A/N: I will try to do weekly updates on this story; Sundays, apparently, are my day.
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A quick note regarding the blog- it contains a lot, a lot a lot of explicit material. NSFW. But good fun!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed so far! It's been great fun writing for you.

Chapter 2- The Significance of Sleeves in the Night

"I'm too tired to cook," Harry said once Molly had left. She'd stayed slightly longer than Ron and Hermione, who had left when Teddy woke up crying, needing to be fed and changed. Malfoy had hovered at the doorway again, watching Molly's instructions on how to change the baby and dress him a new, clean baby grow. It looked too easy when she was doing it, but then, she was a mother of seven children. She'd had plenty of experience; to Harry's eyes there looked like too many things that could potentially go wrong.

Harry had let Molly mother the orphaned child for a little while, singing and cooing to him until he stopped crying, but Harry had insisted he needed to learn how to feed him and get him back to sleep. He'd hugged Molly for a moment longer than normal before she returned to The Burrow, then collapsed on the sofa.

"Okay," Malfoy said from where he was, once again, standing in the doorway to the living room.

"For goodness sakes, sit the fuck down," Harry said.

Malfoy moved silently to an arm chair and sat. Harry gnashed his teeth in frustration.

"Do you eat pizza?"

"I'm a Slytherin, not a bloody alien."

"What do you want on it?"

"Whatever," Malfoy sighed, leaning back into the chair.

Harry rose in silence and jogged down the stairs, pausing in the hall to shrug into a jacket against the cold, London night air.

Malfoy appeared on the bottom step. "Where are you going?" he said, his cool exterior slipping as his voice made way to panic.

"To get the pizza, where do you think I'm going?"

"You're leaving me on my own," Malfoy accused.

"Yes. For about twenty minutes. Teddy is sleeping, you'll be fine. Make yourself at home."

Harry patted his pockets, determined that his wallet was there and scowled at his houseguest. Then he left.

There was a moment, when he was standing at the counter in the pizza take away hatch, when he wondered if Malfoy was a vegetarian. Deciding if he was, he would have said, he ordered a large pepperoni with extra everything. He cast a surreptitious warming charm on the box as he walked out and hurried home.

"Malfoy?" Harry yelled as he stepped through the door and shrugged off his jacket.

"Shut the hell up," Malfoy hissed as he stuck his head around the kitchen door. "You'll wake him up."

"Sorry," Harry mumbled.

He trotted down the few stairs into the kitchen where Malfoy, or someone, had lit a fire in the grate and set the table with two plates and two bottles of Butterbeer. Plates for pizza, Harry thought and refrained from shaking his head, although the temptation to do it was strong. He'd planned to eat it off his knees on the sofa.

"It looks good," Malfoy said.

Harry paused with a slice of pizza half way to his mouth. It was the first thing the other man had said that wasn't a response to a direct question. Harry nodded and closed the distance between food and mouth. They ate in near silence in the flickering light from the fire and candles.

"I think," Malfoy said, wiping his mouth with a linen napkin Harry didn't even know he owned, "We need to get more stuff."

Harry nodded. "Okay."

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Eloquent, as always, Potter."

"Look," Harry started. "You're living in my fucking house. The least you could do-"

"Fine, fine," Malfoy cut him off with a long- suffering sigh.

"This is a list that I made," Harry said, pulling a piece of parchment from his pocket and slapping it on the table between them. "Molly gave me the name of an owl- order company who can supply most of it, if not all of it. I can send the order across now if you like."

Malfoy's eyes skimmed the list. He summoned a quill with a lazy flick of his wrist and added a few more lines to the list.

"Do you have an owl?" he asked without looking up.

"What?"

"I said: do, you have, an owl?" he said slowly.

Bile rose in Harry's throat, along with a flush in his cheeks. "No."

"Then how do you propose sending something by owl order?"

Harry remained silent.

"I'll go back to the Manor and bring a few of our birds back," Malfoy said. Harry wasn't sure how to judge his tone.

"Okay," he said, for lack of anything better to say.

Malfoy jotted details on the bottom of the parchment and sealed it with his wand. "I've got this."

"What? No. At least let me pay for half of it. You already bought stuff."

"I've got it," Malfoy said again and Harry decided not to argue.

He stood and cleared the plates away, banishing the empty pizza box and taking the plates and bottles to be washed by hand.

"I won't be long," Malfoy said softly and Disapperated. Harry didn't have time to say that he wouldn't be able to Apperate back within the wards of Grimmauld Place, Malfoy would have to figure that out on his own and take the Floo. He didn't know what he'd do with the owls, though.

The thought of there being post owls in the house made him feel sick to his stomach. He supposed he should go up to the attic and make sure there were adequate supplies for the birds, but he couldn't face doing it. Instead he hovered on the third floor in the doorway to Teddy's room, watching the baby sleep. If things were different, seventeen years before it could have been him sleeping soundly, with his own godfather watching over him. Too many what- ifs.

However much it pained him to admit it, Malfoy was right. He had gone blazing in head first, determined to save his godson from the same fate he himself had been subjected to. Maybe it was because he was sure, were he alive and a free man, Sirius would have done the same for an infant Harry.

It was much, much later when Malfoy returned, although not through the Floo, as he'd expected.

"You can't Apparate inside this place, apparently," Harry mumbled as Draco landed elegantly in the living room with a 'pop'. "Where are the owls?"

"I sent one off with the order. The other one is coming back here. Do you have somewhere I can keep them?"

"The attic."

The exchange was painfully polite, but it was better to the precedent of bickering and sniping they'd set during their schooldays.

"I'm going to bed," Harry said. "Really, make yourself at home. There's no point in you tiptoeing around the place. You're going to be living here for the next six months."

"Okay," Malfoy agreed.

The word 'goodnight' was on the tip of his tongue, a habit, but he suppressed it and ascended to the third floor alone. He had no idea what Malfoy would be doing in his home alone, unsupervised, not that it mattered. For some unnameable reason, Harry trusted him. They hated each other, there could be no doubt about that, but found themselves in the regrettable position of having a shared goal.

Harry brushed his teeth and missed his pet. Malfoy's owls would undoubtedly be beautiful and that only made it worse. For all his considering purchasing a new owl, for the sake of easy communication, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He left the bedroom door open slightly so if (or when) Teddy woke in the night he'd be able to hear him. Climbing beneath the cool sheets, it felt like a hundred years had passed since he rose from them that morning.

xXx

Harry was dragged from sleep from a harsh, breaking cry disturbing the peace and quiet of the house. He pulled on his glasses and stumbled out of bed, only half realising where he was and what he was doing, only to practically smash into Malfoy in the hall.

"I've got it," Harry mumbled.

"Awake anyway," Malfoy responded.

The baby was still crying which meant Harry couldn't be bothered to argue. He went straight to the transfigured crib and lifted the squirming baby out, boosting him so his head was on Harry's shoulder then gently bouncing him.

"I'll make up a bottle," Malfoy said and Harry nodded, still trying to juggle the baby's screaming away from his ear.

Teddy was surprisingly warm, his cheeks red with heat and Harry immediately worried that he was feverish, that something was wrong. Malfoy returned surprisingly quickly with the bottle. Harry wanted to check that he'd done it properly, but couldn't think of a way to ask that wouldn't result in an argument.

"Do you think it's alright to put the lights on?" Malfoy said, sounding almost… worried?

"On low, do you think?"

"Yeah." The room filled with three soft, pulsing balls of warm glowing light.

There wasn't a chair or anywhere to sit down in the nursery since Harry had transfigured the bed, so he sat down on the floor with his back against the wall, shifting the still screaming baby into the crook of his elbow like Molly had shown was best to feed him.

To his surprise, Malfoy sat down too, his back against the opposite wall and wrapped his arms around his knees. Harry caught himself staring at the long, very lean limbs that were covered in boxers and a long sleeved t shirt; Malfoy had rest his head on his arms and was staring at one of his pretty light balls. He quickly turned his attention back to the baby and shoved the bottle in his mouth.

The wailing cries stopped immediately and Teddy's big blue eyes settled, unblinkingly on Harry. He made sure to tilt the bottle like Molly had shown him and held the baby close, sharing his body heat and comfort.

"What were his parents names?" Malfoy asked.

It was possibly the last thing Harry expected to hear, and only just managed to stop his tired brain form blurting something inappropriate.

"Remus," he said, clearing his throat. "And Nymphadora. But no one called her Nymphadora, we all called her Tonks."

"I should have known that," Malfoy said.

"Well, Remus did teach us for a year," Harry said bitterly.

"I knew him as Professor Lupin. And that was, shit, four years ago?"

"And I thought you were close to Andromeda."

"I was," Malfoy said. Corrected himself: "am. But we didn't talk about her daughter very much."

"What did you talk about?" Harry asked, shifting the baby to a more comfortable position in his arm. Malfoy took the opportunity to move as well, although hardly at all.

"My mother," he said, although it looked like the words pained him. "I wanted to know more about her. She's a very private woman; she and Aunt Bella would sometimes tell stories about their childhood, but not very often. And if Aunt Anna's name did come up, even in passing, then they'd both change the subject."

"Ted called her 'Dromeda."

"Yeah," Malfoy said. "I think she wanted to distance herself from her sisters. Not that I blame her.

"I suppose this must have been where they grew up," he said, his eyes widening as he looked around as if he'd never seen the place before.

"I don't think so," Harry said slowly. "It was Sirius' childhood home. Your mother would have been his cousin. I'm sure they probably spent time here, but they didn't live here."

"Oh," Malfoy said, his head returning to his arms.

"Why did you get in contact with her, though?" Harry pressed. "Your parents can't approve."

The bottle was nearly empty, the time for talking was nearly over.

"The same reason you tracked down your godfather in our third year," Malfoy said with a shrug. "I don't have any family left. You take whatever you can get."

"Yeah," Harry said, looking down at the child. "You do."

He carefully removed the bottle from the baby's mouth, panicking when the little face screwed up in preparation to start screaming again.

"Oh shit," he muttered.

A snort of laughter caught his attention, and Seeker's senses caught the thing flying towards him instinctively in an outstretched hand. He quickly put the dummy in Teddy's mouth, replacing the bottle and thankfully, he relaxed again.

"Thanks," Harry said before he could stop himself.

"We should change him before we put him back to bed," Malfoy said, getting to his feet and stretching. Harry awkwardly scrambled to his feet and Malfoy took Teddy from him before he could protest. He watched in fascination as the other man efficiently changed the baby and refastened the baby grow, then kissed him softly on the forehead before returning him to the crib.

One by one the little lights popped out. They exited in silence. Harry carefully shut the door until it was almost closed. Once again, he had to suppress the 'goodnight' on the tip of his tongue.

"There's no point in us both getting up every time," Harry said, standing with his hand on the door to his own bedroom.

Malfoy shrugged. "Like I said. I was awake anyway."

If he wasn't so tired, Harry would have thought more about why Malfoy was awake at two in the morning.

xXx

He slept right through to about seven the following morning, which surprised him because he was fully expecting to be woken again in the early hours. When he stuck his head around Teddy's door the little boy was sleeping soundly in a new, dark blue babygrow. Malfoy's door was shut.

Harry showered and dressed and headed down to the kitchen to start breakfast. He didn't know when the order that Malfoy had sent the previous night would arrive, or how it would arrive for that matter. The magical protection around the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix had been renewed since he'd made it his personal residence; Professor Flitwick himself had made the journey to London to make sure the wards were as strong as they could be. Harry's old teacher had said it was an honour to be asked. It wasn't Harry who had done the asking.

He pulled bacon and eggs from the magically chilled pantry and set about making enough breakfast for two. He had learned, from watching Mrs Weasley, that there were ways of preparing food by magic that took less time, but having grown up with the Dursleys it was more familiar to him to cook by hand.

"I didn't know you could cook," Malfoy said, making Harry jump and cease his tuneless humming. He was, of course, leaning against the doorway again.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of things you don't know about me," Harry said, turning back to the stove. "Coffee's in the pot if you want some."

Malfoy silently made himself a mug of coffee and sat down in the same chair he'd occupied the night before.

"Want some?" Harry asked, dishing up the food.

"Please," Malfoy said quietly.

The other man dug into the food as Harry sat it down in front of him and while he ate, Harry took the time to properly look at him. He'd got the impression the night before that Malfoy was looking rough, but that was almost to be expected. He'd lost both his parents to prison and been left to bear the responsibility of their mistakes.

It was hard to judge, because Malfoy had always been tall and lean. But there was a difference between lean and skinny, between pale and undernourished. But it wasn't any of his concern.

"Did Teddy wake up again in the night?" Harry asked with his focus firmly on his food.

"Yeah. Once."

"I didn't wake up."

"I know. I spelled your door to keep the noise from waking you."

"Oh. Thanks, I suppose. You didn't need to."

Malfoy shrugged. "I was awake anyway."

"Again?" Harry asked, deciding to press the issue. "You were awake the first time, too."

"Yeah. I don't sleep well."

"Oh."

Silence.

"I had the baby things sent to the Manor. It appears you can't reveal the location of this place in a letter."

"No," Harry said, agreeing. "There's a lot of protection to stop people knowing I'm here. Won't people wonder why you're having baby things sent to your home?"

"I don't care what people think," Malfoy said with a cold smile.

"Me either," Harry said defiantly.

"Plus, I have a cover story."

Harry rolled his eyes. Malfoy was going to make him ask.

"Fine. Tell me, Malfoy, what's your cover story?"

"Pansy's pregnant. I doubt anyone will ask, but if they do, I'll say it's for her."

"Pansy?" Harry repeated. "Pansy Parkinson got knocked up? Oh, Hermione's going to love that. Who's the father?"

"Don't know," Malfoy shrugged. "She won't tell us. People think it's me."

"But it's not?"

"No."

A broken cry floated down the stairs. Both men jumped to their feet; Harry held out a hand.

"I'll go," he said, not waiting for a response.

This time he prepared the bottle, changed the baby and dressed him in day clothes. They really did need more things, that much was becoming clear. Harry had managed to stop Teddy from crying by helping him find the dummy again to soothe him and carried the child down to the sitting room to feed him.

Teddy, this morning, seemed happier. He was warm and his cheeks were rosy; he reached out for Harry as he approached the crib, making his heart pitch dangerously. He was becoming too attached, too quickly. It was so easy to fall in love with bright blue eyes and little fingers that grabbed at his hair and face.

"I cleared up in the kitchen," Malfoy said as Harry sat down in his favourite spot on the sofa.

"Okay." He then noticed that Malfoy had dressed in a Muggle coat. A long, tailored black coat. It, like the rest of Malfoy's wardrobe, looked expensive.

"I'm going back to the Manor," Malfoy explained. "I'll be back later."

"Okay," Harry said, glad to be alone with his thoughts. A soft roar of flames, and Malfoy left.

The silence was oppressive.

Harry carefully removed Teddy's dummy and replaced it with the bottle, relaxing a little bit as he watched eyes that had morphed into a familiar slate grey.

Just as he was finishing up, Hermione's face appeared in the fire.

"Is he here?" she asked.

"No. Come on through."

Hermione appeared with a grim expression on her face.

"I don't even know where to begin," she said as she flopped down next to him on the sofa, pulling the baby from his arms and gracefully transferring him to her shoulder to pat his back. Harry wondered where girls learned these things. "Did you kill him in his sleep?"

Harry laughed, once. "No. Not yet."

"Good. I think a murder would just complicate things at this stage. They've stabilised Andromeda," she said, rushing out with her own news.

"Really? Yeah?" Harry's stomach leapt at the revelation.

"She was cursed, they know that much for sure now, although the precise nature of the curse hasn't been found. She's alive, but it's going to be a while before we know the extent of the cursing."

"How did anyone manage curse her in the first place?"

"By owl, in a letter," Hermione said sadly, gently rubbing soothing circles into Teddy's back. "It's so obvious. A few months ago no one would ever have thought of opening an unknown letter without doing the standard checks first. But everyone has let their guard down. It's terrible."

"I suppose," Harry said, "This is why what Ron and Neville are doing is so important. There are clearly evil people still out there."

"Exactly!" Hermione exclaimed. "And Kingsley is going to launch another campaign to try and keep people's awareness up. It won't help Andromeda, but maybe it'll help the next person.

"What's wrong?" she demanded, shrewdly surveying his face.

"Nothing," Harry tried to lie, but his oldest friend knew him too well.

"Tell me," she said in a warning tone.

"Where's Ron?" he asked feebly.

"At the Ministry. He won't be home until later. Tell me."

"It's Malfoy," Harry said with a resigned sigh.

"What about him? Is he giving you grief?"

"No, not really," Harry said. "He's his usual rude, obnoxious self."

Hermione huffed and Harry thought back.

"Except he isn't, not really," he continued. "He seems, I don't know. Almost… broken? There's no fight left in him. We argue, but his heart isn't in it. He's really skinny, Hermione. He looks ill. He was awake both times when Teddy woke up in the night, which was about two o' clock in the morning and some other time before seven when I got up. I don't think he sleeps."

"Everyone needs to sleep sooner or later," Hermione said reasonably.

"I know that," Harry said irritably.

"Where is he now?"

"Gone to get all of the stuff we ordered last night," Harry said. "We only have until tomorrow until the Ministry lady will be round to make sure we have everything for him and the house is safe."

"Do you have time to do all of that?" Hermione asked, sounding nervous. "There's a lot to do on this place."

"I know," Harry said with a sigh. "This room is okay. And so is the kitchen. We just need to make his room look good and as much of the hallways and stuff as we possibly can."

"You're going to try and redecorate? In a day?"

"Yeah. We have to try."

"Right," Hermione said, summoning parchment and a quill from the bureau in the corner of the room."

Hermione's skills of organisation were practically legendary. It only took half an hour for her to create a rigorously detailed list of Things To Do and Things To Buy, all the time balancing a quill and parchment on one knee and a baby on the opposite shoulder.

When Teddy started to fuss Harry took over and shifted the baby into the crook of his arm where he could see what was going on, and found a dummy to comfort him.

"What time will Draco be back?" Hermione demanded as she reread her lists.

"No idea," Harry shrugged. "He didn't say."

"Well, that's useful," she said sarcastically.

"Hermione," Harry admonished lightly. Checked the clock on the wall. "Do you want some lunch?"

"No thanks, not yet," she said, stretching.

A loud banging on the front door, along with a ringing doorbell set the portrait of Mrs Black off screaming in the hallway, which prompted Teddy to start screaming too. And he'd been only moments away from going back to sleep, Harry thought angrily. He stormed down the stairs, violently flicking his wand (and middle finger) at Mrs Black to shut her up, but there was no corresponding Silencing Charm for the baby in his arms. Hermione followed him, flapping her arms and struggling to close the heavy curtains the portrait usually lurked behind.

Flinging the door open, he prepared to snarl and/ or shout at the person who had disturbed their peace.

"Why is he crying?" Malfoy asked from behind a large box.

"Because you fucking woke him up," Harry said irritably. "Don't ring the doorbell, okay?"

"Okay," Malfoy said haughtily, moving past Harry into the hallway where he dumped the box. "There's more of these outside."

"Well, I can't exactly help." His voice was raised over the screaming baby.

Even as he paced and shushed and bounced Teddy, Harry took pleasure in watching Malfoy move the many boxes of baby things into the house by hand, not risking Muggle neighbours watching the proceedings if he did it by magic. Manual labour was clearly not something the blonde man was used to. His hair was stuck to his forehead.

"Fuck," he huffed as he hauled in the last box and slammed the door shut.

"FILTH!" screamed the portrait, setting Teddy off again.

"What the hell-" Malfoy started, but the rest of his words were drowned out by Mrs Black.

A loud bang issued from the second floor landing which Harry attributed to Hermione but it made Malfoy jump, Harry smirked with twisted pleasure.

"That," Harry said, his voice still louder than normal over the noise of the crying baby, "Is a portrait of Mrs Black. Sirius' mother. Your… great aunt, I suppose. She doesn't like me very much."

To Harry's complete shock, Malfoy snickered. "No, I don't suppose she would."

"I expect," Harry said in a cold voice, "She would like you very much."

"Maybe," Malfoy mused.

"Are you two going to stand around discussing ancient history all afternoon?" Hermione asked loftily as she descended the grand staircase. "Only, there's quite a lot of work to be done. Malfoy."

"Granger," he said in uptight greeting.

"What's all of this?" Hermione asked, gesturing to the boxes and tossing Harry a fresh dummy, which Harry tried to get a still- whimpering Teddy to accept.

"Baby things," Draco said vaguely. "For the baby, you see."

"If you want to redecorate, you should do that before you start moving things into the room," Hermione said. Her voice was still tight, but with the chance to take charge came utter familiarity to her, and with such, relaxation.

"Painting is quicker than wallpapering," Harry said with a tired sigh.

"Painting?" Malfoy said on a disgusted sort of shriek. "I'm not painting anything."

"We don't have to decorate the Muggle way, Harry," Hermione said. "There are spells, I did some research…"

"Eat first," Harry interrupted her. "Research later."

With Teddy still balanced on his shoulder, Harry made his way down the few steps that lead to the kitchen and started to pull bread and cheese from the pantry. Female hands lifted the child from his arms as he stoked the hob with his wand to make flames and set a heavy iron skillet on to warm; he ignored the activity behind him as he sliced cheese in even slices and buttered bread.

The familiar rhythm of preparing food soothed him and he let his mind empty beyond the task at hand. He was sure some apocalyptic event was happening between 'Granger' and 'Malfoy', but as long as he wasn't involved he didn't care. Draco wasn't likely to hex Hermione if she was holding the baby: on this he laid his hopes.

He sliced the toasted sandwiches on the diagonal and loaded the plates; on turning back to the table he nearly dropped them in shock. Draco and Hermione were sat side by side, one of Hermione's lists between them. Draco was scratching out lines of what she had written with a handsome black quill, and they were bickering in low voices.

"Food," Harry said weakly.

Hermione rolled her eyes and summoned three packets of crisps from a cupboard which smartly landed next to each plate as Harry set them down. Draco immediately swapped his Cheese and Onion for Harry's Salt and Vinegar.

"There's a seat thing out there somewhere," Draco said as he pulled the packet open.

"A seat thing," Hermione repeated. "Useful. Thanks."

"I'll find it out in time for dinner."

Harry ate quickly and relieved Hermione of the baby so she could finish eating in peace. She shot him an appreciative smile as he balanced Teddy on unsteady, chubby legs on the table, supporting him under his arms. He gurgled appreciatively.

"What were you talking about?" Harry asked, feigning nonchalance.

"Granger was attempting to tell me how to decorate," Malfoy said in a familiar drawl. "She was, clearly, incorrect."

Hermione huffed and cleared the plates away.

The afternoon was filled with cleaning and changing the décor of Teddy's room and making sure it looked like a welcoming, suitable place for an infant. Draco disappeared after lunch and locked himself in his room with Teddy; something that annoyed Hermione no end but Harry was secretly glad to be rid of him. He knew, deep down, that there were serious conversations that needed to be had with the bloody Slytherin bastard, but he couldn't find the energy to ask questions that would undoubtedly drag up a past he was desperate to put behind him.

After a few hours work, the room looked almost unrecognisable from the dark, dank space that it was before. The rest of the house clearly needed the same treatment. The work was hard, though, and even with the help of magic, things still seemed to take time.

Harry levitated the boxes from their position in the downstairs hallway and, as silently as he could, lifted them past the portrait of Mrs Black to the nursery. Only on unpacking them did he realise the extent of Draco's editing of his order.

The accessories for the room; blankets, new curtains, what Hermione informed him was a 'changing table' and a new wardrobe were all a soft, greyish powder blue. There was a box dedicated to baby clothes and another to toys, dummies and rattles. One box, labelled 'Caution: open in an area with plenty of surrounding space' contained a rocking chair which rapidly grew from doll size to human size as the wrappings were peeled away. It too matched the blue theme.

Although he was sure his system wasn't perfect, it made sense to Harry as he unpacked everything and methodically set it in place. Looking around, he tried to think of anything they may have forgotten.

"We need… something like walkie talkies," Harry said desperately.

"Baby monitors," Hermione said with her air of maddening superiority. She had just finished setting baby grows in a drawer of the dresser.

"What?"

"Something like Muggle baby monitors," she explained. "You put one in the babies' room and the pair goes in your room, and if he cries, you can hear it."

"Yeah, something like that," Harry said.

"I don't know," she mumbled. "A Conspectus charm, maybe, but you'd need to split it two ways."

She wandered off mumbling something about a library. Harry wondered what library, exactly, since they weren't at school any longer.

It was several hours before she returned with a maniacal gleam of accomplishment in her eyes. Harry was drinking tea in the living room, having finally sent Teddy off to sleep again. Draco was in his room doing… something. Harry didn't want to know.

"Conspectus charm," Hermione said triumphantly. "It can be contained with a variation on a bubble charm and as long as we control the temperature with a stasis, it'll work. Professor Flitwick was very impressed."

"Flitwick? You've been to Hogwarts?"

"Yes, of course," she said irritably. "They've almost finished all of the renovation work now, it's looking pretty good."

"You went to Hogwarts during the summer holidays?" he repeated, scandalised.

"Yes," she snapped. "And I've got you your baby monitor now, so you could be a little bit more grateful, if you ask me."

"Thank you," he said hastily. "I'm impressed, honestly. But I knew if anyone could figure it out it would be you."

"Hummph," Hermione said.

"You're going back, aren't you? For NEWT year?" He knew this already but felt the need to smooth rumpled feathers.

"Yes. I saw Professor McGonagall as well."

"Hmm?" Harry said over his tea.

"She might have said she wants me as Head Girl," Hermione said in a rush, her cheeks colouring pink.

"Congratulations," Harry smiled. "That's really great, Hermione."

"It's going to be weird," she mused. "School without you and Ron there."

Harry shrugged. "We've got different things that need to be done."

"I know," she said softly. "I don't mind."

"Do you think many people will go back?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I know McGonagall wanted to make everyone go back and repeat their last year at one point."

"Where did you hear that?" Harry asked, impressed with the information.

"Oh, around," Hermione said airily. "It wouldn't work, of course. No one has to do their NEWT year anyway. I think there's going to be about twenty of us going back."

"That's not very many."

"No," Hermione agreed. "But some people took their exams over the summer anyway."

"Did any of them pass?" Harry asked.

"I suppose some of them must have done," she shrugged. "There were actual lessons going on last year, I know a lot of people got caught up in all of the evil, but I suppose if you kept your head down and off the radar and actually did all the work, it would be possible to squeeze an education out of the place. After all, most of the normal teachers were still there."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Harry said with a sigh.

"Of course I am."

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" he asked hopefully.

"I'm going back to Ostrich Court tonight," she apologised. "I'll do the charms for you, then I need to go."

"Ah, okay," Harry sighed.

"You have to talk to him sooner or later, Harry. I won't always be here to play mediator."

"I talk to him," Harry mumbled.

"Right," Hermione smirked. "Of course you do."

Malfoy's door was still firmly shut, and there was no noise from within when Harry and Hermione passed. She showed him how to set up the tricky little surveillance charm; it hovered in his room, reminding him of one of Professor Trelawney's crystal balls. Only he actually saw things in this one.

"And they move?" he asked, poking it with his wand.

"Yes," Hermione said. "You just push it along."

He was, as always, supremely impressed with Hermione's magical abilities. She left him with a kiss on the cheek before turning away in the Floo, leaving Harry with a silent house and no one for company except Malfoy. Draco. He nudged one of the Conspectus charms into Teddy's room, wincing on the creaking floorboard which he spelled silent. The corresponding charm bobbed behind him like a demented, magical balloon.

The cupboards were starting to look pathetic again. He'd stocked up the pantry when he moved back into the house, but that was months ago now. There was a little Muggle convenience store just around the corner, where he picked up bread and milk, but he rarely went as far as the local supermarket.

Harry found enough in the way of vegetables to be able to put a stew together with some beef that needed to be used up anyway. He found the little charm reassuring; the house was large, and without it he felt too separated from the baby in his charge. His snitch fluttered around it, bumping into it from time to time in confusion. He got the impression the snitch didn't like this new, floating intruder.

Malfoy came downstairs with Teddy in one arm and a funny round object in the other, just as Harry started to worry about having to knock on his door to tell him the dinner was ready. Once again he had dressed himself in dark jeans and a long sleeved jumper, the dark gray making him look paler than he already was. Harry nodded to him as he set up the round… thing, which hovered a few inches off the table as Draco securely strapped Teddy into it. A prod of his wand later and it started to play a tinkling tune.

Harry carved a round loaf of bread into quarters and dumped one piece on each plate, listening to the sounds of the baby's delighted gurgles.

"Help yourself," he said, nodding to the pot as he ladled the last of his portion out and took his usual seat at the table. Teddy looked very happy with his latest, most likely top of the range, accessory.

Draco sat down opposite him in silence and began to eat the rich stew.

"We should talk," Harry said after a few moments of silence, occasionally broken by the clink of metal on china.

"That seems to be your most favourite phrase at the moment," Draco said. "What do you want to talk about? The weather? The chances of Puddlemere United winning the league? The state of your wardrobe?"

"No," Harry snapped, his face flushing.

"Raining, zero to none, and dreadful," Malfoy said, gesturing with a piece of bread.

"I would be happy to hex your ungrateful arse to a week on Tuesday, but that isn't really an option," Harry snarled, pushing his chair back and lunging angrily to his feet.

"Fine." Malfoy dropped his spoon in his empty bowl and crossed his arms. "Talk."

"There's so much history between us, I barely know where to start."

"I wanted to say thank you," Malfoy said, interrupting him. "For sending my wand back. And for doing whatever it was that you did that kept me out of Azkaban."

Harry nodded. "Okay. Thank you for not turning us over to him... back at your house, in March, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Malfoy mumbled, examining the contents of his bowl.

"Why didn't you?"

"Because," he mumbled again. He shrugged.

"Because. Right."

"Fuck, Harry, you know why," he implored.

Harry dropped his spoon into his empty bowl with a clatter. "What did you just call me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you change your name without telling me?" Malfoy said, every word dripping with sarcasm.

"No, it's just, you just," Harry fumbled, flustered beyond belief. "You call me Potter," he finished lamely.

Malfoy stood uncertainly and walked around to the other side of the table. Chewed his lip. Shuffled from one foot to the other. Harry stood too in an automatic gesture of defence.

"Hi," Malfoy said, extending his hand. "I'm Draco. I've done a lot of shitty things in the past. I'm not a particularly nice person. But I think... I hope that we can be friends."

Harry was struck dumb. Slowly, he grasped hold of the other man's hand and shook it. "We can't forget the past," he said deliberately. "It's too huge. But maybe we can forgive the shitty things we did to each other and move on."

"That would be good," Draco said. "It's good to know you, Harry."

"You too... Draco."