Ember to Ember (Sequel to Volunteers) Chapter 11
Author's Note: Hey! We're almost done! In fact, I am done; just need to fiddle around with the last chapter, which means that unless I lose my internet connection, it will be up before May 1, which was my self-imposed deadline. Phew!
Anyway, you know the drill by now. This is Ember to Ember, the sequel to Volunteers (fic written for hds_beltane), which is supposed to be taking place in 2007/2008, and is this close to catching up to itself in time ;) Concrit is warmly appreciated. Thanks hugely to scrtkpr for beta, times two!
Title: Ember to Ember
Chapter: 11 (of 12)
Pairing: H/D
Word count: 5000.
Chapter 1: May
Chapter 2: June
Chapter 3: July
Chapter 4: August
Chapter 5: September
Chapter 6: October
Chapter 7: November
Chapter 8: December
Chapter 9: January
Chapter 10: February (previous)
Date: February 7
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Ben's finally being released tomorrow, and wants to visit Alec. Can he come?
Date: February 7
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
We'd love to see him. There'll be a few Weasley cousins over though, and Demelza's got a shift.
Date: February 7
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
A shift?
Date: February 8
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
Percy worked out a schedule for keeping Alec company while he recovers. It's even colour-coded. He did the same thing after Alec was born, having somebody in our house nearly every hour of the day.
Date: February 8
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Sounds disturbingly organized. And a little bit wrong.
Date: February 8
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
That's Percy.
Date: February 10
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
Did you think about it?
Date: February 10
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
I did.
Yes.
Date: March 13
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
There's been an extra rehearsal scheduled Saturday till one.
Date: March 13
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
We weren't planning on starting till one anyway. Do you want to have Ben stay the night Friday?
Date: March 14
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Good idea.
Date: March 18
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
See you Saturday.
Nervous?
Date: March 18
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Rather.
Date: March 19
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
Me too.
oooOOOooo
March 22
"I thought Draco was going to be here this morning," said Alec, moving aside a box and digging into his breakfast.
"Not until later," Harry said, hovering over his son as he and Ben ate. Unable to stop himself from cutting Alec's sausage into tiny morsels and watching over him like a hawk, though at least he no longer held his breath in fear of Alec choking, every time Alec took a drink.
Happily, Alec didn't seem to notice the hovering, much less mind it. Harry smiled as Alec carefully spread jam on his toast; smoothed down Alec's hair and straightened the small glasses Alec now wore, the only possibly permanent aftereffect of the spell damage he'd suffered. The Healers were cautiously optimistic about the chances of Alec's eyesight eventually correcting itself. In the meantime, Alec could see well enough without them, but needed them to see details, such as music on a page.
It could've been so much worse. For the first few agonizing days that Alec had been kept mostly unconscious while Healing charms worked on him, they'd feared that his hearing might have been affected. Harry was still having nightmares about that.
Oddly, Alec had had a much easier time recovering than Ben had, despite having been more severely injured. Alec hadn't much minded his inability to run about and play normally for a couple of weeks; Ben, a normally very easygoing kid, had been by turns whiny, teary, and irritable as his forced bedrest prevented him from doing anything fun. Draco and Kara had been at their wit's end with him, especially as he'd been confined to St. Mungo's two days longer than Alec had been.
"I want me Da," Ben now sulked, pushing aside another box impatiently. "Why can't he be here too?"
"Because he's working today," Harry said patiently, pouring him some pumpkin juice. Distraction was what worked best on Ben, Draco had said. "Are you looking forward to the party? There'll be lots of kids there to play with."
"And the baby will be there too," said Alec. Ben's face brightened slightly. "Did you know there's going to be another baby soon? Uncle Percy said." Alec suddenly wrinkled his nose. "Will Michelle be there?"
"It's a Weasley birthday party, Alec. Everyone will be there," Harry reminded him, making himself sound cheerful at the prospect.
oooOOOooo
"Where is everybody?" Alec asked as soon as they arrived.
"All the kids are out front," said Fred, and Alec started to run off.
"Alec! Not so fast!" Harry said automatically, immediately biting his lip. Alec was fine. He wasn't like Ben, who kept over-exerting himself and ending up with blinding headaches.
"Now, Ben," said Harry, going down on one knee. "You need to behave, right? I've put a tracing spell on you in case you forget. If you're doing too much it'll call me to you. We don't want your Da to get worried about you, right?"
Ben nodded, but his mind was very obviously far away as his eyes darted around the yard and he jiggled up and down while Harry spoke.
"Promise - Ben, look at me." Harry paused. "Promise me you'll try to remember?"
"Promise!"
"Off you go, then," said Harry, and Ben sped off.
"Yeah, good luck with that," said Fred, chuckling. "Bets on when the spell goes off?"
"Harry!" said Charlie, grinning and handing him a beer. "It's been a while."
"Thanks. Got in from Romania all right?" Harry asked, opening the bottle.
"Got in this morning, staying till Monday." Charlie took a long pull of his beer, gazing out at the crowd. "Merlin but these kids grow fast when you only see them every three months or so."
"Looks like almost everybody's already here," Harry noted.
"Except for the birthday boys," Hermione smirked.
"Bets on what they've done this time?" Fred asked, his eyes bright with amusement.
"Shaved a cat again?" said Hermione.
"Got into your shop's fireworks?" guessed Ron.
"Conjured a banshee," said Percy.
"They're four," his wife protested.
"They're Weasley twins," Fred shot back.
"You know," said Anne, "it's not exactly kind of you to get this amused when George is dealing with their mischief."
"Because George is a study in sympathy when Michelle's in trouble?"
"True enough," Anne laughed, and turned as the Floo flared to life and George came out, carrying one of his boys.
"Finally!" Charlie exclaimed.
"So what was it this time?" asked Harry.
George rolled his eyes and set his son down, then got out of the way as his wife Demelza came through with the other twin and set him down too. He straightened up as the boys raced off.
"G-got into the prototype Christmas s-supplies," he said with a grimace.
"Oh no," Fred groaned. "Not the-"
"Oh yes. The T-twelve Days."
"There were eight mauve cows mooing through our living room," said Demelza. "And maids and lords and so-called 'ladies,' and bloody bagpipers, nine of them..."
"Our entire b-back yard is a river of birdshit-"
"George!" warned Molly.
"Bird d-droppings," George amended. "S-so glad they're sleeping over here tonight," he said cheerfully, and Harry noted Molly's slight blanch. "And th-they know it's their birthday, too. S-so they're being especially imaginative. Have f-fun, Mum." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and a beaming smile.
oooOOOooo
"So, what time is Malfoy done?" asked Bill a while later, as they finished repairing the enchanted dishwasher, which Arthur had been tinkering with again. It had become angry and begun swearing inventively and chewing plates, just before the guests had arrived.
"One," said Harry, taking the silence spell off.
"Nervous?" Bill asked, leaning against the now happily humming dishwasher.
"Shouldn't I be?"
"It'll be all right," Bill reassured him. "The wards are good, we've both checked them."
"I'm not worried about the wards," said Harry. "Although the ones you put on his place were a good idea, by the way."
"They went off?" Bill asked, concerned.
"Nothing serious," Harry said quickly. "Just some twit who wanted to break Draco's windows. And at least it convinced Draco to make his job a Secret." He moved aside as Demelza hurried into the kitchen, pulling a small unlabelled chocolate-coated twin towards the sink.
"Yeah," Bill said. "Working with Muggles... not a good place to be unprotected."
"Has it been that bad?" asked Demelza, scrubbing the little boy's face, as George and Charlie came in dragging the other, equally chocolatey twin. Harry briefly wondered where they'd found chocolate; as far as he knew, the birthday cake had been well hidden. He probably didn't want to know.
"Most of it's just been stupid," he told Demelza. "Nasty letters, a few people trying to write 'Death Eater' on his door. Which would've puzzled the hell out of his Muggle neighbours. But there's always the risk of somebody with a serious grudge." Harry smiled at her. "It's been loads better than it could've been, though. Erm... I never did thank you. For what you said in the paper."
George and his wife frowned in slight puzzlement. "What we... oh!" said Demelza. "The article the week after the stadium collapse?"
"Yeah." That article had appeared when both boys were still very sick and public reaction had been at its most difficult, as the papers speculated on whether or not Draco had destroyed part of the stadium, despite experts saying that the masonry spells had been badly cast and had nothing to do with Draco. The disagreement between the pieces that said he'd orchestrated the whole thing and the ones that said he'd saved the lives of fifty strangers would've been amusing if it hadn't been so stupid.
Thankfully, the articles had finally begun to taper off. The solid front of Weasley support about the whole affair had helped a great deal.
"Which one were we in again?" asked Demelza. "The Boy Who Loved a Death Eater or Harry Potter's Mystery Man Revealed?"
"They're all the s-same," said George. "Think it w-was the one where they dug up his p-prison record."
"Oh, Bill sent me a copy of that," said Charlie. "It wasn't half bad. At least it was relatively balanced."
Harry nodded, remembering the expression on Draco's face when he'd seen, for the first time, words praising him for his actions at the stadium collapse. People he'd never met, pointing out that perhaps the former Death Eater had paid his debt to society and should be left in peace. He couldn't help but wonder how much those words had done to make Draco approach him as he had a few hours later, a hesitant look in his eyes and a half-spoken apology for having walked out on Harry.
He hadn't let Draco finish the apology. It wasn't necessary. The kiss they'd shared instead had said it all, and much more.
"Speaking of newspapers," said Demelza, startling Harry out of some very pleasant memories, "your dad asked me to gather some for papier mache." She released her now cleanish little boy.
"Papeer what?" said George.
"Muggle craft. Uses newspapers and glue to make sculptures. Your dad wants to try it with the kids. He said there should be some behind the pantry - oh Merlin." She stared at a stack of newspapers slightly taller than she was, teetering behind the pantry door.
"Why not just use P-plastiCharm?"
"It's a Muggle thing," said Demelza, as George struggled with his almost chocolate-free son. "I think he's hoping it'll distract them from causing more mayhem."
"Has he met our b-boys?" he asked with a resigned sigh, as he let go of his son and moved to gather up newspapers.
"George, Dad wants - oh, you've heard," said Percy, entering the kitchen. "Need help?"
"You could t-try to talk Dad out of it. N-newspapers and glue. What a winning c-combination."
"And it's Muggle glue that Dad got from the village," Percy said. "Unstick spells don't work on it."
"Oh Merlin."
"I asked him if he was aware your boys and Michelle were all here. He seemed to think I was being funny."
"Right, Mum's finally gone round the twist," said Fred, entering the kitchen. "Dad wants to do a kid's craft that involves newspaper and glue, and Mum thinks it'll be lovely."
"Oh look, here it is," said Demelza, brandishing an old newspaper. "Potter's Mystery Man." Harry looked over her shoulder.
"How do you feel about a Death Eater being involved with your sister's widower?"
"Feel like it's none of your business," says George Weasley, "and maybe you should stick to reporting about people who are actually a danger to Muggles, instead of a bloke who's been teaching Muggles and working with Muggle kids for four years."
"They've been together eight months, and he makes Harry happy, and he loves Harry's son," says Demelza Robbins-Weasley, his wife. "That's all I need to know."
"And we've got a sale going on. We've a few new lines for April Fool's-"
"Oh shit!" Charlie exclaimed, and Harry caught sight of an owl flying into the kitchen with a red letter in its beak seconds before it dropped the envelope and sped away. He blinked, startled, as the envelope unfolded itself in front of him and a shrill voice shrieked out "HARRY POTTER! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! SLEEPING WITH A KNOWN DEATH EATER, ALLOWING YOUR SON TO GROW UP WITH-"
Percy flicked a wand at the paper and it burst into flame.
"Thanks," said Harry, his face reddening. Percy gave him a grim look and stalked off with an armful of papers.
Fred grimaced. "Not that anybody here couldn't sympathize with - OW!" He rubbed the back of his head, where Bill had just cuffed him. "What the bloody hell was that for?"
"Grow up," Bill said curtly, then turned his back on him. Fred made a rude gesture at his back and a vague wave of apology to Harry before leaving with another armful of papers. "I knew we were forgetting something," Bill said to Harry. "Howler wards."
"How could you forget those?" Charlie asked irately.
"Simple, mate. We've been concentrating on dangerous or painful. Howlers are neither, except to your ears."
"Besides," said Harry, "they mostly come to our homes or where we work. We've warded those."
"Aren't you worried about all of this?" Charlie said.
"So far there's only been two incidents that could've been dangerous if they went wrong," Bill said. "Of course we're keeping an eye out for deliberately harmful stuff, but so far there's been nothing. I think most people got out their anger with letters to the editor."
"There's been good letters too," Hermione pointed out. "It's about half and half."
"Like at this house," Harry said.
George glanced at the door where his twin had exited and nodded thoughtfully. "He's g-getting better," he pointed out. "At least he's m-making an effort."
Harry shrugged. Better would have to be good enough, he supposed. He blinked as he heard a soft chime in his ear - oh no. Ben's trace charm was going off. Not badly; that would set off a jangling klaxon. But Ben was getting agitated, and Harry hurried in the direction the spell pulled him, his alarm growing as he heard Alec's voice rising. He rushed into the front yard and stopped short at the sight of Ben and Alec, facing off against Bill's eight-year-old Remy and Fred's daughter Michelle, with half a dozen other cousins grouped around them, staring at the confrontation.
"He's a Death Eater!" Remy yelled.
"No he's not!" Alec shouted back, his face almost as red as his hair, and Harry was stunned. His timid little Alec, furious and shouting down a much older child. Beside him, Ben's mouth was open and his grayish-hazel eyes were wide and shocked.
"My dad says nobody ever stops being a Death Eater!" sneered Michelle.
"Well he's wrong!"
"Your dad's still just a stupid Death Eater!" Remy yelled at Ben, and before Harry could react, Alec had hit the older boy, who looked literally gobsmacked for a moment before pulling his hand back to slug Alec right back - and then Ben and Michelle started to move - and suddenly about a half-dozen voices were crying out and parenting spells were flying across the yard.
Petrificus Totalis!
Gelium!
Silencio!
Harry stared at the frozen tableau before him: Alec with his fist still raised, Remy starting to lunge towards him, Ben and Michelle poised to join in. He heard a moan of dismay and turned to see Molly shaking her head, and almost all of the other adults staring at the frozen children as well.
Bill's face was flushed with anger as he pushed past Harry, striding towards his son. "Finite Incantatum," he said, then grabbed Remy's arm and gave him a shake. "I don't want to hear anything like that from you ever again!" he shouted at the startled boy. He turned and practically dragged Remy into the house. "You and I are going to have a long, long talk about this. And then you are bloody well going to apologize to Ben! This is not how we treat guests at this house!"
Harry swiftly moved towards Alec and Ben, unfreezing them and taking them both in his arms. Alec was still trembling with anger, Ben's charm still jangling discordantly in Harry's ear.
"He shouldn't have said-" Alec began, his voice shaking, and Harry nodded.
"I know, Alec. It's all right, Remy's dad's going to talk to him." He briefly considered bringing up the punch Alec had thrown, and decided to leave it for later. "Ben, are you all right?"
Ben shook his head, his eyes wide and his mouth starting to tremble, and Alec patted his back as Harry's heart sank. What the hell could he say, how could he make this better...
"Ben, dear, it's all right, don't worry about them," Molly said, kneeling down next to them. Harry let out his breath in gratitude. Molly Weasley on a tear was a fearsome sight for adult and child alike, but Harry knew firsthand the kind of motherly comfort she could provide.
"They hate me Da!" Ben said, his voice tight. "I don't want to stay here!"
Molly drew him close. "I want you to stay here. So do Alec, and Jason, and baby Joshua, and Harry..."
Harry sat back as Molly cuddled Ben and murmured to him quietly, stroking his hair, then stood up, still holding him.
"Let's go see if the little twins managed to find any of the biscuits I hid, shall we?" she said, and held out her hand to Alec, who took it. They headed inside.
"... and Mum says he's going to grow up just like his dad," came Michelle's angry voice, and Harry whipped around and opened his mouth to take a strip out of her-
"You will apologize to Ben right now," Fred told her, his voice dangerously quiet. "And then you will get your cloak, and we are going home." Michelle gaped at him. "Move. Now."
Michelle blinked, looked around at the grim adult faces surrounding her, pressed her lips together and stomped into the house.
"So now we're going to punish her for saying what she's feeling?" Anne said icily.
Fred's eyes narrowed. "You're going to disagree? She can say whatever shit she wants, to a kid who hasn't done anything wrong, and that's just fine?"
"I can't help it if she acts on what she's feeling and what she believes!"
"What you believe, you mean-"
"How about taking this to D-dad's shed?" George said brightly, and, without bothering to look at him, both of them Disapparated.
"The bloody hell was that about?" Charlie asked, blinking.
George and Demelza exchanged a look. "Fred and Anne have... they've had an interesting few months," said Demelza.
"The things I miss, being in Romania," Charlie muttered.
"Erm, no, we've missed it too, I think," said Ron, frowning. "What's wrong with them?"
"Not much, any more. They're doing a lot better," said Demelza. "It was just... interesting, for a while."
"What happened?"
Demelza shook her head. "They had a... disagreement. A few months back." George cleared his throat warningly. "That's all. Just a... private disagreement."
"Private?" said Hermione skeptically. "In this family?"
Fred and Anne's raised voices could now be heard over the clucking of the chickens in the yard. "Oh Merlin there they go again," Demelza said to George. "Think we'll have company on our couch again tonight?"
"Hope not," George sighed.
"I hate to say it," Ron said, "but it's hard to feel too much sympathy for him. With everything he's been saying since forever? It was bound to come back to bite him in the arse eventually."
"You know what, Ron?" Demelza said evenly. "You were thinking the exact same things. We all were. It's just that Fred said them out loud a lot more."
Ron opened his mouth and Harry put up a hand. "Ron. Don't." He took a deep breath. "Maybe we should just not talk about this anymore. There's been enough bad feeling over it to keep us all arguing forever otherwise." And he firmly closed his mouth and started to head indoors.
"Well s-said, mate," said George quietly, and gave him a comforting clap on the back as Harry went past him to check on his boys.
oooOOOooo
"Ben's certainly made himself a place among them, hasn't he?" Hermione said a while later, smiling at the unbelievably filthy horde of glue-covered children in the backyard. Arthur was sitting among them, surrounded by misshapen papier mache animals and grinning like some demented glue elemental, soggy newspaper stuck to him in the oddest places, culminating in a tower on top of his head. Molly stood horrified at the back door.
"The only cousin to know anything about papier mache," Ron said, chuckling. "Who would've ever believed someday Malfoy's kid would be teaching ours the finer points of a Muggle craft?"
"I'm sure not having Michelle there helps too," said Hermione. "How's Alec?"
"Good." Harry bit his lip uncertainly. "Although... erm..."
"I wouldn't worry about the punch," she said, reading his concern accurately. "You can talk to him about it tomorrow."
"Hold on," Ron said. "Aren't you always lecturing me about 'discipline has to follow the misbehaviour immediately'?"
"That's because very young children don't tend to recall their misbehaviour very well," she said. "I doubt Alec will forget punching Remy. Besides, he was just standing up for his friend."
"And what happened to 'violence is never an answer'?"
"Extraordinary circumstances," she said crisply. "Speaking of which," she checked her watch. "Draco should be done work now, right?"
Harry nodded nervously. "We'd better get going, then," he said, and went to say goodbye to Alec and Ben, as Ron and Hermione got ready to go as well.
"They'll be all right, dear," said Molly, as he hugged a very sticky Alec. "I've got Ben's spell on me now, and there's pumpkin pasties as soon as we're done cleaning up here." She glanced around the yard and sighed. "Or at least done ungluing the children who are stuck together."
"Thanks," he told her, hugged Ben and stood up, determined not to worry about them. "Now you be good to your grandparents, and don't get into any trouble," he told them firmly. Both boys nodded absently, but Harry could tell the promise of pumpkin pasties was too much for them to be able to hear a word he said.
"Thanks for offering to come help," said Harry to Bill as they headed towards the Floo. "It'll be good to have another curse-breaker there."
"Say 'ello to Malfoy for me," said Fleur uncomfortably, in an attempt at graciousness that would've sounded better with a slightly less sour expression on her face.
Harry fastened his cloak and entered the living room, stopping short at the sight of George and Charlie next to the Floo, also wearing traveling cloaks.
"Where are you..."
"We're coming with you," said Charlie cheerfully.
Harry blinked.
"Come on, mate. The more the merrier, let's go."
Harry cleared his throat, embarrassed at how touched he was by their gesture of support. "Let's go then," he said, and one by one all six of them stepped through the Floo.
oooOOOooo
"I honestly didn't think we'd get this finished today," said Draco at the end of the day, fresh from the shower and rubbing his hair dry.
"It helps to have five helpers," said Harry. "And magic."
"Still."
They looked around.
"You're sure about this?" Harry said nervously, and Draco gave him a small smile.
"Of course not," he said quietly, a kiss taking away the bluntness of his words. "Obviously, I'm happy about it, but... it's a big step. I keep thinking it hasn't been long enough since..."
"It's been almost seventeen years," Harry said with a smile. "If you count from the day we met."
Draco rolled his eyes. "All right, then, it's been seventeen years." He chuckled. "So. What took us so long?"
"Come on." Harry took his hand, and they walked around the flat together. They looked into the kids' room, set up with a bunk bed. The guest room, which could become a bedroom if the boys decided they wanted separate rooms. The living room, dining room, study. The place was a comforting mixture of furniture from both of their flats, though less from Draco's, as his would still need the appearance of being lived in until the school term ended in Dublin. Muggles, having no Floos, would be unable to understand Draco commuting from London to Dublin to teach every day.
It would've been nice if this decision had been made more by choice than necessity, thought Harry as they surveyed their living room. But the publicity had been difficult for Draco to deal with on his own, and the thought of Ben being in any danger was frightening. And considering the fact that Harry could easily access security from the Ministry, Gringotts, and the Weasley family...
It had been a difficult decision, as they'd weighed pros and cons, and relative risks, costs, and benefits. Truth to tell, Harry was unsure about it as well, and wished they'd had more time to ponder the move. Most of all, he wished that they'd made the decision solely because of love and commitment, and not safety or practicality.
Then again, once children entered the picture, no decision could ever be free of safety or practicality. Pure romance was for people who didn't have dependants. And besides, there was still room for romance along the edges of practicality; they just had to work a bit to find it.
He watched Draco absently rearrange the cushions on their sofa and had to agree that Draco had been right; the dark blue one did look better beside the piano. The move had gone well, though there hadn't been much of the spontaneous camaraderie that was the norm at a gathering of Weasleys. That was probably only natural; Draco wasn't a Weasley, after all. And Merlin knew that, despite the newly welcoming attitude of some of Harry's family, the past wasn't buried by any stretch of the imagination, and the present that they were all building together was fragile. It was threatened by publicity and exposure, by Harry's anxiety over Alec, by the issues Draco still hadn't dealt with regarding his past, as well as the normal pitfalls that threatened any relationship...
He moved towards Draco and drew him close, nuzzling his neck. He breathed in the scent of soap and clean, warm skin, feeling Draco respond to him, and was suddenly struck by the realization that tomorrow they were going to wake up together, and he'd go pick up their kids from the Burrow, and Draco would be waiting for them when they got back. Not just for another few hours before Draco and Ben had to return to their flat in time for Draco to go to work on Monday morning, but for the rest of the day. And then they'd both go to work on Monday, but would see each other Monday night. And Tuesday night. And Wednesday night.
He shivered, suddenly overwhelmed. There it was again, that feeling that this wasn't quite real, that he was risking his heart, again, and if the stadium collapse had shown him anything it was that he couldn't deal with another loss in his life. Not again. He couldn't lose Alec, and he couldn't lose Draco or Ben either.
And now he was shaking, and he felt like such an idiot. Draco had been there for him during the nightmare of the hospital, and he'd clung to him unselfconsciously to get through that, but this was different. There was no reason for this panic, for the fear that was racing through him.
"Harry," Draco whispered into his neck. "What's wrong?"
He tried to get himself under control again, and suddenly had a vivid image of holding Draco close as he cried after telling Ben about his past, before Draco had gotten himself back together again and pushed Harry away.
Bloody hell, he thought, trying to calm down. He'd been able to keep his fears at bay since the accident, each time telling himself this wasn't the right time to indulge in a little breakdown; first had been the worry for Alec's hearing, then the stress of his recovery, coupled with the bloody publicity, and preparing for the move, and... and now there was nothing but them, here, but it still wasn't the time for this. He probably should pull back again, just as Draco had done.
And it would probably work just as well for him as it had for Draco.
He pulled Draco closer instead. "Just feeling. Erm. Scared that this isn't going to work. Scared that - that I won't be able to cope if you... if you leave. I can't really lose you again. I'm a bit of a mess over it, to be honest."
Draco went very still.
Harry started to pull back, mortified. "Don't," whispered Draco, tightening his grip. He hesitated, then plunged on. "I'm... a bit of a mess too." He laughed shakily, uncertainly. "D'you think we can put ourselves together? Your mess and mine?" He pulled Harry closer. "I... I love you. I told you, I'm not going anywhere. Not again."
Harry nodded wordlessly, his throat tight.
"This isn't quite happily ever after, is it?" Draco said softly.
Harry gave a shaky laugh of his own. "It's close enough." He kissed Draco again, then cleared his throat. "OK, well, if we're done talking for now... we've got a bedroom to christen."
And Draco smiled.
ooo000ooo
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February (previous)
April (next)
DVD Extras:
Requests and list of completed extras
August 5, 2007 (after Chapter 4, August, Veritaserum)
November 23, 2007 (after Chapter 7, November, Fred v. Anne)
February 8, 2008 (after Chapter 10, February, Aftermath)
February 10, 2008 (after Chapter 10, February, Indecision)
September 1, 2013 (after the last chapter, the Sorting Hat)
Anyway, you know the drill by now. This is Ember to Ember, the sequel to Volunteers (fic written for hds_beltane), which is supposed to be taking place in 2007/2008, and is this close to catching up to itself in time ;) Concrit is warmly appreciated. Thanks hugely to scrtkpr for beta, times two!
Title: Ember to Ember
Chapter: 11 (of 12)
Pairing: H/D
Word count: 5000.
Chapter 1: May
Chapter 2: June
Chapter 3: July
Chapter 4: August
Chapter 5: September
Chapter 6: October
Chapter 7: November
Chapter 8: December
Chapter 9: January
Chapter 10: February (previous)
Date: February 7
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Ben's finally being released tomorrow, and wants to visit Alec. Can he come?
Date: February 7
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
We'd love to see him. There'll be a few Weasley cousins over though, and Demelza's got a shift.
Date: February 7
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
A shift?
Date: February 8
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
Percy worked out a schedule for keeping Alec company while he recovers. It's even colour-coded. He did the same thing after Alec was born, having somebody in our house nearly every hour of the day.
Date: February 8
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Sounds disturbingly organized. And a little bit wrong.
Date: February 8
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
That's Percy.
Date: February 10
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
Did you think about it?
Date: February 10
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
I did.
Yes.
Date: March 13
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
There's been an extra rehearsal scheduled Saturday till one.
Date: March 13
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
We weren't planning on starting till one anyway. Do you want to have Ben stay the night Friday?
Date: March 14
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Good idea.
Date: March 18
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
See you Saturday.
Nervous?
Date: March 18
From: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
To: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
Rather.
Date: March 19
From: hjpotter@gringotts.wzr
To: malfoyd@globalcafe.ie
Me too.
oooOOOooo
March 22
"I thought Draco was going to be here this morning," said Alec, moving aside a box and digging into his breakfast.
"Not until later," Harry said, hovering over his son as he and Ben ate. Unable to stop himself from cutting Alec's sausage into tiny morsels and watching over him like a hawk, though at least he no longer held his breath in fear of Alec choking, every time Alec took a drink.
Happily, Alec didn't seem to notice the hovering, much less mind it. Harry smiled as Alec carefully spread jam on his toast; smoothed down Alec's hair and straightened the small glasses Alec now wore, the only possibly permanent aftereffect of the spell damage he'd suffered. The Healers were cautiously optimistic about the chances of Alec's eyesight eventually correcting itself. In the meantime, Alec could see well enough without them, but needed them to see details, such as music on a page.
It could've been so much worse. For the first few agonizing days that Alec had been kept mostly unconscious while Healing charms worked on him, they'd feared that his hearing might have been affected. Harry was still having nightmares about that.
Oddly, Alec had had a much easier time recovering than Ben had, despite having been more severely injured. Alec hadn't much minded his inability to run about and play normally for a couple of weeks; Ben, a normally very easygoing kid, had been by turns whiny, teary, and irritable as his forced bedrest prevented him from doing anything fun. Draco and Kara had been at their wit's end with him, especially as he'd been confined to St. Mungo's two days longer than Alec had been.
"I want me Da," Ben now sulked, pushing aside another box impatiently. "Why can't he be here too?"
"Because he's working today," Harry said patiently, pouring him some pumpkin juice. Distraction was what worked best on Ben, Draco had said. "Are you looking forward to the party? There'll be lots of kids there to play with."
"And the baby will be there too," said Alec. Ben's face brightened slightly. "Did you know there's going to be another baby soon? Uncle Percy said." Alec suddenly wrinkled his nose. "Will Michelle be there?"
"It's a Weasley birthday party, Alec. Everyone will be there," Harry reminded him, making himself sound cheerful at the prospect.
oooOOOooo
"Where is everybody?" Alec asked as soon as they arrived.
"All the kids are out front," said Fred, and Alec started to run off.
"Alec! Not so fast!" Harry said automatically, immediately biting his lip. Alec was fine. He wasn't like Ben, who kept over-exerting himself and ending up with blinding headaches.
"Now, Ben," said Harry, going down on one knee. "You need to behave, right? I've put a tracing spell on you in case you forget. If you're doing too much it'll call me to you. We don't want your Da to get worried about you, right?"
Ben nodded, but his mind was very obviously far away as his eyes darted around the yard and he jiggled up and down while Harry spoke.
"Promise - Ben, look at me." Harry paused. "Promise me you'll try to remember?"
"Promise!"
"Off you go, then," said Harry, and Ben sped off.
"Yeah, good luck with that," said Fred, chuckling. "Bets on when the spell goes off?"
"Harry!" said Charlie, grinning and handing him a beer. "It's been a while."
"Thanks. Got in from Romania all right?" Harry asked, opening the bottle.
"Got in this morning, staying till Monday." Charlie took a long pull of his beer, gazing out at the crowd. "Merlin but these kids grow fast when you only see them every three months or so."
"Looks like almost everybody's already here," Harry noted.
"Except for the birthday boys," Hermione smirked.
"Bets on what they've done this time?" Fred asked, his eyes bright with amusement.
"Shaved a cat again?" said Hermione.
"Got into your shop's fireworks?" guessed Ron.
"Conjured a banshee," said Percy.
"They're four," his wife protested.
"They're Weasley twins," Fred shot back.
"You know," said Anne, "it's not exactly kind of you to get this amused when George is dealing with their mischief."
"Because George is a study in sympathy when Michelle's in trouble?"
"True enough," Anne laughed, and turned as the Floo flared to life and George came out, carrying one of his boys.
"Finally!" Charlie exclaimed.
"So what was it this time?" asked Harry.
George rolled his eyes and set his son down, then got out of the way as his wife Demelza came through with the other twin and set him down too. He straightened up as the boys raced off.
"G-got into the prototype Christmas s-supplies," he said with a grimace.
"Oh no," Fred groaned. "Not the-"
"Oh yes. The T-twelve Days."
"There were eight mauve cows mooing through our living room," said Demelza. "And maids and lords and so-called 'ladies,' and bloody bagpipers, nine of them..."
"Our entire b-back yard is a river of birdshit-"
"George!" warned Molly.
"Bird d-droppings," George amended. "S-so glad they're sleeping over here tonight," he said cheerfully, and Harry noted Molly's slight blanch. "And th-they know it's their birthday, too. S-so they're being especially imaginative. Have f-fun, Mum." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and a beaming smile.
oooOOOooo
"So, what time is Malfoy done?" asked Bill a while later, as they finished repairing the enchanted dishwasher, which Arthur had been tinkering with again. It had become angry and begun swearing inventively and chewing plates, just before the guests had arrived.
"One," said Harry, taking the silence spell off.
"Nervous?" Bill asked, leaning against the now happily humming dishwasher.
"Shouldn't I be?"
"It'll be all right," Bill reassured him. "The wards are good, we've both checked them."
"I'm not worried about the wards," said Harry. "Although the ones you put on his place were a good idea, by the way."
"They went off?" Bill asked, concerned.
"Nothing serious," Harry said quickly. "Just some twit who wanted to break Draco's windows. And at least it convinced Draco to make his job a Secret." He moved aside as Demelza hurried into the kitchen, pulling a small unlabelled chocolate-coated twin towards the sink.
"Yeah," Bill said. "Working with Muggles... not a good place to be unprotected."
"Has it been that bad?" asked Demelza, scrubbing the little boy's face, as George and Charlie came in dragging the other, equally chocolatey twin. Harry briefly wondered where they'd found chocolate; as far as he knew, the birthday cake had been well hidden. He probably didn't want to know.
"Most of it's just been stupid," he told Demelza. "Nasty letters, a few people trying to write 'Death Eater' on his door. Which would've puzzled the hell out of his Muggle neighbours. But there's always the risk of somebody with a serious grudge." Harry smiled at her. "It's been loads better than it could've been, though. Erm... I never did thank you. For what you said in the paper."
George and his wife frowned in slight puzzlement. "What we... oh!" said Demelza. "The article the week after the stadium collapse?"
"Yeah." That article had appeared when both boys were still very sick and public reaction had been at its most difficult, as the papers speculated on whether or not Draco had destroyed part of the stadium, despite experts saying that the masonry spells had been badly cast and had nothing to do with Draco. The disagreement between the pieces that said he'd orchestrated the whole thing and the ones that said he'd saved the lives of fifty strangers would've been amusing if it hadn't been so stupid.
Thankfully, the articles had finally begun to taper off. The solid front of Weasley support about the whole affair had helped a great deal.
"Which one were we in again?" asked Demelza. "The Boy Who Loved a Death Eater or Harry Potter's Mystery Man Revealed?"
"They're all the s-same," said George. "Think it w-was the one where they dug up his p-prison record."
"Oh, Bill sent me a copy of that," said Charlie. "It wasn't half bad. At least it was relatively balanced."
Harry nodded, remembering the expression on Draco's face when he'd seen, for the first time, words praising him for his actions at the stadium collapse. People he'd never met, pointing out that perhaps the former Death Eater had paid his debt to society and should be left in peace. He couldn't help but wonder how much those words had done to make Draco approach him as he had a few hours later, a hesitant look in his eyes and a half-spoken apology for having walked out on Harry.
He hadn't let Draco finish the apology. It wasn't necessary. The kiss they'd shared instead had said it all, and much more.
"Speaking of newspapers," said Demelza, startling Harry out of some very pleasant memories, "your dad asked me to gather some for papier mache." She released her now cleanish little boy.
"Papeer what?" said George.
"Muggle craft. Uses newspapers and glue to make sculptures. Your dad wants to try it with the kids. He said there should be some behind the pantry - oh Merlin." She stared at a stack of newspapers slightly taller than she was, teetering behind the pantry door.
"Why not just use P-plastiCharm?"
"It's a Muggle thing," said Demelza, as George struggled with his almost chocolate-free son. "I think he's hoping it'll distract them from causing more mayhem."
"Has he met our b-boys?" he asked with a resigned sigh, as he let go of his son and moved to gather up newspapers.
"George, Dad wants - oh, you've heard," said Percy, entering the kitchen. "Need help?"
"You could t-try to talk Dad out of it. N-newspapers and glue. What a winning c-combination."
"And it's Muggle glue that Dad got from the village," Percy said. "Unstick spells don't work on it."
"Oh Merlin."
"I asked him if he was aware your boys and Michelle were all here. He seemed to think I was being funny."
"Right, Mum's finally gone round the twist," said Fred, entering the kitchen. "Dad wants to do a kid's craft that involves newspaper and glue, and Mum thinks it'll be lovely."
"Oh look, here it is," said Demelza, brandishing an old newspaper. "Potter's Mystery Man." Harry looked over her shoulder.
"How do you feel about a Death Eater being involved with your sister's widower?"
"Feel like it's none of your business," says George Weasley, "and maybe you should stick to reporting about people who are actually a danger to Muggles, instead of a bloke who's been teaching Muggles and working with Muggle kids for four years."
"They've been together eight months, and he makes Harry happy, and he loves Harry's son," says Demelza Robbins-Weasley, his wife. "That's all I need to know."
"And we've got a sale going on. We've a few new lines for April Fool's-"
"Oh shit!" Charlie exclaimed, and Harry caught sight of an owl flying into the kitchen with a red letter in its beak seconds before it dropped the envelope and sped away. He blinked, startled, as the envelope unfolded itself in front of him and a shrill voice shrieked out "HARRY POTTER! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! SLEEPING WITH A KNOWN DEATH EATER, ALLOWING YOUR SON TO GROW UP WITH-"
Percy flicked a wand at the paper and it burst into flame.
"Thanks," said Harry, his face reddening. Percy gave him a grim look and stalked off with an armful of papers.
Fred grimaced. "Not that anybody here couldn't sympathize with - OW!" He rubbed the back of his head, where Bill had just cuffed him. "What the bloody hell was that for?"
"Grow up," Bill said curtly, then turned his back on him. Fred made a rude gesture at his back and a vague wave of apology to Harry before leaving with another armful of papers. "I knew we were forgetting something," Bill said to Harry. "Howler wards."
"How could you forget those?" Charlie asked irately.
"Simple, mate. We've been concentrating on dangerous or painful. Howlers are neither, except to your ears."
"Besides," said Harry, "they mostly come to our homes or where we work. We've warded those."
"Aren't you worried about all of this?" Charlie said.
"So far there's only been two incidents that could've been dangerous if they went wrong," Bill said. "Of course we're keeping an eye out for deliberately harmful stuff, but so far there's been nothing. I think most people got out their anger with letters to the editor."
"There's been good letters too," Hermione pointed out. "It's about half and half."
"Like at this house," Harry said.
George glanced at the door where his twin had exited and nodded thoughtfully. "He's g-getting better," he pointed out. "At least he's m-making an effort."
Harry shrugged. Better would have to be good enough, he supposed. He blinked as he heard a soft chime in his ear - oh no. Ben's trace charm was going off. Not badly; that would set off a jangling klaxon. But Ben was getting agitated, and Harry hurried in the direction the spell pulled him, his alarm growing as he heard Alec's voice rising. He rushed into the front yard and stopped short at the sight of Ben and Alec, facing off against Bill's eight-year-old Remy and Fred's daughter Michelle, with half a dozen other cousins grouped around them, staring at the confrontation.
"He's a Death Eater!" Remy yelled.
"No he's not!" Alec shouted back, his face almost as red as his hair, and Harry was stunned. His timid little Alec, furious and shouting down a much older child. Beside him, Ben's mouth was open and his grayish-hazel eyes were wide and shocked.
"My dad says nobody ever stops being a Death Eater!" sneered Michelle.
"Well he's wrong!"
"Your dad's still just a stupid Death Eater!" Remy yelled at Ben, and before Harry could react, Alec had hit the older boy, who looked literally gobsmacked for a moment before pulling his hand back to slug Alec right back - and then Ben and Michelle started to move - and suddenly about a half-dozen voices were crying out and parenting spells were flying across the yard.
Petrificus Totalis!
Gelium!
Silencio!
Harry stared at the frozen tableau before him: Alec with his fist still raised, Remy starting to lunge towards him, Ben and Michelle poised to join in. He heard a moan of dismay and turned to see Molly shaking her head, and almost all of the other adults staring at the frozen children as well.
Bill's face was flushed with anger as he pushed past Harry, striding towards his son. "Finite Incantatum," he said, then grabbed Remy's arm and gave him a shake. "I don't want to hear anything like that from you ever again!" he shouted at the startled boy. He turned and practically dragged Remy into the house. "You and I are going to have a long, long talk about this. And then you are bloody well going to apologize to Ben! This is not how we treat guests at this house!"
Harry swiftly moved towards Alec and Ben, unfreezing them and taking them both in his arms. Alec was still trembling with anger, Ben's charm still jangling discordantly in Harry's ear.
"He shouldn't have said-" Alec began, his voice shaking, and Harry nodded.
"I know, Alec. It's all right, Remy's dad's going to talk to him." He briefly considered bringing up the punch Alec had thrown, and decided to leave it for later. "Ben, are you all right?"
Ben shook his head, his eyes wide and his mouth starting to tremble, and Alec patted his back as Harry's heart sank. What the hell could he say, how could he make this better...
"Ben, dear, it's all right, don't worry about them," Molly said, kneeling down next to them. Harry let out his breath in gratitude. Molly Weasley on a tear was a fearsome sight for adult and child alike, but Harry knew firsthand the kind of motherly comfort she could provide.
"They hate me Da!" Ben said, his voice tight. "I don't want to stay here!"
Molly drew him close. "I want you to stay here. So do Alec, and Jason, and baby Joshua, and Harry..."
Harry sat back as Molly cuddled Ben and murmured to him quietly, stroking his hair, then stood up, still holding him.
"Let's go see if the little twins managed to find any of the biscuits I hid, shall we?" she said, and held out her hand to Alec, who took it. They headed inside.
"... and Mum says he's going to grow up just like his dad," came Michelle's angry voice, and Harry whipped around and opened his mouth to take a strip out of her-
"You will apologize to Ben right now," Fred told her, his voice dangerously quiet. "And then you will get your cloak, and we are going home." Michelle gaped at him. "Move. Now."
Michelle blinked, looked around at the grim adult faces surrounding her, pressed her lips together and stomped into the house.
"So now we're going to punish her for saying what she's feeling?" Anne said icily.
Fred's eyes narrowed. "You're going to disagree? She can say whatever shit she wants, to a kid who hasn't done anything wrong, and that's just fine?"
"I can't help it if she acts on what she's feeling and what she believes!"
"What you believe, you mean-"
"How about taking this to D-dad's shed?" George said brightly, and, without bothering to look at him, both of them Disapparated.
"The bloody hell was that about?" Charlie asked, blinking.
George and Demelza exchanged a look. "Fred and Anne have... they've had an interesting few months," said Demelza.
"The things I miss, being in Romania," Charlie muttered.
"Erm, no, we've missed it too, I think," said Ron, frowning. "What's wrong with them?"
"Not much, any more. They're doing a lot better," said Demelza. "It was just... interesting, for a while."
"What happened?"
Demelza shook her head. "They had a... disagreement. A few months back." George cleared his throat warningly. "That's all. Just a... private disagreement."
"Private?" said Hermione skeptically. "In this family?"
Fred and Anne's raised voices could now be heard over the clucking of the chickens in the yard. "Oh Merlin there they go again," Demelza said to George. "Think we'll have company on our couch again tonight?"
"Hope not," George sighed.
"I hate to say it," Ron said, "but it's hard to feel too much sympathy for him. With everything he's been saying since forever? It was bound to come back to bite him in the arse eventually."
"You know what, Ron?" Demelza said evenly. "You were thinking the exact same things. We all were. It's just that Fred said them out loud a lot more."
Ron opened his mouth and Harry put up a hand. "Ron. Don't." He took a deep breath. "Maybe we should just not talk about this anymore. There's been enough bad feeling over it to keep us all arguing forever otherwise." And he firmly closed his mouth and started to head indoors.
"Well s-said, mate," said George quietly, and gave him a comforting clap on the back as Harry went past him to check on his boys.
oooOOOooo
"Ben's certainly made himself a place among them, hasn't he?" Hermione said a while later, smiling at the unbelievably filthy horde of glue-covered children in the backyard. Arthur was sitting among them, surrounded by misshapen papier mache animals and grinning like some demented glue elemental, soggy newspaper stuck to him in the oddest places, culminating in a tower on top of his head. Molly stood horrified at the back door.
"The only cousin to know anything about papier mache," Ron said, chuckling. "Who would've ever believed someday Malfoy's kid would be teaching ours the finer points of a Muggle craft?"
"I'm sure not having Michelle there helps too," said Hermione. "How's Alec?"
"Good." Harry bit his lip uncertainly. "Although... erm..."
"I wouldn't worry about the punch," she said, reading his concern accurately. "You can talk to him about it tomorrow."
"Hold on," Ron said. "Aren't you always lecturing me about 'discipline has to follow the misbehaviour immediately'?"
"That's because very young children don't tend to recall their misbehaviour very well," she said. "I doubt Alec will forget punching Remy. Besides, he was just standing up for his friend."
"And what happened to 'violence is never an answer'?"
"Extraordinary circumstances," she said crisply. "Speaking of which," she checked her watch. "Draco should be done work now, right?"
Harry nodded nervously. "We'd better get going, then," he said, and went to say goodbye to Alec and Ben, as Ron and Hermione got ready to go as well.
"They'll be all right, dear," said Molly, as he hugged a very sticky Alec. "I've got Ben's spell on me now, and there's pumpkin pasties as soon as we're done cleaning up here." She glanced around the yard and sighed. "Or at least done ungluing the children who are stuck together."
"Thanks," he told her, hugged Ben and stood up, determined not to worry about them. "Now you be good to your grandparents, and don't get into any trouble," he told them firmly. Both boys nodded absently, but Harry could tell the promise of pumpkin pasties was too much for them to be able to hear a word he said.
"Thanks for offering to come help," said Harry to Bill as they headed towards the Floo. "It'll be good to have another curse-breaker there."
"Say 'ello to Malfoy for me," said Fleur uncomfortably, in an attempt at graciousness that would've sounded better with a slightly less sour expression on her face.
Harry fastened his cloak and entered the living room, stopping short at the sight of George and Charlie next to the Floo, also wearing traveling cloaks.
"Where are you..."
"We're coming with you," said Charlie cheerfully.
Harry blinked.
"Come on, mate. The more the merrier, let's go."
Harry cleared his throat, embarrassed at how touched he was by their gesture of support. "Let's go then," he said, and one by one all six of them stepped through the Floo.
oooOOOooo
"I honestly didn't think we'd get this finished today," said Draco at the end of the day, fresh from the shower and rubbing his hair dry.
"It helps to have five helpers," said Harry. "And magic."
"Still."
They looked around.
"You're sure about this?" Harry said nervously, and Draco gave him a small smile.
"Of course not," he said quietly, a kiss taking away the bluntness of his words. "Obviously, I'm happy about it, but... it's a big step. I keep thinking it hasn't been long enough since..."
"It's been almost seventeen years," Harry said with a smile. "If you count from the day we met."
Draco rolled his eyes. "All right, then, it's been seventeen years." He chuckled. "So. What took us so long?"
"Come on." Harry took his hand, and they walked around the flat together. They looked into the kids' room, set up with a bunk bed. The guest room, which could become a bedroom if the boys decided they wanted separate rooms. The living room, dining room, study. The place was a comforting mixture of furniture from both of their flats, though less from Draco's, as his would still need the appearance of being lived in until the school term ended in Dublin. Muggles, having no Floos, would be unable to understand Draco commuting from London to Dublin to teach every day.
It would've been nice if this decision had been made more by choice than necessity, thought Harry as they surveyed their living room. But the publicity had been difficult for Draco to deal with on his own, and the thought of Ben being in any danger was frightening. And considering the fact that Harry could easily access security from the Ministry, Gringotts, and the Weasley family...
It had been a difficult decision, as they'd weighed pros and cons, and relative risks, costs, and benefits. Truth to tell, Harry was unsure about it as well, and wished they'd had more time to ponder the move. Most of all, he wished that they'd made the decision solely because of love and commitment, and not safety or practicality.
Then again, once children entered the picture, no decision could ever be free of safety or practicality. Pure romance was for people who didn't have dependants. And besides, there was still room for romance along the edges of practicality; they just had to work a bit to find it.
He watched Draco absently rearrange the cushions on their sofa and had to agree that Draco had been right; the dark blue one did look better beside the piano. The move had gone well, though there hadn't been much of the spontaneous camaraderie that was the norm at a gathering of Weasleys. That was probably only natural; Draco wasn't a Weasley, after all. And Merlin knew that, despite the newly welcoming attitude of some of Harry's family, the past wasn't buried by any stretch of the imagination, and the present that they were all building together was fragile. It was threatened by publicity and exposure, by Harry's anxiety over Alec, by the issues Draco still hadn't dealt with regarding his past, as well as the normal pitfalls that threatened any relationship...
He moved towards Draco and drew him close, nuzzling his neck. He breathed in the scent of soap and clean, warm skin, feeling Draco respond to him, and was suddenly struck by the realization that tomorrow they were going to wake up together, and he'd go pick up their kids from the Burrow, and Draco would be waiting for them when they got back. Not just for another few hours before Draco and Ben had to return to their flat in time for Draco to go to work on Monday morning, but for the rest of the day. And then they'd both go to work on Monday, but would see each other Monday night. And Tuesday night. And Wednesday night.
He shivered, suddenly overwhelmed. There it was again, that feeling that this wasn't quite real, that he was risking his heart, again, and if the stadium collapse had shown him anything it was that he couldn't deal with another loss in his life. Not again. He couldn't lose Alec, and he couldn't lose Draco or Ben either.
And now he was shaking, and he felt like such an idiot. Draco had been there for him during the nightmare of the hospital, and he'd clung to him unselfconsciously to get through that, but this was different. There was no reason for this panic, for the fear that was racing through him.
"Harry," Draco whispered into his neck. "What's wrong?"
He tried to get himself under control again, and suddenly had a vivid image of holding Draco close as he cried after telling Ben about his past, before Draco had gotten himself back together again and pushed Harry away.
Bloody hell, he thought, trying to calm down. He'd been able to keep his fears at bay since the accident, each time telling himself this wasn't the right time to indulge in a little breakdown; first had been the worry for Alec's hearing, then the stress of his recovery, coupled with the bloody publicity, and preparing for the move, and... and now there was nothing but them, here, but it still wasn't the time for this. He probably should pull back again, just as Draco had done.
And it would probably work just as well for him as it had for Draco.
He pulled Draco closer instead. "Just feeling. Erm. Scared that this isn't going to work. Scared that - that I won't be able to cope if you... if you leave. I can't really lose you again. I'm a bit of a mess over it, to be honest."
Draco went very still.
Harry started to pull back, mortified. "Don't," whispered Draco, tightening his grip. He hesitated, then plunged on. "I'm... a bit of a mess too." He laughed shakily, uncertainly. "D'you think we can put ourselves together? Your mess and mine?" He pulled Harry closer. "I... I love you. I told you, I'm not going anywhere. Not again."
Harry nodded wordlessly, his throat tight.
"This isn't quite happily ever after, is it?" Draco said softly.
Harry gave a shaky laugh of his own. "It's close enough." He kissed Draco again, then cleared his throat. "OK, well, if we're done talking for now... we've got a bedroom to christen."
And Draco smiled.
ooo000ooo
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October
November
December
January
February (previous)
April (next)
DVD Extras:
Requests and list of completed extras
August 5, 2007 (after Chapter 4, August, Veritaserum)
November 23, 2007 (after Chapter 7, November, Fred v. Anne)
February 8, 2008 (after Chapter 10, February, Aftermath)
February 10, 2008 (after Chapter 10, February, Indecision)
September 1, 2013 (after the last chapter, the Sorting Hat)