Draco received an owl at breakfast Tuesday morning. It wasn't that he never received owls, because he did. He received requests for interviews and more information regarding the war, his children, and his relationship with Harry all the time. Then there was the occasional owl from his lawyer with news on Teddy's adoption or the owl from St. Mungo's reminding that Scorpius had a healer appointment on such and such date. There had even been letters from his friends; Pansy, Millicent, Tracey, Daphne, Theo, Blaise, and Greg had all written, but he hadn't written back.
So Harry had seen Draco with owls many times, but this owl was different. This owl carried a small scroll that unfurled to produce a formal looking invitation that had Draco scowling and shoving it inside his pocket before Harry could get a chance to read it. Whatever it was, he could tell it was upsetting Draco by the viscous way Draco stabbed at his pancakes.
Harry hoped Draco would tell him what was wrong once they were alone. Andy went upstairs to work on Teddy's photo album, Narcissa was in the study working on Severus' funeral, and Lucius was off on business, which left Harry and Draco alone in the drawing room with the three boys. But after an hour when Draco still hadn't told him what was wrong and still appeared to be in a foul mood, he was left with no choice but to ask. "What was that owl you received this morning?"
Draco clenched his fists and closed his eyes as he considered how to answer that. On the one hand, he didn't want to talk about it. On the other, it was his husband asking and this wasn't worth lying about. He opened his eyes, looked at Harry, and then opened his mouth to speak, but the words got stuck in his throat and died on his tongue. He closed his eyes again and then decided to let Harry read the scroll himself; he pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over.
Harry took the scroll and read. It was an invitation to Vincent Crabbe's funeral tomorrow. There was a note on the bottom from Mrs. Toriana Crabbe and it said she knew Draco didn't want to come, but she had to ask again for Crabbe's sake.
"I didn't know Crabbe's funeral was tomorrow. I was there when he died, you know," Harry said.
"She sent me an invitation last week. I threw it away and send a return owl saying I wouldn't be going," Draco replied.
"Why not? He was your friend; I'll go with you."
"You would seriously go with me to a Death Eater's funeral? The funeral of someone who in his last acts was trying to kill you?"
"Yes, if you wanted me to, I would."
"I'm not sure I want that; I don't think I can face him."
"Why not?"
"I encouraged him. I led him down the path he was on. I was on that path too and then I jumped ship and left him there to drown. It's my fault he's dead."
"No Draco, it's his parents' fault, for teaching him that blood purity was more important than human life. It's Voldemort's fault for starting the war and letting children fight it for him. It's the Carrows' fault for teaching Crabbe that dangerous dark spell and not teaching him how to control it. And it's Crabbe's fault for being so stupid that he killed himself in his attack on me. It wasn't your fault; you were just his friend."
"It's my fault, because I knew he was too stupid to survive on his own and I left him with those people!"
"You had no choice; you couldn't take him into hiding with you! You had to protect our boys."
"I could've at least written to Vince the way I wrote to Father. I could've told him to lay low and switch sides if the opportunity arose. I could've told him not to attack you; what if he had killed you too? What if Sev and Scorp never met their dad, because my best friend killed you in the room of requirement? What if you were just dead and I never knew what happened to you, because they never found your body in there, just like they never found Vince's body?"
"You couldn't protect everyone Draco. If you had written to Crabbe and Voldemort won the war, everyone all around would've been arsed out. Crabbe would be killed for being a coward and a traitor. You and the boys would be tracked down and killed for writing such things. And do you really think Crabbe would've turned away from the dark with just one letter from you? With Goyle and Mr. Crabbe Death Eaters too?"
"No, it wouldn't've been enough. He was my second cousin, did you know?"
"No, I didn't. I'm sorry."
"With Aunt Andy and Cousin Dora kicked out of the family, Vince was my closet cousin on my mother's side. Greg and Theo are both related on my father's side, but not as closely as Vince on mother's side."
"You should go to his funeral. I'll go with you and be there to support you. You should say goodbye."
"You do know that both Greg and Vince took the mark before the final battle, don't you? Vince during the summer and Greg over the Christmas holidays."
"No, I didn't know."
"While I was safe here at the villa with a pair of newborns, Greg was getting a skull and snake branded onto his arm, following in my footsteps. Vince took the mark for me, I know. I'd taken it and I was too sick to fight, so he took my place. It would've been me chasing you in the room of requirement; it should've been me burnt to a crisp."
"It's not your fault Draco! I feel the same way about Fred and Colin and a hundred other people I saw die! Snape, Tonks, Remus, Moody, Dumbledore, Sirius, Cedric, my parents; they're all dead, while I'm left standing here, trying to pick up the pieces and live. It just doesn't seem fair."
"Sophie's dead too; did you know?"
"No, who's Sophie?"
"Sophie Roper, she was in our year in Slytherin. I wasn't as close to her as I was with the others, but her father joined the Death Eaters. Last summer, towards the beginning of the war, the Order raided her house. No one knows what exactly happened, but there was an explosion and everybody died, including Sophie. She never even made it back to finish her seventh year." After the babies were born, Professor Snape had updated Draco with regards to his friends.
"That's too bad. Innocent women and children shouldn't have been killed."
"It's not fair, is it?"
"No, it's not. But we have to keep going, because for whatever reason, we're here and they're gone. Do you think Tonks and Remus would want me to cry over them? To throw my life away pining over them? Or would they want me to be happy and love Teddy like he was my own?"
"Most likely the latter."
"Do you think Crabbe and Sophie would want you to go on? To live your life to the fullest, because they can't?"
"No, not really. I think at this point, if Crabbe were a ghost, he'd be haunting me and trying to get me to do to myself what I did to him."
"I don't think so. I think that if he was really your friend, he'd want to see you happy."
"And just what sort of friend am I? Greg's in a holding cell in the Ministry."
"What for?"
"For being a Death Eater. For having the mark on his arm. For following in my footsteps and not getting out in time. I haven't even written to him. I mean I have written, but I couldn't bear to send it. It's still sitting in the drawer of my desk." That was more than he'd done for his other friends, because he hadn't even bothered writing back to the others.
"I'll testify for Goyle. He was never as bad as the others; his mum even saved my life in the Forbidden Forest."
"The Dark Lord took Greg's father's wand to use against you, but you destroyed it; burnt it to ashes, I heard. Greg's mother had to go into battle, all three hundred fifty pounds of her, just to get him back. Now Greg and his father are in holding cells and waiting for their trials so they can be sent to Azkaban."
"Did Greg ever fight in a battle?"
"Not that I know of, but I wasn't exactly there."
"And Greg's dad couldn't have fought without his wand. He wasn't at the Ministry that night with your dad. He was at the Manor with Bellatrix, but he didn't have his wand and he never really did anything. He's got a good chance of getting off."
"Yeah, I know, but still."
"You feel like shite because you and your dad are doing well and your friends aren't?"
"Yeah."
"Come here," Harry said, holding his arms open for Draco. Draco scooted closer and he wrapped his arms around Draco in a tight embrace. "It's gonna be alright. We're gonna go to Crabbe's funeral and pay our last respects to your friend. Then I'm gonna testify that Mrs. Goyle saved my life and that Greg and his dad didn't really do anything. Then you can testify that Goyle was just following after you and was too stupid to realize what he was doing."
"You'd really testify for Greg?"
"Yeah, I would, because it'd be the right thing to do. I was there and I know the Goyles didn't really do anything."
"Pansy did; she told everyone to capture you to take you to the Dark Lord when you appeared in the Great Hall."
"Is she in a holding cell too?"
"No. She never fought, never took the mark, and her parents are Death Eater supporters, not actual Death Eaters."
"Have you written her?"
"No, but she wrote me. She said she was sorry and didn't know we were married; said she never would've done it if she knew."
"There's going to have to be a lot of forgiveness now that the war's over. How about I start by forgiving Pansy and you start by forgiving yourself?"
"Yeah, okay, I'll try."
"Good, and we'll go to Crabbe's funeral tomorrow. We'll talk to your friends and when Goyle and his dad's trials come, will go to those too."
"Yeah, alright," Draco agreed.
And so it was settled. They spent the rest of the day taking care of their three babies and Andy and Narcissa agreed to babysit Wednesday afternoon so that they could go to Crabbe's funeral.
Harry had never been to the chapel where Crabbe's funeral was held, so he and Draco had to floo to the Crabbe family home. Draco remembered this place from his childhood years of playing out on the front lawn with Vince.
From there they walked to the nearby chapel, where the other mourners were gathered. There weren't a lot of people there and none of them grown men. There were women, such as Mrs. Crabbe, Goyle, Bulstrode, Rosier, and Parkinson. Blaise's mother was there, but her last name had changed recently and Draco couldn't remember it at the moment. Grandmother Druella was there too, sitting with the other old women. But the people whose presence Draco was most concerned about were his old friends: Theo, Blaise, Milli, Pansy, Tracey, and Daphne. His friends were standing in a clump and they turned as one to look at him. He froze in his step.
"It's alright, I've got your back," Harry encouraged and they started walking again.
Draco walked on and in a few long strides he and Harry were level with his friends, if they were still his friends, that was. "Hello," Draco greeted.
"You've some nerve showing up here," Milli greeted him.
"Toriana invited me and my husband," Draco replied.
"You didn't show to Sophie's funeral, so we weren't expecting you here either," Blaise said.
"I didn't know she'd died until long afterwards. I was very sick last summer," Draco answered.
"How is it that the Dark Lord falls and the Malfoys land on top?" Pansy asked.
"We would've landed on top either way. This way I get my man; the other it'd be you I'd claim gave me my children," Draco replied. "Haven't figured out how it is we made one with black hair and the other with green eyes, but a glamour would've fixed that."
"That's definitely the truth; you're the slipperiest snake in Slytherin," Pansy replied. A smile broke out on her face and she hugged Draco. "It's good to see you alive and well after we were so sure you'd died."
"It's good to see you too. I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Harry Malfoy," Draco replied.
"Hello," Harry said, shaking Pansy Parkinson's hand when she offered it.
Then all of the former Slytherins in turn hugged Draco and shook Harry's hand. The funeral started shortly after. Harry was reminded that Mrs. Crabbe wasn't Crabbe's birth mother when she rose to the front of the crowd and told the story of when she joined the Crabbe family, marrying Mr. Crabbe shortly after the end of the first war, when Crabbe was just under the age of two. There were songs and poems and more stories about Crabbe. Then it was over and everyone was heading outside. Draco moved to follow his friends, but Harry saw someone he needed to talk to.
Mrs. Goyle was still sitting in a pew and seemed to be waiting; what for Harry didn't know. There had been two brown haired girls with her before, one who looked on the younger side of Hogwarts age and one a bit younger than that, but the girls had gotten up and run outside with the other children. Harry needed to speak with Mrs. Goyle, so he pulled Draco's arm gently and jerked his head in the direction of the obese woman sitting in the second pew on the left. "I need to tell her something," Harry said.
"Alright," Draco agreed and when there was a break in the stream of people exiting the chapel, he led Harry further into the room, up to the second pew.
"Hello Mrs. Goyle," Draco greeted.
"Draco, how good it is to see you," Elizabeth Goyle replied.
"And you as well. I'd like you to meet my husband, Harry Malfoy."
"We've met," Elizabeth replied.
"Mrs. Goyle, I wanted to thank you for saving my life in the forest. I know you did it for your son, but still, without you I'd be dead and Voldemort would've won," Harry said.
"Greg told me how you saved him in the room of requirement; that's all the thanks I need. In fact, I owe you dearly for that. Greg is my only son and he means the world to me, Auror Malfoy," Elizabeth said. It was all over the papers that Harry was an Auror now, so she thought it best to use the title to show her respect; it was either that or use Harry's other title, Savior.
"Draco and I are gonna testify for him and your husband when their trials come up," Harry replied.
"You would do that for them?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, of course; I know your son didn't start the Fiendfyre and he was just following along with Crabbe and the others. Crabbe was gonna kill me, but your son told him not to and that Voldemort wanted me alive," Harry said.
"He was always a sweet boy; never wanted to kill anyone," Elizabeth said.
Harry didn't know how true that was, but he decided it was best to nod and agree with Mrs. Goyle, because no mother ever wanted to think her child was capable of murder.
"I'll testify too. I'm sure my father will as well. Father told me he was there when the Dark Lord took your husband's wand. He never got to fight in any of the battles, because he didn't have his wand," Draco said.
"You're a good lad, Draco. And Auror Malfoy, you're a better sort than I thought. You've done well with this one, Draco," Elizabeth proclaimed.
"Thank you," Draco replied. "Owl me with the dates of the hearings, yeah?"
"Yes, of course. Thank you both for doing this," Elizabeth replied.
"You're welcome, Mrs. Goyle," Harry replied.
"Take care," Draco said, before leading Harry outside. His friends were gathered under the shade of a large tree nearby and he and Harry joined them.
"So is what Greg said true? Were you really there in the room of requirement when it happened?" Blaise asked Harry.
Suddenly all the eyes of the small crowd were on Harry and everyone was quiet as they waited to hear Harry's answer.
Harry gulped and said, "Yeah, I was there. He set the place alight with Fiendfyre and the rest of us barely escaped with our lives."
"He wouldn't be dead if you didn't leave him there," Tracey accused.
"He wouldn't be dead if he had two brain cells to rub together to know not to mess with spells he didn't know how to control. But who we really ought to be blaming for this is the Carrows. It was Professor Amycus Carrow who taught us that spell," Nott said.
There were murmurs of agreement, but it was Daphne who spoke out and said, "I agree. I hope Professor Carrow gets the kiss."
"I met the Carrow siblings once when they came over to see my dear Aunt Bella; all I can say about them is that I'm certainly glad I didn't have to endure a year of their teaching," Draco added.
After that an usher came by and handed out butterbeers to everyone, but Draco and Harry refused.
"Come on Draco, can't you have a butterbeer to toast to the memory of Vince?" Blaise asked.
"No, sorry, we can't. In fact, I've got a little one at home who will be up from his nap soon and can't live without me," Draco replied.
"Don't you mean you have two little ones?" Pansy asked.
"Yes, I've got two, but one is perfectly happy without me; the one that takes after Harry. My little Lord Malfoy on the other hand, can't go four hours without me," Draco said.
"Well don't be a stranger Draco; come by sometime," Pansy replied.
"Yes, do stop by for a visit. Now that Father's dead, I've got the place all to myself," Nott said.
"Look at us: eight of us here and only two fathers left to go around. I just hope we have better sense than they did," Draco said.
"Your father hardly counts Draco; he's only out because of you and you're still in charge of things, now that you're Lord Malfoy," Nott replied.
"Yes, I'm afraid it's just Pansy who's still under the thumb of her dear old father. But then she really should count herself lucky he's so old, or he'd have been on the battlefield with all the rest of our brainless parents," Daphne said.
They all laughed, Draco promised to keep in touch, and Harry and Draco apparated back to the Villa.
Author's Note: Now that that's resolved, Draco's friends will be stopping by on occasion. Up next the rivalry between Draco and Ron will escalate; things need to get worse before they can get better. Please Review!