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suki_blueTitle: Parity Transformations
Fandom: HP
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: NC-17 overall
Summary: Eleven years since he ran from Hogwarts, Draco has moved on. Now in his late twenties, Draco lives a reclusive life in a tiny village in Hampshire. Never in a million years does he expect to cross paths with Harry Potter again. But he does, and there are two, rather small and rather excitable, complications.
Beta done by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amejisuto. Thank you, darling.
A/N: Compliant with all canon up to HBP so there may be spoilers for any of the first six books. As this fic is already planned out in full, it will not be compliant with book 7 and will therefore contain NO SPOILERS.
Previous Chapters: HERE
November crawled into December and Draco awoke with a terrific gasp. Only twenty five days until Christmas and he hadn’t even started his Christmas shopping!
Draco scrambled out of bed and sprinted down the stairs, jumping down the last three and landing with a thump at the bottom.
‘Jesus, what’s wrong?’ Harry said, standing quickly and looking concerned.
Draco put his hands on his hips. ‘Why do you keep calling me that?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Never mind. Harry, do you know what date it is?’
Harry shrugged. ‘November the—’
‘December the first,’ Draco interrupted. ‘Have you started your Christmas shopping?’
‘Nope.’
‘Have you bought your Christmas cards?’
‘Nope.’
‘Wrapping paper perhaps?’
‘Nope.’
‘Goodness, Harry, you really are useless.’
‘And how much of the above have you done?’
‘Not the point,’ Draco said, looking suitably offended. ‘My house fell down on me, after all.’ He crossed his arms and brushed his ruby red pompom slippers over Harry’s living room carpet. ‘I had nice carpets once.’
‘Fine! I take it you want to start now.’
‘Yes please,’ Draco said softly, draping his arms around Harry’s neck and kissing him tenderly.
Harry closed his eyes and smiled dreamily. ‘Okay then,’ he said.
‘Good! I’ll shower and dress, you make the breakfast, get the kids ready, get yourself ready, go and put petrol in the car so we don’t lose time on the journey, put the rubbish out and would you kindly pop down the road and tell your Merlin-awful neighbour to shut her bloody dog up. It’s giving me the most terrible headache.’
‘I think that might be the caffeine,’ Harry muttered.
‘Don’t be cheeky. You know you love me really.’
They both froze, like a paused scene from a film or a pair of mismatched manikins in a shop window.
‘I shouldn’t have said that,’ Draco said. ‘You might be right about the caffeine. Sorry.’
‘That’s okay,’ Harry said quietly and with the hint of a smile. ‘You don’t have to be sorry. But I am cutting off your Dr Pepper supply.’
‘Fair enough.’
Draco showered and tried not to worry about his little slip up. Instead he enjoyed the heat of the water on his skin and thought about what Christmas would be like this year.
Christmas with Harry.
Draco smiled and felt warmed from the inside out, like he’d just eaten a huge spoonful of porridge and it was hearting every part of him. All he needed now was Harry in his arms and some Christmas music playing on the stereo.
‘Driving home for Christmas,’ he sang as he near enough floated into the living room with a piece of toast twenty minutes later. ‘Harry, do you have any Christmas music?’
‘No.’
‘Oh. Well, not to panic. Luckily I do. We’ll swing by my house on the way back from …’ Draco paused mid sentence and regarded Harry and the children with a speculative look. ‘Why are you lined up like a line of festive soldiers out for a stroll in the snow?’ he asked, eyeing up their full winter gear which included bobble hats, mittens, and scarves that buried Harry and absolutely swamped the children.
‘We’re waiting for you,’ Harry said in his most patient voice, the one he usually reserved for occasions when Draco just couldn’t grasp the importance of holding his tongue.
‘What on earth for?’
‘We’re going shopping?’ Now Harry sounded positively chirpy.
Draco rolled his eyes and waved them away with his toast, spilling crumbs into the air. ‘After I’ve written the list.’
Harry sighed, the children groaned and then James said, ‘Drat,’ a phrase he’d picked up from Draco the week before and now used at every opportunity.
‘It’ll only take a minute,’ Draco said, so everyone went back to what they’d been doing before Draco got up.
An hour and a half later, the list was finished and they bundled into the car. It was a cold day and there were still patches of frost on the ground, and ice on the window that Harry had a lovely time trying to scrape off.
‘Will it snow?’ Kasen asked.
‘Not today,’ Harry answered. ‘It’s too cold.’
Kasen and James spent the majority of the car journey trying to figure that out.
The journey into Winchester Town Centre wasn’t a long one, but the traffic was terrible. They sat stationary for fifteen minutes at one point and Kasen sung Frosty the Snowman to provide entertainment as the radio wasn’t working and Harry didn’t have any CDs in the glove box which were deemed festive enough.
‘Do you and James have a real tree each year?’ Draco asked.
‘No, we’ve got a plastic one. It’s really nice actually. It’s got—’
‘I beg your pardon?! Harry Potter, I’m Disgusted! Plastic? Plastic?’
‘Granny has a real one,’ James said helpfully.
The traffic crawled on and it soon became clear that the Potter household would be accommodating a real Christmas tree this year. James cheered and clapped and Kasen broke into an out-of-tune version of a Cliff Richard Christmas classic, albeit a few differences including ‘Dogs on the fire and gimps on the tree,’ and, ‘A time for forgetting, a time for … uh …erm … what comes next, Daddy?’
Ten minutes later Draco discovered the reason for the slow traffic. He sat up in his seat to get a better look. A little blue car lay sprawled on its side and beside it stood an embarrassed looking young woman with a long brunette ponytail and puffy red eyes. She was talking into her mobile and smiling.
‘Drat,’ James said.
‘Is that what you did to Uncle Harry’s car?’ Kasen asked, peering through the window as best he could from his seat on the other side.
‘I think she’s alright,’ Harry whispered.
‘No, I did not,’ Draco said, acknowledging Harry with a nod first and then looking back between the front seats. ’I’m a very careful and distinguished learner.’
‘Yeah,’ Harry said, ‘he only backs into the finest of lampposts.’
Draco sulked the rest of the way.
It was only December 1st but Winchester Town Centre was heaving. The four of them tried to hold hands – the kids in the middle – but it was only possible outside.
As usual the town was elegantly decorated, strings of tiny golden lights hanging from one side of the cobbled street to the other and a giant fur tree at the top of the street draped with gold lanterns and a magnificent silver star perched on the top.
Considering Draco’s list had taken and hour and a half to write and was easily a foot long, the shopping didn’t take long.
Only four hours.
It was a record.
‘I feel like I’ve been to the gym,’ Harry said while he helped Draco pack the bags in the boot.
‘This is nothing.’ Draco kissed his cheek and slid one of the smaller bags into a convenient gap at the side. ‘Just wait until we start on the presents.’
‘Oh my god.’ Harry ducked out of the boot and shut it with a clump. ‘How much do you buy Kasen?’
Draco was puzzled. Was a silly question. ‘Whatever he wants. And this year I have you and James to buy for.’ And Draco already had a list in his head of what to get Harry, which included a laptop, an iphone, a pair of incredibly sexy jeans Draco was just dying to see Harry in, and some products which would hopefully do something about the mad hair – make the best of it, seeing as it was never going to fall like a normal person’s hair should.
‘My house, Harry, don’t forget,’ Draco suddenly said in the car on the way home. ‘I want to get my Christmas CDs,’ he added when Harry looked at him like he’d sprouted a second and a third head.
The frost was all gone now but it was still cold and now it was also dark. But it wasn’t dark enough to miss the lurking figures at the corner of Draco’s road. Harry slammed on the breaks and they skidded to a sudden halt.
‘Harry, turn around.’
But Harry was already reversing and swinging the car around.
‘They found me,’ Draco whispered while James and Kasen sang, ‘Wheeeee!’ as the car turned and several men and Rita Skeeter ran towards them, notepads flapping in the air and cameras flashing.
‘How did they find me?’
Harry shook his head. ‘I don’t know. The Fidelius Charm can’t be working.’
‘Maybe not, but how did they know where to look in the first place? It’s not like I sent up a flare.’
Harry put the car into first and slammed his foot on the accelerator. The tires skidded and screeched and they pulled away with a jolt.
‘Don’t panic,’ Harry said. And then he didn’t say anything, which Draco was grateful for because there wasn’t much more to say.
They pulled up in Harry’s driveway in silence and Harry let the children inside while Draco started unpacking the car.
‘Hello, Draco.’
Draco dropped a bag of twinkle lights and baubles and spun around, wand out. ‘Stupify!’
Draco squinted at the man who was now lying halfway across the road. ‘Oh shit.’
‘What the hell just happened?’ Harry said, running back out the door with his wand out.
Draco didn’t answer him and instead ran across the road to help his victim stand. ‘Severus, I’m so sorry.’
‘Why, Draco, did you feel that was necessary?’ Severus said, dusting himself down, which was impossible, so he Scourgified instead.
‘You surprised me! Oh Severus, there are reporters crawling all around my house. What am I going to do? How can I ever go back there? How did they find me? Wait … you must have told them.’
If at all possible, Severus’s expression hardened. ‘I beg your pardon? How dare you.’
‘Well then who else was it?! It wasn’t Harry and it certainly wasn’t me!’
Harry put his hand on Draco’s shoulder. ‘Draco, calm down.’
‘I won’t! Who did this, Harry?! Who told them?! The Weasleys. It must have been the Weasleys.’
‘Uncle Severusssss!’ Kasen called from the front step.
‘Wait there, Kasen. Severus, how did you find Harry’s house?’
Harry’s hand slipped from Draco’s shoulder, and Draco felt its loss like an abandonment.
‘That’s a bloody good point,’ Harry said. ‘Is the Fidelius Charm just not working today or what?’
Severus peered down at them both with obvious distaste. ‘The Fidelius Charm,’ he said, addressing Harry, ‘is rendered useless if sufficient structural damage is done to a property. That is how the Prophet were able to track down Draco’s house.’
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Draco said, lifting his chin. ‘How would they know where to look?’
‘Someone at St Mungo’s has a big mouth. It didn’t take long for the Prophet to find out that you’d been injured when a tree fell down on your house. All they had to do was scour the local Muggle newspapers and there you were on the front page of the Winchester Life.’
‘I was in the newspaper?’ Draco asked.
‘Your house was. With a large Leylandii sticking out of the side. Rather conspicuous, don’t you think?’
‘Daddy!’ Kasen wandered out onto the damp driveway in just his indoor clothes and his socks.
‘GET BACK INSIDE IMEDIATELY!’ Draco bellowed. There had been a headache tingling at the back of his head and now it was starting to throb.
Kasen’s bottom lip wobbled, then he screwed his face up and burst into tears. Draco put his hands over his face and felt like doing the same.
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to shout,’ Draco said to his hastily retreating son.
‘You hate me!’ Kasen shouted.
‘I don’t!’
‘You do! You hate me and you wish I was DEAD! I only wanted to give Uncle Severusss a present!’ Then Kasen turned and ran back into the house, dropping a Chocolate Orange on the ground behind him.
Draco chased him inside, leaving Harry and Severus outside looking stunned. He caught Kasen about halfway up the stairs and carried him the rest of the way, his son squirming, crying and gasping all the way.
‘I’m sorry, Kasen,’ Draco said, putting him down on James’s bed. ‘I love you. I didn’t mean to snap. I just didn’t want you outside without your coat and shoes. You’ll catch cold. And look at your socks, all dirty now. I’ve told you before about wandering about with no shoes. What if there was a piece of glass on the ground and you cut your toes off?’
Kasen brightened at that, which wasn’t quite the point, but Draco was grateful anyway. He took off Kasen’s socks and got a new pair out of the top drawer of the dresser, which was now designated Kasen’s underwear and pyjama drawer.
‘Do you forgive me, Kasen?’
Kasen gave him a truly dirty look and then turned away. ‘Don’t like it when you shout.’
‘I don’t shout often, though, do I?’
Reluctantly, Kasen shook his head.
‘And you think I wish you dead? How could you say such a thing?’
‘Don’t know,’ Kasen muttered.
‘Is that something you heard at school or do you really believe it? Or perhaps you wish me dead?’
Kasen’s head snapped back around. ‘No! No, Daddy! I love you!’
‘And I love you. Shall we forget all about this, then?’ Draco asked calmly and with absolute calculation.
‘Yes please. I’m sorry.’
Kasen held his arms out and Draco cuddled him tightly. He hummed him a little Christmas tune, stroked his hair and then changed his socks and tickled his feet.
‘Who’s that funny man, Uncle Draco?’ James asked from the doorway. He was hovering slightly and looking unsure if he wanted to come into the bedroom or wait outside.
‘Uncle Severus,’ Kasen said, and then he remembered the Chocolate Orange.
‘We have more,’ Draco assured him. He took both children’s hands and led them down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Harry and Severus were sat in silence at opposite ends of the sofa looking decidedly uncomfortable. Draco ignored both of them for the moment and instead fetched Kasen a new Chocolate Orange from the top cupboard and then a bag of chocolate coins because James decided he also wanted to give a present.
‘I should get the frozen stuff in,’ Harry declared after the presentation, and then went outside, car keys jangling from his fingers.
‘Why did you not come to me, Draco?’ Severus asked.
‘I don’t understand.’ The children had started on a giant-sized floor puzzle so Draco was free to talk.
‘I had to find out you’d been injured from the Prophet. It was not how I would have expected to be informed.’
There wasn’t much he could say to that, but Draco being Draco, tried anyway. ‘I … I wasn’t well enough.’
‘You could have sent an owl.’
‘I no longer have one.’
‘You could have sent Potter.’
‘He doesn’t know where you live. And he’d have got lost if I’d told him.’
Severus nodded slowly. ‘I see. You didn’t wish me to know.’
Draco was silent. He stared down at his shoes and at the little red jam stain James had left on the carpet from the day before. ‘I didn’t want to be a bother to anyone else.’
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ Severus said shortly. ‘I doubt very much Potter sees you like that, and I certainly don’t. Or is it that you don’t want to be bothered with me?’
Draco’s head snapped up. ‘No! Of course not! Actually, I was going to come and see you, but I kept thinking that you might get sick of me.’
Severus sniffed. ‘I thought perhaps you were sick of me.’
‘Christ, Slytherins are hard work,’ Harry muttered as he passed them by laden with bags for the third time.
Draco smiled up at him, then frowned back at Severus, a puzzled expression on his face. ‘How did you find Harry’s house?’
‘Gimme!’ James screeched while Kasen held up a big piece of jigsaw puzzle with half a pig on it. Kasen ran for it and James chased him, both boys laughing and screaming.
‘Simple,’ Severus said, ‘Wherever there is a Malfoy, there is a Potter lurking nearby.’
*****
‘I think we should talk to them,’ Draco announced five days later.
‘Hmm? Okay.’
‘You’re not listening to me, are you?’
‘Yeah.’
Draco sighed and sat down next to Harry on the sofa. Harry had been distracted for days now, walking around in a light daze, constantly frowning at anything that was put in front of him.
‘Please don’t worry,’ Draco said, removing a book from Harry’s hands and putting it down on the coffee table.
‘I’m not worrying.’
‘You are. You’re worried about the press. You’re worried they’ll find us – find you. I understand. I just wish you’d talk about it, talk to me. I know I’m an insensitive git, but I do care.’
And then he reached out and hugged Harry as hard as he could, squeezing him like a vice crushing a frightened mouse. ‘See, Harry? This is how much I care.’
‘Enough to make my eyeballs pop out?’ Harry said, sounding half breathless and half amused.
‘Exactly.’ Draco pulled him down and rolled them both onto the floor. ‘Children!’ he called. ‘Come and squeeze Harry to show him how much we care!’
The children bolted down the stairs and dashed across the room like two little whippets. With a cries of ‘Geronimo!’ and ‘Cowabunga!’ they launched themselves at Harry, and squashed and squeezed him.
It was fun, and it continued to be fun until James projectile vomited down Harry’s shirt. Draco mysteriously disappeared at that point and Harry eventually tracked him down hiding in the loft space.
‘What are you doing up there?’
‘James told me you have a special star for the tree. I’m assuming it’s up here with the rest of your crap. OH MY GOD!’ Draco hurried across the beams and dropped back down onto the landing.
‘Are you okay?’ Harry asked, standing well back while Draco flailed and patted himself down in manner that could only be considered manic.
‘Finefinefine. I’m fine.’ He brushed at his left arm, bent over and fluffed his hair. ‘There was a spider. Big bugger, too. Goodness. I might have to fetch Kasen.’
‘You get Kasen to catch spiders for you?’
‘He’s very good at it. I taught him from a young age, you see. I had to show him there was nothing to be afraid of. Is it on me?!’
Harry twirled him around and brushed at his jumper. ‘It’s just a cobweb.’
Harry took Draco back downstairs and made him a strong cup of tea. Then he went to the loft and retrieved the star himself.
‘Sorry,’ he said.
‘What an earth for?’ Draco asked.
‘For being a miserable git.’
Draco waved him away. ‘It’s okay. I know you can’t help it.’
They smirked at each other.
‘Shall we go and find a tree, then? I think James wants to put his star on.’ Draco looked down at the bent and crooked star with its peeling paint and sorry-looking wonky tips. ‘Oh dear Merlin. We’ll have to do something about that.’
*****
It was dark by the time they arrived back home, Christmas tree strapped to the top of the car and Harry covered head to toe in needles.
The children were ultra excited and Draco put them to work immediately on the poor dilapidated star. Gold paint, shiny stickers and plenty of glitter were spread out across the newspaper-covered kitchen table.
Meanwhile, Harry and Draco positioned the tree, and decorated the room with garlands and candles and paper lanterns. Strings of bells hung from the mantelpiece and crystal snowflakes draped the windows. A fibre optic twig tree sat beside the sofa, a snoring Santa rested upon the sideboard and a Crazy Christmas Tree broke into song every twenty minutes. Rope lights climbed the banister and tangled with delicate garlands of real holly. Golden Cherubs guarded the bookcase and a plastic reindeer stood at the bottom with a big cheesy grin and a flashing red nose.
‘It’s a good job I don’t offend easily,’ Draco said while he regarded the room with a sausage roll in his hand and shock plastered all over his face.
‘We’re finished!’ Kasen called, waving a sticky star in the air and dropping glitter everywhere. He and James ran into the room but stopped short before they got halfway.
‘It’s a grotto!’ James said.
‘I’m not sure what to make of it,’ Kasen said seriously, handing the star to Harry. He walked calmly over to the reindeer and poked it. ‘Hmm.’
‘He’s like you when you’re choosing plums in Sainsburys,’ Harry whispered.
Kasen moved on to the Crazy Christmas Tree. It abruptly woke up and yelled ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas tree …!’ Kasen screamed and backed up fast, thumping into the back of the sofa. He turned wide, surprised eyes to his father, and pointed back at the tree.
‘Oh, it’s all right, Kasen, don’t be—’
‘Funny!’ Then he started laughing in the way only children and drunk relatives could.
‘I think perhaps we overdid the sugar,’ Draco whispered to Harry later when they were all decorating the tree.
The children had started decorating with gusto, but after a few tries they soon discovered the tree was too sharp. So they relaxed on the sofa and directed the proceedings in comfort.
‘Up, up, up, up,’ James said, and Harry moved a glittering red bauble slowly up.
‘Left, left, left, left, no, Daddy! Left!’
‘This is left,’ Harry said with an impressive amount of patience.
‘Oh. Other left, other left, other left, stop! Down, down, down, down …’
And on it went until the tree was positively crammed full of mismatched baubles and ribbons, plastic trumpets and hanging chocolates, miniature crackers and little red stockings filled with yummy treats.
Harry lifted James up and James placed the star on the top of the tree. Then they switched on the tree lights and watched the red light chase the yellow which chased the green which chased the orange, round and round. The Crazy Christmas Tree broke into song again and everyone sat down on the sofa to recover.
‘I’m kidnapping its batteries,’ Draco said.
*****
Draco studied the front page of the Prophet.
Potter, Gay and Shacked up with Death Eater?
‘I wasn’t a Death Eater,’ Draco muttered.
‘Daddy.’
‘Yes.’ The Prophet didn’t know what it was talking about. They had no idea. Okay, fine, so they were more or less spot on this time, but they made it all sound so sordid, and it made Draco realise that he was running out of time. The question wasn’t whether they found out about Kasen, it was when.
‘Daddy, will you come upstairs?’
Draco looked up at the quiet, hesitant voice. ‘Kasen, what’s wrong?’
Kasen clenched his hands together, his little fingers shaking and his eyes filling with tears. ‘Wizzy’s gone funny.’
‘Funny?’
Kasen nodded and a tear rolled down one cheek.
‘What sort of funny?’ Draco asked, kneeling in front of his son and putting his arms around him.
‘Don’t know.’
‘Is he … floating?’
They held hands and Kasen led him to the tank.
‘Oh dear,’ Draco said.
‘Will he wake up?’
Draco knelt again and kissed the top of Kasen’s head. ‘No. I’m sorry.’
Kasen cried.
They held the funeral about an hour later. They all dressed up in their smartest clothes and Harry carried Wizzy’s body in a little shoebox filled with silver tinsel and glitter. A big gold and red bow adorned the top.
Draco placed the casket in a hole under a newly planted rose, and covered it over using a trowel. Kasen wanted to say a few words, but he couldn’t get them all out, despite James’s sniffly attempts to help him. Draco didn’t fare much better so the responsibility fell to Harry to tell the congregation, which consisted of two adults, two children, two teddies and a cardboard fairy, what a wonderful fish Wizzy had been and how sorely he would be missed.
‘Drat,’ James said.
*****
Christmas Eve was a terribly exciting affair. Kasen and James were wound up beyond all normal realms and getting them to go to bed and stay there was difficult to say the least.
‘Quiet at last,’ Harry said. He poured small amounts of red wine into two huge wine glasses.
‘Apart from the snoring,’ Draco said, referring to the slumbering sideboard Santa. ‘Cheers.’
They clinked their glassed together and drank to Christmas, to Kasen and James, Father Christmas and to the future.
‘I wish you’d come to Molly’s.’
Draco shook his head. ‘We have Christmas Day together. I don’t want to upset your Boxing Day, too.’
Harry frowned at him. ‘You’re not upsetting anything.’
‘Are you telling me Molly Weasley was thrilled at the prospect of not seeing her Grandson on Christmas Day?’
‘Uh, well, no.’
‘There you go, then. You and James should go to the Weasley’s on Boxing Day and you’ll all have a fabulous time. Kasen and I will be fine. We’ll take a nice long walk and have another roast dinner, watch some Christmas films and then have a Mega Christmas Nap. Perfect.’
‘Maybe next year?’
Draco’s heart clenched. Next year? A whole year from now?
‘Draco? Your silence, for once, isn’t becoming.’
‘I think that next year,’ Draco said, ‘we should consider different Christmas decor. I feel like kicking that Crazy Christmas Tree; I think it’s the Brazilian accent. They couldn’t make an English one?’
Harry smiled and then somehow they were kissing, gently at first, then deeper, faster, hands starting to touch and heartbeats hammering.
Harry pulled away just far enough to speak. ‘Timing, timing, if there is ever a night the kids are going interrupt, it’s going to be tonight.’
‘You bloody started it,’ Draco whispered, breathless, and then he kissed Harry again and pushed him onto his back, amongst the cushions and the last minute wrapping paper.
‘Ever feel like we’ve been making excuses?’ Harry asked. Draco nodded. ‘Should we stop doing that?’
Draco picked his wand up from the coffee table and pointed it at the banister. He muttered a spell and smiled at the wispy orange light that twirled from his wand and floated up the stairs.
‘Perimeter alert,’ he said. ‘We’ll know if they step a foot out of bed.’
Santa snored and the Reindeer flashed his little red nose, and Draco ignored them. He dropped his wand as Harry’s hand found his and their lips touched again.
Draco had spent a great deal of time worrying about this moment, tormenting himself that it would somehow go wrong, that it would be as painful with Harry as it was so long ago, that it wouldn’t feel as right as it did now.
Harry’s fingers brushed Draco’s throat, touched and traced the skin before lips replaced them, tasting and whispering kisses.
Slow, slow, slowly, shirts came off and shoes hit the floor. Trousers and legs tangled and socks were accidentally forgotten, and Draco and Harry leaned their foreheads together and laughed.
Glistening skin, fast breaths and hands starting to scrabble. Harry submitted and Draco fought to keep control of himself before he’d even started. Shaking, he held Harry, burying his face in his neck and waiting out the urge to run cheering for the finishing line.
Then Harry started to move beneath him, and Draco got on with it, stretching and petting until Harry was a heavy, sated mass beneath him, pliable and vulnerable.
The tree lights chased each other and the sofa creaked and creaked. Draco felt like he could barely hold on, like his soul would shatter if this was all some cruel and wonderful dream. But then Harry’s fingers dug into his back and his teeth sank into Draco’s shoulder, and Draco came.
Out of breath and fully awake, Draco braced his arms over Harry and looked down in awe. Harry was beautiful; Harry was his.
‘Harry …’
‘Mmm?’ Harry said, his eyes closed but his hands still moving over Draco’s shoulders and neck. When Draco didn’t answer, Harry opened his eyes and looked up.
‘I …’
Harry waited, then smiled.
Draco smiled back. ‘That was much better than last time.’
Harry hit him with a cushion.
*****
Silence. Darkness. Nothing.
A House-elf Apparated with a candle and cast the only glow in Draco’s world. ‘Young Master Malfoy is early. We didn’t expect you until tomorrow.’
That was more than he expected. The Manor his and his father’s House-elves still working.
‘Your bedroom is just as you left it,’ the House-elf said when Draco said nothing. ‘Shall Twinkles run you a bath?’
‘Yes. And I’d like some food.’
‘Of course, the kitchen will prepare a feast for you, Master Malfoy Sir.’
‘Just a sandwich. Cheese.’
The bedroom was lit all around with red and gold candles, and light and warmth spilled from the roaring fireplace. He knelt as close to it as he could and closed his eyes. The House-elves popped in and out, whispering and fussing, panic in their voices and haste in their footsteps. Draco smelled cheese and opened his eyes to find his sandwich sitting next to him on his mother’s best china.
‘Master Malfoy’s bath is ready, Sir. Would you like anything else? Sweets, or there’s lemon meringue pie—’
‘Just leave me.’
‘Yes, Sir, very good, Master Malfoy Sir. Merry Christmas, Sir.’
Draco hugged his knees and felt the walls close in.
*****
By seven o’clock Christmas morning, Harry’s living room resembled a gift-wrapped pile of rubble. James had installed himself slap-bang in front of the TV with a Scooby-Doo game, while Kasen and Archibald sat by his side with a large blue rat in a chefs hat, and a toy Post Office – Kasen was being very strict about the sale of stamps; that rat’s letter was going nowhere.
In the kitchen, Harry was entertaining himself with a frantic round on his Bop It Extreme 2 while he was waiting for the potatoes to parboil, and Draco was writing in leather-bound journal.
‘Fuck!’ Harry hissed. ‘I hate this thing.’
Draco grinned without looking up. ‘Hm?’
‘What were you thinking, buying me this?’
‘I was thinking you needed something in the house that was more irritating than me.’
Harry checked the door way and leaned over for a kiss. ‘There are plenty of things more irritating than you,’ he said.
Draco added a full stop to his writing and turned the journal around for Harry to see.
’”11.36 pm Christmas Eve”,’ Harry read. ‘”I had sex with Harry and it was fabulous”.’
Harry agreed. ‘When should we tell them about us?’ he asked.
‘Not today,’ Draco said, going back to his journal while Harry got up to turn off the gas ring. ‘Just in case. I’m sure they’ll be fine, but, well, you know. Shall we tell them when it feels right, when the moment presents itself? Did we buy the Christmas pudding?!’
‘Sounds good. And for the fifteen-thousandth time, yes, I got it weeks ago.’
Satisfied, Draco doodled Christmas trees and hummed a happy Christmas tune.
*****
Harry and Draco bickered over the cooking of the Christmas dinner and made up just before the oven dinged, and somewhere during the proceedings two mince pies went missing. By three o’clock everyone had full bellies and Draco had rosy cheeks from slightly too much sherry. Kasen closed his Post Office and they all settled down in one long line along the sofa to watch a Christmas film. Nobody caught the end and James snored for the very first time ever, which a sleep-infested Harry tried to catch on camera but failed when James woke up before Harry could finish reading the instructions.
‘You’re so slow, Harry. How many times did your mother drop you?’
Draco’s brilliant brainwave from the week before paid off. He’d conned Harry into driving him to Argos for a last minute buy, and the two of them came back with a meter high pile of games. Pop-up Pirate was proving a favourite, but Buckaroo was just too tense for Draco who had to tightly grip a cushion whenever he placed a saddle or a pick-axe at arms length.
‘Stupid horse! It only bucks when it’s my turn!’
Draco preferred Twister as he got to be the one to spin the arrow. Unfortunately gameplay only lasted twenty minutes because James kept dribbling. A slippery mat was a dangerous one.
Harry and Draco sat out the five games of Operation, preferring instead to drink tea and touch hands discretely while Kasen and James screamed each time they mutilated their patient and set off the buzzer, which was every single time.
At seven o’clock, Draco broke out the mini-quiches. There were also duck spring rolls, mini-pizzas, sausage rolls and cheesy bites. Kasen wasted five of the little quiches when he stuffed them all in his mouth in one go and choked. They finished off the evening food with Yule Log and vomiting.
The children didn’t want to go to bed, so Harry put on another Christmas film and they soon dropped off, huddled together with Archibald, the rat and a Transformer.
‘This is definitely the definitive version,’ Draco said, examining the back the Muppet’s Christmas Carol DVD box.
Harry nodded and popped half a Walnut Whip into his mouth. ‘Rizzo really makes it.’
‘I’m glad Tiny Tim doesn’t die,’ Draco said. ‘Just looking at his little green face makes me want to weep.’
‘Auw,’ Harry said, and put his arm around him.
‘Thank you for a wonderful Christmas,’ Draco said suddenly, turning in Harry arms. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had one quite as wonderful as this. It’s been wonderful, truly wonderful.’ His head drooped to rest on Harry’s shoulder.
‘You’ve been at the sherry again, haven’t you?’
‘A little bit. I mean it, though. Kasen and I always make sure to have a nice time, but it’s never been like this, never so … chaotic and … wonderful.’
Draco closed his eyes and the next time he opened them, both Kasen and James were gone and Harry was dragging a duvet, and pyjamas for each of them down the stairs.
‘I thought we could sleep down here again tonight. Can you do that perimeter spell again?’
Draco went to the bathroom to clean up and put his pyjamas on, and then did the spell. ‘Were they asleep when you left them?’ he asked when Harry threw the duvet over them both and snuggled.
‘Yep, never woke up when I carried them. Guess what else?’
‘Go on.’
‘I found the mince pies.’
‘I sense a story coming,’ Draco said.
‘There was one on each of our pillows.’
‘Oh, how sweet. Did you bring them down? I quite fancy a mince pie.’
Harry sat up and leaned over Draco to claw at the coffee table. He caught the edge with his fingertips, dragged it closer and picked up a plate with the two little round pies.
Draco peeled the First Class play stamp off his and took a bite. Harry did the same.
TBC…
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luciusfqf :: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
luciusfqf
because Lucius needs love too!
Fandom: HP
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: NC-17 overall
Summary: Eleven years since he ran from Hogwarts, Draco has moved on. Now in his late twenties, Draco lives a reclusive life in a tiny village in Hampshire. Never in a million years does he expect to cross paths with Harry Potter again. But he does, and there are two, rather small and rather excitable, complications.
Beta done by
amejisuto. Thank you, darling.A/N: Compliant with all canon up to HBP so there may be spoilers for any of the first six books. As this fic is already planned out in full, it will not be compliant with book 7 and will therefore contain NO SPOILERS.
Previous Chapters: HERE
November crawled into December and Draco awoke with a terrific gasp. Only twenty five days until Christmas and he hadn’t even started his Christmas shopping!
Draco scrambled out of bed and sprinted down the stairs, jumping down the last three and landing with a thump at the bottom.
‘Jesus, what’s wrong?’ Harry said, standing quickly and looking concerned.
Draco put his hands on his hips. ‘Why do you keep calling me that?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Never mind. Harry, do you know what date it is?’
Harry shrugged. ‘November the—’
‘December the first,’ Draco interrupted. ‘Have you started your Christmas shopping?’
‘Nope.’
‘Have you bought your Christmas cards?’
‘Nope.’
‘Wrapping paper perhaps?’
‘Nope.’
‘Goodness, Harry, you really are useless.’
‘And how much of the above have you done?’
‘Not the point,’ Draco said, looking suitably offended. ‘My house fell down on me, after all.’ He crossed his arms and brushed his ruby red pompom slippers over Harry’s living room carpet. ‘I had nice carpets once.’
‘Fine! I take it you want to start now.’
‘Yes please,’ Draco said softly, draping his arms around Harry’s neck and kissing him tenderly.
Harry closed his eyes and smiled dreamily. ‘Okay then,’ he said.
‘Good! I’ll shower and dress, you make the breakfast, get the kids ready, get yourself ready, go and put petrol in the car so we don’t lose time on the journey, put the rubbish out and would you kindly pop down the road and tell your Merlin-awful neighbour to shut her bloody dog up. It’s giving me the most terrible headache.’
‘I think that might be the caffeine,’ Harry muttered.
‘Don’t be cheeky. You know you love me really.’
They both froze, like a paused scene from a film or a pair of mismatched manikins in a shop window.
‘I shouldn’t have said that,’ Draco said. ‘You might be right about the caffeine. Sorry.’
‘That’s okay,’ Harry said quietly and with the hint of a smile. ‘You don’t have to be sorry. But I am cutting off your Dr Pepper supply.’
‘Fair enough.’
Draco showered and tried not to worry about his little slip up. Instead he enjoyed the heat of the water on his skin and thought about what Christmas would be like this year.
Christmas with Harry.
Draco smiled and felt warmed from the inside out, like he’d just eaten a huge spoonful of porridge and it was hearting every part of him. All he needed now was Harry in his arms and some Christmas music playing on the stereo.
‘Driving home for Christmas,’ he sang as he near enough floated into the living room with a piece of toast twenty minutes later. ‘Harry, do you have any Christmas music?’
‘No.’
‘Oh. Well, not to panic. Luckily I do. We’ll swing by my house on the way back from …’ Draco paused mid sentence and regarded Harry and the children with a speculative look. ‘Why are you lined up like a line of festive soldiers out for a stroll in the snow?’ he asked, eyeing up their full winter gear which included bobble hats, mittens, and scarves that buried Harry and absolutely swamped the children.
‘We’re waiting for you,’ Harry said in his most patient voice, the one he usually reserved for occasions when Draco just couldn’t grasp the importance of holding his tongue.
‘What on earth for?’
‘We’re going shopping?’ Now Harry sounded positively chirpy.
Draco rolled his eyes and waved them away with his toast, spilling crumbs into the air. ‘After I’ve written the list.’
Harry sighed, the children groaned and then James said, ‘Drat,’ a phrase he’d picked up from Draco the week before and now used at every opportunity.
‘It’ll only take a minute,’ Draco said, so everyone went back to what they’d been doing before Draco got up.
An hour and a half later, the list was finished and they bundled into the car. It was a cold day and there were still patches of frost on the ground, and ice on the window that Harry had a lovely time trying to scrape off.
‘Will it snow?’ Kasen asked.
‘Not today,’ Harry answered. ‘It’s too cold.’
Kasen and James spent the majority of the car journey trying to figure that out.
The journey into Winchester Town Centre wasn’t a long one, but the traffic was terrible. They sat stationary for fifteen minutes at one point and Kasen sung Frosty the Snowman to provide entertainment as the radio wasn’t working and Harry didn’t have any CDs in the glove box which were deemed festive enough.
‘Do you and James have a real tree each year?’ Draco asked.
‘No, we’ve got a plastic one. It’s really nice actually. It’s got—’
‘I beg your pardon?! Harry Potter, I’m Disgusted! Plastic? Plastic?’
‘Granny has a real one,’ James said helpfully.
The traffic crawled on and it soon became clear that the Potter household would be accommodating a real Christmas tree this year. James cheered and clapped and Kasen broke into an out-of-tune version of a Cliff Richard Christmas classic, albeit a few differences including ‘Dogs on the fire and gimps on the tree,’ and, ‘A time for forgetting, a time for … uh …erm … what comes next, Daddy?’
Ten minutes later Draco discovered the reason for the slow traffic. He sat up in his seat to get a better look. A little blue car lay sprawled on its side and beside it stood an embarrassed looking young woman with a long brunette ponytail and puffy red eyes. She was talking into her mobile and smiling.
‘Drat,’ James said.
‘Is that what you did to Uncle Harry’s car?’ Kasen asked, peering through the window as best he could from his seat on the other side.
‘I think she’s alright,’ Harry whispered.
‘No, I did not,’ Draco said, acknowledging Harry with a nod first and then looking back between the front seats. ’I’m a very careful and distinguished learner.’
‘Yeah,’ Harry said, ‘he only backs into the finest of lampposts.’
Draco sulked the rest of the way.
It was only December 1st but Winchester Town Centre was heaving. The four of them tried to hold hands – the kids in the middle – but it was only possible outside.
As usual the town was elegantly decorated, strings of tiny golden lights hanging from one side of the cobbled street to the other and a giant fur tree at the top of the street draped with gold lanterns and a magnificent silver star perched on the top.
Considering Draco’s list had taken and hour and a half to write and was easily a foot long, the shopping didn’t take long.
Only four hours.
It was a record.
‘I feel like I’ve been to the gym,’ Harry said while he helped Draco pack the bags in the boot.
‘This is nothing.’ Draco kissed his cheek and slid one of the smaller bags into a convenient gap at the side. ‘Just wait until we start on the presents.’
‘Oh my god.’ Harry ducked out of the boot and shut it with a clump. ‘How much do you buy Kasen?’
Draco was puzzled. Was a silly question. ‘Whatever he wants. And this year I have you and James to buy for.’ And Draco already had a list in his head of what to get Harry, which included a laptop, an iphone, a pair of incredibly sexy jeans Draco was just dying to see Harry in, and some products which would hopefully do something about the mad hair – make the best of it, seeing as it was never going to fall like a normal person’s hair should.
‘My house, Harry, don’t forget,’ Draco suddenly said in the car on the way home. ‘I want to get my Christmas CDs,’ he added when Harry looked at him like he’d sprouted a second and a third head.
The frost was all gone now but it was still cold and now it was also dark. But it wasn’t dark enough to miss the lurking figures at the corner of Draco’s road. Harry slammed on the breaks and they skidded to a sudden halt.
‘Harry, turn around.’
But Harry was already reversing and swinging the car around.
‘They found me,’ Draco whispered while James and Kasen sang, ‘Wheeeee!’ as the car turned and several men and Rita Skeeter ran towards them, notepads flapping in the air and cameras flashing.
‘How did they find me?’
Harry shook his head. ‘I don’t know. The Fidelius Charm can’t be working.’
‘Maybe not, but how did they know where to look in the first place? It’s not like I sent up a flare.’
Harry put the car into first and slammed his foot on the accelerator. The tires skidded and screeched and they pulled away with a jolt.
‘Don’t panic,’ Harry said. And then he didn’t say anything, which Draco was grateful for because there wasn’t much more to say.
They pulled up in Harry’s driveway in silence and Harry let the children inside while Draco started unpacking the car.
‘Hello, Draco.’
Draco dropped a bag of twinkle lights and baubles and spun around, wand out. ‘Stupify!’
Draco squinted at the man who was now lying halfway across the road. ‘Oh shit.’
‘What the hell just happened?’ Harry said, running back out the door with his wand out.
Draco didn’t answer him and instead ran across the road to help his victim stand. ‘Severus, I’m so sorry.’
‘Why, Draco, did you feel that was necessary?’ Severus said, dusting himself down, which was impossible, so he Scourgified instead.
‘You surprised me! Oh Severus, there are reporters crawling all around my house. What am I going to do? How can I ever go back there? How did they find me? Wait … you must have told them.’
If at all possible, Severus’s expression hardened. ‘I beg your pardon? How dare you.’
‘Well then who else was it?! It wasn’t Harry and it certainly wasn’t me!’
Harry put his hand on Draco’s shoulder. ‘Draco, calm down.’
‘I won’t! Who did this, Harry?! Who told them?! The Weasleys. It must have been the Weasleys.’
‘Uncle Severusssss!’ Kasen called from the front step.
‘Wait there, Kasen. Severus, how did you find Harry’s house?’
Harry’s hand slipped from Draco’s shoulder, and Draco felt its loss like an abandonment.
‘That’s a bloody good point,’ Harry said. ‘Is the Fidelius Charm just not working today or what?’
Severus peered down at them both with obvious distaste. ‘The Fidelius Charm,’ he said, addressing Harry, ‘is rendered useless if sufficient structural damage is done to a property. That is how the Prophet were able to track down Draco’s house.’
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Draco said, lifting his chin. ‘How would they know where to look?’
‘Someone at St Mungo’s has a big mouth. It didn’t take long for the Prophet to find out that you’d been injured when a tree fell down on your house. All they had to do was scour the local Muggle newspapers and there you were on the front page of the Winchester Life.’
‘I was in the newspaper?’ Draco asked.
‘Your house was. With a large Leylandii sticking out of the side. Rather conspicuous, don’t you think?’
‘Daddy!’ Kasen wandered out onto the damp driveway in just his indoor clothes and his socks.
‘GET BACK INSIDE IMEDIATELY!’ Draco bellowed. There had been a headache tingling at the back of his head and now it was starting to throb.
Kasen’s bottom lip wobbled, then he screwed his face up and burst into tears. Draco put his hands over his face and felt like doing the same.
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to shout,’ Draco said to his hastily retreating son.
‘You hate me!’ Kasen shouted.
‘I don’t!’
‘You do! You hate me and you wish I was DEAD! I only wanted to give Uncle Severusss a present!’ Then Kasen turned and ran back into the house, dropping a Chocolate Orange on the ground behind him.
Draco chased him inside, leaving Harry and Severus outside looking stunned. He caught Kasen about halfway up the stairs and carried him the rest of the way, his son squirming, crying and gasping all the way.
‘I’m sorry, Kasen,’ Draco said, putting him down on James’s bed. ‘I love you. I didn’t mean to snap. I just didn’t want you outside without your coat and shoes. You’ll catch cold. And look at your socks, all dirty now. I’ve told you before about wandering about with no shoes. What if there was a piece of glass on the ground and you cut your toes off?’
Kasen brightened at that, which wasn’t quite the point, but Draco was grateful anyway. He took off Kasen’s socks and got a new pair out of the top drawer of the dresser, which was now designated Kasen’s underwear and pyjama drawer.
‘Do you forgive me, Kasen?’
Kasen gave him a truly dirty look and then turned away. ‘Don’t like it when you shout.’
‘I don’t shout often, though, do I?’
Reluctantly, Kasen shook his head.
‘And you think I wish you dead? How could you say such a thing?’
‘Don’t know,’ Kasen muttered.
‘Is that something you heard at school or do you really believe it? Or perhaps you wish me dead?’
Kasen’s head snapped back around. ‘No! No, Daddy! I love you!’
‘And I love you. Shall we forget all about this, then?’ Draco asked calmly and with absolute calculation.
‘Yes please. I’m sorry.’
Kasen held his arms out and Draco cuddled him tightly. He hummed him a little Christmas tune, stroked his hair and then changed his socks and tickled his feet.
‘Who’s that funny man, Uncle Draco?’ James asked from the doorway. He was hovering slightly and looking unsure if he wanted to come into the bedroom or wait outside.
‘Uncle Severus,’ Kasen said, and then he remembered the Chocolate Orange.
‘We have more,’ Draco assured him. He took both children’s hands and led them down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Harry and Severus were sat in silence at opposite ends of the sofa looking decidedly uncomfortable. Draco ignored both of them for the moment and instead fetched Kasen a new Chocolate Orange from the top cupboard and then a bag of chocolate coins because James decided he also wanted to give a present.
‘I should get the frozen stuff in,’ Harry declared after the presentation, and then went outside, car keys jangling from his fingers.
‘Why did you not come to me, Draco?’ Severus asked.
‘I don’t understand.’ The children had started on a giant-sized floor puzzle so Draco was free to talk.
‘I had to find out you’d been injured from the Prophet. It was not how I would have expected to be informed.’
There wasn’t much he could say to that, but Draco being Draco, tried anyway. ‘I … I wasn’t well enough.’
‘You could have sent an owl.’
‘I no longer have one.’
‘You could have sent Potter.’
‘He doesn’t know where you live. And he’d have got lost if I’d told him.’
Severus nodded slowly. ‘I see. You didn’t wish me to know.’
Draco was silent. He stared down at his shoes and at the little red jam stain James had left on the carpet from the day before. ‘I didn’t want to be a bother to anyone else.’
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ Severus said shortly. ‘I doubt very much Potter sees you like that, and I certainly don’t. Or is it that you don’t want to be bothered with me?’
Draco’s head snapped up. ‘No! Of course not! Actually, I was going to come and see you, but I kept thinking that you might get sick of me.’
Severus sniffed. ‘I thought perhaps you were sick of me.’
‘Christ, Slytherins are hard work,’ Harry muttered as he passed them by laden with bags for the third time.
Draco smiled up at him, then frowned back at Severus, a puzzled expression on his face. ‘How did you find Harry’s house?’
‘Gimme!’ James screeched while Kasen held up a big piece of jigsaw puzzle with half a pig on it. Kasen ran for it and James chased him, both boys laughing and screaming.
‘Simple,’ Severus said, ‘Wherever there is a Malfoy, there is a Potter lurking nearby.’
*****
‘I think we should talk to them,’ Draco announced five days later.
‘Hmm? Okay.’
‘You’re not listening to me, are you?’
‘Yeah.’
Draco sighed and sat down next to Harry on the sofa. Harry had been distracted for days now, walking around in a light daze, constantly frowning at anything that was put in front of him.
‘Please don’t worry,’ Draco said, removing a book from Harry’s hands and putting it down on the coffee table.
‘I’m not worrying.’
‘You are. You’re worried about the press. You’re worried they’ll find us – find you. I understand. I just wish you’d talk about it, talk to me. I know I’m an insensitive git, but I do care.’
And then he reached out and hugged Harry as hard as he could, squeezing him like a vice crushing a frightened mouse. ‘See, Harry? This is how much I care.’
‘Enough to make my eyeballs pop out?’ Harry said, sounding half breathless and half amused.
‘Exactly.’ Draco pulled him down and rolled them both onto the floor. ‘Children!’ he called. ‘Come and squeeze Harry to show him how much we care!’
The children bolted down the stairs and dashed across the room like two little whippets. With a cries of ‘Geronimo!’ and ‘Cowabunga!’ they launched themselves at Harry, and squashed and squeezed him.
It was fun, and it continued to be fun until James projectile vomited down Harry’s shirt. Draco mysteriously disappeared at that point and Harry eventually tracked him down hiding in the loft space.
‘What are you doing up there?’
‘James told me you have a special star for the tree. I’m assuming it’s up here with the rest of your crap. OH MY GOD!’ Draco hurried across the beams and dropped back down onto the landing.
‘Are you okay?’ Harry asked, standing well back while Draco flailed and patted himself down in manner that could only be considered manic.
‘Finefinefine. I’m fine.’ He brushed at his left arm, bent over and fluffed his hair. ‘There was a spider. Big bugger, too. Goodness. I might have to fetch Kasen.’
‘You get Kasen to catch spiders for you?’
‘He’s very good at it. I taught him from a young age, you see. I had to show him there was nothing to be afraid of. Is it on me?!’
Harry twirled him around and brushed at his jumper. ‘It’s just a cobweb.’
Harry took Draco back downstairs and made him a strong cup of tea. Then he went to the loft and retrieved the star himself.
‘Sorry,’ he said.
‘What an earth for?’ Draco asked.
‘For being a miserable git.’
Draco waved him away. ‘It’s okay. I know you can’t help it.’
They smirked at each other.
‘Shall we go and find a tree, then? I think James wants to put his star on.’ Draco looked down at the bent and crooked star with its peeling paint and sorry-looking wonky tips. ‘Oh dear Merlin. We’ll have to do something about that.’
*****
It was dark by the time they arrived back home, Christmas tree strapped to the top of the car and Harry covered head to toe in needles.
The children were ultra excited and Draco put them to work immediately on the poor dilapidated star. Gold paint, shiny stickers and plenty of glitter were spread out across the newspaper-covered kitchen table.
Meanwhile, Harry and Draco positioned the tree, and decorated the room with garlands and candles and paper lanterns. Strings of bells hung from the mantelpiece and crystal snowflakes draped the windows. A fibre optic twig tree sat beside the sofa, a snoring Santa rested upon the sideboard and a Crazy Christmas Tree broke into song every twenty minutes. Rope lights climbed the banister and tangled with delicate garlands of real holly. Golden Cherubs guarded the bookcase and a plastic reindeer stood at the bottom with a big cheesy grin and a flashing red nose.
‘It’s a good job I don’t offend easily,’ Draco said while he regarded the room with a sausage roll in his hand and shock plastered all over his face.
‘We’re finished!’ Kasen called, waving a sticky star in the air and dropping glitter everywhere. He and James ran into the room but stopped short before they got halfway.
‘It’s a grotto!’ James said.
‘I’m not sure what to make of it,’ Kasen said seriously, handing the star to Harry. He walked calmly over to the reindeer and poked it. ‘Hmm.’
‘He’s like you when you’re choosing plums in Sainsburys,’ Harry whispered.
Kasen moved on to the Crazy Christmas Tree. It abruptly woke up and yelled ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas tree …!’ Kasen screamed and backed up fast, thumping into the back of the sofa. He turned wide, surprised eyes to his father, and pointed back at the tree.
‘Oh, it’s all right, Kasen, don’t be—’
‘Funny!’ Then he started laughing in the way only children and drunk relatives could.
‘I think perhaps we overdid the sugar,’ Draco whispered to Harry later when they were all decorating the tree.
The children had started decorating with gusto, but after a few tries they soon discovered the tree was too sharp. So they relaxed on the sofa and directed the proceedings in comfort.
‘Up, up, up, up,’ James said, and Harry moved a glittering red bauble slowly up.
‘Left, left, left, left, no, Daddy! Left!’
‘This is left,’ Harry said with an impressive amount of patience.
‘Oh. Other left, other left, other left, stop! Down, down, down, down …’
And on it went until the tree was positively crammed full of mismatched baubles and ribbons, plastic trumpets and hanging chocolates, miniature crackers and little red stockings filled with yummy treats.
Harry lifted James up and James placed the star on the top of the tree. Then they switched on the tree lights and watched the red light chase the yellow which chased the green which chased the orange, round and round. The Crazy Christmas Tree broke into song again and everyone sat down on the sofa to recover.
‘I’m kidnapping its batteries,’ Draco said.
*****
Draco studied the front page of the Prophet.
Potter, Gay and Shacked up with Death Eater?
‘I wasn’t a Death Eater,’ Draco muttered.
‘Daddy.’
‘Yes.’ The Prophet didn’t know what it was talking about. They had no idea. Okay, fine, so they were more or less spot on this time, but they made it all sound so sordid, and it made Draco realise that he was running out of time. The question wasn’t whether they found out about Kasen, it was when.
‘Daddy, will you come upstairs?’
Draco looked up at the quiet, hesitant voice. ‘Kasen, what’s wrong?’
Kasen clenched his hands together, his little fingers shaking and his eyes filling with tears. ‘Wizzy’s gone funny.’
‘Funny?’
Kasen nodded and a tear rolled down one cheek.
‘What sort of funny?’ Draco asked, kneeling in front of his son and putting his arms around him.
‘Don’t know.’
‘Is he … floating?’
They held hands and Kasen led him to the tank.
‘Oh dear,’ Draco said.
‘Will he wake up?’
Draco knelt again and kissed the top of Kasen’s head. ‘No. I’m sorry.’
Kasen cried.
They held the funeral about an hour later. They all dressed up in their smartest clothes and Harry carried Wizzy’s body in a little shoebox filled with silver tinsel and glitter. A big gold and red bow adorned the top.
Draco placed the casket in a hole under a newly planted rose, and covered it over using a trowel. Kasen wanted to say a few words, but he couldn’t get them all out, despite James’s sniffly attempts to help him. Draco didn’t fare much better so the responsibility fell to Harry to tell the congregation, which consisted of two adults, two children, two teddies and a cardboard fairy, what a wonderful fish Wizzy had been and how sorely he would be missed.
‘Drat,’ James said.
*****
Christmas Eve was a terribly exciting affair. Kasen and James were wound up beyond all normal realms and getting them to go to bed and stay there was difficult to say the least.
‘Quiet at last,’ Harry said. He poured small amounts of red wine into two huge wine glasses.
‘Apart from the snoring,’ Draco said, referring to the slumbering sideboard Santa. ‘Cheers.’
They clinked their glassed together and drank to Christmas, to Kasen and James, Father Christmas and to the future.
‘I wish you’d come to Molly’s.’
Draco shook his head. ‘We have Christmas Day together. I don’t want to upset your Boxing Day, too.’
Harry frowned at him. ‘You’re not upsetting anything.’
‘Are you telling me Molly Weasley was thrilled at the prospect of not seeing her Grandson on Christmas Day?’
‘Uh, well, no.’
‘There you go, then. You and James should go to the Weasley’s on Boxing Day and you’ll all have a fabulous time. Kasen and I will be fine. We’ll take a nice long walk and have another roast dinner, watch some Christmas films and then have a Mega Christmas Nap. Perfect.’
‘Maybe next year?’
Draco’s heart clenched. Next year? A whole year from now?
‘Draco? Your silence, for once, isn’t becoming.’
‘I think that next year,’ Draco said, ‘we should consider different Christmas decor. I feel like kicking that Crazy Christmas Tree; I think it’s the Brazilian accent. They couldn’t make an English one?’
Harry smiled and then somehow they were kissing, gently at first, then deeper, faster, hands starting to touch and heartbeats hammering.
Harry pulled away just far enough to speak. ‘Timing, timing, if there is ever a night the kids are going interrupt, it’s going to be tonight.’
‘You bloody started it,’ Draco whispered, breathless, and then he kissed Harry again and pushed him onto his back, amongst the cushions and the last minute wrapping paper.
‘Ever feel like we’ve been making excuses?’ Harry asked. Draco nodded. ‘Should we stop doing that?’
Draco picked his wand up from the coffee table and pointed it at the banister. He muttered a spell and smiled at the wispy orange light that twirled from his wand and floated up the stairs.
‘Perimeter alert,’ he said. ‘We’ll know if they step a foot out of bed.’
Santa snored and the Reindeer flashed his little red nose, and Draco ignored them. He dropped his wand as Harry’s hand found his and their lips touched again.
Draco had spent a great deal of time worrying about this moment, tormenting himself that it would somehow go wrong, that it would be as painful with Harry as it was so long ago, that it wouldn’t feel as right as it did now.
Harry’s fingers brushed Draco’s throat, touched and traced the skin before lips replaced them, tasting and whispering kisses.
Slow, slow, slowly, shirts came off and shoes hit the floor. Trousers and legs tangled and socks were accidentally forgotten, and Draco and Harry leaned their foreheads together and laughed.
Glistening skin, fast breaths and hands starting to scrabble. Harry submitted and Draco fought to keep control of himself before he’d even started. Shaking, he held Harry, burying his face in his neck and waiting out the urge to run cheering for the finishing line.
Then Harry started to move beneath him, and Draco got on with it, stretching and petting until Harry was a heavy, sated mass beneath him, pliable and vulnerable.
The tree lights chased each other and the sofa creaked and creaked. Draco felt like he could barely hold on, like his soul would shatter if this was all some cruel and wonderful dream. But then Harry’s fingers dug into his back and his teeth sank into Draco’s shoulder, and Draco came.
Out of breath and fully awake, Draco braced his arms over Harry and looked down in awe. Harry was beautiful; Harry was his.
‘Harry …’
‘Mmm?’ Harry said, his eyes closed but his hands still moving over Draco’s shoulders and neck. When Draco didn’t answer, Harry opened his eyes and looked up.
‘I …’
Harry waited, then smiled.
Draco smiled back. ‘That was much better than last time.’
Harry hit him with a cushion.
*****
Silence. Darkness. Nothing.
A House-elf Apparated with a candle and cast the only glow in Draco’s world. ‘Young Master Malfoy is early. We didn’t expect you until tomorrow.’
That was more than he expected. The Manor his and his father’s House-elves still working.
‘Your bedroom is just as you left it,’ the House-elf said when Draco said nothing. ‘Shall Twinkles run you a bath?’
‘Yes. And I’d like some food.’
‘Of course, the kitchen will prepare a feast for you, Master Malfoy Sir.’
‘Just a sandwich. Cheese.’
The bedroom was lit all around with red and gold candles, and light and warmth spilled from the roaring fireplace. He knelt as close to it as he could and closed his eyes. The House-elves popped in and out, whispering and fussing, panic in their voices and haste in their footsteps. Draco smelled cheese and opened his eyes to find his sandwich sitting next to him on his mother’s best china.
‘Master Malfoy’s bath is ready, Sir. Would you like anything else? Sweets, or there’s lemon meringue pie—’
‘Just leave me.’
‘Yes, Sir, very good, Master Malfoy Sir. Merry Christmas, Sir.’
Draco hugged his knees and felt the walls close in.
*****
By seven o’clock Christmas morning, Harry’s living room resembled a gift-wrapped pile of rubble. James had installed himself slap-bang in front of the TV with a Scooby-Doo game, while Kasen and Archibald sat by his side with a large blue rat in a chefs hat, and a toy Post Office – Kasen was being very strict about the sale of stamps; that rat’s letter was going nowhere.
In the kitchen, Harry was entertaining himself with a frantic round on his Bop It Extreme 2 while he was waiting for the potatoes to parboil, and Draco was writing in leather-bound journal.
‘Fuck!’ Harry hissed. ‘I hate this thing.’
Draco grinned without looking up. ‘Hm?’
‘What were you thinking, buying me this?’
‘I was thinking you needed something in the house that was more irritating than me.’
Harry checked the door way and leaned over for a kiss. ‘There are plenty of things more irritating than you,’ he said.
Draco added a full stop to his writing and turned the journal around for Harry to see.
’”11.36 pm Christmas Eve”,’ Harry read. ‘”I had sex with Harry and it was fabulous”.’
Harry agreed. ‘When should we tell them about us?’ he asked.
‘Not today,’ Draco said, going back to his journal while Harry got up to turn off the gas ring. ‘Just in case. I’m sure they’ll be fine, but, well, you know. Shall we tell them when it feels right, when the moment presents itself? Did we buy the Christmas pudding?!’
‘Sounds good. And for the fifteen-thousandth time, yes, I got it weeks ago.’
Satisfied, Draco doodled Christmas trees and hummed a happy Christmas tune.
*****
Harry and Draco bickered over the cooking of the Christmas dinner and made up just before the oven dinged, and somewhere during the proceedings two mince pies went missing. By three o’clock everyone had full bellies and Draco had rosy cheeks from slightly too much sherry. Kasen closed his Post Office and they all settled down in one long line along the sofa to watch a Christmas film. Nobody caught the end and James snored for the very first time ever, which a sleep-infested Harry tried to catch on camera but failed when James woke up before Harry could finish reading the instructions.
‘You’re so slow, Harry. How many times did your mother drop you?’
Draco’s brilliant brainwave from the week before paid off. He’d conned Harry into driving him to Argos for a last minute buy, and the two of them came back with a meter high pile of games. Pop-up Pirate was proving a favourite, but Buckaroo was just too tense for Draco who had to tightly grip a cushion whenever he placed a saddle or a pick-axe at arms length.
‘Stupid horse! It only bucks when it’s my turn!’
Draco preferred Twister as he got to be the one to spin the arrow. Unfortunately gameplay only lasted twenty minutes because James kept dribbling. A slippery mat was a dangerous one.
Harry and Draco sat out the five games of Operation, preferring instead to drink tea and touch hands discretely while Kasen and James screamed each time they mutilated their patient and set off the buzzer, which was every single time.
At seven o’clock, Draco broke out the mini-quiches. There were also duck spring rolls, mini-pizzas, sausage rolls and cheesy bites. Kasen wasted five of the little quiches when he stuffed them all in his mouth in one go and choked. They finished off the evening food with Yule Log and vomiting.
The children didn’t want to go to bed, so Harry put on another Christmas film and they soon dropped off, huddled together with Archibald, the rat and a Transformer.
‘This is definitely the definitive version,’ Draco said, examining the back the Muppet’s Christmas Carol DVD box.
Harry nodded and popped half a Walnut Whip into his mouth. ‘Rizzo really makes it.’
‘I’m glad Tiny Tim doesn’t die,’ Draco said. ‘Just looking at his little green face makes me want to weep.’
‘Auw,’ Harry said, and put his arm around him.
‘Thank you for a wonderful Christmas,’ Draco said suddenly, turning in Harry arms. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had one quite as wonderful as this. It’s been wonderful, truly wonderful.’ His head drooped to rest on Harry’s shoulder.
‘You’ve been at the sherry again, haven’t you?’
‘A little bit. I mean it, though. Kasen and I always make sure to have a nice time, but it’s never been like this, never so … chaotic and … wonderful.’
Draco closed his eyes and the next time he opened them, both Kasen and James were gone and Harry was dragging a duvet, and pyjamas for each of them down the stairs.
‘I thought we could sleep down here again tonight. Can you do that perimeter spell again?’
Draco went to the bathroom to clean up and put his pyjamas on, and then did the spell. ‘Were they asleep when you left them?’ he asked when Harry threw the duvet over them both and snuggled.
‘Yep, never woke up when I carried them. Guess what else?’
‘Go on.’
‘I found the mince pies.’
‘I sense a story coming,’ Draco said.
‘There was one on each of our pillows.’
‘Oh, how sweet. Did you bring them down? I quite fancy a mince pie.’
Harry sat up and leaned over Draco to claw at the coffee table. He caught the edge with his fingertips, dragged it closer and picked up a plate with the two little round pies.
Draco peeled the First Class play stamp off his and took a bite. Harry did the same.
TBC…
luciusfqf :: luciusfqfbecause Lucius needs love too!