Author's Note: A handful of reviewers asked for more chapters, but the other side won. And well, depression is such a depressing thing to write about. I'm posting the epilogue now, but there will be one outtake to follow, with the most interesting chapter from what was to be the depression arc. I will post it next week, so keep an eye out for it :)
Seven years later.
"Harry, there's been some sort of mistake. They've reassigned me Izzy for a partner and given you desk duty," Ron said, coming up to Harry's cubical in the Auror department.
Harry had gone to work shortly after Lilac's birth to help him cope with his postpartum depression. Initially he'd been given an anti-depressant, but that had turned him into a zombie. Draco got gotten fed up with his zombie of a husband and ordered Harry out of the house to do something to make him happy again. Harry had gone to the Burrow, where Ron had initially thought that this was his chance to steal Harry away from Draco. It had been Ron who suggested that Harry go back to work and it had been work that had helped Harry get back to normal.
Harry's relationship with Draco was strained at first, but it hadn't taken Ron long to realize that the separation was hurting Harry. In the end Ron had come to understand that the relationship was in Harry's best interest. Ron had then encouraged Harry to repair the marriage. Draco had taken Harry back with open arms, forgiving Harry instantly and just glad that his husband was happy and back to normal. Ron and Draco still didn't get along and did their best to avoid each other, but they had an understanding now that they both knew Harry needed both of them.
"There's no mistake. I failed my physical yesterday, so there's no more fieldwork for me," Harry replied.
"What! How can you fail? You're in just as good of shape as me!"
"No, I'm slower now and still slowing down. Remember when we started and I could out run almost everyone here?"
"Yeah. Alright, so you've slipped a bit, we all have, we just need to get out on the track and run. I'll have you back in shape before you know it."
"No Ron, this is fine, really. I need to take more time off to spend with the kids anyway."
"What? You already cut back on your hours two years ago when Draco went to work. You only work thirty hours a week as it is."
"Yes and I'm cutting that back to twenty. I can't continue to work cases out in the field at only twenty hours a week anyway." With Draco's political career taking off, Harry needed to be home more for the kids. That was only fair, given that Draco had stayed home for five years after Lilac was born and hadn't started work until she started private Kindergarten.
"Did Robards say that? I know he couldn't have said it; you're his golden Auror; whatever you want you get."
"That's standard policy. I'm sure Robards would make an exception for me, but now he doesn't have to. It's better this way."
"I still don't see how you failed your physical. That's impossible; you're in the gym more hours than me."
"That's because you haven't been in the gym at all; not with Hermione being pregnant."
"Right, but still, it doesn't make sense."
"It's personal."
"I'm your best mate, Harry; you can tell me."
"Tell you what: I'll tell you at Andy's place after work. I have to stop over there and talk to her about having Draco's birthday party on her lawn." The kids had asked for another swamp-in-slide party, like the one they had just had for Lilac and Edward's birthdays; with them being born a week apart, their birthdays were always combined.
"Alright mate," Ron said, before sitting down at his own desk and getting to work.
After work, Harry had an errand to run, but he was still on to meet with Ron at Andy's.
Ron apparated to Andy's lawn, where he was ambushed by three young boys, one with messy brown hair and blue eyes, one with perfectly styled blond hair and green eyes, and the other with neat raven hair and blue eyes. The black haired one was an inch shorter than the other two, but they were all very close in size. This was the first time Ron was seeing Harry's kids in years and probably the closest he'd been to the kids since Remus and Tonks' funeral, when the kids had only been just on the other side of the stage. Ron's eye couldn't help but be drawn to the ridiculously perfect blond hair, which was clearly due to having the follicles permanently rearranged. Harry had told Ron about Draco paying to have it done to Sev on Sev's second birthday; Harry was slightly annoyed by the event at the time.
"Oi hello, Sev, Scorp, and Teddy right?" Ron asked indicating the blond, black, and brown haired boys respectively. "I'm Ron; your dad's best mate."
"No, I'm Remus," the raven haired boy said, turning his hair cyan to prove his point, before turning it back to black.
Harry had told Ron years ago that Teddy preferred to go by his middle name, after his biological father. Ron still remembered the day Harry had come over and announced that a two-year-old Teddy had asked Harry and Andy to stop calling him Teddy. Ron thought it was obvious that Draco was behind it, but Harry and Andy had gone along with the name change, given that Draco had been calling the child Edward almost from the beginning.
"This is Japhet and that's Scorp over there," Sev said, pointing first to the brown haired boy next to him and then to another raven haired little boy just breaking through the tree line.
Remus was obviously not Scorp now that Ron saw the real Scorp, because the child had a brace on his left leg and was walking with a pair of crutches. Ron should've known that Teddy couldn't have been Scorp, because of the lack of brace and crutches, which Harry had told Ron about back when Scorp had first gotten them. The brace was magically reinforced to take a lot of the boy's weight and the crutches helped Scorp move faster and closer to a normal walking speed, although he couldn't run or keep up with the other boys. Ron knew that the healers at St. Mungo's were predicting that it'd be many years more of muscle strengthening potion and rehabilitation therapy in Scorp's future. Even then, there was no guarantee that Scorp would ever have full function of that leg.
"How could you even think I'm Scorp? He has grey eyes, not blue," Remus said, flashing his eyes between grey and blue to emphasize his point. "And Scorp's chin is more pointy and his cheeks are more sharp and his nose is thinner." With each feature he named, he changed to match Scorp's. "And Phet doesn't look anything like me." For the most part he kept his features midway between where they naturally lay and the features of his siblings. Japhet's features were rounder than Remus normally went with.
"Right, so sorry about that. Did you just leave your brother behind in the trees?" Ron asked.
"No!" Sev shouted indignantly.
"Uh uh , Hayden's with him," Remus said and pointed to an older boy with light brown hair about twenty feet away from where Scorp was. There was a large puddle with two little girls, one with black hair and the other with dirty blond hair, playing in it and Hayden was trying to stop them.
"Lilac and Clarity are with him too," Japhet said.
Cecelia Flint and her three children still lived in the charity cottage on the property and the children were almost always over playing with the Malfoy children after school. Draco had gotten Clarity Flint a scholarship to go to private school with the Malfoy children, allegedly based on intellectual merit. In reality it was based on the fact that Lilac had asked Draco to, so that her best friend would be in her class. Japhet was in the grade above Sev, Scorp, and Remus and Hayden was two grades above that, so Draco hadn't bothered getting either of the Flint boys into the expensive private school.
Cecelia Flint had home schooled both of her boys up until two years ago when Clarity had started private school. At that time Draco had arranged for Hayden and Japhet to get seats in the new all wizarding primary school for working class families. The school was much cheaper and was advertised to be on par with muggle public schools, with the advantage that children could floo into school from anywhere in Great Britain. The Malfoy family was making the very public donation of tuition for two children, which Draco arranged for the Flint children to be awarded. Draco did it to support the school, get recognition for his charitable deeds, and to get Cecelia's two boys into school for a fraction of the price he'd pay for one kid to go to the expensive private school.
Ron had never met the Flint children, although he heard about them a lot from Harry, because they were the Malfoy children's best friends. That fact irked Ron, because he thought Lilac should be best friends with Bill and Fleur's daughter, Victoire, since Victoire was only a year younger. Ron was never at family functions that included Victoire and Lilac, but from what he heard about them after the fact, he imagined Lilac was shunning Victoire for being an eighth veela. In reality it was just that Clarity was in the same grade as Lilac, while Victoire was a year younger, but Ron didn't know that.
"Right. Well what are you lot doing here? Is this where you're supposed to be?" Ron asked.
"No, Father thinks we're playing in the backyard of the Manor," Remus said.
"Remus! You're not supposed to tell!" Japhet turned on Remus.
Sev hissed.
"Sorry Phet."
"The portrait of Lucius the first told us that Daddy would be here today. What'd you do with Daddy?" Sev asked accusingly.
"What'dja say your name was, mister?" Remus asked.
"Ron. Ron Weasley. I'm friends with your dad," Ron answered and all three boys gasped loudly in realization.
The boys, being curious little monsters, liked to spy on adult conversations, using either their dad's invisibility cloak, their Uncle Gorge's extendable ears, or Sev's pet snake. About a year ago, they'd overheard a conversation between their grandmother Narcissa and their dad Harry about how a man named Ron had been at fault for causing Scorp's crippled leg. They recognized the name of the assailant as the Weasley their father Draco never let them interact with or even see. They knew all of the other Weasleys, just not the ever absent Ron, even though he was married to their Aunt Hermione. After that they'd confronted their dad, who had told them the story of how Scorp came to be born with a crippled leg.
"What'dja do to Daddy!?" Sev shouted, followed by a long string of hisses. A snake started slithering its way towards the group, but it was a long way off, so Ron didn't even notice it.
"Did'dja hit Daddy?" Remus asked accusingly, assuming Ron was a bad man.
"Did'dja kill Daddy?" Sev asked, before hissing again, drawing the snake nearer.
"No! No, I'd never hurt your dad!" Ron replied.
"I don't believe you. Come on Remus, we're telling Father," Sev said.
"Yeah, our father knows curses that will turn your skin inside out and string you up by your toes," Remus said and spat on Ron.
"Oi, what was that for?" Ron asked indignantly, wiping the saliva off of his robes.
"For what you did to Scorp. Scorp said he's gonna hit you like you hit him when he gets the chance," Sev said, before turning to face the four children still walking over the lawn from the forest. "Lilac! Come here and hurry! I need your help!"
"I'll tell Hayd to take Scorp and Clare back," Japhet said, before turning and running towards his brother.
Lilac ran straight towards the group and Ron was surprised by the speed at which she ran; it was like watching Harry on a broom back when they were younger. Before Ron knew it, Lilac was standing next to her brothers, leaving Scorp, Hayden, and Clarity behind in her dust. Japhet reached Hayden and then Japhet, Hayden, Scorp, and Clarity started walking back into the forest towards the Manor.
Now that Lilac was closer, Ron had a better look at her. The little girl reminded him of Andromeda, with her long black hair and Black family features, although Lilac looked less like Bellatrix and more like Narcissa than Andromeda did. But the features weren't exactly Narcissa, because there was a bit of Harry in Lilac too. The nose was clearly Harry as was the look of joy on Lilac's face when she was running. Ron knew that Harry adored this little girl and called her his princess; Harry even had a picture of Lilac wearing a tiara on his desk at work, next to the one of Sev with his snake, the one of Scorp on a broom, and the one of Teddy with a sword.
"Lilac, this is the man who hurt Scorp. We've got to punish him!" Sev said.
"Yeah, Lilac. He's a monster. He picks on babies and hurts them," Remus said.
"What has Draco been telling you?" Ron asked, but it was too late, because Lilac was already closing her eyes and concentrating. He didn't know what the little girl thought she was doing, although he'd heard enough stories about what she was capable of from Harry. "No, no; don't!" And then he couldn't talk anymore, falling to the ground petrified. From his vantage point on the ground, Ron finally saw the approaching snake, but couldn't do anything about it; he couldn't even scream.
The three children ran off, leaving Auror Ron Weasley petrified on the grass with an approaching snake. But Ron wasn't an Auror for nothing and eight years of on the job training meant that he could throw off something as simple as a petrificus totalus, even if cast wordlessly and wandlessly by a powerful seven year old girl. Ron was soon free, standing back up, and vanishing the snake. He dusted himself off as he looked to see the children disappearing back into the forest with Scorp in tow.
Ron went into Andy's house, where he told the old woman about what had happened out on her yard with the children. She was so old that she was starting to lose her hearing, hence she hadn't heard the confrontation at all. It took him a few tries before she finally heard enough of what he was saying to understand.
"The children are out in the forest between here and the Manor?" Andy asked, to make sure she'd understood.
"Yes and Scorp was with them on crutches. I think they've left him behind," Ron said.
"Right, let me just get my broom," Andy said before summoning her broom. Then she was off, flying over her lawn and into the forest, looking for Scorp. She found him not far into the forest. He hadn't been left behind, because Hayden had stayed with the crippled boy. Still, the forest was large and Scorp wasn't supposed to be crossing it at all, so Andy had the young boy climb onto her broom with her and flew him back to the Manor, where the other children were already running into the house to tell Draco about Ron. Hayden ran after Andy and Scorp and was through the forest and within sight of the Manor in just a few minutes.
Ron sat down on Andy's couch and waited for Harry. It wasn't long before Harry arrived and asked, "Where's Andy?"
"Oh, she had to stop by the Manor real quick. I'm sure she'll be back soon," Ron said, leaving out the details. He knew Harry would take off after the children if Harry knew, but he wanted to talk to Harry first. Besides, Andy clearly had it covered.
"Oh, alright," Harry replied.
"So what's up with your physical? Why didn't you pass? Why do you seem to be okay with the fact that you didn't pass? And why couldn't you tell me at work?" Ron asked.
"Well I don't think you want to know. It relates to my sex life."
"You're right, I have absolutely no desire to hear about what you and Draco get up to, but surely once you recover you're good to go. How could that possibly cause you to fail your physical?"
"The problem is Draco's size. He's too big. They warned me after Lilac was born that my pelvis hadn't reverted to its original, pre-delivery state. My pelvis accommodated him magically and over the years, the changes solidified into physical changes," Harry explained and a look of horror crossed Ron's face as Ron realized what Harry was saying. "It wasn't supposed to cause problems this soon; I thought it'd be years down the line before it'd slow me down at all." He left out some of the details, such as the fact that he'd actually allowed his healer to cast a spell on him allowing his pelvis to expand as wide as needed.
"Blimey Harry. You gave up your ability to run to be buggered by that git?"
"Ron! He's not a git and I was supposed to have years more before it even started affecting me!"
"Then what happened?"
"He just kept growing! He's like a tripod down there."
"A what?"
"A tripod; it's a muggle stand with three legs for cameras."
"So what you're saying is that Draco has three legs?" Ron asked turning white at the horrible thought.
"Yes and the larger he got, the more my pelvis widened. The wider my pelvis got, the sooner and more severely my mobility became affected. The healers tell me that Draco is literally as big as a centaur down there; it's ridiculous." Peverell's were traditionally half centaur and quite a bit smaller than a centaur, but the Malfoy family had managed to get their bits up to full centaur size. The healers had said that Draco was one of the largest in the world in terms of penis size.
"Fuck."
"Yes, well that's what got me into this mess."
"No, I didn't, um…mean it, er, like that."
"Oh."
"Right, well here's what you have to do, mate: you have to leave Draco and then we'll go to St. Mungo's and get them to put you back to normal. You can find someone new with normal bits."
"No Ron, I'm staying with Draco and if you start this again, then it's you I'll be cutting loose," Harry said. He had been through this many times with Ron and Draco over the years. Draco never did learn to like Ron, but at least Draco didn't tell Harry that he couldn't see Ron and tried not to say anything negative about Ron at all. That didn't mean Draco liked Ron, but Harry still appreciated the fact that Draco was trying. Ron in turn, hated Draco, but did his best to keep his mouth shut. Although Ron wasn't nearly as good as it as Draco was and often slipped, regularly calling Draco names. As a result, Harry rarely saw Ron outside of work anymore.
"You can't be serious! This is your job and your body you're talking about giving up!"
"And it's my family, my marriage, and my sex life you want me to give up!"
Ron could understand Harry not wanting to lose his sex life, even if Ron didn't like it. "You could find someone new to have sex with," Ron said.
"I like having sex with Draco."
"Right, of course you do. Who wouldn't want to be buggered by a bloody horse?"
"Ron! You're such an arse; I'm leaving."
"Wait, no, I'm sorry. Blimey, it's just I can't believe you're giving up your career for your husband."
"Draco's not asking me to give up my career; it's not his fault he's big down there."
"Right mate, but it's your career here."
"I'm not giving up my career; I've still got the desk job and I'll still be interviewing and interrogating people. And besides, I need to start learning more of how to manage the office from a desk, because Kingsley said I'm next in line to replace Robards."
"And just how are you gonna do that, when you're only working half-time?"
"Robards isn't retiring yet; it'll be another five years or more before I need to be in the office full time. By then, the kids will be off to Hogwarts."
Ron started to say something about Draco finding another excuse to keep Harry at home, but then he stopped himself, knowing that Harry had already had enough of Ron criticizing Draco for the day.
"Ron, Hermione's pregnant, you should get home to her. I'm going home too; I thought Andy would be back by now, but it's dinner time, so maybe she decided to stay."
"That reminds me; your kids were out on the lawn when I got here. Little Teddy spat on me and Lilac petrified me. Do you know what sort of awful things Draco has been telling them about me?"
"What!? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I just did. I imagine you'll be wanting to discipline Teddy."
"I don't have time to deal with you; I've got to get home. And Draco didn't tell them, I did," Harry said, before apparating away.
Normally Harry would care more about what Remus had done, but right now he was still mad at Ron for what Ron had said, so he was inwardly pleased that his adoptive son had done it. Remus was the bravest and most daring of the children, which meant that he got himself into the most trouble.
Harry went back to the Manor, where Draco was almost done giving a group of naughty children timeouts. Draco had already given them a lecture about leaving the protection of the fidelius without asking or letting the adults know where they were going. And then there was the fact that Sugar, who was supposed to be watching the children, had been found dazed and confused walking around the yard after Lilac hit the elf with a burst of uncontrolled magic. Sugar was a young elf that had just started serving the family two years ago and Lilac may have quite possibly permanently damaged the little elf.
Once timeouts were over, Harry went into the boys' room and sat down next to Scorp on what used to be the spare bed, but was now Scorp's bed. Remus and Sev had a bunk bed across from Scorp's bed, in the middle of the room where the cribs used to be. "You boys know what you did today was very dangerous, don't you?" Harry asked.
"Yes Daddy," all three boys answered.
"We took Hayden with us, to protect us," Remus added.
Harry looked up at Remus, who was sitting on the top bunk, finishing his time out. "Hayden is only eleven; he won't even start Hogwarts until the fall. There are a lot of dangerous people in this world and your father and I are just trying to protect you," Harry said.
"On Great Aunt Andy's lawn?" Sev asked incredulously.
"You never know; a lot of people have visited that lawn over the years. The protections on her lawn aren't as strong as on the Manor proper. You need to stay under the fidelius," Harry said.
"That's ballocks! That awful man shouldn't have been at my grandmother's house anyway!" Remus exclaimed.
"Remus! Language. I came in here to let you lot off of timeout, but if that's how you're gonna talk young man, you can just stay up here while the rest of us go have dinner," Harry said.
"Sorry Daddy," Remus said.
"We're not in trouble too, Daddy, are we? Sev and I didn't say it," Scorp said.
"No Scorp, you're not in trouble too. Come on Sev, the two of you can come down to dinner. Remus, I'll send a house elf to let you off when your time's up and you can join us," Harry said.
Sev ran off down the stairs and Scorp followed behind, getting on his broom and flying downstairs, because that was easier for him to do than to hobble down with the crutches. Harry followed the pair down and when Scorp climbed off the broom, Harry handed his son the pair of crutches back. Together they walked through the drawing room, which had since been redecorated and no longer resembled the room where Hermione had been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange or the room Voldemort had inhabited.
Now the Manor and every room in it was Harry's home and Voldemort and Bellatrix had no place in it, even as memories. Lilac had colored on these walls when she was two. This was the room where they had Easter dinner with the extended Malfoy family every year. It was the room where Sev had smashed a very expensive antique vase playing Quidditch. Remus had flung a mud pie at the outside of these antique diamond paned windows and cracked a pane. And it was the first room Scorp had walked across on his new brace and crutches when he first got them three years ago. And now that the children were older and frequently used the second floor sitting room, this was the room Harry and Draco stole away to when they wanted some alone time to reconnect. Harry had many fond memories of snogging Draco senseless right in this very drawing room.
Harry slowly walked to the dining room with Scorp and they all sat down to dinner, including Andy. Harry would just have to talk to Andy about Draco's birthday party later.
Author's Note: I really liked writing these kids; I've had them in my mind for a long time now, having envisioned who they were going to be before they were even born. They made me want to write another story more about the children, which was one of my motivations behind starting my other story, Harry Potter and the Malfoy Male Pregnancy Curse. It's not in the Peverell Children's world, but in it, Harry and Draco have 9 children together, plus Teddy. If you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend that you do.
Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story this far, especially to those of you who have reviewed. In particularly, I'd like to thank ChaosLady, because quite frequently she was the only one who reviewed; your reviews kept this story going.
In other news, now that this story is coming to an end, I get to start posting a new story (I'm one of those people who hate having too many stories in progress at one time). My new story is drama, romance, and adventure; Draco/Harry slash with mpreg of course! It'll have a war fought on a dragon reserve going on in the background, so there will be plenty of rampaging dragons and close calls, but it's mostly about Draco and his dragon mysticism religion. Draco is keeping secrets and Auror Harry is determined to uncover them in order to save Draco, by evacuating him from the war-zone. It's called Dragon Kissed and I just posted the first chapter!