"Harry, can I talk to you for a moment?" Lucius asked Sunday afternoon.
Harry had been alone with Teddy in the drawing room. Andy was in the study helping Narcissa with funeral arrangements and Draco, Sev, and Scorp were all taking theirs naps. It was just Harry, Teddy, and Lucius, which still felt odd to Harry. "Um, yeah, I guess," Harry replied.
"Good. I was wondering if you are aware of the fact that Friday is Draco's eighteenth birthday?" Lucius asked.
"Um, no, I didn't know," Harry answered, his mind suddenly whirling with panic over what to get his husband. How could he have forgotten Draco's birthday? He was late finding out about it last year and he really should've remembered that it was coming up. He had assumed Draco would remind him, but Draco hadn't said a word about it this year and hadn't even told him about it last year, which both seemed way out of character for Draco, who liked being the center of attention.
"Normally it is the seventeenth birthday that is the big deal. I was unable to be with Draco last year on his birthday and I'm afraid the day passed without the proper celebration. Cissy told me there were a few presents and a cake here at the Villa during a weekend visit, but he didn't get the proper formal ball. I would like to throw one for him this year, to make up for my failings, but every time I suggest a ball he looks so put upon. He never was overly fond of balls, you see, so I was thinking that just a typical birthday party with friends and family is in order."
"Yeah, that sounds brilliant. How can I help?" Harry was very relieved to hear that Lucius was not intending to throw Draco a ball, because he'd just as soon crucio a puppy as agree to a ball. And he liked puppies, as long as they didn't belong to his aunt Marge.
"I'd like to invite all of his friends. I know how to contact his Slytherin friends, but is there anyone else I should invite?"
"Yeah, um, Hermione. I'll invite her, if you tell me when."
"Naturally it will be this Friday, on his birthday and I was thinking an evening party would be best. The elves will serve dinner out on the patio and bake a cake. Then we'll play music and there will be dancing. What else do you young people like?"
"Um…" Harry tried to think about what wizards his age liked to do for a good time, but nothing he could think of would work. Back at Hogwarts they had drank butterbeers, which wouldn't work because Draco was breast feeding. With Ron and Hermione, he liked to duel, which also wasn't the best idea at the moment. He'd spent far too much time during the last year on the run and not nearly enough having a good time. "I've no idea. Play exploding snap maybe. Dancing and food is good though and I can ask around."
"I'll write to Pansy and see if she has any suggestions. This is a surprise party, so don't let it get out. Oh, and Draco has mentioned on several occasions that he hates the Weasleys, so no Weasleys." Lucius hated them more, but he felt it was best to phrase it like this, because he was worried about making Harry upset with him. He didn't think their tentative understanding could withstand a major disagreement.
"Yeah, alright, I'll only invite Hermione." Harry thought for a moment about inviting Luna or Neville, because Draco hadn't mentioned a dislike of either of them, but they were his friends, not Draco's friends and he thought it'd be better to just stick to Hermione.
Lucius nodded and excused himself. Harry wrote Hermione informing her of the party and asking for help with what to get Draco. He had absolutely no idea what Draco would want. He had only managed to get Draco a bouquet of flowers last year and this year he needed something way better than flowers. If Draco was a witch, he'd probably go with some type of jewelry, but Draco was a wizard and already had plenty of jewelry. What did one get their husband?
When Draco woke up, Harry didn't mention Draco's birthday and pretended like he didn't know it was coming up, so that Draco would be surprised when the day came. After dinner a return owl came from Hermione, who suggested they go shopping tomorrow. He didn't want Draco to know what he was up to, so he hid the letter in his pocket and asked, "Draco, is it alright if I go see Hermione tomorrow afternoon?"
"Yeah, sure, as long as Aunt Andy is willing to watch Edward," Draco replied. He was tired of using the muggle nickname and had decided to just start calling Baby Edward by his full name, in hopes that it would catch on.
Harry wrote Hermione back, informing her that they were on for two and that he would meet her at the Burrow.
With the shopping trip happening so soon, Harry tried all night to think of something Draco would like. When Draco picked up a quill that had fallen on the floor, he wondered if he should buy Draco a new quill. When Draco picked up a book to read, he thought about buying a new book. When they took a bath together, he looked at all of Draco's bottles of soap, shampoo, and conditioner and thought of getting something along that line. Maybe Draco would like some lotion.
The first really good idea for Draco's birthday present came to Harry when they were getting ready to go to bed and Draco put his same old paternity robes back on. Those paternity robes were the only thing Draco could wear, because he was breast feeding. Draco wore them during the day and to sleep in at night. When they had gone out to the Ministry, to Remus and Tonks' funeral, to Crabbe's funeral, and to the baby shower, Draco had worn the same plain black paternity robes. Draco even wore them when they went down to the creek to enjoy the cool water. What Draco really needed was some new paternity robes; robes that weren't plain or black and weren't quite so all purpose.
Harry went to sleep Monday night thinking of all of the different types of paternity robes he could get Draco. Tuesday morning he kept his eyes peeled for any other gift ideas he could come up with. They were low on Scorp's muscle strengthening potion, so Harry watched the boys while Draco went down the hall to make some in the potions lab. Andy and Narcissa were just in the next room if Harry needed help and all three boys seemed content at the moment. Harry watched Scorp enjoying the up and down motion of the new swing and thought about getting Draco potion ingredients. But potion ingredients seemed like a lousy birthday gift, so he pushed that thought aside.
It took Draco all morning to make the potion. Harry needed help just a half an hour in, because Teddy pooped and needed a nappy change. Andy came to the rescue, taking Teddy upstairs to the nursery. Andy came back down with a freshly changed Teddy and sat down on the sofa.
"Thank you so much, Andy," Harry said from the floor, where he was changing Sev into a clean nappy. Sev and Scorp only ever peed, so changing their nappies was simple and could be done on the drawing room floor.
"You're welcome. If Draco's making a potion, he'll probably be gone all morning. I could stay and help out if you like," Andy replied, summoning a toy for Teddy to play with.
"Would you? That'd be great," Harry replied, pushing Sev's torso back down, because the baby was straining to sit up. Harry pulled down Sev's onesie and quickly fastened the snaps.
"Of course, Harry. Teddy's my grandson and you can ask me for help anytime."
"Actually, there's something else I need help with; I need to get Draco a birthday present. What are you supposed to get your husband for their birthday?" Harry asked, turning Sev back over and pushing the baby gently back down, so that he could finish the last snap. No sooner did he get it than Sev rolled away again.
Andy had a husband until recently, so Harry thought she had experience with this sort of thing.
"Ted liked cologne, fishing rods, and sex. Your anniversary is coming up as well and you'll need to get him something for that too."
Harry did not want to talk to Tonks' mum about sex, so he ignored it. "Alright, what should I get him for our first anniversary?"
"How about cufflinks? I know Draco likes jewelry."
Harry didn't have much experience with cufflinks, but he had worn a pair when they got married. Draco had worn a pair too and they seemed like the type of upper class thing the Malfoys would be into. "Alright, so cufflinks and cologne. Anything else?"
"This may seem strange, but it's always nice to get something for your children, especially when you're a new parent. So if you see something the babies might like, it wouldn't hurt to get it."
"Yeah, alright," Harry said, remembering how happy Draco had seemed opening up all of those presents at the baby shower. But at the moment, he thought they had more than enough baby stuff.
"And plan something for the two of you to do on your anniversary; dinner at least and arrange a baby sitter, but if there's something else you know he likes to do, you should arrange to do it."
"I know we both like to fly and snorkel, but there's no snorkeling in Great Britain and I don't know if it's a good idea to be on a broom. Draco's still breast feeding and has to carry that pump around and I should be pregnant by then. Is it okay to fly when you're pregnant?"
"I don't see why not, as long as you're careful not to fall. And as for snorkeling, probably the best anniversary gift you can give him is a vacation trip somewhere, especially because you didn't have a proper honeymoon. Maybe we can plan a vacation as a family and go somewhere tropical."
"Yeah, that'd be brilliant, thanks Andy!"
Harry spent the rest of the morning taking care of the three babies and talking to Andy about their potential vacation. He knew immediately that if they went anywhere, it'd have to be to Hawaii. Draco loved it and the place held many special memories for Harry; some of the happiest times in his life had been in the Hawaiian room of requirement. That was where they'd found out they were having twins and where they'd spent all of those hours fooling around.
It wasn't as simple as apparating over to Hawaii or even taking a portkey, because they had three babies to consider and Draco was still breast feeding. That meant they would have to take the babies with them. Then they'd need Andy and Draco's parents to babysit, so that meant the entire family would have to go. Andy said she was certain Lucius and Narcissa would agree to go, but that he should wait until after Snape's funeral to bring it up, because Narcissa was super busy with the funeral arrangements right now.
Draco finished the potion before lunch. He had a fresh vial of the vile muscle strengthener to add to Scorp's mashed carrots, which he fed his son. After lunch Draco and Harry took the boys up to the nursery to play for a bit. Edward was getting older and stronger, so they put him on one of the play mats on the floor and watched the baby struggle to lift his chest off of the floor, having already mastered lifting his head up. Sev crawled around the nursery floor and banged on the baby ward on the door, preventing his escape. Scorp too they put on a play mat and exercised his left leg, before letting him play with the dangling toys of the toy gym.
The five of them played in the nursery until naptime, when Draco laid all three boys down and went to sleep in the spare bed, and Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and his wallet, and apparated over to the Burrow.
Hermione was waiting on the bench outside the Burrow for Harry and stood up when he arrived. "Hi Harry. I was thinking that it'd be best to shop in muggle stores, so that no one takes a picture of you and you don't get mobbed. Have you thought of what you want to buy?"
"Well I need to buy something for our anniversary too and Andy suggested cufflinks. And then I'd like to get some lotion and some cologne, but what Draco really needs is paternity robes," Harry answered.
"Alright, so we will have to go to wizarding stores for the robes and maybe it would be best for the cufflinks as well, but the other things we can get at muggle stores," Hermione said digging in her beaded bag; the same bag they had taken on their horcrux hunt.
"What're you doing Hermione?"
"Looking for a vial of polyjuice potion; we'll need it if we're going to Diagon Alley," Hermione said pulling a vial of the horrible potion out of her bag. "And I've already added one of Ron's hairs."
"Right, good, but maybe we should get the lotion and the cologne first. Better take my robes off if we'll be in sight of the muggles." Harry had trousers and a white muggle-shirt underneath, so he pulled off his robes and handed them to Hermione to put in her bag.
"Yes, good idea. I think the drugstore I took you to before should have cologne and lotion. Does that work?" Hermione asked, slipping the vial back into her purse along with Harry's robes.
Harry agreed, handed Hermione his cloak to stuff into her bag, and then they apparated away. They walked down the block, entered the muggle store, and spent half an hour sniffing bottles of cologne and lotion. They settled on some that they thought smelled alright and then while they were there, he went to the vitamin section and picked up another set of bottles of multivitamins, iron, and calcium. He used the last of his muggle money, which meant he'd need to pick up more muggle money from Gringotts.
After the muggle store, Harry put his robes back on and polyjuiced himself into Ron and they apparated to Diagon Alley. First they went to a jewelry shop, where Harry purchased a platinum pair of cufflinks that were charmed to protect the cuffs they were attached to from getting dirty or trailing in the soup. What Harry really liked about them was that they automatically cleaned the soot off of your robes after traveling by floo. It was the type of thing he really needed and with all the floo travel they had to do with the babies, he thought Draco might appreciate them.
After the jewelry shop, they stopped by Gringotts, for Harry to make a withdrawal.
The polyjuice having worn off, Harry put on his invisibility cloak and walked with Hermione over to Madam Malkin's, which was thankfully empty. It was a Tuesday afternoon and far too early in the summer for anyone to be school shopping.
"Hello Hermione dear, I'm so glad you made it through the war alright," Madam Malkin greeted.
"Oh hello. Thank you very much," Hermione replied, taking a seat in a chair to wait.
"What can I help you with today? Perhaps a new dress?" Madam Malkin was slightly confused as to why the young girl had come in and just sat down when she was the only one in the store. Then Harry threw off the cloak and revealed himself, surprising Madam Malkin quite a bit. "Auror Potter! Where ever did you come from?" she asked.
"Sorry, Madam Malkin, but I had to use my invisibility cloak, or I would've surely been caught by my adoring fans. And um, it's Auror Malfoy now," Harry replied.
"Yes, that's right. What can I do you for you, Auror Malfoy? You must need a new set of dress robes for all of the dinner parties you've been invited to," Madam Malkin replied.
"No, not really. The elves sort our owls and anything with an invitation to a dinner party goes straight in the bin to burn. I'm not much of a fan of dinner parties, you see. What I need are some new paternity robes for my husband Draco. Do you do paternity robes?"
Madam Malkin said she did and asked about Draco's measurements. Draco had grown since last year, so the measurements Harry had were no longer accurate. Harry would have to get the new measurements and owl them.
With that settled, Harry went on to explain, "He has a bunch of plain black paternity robes, so what I want are ones that are different. It'd be nice to get him some soft ones for sleeping and maybe a nice set for funerals and fancy occasions. Then he absolutely needs sort of a light weight shirt he can wear when we go swimming," Harry replied.
"The standard ones are all plain black, but I can make the robes you want specifically for Lord Malfoy. Forgive me if I'm intruding, but is Lord Malfoy pregnant or planning to become pregnant soon? Or is it just the panels for breast feeding he needs?" It was in all of the papers that Lord Malfoy had given birth to Harry's twins recently, so of course he would be breast feeding.
"The latter, but he also does a lot of breast pumping and the robes he has now have a wizard space charm on them to conceal the breast pump."
"Yes, I can do that. It'll make it easier to make these things if I don't need to factor in an enlarged stomach. Might I also suggest a shear undershirt that is sort of a slip with the wizard space charm on it? It would conceal the breast pumps and could be worn underneath his regular clothes. He'd have to pull the robes off to spell open panels of the undershirt, but it's a solution that could work for a few hours at a time and enable him to wear almost all of his normal clothes."
"Oh yeah, that sounds brilliant. I'll take one of those."
"I've made Draco Malfoy undershirts before. Should I make this one out of the same fabric and style?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"As for the swimming shirt, I have some material that's perfect for a swimsuit that I want you to take a look at. I can make it into a typical summer robes cut, which should work for swimming, I just need to know which color and pattern you like best."
Madam Malkin walked Harry to a back room that was filled with fabrics and showed him a small section of swimsuit material. There really weren't all that many choices and half of them were clearly for witches, which left about three options. He chose the white fabric with the green hibiscus flowers, because it was the most tropical looking. Madam Malkin made a note of his choice and then led him to the rack of soft pajama material. He chose a light blue material with clouds, a plain medium blue material, and a light grey material with maroon colored dragons. Then there was a very extensive rack of fabric for dress robes that made Harry's head spin. There was silk, velvet, satin, chiffon, linen, muslin, taffeta, and Merlin only knew what else.
"If you're having trouble deciding, I do have a record of the last set of dress robes I made for Lord Malfoy. I could remake those robes, just with the modifications necessary for paternity robes," Madam Malkin suggested.
"Could you? That'd be brilliant," Harry replied.
Madam Malkin then showed Harry the shear light grey fabric she had used last time and a diagram of the style, which was embellished with lacey white stars. Harry didn't know much about dress robes, but they seemed a bit too frilly for his tastes. Although, Draco did have a closet full of dress robes and most of them looked far too frilly, so he decided that Draco probably liked that sort of thing.
After that Madam Malkin went over Harry's order. "That's one set of dress robes, one set of summer robes, and five sets of night robes. When do you need these by?"
"Friday; that's his birthday," Harry replied.
"Well that is a rather large order to fill on such short notice. I could do half by Friday, but not all of it."
"Alright, then do the dress robes, the undershirt, and the summer robes by Friday and send me the night robes whenever they're ready."
"Harry, might it be better to just get Draco pajama shirts to go with his usual pajama pants?" Hermione suggested. She had just finished looking over the style patterns Harry had chosen and noticed how girly the night robes were, like a female nightgown.
"Yeah, can you do that?" Harry asked. Madam Malkin agreed and then added up the total, which Harry paid. "Thanks for coming with me Hermione."
"Anytime Harry. Do you want to come back with me to the Burrow?"
"No, it's getting pretty late. Naptime is probably over by now and I need to get back," Harry replied, before giving Hermione a hug.
After that Hermione apparated back to the Burrow and Harry to the Villa. Harry asked a house elf to wrap and hide Draco's gifts.
The best time to work on Draco's birthday presents was during naptime, because Draco was asleep and therefore wouldn't find out. Wednesday during naptime Harry was able to get Narcissa alone for a moment to ask her what Draco's current measurements were. Narcissa confirmed that they were the same as last year, just an inch taller. He owled Madam Malkin with the measurements.
Thursday during naptime, Lucius approached Harry and went over the final plans for Draco's surprise birthday party. Lucius said, "I've invited all of Draco's Slytherin friends and I just need some whiz bangs from the Weasley store. Can you pick them up for me? I'm not sure I'm welcome over there." And he definitely wouldn't be welcome over there if he showed up and insulted the owner. It was so hard to avoid insulting someone who happened to be a Weasley. If the Weasley store didn't have the best whiz bangs, he wouldn't bother shopping there. But they did and he had to have the best for his only son.
"Yeah, alright, I'll go right now," Harry replied.
Harry asked Andy to watch Teddy and then he apparated over to WWW. George was happy to see him. When Harry asked for fireworks, George gave him the largest set of whiz bangs, which included two Whack Trance Whammy Rockets, two Thor's Thunder Crackers, two Thestral Thrashers, and two Spectrum Splashers.
"Whatever are you gonna do with all these whiz bangs, mate?" George asked.
"Oh, they're for Draco's birthday this Friday," Harry answered.
"Perfect," George said, adding another box of fireworks to the pile, "this is the new Harry and Draco yin yang opposites attract set; they're really flying off the shelves right now. Be careful with these; they're explosive, yeah?"
"Yeah, I'll be careful."
"Since it's his birthday, let me get you a bubble machine and a Mega Box. Is there anything else here you think he'd like?"
"Um, well I did tell him about your Extendable Ears once. He seemed interested at the time, but I don't see what he'd do with them now.
"Let that be his problem, mate. I'll just throw in two packages, in case one breaks," George replied, adding two packages of the ears to Harry's growing bag.
Business was slow at the moment, so Harry stayed a bit longer, and asked, "How are you doing, George?"
George sighed and said, "Life without Fred is hard, but I'm getting by. I'm throwing myself into my work right now. It's good to have the shop reopened and there's plenty to do to keep me busy, even on slow days like this one. And a lot of people have been stopping by to help and to keep me company. Ron and Charlie were with me constantly at first, but Charlie had to get back to work in Romania and Ron's preparing to start Auror training soon, so he hasn't been by as much. Angelina and Lee have been by every day this week."
George evidentially spoke too soon about it being a slow day, because while he was speaking, a witch opened the door to his store, recognized Harry Malfoy, and then retreated back into Diagon Alley to spread the word that Harry Malfoy was in WWW. Harry was telling George to hang in there and that things would get easier, when all of Diagon Alley started pouring into the store. Harry had to leave abruptly.
Harry apparated back to the Villa and found Lucius. "Here're the whiz bangs and George gave me some extra party supplies," Harry said, handing the shopping bags over to Lucius.
"Thank you, Harry. I'll have the elves hide these in the cellar until the party. We really ought to have a talk with George soon about formalizing your investment with his business," Lucius said.
"He gave me all these things for the party for free; I really don't need the investment formalized."
"What if George Weasley were to die and someone else took over the company and ran it into the ground. Without a formalized investment contract, you'd have no say in the matter and there would be nothing you could do about it. But if we get it put down in writing, then you can make sure someone competent is running the business. And if there's no one else to run it, you could ask for your money back. This might not become important until years in the future. It might not even be important in your lifetime, but in the lifetimes of your children. A formal agreement is something you can leave your children. An informal contract will turn into a nightmare for your children to deal with, especially after you and Mr. George Weasley are dead."
"Yeah, alright, I'll owl him about it and see what he thinks," Harry agreed.
Harry went to the drawing room and wrote George an owl, telling George all of Lucius' reasons for wanting a formal agreement and asking what George thought on the matter. Of course George wasn't able to respond to the owl for several hours, because he was still dealing with the sudden influx of customers that happens when word gets out that Harry Malfoy is visiting a certain establishment. Later that evening, after the three babies had had their baths, Harry received a reply owl from George, informing him that George would be agreeable to writing out a formal agreement. George wrote that they had always intended on repaying Harry and that George intended to honor that.
Harry tucked George's owl away in the top drawer of Draco's desk and waited until morning to show the owl to Lucius. Lucius said he would write their attorney and arrange for a meeting to come up with the formal agreement.
Author's Note: Next up will be the birthday party!