A/N: Thanks for reviews! Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

The next morning back in the Potter Manor was… well, awkward. Draco and Harry both were slightly hangover and were avoiding meeting each other's eyes. Everyone knew the two had had sex the night before – something the kids were trying very hard not to think about but the men's behavior made it very hard. Ginny on the other hand was thoroughly enjoying their embarrassment and was wiggling her eyebrows at Harry all the time when no one was looking.

The silence was unbearable and it seemed that everyone – apart from Ginny – was trying very hard to think something to start a conversation. After twenty minutes of poor attempts of talking about the weather Ginny took pity on them.

"So Harry…" She started. "Now that we have gotten the betrothal contract taken care of and nobody's losing their magic, I really think you should tell Mum and Dad about your disease, not to mention Hermione and Ron."

Harry winced at the reminder, not at all looking forward to telling the family as he knew he was going to get yelled at for not telling them the second he found out and after that smothered and treated like he was going to break at any minute.

"I know Gin. I'll tell them soon." Harry said evasively.

"Harry." Ginny crossed her arms and looked at him pointedly.

"Fine, fine, I'll tell them tomorrow." Harry said raising his hand in surrender. He was in no mood to argue with Ginny.

"Good." Ginny clapped her hands. "We can all go." She said cheerfully.

"Scorpius and I are going to spend the day with Mother." Draco said instantly not willing to spend any time with Weasley and Granger, if he didn't have to.

"And I have a date with Alice." James piped in.

"Fine, well the rest of us can go then." Ginny said. "I'll tell Mum we'll be there at lunch."

"Draco and I have the interview with the Prophet tomorrow." Harry said suddenly, his eyes glancing at the blond before moving away.

"That's at 8am." Draco said not moving his gaze from the paper he was reading.

"Oh that's right, I forgot about that." Ginny mused. "But still, you'll make it to the lunch."

"Yeah fine." Harry said sullenly.

"That's settled then. I'll floo Mum and let her know."

The next day the Potter family, apart from James who was visiting Alice, apparated to the familiar yard of the Burrow and Harry soon found his hands full of his bushy-haired friend, whom he regarded as a sister.

"Oh Harry, I'm so glad you've finally come to your senses! I'm so happy for you! Though I do feel a bit hurt that you didn't tell me and that I had to read about it in the paper, but…" She babbled.

"Woah, Hermione, it's nice to see you too. Now calm down, breathe and tell me what in Merlin's name are you talking about?" Harry said.

"You and Draco of course!"

It took a moment for Harry to understand what she was on about until it hit him: the article. He had totally forgotten to inform the Weasleys about the situation with Draco and the marriage contract and now they had read about it in the Daily Prophet, which of course had been published as a special edition when it was the Savior marrying an ex-Death Eater, which meant it was already all over the wizarding world.

Shit.

"Ah yeah, err…about that…" He started grimacing.

"I'm so happy you finally admitted that you're…"

"Mione, I have known that I was gay since I was eighteen." Harry interrupted.

"What! And you still married Ginny? And you didn't tell me?!" Hermione exclaimed loudly, looking at him sternly. "We're going to have a talk about this soon Harry James Potter and you're going to tell me everything, but now: you and Draco. When did you finally realize you were in love with him?" She continued excitedly.

"Love – wait what?" Harry exclaimed. "I'm not in love with Malfoy!"

"But of course you are!" Hermione said. "I've known for years, but didn't say anything as I thought you'd figure it out by yourself at some point and now you're getting married!" She continued happily.

"Wait a second Hermione…"

"Potter!" An angry shout came from the house and Harry groaned as he saw an angry-looking Ron storming towards him.

"So you're a fucking poof now?" Ron shouted. "You dumbed my sister for that ferret-face! How could you?!"

"Harry my dear, how nice to see you. You should visit more often. Have you been eating? You look a bit pale…" Molly joined in and one by one the rest of the Weasleys came out of the house surrounding him while asking a question after a question or shouting at him. Soon they were all talking at the same time, even the kids joining in as they tried to get everyone to back off from their father, when they saw his discomfort.

Harry felt like he was going to faint any minute now. His pulse quickened and he felt a heat wave wash over him along with dizziness. His vision blackened and all the noise around him fell dumb till he couldn't understand what they were saying anymore. He vaguely felt two pairs of hands taking hold of him as he swayed. Then suddenly he heard a loud shout from his right and his hearing returned.

"SHUT UP!" The voice screamed bringing Harry back to reality just in time to see the Weasley family shut up and stare at Ginny, who had finally arrived, in shock. Glaring at her family she turned to Harry.

"You okay?" She asked examining him.

"'M Fine." Harry said shrugging Albus and Lily – who had been holding him up – off, offering them a weak smile.

"What's wrong Harry?" Hermione asked concernedly.

"I'm fine." Harry repeated.

"No you're not." Ginny said taking him into the house and sitting him into a chair around the dining table while the rest of the family followed them inside. "Have you taken your potions?"

"How can you even be near him Ginny? He dumbed you for the ferret!" Ron spat at the same time as Hermione asked: "What potions?"

"Shut up Ronald!" Ginny said sharply. "Everybody just shut up!"

Everyone quieted down till Arthur said calmly:

"Now, if one of you would please explain what's going on?"

Ginny sighed deeply and asked: "Which one do you want to hear first; Harry being gay, Harry and Draco or our marriage?"

"Your marriage." Hermione and Molly said as one at the same time as Ron spat: "Malfoy."

Ginny glanced at Harry, who still looked a bit peaky and decided she would tell them about Harry being gay and their marriage first. Sighing she gestured everyone to sit down and started speaking:

"You all know that Harry and I got back together after the war ended, right?" She asked and received nods from all. "Well, what you didn't know though, is that about a month later Harry came to me and told me he thought he was gay. I had already suspected something like it as he had been a bit distant, and told him as much. Harry told me he needed time, to find out if he really was gay or if it was just a phase before we went any further in our relationship and I accepted that. We broke up without telling anyone so that Harry could concentrate on finding out his preferences in peace without all of you breathing down his neck.

"Then a week before school started again Harry came to me and told me he was definitely gay. I told him that I was still in love with him so we sat down and discussed what we were going to do. Harry told me that the only thing he regretted about being gay was that he wouldn't be able to have his own children and the family he had always wanted and that gave me an idea. I made Harry an offer and told him that I would be willing to give him that – a family.

"We both considered our options knowing that it would be a huge scandal if Harry came out of the closet so soon after the war – there would be no moment of peace for him with all the reporters, not to mention any chance of finding a boyfriend who would want him for him and not his reputation. We also knew our relationship was what everyone was expecting of us. So we made a deal: We would stay together and in a few years when we were older we would have at least two boys to continue the Potter and Black lines. After that, when the kids would be old enough, we would break up but still live together or at least close to each other so that the kids would have both of their parents with them." She finished and everyone stared at them in shock.

"But that's awful!" Hermione exclaimed breaking the silence. "You just tied Harry to yourself for a decade!"

"It was my decision, Hermione." Harry said.

"Harry was free to go out whenever he wished during our time together. I told him that from the beginning." Ginny said.

"She did." Harry piped in. "And I gave the same courtesy for her."

"Did you? 'Go out'?" Arthur asked.

"During the time we dated yes, but only in the Muggle world and after we got married I stopped. It didn't feel right, even though our marriage was mostly an act." Harry admitted.

"Oh Ginny dear, you must have been so lonely and unhappy." Molly deplored.

"Not at all Mum." Ginny said. "I was very happy during our time together. Harry always took good care of me even though he didn't love me like I loved him. Of course I was sad he didn't return my feelings, but we had and still have a good relationship as best friends. I would do it again if I had to. I have never regretted my decision and I never will."

"What do you mean took care of you? You mean you slept with him even though he was shagging blokes all the time?" Ron asked looking disgusted.

"We have three children together Ronald." Ginny said pointedly. "What do you think?"

"But he's a poof!" Ron exclaimed.

"Honestly Ronald." Hermione said rolling her eyes. "Gay men can sleep with women. It's just not as pleasurable for them as it is with a man."

"Whatever." Ron said. "I want to know what the hell you're doing with Malfoy."

Ginny glanced at Harry and asked: "You up for it?"

Harry nodded shortly before turning to his audience.

"A few months ago I was cleaning the Potter Castle and found an old document that was signed by my and Draco's ancestors. It was a betrothal contract between our families. As you can possibly imagine I was shocked and refused to believe it at first so I went to Gringotts and verified its truthfulness. The goblins confirmed that it was a real contract and that it had activated the moment I found it. The contract stated that a member from each of our families was to be married to the other in six months' time or our lines would lose our magic.

"So, I contacted Draco and informed him of the situation. Needless to say he was no happier about it than I was, so we agreed try to find a way to get out of it as neither of us wanted to force our kids marry each other. We researched for three months every week night and weekend we could, reading through every book on marriage contracts we could get hands on, but found no way out of it. We did however find out why there was such a contract between our families in the first place.

"We found our ancestors' diaries from the time the contract was created some couple of hundred years ago and found out that they had fallen in love with each other and created the contract so that they could be together, but Draco's ancestor died before the contract was found and the Potters moved away from the Castle, so the contract has been waiting to be found all this time.

"Anyway, the only loophole we found in the contract was that it didn't say who had to marry as long as it was a member of each of our families by blood. Draco and I agreed to marry each other so that our kids wouldn't have to." Harry finished.

"Oh I knew you wouldn't get married to that Malfoy boy if it wasn't for a good reason." Molly said smiling at him.

Harry shrugged. "He's not that bad anymore. We get along okay, these days."

"Yeah right, he's a Malfoy, mate." Ron said looking disgusted. "Death Eater scum."

Harry said nothing, not having energy to fight with Ron, though he felt a sudden urge to defend Draco. Luckily he didn't have to as someone beat him to it.

"Shut the hell up Ronald and grow up!" Ginny said fiercely. "You're not in school anymore. You know nothing about the man Draco is today. Besides, if our mum or better yet any of us had been threatened to be killed if you didn't join the Death Eaters, what would you have done? The war has been over for twenty years in the past, it's time you let it stay there."

That shut Ron up and Harry sent Ginny a grateful look.

"I still can't believe you got married and didn't invite us!" Hermione exclaimed. "We're supposed to be best friends!"

"Draco and I wanted to keep it small an intimate." Harry explained hoping it would be enough.

"Still…" Hermione started but was interrupted by run.

"Well I for one wouldn't have come even if you did." He said his arms crossed, face crunched up in disgust.

Harry opened his mouth to protest but felt another wave of nausea hit him and held his head hoping to keep it in.

"There's something you're not telling us." Hermione said looking at Harry with a calculating look in her eyes.

Nausea passed, Harry exchanged glances with Ginny, who gave him a small nod of encouragement, before sighing deeply.

"Around the same time I found out about the contract, I visited Saint Mungos and found out I have leukemia." He said.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione exclaimed tears forming in her eyes as she hugged him tightly. "Please tell me it's not the worst kind."

Harry offered her a weak smile that told her it was just that.

"Oh Harry. But there are treatments for that too, aren't there? I have read that they can do bone marrow transplants and…"

"Yes I'm aware of all that, Hermione. Angelina explained it all to me. It's just that my luck on surviving alive from situation to situation has finally run its course. My tissue type is so rare it exist only in a handful of people in the whole world. The healers are doing all they can but…"

"How long?"

"Less than a year." Harry said quietly.

"Oh my god." Hermione said now crying. "Why didn't you tell us?" She cried hugging him again.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't want anything to change." Harry said hugging her back. He gazed around the room and found that every woman in the room had tears in her eyes. He saw Arthur comforting Molly while Bill was holding Fleur with a somber look on his face. A pale-looking Ron was just standing there frozen and Albus was comforting his sister along with Ginny.

And from that moment it really hit him: nothing was going to be the same again.

Thank you for reading! Please review and tell me what you thought.

- Dalnim