Draco had gotten the night off and come straight home after his final class to help Harry clean up Grimmauld. He also immediately began to mumble about how the whole place fell apart without him, which, arguably he might be right, but it wasn't so bad considering Harry had lived on his own up until just over a month ago. He just didn't have time to dust every shelf every day when he worked for the majority of it.

Regardless, he was happy to have his husband home for the evening and promised him all the time in the world after they got through tonight.

Harry had invited the Snapes over early, handing the letter to Hermione with a gentle smile, promising her some real gifts once she'd gotten through that one. They were now sat downstairs, the sound of a few from Hermione heard even from a few flights upstairs.

He let them read it on their own, returning to Draco in the library where he was putting some finishing touches on the couches. He couldn't decide which color to make them, but all Harry could think of was bending him over and shagging him on one of them. Quite strange how the whole world turned upside down sometimes.

"I figured they could use a moment alone."

Draco glanced to him with a final flick of his wand, making the couch Gryffindor red before sitting on the edge of it.

"Some good news and some bad news for everyone tonight, then."

Harry nodded and walked over to him, taking his hands in his and grinning.

"Everything will be alright."

"Yeah," Draco said quickly, glancing nervously to the accent wall of some type of wood Harry would never be able to name.

He'd wondered briefly how Draco was able to make all the changes to the house that he did, knowing it never cooperated for Sirius or himself. Of course Draco was of the Black line and much more aligned with what the house had originally stood for, although he supposed now even he could make the change.

With a quick flick of his wand he matched the walls to the couch and grinned when it didn't melt right off. It did get changed back with a dissatisfied growl from his husband though.

"I just worry all of this is going to push our families away. My dad especially might see this as a some horrible road to convince me to marry a woman."

Harry scrunched his brow, wondering if he'd heard that right.

"Wait, he didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Draco looked expectant, telling him to fill him in without saying it.

"I talked to him at lunch on Wednesday. He and I turned over a new leaf. The old me might be content to let my father-in-law wish me married to anyone else but his son, but I am not."

A blank stare, and Harry worried he'd done the wrong thing, that is, of course, until he was being snogged for all the air he might have once held in his lungs.

The clearing of Severus Snape's throat did ruin the moment, but not the sentiment.

"Thank you, Harry. My wife and I are in your debt."

Harry didn't let Draco snake from his side, try as he might. There was no shame now.

"Hermione, my Hermione, saved my life enough times, this was the least I could do."

He smiled, then added, "You need not make that distinction. I was just interrupting to inform you some of your guests have arrived."

"I'll go change and be down in a bit," Draco said, a kiss to his husband's cheek then apparated straight upstairs.

"I myself find walking sufficient in my own home," Snape quipped.

Harry only laughed at the absurdity of it all and headed downstairs behind Hermione's husband.

She had already jumped into the explaining when they both arrived down, their guests prompt and already quite decently amassed. It was certainly more Weasley's in a single room than Harry had seen in a very long time.

She of course, only explained the half of it about her mourning the loss of her and Severus' child, while she skirted around exactly where he'd been when it happened.

Harry remained respectfully on the outside of that specific conversation and explained it gently to Ron and Aries on the side.

Of course it was Hermione's birthday so everyone attempted to keep it light-hearted despite the fact the loss was felt ten-fold. Harry doubted for a moment that this was the right time to tell everyone all else that was happening to them, but it wouldn't do to dwell on Hermione's loss the whole night. One look in her direction and he could tell she thought the same, eager to talk about anything other than the popular topic.

Harry greeted his parents when they came through, his father seeming impassive for a celebration, and his mother jovial as ever.

James only smiled briefly before heading over to Hermione to hand her the gift in his hand.

Lily kept close, however, a hand on his shoulder.

"Your father has been acting a little strange today, would you do me the favor of keeping an eye on him?"

"Of course, mum," he said quickly, "Are you two alright?"

"Just fine, but if it's ministry business you can just say so and I'll drop it."

Harry shook his head.

"No, I'll look into it if you're worried."

Lily gave him a smile and winked at him.

"Thank you, Harry."

"Anything for you, mum."

With the added task of watching over his own dad, Harry kept an eye out for Draco in the meantime. He still wasn't down yet and most everyone had arrived by then, the four of them having agreed to tell them all together. Hermione had moved on to explaining she'd gotten back in contact with her parents, however, and they all were appeased by that in the moment.

She'd been handed what looked like more presents than even Dudley had ever gotten, most small and card-like, but in the wizarding world one could fit an entire broom in that kind of wrapping, so even he looked forward to seeing what she got.

Finally, Draco grabbed his hand and alerted him to his presence with an additional kiss on his cheek. Bonds really were a heck of a thing. Harry looked over and realized he'd chosen traditional robes that evening, a dark gray which made his eyes look almost blue.

"Merlin, if we didn't have to do this," he said in a low tone, catching a glimpse of Draco's smirk. He knew what he did to Harry. "I'd have you here in this room."

"Hermione," the frustrating wizard that was Harry's husband called attention to them both, making him swallow down any of the attraction he'd felt with all eyes on them.

"Is it time?"

"Yeah," Draco sighed, "While we did gather you here today for Hermione's twenty-fourth birthday, we also have something to tell you lot. We don't mean to bombard you with bad news, but we are asking you keep an open mind."

Hermione stood with Harry as they faced the room, Severus joining behind her while everyone seemed to murmur about what was going on between them all.

"They've formed a foursome!" Sirius called from the back, and almost immediately after he yelped when Remus stung him with a fairly harmless jinx.

"Git," Ron murmured. "Oi, go on then, mate."

Harry took the reigns then, explaining first that he and Hermione both had suffered a memory lapse and why exactly they suffered said lapse. Then he gently explained how they'd dealt with it in terms of Draco and Severus finding out what and when they did. They added at the end about their understanding if people needed time before bringing them back into their lives. Everyone stayed deathly silent, looking quite aghast if not ultimately confused. It was indeed, a lot to take in, so they let them have the silence for a few moments while everyone processed what was said.

Snape broke the waiting first.

"This was a challenge for both Draco and I to overcome, I will admit. Yet in it, a testament to proving our love to the man and woman we committed to magical bindings with. We anticipate you will have the capacity and wherewithal to do the same."

"They are not different people, we need you to understand that," Draco added with a nod to his god-father, "They are the same Hermione and Harry we've known our whole lives. We don't know why their minds did not keep their memories of us, but their bodies have the flesh memory of every hug and spell and touch they've received before from all of us."

Lily broke first, as one might expect, Molly right behind, having lost a daughter of her own and finding Hermione in her arms the only natural thing. Harry was not so old in his twenty-three years of age to not relish in the hug his mother smothered him in. It was indulgent and accepting, but from her nonetheless, and the first of many he would get from her for the rest of his life.

Especially considering he'd never gotten many before.

As the ice broke, and people gave their hugs and condolences as well, Harry drifted over to his father who seemed skeptical of it all.

"You'd figured it out before, hadn't you?" he asked, hands in his pockets, feeling quite shameful for having to hide it all those days at the ministry.

"No, actually, that's all- I'm sorry for it, but I'm a little more worried about your mother."

"What?" Harry was confused now, as Lily had stated the same thing to him not even an hour before. "Dad, something-"

Sirius called the group to attention again, but this time, his face was not jovial nor cheerful.

"Something doesn't feel right," he said, pulling his wand and casting what looked like an extra warding spell.

Draco nodded too, as did Aries who cringed a little and grabbed her head at the temples.

She began to cry, looking up at Ron with tears in her eyes, and the entire room went silent as a tomb.

"Someone is attacking the house," she grit out, fighting through what was happening to her. Ron held her up as Lucius rushed over, pain-reducing spell-work at hand.

"Black blood," Draco muttered, "They're specifically targeting the family wards. The stronger ones."

Harry looked down and saw James' wand in his hand, the attack possibly coming from the inside as he gripped it with white knuckles. With great reluctance but a shattered mind, he put his wand to his father's face.

"Who are you and what have you done with my father?"

James went wide-eyed and put his hands up in the air innocently, shaking his head all the while.

"Harry… Harry ask me -bloody hell you wouldn't know the answer- Remus-"

Aries screamed in pain, and the whole room began to fall apart.

He glanced back to look for his mum while the wizard he had at wandpoint pleaded with him for mercy. She was gone, nowhere to be seen as everyone pushed themselves to the outskirts of the room, leaving him a spectacle in the middle as Aries cried in the background.

"Remus," James growled.

"No need for that," someone said from the other side of the room.

Attention shifted as everyone saw Peter Pettigrew slink into the room with Draco held captive in front of him, wand at his throat and face morphing out of his mother's skin into its original shape.

Harry only tossed an apologetic glance at his dad before they both raised their wands in Peter's direction, Aries no longer writhing in pain as Ron caught her before she fell to the ground from relief.

Pettigrew grinned, knowing not a single person there would dare to harm Draco.

"Imagine the things I learned here today, Minister. Imagine what they might do were the general public to discover that your famous brat was completely out of his mind, talking about books and the abuse of time-travel. The ministry might turn over on its side," he said with a hiss of amusement.

Harry heard the whoosh of apparition and watched as the more vulnerable of those invited fled before Peter decided to do anything irrational. A quick glance of the room meant he saw Lucius apparate away with Aries and Ron, Arthur slipping an aged Molly through the floo, and what looked to be George following them with a newborn in his arms that Harry had most definitely not seen before.

"You better hope they don't squeal before I do, I heard murmurs of distrust on my way to find myself this specimen of protection." Pettigrew dug his wand further into Draco's neck and Harry felt it with him. His eyes burned, only a few options open to them to get them all out alive.

"The International Federation would have your head for all of this, I'm surprised you don't already have them breathing down your neck for the looseness of your reign."

James, after allowing Peter to get it all off his chest, seemed cooler than expected. Though of course Harry did need to remind himself his dad was probably minister for a reason.

"Are you truly so scared, Wormtail? Do you possess such little faith, so thin of a spine, that you're worried about a few muggles?"

"They outnumber us," he answered immediately, almost interrupting, "Always have, we'd be hopeless- Don't try that!"

The plea was frantic, and Harry glanced to his father to see he'd attempted to cast a spell, disarm the rat, probably, but Draco looked perilous in his grasp now. His heart ached for his husband, for his mother who was merlin-only-knows where.

From the side he was on, Severus sought to try next when Pettigrew decided he'd had enough, and the next thing anyone knew they were all thrown down to the walls of the room, a blast of magic practically unstoppable. Harry was dizzy, and his hearing had gone, but he could see.

He could see Draco lying on the floor, having taken the brunt of whatever curse Peter had thrown their way. He could see James and Remus and Sirius, all capable wizards, struggling to raise themselves, while Peter stood over them all.

"Resign, James. Put someone more worthy in your place, more… conservative, or the world will know about Harry's little secret..."

With that, he was gone. Harry stumbled to Draco as best he could, Blaise at his side as well, already feeling for a pulse.

"He's just unconscious," he said with a sigh, leaning back on his heels.

Harry checked for himself, Blaise giving him a dour look.

He let out a wretched cry, having been unwilling to risk Draco's life to apprehend Peter just to let him be hurt anyways. Having not tried hard enough felt like a failure, as though he didn't deserve the wonderful man before him, but spiraling while his mum was missing would help no one.

Harry sat there and composed himself, glancing over to find James surrounded by most of the others, including Iris who was frantically chatting with him over where Lily might be. Severus was coaxing Hermione into consciousness as well. Bloody hell, he felt like an auror assessing a case as healers and curse-breakers investigated around him. The victim that was his husband, for example. Immediate visuals first: a tall male, normal build, dark gray robes….

Harry froze. That description was hauntingly familiar.

It couldn't….

Reaching forward, much to the chagrin of Blaise, he grabbed onto Draco's head and lifted the hood of his formal robes over him, gently putting his head in it and shadowing his face, pulling the robes tightly closed.

"Hermione," he muttered, looking up at Blaise with a frantic breath, "Get Hermione… now."

He came back with Severus on her other side, looking at them both oddly. Hermione, however, was sharp, her mind churning even in a dazed, post-unconscious state.

"How-"

"I dunno," Harry cut in. "Maybe I'm seeing things, maybe it's some trick… I don't know."

"We'll wait for him to wake up," Hermione said slowly, "Right now we need to find Pettigrew and your mother."

"We will not be doing anything but resting, my dear," Snape said, leaving little room to argue, though that never meant anything to Hermione.

"I've been resting practically since I got here. Let me help my friends, please."

He said nothing, merely letting loose a sigh and gesturing to the floor, just as the first of what would be many Aurors popped through the floo.

For once, Harry was excited for the hunt, to take down the bastard who hurt Draco and took his mother.