It was Monday morning of the last week in July and Harry was back at the Manor watching the children, as usual. Draco was not in the potion lab where he claimed to be going. Instead he flooed to Grimmauld Place, where he waited for Hermione and Weasley. He didn't feel bad about lying to Harry, because this secret was for Harry and besides, Harry had both Narcissa and Andy around to help him if the babies got to be too much.
"Draco!" Hermione's voice called out from the other room. "Are you here?"
"Yes, I'm in the kitchen," Draco replied.
Draco heard the sounds of two sets of footsteps and then Hermione and Ron came through the doorway into the kitchen.
"The place looks a lot better," Ron said.
"That would be my elves," Draco replied.
"Alright, so let's get to work. What do you need help with, Draco?" Hermione asked.
"Not killing, maiming, hexing, or insulting your boyfriend, mostly," Draco answered.
Ron groaned, rolled his eyes, and said, "She meant with the party, Malfoy."
"Right, well I think I've got the party under control. As you know from the invitations you received, it's a surprise barbeque to be held on the lawn where the baby shower was. I sent similar invitations with the passcode on them to all of Harry's friends; let me know if I missed someone, but I think I got them all. The elves will cook and make the cake and I'll be decorating with a portable swamp. I picked it up in Diagon Alley at the joke shop Harry likes," Draco replied.
"Why are you decorating with a portable swamp?" Hermione asked.
"Because it's the type of thing Harry likes. Why does Weasley's brother sell them?" Draco asked.
"Because they sell, yeah? What Hermione means is how are you gonna make a portable swamp into a passible birthday whatever?" Ron asked.
"I saw this muggle thing called a slip-n-slide one time when Harry took me to a muggle store. Have either of you heard of such a thing?" Draco asked.
"Yes," Hermione said.
"No," Ron said.
"Ron, it's basically a water toy muggles place on the lawn. They run and slide on the wet surface," Hermione said.
"Yes, well the swamp will provide the wet surface and I've charmed pieces of cloth to be impervious to water; they slide easily on wet surfaces. Harry can run and slide in the swamp using the cloth like a sled," Draco replied.
"Alright, so swamp slippery slide," Ron said. "Do you have any alternative activities in case it doesn't work?"
"There are bubbles left over from my birthday, but I think the swamp will work. I talked to George Weasley about making the swamp free of any noxious swamp-like odors and there's a portion of it that will just be clear water, like a lake. The invitations say to bring your swimsuits, so if the swamp idea doesn't work, everyone can just go swimming," Draco explained.
"Brilliant," Ron replied.
"Alright, so if you have everything planned out Draco, why did you ask us here?" Hermione asked.
"This may come as a shock to you, Hermione, but Ronald and I don't generally get along. Harry has said that he wishes that we did. Instead of leaving this up to chance, I've asked Ronald here today so that we can iron out our disagreements in the hopes of Harry's birthday going smoothly. Hermione, I asked over to make sure we don't kill each other," Draco answered.
Draco had originally hoped that Weasley would fade away, like a pesky mosquito, but the more he pushed Harry away from his friend, the more Harry clung on. Harry said that Ron and Hagrid were the first friends he ever made and the idea of losing them seemed painful. Harry had already lost so many people and Draco had recently come to the conclusion that he wasn't going to be responsible for the loss of anyone from Harry's life. Instead, he'd tolerate Weasley's presence on the periphery of Harry's life and wait for Weasley to destroy the friendship. Weasley had done it twice before and Draco just had to wait for him to do it again.
"That's a great idea, Draco! I'm a bit surprised you thought of it, but I'm flattered that you thought of me to supervise," Hermione said.
"Okay, well I'll start. I think you're a foul git who's called Hermione filthy names and insulted me and Harry every chance you've gotten. You gave Katie Bell that cursed necklace that nearly killed her and you poisoned me. You're self-serving and managed to worm your way into an Order of Merlin you don't deserve," Ron said.
"Ronald! Why'd you say all that? You're making this worse!" Hermione hissed.
"He said to!" Ron retorted.
"This was meant as a way to air your feelings not berate him!" Hermione insisted.
"Well I'm sure he's gonna do the same to me," Ron replied.
"Alright, Draco, what do you have to say to Ron?" Hermione asked.
"Well I was going to say that he caused me to almost miscarry twice. It's his fault Scorpius almost died when he was born and will be crippled for the rest of his life. But now I'd like to add that Ron's petty, spiteful, and delusional. If you think I was the only kid at Hogwarts who the Dark Lord was courting, then you're mental too. I know for a fact that the Carrow twins, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle all had Dark Marks. I don't know which of the kids in the older years had them, but to assume that everything bad that happened was my fault, without evidence of my guilt, is daft. I wasn't even in Hogsmeade the weekend Katie Bell was cursed. As for you, I wasn't even aware you had been poisoned," Draco said, but he was thinking that right about now he'd like to know who had poisoned Weasley, so he could thank them for their valiant efforts. He did in fact know which of the older kids had marks, but he refused to mention any names that weren't public knowledge, because he didn't want to incriminate his friends and family. One of the Carrow twins was in holding awaiting trial and the other was dead.
"Ron, we all know Draco wasn't there when Katie was given that cursed necklace," Hermione said.
"Alright, he wasn't the person who directly gave Katie the necklace, but I still think he was involved. And there is absolutely no way my poisoning wasn't him. Slughorn said that he bought the bottle of mead to give to Dumbledore and Voldemort ordered Malfoy to off Dumbledore. Malfoy poisoned the mead in hopes of killing Dumbledore," Ron said.
"My one and only plan for killing Dumbledore was to let Death Eaters into the castle, who I would then get to kill Dumbledore for me. Poisoning someone is more Hestia Carrow's type of thing than mine. The Dark Lord wanted Dumbledore dead and he's not the type of person to put all of his hopes on one underage wizard; surely he had other people trying to kill Dumbledore," Draco lied smoothly. Up until know, he hadn't even remembered that he had had Madam Rosmerta sell Slughorn poisoned mead. He wasn't particularly upset to learn that it had gone astray in Weasley's direction.
"I don't believe you," Ron said.
"The vanishing cabinet I bought for such a purpose is still in Borgin and Burkes. The other one, its twin, was in the room of requirement. From Harry's story, I gathered that it's been destroyed. But back in sixth year, it was only slightly damaged and I could've fixed it and used it to let Death Eaters in any time I wanted. Now if I could do that, then why would I try something as half-baked as poisoning a bottle of mead that might or might not make it to Dumbledore?" Draco asked.
"I don't know," Ron admitted. Draco's plan did sound better.
"Alright, let's move this conversation onto more fertile areas. Obviously Draco is going to insist that he didn't poison that mead and there is no evidence that he did. Someone did, but it could've been a number of other people and not even necessarily a student. So can we cover another matter now?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, let's cover how my son is seven months old and cannot move his left leg and has no hope of doing so in the foreseeable future," Draco answered.
"Look, I'm sorry I hit you. I've said it before, but apparently I need to say it again. I didn't know you were pregnant and I had no idea that your kid would be hurt by it. What more would you like me to do?"
"Curl up and die, for a start," Draco replied with a sneer.
"Other than that; perhaps something less fatal," Hermione suggested.
"Stay away from me and my family," Draco said.
"I will when Harry tells me to," Ron retorted.
"Yes, the Boy-Who-Lived seems to enjoy your company, which is why we're having this out here and not at his birthday party," Draco replied.
"Boys, can't you two come up with some sort of compromise for Harry's sake?" Hermione asked.
"I will if he will," Ron said.
"How about we both agree not to mention any of those things that we each mentioned disliking about the other for the duration of Harry's eighteenth birthday?" Draco asked.
"That seems reasonable. Ron?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, alright, I'll do it for Harry," Ron answered.
"Great, I'll see you there," Draco said, getting up to go.
"Wait, Draco, can you tell us who exactly you invited? You know, so I can determine if you left anyone out," Hermione said.
"I invited all of the Gryffindors in our year, Hagrid, Dobby, all of the Weasleys our age, and Luna Lovegood. I considered inviting his relatives, but I don't know how to contact them and I'm under the impression that he dislikes them. I also considered inviting the Order, but I wanted to keep it to just young adults. Did I miss anyone?" Draco asked.
"Hagrid's not young," Ron replied, pointing out the flaw in Draco's system of choosing guests.
"Yeah, but Harry mentioned Hagrid a few times now, so I sent him an invite anyway," Draco replied.
"I think Hagrid coming is brilliant," Hermione said.
"Well did I miss anyone?" Draco repeated.
"If Hagrid's coming, we should invite my parents too; the three of them and Andy can hang out together," Ron said.
"Aunt Andy won't be coming; she and my mother will be watching the babies," Draco replied.
"Can't the babies come to the party?" Ron asked.
"No, I don't think they're old enough for the swamp and I don't know most of the guests well enough to trust them around my children," Draco answered. The baby shower had also been full of people he didn't know, but was limited to witches, who are unlikely to hurt babies. It contained lots of old witches, who are even less likely to hurt babies and would keep the young witches in line if anything turned sour. At Harry's birthday party, on the other hand, there would be wizards and no older people to supervise. Therefore the babies wouldn't be attending.
"I trust everyone who will be there and the babies can stay in Andy's house. You know Hagrid will want to see them; he loves babies," Ron replied.
"Actually Ron, Draco said he invited all of the kids from Gryffindor in our year, which means he invited Pavarti, Sally-Anne, and Isobel. We were never very close to any of them," Hermione said.
"Right; he should've invited Angelina, Katie, and Alicia instead," Ron replied.
"Who?" Draco asked.
"Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Alicia spinet were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with Harry for years," Ron answered.
"Oh, okay, yeah, I'll invite them," Draco replied.
"Have you invited your friends?" Hermione asked.
"Merlin help us, please tell me he didn't invite all of Slytherin house too; that'd be a disaster," Ron said.
"Hush Ron," Hermione chastised. "That's rude. Harry said Draco's friends have been perfectly nice to him."
"I can't believe I agree with Weasley, but no Hermione, I didn't invite them and it's not because of how they treat Harry. I don't know the Gryffindors I invited and I can't say that they'll get along with my friends. I didn't want to risk ruining Harry's birthday."
"I think you should. We need to integrate both sides after the war, so that we don't go to war again. You and Harry, like it or not, are role models for the rest of the wizarding world. If the two of you can make your marriage work and maintain friendships with both sides, then everyone else will try to emulate you," Hermione said.
"That's all well and good Hermione, but wouldn't some other time be better for this little experiment of yours? Sometime other than Harry's birthday?" Ron asked.
"No, Harry's birthday is the perfect time. And I've already spent some time with them at Draco's birthday; Milli and Tracey were nice and danced with me. The others were polite and included me in the games and conversations. And both sides were at the baby shower and nothing happened there," Hermione said.
"But the baby shower was filled with adults and none of the boys. And Greg was just released and wasn't at any of those functions. What if the Gryffindor boys take their frustrations with the war out on Greg for being a Death Eater? Or Theo for having a father who's a Death Eater?" Draco asked.
"Precisely," Ron agreed. "Wasn't Nott a Death Eater too, like his father?"
"No, far from it; Theo wasn't on either side of the war actually. He's always blamed the Dark Lord for his mother's death. More so than anyone else I know, he stayed well and good away from anything and everything related to the war," Draco answered.
"I didn't know that; I always assumed…" Ron trailed off.
"You assumed wrong," Draco finished.
"Alright, let's get back on track. Draco, I still think you should invite your friends to the party. Harry invited me to your party and you should do the same with his party," Hermione said.
"I did invite you, Hermione," Draco replied with a smirk.
"I meant one of your Slytherin friends," Hermione replied.
"Look, why don't you just invite the more neutral of your friends and leave out the ones who support Voldemort?" Ron asked.
"I'm not leaving Greg out just because he was a Death Eater. He's already been through enough with being incarcerated for over a month and he's barely intelligent enough to understand why," Draco replied.
"Great, then you'll invite him and all of your other friends. If there's a problem, we'll kick the culprits out of the party," Hermione said.
"That's not what I meant," Draco replied.
"There's no arguing with her when she gets like this; just invite the snakes," Ron said.
"I will argue with her, because I want Harry's party to go smoothly," Draco insisted.
"Look, I'll take responsibility for inviting your friends if something happens. And if there's a dispute, you and I will be able to break it up and send the participants home. It'll be fine and Harry will appreciate that they're there to help him celebrate. He's never had a really big party before," Hermione said.
"Are you sure he'd want them there?" Draco asked.
"Yes," Hermione answered.
Ron wanted to say no, but he was currently living with Hermione and he didn't want to be on her bad side.
"Alright, fine, I'll invite them too," Draco conceded, before excusing himself.
Draco apparated back to the potions lab at the Manor and sprinkled lacewing fly powder into his hair, so that Harry would think he'd been in his potions lab all morning.
Author's Note: They didn't iron everything out, but they did come to an agreement, which can be built upon. The important thing is that Draco has finally realized that fighting with Ron is hurting Harry. Eventually I think they will learn to share Harry, while minimizing their interactions with each other. Ron, being a fellow Auror, will get him during work and only rarely out of work, while Draco will get him at home.
Up next Harry and Draco are going to see a fertility specialist, because Harry still isn't pregnant.
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