A/N: This is a short(er) chapter, but vitally important, plot-wise.
People are leaving me some really lovely reviews; thank you, I love reading your comments. Sorry I don't reply to more. I'm crap - that's the only excuse I have. And it's a poor one at that. This new FF layout is funny, isn't it?

Chapter 19- Wow

"So, they just offered you a place on a team? Just like that?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Well, no, not quite," Harry admitted. The two people had approached him with a clear and open offer: the Quidditch league wants you. "I'm going to a day of tryouts to see who will take me."

"They're making you try out?" Draco said, teasing now. They were sat on the long counters in Draco's basement, eating from a bag of hot chips drenched with salt and vinegar that Harry had picked up on his way home. The pub, once again, had been abandoned.

"Well, I sort of insisted."

"You insisted on trying out?"

"Yeah. I don't want them to just give me a place on a team just because of who I am."

"Of course not. It couldn't be because you're a bloody brilliant player, could it? Gryffindors," he sighed derisively. "Ow."

"What?"

"Burned my fingers." Draco held up a slightly pink thumb and forefinger. Harry kissed them better, tasting the tang of vinegar lingering on the skin and healed the burn with a quick spell. "Thanks."

"They have an excellent childcare system," Harry said. "You know. The Quidditch league. And they recognise same- sex partners."

"When would that ever be important?" Draco laughed.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. But it's nice."

"Did you ask someone this?"

"No. But I've got a lot of pamphlets."

Draco smiled. "You know, when I was growing up I always wanted to go out with a Quidditch player."

"Really? Why?"

"Oh, you know. The fame and notoriety. Good seats to matches which didn't require my father's influence to procure. The fact that I could state this around my parents without having to specify which gender of partner I was referring to. The fact that a lot of them are fit."

"I wouldn't know," Harry said honestly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "So... you're going to be a professional Quidditch player now, then?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess it's a possibility. I don't know what else I could do, you know? I haven't got any NEWTs, and I've done pretty much bugger all for the past year. Quidditch is one of the only things I'm good at."

"That's not true. But I'm not going to discourage you from pursuing Quidditch as a career option."

"Oh? What else am I good at then?" Harry asked coquettishly, bumping into Draco with his shoulder.

Draco pondered over a chip. "Sucking cock?"

Choking, Harry punched him in the shoulder. "Wanker."

"Not any more!" Draco sang. "I've got you these days."

Harry hopped down from the counter and balled up the empty newspaper wrapper, throwing it up in the air then wandlessly vanishing it.

"Show off," Draco muttered as he jumped down too.

Harry leaned in for a quick, salty kiss. "I learned from the best."

xXx

The Crup & Duck was quiet for a Friday, the unseasonal sunshine driving the crowds to pubs with beer gardens. Harry had been loathed to leave the house for a drink with his best friend, not wanting to leave Bear alone for even a minute. They didn't get to babysit very often. But the resulting argument was one about whether or not Harry trusted Draco to be alone with the baby, which was stupid, so Harry went just to prove a point. Which he thought was probably Draco's intention all along. Sneaky Slytherin.

"Tell me about him," Ron said.

"What? Who?" Harry asked.

"Malfoy, you idiot."

"Ron, you've known the man for eight years. You know him."

"I know a stupid ferrety git that he was when we were at school, and he must have changed or you wouldn't be with him." He spoke as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

Harry shrugged. "I don't think he has changed all that much, you know. He really is a miserable bastard sometimes."

Ron rolled his eyes.

"No, really," Harry continued. "He still gets in a major strop and doesn't talk to me for hours." He paused. "Sometimes days."

"And you put up with that?"

"Dunno. Yeah, I suppose so. It's just him."

Ron emptied half of his pint as he drank again. "I'm not trying to antagonise things here-"

"Makes a change."

"But why are you with him then?" Ron finished, ignoring Harry's interruption.

Harry's smile dropped slightly. "He's not a different person. He's changed, but we all have, so that's not really saying much. I think I see a different side to him now, one that was always there but he just never showed us at school. If we were friends with him back then he probably wouldn't have seemed like a prat. So much of a prat," he corrected himself.

"So… he's nice to you?"

"Yes," Harry laughed. "He's really sweet at times. And funny! He's got a dirty sense of humour."

"Don't you argue?"

"All the time," Harry said.

"But-"

"But we also spend a lot of time hanging out. If I didn't get on with him he wouldn't be my boyfriend."

Ron choked on his drink. Harry cleared the coughing with a quick charm.

"Your, your…" he spluttered.

"Boyfriend, yes," Harry said, exasperated. "What would you prefer I call him? My partner? My fuck buddy? My homosexual lover?"

"Boyfriend is fine," Ron said weakly.

"You should come over," Harry said decisively. "For dinner or something. George and Angelina did last week, it was really nice."

"He'll probably try to poison me or something," Ron muttered.

"You'd probably deserve it. When's Hermione home next?"

Ron shrugged. "Easter, I suppose. I'm going up there to see her in the morning."

"Do you do that often?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at his best friend.

"Shut up," Ron said, blushing. "None of your business."

"That means you do."

"I've spent enough time working with law enforcement to know when to shut the fuck up. I'll do that now."

Harry laughed. "How's work?"

They settled in for a more in depth conversation about the progression of Ron's career, a career, Harry thought, that he'd once anticipated for himself. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to be a full time Auror and be a parent at the same time, and that stuck in his ribs, some. It could have been him making heroic rescues of families still in hiding from the war, or tracking down criminals that had been allowed to slide while the Ministry had bigger villains to pursue. He debated the idea of telling Ron about the Quidditch tryouts, not wanting to be seen as boasting, then decided that Ron would rip him a new one if he didn't share.

"Heard you're doing pretty well for the Blackhawks," Ron said, giving him an opening.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. George comes over when we have a home game."

"That's nice of him."

"Yeah. I've uh… I've been approached by a scout. You know, for professional teams."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Harry said, secretly pleased with Ron's enthusiasm. "I have to try out, but they want me to play."

"Please take a place with the Canons. Please please please? I really, really want a season ticket. It's been my dream since I was six years old…"

Harry laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

"When are tryouts?"

"They're going to owl me a date," Harry said. "Don't know yet."

"Well, good luck," Ron said. "I really hope you get it."

"Thanks, mate."

Harry returned home to another Weasley in his living room: George was enjoying a glass of whiskey with Draco. Really enjoying it, from the look of them.

"Hi," Harry said, smiling at George and leaning over to kiss Draco's cheek. "Wasn't expecting to see you here. I just left Ron in the Crup."

"Heard he was home," George said. "Thought he'd be off boinking Hermione."

"George. Please," said Draco, holding up a warning hand. "Spare me."

Harry snorted as he slid into the chair next to, and partially on top of Draco. "Pour me one?" he asked.

Draco smiled indulgently and passed him a glass.

"How come you weren't at the pub then?" Harry said to George.

"Angie wouldn't let me," he said. "I told her I was coming over here though, then Draco was kind enough to offer me a drink-"

"As a good host should," Draco said with wide, innocent eyes.

"And so here we are."

"Here we are," Draco echoed.

"You're both terrible," Harry said. But it really was good whiskey.

"Ah yes, now you're home, I can get to the reason for my visit," George said, gesticulating with his glass. "My darling girlfriend and I would like to return your hospitality and invite you over for dinner."

"How kind," Draco said in his posh voice. "Who would have known, Weasley Junior can act like the proper little pureblood he is when he wants to."

"Oi, Malfoy, shut up," George said. "Tomorrow night. I'm cooking. Seven o' clock and don't be bloody late."

He hauled himself to his unsteady feet and took a moment to focus his eyes on the fireplace before striding purposefully over to it.

"Bye George," Harry sang.

"Fuck off," he muttered before disappearing into the green flames.

xXx

They had missed the owl post that morning after Harry had dragged Draco out of the house for an early morning run around the park. The weather was starting to break from the harshness of winter to the first, tentative hints of spring, although the cold air still burned at their lungs and legs as they ran.

There were three birds lined up on the kitchen windowsill, each sporting varying degrees of impatience.

"You can get them," Draco said, still puffing slightly from the run. "I'm going for a shower."

Harry poured a large glass of water as he relieved each owl of its letter.

They were all from Martin Stonestreet, Ron's boss, and as he read the increasingly agitated letters he started to feel a bit sick. Deciding that owl post was too slow, Harry sent his Patronus off to the Ministry and lowered the wards to let Stonestreet through.

Draco was still in the shower when Stonestreet arrived, accompanied, surprisingly, by Neville.

"Mr Potter," Stonestreet said, offering his hand. "Apologies for all the owls. Unfortunately it really is a rather urgent matter."

"That's okay," Harry said. "Hi, Neville."

Neville gave him a tentative sort of smile. "Is Malfoy about?" he asked.

Harry nodded towards the stairs. "He's in the shower. We went out for a run this morning. Which is why I'm a bit of a mess, sorry about that."

Neville and Stonestreet exchanged a knowing look. "Would you mind going to get him?"

"Is everything okay?" Harry asked.

"We'd prefer to speak to you both at the same time," Stonestreet said diplomatically. Harry decided not to argue and ran up the stairs to get Draco, who was still in the bathroom.

"Bugger," Harry said to the locked door. "Alohomora."

"Joining me, are you?" Draco called as Harry burst through the door.

"I wish," Harry said. "Aurors' here. Want to speak to us."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah. They won't tell me what's going on. They want to talk to you too."

"Okay. Five seconds," Draco said, shutting off the water. He dried himself with a drying charm and pulled on the jeans and shirt that he'd hung up on the back of the door to let the steam iron out any creases. He took Harry's hand as they headed back to the living room.

"Apologies for keeping you waiting," Draco said smoothly as he greeted the others. "And for the lack of refreshments. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to keep a house elf." He smirked at Harry.

"Don't worry about it," Neville said.

"Please accept my own apologies, Mr Malfoy. I wish I could say we were here under better circumstances. There has been another attempted attack on the Tonks' residence."

"Oh god," Harry said, sinking down into Draco's chair, on top of Draco. Draco gently rubbed his back.

"What happened?" Draco asked.

"I would like to emphasise that this was an attempted attack - the perpetrator was not successful. But it has brought together a number of threads of investigation that we have been pursuing. We no longer think that Andromeda was the intended target."

"Then-" Draco said, horrified.

"Yes. We think that the perpetrator was targeting Teddy."

"Oh god."

Neville pulled attention to himself. "The department have been keeping an eye on several different, seemingly unrelated occurrences which are now starting to build a bigger picture. It appears that the Prophet'ssupposedly altruistic search for War orphans was being manipulated by an outside source who was feeding information to Mildred Spencer, which she then unquestioningly published." Neville paused although, to his credit, refrained from rolling his eyes. "We're still trying to establish whether or not she was acting under Imperius, although from our initial investigation this doesn't seem to be the case."

"Then there's the connection to Nurse Finch," Stonestreet continued.

"Ruth?" Harry said. "Oh no, is she okay?"

"She's fine. A little shaken. Her research into Metamorphmagus children has been noticed and she has received a series of increasingly threatening letters demanding the results of her research and information pertaining to these types of children."

"Bear," Draco said softly. Stonestreet nodded.

"We have also, overnight, checked the magical protecting surrounding your residence, Mr Potter. And Malfoy Manor. Since there is no one living at the Manor, checks on the wards are slightly harder to complete. At this premises it is quite clear that someone has been trying to surpass your wards with some rather nasty curses for a prolonged period of time. Your protection here is exemplary.

"Everyone is okay," Stonestreet repeated. "At the moment. If it's okay with you, I'd like to bring Teddy back here as soon as possible."

"Yes," Draco and Harry said at the same time.

"Of course," Draco added.

Stonestreet nodded to Neville who rose and headed back to the Floo.

"What will happen to Andromeda?" Harry asked.

"She's agreed to work with the Auror department," Stonestreet said. "We are in the process of building an operation in response to this threat. We don't know how many other children may have been targeted, but the chances are it's Teddy's Metamorphmagus abilities which have caused the interest.

"We would also like your permission to do further tests on the wards of the house," he continued. "We regularly check the protection on houses in Muggle neighbourhoods during the course of our work. But further, in depth checks will require your consent."

"That's fine," Harry said. "Do you think that the attack on Draco could have anything to do with this? The traitor's curse?"

Stonestreet frowned. "It hadn't occurred to me, to be honest. I will certainly look into it further for you."

"What now?" Draco asked.

"Neville will be coming back with the baby shortly. Andromeda has been fully briefed this morning. It is imperative, gentlemen, that the bare minimum number of people know that you have Bear back. We would like him to disappear as smoothly this time as he did last time."

"And Andromeda?" Harry asked.

"She will be doing the same thing. Keep to your routines, know that we'll be watching you and-"

"You're using her as bait, aren't you?" Draco said, interrupting and accusing at the same time.

"Plans have yet to be finalised-"

"Fuck. If my mother finds out that her last living relative is being used as bloody bait by the Ministry she'll go bloody nuts. I'll warn you in advance."

"Mrs Tonks is aware of all the risks, Mr Malfoy. And I'll remind you that she is not the target here, the baby is."

"She's already been hurt in the crossfire once!" Draco exclaimed. "It could happen again!"

"But it won't," Stonestreet said firmly. "This time we're expecting it, anticipating it, and readying ourselves to divert whatever comes next. This is being done as swiftly and quietly as we possibly can. Hopefully we can all go back to normal in a few days."

"This is crazy," Harry muttered as the Floo roared green and Neville appeared with Bear in his arms.

Being on top of Draco, Harry managed to spring to his feet and divest his former dorm-mate of the baby before Draco had even gotten up. Neville swung a bag from his shoulder and patted Harry's back.

"You're all up to date?"

"We are," Stonestreet said, standing. "As much as possible, try to stick to your routines. Don't let anyone know anything is wrong. And, for the love of Merlin, don't take him out of the house."

They left in the same flurry of activity that they arrived in.

"Wow," Harry said, sinking down onto the sofa, still cradling Bear to his chest.

"Yeah. Wow," Draco echoed. "Hello, sweetheart, how are you?"

"Wow," said Bear.

xXx

For most of the rest of the morning, Harry and Draco settled Bear back into his new/old home. The interior of the bag Neville had brought with him had been magically expanded and actually contained nearly all of the toys and clothes that Harry and Draco had sent him off with only few weeks previously.

He was bigger, though, 'talking' much more than they remembered and much more active. After finally settling him down for his afternoon nap, they could finally talk.

"Bloody hell," were the first words out of Harry's mouth.

"Yeah. Oh, yeah."

They hadn't even bothered going down to the living room, instead going across the hall to Draco's room and stretching out on the bed. Harry laid on his back, his arm extended so Draco could use it as a pillow. Draco had thrown his leg over Harry's waist, tucking them neatly together.

"I'm exhausted. Did he get more tiring in the past nineteen days?"

"You've been counting the days?" Harry said as he gently combed his fingers through Draco's soft hair.

"Mm."

"They thought of us first, Draco. Before putting him in a foster home or taking him down to the Phoenix or in Ministry approved protective custody, they brought him to us."

"Yeah. It's good, Harry, but that doesn't mean they would give him to us permanently."

"We would have to change the law."

"If anyone could do it, you could. Just ask them nicely. The Wizengamot would fall over their own feet to make you happy."

Harry snorted. "There's nothing to say that we can't be his legal guardians. Or just one of us adopting him. They just wouldn't recognise our relationship to allow us to adopt together."

"Do you want to be his Daddy?"

Tugging softly on the roots of Draco's hair, he considered the question. "No. I don't think so."

"Really?"

"Mm. I'm not his dad, you know. It's probably weird for me because I knew his dad, and his mum, and I don't want to take their place."

"Do you want children?"

"Of my own? Yeah. I always thought I'd have a few kids, you know, make up for the fact that I never had any brothers or sisters of my own."

"Andromeda has already said everything you need to know about my family. There's no way my mother would let me get away with not producing a son and heir."

"What if you had a daughter?"

Draco shrugged awkwardly. "I don't really know. I mean, the Black name died out when my mother got married, even though people used to still mention that I was of Black stock when I was a child. I'm sure no one is ever going to forget that part of history, even though there aren't any Blacks left now. Except me."

"Do you think it will be the same with the Malfoy name, then?"

"Well, obviously my father would prefer for me to give him a son to continue the family name. God, I don't know, Harry. This is all very complicated."

"In theory?"

"In theory…" Draco conceded. "I'd like a daughter."

"I would never have expected you to say that."

Draco laughed. "I don't know why. Maybe it's not fair to bring a little girl up with two fathers."

"I don't think so," Harry said, frowning.

"That's okay. I know that you haven't really had time to contemplate all of the implications of our relationship."

"Mm," Harry agreed. "Like, um, we'd have to get a surrogate mother."

"Yeah."

Harry groaned. "I need a drink. Is it too early for a drink?"

"It's three in the afternoon, Harry. You alcoholic."

They fell asleep like that, curled up together, holding on tight as if to remind each other that they were still there, that it wasn't a dream. Harry woke up slowly to the feel of a warm hand wriggling its way under the waistband of his jeans, fingers teasing the sensitive skin across and around and down further...

He hummed and found some skin to kiss, his lips wrapping around Draco's Adam's apple and sucking lightly. Their hips started to rock together, a familiar friction and rhythm while their lips connected like they'd been drawn together by magnets.

Harry sighed into the kiss, the sweetness of it, the feel of Draco's hand caressing his ass...

"La la la la ma ba da da da?"

"Oh fuck," Draco muttered, dropping his head forwards to rest against Harry's, who laughed.

"He's awake," Harry whispered.

"Yeah."

"Ma ma la la!" Bear shouted. He'd found something in his crib to bang against the bars, too, a musical accompaniment.

"Coming, baby," Harry called out.

"Hey, that was supposed to be my line."

Harry groaned as he rolled out of bed, stretched and padded across the hall to lift Bear from his crib. He cuddled the baby close to his chest, closing his eyes and praying, just for a moment, his thanks that his baby was home.