"Who is that from?" Draco Malfoy asked his new wife, Luna, as he came into the kitchen and found her removing a message from a strange owl's leg.
Turning to give her new husband a loving smile, she said, "I don't recognize the handwriting." Quickly tearing the note open, she said, "Oh, it's from Harry!"
"Potter?" Draco asked, puzzled. "What does he want?"
"He wants to come over to give us our wedding present," Luna told him, smiling happily.
Draco was stunned that Harry Potter would actually want to give them a wedding gift, considering the bad blood he'd had with The Boy Who Lived over the years.
Luna, noting Draco's expression, said softly, "The war is over now, love. It's time to move on. And, besides, he's been my friend since my fourth year." After a pause, she asked, "So, do you think tomorrow afternoon would be good for him to visit?"
"Yeah, that would be fine," Draco said, resigned to having Potter as a visitor in his home. He knew it would make Luna happy, so the young man was determined to make the best of it.
"I'll send him an owl right away, then," Luna said serenely, moving to the desk in the corner.
"After you get that done, I've got something better we can do," Draco told her, eyebrows quivering suggestively.
"How about you go turn down the covers on the bed and I'll be with you in a few minutes," she said, blushing.
"I'll be waiting," Draco said. "Don't take too long or I'll come hunt you down."
---
Harry got up early the next morning to go buy the chess set for Luna and Draco. He slipped out of bed carefully, so as not to wake Ginny, then went downstairs to make himself some breakfast before flooing to Diagon Alley.
As he entered the kitchen, he found Molly Weasley already up, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.
Looking up at Harry, she said, "You're up early."
"So are you," Harry observed. "I wanted to get an early start to go buy Luna's wedding present. I got an owl from her last night, inviting me to come over this afternoon."
"Is Ginny going to go with you," Molly asked.
"She can if she wants to," Harry replied offhandedly. "But she didn't seem interested in it when I got the owl from Luna."
"Ginny does need her rest," Molly pointed out. "It probably would be for the best if you went alone." Rising from her seat, she said, "Let me make you a little breakfast before you go."
"All right," Harry agreed, taking a seat
Twenty minutes later, he arrived in Diagon Alley, where shops were beginning to open for the day. Wasting no time, he headed straight for the store where he'd seen the wizarding chess set, hoping they'd not already sold it to someone else.
He was in luck, the chess set was still there waiting for him. A short time later, Harry headed back to Grimmauld Place, minus quite a few galleons. Ginny was up, sitting at the table eating breakfast with her mother as he entered the kitchen.
"Well, that didn't take long," Molly observed. "Can I fix you anything more to eat?"
"A glass of pumpkin juice would be nice," Harry answered. "But I'm not hungry again yet." He seated himself beside his wife, who was still wrapped in a blanket.
As she set the juice down in front of him, Molly demanded, "Well? Did you get it? Let's see it."
Harry pulled the reduced gift from his pocket and set it on the table. Taking his wand, he tapped it once and said, "Engorgio!". The chess set obligingly returned to its normal size.
Both Ginny's and Molly's eyes bugged out a bit at the sight of the obviously expensive gift. "How much did that cost?" Molly demanded. "Surely you could have chosen something less expensive that would have been sufficient."
"Yeah, you don't want to give the ferret something that nice," Ginny put in, agreeing with her mother, as usual.
"I do want to give Luna something this nice, however," Harry said, feeling his temper rising within him. "She's married Malfoy, like it or not, and we're going to have to accept that and get used to it, if we want to maintain our friendship with her."
"Perhaps you don't need to be worrying so much about your friends so much and start concentrating on your family more," Ginny sniffed. "You should worry more about how we feel than how Luna and Hermione feel."
Feeling his composure slipping even more, he grated out, "I suppose this means you won't be coming with me to present this gift to Luna, then?"
"That's right," Ginny affirmed. "I'm not about to step foot anywhere near where Draco Malfoy lives. You could have Luna come over here by herself, you know."
"I can't believe what you're saying," Harry exclaimed. "How would you feel if one of your friends invited you over and you were expected to leave me at home?"
"That's not the same thing at all," Ginny insisted. "You were never a Death Eater."
"When are you going to let this go?" Harry asked. "The Malfoys aren't Death Eaters any more. Narcissa Malfoy saved my life. They're trying to move on and learn from their mistakes. I don't like them much, either, but for Hermione's and Luna's sakes, we need to give them a chance."
"I can't and I won't," Ginny insisted. "I'll never forgive Lucius Malfoy for almost getting me killed."
"We've already been over this," Harry said,exasperated. "Professor Dumbledore once told me that Malfoy didn't know exactly what the diary was or how dangerous it was; that he was only trying to embarrass your father with it. Hermione told me that Malfoy had confirmed what the Professor said."
"He certainly didn't wish Ginny well," Molly sniffed.
"Let's go upstairs where we can finish this in private," Harry growled, not wishing to deal with both Weasley women in stereo.
Once the couple had shut the door to their bedroom a few moments later, Ginny pouted to Harry, "I don't see why you expect me to pretend like the Malfoys never did anything wrong and expect them to be my new best friends."
"I don't expect you to make friends with the Malfoys," Harry snapped, his voice raised a hair. "But I would like if you could be at least civil when we meet them out in public, out of respect for Luna and Hermione. Is that too much to ask? That you not embarrass me?"
"Don't you raise your voice at me, Harry Potter!" Ginny exclaimed, her voice raised to match his. "I won't have it!"
"Fine," Harry said dismissively, heading to the door.
"Where are you going?" Ginny demanded.
"Out," he replied. "I'm tired of arguing with you."
Before she could reply, he banged the door closed, and slammed down the stairs, where, predictably, Molly Weasley was waiting at the bottom.
"What happened up there?" she asked. "You shouldn't be upsetting Ginny in her condition."
"If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather not talk about it," Harry said in a curt tone of voice. He moved past his mother in law and went into the kitchen to retrieve the chess set. After reducing it and putting it back in his pocket. he grabbed his broomstick and went to the fireplace to floo to Hogsmeade, where he could go flying for a couple of hours to forget about his troubles.
A few hours later, Harry reluctantly brought his broom back to the ground, as it was time to visit Luna and her new husband. After reducing his broom and sticking it in his pocket, he walked to the centre of town, to the Three Broomsticks, where he would floo to their new home. Luna had told him to floo precisely at three o'clock, as they'd only keep the floo open to their home for a short time.
He slipped quietly into the Three Broomsticks, not wanting to get caught up in conversation with anyone. Going directly to a small private dining room right off the main room, he stepped up to the fireplace, grabbed some floo powder, and quickly flooed to his destination.
As he stepped out of the fireplace at his destination, Harry found himself in a small anteroom near the front door to the home. A closed, inner door stood to his right, which he assumed led into the home proper. Harry realized that this was the guest floo room. Grimmauld Place had a similar room, but the fireplace in that room had been sealed long before Harry had first set foot in the Black family home.
A loud crack interrupted his thoughts, revealing a young house elf, somewhat taller than average for his kind.
"I is Bippy," the elf said. "Master Draco and Mistress Luna is expecting Harry Potter." Beckoning toward the inner door, the elf opened it, then allowed Harry to precede him inside.
No sooner than the elf had escorted Harry inside than Luna rushed forward to greet him. She was dressed in a cheerful blue robe with a yellow sunflower pattern on it.
"Harry, I'm so glad you came!" Luna said happily. "Isn't Ginny with you? I'd hoped to see her."
"Uh, ah, she's not feeling all that well today," Harry lied, not wanting to hurt Luna's feelings. "It's almost her time and she gets tired really easily these days."
"I hope it isn't Nargles," Luna said in a worried tone. "It's Nargle season and they can really make a person tired."
Before Harry could comment, Draco Malfoy entered the room from a door in the back. He noticed that the younger Malfoy had allowed his hair to grow long enough to be caught into a short ponytail, which served to emphasize his strong resemblance to his father.
Moving to stand protectively next to his new wife, he said, "Potter," managing to keep from curling his lip. Draco was relieved to see that Potter had come alone; he was glad to avoid the completely classless Ginny Weasley Potter.
"Malfoy," Harry replied. Both men were willing to try to get along, but felt rather awkward, considering the history between them.
"Why don't we all sit down?" Luna said placidly. "Bippy will be bringing us some butterbeer and snacks."
Harry took a seat on an arm chair opposite the Malfoys, who had sat themselves together on the sofa.
"So, err, you have a nice place here," Harry said, trying to get the conversation going.
"It's one of Father's estates," Draco told him. "We haven't decided whether we're going to live here permanently, but we'll stay at least until the baby is born and Luna has recovered. We may decide to build our own home at some point."
"You didn't want to stay at Malfoy Manor?" Harry asked.
"We thought about it," Malfoy admitted. "But Luna and I thought it best that we start off our marriage with some privacy, especially considering she's pregnant. And with Mum having another baby as well, we figured she and Father would want their privacy as well."
"I can definitely understand that," Harry said with a rueful smile, thinking of his meddlesome mother in law.
"I'll bet you can," Malfoy replied, allowing a smirk and then a shudder at the thought of the pushy Weasley matriarch as a mother in law.
Reaching into his pocket, Harry said, "Oh, before I forget, here's your wedding gift."
He set the reduced package on the coffee table in front of them, then said to Luna, "Why don't you do the honors?"
Luna eagerly pulled out her wand, then enlarged the gift.
"Oh, it's quite lovely, Harry," Luna said, smiling. "Thank you!"
"I knew that both you and Ma...err...Draco like to play chess, so I thought this would be something you might enjoy together," Harry explained.
Draco looked at Harry in surprise after noting the obvious quality of his gift. "Thanks, Po...err...Harry," he said, meaning it. "All we had at this house was my battered old set I used to use at Hogwarts. I'd missed the good set I used back at the Manor and I'd not gotten around to getting a proper set for this house. This one is perfect."
"I'm glad you like it," Harry said sincerely.
"You'll have to come over and play some nights when you're not busy," Draco said. "Goyle comes to visit sometimes, but he's too dim to be any challenge for me."
"I can't say that I'd be much better," Harry admitted. "Ron used to wipe up the floor with me when we'd play chess." After a pause, he said, "But, sure, I'd be happy to come over and play some time."
"You couldn't be worse than Goyle," Draco insisted. "It's just that Weasley was a natural at chess. He used to beat me fairly often during Chess Club matches."
At that moment, Bippy entered the room with refreshments, after which Luna changed the subject to all the babies soon to be born to their respective families. After a few moments, Harry found that he was actually enjoying the visit, and that Malfoy wasn't so bad, after all, which Harry credited to Luna's influence.
---
A/N Thanks for reading and reviewing. Keep it coming!
A/N Next Chapter: An Offer He Couldn't Refuse