December 24 - Christmas Eve
While Harry read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the children as a group bedtime story, Draco slipped downstairs to the drawing room. He slid the furniture away from the wall with the tapestry and pulled his wand from his pocket. He stood as tall and straight as he could, purposely placing his feet so he was in a stable stance. He held his wand high and began to cast.
Harry tucked in the last of the three kids on the second floor and headed down to the main floor to check on the twins. As he went he heard the sound of someone talking coming from the drawing room. Curious he crept slowly to the doorway and looked in. The light shimmered gold and shone off the blond head of the wizard in the room. Draco seemed to be deeply involved in whatever spell he was casting. Murmuring and waving his wand in complicated patterns, Harry watched as gold thread began to stream from the end of Draco's wand. The thread began to repair the burned areas of the tapestry and then wound itself into new names. The tapestry itself grew rapidly as names multiplied on its surface, no longer did it fill just one wall of the room, it spread to a second and soon a third. Finally, the gold thread stopped flowing from the wand, the light faded, Draco's hand fell to his side, his chin dropped to his chest, and he swayed.
Harry reacted quickly, flicking his wand to slide a chair across the room to catch him as he collapsed. Draco's arm slipped off the arm of the chair and his cherished blackthorn wand dropped to the floor. He had clearly passed out. Harry looked at the man slumped in his favorite drawing room chair. He was breathing; he just seemed to be sleeping. The spell he'd been casting must have worn him out. Hopefully, he would recover quickly.
What was he doing? Harry turned to look at the tapestry. He crossed to the wall raising a hand and brushing it over Sirius's name now shining bright. As he walked he found the Weasleys all bright and shiny and laughed to see Hermione's name there as well. So there Walburga, a Muggleborn on your precious wall and put there by your Pureblood nephew. Thank Merlin your portrait is gone or we'd never hear the end of this. He continued to peruse the names until he found his parents, then his own, and finally all ten children below his. Teddy's had a faint line that he followed back to Tonks and Remus. Good, but why don't the other children have that? I guess even ancient magic is only so smart.
"It really worked," Draco said weakly from behind him.
Harry glanced over his shoulder to see the other man standing and looking in awe at the wall. He'd been so involved in looking at the wall himself that he hadn't heard the man stand up and cross to stand behind him.
"It did," he confirmed. "Incredibly well. Now I have to ask: why?"
"Why what?" Draco asked distractedly as he examined the tapestry himself.
"Why did you fix it?"
"I've been researching every chance I had for the past month," the other man replied as he continued walking along the wall looking at all of the names. "I've found references to other tapestries that were burned or otherwise damaged accidentally by magic and how to repair them. I talked to Hermione and she said she'd tried those as well as trying to repair it by hand."
"She tried to repair it? Why didn't she ever tell me?" Harry wondered. "When did she do that? She tried by hand?"
"I don't have the answers to all of those questions, but I'd imagine it was while you were in training, and probably for the same reason I did or a similar one. Anyway, in the books I read there are multiple references to people being disowned but very few about them being forgiven. We Purebloods can be a rather stubborn and vindictive lot. I finally found a ritual that was used to reclaim disowned members of a family. It was a few hundred years old but I figured it might work in concert with one of the repair spells. It was just a matter of trying them to see which one. I tried to make it all-encompassing and add all family members."
"It added all of them, no matter how distant," Harry told him. "Just look."
Draco continued doing exactly that, stopping in front of the children's names with a smile. Just as Harry had done he ran a hand over the names. "Huh."
"What?"
"Teddy," he replied pointing.
"I saw that too. I wonder why he has the connection but the others don't."
"Two explanations I can think of," Draco offered. "First that they aren't related, but that doesn't make much sense considering how many families are on here now. Second, the spell went by the knowledge I have and I don't know who their original families are."
"That makes sense," Harry nodded. "You still didn't answer my question, by the way."
"What question?"
Harry sighed. "Why?"
"Merry Christmas," Draco said simply.
Harry looked confused for a moment. "This is my Christmas present?"
"Well, one of them. This was more of a present to the whole family if it worked and it did so… Merry Christmas," he repeated.
"What does this say?" Harry asked, looking at the changed family motto at the top.
"I don't know. Is it different?"
"Yes, it used to say 'always pure' in French. It's still French I think but it's not the same."
Draco walked over and stopped next to Harry looking up. "Famille toujours, family always," he translated. "I didn't do that on purpose. I don't know how that happened."
"I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything."
"No," Harry shook his head vigorously. "I do have to. I really do. I meant I don't know how to thank you."
"Potter, it's not that hard, just say thank you. You're welcome by the way."
"No. Thank you isn't enough for this. This is huge. I… I don't know what to say. The kids are going to love it. This really makes it real. We're a family."
"You and the children have been a family since June," Draco replied, not quite concealing the pain in his voice.
"Ok, your turn," Harry said. "Sit down."
"You don't have to give me a present just because of that." The other man pointed to the wall. "I have your actual present already under the tree. You'll open it tomorrow."
"I have presents under the tree for you too," Harry responded, "but this one is special, and I wanted you to have it tonight anyway. I wasn't sure I'd be able to convince you to stay long enough to open it after we put out the kids' presents."
"Why not?"
"Never mind, just sit, please."
"If you insist," he responded and sat back in his favorite chair once more after moving it back to its usual position.
"I do," Harry said with an emphatic nod.
Draco bit his lip as Harry went to the tree and grabbed a box. The man wasn't wrong, he had planned on going upstairs as soon as they were done. It was better to spend less time alone together until he could get a handle on his feelings. He was determined to always have the kids or their friends and family around.
"Here," Harry passed off a box wrapped in paper that would be a very plain brown were it not for the names of each of the ten children carefully written by each child.
"Shouldn't this wait until they can see me open it? It does appear to be from them as well."
"It's better this way."
Draco looked at Harry skeptically. "Do they know what's in here?"
"No, not exactly."
"What do you mean not exactly?"
Harry fought not to sigh or show any exasperation. "Just open it please, then I can explain."
"A gift that needs explanation sounds frightening," Draco said but began to slide his fingers under the paper. "Don't want to tear it. This is worth keeping, a gift in and of itself."
When the paper was off he set it aside and lifted the lid off the box. "Papers?"
Harry curled his lips inward and bit them waiting.
Draco pulled the stack of papers out of the box and began to read. "What is this?"
"You know what it is."
"This is adoption paperwork."
"It is."
"It's filled out with my name. Now would be a good time for that explanation," the blond prompted.
"I want you to adopt the kids. They already consider you their second dad and we want to make it official."
"We?"
Harry nodded. "Yes, I asked them about it. I just didn't tell them I was going to tell you tonight."
"I…I'm flattered, honored," Draco began, "but what about someday when you find someone How's it going to go when you're with someone else and you have to tell them I'm the other parent? What about when you want to marry someone? Won't you want them to be a father to the kids?"
"About that," Harry said, pulling a smaller box from his pocket and dropping to his knees in front of Draco.
"What are you doing?" Grey eyes went wide.
"Asking you to marry me."
"Have you gone absolutely mad?"
"About you, yes."
"That's not funny Potter."
Harry shook his head. "It's a bit funny, come on, think about it. I'm being honest though. I'm mad about you. I love you."
"You can't," the other man argued then repeated. "You can't."
"I can and I do."
Draco began to panic. His voice quavered and his breathing was uneven. "You can't…we can't."
"Why the bloody hell not? Draco, how do you feel about me?"
"I don't… I… fuck."
"Well, that's an answer," Harry remarked with a smile. "Seriously though, tell me if I'm wrong. You've been avoiding me since I kissed you. Meanwhile, I've been wondering why I waited so long. Yes, it's absolutely bonkers, but I love you. I want to marry you and I want you to adopt the kids. I want us all to be a family. You can keep your family name. We can hyphenate the kids' names. Maybe not Teddy because his already is and I'd hate to give him three last names, but we can work that out later.."
"No, we're not doing that to the children. They can just be Potters."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Was that a yes?"
"What? I didn't say," Draco froze and replayed his last words in his head. "I just meant I would never saddle a child with my last name. No poor child needs to have my shame to deal with. Even if I had a child of my own someday I'd have to give them a different name. They could be a Black but not a Malfoy. I didn't mean anything else by it. I swear."
"You're lying. Draco, look at me." Harry rose up on his knees and tucked a hand under Draco's chin forcing the man to look him in the eye. "Tell me you don't love me and I'll let it go. I still want you to adopt the kids, that's not a condition of getting married. The kids want you to be their dad no matter what. I didn't even mention us being together when I talked to them. So tell me the truth."
Draco resisted speaking as long as he could. He closed his eyes. He took several deep breaths. He jumped when Harry took his hand, but couldn't resist clasping it back. Finally, he opened his eyes again. "Yes," he whispered.
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, I love you. I'm mad about you too. I have been for ages, probably longer than I even realized."
"Same."
"I can't marry you though. We can't. We just can't."
"We can," Harry protested. "There's no one stopping us."
"Think about how hard life will be for the kids if I'm their dad, much as I want to be, and how much harder things will be for you. We'll never see the end of the Howlers. Someone will be insisting that you lose custody for sharing it with me. Someone will insist I've Imperiused you even though you aren't susceptible to it. Every time we go anywhere there will be people saying things and trying to curse one or both of us. There will be a million articles in the Prophet."
"I don't give a shit about the rest of society. My family is fine with us. Your mother is fine with us. The kids will love it. That's all I care about. It's all you should care about. Everyone else can go hang. Screw 'em if they can't accept it, if they can't accept us. No one but me and the one I love, that would be you, gets to decide what I do and whom I do it with. Stop worrying about everyone else and just worry about us."
"I am worried about us," Draco argued. "You think I don't want to be with you? You think I want to say no?" He leaned down and kissed Harry with a passion that left them both breathless and staring at each other. The blond dropped his gaze to the ring still in its box in Harry's hand resting on his lap.
"Is that a Potter family ring? You're trying to give me a Potter family signet ring as a wedding band? You truly are crazy. How in the hell did I fall in love with a crazy person?"
"I don't know, but I fell right back and I don't want to live without you, Draco. I don't want to raise these crazy kids without you. I don't want to stand on the platform at 9 ¾ and say goodbye to them each year all by myself. I don't want to end my day without you or start my day without you either. I don't want to think of a day when you won't be here for me and I won't be here for you. The past three days have been agony. Every night I've tossed and turned trying to get to sleep. It takes me hours longer than when we talk before bed."
"You're absolutely hopeless, aren't you?"
"Without you I am."
"That's the worst line I've ever heard."
"And you loved it."
Draco sighed but smiled and nodded. "Just like I love you."
"So is that a yes?"
"I don't seem to recall hearing an actual question."
Harry chuckled. "I suppose I did kind of skip over asking and just said I was asking. Fine then, Draco Malfoy, will you marry me, the craziest person you know, and be mine forever, let me be yours, raise these kids with me, be a giant happy family?"
"I must be as crazy as you are," Draco said, "because I can't stop myself from saying yes."
Harry smiled and stood pulling the other man to his feet. "I've been saving this for just the right time." He held up the mistletoe over his head.
Draco laughed and wrapped his arms around his fiance pulling him into a kiss sure to set them free from the mistletoe's hold, if they wanted to be free that is, and they showed no sign of caring.