"Thank you for the breakfast, Draco. It's so kind of you but I really should leave now."

This was about the most polite response Harry could muster as another luxurious clock on the wall reminded him that it was nearing eight by this point, leaving him only an hour before a meeting when he was sure there would be a whole stack of materials he would need to get through beforehand.

"Of course," Draco replied calmly, "but why don't you pack something to go as well. You'll be doing me a favour to help me finish these food that we could not finish ourselves. Ginny seems worried that the saviour is always too busy saving the world he forgets to take care of himself."

Harry could not know for sure but it sounded like Malfoy might have heard about the time he had fainted. He had rarely felt as annoyed at his wife as he did now for a long time as he wondered if Ginny had this all planned out from the moment she asked him to bring Al to the Manor.

"It's fine, I've some snacks in my office. Besides, I don't want to trouble you."

Draco snapped his fingers, a house-elf appeared and bowed low in front of them.

"H-How may Becky help you, Master?"

"Could you please help me pack some pastries, cheese and fruits for Mr Potter, Becky?"

"O-Of course, right away sir." The little elf snapped her fingers and the next moment, she was offering his master a paper bag with the packed food.

"Thank you, Becky, that will be all for now." Draco received the bag with a nod and a hint of a smile then immediately handed it to Harry, who had no choice but to receive it.

"Hm… Thank you, Draco."

"Y-You're welcome, Master. A-And goodbye, Mr Potter." The little creature made a strange sound, which Harry guessed to be a nervous laugh.

Pop. The house-elf apparated out from the room after bowing low towards her master.

"As you just saw, it's no trouble at all. Now I'll see you out, Harry."

The interactions just now were simultaneously very Malfoy-like and very un-Malfoy-like to Harry. The cunning way his friend had forced the food on him reminded him of the old snarky Draco Malfoy he had known for thirty years but at the same time, he was surprised by Malfoy's attitude towards Becky the house-elf.

Harry remembered that he had seen the same Malfoy house-elf last Christmas but he had been too distracted by Al's choking fit back then to take notice. Seeing the house-elf in itself had given Harry a strong nostalgia, especially considering the present setting. He had immediately felt a pain on his chest as he was reminded of Dobby the moment the tiny creature had appeared in front of her master, who would likely hate to be told how much he resembled his late father, that the image of Draco with the house-elf had appeared strikingly like that of Lucius with Dobby. Kreacher, the house-elf of Grimmauld Place, had lived and returned to serve Harry for almost ten years after the war but had since passed away as well (and would likely had been very annoyed that Harry had chosen to bury him instead of beheading him following his death). It had been more than ten years since Kreacher's death so it brought him some sadness to see the creature as he was instantly reminded of both the friend and the servant he had lost in the past.

Immediately followed by the nostalgia and sadness of seeing the house-elf, Harry had been surprised by the genuine reverence the little creature shown towards her master and the way his friend had addressed her. He could still vividly remember the way Dobby had panicked and severely punished himself when he had spoken ill of the Malfoys and the fearful way he had cowered behind Lucius just before he had been freed by Harry's trick. Of course Becky was wearing a pillow case instead of real clothes, just like Dobby had worn all those years ago, but instead of a ragged and filthy one like Dobby's, hers might as well be described as gleaming white and feathery soft. A quick look at the creature had told Harry that unlike Dobby, there was virtually no sign of abuse and punishments, both given by her master and self-inflicted, on all parts of the clean, healthy and well-fed house-elf. Becky was smiling the whole time that she appeared so happy to serve, unlike Dobby the Malfoy house-elf who had lived under the constant fear of displeasing his masters, but more like Dobby the free elf working for pay and for himself at the Hogwarts kitchen. On top of that, Draco had given his order respectfully and had even thanked the house-elf after the work had been done, which was something Harry could never imagine Lucius doing.

Dobby had lamented back then that he had been tormented daily by abuses, death threats and constant encouragement of extra punishments in the hands of the family he had served that even if Draco had not been hurting Dobby himself back then, Harry guessed he could not have treated Dobby too kindly being influenced by Lucius. Harry could only conclude that his friend had changed a lot as a master just as he had changed in many other ways as well. This might be none of his business but it pleased him as he thought about how much Astoria and Scorpius must have changed Draco over the past twenty years. Perhaps he could mention this casually in front of Hermione sometime during the week, ahead of the long-anticipated gathering.

Draco had immediately rose from the table that Harry hurried to gather his cloak to follow. Meanwhile, Albus had appeared completely focused on sampling the many types of cheese available while Scorpius was explaining the differences among them at the moment that the boys did not seem to notice them.

"It's good but… they seem exactly the same to me."

"No, they don't, they couldn't be more different, Albus. This one is creamy while the two you tried earlier were more buttery." Al was looking at Scorpius as if his hair had suddenly turned purple just now.

Harry did not want to interrupt the boys but he had always valued the importance of all these seemingly trivial interactions in parenting that he had tried very hard to always say goodbyes to his children even though that had not worked too well before as he remembered the disastrous experiences at King's Cross over the past few years.

"I'm leaving, Albus. Have a good time and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow night."

The way his son turned to him confirmed Harry's suspicion that Albus had not noticed them leaving before. "Oh… you're leaving, right. Bye, dad… Hmm, don't work too hard."

He smiled slightly to himself, he did not like his son worrying about him but it did make him irrationally happy to know that his son would care. "I'll try."

The beaming Scorpius waved enthusiastically, "Goodbye, Mr Potter. Thank you for letting Albus come again."

"It's no problem, Scorpius. I'll see you on Sunday."

"Right, of course, that's in five days. I can't wait!" The boy squealed the last sentence in excitement that Harry could not help from grinning himself.

"Ahem." Harry gave the boys a hasty wave before stumbling out the room, where he found Draco standing at least fifteen feet ahead of him. "Didn't you say you're in a hurry, Potter?"

The first day back to work were as expected, so chaotic and exhausting that Harry did not return home until after two in the morning that everyone was asleep by then. He slept for just over four hours, took a quick shower before going back at seven in the morning that he did not manage to see his kids at all. Ginny seemed to have registered his presence when she wrapped an arm around him in her sleep but that truly could not count as seeing her. Things went slightly better on Wednesday that he managed to arrive home eight minutes before midnight.

"Oh hey, stranger." Ginny looked up from the long roll of parchment she seemed to be diligently working on.

Harry went over and instinctively kissed her on her mouth, which she broke off after one second before rubbing her mouth with a handkerchief she picked up.

"How many times do I have to tell you how much I hate the taste of ash, Harry?"

"Oops, sorry." He hung his head in shame, which was mainly for show, before asking, "Is there anything I can eat? I haven't eaten anything since lunch" Of course he would not tell her that he had his "lunch" at three in the afternoon.

Ginny could be quite tough on the kids but she could never stay mad at him for too long, especially when he tried to appear pitiful like this, which was not even a lie at all. She sighed while shaking her head, before walking towards the kitchen. "I'll see what I can heat up for you."

Harry had gobbled up a whole slice of buttered toast before he remembered he had not seen two of his kids for two days. "H-Have the… k-kids gone to bed yet?" He asked just as he swallowed the last of the slice.

"Well, I think Lily is serious about trying out next year… James was training with her for the whole afternoon that they were both exhausted and went to sleep at eleven. She's really good too… If she could perform as well as she did today at the tryout, we might as well buy a new broomstick for her now as a present."

"That's wonderful!"

Remembering Al's earlier struggles with a broomstick, Harry had always tried to contain his excitement and pride concerning his other kids, especially when flying was concerned, but there was few things as exciting for a former Quidditch player to hear as the success of his kids in the sport. It was liberating and exciting to think about all the future family activities they could do now that his whole family were both big Quidditch fans and great players. At the moment, however, he was more interested to find out about Al's sleepover.

"And Al?"

"He came out of the bathroom five minutes before you arrived home, so he could still be up… I'll keep this warm for you." She called after as he abandoned the other toast and the bowl of canned soup on the table to rush up the stairs towards his son's room.

Harry took a breath before Al's door as he looked down to notice the sliver of light coming out from his son's room. He felt relieved as he knocked on the door.

"Come in."

"Hi dad." Al was looking up from his bed, he was apparently reading just now.

Harry was not exactly expecting his teenage son to look all contented radiating satisfaction and happiness like Scorpius would after having a lovely time at a sleepover, but he was not expecting to see the huge dark bags under his eyes and the tired smile which seemed to have required all the effort in his body to muster either.

"Hi Albus… hmm… D-Did you have a good time at the sleepover?"

He had hesitated a little but decided it would be awkward not to ask when it would be way too obvious to Al that he was there because he wanted to know how things had gone. Considering the drained look on his son, he was actually expecting him to say no even though it made no sense to him that Albus would have a bad time with Scorpius.

"Of course, I had a great time." Albus did not look like he was lying but the exhausted smile he was flashing him once again did not help in making that sound convincing either.

"A-Are you sure, Albus? I mean… you look tired… and not too happy."

This time Al gave him a wry smile, he did not look pissed but Harry was starting to wonder if he should leave now. "You know, dad, you could be exhausted even if you just had the best time in the world. And it's hard to look all smiley when you're feeling so tired."

"Of course, you're right." Things did not seem to have gone as well as he had expected that he was not going to ask Albus to elaborate despite the temptation and his curiosity.

"I finished my essay there." It was a surprise that Al would volunteer anything.

"That's great!" Harry tried to sound as positive about it as he could. "One less thing to worry about for the rest of your holiday."

"Yeah… Then Scorpius and I spent two hours taking care of the flowers at the green house."

"That's… nice, I remember helping your uncles de-gnoming their garden when I first visited the Burrows years ago."

"Did you seriously just compare Scorpius' flowers with granddad's gnomes?" His son asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Point taken, that was stupid. I'm sorry." Harry really did feel stupid thinking this over in his heart. In his defense, he had never cared about gardening himself that there were all but a few wild flowers growing in his garden completely by accident so de-gnoming was a sort of gardening in his head.

Unexpectedly, Al laughed so hard he started pressing a hand on his stomach. "This is funny, I should tell Scorpius."

"Please… don't. It was… an honest mistake."

"Fine… it's just ridiculous that gardening means de-gnoming to you while it means spending two hours to talk to flowers with some occasional watering and fertilising to Scorpius."

"Oh… that's interesting." Harry thought Scorpius was such a sweet boy but that was one of the strangest things he had heard.

"Yeah, apparently Scorpius had read some Muggle article years ago about how talking to plants would help them grow better so he decided he would do that with all of his mother's flowers just to be safe."

"I see… it sounds like you two had fun though."

"I couldn't pretend to care as much about plants as he does."

"Fair enough, I'm sure he would not expect you to."

"Even though Neville is my favourite professor, I've never been particularly good at Herbology too. I've always not cared much about plants whether it's magical or not."

"I saw your grades, you've always done pretty good in Herbology."

"I do okay… only because Neville and Scorpius are so good."

"Give yourself some credit, Albus." Al seemed to always suffer from low self-esteem in Hogwarts thanks to their isolation but the truth was, he had always done reasonably well in most subjects in school, except Flying, History of Magic and Divination.

"If you say so." His son looked thoughtful but did not say anything else for a minute.

It was starting to feel quite awkward to Harry and he was feeling pretty sleepy himself, not to mention he had almost forgotten about the pathetic slice of toast and bowl of canned soup waiting for him downstairs.

"You must be tired, I'll leav…"

"We visited Scorpius' mum's grave."

"Oh." That brought him back, of course Harry had not tried to stop Albus from going to Astoria's funeral but looking back, he thought he probably should have done more for the Malfoys at the time even though Draco had not been a friend to him yet. He wondered if Draco would have agreed for Ginny and him to attend the funeral if they had offered to go. In any case, he was reminded of the time he had visited his parents' graves for the first time with Hermione.

"It was the first time I have visited her since… y-you know."

"I see…" Harry tentatively moved toward Albus' chair, he only sat down when he saw that his boy was not going to stop him. Albus was sitting on his bed with his arms folded resting on his knees. Harry slowly placed a hand on his son's shoulder.

"W-Was Scorpius okay?"

Surprisingly, Al actually laughed out loud. "Of course he's okay… The grave is in this garden where there must be at least a thousand of flowers growing nearby so he was really taking his time taking care of all the plants there while talking to both the plants and his mum. But seriously, it really was gorgeous that my jaw actually dropped looking at all the arrangement surrounding the grave. Mr Malfoy and the house-elves must have spent so much time tending to it while Scorpius was in Hogwarts."

"If you didn't know, you would have thought Scorpius was talking to a living person by the way he was talking a mile a minute there for a whole hour. He was singing to her too… He would visit her every day whenever he's home so it wasn't sad like how it sounded at all, the only thing different was having me there."

"I'm sure he appreciated you for being there."

"He did say that."

"Hmm… How did you feel?" He regretted the question immediately after asking it but his son did not look upset or agitated, just deep in thought.

"I feel… okay I guess." He shrugged. "I mean, Mrs Malfoy had been very kind to me and Scorpius wouldn't be the Scorpius I know without her, and I've and will always feel sorry about her death… but I didn't get to know her well myself, did I? I'm just glad Scorpius seems to be dealing with his loss better these days."

"That makes sense…"

Al did not elaborate more so they were silently sitting there for another awkward minute.

"I guess I should leave now, good night, Albus."

He was standing up when Albus bit on his lip before saying, "I talked with Mr Malfoy for a bit this morning, one-on-one."

"I see, that's…" unexpected. At least a dozen questions immediately popped into Harry's head. What did they talk about? Why would Al talk to Draco on his own at the first place? What did Draco say to Al? Did Draco get mad at Albus? Did something happen to Scorpius? Was Al tired and unhappy because of the talk?

"Hmm… do you want to talk about it?" It was true that he felt very curious but the last thing he wanted was to pressure his son or worse, upset him, so he quickly added, "Of course you don't have to if you don't want to."

Albus had his eyes closed and there was a frown on his forehead. Harry was feeling very uncomfortable having stood up but now cramped between the bed and the chair, not daring to sit back down or to back out the room. His son could not have closed his eyes for more than three seconds but Harry felt like he had been stuck there for at least a minute.

He did not know if he was projecting his imagination but he thought his son looked confused, conflicted, troubled and sad when he finally looked at him before turning away and answered while slightly shaking his head, "I-I don't know."

Albus was definitely upset about something and it hurt Harry but there was nothing he could do except to show that he was there and would always be there for him.

"That's okay, Albus. You don't have to tell me but if you want to talk later, you can talk to me whenever you want."

"I know, dad."

"Good night, Albus. Do you want me to turn off the light?"

"It's fine, I'd like to read for a bit more."

"Okay." Harry turned to leave. He was closing the door when Albus called out.

"Good night, dad."

He gave his son a tiny smile through the now small gap behind the door before closing the door. Harry remained still behind the closed door thinking over the conversation, wondering what in Merlin's name had happened to Al during the sleepover, until Ginny came up to make him finish his meal downstairs. For some reason, he knew that Draco would not tell him about this conversation despite their pact that day in the garden.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait and thank you for your patience. I've been much busier both at work and off work that it could hardly find the time to write. Lately I've felt so insecure about my writing and would often get stuck and sorry if this chapter isn't too good, I didn't get to edit it much but I figured you have all waited long enough.

Because I've been so stuck, I've decided that I need a temporary change of pace. Ever since I envisioned this sleepover arc, I've always wanted to write the sleepover itself, which doesn't fit into a fic written in Harry's perspective. I had wanted to write it as an extra chapter after finishing the whole fic but it'd probably be the next century and I thought you'd be interested to read about it now that I want to publish this short here as the upcoming "chapters". I probably should publish it as a separate fic as it is not meant to be read as actual chapters of the fic but because I won't make it new-reader-friendly, the plot is so intricately related to this fic and FFN doesn't have the option to link a fic in its summary, I don't want to publish it separately to have clueless readers reading it and asking confused questions. If I do publish it here, I'll add "chapter X" in front of all the other chapter titles for clarification. I'd love to know your thoughts on this.

Thank you to everyone who's commented and shoutout to WorldsGreatestDefective. The wait for the first part of the short would definitely be shorter than three months.