Work had rarely been enjoyable to Harry and lately, had not even been remotely satisfying as he had mostly been buried in endless paperwork every day, but it was even more difficult to concentrate when he knew that his whole family was enjoying a relaxing day out shopping at Diagon Alley. Ginny had made plans to meet up with the Malfoys and the two families, well, more like Albus with the Malfoys and Ginny with his other children, would spend a few hours together. He had promised to meet with his family at the Leaky Cauldron at six-thirty but thanked to an overrun meeting that had left him unable to work on the paperwork he had to turn in to the Wizengamot before the end of office hour, he was running late. He had originally intended to chill with his family for the whole evening after the broomstick shopping and dinner, but it looked like he would have to return to the office later to pull an all-nighter to finish another report in order to meet with his family before Quality Quidditch Supplies was closed and to spend time with them at all. Work had always been the busiest right before a holiday.

In moments like these, he was glad that he had been able to convince Ginny to use the Muggle phone because it was just way more convenient to text her a message instead of alerting the whole Diagon Alley that he had a message for his wife in the form of his Patronus. Ginny being Ginny, had always been understanding and would do her best to comfort their children when he unfortunately had to disappoint them in any way because of his obligations at work, so he was feeling grateful for her when he saw a simple "OK" as the reply to his apologetic message about his inevitable late arrival, without asking when he would arrive (he should have mentioned that himself but he did not know for sure).

It was seven-thirty by the time he rushed into the dark interior of Leaky Cauldron, expecting to be welcomed by the annoyed faces of his family. Quality Quidditch Supplies closed at eight o'clock that he was praying that Albus had indeed looked at the broomsticks in advance as he had suggested the night before. To his surprise, a merry party was seated at two separate tables in a corner. Ginny was chatting with Draco on one small table while his children and Scorpius were basically playing on the other table. James and Lily were playing Gobstones while James' new Firebolt model was zooming around him at the moment. Albus was just looking at his friend with a fond smile while Scorpius was gleefully playing with two Pygmy Puffs, one pink and one purple, which were sitting comfortably on the table, with his finger while smoke was coming out of both of the Slytherin boys' ears. Harry looked closer to see that there was also a large bag of Pepper Imps on the table and everyone had an empty or near empty mug of Butterbeer in front of him or her.

Since he had rushed to get there, Harry was panting when he found his happy family with the Malfoys at the far end of the pub and started towards them. He smiled and nodded to his old classmate Hannah Longbottom when he passed by the bar table on his way to his family. Unexpectedly, Scorpius was the first among the group to notice his approach. He was laughing at something Albus was saying when he looked up and noticed Harry. A softer but every bit as genuine smile replaced the happy laugh on his face as he greeted, "Good evening, Mr Potter!"

"Good evening, Scorpius." Everyone else turned to him in reaction. Considering the fact that he had arrived an hour late, his family was in surprising good humour as they greeted him.

"Good evening, dad."

"Hi, dad."

"Hey, dad."

"Oh, nice of you to finally join us, dear."

He said to his family, "I'm so sorry I'm late, unfortunately, I'll have to return to the office after dinner. I'm really sorry. But I promise I'll be able to spend the whole Easter holiday with you all." They did not seem particularly surprised or disappointed by the news as they replied.

"That's okay, dad."

"We understand, dear."

"You know how you can make it up for us, dad? Increase our allowance and let me do the ordering at dinner tonight." His whole family loved almost all kinds of food but James was the one who particularly took pleasure in tasting luxurious delicacies that if he had his way, he would always order the most expensive food on offer in any restaurant.

"In your dreams, Jam-" Ginny was quick to shut her son down.

"I'll think about it…" Ginny gave him a warning look but he ignored it and gave a nervous laugh before turning to Draco and greeted, "Hello Draco."

He gave him a faint smile, "Good evening, Harry."

He looked between the Malfoys, "I thought you would be on your way by now. It's about time for dinner." He only asked because he felt truly confused remembering the Malfoys were only supposed to spend time with his family for about three hours and they had stayed for over four hours by now. He made sure to keep his tone casual that it would not be mistaken as unwelcoming.

Instead of Draco, it was Scorpius who answered, "Oh, that's because I wanted to keep Albus company and to say hi to you, Mr Potter."

Harry could not help smiling at Scorpius' words. "Well, thanks Scorpius. How's your day?"

"Brilliant!" The boy gave him his toothy smile before carefully bringing his Pygmy Puffs up for Harry to see, "I've bought these two Pygmy Puffs at Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, as well as some sweets, a toy bunny, which looked totally real with very soft fur like my toy rat and toy ferret, Extendable Ears, and a bunch of fireworks. Mr Ron Weasley was at the shop and he even said I'm his favourite Malfoy!" Scorpius had declared the last sentence so happily but Harry thought that Scorpius must have been Ron's favourite Malfoy all along… well, at least after Astoria's death leaving Draco and Scorpius as the only Malfoys left, that the comment really had meant absolutely nothing.

"They're so fluffy and adorable!" Scorpius was affectionately pressing his nose to theirs that Al was openly laughing at his best friend.

"I'm so glad you had a great time. Do they have names yet?" Curiously, Albus' goofy smile immediately disappeared as he shook his head.

Scorpius' cheeks had turned bright red as he awkwardly rambled on, "Well, I was going to call this one," he gestured to the purple one, "which's a girl, Bathilda, but Albus talked me out of it so I called her Lavender, because mum used to love lavender a lot and she's purple. I then jokingly called the boy here," he gestured to the pink one this time, "Snape… he gave me such a disgusted look but then he responded very well to… hmm… S-Severus and then I just couldn't get him to respond when I tried any other name… so I guess I have to call him S-Severus now… much to Albus' annoyance."

James was giving Albus his evil grin while Harry was biting his lips trying to contain his laughter. He fought it for five seconds before giving in and laughed.

James leaned forward to look at the pink Pygmy Puff attentively for a second before saying, "You know, Albus, Severus' frown looks identical to yours."

"James!"

"Dad, don't be such a hypocrite! You were laughing about the name just a moment ago."

Harry looked genuinely ashamed, "Sorry, Albus and Scorpius, I didn't mean to laugh."

Albus lifted his hand to wave it off, "That's okay, I get it's funny." His son's hand moment brought Harry's attention to a thin stack of books under his arm.

"I took it you got some books at Flourish and Blotts, Albus. That's nice." He turned to the Malfoys but could not see any book near them, which felt quite unbelievable. "Did you buy any book, Scorpius?"

"Oh yes! I got thirty books and dad had them delivered to the Manor directly."

Of course… Harry felt like an idiot to not have thought of this before.

"So you've all been hanging out here for… how long?"

It was his wife who answered. "We left Ron at five-forty to meet up with Draco here. He wanted to buy us all a Butterbeer while we were waiting. I wasn't going to accept but he was rather persistent about it."

"Please… you've done me an enormous favour today that it's the least I could do." Draco said rather solemnly. Harry still could not picture Draco Malfoy surrounded by all the chaos and craziness inside Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. He would bet that his friend would happily pay Ginny a thousand Galleons to avoid going into the Weasleys' store himself.

"If you said so… even though a Butterbeer had turned to a few for some of us. Anyway, the kids had taken turns back to shop a bit more while we've been having a heated debate regarding the newer players of Ballycastle Bats and Montrose Magpies that we kind of lost track of time. Speaking of time," Ginny's voice suddenly turned urgent, "Quality Quidditch Supplies closes in twenty-five minutes, Harry! You should leave already."

"Oh right," Harry turned to Albus and asked, "Are you ready, Albus?" The store was rather cramped that the plan was for just Harry and Albus to go pick the broomstick while the rest of the family went ahead to a very comfy but reasonably priced restaurant in Muggle London first.

Albus scrambled out of his seat but turned to give Scorpius a lingering look. "Thanks for staying, Scorpius. I'll see you next week. Happy Easter."

Scorpius gave his friend a warm smile while carefully trying but failing to "wave" a paw of Severus the Pygmy Puff. Harry thought that these little creatures somehow looked even fuller and fluffier than they had looked a few years ago when Lily had been in her Pygmy Puff phase that it looked like their paws were completely held in place by their fur which rendered them basically immobile. "Happy Easter, Albus. I can't wait to see your new broomstick."

Harry exchanged a quick farewell with Draco and Scorpius before leaving himself.

Quality Quidditch Supplies was nearly empty by the time Harry and Albus rushed into the store at seven forty. The store was mainly divided into two sides with one larger side of two long aisles, four rows of shelves devoted entirely to all the various brands of broomsticks and the other smaller side of one aisle displaying everything else, including Quidditch robes, Quidditch balls, armours, cleaning kits and so on, which were all neatly organised into two rows. A podium was set up in the middle of the broomstick section displaying a Firebolt Supreme very much like how the Firebolt had been displayed when it had first been released. Even though it had been almost seven years since the Firebolt Supreme had first come out, it was still the fastest model till this day. The Firebolt, of course, could be seen on the shelf right next to the Firebolt Supreme.

A large shelf faced the entrance directly, which displayed all the popular models of broomsticks made by the Nimbus Racing Broom Company, with a special spotlight shining on the latest Nimbus 3100. Its predecessors from the same series, Nimbus 3000(James' previous broomstick's model), 3001, 3050, could all be seen while some models in the 2000 series could still be seen like the Nimbus 2800, 2500, 2105, 2100 and even the Nimbus 2005 but sadly, the Nimbus 2000 could no longer be found there, even though it was supposedly still available from the Nimbus Company. With so many newer releases coming out from the company, it was no surprise that the Nimbus 2000 had lost all its popularity despite still being much better than a lot of the newest models by other companies like Cleansweep Broom Company and Comet Trading Company. Harry had heard rumours that the 2000 model would be completely discontinued soon in order to maximise the company's profit, which was a shame as Nimbus 2000 was still Harry's favourite model among all models from the company, but the move made sense coming from a prestigious racing broom company like Nimbus.

Harry knew the Cleansweep shelf was further down the store but he preferred to get a better broomstick for Albus so he automatically went towards the Nimbus shelf the moment he entered the store. Albus, however, had other ideas.

On their way to the store, Al had told him that he had not gone inside the store earlier in the day at all. However, the moment his son had arrived, he had ignored their agreements to get one of the latest Nimbus or Cleansweep models and had immediately gone towards the bargain corner of the store, which was at the furthest end of the store. Harry sighed as he reluctantly followed his son, intending to persuade him to focus on their agreed models given their lack of time.

Although there were usually some good quality "new" broomsticks at the bargain corner at unbelievable prices (Quality Quidditch Supplies never sold second-hand broomsticks so even a thirty-year-old Cleansweep Ten found there must be unused), the broomsticks there were usually very outdated, had a defect (usually in appearance, it must not affect its safety as required by the law) or were just so unpopular that it could not be sold even if it had been released just a few years ago and with a bigger than normal discount. With time, Harry would not be surprised if Al would be able to find a good broomstick from the corner but it had simply never been his intention to pick some pitiable broomstick gathered in dust or had been released thirty years ago for his son. If he had his way, he would most certainly spend half month salary to buy a Firebolt instead.

"Where are you going, Albus? We only have fifteen minutes left, buying a broomstick is kind of like buying a wand that you really need the time to hold the broomstick, to sit on it a little to really get a feel of it. We're in a hurry to begin with so we really should focus on the task at hand…"

Albus had arrived at the corner and was casually looking through what looked to be about two dozens of broomsticks which had all been carelessly dumped into the same huge bucket. From his distance, those broomsticks indeed looked neglected and pitiable. "I know we've agreed on the models but I was reading the catalogue today again and those models still seem too expensive for me."

"It's fine if you don't want one that expensive but we can still get something nice like a Nimbus 2500, you don't have to be looking through the cheapest stuff here…" His son had stopped picking on different broomsticks but was sliding his hand down one broomstick that he could not see. He was so focused on this particular broomstick that he seemed to not have heard his father's words at all.

"I know you're being nice and understanding, Albus, not wanting to waste my money but think of this as doing something for me, I want to be able to gift you a present you can fully appreciate for once." As much as he wanted to block out the memory, the scene with the blanket played out in his mind for the thousandth time.

His pleading words, however, had apparently did nothing to change his son's mind, as Albus had taken the rather light mahogany broomstick out of the bucket and had carefully placed it between his legs. Harry was thinking that this was nothing like what he had in mind when he had first planned to go broomstick shopping with Albus. He had imagined this to be a magical experience in which Albus would actually be as excited as Scorpius to pick the broomstick and they would get to share this father-son bonding moment when they decided on the perfect broomstick. He was feeling rather bummed when his son finally turned towards him holding the dull-coloured broomstick and gave him a small yet genuine smile and said firmly, "This one."

Harry knew he was defeated the instant he saw Al's smile as he turned to give the old broomstick a melancholic look, except…

The broomstick had a long tail of twigs and its handle was smooth but all its glossiness had somehow been lost in storage. Compared with the Nimbus 3000 series models, which had been Harry's second choice behind the Firebolt, with a longer handle and bulkier foot grip, this lighter broomstick was no doubt a better fit for the small and short Albus. The bright bargain tag on its handle indicated that it would only cost him a mere twenty Galleons. Harry, however, could not look away from the words on the handle, which looked more bronze than gold and read "Nimbus Two Thousand".

As the shock of seeing his old broomstick model had subsided, he realised he had unconsciously started smiling as he drunk in the sight of this old but pretty broomstick. In his heart he knew he would love for Albus to own his first broomstick model but it still felt wrong that he was just going to spend twenty Galleons for Al when he had spent about twenty times of the sum on his other son's second broomstick, so he forced himself to stop smiling as he coughed once and asked, "I won't deny that Nimbus Two Thousand is still a very good broomstick, Albus, but are you absolutely sure about getting a thirty-year-old model? Would you be happy flying it when James, all your cousins, Scorpius and even Lily are flying broomsticks newer and faster than this? As good as this is in the inside, it had definitely been stuck in storage for years and it certainly showed… I absolutely love this model myself but I just don't want you to have any regret later on…"

It suddenly crossed his mind that this was such an un-Albus move considering his son had always hated being compared with him in any way. "Come to think of it, are you sure you truly want to get a model I've owned in the past, Al-"

His son had raised a hand to ask him to stop talking, "I totally understand your concerns, dad… but this is my decision and it's final. I won't regret it, I promise." There was nothing left for Harry to say, nor did he had time to say much more given the store was going to be closed in mere minutes, so he offered to take the broomstick from Al to pay for it at the cashier. He felt such a wave of nostalgia just from holding its handle, it was so unbelievable that it had almost been thirty years since he had last flown on his Nimbus Two Thousand himself.

"And dad?" Albus said timidly.

"Yes?"

Al averted his glance as he said, "I know I didn't at the time… but your present from the start of this school year... i-it is the present I appreciate the most in my entire lif..." Albus' words were cut short as he was unexpectedly embraced by his father. It was a rather clumsy hug given the fact that Harry was holding a long broomstick in one hand, but he felt so much love for his son that he wondered if his heart would burst open.

"Thank you, Albus." Harry realised his voice was hoarse with emotions.

His son was not looking at him when he let go. "I should be the one thanking you, dad…" Harry risked a pat on his son's head, which was something Albus had disliked since after first year, before turning to pay at the cashier. The shop owner had confirmed his suspicion that the broomstick had been stuck inside the warehouse for quite a few years but was otherwise as good as any new Nimbus Two Thousand. He also told Harry that this was the very last Nimbus Two Thousand the store would ever sold. Harry caught a glance of the clock as they turned to leave, it was two minutes to eight. This might be a very different broomstick shopping experience as the one he had dreamed about but holding the newly purchased yet very familiar broomstick and seeing a small smile on Albus' face, Harry realised that he would not have it any other way.

A/N: I guess I can't stay away for long even if I want to :P

Wizard money and broomsticks make little sense to me but I really tried to make this realistic. (Like it's acceptable for McGonagall to get a first year the newest broomstick model yet the new fastest model released two years later was said to be so expensive that Harry would have to empty his vault to get it) Firebolt Supreme is the only canon new model here and given the way it's named, I doubt there's any model in between.

James and Lily have gotten more screen time lately but it's not planned, sometimes characters simply develop a lives of their own that they demand to be written but I do like reminding people about their existence. Anyway, I love writing two parts of this chapter the most including the bit where Al talked about the blanket.

Last chapter is now the most-reviewed chapter of this fic, thank you so much for all your comments and support, your comments keep me writing despite my tiredness and frustration so please comment =) Shoutout to Christy4 and the anonymous guest who left a comment.

PS: Scorpius with Pygmy Puffs is life.