Harry Potter, the
Boy-Who-Lived scratched his 32 year old chest. His fingers made small crunching
noises as they found brown curls. He smiled and looked down at his bed.
It was a quite ordinary
bed. Large and made of mahogany, it sported a heavy white down coverlet. Its
four posters rose to the ceiling, light blue curtains swinging lightly in the
breeze.
The extraordinary thing
was what was in the bed.
Blonde hair spilling out
over a crisp white pillowcase glimmered in the morning light. Draco Malfoy
slept deeply as Harry smiled wistfully.
They hated each other as
children. They grew to despise each other. A single act of what most people
would call cowardice changed Draco’s loyalty in the war. If you could call it
loyalty. Either way, it worked out favorably for the Order.
They grew up, and then
grew together. Harry heard Molly Weasley remarking if either had been born
female it was a pureblooded match that would have changed history if it were
the 19th Century.
Harry thought that was
quite an extraordinary set of circumstances, but Draco had agreed.
‘Our lines are both
traceable back to the founding of Hogwarts; they’ve never fallen and had to
reestablish themselves. The alliances of houses back when things really
mattered would have changed history,” Draco had remarked lightly.
‘Well, then we’d rule the
world,’ Harry said.
‘Even I’d be a little
frightened,’ Draco chuckled.
Harry took a deep breath
and tried not to yawn. Draco snorted in his sleep. Then he farted.
Harry shook his head and
stifled a laugh. No, perhaps it hadn’t been all sunshine and happiness, but it
was theirs and he was thankful for it.
“What are you staring at?”
Draco said stickily. He smacked his lips and made a slurping sound.
“You’re quite lovely in
the morning,” Harry said, smiling. “At least until you wake up.”
“Bugger off,” Draco
slurred as he burrowed further under the covers. All that hinted of him was a
lock of hair poking out of the jumble of coverings.
Harry snorted. He turned
and left the bedroom. His bare feet thudded softly on the wooden floor as he
went down the hall and went down the stairs.
Harry went through his
usual morning motions. Draco had never been tolerable in the morning until
after he had some tea. Harry began to brew a pot, and then fixed a tray with
some grapes and vanilla wafers.
He watched the Weasley owl
flutter through the kitchen window and drop off a letter. He really wished
Molly would stop worrying. It’s not like men living without someone to care for
them often spontaneously combusted. It was nice when she came over to cook,
though.
The Potter house was more
suited for entertaining, anyway. With the way the Weasley tendency to
exponentially produce, large space was a deciding factor with any gathering.
Draco seemed to welcome
the visitors, in his quiet way. He always seemed grateful when a tiny redhead
wriggled into his lap with a book or toy. Harry was surprised at Draco’s
tenderness with the little ones, although Harry was startled at his sternness.
Charlie’s boys had only
done anything dangerous once. A miracle with that many children around.
Augustus and Kerry had become annoyed with their 6 year old sisters tagging
along after them everywhere and decided to let her have a go at a broomstick.
They were both over the age of 14. They knew better.
Apparently they had
expected her to fall off as soon as it had moved, but she had the broom
clutched in a death grip as it rose quickly in the air. The Weasley adults,
Draco, and Harry, heard the screaming from inside the house. Draco had beat
Molly out the door.
Charlie remarked they were
lucky Draco didn’t get to them first. At least all their grandmother tried to
do was remove them from the planet. Draco was threatening to kill them,
resurrect them, and kill them again. Harry always thought the image was funny,
after Charlie’s daughter was safe on the ground of course.
Harry jumped slightly as
the teapot began whistling. He scooped the pot off the burner and slipped a tea
cozy over it, then he grabbed the letter from Molly and padded back upstairs,
the tray he loaded up floating behind him.
“Good morning, sunshine,”
Harry sang out as he returned back to the bedroom. The covers moved with a
heavy slithering sound. A groan came from under the covers.
Harry whipped the covers
off Draco. Draco lay on his stomach, his knees tucked up under him so his navy
blue flannel bum was pointed towards the air. When the sun hit his face he
buried it under his pillow. Harry smacked him soundly on the butt.
“Geroff,” Draco mumbled
from under his pillow.
“Letter from Molly,” Harry
said as he motioned the tray down to a black wooden side table. Draco popped
his head out.
“Bringing the kids over
Saturday?”
The Weasleys excursions to
Harry and Draco’s house were supposedly only going to happen ‘once in awhile.’
It had not slipped Draco’s notice that they had been over every weekend for
three months, not that he seemed to mind.
“Haven’t opened it yet,”
Harry said, sitting on the edge of the bed holding the heavy brown envelope.
Draco grabbed Harry around
the waist and tried to drag him back into bed.
“What are you doing?”
Harry laughed.
“I’m cold,” said Draco,
pouting. “It’s your fault.”
“The tea will warm you
up,” Harry said fighting him off.
“You’ll do a better job,”
Draco insisted.
“I’m still sore from last
night,” Harry said, slightly annoyed.
“Sorry,” said Draco,
grinning.
“You look really sorry,”
Harry said, pushing him away and giving him a look.
“Want me to kiss it and
make it better?” Draco drawled, waggling his eyebrows.
“I swear, you have
multiple personalities in the morning,” Harry said ripping the envelope open.
Harry scanned the letter.
“What!” Harry yelled
suddenly, startling Draco.
“Everything alright?”
Draco said, instantly awake and serious. Harry noticed Draco starting to reach
for his wand.
“There’s no threat,” Harry
waved at him. “At least not yet.”
Draco struggled to look
over Harry’s shoulder. “Then what’s going on?”
“Look at this,” Harry said
shoving the letter at Draco. Draco’s face paled as he read it.
“This isn’t true,” Draco
said. “I heard it as a child from my nanny. A fairy story.”
“Do you really think Molly
would send us a fairy story?”
“She is getting up a bit
in age-“
Harry hit him on the
shoulder. “Don’t be stupid.”
“Well, it’s not going to
be me!” Draco laughed, waving his wand at the teapot. It served the tea and two
perfect cups floated on saucers toward them. “You can get yourself knocked up
if you want to.”
Harry read the contents of
the letter from top to bottom. “It says here in only happens once a millennia.”
“Thank heaven for that,”
Draco said, sipping his tea. He sighed happily.
“I think I’ll go see Molly
after breakfast,” Harry said.
“I’ll go with you,” Draco
said. Harry looked startled. “Well it’s not like a child wouldn’t change my
life at all.”
Draco couldn’t quite make
out the feelings behind the look Harry was giving him. “Well if she is right,
we need to know either way. It’s not like we’ve ever had a need for birth
control before.”
Harry looked slightly
horrified.
“Honestly, I’d owl
Granger,” Draco said. Harry looked surprised.
Surprising no one,
Hermione and Draco had never gotten over their dislike for each other. Ron had
always backed up Hermione, so when they got married the invitation was
addressed to Harry only, even though Draco had moved in three years before.
After a curt letter Draco had been reluctantly invited and was treated
politely, but he still got sideways glances and there was whispering behind his
back.
After the wedding, Ron and
Hermione had moved to Spain, following one of her research projects and had
never gotten the chance to really get over her dislike of Draco. That was seven
years ago.
They always sent Christmas
cards, of course, and Hermione’s always contained several pages of updates in
their life. She had lost one baby, a girl, something that had nearly reduced
Molly to hysteria six years ago. After that Hermione had birthed twin boys and
another two sons. She had adjusted her research to Magical Development in
Children and had gotten a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Magic. They were
happy, if not warmer than Hermione liked.
“That’s not a bad idea,”
Harry said. “I’ll do that after we talk to Molly.”
Draco shrugged. “Just a
thought.”
“I could write to
Dumbledore,” Harry hesitated.
“That barmy old fool,”
Draco started, but didn’t contradict Harry. He reburied his head under the
pillow after he had emptied his cup. The cup floated back to the tray and the
pot began pouring another serving. “Send a warning to Molly. We don’t want to
pop in on her and Arthur again.”
Harry laughed at the
memory of walking in on the Weasleys. Apparently Arthur had remarked it had
been some time since they had tested the stability of their kitchen table. With
an empty house they didn’t have as many distractions to stop them. Except for a
practically-foster-son and his partner stopping by to say hello.
“Good idea,” Harry said,
still snickering. “You’ll have to get dressed eventually, you know.”
“Molly thinks my pajamas
are cute,” Draco said, still muffled under the pillow.
“Nice try,” Harry said,
intercepting the tea before it got to Draco.
“Hey!” Draco protested,
popping his head up.
“It’s what you get for
being so lazy,” Harry said, downing the cup. “Now, help me with last night’s
dishes.”
“Fine,” Draco said,
rolling his eyes. “I’ll do it with magic. You start on the letters.”
“Deal.”