Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to the amazing JK Rowling, and sadly, not me.

Thank you to my beta, HPalto87, and hearts to my reviewers!

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22

"Dra-co. Draaay-ko," Draco enunciated.

Penelope just laughed.

The blonde pointed to her. "Penny." He pointed to himself. "Draco."

Ron and Hermione stepped into the room to find Draco sitting on the floor next to their daughter. Penelope seemed more interested in her doll, however, and all of Draco's efforts to get her to say his name were completely ignored.

"Stop badgering my daughter," Ron demanded.

Hermione slapped his arm lightly. "What did we talk about?" she whispered to her husband.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Right. Hey, Ferret,"

"Yes, Weasel?" Draco replied nonchalantly.

"You can stay here as long as you want, because Hermione doesn't like the idea of you alone in that house since Harry left you for a better man," Ron said, deliberately finding ways to insult Draco.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded.

Draco sneered at him. "I can take care of myself."

Hermione squatted down next to Draco. "What he means is, we would be happy if you stayed with us. In times like this, we could all use a little moral support, you know?"

Draco nodded, and Hermione took it to mean he accepted the invitation. He was grateful, but didn't want to show it. Malfoys weren't supposed to need pity from Muggle-lovers.

She hugged him. Ron made an irritated noise and wandered out of the room. Hermione stood up, and Draco went back to teaching Penelope his name. "Dray-ko."

"She really can't pronounce the DR sound," Hermione informed him.

"She could at least try," Draco said, exasperated.

Hermione laughed. "She's only one! She knows your name, she just can't say it yet."

"She can say 'Harry' just fine," Draco pointed out.

"Actually, she calls him 'Hay-ee,'" Hermione corrected. "She has problems with R's. She can't say 'Fred' or 'Charlie' properly either, and she won't even attempt 'George.'"

"I don't understand children," Draco said, scowling at the little girl, who just laughed. "See? What's so funny about me?"

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Draco's frustration. "She thinks a lot of things are funny, it's not just you."

Penelope stopped laughing, and suddenly looked like she was thinking about something. She screwed up her face, then smiled brightly. "Poo!" she announced.

Draco moved away from her. "Eww! It smells!"

"You are such a child yourself sometimes," Hermione said, picking up her daughter.

He followed her to the baby's room.

"Harry wanted one," Draco said.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"A kid," Draco clarified. He sighed. "He always said one day we would adopt one and give some lucky kid the family he never had."

"I know," Hermione said sadly. "He was disappointed when you said you didn't want that anymore." She put Penelope on the changing table and fished a new diaper from the drawer underneath.

"I just don't see myself with a baby," Draco said.

"I think you've got enough love in your heart to share," Hermione said. "Harry was always convinced you'd make a good father."

Draco looked at the floor, imagining how devastated his boyfriend must have been when Draco shot down the idea. "Can I, um, help you?"

"You want to change her diaper?" Hermione asked in a mild state of shock.

"I just want to see if I can do it," Draco said.

Hermione smiled and handed him the clean diaper, and instructed him on what to do. "Hold her legs like this, she likes to kick. I have baby wipes, but you can use scourgify if you'd like. You shouldn't use too much magic on an infant, but a cleaning spell once in a while isn't a problem."

Draco opted to use his wand instead of actually touching the mess, then managed to get a new diaper on her. Hermione congratulated him on changing his first ever dirty diaper.

"That was gross," Draco said.

"Being a dad isn't always a glamorous job, Draco," Hermione said.

"So why does Harry want it so much?" Draco demanded, though he already knew the answer.

"You know family is important to him," Hermione said. "It's a lot of responsibility, but I wouldn't trade parenthood for all the world."

"Do you think I'd make a good father?" Draco asked her. It wasn't often that he asked something that actually showed he valued her opinion, and Hermione was happy every time he opened up to her.

"Despite the fact that you're arrogant and selfish most of the time, Harry thinks so. I trust his opinions of people, so yes, I do," she said, and smiled.

Hermione brought Penelope back downstairs, where Ron was reading the Daily Prophet and trying to ignore Draco's presence.

"Hi Hermione," he said. She sat next to him, and he gave both her and Penelope a peck on the cheek. Draco scowled at the display.

"Don't you think Draco would make a lovely father?" Hermione asked Ron.

Ron looked at the blonde. "Not if he keeps making that face. He'll scare the poor kid."

Draco was going to respond with a sarcastic comment, but Hermione interrupted.

"Please stop insulting each other," she requested, knowing it probably wouldn't do any good. Penelope squirmed out of her lap, and Hermione let her drop to the floor.

"Why is he still hanging around here anyway?" Ron whined.

"He's our friend!" Hermione said.

Penelope half-walked, half-crawled across the room and sat at Draco's feet.

"Harry's our friend!" Ron said. "We put up with him because Harry liked him."

Penelope lifted her arms and looked hopefully up at Draco. He guessed this action was supposed to mean something to him.

"Honestly, Ron, most of us got past that years ago. After all this time, you can't say he hasn't become part of our lives," Hermione argued.

Draco picked up the little girl, resting her weight against his hip. She wrapped her little arms around his neck and snuggled into him contentedly.

Ron didn't have an answer for that, and resorted to, "But he's… uh… the Ferret!"

"Oh, nice comeback, Weasel," Draco interrupted.

"What are you doing with my daughter?" Ron demanded.

"She wanted to be held," Draco replied.

Ron's jaw dropped. "By you?"

"She's grown up with him around, Ron," Hermione said. "She knows nothing about our past, remember. Not Hogwarts, the war, nothing. All she knows is that Uncle Harry and Uncle Draco have been around since she was born. She probably doesn't even understand that they've broken up."

"Uncle Draco?" Draco repeated.

Hermione nodded. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, I don't mind," he said, stroking the little girl's back. She was falling asleep against him, and he was beginning to think that it wouldn't be so bad to have a kid around.

---

Flashback

After the Quidditch game Draco had gone to Hermione, who had a lot of intelligent, rational things to say on the subject.

"Harry loves you. He wouldn't cheat on you. You know how close he gets to some people. Look at Ron and me. He hugs us all the time. He loves both of us, but not in the way he loves you. You mean the world to him, Draco. I know it hurts that you have to spend time away from him right now, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love you. It just means he needs a new experience in life. Don't worry, he'll be back soon, and you two will be the happy couple you always have been once more."

Draco thanked Hermione for her comforting words, then went home to his empty house.

---

Hermione's words had made a huge difference for Draco. He decided to trust his boyfriend's judgment. Things weren't always what they appeared to be, after all. Besides, Harry would be home soon.

A week before Harry would be back, Draco set up a romantic dinner for the two of them. He convinced the cook and the maids to come in for the night to act as their wait staff. He chose the menu, and some simple decorations (candles, roses, and such romantic nonsense), and waited for his lover to return.

The day before Harry was to come home, the daily prophet published the final Quidditch scores for the season. Puddlemere United was in the lead. They would be in the Quidditch World Cup.

Draco looked at the paper in disbelief. Surely, that was wrong.

The World Cup would be held in Ireland in two weeks, which meant two more weeks without Harry.

---

The owl arrived that night with Harry's excited letter, telling Draco about the Cup. The team would be going to Ireland next week. They would have practice every day, so he wouldn't be able to come home. He apologized, but Draco could tell that this is what Harry wanted.

Harry sent a ticket for the match, and instructions to the portkey that would take Draco and the Weasleys to Ireland.

His letter ended with an enthusiastic, Hope to see you there!

---

"Something's been bothering me for a while," Hermione said, breaking Draco out of his thoughts.

"What?" He asked.

"Why didn't you ever propose to Harry?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," he said.

"Don't you think it would have made a difference?" she pushed.

"It just would've made everything more complicated," Draco said. He was getting irritated.

"Well, one of the reasons Harry was unhappy was because your relationship had grown stagnant. It would have helped if he had known this was actually going somewhere," she replied.

Draco looked at the floor. He hated the way she was always right. "I never thought about that."

"Obviously." She was becoming as frustrated with the whole situation as Draco was. "So, why didn't you ever propose?"

"We had a good life, there was no reason to change anything!" Draco exclaimed.

"Couldn't you tell he wanted more?" Hermione demanded.

"No… Yes… It doesn't matter anymore!" Draco yelled at her. He handed Penelope to her mother and stormed out of the room, then realized he had nowhere to go. He heard Penelope's cries from inside the room. "And I'd make a lousy father!" he called for good measure.

Draco slumped down against the wall and put his head in his hands. After a few minutes, Ron sat next to him.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, you and Harry still care about each other," Ron said.

"You don't need to pretend you care, Weasel," Draco said spitefully.

"Ron," the red-head corrected. He sighed. "Hermione's right. You've become part of the family. Mum talks about you like you're one of her kids, just like she does with Harry, and Hermione, and all the people me, my brothers and Ginny love."

"Why are you telling me this?" Draco demanded.

"Because I think you and Harry need each other, despite what's happened," he said. "You're both emotional wrecks when you're apart, and it's become obvious recently that you give Harry something that Hermione and I can't; though, I'm not sure what it is."

Draco lifted his head. There were tears in his gray eyes, and Ron wasn't sure what to do. Draco hated to appear so vulnerable, but there was something he had to get off his chest.

"I never proposed to Harry because I was afraid I would never be able to give him everything he wanted, and more importantly, deserved. I was afraid that if our lives changed in any drastic way, I would lose him," he admitted. He wiped a hand across his eyes. "That's why I lost him."

Ron placed a hand on Draco's shoulder in a gesture of support. It wasn't much, but it was a comfort to Draco. If Harry ever found out about this, he would be proud of them.