Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy - Growing Harry - PG-13 - Part Two
Title: Growing Harry (part two)
Pairing: Harry/Draco eventually
Rating: PG-13 for the moment
Summary: Harry has some terrible news and his entire way of life is thrown off balance as he is forced to take responsibility of not just himself. Post-Hogwarts, post-war.
Warnings: Character death but not Harry or Draco, however very integral to the plot
A/N: Thank you to my beta katze_boston
Word Count: 2396
Part One
Part Two
“So we’ll all live here together, it’s what your Mum and Dad wanted,” Harry smiled as brightly as he could while he sat across the kitchen table from the two children who less than twenty-four hours ago had been declared legally his.
“But you said we’d go and live with Auntie Ginny,” Hannah looked and sounded just as shocked with her parent’s decision as Harry had been. Johnny just kept colouring the picture of the snitch printed on the parchment, careful not to go out of the lines. He’d hardly spoken since the funeral except for his occasional angry outburst of crying, and although he was pretending not to listen Harry knew he was.
“I said that’s what I thought would happen but it seems your parents had other ideas,” Harry explained patiently. He’d learned to be patient this week as it was mostly him and the children. He’d spent more time with the kids since their parents had died than he had their whole lives and that thought was eating him up with guilt. He should have been here more.
“Oh right,” Hannah looked at the table top and said nothing, Harry’s stomach dropped, he knew there was a possibility that the kids wouldn’t want to stay with him but he’d hoped they would.
“Is that a really horrible thought?” Harry asked tentatively and Hannah looked up at him with those eyes which were so disarmingly Hermione’s and she smiled.
“No, not horrible, just not what I’d thought,” Hannah said softly.
“What about you Johnny, how does living here with your Uncle Harry sound?” Jonathan looked up and smiled briefly before going back to his colouring, the only answer Harry was going to get for now, and he supposed he’d just have to be satisfied.
“And if I’m really terrible then it won’t matter, you’ll be off to Hogwarts soon Han’,” Harry grinned softly but grimaced as he watched Hannah blanch and shake her head.
“I can’t go to Hogwarts, not without Mum, she was going to come with me to the station, her and Dad were having bets on which house I’d be in, I can’t go now that they’re not here,” Hannah continued to shake her head vehemently and Harry frowned.
“Of course you can honey, remember all those wonderful stories Mum and Dad used to tell? You want to have some of those stories don’t you? You’d want your Mum and Dad to be proud, right?” Harry got up off of his chair and walked around the table and knelt next to her. He lifted her chin and met her watery gaze. She looked so unbelievably sad and he couldn’t bear it. He smiled softly at her and she smiled back tentatively.
“Yeah I do, but it’s just so…” She sniffled and Harry pulled her into a hug.
“Hard? Yeah things aren’t going to be easy, not for a long while but just remember I’ll always be here,” Harry pulled back from the hug and smiled reassuringly at the frightened girl. She looked so like her mother and Harry had to remember that she was only eleven. Harry stood up and winced as his knees cracked.
“Why don’t the two of you go upstairs and get washed up? Auntie Ginny will be here in a little while to take you to her house while I floo back to London and sort out some things at my flat,” Harry smiled softly as the children obediently got down from the table and made their way out of the kitchen. He breathed out a heavy sigh of relief, he didn’t quite know how he was going to get through all of this but he had to try.
Half an hour later Harry had the children packed up and sent off with Ginny for the evening. She and Harry barely spoke as they got the children ready, she was still angry about Ron and Hermione’s decision and he was still pissed off over the way she’d handled it. He really wished they could be friends but despite everything that had happened he didn’t see that happening any time soon.
Harry took a moment to sit on the couch and look around the living room. The soft cream walls, the cream and gold heavy curtains, the old oak furniture screamed Hermione and it made Harry ache with missing her. Above the fireplace were pictures of them all, all the people in his best friend’s lives. Harry was lost in thought but a few seconds later the sound of the wards alarm sounded and he jumped to his feet, wand in hand. He knew that sound well, he’d helped Ron and Hermione set up the spells to warn them when someone who hadn’t been invited was at their door. When they had had the children they realised that they couldn’t risk their safety any longer. Harry got up from the sofa, strode to the front door and roughly pulled it open, ready to berate whoever had come to disturb him in his silent melancholy.
He was shocked to find Draco Malfoy standing on the other side, his fist raised to knock on the door. It took Harry a moment to recover from the shock before he growled, and with a flick of his wrist the ear piercing screech disappeared.
“Malfoy? What’re you doing here?” Harry leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his broad chest, blocking the entrance to the house.
“Um… hello Potter.” Harry raised an eyebrow at the blonde’s inarticulacy and simply waited for an explanation as to why he was there.
“I came to see how you were coping, you know with the kids and everything, and to say how sorry I am. I didn’t get to see you at the funeral.” Draco twisted his hands together nervously as he looked over the other man. Hermione was right, Harry really had grown into a gorgeous man. He was barely recognisable from the gangly, awkward teenager he had known in school and Draco found himself stuttering and fumbling like an incredible buffoon.
“Well thank you, Hermione told me you were friends when I saw them at Christmas. I hadn’t realised you were that close.” Harry smiled, and couldn’t help raking his eyes over the blonde. Draco Malfoy had always been striking, what with all that blonde hair but now he was positively beautiful. He was no longer as pointed and angular as he once was. He had broad shoulders and was a good few inches taller than Harry making them almost the same height while Harry stood on the doorstep.
“Well yeah, I guess we were, I’ve been over for dinner quite a few times, and I was going to come over for Easter. I was helping Jonathan control his magic. He kept floating Hermione’s good china out of the cabinet and she was getting quite tired of having to fix things,” Draco chuckled. Harry felt a spike of jealousy at Draco’s admission; why hadn’t they asked Harry to have a talk with Johnny? He ignored the little voice that told him that if he had been over for dinner more than just a few times over the last three and a half months then maybe they would have. Jealous was replaced by a gut wrenching guilt that made him feel ill.
“Are you alright Potter? You look a bit green.” Harry snapped back to reality and stared into Draco’s cool green eyes.
“Yes, yes I’m fine. Do you want to come in?”
“Are you sure you’re not busy?” This new hesitant polite Draco Malfoy was a little disconcerting for Harry, yet he found himself strangely intrigued by it. Draco had always been so ugly to Harry in school because of his arrogance and malice but now all that had been stripped away it left behind something which was quite attractive.
They settled in the kitchen with two cups of Earl Grey, silently staring at their own cups.
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, I’m as well as can be expected I suppose. It’s just been really hard. It’s not even been two weeks and it feels like everyone has forgotten about them. They gave me the children, I’m their legal guardian, did you know that?” Harry laughed almost hysterically.
“Hermione mentioned it once while we were having lunch, got me to read over a letter she wanted to be given to you. Did you get it?” Harry shook his head and glared into his tea. How close were Malfoy and Hermione now? It was like Harry had been replaced.
“No, they said they hadn’t gotten around to sorting out keys for their vault at Gringotts and that’s where the letter is,” Harry mumbled.
“Oh right, that makes sense. You’ve got that look on your face like you did outside when I mentioned Hermione. Does it bother you that we were friends?” Harry met Draco’s eyes and stared into them for a moment.
“No, I just feel guilty that I wasn’t here more over the last few months, that’s all. I think it’s great that you were friends, I just wish I didn’t feel as if I had been replaced over the last few months.” Harry thought it best to be honest.
“I think Hermione understood that you were busy, She missed you of course, but she understood,” Draco sounded apologetic.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound bitter. Everything is so confusing! They’re my best friends, were my best friends but I’ve neglected them recently and yet here I am looking after their children. There is this whirl of emotion running through me and I don’t know what to think or feel. I want to go back and talk to them one more time. I’ve been here for dinner three times since Christmas. I’ve met Hermione twice for lunch and watched four Quidditch games with Ron in the last three months! They’re meant to be my best friends! I should have been able to stop all of this and yet I’m here taking care of Hannah and Johnny because their parents are fucking dead!” Harry didn’t care if that tirade had made sense because he found himself shaking and on the verge of tears. He hadn’t let himself cry properly, after all, he had been strong, yet right now he just felt like breaking down. He was shocked when Malfoy reached over and placed a hand over his. Harry looked up in concerned eyes and drew in a shuddering breath.
“I’m sorry,” Harry laughed weakly.
“Don’t be sorry, you’ve every right to be confused and angry. People dying young shouldn’t ever be understood, not when they’ve got so much to live for like Ron and Hermione did.” Harry nodded in agreement and laughed once more. Who’d have thought that he’d be spilling his guts to Draco Malfoy of all people?
“Are you sure you’re going to be alright with the kids?”
“Yeah, I love them to death.”
“Doesn’t mean it’ll be easy,” Draco sipped at his tea and stared at Harry thoughtfully.
“Yeah, well, I’m just going to have to try, they deserve that much,” Harry sighed heavily.
“And giving up your lifestyle won’t be difficult?” Harry blushed at the comment and Draco smirked, perfect.
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. Clubbing was just something I did because I was bored. I have something to focus on now, a purpose. I didn’t care about any of those people anyway, they were just a quick and easy way of getting off.” Draco choked on his tea and their eyes met, they both smiled.
“You know I always got the feeling that Hermione was going to try and set us up when you came over on Easter Sunday,” Draco said. Harry grinned at the blonde.
“Yeah, I got that feeling at Christmas when she couldn’t stop talking about you, kept saying we should both come over for dinner.” Harry rolled his eyes at the memory.
“Yeah, well, I got it too, ‘Harry this’ and ‘Harry that,’ ‘Harry really has turned into a wonderful man, you know, Draco, he just needs to stop all this shagging random people business,’” Draco did a wonderful imitation of Hermione and had them both laughing hard. Draco attempted to swallow some tea but failed. It took a moment for Draco look up from his cup and realise Harry was crying.
“Potter, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, it was really insensitive of me,” Draco had never been good at comforting people who were upset and he felt absolutely helpless as Harry covered his face in his hands and sobbed. Draco got off his chair and crouched next to Harry. He took the dark-haired wizard’s hand in his and squeezed.
“Potter?” Harry took his hand away from his face and looked down at the blonde. He knew he must look an utter state, but Draco smiled softly at him anyway. “Let me get you a tissue.” Draco got up and grabbed a kitchen towel from the counter, folded it and knelt in front of Harry.
“What are you…?” exclaimed Harry as Draco reached up and took off Harry’s glasses and set them down on the kitchen table, and began to wipe away the tear tracks down Harry’s face. Harry could do nothing but stare down at him in utter astonishment. When he was done Draco coughed awkwardly and stood up. He threw away the towel and turned back to Harry who was still staring at him with astonishment.
“Maybe you should go and lay down for an hour,” Draco said softly, Harry really did look tired.
“I need to go to my flat in London, there is so much to pack up.” Harry sounded weary even to his own ears.
“Why don’t we make a deal, you go and sleep for an hour and I’ll come with you to London to pack your stuff up?” Harry frowned up at him.
“Why are you being nice to me?”
“What do you mean?”
“ ‘Why are you helping me’, it’s simple enough,” Harry asked again.
“Maybe I just want to see what it was Hermione was talking about,” Draco blushed and for a moment they stared at one another before Harry got up and walked through the kitchen towards the stairs.”
“Wake me in an hour!” he called as he went.
I would love to know what you think!
Pairing: Harry/Draco eventually
Rating: PG-13 for the moment
Summary: Harry has some terrible news and his entire way of life is thrown off balance as he is forced to take responsibility of not just himself. Post-Hogwarts, post-war.
Warnings: Character death but not Harry or Draco, however very integral to the plot
A/N: Thank you to my beta katze_boston
Word Count: 2396
Part One
Part Two
“So we’ll all live here together, it’s what your Mum and Dad wanted,” Harry smiled as brightly as he could while he sat across the kitchen table from the two children who less than twenty-four hours ago had been declared legally his.
“But you said we’d go and live with Auntie Ginny,” Hannah looked and sounded just as shocked with her parent’s decision as Harry had been. Johnny just kept colouring the picture of the snitch printed on the parchment, careful not to go out of the lines. He’d hardly spoken since the funeral except for his occasional angry outburst of crying, and although he was pretending not to listen Harry knew he was.
“I said that’s what I thought would happen but it seems your parents had other ideas,” Harry explained patiently. He’d learned to be patient this week as it was mostly him and the children. He’d spent more time with the kids since their parents had died than he had their whole lives and that thought was eating him up with guilt. He should have been here more.
“Oh right,” Hannah looked at the table top and said nothing, Harry’s stomach dropped, he knew there was a possibility that the kids wouldn’t want to stay with him but he’d hoped they would.
“Is that a really horrible thought?” Harry asked tentatively and Hannah looked up at him with those eyes which were so disarmingly Hermione’s and she smiled.
“No, not horrible, just not what I’d thought,” Hannah said softly.
“What about you Johnny, how does living here with your Uncle Harry sound?” Jonathan looked up and smiled briefly before going back to his colouring, the only answer Harry was going to get for now, and he supposed he’d just have to be satisfied.
“And if I’m really terrible then it won’t matter, you’ll be off to Hogwarts soon Han’,” Harry grinned softly but grimaced as he watched Hannah blanch and shake her head.
“I can’t go to Hogwarts, not without Mum, she was going to come with me to the station, her and Dad were having bets on which house I’d be in, I can’t go now that they’re not here,” Hannah continued to shake her head vehemently and Harry frowned.
“Of course you can honey, remember all those wonderful stories Mum and Dad used to tell? You want to have some of those stories don’t you? You’d want your Mum and Dad to be proud, right?” Harry got up off of his chair and walked around the table and knelt next to her. He lifted her chin and met her watery gaze. She looked so unbelievably sad and he couldn’t bear it. He smiled softly at her and she smiled back tentatively.
“Yeah I do, but it’s just so…” She sniffled and Harry pulled her into a hug.
“Hard? Yeah things aren’t going to be easy, not for a long while but just remember I’ll always be here,” Harry pulled back from the hug and smiled reassuringly at the frightened girl. She looked so like her mother and Harry had to remember that she was only eleven. Harry stood up and winced as his knees cracked.
“Why don’t the two of you go upstairs and get washed up? Auntie Ginny will be here in a little while to take you to her house while I floo back to London and sort out some things at my flat,” Harry smiled softly as the children obediently got down from the table and made their way out of the kitchen. He breathed out a heavy sigh of relief, he didn’t quite know how he was going to get through all of this but he had to try.
Half an hour later Harry had the children packed up and sent off with Ginny for the evening. She and Harry barely spoke as they got the children ready, she was still angry about Ron and Hermione’s decision and he was still pissed off over the way she’d handled it. He really wished they could be friends but despite everything that had happened he didn’t see that happening any time soon.
Harry took a moment to sit on the couch and look around the living room. The soft cream walls, the cream and gold heavy curtains, the old oak furniture screamed Hermione and it made Harry ache with missing her. Above the fireplace were pictures of them all, all the people in his best friend’s lives. Harry was lost in thought but a few seconds later the sound of the wards alarm sounded and he jumped to his feet, wand in hand. He knew that sound well, he’d helped Ron and Hermione set up the spells to warn them when someone who hadn’t been invited was at their door. When they had had the children they realised that they couldn’t risk their safety any longer. Harry got up from the sofa, strode to the front door and roughly pulled it open, ready to berate whoever had come to disturb him in his silent melancholy.
He was shocked to find Draco Malfoy standing on the other side, his fist raised to knock on the door. It took Harry a moment to recover from the shock before he growled, and with a flick of his wrist the ear piercing screech disappeared.
“Malfoy? What’re you doing here?” Harry leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his broad chest, blocking the entrance to the house.
“Um… hello Potter.” Harry raised an eyebrow at the blonde’s inarticulacy and simply waited for an explanation as to why he was there.
“I came to see how you were coping, you know with the kids and everything, and to say how sorry I am. I didn’t get to see you at the funeral.” Draco twisted his hands together nervously as he looked over the other man. Hermione was right, Harry really had grown into a gorgeous man. He was barely recognisable from the gangly, awkward teenager he had known in school and Draco found himself stuttering and fumbling like an incredible buffoon.
“Well thank you, Hermione told me you were friends when I saw them at Christmas. I hadn’t realised you were that close.” Harry smiled, and couldn’t help raking his eyes over the blonde. Draco Malfoy had always been striking, what with all that blonde hair but now he was positively beautiful. He was no longer as pointed and angular as he once was. He had broad shoulders and was a good few inches taller than Harry making them almost the same height while Harry stood on the doorstep.
“Well yeah, I guess we were, I’ve been over for dinner quite a few times, and I was going to come over for Easter. I was helping Jonathan control his magic. He kept floating Hermione’s good china out of the cabinet and she was getting quite tired of having to fix things,” Draco chuckled. Harry felt a spike of jealousy at Draco’s admission; why hadn’t they asked Harry to have a talk with Johnny? He ignored the little voice that told him that if he had been over for dinner more than just a few times over the last three and a half months then maybe they would have. Jealous was replaced by a gut wrenching guilt that made him feel ill.
“Are you alright Potter? You look a bit green.” Harry snapped back to reality and stared into Draco’s cool green eyes.
“Yes, yes I’m fine. Do you want to come in?”
“Are you sure you’re not busy?” This new hesitant polite Draco Malfoy was a little disconcerting for Harry, yet he found himself strangely intrigued by it. Draco had always been so ugly to Harry in school because of his arrogance and malice but now all that had been stripped away it left behind something which was quite attractive.
They settled in the kitchen with two cups of Earl Grey, silently staring at their own cups.
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, I’m as well as can be expected I suppose. It’s just been really hard. It’s not even been two weeks and it feels like everyone has forgotten about them. They gave me the children, I’m their legal guardian, did you know that?” Harry laughed almost hysterically.
“Hermione mentioned it once while we were having lunch, got me to read over a letter she wanted to be given to you. Did you get it?” Harry shook his head and glared into his tea. How close were Malfoy and Hermione now? It was like Harry had been replaced.
“No, they said they hadn’t gotten around to sorting out keys for their vault at Gringotts and that’s where the letter is,” Harry mumbled.
“Oh right, that makes sense. You’ve got that look on your face like you did outside when I mentioned Hermione. Does it bother you that we were friends?” Harry met Draco’s eyes and stared into them for a moment.
“No, I just feel guilty that I wasn’t here more over the last few months, that’s all. I think it’s great that you were friends, I just wish I didn’t feel as if I had been replaced over the last few months.” Harry thought it best to be honest.
“I think Hermione understood that you were busy, She missed you of course, but she understood,” Draco sounded apologetic.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound bitter. Everything is so confusing! They’re my best friends, were my best friends but I’ve neglected them recently and yet here I am looking after their children. There is this whirl of emotion running through me and I don’t know what to think or feel. I want to go back and talk to them one more time. I’ve been here for dinner three times since Christmas. I’ve met Hermione twice for lunch and watched four Quidditch games with Ron in the last three months! They’re meant to be my best friends! I should have been able to stop all of this and yet I’m here taking care of Hannah and Johnny because their parents are fucking dead!” Harry didn’t care if that tirade had made sense because he found himself shaking and on the verge of tears. He hadn’t let himself cry properly, after all, he had been strong, yet right now he just felt like breaking down. He was shocked when Malfoy reached over and placed a hand over his. Harry looked up in concerned eyes and drew in a shuddering breath.
“I’m sorry,” Harry laughed weakly.
“Don’t be sorry, you’ve every right to be confused and angry. People dying young shouldn’t ever be understood, not when they’ve got so much to live for like Ron and Hermione did.” Harry nodded in agreement and laughed once more. Who’d have thought that he’d be spilling his guts to Draco Malfoy of all people?
“Are you sure you’re going to be alright with the kids?”
“Yeah, I love them to death.”
“Doesn’t mean it’ll be easy,” Draco sipped at his tea and stared at Harry thoughtfully.
“Yeah, well, I’m just going to have to try, they deserve that much,” Harry sighed heavily.
“And giving up your lifestyle won’t be difficult?” Harry blushed at the comment and Draco smirked, perfect.
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. Clubbing was just something I did because I was bored. I have something to focus on now, a purpose. I didn’t care about any of those people anyway, they were just a quick and easy way of getting off.” Draco choked on his tea and their eyes met, they both smiled.
“You know I always got the feeling that Hermione was going to try and set us up when you came over on Easter Sunday,” Draco said. Harry grinned at the blonde.
“Yeah, I got that feeling at Christmas when she couldn’t stop talking about you, kept saying we should both come over for dinner.” Harry rolled his eyes at the memory.
“Yeah, well, I got it too, ‘Harry this’ and ‘Harry that,’ ‘Harry really has turned into a wonderful man, you know, Draco, he just needs to stop all this shagging random people business,’” Draco did a wonderful imitation of Hermione and had them both laughing hard. Draco attempted to swallow some tea but failed. It took a moment for Draco look up from his cup and realise Harry was crying.
“Potter, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, it was really insensitive of me,” Draco had never been good at comforting people who were upset and he felt absolutely helpless as Harry covered his face in his hands and sobbed. Draco got off his chair and crouched next to Harry. He took the dark-haired wizard’s hand in his and squeezed.
“Potter?” Harry took his hand away from his face and looked down at the blonde. He knew he must look an utter state, but Draco smiled softly at him anyway. “Let me get you a tissue.” Draco got up and grabbed a kitchen towel from the counter, folded it and knelt in front of Harry.
“What are you…?” exclaimed Harry as Draco reached up and took off Harry’s glasses and set them down on the kitchen table, and began to wipe away the tear tracks down Harry’s face. Harry could do nothing but stare down at him in utter astonishment. When he was done Draco coughed awkwardly and stood up. He threw away the towel and turned back to Harry who was still staring at him with astonishment.
“Maybe you should go and lay down for an hour,” Draco said softly, Harry really did look tired.
“I need to go to my flat in London, there is so much to pack up.” Harry sounded weary even to his own ears.
“Why don’t we make a deal, you go and sleep for an hour and I’ll come with you to London to pack your stuff up?” Harry frowned up at him.
“Why are you being nice to me?”
“What do you mean?”
“ ‘Why are you helping me’, it’s simple enough,” Harry asked again.
“Maybe I just want to see what it was Hermione was talking about,” Draco blushed and for a moment they stared at one another before Harry got up and walked through the kitchen towards the stairs.”
“Wake me in an hour!” he called as he went.
I would love to know what you think!