Harry watched Malfoy interacting with the cashier. Using stellar customer service, she had started a conversation with Malfoy. Malfoy had a charming smile on his face and Harry could only stare. He would be easily swayed too if he didn't know Malfoy's real character. The chat was superficial so Malfoy didn't get caught out by using non-muggle references. He paid and came to meet up with Harry who was standing off to the side, letting Malfoy work things out for himself.
"That was easy, I knew this wouldn't be too hard." Malfoy said, looking smug, like his usual self as they made their way out of the store.
"You are truly a gifted prat." Harry said sarcastically and elbowed him. He got nudged in return but all of a sudden Malfoy stopped, looking at a storefront across the street. Harry turned to see what he'd spotted.
It was a baby shop. Suddenly Harry felt out of place and scratched the back of his neck, looking away as Malfoy crossed the street. This was weird. He didn't know how to behave around Malfoy when it came to this baby stuff. He watched him go in and Harry stared for a few seconds before following him inside.
Malfoy was standing by a basinet, feeling the edges and feeling the baby blanket inside. Harry felt his heart skip a beat and his eyes widened.
Nope, no, that was not happening. He would not, for a second, even entertain the thought. Was it heartwarming that Malfoy was looking at the basinet with barely restrained fascination? Sure. Was it a somewhat adorable sight? Ok, maybe. But that was it. It was nothing more.
Harry cleared his throat as he came closer. "That one looks nice." He said.
"There will be a child in eight months." Malfoy said.
"Yep. That is how pregnancy works." Harry said, nodding as he looked around, wondering what some of the gadgets all around were. Unfortunately, when he looked back at Malfoy, there were tears in his eyes. "Are you crying?"
Malfoy looked at him alarmed. "Wha-? No!" He said defensively, turning around, wiping his tears away in frustration. "Mind your own business, Potter!" Malfoy yelled, drawing the attention of one of the sales assistants.
"Hi there, is there anything I can help you with?" She asked with a smile.
"Sorry, my friend is a bit emotional." Harry said.
"Of course, what age is the baby?" She asked.
"Mind your…" Malfoy started and Harry stepped in.
"It will be a newborn. Our friend is having a baby and we lost a bet, so we said we'd buy everything they would need for a year." Harry lied flawlessly, and he didn't miss the impressed look that Malfoy gave him.
"Wow, what lucky parents. Let me get you a catalogue." She returned with a sleek magazine with all kinds of products inside and a book called 'Everything you need to welcome a newborn'. "Now, if you'd like to purchase everything now, we do deliver, if you're not sure this will give you a list of everything you might need. How far along is the mother right now?" She asked.
"They're… seven weeks along." Malfoy answered, getting in on the lie.
Seven weeks. That wasn't very long at all. Malfoy must have trusted that man quite a bit, considering that at that point they'd known each other for, what? Four, Five months? Didn't seem like Malfoy at all to trust someone that quickly. He wondered what kind of guy that Davis was in person. Maybe he could talk to him and try to understand a little bit more.
The lady showed them around but Harry couldn't shake the thought and the wheels in his head began turning trying to solve a puzzle. Malfoy kept sending him glances and ended up taking the free catalogue and paying for the book, without buying anything else.
Once outside Malfoy turned to him with a glare. "Stop it." He said.
"What did I do?" Harry asked.
"Whatever you're thinking or planning, stop it."
"I am literally not doing anything. I just watched you as you shopped around."
"Well, whenever you would get that stupid look on your face, trouble always followed, and I am not in the state of mind to be dealing with any trouble." Malfoy said. Harry huffed.
"What do you want me to do? It's just my face."
"Change your face."
"Well… to be honest, I was just-"
"No."
"I'm just curious as to-"
"No! Shht! Potter, no." Malfoy turned to face him dead on. "Whatever you're thinking, stop thinking it."
"But why? I'm not allowed to think?"
"No. Your thinking usually means trouble for everyone else. Now let's go, I'm hungry." He said. "Merlin, give me patience." He grumbled as he walked away. Harry did his best to forget whatever it was that he had been thinking before and followed Malfoy back to catch a bus. But Harry had never been one to keep his curiosity in check.
Once on it, Harry took out the disposable muggle camera he'd bought while Malfoy wasn't looking and took a picture of the blonde standing on a muggle bus, trying to pretend he was anywhere else other than standing between strange muggles that seemed to forget the concept of personal space when it came to getting a place on the bus. He wasn't sure if that one came out blurry so he went to take another one. Just then, Malfoy turned to look at him and he somehow managed to catch the annoyance and curiosity on his face.
"What's that?"
"A camera." He said pocketing it away and Malfoy's eyes widened, getting closer to him.
"Did you end up using it in the changing room?" He hissed.
"No, I bought it afterward." Harry said and shrugged at Malfoy who eyed him with suspicion all the way back home.
That evening, Harry prepared a light dinner with Malfoy's help. Being a star pupil in potions made Malfoy very proficient with the knife, so chopping and peeling was all left to him.
Once everything was done they sat to eat. The silence got a little awkward for a few minutes, before Malfoy finally started talking.
"Not that I don't appreciate having assistance, Potter, but don't you have things to do also?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" Harry said, suddenly finding his chicken far more interesting than anything else on the table.
"Well... I doubt babysitting your godson is all you've been doing since you dropped out of the auror programme." Malfoy said. "The Prophet said you were going to become a house-husband with the Weasley female."
"Well, you probably know by know how full of it the Prophet is, right?" Harry said and sighed. Malfoy did confess his 'delicate' state to him. It's only fair that he share some things as well.
"Well, Ginny and I dated... and then we thought she had... reached the same state you had." He started and sighed.
"And?"
"Well, it took us three weeks to discover it was a false alarm, but it was long enough to realise that we wanted different things." Harry said, remembering how Ginny had freaked out, she was in tears for days, thinking her career in quidditch was ruined and Harry could only feel guilty for daring to be happy that he would be a father. "I was stupid..." He said out loud without realising. It was as the silence stretched that he realised what he'd said and looked up to see Malfoy awkwardly drinking juice and looking away. "Anyway, we broke it off and I decided to leave the auror programme too. Just trying to figure some things out right now."
"For ten months?" Malfoy countered.
"I'm sorry, what were you doing before you decided to leave the wizarding world?" Harry asked and Malfoy glared, standing once he was done with his meal.
"I'll be going to my room."
"Good night." Harry said sarcastically.
"Good night." Came the blonde's equally sarcastic reply. And just like that he was gone. It was only when it was too late to call him back that Harry realised the blonde had left him to clean the dishes.
"One of these days I'm going to teach that prat how the sponge works." He grumbled to himself as he found himself washing both their plates and all the cooking utensils they'd used.
Harry took a deep breath, thinking of Ginny.
Harry looked at the pregnancy test that Ginny had given him and his heart began racing a hundred miles an hour. He could barely hear himself think over it.
He couldn't stop his smile as he looked up at Ginny but couldn't understand why all he saw was anguish in her face.
"Ginny, what's wrong? This is wonderful news! Don't cry, love." He said reaching to caress the tears away but she pulled away.
"Harry, how can you say that? You know I wasn't ready for this!" She wept.
"I... I know this wasn't what we planned but...if it's meant to be, then... why not be happy about it?" He asked.
"It's easy for you to say, your career isn't going down the drain because of this!" She exclaimed. "I don't want to end up like my mother, a slave to the house!"
"Gins, it won't be that way, and your mother loves the life she's had, she told me herself when-."
"Just get out, Harry."
Harry tried to talk to her the following morning. "Ginny, I thought about it and if you want, I can be the one that stays at home, we can do this." He held her hand but she pulled away.
"You'll stay at home? What will people say if I turned you into a house-husband of all things? You want us to be the centre of ridicule?"
"Who cares what people say? You want to focus on your career and I want to stay at home, what's wrong with that if it makes us happy?" Harry said. Ginny only burst into tears and Harry couldn't get her to engage in conversation after that.
He went to talk to Mrs. Weasley that night, not knowing what to do.
"I don't know what to do Mrs. Weasley. She seems to absolutely hate the idea of having a baby." Harry said. "I told her I would stay at home, I'd love to stay home, actually, if it makes her happy."
"Ginny will change her mind, you'll see. Once she has that babe in her arms, she'll form a bond that no one can break. You'll see. You have every right to be happy about this, Harry."
Harry wasn't so sure. Ginny still cried for the days that followed. She settled after that, but seemed resigned and unhappy. When the mediwitch said she wasn't pregnant, that her delay in period was probably due to stress and her new diet she had been so overjoyed that she cheered.
Harry felt numb. It wasn't her fault, Ginny deserved to be happy, but he couldn't help how he felt when he realised there was no child. He'd resisted celebrating, he didn't cheer or buy the gifts he'd wanted to get that child when he thought they were having a child. He forgave her that initial cheer.
But then she went out with her friends to celebrate, not telling him that's what it was, and he had to smile and nod as people kept congratulating him for the non-pregnancy. He couldn't help but feel pretty angry afterward.
After a long discussion, or what Harry would call a heated argument, she yelled that she didn't want children any time soon.
"Ok, that's fine but... how long?" Harry asked.
"Does it matter? You love me, don't you? Are you going to leave if I say ten years? Or fifteen?" She demanded. Harry stood silent as he thought about it. Was he ready to wait ten to fifteen years? He loved Ginny but... He wanted a family more. She stared at his silence, her face filling with realisation. "Wow, I never thought you could be so selfish." She said and stormed off.
Harry sat down, thinking about calling her, stopping her. Why couldn't he wait if he loved her? He didn't know, but he just didn't want to wait.
Harry sighed as he turned to face the kitchen, having finished the plates.
And now he was living with Draco Malfoy, who was knocked up himself and running away from his whole life just to keep that child. Before that, he could have said that it was for shame, but he'd seen the way he was staring at that bassinette and could tell what it was more than just pride and whether he'd wanted to or not, he found it endearing.
As he made his way up to his room, he was reminded that he had something far more important to be focusing on anyway as the wall paper on the wall crumbled by him just passing by. Thinking of a newborn in his place just made his skin crawl and he was under contract to change 12 Grimmauld place into something liveable.
It was certainly going to be an interesting number of months.
