Don't Own

Please R&R

Enjoy!

...

Harry sat at the kitchen table in Grimmauld Place, while he fed Lesley her breakfast. Severus had left early that morning as he had some business to attend to at Hogwarts. Harry was just waiting for him to return.

It had been four weeks since the finale battle had ended and they had just moved into Grimmauld Place four days ago.

Of course Harry didn't plan for the Ancient House of Black to become their permanent home. It was just a place they could stay until they found somewhere better.

They had been staying at Shell Cottage for the first three weeks after the battle but found it had gotten very small, very quickly. With members of the Weasley family always coming and going and the three of them having to bunk in Lesley's room altogether, due to the lack of space.

Not to mention Harry got the feeling that they were cramping Bill and Fleur's style. The battle was over and the newly married couple finally was able to freely act as such.

So not wanting to burden Bill and Fleur any longer, Harry and Severus made their way to Grimmauld Place and cleared it of any remaining dark magic that the Death Eaters might have left.

Only when they both agreed it was safe enough for Lesley, they began bringing their belongings over. It didn't take long since neither owned much, and soon they were happily moved in.

Bill and Fleur were sad to see Lesley go because they had become quite attached to her in the nine months they had her, but Harry promised they could come and visit anytime they liked, and thanked them for everything they had done for them.

Harry and Severus planned to continue their search for a proper home while at Grimmauld Place.

Harry dipped a spoon into the mushy baby food and then raised it towards Lesley's mouth. "Mmm," he said with a grin "you like your yummy bananas, don't you?"

Lesley opened her mouth and ate the spoonful of banana flavored baby food; it was one of her favorites. She made a smacking sound as Harry pulled the spoon away again.

Then Lesley made an "Oooh" noise and her hands shot out excitedly. Her inquisitive emerald eyes stared fixedly on something behind Harry's head.

Harry turned to look and saw a great brown barn owl was sitting on the stoop outside the window, looking in at them with wide eyes.

Harry stood up and went to open the window. The owl hopped in and flew over to the table and landed on it. Then it dropped the mail it had been carrying, as well as the Daily Prophet, in the middle of the table.

"Oool" Lesley said, trying to reach out to it.

Harry hurried over and placed his hand over Lesley's, pulling it back protectively because he didn't want to chance the owl pecking at her tiny fingers.

With his other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out five sickles and two knuts to pay the owl, he placed the money inside the tiny pouch the owl held out and then watched as it flew away out the window.

Harry sat back down in his seat and pulled the mail towards him. Most of it was letters from the Ministry, he was sure that they would be invitations to events they wanted him to come to. He ignored them in favor of picking up a letter that had come from one of the realtors Harry and Severus had spoken to.

He opened the letter and began to read. Halfway through he stopped when Lesley squealed "Da!" and one of her tiny fingers came to land on the newspaper Harry hadn't bothered with, pointing at the picture on the front.

Harry put down his letter and reached out to take the paper, he opened it up.

Harry laughed when he saw the front page and grinned at Lesley. He ruffled her hair with affection "Yes Lesley you're right, that is Daddy."

The title of the article read Ex-Death Eater receives Order of Merlin. Harry scanned over the page, the article went on to talk about how Severus had been cleared of all charges and how the Ministry had acknowledged his efforts in the war, and given him an Order of Merlin in his honor.

Beside the article there was a picture of Severus, standing stiffly with his trademark scowl in place, as he moodily accepted the Order of Merlin, which was practically being shoved into his hands by a Ministry Official.

Harry moved the paper closer to Lesley so that she could see the picture better. "Look at Daddy," Harry mused, and almost to himself he added "acting all menacing and sexy, as usual."

"Potter!"

Harry nearly dropped the paper as he whipped around to see Severus in the doorway. He hadn't heard the man come in, and Severus hadn't called him by his surname since long before the battle.

"Sev?" Harry questioned.

Severus walked into the room until he was standing just a few inches away from Harry. "Please deter from teaching our young impressionable daughter such obscene words."

"Obscene?" Harry repeated in confusion, thinking back to what he had just been saying "Oh…you mean sexy."

Severus shot him a glare and Harry laughed.

"Severus she's not even one yet and she can barely say Daddy, I doubt she's going to start saying se…"

Severus cut him off "Still I would prefer not to use such words in front of her. A child's mind is like a sponge, they pick up everything."

Harry didn't really think that saying the word 'sexy' was going to have any negative effect on their daughter, but if Severus felt so strongly about it, he would make an effort not to.

"Okay Sev," Harry said "but you are S-E-X-Y, you know?" Harry said spelling the word out instead.

Severus snorted but leaned down to give Harry a quick kiss before stating "As are you."

Harry smiled at Severus as he pulled away and straightened back up. "So what have you two been doing?" he asked Harry as he moved over to place a kiss on the top of Lesley's head.

"We were just finishing up breakfast" Harry said.

"No kidding," Severus said after he had gotten a good look at Lesley's face "tell me, did you happen to get any of the food into our daughter?"

Harry looked over at Lesley in question and his eyes widened when he realized that while he and Severus had been talking, Lesley had reached her hand into the bowl that had the remaining baby food in it and had then proceeded to touch her face with her baby food-covered hand.

Severus chuckled as he summoned a napkin and began to clean off Lesley's hands and face.

Harry watched him and had to smile at how gentle Severus was being.

Harry had found that the man truly loved being a father and had taken to his role like a fish to water.

Harry stood up and started cleaning off the breakfast dishes, while Severus finished cleaning Lesley.

"I got a letter from that realtor that has a house near the Weasley's home, the one that we wanted to check out" Harry said as he placed the dishes in the sink.

Severus looked over at Harry and waited for him to continue. "He wants me to floo him at ten so that we can set up an appointment time to look at the house." Harry looked up at the clock that was above the sink "Which is in fifteen minutes…so why don't you take Lesley into the den and I'll be in once I'm done with the call."

"Alright," Severus said picking Lesley up out of her high chair "I believe it's just about time for playtime anyway."

Harry grinned at him as Severus began to walk down the hall with Lesley.

…

Harry walked into the den about an hour later. The floo call had taken longer than he had originally thought it would because apparently the realtor had sent Harry the wrong time to floo him and Harry had had trouble getting through.

Harry saw Severus sitting down on the couch with Lesley in his arms, reading to her from a potions book.

He walked over and sat down beside them "I thought it was playtime?"

Severus looked up at him "It was," he said "until this old man couldn't take kneeling on the floor any longer…"

Harry stopped him "Oh Sev, you're not old."

Severus rolled his eyes and then said, gesturing to the book, "Well now it's looking over potions basics time."

Harry laughed and the leaned over Severus, taking the book out of his hand "Actually, I think it's nap time."

Severus looked at Harry as he pulled back and then down at Lesley to see that her eyes had fallen shut, and that she was leaning into him on the verge of sleep, one of her tiny hands grasped loosely in his shirt.

"I think you're right," Severus whispered.

Harry smiled and leaned down to gather Lesley into his arms gently so as not to wake her. Her hand slipped away from Severus' shirt and then Harry carried her to the small cot they had set up in the room. He carefully placed her in it before walking back to Severus and sitting down next to him.

Severus pulled Harry towards him and placed a soft kiss on his lips. Harry smiled when Severus pulled back, and snuggled into his side.

"So how did it go at Hogwarts?" Harry asked making sure to keep his voice down so that they didn't wake Lesley.

"Good," Severus answered "Though Minerva wasn't too pleased with my decision not to return next year. She believed that since I had been cleared that I would want to return to my old post."

Harry unconsciously played with a button on Severus' shirt "You know you can go back if you want to."

"Harry," Severus said sternly, making the younger man look at him "we've already talked about this and I've told you that I don't want to go back to teaching. I want to be here with you and Lesley. I can brew potions on the side to make money for us, but I want to spend as much time as I can with you two."

Harry smiled at him "I love you Severus."

Severus smiled back "I love you too Harry," he said kissing the boy with passion.

Harry was panting when he pulled away.

"What did the realtor say?" Severus asked.

"He said he could make an appointment for us this weekend so that we can go take a look at the house. I've already owled Fleur to ask them if they could take Lesley for the day" Harry explained.

"Good," Severus said "It will be nice to get out of this place and into a home of our own, not that I'm complaining but…"

"I know what you mean," Harry said when Severus didn't continue "this just doesn't feel like home."

"Exactly," Severus said and pulled Harry closer "but I must say the company makes it much better."

Harry laughed.

…

Harry walked into Lesley's room just as Severus was placing her in her crib. They had been reading her a bedtime story when Krecher had popped in and said that the floo was for him. Harry had gone downstairs while Severus finished reading 'The Princess and the Frog' to Lesley, they had both mutually agreed that they would stick to muggle fairytales, as Harry had gotten just about enough of Wizarding ones for the rest of his life.

It had been Fleur that had been flooing; she told Harry that she and Bill would be happy to watch Lesley that weekend.

When Harry had made it back upstairs Lesley was already asleep.

Harry placed his hand on Severus' arm as he watched their sleeping daughter. Severus turned to Harry and pulled him close "I…" he began quietly "I never thought I would be so blessed."

Harry felt his heartbeat quicken at the statement and leaned forward to place a kiss on Severus' cheek "I feel blessed with you in my life too."

…

Later that night, when both he and Severus were in bed, Harry turned on his side so that he lay facing Severus.

Severus looked over at him and ran a hand through Harry's hair, the younger man looked troubled "What is it?" he asked.

Harry propped himself up on his elbow and placed one of his hands on Severus' bare chest "I could have never asked for a better life," Harry said "I'm so glad that I have you and Lesley because I don't think I could live without either of you."

Severus nodded, he felt the same way, but he could sense that Harry wasn't finished and waited for him to continue.

"But…" Harry said and Severus could feel his chest tighten "It's just I've wondered…"

"Tell me," Severus said.

"Did you know that males could get pregnant?" Harry finally asked.

Severus started silently at him for a minute "Yes," he said.

Harry looked pained by his answer "But then…why didn't you tell me. I mean honestly Lesley is the best thing that ever happened to me but at the time we were at war. Why didn't you warn me, why didn't you suggest we use protection? It was so hard having Lesley and then having to leave her Severus" Harry said, and he felt tears come to his eyes; this was something he had been wondering about for a while. "I mean after I found out, when I thought you were still on Voldemort's side, I thought you probably got some sick pleasure out of the thought of me having your child…"

Harry's rambling was stopped when Severus placed a hand over the one Harry had on his chest, and linked their fingers together.

"Harry," Severus said quietly "I didn't think of telling you that males could get pregnant because in order for it to happen both males have to love each other so completely that they know they want to spend the rest of their lives together. I didn't even know I felt that way at the time, I was just happy that we were back together, and I didn't think you could possibly feel that way either."

Harry looked at him in surprise.

"It's an ancient magic Harry," Severus said "something that we don't know much about. It's known that only if two partners love each other and want to spend their lives together, will they be able to conceive children together. If I had thought we were at that point I would have suggested a contraceptive, but as it is now I'm glad I didn't. I'm so sorry for all the pain you went through Harry, but I couldn't imagine living my life without you and Lesley in it either. I love you both so much."

Harry had to wipe a tear away from his eye "Oh Sev," he said "I'm sorry I doubted you."

Severus pulled Harry into his arms "It's okay," he whispered "I understand, don't worry about it."

They lay there for a long time, wrapped in each other's arms, just listening to each other breathe.

Harry pulled back and placed a kiss on Severus' lips, he had a cheeky smile on his face. "How about we work on making another one?" Harry asked and he pressed himself against Severus' thigh.

Severus groaned before saying "I'm not sure if I'm up for having another one just yet, not when our first one isn't even one yet."

"Well then how about we just practice?" Harry suggested.

Severus grinned at him and kissed him hungrily, he liked the sound of that.

...

A/N: There will definitely be one more chapter.