making plans for a life with your fiancé that does not include us. I will not be used like this." He hugged Leo to his own chest, to give him the strength to be strong and stand up to Harry.

"Um, er, sorry. I don't mean to make things hard on you."

"But you do, because you do not have your shite together."

"I'll get my shite together, I promise."

"You do that."

"I will. Will you stay?" Harry asked, worried that the kiss had ruined the tentative agreement.

"I will until I marry Dane," Draco said and to prove it, he laid the sleeping Leo down in the crib.

"Dane?" Harry asked in horror. He'd been counting on any possible marriage being a long way off.

"Yes, Dane. He doesn't treat me like you do. I never really thought he was the one, but after tonight, I see how much better he treats me. I'm going to stop dragging my feet on the marriage contract," Draco said, beginning to see his suitor in a new light. He was now glad his parents had pushed the wizard on him, because it meant he had an option for his future that did not involve Harry Potter.

This statement had Harry's hopes rising and crashing at the same time. He hadn't realized that Draco was dragging his heels with Dane, not after that first date when things seemed to be going so smoothly between the two wizards. It gave him hope that he stood a chance of winning Draco's favor over Dane. But then in the same sentence Draco had taken Harry's hopes away, saying that he was going to push ahead faster with Dane. Harry thought things were moving way too fast as it was. "You can't marry him; you've only been on two dates!" Or was it more? Did Lughnasadh last Sunday count? Did that trip to the Ministry to check on the Lestranges count?

"Exactly; it would have been far more if I wasn't fighting it. With an arranged marriage, we can tie the knot as soon as both parties agree on the terms of the marriage contract. It won't be hard to cross out my father's nonsense and then we will have a valid contract. I can be out of your hair and living with my husband before your fiancé even leaves for school in September."

"I don't want you to."

"I cannot keep living with you, when you are planning to marry another. It is time I begin moving forward with my life. Realizing tonight that you ward your room against me was just the eye opener that made me see that." It was the straw that broke the proverbially camel's back.

"But I am going to take them down," Harry protested.

"You do that. I'm going to bed," Draco replied, sounding unimpressed.

Harry nodded, said, "I'll go fix those wards," and turned to leave before his body could get him in any more trouble. He blamed the failed kiss for Draco's sudden decision to marry Dane and he didn't want to fuck things up any more than he already had tonight.

Author's Note: The next chapter will be the big fight/break up with Ginny. She has just spent the last 2 weeks having a blast with the other guy, so I think her date with Harry will be a major let down. Plus it's another one of those Ministry galas, and I'm thinking Draco might put in an appearance on Dane's arm, making Harry jealous. It should be rather clear that both of them are no longer in the same place as they were in the beginning of this story and they both want different things (people) now. How do you want the break up to go? Amicable separation and they both cordially agree to move on? Or massive public fight, possibly driven by the fact that it's Ginny's birthday and Harry can't take his eyes off of Draco? It could go either way, so you decide. Most votes wins and will be what I write.

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