A/N: HAHA this was only supposed to ever be a one-shot, but I guess here's another chapter. I love this Harry and have a whole character and storyline fleshed out for him now. Should I keep going? Focus on the fanfics I already have going? help aaaaah
In hindsight, perhaps inviting Draco Malfoy to Andromeda's house had been Harry's second particularly stupid decision after the war. The first being that night on the astronomy tower, of course.
The fact was, Harry had found dozens of excuses to visit in the weeks following that night. Sorting library books for Madame Pince, calming Myrtle while her bathroom was being repaired, permanently sealing the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. And of course, if he happened to bump into Draco Malfoy, who would complain, really? He couldn't, however, find any good reasons to stay the night. In fact, it was expressly not allowed. The other problem was that he had time to visit the castle much less than he liked, simply because Teddy was here and needed him.
Maybe it was his hero complex – Andromeda had certainly encouraged him to get out of the house; to visit the Weasleys, go flying with Charlie, visit the joke shop, floo Ron and Hermione who were still in Australia. Most of this he did. Most of it, actually, he did with a smiling baby attached to his hip.
He couldn't just leave Teddy. He couldn't bear to have the small boy out of his sight. Andromeda had already promised up and down that she would attend as many Hogwarts meals with Teddy as possible, but Harry wasn't entirely sure he'd make it to the hols without having his godson with him everywhere he went. Teddy had Andromeda, he knew, but she wouldn't be able to take care of him forever. Better if Harry started sooner. Plus, the three of them in Andromeda's small cottage had begun to feel like family, even moreso than the Weasleys had ever been. It was the first time he wondered how children like Ron and Ginny were ever excited at the prospect of going away to boarding school for the year.
Currently, Harry was in the garden with said child, doing push-ups while Teddy giggled in the grass. Andromeda had banned cigarettes from her house as soon as she had found Harry with them and had given him a good stripping down that included phrases like "ghastly muggle inventions" and "horrible for the child's lungs". Maybe in the Days Before, Harry would have rebelled and snuck them in anyways. He knew he hadn't cared much for authority. In the Days After, though, Andromeda was right. It was horrible for Teddy to be around.
He had turned to exercise instead. It was almost more helpful, and it kept him outside for hours every day. He'd filled out from the commination of food and his workout regime, was less the scrawny child he'd always been.
He had spent the summer pulling strings at the ministry, too. Himself, Andromeda, and Professor McGonagall of all people, to be exact. It had ended, after appeals to the Wizengamot and the Minister for Magic himself, with permission for Draco to visit his mother and Andromeda as long as he provided a written request to the Ministry a week before and did not bring his wand.
As far as Harry knew, he hadn't visited his mother yet. Harry wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to see her, didn't want to visit the Manor where she was under house arrest, or was wary about the Aurors they had posted at the Manor every hour of the day to ensure she was complying. He hadn't asked, and Draco hadn't volunteered any information.
Harry stood and stretched. Draco was due to arrive soon, and he had been trying to calm his nerves. Truthfully, nothing had happened since that night on the Astronomy Tower. Nothing but talking under the watchful eyes of professors, at any rate. They hadn't spoken of that night, either. In the Days Before, Harry may have asked.
But Days After Harry was a catastrophic mix of desire, anxiety, and exhaustion.
Harry swung Teddy up and into his arms. "Let's go, Teds. If we spend much more time out here Andy will throw a fit."
Teddy giggled and grabbed at his glasses with his pudgy hands. Huffing, Harry shifted the boy so he couldn't reach his face. He had just started laughing at almost 5 months old – Andromeda said he was a late bloomer, but Harry had other suspicions. Maybe Teddy spending all his time around adults who had lost so much, who hardly ever laughed, was affecting him.
Bumping the door open with his hip, Harry stepped into the cottage. Andromeda was bustling around the kitchen, preparing dinner, most likely.
"Set Teddy down, love, and go shower," she said to him without looking up. Harry smiled to himself. Having someone to care for had kept Andy busy and seemed to keep her grief at bay. Being cared for did the same for Harry in the Days After.
Harry placed Teddy in his chair at the table. "It smells good, Andy," he said.
She swatted him with a towel. "Yes, and you're stinking up the whole room. Are you packed for Hogwarts?"
Harry sighed. He was leaving for Hogwarts the next day, flooing in. Draco would be staying with Andromeda and flooing in with them. It wasn't September 1st yet, all the eighth years who were able were arriving the week before to help finalize castle preparation and restoration for the following year.
The only eighth years who wouldn't be there, as far as Harry knew, were Ron and Hermione. They had been given permission to arrive the 1st of September with everyone else since they were still in Australia.
"I'm almost packed," he said to Andromeda.
She turned kind eyes on him. "It'll be alright, Harry. Teddy and I will visit." She squeezed his shoulder as he moved through the kitchen towards his bedroom.
He emerged not long after, wet hair dripping into his eyes. Andy shooed him off to meet Draco at the apparation point, just past the wards of the cottage.
Harry kissed Teddy on the forehead and stepped outside. The sun was beginning to set, washing the world in pink and orange hues. As he walked, he tried not to look at the spots that held memories from the Days Before. Where he and Hagrid had crashed the motorcycle after seeing Voldemort on their way to this very cottage. Tried not to remember Moody's death, George's ear, Lupin and Tonks and Fred alive.
He felt the ripple of the wards as he stepped outside of them, saw the world shimmer slightly and reform. Draco appeared with a pop almost at the same moment, holding the arm of an Auror, who must have side-along apparated him here. The Auror nodded once at Harry, then spun on his heel and vanished with another pop.
"Friendly seeming fellow," Harry commented wryly as Draco fell in step beside him and they passed back through the wards together.
"Would you believe he didn't say a word to me the entire time? Frankly I'm not quite sure he's smart enough to speak," Draco smiled at Harry, but it didn't reach his eyes.
He looked as he always did these days, slight and tired. His eyes had their now characteristic bags, his hair was long – nearing his shoulders, and mussed. He was wearing muggle clothes, jeans and a sweater. Harry thought it was frightfully attractive, though he'd never say it.
They walked in silence. Harry felt tense, could feel the energy crackling between them. It was almost amusing, he thought. In the Days Before he was so oblivious, he never would have noticed. But in the Days After, every feeling, every sense, every thought he had ever had was amplified.
Lost in thought as he was, he hadn't realized that Draco had stopped walking until he was a step ahead. Harry turned around to look back and Draco was kissing him. His lips were on Harry's, hard and almost unyielding, teeth biting at his lips, hands slipped under his shirt.
Harry barely had time to slide his hands in Draco's hair before he pulled away, breathing hard. Harry tried to follow, searching Draco's lips out with his own, but Draco stepped back.
"I cannot meet my aunt for the first time looking as if you just ravished me in her garden," Draco said with a sigh, drawing his hands away from Harry's waist.
Harry ran an almost aggravated, definitely frustrated hand through his hair. "You're the one who kissed me," he grumbled.
Draco just shrugged.
They entered the cottage one after the other to the sound of Teddy's giggles. Harry smiled to himself – this, in the Days After, was the sound of family.
He stopped to kiss Teddy, who was now happily in his bouncer in the sitting room, before following Draco to the kitchen. Teddy's high chair had been moved over to make a seat for Draco around the small kitchen table.
He caught a startled look from Draco as Andromeda wrapped him into a hug. She hadn't been brought up to particularly warm, Harry knew, and Draco may have expected the traditional Black aloofness in her. But she couldn't have raised a daughter like Tonks without learning how to be warm.
A pang went through him at the thought of Tonks – usually thoughts like these led to Lupin, which led to Sirius. He did his best to squash the feelings before they overwhelmed him.
God, but he wished he had a cigarette.
"How's Hogwarts, Draco?" asked Andromeda as she began to serve them up.
Draco launched into an explanation about the work he was doing with the restoration, under the watchful eye of Professor – or rather, Headmistress McGonagall. Harry only half listened.
"Harry?" he looked up, startled, realizing he had been lost in thought for a few minutes and merely pushing his food around on his plate. Andromeda looked concerned, and Draco looked as though he was avoiding eye contact. "You'll be alright, you know," she said softly to him.
"Yeah," he said, dully. Harry didn't particularly want to think about leaving, even if it would become reality tomorrow.
Uncomfortable with the way she was looking at him, Harry slid out of his chair. Perhaps in the Days Before, Harry would have shouted or thrown a tantrum to avoid the emotions he was feeling now. But in the Days After, he just didn't have the energy.
"Just going to make Teddy's bottle," he said, shooting a fleeting glance to Andromeda. He warmed the boy's bottle as quickly as he could – on the stove; his magic was still prone to powerful fits that tended to set things on fire.
He headed into the sitting room, picking up Teddy, who was dozing, and depositing himself on the couch. Harry nuzzled the bottle between the boy's lips until he latched, holding him close.
He would miss this. He would miss Andromeda and Teddy, the peace of the cottage. He'd miss visiting Hogwarts and Draco quietly, having tea with McGonagall. He'd miss flying with Charlie, who was going back to Romania, anyways.
"Alright?" Draco came into the room and sat delicately beside him on the couch. Andromeda followed behind him and deposited herself into the armchair by the fire, which she lit with a lazy wave of her wand.
Harry nodded absently to Draco and instead turned his head to Andromeda. "Would you like help with the washing up?"
She waved away his question. When he protested, she added, "I can handle the washing up for one night, Harry. You can keep an eye on Teddy tonight in case he wakes. Merlin knows I could do with a full night of sleep before you're gone and he's all my problem."
Her smile was gentle, but Harry still frowned at her words. For the past three months they had shared house duties and Teddy duties. It had kept Harry from sinking into despair, even through the sleepless nights where the boy cried and cried, missing the mum and dad he had never known.
"When will Ron and Hermione be at Hogwarts?" Andromeda directed the question at both of them, although of course Draco would have no way of knowing the answer.
"On the first if all goes well," Harry responded. "The memory charm is reversed, but she wants to take her parents to St Mungo's to make sure everything is fine."
"Smart girl," Andromeda said approvingly. "Are any of your friends coming back, Draco?"
Harry almost smirked. Draco looked significantly uncomfortable, and also startled to be addressed so directly even though they'd been talking all evening already.
"As far as I know, just Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Theo Nott, and Goyle. I think Millicent is going to Durmstrang with Daphne Greengrass. The rest have chosen not to, or…" he trailed off, but the words remained unspoken. Or they're dead.
"Just the five Slytherin's then, including you?" Andy pressed. Draco seemed to Harry to relax a little bit.
"The three of them, really," Draco sighed. "It's not as though I have a choice, and I'll still be in my own rooms."
Andromeda tsked. She and Harry had discussed Draco and Narcissa's situation at length many times, and he knew she didn't approve of the treatment of her sister or her nephew. "A complete shame they're keeping you separate," she said, lips pursed. "As if you'd be a threat." He saw Draco give her a small smile. "If you need anything, you write me. Understand?"
Draco nodded and Andromeda turned her fierce look on Harry. "You as well. You'll be alright, both of you. Now, who else is coming back?"
Harry thought for a moment. He had kept in touch with precious few people after the war, preferring to let the world go on its way without him. "Ron and Hermione, of course," he said. "Most of the rest of us. Neville, Dean, Seamus. Lavender won't be back, nor the Patils. I supposed Hermione will be the only Gryffindor girl. Hannah Abbot will be back in Hufflepuff, and I heard Ernie and Justin will be back. Ravenclaw will have Michael Corner, I'm sure." Draco made a noise of discontent, which made Harry grin.
"I don't know the other's well enough to say. I suppose that could be it. I'm sure Hermione knows who will be back, though," he shifted Teddy on his arm, putting the empty bottle down. "I'll go put him to bed now, I think," he said to Andromeda.
"It's alright," she said, standing from her place on the chair. "Give him here, I'll let you two catch up." She took Teddy from Harry, giving him a long hug when she bent down. She gave Draco a quick kiss on the forehead, to which he blushed. "I'll see you boys in the morning."
"Come here," he said to Draco as soon as she left, surprised at how huskily his voice came out.
He didn't have to ask twice. Draco was on him in a heartbeat, their lips crashing together as they did in the garden earlier that night. Harry pushed the other boy back until he was lying on his back on the couch, Harry bracing his body over top. He bit Draco's lip, his neck, his collarbone with bruising force.
"Didn't know if you'd want to do this again," Draco gasped out.
"Idiot," Harry responded as he wrapped his fingers through Draco's hair, pulling the other man's head back and tasting the salty sweet of his skin. He unwrapped his hands, pressing his hips against Draco's, relishing in the sweet pressure, before pulling back. Draco was watching him, and he watched right back, unabashedly taking in Draco's flushed lips, the bruises forming on his neck.
He let his fingers trail down Draco's body, pausing at the hemline of his sweater. Draco arched up, helping Harry to pull it off him, exposing his pale skin underneath. Harry reached down and pulled his own shirt off of his head.
He paused, breathing heavily, keeping his hands to himself before dropping them and letting them trail along the scars on Draco's torso.
"I didn't know what that spell did, you know," he said quietly. Not quite an apology.
"I know," Draco gave him an odd sort of smile. "I would have hurt you if you hadn't. Not all these scars are from you, anyways."
"No?" Harry asked in surprise. Looking closer, of course, he noticed that some of them looked newer than the others, still pink and puckered under his hands. He leaned down to trail their paths with his tongue, felt Draco shudder under him.
"I wasn't always the Dark Lord's favourite," Draco gasped out. "I was particularly useless, most of the time."
Harry sat up, felt his eyebrows furrow. "Come on," he said finally, standing up and grabbing both their shirts off the floor. He headed down the hall towards his room, pausing to place the monitoring spell on Teddy's room along the way. He didn't wait to see if Draco would follow – knew he would. In the Days Before, Harry never would have been so bold.
He locked his door behind them, casting a discreet muffliato as he did so. He turned to see Draco standing uncomfortably in the middle of the room. "Yours is across the hall," Harry said, by way of explanation. "Andy said we could keep it for you, for Christmas and the like, if you want to come here instead of stay at Hogwarts."
Draco looked stunned. "She did?"
Harry gave him a small smile. "Of course, you great berk. You're family."
Instead of looking gratified, Harry noticed Draco looked significantly sick. "She should hate me," he said. "It's my fault her – and Teddy -"
"If it's your fault, it's mine, too," Harry said, looking at him hard. They were standing facing each other, less than an arms length apart. Harry had to tilt his head slightly to look Draco in the eye. When Draco began to protest, he continued. "I could have gone to him sooner; could have given up sooner. I should have. Less people would have died. But I was scared, so I didn't. But you – you saved me when it counted. If it hadn't been for you at the Manor, I would have been dead."
Draco smiled. Just a small smile, but it was there. "Hardly," he said back, almost a quip. "You have a very obnoxious habit of getting out of difficult situations."
Harry laughed quietly. Draco stepped forward, and Harry closed his eyes. He felt the other man's fingers ghost across his face, lips press to the scar on his forehead.
"You saved everyone," Draco responded. "All I did is hurt people."
Opening his eyes, Harry reached forward and traced the newer scars on Draco's chest, caressed the Mark on his arm. "It was war, Draco. We all have blood on our hands."
They walked back as one, until Draco's legs hit Harry's bed, when they paused. Harry's fingers trailed across the waistband of Draco's jeans.
"Can I?" he wasn't even sure his voice was loud enough to be heard, but Draco nodded. Slowly, his hands went to the button, popping it open, and unzipping the fly. He pulled down Draco's jeans, his pants coming with them, dropped to his knees and helped Draco to step out of them.
He gasped, breath hot on Draco's cock. A bit of precum dripped, slowly, and Harry lapped it up with his tongue. Draco's breath was uneven, his hands tangling in Harry's hair and pulling hard. Harry's own hardness pressed almost painfully against his trousers.
Harry licked another stripe along Draco's length, wrapping his hands around Draco's thighs, feeling him shudder and lean into him. Then his mouth was on Draco, sliding impossibly far down his cock before pulling back working up a rhythm. He lost himself in the pace, he had never done this before, but if the noises Draco was making were anything to go by, then he wasn't doing it half badly.
"Stop," he heard Draco gasp through his haze, and he paused to look up. Draco's gaze on him was heated, Harry felt himself blush.
Slowly, Draco removed his hands from Harry's hair; he looked like he was quivering with the effort. He took Harry's hands and guided him to his feet, pulling him in close for a kiss.
It was gentle, not like the kisses they had shared before in the living room, or the garden, or the Astronomy Tower. Draco's lips were soft on his, his tongue adventurous in his mouth. Harry moved his hands to Draco's chest, caressing his shoulders, his hips, wherever he could reach. He felt Draco's hands stray to his waist, and willed himself to stay calm.
When his trousers were off, Draco guided him onto the bed. Every nerve of Harry's was on fire, every spot Draco touched him felt like a blaze.
Harry felt Draco lower himself onto him, his mouth never leaving Harry's. They rocked together, breath's coming in sharp gasps, hands quivering, bodies straining. Draco came first, with a soft keening cry. He reached his hand down, speeding up his pace against Harry's cock until his world exploded into a blaze of light.
When his mind came down and settled back in his body, Draco was curled against him, head tucked into his shoulder. "Alright?" he asked when Harry shifted beside him.
"Alright," Harry said, bringing his hand up caress Draco's arm. He reached his arm, cast a cleaning spell over both of them.
Draco shuddered. "A little warning next time, Potter," he grumbled.
"Potter now, is it?" Harry retorted lazily.
"It is when you're annoying me," Draco said without malice. Harry shuddered as Draco's lips found his neck.
The world felt bright and warm as they drifted into sleep. A thought chased its way through Harry's mind.
Maybe it wasn't his death, really, that had changed his life so significantly. Maybe it was many tiny things. His death, sure. Andromeda, finding him tired and sobbing over Lupin's body that same day. Charlie, taking him under his wing when his best friends had left.
And Draco Malfoy, that night on the Astronomy Tower. Things could never go back to how they were, and somehow, despite everything, Harry was infinitely grateful.