Saturday 25th February 2004
"Are you sure you've got everything?" Oliver said, holding a large over night bag in one hand, and a bunch of flowers in the other hand. Hermione smiled at the image of her fiance, impatiently trying to be patient.
"I'm sure I have everything. You sound like me now." She gently eased herself off the bed, her whole body ached but she insisted she could walk on her own. They were just side effects of the potions she was taking, or at least thats what Healer Montgomery kept telling her. "Which, before you say anything, is not a bad thing."
Oliver held his hands up in a mock 'innocent' gesture, but ended up hitting himself in the face with the overnight bag.
"Merlin, let me take my bag." She reached out for it but he stepped away from her.
"No! Hermione I'm serious, you've got to look after yourself. Especially considering they kept you in for longer than they intended, you know you're at home for two weeks, right?"
Her face fell, no one had told her. She thought she'd be allowed to go right back to work on Monday. Who was going to manage the department? She had a meeting with finance on Tuesday, and then a meeting with Kingsley on Thursday..
"What? What is it? Hermione?"
She blinked slowly and looked up to him, control your breathing, get it together. Finally, she spoke. "Sorry, I um, I had a flash back." Yep. That seems plausible, good work brain.
"Merlin, I didn't know you were still getting those. Are you okay?"
She nodded, smiled. The smile didn't reach her eyes, the mention of flashbacks flung images to the front of her brain, things she hadn't seen or thought about in years. Oliver knew there was something wrong, and Hermione knew she wouldn't be able to keep all that had happened to her in the war to herself for much longer. But instead, she kissed his cheek, told him she loved him, and set out to hail a cab.
Harry was hanging multi coloured streamers in the living room, it seemed ironic to have paper streamers draping over a black chandelier, but that was the Malfoy household. He chuckled to himself at the thought, then switched his iPod on, and Elephunk's 'Where is the love?' came on. Draco would never understand it, but muggle music was so much better than anything that wizards produced.
Dancing around the living room was how Draco found Harry, Scorpius was with Narcissa, decorating his birthday cake. It was almost a tradition, on Scorpius' first birthday Narcissa came round and Scorpius covered his cake in marshmallows and sprinkles and everything he could find, even though the cake had already been decorated beautifully. So on his second birthday Narcissa brought around a plain cake, and all of the decorations she could find. But this year Harry and Draco wanted to surprise him with a birthday party, so Draco dropped off Scorpius early in the morning.
"Hey dancing queen," he teased, laughing at Harry pulling some grease lightning moves to ABBA hits.
Harry turned around and laughed, switching the speaker off. "Hey gorgeous." Gently he kissed Draco's lips, then carried on decorating the living room and dining room.
"Do you need any help? You look like you're all done in here."
"Yeah, you could grab his balloon from the bedroom." Draco nodded, running up the staircase. When he walked into his bedroom he found the gold helium balloon immediately, and as he picked it up, a piece of paper moved from underneath the balloon. Kneeling down he picked up the paper and was about to screw it up before he saw Harry's slightly backward, messy handwriting scrawled onto the paper. It was almost like a letter, in the very informal sense of the word, and it was addressed to Scorpius. I can read it right? He's my son, I'm sure he won't mind..
'Scorpius,
It's 2004, and unbelievably you are three tomorrow. But you're 18 when you're reading this. Merlin, that's crazy. Now you think I've known you all your life, and that I'm just your other Dad, but I only met you when you were two and a half. Which seems weird to you, but its okay. Me and your Papa, or whatever you call him now, we love you so much. You might also think it's weird that I'm writing you a letter as your Papa's boyfriend, and that's kinda all I am at the moment. But I know that we're going to work out, which is how I know that you'll call me Dad and you'll find me embarrassing, or you'll think that I should just give up on the trainers and wear sensible shoes? Yeah - not going to happen.
Anyway, back to why I'm writing you this letter. My Dad, who you will have heard countless stories about from me, and from Hagrid, wrote me a letter when I was born, and he told me that he would write me a letter every year for my birthday, then give them me on my eighteenth. Now.. he obviously couldn't do that, but I can do that for you. And your siblings, so here it is. Happy birthday Scorp, I promise me and your Papa won't show too many humiliating photographs at your party.
Harry, or I guess, Dad.'
Draco had tears in his eyes as he read the letter, the balloon tightly gripped in his other hand. Oh Harry, how do you always know? He tucked the letter back where he found it and strode over to his bed side cabinet, pulling open the draw and muttering a spell to open the secret compartment where he kept the ring.
All of the guests were waiting in the lounge, hiding behind furniture or in Harry and Draco's case, underneath the invisibility cloak. Mr and Mrs Weasley, Charlie, George and Angelina, Daphne ( Astoria's sister ), Ginny, Percy, Hermione, Oliver and Ron were all in attendance, Draco and Scorpius' family increased ten fold when Harry came into their lives. Narcissa was on her way with Draco, and everyone was waiting with bated breath.
Finally they heard the happy giggles of the little boy, running into the hallway, taking off his coat and his hats and gloves as he did so. He looked around for his Papa and Harry, but couldn't find them anywhere. He ran into the living room, with Narcissa following, and glanced around the room, becoming more confused by the second. Until everyone jumped out from hiding and shouted 'Happy Birthday!'
Harry and Draco scooped Scorpius up and gave him a big hug, which Hermione quickly took a photo of. Scorpius probably had no idea what was going on, but all of his favourite people were crowded into the room and he had a beaming smile on his face.
"Did you have a good time with Nanny?" Harry asked Scorpius, who was now balanced on Draco's hip.
"Yup! We dec-or-ate-d my cake!" Draco smiled proudly, and kissed Scorpius' forehead.
"Well done little guy, that's a big word. Do you know what cake is in our special language?"
Scorpius had to think for a minute, but then he wriggled excitedly. "Gat-oo!"
"Gateau, oui. Très bien!" Draco spoke easily, smiling at his two boys. Harry bit his lip slightly, continuously amazed at how intelligent Draco is.
Once the initial excitement had settled down, Scorpius sat on the sofa between Harry and Draco, and everyone else took a seat somewhere in the room - it was time for Scorp's birthday presents.
"Now Scorpius, I hope you don't mind, but I have a present for Harry too. Is that ok?"
Scorpius had been told of his Papa's plans a couple of weeks ago, Draco had wanted to check with Scorp that it was ok - even though he wasn't really aware what was going on, nor would he remember it. That wasn't the point though, Draco was making a big decision that would affect their tiny little family forever; it would be wrong not to involve Scorpius. So he nodded eagerly, wriggling off Harry's lap.
Draco stood up, "Harry could you stand up for a minute? I have something I need to say."
As asked, Harry awkwardly stood up, looking around the faces in the room. Do they know something I don't know?
Draco then got down on one knee, and it took everything in Harry not to swear, Is he proposing? Is his shoe lace undone? Shut up idiot, he's not wearing shoes. Fuck. OKay. He's really doing this. Crap. Listen to him!
"So for weeks I've been thinking about what to say, and Scorpius can definitely back me up here; Merlin, I've had cue cards written, and letters, and placards, and everything under the sun. I wanted to say something that was just right, that was perfect for you. But then I realised that I should probably just speak from the heart, which was also a struggle, because I'm not sure what my heart is doing right now.. Actually, I can tell you." Draco stopped, and looked Harry right in the eye. "My heart feels like someone has strapped it onto a broom, and no one's in charge. It's flying around aimlessly trying to figure out what it's doing, and suddenly it starts doing loop the loops, and nose dives. And then you slow down and you come to a stop, and your knees are wobbling, your pulse is throbbing through your veins.. But you want to do it all over again because words can't describe that feeling.. You know that?
Harry nodded, his eyes watering, everyone else in the room around him staring at the two of them.
"That feeling is what I feel every single day when I'm around you. You make me feel this long reel of emotions that I didn't even know I had inside of me, you see the real me, not the Draco Malfoy that I project to the world, Harry you see the raw, unedited, simplistic version of myself. You see me when I'm brushing my teeth, when my hair is a mess, you see me when I get in from work at gone 10 at night, when I'm knackered, when I'm trying desperately to push laws and limitations that will make education better but people just can't see it.. and most importantly, you still love me after that. I want every single day with you to be like that last little bit on your broom, when you're coming to a stop, but I don't want to ever stop flying. So if you'll have me, then I want you for life. Harry James Potter, will you marry me?"
Harry dropped to his knees, his face streaming with tears, and he kissed him, gently, slowly, softly. Draco slipped the simple ring onto his finger, and Scorpius ran to hug them both. The little boy whispered in his papa's ear, "What can I call him now?"
"What would you like to call him?"
Scorpius smiled secretly and looked up to Harry, "Dad?"
Harry nodded, pulling the little boy close to his chest. "I'd like that very much."
And there they were, bonded together, a family. Their family and friends were sat around the room, a few tears, but none the less, every single person had a smile on their face - a great big beaming smile, at the happiness of two men who didn't deserve anything else in their lives. Hermione and Oliver were sat together on the grey two person sofa, Oliver with his arm around Hermione's shoulder, and Hermione's hands resting on her slightly swollen belly. "I can finally let him go. He's got someone to protect him now, someone that's not me." She whispered, and Oliver smiled, kissing her forehead.
"He has. And he will be safe."
AN: I love hearing your reviews & if anyone has anything they'd like to say or for me to include in the story then now is kind of the time, I'm planning for the story to have 50 chapters. Is that too many? Too few? Agh!