Harry and Malfoy stood frozen for several seconds when the door finally banged shut, and their sons fidgeted in their seats until Harry sighed and dropped a hand on Albus's shoulder, shepherding him out of his seat and to the opposite end of the room to talk with him. Malfoy followed his example, and Harry tried to block out the other mans presence as he knelt in front of Albus, trying to decide what he should say. He had never been in a situation like this before; never thought he would be. Had Harry's stories about Malfoy really affected his son enough to turn him into a bully? Thinking back on everything he had told him, shame sank into his gut, and he realized that, yes, he probably had painted a terrible picture of the Malfoy family for Albus, and was probably more than a little bit to blame for his sons behavior.

Finally, he found his words, and asked gently, clearing his throat, "Do you know why Malfoy was so terrible to me and your Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione when we were kids?"

"No." Albus admitted slowly, his forehead wrinkled in confusion as his eyebrows pinched together. Harry had a feeling he was expecting a lecture about his behavior, and a smile twitched on his lips at his sons expression. Yes, he looked exactly how Harry did when he was confused.

"It was because his parents raised him to believe other people were beneath him, and to hate people for that reason. I think I may have accidentally given you the impression that Scorpius Malfoy is like his father was at this age, but he isn't. I don't want to raise you to treat anybody like that. Malfoy isn't so bad now, really, and if his son is anything like him, than I'm sure he's a great kid-even if he IS a Hufflepuff." Harry said, with wink when understanding crossed the boys features.

"I guess." Albus muttered, looking at his feet, "But he's still a know-it-all."

"So is Aunt Hermione, but you like her." Harry smiled a little, reaching out to ruffle his sons hair. "you don't have to like him, but You do need to apologize to Scorpius, and to Mister Malfoy."

"His dad too?"

"You used information about him to hurt his son; I think that very much deserves an apology. Bullying somebody else is never okay, even if you think it's for the right reasons," Harry nodded sternly, without room for question, "and I think a months detention ought to help that lesson to sink in."

"A whole month?! but dad-"

"You taunted Malfoy for longer than that, I think it's reasonable, unless you want it to be longer?" Harry asked knowingly, raising his eyebrows in challenge. He didn't want their kids to become versions of what they themselves had been as children. He didn't want to put his experiences on them.

"No, a month is fine." Albus grumbled disappointedly, and looked across the room at the two Malfoys. Harry looked over too and sat back on his heels to watch Malfoy talking to Scorpius, bent down to his level and speaking earnestly.

He pretended not to listen in, making a point of crossing his arms and watching the toe of his shoe circle over a divot in the tile floor, but his ears pricked at hearing Draco Malfoy say, "Don't let anybody tell you that you don't belong in Hufflepuff, Scorp. Professor Longbottom even says that you practically bleed your house colors. You're a great Hufflepuff, and I'm glad the sorting hat didn't put you into Slytherin like it did me. It wanted me to go to Ravenclaw, did you know? I argued my way out of that, though. Should have let it do what it wanted, now that I know how good I look in blue."

Scorpius snorted a little, rolling his eyes, and Draco grinned, his face relaxing a fraction at being able to put his son at ease. He glanced at Harry, who flushed at meeting his eye, but then the blond had turned back to his son and was saying, "And about me being a death eater, I know I made some bad decisions in my youth, but I stand behind the one I made to protect my family, because it got me you, and your mother, and that will always make it worth it. Come on, now, Potter has probably lectured his son into a daze about good Gryffindor morals and ethics. We should intervene before before he starts off on a rant about Albus's namesake."

Harry was struck by that idea, and internally wondered why he hadn't thought of that himself, as nobody could help him make a point more than Dumbledore. He nearly opened his mouth to comment on that, ready to tell Albus all about how Dumbledore would have expected unity between the boys, but he flushed when Malfoy met his eye again, and realized that the blond had been making fun of him, in some way.

They marched their boys to the center of the room to apologize, watched them reluctantly shake hands (which took Harry back to when he had rejected Draco's in their first year) and mutter their apologies, and then stood blinking stupidly at each other as their sons shifted uncomfortably. Harry as determined to make the first move, and had just talked himself into doing it when Malfoy stuck his hand out and said with a remarkably pink face, "Err, sorry I was a prat when we were in school."

"I'm sorry you were a prat too." Harry said before he could help himself, and Malfoy nearly snatched his hand back when Harry seized it quickly in his own, amending hurriedly, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm, uh, sorry I wasn't able to help you like I did everyone else."

"You're such a Gryffindor, Potter." Malfoy groaned, but they shook hands anyways,

and told McGonagall their decisions for the length of their sons detentions when she returned. Scorpius got saddled with two weeks, which seemed unfair to Harry until McGonagall pointed out that he had started a few minor fights of his own. Harry and Malfoy stood a little awkwardly in front of the floo when they made to leave, after hugging their sons goodbye, and Harry was almost ready to believe Malfoy had changed, but the blond elbowed him in the ribs to get into the floo first, and Harry heard him say, just as he disappeared, "See you next year, when my son is going to cream yours in quidditch."

"Malfoy!" Harry shouted at the empty fire place, struggling to tell if the blond had been serious or not. He was so distracted by the quick little barb that this time he did trip when he came out of the fireplace in Grimmuald Place, and cursed Malfoy in his head as soot sprayed the matted carpet. He couldn't deny, though, that it was nice to have a bit of a competitive edge between them again, even if Malfoy had been kidding-which Harry still wasn't sure he had been-and he found himself looking forward to seeing the blond at quidditch games. He could handle this. He could handle seeing Malfoy a few times a year to banter.

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Authors Note: This chapter is really short too, sorry for that, it's just to establish the general relationship between characters before we really start getting into this story. I'm really excited for this one, and I hope you guys are too! Thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing, keep up the nice comments and please keep enjoying my work, you guys are making this a lot of fun for me!