Although the suggestion had been his, Harry couldn't stop his worry that Draco actually quitting his job would create some arbitrary imbalance between them. Draco's pride in his gold had known few bounds in the past, and while Harry was more or less putting that image of Draco behind him, that particular trait was harder to imagine being completely stamped out. But it was nearing a month after Draco had worked his final shift at the apothecary and little had changed; Harry still left for the Ministry before Draco or Teddy woke each morning, Draco still cared for Teddy during the day, Harry still fought Teddy over food, Draco still thought the after-dinner cleanup counted as a break while Harry entertained Teddy, Harry still handled bathtime and stories, Draco still tucked Teddy into his bed for the night. What really surprised Harry, however, was that even after a month of Draco not working, they two were still getting on quite well.

Most of the time.

"It was probably a single sock or something," Harry was groaning, barely home five minutes.

Draco scoffed. "'A single sock.' You've no idea the mess you leave behind every morning, do you?"

"You've got to be kidding me. You have such a skewed idea of what a mess is, Draco."

"You're entirely missing the point. I didn't agree to stay home to be your housemaid."

"It wasn't a mess!" Harry snapped. "You could've just left whatever it was there and had me pick it up after work."

"It's hardly difficult to simply pick up after yourself without being told like a child."

"Fuck, quit nagging."

The furious glare Draco shot Harry nearly set them both on fire. "I-"

"Hawee?" Teddy skipped into the living room, little face serious. "Dwaco, I'm hungwy. Fish sticks?"

Draco shook his head. "We're too close to dinner, little one. We'll be eating in the next hour and a half. Just try to wait, alright?"

Teddy stuck out his bottom lip. Harry's stomach rumbled loudly. The Aurors-in-training ate lunch right around noon, but with their physical training in the afternoon, Harry was always ravenous when he made it home. He shuffled into the kitchen, Teddy at his heels as he dropped his bag on the counter and glanced at the refrigerator.

"Did you two not hear me?" Draco said from the doorway. "Am I speaking Troll over here? You're going to ruin your appetite."

Peeking into the cabinets, Harry said, "No I won't, I'm too hungry."

"Yeah, too hungwy, Dwaco."

Harry cringed before he even caught sight of Draco's scowl. With a wistful glance at the many snacking options before him, Harry shut the cabinet door and nudged Teddy with his knee. "Sorry, bud, but eating even a little snack now will ruin your appetite."

"No, won't."

"How about I not have a snack, either, so we both are hungry enough to eat a good dinner?"

Biting his lip in thought, Teddy frowned up at Harry for several long seconds before finally nodding solemnly. He walked rather purposefully from the kitchen, and as Draco smirked at the sight passing by him, Harry made a mad grab for a handful of crisps. Mouth full to bursting, Harry nearly choked when Draco smacked him on the head.

But Harry's grin was mirrored on Draco's face.

"So, aside from the non-existent mess I left this morning," Harry began once he swallowed, "how was the day?"

Draco narrowed his eyes, irritation obviously not quite dissolved. But his voice was even as he replied, "Same as usual, I suppose. I will say, though, Teddy's almost mastered putting on his own shoes now."

"Yeah? That'll be cool, not having to squat down all the time."

"His socks are still always upside down when he puts them on, though. We have to fix that regardless."

"What? Why? If he doesn't care-"

"Of course he doesn't care, he's two years old-"

"He's almost three."

"Harry," Draco said, suddenly sounding tired. "It is our job to teach him the right way to accomplish these sorts of tasks."

"They're socks. He'll learn eventually."

"You are so fucking lazy."

"You look me in the eye and tell me every single parent out there makes sure their kid's socks are perfectly on their feet every time. What about when there's more than one kid to worry over? You think your new friends fix their kids' socks when they're in a hurry and they're at least on?"

Draco ran a hand over his face. "It doesn't matter what Harvey and his wife do. I'm talking about us, you idiot."

The fight left Harry in a flash, a relieving sensation in his veins as he changed the subject. "Speaking of, you've been to see the muggles a few times now, right? Even met the brother's family and such. So when do Teddy and I get to meet them, hm?"

It had meant to be a distraction from Draco being annoyed with him. Harry had mostly been joking, never having thought that Draco owed him or would care to introduce the muggles to him in particular. But as Harry's question filled the air between them, Draco's face fell slightly, eyes tightening around the corners like they always did when something was privately weighing on him.

He sighed quietly. "To be honest, I had thought about it. It seems strange to have been to each of their homes and met Harvey's family and to not offer the same exchange in return. However..."

"However...?" Harry prompted after a moment.

"However, I've never tried to befriend muggles. I've never even considered it. I haven't the slightest clue as to how to go about having them in a magical home."

"Oh." Quite frankly, the logistics of such a task were a bit beyond Harry as well. He hadn't thought of magic-muggle friendships and how they worked without breaking the Statue of Secrecy. "Well, I'm not really sure, either. But plenty of witches and wizards have befriended muggles in the past and do okay, yeah? I'm sure as long as we prepare Teddy and maybe hide away a few things in the flat there shouldn't be any issue."

"I'm not sure...Teddy's not even three. He's likely to speak too freely or use magic without meaning to in front of them. It wouldn't really be his fault but he'll get us all into some fiasco with the Ministry." Draco scoffed, more a huff halfway between amused and bitter. "Well, he'll get me in trouble, at least."

"The Ministry's much fairer these days, you know." Harry grinned a bit sheepishly at the look Draco gave him. "In any case, you'd be amazed at how easily muggles write off magic as ordinary things. They're not looking for magic, so they always assume other things when they see it. And if Teddy gets to talking about magic, he is only two. We could play it off as kid nonsense."

The uncertainty that remained in Draco's eyes bore into Harry, stirring a kind of urgency he didn't fully understand.

Draco shook his head with a small depreciating smile. "I don't know-"

"Really," Harry encouraged. "Come on, it can't be that difficult, otherwise so many wouldn't do it. And won't it be nice to have someone else besides the Care Seekers over to judge us?"

At that, Draco laughed. Although short lived in volume, the laugh lingered at Draco's eyes and mouth, easing the tension that had been there.

"Well, unfortunate as it may be," Draco replied, "perhaps you are right for once. Maybe we ought to give it a try."

Victory. "Excellent."

x-x-x

A small part of Harry knew that he was dreaming. There was no one in the waking world that made his entire body blaze with such sensation. Someone faceless, formless, everything-less was pressing against him, invisible hands sliding across his bare chest, trailing demandingly down his sides and gripping at his thighs. The touch burned as the caresses persisted, strong arms coming to wrap around his waist, enveloping Harry in a kind of embrace that both added to his desire and made his heart ache with the tenderness beneath the skin against his own. There was safety in the phantom; safety, affection, sexual chemistry. Hot lips were at his neck, and Harry moaned.

"Hawee!"

Something very solid slammed directly onto Harry's raging erection, jolting him awake as the moan he had been making out loud jerked into a sharp cry of pain. Frantically shifting, Harry found himself with a couchful of Teddy, both of them bleary-eyed and half-awake.

"Teddy," Harry hissed. "What are you doing?"

"Seep wif you."

"Draco's right; you ought to sleep in your own bed more often."

"Ni', ni', Hawee. Yuv you."

Harry sighed, drawing out his exhale to avoid grumbling in frustration. The clock read 3:46. "Did you have a bad dream or something?"

Teddy didn't answer.

"Teddy?"

The little boy turned away from Harry, snuggling deeper into the couch and taking half of the blanket with him. Harry rubbed his eyes aggressively until swirls of color clouded his vision in the dark.

"Love you, too, Teddy."

But Teddy was already asleep, breaths just barely audible in the silent living room. With only a couple hours left until he had to be up for work, Harry knew he ought to follow suit. And although his eyes were itching with interrupted rest, his heart was still pumping much too fast to relax enough to return to sleep. Especially with his cock being so painfully hard.

There was a certain horror, too, in having such a problem so near a small child, and it took Harry all of two minutes before the awkwardness of it all spurred him to climb out from under his covers. The flat was cold outside his blanket. It didn't make any difference. Sighing with frustration both exhausted and sexual, Harry made for the bathroom.


"What about this?"

"I think that'll be okay. It looks similar enough to a top that they probably won't think too much on it. This has to go, though."

Draco made a face. "The Sneakoscope can stay, but a newspaper can't?"

"Well, muggle adults don't really play with tops. They probably won't pick it up. But this thing," Harry said as he tossed the paper into the bin, "might spark their interest since it's not a newspaper they recognize. And the moving pictures are a dead giveaway."

"Makes sense..." Draco murmured, swallowing back some of his nerves over the evening ahead.

After Harry's mention of the idea the previous week, having Ainsley, Harvey, and his wife had seemed more and more possible each time Draco thought about it. After all, Harry was right in at least one aspect: witches and wizards had been befriending muggles for centuries. The desire wouldn't have persisted if it were something magical people were incapable of doing. But as he combed through the flat alongside Harry the hour before the muggles were due to arrive, Draco found himself growing increasingly uncertain. The emotion was far less severe than the anxieties he had felt in the years surrounding the climax of the war, but it was off-putting all the same in its unfamiliarity. Already Harry had commented on their kitchen lacking in contraptions usually covering the surfaces of their muggle counterparts, and although they had cast stilling charms on the few photos displayed about the flat, it was a bit defeating that something as innocent as the morning paper could be their undoing. Draco glanced at the bookshelves.

"Damn."

"Hm?"

"What are we to do with all of these?"

Harry came to Draco's side, regarding the books to which Draco had gestured. The books themselves were not odd at a glance. Their spines were dust-free and in tidy rows that filled the shelves in a rather satisfying fashion. His frown steepened.

"Every single title here is magic-related. What are we going to do, cast muggle-proofing spells on everything and deal with the repercussions of that? Go spell-free and just empty the damn shelves? This is ridiculous."

"You're so dramatic," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "Who goes through someone's bookshelves on a first visit? In any case, you'd be surprised, I think. A good chunk of these could pass as muggle in some form, and the rest they'll likely just assume are fiction."

"Most of these are fiction."

"Oh, really?"

"You've never once looked at any of them?"

"Well-"

"Did you truly think these were all textbooks or something?"

"Er...no?"

Despite the tension in his chest, Draco snorted. "No, Harry, I don't just read textbooks for fun. Merlin, surely you don't believe me as drab as Granger?"

"Maybe I was assuming you were as brilliant. My mistake."

A leak of heat crept up Draco's neck, seeping into his ears uncomfortably as he furrowed his brows at Harry's teasing. The sneer had been lighthearted, but Draco's body was tensed, skin hot, lips tight as he fought a grin of all things. He turned abruptly away from green eyes that bore into his soul and made his way to Teddy's room.

He froze in the doorway.

It had never occurred to Draco just how magical Teddy's bedroom was. Although Draco and Harry had him pick up his toys every evening, Teddy managed to unload nearly every single one of his possessions onto the floor each day, giving quite the show for how nearly every little animal, every big-eyed figurine, every device moved on its own accord. The canvases and papers hanging on the walls, creations of Teddy's own making, shifted on the surfaces, colors rotating through the rainbow or various shades. There was a large banner over Teddy's bed of the Hogwarts school crest, and propped in the far corner was his toy broomstick that actually flew beneath Teddy's weight.

Draco and Harry both studied the room for several long moments before Harry finally drew his wand. He waved it gently, muttering under his breath.

"How strong did you make it?" Draco asked as Harry pocketed his wand. "I'd rather not have some bullshit Ministry fiasco because they claim some charm muddled their heads."

"If the muggles peek in, they'll just see what they expect to see. It's not even in the realm of true mind-alteration like a lot of the stuff that the Ministry keeps an eye on. I do think, however..." Harry went and grabbed the toy broomstick. "I think we ought to just put this thing up somewhere. I'd bet Teddy would ride it just to show off before we even sat down to eat."

"Noooooo," Teddy whined, suddenly appearing at Harry's feet as they all met in the living room. "My broom!"

"Relax, Teddy, I'm not taking it forever. We just-"

"My broom!"

"Teddy-"

"No!"

"Teddy," Draco interrupted, grabbing the boy's hand and crouching to his level. Teddy squirmed as Harry disappeared into the kitchen. "We are not taking your broom. We are simply putting it away for safe-keeping while we have our guests over tonight."

Teddy blinked, distracted. "Guess?"

"Yes, remember? I told you earlier that my friends Ainsley, Harvey, and Georgianna are coming for dinner."

"But-but-but-but I want broom. My broom."

"It is your broom. We just need to put it away while the muggles are over."

"You also need to be careful not to change your appearance while they're here," Harry commented, returning.

Teddy tilted his head. "Muggle?"

"Yes," Draco replied. "It means they can't use magic and don't know about it. Witches and wizards are not allowed to show muggles magic. It's why we are putting your broomstick away and asking you not to change your appearance."

"No magic?"

"I'm afraid not, little one. But only for a little bit. It'll hardly be any different than when we walk to the market."

"But...why?"

Draco frowned, lips twisted as he bit the wet flesh of his cheek. How to answer? Draco supposed he could give Teddy a curt, 'Because that's the way things are,' as his own father would have done. It would more or less answer the question while also quickly shutting down any additional inquiries so that Draco and Harry could continue to prepare. Time was beginning to run short.

But as Lucius Malfoy's superioring sneer fogged his mind, Draco felt his anxiety over the upcoming evening pale beneath his personal irritation at his late father's parenting. Most of the old man's choices were directly tied to Draco's shortcomings.

No, Draco would not respond to his own charge in such a manner.

"Well," he began, thumb rubbing along the top of Teddy's hand in his. "To put it simply...a very long time ago, when magic wasn't hidden, muggles were jealous of magical people-"

"Jebbus?"

Harry chuckled. "Jealous. It means that they wanted to use magic like the witches and wizards and didn't like them because of it."

"Didn't yike them?"

"No," Draco said with a shake of his head. "And for it-" He cut himself off, not wanting to share with Teddy the horrid crimes muggles both attempted and succeeded against witches and wizards. What if it made him wary of muggles in a mocked opposite of Draco's own prejudices? Draco cleared his throat. "Well, because of it, the Ministry of Magic, the government, decided to keep magic a secret from muggles. It was easier. Safer."

"Muggles...not safer?"

"It's not that muggles aren't safe, but everyone is a little scared of what they don't understand. You know how big dogs make you a little scared?"

Teddy nodded.

"You don't see a lot of big dogs or know a lot about them, so you're frightened of what they might do. It's the same for muggles. They never see magic and don't know about it, so they might be frightened if they saw it while over here tonight."

Teddy's little eyes lit up then, blue irises alight with what Draco hoped was understanding. "Oh! Oh, otay, Dwaco! I hide magic, too!"

A deep relief washed over Draco as he released Teddy's hand and stood up. "Thank you, Teddy." He glanced at the clock. "They're due in about twenty minutes," he said to Harry.

"Then let's head downstairs."

Teddy shrieked. "Outside!"

The early February afternoon was frigid despite the thinning snow, warranting their cloaks and scarves against the breeze. Their flat complex was fairly secluded on the outskirts of London, centered in a large field that offered no muggle vehicle traffic. For it, Draco had given Ainsley the address of the all but rundown shopping strip to the east. He, Harry, and Teddy figured that meeting the muggles there and leading them the rest of the way would be the best course of action.

Looking at it objectively, however, the entire arrangement sounded incredibly shady on his part, Draco thought. The muggles, forthright and friendly from their initial meeting, had simply agreed with smiles. It would get them killed one day.

"Stop grimacing like that," Harry said as they neared the edge of the field, dingy shops in view. "You'd think you didn't want your own friends to come."

"They're too trusting. For all they know, I lured them here with nefarious intentions."

"Or they see right through your 'bad boy' facade."

Draco shot Harry a quick glare, choosing not to answer in favor of watching Teddy attempt a snow angel at his feet. It wasn't as if Harry was necessarily wrong; Draco was confident enough to say that he was entirely 'reformed' since his actions during the war. But ever since Christmas, Harry had been making more and more comments that attempted to minimize the horrors Draco had committed, made light of the dangerous character he had been, brushed over his independent choice to eagerly follow the Dark Lord and allow him to permanently mark him. Things certainly had changed, but Draco's past was no less appallingly dark. Harry's comments were somehow worse than the friendship that had sneaked up on them. At least the friendship had some sense to it; the comments felt patronizing at best.

After some entertaining Teddy in the snow, Draco heard a familiar voice in the distance.

"Draco?"

He turned, catching sight of Ainsley standing on the verge of the snowy field. Harvey and his wife, Georgianna, were a few steps behind her at the side of a large muggle vehicle, pulling on hats and scarves against the wind. Draco did his best to smile as he waved them over.

"Hey," Ainsley said as the trip drew closer. "Sorry we're a few minutes late. We weren't sure we, uhm...had the right address." Her eyes drifted around the large open space, cold wind stirring up the snow in the great expanse that separated the shopping strip from the complex.

Draco gestured toward the complex. "Strange, I know. But our buildings don't have any...any..." Fuck, what was the word?

"Car parks," Harry supplied, stepping into the group. He grinned at Draco, eyes so obviously trying to convey reassurance that Draco didn't need. Harry turned his smile to Ainsley. "The buildings are older, and it's one of the reasons for the good price. Most of the tenants just walk a lot at this point."

The muggles blinked. Georgianna looked particularly bewildered, and Draco instantly knew why. The complex was kilometers from where London's famous foot traffic became a reasonable means for transportation. Draco and Harry probably sounded insane.

Fortunately, Harry seemed to have the same realization. "Thank-" A barely-there hesitation. "-god for the public taxis, though. Otherwise, we'd probably just be hermits."

Ainsley laughed, genuine though short. It broke the tension, everyone smiling a little easier. Harvey stepped forward then, offering a hand out to Harry, who took it.

"You must be Harry."

"That'll be me. Harvey, right?"

"Yes, sir," Harvey confirmed, that bright smile Draco was more familiar with back in place as he motioned behind him. "And my wife, Georgianna."

"A pleasure," Harry said, shaking her hand as well.

Ainsley pressed forward. "I'm Ainsley. I've been looking forward to meeting the mysterious Harry."

Harry's brows shot up. "Mysterious?"

Oh Merlin, Draco thought. "Just because I don't prattle on about this idiot doesn't make him mysterious."

"Awh, Draco," Harry said, mock-offended. "Embarrassed by me, are you?"

"Terribly so."

"Oh my, is this handsome lad Teddy?" Harvey said then, eyes on the boy as he sprayed snow just beyond Draco and Harry.

It could have been far worse. Teddy managed a faint 'hello' for the muggles as he clung to Draco's cloak with one hand and Harry's with the other. The frozen breeze ushered them all back to the complex, much to Teddy's expected disappointment. His being reluctantly agreeable was quite unusual, though. Perhaps they ought to have company more often.

"Holy shit, Draco," Ainsley breathed the moment she was through the door, eyes wide. "Talk about a nice flat. And you guys said this place is cheap? Where do I sign up?"

Draco chuckled a bit uncertainly. "Well, I doubt you'd like the amount of walking we've had to do out here."

"Plus the taxi fees almost make up for the difference for a typical monthly," Harry added.

"Still, though," Georgianna said as she stepped deeper into the living room, "this is a beautiful place. And three-bedroom flats are not cheap, even this far from downtown."

Three bedrooms? Draco thought it a bit odd that Georgianna would assume as such; there were only two visible doors from where they all stood aside from the open kitchen entry. It seemed strangely pointed. Although Draco had only met the woman once before, she did not strike him as anything less than clever.

"Oh, it's just a two-bedroom," Harry said good-naturedly from the front door, helping Teddy remove his snow-soaked shoes. "Much more manageable as you can imagine."

There was no denying the narrowing of Georgianna's eyes then, however slight it may have been. It was aimed at Ainsley, Draco noticed, who almost looked to be suppressing a smirk. Suspicion felt familiar. The lack of fear or anger alongside it was not. He might not know what was being passed between the two women, but Draco felt certain that it was nothing of negative consequence. A strange sensation in his abdomen.

To avoid having to try and cook a hot meal without magic in the muggles' presence, Draco had prepared a cold tuna poke dish with a basic salad ahead of time. Teddy was quick to request a jelly sandwich, something Draco was absolutely not going to argue against with guests over for the first time. Draco, Harry, and Teddy settled into their usual chairs around the table, Transfigured to accommodate three additional chairs that mingled between them.

It wasn't what Draco would call perfect. No amount of muggle interaction for Draco could be without some level of awkwardness. But overall, Harvey droning on and on about work in some sort of taxing office, Harry maneuvering about and adjusting the specifics of his own work, Georgianna talking about her and Harvey's two small children, Ainsley babbling about her schoolwork, and Teddy sucking the jelly off his fingers as the meal drew to an end, the evening felt...organically pleasant. Nothing forced, nothing worrisome, nothing even necessarily memorable. Perhaps the entire event was what Healer Chase had been trying to convey in all those sessions, the forging of real friendships, ones that shared no commonality with his circles during the war.

Draco found himself smiling softly into his napkin as he finished eating.

"Hawee?"

Harry turned from Ainsley. "Yes?"

"Can I-Can I my broom?"

"Teddy, we told you before that we have to put it up for now."

"But wanna fly my broom."

Dammit. Draco held back a grimace as he made to smooth the misstep. "You can play that game tomorrow. It's too...loud for tonight."

Teddy looked puzzled. "Game?"

Harvey chuckled. "Has he a broom that he pretends to fly on?"

Teddy opened his mouth, but Harry leaned over to whisper in Teddy's ear. Draco nodded at Harvey. "Yes, and it's always quite...ah...involved. Wrecks the entire flat typically." It wasn't exactly a lie. "Teddy," he said, "why don't you go play in your room? We're all finished with dinner and I'll bet your toys are more interesting than we are."

Ainsley giggled as Teddy slithered from his chair and all but bolted from the kitchen. Georgianna fixed Draco with a sudden look of polite intent. His middle squirmed with vague apprehension.

"So, Draco, Harry," she began, eyes swinging between the two. "Tell us, how did you two meet?"

Oh.

They thought Draco and Harry were involved with one another. Romantically. Nothing could be further from the truth, yet Draco was at an immediate loss of how to correct the assumption without plaguing the relatively successful evening with even more awkwardness.

Harry, on the other hand, answered right away. "Oh, we went to the same boarding school in Scotland since we were eleven."

"Eleven?" Ainsley echoed. "That's amazing!"

"Don't be too impressed. We hated each other until just a few months ago."

Ainsley rolled her eyes. "Nice try. How would you two have ended up here with Teddy if that had been the case?"

"Well, Teddy is actually Draco's cousin. Er, second cousin. But I'm his appointed godfather. His parents were my...er..."

Merlin, things were due to overcomplicate quick. Draco cut in, "Teddy's parents were close with Harry's own parents."

"Fair enough," Harvey said, and it was with great relief that Draco realized that the subject was going to be tactfully dropped.

Ainsley bumped her shoulder against Draco's arm. "But, if you don't mind my prodding-"

Then again, perhaps not.

"-why the hell did the system award a child to two men that supposedly hated one another?"

The lilt in her voice, twitch of her brow, something in the way Ainsley asked finally brought sense to Harry. Draco saw understanding dawn in Harry's green eyes, his brows lifting as minor shock hit him. Draco's urge to grimace returned at the sheer density of the fool.

"Technically, Harry's the one with legal custody," Draco answered. Surprisingly, there was little irritation in him at the fact. But that was a tangle to unwind another time. "But the poor git was so lost on what to do with a child, and as Teddy knew me so well already, he was forced to ask for my assistance."

"That is absolutely not true," Harry interjected.

Laughter swept across the table. Teddy's little hands pulled at Draco then, redirecting his attention just as Georgianna said, "Well, regardless the circumstance, the whole situation has obviously brought you two together."

"Dwaco, wead book pease?"

Draco blinked dumbly at Teddy. "Uh-"

"Yes," Ainsley said. "It's really quite sweet."

"Dwaco?"

Harry cleared his throat unnecessarily. "Oh, er, uh...I mean, yeah, it's made us far more...well, we get each other a lot better than our days at Hog-at school, that's for sure."

"Dwaco, wead book pease?"

"It will be nice, though, once I'm done with my training at work and we can move, to have a better bed than the couch."

Even to Draco, or perhaps especially to Draco, Harry's response sounded rushed and cobbled together. It wasn't unlike the oaf to only just barely form cohesive sentences on the fly. But when Draco glanced over and saw that Harry was eyeing him, some sort of question lurking there, he decided to leave the mess alone as he forced his attention back to Teddy.

"Not just now, little one. I'll be needing to walk our guests back to their vehicle in a moment."

Coming over and singing Draco's side as he brushed by, Harry scooped Teddy into his arms hurriedly. "No worries, bud. I can read the book while Draco does that."

Once Teddy's squeal faded into the couch on which Harry had dropped, Harvey clapped Draco on the back. His grin was slightly apologetic. "You needn't walk us all the way back to the car. It's bloody freezing out there, and I'm sure you two will be wanting to get Teddy to bed."

"It's really no mind," Draco began.

Georgianna patted his other shoulder. "Please, we insist. What sort of guests would we be if we insisted you trek in the snow twice?"

"Really, Draco," Ainsley said as she pulled him into a brief hug. The top of her head bumped his chin when he clumsily tried to return the affection. As per his usual social standards as of late, Draco was certain he only managed to pat her back too stiffly. Her smile was as bright as ever when she pulled away, though.

"Stop stressing," she whispered. "Nosy George is about to leave."

A bit perplexed, Draco just nodded, accepting the muggles' stream of appreciation for the evening as they filed out the door. He locked it behind them, choosing not to immediately begin Teddy's usual bedtime routine and instead cleaning the kitchen. If asked, allowing Harry and Teddy time to read through the picture book they had started was a reasonable enough answer. But disquietingly clear images filled his head of warm companionship, of genuine affection, of someone truly loving him...the idea taunted him as he scrubbed bowls by hand, torn by emotions while he tried to ignore Harry reading about merfolk in the other room.