While Draco was safe in France with his family and growing ever weaker, Harry was hiding out in the woods with Ron and Hermione. Ron had been splinched, which meant there was a lot of waiting and not much action. They had a horcrux, but no way to destroy it and because of Ron's injuries, they couldn't move. Harry was keeping guard and while he did so, he was thinking about Draco, as always. He pulled out his charmed galleon and flipped it over in his hands while he thought, but it was too late at night to send Draco a message.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters were in control of things now, but there were a few Death Eaters missing; Draco for one and Lucius for another. Months ago Harry had seen a flash from Voldemort at the Malfoy Manor where Voldemort declared Lucius a deserter, but Snape had talked Him out of ordering Lucius be killed on sight. To Harry, it was good news that there was one less Death Eater and that he wouldn't have to go up against Draco's dad, but it also caused him worry.

What if Lucius was missing because he was with Draco? Harry kept telling himself that that couldn't possibly be the case, but he had trouble putting the idea out of his head. And what about Snape, who seemed to have inside information on the Malfoys, but hadn't claimed to have current information. And just why was Voldemort in Malfoy Manor, if the Malfoys were all deserters and in hiding?

Harry sat and thought and worried over these nagging questions, but then his thoughts always came back around to Draco. How was Draco doing? How far along would Draco be with the pregnancy now? It was September, so that meant about six months. What would Draco look like swollen with his children. Draco was already beginning to show the last time he had seen Draco and with carrying twins, Draco must be huge by now; not that he would ever tell Draco that, because Draco didn't like being called fat. He wondered how Draco was holding up.

Harry's thoughts drifted to what his unborn sons would look like. There were two of them, so he was hoping that meant at least one of them would get Draco's grey eyes. He wouldn't mind if both boys looked like Draco, just as long as they didn't look like Lucius; he knew he was being a bit ridiculous with that desire, because Draco looked like Lucius, but that was still what he wanted. He didn't want his children to look like him; he didn't want to pass on his dad's face or his mum's eyes, because he didn't want his children to have to grow up in his shadow, always being compared to him and told they looked like him. If he succeeded, his children would probably be in the spotlight just for being his and it would only be worse if one of them looked like him.

With all the worry Harry was experiencing lately, his thoughts inevitably turned dark and he contemplated the other reason he didn't want his children to look like him: if he lost the war, he didn't want his children to be discovered as his. If he died and Voldemort lived, the babies would be much more likely to be discovered as his if they had black hair and green eyes. There were lots of people with black hair in Britain and there were people with black hair in Draco's family, so maybe Draco could talk himself out of trouble if the babies had black hair. But although his green eyes weren't entirely unique, they were rare enough to present a complication, because as far as he knew, there was no one with green eyes in Draco's family. None of the other kids in his year had eyes like his either, so Draco might be in for some serious explaining if he turned up with a pair of kids with green eyes.

Harry still wanted his sons to take after him somewhat, but he was hoping for his more common traits, like his decidedly unpointed chin. Sure he had grown to love Draco's pointed chin, but he would still rather his sons have his chin. Then he started thinking about the pictures he had of his mum and wondering if either of the boys would take on any of her features. It would be nice if they did, because then his sons would have something from him, without having something that people would automatically link to him.

Then his thoughts drifted to what Draco might be doing right now. It was late, so Draco was probably sleeping. Draco wouldn't have to keep watch like he and Hermione had to do. Ron was getting better now and was doing a share of the daytime watches, but Ron needed his sleep, so Harry took the first watch tonight and Hermione would take the second. Constant vigilance was dull, grueling work. He wished he could be safe with Draco instead.

Harry was still miffed that Draco had chosen to leave him behind. Sure he had been thinking of doing the same thing not but a week earlier and they had talked about Draco disappearing when things got bad, but he still felt a bit abandoned and lonely, even though he knew it was for the best. Now that he knew how it felt, he thought he understood what Hermione had been so upset about when she had discovered that he had been thinking about leaving Draco. Not that he would ever say that out loud, because Hermione would just throw it back in his face that this was his idea and Ron would just put all the blame on Draco. Neither of those two options was appealing to him.

Ron had been alright about Draco those last few weeks before Dumbledore's death. When Draco had been mad at Harry about the twins, Ron had been there for Harry and assured him that Draco would come around, but Ron's attitude towards Draco had changed. At first, right after Dumbledore's death, Ron had accused Draco of having something to do with it and of plotting with Snape. Harry didn't believe it for a minute, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

In the days after Dumbledore's death, Professor Slughorn had discovered that Draco was missing. Harry knew the reason behind Draco's disappearance was that Draco was going into hiding and that Draco was not responsible for Dumbledore's death. Draco had learned of the trouble up at the school before Harry could get back to Grimmauld Place and so Draco and Narcissa had taken off and gone into hiding immediately. Although, it was a tad suspicious that Draco and Narcissa found out so quickly and Harry did wonder how they knew and if they knew in advance.

While staying in Grimmauld Place in preparation for their infiltration of the Ministry, Harry had questioned Kreacher regarding just when Draco and Narcissa had left that day. He didn't believe what Kreacher told him at first, because he didn't believe that Draco could've written the note just after Harry had left, before he and Dumbledore had even made it to the cave. But Kreacher was his house elf and as such Kreacher couldn't lie to him when directly ordered to tell the truth. Kreacher vehemently insisted that Draco and Narcissa had left within half an hour of Harry leaving.

Eventually Harry had come to accept that Draco knew that Dumbledore was going to die that night before he knew, but he still refused to place blame for the death on Draco's shoulders. Sure Draco or Narcissa had gotten word that something was going down that night and instead of trying to get help, they had chosen to go into hiding, but that didn't mean that Draco was in league with Snape or knew what Snape was going to do all along, like Ron recently suggested. Snape probably warned them that something was up right after Harry left and the Malfoys had chosen to go into hiding instead of getting in the middle. Ron called it cowardly and although Harry wished that things had played out differently and Draco had told someone like Professor McGonagall, he was also grateful that Draco hadn't put Draco and the babies in danger by getting in the middle of it and trying to stop Snape. At least Draco had kept the babies safe.

Hermione, of course, had her own hypothesis regarding Snape and Dumbledore's death. At first she had been just as shocked as the rest of them, but then Harry had divulged the details he knew regarding Draco's mission from Voldemort. He knew that Draco had turned it over to Snape and that Dumbledore had ordered Snape to do it.

Ron choose to see the worst in Draco regarding the secret mission, insisting that somehow Draco must have only told Snape and not Dumbledore and that Draco was involved in Dumbledore's death; if not the execution, then the planning. Hermione went the other way with it, and somehow twisted the facts around in her brain to come to the ridiculous conclusion that Dumbledore had ordered his own death. Dumbledore wasn't suicidal, so Harry refused to accept that possibility. Besides, he had been there when Dumbledore died; he knew what really happen and his two best friends did not. Draco's task wasn't to kill Dumbledore and whatever it was, Snape had chosen to kill Dumbledore instead of completing it for Draco. Sure Draco must have known something was up with Snape that last day, to trigger Draco's decision to go into hiding, but that could've been something far less culpable than knowing that Snape was actually going to kill Dumbledore—no one could have predicted that—not even Dumbledore had predicted that.

Harry didn't know what Draco's task was, but he had faith in his husband, so he believed he knew what Draco's task was not. Hermione and Ron were both wrong, so Harry put those thoughts out of his mind. At least, he tried to.

During Harry's darkest times, when he was sitting up late at night guarding their camp and wearing Slytherin's locket, he would wonder if Ron was right and if Draco really had known all along what Snape was planning. He would think back to that letter Draco had written hours before Snape had killed Dumbledore and he would try to remember the exact wording Draco had used. Had Draco specifically mentioned what was going down? Had that first line stated that Draco knew in advance that Snape was going to kill Dumbledore? Or had that first line merely stated that something dangerous was happening that night?

Harry couldn't remember which it had been. He was so overwhelmed and distraught with grief at the time that he couldn't decide if he assumed the first line was referring to Dumbledore's death because it was so blatantly on his mind or if Draco specified that. And he hadn't had much time at all with the letter before it had blanked itself. He had read Draco's words over and over again, but it was all a blur now and he couldn't remember.

Harry chose to believe the best in Draco and that Draco didn't know what exactly was going on. Ron, however, believed the Daily Prophet. In the days after Dumbledore's death when it became apparent that Draco, one of Snape's favorite Slytherins, was missing, rumors began to circulate that Draco was involved. Not that Draco knew, but that Draco planned the entire thing; the prophet even suggested that Draco had been ordered to do it by Voldemort himself and that Draco was a Death Eater. The article was backed up by testimony from several of the sixth year Slytherins, such as Pansy Parkinson and Vincent Crabbe.

The article rang eerily true to Harry's ears. Draco had even told Harry that he had the dark mark on his arm, although Harry had never seen it. That combined with the fact that Draco knew too much and it added up to Draco being guilty. But that couldn't be the case, because whatever Draco's assignment was, Dumbledore had known. Dumbledore had ordered Snape to do it himself, so there was no way Draco's task had been to kill Dumbledore. It was probably something that presented such a challenge to Snape that Snape decided it would be easier to kill Dumbledore than complete and it just worked out that with Dumbledore dead, Snape could go back to his true master.

Harry didn't see Snape with Voldemort very often in his visions, but from the ones he had seen lately, Snape seemed to be in favor. Snape had certainly moved up in the ranks and quite possibly was now Death Eater numero uno, right up there with Bellatrix Lestrange. It sickened Harry that Snape had used the murder of the one person who had trusted Snape and had vouched for Snape, even given Snape a second chance and a new life, to move up in the ranks in the eyes of a madman.

Harry shook his head and tried to think about something else, to keep himself from focusing on just how much he loathed Severus Snape.

Harry turned his thoughts back to Ron and the problems he had been having with his best friend. Just that afternoon, when Ron had taken a turn guarding the locket and Harry thought he would have a lie down in preparation for his nightly shift on guard duty, he had overheard Ron and Hermione talking about Draco. Hermione was on Harry's side, saying that Draco really wasn't as bad as Ron thought, but Ron was bringing up all of the bad things Draco had ever done to them. From telling on them and costing Hagrid the dragon Norbert in first year, to Buckbeak and the dementors in third year, to all the fights Harry and Draco had had fifth year.

That first part wasn't so bad and he had tried to ignore that part, opting to stay on his cot with his eyes closed and hope that sleep would come. But then Ron had started listing all of the things Draco had done wrong in Ron's eyes sixth year, from Ron's poisoning to Katie Bell being cursed. Then Ron brought up the time Draco had been mad at Harry when Draco had just found out about the twins. After that Ron went off on Draco for abandoning Harry to go into hiding.

At that point Harry was sure the next words out of Ron's mouth were going to be that Draco had been involved in Dumbledore's death, so he had gotten up and shouted at Ron to shut up and that Ron didn't know what Ron was talking about. Draco hadn't been involved with any of those things and Draco had a right to be upset after being told of the twins. Ron had shouted back that Harry was married to a Death Eater and the children would turn into snobby pureblood scum, just like Lucius and that Harry should leave Draco and take the children. Harry had returned with that Draco was nothing like Lucius and he was going to stick by his husband. Ron had laughed at that and accused Draco of abandoning Harry after Dumbledore's death, again. Harry had returned with Draco was only doing what Draco knew Harry wanted.

Ron and Harry would've gone on shouting at each other and arguing, but Hermione got in the middle of them and told them to stop it. She sent Ron outside, to guard the tent, and sent Harry back inside. Hermione had stayed with Harry and tried to calm him down and assure him that Draco was a good person and that Ronald didn't know what Ron was talking about. He had thanked her and tried to sleep, but by then it was too late and he couldn't get the thoughts out of his head; he kept hearing Ron's accusations against Draco over and over again. Had Draco been involved with the necklace and the poisoned mead?

Harry wished he could ask his husband about it, but then he also wanted to trust his husband and believe that Draco had only been concerned about Narcissa. He forced the negative thoughts out of his mind, shifted his focus to Draco, and wondered who was taking care of Draco medically now that Snape wasn't in the picture.

It had to be Narcissa who was giving Draco his regular exams. Snape had trained her to be able to cast all of the necessary diagnostic charms and as long as nothing went wrong, she probably had the prenatal care stuff down. He wondered if she would know how to deliver the babies when the time came, but then she had given birth once herself, so she should have a general idea what to do. The details of a Peverell delivery were slightly different from a typical birth by a female, but from what he read, the birthing process wasn't that complicated or dangerous. She could probably pick up everything she needed to know by reading a medical book on the subject. She would definitely have all of the supplies she would need, because Snape had ordered them.

Draco and Narcissa must've taken all of the supplies for the baby with them when they went into hiding hours before Dumbledore's death. When he, Ron, and Hermione had first gone back to Grimmauld Place, one of the first things he did was look through the house. There was no evidence that Narcissa had been living there and the room Draco had claimed would be turned into the nursery still had the bunk beds up, even though he thought Draco had said that the bunk beds had been taken down. He didn't like to think that Draco had lied to him, so he decided that he must be remembering it wrong and what Draco really said was that the bunk beds will be torn down.

Then Harry began to think of Dumbledore and Snape; he couldn't quite understand how Snape had fooled Dumbledore all these years. Yes, there was what Harry had learned from Professor Trelawney about Snape being the one to overhear the prophecy and Dumbledore had subsequently claimed that it was Snape's regret over telling Voldemort that had brought Snape over to Dumbledore's side. But it was a lie and Snape was playing the old man all along and Dumbledore should've seen it. Maybe Dumbledore was growing senile, like Draco claimed.

The memories of Draco at Grimmauld Place were the best and the worst for Harry. At the time, he had been so happy; the hours leading up to the wedding and the hours after the wedding had all been spent there. Their honeymoon, if however short, had seemed so magical. He had had Draco and he had felt like Draco was his, had belonged to him, and not even the war could tear them apart. But that had ended oh so very quickly when reality set in and Draco had vanished, leaving him only a note.

They had had a goodbye, when Harry had thought there was a chance that he wouldn't survive the night of horcrux searching with Dumbledore. He had told Draco goodbye and that he loved Draco. Draco had even said it back, which after all that time it took Draco to say it in the first place, was still somewhat hard for Harry to believe. Harry clung to those words in the aftermath of Dumbledore's death; at least he still had Draco out there somewhere safe and waiting for him. As soon as this was all over, he would be reunited with his husband. He just hoped that would be before the babies were born.

Harry had thought that there was a chance he would miss the births of his sons. He might be out on a horcrux hunt and come back to find Draco sitting up in bed with a newborn in each arm. But with the way things were now, he might very well miss a lot more than just the births. He wouldn't be able to hold or even see his sons until Voldemort was dead. That could take years. What if it took another two years and his sons were two years old by the time he could finally meet them? What if it was longer and his sons asked him where he'd been all this time? Or what if he died and Draco was left to be a single dad, while Voldemort took over the world?

Of course Harry still wanted Draco and the boys to escape Voldemort and take off to the other side of the world. He imagined that Draco would find a pureblood witch to pretend to be the birth mother; Draco would probably arrange phony marriage documents to prove it and then arrange a divorce, so that the witch could go on with her life. Draco would tear up their wedding certificate, the one that said Harry and Draco were married in June of nineteen ninety-seven. He would be little more than a pile of ashes and memories while Draco and the boys would move on with their lives. Would Draco find someone else to love? A new boyfriend or worse, a new husband, and forget all about Harry? Would Draco ever tell their boys the truth of their parentage? Or would his sons grow up thinking they were someone else's kids?

Harry knew it was for the best if Draco and his sons moved on with their lives; he even wanted them too. But there was just something about thinking about it that felt like someone was driving a stake through his heart.

He couldn't think about it, so he switched to thoughts of how he was going to continue to keep knowledge of his and Draco's relationship and the pregnancy from Voldemort. Now that Dumbledore was dead, only a handful of people knew the truth. Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Narcissa all were gifted occlumens; even Snape was gifted at occlumency. Of the people who knew, Snape was the biggest concern, because Harry had no way of telling if Snape would keep their secret.

At first after Dumbledore's death, Harry had been worried that Snape would spill the secret about Draco and the babies directly to Voldemort, in order to gain prestige. But for whatever reason, Harry could find no evidence that Snape had told. In the glimpses he had inside Voldemort's head, there was not one indication that Voldemort knew about Draco. There was not one mention of Draco or the babies in the news or on the wizard wireless. Harry didn't know why Snape was protecting Draco and the babies, but he was convinced that Snape was.

When Harry thought about it, he could only come up with one reason Snape might have for protecting Draco. Snape must still be under the influence of the two unbreakable vows Snape had sworn to protect Draco and the babies. Narcissa had asked Snape for an unbreakable vow to protect Draco before the beginning of sixth year and Draco had asked Snape for an unbreakable vow to protect the babies when Snape had agreed to be Draco's healer. There was no reason to believe the unbreakable vow to protect the babies wasn't still in effect and although he didn't know the exact wording of the first vow, he was convinced that it too must be in effect. Snape was in all likelihood bound upon penalty of death from exposing Draco and the babies and so wasn't a threat to their safety.

That left Harry himself as the biggest threat to the safety of his own family. He was still a mediocre occlumens at best and with Voldemort being an extremely gifted legilimens, if Voldemort wanted to wring information out of him, Voldemort could probably do so. But he was not going to take Voldemort lying down; he was going to fight back and keep Voldemort too busy to break through his inadequate occlumency shield. And he was going to prepare for that battle by building up his occlumency shields.

Harry had every hope that by the time he actually confronted Voldemort again, he would be at least a halfway decent occlumens. He was practicing occlumency every day that he was free to do so. During a lot of the time he had spent at Grimmauld Place, he was too busy planning the raid on the Ministry, but when he had the time, he would practice his occlumency. And now that they were waiting with no real plan to work on, all he had was time.

Harry would meditate with Ron and run through mind clearing exercises with Hermione. Hermione even was trying her hand at legilimency; she was not nearly as good at it as Draco was, but she was getting there. But then Harry had already developed a thick enough shield to foil Draco's attempts and Hermione's attempts were weaker than Draco's, so Harry had no real challenge to his occlumency shields. He had no way of knowing if he was actually improving or if he just thought he was improving. Well no way except he was getting slightly better at shutting down his connection to Voldemort when it flared up. He always wanted to look and see what Voldemort was up to, to look for clues that Voldemort had heard something about Draco, so he wasn't so good at blocking the visions, but the strong feelings he'd get from Voldemort were another story. He had no reason to want to feel what Voldemort was feeling and he was now fairly proficient at shutting Voldemort out the moment the feelings started to transfer across.

And so Harry didn't know for certain that his occlumency was improving, but he thought and hoped it was. And on long nights like this when he was out in the forest on guard duty with nothing to do but listen to his thoughts and stare out into the dark, he would practice meditating and clearing his mind, trying to build his occlumency shield just a bit thicker, in hopes that when the time came, he really would be able to keep Draco and the babies safe.

Author's Notes: So there's what's going on in Harry's mind and what has changed from the original; everything not mentioned went down just the same as Rowling wrote it.

That pretty much covers everything that needs to happen before the births of the twins, so next chapter will skip ahead to the big day. For those of you who have been concerned over Draco's health in Harry's absence, I don't think Draco's health ever had a chance of being in jeopardy. Muggles live without magic, so even if his magic was completely drained, Draco would survive. The babies, however, are another story. They need the magic to support the unnatural pregnancy and when the magic runs out, the babies will come out. Whether the pregnancy is far enough along for the babies to survive on their own is the question. Any thoughts?

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