Upon reaching the other end of the greenhouse, Harry was surprised to find himself looking at two smiley snowmen built a few metres across from the exit of the building, next to another opening of a hedge. He was cheered by the sight until he realised what the shorter one was wearing.
"Merlin's beard! What on earth was Albus thinking? Putting his new jumper on a snowman? And playing about in the snow without his jumper? Ginny would totally flip out if she sees this." Harry was annoyed as he thought he truly would be banned from sleeping in his room if Albus ended up getting a cold because of this.
"I believe he was wearing his robe, along with a scarf and gloves when he came out. And it isn't that cold today." Draco tried to reassure him but he did not sound too sure.
But as Harry took his time to take in the appearances of the snowmen, he could feel an almost tangible warmth growing in his heart. Albus' snowman was slightly shorter and was wearing the jumper in its middle, all its eyes, nose and smiling mouth were made up of pieces of stone. The other snowman was slightly taller with its features made out of large hard candies. It was wearing a wizard hat as well as a Slytherin scarf. Both of them had wooden sticks as arms and they were linked together, seemingly as good friends as their creators were, with the outer arms stretched openly and happily. Harry felt unreasonably moved to rediscover this innocent side of his moody teenage son. He was, however, shocked to catch a glimpse of his companion, who looked distant and was in a daze from looking at two happy snowmen.
"Are you okay… Draco?"
He did not react for ten seconds, before coughing and said, "Yes?"
"Hmm… are you alright? You don't look too well."
"I… I am fine." Harry was not convinced that he continued to give him an enquiring look.
Draco blushed a little while avoiding eye contact when he said, "Hmm… Scorpius was seven the last time he built a snowman, back when she was still feeling good enough to play with him in the cold… he usually just spends his entire Christmas holiday indoors."
"I'm sorry, Draco. I have not seen Albus playing in the snow since Hogwarts either." He mentioned Albus for the sake of saying something but immediately regretted it as he knew that their situations could not be compared at all. They stood awkwardly together in dead air for a prolonged minute.
"Well… that was embarrassing. I might have to rethink about befriending a Potter since I have no intention of revealing my secret love life to you." Draco deadpanned. He might be joking but Harry could see that friends or not, Draco Malfoy was not the kind of person who enjoyed showing his vulnerability in front of anyone, especially not multiple times all in one day.
"Hmm… I'm sorry. I will try to be less... nosy."
"Yeah, that's what you are… nosy Potter." He smirked, then continued, "Let's get going, at this rate, you can go back to have Christmas dinner with the Weasleys."
They left the happy snowmen and entered that opening of the hedge and were now walking between two tall and thick hedges. Harry knew that he should not feel trapped or worried walking here with the owner of the land but he was feeling uneasy since the hedges reminded him of the maze in the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament and he had absolutely no desire to see any creepy peacock as well. They had just turned a corner and started walking on a path identical to the previous one when he heard the familiar voices nearby. He could not hear any of the words the boys were saying but they were laughing excitedly. As the sound did not seem to be coming from ahead, but from the other side of one hedge, Harry looked unsurely towards his host, who did not react but continued to walk forward. Upon turning another corner, Harry could immediately see an opening halfway down the right hedge, in which the boys' laughters were coming from.
His companion calmly said, "There they are." He did not seem to care enough to speed up while Harry, being driven by his curiosity, pulled ahead of Draco to reach the opening and enter. He could tell that the boys were close to the other side of the hedge at this moment but it could not prepare him for what happened next.
The moment Harry entered the clearing, which was surrounded on all sides by the hedges and was completely covered with snow, he got hit in the face by a snowball the size of a Quaffle and fell on his back. His glasses had been knocked off of his face.
"Oh Dumbledore!" He could hear a high-pitched squeal followed by footsteps rushing towards him while he tried to shake off the sting of cold and embarrassment while struggling to locate his glasses. At least his glasses were unbreakable now, unlike the old ones he had back in Hogwarts, that he knew they would still be intact despite having been hit by a giant snowball.
He had just shoved the glasses back on when Draco finally entered the clearing, took in the situation and teased smugly, "How much my younger self would have paid to see Saint Potter fall on his arse like this?"
"Draco, did you have anything to do with this?" It might be a bit far-fetched that Malfoy would be able to plan this snowball that far ahead but thinking back about how he had let Harry entered ahead of him made him suspicious.
"Of course not, I did guess that this was a war zone and I probably had amused myself with the thought that you could be hit right on the face but there was no way I could predict the precise moment a snowball would hit." Then he started laughing to Harry's annoyance. He would have told him off but he resisted when he realised how different the laugh sounded from the mocking laugh Draco used to laugh back in Hogwarts, this laugh was surprisingly hearty that he could not help thinking that this could be the first laugh of its kind for his former nemesis.
Harry had a feeling Draco could have laughed for much longer but he cut himself off abruptly when he saw Scorpius' expression. The boys had rushed towards him the moment he had fallen and while Albus had been trying hard to suppress a smirk seeing his old man falling on his butt, Scorpius looked flushed as a tomato. Judging by the terrified and guilty look of the blonde boy, there could be no doubt that he was the one who had thrown the large snowball that hit Harry in his face.
"I'm so so sor-sorry, Harr...Mr Potter! I didn't mean to hit you in the face. I mean… I didn't mean to hit you at all! And… I only made a snowball this big because I just got hit by one as large… I'm so…"
He looked so pitiful that Harry would have calmed him with a pat on his shoulder if he was not still sitting on the snow, so he awkwardly said, "That's okay, Scorpius. It was just an accident."
The boy did not look too convinced when he timidly replied, "My face got so stung by the cold just now when I got hit… it must have been painful."
"Scorpius, I am sure Harry meant it if he said it's okay…" Draco tried to reassure his son with a more serious tone while stepping forward to offer Harry a hand to help him up, which he accepted.
The boy looked back and forth between Harry and Draco puzzledly, like he was confused by what was happening between them, then his face cleared with an apprehensive smile as he registered Draco's use of the other's first name and recognised the change in the relationship between the former rivals. His smile, however, was short-lived, it disappeared quickly when he saw his father turned towards him with a hardened expression.
"Scorpius, snowball fight aside, did you forget that you had promised to return inside the Manor within an hour? Did you not understand that Harry was doing us a huge favour by letting Albus visit on Christmas day?"
Scorpius looked almost shaken by his father's scolding that Harry was ready to interject on his behalf but he got beaten by Albus.
"Mr Malfoy, please don't scold Scorpius! It was my fault for making him play past the agreed time. We have wanted to do so much out here and..." Here Albus lowered his voice and continued, "I might have overheard my dad saying my gran would have let me play the whole day here if that's what I want…"
Draco turned towards Albus and sighed, "Albus, even if that was your idea, you are a guest here and Scorpius is a host, he should be the one to keep track of the time and the one to be held responsible for losing track, especially when we are the recipients of such an act of kindness…" He paused before continuing, "Besides, your father was right, you should not completely forgo a family gathering in favour of playing with Scorpius."
It was Albus' turn to look guilty, he was about to say something when Scorpius piped up, "Albus, my dad is right. It was my fault that you are late. I am so sorry, Mr Potter, I should have dragged Albus back inside on time."
The boy had apologised respectfully with a bow of his head, which reminded Harry a lot of the earnest way he had accepted responsibility in McGonagall's office immediately after returning from Voldemort's world and witnessing the Dementor's Kiss. Albus' apology at the time had been, unfortunately, so half-hearted that he had doubted whether his boy had believed himself to be in the wrong at all. Harry could not help being impressed by Draco's parenting skills but he also felt so sorry for the boy that he was tempted to give him a hug for the second time of the day.
Harry patted Scorpius in the shoulder and said, "It's okay, Scorpius. I'm so glad that you two seemed to have a lot of fun today." The boy looked up and gave him a grateful smile. "We did, Mr Potter. Thank you so much!"
He then turned towards Draco and said, "Draco, try not to make the boys feel too bad. It would have defeated the purpose of the whole visit if they end up remembering Christmas day by the scolding. It isn't even that late but we really should get going. Hmm… would we be able to apparate back into the Manor from here?" Albus was definitely not a fan of Apparition but he was no stranger to it either, he would just have to risk dealing with the nausea for deliberately causing the delay.
"Sure…" Draco had withdrawn his wand and was about to lift the protection charms on the Malfoy ground when Scorpius interrupted.
"Wait, dad! I need to pick up something at the greenhouse… "
"Can't you pick it up later? We have delayed Harry and Albus long enough."
"No… they are important… Oh! And we have to pick up Albus' jumper as well!" The boy seemed unnaturally glad to have come up with the excuse.
Harry sighed, "I have almost forgotten. What were you thinking to have taken off your jumper in this weather at the first place, Albus?"
Albus answered defensively, "Well… we were trying to make snowman version of ourselves, of course the snowman needed something of mine to represent me. I could not use my scarf since our scarves are identical… Besides… it's not that cold."
On the way back to the greenhouse, the boys were chatting in whispers with their dads walking together in front. Draco turned towards Harry after walking in silence for two minutes.
"Please do not take this the wrong way, Harry. I do like Albus a lot the way he is… but you probably should consider disciplining him a little more." Harry could feel his cheeks warmed, he was not able to convince himself to defend his own son in front of Draco Malfoy of all people as it was obvious that Albus was in some ways a bad influence on Scorpius, who had more integrity than a lot of adults. Everyone could see that Harry had been extra willing to spoil Albus for the last two months, so he looked suitably embarrassed when he replied, "Hmm… I will think about it."
The moment they had stepped out of the "maze", Scorpius immediately rushed towards the greenhouse, leaving the three of them to deal with the snowmen. They looked so happy together that Harry thought it would be a shame to ruin Albus' to remove the jumper. Unfortunately, he had no choice as it would be a literal scandal for Albus to show up at the Christmas lunch without his jumper.
Harry magically pried the wooden arm of Albus' snowman away from Scorpius' and removed his other arm. He levitated its head to let Albus carefully remove the jumper from its body but maintain the shape. Once the jumper had been successfully removed, he reversed the changes quickly with a few spells. Harry sighed when he realised that even with the arms linked back together, the snowmen just looked wrong without Albus' jumper. He turned sideways and saw that both Draco and Albus, who was now hugging his emerald jumper, seemed to share his feelings as they were staring at the snowmen with the same look of disappointment.
Looking at Albus' jumper, Harry suddenly got an inspiration. With magic, he quickly padded an extra layer of snow onto the middle and around the wooden arms of the snowman to change its shape to the shock of his companions. Then he dyed the reworked middle emerald green with a spell that the snowman looked as if he was wearing Albus' jumper, even though the texture was obviously different. Scorpius had just returned holding a closed wooden crate when he finished.
"This is awesome! Albus looks almost the same as before!" Harry raised an eyebrow when he heard the young Malfoy called the snowman by his son's name, luckily Scorpius did not noticed. He stole a glance and saw that Draco looked a bit embarrassed.
"Yeah, that was pretty cool, dad! But Scorpius, you should stop calling them with our names."
"Why not? He's supposed to be you, Albus! And I am happily eating sweets next to you as always." Harry felt his heart warmed but he was also tempted to laugh at this. Draco was giving him a warning look as if trying to say Don't you dare.
"I'll try to pretend this is not creepy." Albus muttered.
Harry tried to change the subject, "We should really get going. Scorpius, is your… stuff fragile? Can we apparate back inside from here? Would that be okay for you?"
"Don't worry, Mr Potter. This crate has a protective charm that the bo… I mean the stuff inside should be fine. And I have apparated with dad before so it's okay for me" Scorpius answered eagerly.
The two boys apparated alongside with their dads back into the Malfoy Manor once Draco had lifted the protective charms on the ground.
A/N: Disclaimer - I have NEVER played with snow before so please go easy on me. I just really want to have my boys playing in the snow :P By the way, I believe Draco to be an excellent father to Scorpius, strict since he wants his son to be a better person than he was but very loving that he would practically do anything within his power to make him happy. I honestly disliked Harry as a father reading CC but I do try hard to make his relationship with Albus as understandable and relatable as I can without changing CC's plot.