Draco woke up at eight in the morning and got ready for his first day out of the house since he had brought Scorpius home and his first trip into wizarding society since he left Hogwarts last year. He was quiet and let Harry sleep in and was even nice enough to cast a muffling charm on the walls. He put on a clean set of paternity robes and changed the collection bottles on the breast pump, using the one set of bottles he had that had a wizard-space charm placed on them, because he would be out of range of the villa's house elves.
Mother, Father, and Grandmother Druella were up with all three boys having breakfast and Draco joined them. Scorpius and Severus were in their high chairs, while Teddy was lying in a cradle near Mother; Aunt Andy and Harry were the only people missing. Scorpius reached out for Draco, so Draco picked Scorpius up and sat him in his lap while he ate. Scorpius started rooting around like he was looking for something to latch onto, so Draco temporally removed one side of the breast pump to let him have a drink.
"I gave Hyperion a bottle already, but Scorpius wasn't hungry yet and refused it," Narcissa said.
"Alright. Thank you, mother," Draco replied.
As breakfast proceeded, Draco noticed that there was obvious tension between his mother and grandmother, but when he asked his mother if she'd be alright without him, she assured him that Grandmother Druella promised to be on her best behavior and that he wouldn't come home to a Black family war; they wouldn't even wake the Savior upstairs.
Scorpius finished suckling and Draco put him back into his highchair. When Draco finished eating, he kissed his boys goodbye, told them to be good for their grandmother, and then he and Lucius flooed first to their meeting with their lawyer.
They had a lot of things to cover, such as the paperwork for Draco's marriage and the births of his two children. Most of the paperwork that had already been prepared was good to go, but there were a few minor changes, like changing the name of his first born to Severus Hyperion instead of Hyperion Draco.
Next on the list of matters to discuss was the muggle hospital which had treated Scorpius. Lucius handed over the muggle bill and the lawyer did the calculation to figure out how many hundreds of galleons it worked out to. They discussed transferring the money over from their Gringotts account, which the lawyer had to fill out a form for, and Lucius had to sign.
Then Lucius had business matters that needed to be dealt with; two years' worth of issues relating to the various Malfoy businesses and investments that needed attention. And then there was the little issue of Lucius' release from Azkaban, which the Order claimed to be an escape, but Lucius quiet clearly remembered being released free and clear. Lucius had to hand over his memories concerning that matter and several other crimes he was being accused of. The lawyer would copy the memories and present only the non-incriminating ones and his case for Lucius' complete innocence to the heads of the MLE and Auror departments.
Clearing Lucius of all wrong doing would require a successful campaign in the media, which was on their list of things to do for the day, but first they stopped by the Ministry, which was eerily empty, even for a Sunday. There were normally at least a few employees to receive paperwork. "My son-in-law defeats the Dark Lord and suddenly everyone takes the day off?" Lucius asked a bit too loudly. But then the huge cavernousness atrium was all but empty, so his voice carried.
"Did you come to turn yourself in, Lord Malfoy?" the Auror working security at the Ministry asked.
"Why no, why would I turn myself in? I was at home while my husband was slaying the Dark Lord; surely you don't think I did it?" Draco asked.
"That's right, innit? Your title got stripped and the pipsqueak is the new Lord Malfoy, eh?" the Auror asked.
"That's Lord Malfoy and Husband of the Chosen One, to you," Draco said.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm here to file the paperwork; I married Harry Malfoy last year, before I went into hiding. Now if you could direct us to whoever is on duty and available to file my paperwork."
"No one's on duty; we just survived a bloody war, didn't we? Everyone's taking a day off while the new regime figures out who's in charge."
"Well my husband just got back from saving all our arses, so I think the least you can do is call in a clerk, to process these documents for him."
"What are you playing at? Harry Potter would never marry you."
"Oh, but he would and he has. If I have to get him out of bed after he's been up killing the Dark Lord for two straight days and nine months on the run, well I think whoever is in charge might be a bit upset about that."
"Let me see those then."
Draco handed over a copy of the marriage certificate and said, "Careful, that's the Savior of the Wizarding World's marriage certificate. I'd hate to see what happens to your job if you damage it."
"This is a fake! A forgery, it has to be."
"Draco, I'll have to add slander of your good name to my list of complaints regarding the Ministry; Harry's too," Lucius said, speaking up for the first time and pulling out a copy of the morning's addition of the Daily Prophet. The special evening addition issue from last night had proclaimed victory by Harry Malfoy, thanks to Lucius' owl informing the paper of the name change with attached copy of the marriage certificate for proof. But the story had already been written before he owled and all the editors had done was change the name and add in a sentence that Harry had married Draco and taken his name. The morning addition, on the other hand, contained all of the limited information Lucius had included in his owl. And whereas the picture last night was one of Harry in the middle of a battle, the one this morning was Harry and Draco's wedding photo, taken last year, which Lucius was nice enough to send along with his owl.
"Right, well I'll just call in someone to receive these papers and see about verifying them. I suspect you'll need Harry Potter's conformation that these are authentic before they can be filed into public record." The Auror couldn't believe that Harry Potter would marry a Death Eater, so he figured the paper was a hoax designed as an intricate ploy by the Malfoys for some nefarious plot they were hatching, which seemed to involve trapping Harry Potter into a fake marriage.
"Harry Malfoy; he took my last name," Draco said, pulling out one of his forms. "See, this form right here says so and it's signed Harry Potter, henceforth Harry Malfoy dated last year on our wedding day."
"Well please wait while I contact someone who can help you with this matter, Lord Malfoy. As for your father, I'm afraid I'll have to take him in."
"If you take in the father-in-law of the Savior, how do you think that's gonna look in the papers? I've an interview with the Prophet right now, where I plan on telling them about all the things my father was doing behind the scenes to help Harry Malfoy win. For example, did you know Harry was captured by snatchers and taken to Bellatrix Lestrange? If it weren't for the fact that my father gave the Dark Lord use of our Manor and that that was where Bella was, Harry would've been up a creek without a wand. As it was, our house elves let him go."
"Alright, well I don't even know who's in charge now anyway, so I'll let Mr. Malfoy go as long as he agrees to come in for questioning when we're ready for him."
"My lawyer is already putting together a summary of events for just such a date," Lucius said.
The Auror nodded and told Draco and Lucius to take a seat, while he firecalled in for assistance. It was another fifteen minutes, but finally Kingsley Shacklebolt himself came through the floo, followed by an administrator. Kingsley, who had heard from Ron and Hermione that Harry had married Draco Malfoy and had two kids in secret, wasted no time in greeting Draco and congratulating him on his wedding and the births of his sons. There was some polite chatter while the administrator went through the paperwork, checking to make sure everything was in order.
Kingsley assured Draco that everyone was eternally grateful to Harry Malfoy for everything Harry had done. Draco took the opportunity to say that the Ministry could start showing it by clearing his father of all charges, paying Harry for the nine months he spent working twenty-four hours a day defeating the Dark Lord, and giving Draco and Professor Snape Order of Merlins for their efforts, including arranging for Harry to be smuggled Draco's own wand and the Sword of Gryffindor, which were needed to defeat the Dark Lord.
Kingsley said he'd see what he could do about those requests and the administrator said that everything appeared to be in order and that he would get right on filing everything. After that Draco and Lucius grabbed something to eat before heading to their next stop: the Daily Prophet.
Draco gave an interview that painted himself, his father, and his mother in a glowing light. He played up the positives, played down the negatives, and emphasized their role in the war. He even emphasized Harry's role in the war, which was very hard to do, because Harry had almost been the entire war effort in and of himself. In Draco's account, the entire war came down to Harry, Severus Snape, the Malfoy family, a band of Malfoy house elves, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom, in that order, with Hermione and Neville playing minor roles. Ron didn't even merit a mention, which was something that even the muggles who had saved Scorpius' life had gotten.
Finally Draco handed over a family photo of himself with the boys and promised to get them an updated photo with Harry in it, just as soon as he got around to it, contingent on the Prophet painting the Malfoy family in the right light.
Then they stopped by the Quibbler and Witch Weekly to talk about arranging interviews. And finally they made a stop by a wizarding pet store, before going home in time for a late lunch. Lucius was still full from earlier, but Draco had to eat a lot these days to keep up with all the calories he burned breast feeding.
Harry woke up an hour or so before Draco came home and was surprised to find Andy and her mother Druella having a pleasant conversation on the patio with Narcissa and all three boys. They had a cradle outside for Teddy, a play-mat for Scorpius, and Sev was rolling around in a walker, wearing cute little baby shoes so that he didn't hurt his feet on the pavement.
Harry didn't know how Narcissa had arranged the reconciliation between her mother and her sister, but he was grateful she had. He ate lunch out on the patio and then got to hold Scorpius for the first time. He was just thinking that Scorpius ought to have a one syllable nickname like his brother Sev and wondering if anyone would mind if he called his son Scorp, when Draco got home.
"You're mum said to bring Scorpius in to see you; she said he wasn't happy with any of the bottles," Harry said, coming into the dining room with Scorpius, where Draco was eating lunch.
"Well then what did she feed him?" Draco asked, taking Scorpius and preparing to breast feed him, but first he had to take the pump off on one side. He had nowhere else to put it, so he left it on the table. The collection bottle was empty, which meant the house elves had already changed it out.
"Something green, judging by the inside of his ears." Harry tried not to be too nosy about Draco's breast feeding thing, but he was rather shocked to see the thing come out of nowhere. It seemed to be connected to the bag Draco always had on his shoulder these days. Harry had thought it was just a nappy bag, but now he wondered if the bag was part of the breast pump. If that was the case, then that meant Draco might just be breast pumping a lot more often than he thought.
Draco looked into Scorpius's ear and noticed the green smear. Then he looked up Scorpius' nose and found more evidence of the baby's lunch. "Yes it would seem so. I do wonder if he got any of it in his mouth."
"Well he wasn't crying, so he must've, right?"
"If it were Hyperion, absolutely, but I'm not so sure about Scorpius. We're normally careful to make sure he doesn't miss a meal, because he's so small and when we're late with the food, he doesn't always complain. Do me a favor and ask mother how much milk he had."
Harry agreed and went outside to ask Narcissa. Then he went back to the dining room and told Draco, "She said Scorp drank half the bottle last night and then woke up a second time and finished it, but he only drank half of the bottle at lunch time. He didn't want it, so she gave him extra crackers and fed him an entire dish of green beans."
Draco hadn't left the house since December, so he rarely had occasion to give Scorpius a bottle and this was the first time Scorpius had indicated a problem with taking one. "Good, then he wasn't starved, but I'll have to be careful not to leave him too long, in case he refuses the bottle again." Draco ate a few bites of food, before he realized what Harry had called his son and asked, "Scorp?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd give him a nickname, if it's alright with you. I mean, Sev has a nickname and Scorpius needs one too."
"Yeah, it's fine. I kinda like it."
"Great! How'd it go when you were out?" Harry was wondering if there was a lot of chaos on the streets in the aftermath of the war. He imagined the Aurors would be out in full force tracking down Death Eaters and the remaining Death Eaters just might do the type of thing Bellatrix had done to Neville's parents. He really hoped there wouldn't be any post-war horror stories this time around, because the war was horrible enough.
"Good. I got Hyperion a snake," Draco said, indicating the cardboard box he'd brought home. It was sitting on the floor by the doorway
"Why? I know you're a Slytherin, but I don't think a snake is a good pet for a baby."
"I think Sev might be a parselmouth and I've been dying to know if he can talk to snakes. But now that you're here, you can tell me what he's saying."
"Why do you think that? What do you think he's saying?"
"He makes a lot of hissing sounds, especially when he sees pictures of snakes. He has a snake toy that he's always hissing at."
"Oh."
"So can you go get him and try talking to him in parseltongue?"
"No, I can't speak it anymore."
"Since when?"
"Ever since I woke up after having the part of Voldemort inside me killed; it came from him, that's why I could speak it. I don't think it's something I could pass on to Sev, because it wasn't ever something that was truly mine to pass on."
"There was a parselmouth in my family a couple hundred years back, so it could've come from me. Or maybe it came from me and was activated by you. It doesn't really matter why our son is talking to snakes, just that he is, yeah?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right, I'm a Malfoy; we always are. Do you want to talk about how you feel about losing your ability to talk to snakes?"
"No, it's not really a big deal. Why?" Harry thought Draco worded the question oddly and was wondering what Draco was trying to get at.
"I told Mother you weren't a girl and didn't need to talk about feelings, but at breakfast she kept mentioning that you must have a lot of them after the war. She seems to think that as your husband I ought to bring it up.
"Um, I do have feelings, but no, I don't really want to talk about them. What is it with women and always talking about feelings?"
"I don't know; must be a female thing. I'll pass the message to Mother, but if she asks, please tell her I tried. You know mothers; they like to nag," Draco said.
Harry didn't in fact know mothers, but he didn't want to get into that or his feelings on that either, so he just nodded.
When Harry didn't say anything, Draco asked, "Why don't you go get Sev and show him the snake I bought? You're still good with snakes, aren't you?"
"I guess I'm about to find out. I'll go get Sev from your mum then."
Harry went outside and told Narcissa about Draco's snake. Narcissa, Druella, and Andy all wanted to see what happened with Sev and his first snake and then Lucius came out and wanted to see too, so they asked Harry to bring Draco and the snake outside, instead of bringing Sev inside.
Harry went back inside and since Draco was almost done eating and Scorpius was done nursing, Draco agreed to come outside with the snake. Draco gave Scorpius to Harry and waited until Harry was walking back to the patio before reattaching the breast pump and grabbing the box with the snake.
Harry sat down with Scorpius next to Narcissa, who was holding Sev. Scorpius started reaching out for Narcissa and grunting, so Harry switched babies with her. Now Narcissa had Scorpius and Harry had Sev.
On the patio in front of the trellises of grape vines, Draco took the snake out of the box and showed Sev for the first time. Sev shrieked a very loud hissing noise and lunged in Harry's arms for the snake. Harry almost dropped Sev, because he wasn't expecting the sudden movement, but thankfully he didn't. The snake too seemed to respond to Sev, turning its head to face the blond baby and staring right at Sev, flicking its tongue in and out.
"I think it's safe to say that Parseltongue didn't die yesterday," Lucius said.
"It still might be a bit soon for that; we don't even know what he said," Harry said, feeling out of the loop now that he didn't understand snakes. He hadn't missed the ability to talk to snakes, but now that he thought his oldest son was probably a parselmouth, he was starting to.
"Nonsense; it doesn't matter what he said, just which language it was in," Narcissa said.
"It has been generations since a Malfoy has had a parseltongue in the family; it's an honor to have another one," Lucius said.
The family celebrated Sev and his snake, everyone watching eagerly for what the baby and the snake would do next. Sev, for his part, made several more hissing noises at the snake and the snake slithered around the patio harmlessly. Then it was nap time and Draco put Sev and Scorpius down in their cribs, before taking a nap himself in his bedroom.
Andy and Narcissa watched Teddy, so Harry took the moment alone to send an owl to Hermione letting her know that he was still with Draco and how everything was going. Then he sent another owl to Molly and let her know that he would stop by tomorrow after breakfast and stay through lunch. And since he had nothing else to do, he wrote notes to Luna, Neville, Dean, and Seamus, just to see how they were doing after the war and letting his friends know that he was safe and happy with his family.
After nap time, the extended family had dinner together, which was composed of steak, shrimp, rice, and green beans; all foods they hadn't had access to in hiding. The dining room was filled with happy chatter about Sev's gift and there was none of the awkward tension from that morning.
After dinner the family gathered in the drawing room and Harry asked Andy if she would go outside for a chat with him. Andy agreed and followed him to the patio. They started off talking about Tonks and how great she was. There was a bit in there about Remus too, but mostly they both said how much they missed Tonks. And then Harry got down to the heart of why he wanted to talk to Andy, which was Teddy.
"Listen, I don't want to take Teddy away from you, but I am the godfather and I'd like to discuss what's going to happen to him. Draco said he's fine with having Teddy around or even us adopting him; he just wants to know what's going on," Harry said.
"I don't think I could let Teddy go right now; not after losing my Dora. Draco's a great young man, better than my sister Cissy that's for sure. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister, but it's hard to believe Draco turned out so well given the type of things Cissy and her husband and my dear old mother taught him. Anyway, I just want to say that I hold nothing against Draco and I'd love it if the two of you were part of Teddy's life. It's even been Draco's milk Cissy has been giving to me for Teddy all day. If it weren't for Draco's generosity, I wouldn't know what to feed the little guy, so I really do owe him a debt of gratitude," Andy said.
Harry and Andy sat out on the patio discussing plans for Teddy and reminiscing over Tonks for an hour more. They eventually came up with the plan to split Teddy's time equally between the two of them. Andy wanted Harry and Draco to play a big role in Teddy's life, so that he would still feel like he had parents and Harry wanted Andy to still have plenty of time with her grandson.
Then Harry told Andy of his encounter with her late husband Ted before he died. Andy had already known the basic facts surrounding her husband's death and she was glad to have an account of Ted's last hours running from snatchers. He would've stayed out there talking with Andy all evening, but Draco called to him and asked if he wanted a part in bath time. He agreed and went upstairs with Draco and the boys for another bath in which he got so wet he might as well have gotten in the water himself.
They got the boys dressed and Draco took Scorpius into his room to breast feed while Harry was still struggling with Sev, just like the day before. Putting on the nappy took Harry many tries, because Draco didn't help him with it this time. Still, he had seen the process done several times that day and it was time he gave it a go on his own. The first several tries Sev moved too fast and foiled Harry's attempts and when he did finally get the nappy fastened, it wasn't on right. It was too loose and Sev's penis was hanging out the side. Sev rolled over and was trying to scoot away, so Harry pulled the baby back and flipped him onto his back again, saying, "Stay still; Daddy doesn't want to stick you with one of the pins."
"Da da da da da da," Sev said and smacked the glasses off of Harry's face.
The baby was once again on his stomach and scooching away slowly when Harry got his glasses on and went in for yet another attempt. Harry got Sev back onto his back and unfastened one side, tightened it up, pushing the penis all the way inside, and then reinserted the safety pin. There were a few more attempts, before he finally got the other side tightened. He was getting a hang of getting the clothes on a moving baby, so once the nappy was on, the pajamas went on quickly.
When Harry finally got the last of the snaps done up, he went into Draco's room and found Draco sitting on his bed with Scorpius. There were two stuffed toys on the foot of the bed, one in the shape of a snake and another one in the shape of a scorpion, both with a rattle on the end.
Draco indicated the bottle of milk on the desk for Sev and Harry grabbed it, before sitting down on the bed next to Draco and Scorpius, while he fed Sev.
"I talked to your aunt; we agreed to share Teddy fifty-fifty," Harry said.
"You did, huh?" Draco asked, but he didn't sound happy about that at all.
"Um, didn't you want me to talk to her?"
"Yeah, and I wanted the two of you to come to a proper decision, not some wishy-washy do-gooder peace-on-Earth dragon dung decision."
"I thought you said you were willing to take Teddy in as your own? Were you just saying that, because you thought it wouldn't come to that?"
"No, I said I'd take him in as my own, if my aunt gave him to us, not shared him with us. I'm stilling willing to do it if she's willing to give him up, but I thought I explained to you that I wasn't willing to share him like a couple of divorcees. I haven't gotten divorced, so I shouldn't be made to suffer for it. I knew you were the Savior and liable to bring home stray kneazles who tried to scratch your eyeballs out and I can totally see how I should have expected you to come back home from war with an orphan, but I'm not just gonna sit back and let my heart get broken when my aunt wants her grandson back."
"Oh. Okay, I'll talk to her again. Kneazles?"
"Well honestly I thought it would by that house elf you love that you'd bring home, but he used to be my house elf anyway and it wouldn't be so bad to pay the wages of an elf we don't really need. I didn't think it'd be a stray human."
Harry didn't think he'd given Draco any reason to think he was going to bring Dobby home. "How did you come to that conclusion?"
"I had a chat with mother before I married you, when she was still considering the marriage contract. She wanted to make sure the marriage would last, which she thought would only happen if I accepted you for who you are, with all your flaws. We started talking about your relationship with Dobby."
"What did she say?"
"She pointed out that you were the self-sacrificing hero type and asked if I was really willing to put up with that. And then you're always fawning all over that elf, telling him thank you and then eating it up when he says what a good and noble wizard you are. I put the two together."
"So you're saying that before we even got married, you realized that your future husband would be bringing home strays and you decided you were okay with it and married me anyway?"
"Yeah, that's why I included that bit in my wedding vows, to show you that I was okay with it. But don't go getting any ideas: I'm allowing you one orphan, one elf, one kneazle or crup, and one abraxan, but after your one of each type of stray, there will be no more. Next time someone turns up on our doorstop with an orphan, I'm going to tell you no, because we already have an orphan, so you better think long and hard about it and make sure that he's the orphan you want."
"What about you? Do you want him?"
"I wouldn't mind."
"Even though he's not a pureblood and his father was a werewolf?"
"It's not about what his parents were, so much as what Teddy is and is not. As long as Teddy isn't a werewolf and as long as he is a metamorphmagus, then I don't see the problem."
"What does being a metamorphmagus have to do with anything?"
"Don't you remember what I told you about purebloods back when we first got together?"
"Er, not really."
"With most purebloods, lack of blood purity is forgiven with talent. That boy is clearly talented, so any purity he lacks will be forgiven now that the Dark Lord is gone."
"Alright, so you'd really be fine with taking him in?"
"As long as it's official, then yes."
"What would make it official? Andy's agreement?"
"If she signs a custody agreement, then that's a start, but if we're going through with this then we should be talking adoption."
"Oh." The thought of adoption hadn't even crossed Harry's mind yet.
"If he's gonna be one of our boys, then he needs to be just like our boys. His parents are dead and yeah, that's awful, but him being adopted isn't gonna change that. He'll still be Dora and Professor Lupin's only kid with whatever rights come from that, but he'd be a Malfoy too and all that entails. It'd give him another set of parents in addition to the set he lost, not in replace of them."
"Yeah, that makes sense. But isn't it a bit early to talk about adoption? You haven't even held him yet; how do you even know you want to adopt him?"
"Well if we don't want to adopt him, then we need to be upfront with my aunt about that now. I don't know the situation, but there might be another couple out there that would want him and take him in and love him like he was their own. I've seen enough to know that we could do that and that's why I suggested it. I was under the impression that that is what you wanted. I know my aunt loves him, but she's old. You were taken in after becoming an orphan, I saw the way you were with him, and I just assumed you wanted to do the same for him." Scorpius was done feeding, so Draco set him down on the bed on his tummy next to his brother. Then Draco put the breast pump back on and spelled the panel in the paternity robes closed.
"The family who took me in didn't love me and they didn't treat me like one of their own, like you're talking about doing." Harry noticed Draco doing something with the pumping machine again. He was getting rather curious about the process and was thinking about asking Draco about it.
"How can that be possible? Half the families in the wizarding world would've gladly taken you in and loved you."
"Well I wasn't in a wizarding family, now was I?"
"Weren't you with your muggle family? Are you telling me that your own family didn't want you?"
"Yes, they didn't want me. Dumbledore forced them into it, because my protection against Voldemort was only good as long as I lived in a house where my mother's blood ran, so it was the only place I was safe, alright?"
"Safe from everything but your mother's family it would seem."
Harry didn't answer that. Instead he focused on Sev who was trying to scoot across the bed to get the toys at the end while making hissing sounds.
"Look, your family seems really messed up, but my family's not like that. Sure we've got our own problems, but with us you're either in or you're out. You're all the way in and we'll do anything for you or you're all the way out and we'll let Dark Lords have you. Obviously my grandmother made a bad choice choosing Bella over Andy, but that doesn't really matter right now. What matters is whether or not you want your godson to be your son or whether you want him to be that kid you visit on weekends twice a month."
"Alright, tell me one thing you like about him." Harry didn't want to take Teddy away from Andy if Draco didn't really want him. He didn't want their new family to turn out like his old family and Teddy to turn into the next Harry. If that was the case, he thought Teddy would be better off with Andy.
"I like his blue eyes and the way Scorpius and you look at him. That's three." Teddy could change the color of the ring of iris closest to his pupils, but the rest of his eyes remained a constant blue. He would likely be able to change his entire iris, like Tonks could, when he got older, but the fact that they were blue now indicated that blue was probably Teddy's natural eye color.
Scorpius was reaching for the scorpion toy, so Draco grabbed both toys and gave them to the boys to play with on the bed. Sev took his snake and rolled over onto his back, grinning up at Harry, waving the snake toy, and hissing. Scorpius stayed on his belly and cried, so Draco helped him turn over and then Scorpius sat up to play with his toy.
"Wow, I didn't think you could really have anything…I mean I just met him and you seem to avoid him."
"Because I don't want to get my heart broken and I don't know where I stand with him."
"Point taken, I'll talk to Andy. This might take a while to discuss if we're talking adoption though."
"Well just don't expect me to get close to him until you've decided."
"Okay, let's talk about something else."
"Like what?"
"Like those toys: how'd you get them a scorpion and a snake, when you've been in hiding all this time?"
"We ordered a bunch of toys before we went into hiding. I knew I was going to name one of the boys Scorpius, so Mother ordered a scorpion toy specifically for him. As for the snake, it was one of many stuff animals Mother bought and Sev took a liking to it right away."
"That's good. I'm glad they have toys. So what are your plans for tomorrow?"
"I'm going to owl the Quibbler and Witch Weekly about setting up interviews. Do you want to go with me for any of the interviews, or stay home?"
"I'd rather stay home. You're not gonna do the interviews tomorrow, are you?"
"No, probably not. I might do the Quibbler tomorrow if they want me that early, but only because you said you wanted me to give one to them to match the Prophet and I already gave my interview to the Prophet."
"Oh, good."
"Why, what are your plans for tomorrow?"
"I'm going to the Weasley's, remember?"
"Yeah, sure. Just let me know what time you're going and when you'll be back."
"I told Molly and Hermione I'd get there around ten, stay for lunch, and I'll be back before dinner."
"Sounds good."
"But can you give me the secret so I can come back on my own?"
"I thought Father told you: Professor Snape was our secret keeper and now he's dead, so I can't get it for you."
"But you knew the secret, so now you're the secret keeper."
"Come again?"
"We went through this with headquarters after Dumbledore died: when the secret keeper dies, then everyone who knew the secret is now the keeper, so you can tell me."
"Oh, I didn't think it'd be that simple. I thought we were gonna have to find some way to break it or something."
"So can you give it to me then?"
"Yeah, just let me find a scrap of parchment," Draco said getting up.
When Draco stood up, Scorpius reached out for him with one hand and started clenching and unclenching his fist saying, "Fa fa fa fa."
"I'm not leaving you with him, Scorpius, you can relax," Draco told the baby, going over to the desk and writing the secret down for Harry. He really didn't think it would be nearly this easy, even after Harry told him; he was a bit shocked that it worked. Now they could give the secret to his aunt and grandmother too. Grandmother Druella had been here at the villa for a year now, but Professor Snape hadn't given her the secret, for fear she might turn on them.
"How do you know that's what Scorp wants?"
"He calls me Fa and reaches out to me like that when he wants to be picked up," Draco said crawling back onto the bed and handing Harry the paper.
"Thanks," Harry said, taking the secret. He read it and then ripped it up. "I think it's best to keep the house under protection for now; at least until the stray Death Eaters are rounded up and caught."
"Yeah, sure."
"Elf!" Sev exclaimed all of a sudden and when Harry looked, there was an elf who appeared to be caught in the act of cleaning up Draco's desk. The scraps of paper he'd just had were gone and that was probably the elf too.
"Carry on Jingly," Draco told the elf, even though both boys were now holding out their hands to the elf like Scorpius had done minutes earlier for Draco.
"Eeeeeeeee," Scorpius squealed.
"Yes, elf," Draco agreed.
"Elf," Sev repeated.
"Does Sev always do everything before Scorp?"
"No, not everything, but you have to understand that Scorp was born underdeveloped and it was months before he was as big as Sev was when he was born."
"Okay. What's something Scorp's done first?"
"Called me Fa and screamed at you are two things that come to mind. Sev calls me by crying; he's trying to make me jealous of an elf, the subversive little thing."
"Sev, do you cry at your father when you want him?" Harry asked and the baby grinned back at him.
"See, that's practically an admission of guilt," Draco said.
"Oh I'm sure."
"Fa fa fa," Scorpius said, throwing the scorpion toy at Draco and reaching out for him with both hands.
"Yes my little man?" Draco asked, picking up the baby.
Scorpius lay his little head down on Draco's shoulder and said, "Fa."
"And he does that too, which means he wants to be put to bed. Sev will just stay up playing until he starts crying of exhaustion, but sometimes Scorp will actually ask to be put down," Draco said.
"Wow, that's really advanced. I'm sure he's brilliant, just like his brother."
"Oh, and sometimes when he wants a nappy change, he'll start babbling the N-sound, when Sev is perfectly happy to sit in his piss all day long. Come along, bed time," Draco said, standing up with Scorpius and walking to the door.
Harry followed after Draco with Sev and they put the babies to sleep in the nursery, performing one last set of nappy changes. Draco cast a monitoring charm, before they went back to Draco's bedroom.
Draco led them into the bath, like he did yesterday, except this time he was still wearing the pump and took it off in front of Harry. Harry watched, but didn't say anything. Like the day before, Harry was horny and didn't want to ruin his chance of sex tonight with Draco by talking about a sensitive subject.
Harry washed quickly and then started massaging Draco's back, while Draco was washing. He rubbed his hands over Draco's back, shoulders, neck, and then his stomach, avoiding Draco's tender chest area. Then he made a move for Draco's bits.
"Did you look up contraceptives today?" Draco asked, before turning around and pressing his lips to Harry's.
Harry deepened the kiss, but when they broke apart for air, he had to admit that he had not. "Um, I sort of slept all morning and barely woke up before you got home, so I didn't get a chance."
"Do you want to try to get pregnant right away then?"
"Er, no, not so soon. I'll look up a spell tomorrow, I promise." Harry knew he would see Hermione tomorrow and although he didn't want to talk to her about his sex life, he might just be willing to do so to ask for help with a contraceptive.
"So did you want to stick to wanking for tonight then?" Draco thought he would have time to look it up himself tomorrow if he really wanted to, but he didn't care that much. If it were important, he would've made Harry a birth control potion when he made his own long-term birth control potion. The only pregnancy that he thought really needed to be avoided was another one for himself, because he had no plans of ever being pregnant again.
"Yeah," Harry answered, before pressing his lips back to Draco's lips. They kissed for several minutes before Harry ventured his hand forth to Draco's bits again, which were still soft. "What's wrong?" Harry's prick was so achingly hard he didn't understand why Draco wasn't ready yet.
"I can't stop thinking that the boys are just in the next room and my parents and my grandmother and my aunt- Merlin my whole family- is in this house and might hear."
"We can cast a silencing charm."
"There's already a silencing charm up on this bathroom."
"Then why are you still worried?"
"I don't know, except that the charm might break or my parents might come in or something."
"Do you want to spend the night away from them, somewhere where we're alone?"
"Yeah, that should work, but not tonight."
"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure your parents would understand; we are married."
"Yeah, but Mother was up all last night and I assured her that she could sleep tonight and I wouldn't bother her. And Father normally helps out too, but he was telling me he wants to personally check in with all our businesses and properties tomorrow; well as many as he can at least and I think our lawyer wants to see him again. And we didn't get a chance to stop by St. Mungo's and make an appointment with a healer to see Scorpius, so he might do that tomorrow. Oh and we both need to get our apparition licenses and Father said he would make appointments for us as soon as the Ministry is back open."
"It's closed? I thought you and your father went there today?"
"We went there today and there was only one Auror on guard duty who threatened to arrest Father for being a Death Eater and I explained that we were married and I was there to file paperwork and he called this wizard named Kingsley Shacklebolt, who seemed to be in charge. When Kingsley arrived, he had an administrator with him who took our paperwork and promised to file it."
"Oh, poor guy. I can just imagine how stupid that Auror felt thinking that your father was a Death Eater and then finding out that we're married."
"He didn't want to believe me, despite the proof I had in my hands, but Kingsley said he knew Hermione and therefore knew that I was telling the truth."
"Yeah, they've met and he'd know to trust her when it came to something about me."
"Yeah, so Father has things to do tomorrow and won't be available to babysit. Give them until things calm down and then we can go away together for the night. Once Aunt Andy goes back to her house, we drop grandmother off at her place, and things settle down with Father, I'm sure they will be more than happy to babysit."
"What about your grandmum? Can she babysit?" Harry couldn't believe he was asking that, but Druella hadn't seemed at all the mean old racist witch today and Harry was really horny.
"No, she doesn't do nighttime. She's good for afternoon naps mostly; in the morning she's normally a bit loony, so don't leave her with the boys in the morning either."
"Is it the blood traitors in the morning?"
"No, last time it was the elves. If we were proper masters we would've cut one of their heads off to teach them their place. Often it's the doxies not infesting the place properly and we ought to transplant some of the Black family doxies from her place, because they know how to do it right."
"I had assumed Bellatrix was a one-off; you should've warned me that crazy runs in your family."
"You had already met my father, so I think you were adequately warned."
"Yes, you're right."
Draco pressed his lips back to Harry's and they kissed again. "Do you still love me?"
"Always."
There was more snogging, but they didn't take it any further than that and got out of the tub when the water turned cold. Harry went to the closet and got an applicator full of the conditioning potion, which he inserted before joining Draco at his dresser. This time when they were getting dressed for bed, Harry noticed Draco putting the machine back on and decided it was time to ask. "Is that how you pump milk for Sev?"
"Yeah."
"Do you do it a lot?"
"Yeah; I need to if I'm gonna make enough milk for Teddy too. I have some milk in storage, but with three babies it'll run out eventually, so I might as well start now."
"So how long do you need to do it before you go to sleep?"
"I'm gonna do it while I'm asleep," Draco answered, putting on a new set of paternity robes.
"You can sleep like that?"
"Yeah, once you get used to it. Honestly it's easier to leave the thing on and going; a lot of times I just forget about it."
"It still works when you're lying down? I mean, the milk doesn't like leak or anything?"
"No, it's charmed. A gravity charm keeps the milk going into the collection bottles and a leak-proof charm covers the rest."
"And it doesn't hurt you when you move in your sleep? What happens if you roll over?"
"The paternity robes have the wizard-space charm on them, so there's plenty of room for the pumps and when I turn over, pressure is never placed on that area. Anything else you want to know oh curious one or can we go to sleep now?"
"Sleep sounds good, but you'll let me know if I'm hurting you, right? I mean if I accidentally bump into you or something."
"It won't be a problem." With two babies, Draco got accidentally hit and kicked enough to know that no amount of bumping would hurt.
And then Draco crawled into bed and Harry followed him. Harry didn't want to hold Draco at first, because he was still worried he might hurt Draco, but then Draco grabbed Harry's arms and wrapped them around Draco's waist, snuggling in.
Draco woke up when the monitoring charm went off. Sev and Scorpius were up and fussing, so Draco picked them both up and took them over to the rocking chair, where he nursed Scorpius and fed Sev a bottle.
Harry woke up when Draco got out of bed. He was confused for a minute, but then he remembered that the boys would need feeding, so he went to the nursery. He thought Draco would need help, but when he looked in, he saw that Draco had it under control and was feeding both boys himself. He watched for a minute, but he was horny. He went back to Draco's bathroom and decided to have a wank.
When Harry was done, he cleaned up, and crawled back into bed to wait for Draco.
Author's Note: What do you think of having a little parselmouth in the family? Teddy of course is a metamorphmagus, I gave Scorpius the hyper sensitivity to magic thing, and I wanted to give Severus something too.
Up next Harry will visit the Weasleys.