At dinner, Albus seemed relieved to see Harry looking less tired even though he did not talk too much himself. The pizzas were not bad but it was not the type of family dinner Harry preferred and had envisioned for his precious holiday. They exchanged a few casual words occasionally but mostly just focused on eating. However, all of his family stayed behind at the living room afterwards and they had a pleasant time.
For the first time in years, the whole family played Exploding Snap together. It was loud and the cards must have exploded for at least a hundred times by the time they were done. Harry suspected that someone, likely his eldest son, might have tweaked the game a little as he could have sworn it had not exploded as badly in his youth, or he just had a lower tolerance to noise and explosion as an adult. In fact, he had to put out five fires over the course of two hours.
James was by far the best player, followed by Albus, who had great reflexes but was looking a bit tired and distracted. Harry could truly be engaged in the games after his long nap and it was a great escape from his stressful work, to just shout, scream and laugh his head off with his family but he was consciously watching Al out of the corner of his eye, who had in turn kept turning to glance at him throughout the game that their eyes had met a few times, which were always followed by the awkward but quick turning-away of both the father and son.
Later, Harry found himself chilling next to Albus while everyone was drinking a bottle of Butterbeer. Ginny, James and Lily were deeply engaged in a debate about which team would win the League this year. The fact that Al had opted out of that discussion was a surprise to Harry, remembering the way he had animatedly talked about his idol, the Brazilian Chaser Gonçalo Flores, at the New Year's Eve gathering, but then he realised that he had no idea if Al cared about the British and Irish League at all, he could be just interested in the international teams at this stage.
"No, the Tornados are 400 hundreds points behind, I don't think they've a chance… the Catapults have been doing great that I think they have a real shot. I mean, they have one of the best and youngest Seekers in the League..."
It should not have come as a surprise to Harry that Lily, who had always seemed more similar to Ginny than Harry, and had born into a large family of avid Quidditch fans, would appear to really know her stuff in front of the senior Quidditch correspondent of the Daily Prophet but perhaps because she had always been more of a casual fan and had seemed more interested in bands, animals and magical creatures that he was suddenly struck with the realisation that his daughter had become all grown-up. It was not even April but it looked like she had already grown more than an inch since the start of the year. At this rate, she would likely be taller than Albus by the end of the year. He tried not to think about the inevitable day when she would start dating (or had she already found her first boyfriend?) but to listen to their debate instead, which was indeed stimulating and well-thought out instead of some past-time debates by amateurs even though Lily was only a thirteen-year-old and had never been on a team before.
Albus had been quietly drinking his Butterbeer without showing any sign that he had been paying attention to his family's conversation. He definitely looked tired to Harry as he noticed the ever present heavy bags under his eyes.
"How are you doing, Albus?"
The boy's shoulders jumped up literally as he frantically turned his head a few times, "Wh-what?"
Harry cringed a little as he pushed a hand outward to calm the boy down, "Sorry, Albus. I didn't mean to scare you."
"Oh… I wouldn't say you scared me, dad. It's just that I was sort of… daydreaming." His son proceeded to take a sip of his buttery drink to calm his nerves but did not say anything anymore like he had not heard his question at all.
Harry watched him for half a minute to realise that he was not getting an answer but he did not wanted to scare the boy again, so he gently nudged him with his elbow, "Hmm, Albus… you look so tired, are you feeling okay?" He added another question somewhat reluctantly as he did not truly want Al to agree to this suggestion even though it was the right thing to say. "Do you want to go back to your own room?"
"I'm fine, dad… It's comfy here, I wanna stay for a bit longer."
Remembering the way Albus had bravely attempted to save every goal, he was glad that this gave him some easy topics to talk about, "Did you hurt yourself this morning? Some of the blocks looked particularly rough."
Albus let out a deep sigh, Harry wondered if it was done for his benefit. "I told you, dad... I'm fine." At least his tone only sounded impatient but not irritated.
"Sometimes when you hurt yourself at Quidditch, you wouldn't notice it until much later, and I should know about that. I d-don't mean to fuss over you, Albus… but you were untrained and you have done such a brave job… so naturally I'd feel a bit concerned."
Seeing Harry's reasoning, Albus answered after deliberating for ten seconds. "You don't have to worry much, dad. You saw it yourself that I was covered from head to toes…" He shrugged before continuing, "My muscles do feel sore and I believe I got a few small bruises but that's it. I didn't break or injure anything."
"Oh, you got bruises!" Harry had never been the kind of father who pampered his children much and he had brushed off hundreds or probably thousands of bruises in his Quidditch days but he did not even take a moment to think as he draw his wand out, "Accio bruise removal paste." Albus' eyes widened while his family's conversation died down as they turned to stare at the piece of yellow paste flying into Harry's hand.
Al made a face when Harry reached his hand out towards the boy, with the paste lying on his open palm, "Dad! They're only some tiny bruises, this is hardly necessary!"
"Of course it's."
Albus turned to look at his siblings, who were hastily turning back towards each other after some urging by Ginny, before reaching out to pick up the paste very reluctantly. He sighed then slowly placed his bottle on the coffee table, stole a glance towards his siblings again, who seemed to be trying their hardest to pretend not to look, before rolling up his right sleeve until a dark bruise the size of a Galleon on his elbow came into view.
George and Ron had significantly improved the paste that it could work now within ten minutes but with his left hand needing to hold the paste in place, Albus looked very awkward as he reached for his Butterbeer after a minute. Thanks to Ginny, the conversation at the opposite side had completely resumed and James and Lily did not seem to pay their brother any attention at all.
After a minute, Albus breathed out, "This is so embarrassing." It was said with frustration and resigned annoyance instead of anger and spite, but Harry could not help wondering if he had overreacted. He had not tried to talk to Albus since he had summoned the paste and his son looked like he was in no mood to talk at all. As he used the awkward moment to think it over, he agreed that if he had been Albus, he would not have wanted to fuss over some small bruises, especially not in front of his siblings. He started kicking himself for overdoing it when all he wanted to do was to help but it was only because this was such a rare chance in which he knew exactly what he could easily do to help, unlike Al's nightmares. He should have at least let Al tend to the bruises in private in his own room but he could not undo it now so he desperately tried to talk about something that could change the atmosphere.
"Hey Albus, have you heard anything from Scorpius lately?"
Al looked somewhat surprised by the sudden mention of his best friend but then a smile broke on his face, "Yes, I've just received a letter from him today."
"How's he doing?"
"Great, he's been spending a lot of quality time with his dad. And these were his exact words." Harry laughed out loud as Al had even said the line in a posh and high-pitched Scorpius-like voice. He was not surprised to hear Scorpius spending more time with his dad, the Malfoys had been getting along so much better these days that the truth was, he could only hope that he and Albus could reach the same type of understanding and trusting relationship the Malfoys now shared.
"Yeah," the way Albus said it sounded to him that there was more to the story. His son seemed to have completely forgotten about his annoyance with the bruise removal paste as he laughed happily to himself after a moment. Harry was curious, wondering if the boy would share his little joke as he started taking a sip from his bottle.
"Scorpius had his dad helped him built a mini house for his Pygmy Puffs."
Harry choked on his drink and it was not until a whole minute of coughing later when he could breathe normally.
Albus tried very hard not to laugh at his expense and had asked "Are you okay, dad?" but it was obvious that he had found his reaction hilarious and he was looking forward to elaborate on the story. It was very uncomfortable but deep down, Harry thought it was worth it to choke like that just to hear his son's rare hearty laugh.
Al continued once he had stopped coughing. "Scorpius had seen many beautiful and sophisticated Muggle dollhouses before and he wanted to build a three-storey one just like it. His father had argued that the Pygmy Puffs would not have much use for it when they could freely roam, or more accurately, roll around the Manor but you know how things are with Scorpius and his dad… Scorpius always wins." He pronounced the last sentence with a fond smile, the happiest Harry had seen since he had been back.
"Mr Malfoy had wanted to just buy one and he didn't even care about the price but Scorpius really wanted to build an unique one of his own and he even pulled out the trump card saying he wanted to share the experience with his dad that before you knew it, they had been working on it the past two days and haven't finished it yet even with the help of magic because it's all so new and difficult for them. Scorpius originally wanted to paint the house pink or purple but had since decided against it and painted it in light blue and cream."
It was once again proven to Harry that Draco Malfoy would do absolutely anything for his son. He could not truly reconcile the image of the snotty bully who had enjoyed spitting out the word Mudblood at any available opportunity with this softie of a father building a dollhouse with his son, but then it really was not much of a stretch for this Draco Malfoy he had grown to know, the one who had been willing to get lost in time for eternity in order to have his son back, the one who had written that long heartfelt letter to thank him after he had done what he had believed to be a simple thing to let Albus visited the Malfoys on Christmas day, the one who had nearly choked up being greeted by his excited son following a school term and the one who had said that Scorpius' happiness was the only thing that mattered in his life. It only made sense that he would agree to anything harmless as long as it would make his son happy.
Thankfully, talking about the Malfoys had put Albus in a much more talkative mood that he even shared with Harry about some of the school topics he had found particularly challenging and his concern about the O.W.L.s. It was a nice change for him to be able to give helpful advices for once. He steered clear of the topic of Al's nightmares because things were going well that he did not want to risk messing it up, not to mention the fact that Al would hate talking about anything personal in front of his brother. Even though Harry had a long nap in the afternoon, he had been so sleep-deprived lately that he still found himself yawning by eleven o'clock.
Harry got up at eight-thirty to cook breakfast for his family the following day. He had hoped that Albus would sleep in but was not surprised to find his son silently sitting on the sofa on his own staring blankly at a half-empty mug when he reached the ground floor.
He tried to muster as much cheerfulness as he could as he greeted the boy, "Good morning, Albus. You're up early!"
"Good morning, dad." Al gave him a slightly tired smile, but the way his eyes had lighted up a little told Harry that his son seemed genuinely happy to see him. "Hmm… I was up half an hour ago and couldn't get back to sleep, I thought that I should wait for you so… I could watch you cook."
Considering that waking up at eight really was not that bad, if Albus was indeed telling the truth, Harry was able to focus on the bright side here to relish the information that Al actually seemed to have enjoyed cooking with him the previous day and wanted to spend more time with him instead of sulking in his room. "Of course! Do you want to help out today or do you prefer to just watch?"
It was the Saturday before Easter and while the Potter family needed to attend the big Weasley family gathering at the Burrow on Easter Sunday, Saturday was more free so Harry had made plans to bring the whole family to have lunch at Andromeda's home with Andromeda, Teddy and Victoire, which was why Harry decided on a light breakfast with just eggs and toasts. However, just as his family had different preferences for the types of pancakes, they had different preferences for eggs as well with Lily and Ginny liking poached eggs, James liking fried eggs and Harry and Al liking scrambled eggs, which made this the perfect cooking lesson as well as father-son bonding session where Harry got to teach Al how to cook not one, but three types of eggs within half an hour.
Harry still remembered he had used to be very afraid of cracking eggs when he had first learned cooking as a child because he had been chided by Aunt Petunia for being clumsy and having gotten egg whites everywhere or breaking the eye yolks and been reprimanded very severely once by Uncle Vernon because there had been eggshells in his egg.
Harry had cracked the eggs himself the previous day when he made the pancakes so this was the first time his son cracked eggs on his own. He did not realise he was holding a breath when he saw Albus gingerly crack his first egg but his son managed to do it perfectly after seeing him do it once. His heart swelled with pride as he saw the boy gained confidence and was able to do it flawlessly again and again. Harry had learned a foolproof spell to help him crack eggs but he decided that he did not need to teach his son that because there was something unreasonably satisfying about seeing a precisely cracked egg without the use of magic.
He had thought that Al was good the previous day but seeing his son familiarised himself quickly with the various techniques after seeing each demonstrated only once convinced Harry that Al had a talent in cooking and he could not help pondering the possibility that they had created a new family tradition of their own for the father and son to cook breakfast as a way to bond. While he certainly preferred his son to be able to sleep in every day of the holiday, which would mean that he was comfortably sleeping without being plagued with nightmares, he found himself loving the opportunity to share this time with his son. He did not try to talk about anything outside of cooking today but it was a lovely time shared by just the two of them.
A/N: I might have made a couple of (small) miniature models this year that I had to have Scorpius making one. I see Scorpius as an overly-excited puppy who would easily be attracted by cute things. And Draco… let's just say Scorpius is his biggest weakness, haha.
Thank you so much for all your kind words, I was feeling quite upset earlier but I've been doing better even though I've been rather distracted so next chapter might take a bit longer. I was going to do a special shoutout but decided I should just thank everyone because every comment meant so much to me: Sharklove9999, wrestlingfanforever, Criis46, Ronnie Jane, HogwartsDreamer113 and kahn1969, special shoutout to JennH, I was really moved by your lovely comment. I love you all and please comment.
PS: Yes, I'm not even trying with the chapter title ;)