Issues

Epilogue:

July 31st.
“Harry Potter Day” as it had come to be known in the wizarding world.

Harry, while perfectly content to celebrate his birthday amongst his closest family and friends, hated the fact that for many his birthday had become an excuse to take a holiday.

Draco, while he usually supported Harry in this, was actually disappointed that Harry’s birthday had fallen on a Monday as this was the day he was always due in court. He had been planning to take the day off from work to help set up for Harry’s 25th birthday party in the evening but no amount of cajoling, pleading or sucking up would see his bosses allow him to take a day off. The most he had managed to get out of them was a pass to leave work earlier than normal at around 4:30pm.

And so it was that on the morning of Harry Potter’s 25th birthday, he woke up alone as Draco was expected in the office earlier than normal to make up the paperwork that he would have otherwise done in the evening.

Draco for his part had had another terrible day at the office but he was really looking forward to Harry’s party in the evening.

The months following Draco’s discharge from hospital had seen a distinct change in the behaviour of Harry’s friends and family (the Weasleys) towards Draco. Initially puzzled by this, both Harry and Draco had asked them about it and received the answer that, in the two weeks that Harry had thought he’d lost Draco, they’d never seen him so miserable and had therefore come to the realisation of how important Draco was to Harry, even if they didn’t particularly understand it or like it.

This distinct change had never seen them become close friends with Draco by any accounts and conversation still tended to become awkward and stilted whenever Harry wasn’t in the room, but Harry’s friends had made a true effort to be more polite towards Draco and Draco responded in kind.

In the few years since “The Incident Part II” as Draco had named it, Harry and Draco had actually become closer than they had been before. It had taken them both a long time to actually reach the level of comfort and familiarity they now shared but, if anyone were to ask either of them, they would simply say that every moment, every argument and every tear shed had been so worth it.

Draco, finally finished with his work for the day, was more than looking forward to going home as Harry had called him during the day to inform him that his friends were coming over earlier than they had originally planned as they were showing the Quidditch finals match on the telly. Being that the Chudley Cannons (shocking in itself) were playing the Falmouth Falcons, the game was already promising to be a somewhat tense one for Harry who wasn’t particularly sure if he should cheer with his boyfriend or best friend, especially since he didn’t have any particular affinity towards either team playing.

Ever since The Incident Part II, Draco had taken to apparating directly outside their front door where the wards ensured that no muggles could see him do so. From the moment Draco had arrived on the front porch, he could hear the sounds of raucous laughter and shouting from within the house and, somewhat amusedly, pushed open the door only to be greeted with complete chaos.

From the looks of it, the game had already started as most of the boys (Ron, Fred, George, Mr Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Harry, Neville and Dean… and then there was Ginny too) were crowded around the television with beers in their hands, periodically groaning and screaming at the television. Molly, Hermione and Luna seemed to be all over themselves trying to calm the boys down so they don’t wake the baby and preparing some of the meats to go on the barbeque. Harry, shirtless in the lounge and frantically waving his beer around, looked to be doing a fantastic job of firing up the barbeque.

Almost without any warning, a loud howling sound filled the house and Draco, frantically looking for some place to hide from it, suddenly found himself with a baby thrust into his arms.

Cue the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.

“What the…?!” asked Draco, mildly panicking

“Oh, Draco, be a dear would you? Our hands are all dirty and the boys… well they’re all dirty from the Quidditch game they played earlier and… well, could you please calm Henri down?” asked Mrs Weasley breathlessly, not even waiting for him to give a response before bustling off to the kitchen again.

Throughout his life, Draco had never been one for babies. There was the obvious fact that he had been an only child of a very rich family so, even if he had had a younger sibling, they would have been taken care of by a nanny anyway. Add this to the war and the years directly after that and one could well argue that Draco used to have a lot more on his mind than learning how to hold a baby.

Now though, holding the baby at arms length and peering at it intently, Draco could admit that if it stopped howling for a moment, it might be somewhat cute.
Henrietta Grace (Henri for short) was the nine-month-old baby of Neville and Luna so Draco was more inclined to be favourable towards her since Neville and Luna had made the most effort at befriending Draco.

Head already starting to pound, Draco decided that having the baby with him was as good an excuse as any to take a walk outside, far away from the chaos he called home. Though it took him awhile to find a comfortable way to hold Henri and something interesting enough to keep her thoughts away from screaming in his ears, Draco could admit that he was feeling pretty good at her response to him right now.

He was walking in circles around their back garden with Henri snuggled up to his side as he bounced her on his hip and sang soft lullabies to her.

~~~

“Harry, have you seen Henri?” asked Luna sometime later

“Um…the last I heard, she was with you guys in the kitchen…” said Harry distractedly, his eyes still fixed to the television screen where one of the Cannons’ chasers could be seem plummeting to the ground without the aid of his broom.

“Harry!” said Luna again a few minutes later, running into the lounge.

Harry, and most of the other boys, turned around looking startled.

“What is it, Luna?”

“… Oh! You guys have to come see this!” exclaimed Luna, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Given that Luna had calmed down somewhat since Hogwarts, they knew she probably wouldn’t call them all away from the Quidditch finals game to see some strange animal so, curious, they all followed her.

What they saw surprised them and brought tears to Harry’s eyes.

For there, sitting on the swinging patio chair with his back half turned away from them was Draco, still in his dark grey suit from work with Henri snuggled comfortably in his arms, fast asleep with a lock of Draco’s hair clutched tightly in one of her chubby fists, Draco still slowly rocking the chair and singing softly to her.

Harry’s soft gasp caught Draco’s attention and, startled, he looked up only to find their entire party standing either just outside the back door or looking out from the kitchen window.

Draco blushed furiously at being caught singing to a baby as he got up to hand Henri over to Luna but, tears pooling in her eyes, she shook her head. Confused, Draco turned to Harry but when that got the same response, he just stared at the lot of them.

“… What on earth are you all crying about?!” asked Draco, somewhat perplexed.

Even months later, whenever Draco would ask any of them about this incident (Draco was considering naming it Part III), they would simply say that it was the moment they realised the true difference between Draco Malfoy the Arrogant Death Eater Prat, and Draco, the man Harry was in love with.