Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's the way it's gotta be. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Happy V-Day Weekend! Some fluff before the action to come.

Tricking The Parents

Scorpius glared at the grinning Gryffindor, looking like he would very much enjoy ringing the other man's neck with his bare hands. "Call me an angel one more time, Albus, and I'll be your angel of bloody death, dragging you down to the fiery pits of hell. And I'll do it with one hell of a smile on my face too."

"Sounds hot." Al shot back, only just able to keep a straight face.

While his son gapped at the boy Draco tried to figure out why he was suddenly getting a very bad feeling about the look in the Gryffindor's eyes. Maybe the Dementors hadn't entirely left the area?

Taking advantage of the now calm situation, the mother dragged her son off to get them home to the rest of their family, many of the others leaving to be replaced by other curious onlookers. Onlookers who didn't necessarily know that the two Malfoys present had had nothing to do with what had just happened. And so the feel of the crowd started to change from one of bafflement to anger and suspicion. Even more so when it began to circulate that the younger Malfoy had just threatened the life of the Chosen One's son.

As fun as he found needling Scorpius to be Al wasn't unaware of the changing mood of the crowd and quickly took stock of the situation, the Gryffindor shocking the hell out of the two Malfoys by looping an arm through each of theirs, dragging them behind him as he headed off in the direction that he'd come, telling everyone to have a good day and return to their business.

Everyone was so shocked they parted like a wave to let the three men through.

Looking over at his son Draco could see that the boy was as stunned as he was as he allowed himself to be dragged after the Gryffindor. "Most unusual."

"As unusual as you hugging me." Was the boy's sarcastic reply, still reeling from that as much as what he'd done mere minutes ago. Plus the Gryffindor's damn hot comment had gotten him thinking about sex and once you started it was very hard to stop where his lover was concerned. The other man was going to pay for his comment at the first opportunity, Scorpius thought darkly.

Draco couldn't argue with that, but he couldn't explain it either. How did you explain to someone, especially someone as strong and vital as his boy, what it was to have your entire existence depend upon your connection with three people? To live a life so full of darkness and despair sometimes that only your mother, wife and son made facing it worthwhile. To know that losing even one of them would spell your end because your hold on life was that tenuous. Perhaps he was being overly dramatic and pessimistic, but at times like this, he had a hard time believing otherwise. He wanted to grin like an idiot at the moment, for no other reason than his son was hale and hearty enough to be sarcastic.

"Hugging never hurt anyone." Was Al's opinion, having been eavesdropping.

"That depends on whose being hugged or doing the hugging."

Al rolled his eyes at Scorpius's opinion. "Mr. Malfoy, you need to give him more hugs so that he gets used to them. With his prickly attitude he needs all the softening he can get. His future partner will thank you with good care in your old age."

If they'd been alone Scorpius would have made a crack about how the Gryffindor preferred him hard to soft, but his father was right there so he had to swallow that smart ass remark. "I get all the hugs I need, thank you very much."

He was all about to argue when Al suddenly realized what he was missing. "CRAP! MY CINNAMON ROLLS!" Only now did he remember that he'd ditched his bakery box when he'd seen the Dementors and heard the screams. Looking depressed now Al let go of the Malfoys and turned around to give them a truly pitiful expression. "I had the best cinnamon rolls ever and now they're all gone and I blew all my money on them earlier!"

"You and your bottomless pit stomach." Rolling his amused eyes Scorpius smirked at the Gryffindor. "You'll get plenty of your precious chocolate before the week is over so quit whining."

"I never have enough chocolate, you know that."

"You are insatiable in that regard."

Looking back and forth between the two that horrible feeling started to gnaw at the older man's gut again, a germ of an idea beginning to sprout in Draco's mind as he picked up on the vibe between his son and the Gryffindor. The Gryffindor who had and was being extremely nice to him despite all the boy's very good reasons not to even be civil to him. In fact, his former archenemy's son was treating both him and his son like they were all friends. His son more than just casual friends, come to that. There was an air of intimacy…connection…just something that suggested that it wasn't unusual for them to be talking to each other with fighting or slander. And the underlying double meanings…if they were indeed double meanings…seemed to insinuate…

But no. No, no, no, no, NO.

It just wasn't possible. No way in hell. Not in a million years.

But if it was…if it could conceivably be that his son could develop those kinds of his feelings for the Potter boy…then his father would…

Lips twitching like mad Draco knew he shouldn't find the idea remotely funny. In some part of his mind he knew the idea should nauseate, horrify, and at the very least threaten to send him into a permanently catatonic state. And he would get there, Draco thought as he burst into peals of laughter that shook his whole body with mirth. But at that precise moment, thinking of his father's reaction, Draco couldn't do anything but find the idea anything short of gut wrenchingly hilarious.

Watching his lover's father laugh Al's lips twitched in response. "Your dad should laugh more often. It takes decades off his face."

"My question is what is he laughing about?" Scorpius wanted to know, watching his father with mild concern. The man was laughing so hard he thought the older man might be in danger of damaging his rib cage. He'd never seen his father look so carefree and…amused before. It was startling…but it was sort of nice too, to see the man look un-shadowed for once.

"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Was Harry opinion as he walked to stand beside his son, having spotted the trio on the way to the scene of the reported Dementors attack.

Meeting the gaze of his long time rival and mutual pain in the ass, Draco's laughter cut off so suddenly it had the boys jerking in surprise at the sudden silence. And staring into the man's eyes Draco sighed. "And here comes the horrifying nausea." The older Slytherin muttered with resigned despair, the images of his father's reactions being replaced by traumatizing scenes featuring the two boys watching him so curiously.

Back to the reality of the situation and the horrible possibilities.

And with that in mind Draco grasped his son's arm and gave it a tug to indicate the boy was to follow his lead. "We'll be taking our leave now."

"Do you know anything about what happened here, Draco?" Harry demanded to know, not about them to leave just yet.

Draco's lips curved instinctively into a superior sneer reminiscent of days long past. "You and I both know the parties responsible for what almost happened at the school and here, Potter. So why don't you get off your lazy ass and do something about it before someone gets killed."

And now it was Draco's turn to drag his son off while the Potters watched them go.

)

Harry watched them until they were out of sight before turning his head to ask for his son's version of what had happened up until his own arrival. He had a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that the Malfoy heir had actually been the one to disperse the creatures though. But then again, maybe the boy had simply been annoyed by the reaction the Dementors would have inspired and had sought to eliminate the cause without a thought for the others in the crowd. That at least made some sense. But at the same time, as Draco had so bluntly put it, they both knew very well who was responsible for what had happened. And last time he'd checked, Scorpius Malfoy was very much in his grandfather's pocket.

Belatedly remembering the comment his son had made earlier about Scorpius being like a male version of Andromeda Harry wondered if his arranging the woman to come to Hogwarts had somehow resulted in the two Slytherins bonding somehow. Stranger things could happen after all, especially at Hogwarts.

"So are you going to question Lucius Malfoy over this?" Al asked, having no doubt that it had been Lucius and the man's cronies Mr. Malfoy had been referring to earlier.

Harry's sigh was a frustrated one. "He'll have an alibi. He always does."

"Well maybe almost causing harm to Scorpius will have him rethinking his random acts of violence temporarily?"

"I wouldn't count on that."

It was Al's turn to sigh now. "Yeah, me neither."

)

When the knock came Elise Goyle felt immediate trepidation. It was almost eight at night, not the time for someone to just drop by hoping to borrow some sugar. Not that her neighbors made a habit of dropping by. They neighbors preferred to pretend the Goyle family didn't live on their street whenever possible. Walking towards the door the tired woman just hoped her husband hadn't gotten into trouble, wherever he was. Money was tight enough without them having to bail him out again for getting into a brawl.

Opening the door Elise stared at the nervous looking girl on her porch in surprise. A slim, strawberry blonde girl with stunning green eyes and truly excellent taste in fashion. Poor thing though, the older woman thought, estimating the girl to be at least six foot one without heels. She probably towered over most of the boys, who wouldn't as big as her own boy. Looked to be about her boy's age too, Elise realized, eyes widening slightly as it occurred to her that perhaps the girl was there looking for her Rory.

Realizing she was staring rudely Elise flushed. "Bonjour, pardonne moi, Je-I mean, how can I 'elp you?" She asked, her French accent thick.

"Bonjour." Louis returned, trying to remember to keep his voice as low and feminine as possible. He figured that imitating Domi's way of speaking was his best bet in his present situation. "Is Rory home, please?"

Pleasure lighting her eyes at the girl's perfect French accent Elise was delighted when the girl had no problem understanding her French as she explained that her Rory was upstairs in his room. It was easier for her to express herself in her native language, especially since she was a shy, reserved woman by nature.

The two chatting away Elise invited the Gryffindor to follow her upstairs, casually inquiring as to whether the girl was in Slytherin with her boy.

Inwardly wondering if his girl version looked like a Slytherin Louis did his best not to be insulted as he explained that he was in Gryffindor, not wanting to lie more than he had to. He could see that his response unnerved her a little, but he kept up the chatter in French, which reassured her and put her back at ease.

Knocking on her son's door Elise waited until he called out for her to enter before letting herself into the room. With a smile she informed her son in French that he had a visitor, motioning to the girl who'd entered at her side.

Slowly rising to his feet Rorake studied the girl, instantly knowing that he knew her though at a loss at first as to where from. But as an artist he was skilled at noting each feature that made up a person's face and while the eye and hair color were wrong, the nose hadn't changed, nor had the lips now painted red. Plus the height and his physical reaction were big clues as to the truth of his visitor's identity.

And so, with a lot of effort employed to keep a straight face, Rorake worked up a smile. "Merci, Maman. Bonjour." He added as he nodded at Louis, not sure what name the Gryffindor would have used.

Reading between the lines Elise hastily made her exit after confirming that there was no need to get either of them refreshments.

Rorake waited until he heard his mother's footsteps on the stairs before he walked over to get a closer look at what his man had done to himself. "An interesting look for you, Freckles." Hair dye, eye shadow, mascara AND lipstick, the Gryffindor had even painted his nails, Rorake noted with barely concealed amusement.

Louis's painted lips twitched in amusement as he wrapped his arms around the Slytherin's waist. "Don't be knocking it. My sisters worked very hard turning me into a girl for you. A very stunning and hot girl if I do say so myself." Turning his head the Gryffindor kissed the side of the man's neck before nuzzling close. "Sorry for dropping in on this, but I was worried. You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine. Why would you be worried?" Rorake asked, reaching up to stroke the other man's hair, not liking the new color. But if his father had been home the change in hair color would have been necessary, the resemblance to the man's sisters would have been too obvious. It was still obvious after a hard look, but his mother didn't get out enough to know what the Delacour/Weasley girls looked like.

"Obviously you didn't hear what happened at Diagon Alley today. Someone, or more likely a group of people, sent a bunch of Dementors there to traumatize the populace. Apparently your pal Malfoy was there and actually played the hero for once. He used his patronus to get rid of them."

"Really? His snake is one hell of a weapon." Rorake agreed, having seen the anaconda patronus in the past. It was a quite a sight to see when it was trying to squeeze the Dementors in its coils.

Louis's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "A snake? His patronus isn't a snake. Al was there and he said that Malfoy's was a bird, just like his." And then a thought occurred to him that had the Gryffindor's lips curving in understanding. "Well isn't that interesting."

"What's interesting?"

"His patronus changed. I assume you've seen it before and it was a snake at that time?" When Rorake nodded Louis's grin grew. "As it happens, another relation of your mate's had a patronus change too. Hers changed when she was trying to convince a certain werewolf to date her. Teddy's mum's patronus became a wolf."

"And Scorpius's patronus is currently a bird, just like Al's." Rorake finished, his lips curving into a small smile as he got what Louis was suggesting.

Storing the news in the back of his mind to analyze with Al later Louis turned his attention back to the reason he'd come. "Since you didn't know about the Dementers I guess me coming here was sorta pointless. I just thought…well that they'd be wanting to use some people with brains this time around, but still use people from the younger generations so they wouldn't get their own hands dirty. I knew you wouldn't be a part of anything." Louis added quickly, not wanting the man to think he'd suspected the Slytherin of having any part in the evil plans. "I just worried that maybe they'd tried to recruit you. I doubt they take well to being told no and with your dad being a former Death Eater..."

"Lucius wouldn't recruit my father, much less me nowadays." Rorake assured the man, taking Louis's hands between his own, bringing them to his lips for a reassuring kiss. "He likes to say that its people like us that brought down the Dark Lord. I've heard him rant plenty about how they would have succeeded if they hadn't been reduced to adding the werewolves, giants and other less intelligent beings to their ranks."

"Damn but I hate that man." Louis hissed, understanding what Rorake was getting at.

"Join the club. But thanks for worrying."

Louis grinned sheepishly, smiling up at Slytherin. "Well, I'll admit that part of my reason for coming was that I was jonesing to see you again. I missed you."

"I missed you too. Though I much prefer you as a boy."

"Do you now?" Smile widening at the thought Louis pressed himself close to the man, one hand lifting to stroke the Slytherin's hair while the other cupped the back of Rory's neck, tugging him down so that he could press his lips against the man's.

Their lips were only pressed together for a moment before Rorake pulled his head back with a strange look on his face. "Hold that thought for a moment." Without another word the Slytherin vacated the room, coming back a minute later with a wet wash cloth in his hands. Walking over to the Gryffindor Rorake carefully removed the lipstick from Louis's lips. "If my Maman asks, we'll just tell her I snogged it off." And leaning forward once more it was Rorake's turn to place his lips against Louis's, savoring the taste of his man with pure pleasure.

And Louis's lips were certainly swollen and well kissed by the time Rorake escorted him to the door, so the lipstick removal excuse held out.