Chapter 2

Inside of a large house in Hogsmead a bushy haired women was berating a red haired man. "Ronald Weasly!"

Ron slowly walked into the bedroom he shared with his wife while holding their four month old daughter, Michelle. "Yeah, Hermione?"

"Did you do this laundry?" She pointed to the basket that Ron had just pulled from the dryer.

"Yup!" Ron smiled brightly, proud of himself for doing a chore the muggle way.

His smile, however, turned into a frown when she spoke again. "I should have guess as much." She then held up a pink and green tied died onesie that was two sizes too small for there already tiny baby. Ron's skin paled and he held onto Michelle tighter.

"This is why I do the laundry! I know you're trying to help, but this coast a lot of money Ron!" She sighed when she saw the sad look on her husband's face. She put down the ruined outfit and cupped Ron's face. "If you want to do something muggle, just ask for help okay?" She smiled at him when his grinned. They door bell rang at that moment. "Oh! That must be Harry. I'll put Michelle in the crib and you go answer the door." She quickly took her daughter into her arms and kissed Ron on the cheek.

Ron hurried from the room with a wide grin. Hermione shook her head at her husband. They had been together sense the fall of Voldemort, in their sixth year, and when they turned 18 Ron had proposed and a few months later they had a quiet wedding at Ron's house and had moved into this house in hogsmead. Molly had been sad when they told her that they didn't want kids right off but was very proud of Ron for completing the auror training and was equally proud of Hermione for completing her scholar training and was now a professor at Hogwarts teaching ancient ruins.

Hermione smiled and cast the baby monitor spell designed to fallow her around. With it in place she headed downstairs, at the top of the stairs she heard raised voices from Ron and Harry. Knowing how loud their fights can usually get the quickly interfered.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" She looked back and forth between a glaring Harry and a wide eyed Ron.

"What's going on?" Harry asked slowly. "You know exactly what's going on, Hermione."

Hermione frowned and turned to Ron. Ron sighed. "Harry is claiming you gave you-know-what to Zak."

"I'm not claiming anything! Zak told me!" Harry looked to Hermione. "How could you Hermione! I gave this bracelet to you in secrete, not so that you can give it to my son!" He held the bracelet up to her face.

"Let's go in the living room, Michelle is asleep." She walked through the doors that lead to their large living room and sat on the couch. "Would you like tea Harry?"

Harry sat as far from her as she could and Ron remained standing behind Hermione's chair. "No." Harry stated while he played with the bracelet.

Hermione sighed, realizing she was not going to get around it. "Yes I gave it to him."

"Why?"

Hermione felt a bit of anger in her chest. She tried hard not to yell at her long time friend. "Because he deserves to know about his father, Harry."

"He does know about his father, I carried him for nine months and have taken care of him for seven years after that!" Harry yelled.

"No Harry, his other father."

Harry visibly paled. "No. He has no other father. Only me, it's been only me sense day one so why should I bring him in now!"

Hermione stood up. "Harry James potter! It's not just your life anymore! Zak deserves to know who his other father is and what happened! He deserves to know that he doesn't have a mother who died giving birth to him! He turns 11 in a month! What are you going to do when his Hogwarts letters start coming? He deserves to know he is a wizard!" Hermione sighed and walked over to Harry, putting a hand on his shoulder. She softened her tone and continued. "I know you love him Harry, it's obvious how much you do, but you cannot lie to him anymore. One day he will find out the truth about everything and when he does wouldn't you rather have him hear it from you?"

Harry lifted his tear stained face. "He will hate me forever, 'mione."

Hermione drew him into a tight hug. "No he won't. He loves you more than anything, but it's time to tell the truth. It's not just about you anymore, what Dra. . . he did was wrong but you have Zak now. Plus with a baby it's hard for us to hide the magical things here and you know Zak is too smart for his age and will start to wonder why he cannot see his cousin."

Harry chuckled and pulled back, wiping his eyes dry. He gave one more look at the bracelet before saying "Maybe your right Herm. I think it's time for me and Zak to have a long talk." And with a quick hug to both her and Ron he ran out of the front door with a smile on his face.

It was a little before 12 when Harry walked into Eastman Elementary school main office. He walked up to the front desk and signed his name on the clipboard. A voice from one of the adjacent offices called his attention. "Mr. Potter? What are you doing here?"

Harry turned to see the principal Mrs. Chamber. "Uh, hi." Harry nervously cleared his throat. "I need to take Zak home with me. It's an uh, family emergency."

Mrs. Chambers frowned. "Sure, it's fourth period right now."

Harry nodded his thanks and head out of the office and to the back of the school where the gym doors were. He opened them and looked around the large gym searching for his blond haired son, who he found was playing basketball with a few friends. He waved at Zak who immediately smiled and held up a finger asking him to wait. Doing as he was told Harry sat on the bleachers and watched his song play the game he loved. Zak was great at basketball, he had excellent hand eye coordination and when he jumped to dunk the ball he landed just a little too lightly on his feet. When Zak had done accidental magic it scared the daylights out of Harry but had kept a cool head all this years.

Zak ran over to him with a bright smile and out of breath. "What are you doing here Dad?"

Harry stood and put a hand on his sons shoulder. "There is something we have to talk about, Zak."

Zak put on a worried frown. "Is everything okay dad?"

Harry tightened his grip and looked into the green eyes of his son. "No, not yet but everything will be."

Harry and Zak sat across from each other in their living room with the coffee table in between them.

"So, what's this all about dad?"

Harry frowned. He had all this planned out! He had gone to Diagon Ally for the first time in years, had stopped and gotten a bag full of wizard candy and picked up some gold from Gringrots. He planned on sitting down and giving his son the candy and explaining why some of it moved. Then he would explain exactly how he grew up and became a wizard, and then about the war, and then leaving the part about. . . Draco, last.

"Come on Dad, spill the beans!"

Harry sighed. He pulled out the bag of candy from behind his back. "I bought you some candy." He turned the bag upside down on the coffee table between them. Zak's eyes lit up and he dove for the candy. Knowing that snickers were his son's favorite he waited for Zak to exclaim that there were none in there, and sure enough a few minutes later he spoke up

"Dad, where are the snickers?" Zak was still vainly searching for his favorite sweet.

Harry's knee started to bounce as he said "There are none." When Zak looked up Harry reached for a chocolate frog and handed it to his son. "Why don't you try this?"

Zak, not one for trying new things, frowned as he took it and said. "What is it?"

Harry smiled, his nerves disappearing little by little every minute that went by. He got up and sat down next to Zak. "Well this is called a chocolate frog." Harry chuckled when Zak frowned. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Go ahead, open it."

Zak, still frowning at the candy, opened it slowly and nearly jumped off the couch when the frog jumped out of the package and landed on the table. "What the-"

Harry full out laughed now, he never realized how much he missed magic, and the look of pure wonderment on his sons face was canceling out his nerves completely. Harry, with his unused seeker reflexes, grabbed the chocolate frog of the table and shoved it into his mouth. Zak starred at his father with wide eyes. "What was that?"

Harry swallowed and laughed again. Leaning over he grabbed another chocolate frog. "Like I said, it's a chocolate frog."

"But it moved." Zak said.

Harry nodded. "They do that. The first one I tried to eat managed to make it out the window."

Zak's eyes widened again. "So they are chocolate covered frogs? That's sick!"

Harry laughed again. "No, no, Zak you've got it all wrong! It's solid chocolate" Harry demonstrated by taking another out and biting it in half. "That is charmed to move and act like a real frog."

Zak's head tilted to the side as he was handed the other half of the now still chocolate frog. "Charmed?"

Harry's leg started to bounce again with what should have been a simple question. With a big sigh he started his previous planned explanation. "Well a charm is a kind of spell, a spell that wizards use to do certain things. In this case, make a piece of chocolate move."

"Spell, wizard?" Zak started laughing hard. "You're kidding me right?"

Harry sighed. "Zak this is for real."

Zak stopped laughing at his dad's serious tone. "Dad?"

"Zak, I never wanted to tell you, but. . ." This was it. Harry's heart started beating fast and his breath seemed to be caught in his throat but he managed to say what he need to. "I'm a wizard. And so are you."

Zak ran a hand through his blond hair. "Dad. Are you drunk or something? I'm not stupid; I know that kind of stuff is just pretend."

"That's what I used to think, when I was still a muggle."

"A what?"

"Muggle means a non-magic person." Harry explained.

"So I'm a wizard, and so are you?" Zak asked in a skeptical tone.

"Yes Zak."

"So Witches and Wizards are real?" Zak asked.

"I wouldn't lie to you about this, Zak."

Zak frowned. "But you have been though, haven't you? If what you're saying is true then all this time I've been a wizard and you haven't told me."

Harry got defensive. If there was one thing that Zak got from him it was his temper. "I didn't tell you Zak because I wanted to keep you safe."

"Safe?" Zak asked quietly.

"Yes. But it is safe now. And I want to tell you about it. I want to tell you everything, Zak."

Harry spent the rest of the day telling Zak everything from when Hagrid came to retrieve him from the Dursley's all the way to when Harry left the wizarding world. He left out the more gruesome moments within the war, but did tell him that he was the savior and he had died then killed Voldemort.

By the end of the conversation both Harry and Zak were exhausted from laughing and crying the day away. They headed up to Zak's room and Harry tucked his son in like he hadn't done in years. He then continued to sit there while fiddling with the bracelet he had left on Zak's bedside table earlier in the day. It seemed so long ago, but now was the time to finally tell Zak about his other father.

"Dad, is something wrong?"

Harry smiled sadly. "Yes and no." Harry gathered what courage he could. "There is one more thing I need to tell you Zak. It's about your mother."

"Was she a witch too? Did she go to Hogwarts with you?"

"Again, yes and no." Harry pulled out a picture from his back pocket, one that he had on him all evening waiting for this moment. "Do you remember when I said that I had no pictures of your mother because they got lost when I moved after she passed?" Zak nodded sadly. "Well as much as I hate to tell you this, I lied Zak."

He frowned. "What?"

Once Harry started he couldn't stop. "I've been lying to you for a while now about this. Zak, you don't have a mother."

"Dad, everyone has a mother."

"Almost everyone, you see being a wizard means and affects a lot of things. One of the thing's it affects is your core. You know how that girl in your class has two fathers?"

Zak's eyes got watery. "So I'm adopted?"

"No! No, Zak. Sense your father and I were both wizards, the magic in us recognized our love and made it possible for me to get pregnant and have you. So in a sense I'm kind of your mother."

Zak stared wide eyed at his Dad in shock, but somehow it didn't seem as life changing as it should have been. After the storied he had heard today he could believe in anything at this moment.

"Do you want to see a picture of him Zak?"

Zak nodded fearfully but held out his hand for the picture anyways. Harry handed him the moving picture of him and Draco. It was taken by Hermione just after Draco and him went public, a month before the final battle. They were sitting by the lake in the late fall leaning against the tree. Hermione had managed to take the picture without their knowledge. Harry was curled up asleep in Draco's lap, a light blanket surrounding them. Draco had his usual hard look on his face for a few seconds before he looked around then down at Harry. His lips turned upward in a soft smile before he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the sleeping teen's head. Then the picture reset and played over again.

Zak trailed a finger across Draco's face in the picture. "I look just like him."

Harry nodded, a tear escaping his eye. "Yeah, you do."

"Dad, what happened to him?"

Harry frowned, trying to hold back more tears. "We got together at the beginning of our 4 year at Hogwarts but we couldn't tell anyone because of Voldemort. Draco's father was his right hand man, and even though Draco had left his family and came to the light side we knew they would have used him to get to me, it wasn't safe. A month before the final battle of Hogwarts Draco was kidnapped. I went ballistic and basically outed us is the process of getting him back. Then the final battle happened, and I thought we were happy. About a week later I woke up to a note on my pillow. It was from Draco, he said – well nothing nice, but he broke up with me. He was married a few days later to a pure blooded witch, and a month after that I found out I was pregnant. The rest is history."

Zak frowned when Harry was done with his story and handed back the picture. "I don't want to look at it anymore."

Harry nodded. "I understand. But I want you to know that even though Draco left us on bad terms, he was the most loving and caring person in the world. That note was the first and last fight as boyfriends we ever had."

"Don't excuse him for what he did Dad. He left, end of story."

Harry smiled sadly. "I know, but I can't hate him. No matter how hard I try I can't." Harry wiped away his tears and stood up. "Now, it's time for you to go to bed. Tomorrow is a weekend and I'm going to take you to Diagon Ally."

"Really?" Zak said.

"Yes now go to sleep!" Harry tucked him in for the first time in years. "I love you Zak."

"I love you too dad."

The next day Harry, Ron, and Zak walked down the busy streets of Diagon Ally. "You're sure Hermione was okay with you coming out?"

"Once I told her about you telling Zak everything she insisted on it. She said he might be a handful on his first trip to Diagon Ally." Ron laughed. Harry on one hand didn't find it funny. He was getting strange looks from everyone, like people thought they were seeing a ghost. Maybe they were, Harry thought, it's been 11 years sense he had been seen in the wizard world and he was feeling a little apprehensive about bringing his son into it all. As wonderful and magical as this world was, it was also the source of all his problems, and the biggest of all Draco.

"Dad, I'm not a little kid you can let go of my hand!" Harry looked down at Zak and let go of his hand, which he now realized he was squeezing a little too tight.

"Sorry, Zak." Harry said with a small smile.

Ron then took a sudden turn to the left down a small ally, dragging Harry and Zak with him. After he was sure no one had fallowed or could hear, he turned to the dark haired man with a frown. "Would you stop worrying so much?"

Harry put his hand on Zak's shoulder to make sure he didn't wonder off. "What are you talking about?"

"Bloody hell Harry, your HARRY POTTER! The wizarding world almost fell apart when you left, they will be happy that you have finally returned! What's to worry about? There are no more death eaters, things are right and safe for once!"

"It's because of my name that I worry Ron! I never had any privacy in my life because of it and I don't want to subject Zak to that! Everyone knows about what happened with Draco and I, but no one knows about Zak!" Harry looked down at his, currently, brown haired son. He had Ron charm his hair for a few hours for safety.

"Harry, you need to stop this-this, idiocy! You need to come back to our world! Draco is no longer here."

Harry frowned. "What do you mean, where is he?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "He disappeared years ago. Divorced his wife in a nasty scandal, and then skipped town. We decided not to tell you because we thought you would go running after him."

"Well you were wrong. I was over him the moment I read that letter and left me alone with Zak. And either way, the media wouldn't leave Zak alone, not with who his fathers are."

" Who cares about people knowing who Zak's other father is? They won't care Harry; you're the boy-who-lived! People bow at your feet and would bow at Zak's if you let them!"

Harry stared wide eyed at Ron before he took a deep breath and reached down to grab Zak's arm. "You know what Ron? I have been away from this world for too long." A smile started on Ron's face but before it could reach his eyes Harry walked off further down the alleyway, away from Ron and the wizarding world. "Because the Ron I used to know would have known not to call me the boy-who-lived." Harry called over his shoulder before turning down another alley, ending the conversation.

Harry dragged Zak through a few more alley's until he thought that he had lost Ron, then collapsed against the wall and slid to the ground.

"Dad?" Zak's small voice sounded scared.

Harry's head snapped up to see his son's watery eyes. "Oh Zak, don't cry." He pulled Zak close. "I'm sorry to fight in front of you."

"Why don't you like that name?"

Harry sighed. "Because it's a label."

"You always told me to ignore labels."

Harry smiled. "Yes because they hurt, and this label comes with a lot of package." He pulled Zak away from him and looked into his eyes. "I was given the label because Voldemort couldn't kill me, and I was the only one who could kill him. Everyone expected so much of me, and I don't want you to grow up with that."

"We don't have to stay here dad."

Harry frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I like it here, but you don't. We can go back home, and stay there . . . if you want."

Harry, finally understanding, smiled. "When did you grow up?"

Zak smiled. "I'll be 11 in a month Dad, I grew up a long time ago."

Harry smiled and stood up. "I know, we're going to have to get a HUGE cake." They started walking down the Alley, towards the sounds of people.

"Can I have friends over?"

"Sure, anything you want."

Later that night Harry and Zak were curled up together on the couch watching movies. They were waiting for the takeout to come before they started the next movie. Harry was busy switching out the DVD when the door bell rang. "I GOT IT!" Zak exclaimed from the couch and grabbed to money from the table.

Harry chucked at the boy's enthusiasm. He heard the door open and the delivery boy saying the total. When the guy repeated it, Harry frowned. Then he heard Zak's quivering voice call out to him. "Uh Dad?"

Harry quickly dropped the DVD he was holding and ran around the corner, his eyes instantly searching Zak for any discomfort. "Zak what's wrong?" Zak wouldn't say anything, instead he just pointed up at the delivery man. So Harry looked up.

And did a double take. There, standing in front of him was a man with a thin body and sharp features and white blond hair. But the thing that really got him was the piercing familiar grey eyes.

"Draco?"