It was about two in the afternoon. Draco had just put Scorpius to sleep. He stood by his bed and stared at his son for a moment. Then he bent forward and kissed his baby on his head before going back to work. He was still feeling very thoughtful. He'd ignored all the owls except the one from his mother. But he hadn't told her much either. Just that he would meet her for lunch the next day and tell her whatever she wanted to know. He shook himself out of his thoughts and tried to focus on getting the potions finished. He worked in silence for a couple of hours and then he stood up and stretched. The potions were done. They would have to rest for a while and cool before they could be packaged and sent off.

He walked out of the lab and into the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. Binky was out in the garden, weeding and planting and trying to get it to look good again. Both the house and the garden had been neglected for the past seven years...the house had been mouldy and smelly and the garden chaotic when Draco had got back to England six months ago. It had taken him a whole month to fix up the house and make it liveable again. Binky was still working on the garden. Draco stood at the window, watching her, when he saw an beautiful snowy owl flying towards the house.

He opened the window for her and she flew right in. She perched on the kitchen counter and held out her leg. He sighed as he took it from her. Who was writing to him to now? He opened the letter and he recognised Harry's scrawl. It surprised him that he would know Harry's handwriting at all, let alone recognise it after all these years. He put that thought aside to examine and ponder over later and he began to read.

Dear Draco,

Could we possibly meet some time today? I need to talk to you and I would prefer to do it some place private, if that's possible. I would invite you to my house but perhaps you would prefer to meet at yours. I'm assuming that you wouldn't want to leave Scorpius at home two nights in a row. Let me know what time is okay for you and I'll be there.

Harry.

Draco was a bit surprised. What did Harry want to talk about? 'Only one way to find out, I guess...' He went into his lab and wrote a quick reply.

Dear Harry,

You're right. I would much rather we meet at my place than yours. Is seven okay for you? I'd like it if we could have dinner together. I'll keep my Floo open for you.

Draco.

...

Harry stepped through the floo exactly on time. Draco was sitting in the parlour and working on his accounts. He looked up just in time to see him stumble out of the Floo. He found himself smiling as Harry righted himself.

"I can never get used to these bloody things," Harry muttered.

Draco stood up and went over to him.

"Hi!" Harry said as he shuffled his feet. He was obviously nervous. A fact that somehow made Draco feel a little more at ease.

"Hi," Draco said and he couldn't help the shy smile that crossed his face just then.

It was a smile that made Harry's breath hitch. 'That's a sight I could get used to,' he thought as he stared. Draco found himself feeling disconcerted by the scrutiny and he started talking, in an effort to cover it up.

"Are you hungry?" he said. "Dinner's ready if you want to eat or would you prefer a drink first? Or..."

"Draco, relax. I'm fine. I'd love to have dinner with you and maybe a drink after, but first I want to talk."

"Okay...give me a minute." Draco went back to his work table and gathered all his papers and put them away. Then he led Harry to the couch on the other side of the room and they sat down facing each other.

"How many Howlers did you get?" Harry asked.

"Ten."

"I got about fifty," Harry said.

"Ouch."

"I got around two hundred letters too...all urging me to stay away from you."

Draco felt his heart constrict at that. 'Is this what Harry wanted to talk about? Tell me that he's changed his mind about that date? I've had second thoughts too, but I haven't changed my mind...'

"So...are you here to tell me that you've decided to take their advice?" Draco asked, keeping his voice carefully blank, but he couldn't quite hide the hurt in his eyes.

"Of course not!" Harry said as he impusively reached for Draco's hand. "Look I don't know what is going on here exactly, but I feel like I really connected with you yesterday. And this," he said, as he glanced at their hands, "this feels right."

Draco sighed. "I know," he said. "I don't understand it though."

"I don't understand it either, but if my life has taught me anything, it is to trust my instincts, so that is what I'm going to do. I want to date you and I want to see where this goes."

Draco looked at Harry intently for a minute, almost like he was trying to read him, make sure that he was being sincere.

"What are you going to do about all your adoring fans who will hate you for dating me?" he said.

"I don't give a damn about them...bloody interfering busybodies. I don't care what they say about me. I'm used to it. It's you I'm worried about. I hate the way the papers dragged out the whole Death Eater crap again. You've just got back to England and you're trying to build your business. You don't need any negative attention..."

"Hmmm...I was thinking that too," Draco said as he gently stroked Harry's hand with this thumb. "It's nice to know that you're concerned about me, though," he said softly. It was exactly the sort of thing that he would expect from someone like Harry, so it shouldn't have surprised him, but considering their past, it was a bit surreal to see Harry worry about him, of all people.

"Why wouldn't I be concerned?" Harry said looking puzzled. "I know what kind of a curse my fame can be. It nearly always gets in the way of what I want...I've had people reject me because they had no desire to become celebrities and have their every move reported and scrutinised...and I don't want that to happen with you. I don't want my name to get in the way."

"So what do you want to do?"

"I want to date you, but I don't want to cause you any trouble, so do you think we could see each other discreetly? You know at your place or mine. I know that's not how dates are supposed to go, but it really doesn't matter to me where we meet or what we do, so long as we're seeing each other," Harry said. It was the only solution he could thiink of and it seemed like a good idea to him, but he wasn't sure how Draco would feel about it.

"That sounds good...so we don't tell anyone?"

"We'll tell our family and friends, of course. It would be too stressful to have to hide it from them, but we keep it quiet otherwise."

"Okay. Though I doubt that any of your friends will approve."

"Ginny is probably the only one who'll be happy about it and the rest will come around. Or they won't. I don't really care."

"Are you sure about that?"

Harry sighed. "I've spent a lot of my life trying to live up to everybody's expectations and I'm done. I was done when I quit the Aurors, I was done when I split up with Ginny, both, decisions I got slammed for. But I survived. People got used to it. This is the same...It was a lesson that took me a while to learn, you know. That my life has to be about what I want and not what other people expect of me and I really do want this. What about your friends and your mother? How do you think they'll react?"

"Mum will be happy. She's been pushing me to find someone for months now and she'll be thrilled that it's you. She's quite taken with you, if you must know. Blaise will, of course, be very happy about it and Pansy will probably be jealous, but she'll be fine."

"Why will she be jealous?"

"Because she has her eye on a Gryffindor as well and she's despairing of her chances at the moment."

"Really? Who?"

"George Weasley."

Harry's mouth fell open. "Seriously? Since when?"

"About a year now. She worked for him at the Wheezes for a while. She helped him out with his accounts last summer and she fell for him pretty hard. I don't think Weasley has any idea, though. He's friendly, but that's about it."

"Hmmm...George and Pansy Parkinson? She might actualy be good for him, if she's still as sassy as she used to be."

Draco smiled at that. "She's sassy alright. She's also smart and very sneaky. She usually stops at nothing to get what she wants, but lately all she's done is moon over Weasley. That's in fact what convinced me that she's actually serious about him..."

"Well, if you and I can date , I don't see why they can't," Harry said.

They slipped into silence for a couple of minutes after that as they tried to absorb and make sense of everything that was happening.

"Doesn't this seem a little fast to you?" Draco said after a minute. "We only met yesterday and already we're dating?"

"I was wondering about that too. But then it's not like we met for the first time yesterday. We've known each other for fifteen years now...and there's always been something between us," Harry said.

"True," Draco said as he looked up and held Harry's gaze for a minute. Harry looked back at him, open and honest, as always, and Draco started to feel the pull of the other man, as he felt himself drawn to that steadfast gaze and those beautiful green eyes. He'd had a crush on Harry for a really long time. 'It would be so easy to fall for him...and I would fall hard and probably never recover,' he thought and then he looked away, as his sense of self preservation kicked in.

"What is this for you, Harry?" he asked finally. "Is this a fling or a bit of fun or..."

"I don't do flings, Draco," Harry replied calmly. "I am genuinely interested in you and somehow, I think we'd be good together. So I want to give it a shot. I can't promise that it will work out. But I want to try. I want to see if we can possibly have a relationship. What about you? What do you want?"

"The same thing, but I think I should tell you that I have never been in a proper relationship and I haven't even dated all that much, so I have no real idea what to do or how to behave..." Draco said frownng.

Harry squeezed his hand. "I don't exactly have a lot of experience myself, but we'll figure it out, we'll make it work."

"But this is you and me, Harry. We'll probably be hexing each other by the end of the week."

"Do you really believe that?"

"No, actually. I think that's the part that troubles me really, this strange certainty I have about us."

Harry could only smile in response.

"But I hope you know that it won't always be peaceful," Draco said. "I may have changed and all that, but I'm still me. I'm snarky and sarcastic, I'm pig-headed and usually quite deermined to get my own way and I will probably get on your nerves quite a bit."

"I know that," Harry said. "And it's fine. I'm no angel either. I'm pig-headed too and I have trouble opening up and asking for help. I can be grumpy and moody and quite difficult to live with. But we'll figure it out yeah?"

"Okay. And you should know that I will always put Scorpius first."

"And you should..."

Draco sighed. "I'm sorry, I know this isn't exactly first date conversation, but I thought we should be clear about everything before we go any further."

"It's fine. I understand," Harry said. "So, where is Scorpius?"

"He's in the nursery with Binky. She's probably just finished feeding him," Draco said as he glanced at the clock.

"Can I meet him?"

Draco was as pleased by that request as he was surprised by it. "Sure. Of course," he said and then he led the way to the nursery.

Scorpius was sitting on the plush blue carpet, clapping and laughing as a bunch of miniature brooms flew about in front of him. He looked up when he saw his father. He smiled, he gurgled, he waved his arms and then he put his hands up and waited to be picked up.

Harry watched the little boy, feeling utterly bemused. He could honestly say that he had never seen a prettier baby in his life and he was a man who was currently godfather to four rather beautiful kids.

"Hello, little man," Draco said as he picked his son up and kissed him. "There's someone I want you to meet," he said.

Harry didn't miss the way Draco's face softened when he looked at his son, or the warmth in his voice when spoke to him. Harry walked up to them and smiled at Scorpius. Then he took his plump little hand and kissed it lightly. Scorpius giggled.

Harry put his hand on his heart and turned to Draco. "I think I'm in love," he said as solemnly as he could manage. Draco chuckled.

"Honestly, though, you really are the most beautiful boy I have ever seen," Harry told Scorpius, who giggled some more. "I'll bet you're really smart too," he said as he reached out and gently cupped a plump little cheek. "You're absolutely adorable, you know that?"

Scorpius clapped, almost as if he understood what Harry had just said to him. Harry cuckled.

"You're a lucky man, Draco," he said softly.

"I know."

...

A/N: It is time to tell me how much you like this story :-)