The ballroom of Grimmauld Place is glowing. The chandelier has been polished to gleaming and it is filled with fresh candles, all of which bathe the room in a soft, yellow light. There are garlands of flowers festooned around the windows, and the room has been filled with chairs, set out on either side of a long, center aisle. There are baby's breath bouquets tied with deep blue ribbons to the ends of each row of chairs, and the aisle itself is carpeted to match.

Every chair in the room is full, though everyone is quiet. Their attention is on the people at the end of the aisle.

Three of them stand on a raised dais, while the other four stand nearby, bracketing them. On the dais, Pansy straightens her midnight blue dress over the swell of her stomach and says,

"If anyone has a reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace." She glares around at the attendant guests, as though daring them to speak up. Draco squeezes Harry's hand and runs his thumb over the gold band around his ring finger. Harry grins at him. Silence reigns in the ballroom.

"Very good," Pansy continues after a moment. "In which case, by the power vested in me, Pansy Parkinson, wedding officiant extraordinare, I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Granger-Smith. You may kiss the bride."

Zach leans into Hermione and presses his lips to hers. As he does, the ballroom breaks out in applause. The band starts up and the happy couple begin to make their way down the aisle. Draco brings two fingers up to his mouth and whistles loudly. He hears Harry laugh beside him and he leans into his side. Draco reaches down and tangles his fingers with Harry's again as Hermione and Zach pass them. With his other hand, he flashes Zach a quick thumbs up and Zach grins back.

It's been three years since Hermione had come to Grimmauld to inoculate its inhabitants against the R2-05 virus and chanced upon Zach, and in that time so much has changed, but also so much has stayed the same.

With Draco to share it with him, Harry had decided to keep Grimmauld Place and the house has flourished with the two of them living there. The creaky stairs have un-squeaked themselves. All of the doors work on every day of the week. And the house is always the correct temperature: warm in the winters and cool in the summers. The dungeon has been turned into a playroom and the library off of the sitting room is, as Harry had promised, filled with Muggle fiction.

A small blonde head runs down the aisle past Draco, shrieking in delight and throwing flower petals. Draco catches Harry's eye and Harry mouths,

"Your turn." So Draco darts out and scoops their daughter up into his arms.

"Daddy, daddy," she babbles. "I frow ped-ahs." She scoops another handful of petals up in her chubby little hand and drops them on the floor.

"Yes, Lyra," Draco says. "You did very well." She beams at him, her green eyes sparkling.

"I can take her, sweetheart," his mother says. She holds out her arms. Draco kisses the top of Lyra's head and then passes her over. His mother had moved in with them after Lyra was born, leaving the Manor to function as a long term care facility for various long-lasting illnesses such as spattergroit and R2-05, cases of which still crop up from time to time. His mother seems to have taken it upon herself to spoil Lyra to the same extent that she had spoiled him as a child, but somehow, and Draco suspects it's Harry's influence, Lyra doesn't seem to be nearly as self centered as Draco has come to realize he was.

People start to file out of their seats once the bride and groom make it to the end of the aisle, and a moment later Shreeky appears and begins orchestrating the moving of chairs and the adding of tables.

Along with officiating, Pansy had helped Hermione with the wedding planning and it shows in the elegance of the table settings. The two had become fast friends once they had found a common interest: talking about Harry and Draco. And so Draco's friend group, which had previously consisted of Pansy, Greg, Theo, and Blaise, had expanded to include various Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and even the odd Ravenclaw, such as Luna Lovegood. Draco still isn't completely comfortable around Lovegood, no matter how many times she assures him that she doesn't hold him responsible for her time in the Manor's dungeons.

"Lovely ceremony, Pans," Draco says, walking up to his friend.

"Of course it was," she says. "I did most of the talking."

"That's my wife," Ron says proudly.

"Parkinson," Draco says, nodding to him.

"Draco, we've been on first name terms for years," Ron says punching him in the shoulder.

"Only because Potter-Malfoy is such a mouthful," Pansy snickers.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Whoever can get me to a chair fastest," Pansy says, clutching at Ron's arm. "My feet are killing me."

"No one expected you to wear four inch heels while seven months pregnant," Draco says, but signals to Shreeky for a chair all the same.

"It's all about appearances, darling," she says, sitting down heavily in the provided chair. Draco leaves her to her husband and wanders off to find his own.

"Hello love," he says, walking up behind Harry and wrapping his arms around his waist. He leans in and kisses Harry's cheek.

"Draco," Percy Wood acknowledges with a nod. Oliver is a few feet away, chatting with Viktor about the last game he'd played for England, having now moved up from Back-Up Keeper to Starter.

"How's the Nundu Nursery going?" Draco asks.

"Lyra can start at Bowtruckle Bower when she's three, before you ask," Percy says, instantly seeing through Draco's attempted small talk. Draco grins and scratches the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm never going to forgive Hagrid for those suggestions," Percy adds. "I wish I'd never told them to you."

"You didn't like Chimera Care?" Draco asks. "Or Acromantula Abode?"

"My favorite was Yeti Yurts," Harry says. Draco glances sideways at Harry. When he catches his eye, their faces break out into what Draco is pretty sure are matching grins.

"Inferi Infant Care was a good one," Draco says.

"And Hungarian Horntail Hangout."

"Don't forget Grindylow Grotto."

"You two are the worst," Percy says. Harry straightens his face.

"Sorry Perce," he says. "But you have to admit some of them were pretty funny." Percy sniffs, his nose high in the air before his expression softens and he winks at them.

"They are," he says. "Inferi Infant Care? What was he thinking?" He laughs, shaking his head. His red curls dance in the candlelight.

"So how are the kids?" Harry asks, changing the subject. "I can't believe you're able to wrangle so many of them."

"Well, they go home to their parents at night." Harry looks meaningfully at Percy. "Oh, you mean the cats? They're fine. Rupert and Belinda are in a feud though, and refuse to be in the same room as each other. I'm hoping it's just a passing phase though, because it's getting to be a right bother."

Draco leaves Percy nattering on about his cats and instead goes to find Neville, who is behind the bar that is set up in the corner of the room. He's surrounded by bottles and bar tools and is mixing drinks up in obvious enjoyment. As Draco walks up, Neville pushes a Negroni across the bar to him.

"I saw you coming," he says.

"Thanks Neville."

"I can make you something more complicated if you prefer," Neville adds quickly. "I've been practicing."

"This is perfect. Thanks, Nev." Draco takes a sip, relishing the bitter liquor, then chats with Neville until Shreeky calls them to dinner.

…

"If you had asked me in Hogwarts how I would meet my wife, I would have assumed it would have been at school. And I suppose, technically, I did." Hermione stares up at Zach with a warm smile on her face while Zach addresses the gathered guests. Dinner has been served, eaten, and cleared, and now they're on to speeches. "But the story of how we reconnected is a wild one. I owe my current happiness to the Potter-Malfoys, Draco in particular. Because if he hadn't shown up to Malfoy Manor, drunk all-together too much firewhisky, and then needed to be driven back to Grimmauld Place, I wouldn't have been at the house when Hermione had shown up.

"So I propose a toast to Draco." He raises his champagne flute. "Without the minor hiccup in your relationship, ours might never have started."

"So glad that my pain could be your boon, Zach," Draco says, winking.

Zach continues on, waxing lyrical about his love for Hermione. Draco tunes him out as he looks around the room. Pansy is sat between her husband and Viktor Krum, who she's informed Draco still joins them in the bedroom from time to time. Draco hadn't asked for details, but she'd given them to him anyway. Her mother had been scandalized, she'd said, when Pansy had told her she wasn't one hundred percent sure who their child's father was and that Ron was alright with that. Molly Weasley, perhaps in an effort to be contrary, had promised to love the child as family either way.

A few chairs over from the Parkinsons, Lyra is asleep in his mother's arms. He smiles fondly at them, taking in Lyra's fuzzy blonde hair and her fingers shoved into her mouth. She's dribbling onto his mother's arm, but his mother either hasn't noticed or doesn't care.

Oliver and Percy are sitting at the next table over, along with the rest of the Weasleys. Oliver is playing idly with Percy's curls while George makes a gagging motion just out of his line of sight. Ginny giggles at something her boyfriend Simon is whispering to her. Molly catches Draco's stare and smiles at him. She'd knitted him a Weasley jumper for his and Harry's first Christmas together, and on any day he's not working, he can be found in one of the three he now owns. They're among his most prized possessions.

Neville's sat at a table with Hannah and some of their other Hufflepuff friends. They're Zach's friends too, Draco supposes. But the whole wedding just feels like a giant Hogwarts reunion. Professor McGonagall and Hagrid are even sitting at the table with Hermione and Zach's parents.

"To Hermione," Zach says, interrupting Draco's reverie. The guests raise their glasses.

"And Zach," Hermione adds.

"To the happy couple," Pansy says loudly. Her glass is filled with sparkling water, which she downs in one gulp.

Both Harry and Ron make speeches about Hermione. Ron's, Draco is sorry to say, is funnier than Harry's. Then Ernie Macmillan gets up and rambles on for two minutes too long about Zach. And before Draco knows it, it's time for the dancing.

Draco reaches out and takes Harry's hand as Zach and Hermione sway and twirl to their first dance. His eyes are on the couple but his mind is on his and Harry's own first dance. They'd married in Grimmauld as well; it had been the first formal event they'd held in the ballroom. The song had been different, of course, but the affection he can see on Zach's face mirrors how he'd felt.

The song ends and George, who is in charge of the music, puts on a more upbeat song. Ginny Weasley leads the charge to the dance floor. Soon it is filled with people, all moving their hips, shoulders, arms to the music. The joy is infectious. Draco grabs Harry's hand and drags him out onto the floor.

"Going to impress me with your battle dances?" Harry asks, his lips quirking into a smile.

"Do I still need to?"

"Fair point." Draco takes Harry's hand and spins him around. He pulls Harry to him and then dips him backwards for a moment. Harry's grinning when he comes back to vertical. Draco leans in and kisses him.

"Get a room," Ron says as he dances past, tugged along by Pansy, who seems far too spry for someone as heavily pregnant as she is. Draco rolls his eyes and pulls back, laughing as Harry flips them off over his shoulder.

The song changes to a slower one and those who weren't coupled up already, do. Draco wraps his arms around Harry's waist. He looks into his husbands's eyes and Harry smiles at him.

"I love you," he mouths.

"I love you too," Harry whispers into his ear. Harry holds him close and Draco thinks life can't get any better.