Draco never expected to spend the years after the war in various Wizarding orphanages across Britain.
He first visited one the week after his trial, where he was pardoned for the majority of his crimes, largely due to Potter's testimony, and was ordered to do a number of hours of community service for being an accomplice to an arsonist. Draco silently operated under the belief that he should have been punished for more than watching his aunt set Hagrid's hut on fire, but he refused to look a gift thestral in the mouth, taking his extraordinarily light sentence and running with it.
He had had several options for his community service, but with the influx of orphans and a lack of staff in orphanages, most of those given community service were pushed to serve their time in the orphanages, rather than litter picking in Knockturn Alley.
Draco had been reluctant at first. He had no desire to clean up owl shit off shop windows for a month with the entire Wizarding world watching, but he had never really been around children and he doubted many would take kindly to the sight of him, when he looked so much like his father. His father who had killed so many over the last year or so and was currently in a high security cell in Azkaban, awaiting the Kiss. There was a possibility that a child would take one look at him and accuse him of killing their family and Draco wasn't sure he could handle it.
Eventually though, his pride had won out and on a blustery and stifling August morning, he had found himself standing on the doorstep of Puffskein Orphanage.
Plants and pots of all sizes, shapes and colours were packed against the wall, buds shaking in the wind and dried, brown petals breaking away from their plants, dancing down the modest garden path.
He had knocked on the door after several moments (minutes) of hesitation, which he used to take in the exterior of the house. It was painted a pale shade of yellow, which was peeling in places and sullied by streaks ofdirt. There were several extensions added on, which were wonky and completed haphazardly, with windows of all different sizes dotted all over them. It was chaotic, yet homely in a worn and well lived in sort of way.
He glanced up, watching the copper dragon on the weather vane spin in the wind, and his eyes were drawn to a window, where a young boy sat, head rested against the glass, knees drawn up and a book lying, forgotten, against his chest. Even from a floor below, he could see the tear tracks on the boy's face and he felt his heart wrench. It was in that exact moment that any doubts he had about this were abolished.
It was terribly Gryffindorish of him, not to mention uncharacteristically impulsive, but as an ageing woman opened up the door, he swore he would stay long enough to help as many of the children find a home as possible.
•••
Draco spent the first work getting to know the children and getting used to the orphanage, which was full to bursting with children from as young and 6 months to as old as 16 years.
There was little Daisy, the 6 month old baby who'd been dumped on the doorstep of the orphanage just days before Draco arrived. She'd taken a shine to Draco straight away, which she proved by slobbering all over his neck, and refused to let anyone but Draco feed her at lunch time.
There was Terence, a stubborn 2 year old who loved ducks and refused to answer to anything other than 'Sir Quack'. He had a habit of sneaking to the bathrooms and sitting in half full tubs of bath water while the staff and Draco were otherwise occupied, which led to lots of strong locking charms and Draco investing in a paddling pool they could all play in outside.
There was the 2 year twins, Joseph and Adrian, who were completely identical, right down to the apparently cat-shaped freckles on their right wrists. They had a habit of speaking perfectly in sync that reminded Draco of the Weasley twins and seemed to be able to hold entire conversations with one another without saying a word.
There was 3 year old Evangeline, a stubborn girl who had a talent for silently appearing next to him and scaring the life out of him.
There was 5 year old Clara and her 6 year old brother Edwin. The pair were as thick as thieves and insatiably curious - Draco learnt very quickly to keep everything that wasn't stuck down out of the reach of inquisitive finger, especially his wand.
There was a trio of 8 year olds - Benny, Lucia and Florence. They were a tightly knit group, given that they were the only survivors of a school group that had been attacked by Death Eaters at a zoo. Their parents had been chaperones and hadn't made it out. Draco had been worried at first - they had every reason to hate him for being part of the group that had killed their family and friends - but they had welcomed quite quickly, the four of them bonding over a mutual love of board games. He kept Monopoly well away from them though - the first and last game had ended in tears and the board being flipped.
The other 8 year old was loud and boisterous Archie, who was described by most of the staff as a 'Typical boy'. Everyone heard him before they saw him and could find him easily by following the eternal muddy footprints that he left behind. He was well liked by the majority of the kids there - with the exception of some of the older children and Terence, who didn't really like anything but his ducks - despite his fondness of Weasley products.
The boy Draco had seen in the window was called Leonard, but went by Leo instead. The 10 year old was very quiet and didn't seem to get on well with many of the other children, but Draco did manage to coax a little bit of conversation out of him about one of his many books.
There were five teenagers, all enrolled at Hogwarts, too. Lucy and Meg, two 13 years olds with an obsession of Quidditch that bordered on unhealthy, had taken to him immediately and had spent a solid hour on his first day there talking his ear off about the quality of the Magpie's keeper.
The oldest three, Sebastian, Tammy and Jacob were 15/16 and seemed to have made it their mission to take care of the little ones. Not unsurprisingly, all three were in Gryffindor and weren't his biggest fans. They reminded him of a younger Golden Trio.
The orphanage was also home to two stray cats, a young, bright orange kitten and an older grey one, which spent most of its time basking in sunlight and swiping at ankles.
•••
The first few months of his community service seemed to fly by - once they got past their awkward first meeting at least - and he very quickly found himself sitting around a table with 12 children, a nosy kitten and other 3 slightly merry adults, including Mrs Whittle. The eldest three had chosen to stay at Hogwarts, while Lucy and Meg had decided to come back.
Since August, Daisy, Clara, Edwin and Archie had been adopted and several other children had come and gone, the newest two being 9 year old Sophie and 3 year old Millie.
Archie had only left two days ago and the building had felt horribly quiet since.
The staff at the orphanage had told him straight away it was best not to get too attached to the kids - they couldn't save them all, no matter how much they wanted too - and initially, Draco had scoffed at the idea that he would get attached enough to be upset to see them leave.
That had changed when Daisy had been adopted a month after he had started.
It had been awful when he'd arrived the next day and wasn't greeted with his usually sloppy kiss to the neck. He had came to the sudden and quite horrifying realisation that he missed Daisy and a month spent surrounded by children had turned him into a Hufflepuff.
Judging from the way Mrs Wittle and David, another member of staff, were knocking back the cheap champagne, they were just as affected by the lack of noise.
•••
Officially, Draco had been assigned to maintenance work around the building and had been given a list of jobs to do, but he'd spent far more time in the company of the kids.
Halfway through January and barely a quarter of the way through the list, Mrs Wittle had pulled him to one side after a particularly entertaining game of Elefun.
"You've completed your hours of community service, you know." She had informed him.
Draco had stared at her for several moments, speechless, until a small hand had tugged on his. He had glanced down to see Evangeline gazing up at him, eyes shiny.
"You're leaving?"
Draco was quick to crouch down and reassure her, brushing away a tear that had found its way down her cheeks.
"Of course not!" He turned to look up at Mrs Wittle, "I would like to become an official volunteer here, I have been meaning to discuss it with you."
"Very well, but you have some forms to complete first. I'll see you in my office tomorrow morning?"
Draco nodded and hugged Evangeline as Mrs Wittle walked away and returned to whatever it was she had been doing in the first place.
A year later, Draco became an official member of staff there, after an eight month course and some serious discussions with Pansy, which mainly involved her encouraging him while accusing him of going soft.
It was two years later when Melissa first arrived at the orphanage.
Almost all of the children who had been there when Draco first arrived had left, having been adopted or come of age. Only three remained - Lucy and Meg, who were still inseparable and just as quidditch-mad, and Leo.
Draco had grown close to Leo and they regularly owled each other while Leo was away at Hogwarts. It was summer and they were in the middle of one of their chess games when the banging came at the door.
Draco had stood to answer it, knowing that David was out with the little ones in the garden and the rest of the staff were out. Leo followed closely behind him.
He opened door to an irate and obviously pureblood couple. They stood close together, noses turned up at the exterior of the building, which had improved massively since Draco had repainted and recharmed the walls a year or so ago.
The woman turned to him, regarding him with obvious contempt. "I was told you'd take unwanted brats in?"
He could feel Leo stiffen behind him and responded coolly.
"We take in children who have no other place to go, yes."
"Semantics." She waved a dismissive hand and none to gently pushed a small, rake thin toddler forwards. In her arms, she cradled a newborn - a boy judging from the blue blanket they were wrapped in and the badge saying 'Its a BOY!' pinned to it. A family crest was stitched into the corner of the shawl, but Draco didn't recognise it.
"You can take her then, seeing as we have no use for a girl now that we have a boy to inherit and pass on the family name." The man pulled a crumpled sheet of parchment out of his pocket and thrust it towards Draco.
"We've signed away all her rights, so we can be off now." He turned to his wife and son, guiding them away without so much as a glance back at their daughter.
The girl let out a cough that wracked her whole body and began to cry.
Draco scooped her up and held her as her 'family' apparated away. She curled into his chest as she cried, coughs interrupting every so often.
He nudged Leo. "Go get David, tell him we've got a newcomer while I firecall Eleanor."
Leo ran off through the house and Draco carried the sniffling child into Mrs Wittle's office.
He sat on a chair in front of the fireplace, the girl on his knee and threw a handful of Floo powder into the fire, calling out Eleanor's address and hoping she was in.
Eleanor answered almost immediately, smiling. "Draco! Good morning!."
The smile slid from her face as she noticed the child on his knee.
"Ah. I'll be right over."
Seconds later, the social worker stood in front of them, dusting soot off her shirt.
"What happened?"
"Her family just dumped her on our doorstep a few minutes ago." He replied. "Purebloods with a new male heir."
"Typical." She scowled. It was a case they were familiar with - family names meant everything to purebloods and their heir being female was, in their opinion, a disaster, as they couldn't pass on the name. In most cases, they ended up dumped in all manner of places, so it was a relief that she had been brought her straight away. Judging the way Draco could feel every one of her ribs against his chest and how her coughs shook her entire body, a night on the streets would have killed her.
Draco handed over the document the man had given him.
"Melissa, is it?" She asked the girl.
She received no reply, as if she hadn't been heard.
"Melissa?" Draco murmured, nudging her gently. She looked up at him questioningly. "Are you hungry, sweetheart?"
She continued to stare blankly at him.
"I think she may have a hearing impairment." Eleanor said. "I'll check St Mungo's records and get the family investigated - there's no way the poor thing's been cared for properly."
Draco nodded and stood, settling the child on his hip. "I'll get her something to eat."
Eleanor nodded before waving goodbye and flooing away.
Later that night, when Mrs Wittle has returned and Melissa had fallen asleep on Draco in the games room, Eleanor returned with a multitude of documents.
"Her full name is Melissa Williams, born 24th of December 1997, making her 2 years and 8 months old, and she is deaf. She was prescribed muggle hearing aids over 2 years ago, because she is too young to use the potion to correct her hearing, but according to the healer who saw her, the parents had no interest in using muggle devices. He gave me another set for her that are the same as her original ones." She turned over the document in her hand. "He warned that they weren't reliable, because muggle technology doesn't interact well worth magic, but apparently they are pretty resistant and will come back on eventually if they stop working. She can also use sign language."
Draco nodded. "Is the paperwork he gave us genuine?"
"Yep, I verified all of it - they have absolutely no claim over her at all and never will do. I recorded her arrival and placement here in the records too and set a message to the aurors about the parents. You'll need to give some sort of statement to back up our claims, etcetera, etcetera - same as usual. "
Mrs Wittle let out a little sigh. "Thank god we've got the aurors to help us." She said, relieved. "Now, lets go settle this little one in her new room - we've put her by you Leo - and let her get some proper rest."
Christmas that year seemed much merrier than it had in previous years. All the children were fascinated by the idea of having a birthday and Christmas all in two days and Melissa had finally been given the all-clear by her healer a few days ago.
A year and a half later, during a summers day not dissimilar to the one when Melissa arrived, Draco was shocked into speechless once more, something that hadn't happened since he thought he was being kicked out of the orphanage.
It happened over one of his and Leo's regular chess games. Draco had been eyeing up the board, trying to decide whether moving his bishop or rook would be more beneficial, when Leo had spoken.
"You should adopt Melissa."
Draco had spluttered for several moments before falling silent and simply staring at him.
"Where did that come from?" He had asked eventually, watching the smug teenager warily.
"Come off it, she's your favourite!" Leo scoffed, moving his knight and watching in satisfaction as Draco's bishop was cut down and cast aside.
"I don't have favourites." This was only partly true. He wasn't supposed to have favourites, but there had been a select few that Draco had been overly fond of over the years, including Leo.
Leo shook his head. "You do. I'm one of them, obviously, but you adore Melissa. You've done so much more than necessary for her - the sign language, testifying at her parents trial when I know you hate the ministry, accompanying her to every healer visit and helping with her speech therapy."
"Mrs Wittle learned sign language too." Draco protested weakly.
"Mrs Wittle would chop off her arm if one of us asked nicely enough, she doesn't count."
"Shouldn't you be persuading me to adopt you, rather than Melissa? It's not very Slytherin of you."
Leo laughed. "There's only 9 years between us. It'd be weird if you adopted me. Besides, you're a neat freak - you'd kill me in a week." Leo regularly blew things up and was permanently messy. He huffed as Draco's other bishop took down his queen. "Melissa needs it more than I do, she has food intolerances and hearing problems that mean regular hospital visits - no one wants to adopt a child like that, it's 'too much work' apparently."
Draco scowled at the reminder of the couple that had visited the other week and had immediately discounted Melissa because of her hearing.
"See! You have a rather large soft spot for her, admit that at least."
Grudgingly, he nodded. "Fine, I do, but I can't just adopt her - there's a mountain of procedures and paperwork that needs to be done. Besides, I don't even know if she'd want me to adopt her."
Leo smirked. "Checkmate. Talk to her if you really would consider adopting her. You might be surprised." The teen stood, added a tally to his side of the score sheet and left, leaving Draco to his own thoughts.
"I'm taking advice from a teenager." He muttered.
It wasn't the first time Draco had contemplated adoption. Being gay, there were few options for him to have children and after spending so long around orphaned children, he didn't think he'd ever consider having a child of his own blood when there were children without parents who could easily become his own.
He had always wanted kids and the longing for them had only increased as he spent time here.
And Melissa - he had grown unbelievably fond of the little girl and had actually thought (dreamed) about adopting her once or twice. She was such a wonderful, happy child despite what she'd been through. He marvelled at her ability to bounce back and trust others when she'd been let down by so many people - from family members to the ministry workers who'd looked the other way for a small sum. She, like all the kids who'd been through here, was far more resilient than him.
His only concern was the other children. Would they be jealous? Would they resent him for not choosing them? It had always held him back from ever seriously considering adopting on of children, but judging by Leo's opinions and the usual reactions from the other kids when one left, it might not be a massive problem.
And then there were the typical questions anyone thinking about having kids would ask themselves - could he handle a child? Could he support himself and a child? Was he ready for a child? Did he have the time needed to care for a child?
He frowned as he packed the chess set away with a wave of his wand. He needed some time to think.
•••
Five and a half months later, Draco found himself sat in a private room in St Mungo's. Adopting Melissa had gone totally Potter shaped and Draco couldn't wait for him to wake up so Draco could hex him without feeling any guilt.
Draco had planned to spend the day at the giant aquarium near his house - Melissa's favourite place on earth. Instead, they were stuck in a white-walled hospital room that smelt strongly of antiseptic, with a faint scent of chocolate frogs lingering from Weasley's visit.
Lissy was happily playing at Draco's feet with her stuffed frogs that he had charmed to dance when she pressed their left feet. She giggled as the smaller two tap danced in a circle around her, before falling back down.
Draco was eternally grateful that children were usually easily pleased.
On the bed, Potter stirred, blinking blearily at him as he came round.
"Malfoy?" His eyes widened. "Fuck. I didn't dream th-"
"Little ears!" Draco interrupted, covering Lissy's ears and glaring at him.
Potter winced. "Sorry. Where are my glasses?"
Draco flicked his wand and levitated them over.
"Do you know what you've done?"
Potter shook his head.
"You've adopted a child. Why the hell were you wandering around the Ministry after taking a dose of that particular pain potion?"
"I've what?!" Potter gaped at him. "Listen, Malfoy, there must be some sort of mistake."
Draco took the birth certificate out of his pocket and unshrunk it. "No, no mistake unfortunately."
Potter took the document and stared at it in silence for several minutes before speaking again.
"Can't we just reverse it?"
"No we can't just reverse it. I don't know how adoption works in the muggle world, but it's irreversible here, unless the person is deemed an unfit guardian later on."
"What does that mean then?"
"It means, Potter," he sneered, " that you need to pose as Mr Perfect Parent for as long as they want to check up on Melissa." Draco leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"I refuse to let you ruin this for me. I want to give her a permanent home, I won't let you take that away from her. I don't care if we've become friends of some description over the last few years, I will make your life hell if you mess up."
Potter nodded, running a hand through his hair. "What happened exactly? My memory is a bit... off."
"Your blood got onto the adoption papers at some point, so the spell registered you as a second parent."
Potter muttered something about luck and dragged another hand through his hair. "Shouldn't you have called a healer?"
"Yes, but I'm presuming you weren't prescribed the potion?" Potter's guilty look was answer enough and Draco transfigured one of the empty frog cartons. Potter picked up the paper and grinned.
"Prescription documents, thanks Malfoy." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Or should I be Draco, now that we're going to be spending so much time together?"
"As long as you don't call me Ferret, I couldn't care less." He pressed the button to call a healer. "We will be off now, but I expect you to visit us tomorrow when you are discharged." He nudged Lissy to her feet. "Come on sweetheart, say goodbye to Mr Potter."
"Bye, bye!" She waved a blue frog at him and thrust her arms out at Draco. "Up please."
He lifted her up and gave Potter his own nod goodbye.
•••
They spent the day in the park instead, bundled up in scarfs, hats and multiple jumpers.
It was quiet, because every sane person was inside, away from the icy cold December breeze.
But, Draco thought as he watched a windswept, red nosed Lissy hop between puddles, shouting "Splash!" every time she landed, I quite like being insane.