A/N: Here's chapter twelve. Harry and Draco have to get used to two more people living with them, and Draco learns something new.

This is Harry/Draco, post-Hogwarts, though the slash content is extremely light. There are very vague suggestions of other relationships as well.

I've got this all written out, and am posting one a week. There will be 23 chapters total. All that's left is the editing.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Dedication: To Foodie, who still betas me despite my predilection for slash, and for FionaFawkes, who read and reviewed every single chapter, and gave me such excellent feedback. Also, for everyone who's read and loved my Harry/Draco. This one's for you.

-----12

The next few weeks were difficult.

Lupin's first full moon had been just over a week after he and Lucius had arrived at Harry's home. Severus had offered Lupin the Wolfsbane Potion again, more for Draco and Lucius's sake than the werewolf's, but Draco was grateful. However, even with Lupin locked in his own room, and doped with the potion, Draco still felt tense until the moon had passed.

Harry had insisted that Lucius stay in his own room while Lupin was incapacitated. Lucius hadn't liked that at all, but he'd had little choice. Harry had brought him a supper tray that evening, and another in the morning, and by lunch, Lupin had been able to take over watching him again.

Lucius refused to speak to any of them, though he was particularly furious with Draco, and would often get up and leave the room if Draco entered. He refused to do his chores, and no amount of cajoling on Lupin's part or threats on Harry's seemed to make a difference. He also utterly snubbed the movies Harry suggested he might want to watch. Draco had tried to explain that they really weren't so different from Wizarding portraits, but Lucius had turned his back as soon as Draco had started to talk to him.

Lupin hadn't started out particularly pleased with Lucius when they'd first arrived. It was no surprise, really, given what Lucius had tried to do to him. As the moon approached, though, his temper with Lucius had shortened. At least, it had appeared that way to Draco. It looked as though Lupin was rapidly approaching his breaking point.

After one particularly bad argument between his father and Lupin, Draco had actually asked Harry if he'd been so annoying when he'd first arrived. Harry had shaken his head. "No, just for a day or two. Most of the time, you weren't too bad, really."

"Well, I apologize for anything that even approaches what He's doing," Draco had responded.

Harry had smiled at that.

Draco spent much of his free time in the den. Since Lucius refused to even enter the room because of all the Muggle technology in, it had become the least stressful room in the house, aside from Draco's own room. Harry would come in occasionally and watch as he played whatever game he had going. In the Sims, Draco had deleted the house with the two of them, not feeling up to updating it with Lucius and Lupin. He was still quite uncomfortable with Lupin, and hated being alone with him if he could help it. So, the thought of adding him to the Sims house he'd been putting together was a bit more than he was up to.

All in all, having Lupin and Lucius living with them was an awkward mess.

Draco had found out what Harry had had to do to get the Ministry to allow both Malfoys to live in the same house. He was going to press-shoots with the Minister. Draco wondered how he stood it. Scrimgeour wasn't as bad as Fudge, but he wasn't too much better, either. Harry would come home after one of these shoots, miserable, snappish, and uncommunicative. Draco and Lupin would work on starting dinner while Lucius sulked at the table, and the four of them would eat utterly silently, with Lupin clearing the table when they were done. Draco always escaped as soon as Harry allowed it.

Things between Lucius and Lupin were getting worse each day. Harry had a strict hands-off policy, in which he only intervened between Lucius and Lupin if things got thoroughly out of hand, if Draco was somehow involved, or if Lucius was breaking one of the house rules. This left a lot of room for argument between Lucius and Lupin. Lupin had gone through any number of attempts to get through to Lucius, but none of them seemed to be working. Leaving him alone didn't seem to be helping, because Lucius thoroughly refused to have anything whatsoever to do with Muggles, and every attempt Lupin made to try to reason with him ended in an argument.

The chores Harry had originally assigned Lucius had been given up the second week in as a lost cause, since both Lupin and Harry had had no luck in convincing him to do them, and once the change had happened, neither of them had had any energy to force him to do them. Finally, Lupin had just given up with Lucius, and allowed him to do what he wished, so long as he wasn't causing a problem. It wasn't a solution, but at the moment, Draco knew it was the best they'd be able to accomplish.

Lucius wasn't allowed to leave the room Lupin was in, or Draco was sure he would have spent most of his time in the bedroom Harry had assigned him. Harry and Lupin had found a simple portal-blocking spell, and when Lupin entered the room with Lucius, he would cast the spells at all the doors to prevent Lucius's departure. The first few times, Lucius had fumed at them, and proceeded to break everything in the room he could get his hands on. The second time, Lupin had obviously been fed up enough to show his displeasure. He had grabbed the last knickknack from Lucius's hand, pulled him to the couch, and settled him over his knee, swatting him several times before letting him go.

Draco had been astonished. He'd seen people angry at his father before. He'd even seen women slap at him, and men throw hexes at him. But no one had ever dared to spank Lucius Malfoy. It was beyond unheard of, it was mortifying.

Lucius had been furious. He'd lunged at Lupin, and Lupin had retaliated, grabbing Lucius's hands as he'd gone for Lupin's neck. He'd drawn Lucius's hands down to his sides as though he were no more than a rag doll, wrapping his arms around Lucius's body, then held him until Lucius had stopped struggling. Once he had, Lupin spoke. "If I can't get through with words, Lucius, I'll have to try something else. I'm twice your size, and at least three times as strong. If I have to spank that attitude out of you, I will. Got it?"

Lucius had flushed with anger and embarrassment. "Yes," he'd said sullenly.

Draco hadn't seen it happen again after that, though he had heard it one night after Lupin, infuriated with the language he had heard Lucius use that evening, had dragged him into his room. Lucius hadn't managed to stay quiet that time, though his grunts of pain weren't too particularly loud. Rather, it was the swats that Draco could hear. Each and every slap made him wince. Lucius had stood a lot the next day, that was for sure.

They didn't seem to have made any further headway with Lucius by the time they were due to take their next test, and Draco couldn't help but wonder if his father would even bother to try at all.

Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived to escort them all to the Ministry personally, using one of the Ministry's cars. He and Lupin sat in the front seat, talking quietly as Shacklebolt drove, and Draco asked Harry if they were friends. Harry had smiled.

"You could say that. Remus and Kingsley were close before Sirius died, and I think they actually got closer after. The last year of the war, though, they were both so busy that they weren't able to spend much time together… I think they decided it would be best if they went their separate ways. Especially once Tonks staked her claim…"

"Tonks?"

"Yeah. Your cousin?"

"The Metamorphmagus?"

Harry nodded. "She and Remus were seeing each other when she died. I don't think he's quite recovered from that, to be honest."

"Wait. I thought you said Lupin and Shacklebolt were friends. Why would Lupin dating my cousin make a difference to whether they were friends or not?"

Harry raised an eyebrow smiling slightly, but Lucius snorted. "Draco, did you pay attention to nothing while you were a child? Perhaps you failed to notice how things work in the real world?"

They were the first words Lucius had spoken to him in nearly the entire time he and Lupin had been living in Harry's home. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Did you fail to notice who I tended to prefer company with?" Lucius asked sardonically.

"You spend a lot of time with your male friends. And mother with her female friends. I see nothing unusual about that, father."

Lucius's sneer widened into a smirk. "You always were a rather dense child. One would have thought you might have noticed how often my 'friends' spent the night…"

"Lucius…" Harry said in a warning tone.

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Please, Potter. It's not like you can punish me here. Besides, the boy obviously needs things spelled out for him."

Draco wondered what on earth they could mean by that. He glanced at Harry, who seemed a bit flushed, though he was still scowling at Lucius. "Just drop it. If you couldn't have been bothered to teach him that when you had the chance, you definitely don't have the right now," he growled.

"And who'll teach him, then, Potter? You?"

And Harry's flush definitely deepened then. What on earth were they going on about? "Would someone please tell me what this is all about? Before I climb over the front seat and ask them myself?" Not that he would, but perhaps the threat would be enough.

Harry sighed, and closed his eyes. "We'll discuss it when we get back home, okay, Draco?"

Draco scowled. "Fine. But if you think I'm going to forget…"

The rest of the trip was quiet, though Draco found himself watching Shacklebolt and Lupin carefully, trying to find hints of what it was that Lucius and Harry were intimating about the two men. They seemed perfectly friendly, if a bit subdued.

The test went well for Draco, though Lucius's scores had been unsurprisingly dismal. He seemed quite alarmed about it, and when they returned home, again in the Ministry car, Lucius seemed quite upset. Perhaps this would convince him this wasn't something he could manipulate, Draco thought.

Back at Harry's, Draco watched as Lupin led Lucius to his room so that they could talk, and once they were gone, Harry suggested they might want to go into the den to talk, so that they wouldn't be interrupted. Draco nodded.

They settled on the couch, and Harry looked a bit lost for words. He tried to begin several times, before sighing and closing his eyes. He took a deep breath, and Draco could see he was actually gathering a bit of his Gryffindor courage to himself. When those green eyes opened, there was a seriousness he hadn't seen in them in quite some time.

"I'm going to ask you questions that might sound stupid, Draco, but I want honest answers, okay?" Draco nodded. "You know about…I mean, how some people prefer their own sex, right?" By the time Harry was finished with the question, his face was crimson with embarrassment.

Draco smirked. "Yes, Harry. I know about homosexuality. Who doesn't?"

Harry took a breath, looking slightly relieved. "Well, sometimes people have relationships with both men and women…"

Draco wrinkled his nose at that. "Why? I thought it was a simple matter of you're either straight or you're gay."

"Well, some people—like your father, feel they have to have normal lives, and so they have a wife, and a child, but they still prefer their own sex."

Draco scowled. "Are you saying that my father's gay, Potter?" he couldn't control his outrage at the idea. "My father was a perfect husband—"

Harry laughed. "You said yourself that he and your mother only slept together because your father needed an heir."

"That hardly makes him gay, Potter. I'd be careful if I were you. That's slander," Draco growled.

"Draco, what do you think he was suggesting on the way to the Ministry?"

"What do I care?" Draco mumbled. He realized what Harry was trying to tell him, but that didn't make him receptive to it…

"Fine. He's your dad. I get that that would be hard to deal with. As for Remus, I think he just goes where he can find comfort. I didn't get it myself until after Sirius died. Remus…" He sighed. "I don't think he believes he deserves anyone…"

"Wait. Are you telling me that Lupin and Shacklebolt…"

"Were lovers, yes."

"You're kidding, right? Shacklebolt's queer?"

"Draco, don't…It's not like that. He's just…"

"Queer." He laughed. "All right. And Lupin as well, apparently. Well, as long as he keeps his hands off me, I suppose I can handle that. It's certainly more tolerable than the fact that he's a werewolf. Anything else?"

Harry's cheeks flamed. "No," he mumbled.

"You don't sound too sure of that, Harry," Draco prodded.

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it, okay? It's nothing important." He sighed and stood up. "I have to go to the Minister's office. Some meeting-or-other he wants me at. I should be back by six. You be ok here?"

Draco nodded, and watched as Harry exited the room with long strides, almost like he were running away. But that didn't make sense, did it?