Harry was beyond frustrated. He sat back in his office chair, all six knives in his hand. He chucked the first at the wall.
THUNK. It stuck point-first and quivering in the plaster.
They called him a jumped-up boy-hero.
THUNK.
A young man still wet behind the ears.
THUNK.
They spoke to him patronizingly, asking what he thought he knew about their world.
THUNK.
They told him he wasn't old enough to understand.
THUNK.
They laughed, saying he wasn't raised in their world, he didn't understand their traditions.
"Harry?"
THUNK.
Harry tossed the final blade over his head, turning to see it embedded in the wall just above the open door. Draco stared at it, still ducked in a crouch.
"Rough week," he grunted. "What do you want, Malfoy?" Draco swallowed hard, standing straight again.
"I just wanted to apologize for my actions last week. I…I was out of line. You took me in when I asked and kept me out of Azkaban, and I demanded things I have no right to. I'm sorry." There was real emotion in his eyes that moved Harry. He dropped his gaze from Harry's, twisting his hands.
"I reacted badly," he answered. "There's a lot that's happened to me that I wish hadn't happened. I can't let it get out, there'd be an uproar, so the easiest thing to do is not trust anyone. It colors a lot of what I do now, and it makes it hard," he stopped, then decided to throw caution to the wind and just say it. "It makes it hard to let people in. I want to let you in, Draco, I really do. I just…"
Draco looked back up at him, hope shining in his silver eyes. In that moment, words were not enough. Words were too hard, but actions were easy. Actions spoke volumes about all the things he couldn't fit into words.
So he kissed him. Softly, he cradled Draco's jaw in one hand, dropping the other to his waist, and he gently pressed their lips together. He tried to explain everything he could in the movements of his mouth.
-0-
Kissing Harry was so much better than any of his dreams. Even the filthy ones. He'd give them all up in a second to just stay in this moment with Harry, pressed against him, breathing him in. He wrapped his arms around his neck, tilting his head and deepening the kiss.
This was Harry's apology and explanation in one, and Draco forgave him. He ignored his questions, set them aside. Harry would only answers them when he felt like it, not a moment before. So Draco drove everything from his mind, focusing only in the lips on his, the fingers sliding along his jaw, the hand tightening on his waist. He let the world fade away until there was only the two of them, together, in the middle of Harry's office.
Harry broke away after a long moment, pressing their foreheads together.
"I want this, Draco," he whispered. "I want you, here, but it's not going to be easy for me." Draco smirked lightly at that.
"When is anything ever easy with you, Potter?" he joked, tipping his head down to kiss him again. Harry indulged him a bit before pulling away again.
"Later," he promised. "It's time for dinner." But the hand on his waist flexed, and Harry didn't move. Draco knew he could drive dinner out of his mind entirely, but he also knew he shouldn't.
"Dinner," he reminded Harry after a minute of not moving. "You should ask Reggie what I've been teaching him about potions…"
That got him to move. Harry stepped away. He summoned the knife above the door (and didn't that just scare the magic out of Draco when it came flying toward him?) back to his hand wandlessly and stuffed it into his boot. He stepped toward the door, but at the last second he reached back and took Draco's hand.
"I can promise you I'll try," was all he said. Draco understood.
Harry let his knee rest against Draco's under the table as he listened to Reggie chatter about everything he'd learned about potion-making. Draco enjoyed teaching the little monster. He was always ready to learn, serious about everything, and asking lots of questions.
Teddy liked learning too, but he didn't have the focus Reggie did. He didn't have much of an interest in potions, preferring the outdoors to the indoors. He'd dragged Draco out to teach him about the plants in the garden any number of times. Whenever the sun was out and shining, which wasn't much in England, Draco gave up and played with the two of them in the garden, rolling his eyes at their antics.
But he liked the little buggers.
It was strange. When he'd decided to write to Potter, about a month and a half ago, he hadn't expected it to turn out anything like it had. He had anticipated long days of nothing, reading everything Potter might have in his literary-challenged library, broken by the occasional shouting match. He hadn't expected a responsible single parent with a slew of seats on the Wizengamot. He hadn't expected to become a sort of nanny or tutor and to be happy while doing it. He hadn't expected to enjoy spending his time with three-year-old boys.
He hadn't expected to start falling in love.
-0-
It had become a routine in Grimmauld Place. Draco gave him a kiss before he left for the Ministry. He got snubbed by stuffy old wizards who thought it was still the Golden Age of their society. He came home angry and frustrated and worked it all out by kissing Draco for all he was worth. Then they all sat down to a nice dinner and passed the rest of the evening quietly. He still didn't stay the night with Draco, and Draco still wasn't allowed into his room.
No need to explain that, after all. That was a whole other can of worms he didn't even want to go near.
They hadn't told Teddy and Reggie yet. The whole thing was still too new for them. It could still fall apart at any moment. Bringing in children made it all…real. It made it solid. If it fell apart after that, if they fell apart, it would hurt more than just Harry and Draco.
It took two weeks of their routine before they discovered the boys had figured it out.
Teddy's appearance was like a hit to the chest at dinner that night. He was a beautifully balanced mix of Harry and Draco. He had the same messy black hair Harry had spent his life struggling with, the color standing out against a pale complexion that came from Draco. His eyes were silver, the color a match to Draco's. He smiled at Harry, frozen in the doorway, displaying the pointed canines that hinted at his heritage.
The little Metamorphmagus wasn't a perfect blending of the two of them. There were hints of his real father mixed in. There were touches of sandy blond running through his raven hair. His light eyes, so stark when paired with his hair, had a ring of amber-gold around the outer edge, a color that only really belonged to werewolf blood.
Still the effect was…somewhat unsettling. Suddenly Harry was confronted with a vision of what a child of his and Draco's could look like. He could only imagine what was running through Draco's head. Harry had already dealt with the shock of having a child, of looking into a tiny baby's eyes and realizing they were his. Draco hadn't.
"That's…that's a new look, Teddy," Draco choked out beside him.
"I like it," Teddy answered. "Now I look like both my dads."
"What?" Harry breathed. Draco gripped his hand tightly.
"We saw you kissing Draco yesterday, Daddy," Reggie supplied. "Is he gonna be part of our family now?"
Draco froze beside him, not even breathing.
"I hope so, boys," Harry told them seriously. He turned to look Draco in the eye. "I really hope so."
-0-
Draco nearly dropped something the first time Reggie called him Father. He hadn't even said anything important, but the name struck at his heart.
"Father, where's my other shoe?"
Reggie just stared at him in confusion while he flapped his mouth before eventually choking out an answer.
When the boy left, Draco pressed a hand to his hammering heart. He didn't understand why a name had affected him so much. He'd carried many names in his life: Dragon, Ice Prince of Slytherin, git, Ferret, Death Eater scum. Love.
Now Father.
He was still lost to the world when Harry came home a short time later.
"Draco? What's wrong?" He looked up into worried emerald eyes.
"He called me Father," he whispered. Harry wrapped his arms around him, tucking his chin over his shoulder.
"Oh, Draco," he murmured. "Do you mind? I can ask them to stop if you-" Draco slapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up.
"Don't you dare. I love it."
Then he kissed Harry hard and deep, showing him just how much he loved being a part of the family. How much he loved being 'Father.' How much he loved Harry.
And when Harry broke away gasping, Draco could see in his eyes he understood.
That night, they sat in front of the fire, toasting Draco's acceptance together.
"Stay with me tonight?" he asked tentatively as the embers burned low. He felt Harry tense, wrapped around each other as they were. The haunted look was back in his eyes.
"It's alright, I was just hoping-" Draco hurried to cover his mistake. Harry kissed him before he could finish.
"I understand," he said softly. "It's…not easy for me. I'll wake you up with my nightmares," he warned.
"I know," Draco replied. "I don't care. I want you to be there when I wake up, even if you're screaming."
Harry leaned his forehead into Draco's temple. The room was silent except for the occasional pop from the coals. Gradually, the tension drained out of him.
"Alright," he whispered into Draco's skin. "I'll stay."
Draco drifted off to sleep to the sound of Harry's heartbeat under his ear, wrapped in his arms, his fingers twisted lightly in Harry's shirt.