The Question
"And this is where your Uncle Draco and I almost got lost when we were eleven", said Harry while picking his way through the dense underbrush on the Forbidden Forest. Walking through the forest was no small feat on his own, never mind the squirming nine year old in his arms. Add on a mutated grim, to use on of Severus' phrases, and Harry current foul mood was more than justified. Never in a million years would he have imagined himself like this. A single parent by the age of twenty-three, with no lover to show for the "bundle of joy", and still at Hogwarts. Of course there was Severus, and he wasn't really still at Hogwarts. He did get his six years away, and he did have his medical license... Besides, whenever did his life go according to plan? He was the bleeding Boy- Who –Lived. As Albus pointed out back when he demanded to go to Muggle university instead of an Auror internship; his life was never truly his own.
"Uncle Draco is the one who ran away screaming, just don't let your aunt know that. Ok?" "Or she'll call him 'slimy Slytherin ' again?" "Yes, yes, exactly. Tell me, what else does she call Draco?" The dog, hearing what Harry had code named the 'D-word' , bounced back and twined around his legs with an unmistakable doggy grin. Seven years later, and Ron still never missed a chance to laugh at Draco's expense. "Well, she called him a 'bloody wanker' when he spilled the milk..." And Harry privately decided to never leave his son with Hermione again. At least with Severus, Killian learned to read in the space of three months. He'd soon have the 'Snape eyebrow' down pat as well. Funny how Harry didn't really mind. Try as he might, he could never figure out exactly where he and Snape stood. They'd shared quarters for the entirety of the past school year, and Killian took to calling Snape ' papa Sev' with no repercussions. In the same vein, they were still not on first name bases. Perhaps he was doomed to uncertainty. There were more pressing things to worry about anyway."Uncle Draco says it was all your fault for taking the lantern", said the ' bundle of joy', effectively breaking Harry out of his morose thoughts. He shifted the boy onto his left hip and finally broke out of the underbrush. Clear across the filed was Hogwarts, home to him and soon to become home to his son.
Meanwhile, Ron decided to break out in a mad dash for home and Harry, having no plans to be out alone with his son followed. The only certain thing in his life was snuggled into his arms; no doubt dreaming of his own lost parents and the strange world his adopted daddy lived in.
