"Oh, by the way, I have something to return to you," Harry said, pulling out Draco's wand. He had used the Elder wand to repair his old phoenix feather wand, so he didn't need Draco's wand anymore.
"You can keep it; I've got the Malfoy wand."
"I don't need it anymore. I used Dumbledore's wand, which was the Elder wand from the eldest Peverell brother and one of the Deathly Hallows, to mend my wand." Harry pulled his own wand out to show Draco.
"You've got the Elder wand? Can I have it?" Why was Harry offering Draco his old wand back, when Harry had the Elder wand?
"I had the Elder wand, but after I repaired my wand, I broke the Elder wand and threw the pieces into the Black Lake. But you can certainly have your wand back." Harry handed the Hawthorn wand back to Draco, who took it and held it.
"Why did you do that? It was one of the Deathly Hallows! A priceless irreplaceable magical artifact!" Draco was thinking that this type of thing was the reason purebloods didn't want muggleborns around, because they do stupid shite like destroy one of the Deathly Hallows.
"Sorry, but I wanted to break the cycle of death and destruction caused by that wand. It's too powerful for any one wizard to wield, so I destroyed it. Next time a dark wizard rises to power, the Death Stick will be out of play."
"You sound like destroying an irreplaceable magical artifact is something that happens every day and isn't a big deal."
"Well…um…"
"What? Don't tell me you had more magical artifacts in your possession and you destroyed those too."
"I had to, to defeat Voldemort. He made them into horcruxes, so to destroy him, I had to destroy all of the horcruxes."
Draco wasn't familiar with the term horcrux, so Harry explained it and then went on to tell Draco what the horcruxes were.
"You destroyed Hufflepuff's cup, Ravenclaw's diadem, Slytherin's locket, the Elder wand, and the stone of the second Peverell brother? You almost had all of the Hallows of Death!"
"Actually, my invisibility cloak is the cloak from the third brother, so I owned all three Hallows, I just didn't physically have them on me at the same time. I think that's why I lived last night after Voldemort hit me with the killing curse."
"You survived the killing curse again? Isn't this your third time now?
"Fourth. What killed Voldemort was when the killing curse he aimed at me backfired and hit him."
"Do me a favor and don't make it a fifth time; you've practically given me a heart attack."
"Deal; no more killing curses," Harry agreed.
"I wish I had the Elder wand."
"I can't get you that, but I can give you the Hawthorn wand that foiled Voldemort with a simple expelliarmus."
"Yeah, this wand practically defeated the Dark Lord. It may not be the Elder wand, but it's always been a good wand. I'll keep it for when Scorpius becomes Lord Malfoy and I pass him the Malfoy wand." Draco put the wand in his wand pocket for storage; he'd put it in a secure location later.
"I thought the first born would be the Malfoy lord."
"But the title comes with the Malfoy wand, which comes with a cane and Hyperion won't have actual need of a cane, when in all likelihood, Scorpius will. I talked to father about it and he said that since they are twins born at the same time, I can choose whichever one I want to be the next Lord Malfoy; if they weren't twins, then I'd have no choice and have to give it to the first born. To me, Scorpius has always seemed like the Lord Malfoy. Besides, Professor Snape said something about leaving the Prince family artifacts to Hyperion and Hyperion looks more like your family, so I thought it'd be good to give him the inheritance from the Potters and the Blacks. I didn't think it would be much and I figured we'd have to come up with a lot of galleons and fix up Grimmauld Place, but the invisibility cloak of the third brother is a pretty big deal. Add in a few Black and Prince relics and it'll probably rival the Malfoy inheritance that Scorpius is getting.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Their inheritances won't be identical, but they'll be equivalent." Harry agreed.
Harry and Draco sat on the sofa in the drawing room playing with their first born son for a few minutes more when they heard a wail come from upstairs. Moments later, Narcissa came to the stairwell and announced, "Draco, Scorpius is hungry."
"Will you be alright watching Hyperion for a bit? If you have any questions you can call Mother." Draco gave the baby a kiss and then stood up.
"Yeah, sure," Harry answered.
Draco went upstairs and retrieved Scorpius from his parents, removing the breast pumps in order to let his baby latch on. While Scorpius was suckling, Draco changed the collection bottles on the breast pump, calling an elf to take the two full ones. He had several months without needing the contraption, but once Hyperion had started teething, Draco turned back to the pump. It was easier just to keep the breast pump on under his clothes most of the time, so that he could pump while going about his life. He had gotten used to the process and barely noticed it anymore, although it was quite relieving and refreshing when he did take the contraption off. But then the pressure of unpumped milk would build up and that was painful.
"How is Harry, darling?" Narcissa asked, once Scorpius was settled into nursing.
"Fine, I guess," Draco answered.
"I think it'd be best to contact the Prophet tomorrow and for Harry to give an interview; the two of you can announce your marriage and the births of your children at the same time they announce the victory of Harry Malfoy," Lucius said.
"Yeah, I guess I should talk to him about that," Draco replied.
"I'm just going to go downstairs and wait with Harry. It's an unfamiliar house after all," Narcissa said.
Draco agreed, so Narcissa left the room. Lucius talked for a few minutes about all the things that really must be listed in the paper tomorrow. Then Lucius decided that tomorrow might be too late, because with something this big, the Prophet was sure to release a special evening issue.
Lucius was just getting up to send the editors an owl, to make sure they had Harry's last name right, when Draco remembered Severus and his loss hit him with a throbbing pang of grief again. "Did you, ah, were you aware Severus died today?"
"Yes. I ran into the Goyles in Hogsmeade; charming Elizabeth needed to take a break and catch her breath after all of that walking. Charles told me what happened. It was awful, truly, what the Dark Lord did to their family when they were nothing but loyal followers. Charles defenseless without a wand and Elizabeth forced to come out of the house to find her only son. I should count myself lucky to have a son who made me see the light before I lost everything," Lucius answered.
"Did you know what he was planning? Severus, I mean; was he planning to sacrifice himself all along?" Draco asked, letting silent tears fall down his cheeks, but then summoning a tissue and wiping them away.
"He wasn't suicidal; he would've come back to us if there was any other way, but yes, if it came to that, he was planning to die to protect Harry and defeat the Dark Lord. I think he was just surprised the Dark Lord hadn't killed him sooner."
"But why Father? Why'd Severus have to die? Why couldn't someone else do it? Why didn't anyone from the blasted bloody Order do it?"
"Because of the wand. Dumbledore had the Elder wand all along and the Dark Lord wanted it. He took it from the old man's tomb, but it wouldn't work for Him, because He wasn't its true owner. He thought Severus was, because Severus killed Dumbledore, so he murdered Severus quite horribly. But what He didn't know, what Severus told me yesterday before he left, was that Severus wasn't the true owner. Harry had bested Dumbledore in a duel days before Dumbledore's death. Harry was the true owner of the wand the Dark Lord was using and Severus was counting on that making all the difference when it came to the final battle. I don't know for certain what happened, but from what I heard, it seems that it did."
"I wish it didn't have to be him; I want him back so much. It seems like this can't be real, like Severus is going to apparate into the room any moment now. I can't believe I'll never see him again."
"I wish it weren't so. He was a good man and I will be eternally indebted to him for what he did for you and your mother in my absence."
"Harry and I were talking," Draco started but didn't continue.
"Hmm," Lucius urged Draco to continue.
"We were thinking of changing Hyperion's name. Severus Hyperion, instead of Hyperion Draco. We can call him Sev."
"I think he'd like that. I've never seen him happier than when he was holding Hyperion. He told me he thought Hyperion was aptly named, because the boy shone like the sun and lit up the world with his presence."
"He lit up Severus' world. Harry told me Severus and Harry's mother were best friends. That must be why he was always talking about Sev looking like her."
"I'm sure it is, although I still say I see a lot of your mother's family in the boy. He looks like the Rosiers to me."
Draco knew that it was difficult for Lucius to admit his grandson looked like a mudblood; the man was still coming to grips with the less than stellar blood purity of the babies. There was the occasional halfblood in the Malfoy family tree, but never anyone less than three generations removed from muggles, while Harry was only second generation wizard on his mother's side. And even then, the Malfoys always hushed it up like a horrible secret and pretended that their blood was as pure as it could be. It seemed that Lucius had a similar way of coping with this situation and was pretending the problem didn't exist. Thus Hyperion looked like Grandmother Druella's family, since he didn't look like any of the rest of them. And Draco was fine with ignoring the issue and letting his father have his little delusion.
While Draco was upstairs, Harry was still in the drawing room with the baby. Harry started with examining his young son, trying to take in the little features he had been longing to see for so long. He searched for a resemblance to himself and to Draco, but he found little. The little face was far to round and the features not nearly sharp enough to be Malfoy-esque. Narcissa too was too thin and sharp in the face to match. Harry thought he saw a bit of himself in the curve of the cheek, but truly who this baby reminded him of was Dudley and the baby pictures Aunt Petunia had up. Although, the features weren't quite the same and he hung on to that small favor, because he didn't want to compare his son to his whale of a cousin.
That got Harry thinking of the Dursleys and wondering whatever happened to them in hiding. The war was over, so they were probably going back to their house on Privet Drive and were happy to be rid of the freaks.
Harry didn't waste much thought over the Dursleys and his mind quickly drifted to Fred when Fred, George, and Ron had rescued him from Dudley's second bedroom. He still couldn't believe Fred was gone. What would the Weasleys do without Fred? What would he do? Fred was like an older brother to him; it was Fred and George who had gotten him the sex book. It was Fred and George who had gifted him the Marauder's map. It was Fred and George who had provided him with distractions in fifth year when he needed them. Fred and George were always there for him and now it was just George.
Harry sat there with a very active baby on his lap as he thought about Fred. Sev hit him on the face with a spittle coated hand, saying, "Daaaa ahhh da dat da ah uh eeee da."
Narcissa came downstairs and found Harry looking forlorn and contemplative. She sat down next to him and asked, "How are you, Harry dear? Today must have been awful for you, I'm sure."
"It was. So many people died today."
"Yes, I imagine a great many good witches and wizards died today." Narcissa waited a minute to see if Harry would say something about who precisely he was missing or if it was bloodshed and corpses in general, but Harry just nodded. "I will greatly miss Severus. Is there anyone you are thinking of, dear?"
Seeing Narcissa made Harry think of her sister Andromeda Tonks and from there, Tonks and Remus. "Severus' death was awful, but it wasn't just him I lost and I was never really that close to him; I couldn't be. I was just thinking of Fred Weasley. And then Tonks and Remus died today; they have a new son. He was showing me a picture of him today. Teddy. He said they made me the godfather."
"Oh yes, Andy did write me about that. It's been so awful for her this year with Ted gone, but I had no idea about Dora and her husband. How awful it is for little Teddy; orphaned already and he's not even as old as Hyperion here."
"I want to be there for him. I'm the godfather; I should be there for him."
"We can firecall Andy and invite them over. This villa is full up and I'd feel horrible about not being able to offer her a guest bedroom, but little Teddy can stay in a basinet in the nursery and there's the spare bed in there that Andy could use. I planned a late supper today; we were going to sit down to eat as soon as Draco finishes feeding Scorpius, but there is always room for more."
The baby was babbling B now around his fingers, which he had stuck in his mouth. "Ba baa ba ah dah b aba bla ah bab."
"That would be nice. I don't know if she has much other family," Harry said.
"Why don't I use the floo and ask her over and you can give Hyperion his bottle. He does that, tries to eat his fingers, when he's hungry you know."
"Oh, I didn't know. Should I get some milk from Draco?"
"No. You can, but there's plenty of the stuff and I find it easier to ask a house elf to bring a bottle of it. Mipsy!" Narcissa called.
A house elf appeared and Narcissa asked for a bottle. Sev reached out towards the elf and grunted, throwing his weight away from Harry in his efforts to get the elf. The elf snapped its fingers and a bottle appeared in its hand, which it handed over to Narcissa, before disappearing again, causing Sev to let out a loud squeal. "Mipsy already warmed it up," Narcissa said, handing it over to Harry.
"Thank you," Harry said, taking the bottle, which was made out of heavy glass.
It had been so long since Harry had done this that he wasn't sure about it at first, but then it was just a bottle and there was no trick to it really. Sev was bigger and more active than the doll in the room of requirement but he was still just a baby and the bottle still went in the same hole. Sev grabbed onto the bottle and pulled, urging him along. He took the hint and inserted the nipple into Sev's mouth. Sev held on with both hands and he wondered if he should let go and just let his son do it or if the bottle was too heavy. It was made out of glass and he thought it might hurt Sev if it fell. He wanted to ask Narcissa about it, but when he looked up, Narcissa had her head in the floo, talking to her sister. He decided to error on the safe side and just hold the bottle for the baby.
Narcissa pulled her head out of the flames and said, "The news had just reached Andy. She was all alone with the baby and received an owl from Kingsley informing her of the deaths. She's heartbroken, but she agreed to come over after supper; she has to get their things together and she already ate before she heard the news."
"Oh, okay," Harry said, not knowing what else he should say.
"I'll just go upstairs and direct the house elves to prepare for their arrival," Narcissa said, before doing just that.
Harry was left in the drawing room feeding the baby. When the bottle was empty, he set it down and burped his son, although it was rather awkward with such a large baby and Sev didn't think he should sit still for it. Sev's little feet kicked and his little hands fisted Harry's jumper and all the while Sev grunted and fussed. Then Sev got his little feet firmly planted on Harry's lap and kicked out at the same time as he pushed and Harry almost dropped the baby, but caught onto him at the last second.
"What're you doing, Sev? Stay still so Daddy can burp you," Harry told the baby, but the baby just fussed and whined and didn't burp.
Draco came downstairs then with Scorpius on one hip and the bag with the breast pump on the other and he noticed Harry trying to burp Sev. "He won't be burped, Harry, you missed that faze by months. But if you want you can put him in his highchair and feed him a cracker," Draco said, standing in the entrance to the sitting room.
"Yeah, alright. Does he eat anything besides crackers?" Harry asked, standing up with Sev and walking towards Draco and Scorpius. He was relieved when he was standing right next to them and Scorpius didn't cry.
"Yeah, mashed foods mostly. We still have a bit of winter squash and jarred grape mash we saved for them, although now that we can send the elves to the store again, we can see about trying something new. Something green I should think; I haven't had peas or green beans in ages," Draco said, leading Harry to the dining room.
"What have you been eating here?" Harry asked, hoping his family hadn't been starving while in hiding.
Draco put Scorpius into the highchair with the green sea turtles and then helped Harry do the same with Sev and the blue highchair.
"The first lettuce and cabbage were harvested recently and that was a treat. The grapes haven't come in yet, so it's mostly cheese, milk, and dried pasta. We save the crackers, the jarred grape mash, and the squash for the boys and the bread for cheese sandwiches for lunch. We have jarred tomatoes left, so there's tomato and cream soup. Breakfast is mostly yogurt or oatmeal with milk and grape juice, although even the oatmeal we're running low on, but we have all the milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream we can eat," Draco said, before calling a house elf and asking for crackers for the babies.
"What were you planning on doing for food next year if I didn't end the war when I did?" Harry asked as Draco handed him two crackers for Sev and gave two to Scorpius.
"The vegetables in the garden will be up soon and then the grapes will come in. Mother had the house elves plant some corn this year that we were looking forward to and of course the carrots, broccoli, and green beans will be nice, but mostly it's tomatoes. We're up to our ears in tomatoes and grapes all summer. The squash is of course set aside for the winter and there's always more than enough dairy products to go around. We still have more dried pasta, and Severus promised to smuggle in more oatmeal and wheat soon. The house elves would stretch the oatmeal and wheat if Severus couldn't get more and it came to that. It's less nutritious if you stretch it, but we would've lived."
"Why so much tomatoes, grapes, and milk?" Harry wondered, watching Sev tear up the cracker with his two teeth. Scorpius too was gumming a cracker, but wasn't demolishing it as totally as his brother.
"Tomatoes because we've always had tomatoes in the garden; giant ones that rival the school's pumpkins, milk because of the two dairy cows we have on the property, and grapes because this is a vineyard. We use the grapes grown here to make all our wine. We let it age for decades in the very expansive cellars and have the house elves bring it up as needed. When the cellars get too full, we sell the excess off, but mostly we keep it for the family first."
"Have you been drinking wine with dinner every night then?"
"Since I was ten, yeah, but not since you knocked me up. I can't drink while breast feeding, you should know that."
Harry had forgotten about the breast feeding for a moment and felt stupid for asking. He was about to apologize when Narcissa called out, "Draco, Harry, where are you, dears? It's time for supper." Then Narcissa was in the doorway to the dining room. "Oh there you are. Lucius, they're in here."
Lucius appeared at the doorway behind Narcissa and they both came in and took their seats around the table. Then an old lady came in and said, "So this is the halfblood scum who Bella was raving about. I was telling Cissy that she really ought to have had more children, so she could afford to disinherit Draco for marrying beneath him."
"Er," Harry said, not really sure who this woman was or how he should respond to that.
"Don't mind mother, Harry, no one else does. She lost Bella today and she's worse for it," Narcissa said.
"And you Cissy! You should be ashamed of yourself, carrying on like this is a happy occasion when that halfblood scum you call a son-in-law just killed your only sister! Bella may have been crazy, but at least she was loyal to the cause."
"Druella, if I'm not mistaken, you agreed to come and stay here with my darling Cissy and our halfblood scum of a son-in-law, as you put it, so perhaps it would be best if you were to hold your tongue?" Lucius asked.
"Yes mother, do sit down for supper," Narcissa said. And the food arrived at the word supper, emphasizing her point.
Druella sat and Harry leaned over to Draco and asked in a whisper, "Isn't Andromeda also your mum's sister and isn't she still alive?"
"Grandmother Druella doesn't count her; it's best not to mention it around her. It's best not to mention anything around her really, or she's liable to go off."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is my presence making it worse? Perhaps I shou-," Harry started to say, but Draco cut him off.
"Perhaps you should shut it and eat something. You're not going anywhere; Grandmother is worse today because of Aunt Bella's death, that's all. It has nothing to do with you," Draco said, stabbing a bit of lasagna with his fork.
"That's not true! He probably killed her himself!" Druella accused with a long knobbly finger.
"Mother!" Narcissa scolded.
"Actually, ma'am, it was Mrs. Weasley who killed Bellatrix," Harry said.
"Weasley? Which one?" Druella asked, suddenly losing all of the color in her cheeks.
"Molly Weasley," Harry answered.
"Molly Weasley. I think I just lost my appetite," Druella said, getting up from the table and leaving.
"Don't mind her Harry, please dig in. We are all thrilled to have you here with us. You are one of the family now and we expect you to live with us. I would like my mother to remain nearby to keep an eye on her, but now that the war's over she can go back to her house," Narcissa said.
"Grandmother isn't always this bad and she's been rather helpful with the babies," Draco said in between bites of food.
Harry didn't know how Draco was able to eat when so many people had just died. He looked down at his slice of lasagna and began to think the old lady had the right idea about not eating. "I hope you never left them alone with her."
"All the time," Draco answered.
"Oh," Harry said. He wanted to order Draco to never do that again, because he didn't trust her. Worst case scenario she would harm them for being impure and best case scenario she would indoctrinate them into pureblood nonsense. But now wasn't the time for that discussion.
"If you'd like, you can take over her afternoon shift while I have my nap. Otherwise I wouldn't advise complaining when you haven't been here and she has. Besides, I know she loves her great grandsons," Draco said.
"Um, yeah, I'd like to spend loads of time with them, if that's alright," Harry said.
Draco agreed and then Sev finished tearing through his crackers and started banging on the trey, making screeching sounds.
"Hey little guy, are you always this active?" Harry asked his son.
"Just when he sees we have food and wants some, but he can't have any, because of the cheese sauce and these noodles aren't mushy enough," Narcissa explained.
"Is there anything he can have?" Harry asked.
"Did he finish that bottle I gave you?" Narcissa asked.
"Yes."
"Then he already ate. He's not hungry; he just wants to try everything," Narcissa explained.
"Oh."
"Harry, if you want you can feed them tomorrow," Draco offered.
"Oh, I just ordered the elves to go shopping, so there should be something new for them by tomorrow," Narcissa said.
"You can clean up the mess too," Draco added.
"How messy are they?" Harry asked.
"Scorpius is the calmer, neater, cleaner of the two, but Hyperion has gotten in the habit of flinging his food about lately. He likes to finger paint with it," Draco answered.
Then Lucius said, "I sent the owl off to the Prophet informing them of Harry Malfoy's location and asked them to make sure they get the spelling of the name correct. They owled me back a request for an interview as soon as possible and a promise of a free evening paper. It is of course completely up to you, Harry, whether or not you would like to do the interview; just let me know and I'll send your reply back to them."
"Um, no, I don't really want to give any interviews," Harry said.
"Would you mind if I did give one?" Draco asked.
"No, I guess not. What are you going to tell them?" Harry asked.
"I could tell them whatever you want me to, but I thought they would have questions about our secret marriage and the children. I'll keep it short, just tell them how we were hiding out and the role we played in the war, behind the scenes. I reckon I deserve that order of Merlin, what with it being my wand that defeated the Dark Lord," Draco answered.
"I hate interviews and I'm sure they'll be beating down my door with requests after this; I wouldn't mind if you did all the interviews actually. I could write you out a short description of how I defeated Him and who helped and you could relay it for me. But I hate the Prophet; I'd rather give the first interview to someone like Mr. Lovegood. His daughter Luna helped me during the war," Harry replied.
"We are investors in the Prophet. It makes sense financially to give the story to them first, although I see no reason why Draco can't give two interviews and also give the story to Mr. Lovegood. But Harry, if there is a problem with the Prophet, I'd like to hear about it, so that I can demand any changes that need to be made," Lucius said.
At this prompting, Harry went off on his dislike of Rita Skeeter and the way the Prophet just printed whatever sensationalism that would sell the most copies, irrespective of the truth.
When Harry finished his rant, Lucius said, "So what you're saying, Harry, is that there is a market out there for a newspaper that only prints facts and truths, with reporters who have scruples."
"Yes!" Harry exclaimed. Maybe the Quibbler printed nonsense, but they never told lies about people.
"That's a refreshing idea. If I put together the operation, would you be willing to oversee it on a day to day basis and make sure that your ideals are being upheld?" Lucius asked, not just to take Harry's mind off of the paper that had printed many of those false stories at Lucius' personal urging, but also as a way to keep young Harry from causing trouble or putting himself in any more danger. If Harry had a job with a paper, then he couldn't be an Auror, which wasn't an appropriate job for a Malfoy.
"Um, no sir, I wanted to be an Auror. Can't you find someone else to run it?" Harry asked.
"No, no, that will never do. Either it must be you, or it will turn into another Prophet and we can't have that. If you ever change your mind, do let me know," Lucius said. He didn't want to throw money away on a boring paper that no one would ever read that didn't print what he wanted when he needed publicity spun in his favor, unless it was keeping Harry out of trouble. "In the meantime, I'll arrange for Draco to give an interview tomorrow."
After that there was some discussion between Draco and Lucius regarding business plans after the war, because they both thought now was the time to expand and move into new markets and buy up old companies who no longer had anyone left alive to run them. Lucius asked Harry if Harry had any interest in investing and business and Harry informed Lucius of his status as the sole investor in Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Lucius approved of the company and the young talent, even if he couldn't say the same of the Weasley family as a whole. But what Lucius was not impressed with was the way Harry had just given the money to the Weasley twins without a contract and insisted that he go down with Harry to meet with the surviving twin to write something out. Harry didn't like the idea, but Lucius cited Harry's need to provide for his young family and said he was sure they could come to an agreement that was fair for all involved.
Harry grudgingly agreed, but refused to do it anytime soon, because George had just lost Fred.
After dinner, Narcissa flooed over to her sister's house and came back with Andromeda and Teddy. Teddy was only two weeks old and sporting lime green hair and blue eyes; at least his hair was lime green when they came through the floo, but it kept changing all night. They gathered in the drawing room and there were many tears, hugs, and condolences over their many losses.
Lucius was the first to leave the room, saying he had business to attend to, and really he did; he had to make certain the Malfoy family came out on top at the end of all of this.
Andromeda asked about her mother Druella, but Narcissa assured Andy that the old woman had gone to bed for the night, still upset over Bellatrix of all people. Andy would likely have to deal with her estranged mother in the morning, but Narcissa thought Druella was ready for a change of heart and to take her daughter back; that was before Bella's death and Narcissa didn't know how Bella's death would change things.
Harry held his godson Teddy for the first time and Andy held her two great nephews for the first time. Teddy was so tiny and Harry wondered if his children had ever been this small. He asked Draco and Draco told him that Sev had been smaller and Scorpius had been half the size of Sev, which Harry had a hard time believing.
Andy was in a bit of disbelief herself that Draco had been pregnant and then had twins all without anyone knowing, but she was accepting enough of the situation and spent far more time bemoaning the loss of her daughter than worrying about what she had missed.
After about forty-five minutes, Draco announced that it was bath time for Scorpius and Sev and gave Harry the choice as to whether to come or stay with Andromeda and Teddy. Harry looked to Andromeda, a woman he barely knew, but whose grief he so thoroughly understood, before looking to his boys, who he had never seen before today.
"Go on dear; I know you haven't had a chance to see them before. I'll be here for a few days, so we have plenty of time to catch-up," Andy said.
Harry nodded and followed Draco, taking Sev as they went up the stairs and into the nursery bathroom. Unlike a regular bathroom, this room only had a bathtub in it, without all of the other fixtures. There was a towel rack on the wall, a cupboard, the tub, and that was it. It was strange, but this was the Malfoys, so anything was possible. "No toilet?" Harry asked.
"No, it had a toilet, a urinal, and a sink, same as all of the other bathrooms, only they're not needed, so they've been concealed. It provides more room and eliminates unnecessary hazards. They'll return and be fully functional with a simple spell," Draco explained, before showing Harry how bath time was done with the aid of two baby seats for the tub, now that both of the boys could sit up. Draco took some soap for Scorpius and passed the bottle to Harry and asked, "So my cousin really made you the godfather then?"
"Yeah, I guess they did."
"I don't mind if you want him to come live with us, but that's something you need to discuss with my aunt; she'll likely want her grandson with her at least part of the time. Just let me know what the two of you decide."
"Really? You'd take Teddy in?" Harry asked surprised. He hadn't imagined Draco to be so generous as to take Teddy in when Draco didn't know Tonks and Remus was a werewolf.
"Yes; he's family and family is very important to Malfoys."
"But I thought your Aunt was blasted off of the family tree?"
"And now that the war is over, my father will have her added back on; one era's blood traitor is another era's key to saving face."
"Oh. But you really won't mind if we take him in? Another baby will mean more work." And if they were to take Teddy in, then they might as well take Andy too, so that she wouldn't have to be separated from her grandson.
"He's around the same age as our boys, so it won't be that bad. The only problem I foresee is a matter of room in the Manor; however you cut it, there are only four bedrooms and I had planned on mother and father living with us. If we take in Teddy, then that will make four children and four adults in four rooms."
"Oh, then I guess asking your aunt to move in is out of the question."
"Certainly. She can floo over whenever she wishes, but the Manor simply doesn't have enough room."
"I thought you lived in a mansion."
"You've been there right?"
"Yeah, but I didn't get the tour."
"Well it's really not as big as we let on. It's a Manor, not a mansion."
"The boys will have to share a room then."
"All three of them in one room? Sounds like life fit for a Weasley."
"Well do you have a better idea?"
"We can make it work when the children are young, but if Teddy really ends up over more often than not, then my mother and father will have to move here permanently. But that will mean a much higher ratio of children to adults and a lot of the help that we'll need on a day to day basis will be a floo call away, instead of right there. We could still make it work, but I'd like some warning."
"Oh, okay, sure. I'll try to bring it up, but I don't really want to get into that sort of thing when your aunt has just lost her family. Her husband died before I escaped from the Manor; I've got your house elves to thank for that escape by the way, but one of them was killed by your aunt in the process."
"We know about the elf; the elves reported to us afterwards and informed me about what happened; I was just glad you all got away. I didn't know about the prisoners in the cellar; that was rather repulsive to think about." After that incident Draco had learned that his father knew of the prisoners in the cellar, but hadn't done anything about it, preferring to let Bellatrix think she was in charge until the end. Lucius claimed he did it for Harry, so that Bellatrix and the Dark Lord would be caught unaware when Harry came bursting through the door, owning the place. It made sense, but in the end Harry hadn't had the chance to take the fight to the Manor, which he was grateful for, because he didn't want to have to repair his family home from the damages of war.
"Yeah, Luna had only been there a few months, but Mr. Ollivander was there for some time."
"Look, about my aunt; I know it's awful that she lost everyone, but I really do want to know what she plans to do with that baby and it does matter whether I know sooner or later. Have you thought about it that she won't have milk to last forever? Who's going to feed that baby? It's gonna end up being me, I know it and that's not a problem really, because I've got extra milk stored up that she can have. And Scorpius and Hyperion are moving onto solid foods and won't need so much milk, so there will be enough to go around, but I don't want to get attached to another baby if she's not going to give him to us. If I'm gonna wind up being the father, fine, but if I'm more like the uncle the kid sees every other weekend, I don't want to get hurt and Teddy can have his milk out of a breast pump, same as Hyperion. So find out what the plan is and if there isn't a plan, make one."
"Oh, um, I hadn't even thought of that. I'll talk to her," Harry promised, amazed by the fact that Draco was willing to give Teddy his milk, let alone take Teddy in and raise him like one of Draco's own.
"See that you do, Malfoy," Draco said.
Sev decided he wasn't getting enough attention, so he smacked both of his little hands down onto the water, splashing Harry in the face. Both Sev and Scorpius laughed at that and Scorpius copied his brother, splashing Draco in the face. Harry and Draco smiled at their boys and finished up the bath. They rinsed the boys off and wrapped them in fluffy towels to dry them. Then it was time to dress the babies and Harry had to admit he had no idea how to put a cloth nappy on. Sev was wriggling all over the place and kept turning over and rolling away.
"The key with Sev, is to do everything quickly, before he gets away," Draco said, swooping in and quickly fastening the nappy into place.
Harry looked over and noticed that Scorpius didn't roll away and although Scorpius kicked his right leg and flailed his arms, Scorpius mostly lay still and let Draco dress him. Harry wanted to trade babies, but then Harry remembered Scorpius screaming at him when Harry first arrived and thought better of it. Thus Harry grabbed the onesie and tried to make do, dressing the squirming Sev.
Draco left Harry to struggle with the clothes, taking Scorpius to the bedroom to breastfeed. While he was at it, he changed the collection bottles on the breast pump and ordered a house elf to prepare a bottle for Sev. Then he put the breast pump away, because he was embarrassed of what Harry would think if he knew Draco had turned into such a dairy cow; not that Harry had noticed yet, but it was bound to happen sooner or later and he was fine with it happening later.
Harry finally finished the snaps on Sev's pajamas and went looking for Draco. The door right next to the nursery was open and he found his husband inside, sitting on a large bed and breast feeding Scorpius. He was very curious about this, wondering everything from how Draco made milk without boobs to what Draco's chest looked like without the baby attached. But he didn't want to broach the subject or get caught staring, so he tried to concentrate his eyes on Sev.
"There's a bottle on the desk for Hyperion. You two can join me on the bed," Draco offered.
Harry seized the suggestion, quickly getting the bottle and sitting down next to Draco on the bed. Sev didn't have much patience for him to get comfortable and was already grabbing at the bottle and squealing before Harry even sat down.
"Draco, how often do the boys get up during the night?" Harry asked. Now that it was late and he was clearly in Draco's bedroom, he was starting to wonder about tonight. This was their first night back together and he was certain to be able to get sex out of Draco; they were married after all and hadn't had sex since their honeymoon. But if the boys were up every few hours, he didn't know how that would work.
"Once, but mother told me she would cover it tonight, so we can sleep in."
"Good. I have been up for two days now."
"That long? I'll let you sleep in when I get up in the morning, but you never did tell me the details regarding what happened with the war," Draco said.
And so Harry started to tell Draco what happened, but only got a few sentences in before Draco stopped him and summoned a quill, parchment, writing desk and a pot of ink and said, "Write it down while you talk, that way I'll have notes for the interview tomorrow; that is if you still want me to give it. I don't remember you giving my father the okay to or not, but if you don't want to talk to the reporters, then someone should or else they'll make up stuff."
"Yeah, you can talk to them. I'm really exhausted, but I'll write it down for you," Harry said, trying to figure out how to hold a quill and a baby at the same time.
"Here," Draco said and sat Sev down on the bed between them and took over holding the bottle.
"One baby is hard to juggle; two babies seem like a lot to me; I don't know how you've managed," Harry said.
"It's not that hard once you get used to it. Take feedings for example; getting them both nursing at the same time was tricky at first, but I had help and then I managed fine on my own. It was hard again when I had to stop nursing Sev and start giving him bottles, but he could sit up by that point, so I just sat him on my lap and gave him the bottle with one hand, and held onto Scorpius with the other."
"Sounds like you really might be able to manage with three babies. I was just thinking that it'd be impossible."
"Without help, yes, but I've got my family and now I've got you.
Now that Harry's arms were free, he began to tell Draco the details of his story and write out the basics. He got mixed up a few times in his delirium, but he eventually got the jist of it straight. Scorpius and Sev finished eating long before Harry finished his story, so Draco set Scorpius on the bed next to Sev and gave the boys a few toys to entertain themselves. And since Draco's hands were free, he took over the writing part for Harry, because it was slowing Harry down.
Scorpius started dropping off first, blinking his eyes and yawning, but Sev wasn't far behind. Draco stopped Harry to put the boys to bed in the nursery. They had to be quiet, because Teddy was already sleeping in a basinet in the nursery, although Andy wasn't there and was probably still downstairs with Narcissa. Harry watched over Draco's shoulder as Draco laid the boys down, sang them a lullaby, and spelled on a nightlight.
"I normally cast monitoring charms too, so that I know when they wake up, but mother will handle that tonight," Draco whispered, before leading Harry back to the bedroom and then to the en suit bathroom; partly because he wanted a bath and partly because he didn't know when the last time Harry had had one and he had no desire to share a bed with someone who was filthy.
Harry noticed that this bathroom was similar to the one in the nursery, only with the addition of a urinal and sink. There was still no toilet, but then they were Peverell wizards, so they didn't need one. The tub was a fancy clawed foot affair, but wasn't the giant Hogwarts variety tub, so they barely fit and Draco had to sit in Harry's lap. While they bathed, Harry finished telling Draco his account of the war and since Draco didn't bring the parchment into the bath, Draco was trying to remember it all.
While Draco was concentrating on Harry's words and cleaning himself, Harry was ogling Draco's body. He was very appreciative of Draco's flat stomach that looked like it had never even been pregnant. The only sign of the pregnancy was Draco's breasts, which looked plumped up and fuller and Draco's nipples, which were grotesquely long; Harry imagined they got that way from constantly having a baby suck on them. Once he finished the part about how it was Voldemort's own killing curse that back fired on Him, Harry reached out and stroked Draco's left nipple, because he couldn't take his curiosity any longer. He was surprised to see milk squirt out and Draco flinch.
"Ow, no touching me there until I stop breast feeding, yeah? It's bad enough they get sucked on all day; I don't need you messing with them too."
"Sorry," Harry said, pulling his hand back.
Draco was silent then and since Harry was done washing himself and was horny, Harry took over the washcloth from his husband, rubbing the soap all over Draco's soft flesh. His cock was hard and pressing into Draco's back and he hoped Draco was hard too, because he could really use some release of his sexual frustration right about now. Trapped in a small tent with Hermione for months on end did not lend itself to sexual gratification, even of the self-induced type. But when his hand reached lower, he found Draco to be soft.
Draco pulled Harry's hand away from his bits and said, "Don't."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know how you can even think about that when Professor Snape just died; and eaten by a snake! I've seen Nagini eat people and I can imagine the horror," Draco answered, shivering in horror as he thought about it.
Harry hadn't thought about how hearing the details of Snape's death would affect Draco. It was part of what had happened and Harry had relayed it and that was it. Now he wished he had thought more of how Draco would react to hearing it. "I'm sorry. I know he meant a lot to you; I lost a lot of people in this war too," Harry said, wrapping his arms around Draco.
Draco allowed Harry to hold him and the two of them stayed like that in the tub until the water grew cold. Harry cast a warming spell, but the two of them were done anyway, so they got out and dried off.
Harry decided that he wouldn't ask Draco again for sex tonight, but then when they were putting on pants and pajama bottoms, Draco passed Harry a shrunken sex basket, saying only, "Here, I took this from the school for you."
That act really sent Harry mixed signals, because he thought it meant Draco wanted sex after all, which was more than alright with him. "Thanks," Harry said, unshrinking the basket. He got out and unshrunk the applicators and the conditioning and soothing potions, but didn't think he'd need the stretching one again. He was just reaching for one of the vials of contraceptive potion when Draco stopped him.
"What do you think you're doing, Malfoy?"
"Um, is this the wrong one? I thought the orange one was next; I already took the red one last year."
"Those are yearlong contraceptives and you're supposed to be carrying my baby by the end of the year," Draco said, taking the orange vial out of Harry's hand and putting it back in the rack.
"But you don't want to get pregnant tonight, right? I mean I just got back from the war and it's too soon. I assumed we'd wait a few years after having the boys."
"I assumed you'd be pregnant next year."
"Ah, I was hoping to go into Auror training in the fall. Well I hadn't planned on it, because of course that depended on the war ending, but, yeah."
"Oi, you can't start Auror training in the fall; I expect you to be pregnant in the fall."
"That soon? I thought you'd want to wait a while, especially if we have Teddy."
"Well if you want to put it off until later, I don't see how you'd possibly be able to have a career with the Aurors."
"What do you mean? I thought we agreed that you'd stay home with the kids until they were five."
"Well if you wait ten years to have our daughter, I'm not staying home for fifteen years."
"Okay, not ten, but maybe three."
"Still, even if it's only three, you'll be home breast feeding so long that there wouldn't even be any point in starting."
"Huh? Isn't it just one year to have the baby and another year to stay home breast feeding?"
"Is that what muggles do?"
"Sometimes. Normally they don't bother staying home at all and give the baby formula."
"Well our babies won't be fed muggle food; it's bad enough Scorpius drank two ounces of it when he was first born."
"Okay, but still, that only lasts a year, right?"
"What do muggles feed their babies after the first year? Cow's milk isn't safe until the age of three."
"Three? You mean witches breast feed for three years?"
"Yes. It's not so much work after the first year, because of the solid food in the diet."
"Muggles give children cow's milk after the first year. I thought that you were only going to breast feed for the one year."
"No, I was going to do the full three with the twins and finish off the last two years with our daughter, so that you could start Auror training in two years. But if you aren't going to be pregnant next year, then I'm not going to be breast feeding forever and you'll just have to do the three years yourself."
"Yeah, alright, I'll get pregnant in this coming year then."
"Not too soon though; I want to finish my NEWTs before our daughter's born."
"Yeah, sure thing." When Harry had agreed to carrying the next baby, he never thought it would come this soon. Truthfully he had never thought it would go this far and now he was wondering if he could get out of it somehow. But if he put it off, Draco would expect him to breast feed for three years and he didn't want to do it at all. On the other hand, if he got hold of a few contraceptive potions, he might be able to fool Draco into believing he was infertile as a carrier and then Draco would do all the child baring. Thus he reached back for the contraceptive potion in the rack and said, "So I'll just take this now and get pregnant when it wears off."
"If you take that, you won't be pregnant for at least a year. There are other contraceptives you can use; ones with shorter terms," Draco replied, vanishing the rack with all the contraceptive potions before Harry could grab the orange one again; he didn't want Harry accidentally taking one and getting out of carrying their child.
"Do you have one ready that we could use tonight?"
"No and we're not having sex tonight, Harry; I already told you why. You can look up a contraceptive potion or spell tomorrow; it's not like you have anything else to do while I go for the interview." Draco didn't particularly care if Harry had an accident and got pregnant a few months early, because he had already started reading the material for his history of magic NEWT, which was the most important one.
"Okay. I did want to visit the Weasleys tomorrow and see George, but I can try to look something up before I go. But then why'd you give me the sex basket?" Harry asked confused.
"So you could use the conditioning potion, which has to be used in advance. I doubt you've used it in the last year, so do it now and then you'll be ready for whenever we do have sex."
"Yeah, okay," Harry said, filling an applicator with the conditioning potion.
"We need to put these up in the closet; I don't want my mother and father to see them," Draco said before calling a house elf to do it for him.
While Draco was ordering the house elf around, Harry went to the loo and added the conditioning potion. Then he was back and they climbed into bed together.
"What do you need to see the Weasleys for?" Draco asked snuggling into Harry's side.
"Fred died and I'd like to see George and Molly; the whole family really."
"Even after what Ron Weasley did to Scorpius? You know he can barely move that leg, right?"
"I won't take the babies with me and I'm not going for Ron, although I did hex him really good and we've sort of come to terms with it. But no, I didn't know about the leg. How bad is it?"
"Sev just started crawling, but he's been getting up on his hands and knees for months now; Scorpius has never gotten up on his hands and knees. Sev has been rolling over since the age of three months, while Scorpius has never rolled over; he sits up and that's about it. He kicks all over the place with his right leg, but he barely moves the left one. He likes to suck on the toes of his right foot, but he can't get the left one into his mouth."
"When do you want to take him to St. Mungo's? We need to see if they can fix it."
"I'll make an appointment and get it done as soon as possible. Father is going with me tomorrow and we need to stop by our lawyer's office and the Ministry. I'm not sure if we'll have a chance to swing by St. Mungo's or not; we'll probably be gone half the day at least and I was counting on you staying here and helping Mother with the boys, Aunt Andy, Teddy, and Grandmother Druella."
"Alright, I'll put my visit off until the day after tomorrow; I'll send Molly an owl. I know she wanted to see the babies, but I won't bring them."
"I have some pictures you could take to show her, but if Hermione's there, there is something I'd like you to ask her."
"What?"
"The muggles that saved Scorpius' life; I'd like to give them a thank you gift. We didn't have muggle money to pay them with at the time and they didn't even ask for money; they just saved him and sent us the bill. That's part of why Father needs to visit our family lawyer, because he needs to arrange payment on that bill. But even after we pay our bill, I'd still like to thank them and I don't know what muggles like, so if you could ask Hermione what would be an appropriate gift, I'd appreciate it."
"Yeah, I'll ask her," Harry said yawning.
After that Draco started thinking about his old head of house and how much he would miss Professor Snape. Then he remembered Harry's description of the professor's death and cringed in horror. He had tried to keep himself together all day for the boys, but now the boys were asleep and he couldn't help but sob into Harry's chest as he remembered his mentor and his protector.
Harry noticed Draco's quiet sobbing and suddenly the grief he felt for Fred, Remus, and Tonks was overwhelming. He held Draco tightly and silent tears trickled down his face. The two of them fell asleep like that, comforting each other in their grief.
Draco wasn't asleep for long when the pain in his chest woke him. He felt emotional pain at the loss of Professor Snape, but he also felt physical pain because he hadn't pumped in hours; he didn't want to do it in front of Harry. He silently crept out of bed, retrieved the breast pump from where he had hidden it, and put it on. He covered himself with his paternity robes, so that Harry wouldn't be able to see, and crawled back into bed, setting the pumping machine on the floor beside the bed.
Then Draco went to sleep for the night, knowing that the house elves would monitor the pump and replace the bottles as needed, like they did every night. They did it during the day too, but he still liked to change the bottles himself if he was thinking about it, so that he could pretend that the house elves hadn't replaced the collection bottles untold numbers of times and he wasn't such the dairy cow that he thought he was. The elves had gotten bottle replacement down to the point where he didn't need to wake up in the middle of the night on those rare nights when his mother or father volunteered to get up with the babies. And during the day, he rarely even noticed the switch.
Author's Note: What do you think of Harry and Draco adopting Teddy? Up next will be Draco and Lucius' excursion into the wizarding world. Please Review!