Chapter 1
1.
"Potter, fancy finding you here. I heard that this is practically your second home. Sorry, your only home- rumours say your muggles consider you as non-existent", Malfoy commented, classic sneer in place.
"Oh piss off, Malfoy", Harry retorted.
"Mr.Malfoy, if you would please hand me the note written by your professor, I could maybe treat you and send you off", Madam Pomphrey suggested.
Malfoy passed the note to the healer and watched her expression. "I hope my hand would heal without any marks", he said.
"It will take some work, Mr. Malfoy. Not every day that I get a potions prodigy experimenting with Professor Snape's personal supplies. His note mentions lots of rare ingredients, I will have to dig deep for the remedies. Make yourself comfortable on the bed, this will take time", replied the witch.
"Potter, stop breathing, you are irritating me", Malfoy complained after a while.
"Go sleep on some other bed, you git", Harry replied.
"Why don't you move your ass to the other corner of the infirmary, Potter?", Malfoy suggested with disdain.
"I am literally on bed rest, you pointy bastard", Harry retorted showing his bandaged leg.
"What's this ponce doing here?", Ron asked, walking in to meet his best friend.
"Watch your tongue, Weasley. This is an infirmary not your old man's broken shack", Malfoy bit back.
"Mr Weasley, Mr. Malfoy, do I need to remind you that this is an infirmary and students are resting", Madam Pomfrey warned. Ron quickly chatted with Harry and left, while Draco kept scowling at the two.
"You will have to write me a note to Mungo's if the mark persists, Madam Pomfrey", Malfoy demanded, while his wound was being treated.
"You, of all people, shouldn't be worried about marks, Malfoy. The whole world knows your family's obsession with a certain mark", Harry taunted.
"Keep my family's name out of your rotten mouth, Potter. My father will hear about this", Malfoy threatened, his wand pointed at Harry.
"Mr. Malfoy, are you not aware that wands need to be deposited before entering the infirmary? Wands down please before I am forced to disarm you", warned fhe healer. "Please move to the bed in the far right corner once I am done, I don't want to be held responsible by your father for any more injuries while in my care", she instructed.
Both the boys couldn't help glaring at each other despite being in two corners of the room. Some would say they were being wary, but some would agree that they couldn't keep their eyes off each other.
2.
"What's wrong with him, Granger?", Malfoy asked Hermione, who was seated beside Harry.
"What's it to you?", Hermione bit back.
"He is the reason my parents will live the rest of their lives as prisoners, the reason I have no future to look forward to. He is also the reason I abandoned my family and decided to fight the final battle from the side of the light. I think I have a right to know if he is dying", Draco replied.
"He isn't dying, Malfoy. Harry's magical core has been weakened after the final show down with Voldemort. He is in a magical coma to give him enough time to rebuild his core", Hermione informed.
"So he can listen to what we are saying?", asked Draco.
"I do not think so, Malfoy. There isn't much information available - some wizards have reported that they were able to recall some of the conversations around them during their coma, while others had no recollection whatsoever. It's anybody's guess", Hermione replied.
"Potter, thank you for defeating that megalomaniac", Malfoy said, before walking out.
"How are you feeling, Harry?", Hermione asked Harry once he was woken up from his coma.
"Like I was wrung in a washing machine? I feel much better, Mione, everything feels so unreal, but then I am reminded of the losses that we faced and it all comes back to me like an avalanche. It hurts", Harry replied..
It was then that they noticed Malfoy being carried in to the infirmary on a stretcher. He was badly injured with multiple broken bones. "Clear the way", yelled Madam Pomfrey, while deftly working on healing the wounds.
"What happened to him?", Harry asked the boys who helped him to the infirmary.
"He was attacked- some students felt that he was the reason for the death of so many of our classmates. They didn't want him near us", one of the boys replied.
"No, no, this can't be happening. We didn't fight and go through losses to continue fighting among each other. You need to stop this", Harry pleaded.
"Mr. Potter, please get a grip on your emotions. Your magic is still not under your control and it is affecting my healing spells. Please Ms. Granger, help him", the healer requested Harry. Harry closed his eyes to calm down his breathing and soon slept off due to exhaustion.
"Hermione, how is Malfoy now? He hasn't moved since few hours?", Harry asked when he woke up next.
"He is too weak, they are trying to stabilize him so that they can shift him to Mungo's. He also has been put into a magical coma", Hermione replied.
Later that night Harry approached Draco's bed. "Malfoy, I am sorry that I couldn't do anything for you. This isn't how I hoped our worlds would be after the war. I heard you thanking me while I was in coma, but I think it's I who needs to thank you. If you hadn't refused to identify me at your manor, I don't know if I would have survived getting caught there. Thanks, Malfoy", Harry said to his supposed arch enemy. The term felt so childish now, given that both of them were recovering from the aftereffects of a war that was forced on both of them.
3.
"Potter, I need to leave early. I have an appointment at Mungo's in the evening", Malfoy announced.
"What? Your dad's gone looney again?", Harry remarked.
"What I do in my personal time is not your business, Potter. For the hundredth time, keep my family's name out of your mouth, if I come down to insulting yours, you would be left licking your wounds for the rest of your life", Malfoy threatened, wand drawn.
"Auror Potter, Auror Malfoy, into my office now", shouted the Head Auror, walking in on the argument.
"We are getting a lecture in professional decorum, all thanks to your inability to keep your emotions under control", Harry mumbled.
"Now Auror Potter", yelled their boss. The two culprits were sent out of the cabin after a fifteen minute talk/ dressing down. Having worked together for two years now, both Harry and Malfoy were used to this ritual. Despite their differences in opinion, their intense dislike for each other and their constant bickering, the two made great partners on field. That was the sole reason the department put up with their occasional drama. The aftermath of the current drama was that they were asked to ensure their case reports were up to date, before they left office for the day.
"Potter, write down your bloody reports right away. I can't stay late", Malfoy ordered.
"My report? You are ordering me around like you are my boss- we both handled the cases together, you can write them up just as well", Harry protested.
"We agreed on this- you write down the facts of the case, I make it decipherable for the bosses", Draco replied.
Harry grumbled a bit but sat down to work on the reports. He handed over the reports to his partner as and when he was done. Malfoy, to his credit, put his head down and worked on finishing the reports without much argument. They had to skip lunch, but were done before 4. "Potter, can you please take the reports up to his office, if I go in now, he will take another hour discussing the reports and I will be late for my appointment". Draco requested.
"Malfoy, all good?", Harry asked, an hour later, seeing his partner get out of the mind healer's cabin at Mungo's. Draco's eyes were red and his face swollen, like he had cried for an hour and done nothing else.
"None of your business, Potter. Are you bloody following me?", Malfoy asked.
"Uncle Harry, who is this?", the little boy standing next to him asked.
"Teddy, this is my auror partner, Draco Malfoy. Say hello", Harry introduced.
"Hello, Mr. Malfoy. Uncle Harry, why does he look like my nana?", asked the curious boy.
"Your nana and his mother are sisters, Teddy", Harry explained.
"Then.. Then why hasn't he ever come to see me? Is he also scared of me because of daddy?", Teddy asked.
"Theodore, it's entirely my fault that we haven't met. Hello, I am Draco. You can call me Dray or Uncle Dray. And no, I am not scared of you because of your daddy, but I am scared of your nana. I am afraid she wouldn't want me near you", Draco said, kneeling down to talk to his cousin.
Teddy looked at Harry and hugged Draco when he received a nod from his uncle. "Come on, go get a candy from the shop there", Harry said, sending Teddy away.
"Andy isn't keeping well- I had to rush to their home from office as I got a Patronus saying Teddy had fallen from the stairs. His nana isn't strong enough to take him anywhere these days, so I more or less live with them, at least on weekends. I think Andy would love to connect with you - you are her only family now", Harry informed him. Draco nodded and promised that he would muster some courage soon enough to visit.
"Malfoy, it isn't a shame to admit that you visit a mind healer. I do too, it has helped immensely, but I feel they don't understand our pain enough - they haven't fought a war like we did. I used to talk to Ron and Hermione for extra support. If any time you need to talk to someone who will understand it all better, I will be happy to listen. Just listen, no judgement, no discussing, no repeating those conversations anywhere", Harry offered.
"Thank you, Harry. I would really like that", Draco said, genuinely grateful. "I will owl you to check on when I can visit Aunt Andromeda", he said, before walking away.
4.
"Don't you dare die on me, you, fucking imbecile. I am gonna follow you to hell and beat the shit out of you", Draco Malfoy yelled at his partner, apparating into Mungo with his lifeless body.
"Draco, let them take a look, you need to let go of him", Hermione said, removing Draco's hands around Harry. They got on reasonably well with each other now- Harry and Draco were Auror partners for eight years now and it was becoming difficult for them to exclude Draco from their circle. So Ron had grudgingly invited him to one of their Sunday brunches. A few awkwads conversations and hexes later, their group had accepted Draco as a permanent albeit inconvenient guest. Now they knew how to coexist civilly.
Once Harry was moved to emergency care, all they could do was wait and maybe pray. Hermione looked at Draco and hoped to get some information on what went wrong. Draco could feel her eyes bore down his back, he took a deep breath and said, "give me a minute, Mione. I need to wrap my head around what just happened".
Hermione understood well enough - she had watched Harry walk back from deathly accidents and knew exactly what Draco was going through. "It was a simple case. A muggle magical child stuck with a family that had no clue what was happening. There were multiple incidents of accidental magic in school and the neighborhood. The muggle police, child protection services, everyone was summoned. Their neighbours requested that the child be institutionalized. The mother opposed it vehemently till last week, but there was another episode and one of the younger siblings got thrown against a wall. That was the last straw and the child protective services reached out to the liaison team of Mungo's. The preliminary appointment detected a magical core and it was decided that the Ministry would remove the child and place them in the children's home overseen by Hogwarts", Draco started explaining.
"Harry volunteered?", Hermione asked.
"Insisted it needs to be him- said he knew what it felt like and wanted to be available in case the child had trouble accepting the move", Draco replied. "We reached the house with one of the child services representatives and were discussing the muggle side of the move - the correction facility was identified for it. Once we were done discussing, Harry asked the mother to accompany him to the child's room. Harry seemed a bit disturbed, almost pale by the time he climbed up the stairs, but I chalked it up to nervousness", Draco continued.
"I waited downstairs for them. There was no movement for about fifteen minutes and then all three of them came down. The bags were packed and we were about to leave when the kid realized that his mother wasn't coming along and started withdrawing back towards the stairs. Harry saw the situation getting out of hand and tried to hold her by her arms. There was a flash and I only had enough time to pull up wards around myself, by the time I extended the wards towards Harry, he was already down. I don't know why he hadn't put up his own wards- it's standard protocol with muggle retrievals, he is never careless that way", Draco explained.
"That's unlike him, but his emotional distress could be a reason. You know his life wasn't particularly easy with his relatives", Hermione responded.
"I had heard rumours in Hogwarts, but I wasn't aware of the extent of it. He said he was talking to a muggle doctor for it. If I had known he would be so affected, I wouldn't have allowed him to take the case", Draco said.
"You think that strong headed idiot would have listened to you? Please don't blame yourself, Draco. The fault was wholly Harry's. Take some time, then prepare your report for your bosses", Hermione advised.
The next few days saw Draco glued to his chair in Harry's room. While the Weasleys took turns to stay guard, Draco refused to budge. "Malfoy, why don't you go freshen up, he is in safe hands here", Ron suggested, but Draco refused.
"Uncle Dray, will Uncle Harry be okay?", Teddy asked on his visit. "Will I be asked to live in the children's home if Uncle Harry dies like my parents and nana?", he asked.
"Theodore, nothing is gonna happen to your Uncle Harry, I won't let anything happen to him. Even if something goes wrong, you will always have me. You will come stay with me", Draco assured the boy.
"Draco, he might wake up soon, but there is a very real chance that he won't. How long are you gonna sit here?", his friend Pansy asked.
"I keep running all these scenarios in my head, Pans. What if I had refused to accept the case? Should I have talked to the kid? Why didn't I ask Harry about his protective wards? Why didn't I cast the wards anyway? I can't live without him, Pans", Draco cried, collapsing in her arms.
"I know sweetheart, we all knew", Pansy replied, this time dragging him away from the room. They sat in the cafeteria for some time before Draco insisted on going back.
"Harry, come back to me. I promise I will never ridicule your stupid hair and your atrocious attire ever. Just don't die on me, I need you", Draco whispered, squeezing Harry's hand.
"I didn't want to die, but if you keep squeezing my hands like that, I might have no choice', Harry wheezed out.
Draco looked up in amazement and watched the grimaced face of his partner. "Did you just talk to me? Are you okay? Do you need anything? Should I call your friends?", Draco asked quickly.
"Calm down Draco, I think I will be fine with just you for company for the time being", Harry replied. He pulled Draco's hands towards him and kissed the back of his palm. "I think I will be perfectly fine with you", he whispered calmly. Draco heaved a sigh of relief and tears fell from his eyes, that he had held back from the day of the incident.
5.
"Potter, the appointment is at five. You better not be late", the not so friendly ferret patronus informed him.
Harry quickly sent an acknowledgement saying, "I have not forgotten, everything is sorted, I can leave by 4".
That was at eleven in the morning. Currently, the Head Auror Potter was drowning in floo calls and meetings, thanks to some miscreants who decided that today was the day they were gonna unleash some petty pranks in the ministry building. The whole place had dung bombs, whistling howlers, glitter blasts and even magic customised muggle Bluetooth speakers blasting off explicit songs in various corners, on and off. The minister himself had called up Harry to look over the circumstances since the products had a typical Weasley flavour of mischief. Harry had, of course, quickly flooed into the ministry and marshalled his troups, calling all available aurors. He returned to his office after an hour on the insistence of Hermione, "Harry, your days of field work are done, please get your ass back into office", the howler had said.
Harry was now pacing across his office floor, waiting for updates from his team. The situation wasn't completely under control, but there was at least a sense of normalcy in most parts of the building. "Harry, I think you should leave now. Things seem to be going okay, there is no reason for you to stay. I will inform Mione, she will update the minister". Hermione was the Minister's Chief Advisor- it was believed that all of England's magical world was run by her, by proxy. Her muggleborn status was the only detriment to her being elevated to Ministerial position.
"I will wait for an hour, I need to be there only by 4", Harry had replied. He had then immersed himself into checking some of the evidence collected by his team - if it was Weasley toys, his work was easy, he just needed to get hold of their customer log and compare the purchases. If it wasn't, then Harry had his work cut out.
He hadn't noticed that his floo had chimed, so was surprised when a fully blown up Hermione stood in front of him. "Harry James Potter, what do you think you are doing? I thought my husband had made it clear to you that you were to leave your office immediately", she yelled.
"Hermione, I am just going through the evidence and I will..", Harry started but was interrupted immediately.
"It's almost five in the evening, Harry. I thought you had an appointment today or do you want him to go through this alone?", she asked.
It was then that Harry noticed the time and started panicking. "All these things?", he asked Hermione.
"It's all entered into evidence. Lock it down with your signature, you can hand it over to your team when you come back tomorrow. I will tell Zabini to ensure that your room is kept inaccessible till then. Please leave, you know how important this is", Hermione advised. Harry had done as instructed and left immediately.
Harry reached Mungo's and found Draco in the waiting area, sitting on the bench, head down. His whole posture felt wrong to Harry and he ran up to him quickly. "Hey, I am here. I am so sorry, I just couldn't get out on time. Is everything alright, Draco?", he asked.
"I thought you..", Draco said, without looking up.
"You thought what Draco? That I had abandoned you? You know I wouldn't do that. I had confirmed to you before you started taking the potions that I will be with you on this journey. I had confirmed to you when we went to the Ministry for permission to appoint a competent healer. I had confirmed with you today morning that I will be available for the appointment to check if the procedure was successful. Why would you doubt it now, love?", Harry asked, kneeling down on the floor in front of his husband.
Draco Malfoy wanted a child, no, needed a child, to keep his family fortune intact. As per the existent magical laws, everything would have gone back to the ministry if Draco hadn't produced an heir, given he and his parents had no siblings alive. The only complication was that Draco had no interest in women and since he got together with Harry, he had no will to even pursue anyone, even for the sake of progeny. When the talks with the ministry of declaring Teddy as his heir had failed, Draco had immersed himself into research on a way around the problem. He had taken an extended break from his auror job and dedicated himself to libraries in the ministry, the Hogwarts, his own manor and even the Gringotts.
He had found his solution in the restricted books section of the Hogwarts library - a book believed to be long lost, discussing the possibility of producing heirs for pure blood men, who had no prospects of siring a child with a pure blood female. The rituals described required extreme caution, dedication and sacrifice and more importantly the willingness of a male heir to carry a child. He had long discussions with Harry and his extended family, given the danger involved in the process and managed to convince them. The ministry, the money crazy goblins and the other pure blood families also needed to be convinced and it took almost a year for Draco to start the process.
Now about three years from the discovery, Draco was here for his first healer appointment. His own diagnostic spells had confirmed a pregnancy, but he needed detailed scans to confirm viability. Could he have just gone into the healer's room and got the tests done? Of course. But Draco was too anxious for that- he wanted Harry by his side, in case his only hope of a heir was getting squashed.
"I am scared, Harry", Draco said, looking up with red rimmed eyes.
"I am here. Let's go in and get this done", Harry said, offering his hand.
"Welcome Mr. And Mr. Malfoy- Potter. I was waiting for you. We are as excited as you are about this- this is a once in a century kind of pregnancy and we want to make sure everything goes perfectly for you and the baby", the healer had said enthusiastically. Draco couldn't be bothered to join in the excitement, he just wanted a quick resolution to his worries.
The healer urged him to lie down on the examination table and ran his wand over his stomach. Once he seemed satisfied with the check up, he projected some images on the wall. "There you go, Mr. Malfoy. That's your baby- a very strong heartbeat and growth as normal as a conventional pregnancy. Congratulations, you give hope to many who are in your position. I will ask my assistant to prepare your pre natal potions and some literature to read. I know you are an expert potioneer Mr. Malfoy, but I would prefer that you stay away from harmful fumes, at least in the initial months. I will see you in a month. In case there is any development that troubles you, feel free to floo in during clinic hours", the healer advised.
Harry helped him down from the examination table and hugged him. "Congratulations, Dray. You did it", he said.
"Potter, stop embarrassing me", Draco said, squirming in his husband's embrace. The posh, pure blood man was still not particularly welcoming of physical affection, especially in public.
It was later in the day, over their post dinner coffee that Draco opened up. "Harry, thank you. I am sorry for doubting you, but I couldn't have done this without you, emotionally, mentally or physically", he said.
"Draco, don't thank me. In fact, I am the one who should be thanking you. I know Teddy is like my son and I am magically allowed to declare him my heir, but this is my blood too and it feels special to know that I will be holding my child in my arms soon", Harry said, laying a palm on Draco's barely there belly.
"Pathetic sap", Draco teased.
"Poncy git", Harry teased back. It felt like they were back in Hogwarts, exchanging insults, but that was a lifetime ago. Only difference now was that the insults didn't feel hurtful to either of them, it had become a part of their normal existence. Harry looked forward to bringing up a posh little Malfoy in his chaotic Potter way.
