Harry trudged into his living room, plate of toast in hand, and crashed straight into Hermione, who had just stepped out of the Floo.

"Hermione!" He cringed as a slice of toast clung to her Weasley jumper for several seconds before landing at their feet.

"Harry. It's nice to see that you're alive, since you haven't even owled us since you got injured!"

The Floo flared to life again and Ron stepped out. "I told you he was fine, 'Mione."

She glared at the side of his head as he helped himself to some of Harry's toast.

"I'd also like to know why Patrick from DOCW was telling me to congratulate you and Draco Malfoy on adopting your first child together?"

"Sit down, I'll make some more tea." Harry handed Ron his plate of toast, vanished the slice on the floor and returned to his kitchen.

I can't believe I forgot to tell them he thought, cursing himself as he waited for the kettle to boil. Shame and guilt knotted his insides as he stirred the tea and removed the teabags. They were his best friends and they told each other everything, he had no excuse for leaving them in the dark when he'd told Andromeda several days ago.

He returned to the living room and sat down, doing his best to avoid the crumbs Ron had managed to blanket the couch with. "I guess I got a bit distracted over the past few days, I really should have flooed as soon as I got out of St Mungo's."

"Why didn't you tell us you were dating Malfoy? You know we don't care that you're bisexual and even if we aren't on the best of terms with him, we would have still been supportive." Hermione sounded hurt and wore a small frown. His guilt intensified. Angry Hermione he could handle, upset Hermione made him feel like the worst person in the world.

"We know he's changed, mate, and as long as you're not going out with Voldemort, we don't care who you're with - you're a grown man, you can make your own decisions."

"We aren't dating."

Hermione looked sceptical. "So you expect us to believe that you accidentally adopted a child."

"Er... Yeah?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "It's honestly not surprising, knowing your luck and your history with Malfoy. You're still obsessed with him - you mention him every other week!"

"I don't talk about him that much!" Harry protested.

"You do." They replied in unison.

"It's always Malfoy this, Malfoy that. 'I saw Malfoy buying stuffed animals on Monday, what do think they're for?'" Ron's impression of Harry's voice was surprising accurate and had Hermione snorting into her teacup.

"What was it last time?" She asked Ron, laughing.

"'Malfoy was in Gladrags the other day. He never shops there!'"

"Fine, fine." Harry sighed. "Maybe I do talk about him a lot. But that had nothing to do with it! It was the potion I was on, it was really strong and I didn't know what I was doing, the woman was going on about him being a death eater and I just jumped in."

"I still don't understand how that led to you adopting a child."

"I had a cut on my hand and my blood got onto the paper. I had no idea until Draco told me when I woke up."

"Only you, eh?" Ron elbowed him playfully.

"Honestly Harry! How do you even get into these situations?"

Harry relaxed, comforted by their playful digs at him. He still felt guilty for keeping them in the dark and Hermione was probably still hurt, but it obviously was quite the end of the world.

"Are you finally going to use this as an opportunity to ask him out?" Ron asked.

Harry choked on his tea and Ron thumped him on the back unnecessarily hard. He swatted Ron's hands away and flicked him for good measure.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb Harry, we aren't blind. We've suspected that you've had a thing for him for a while, your reaction to this situation only confirms it. You'd be trying everything to get rid of him if you still hated him, but you're pretty relaxed about it. I assume you've spent the last few days with them, which is why you haven't answered any of our floo calls?"

"I had to stay, they had a social worker visit and both parents had to be there!" He ran a hand through his hair. Besides, Harry thought I think the last thing on Draco's mind is a relationship at the moment.

"So you've accepted the role of parent already? Does this mean mum will be making extra jumpers this year?"

"I doubt Draco will want to wear a Weasley jumper."

"He let small children paint on his face at that Ministry fundraiser last year, mate. I reckon he'd wear a jumper if the kid asked him to."

"What's their name?"

"Melissa, but she prefers Lissy." He smiled absentmindedly. "She definitely has him wrapped around her little finger."

Hermione muttered something that sounded suspiciously like seems like it's not just him.

"So when can we meet her?" She asked, brushing crumbs from the corner of Ron's mouth.

"I'm not sure..." Harry replied hesitantly. "I don't even know if Draco will want me to be around once he knows there won't be anymore visits - he might not want her to get attached to you if he doesn't intend to have anything to do with us later on."

Hermione scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous - he's quite clearly letting you get attached to her and vice versa, getting rid of you would only hurt Melissa, which he won't want. And as if I would let Malfoy keep us away from your child!"

Harry obviously didn't hide his doubt as well as he thought he had, because she continued. "Ask him. You'd get so much further by just communicating with people. I think you'll be surprised."

With those words, she stood, glancing at the clock as she pulled Ron up with her. "We've got to go, we promised Bill and Fleur we'd babysit Victoire so they could go Christmas shopping." She kissed him on the cheek.

"You better keep us updated next time you get injured, or we'll hunt you down and drag you to St Mungo's ourselves." She threatened as she threw the Floo powder into the fireplace. She called our her destination and stepped into the flames.

Ron went to follow, but hesitated.

"Astoria will murder you if you don't let her know you're ok before you come back to work, I'd owl her as soon as possible." He clasped him on the shoulder and followed his girlfriend through the floo.

•••

Draco and Melissa jumped at the sound of the front door opening, followed by footsteps up the stairs.

Melissa lifted her head off Draco's chest, where she had been snoozing since Draco had closed the book they had been reading. "Who 's it?" She murmured.

"I think it's Astoria." He replied. She often arrived unannounced and let herself in, revenge for Draco doing the same to her and walking in on her and her then-girlfriend. He shuddered slightly at the memory.

A few seconds later, a familiar head of blonde hair popped around the door. "How's my favourite ex-fiancé today? And little Lissy of course."

"I'm your only ex-fiancé." He replied with a grin. It had become their normal greeting since they had managed to persuade their families to end the betrothal contract after the war. His mother still clung to the hope that they would 'come to their senses', but he supposed he couldn't have everything.

"Story!" Melissa shouted, suddenly wide awake. She hopped off the bed and ran to hug Astoria, who swung the girl around. "I've brought brownie mix again!" She staged whispered to Melissa.

Draco groaned as she took the shrunken box from her pocket and handed it to the girl, who cheered and ran out of the room. "She's going to be bouncing off the walls. I swear you put something in that mix."

Astoria smirked. "It wasn't me who left them on the side in reach of tiny fingers last time."

Draco scowled at her. "You weren't the one who had to try and get 7 small children into bed. David had taken the day off too and Mrs Wittle had that horrible cold - I had to do it by myself!"

She only shrugged. "You chose to work with kids. Now come on lazy-bones, we are going to make brownies and discuss why you never told me that you've adopted Melissa with Harry."

•••

About an hour later, the three of them were sat on the carpet in the living room around a game of snakes and ladders.

Melissa had a smear of batter across her right cheek and her nose, as well as chocolate crumbs around her mouth. Astoria, being the big child she was, was in a similar state. A plate, empty save for a few minute crumbs, sat in between him and Astoria and had had brownies on it just seconds ago.

Draco himself still had half of his in his hand, but the other two had seemingly inhaled theirs. The rest were on the top most shelf in the kitchen, out of the way of hungry little hands.

"So Draco, care to tell me why you didn't tell me that Melissa has two parents, rather than the one she was supposed to have?" Astoria rolled the die and moved her counter.

"We've been busy." It was true - they'd barely had a spare minute since he'd adopted Melissa.

"You found time to whine at me about Harry when you were busy in sixth year, it's a poor excuse."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, I wanted Harry to tell Weasley and Granger himself. If I told you, you'd be blabbing to Weasley before Harry could tell them in person. I'm pretty sure he hasn't even spoke to them since he got injured, so I doubt they're too thrilled with him anyway. It'd be worse if they found out from you." He thought for a moment as he rolled the die and moved his counter up a ladder.

"How do you know about it?"

"One of Hermione's friends from DOCW told her to pass on his congratulations for you two, said he'd heard about the adoption."

Melissa rolled a six and took another go, which landed her on the longest ladder on the board.

"How do you feel about it, honestly?" Astoria asked, quieter this time.

"Annoyed, mostly, that things have been taken out of my control again, that I can't seem to do anything without someone interfering." He frowned at the board and moved his piece down a snake, which stuck its tongue out and hissed. "But it's not too bad. Melissa enjoys spending time with him and Teddy."

"And you enjoy spending time with him." It wasn't a question and to his horror, Draco could feel his cheeks heating up. "I knew you had a crush on him!"

"I don't have a crush on him!" He hissed, but Astoria only cackled and moved her piece up a ladder.

Melissa rolled again and landed at the end. "I win!" She cheered and high-fived Draco.

"You know Lissy," Astoria began slyly, "I think the winner should get another brownie, don't you think?"