You Know You Are Loved When A Gryffindor Loves You

A/N This is more of a 'what-happens-next' and wasn't plotty enough for a true sequel, so I'm appending it here.

Enjoy! S2

Epilogue

Two and a half years later

1.

Ron and Draco’s nuptials were a bigger and more lavish affair than Harry and Severus’. They were out in the open rather than in exile and Voldemort was now dead. Most of the key Death-Eaters were also deceased including Draco’s own parents and the rest either in Azkaban or in hiding.

Two and a half years after Draco had been freed by his former best friends and bundled into a Floo fire after his horrific treatment at the hands of his father, he and Ron were tying the knot in a large London Registry Office with more guests in attendance than Harry’s. There were a few colleagues of Ron’s from the Ministry with whom he had become friends, plus the rest of his family including Ginny and Hermione.

Harry and Severus were there with their, now, three children. Albus and Minerva too and Draco had insisted on Poppy and Viola’s presence after she had done so much to heal his hurts after his rape and torture in his own old home. Everyone cheered when the grooms kissed and there was the happy wiping of eyes and fussing and twittering around the happy couple.

The reception was held at Claridges. The honeymoon was spent skiing in Gstaad as neither boy was up to hot countries being so pale of skin that, as Draco declared, “I just go red, peel and turn white again”.

When they returned to Blighty, they took up a larger suite of rooms in the guest wing at Hogwarts and settled in but Draco was becoming restless.

The Ministry had returned all of the original lands and properties to them plus returned the keys to the Malfoy fortunes at Gringotts. The several vaults had been amalgamated and was now a single Black-Weasley vault as Draco had changed his name to his mother’s maiden name wanting nothing to do with the Malfoy name any longer. They spent the rest of the school year in relative peace and quiet although Draco still had nightmares on occasion.

Draco was now teaching Potions as a jobshare with Severus and Harry now took some of Minerva’s classes as she headed towards retirement, switching from DADA, so he and Severus could share the parenting of their children. As the summer holiday approached, Draco was nervous. He had decided to face some of his demons and go back to Malfoy Manor again. They had tried twice. Once at Christmas last year, but Draco got no further than the gates before breaking down in Ron’s arms, shaking. They tried again at Easter and they were actually on the front steps but Draco quailed again at the front door, trembling and nauseous as memory assailed him and they apparated away again.

One evening, just before the end of term, the four were sitting in Severus and Harry’s rooms sipping beer and Harry had made the suggestion, “You know, Draco, maybe that house needs an injection of innocence again. Why don’t we all go, the children included. Let the walls hear the laughter of children, the pounding of little running feet in the corridors, and our lot can run now, especially Alex, and little Amalia Lily isn’t far behind”. Severus laced an arm around his godson’s shoulders, “And I would be there, Draco, as the nearest thing you have to family, you can lean on us all and the children will love the big gardens, put some roses in their cheeks. Our house is a bit cramped now and there isn’t much space for the little ones to run wild”. Draco accepted with a grateful heart.

****

Draco still quailed at the front door but set his face with determination and went in followed by the others. Instantly, the children took off running along the hall. The place smelt musty and un-aired. They had brought Dobby with them to help out and he scurried about trying to keep the little ones out of mischief.

They settled themselves in the East wing furthest from the scene of the crimes in two huge suites of rooms on the first floor adjacent to each other. They fashioned one of the downstairs rooms into a cosy sitting room with a dining room running off it. In truth, both Harry and Ron were a little over-awed at the sheer size of the place. Once the little ones were settled for the night with Dobby acting as babysitter, the four were taken on a tour by torchlight.

Draco wept aloud when he saw his old rooms in which he had spent his childhood and Ron held him, “Bloody hell, love, your rooms are as big as the whole Burrow. No wonder you used to take the piss out of me for being so poor”, he was trying to make light of the situation but this made Draco howl louder, so he shut up and held his husband close, “I won’t let anyone hurt you now, my love. Hush now, I was only making fun”. The others wandered around the rooms and Harry exclaimed when he saw the array of old toys in a closet, “Flippin’ heck, Draco. I dreamed of having this many toys as a kid”, as he inspected shelf after shelf of games and puzzles and soft fluffy animals.

Draco, with tears in his eyes, selected a few and pressed them into Harry and Severus’ hands, “I want the littlies to have these”, and they continued the tour with Harry holding a plush dragon, snake and owl. They made their way downstairs into the central portion of the house and into the one room that meant more to Draco than anywhere, the music room. Draco threw off the cover from the huge Steinway concert grand and sat before the keys flexing his fingers. It was the first time he had smiled since entering his old home.

He ran his hands up and down the keyboard, “Fuck, I’m a bit rusty, haven’t practiced for years”, then tentatively launched into ‘Clair de Lune’. The piano needed tuning but wasn’t too out of key. Harry, as another musician, could hear it, but the instrument had a beautiful mellow tone still and they all listened as Draco played. At the end of another piece, he closed the keyboard, laid his head on his hands and burst into tears again. Ron was beside him in an instant and held him, “Come on, love, that’s enough facing demons for one night. Let’s go back to our rooms and go to bed”. He lifted Draco to his feet and they all staggered off.

That night, Draco was plagued by nightmares. Severus and Harry could hear his screams from their suite. Severus dug out some sleeping potion from their belongings and slipped next door. He returned in short order and fell on the bed beside Harry, “I don’t think he can ever come back here to live, this place holds too many bad memories for him”. Harry held his husband of over four years, “What about you. love? You spent a lot of time here yourself. How are you holding up?” Severus sighed in Harry’s arms, “Not so well, truth be told, but I want to be strong for him. I think I can hear Lucius around every corner like an echo or something. Would you think me a complete wimp if we kept a candle burning tonight?”

Harry shook his head, “Not at all, that’s why I asked”. He tried to comfort his beloved with some loving but Severus wasn’t his usual sexy self. The place was getting to him, too. They slept uneasily in each other’s arms.

The next day, Draco had come to the same conclusion, “I can never come back here to live, the place seethes with old ghosts and the memory of evil. I think I’ll de-plot the place and put it on the Muggle housing market and maybe some rock star will buy it and turn it into a den of iniquity. I want to save a few things but as for the rest of it, I wouldn’t cry if the damned place burned to the ground”. All were in sympathy with him.

After breakfast, Draco asked Severus to come with him as he ventured into the west wing. The part of the house where the main Malfoy living quarters were. Both were familiar with the layout of this part of the house. With shaking hands Draco flung open a set of double doors and sank to his knees sobbing, not daring to cross the threshold. Severus ‘sent’ to Harry, ‘Get Ron over here, he needs him, we’re at that room’. Harry and Ron shot off after Harry instructed the house-elf to take the kiddies out to play on the parterre.

They all looked into the, now, innocent enough empty room, but Draco’s eyes were stormy and wild with memory, “This is where it happened. This is where they kept me. Strapped to a frame. Star-shaped. Splayed out for anyone to see, anyone to take. It was here”, he walked uncertainly into the room. Tears were in Ron’s eyes, he could only imagine his lover’s torments as he held him. He shook his head at the horror replaying in his head. Draco had finally told him as they drew closer and could say nothing. It was just a room after all, but he knew, that if Draco wanted to burn the place down, that this was the room in which he would set the fire.

Ron held him gently, “We’re all here, love”, he whispered as he wept, bringing Draco back to him and the blond smiled weakly as he sank into strong arms and was buffered from the horror breathing in his beloved’s scent and howled out his grief at all he had lost. “Why, Ron? Why?”, he sank to his knees on the exact spot where the frame had stood facing the windows, the beautiful view of the gardens beyond. Ron was right there, on his knees with his shattered husband as he looked out of the tall windows, the mockery of beauty beyond, “Get me out of here, baby, I can’t take any more. I’m breaking apart”, he begged. Ron and Severus lifted him between them and they got him out of there, Severus wiped the boy’s face of tears and the small party went back to the east wing.

Dobby had brought the children back in out of a sudden squall of rain and little Amanda ran up to her favourite uncle and demanded of the other three, “Why is uncuh Jaco cwyin? What you done to him?”, as she glared at her parents and her uncle ‘Won’. Harry knelt beside her, “This is where uncle Draco lived when he was little and his mummy and daddy aren’t here any more, sweetie, and lots of bad things happened here and uncle Draco is remembering”. The child climbed into Draco’s lap, “What they done to you, uncuh Jaco? If they were bad, I’ll hit them and tell them to stop it”. He couldn’t help it and held the child tight, “It’s all right, Mandy, they are helping uncle Draco, they aren’t doing anything bad, they are helping me, not hurting me, sweetheart”, but Amanda wasn’t convinced. She glared around at the assembled company then stroked her uncle ‘Jaco’s’ hair, “Well, I love my uncuh Jaco, okay?” and hugged him fiercely. There wasn’t a dry eye amongst the grown-ups.

Ron smiled waterily and glanced at Harry, “Well, she’s a real chip off the old block, isn’t she?” Harry smiled and looped his arm around his husband, “She sure is. Just like her ‘mummy’” The child glared at Ron and pointed at Severus, “He’s my mummy”, then at Harry, “And he’s my daddy”, then back to Draco, “An’ you’re uncuh Jaco and you love uncuh Won, don’t you?”, and Draco found himself laughing at the serious fierce little girl, “That’s right, and you’re my favourite ‘Manda Panda’ aren’t you?”, and the child nodded, “Are they being naughty? I’ll hit them and fight them”. The blond held her closer as she squirmed in his arms, “No Manda Panda, they’re not being naughty, don’t hit them, they love me and they are looking after me because I’m crying and a bit sad”, he looked deeply into the obsidian eyes and she nodded sagely, then wriggled from his lap, satisfied for now and ran to Severus, “Mummy, I’m hungwy”, and Severus scooped her up, “Then shall we go and eat some dinner?” Amanda nodded and grinned.

Harry had to rescue Alex from halfway up the curtains before he fell and Amalia from eating chunks of old coal in the grate. He laughed, “I think these imps need to be fed”. Ron took the boy out of Harry’s arms and they all went into Harry and Severus’ suite and summoned Dobby who, on cue, had drinks in dodie cups for the two eldest and a bottle for the youngest. They were settled for their naps and the adults could sit around and talk.

Ron sighed with Draco in his arms, “I want this, Drae. Kids”. Draco nodded, “I wish we had a bond like you two. I’m really envious”. Ron whispered something in Draco’s ear that made the blond blush and smile, “I know, babe, but it’s not quite the same. I wanted to experience it like you two did, actually carry one of my own”, he sighed. Severus frowned in inquiry. Ron grinned, “My sister has agreed to carry one of Draco’s if he will do the honours when the time is right for her, and Hermione has agreed to play surrogate for me if, likewise, I will do the same for her”. Severus and Harry were gobsmacked, “Really? Wow, that’s brilliant. Those girls are amazing., we could all be one big happy family. It’s a shame that I can carry no more otherwise I would have been more than happy to oblige, you know that”, Harry said to Ron, who nodded in appreciation, “I know mate. I know you would, but there’s only so far that these bonds go, and by all accounts you were bloody lucky to have two, Harry”.

Harry shrugged, “Apparently it’s really rare for a bloke to be gifted with two kids so I know how lucky I was, and even though I had a hard time with Amalia, I’d do it all again for a friend if I could. It’s why I got preggie again so quickly after Alex. There’s a ‘sign’ I got when my body was about to change back, and I was determined to have another if I could. It’s why I was pregnant when I fought him. It was a case of ‘now or never’ and I couldn’t put off my life any more even though I still had to fight and kill him. I know it pissed Grumbledrawers off mightily but, hell, we still did it”. Severus was holding Harry tight, “I wish I could have had another, but my change followed almost immediately after I had Amanda. I actually enjoyed being pregnant and didn’t have nearly as tough a time as Harry, but I only got one shot at it”, he shrugged and kissed Harry’s hair and felt his man relax in his arms.

****

In the event, they only stayed a couple more days at the Manor. Everyone felt a little oppressed by the place. As a pack, they went around the Manor and Draco could make notes on the things that he wanted to keep and the rest of the stuff was to be sold off at auction. He owled the Ministry and arranged for Aurors to come the following day to ‘read’ the place for dark Magic and lift any residual darkness they may find, then a team came in to de-plot the place and Malfoy Manor was to be put on the market as soon as possible. He couldn’t stand to live there and Ron was glad. The place was miles too big by half and they planned to look for a home in London somewhere. Severus was still reluctant to sell the house in Manchester where he and Harry had shared so many happy memories, but they really were cramped there and he reluctantly agreed that the family really did need more space and a garden. They were to have a busy summer, the four of them house-hunting in London.

Later that night, Harry and Severus lay in bed together, the children asleep in the next room, and plotted and schemed on their future. With Harry’s fortune and the rest of the Black fortune sitting in the bank or invested, they weren’t short of a bob or two and they knew they could afford something nice. For the first time since they had arrived in this cursed house, they could relax and make love and they did, shrieking and yelling their joy in the future to the rafters.

In the adjacent suite, silencing charms were laid, possibly for the last time and Ron could make love to his husband in their large bed, accepting the past and starting to move into the future. At breakfast the next day there appeared two much more relaxed couples to share the meal with three bouncy youngsters. For the rest of the summer, they all rented a large furnished house in muggle South Ealing to stay in while they house-hunted. Molly and Arthur were more than happy to take the three kiddies in now that they had an empty nest while Harry and Severus packed up the little house in Moss Side, moving their stuff into storage and the house was put on the market.

Things didn’t move quite as fast as they would have wished but by the end of the summer the house in Manchester was sold but not before the four of them stayed there to enjoy Mardi Gras for another year. Steve was sad to see his old friend leave the city, but not before he had captured a wealth of photos of Harry and Severus on the float for the AIDS charity, both in full drag along with Ron and Draco. The float this year was on the theme of a piano bar with diva singers, the four in drag, hey, anything for charity, and they made loads of money between them as Draco played a stand-up piano with Harry on the guitar, Ron on drums and all four singing. They made a dazzling sight, not to mention that Draco made a superb drag with his pretty face and long blond hair pouting at his audience.