DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter (and associated characters, likenesses, concepts, etc.) belongs to J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, Scholastic, Inc. AOL/Time Warner, Inc., among others. I make no claim, written or implied, upon Harry Potter. No money is being made and no infringement or disrespect to the creators / copyright holders is intended.
Warning: This story will contain slash (ie. male/male relationships) and mpreg, although neither will be graphic.
A/N: This is the first story that I have posted. It was inspired by the many wonderful stories that I have read and enjoyed here at fan fiction and any similarities to existing stories is not intended. This story is AU, meaning that the events that occurred in the OOTP have not been taken into account. Also, I am American so I apologize in advance for any Americanisms.
Chapter Sixteen – Just An Ordinary Day
"Peanut Brittle." Severus grimaced at the Headmaster's current password as the Gargoyle moved aside to allow the men entrance into the Headmaster's office. Unfortunately, last Christmas Albus had become addicted to the muggle sweet and the house elves had provided peanut brittle at practically every meal since. According to Dumbledore, it was an acquired taste, but, to practically everyone else, it was just nasty.
Severus gave loud knock on the polished oak door and they were granted admittance. Moving inside, Sirius and Severus took the offered seats in front of the Headmaster's desk. Of all the changes that Hogwarts has undergone over the past couple of years, the one thing that never changed was this room, Albus' personal space. The classrooms and dormitories were in essence gone; they as well as every spare room in the castle was devoted to other things such as training areas, medical facilities, conference rooms, with the vast majority of space being occupied by single and multi-family apartments.
Hogwarts had become the epitome of communal living. Every resident had a purpose, their own set of tasks that they needed to fulfill everyday for the benefit of the community. Many people were involved in the war effort as tacticians, or warriors, however others were responsible for brewing potions, gathering ingredients, training, working in the hospital, or operating the children's day care center. Thankfully, the house elves remained and were still able to cook and clean for the two thousand or so people seeking refuge in the great castle.
After greeting his guests warmly, Albus couldn't help but be disappointed when he saw only the two Order members. "Am I to assume that your mission wasn't a complete success?"
"We did what you asked of us, we found Potter, but he's not going to come back." Severus informed the older wizard.
"I see," that blasted twinkle dimming for a moment, "please tell me everything."
"That's just it Albus," Sirius sighed exasperatedly. "That was everything."
Giving Sirius an odd look, Dumbledore turned once more to his colleague, "I'm not sure I understand, Severus, why don't you start at the beginning?"
Knowing that this tale was going to be much shorter than the old man expected it to be, Severus complied with his request. "We took the portkey to New Orleans and based on the information that the Order had provided, we were able to track Mister Kingston. That night, we confronted him after his concert. He wasn't the most cooperative person, but after some persuasion he gave us the name and address of the person where he had obtained the words for the song we all heard. The person went by the name James Black and lived in New York City. We eventually located Mister Black and verified that he was indeed Harry Potter."
Severus faltered, struggling with himself to recall what happened next. "We explained the situation to Mister Potter and asked him to come back to Hogwarts with us to assist us in the war." Spitting the next part out as though just saying the words left a sour taste in his mouth, Severus concluded. "He rejected our offer and told us basically to 'go to hell'."
Albus became suspicious watching the amount of effort that Severus had to put into the explanation. "So Severus, where exactly does Mister Black live?"
Severus looked at him oddly. "I don't remember."
"Hmmm, perhaps you remember Sirius?"
Sirius' brow was furrowed, "As strange as it seems, I can't remember either."
The Headmaster leaned forward in his chair, bringing his chin to rest on the top of his folded hands. "Well maybe you could tell me how Harry looked or what he was doing for a living then?"
Seeing the blank looks on both Sirius' and Severus' faces, he added softly, "Now this is something isn't it. How strange it is for you to find someone whom you've both haven't seen in many years and you only remember a few short and seemly scripted details from the meeting?"
Albus got up from behind his desk and approached the seated gentlemen. Waving his wand, a fine blue mist covered first Sirius and then Severus. Nodding to himself, the Headmaster cancelled the spell and once more took his seat. "It appears that I have severely underestimated Mister Potter."
"Not that it would be a first time," ignoring Albus' sharp look Sev continued "But please enlighten us, what exactly did Potter do?"
"A memory charm and a very complicated one at that. As you both know, a memory charm functions like an eraser and simply removes a specific memory or as many memories as the caster dictates. Stronger charms are needed for very emotional memories, or memories that span a large period of time. For example, it would be much harder to make someone forget something like their first kiss, or the birth of their child; accordingly it is easier to make someone forget a shorter period of time like a ten minute conversation as opposed to a couple of days or a week. However, what it appears that Harry was able to do with his charm was to not only remove selected memories covering a period of three days, but to replace those memories with information that he wanted you to be able to remember. That is very complicated magic indeed."
"It is reversible?" Snape asked still in disbelief.
"I'm not sure. The most effective way would be for Mister Potter to reverse whatever charm he used on you. As it is, without knowing what memories were removed, it would be very dangerous for us to attempt any sort of reversal. As disappointing as his rejection was, alas, it was not unexpected. I think for the time being, we will just allow Mister Potter to keep whatever memories he didn't want us to have."
Taking the last comment for the dismissal that it was, Sirius and Severus started to make their way out of the office.
Just as the gentlemen were about to open the door to leave, the Headmaster remembered something else he needed to ask. "Oh and by the way, where is Mister Malfoy?"
* * *
Draco crept down the stairs trying not to wake anyone as Harry had told him that in general the family tried to sleep in on Saturday mornings. He had discovered during his stay here that the third step from the bottom squeaked if you stepped on it a certain way. Gingerly, he stepped over the squeaky step and made his way down to the second floor landing.
Slowly opening the door to which he knew was the twin's bedroom, he slipped in unnoticed. He liked this time in the mornings when he could observe his children without having to worry about slipping and revealing a relationship with them other than that of a casual friend. Since committing himself to Harry and the boys, Draco had been hounding Harry about telling Matthew and Evan that he was their other father, but Harry was still a little resistant.
Not sure what it was going to take to prove himself to Harry, Draco backed off on the parent issue and resolved himself to the role of friend. At least the twins now referred to him as 'Dwaco' as opposed to the formal 'Mister Malfoy'. That was one reason why these uninterrupted moments were so precious to Draco.
Tip-toeing into the bedroom- he stared at Evan's bed. Blinking to make sure he was seeing properly, he looked again. It was empty. Crossing the room quickly, the agitated young man drew back the blanket and spread on Evan's bed, and sure enough, there was no little form sleeping there.
Turning so abruptly that he almost tripped over his own feet, he ran to Matthew's bed. As he approached the other toddler's bed he was happy to see a large lump under the covers. Studying the lump closely, he noticed that something just didn't seem quite right about it. It didn't seem large enough to be both boys but was much too big to be just one. Carefully pulling the sheet back, to not wake the sleeping child, Draco slowly unraveled the mystery of who was sleeping in this bed.
Draco broke out into a cold sweat when he realized that the lump was comprised solely of a group of stuffed animals and there wasn't a single dark-haired two-year-old boy in sight. It took only a second for Draco's still sleep fuddled brain to process the fact that his beloved children were missing.
Racing out of their room, without even stopping to knock on Harry's bedroom door, Draco barged in. The door hit the wall with a loud bang from the force it had been opened with. Before Draco could bring himself to wake Harry and sound the alarm, all the fear that had momentarily consumed him was gone. There lying sound asleep in the middle of Harry's king sized bed were three raven colored heads clustered together.
Silently, Draco approached the bed, staring down at the faces of the people who had become his whole world in such a short period of time. Harry looked so peaceful and relaxed as he held each of his sons nestled up close to him. They looked so happy that Draco ached to join them, but he did not.
Relieved that his family was indeed safe, Draco took a moment to examine Harry's room. Since their reunion, Harry had yet to invite Draco to spend the night with him, as such this was the first time that Draco had trespassed into Harry's sanctuary. In the back of Draco's mind, he knew that he was invading Harry's privacy, but Draco pushed those thoughts aside as he let his curious eyes take in the surrounding details.
Like the rest of the house, Harry's room was well furnished, decorated in navy and cream with burgundy used sparingly only as an accent. Harry's bed was a large four poster similar to the beds used at Hogwarts but much larger. The bed itself was made of a dark cherry wood and had a matching dresser and armoire.
Beside the bed was a large marble-topped cherry nightstand with a crystal lamp. On top of the nightstand, there was a novel by an author named Stephen King. Looking at the dust cover, the book appeared to be of the horror genre. "Well, that would certainly prevent me from sleeping," Draco muttered to himself. As Draco turned towards the bed, he saw a gray fuzzy object wedged between the bed and the nightstand, almost as if someone had hidden it there. Bending down, Draco picked up what appeared to be one of the boy's toys. It was a plushy of a wolf. Thinking that the animal looked a lot like him in his animagus form, Draco took a closer look at the wolf. As soon as he got the wolf closer to his face, he was overwhelmed by Harry's scent. It was all over the animal, almost as if Harry slept with the toy on a regular basis. Filing this information away for later analysis, Draco returned the wolf to his hiding place and continued his perusal of Harry's room.
Hanging over the bed, there was a colorful painting that depicted a large scarlet phoenix, with his wings spread as though in flight. Nestled under one of the phoenix's wings was a large black cat that looked to be a panther. The powerful panther's sleek muscles looked to be tightly bound as if it was ready to spring at some unknown foe or prey. The last animal shown on the painting was a playful black and white sheep dog with its one ear falling forward onto its face. The sheepdog's emerald eyes glowed bright with laughter. The painting was so realistic it felt that one could reach out and scratch the dog behind its ear.
Draco took another sharp penetrating look at the painting. All of the animal subjects had the same eyes, the same unusual deep green that Harry also possessed. While the phoenix's eyes looked piercing and intelligent and the panther's were fierce and had an unmistakable predatory gleam, they were indeed all the same.
Adding up the clues. Draco shook his head ruefully before examining the other treasurers that he could find.
* * *
Harry slowly opened his sluggish eyes and then quickly snapped them back shut as the bright sunlight that streamed through the windows penetrated painfully directly into his brain. Trying to roll over and bury his head under his pillow, Harry was surprised at the impediment in his path.
Opening his eyes more carefully this time, Harry blinked to allow himself to become accustomed to the light before trying to look around. Seeing the two small forms of his sons' pressed up tightly against him, Harry couldn't help but to unconsciously tighten his arms protectively around them both, pulling them even tighter against him, if possible. The boys had adjusted from sleeping in cribs to their 'big boy beds' quite well, although there were some nights like last night when they would find themselves wandering into their Daddy's room and climbing into bed with him for the remainder of the night. Although Harry knew that he had to discourage that type of behavior, he didn't think that sharing his bed once in awhile would be a problem.
Just then, the Grandfather clock in the foyer struck ten. Looking down at the two peacefully sleeping boys Harry had no choice but to wake them if he was ever going to get out of bed. Gingerly, Harry moved his arms from around the boys and placed his hands down on their tummies. Taking a deep breath, Harry roared a like a pretend lion and started to tickle the boys mercilessly. Soon, the rafters where shaking with the high pitched squeals of laughter.
* * *
Draco looked up from where he had been sitting reading the morning newspaper when the three Potter men entered the kitchen. But he ducked down again behind the paper to hide his smile. It was clear that all three had just bathed as their dark hair was still wet and sticking up in every direction. Not only that, but Harry had dressed the boys and himself almost identically, each wearing a pair of tan khaki shorts and a t-shirt. Harry wore black while Matthew and Evan had on green and blue respectively.
Getting himself under control, Draco folded the paper and reached for his cup of coffee. "Good morning."
After two enthusiastic "mornin' Dwaco" and a more sedate "Good morning" replies, Draco asked brightly, "So what are we doing today?"
Harry immediately downed his first cup of coffee and was pouring his second when Draco asked his overly cheerful question. "How much coffee have you had this morning, Dray?"
Thinking that it was an odd question, Draco decided to answer it anyway. "I don't know, I've been waiting for you down here for a couple hours so I'd say at least five or six, why?"
Speaking slowly as one might to a small child, Harry replied, "Because coffee has a lot more caffeine in it than tea has. You need to be more careful with it until you get used to it. Five cups of coffee is like drinking fifteen cups of tea and with all the sugar you put in yours, I'd say you're going to be bouncing off the walls for quite some time."
At Draco's horrified expression, Harry couldn't resist adding, "But don't worry the caffeine high won't be so bad; it's when the caffeine wears off and you come crashing down, that's when you should be afraid."
Turning away from Draco, Harry reached into the cabinet and grabbed four bowls and a couple boxes a cereal. Pouring Lucky Charms into the twins' bowls and Honey Bunches of Oats into his and Draco's he placed the bowls on the table and gathered the milk and spoons.
"So where is Nola this morning?"
"I told her yesterday that we would be leaving in a couple of weeks so I gave her some time off so that she could look for another job." Harry finished his cereal and then rinsed his bowl out and placed it in the dishwasher.
"The band and I are going back to the recording studio today. Nicole is going to take Matthew and Evan to the park for while and then we are going to meet up for dinner somewhere later. I thought you might like to tag along with Nicole and the boys."
Harry had told the band about the revised schedule the day after Sirius and Severus had left. While Harry had downplayed the conversation, Draco could tell that the band members had been upset with Harry's decision to leave the band once this recording session was completed. Of course Harry couldn't tell them exactly why he needed to leave, so many of the members were hurt at Harry's seemingly abrupt decision.
There was still an awkward tension between Harry and the other members, so Draco didn't feel insulted that Harry didn't want him to go along to the studio. Besides any chance he had at spending time with Matthew and Evan, he would jump at. Making arrangements to meet up at one of Harry's favorite restaurants later, Harry headed off to work, leaving a super-charged Draco alone with the twins.
* * *
Draco sat in the restaurant holding his head, a pained expression on his face. He was exhausted, not to mention dirty, from chasing the twins all over the huge playground at the park, and to add insult to injury, his head was killing him.
Nicole shot him a sympathetic glance as she tried once more to stop the boys from quarreling over who had which color crayon. Feeling as though if he didn't stop the ruckus soon that his head would simply explode, Draco motioned to the waiter to approach the table. Asking the waiter to simply bring some additional crayons for them seemed to cause a temporary truce between Matthew and Evan.
Shooting a brief glance at his watch Draco scowled. "He's late."
Nicole tried not to giggle, ever since Draco had made the decision to stay with Harry and to try to become a father to Matthew and Evan, her opinion of the blonde man had changed. Sure he was still arrogant and at times condescending, but he was making an effort, and for that, Nicole thought he deserved her support. Besides, even though neither man had taken her into their confidence, it was obvious that they still were very much in love with each other.
"Oh Draco, give him a break, he's only a few minutes late and we both know how hard he is working to get finished," she smiled.
As she was finishing her sentence, there was a small commotion towards the front of the restaurant. The pair turned and watched as a tall handsome brown haired man approached their table, ignoring the fans who were whispering or giggling madly. "Sorry I'm late," Emrys apologized as he slipped into the vacant seat between Draco and Matthew.
"Like we have nothing better to do than wait on you," Draco muttered under his breath feeling as though he would kill for a pain relieving potion about now.
"I see that the caffeine has finally worn off, that should teach you a lesson," Emrys couldn't help but tease.
Taking pity on the suffering man, Nicole pulled her bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol out of her purse. Selecting two tablets, she handed them to Draco. "Here swallow these, and your head should start to feel better soon."
Looking skeptically at the two white muggle pills, Draco nonetheless took them from Nicole and tossed them back with some water.
Amazingly enough, by the time the waiter had brought their main course, his head had started to feel a lot better. Maybe these muggles knew something after all.
Dinner consumed and paid for, Emrys escorted his family out of the restaurant and into the waiting limousine that would take them home.
* * *
Setting his Caffeine-Free Diet Coke down on the coffee table, Draco glanced over at Harry wrinkling his nose distastefully. "Do you smell something?"
Harry, who had been watching ESPN Sports Center on the television, lifted his head and sniffed the air. "Yeah, I think Matthew needs his diaper changed, you can have the honors as you've never changed one before."
The men and boys were enjoining a lazy Sunday afternoon in front of the television as Harry attempted to explain the intricacies of American sports to Draco. "Why can't Nicole do it, isn't that what you pay her for?"
"Today is her day off."
Harry tossed a clean diaper to Draco.
With his old seeker-like reflexes, he reached out and deftly caught the flat white object that Harry had thrown at him. Not sure what it was Draco turned it over, it was made out of some kind of paper/plastic material and had a picture of a puppy with a bow around his neck on one side and sticky adhesive tabs on the other. Raising both eyebrows he looked over at Harry inquisitively. "And what exactly am I to do with this?"
Again, Harry looked up briefly from the television and pointed to where Matthew was currently playing with a one of his plushy toys. "Change him; he's obviously soiled his diaper."
Hiding his grin, Harry quickly picked up the bowl of potato chips as realization of what he was being asked to do hit the Slytherin. "Eww, surely you don't expect me to…" Draco found himself unable to put the disgusting thought into words.
"You're the one that wanted to be a father to them, so now it's time to suck it up and be a parent. What do you think I've been doing for the past almost three years?"
Harry smirked as, earlier that morning, he and Draco had taken the boys aside for a father and son talk and told them that unlike other children that they were extra special and had two fathers. If either Harry or Draco had been expecting a huge reaction from the twins when they were informed that Draco was their other father, they were disappointed. In a typical Malfoy manner, the boys shrugged, not questioning what they were being told and gave Draco a hug and kiss. Although, the tears in his eyes the first time that they called him 'Fadder' will always remain one of Harry's most treasured memories.
Rolling his eyes at his companion, Draco decided to just bite the bullet and get it over with. Hell, as a Death Eater he had tortured and killed, what could be worse than that? He'd show Harry. With a determined look on his face the blonde man approached the dark haired toddler. "Hey Matthew, come over here buddy so we can change those stinky pants?"
The small boy stopped playing long enough to give Draco a disgruntled stare, "Machew not stinky."
"Oh yes you are," and with that, Draco scooped the struggling figure up into his arms. With a quick glance at Harry to see that he was still engrossed in the television, Draco slowly started to pull his wand out of his pocket. But before he could get it free of his trousers, he heard someone clearing their throat, hem hem.
"I hope you're not planning on cleaning his diaper using magic Draco," Harry said in a stern voice.
"Well now that you've mentioned it, yes, I was considering it. It sure beats the muggle way," Draco responded, thinking that this wouldn't be so bad after all.
"I take it you haven't spent a lot of time around children, then," Harry continued in the same lecturing tone.
"Why?"
"Because if you had, you'd know that you can't use magic to clean a dirty diaper, using magic that close to their developing reproductive system could make them sterile. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
Draco tossed his wand down in alarm at what he had almost done. "No, no of course not. I didn't know. Merlin, I almost hurt our son."
"Calm down Dray, no harm done. But you'll have to change that diaper the old fashioned way." Harry was desperately trying to school his features so that he wouldn't start laughing.
Knowing what he had to do, Draco set Matthew down on the carpeted floor between his thighs as he knelt over him. Trying not to make a face at the disgusting smell, Draco pulled down the little boy's pants to expose the offensive diaper. Opening the dirty diaper, Draco resisted the urge to vomit as the strong smell made his eyes water. Moving quickly, Draco reached for the box of wipes. However he wasn't quick enough and Matthew tried to pull away shrieking "poop, poop".
"Well if you know what it is, why can't you use the toilet yet?" Draco reprimanded as he tried to restrain his son.
"We call it a potty, Draco, and their learning, but give them time; they're not even three yet."
Draco ignored Harry as he was doing everything in his power to prevent Matthew from reaching down and playing with the contents of the soiled diaper. "Don't touch it!" Draco shrieked in alarm. "For Merlin sakes, keep you hands up there above your head. Oh, this is just gross."
Pinning the resisting boy down proved to be harder than he originally thought it would be. But eventually Draco won out and Matthew soon smelt fresher and had a clean, albeit crooked, diaper on.
Grinning with a sense of accomplishment, Draco flopped back down on the black leather couch beside Harry. "Not bad for a first attempt," Harry said with a straight face. "But you do realize that Evan now needs his pants changed, right?"
Draco groaned and threw his head back against the wall. Taking pity on the man, Harry got up and collected Evan. "Don't worry, I'll take this one." And with a simple wave of his hand, Evan's diaper was fresh and clean.
"But…But…" Draco stuttered in disbelief that Harry would do something that could potentially harm their children. "What are you playing at? You may have just made him sterile!"
With a smirk that would do Professor Snape proud, Harry looked over at where Draco was still sitting on the couch. "I lied." Harry couldn't hold the laughter back any longer, and he started to laugh so hard his sides hurt him. As the tears of mirth cleared from his vision however, he saw the murderous look in Draco's eyes and knew that he had better run for it. Harry quickly set Evan on the ground and took off out of the living room.
To Be Continued. . .