Harry was immediately greeted by the sight of his wife standing right in front of the fireplace with crossed arms and a scowl on her face, at least James and Lily seemed to be in their own rooms. Oh Merlin…

"So… how's tea at the Manor, Harry?"

"It...it was very nice. Actually, Draco has prepared so much food that I could not resist having b-breakfast there myself…" he stammered guiltily.

"I figured… did our piglet have a second breakfast there?"

"Yes… I did try to warn him though."

"I'm guessing you didn't have much success. I have seen how a 'light afternoon tea' looked over there at the Manor." Ginny was still maintaining a humourless expression that he was afraid it would be worse than he had expected.

"You're right. I just hope that he will still be able to eat something at the Burrow."

"It's not like he would ever be able to resist my mum's roast beef, but the problem will be how much he will be able to stomach… Well, what else? What has kept you there so long that could possibly make you abandon your wife and children on Christmas morning?"

"Hmm… I didn't get to talk to Malfoy much until the boys have left to play."

"Oh, so you boys just talked? Or did you cry into each other's arms and become best friends?" She asked with her most dramatic tone.

Harry broke from his guilty and serious expression into a laugh, "Don't be so melodramatic, love."

Ginny's charming teasing smile had returned, "No? Frankly speaking, I am disappointed. I have expected better from you, Harry. Aren't you the one who has loved everyone enough to provide us with the most powerful protective magic by your sacrifice?"

"Not exactly. I mean we didn't cry with each other," even though Malfoy did look like he had shredded a tear, "… but I'm extremely glad to be able to have that conversation with Draco."

"Okay," Harry could see the mischievous light in her eyes, "for punishment, you are banned from sleeping in our room tonight."

"What?" He knew she would be mad but this was still shocking. "On Christmas night?"

"Yes, that will teach you a lesson…" he could totally tell now that she was faking it but he tried to play along to look as regretful as he could manage, "Hmm, on second thought, you are banned unless you agree to two conditions. One: to tell me everything you have talked about with Draco, and two: to give me a full body massage before sleep tonight."

Considering Harry did abandon her to deal with their kids on her own on Christmas morning, it was a no-brainer. He jokingly bowed with one arm behind him and said, "But of course, milady. It is the least I could do."

She shoved him and said, "Oh Merlin, I knew it was a bad idea to let you hang out at the Malfoy Manor. Don't you dare to act all proper in front of me." She laughed a moment after and he could not help from laughing back.

Ginny had been his closest friend and confidante since their marriage that he could tell her anything and trust that she would not repeat these personal conversations to anyone without his consent. They settled on the sofa with him wrapping an arm around her shoulders after she had helped him into his new scarlet jumper and planted another kiss on his mouth, he recounted all that had happened at the Manor in detail to her.

"All joking aside, I'm truly glad that you two could become friends. This will make things much easier for the boys." she said while toying with his hand after he had finished.

"Me too. I felt too awkward to chat with him in front of the boys but once we were left on our own, he's surprisingly easy to talk to… I guess I have never thought about how similar we have been. I could easily have grown up to be an arse like him had I been raised by Lucius Malfoy of all people."

She grimaced and said, "We will agree to disagree on that but in any case, I have found it impossible to continue to hate on, or even dislike him ever since Albus' first visit to the Manor after his first year. He was so awkward but it was very obvious that he was trying hard to appear welcoming to a young Potter for his son's sake."

Harry was going to respond and they could have talked about the evolution of his relationship with his former nemesis for hours had James not appeared down the stairs at this moment and asked confusedly, "Mum and dad, shouldn't we be going already?"

"Yes! Thank you, love… We've been distracted…" Ginny replied frantically, which earned a skeptical look from their eldest son as she had always been so composed and organised.

While the remaining Potters were preparing to floo to the Burrows, Harry made sure to say merry Christmas and give a brief hug to both James and Lily. As glad as he felt that Albus' Christmas seemed to be turning out even better than he had expected, he was feeling guilty that he had been going out of his way to please Albus at his other kids' expense that he needed to make sure they would not feel left out and were okay, his big fallout with Albus had happened gradually instead of overnight after all. He was the last to leave his home after making sure all his wards had been activated.

For the second time this morning, Harry was greeted by the lovely sight of hugging after flooing, this time with his wife hugging Charlie and Molly hugging both James and Lily together. He in turn was immediately greeted warmly by his father-in-law with a pat on his shoulder, their conflict seemingly forgotten. After kissing her Potter grandchildren on their heads, Molly released them and turned to envelop her only son-in-law in a loving hug. After that, the Potters turned to greet the rest of their extended family. Harry was surprised to realise that they were not as late as he had believed. Apparently, thanks to Albus' early wake-up call, they had even arrived earlier than usual. Spending a whole hour at the Malfoy Manor really messed up his perception of time. In any case, Bill's, George's and Ron's families had not even arrived yet.

While Molly hurriedly returned to prepare the Christmas feast in the kitchen, Harry volunteered to help Percy and Charlie set up the marquee at the garden, leaving the rest of his family happily catching up with each other. They had begun the practice of eating at the garden whenever the entire extended family was gathered around the time of his marriage as the interior of the Burrow was simply too small. As it was winter, this could only be accomplished with a lot of elaborate preparation which consisted of the moving of many tables and chairs, as well as many warming spells. It was a lot of work that took the men more than an hour to set up even with the help of Bill, George and Ron, who had all arrived within half an hour after the Potters' arrival, but at least it was not snowing. They were so occupied with the setting up that there was barely anytime for them to talk, Harry did answer the question regarding Albus' whereabouts for more times than he had wanted to though, which yielded quite a variety of reactions. Charlie seemed rather cool about the news while Percy expressed disapproval on the Malfoys, which Harry found irritating considering his selling out during the war. Bill seemed understanding, George seemed to find it funny for some reason, while Ron… reacted with a frown and was eerily quiet for the whole time afterwards. Harry had not felt this uncomfortable around his best mate for a long time, which significantly dampened his mood after the surprisingly nice time he had spent with the remarkable progress made at the Malfoy Manor this morning.

By the time they were done setting up, Harry was very glad to return inside to escape the awkward atmosphere and to meet the rest of his family. Upon entering, Hermione immediately enveloped him into a hug, "Merry Christmas, Harry."

"Merry Christmas to you too, Hermione. How's work?"

Her face lit up, "Brilliant, I was able to get everything done by yesterday noon that I would be able to enjoy two and a half days in complete peace."

"That's great." As busy as Harry was in his job, the stress and workload of the Minister for Magic was on a completely different level that he often found himself feeling worried about his best friend.

"Ginny was just telling me how excited Albus was this morning about visiting Scorpius. I am really glad for the boys, they deserve to have a happy and carefree Christmas after all they have been through." It was rare for him to ever find Hermione to be insensitive considering Ron was standing a foot behind him, he instinctively turned to check on him, who was biting on his lips uneasily.

Of course she had followed his glance and seen that, but she simply patted his face to catch his attention, and said, "don't worry about Ron, it's fine."

"Hmm… I'm not so sure about that, Hermione."

Hermione, for her part, was not even looking at him by now. He saw her giving Ron a look, he returned a look but then turned his gaze down, looked back up after a while. She gave him another pointed look while gesturing to Harry with an obvious shake of her shoulder. A whole conversation seemed to have passed between them with Harry sandwiched between the couple and looking back and forth puzzledly. The atmosphere seemed so tense that Harry was starting to feel desperate to escape when Ron finally took a breath and said louder than necessarily, "Mate, could you come with me for a second?"

"Go where?"

"To my room… I mean my old room." He could see Ron's face turning the colour of his hair.

"Hmm… sure." He was not feeling sure at all, but he followed his friend up the narrow staircases to his old bedroom on the fifth floor in awkward silence nonetheless.

The moment he entered, he was hit by a rush of nostalgia, before bumping his head right onto the ceiling. This reminded him of how even at the tender age of twelve, his head had almost touched its ceiling. He had spent so much of his free time here in his school years that it was almost like returning to a childhood room of his own. Old books of Ron's were scattered on the table and the walls were still thoroughly decorated with Chudley Cannons posters but the orange colour had faded substantially. The Weasleys had, for the most parts, kept their children's rooms the way they had been and not used them for other purposes saved the occasional storage boxes spreaded here and there. It felt comical for Harry to come back in together with Ron as full-grown adults as they looked like giants here despite Harry's short to average stature. He would love to be reminiscing about his teenage years with him if he was not being so… difficult.

Ron had pulled out and turned a chair towards him, he gestured to it like a peace offering "Hmm.. would you like to take a seat, Harry? It would be quite uncomfortable to talk standing in this room now."

"Sure." Harry attempted a tentative smile as he sat on the old wooden chair while Ron making himself almost too comfortable on his childhood bed.

"So… Albus is spending his christmas morning at the Malfoy Manor, huh?"

Harry's face hardened, "What about it?"

"How did it go?" Harry was surprised to see benign curiosity on his best friend's face, instead of annoyance and contempt, that he decided that it might not be too bad to answer honestly.

"Well, I don't think I have ever seen two boys so excited about meeting each other and I felt strangely… proud to see Albus happy. The Malfoy Manor is so different that it actually looks cozy and welcoming, I expected to feel repulsive going back after what we had been through there but the hour I spent there was surprisingly nice. Malfoy is genuinely appreciative about Albus' visit that he made a lot of effort to be a welcoming host." While he was saying the truth, Harry had tried to focus his answer on the boys and his more objective observation, also to talk about Draco in a positive but more neutral light.

"I see."

Although Ron did not appear annoyed or repulsed, he seemed a bit… disinterested by his answer and distracted that Harry was wondering if he had really been listening at all. He was suspicious of his best friend's intentions as he was the one who had requested to talk and had asked the question at the first place. In addition, it was Christmas morning that he would far rather spend the precious time with the relatives that he did not get to meet as frequently as he wanted than being trapped here with a moody best friend he saw all the times. "Ron, can you just say whatever you have wanted to say? I would gladly chat with you about anything another time but there are some of our families downstairs whom I barely got to meet in months that I would like to say Merry Christmas to."

Ron did not respond directly to Harry's demand, instead he said, "Hermione gave me a piece of her mind the other day after returning home with our kids."

"Hermione? A piece of her mind… about what?"

"About how Rose should be allowed to befriend and should she choose to, to date whoever she like, without worrying about her embarrassing father's reactions."

"Oh." So this was what it was about, Harry was actually relieved to hear this. Ron had no real say about his choice to become friends with Draco Malfoy but he did not want to upset his friend by rubbing this in his friend's face either. As much as he liked his best mate, it could be tiring at times to deal with a friend who could be so prone to jealousy and who hold on to past grudges for this long.

"Also about how I should be more supportive of you regarding... the ferret because it's beneficial for you two to become friends for you to repair your relationship with Albus. She actually said, 'Harry has enough to deal with to help Albus who could have been traumatised for life without worrying about his immature friend's reaction.'"

"Oh… I see." A lot of times Harry wondered how his life would have turned out without Hermione Granger, who was the most awesome and supportive friend anyone could ever asked for. She was an observant problem-solver who could see a problem from miles away and would take initiatives to act upon it despite the troubles. Although Harry could not tell how Ron felt about his newly-formed friendship with his former nemesis, the fact that Hermione had talked to him about this could only mean that this would turn out well after all. However, her choice of words were kind of brutal to him as the last thing he would want to remember was the possibility that his son could be scarred for life from his adventures the way he had been. In her defense, that sentence was not meant for him to hear though. Also, he could not help feeling bad for Ron as it was obvious that he did not look too happy to be schooled by his wife about this.

A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the long wait but my trip has tired me out so much and it was hard to pick up my writing again. This chapter is longer and I hope you would like the change of scenery. (I have the tendency of focusing on a conversation for too long in my stories)

Thank you again for your support, especially your lovely comments on both the story and my watching of the play. Please comment =)

I'm flattered that pottermum requested me to share my thoughts on the show so I'll share a quick few words here but I have actually posted a detailed note on the show on Tumblr, so feel free to check it out if you are interested. (account on bio)

(I have never done this before and feel free to skip reading if you are not interested) I was very lucky that I went on a day when the performance was filmed for archive purpose that the entire original cast was on. The acting was great all around but I was actually very surprised by how different Anthony's Scorpius was from my expectation (especially his voice), my favorite performances were Sam's Albus and Alex's Draco. The production values of the show were insane and it was magical indeed to watch all the stage effects live. But watching the show gave me different impressions on some characters that part of me questioned if I have been interpreting them wrong. Also, I got to go to the stage door and it was absolutely lovely to meet some of the cast.