Author's note: I can't believe I'm updating even after only receiving ONE review after I requested for more…haha…well guys, I'm just taking advantage of the fact that school's only JUST started so I have some spare time to write this. Who knows when the next update might be when homework and projects and other stuff kick in? I might update again tomorrow if there are any requests, but till then~ Enjoy Chapter 8 of Acceptance

Acceptance
Chapter 8
Time Spent With You

Two months had passed since the Draco incident and it was Christmas before we knew it. Now that Dumbledore knew, technically the whole school knew about it as well. Every day, Draco would follow me to all of my classes and stay as close to me as possible, except when there were dueling practices. He nearly got hit by Lavender's spell once but thankfully was shielded by Hermione who ended up spending about a month in the infirmary. –cough cough- Sorry Hermione –cough-

Over the two months, Draco became more and more attached to the Gryffindors, especially me of course! This caused an arousal of disapproval from the Slytherin house who claimed that Draco should be living in their common room instead of ours. Every now and then, Crabbe and Goyle would be seen pacing outside our room, as seen on the Marauder's Map. I recalled that they had tried to kidnap Draco on Blaise Zabini's command before, but Draco managed to free himself somehow, but since then, he would always hide whenever he saw any Slytherins. Ron, Hermione and I kept a closer watch on him after that incident. For now, Draco was safe in our hands, and the only thing to ruin my mood was the fact that I still hadn't accomplished my mission of finding out more regarding the de-aging situation. Personally, I thought Snape would have made the potion by now, but I guess that's not how things were. Crap… How am I supposed to make him talk…

"Harry! Harry! Harry!"

Ah, his cheerful voice was like a bell chiming in my heart. How could I choose to ignore him? I'll just think about the de-aging thing later…

"Hey, Draco sweetie, what's up?"
"Draco wanna play in the snow~ It's so pretty!"

I laughed. Draco was growing up, he finally stopped calling himself Dwayco, but he was still speaking in third person. Hmm…gotta tell Hermione to work on those grammar lessons with him…

"Harry! Did you hear Draco? Draco. Wanna. Play. In. The. Fwuckin. Snow!"
"OH GOD! DID YOU JUST SWEAR?"
"Swear? Draco dun wana swear. Draco wana play in the fwuck-"
"Okay, okay! But Draco, promise me you won't ever say the F word again. You're too young for that. Now who the hell taught you that word?"
"Ron Weeeeeeeeeasley!"

My best friend had just taught my baby Draco how to swear. Brilliant. As usual, I did the only logical thing possible…

"RON!"
"Blimey! What do you want, Harry?"
"Did you teach Draco how to swear?"

…Silence… Draco just smiled innocently behind me. Suddenly…

"Fwuck you, Ron!" Draco smiled, both hands flipping him off.
"Right back at ya!" Ron flashed a broad grin, doing the same thing.

Wow. This had definitely gone out of hand. "Ron, why did you teach him that?"
"It's not my fault, mate. He overheard me talking to Seamus and Dean when we were complaining about Snape. And we ALL know, Harry, that whenever a conversation involves him, we swear."
"True," I shrugged. "BUT STILL!"
"Fine!" Ron said in an exasperated tone, then turned to Draco. "Okay, you listen to me now, little guy. Don't ever say those totally awesome cool words that I taught you."
Draco nodded.
I smiled, "good job, Ron."
"If you want to swear, you have to wait until your birthday."
"WHAT THE FUCK, RON!"
Draco laughed and said okay. I gave up.

After a few more minutes getting dressed in winter clothes, Ron and I brought Draco out into the snowy grounds of Hogwarts and began teaching him how to make a snowman.

"Now all we need is a carrot nose," Ron made a thinking pose. Draco chimed in, "easy! Just use wand as snowman nose!" With that, he swiped Ron's wand and shoved it into the snowman's face. Ron's facial expression was priceless; obviously he couldn't believe a little kid just managed to successfully steal his wand like that. Indeed, he was meant to be a skilled and crafty wizard. Somehow the wand had reacted, being stuck in snow, and shot out some random spell which hit a Hufflepuff student walking in the distance. Thankfully he was alone and no one saw as he collapsed to the ground.

"That certainly went well," Ron laughed, Draco following suit.
"Ron, I have no idea why I'm letting Draco get influenced by your ways. That guy could have been hurt, mate."
"Who cares? It was a Hufflepuff."

I considered the undeniable truth of Ron's statement and proceeded to make another snowman with Draco. We eventually had a snowball fight, which was quite enjoyable actually, I never had so much fun for a long time. Thanks to Draco, I had relived a part of my younger self who longed to play in the snow but was forbidden to.

Draco suddenly hit me with a snowball and ducked under his fort mischievously. Damn, I thought he was on my side! I snuck away from my fort and hid behind a tree. Draco signaled to Ron to corner my fort. As they approached, I gathered a huge bunch of snow and hurled it at them when they found my fort empty.

SPLAT!

Ron's head soon emerged from under the pile of snow, spluttering. I was beginning to worry if I had suffocated Draco under the snow, but my frown disappeared when I saw Draco's head pop out from the white pile as well. We exploded in laughter. God, we were a childish mess; a childish mess who just had a ball of a time.

We had spent more than an hour fooling around there until I noticed Draco trembling violently and sneezing every few minutes. I sprinted to his side, "baby, what's wrong?"

"Draco cold…"
"Come on, let's take you back inside so we can give you a nice, warm bath."

As we walked to the Gryffindor common room, I could feel Draco shivering in my arms. I hugged him tighter and rubbed his back in attempt to make him feel warmer. Over the two months, even Ron had started to grow fond of the Slytherin child, and was getting worried at the sight of him shivering like that. I could have sworn that Draco's lips turned a light shade of purple in the cold. I quickened my pace and within minutes, we were back in the room. As promised, I gave Draco a warm bubble bath. He stopped shivering but was still sneezing every now and then. Ah damn, Hermione's going to have to visit her youngest patient again.

I grabbed a giant towel to clean Draco dry and helped him put on a set of comfortable winter pajamas. "There, now you feel better, don't you?"
Draco nodded weakly.
"You silly little liar, I bet you're still cold."
Draco let out a small laugh and unwillingly admitted to the truth in my statement. I pulled him into my arms again and cuddled with him in bed. Eventually, he dozed off, and I went with Ron to call Hermione over.

"Hey, Harry. Have you ever wondered what would happen the day Draco goes back to his teenage self and becomes…well…Malfoy again?" Ron questioned. I answered honestly that I did in fact think about it, but the thoughts were never good ones. To me, the outcome would be Draco forgetting everything we did and become a bully again. I really hated the thought of that…

Ron sensed the solemnness is my tone and placed a hand on my shoulder, "don't worry, mate. It'll turn out find in the end. It always does, doesn't it? You're Harry freaking Potter." I smiled; thank god I had my best friend with me. But another thing still worried me; what if Snape created the potion before I even got a chance to ask Draco what happened before I found him at King's Cross? Would I never get to find out who hurt my precious angel?

"You okay?" Ron waved his hand in my face. Gah, I have got to stop spacing out in front of people…
"Yeah, don't worry about it."