Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Rise of the Drackens	By : StarLightMassacre Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 769941 -:- Recommendations : 73 -:- Currently Reading : 222
Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights for the creation of the Harry Potter novels go to J. K. Rowling. I make no money from this piece of fictional writing

Chapter List
- 101
- 102
- 103
Last Time

“Be more patient with him.” Blaise told him. “He knows that he can’t get up, but he’s bored and he wants his children after what has happened. The last time he saw them was in the aftermath of the fight, he hasn’t seen them since as he’s been stuck in the Healing Halls and on the last day that he saw them they were all scared and crying, two of them were injured and he needed to see them again to make sure that they were all still here and alright. He should be better now.”

“Getting through those kids was hell on him.” Max sighed. “Calix almost sent him back to the Dracken Healing Halls by crawling all over him.”

“They should be calmer now that Harry’s home.” Nasta said, half hoping that he was right and that they did calm down now. He couldn’t handle anything close to the last couple of days. He just needed peace and calm now. They all did after what they’d been suffering through for the last couple of days. They deserved some peace and Nasta would damn well make sure that they got it, even if he had to force them all to be calm and force the peace, he’d do it.

Chapter One Hundred-Two – At Ease

Harry groaned as he woke up slowly. He was lying on someone, he could feel his body move gently, up and then down slightly as the person that he was lying on breathed deeply and evenly. Opening his gluey eyes revealed that he was on his back between someone’s legs with his back and head resting on their body. Big arms that were wrapped securely around his waist prevented him from rolling or moving much, as he found out when he tried to move himself to the side and those arms tightened around him immediately, reflexively, and kept him still and clamped to the person’s front.

“Are you awake?” A sleepy voice asked him.

“Nas?” Harry questioned, moving his hand to rub at his eyes.

“Hold on, let me get you down so that you can see me.”

Harry was moved so carefully and gently that he had to smile as he was laid down in the warm groove that Nasta had created and he had his very handsome mate leaning over him, checking him visually for pain.

“Are you okay?”

Harry nodded minimally to prevent any aforementioned pain. “How long have I been sleeping? It looks like it’s still day time, unless I slept all night through.”

“No, it’s still day time, you’ve only been asleep for forty minutes or so.”

“Did I wake you up?” Harry asked softly.

Nasta chuckled. “It’s a good thing that you did, I wasn’t supposed to be asleep in the first place, but I didn’t want to move you, so I took a nap myself.”

Harry chuckled. “Where is everyone else?”

“No idea. But I think that it’s about time that you saw the new kitchen. Do you want a cup of tea?”

Harry nodded eagerly. “I’d love one. Can I sit up for a little bit? Just until I’ve had a drink and gone to the bathroom? I can’t do either lying on my back.”

“Do you need the bathroom now? It’s right outside this room, the first door on the right.”

Harry shook his head. “Tea first, please.”

Nasta eased him into his arms and stood up. Harry wrapped his arms around Nasta’s neck and he tried to keep himself as still and as straight as possible. It was awkward, but Harry was just glad to be looking at things from an, almost, upright position as he was carried through one hallway and then taken down another hallway that was at a right angle to the first, and then into the big, bright, sparkly kitchen that was filled with people sitting around the incredibly large kitchen table, including his two missing mates, Myron and Aneirin.

“Harry!” Max cried out happily as he saw him.

Harry grinned as he caught sight of the full, brand new kitchen and he whistled, there were so many windows on the one outside wall that the sun almost blinded him. There were other windows, false, magically charmed windows that were also streaming in false sunlight.

“Damn, Max, you did good with this.” He said. “I take it you picked out all the appliances and the design? I really want to bake a house warming cake.”

“No baking for you until you’re better.” Max told him, coming to kiss his lips. “You need a drink.”

“Do I have chapped lips?” Harry frowned.

Max nodded to his question and he went to boil the kettle for him. Harry noted that it was also brand new and it seemed to boil in half the time of their previous kettle too. Nasta sat down slowly so that he wouldn’t jar Harry’s healing body and once he was down he held Harry on his lap, like one of their children, but Harry didn’t care as he snuggled in and greeted everyone around him. He happily took his cup of tea when Max handed it to him.

“You have a bit more colour to you at least.” Myron told him, accepting a mug of coffee from his son as Nasta quickly grabbed Harry’s cup of tea, helping him to sip at it when Harry’s shaky hands threatened to throw it over the both of them.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Harry insisted, utterly mortified, as he dribbled his tea over Nasta’s arm.

Nasta kissed the side of his head and ignored the tea on his arm as he held the cup steady for him to sip at. It was Max who cleaned up Nasta’s arm, and Harry’s chin, with a clean tea towel.

“It doesn’t matter, Caru.” Nasta told him softly. “Just drink what you want, when you want it.”

“I’m dribbling on you!” Harry said embarrassedly.

Nasta chuckled and kissed him again. “You’re under the effects of a very strong pain potion and there is a bit of a lag between your brain and your muscles. We know this and we don’t care.”

Harry blew out a breath and he tried to drink again, making absolutely sure that he’d swallowed what was in his mouth this time before moving his mouth away from the cup.

“I hate this.” He growled.

“I know.” Nasta said sadly.

“Where are my children?” Harry asked.

“Leolin woke up for a bottle while you were asleep, but he was much calmer and quieter. He didn’t open his eyes as he ate and he went right back to sleep. The girls are in the living room with Molly and the others have yet to wake up.” Aneirin told him.

Harry sighed and he nodded. “Did you send off that letter after?”

Aneirin nodded. “I did.”

“What letter?” Nasta asked, looking between Harry and his Dad.

Harry looked at him. “The one to Dain and Kailen, letting them know that Leolin is at least still alive and well after his trip to the hospital.”

Nasta nodded and he didn’t argue. He didn’t even grimace or pull a face this time and Harry didn’t make a fuss or draw any attention to it. It was progress in Harry’s book and progress was sorely needed when it came to his stubborn mate and the Faeries. Nasta accepted Dain and Kailen’s story and their reasoning behind their total separated absence, but it was going to take him some time to get over the news that he was actually blood related to them when he, and his whole family, had believed that they were related to someone else, Jediah Constas. Though from what Harry had learnt about the man from Dain and Kailen, how abusive and vile he’d been, to Trefor and to Trefor’s children, the children that he’d believed were his own and had raised as his own, Harry was glad that Nasta wasn’t related to him, and on the same page, he was so very glad that Trefor Delericey had found Dain and Kailen to love him and to give him his beautiful children, though the tragedy that had followed when they were grown was unthinkable. Jediah Constas had been a real piece of work and Harry truly was glad that the man he loved, the man he had mated to, had not a single drop of that man’s blood in his veins.
Harry went back to his cup of tea, still being held by Nasta, but he gave up trying to drink anything after he almost choked when he’d inhaled the tea instead of swallowing it and he had to be carefully winded like their babies in order to breathe again.

“This…just get the tea away from me before I injure someone or myself.” He grumbled. “Can’t even fucking drink properly.”

No one chastised him for his language and Nasta nuzzled him and bit at his neck with his lips pulled over his teeth, so that it tickled him more than it hurt and Harry chuckled, which made Nasta do it again.

“Stop it, it tickles.” Harry giggled.

“The Malfoys will be here soon.” Myron reminded them, which was news to Harry and he perked up a little.

“Today?” Harry asked. “Is that where Draco is?”

“Yes.” Nasta answered blandly, trying not to inflect upon any one emotion.

“Good. I wanted to yell at him.” Harry nodded.

“He’s not coming back, Harry.” Max said as calmly as he could manage, knowing that getting angry and shouting at Harry would definitely not be a good thing to do. His hand was clenched into a fist under the table in order to control himself.

“Why not? Does he…does he not want to come back, doesn’t he care about us? About what he did to us?” Harry asked quietly, feeling inexplicably sad about that.

“It’s not that.” Nasta assured him quickly, unable to take Harry’s hurt, devastated expression over something that wasn’t true. “He wants to see you and the kids, but I won’t let him. I thought…”

“Why not? They’re his kids too!” Harry questioned, trying to keep his temper as his eyebrows lowered in confusion and the beginnings of anger.

“Technically they’re not his.” Max cut in fiercely.

“Since when did we start caring about such technicalities?” Harry demanded, his anger being stoked further.

“Stop.” Nasta ordered harshly. “The last thing any of us need right now is more fighting!” He growled. “Draco is not coming back, Harry. I’ve ordered him to stay away until such a time that he can control himself. I made a promise to you, remember? This will never happen again. You made me promise that and I’m making sure of it!”

“He can’t do it on his own.” Blaise said calmly, drinking yet another mug of coffee. Nasta wasn’t commenting on that either and it was very unusual, so not normal and it made Harry feel skewed. He felt off axis, as if things weren’t normal and he needed normal more than anything else right now. He just wanted everything to be normal and it wasn’t.

“I’ve told him to take anger management classes. Lucius agreed to the terms when I went to speak to him and he found the very best therapists with the highest success rates. Draco is going for his first class tomorrow and he is seeing no less than three different therapists. He is not coming back here, near my mates and my children, while he can lose control enough to almost kill you!” Nasta growled.

“What if he can’t do the classes?” Harry said worriedly.

“Then he’s never coming back.” Nasta said simply.

“You can’t do that!” Harry exploded. “That’s my choice to make not yours. He is my dominant mate, not yours and…”

“You are my submissive!” Nasta shouted, his voice echoing in the large kitchen. “I am the top dominant of this family and I say who goes near you or not and Draco is not going near any of you until he’s proven to me that he can control himself! He almost killed you, Harry and he did kill Blaise!”

“Still alive.” Blaise put in snidely, still staring into the depths of his coffee cup as if it would give him the answers that he was looking for.

“But you weren’t alive, we watched you die!” Max said desperately. “Do you have any idea what that did to us, Blaise? We…we had to watch you die, we had to watch as the Healers worked non-stop to revive you. You were dead for over six minutes and they were the longest six and a half minutes that I’ve ever lived through. Do you not understand how much that hurt us? How upset and devastated we were to receive the news that you’d actually died, no matter if it was temporary? We had to stand there and see you dead, Blaise.”

“I don’t remember any of it.” Blaise sighed.

“Because you were suffering with serious head trauma, because you’d actually, literally died!” Max insisted. “He killed you!”

“I don’t remember much of anything either.” Harry said with a frown.

“You’re on very strong pain killers, Harry. You’re just not sure what’s what at the moment.” Nasta told him patiently, striving for calm after his loud outburst. That too wasn’t normal, Nasta was the calmest, the least likely to shout and hearing him shouting so loudly, so angrily, drove into Harry harder that everything around him was just completely abnormal at the moment. He didn’t like it in the least.

Harry nodded. “I do really want to shout at Draco though, I need to get my own thoughts and feelings off of my chest so that I can feel better. Can I go and see him?” He tried to compromise.

“Absolutely not.” Max growled. “You’re not going anywhere near him.”

Harry sighed and tugged at his hair. “This isn’t ever going to be resolved if we don’t even try to fix it, Max.”

“Very wise words.” Myron told him approvingly.

Max clenched his teeth and his hands and he tried to breathe past his anger. “I can’t even look at him at the moment, I don’t want to.”

“You don’t have to. Let me.” Harry insisted.

“No.” Nasta said firmly.

“I have my own anger to work through!” Harry turned to tell him, trying to remain as calm as he could. “If I can’t work through this anger in my own way, then it’s going to fester. Keeping me from Draco is going to do more harm than good in the long run, Nasta! What do you think he’s going to do to me? He’s not going to take one look at me and just attack!”

“I’ve said no.” Nasta growled, a hint of his Dracken peeking through.

Harry’s eyes narrowed and his anger ramped up to fury. He bit his tongue, but a torrent of words wanted to fall out still, he wanted to use his words, to fling them around like sharp weapons with an outburst of abuse aimed at his two oldest mates, but he stopped himself…just.
He clenched his teeth and breathed deeply, letting those words flow through his mind, but not out of his mouth. Shouting wouldn’t help the situation at all and it would likely only make him dizzy or cause him pain. Instead he remained silently fuming, planning what to do next as it was very unlikely that he was going to get his way by talking things through with his two oldest mates, he had to act instead. At the moment he hadn’t been ordered to stay away from Draco and he could still leave of his own volition and he was going to do just that, as soon as he was able to.
The tensed, strained atmosphere that was left in the kitchen was broken by grunting over the baby monitor that was in front of Max.

“Mama?” A small, tinny voice called out over the monitor and Harry automatically went to stand up, but Nasta held him firm around the hips and kept him still as Max stood and went to get the awakened baby himself.

Harry instead remained sitting in Nasta’s lap and he planned his little escape jaunt and he planned it for tomorrow morning. No one would expect him to be up and moving so soon, especially not travelling through the floo. It was going to be painful, but he didn’t frankly care. He just needed to get rid of Nasta and Max first, maybe even Blaise too, though his first mate seemed to be more accepting of seeing Draco, it was just his two older mates who were being the problem and he had to remove them as the obstacles that they were first, before he could do anything.
Max walked in with Regan and as soon as his son saw him, he reached out with both hands, grasping for him, he’d been asleep when Harry had cuddled with his children earlier, so his little boy hadn’t known that he was home. Max sat Regan on the table in front of him and Harry leant forward to hug him.

“Mama, no go way.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Regan.” Harry insisted softly as he cupped his son’s face in both hands and bent forward to kiss his little mouth when he smacked his lips, wanting a kiss.

Harry rubbed Regan’s back gently, tickling his fingers over the back of his son’s onesie, smiling at Regan’s giggles.

“I’ve missed all of you.” He said softly, hugging Regan tightly, kissing all over his cheeks, listening to his son giggling happily.

“Come on, let’s get you a bit more comfortable. You’ve been sat up too straight for too long.” Nasta said gently as he stood up.

Harry was taken into the very large family room, still in Nasta’s arms, and he gasped at how large it was.

“This is…it’s the size of a Quidditch pitch!” He said in amazement.

Max laughed. “Not quite.” He said as he cuddled up to him, still sat sideways in Nasta’s lap, but on a settee this time. He was reclined backwards slightly, to take the pressure off of his abdomen.

Blaise walked in unaided, but Aneirin was sort of hovering just behind him protectively. Regan was placed on the floor by Max, but their son was content to sit at Nasta’s feet and play with Harry’s bare toes. It made Harry feel so sad that his son was that uncomfortable moving away from him, that he couldn’t go to the neat pile of toys just a few feet away to play.

“How are you, Mrs Weasley?” Harry asked with a tired smile from Nasta’s lap.

“Harry, dear. I was so worried when I heard what had happened.” Molly said as she supervised Eva and Ave playing on the floor. “Are you alright?”

“I’m alright.” He insisted. “If Voldemort couldn’t kill me, no one else will be able to.”

He ignored the slight flinches around him at Voldemort’s name, and the growling of his mates at the mention of the monster who had tried numerous times to kill him dating back to his babyhood.
He yawned widely and sunk back onto Nasta more securely and he snuggled in, tucking his arms between their chests and just resting. Nasta and Max approved of his actions if the two, different sized hands stroking him was an indication, Nasta’s hand on his back and Max’s on his face and head.

“If you need to sleep, Caru, just sleep.” Nasta told him. “You need the rest.”

Harry nodded, but he didn’t sleep. He just needed to stay still for a little while as his body rested. The tightness in his belly was not something that he was used to. It was a different pain altogether from what he had come to consider as normal from his experiences in giving birth. He wasn’t used to not being able to move his own body, he’d thought that this would have been like giving birth, just without the baby…but it was completely different.
When he gave birth, he didn’t cut through any muscles for a start, his insides didn’t spill out to dangle on the outside of his body for another. He sighed and rubbed his head over Nasta’s chest until he found his heartbeat and he rested his ear over that strong, soothing beat. It was nice and even, Nasta was relaxed and calm, as always, and that went a long way to ease him down, to reassure him that not everything was out of the ordinary.

“Are you okay?” Nasta asked him quietly.

Harry nodded. “I wanted to hear your heartbeat.”

“Do you want skin to skin contact?”

Harry considered that for a moment before he nodded. He did want skin to skin contact, he wanted it a lot.

“Max, can you help me please?” Nasta asked.

“Course.” Max answered as Nasta sat forward and eased Harry away from his body as Max pulled up Nasta’s shirt and helped him to slip his arms out one at a time while Nasta juggled Harry’s body with his other.

Nasta sat back against the settee and Harry laid his head back on his chest, his ear to that strong heartbeat and his hands and face touching warm, bare skin. He smiled and closed his eyes, everything was much better when he could touch any of his mates’ skin.
He didn’t mean to fall asleep, but he must have dozed off at some point as a scream had him jerking awake and flailing around in shock and then almost landing on the floor as he yelled out in agony and he tried to move his body away from the pain, which only caused more pain.
He writhed in Nasta’s arms as his mate tried desperately to get him to stay still, but the pain was too much for Harry to handle, it made him almost mindless as he was caught in the pain, and he wriggled and writhed and it made the pain so much worse, but he just couldn’t stay still.
Max grabbed his legs with one arm and held his hips down and as still as he could with the other and between the strength of Max and Nasta, they were able to hold him still as he cried helplessly through the waves of burning agony. He couldn’t help himself, he cried like a baby from the pain that he was in and once he was still and Nasta had picked him up into his arms again, he buried his face into Nasta’s neck and he cried messily, wrapping his arms around Nasta and holding on tight.

“Here, Harry. Pain potion.” Max said shortly, sounding like he was near tears himself.

Nasta helped Harry to drink the potion down and he held him through all the grimaces of distaste, the spluttering and the heaving at the taste of the vile potion as Harry had to sip it as he was huffing and hiccupping from his crying too much to knock it back in one as he usual would have.

“Are…are you alright, darling?”

Harry looked up at the voice of Narcissa Malfoy and he nodded minimally, silently, his face still wet from his tears and dribble.

“Who screamed?” He asked in a voice as rough as sandpaper.

“Leolin.” Nasta sighed. “He’s alright, he was having a feed and if we’d known that he was going to look around instead of feeding with his eyes closed as usual then we would have fed him in the kitchen, but he just caught sight of you and he immediately wanted your attention and he kicked off when he was refused. Myron’s taken him for some air.”

Harry nodded once, but he moved his head too much and he gasped from the pain that it had caused him and then he stayed as still as he possibly could while the pain potion did its job. Nasta stroked his hair repeatedly while holding him close to his bare chest to try and help comfort him.

“I was just saying that Draco is going for his first anger management class tomorrow.” Lucius Malfoy told him. Tegan was ‘reading’ a book on his lap, babbling to herself as she turned the pages. She had Lucius’ bulky Malfoy crest ring clutched in one hand and it made Harry smile as Lucius had obviously taken it off for her to hold and play with.

“How is he?” Harry asked concernedly.

“He’s regretful, of course.” Narcissa told him. “He’s missing you and the children terribly too. He keeps wondering aloud what you might be doing or he’ll turn around and say that Braiden would be having his bath at that time or Leolin would be due a feed.”

It was obvious that Max or Nasta, maybe both, had already warned the two elder Malfoys not to say anything that would obviously upset him. He realised then that Draco must be in a bad way, much worse than what everyone around him was letting on, and it made him more determined to go and see him tomorrow morning. He needed to get all of his anger and pain out at what Draco had done to him, to Blaise and to their children and Draco needed to know that he still cared. That he was still loved and cared for, despite everything that had happened, or he wouldn’t be able to get through the classes at all. He needed to know that he still had something to fight for or he wouldn’t apply himself one hundred percent to the classes. After all, why would he even try when he had already lost what he was supposedly working towards?

“I miss him too.” Harry said, a little slurred as the powerful pain potion started working. “Can’t let this happen again, though.” He said softly, almost to himself.

“We completely understand. This definitely cannot be allowed to happen ever again.” Narcissa agreed immediately. “We’ve already told Draco as such and he is going to these classes, we’re not even forcing him, he wishes to go to them and more than that, he is very enthusiastic about going. He doesn’t want this to happen again either.”

Harry was completely gone by this point thanks to the potion and he blinked languidly and sluggishly. He peered around with glassy, bleary eyes and he hummed confusedly, seeing things that only he could see.

“Where are my babies?” He asked, looking right past Calix, Regan, Ave, Eva and Tegan, who were all in the room with him and he instead looked around for something which clearly wasn’t there.

“Please, don’t do this again, Harry.” Max pleaded with him, near tears.

“I want my centaur babies. Where have you put them, what have you done with them?” He cried out, looking around with increasing alarm and panic.

“You don’t have any centaur babies, Harry.” Nasta said sadly.

“I do! What have you done with them?! I want them back!” He insisted, fighting against Nasta’s hold on him. “I want them back right now!”

“Is that the effect of the potion?” Lucius asked worriedly, very alarmed at the rapid change in Harry’s behaviour and the decline of his mental faculties.

Max nodded. “It is ridiculously strong. I actually protested him being given it at first, because of how very powerful it is, but the alternative was another potion not being strong enough for the level of pain that Harry was experiencing and thus making it a waste to give him the potion in the first place. Then Harry would have still been in pain and unable to take any more potions and that was unacceptable. He’s on milder potions now for managing his day-to-day pain, but we have a handful of the powerful potions still, just in case he has an episode like he did earlier, where he experiences very strong pain.”

“He’s going to be like this for a few hours now.” Nasta said as he held a struggling Harry against his chest and stopped him from going to hunt for his missing centaur babies. Just because Harry could no longer feel the pain that he was in, did not mean that he wasn’t causing any damage by moving around as he was.

“Because he’s not in any pain, in fact he can’t actually feel anything at the moment, he doesn’t think that he’s hurt.” Max said, almost reading Nasta’s mind. “So he actually does more damage by wriggling and moving around as he is because he can’t feel a thing, his body is completely cut off from his pain receptors, and he thinks that he’s completely fine when underneath the numbing effect of the potion, his body is screaming with pain.” Max explained sadly.

Harry stayed in his painless bubble, upsetting his mates, ignoring his babies as he tried to search for his centaur babies and he was talking rubbish for most of the afternoon, including recounting a very steamy, passionate encounter with ‘his centaur’ in his nest. It was almost a relief to all those present when, after a few hours of this behaviour, he eventually went quiet, only mumbling unintelligible words now and then, before he fell asleep on Nasta’s chest again. He was then carefully placed back into the little nest of a bed made up on the settee in the other, much quieter room, and he was left to just rest and sleep while those remaining tried to push what he’d said from their minds, trying futilely to block it from their memories.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

When Harry next woke up several hours later, it was pitch dark in the room and he was not alone in his little settee nest, Blaise was wrapped around him, fast asleep and lightly snuffling, but the overprotective Mothers’, Nasta and Max, were nowhere in sight.
He tested his body a bit and then, when no agonising pain ripped through him, he sat himself up slowly and carefully. He got up and tentatively put one foot in front of the other and he made his way to the door in the darkness. He opened it as quietly as he could manage and he carefully padded down the corridor, to the first door on the right, where Nasta had pointed out the bathroom to him.
The room behind the door couldn’t even be called a bathroom. It was huge and included a full sized bath that would have fit him and two other mates comfortably, as well as a large shower, that could have again fit himself and two other mates with elbow room. The room had beautifully carved counters along the one corner of the room, a beautiful, smooth sink sunken into the top of the one counter closest to the toilet. All of them were latched and couldn’t be opened by any wandering toddlers. Well, he had to go digging through the cupboards and drawers as his curiosity got the better of him and he found mostly baby cleaning things, baby shampoo, baby bubble bath, bath toys and so on, but in one cupboard, the one under the sink, he found clean flannels, shaving foam, a massive pack of disposable razors (which made him grin) and spare boxes of soap and toilet paper.
He used the toilet and washed his hands as his eyes took in every inch of his new home. He came out of the bathroom and headed further down the corridor and he then turned left to go down another corridor to the massive kitchen. Max really had done well with the kitchen, it was beautiful and there were even false windows that had been charmed to reflect the weather outside, as there was only the one exterior wall.
He boiled the kettle and snatched a mug from the mug tree next to it. They were all brand new and they were three different colours, white, pale grey and pale blue. They matched the same colours as the soft, pale and very open and spacious kitchen.
He made himself tea, trying not to overdo it, but he felt no pain as he was still being covered by the pain potion that he’d taken earlier. He really did hate that potion, but he couldn’t deny that its effects were outstanding. He almost felt completely normal, completely himself again.
He went back to the living room, padding quietly past Blaise and he sat himself back in the nest next to his mate and he sipped at his tea quietly, trying not to move too much, but he really was not feeling much of anything.

“Are you alright, Prezioso?”

Harry turned, almost choking on his sip of tea at the voice in the dark and he coughed a little before answering. “Fine, I just woke up and I needed a drink. You should go back to sleep.”

Blaise did the opposite and he sat himself up and mirrored him, resting their bodies beside one another.

“Are Nasta and Max in bed?” Harry asked, wondering why they’d been left alone.

“I convinced them to leave you to me so that they could focus on the kids. It took an hour of arguing before they agreed that we’d be fine down here on our own for the night. Nasta did cut off the floo access to anyone who wasn’t immediate family though, just in case.” Blaise rolled his eyes to show just how ridiculous he thought that idea was.

Harry chuckled as he drained his tea and he put the empty cup down on the side table and he turned on the lamp that he found there too, just so that they weren’t straining their eyes so much in the dark, as Drackens did have a good level of night vision, before he turned to cuddle into Blaise.

“Can I have skin contact, please?” He asked quietly, a little unsurely.

“Of course you can, Bello. I’d never deny you anything that you wanted…within reason of course.”

Blaise immediately stripped himself off and he helped Harry take off his pyjama top too and they laid together, bare skin against bare skin. Blaise drew patterns on Harry’s back with his fingers and Harry sighed, rubbing his thumb across Blaise’s skin, dipping his thumb into his belly button and smiling as he encountered the slight patch of hairs that Blaise had on his lower belly.
He turned his head and craned it back and he puckered his lips up at Blaise, who chuckled and obliged him by kissing him. Then they kissed again…then again. Their soothing touches became harder, stroking instead of teasing, their kisses became something more as one of them, neither would remember who, added their tongue to their kisses. It had been so long since they’d last had contact of this kind, and with Max and Nasta being so very overprotective, it was likely that neither of them would get contact of this kind in the near future while their two older mates were being so paranoid and overprotective.
They probably should have controlled themselves, they probably should have reeled themselves in, but neither of them did and very soon Blaise was over Harry, kissing him deeply and passionately while his one hand was inside his pyjama bottoms, stroking Harry to full hardness.
Blaise pulled back with a curse and Harry realised that he’d been trying to kick off his own pyjama bottoms, but they’d gotten caught around his knees. Blaise yanked them off of his lower legs and threw them over the side of the settee before turning to pull off Harry’s bottoms too. Then they were both naked, neither of them thinking straight or about any consequences as Blaise moved back over him, sliding his body along Harry’s, as he lined up their mouths for another kiss as his hands touched as much skin as he could.

Harry moaned softly and rolled his hips gently up into Blaise. “That feels so good.”

“Are you in any pain?”

“I just said it feels good, pain doesn’t feel good.” Harry groaned. “Or at least it doesn’t to me…not too much of it anyway. I like being spanked and a bit of hair pulling or biting, anything else is a no.”

Blaise chuckled and he moved down to his neck and he kissed the soft skin twice, then he bit him lightly. Harry moaned and he arched himself up into Blaise.

“I don’t have any lube.” Blaise complained. “Nasta has both of our wands safe upstairs. I think he was worried that we’d start duelling down here without him to watch over us or something.”

Harry chuckled at the absurdity of that, shaking his head at Nasta’s overprotectiveness, before he gave Blaise a very sexy, naughty look and he took Blaise’s hand and he sucked two fingers into his mouth, licking them and putting as much saliva onto them as he could manage. He kept eye contact with Blaise as he did so, watching as those indigo eyes darkened and Blaise groaned deeply.
Blaise pulled his fingers free and replaced them with his tongue. The saliva coated fingers played around the entrance to Harry’s body and one slid into him slowly and gently.
Harry moaned into the kiss and he thrust his tongue back into Blaise’s mouth, holding his mate’s head still by holding onto the back of Blaise’s head. It was disconcerting to touch Blaise’s head and not feel his silky, layered hair, only short, stubbly bristles, but Harry ignored it as he held Blaise’s head and kissed him furiously.

“Oh! Ooh” He moaned as one of those long, elegant fingers found the little nub inside his body and Blaise teased it mercilessly.

“Keep your body as straight as you can, Bello.”

Harry nodded and he knew why, him yelling out in pain really would be a mood killer…and it would probably bring Max and Nasta running and then he and Blaise would never get any peace again as those two men would hover over them, especially if they were caught in such a compromising position.
Blaise kissed down his chin and then down to his neck, he nibbled and bit before he carried on down to his collar bone, he licked and kissed at it before going down even further to flick his tongue over his left nipple. Harry gasped and then moaned happily.
Blaise continued to tease him with his fingers inside his body and his mouth on his nipple, switching over to pay the other one attention too as he prepared him for something that they probably shouldn’t have been doing. Max and Nasta would kill them both and then likely separate them like naughty children, but Harry didn’t frankly care as he pushed Blaise away from him.

“Now.” He said, his chest heaving with the sensations he was feeling. “Now, please.”

“I’ve only used two fingers.” Blaise told him.

“I know. I’m ready, Blaise. Listen to me, please.”

Blaise smiled. “I always do.”

Blaise slipped back and he spat quietly into his own hand, moving it down to touch himself. He made a soft noise before he rolled his hips forward. He lay down and kissed him, hard, burning with passion as he lifted one hand to push it through Harry’s hair to anchor his head where he wanted it as he twisted his own head to kiss him deeply.
He used his other hand to guide himself to the entrance to Harry’s body. He kissed harder and pushed himself into him in one slow, smooth, long thrust and Harry moaned into the kiss. Blaise held still within him and focused purely on kissing and touching him, lightly pressing Harry’s nipple between his finger and thumb before he let go of it and rubbed his thumb over the hardened nub.

“Better?” Blaise asked, pulling back to look at his face.

Harry’s eyes were half lidded, his mouth slightly open and he nodded. “Yes. Yes, please, Blaise. Please, my love. I need this. I need this so much.”

Blaise nodded and he pulled back slowly, carefully. He waited, with just the head of himself inside Harry’s body, for a short moment before he pushed back in slowly and gently.

“Ti amo tanto.” Blaise whispered, nuzzling his cheek.

“Ti amo, Blaise.” Harry said back raggedly as he tried to hold onto the pleasure of the slow, sweet thrusts that Blaise was making him feel.

Blaise kissed him harder and he pushed back into him with a bit more pace, pulling out a little quicker and pushing back in without pause. Harry groaned and rolled his hips minimally up into Blaise to try and make those sensations last for longer.

“Don’t move, Harry.” Blaise told him seriously.

“I can’t help it.” Harry complained with a moan. “It feels so good.”

“No pain?”

“None. Are you in pain?”

“Fuck no.” Blaise chuckled, which made them both moan. “You feel so amazing. Ti amo.”

“Please move.”

Blaise did as Harry had asked him and he moved quicker. He by no means moved as roughly as he could, nor did he go as fast or as hard as he usually would have. Instead he kept things smooth and slightly shallow. It was more gentle than they were used to and it felt so intimate, so loving and Harry sighed softly, happily at the sensations that were building up so slowly within him.

“I love you so, so much.” Harry said as he wrapped his arms around Blaise’s neck and tried not to move his legs or his hips as Blaise did all of the work in pleasuring them both.

Blaise grunted and he lowered his head to kiss him, hard and passionately, with a lot of forceful tongue. Harry rather thought that he was transferring all of the energy that he wanted to be using in his thrusts into the kiss. Harry kissed back just as passionately, shoving his tongue into Blaise’s mouth like he wanted to be doing with his hips.
The sensations grew slowly, oh so slowly, each slow thrust pushing him closer and closer to orgasm and the slow build up was so deliciously painful that his gut was squirming pleasantly. Blaise’s breathing was becoming ragged and he started panting, their kisses became quick and furious clashes of tongues and lips as the both of them rapidly became breathless and overwrought with pleasure.
Harry made a soft noise, then another and then the sounds came continuously as his pleasure spiked and he grunted, covering his mouth with his hand to prevent the scream that wanted to come out as he orgasmed hard, spilling himself over Blaise and his own belly.
He was sweaty and sated, panting hard to try and catch his breath as Blaise forced himself with a steel will to keep to the slow, shallow thrusts as Harry’s body clenched around him, massaging him as he pushed in and pulled out gently.
Blaise grunted and threw his head back as he orgasmed and he juddered on top of Harry for a moment before he sighed and laid himself carefully back onto Harry, snuggling for a moment. Once they’d both caught their breath, Blaise rolled to the side and he groaned.

“Maybe that was a bad idea after all. My head is pounding.” He said with a chuckle.

“I’m alright.” Harry said with a grin. “Until later today at least. Do you regret it?”

Blaise scoffed and shook his head gingerly. “Never.” He insisted firmly. “I’ve never regret making love to you, you are everything to me, Prezioso.”

Blaise cuddled up to Harry, rolling over to spoon against the side of him, head on Harry’s chest as Harry had to lay straight. Harry lifted a hand and he rubbed his fingers over Blaise’s stubbly head, stroking his thumb over his temple to try and ease away the pounding headache that had been caused by Blaise’s strong orgasm.
They fell back to sleep, naked, still covered in cum, snuggled up to one another, Blaise wrapped around Harry the way that Harry was usually wrapped around his mates. He couldn’t wait until he was completely healed and this horrible nightmare was behind them…completely behind all five of them. He was not giving up on Draco, he was not going to lose one of his mates over this, regardless of what had happened. He was going to give Draco the chance to go to these classes and sort himself out, but first, he was going to wake up early, floo over to the Malfoy house and he was going to get his anger and frustration off of his chest before it could fester and become a problem in the future.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry felt no shame in sneaking into the Malfoy house. It was early morning, so if they weren’t already up, then they would be soon. He had decided against getting dressed, he wanted to do what he needed to and then get back as quickly as possible and getting dressed would have been a painful waste of time. He had instead just slipped back into his pyjamas and forced on his old, battered trainers and he’d come as he was, tousled sex hair and all.
Harry ignored the little house elf that had popped immediately into the room after his arrival and had tried to stop him from going any further into the house. He knew where he was going, he could follow the way to Draco’s bedroom as he could smell it.

“Young master needs to wait in the receiv…”

“Go away, please.” Harry said firmly as the little elf hurried by his side. “Draco is my mate and I’ll see him when I want to without an appointment, thank you.”

Harry followed the scent of Draco through the house and he pushed open a door on the far side of the first floor. Draco was in his bed sleeping, his face was still bruised and his bottom lip was scabbed over. His eyes looked purple from a mix of lack of sleep and too much crying. It broke Harry’s heart.
He shut the door quietly and he warded it tight, tapping into his Dracken side to manage it without his wand, to prevent anyone from coming in and disturbing them. He sat on the edge of the bed and he sighed. He stroked the silky, baby fine, blond hair that he had missed and he sighed heavier. Why had this happened? How had it come to this? It should never have come to this, it should never have happened.
Everything had changed and they were never going to forget this incident, but he did hope…he wanted for it all to be forgiven. He wanted to go back to having his four mates and his babies around him. He was due a heat period soon, it was going to be hell on him if just one of his mates were missing, he knew that from the heat that he’d experienced when he was bonding to Draco, when he hadn’t known that Max needed to be there too.
Harry had expected to feel incredibly angry when he saw Draco again for the first time, but he didn’t. He felt pained knowing that this man had hurt him, had hurt Blaise and their children and their family, but the anger that he’d been feeling since the incident was gone. He felt tired. Tired and inexpressibly sad. Maybe he shouldn’t have come here today after all, not just because his fucked up leg was slowing him down and aching fiercely, but because he still didn’t know what to think or feel over everything that had happened and he didn’t know if he could control his own emotions. He didn’t know how to feel, so therefore he had no idea how he was going to act.
Draco sighed and his silver-blue eyes fluttered open as his Dracken sensed that something was wrong around him. Harry had a moment of looking into his eyes, wondering if he wanted to smile at him or smash his fist down into those perfect teeth, before Draco’s eyes closed again.
Harry knew what Draco was thinking though and he needed to speak to him before Max and Nasta came hunting for him. They’d know immediately where he’d come after their talk yesterday if they woke up and found him missing.

“You’re not dreaming, Draco.” He said softly.

Those eyes snapped open and Draco reached a hand out to touch him. Harry took that hand into his own and squeezed it gently.
Draco sat bolt upright and pulled him into a huge, crushing hug and he started sobbing onto his shoulder.

“Nasta said that I wasn’t allowed to see you or the kids.” Draco whimpered.

“Nasta doesn’t know that I’m here, but I had to see you. I had to tell you that I still love you.” Harry said, feeling like he was a hundred years old.

“How can you after what I did?” Draco asked him seriously.

“I didn’t fall in love with you overnight, Draco, and I won’t fall out of love with you overnight either. It’ll take time and I know that if I’d followed Nasta and Max’s wishes and not come here, if I’d let the anger and rage fester, then I could have easily fallen out of love with you, maybe I’d have even come to hate and resent you for what you did, given enough time away from you. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want that to happen. I fought for you once, to be my mate. I chose you more than I chose any of the others, because I had to fight to keep you. Now you need to do the same. You need to fight for me, Draco. You need to fight for me, for Max and Blaise and Nasta, for our beautiful children and all the ones that will come later in our lives. You need to fight for us, for your family, or you’re going to lose us.”

“I will do whatever it takes.” Draco swore to him seriously. “I love you. I love you so much, all of you and the kids too, of course. I can’t believe I did something so awful to you all.”

“You need help.” Harry said even more seriously.

Draco nodded. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, but I’m taking anger management classes, all with different therapists. My first one is actually later today.”

Harry pulled his legs up and he lay down in Draco’s bed, mostly because he couldn’t stay sat up for a moment longer. Draco looked really worried at his behaviour.

“Are you alright?”

“No, Draco I’m not alright. I’m not going to lie to you, you seriously hurt me and it was almost fatal.” Harry said, not sugar coating anything. “I’m having trouble sitting up for any length of time because it starts putting too much pressure on my core muscles and there is a very real danger of my gut opening up again. My leg was also very badly injured, so I can’t really walk at all. It took ages just to get here and the floo was absolute agony.”

Draco’s hand hovered over him and finally touched his face, cupping his cheek.

“I’m so sorry.”

“So you’ve said. There is nothing more that you can say now, Draco. You need to show it. You need to show us that you’re willing to change. You need to show that you’re sorry. You can’t keep holding onto this anger and maybe it was the suppressant potion that you were taking that first set you on edge and made you so aggressive, but you are no longer on that potion, Draco. It’s no longer in your system, you were properly detoxed and it is no longer in your system.” He stressed for emphasis. “The deposit it laid down is not an excuse. You need to get rid of this anger, of all this aggression, Draco, before it tears us all apart, before you do actually end up permanently killing one or more of us.”

Draco lay down next to him and wound an arm around him, holding him tight and pressing every inch of Harry against himself as if he was memorising the feel of his body, being careful of his aforementioned leg and belly.

“I didn’t see it as you.” He said softly. “When I dug my claws into you, I wasn’t seeing you. I swear it.”

Harry nodded. “That may be so, but it was me. I can’t have a dominant who attacks me, Draco, not for any reason. I can’t have a dominant who hurts my children.” He said with a bite of a growl to his voice.

“I will get better. I’ll learn how to control myself. I will.” Draco swore determinedly. “I love you. I’m just scared that I’ve already ruined it. Nasta was so angry and Max and Blaise haven’t even come to see me.”

“Blaise is still injured too.” Harry defended easily. “He’s having a bit of trouble with his memory. He keeps getting names mixed up and he doesn’t remember the fight at all, so he doesn’t really know what happened and thus he has no emotions linked to the event.”

“So he doesn’t hate me?” Draco asked with a hint of hope.

Harry shook his head. “He still loves you, we all do, Draco. As I said, none of us are going to fall out of love with you overnight, we still love you, you’re still our mate. But we’re also very angry, Max in particular. He’s scared and hurt and he’s angry, so all together he’s not willing to forgive you just yet. He needs some time to calm down first. He’s feeling guilty, because he was right there when the fight started. He thinks that he should have done more to protect me, to protect Blaise and the kids and it’s eating him up inside and he’s channelling that into rage so that he doesn’t completely breakdown. It just so happens that you’re a very convenient target for that rage after what you did.”

“I don’t know how to fix this.” Draco said tearfully.

“Just get better.” Harry said firmly. “Show us, prove to us, that you want to get rid of your anger and the aggressive behaviour. Show us that you love us enough to work hard for us, because we still love you and regardless of what’s happened, we can get over this. We can.”

“How? What I did was unforgivable and I hurt Braiden and Leolin too! How can you even stand to look at me?”

“Enough.” Harry said sternly. “This woe is me attitude is not going to get you through these classes, Draco. I forgave Max when he was so angry with me that he couldn’t stay in the same house as me, his own home! I almost killed Cepheus, remember? I almost killed a member of Max’s family and he forgave me for that! And I forgave him when his leaving left me alone with the kids and then Leolin and Calix were so very sick…I thought they were going to die, Draco. I thought that my two babies were going to die and Max wasn’t even there. I forgave him for that, we all did despite how angry we were with him at the time. It doesn’t last, Draco, but you have to work hard for us, like Max did. You can’t just give up on us because things get difficult, we still love you and we will forgive you in time.”

“I will work hard for you, I swear it.”

Harry smiled. “I love you, but I think I need to get back before Max and Nasta find me missing and panic.”

Draco nodded and he sat up, helping Harry sit up too, but Harry let out a pained gasp at the small movement regardless. Draco looked so upset just from that, but Harry ignored it. Draco’s upset or apologies were not what he needed right now. He needed his mate to be better, so this would never happen again.
Draco helped him down the corridor and carried him down the stairs so that Harry didn’t have to endure the agony of it. They met the elder Malfoys waiting for them in the receiving room.

“You should not be here.” Lucius told him firmly. “You haven’t yet recovered.”

Harry nodded. “I know. But I needed to be here, just to lend a bit of extra support.”

“Shall I assume that Nasta and Maximilius do not know that you’re here?” Lucius asked him shrewdly.

Harry snorted. “As if they would have let me come if they did know. That’s why I came so early, before they woke up. Blaise and me stayed in our settee nest last night.” Harry smiled, but fought off the blush at the memory of just what he and Blaise had done in that settee nest. Perhaps that was why he was so sore today and not actually because he was pushing himself too hard. Max and Nasta would never have had sex with him in his condition, but Blaise had taken him at his word and had listened to him. Blaise had always listened to him and done what he wanted. Always.

“You need to get back.” Draco told him, but Harry could tell from the tone of his voice that he didn’t want to let him go. “I don’t know when I’ll be seeing you again.” He said sadly, confirming Harry’s suspicions.

“I know. Nasta will order me not to see you again when I get back, if he finds out that I’ve been here that is and I have no intentions of letting him know about this little visit, but that’s why it was so important for me to see you today, before the idea occurred to him to order me not to come to see you. It won’t be forever, Draco, not if you work hard.”

“I will, I promise.” Draco sighed and he held Harry closer for a moment before carefully setting him on his feet.

Harry kissed him gently on the lips and shooed him away to get ready for his classes. He gave a meaningful glance to Lucius and Narcissa and then he went back through the floo to the new house. The house that Draco didn’t know about yet.
Everything was silent and quiet when he arrived back home and Harry relaxed fractionally. Blaise was still fast asleep and Harry contemplated joining him again, but he needed to be absolutely sure that his little jaunt over to see Draco had not been noticed. He kicked his shoes off and he padded out into the hallway with bare feet and he took the left turn to the kitchen. It was in darkness. Relaxing further, he turned back around and he headed down a new corridor, one that he hadn’t been down yet, and he found the stairs, climbing them carefully and slowly.
He cursed under his breath as he saw how many doors were up here and he tried to remember what Blaise had been saying yesterday, when he’d went on the hunt for a bathroom on the first floor. He was sure that Blaise had said the first door off of the landing was a guest bedroom and then opposite each other, to either side of the corridor, were nurseries, and the biggest room, next door to the nursery on the right side was the master bedroom.
Harry eased open the door to the master bedroom, thankful that it was brand new and didn’t make even a whisper of sound, as he peeked in on Max and Nasta, who were both still asleep, and he smiled to see them all cuddled up and cosy together in the bed, wrapped around one another in a tangle of interwound limbs.
The room was absolutely massive, the bed a monstrosity with a thick, solid wooden headboard that had to have been custom made. The carpet squished under his bare toes and it made him smile as it tickled. He couldn’t really see colours, it was too dark in the room with the only light coming in through the open doorway from the hallway, but he thought that it might have been red. Blaise and Draco would not like that, he thought happily.
He padded on soft feet, made easier by the very thick, plush carpet, to the large bed and he took his wand carefully from the bedside table, where it lay in a bundle with Blaise, Nasta and Max’s wands, and he was thankful that Nasta and Max had chosen to sleep more on the opposite side of the bed as he quietly whispered the incantation for a scent remover, sweeping his body with his wand to remove Draco’s scent from his clothes and body, before he quietly replaced it, his eyes always on Max and Nasta in the bed.
Once he was done with his practical business, he turned his back to the bed, and to the sleeping Max and Nasta, and he padded quietly over to the twin bassinets at the bedside which held his twin daughters, Eva and little Ave. They could fit several bassinets side by side easily in the space between their bed and the far wall and for some unexplainable reason it made him well up with happiness. It made him and his Dracken happy to know that their mates had been so thoughtful as to make so much room for their newborns, even if they didn’t need quite so much room or ever use all of it, it made him force back a happy trill to know that they had been thinking of their growing family when building their home regardless.
He kissed both Eva and Ave softly before he just stood there and smiled at them. He touched their little hands, tucked them in more firmly and smoothed their curls from their sleeping faces.

“Why are you up here?” A soft voice demanded from behind him.

Harry startled, his heart turning over with fright, and he peered back over to the bed, to Nasta, who’d cracked an eye open at the disturbance in the air caused by his presence. Nasta pushed himself up on his arm, taking in Harry’s pyjamas and bare feet with apparent approval. Harry knew then that it was the right decision to keep his pyjamas on to go and visit Draco.

“I woke up suddenly and thought that it might be one of the kids.” He lied convincingly. “I was just coming to check on them, but I don’t know my way around up here. I found four empty rooms, one looked to be a guest bedroom, but I must have missed the nursery, unless it’s the door down the bottom of the corridor, but I never reached that far as I found the master bedroom before the nursery, so I came to check on my baby girls first.”

Nasta groaned and he laid himself back down before he extracted himself carefully from Max’s body without waking the bigger man and he stretched out before he sat back up and then got himself up and out of the bed. He came to kiss him and held him loosely around the waist.

“You shouldn’t have struggled up the stairs, Harry. How is your leg?”

“Aching.” He replied truthfully. “But my babies always come first, Nas. You know that.”

Nasta sighed and he herded him to the other side of the room when Harry went to make his way out into the corridor. Harry was confused when Nasta opened a door, of what he had assumed was a bathroom or a wardrobe, only to be pleasantly surprised when he walked in to find himself in a nursery, right next door to the master bedroom, connected to it by the door. It was again a very large room, but there were five cots around the walls, a changing table too, and Harry could see all the occupants of the cots from the door, he loved that he was able to do that.
Only Calix was awake, sitting in his cot quietly, holding his toes and rocking back and forth with a grin. He giggled when he saw them and he hefted himself up with the bars of his cot and he reached out for them.

“Mummy.” He called out. “Pick up.”

“This is why I woke up!” Harry declared as he reached down into the cot.

Nasta however picked Calix up before Harry could and placed him on his hip. Harry sighed and shook his head, but he still smiled. Nasta picked him up too, carefully and gently, and carried him and Calix out of the nursery, through another door that led onto the hallway, before carrying them down the stairs.

“Blaise is still asleep.” Harry told Nasta, who veered off into the kitchen instead and through to the larger family room.

Harry got placed on one of three large, five seater settees and a squirming Calix got placed on the floor. He hauled himself up to his feet and he toddled right over to the toy box and he started digging. Harry smiled adoringly at him.

“Did you grab the baby monitors?” He asked distractedly.

“I need the bathroom, so I’ll grab them on my way back down. Just don’t move.”

“Not moving.” Harry replied. “Unless Calix needs me, then no promises.”

Nasta looked like he’d argue with him, but he just sighed and nodded.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“I love you.” Harry said quietly.

Nasta’s entire stance softened and he smiled. “I love you too, Harry. So very much.”

His oldest mate came back over to him and he cupped his face in his hands, fingers pressing gently across his jaw and into his cheeks before he bent and kissed him.
He pulled back, but Harry slipped his fingers into Nasta’s black hair and tugged him back down and into a more passionate kiss that left them both breathless and chuckling.

“Kisses!”

Calix’s shriek broke them apart as he hurried over to them on little legs and their son lifted his arms right up over his head.

“Want kisses too, Mummy!”

“You are so adorable, I can’t stand it!” Harry cooed as Nasta swept their son up and kissed him.

Nasta presented Calix to him and Harry kissed him soundly on the mouth, Calix making a smacking noise as he did so.

Harry chuckled in joy at Calix’s antics as Nasta placed him back on the floor and Harry watched him toddle off yet again, back towards his toys.

“When do you think we should start toilet training them?” He asked. “They’re old enough to start trying I think.”

“Braiden definitely is. I was going to bring it up when we were more settled, but he’s almost two. It’s about time that we introduced him to that potty that we bought for him.”

“I’m so excited to try him on it.” Harry said with a grin. “He’s been hiding while he’s going in his nappy recently. If that’s not a sign that he’s ready to try then I don’t know what is.”

“Speaking of potties. I’ll be right back.” Nasta said with a small grin before leaving the family room.

Harry sighed and he relaxed back, letting his muscles unclench and lose all tension. Nasta was none the wiser about his visit to Draco and he hoped to keep it that way.
He settled on the settee, trying to ignore the ache that was getting fiercer in both his leg and his abdomen. He breathed through it and he watched Calix. He had no idea if it had been his jaunt to Malfoy Manor or the sex that he’d had with Blaise, but his leg and stomach were killing him. He’d over done it and now his body was punishing him for it.

“You’re in pain.”

Harry tipped his head back on the settee to see Nasta looking at him, two baby monitors in hand.

“Yeah. I think I need a potion, not one of the strong ones, but one of the other ones.” Harry said, grimacing.

Nasta came around the settee and put the monitors down on the coffee table, reaching out to cup his cheeks. Harry got a kiss and then Nasta went back into the kitchen, through the top door. Harry noticed that there was a set of double doors to the left side of him and he wondered where they went.
Nasta came back with a pain potion and a cup of tea, sitting by the side of him and uncorking the slim vial.

“Where does that door go?” Harry asked as Nasta was sorting out his potion for him.

Nasta looked over to the double doors and his face scrunched up. He got that look on his face where he didn’t want Harry to know something.

“It goes into the smaller living room, doesn’t it?” He asked as he realised that the other room would be beside this one, but he already knew the answer. “Why didn’t you say yesterday, I could have seen the kids and…and that was why you didn’t tell me. You didn’t want me seeing them, did you?” He demanded.

“Drink your potion.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. He allowed Nasta to tip the contents of the vial down his throat and he swallowed hard, getting it all down in one go. It made his eyes water and he stuck his tongue out in absolute disgust.
Nasta smiled gently at him and he held the cup of tea out for him to sip at to remove the taste from his mouth.

“It’s so disgusting.” He complained as he wiped his eyes dry.

Nasta cupped his cheeks and used his thumbs to catch the tears that Harry had missed. He kissed him again and pulled him in to rest against him quietly as Calix played on the floor. At least it was quiet until a shrill cry came over one of the baby monitors.

“I got it.” Nasta said, making to stand up, but they heard Max grunting over the monitor and lumbering out of bed instead.

“I guess Max has it.” Harry chuckled before he lay back on Nasta’s chest.

“A good thing too, I’m very comfortable right where I am.” Nasta smiled as he drank his own morning cup of green tea.

Harry smiled and relaxed himself as the potion got to work, erasing his pain and melting the tension from his muscles.

“Better?” Nasta asked him once he felt Harry relax fully.

He nodded carefully and then sighed when there was no pain. “Yeah, that’s better now.”

“You should know better than to take on the stairs by yourself.” Nasta lectured him.

“I know, I know. I can’t always help it though, if I think that my babies need me, then that’s it, nothing else matters to me. I’d struggle up those stairs for my babies if both of my legs were severed at the groin and I had to crawl up them with just my arms.”

Nasta tried to remain calm as he heard that and he nodded. He had to try and understand things from Harry’s point of view. He was a submissive Dracken, of course his children were going to come first for him, just like Harry came first for him because he was a dominant. It wasn’t Harry’s fault, it was just his inherent instincts and no matter how hard he tried, he could never change them, it was a fundamental characteristic of a submissive Dracken and like it or not, he had to accept it.

“Here you are. I saw that Blaise was still asleep and I panicked a bit when I realised he was alone.” Max sighed as he hefted in the twin girls.

“Are they okay?” Harry asked, trying to peer at the two girls from against Nasta’s chest.

“One woke up the other, as usual.” Max groaned. “But other than that, they’re fine. Ave needed a nappy change.” He explained when Harry looked at the girls critically. “She’s all clean and fresh.” He smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

Harry smiled back and held his arms out for her, before looking to Nasta, as if seeking permission and that hurt Nasta’s heart too. It had been what he’d wanted…or so he had thought. But now that it had actually happened, it was all wrong. It felt wrong for Harry to ask his permission for something, for anything. Harry was his mate, his lover, not his child. Harry didn’t need his permission to do anything, he refused to be such a controlling, domineering mate.
He refused to answer the non-verbal look that Harry had given him and Max, possibly feeling the tension in the air, laid Ave in Harry’s outstretched arms. When Nasta didn’t say anything, Harry smiled widely and he pulled her into his chest, cooing over her and tickling her tummy. It was natural for him to be like this, it was normal to see Harry with a baby in his arms. Perhaps that was what they needed now…normal.

Nasta put his hand on Harry’s knee and he squeezed gently. “I’m going to go and check on Leolin.” He said as he stood up.

“Nasta.” Harry called out softly. “Thank you.”

Nasta had to close his eyes and breathe deeply through the pain of having his submissive thank him for letting him hold his own child with no fuss. They really did need normal in their lives and routines again if this is what they’d sunk to.
He left the room without saying a word and he went to check on his remaining children, particularly on Leolin, who were all fast asleep still.
He went back down to the ground floor and he didn’t know what to do for the best, he didn’t know what would make things better, but he knew that they couldn’t carry on like this.
He made everyone a cup of tea, squeezing a good glob of honey into Harry’s cup and he stirred it vigorously for a minute before heading back into the family room and handing out the tea to each person.

“We’re going to need to have a sit down and we need to talk this through.” He said softly, almost randomly as he broke through Harry and Max’s conversation about getting new sleepsuits for the rapidly growing girls, but his mind was working furiously as he tried to figure out how to put his family to rights again.

“What is there to talk about?” Max asked, almost too calmly. Nasta could see the flash of anger in those blue eyes and he sighed. This would be so much easier if he didn’t have Max fighting against him too. He needed to get Max to see things from an outlook perspective, he needed to get Max on board with him. Things would be so much easier if he and Max were working together on the same page. If all of them, every single one of them, were all on the same page and were working together, then things could actually get done and things would be sorted much quicker and much easier. They might actually be able to become a family again if they all worked towards the same goals together, as they supported one another towards those goals. They needed to be strong now, to pull together and work hard to salvage this situation.

“Don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be.” Nasta said softly, keeping his temper so that he didn’t ignite another fight. “You know that we need to talk about how to proceed from here.”

“Calmly and with no shouting.” Harry said. “I’ve had enough of fighting, I’ve had enough anger and shouting.”

“We’ll do it calmly.” Nasta nodded. “Like the adults that we are.”

They heard a low moan from the room next door in the strained silence created by the heavy topic. It was followed closely by a second, louder moan.

“Is that Blaise?” Harry asked worriedly. “He was a little dizzy last night and his head was hurting.”

“Why didn’t you say sooner?” Max demanded as he ran to the double doors and flung them open into the other room, going to attend immediately to Blaise.

“Did I…did I do something wrong?” Harry asked in a quiet, unsure voice that wavered with upset. “Was I supposed to call you, or a Healer, if Blaise was a bit dizzy? He said that he was okay.”

Nasta controlled himself and he touched Harry’s cheek. “No, my love. Blaise has been signed off by a Healer, he likely only has a bit of a headache.”

Nasta kissed Harry’s mouth and smiled at him, even though his Dracken wanted to run over to Blaise and sniff every inch of him. Harry needed him too, especially after Max’s unthinking, hurtful outburst.

“Oh, get off, Max.” They heard Blaise complaining. “I have a headache, nothing else.”

“Why are you naked?” Max asked him.

“Why are you dressed?” Blaise answered back lecherously, as quick as a snap.

Harry chuckled softly and even Max, as fretful as he was, saw the funny side of things as he helped Blaise sit up.

“You have…Blaise, what is that?” Max’s good humour had slipped away as quickly as it had come and his voice was like thunder.

“You know what it is, don’t even try to pretend that you don’t. That’s going to hurt like hell to get off now that it’s dry.” Blaise sighed and too late, Harry remembered that Blaise still had their fluids from last night on his body. They had never cleaned up afterwards.

“Are you talking about what I think you are?” Nasta asked far too softly as he stood to see for himself. His eyes flashed as he saw the patch of dried cum on Blaise’s belly. “Did you do this yourself or did you have help?” He asked as he turned to stare at Harry.

Harry sighed. “Alright, so we fucked last night, big deal!”

Harry could almost see Max inflating with anger.

“It is a big fucking deal!” He roared. “You’re both injured!”

His shouts startled Calix, who flinched and looked up worriedly and that made Harry angry as it obviously caused Calix to remember bad memories as he huddled up to make himself appear smaller. Harry saw red.

“Stop shouting, now.” He demanded quietly, furiously angry, but his children came first and he refused to raise his voice.

“I can’t even…what were you thinking?!” Max shouted again.

“I’m warning you!” Harry glared as he stood up and went to Calix, cooing gently to him, trilling gently to reassure him.

Max shoved a hand through his hair as he realised why Harry wanted him to stop shouting, his heart breaking as he caught sight of Calix’s terrified, worried face, but he was so angry, so afraid, that he wanted to shout and rage until Harry and Blaise understood what they’d done and why it was such a bad idea.

“Max, go out to the tree line, have a good shout and scream, and then come back.” Nasta offered and Max nodded tightly, going to do just that.

Harry kissed Calix and distracted him with his toys again, before he stood and put Ave down in the bassinet next to her sister.

“We had sex because we both felt fi…”

“You are not fine.” Nasta said tightly. “You are both very far from fine.”

“I didn’t allow him to move.” Blaise shrugged.

Nasta inhaled audibly and he breathed out again, very forcibly. “His insides were on the floor, Blaise. That sort of damage does not heal overnight. There are internal injuries that could have been aggravated by you being inside him.”

“We understand why you’re worried.” Harry said calmly. “We did let things get a little out of hand, we never intentionally set out to have sex. It just happened when we both woke up in the early hours, but we were very careful and it was soft, gentle love-making, Nas. It certainly wasn’t a hard, rough fuck.”

“Can I sniff you?” Nasta asked, his arms shaking with the pressure of holding his Dracken side back from doing just that. He didn’t know how he would react if Harry refused to allow him to do as such.

Harry nodded though, well aware that Nasta was trying. He hadn’t rushed at him and just sniffed him without asking as he usually would have done and Harry rewarded that by agreeing to subject himself to Nasta’s Dracken side.
Nasta held him so gently that Harry relaxed and allowed Nasta to sniff every inch of his skin, particularly down by his belly and lower abdomen, for a full ten minutes as his dominant was very thorough in his inspection.

“Are you in any pain?” Nasta asked him as he finally finished.

Harry shook his head. “I feel fine today, Nas, honestly. I’ve taken my potion and it was enough. I’m glad that Blaise listened to me, I feel so happy to know that he will take me at my word and not refuse me things out of hand or because he thinks that he knows better. Blaise has always loved and respected me enough to believe me when I say that I’m fine or that I’m ready, he doesn’t question it and I love him so much for that. I know my own body, I know my own limitations and I know myself better than anyone else.”

“You truly love and respect Blaise more than anyone else?” Max’s quiet voice asked from the doorway to the kitchen.

Harry looked over his shoulder and he sighed at the hurt look that Max was trying to hide.

“Blaise loves and respects me back. He respects me and my opinions so much that when I tell him something that I perceive as important, he doesn’t question it and he doesn’t try to make me feel stupid for my own thoughts. Instead he listens to me intently, without judgement, even if he doesn’t give the same idea or thought the same amount of importance as I do or even if he thinks it’s stupid or ridiculous, he understands that I find it important and he is willing to listen to what I have to say just because I think it’s important. Blaise has always respected me in such a way and it’s hard not to love someone like that.”

“That doesn’t really answer the question.” Max pointed out.

Harry sighed. “I love all of you…all four of you!”

“But do you love Blaise more?” Max asked persistently.

Harry shoved his own hand through his hair and he dissected how he felt. “No, I don’t think so. I love you all equally, just in different ways as you’re all separate people who each bring your own unique qualities to our mateship. I chose you all for different reasons and thus I love you all for different reasons. But the thought of losing any one of you is like a punch to the gut…or like losing a limb. But because Blaise respects me more than any of the rest of you…I think I seek him out more for his opinions on things more or if I want to say something without being laughed at or I want someone to listen to me without scoffing or telling me that I’m wrong for thinking a certain way. It’s the same if I have a thought that I want to share without being judged or seen as stupid, I’ll go to Blaise, because I know that he respects me enough to understand that I have my own thoughts, feelings and opinions and he doesn’t try to make me think that I’m wrong or stupid or childish just for thinking differently or seeing things differently.”

“Is that truly how we make you feel?” Nasta asked, feeling like he’d had a hole punched through his heart.

“Not all the time.” Harry said at the same time that Blaise said a simple ‘Yes.’

“You do it to me too.” Blaise said to elaborate when Max and Nasta looked at him. “You think that because I’m subordinate that I need controlling or telling what to do when I don’t. Harry and I are young, yes, but we are not your children. We are fully capable of making decisions or opinions by ourselves, we don’t need to be told what to do and yes, we had sex together, but Harry told me that he felt fine and I felt fine. I trusted him and he trusted me and we had a good time and we reconnected our bond after the disaster of the last week. We’re both unharmed and I actually feel more relaxed than I did yesterday because I’ve resettled my bond with him.”

“I feel better too.” Harry said with a smile. “I don’t love anyone more than someone else, but you don’t exactly make it easy when you ignore my thoughts or opinions or you disregard my feelings as if they mean absolutely nothing to you. Like I mean absolutely nothing to you.”

“Of course that isn’t true.” Max replied, slightly strangled by the sadness that he felt as he listened to Harry and Blaise speak as if he and Nasta were uncaring, controlling monsters. “We love you, of course your thoughts and feelings mean everything to us.”

“But just yesterday you disregarded my feelings and you overrode my opinions with your own just because you thought that you knew better than I did. You treated me like I was just a stupid child who couldn’t make decisions for myself about my own thoughts and feelings, about my own wellbeing.”

“When?” Max asked, aghast.

“When he wanted to go and see Draco.” Blaise replied simply as Harry hesitated.

Harry sighed heavily. “It’s true. I told you both that I needed to see him, to speak to him, in order to work through my own anger and grief and you just brushed that off as if it was nothing, as if my emotions and the way that I need to work through them are inconsequential to you and your own thoughts and feelings. You thought nothing of the pain that it would cause me to carry around that anger because I wasn’t given the chance to get rid of it. You thought nothing of my mental wellbeing at being stopped from seeing my own mate when I needed to, you just believed that you knew what was best for me and that was that, my thoughts and opinions were shut down and ignored as if I were a child who didn’t know any better. You didn’t care that you were hurting me by denying me the chance to offload my anger and grief over the attack, because that’s not how either of you deal with anger or grief, so you don’t understand or respect me enough to take my word for it that that is how I need to deal with such things. You didn’t even give me the courtesy of explaining to you that that was what I needed, you just automatically shut me down and stopped me from speaking my thoughts. As long as you were doing what you thought was right for me, that was it, neither of you cared about what was actually right for me as long as you were both happy with what was happening. Neither of you respected me enough to put your own thoughts or feelings aside in favour of my own, neither of you so much as thought that, just maybe, I might know what I need better than the both of you do.”

Max and Nasta shared a saddened look of utter guilt and Nasta sighed, reaching out to Harry and pulling him into a cwtch, kissing his forehead.

“I’m so very sorry.” He said genuinely and it brought tears to Harry’s eyes.

Max swallowed and brushed at his own damp eyes. “I am too. I’m just so angry and I feel so guilty for not throwing him outside sooner. I keep thinking that if only I’d grabbed him and thrown him out of the house that you and Blaise and the kids would have been spared from this fear and pain and I can’t stop thinking about all of the things that I should have done and didn’t.”

“You’re taking your guilt out on Draco.” Blaise said simply. “It isn’t fair. You’re angry with him, I get it, but cutting him out of our lives isn’t your anger speaking, it’s your guilt and your inability to face it, to face Draco. So you’re trying to convince us, me and Harry, that cutting him out is for the best. You’re trying to force us into your way of thinking because you don’t like, or rather you can’t face, the fact that we don’t think the same way as you do, but the reality is that we don’t think the same as you do. We don’t want to cut Draco out of our lives for something like this. You forgave Harry for almost killing your Uncle, we forgave you for running out on us when we all thought that Leolin was going to die, I was forgiven for running out on Harry and the kids when the stress of school and a growing family became too much for me, why can’t Draco be forgiven also? The anger will fade given time, your guilt will not and it will drive a wedge between all of us and it is that that we can’t allow to happen.”

“We can’t let that happen, Max.” Harry reiterated softly. “I’m not sure if it’s different for you three, but for me the thought of losing one of my mates is driving me crazy. I remember when I was mating to you and Draco for the first time, the heat where you needed to be there and you weren’t…it was agony, Max. Not having you there was so confusing, it felt wrong, like a part of me was missing. I knew that I needed something else to get my first child, but I didn’t know what it was and it was maddening. I can’t go through that for every single heat from now on for the rest of our lives, it was so distressing and you were missing for perhaps half an hour, how can I survive six to ten days of that? I’d be completely mentally unstable afterwards, it would drive me insane. You just don’t understand how wrong it felt not to have one of my mates there with me and that’s the reality that I’m facing if you try, and succeed, in cutting me off from Draco.”

“It’s not like that for us.” Blaise told him. “I felt like everything was fine on that heat, but when Max joined us, I just moved out of the way. I didn’t feel any pain or wrongness at all on that heat, it seemed fine, normal to me. It was the same as the first heat with just me and you, but I also didn’t feel threatened or any need to protect you when Max arrived like I would if someone else walked in on us.”

Harry shook his head. “I can’t go through that pain again and I’d hope that you wouldn’t want to put me through that sort of agony, that distress, heat after heat.”

“Harry, of course not. Of course we won’t!” Nasta insisted and Max nodded. “I had no idea that it hurt for submissives to have a mate missing from their heat periods.”

Max picked Harry up off of his feet and hugged him gently, supporting him, and he kissed him on the mouth.

“I’ll work on the guilt I feel.” Max said as he hugged Harry and held him gently, touching him and kissing his face and head repeatedly. “For you I’ll do anything and I’m sorry that we’re all in this position. I should have acted…”

Harry pressed his fingers to Max’s mouth to stop him talking.

“Blaming yourself is not working on your guilt, Max, it’s heightening it.” Harry said seriously. “You have nothing to feel guilty over, none of us knew that this was going to happen, how could we? If we’d known about this happening, then we would have stopped it entirely. It’s easy now to say that I should have done this or that, because of hindsight, but you didn’t know back then what you do now. Please stop blaming yourself.”

“I should have…”

“We all should have done things differently, Max.” Harry insisted again, much more firmly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have challenged him, maybe I shouldn’t have shouted at him, maybe I should have rolled over and showed him my neck like a good little submissive should have, but I have never been that sort of person and I refuse to change when I’ve done nothing wrong. I am entitled to have an opinion, I am entitled to have my own thoughts and emotions and I am not some sort of obedient pet to be smacked around and brought to heel. We all make mistakes, Max, but feeling guilty over them is not going to help us get over them. I need you to get over this, I need you to let go of the guilt that you shouldn’t even be feeling. I love you and I still love Draco, and truly, you do to.”

Max nodded slowly. “I do. Of course I do, but I can’t stop seeing you blood splattered and my Uncle holding your guts in your body with just his hand and a tea towel. I can’t stop having nightmares, ones where you die from your injuries, nightmares of when Blaise died, in my dreams he never…he’s not revived and I keep thinking that I’ll never see those beautiful purple eyes again and I’ve lost you both and I’m all alone and I don’t want…I can’t handle…”

Max’s voice cracked and Harry wrapped his arms around him tightly, squeezing his biggest mate as Blaise and Nasta pulled in closer to lend their support.

“We’re right here, Ciccio.” Blaise said softly. “We’re both alive and breathing. We’re fine.”

Max nodded. “I know. Thank fucking Merlin that you’re both alright, I just can’t stop my mind from travelling to those dark places. I don’t want to think of you both dead, of course I don’t, I just can’t help it.”

Harry stroked Max’s hair, with its slight curls coming through because it hadn’t been cut in so long.

“If holding us and touching us will help…” Harry tailed off his offer suggestively.

“It does help, it really does. I didn’t have a single nightmare last night, so I am getting better and moving on now that you’re both home. It’s just taking some time.”

“We just need to relax and ease up now.” Harry agreed. “That’s why me and Blaise had sex. It’s normal for us to have those feelings for each other, it’s normal for us to act on them and right now I really need normal when everything else is so abnormal that I’m feeling unsettled. I’m in a new house where I don’t even know where everything is, I haven’t even been on every floor yet, let alone in every room, it doesn’t feel like home to me yet, I don’t even know where we are. With everything else going on, feeling settled here and at peace is going to help ease the tension.”

Nasta nodded. “Come on, I’ll show you around. In every fucking drawer and cupboard if you want to look.”

“I’ll start on breakfast.” Max said. “We all need normal and normal for me and the kids at this time is getting them their banana porridge.”

Harry smiled and he touched Max as he was put back on the floor. He turned to Nasta and he smiled.

“Show me my home, Nas. So we can settle in properly.”

Nasta held him around the back, just to support him, and he pulled Blaise in to the other side of himself too. They started off their tour and Harry actually got to see the front door to their home, or rather their two front doors. They were made entirely of frosted glass and the light that streamed through them was dazzling.

“It’s reinforced, its unbreakable glass.” Nasta explained.

“The smaller living room is down that way, so is the bathroom, so…what’s that way?” Harry asked, peering down the opposite corridor. “I saw three doors when I went upstairs.”

“One is large and empty for now, the other, smaller room Max wants as a small home gym.” Nasta explained with a smile as he led them down the corridor. “That door goes down to the basement.”

Harry looked at the door that was beside the stairs that went up to the first floor and he nodded. “Okay, is that the size of the foundations of the house or…?”

“No, it’s smaller than the foundations, but it is still rather large.” Nasta told them. “It’s walled off into three rooms, two smaller rooms and one large, massive space. One of the small rooms is Max’s study, the other is a well ventilated room for his potions lab. The other space will likely be for storage.”

Harry made to step up the stairs, but he was picked up under his armpits from behind and carried up the stairs and he smiled, letting out a small chuckle.
He was put down on the top landing and he made his way automatically to the nursery and he looked in on his children. They were all still asleep, which was unusual, but Tegan was frowning in her sleep, obviously waking up slowly.

“Come on, we have several minutes before they wake up.” Nasta said as he led the both of them out of the room and he carried on the tour. “That’s the master bedroom, there are two nurseries on this floor, one right next door to the master bedroom and one opposite. The bathroom is two doors down and the rest of the rooms on this floor are guest rooms or unused except for the huge room at the very back. It goes from one side of the house to the other and that is the room that Max and I designated as the children’s playroom.”

Harry opened the door and his jaw dropped. “Holy shit!” He declared as he looked at the massive room. It was on par with the humongous kitchen, but it was not as wide as the kitchen was, but it was longer, taking up the space where downstairs was part of the larger family room and the other rooms off of the kitchen…two empty rooms that would become studies and a storage closet if he remembered rightly.

Part of the room was segregated off, less than half of the room, but still a huge space. One half of this segregated section was tiled, the other half was padded with what looked like thick foam.

“This will be a wet area for painting, playdough, that sort of thing.” Nasta told them with a smile. “The padded area will be a soft play crèche for the younger babies. Once we finish setting it up, of course.”

“I love it.” Harry said with a smile.

“All of the rooms on the upper floor are going to be bedrooms for our babies, but there is also another bathroom up there and six bedrooms are en suite.”

“Are there enough rooms?” Harry asked critically.

Blaise smiled from the other side of Nasta and Harry had to smile with him.

“There definitely are. There isn’t enough space for a room each I wouldn’t imagine, but some of the bedrooms are large enough to fit four beds. We will have enough room for our children.” Nasta assured him as they went back out into the hallway and then back to the stairs, they made it up to the third floor and Harry looked around, going off to open doors and peer into rooms.

All the rooms were empty, but clean and carpeted. Everything was brand new and it smelt new and it made Harry happy to think that maybe this would be one of his children’s rooms.

“This one has an en suite, and so do five others up on this floor.”

Harry opened the next door to see a perfectly functional bathroom and he grinned as it was almost a carbon copy of the one on the first floor, but it was a little smaller.

“Are the bathrooms all the same?” Blaise asked. “The one on the floor below is the same.”

“They are the same, all the en suites too. I thought the kids could decorate their own when they have the en suites, a simple spell and all the carpets and wallpaper, the tiles, can be changed to any colour they want, or we could even repaper if they want.”

Harry smiled and he looked around. This bathroom wasn’t used, and likely wouldn’t be used often for another several years, but there was still toilet paper, there were still towels and soap, but not much else. Not just yet. In several years though, this bathroom would be a daily mess, he could almost guarantee it.
They went up to the attic, Harry being carried up, which was the same size as the house and completely floorboarded too. A small section was walled off and Nasta said that he had wanted his personal study to be high up, where he could look out of the skylights and see nothing but the sky and the tops of trees while he did his paperwork for the dragon reserve. Harry wandered around the absolutely massive, empty space and he chuckled.

“What has made you laugh?” Nasta asked curiously as he kept close beside him.

“Nothing.” Harry said softly. “I was just thinking of how big a house we have, you can really see it looking at this space, and I was thinking, perhaps you had made this space so big because you were going to smuggle dragons home and raise them up here like Hagrid did with Norberta, especially as your study is up here too.”

Blaise chuckled then and Nasta shook his head with a smile. “It’s illegal to smuggle them, Caru. I’d end up with a large, very serious fine and a trip to Azkaban for my troubles if I’m caught and if I’m not, I’ll be facing the possibility of having the dragon burn the house down around us. I would never risk you like that. Not you, not Max, Blaise or Draco and not our children. As much as I love dragons, I love you all more.”

Harry smiled at him and he sighed. “I think we need to head back down. The kids will be waking up and Max can’t leave the kitchen because he has Calix, Ave and Eva down there with him.”

Harry was carried down by Nasta, who was making sure that Blaise was alright going down the rather steep steps to the attic. They got down to the nursery floor and Nasta put him down, letting Harry pad into the nursery and immediately coo at the awakening babies.
Tegan was sat up, her little penguin in hand, and she was ‘chatting’ to Regan, who was sat up also. Braiden was just waking up, his eyes still blinking the last remnants of sleep away as he rolled over and hefted himself upright and Leolin was awake and staring up at the mobile above his head. His gold eyes tracing every image and bold colour floating above his head with a critical frown.
Harry veered straight to his Faerie baby and when he poked his head over the cot, Leolin’s eyes flicked to him and after a few moments, his little brain recognised him and he grinned widely, showing off his gummy, pink mouth and tongue.

“Ma!” He lifted his arms with some serious effort and Harry picked him up and kissed him.

“Is he too heavy? Are you alright?” Nasta asked as he had Farren and Regan as Blaise picked up Tegan and Braiden.

“He’s okay. I’m not feeling too bad.” He said with a smile. “Leolin is small and light enough.”

Nasta was beside him every step of the way and Harry could see that it was killing him to watch as he inched down the stairs one at a time, taking it very slowly as he clutched his baby to his chest.
When it got too much for him, not even a quarter way down the stairs, he cursed.

“Are you okay? Hold on, stay there and I’ll come back for you.” Nasta said.

Harry shook his head. “No, what am I even thinking? I’m a fucking Dracken.” He declared and he slowly brought out his wings halfway, as they wouldn’t fully fit in the stairwell. He fluttered them furiously and he hovered all the way down the stairs, to the raucous amusement of Blaise.

Nasta shook his head, but he was smiling widely.

“Why the hell didn’t I think of that before?” Harry demanded. “I can fly! Stairs are no match for me with wings!”

“What’s happened?” Max asked as they came into the hallway leading to the kitchen. He was poking his head out of the room curiously, wondering what the noise was.

“Harry’s realised he can do the stairs by himself.” Blaise said with a grin as he put Tegan and Braiden down on their booster seats and strapped them in securely.

“You’re too injured to walk down the stairs!” Max said aghast. “Why didn’t you call me?” He directed at Nasta.

“I flew down.” Harry said with a proud grin. “I’m a Dracken and I have wings and it didn’t even pull at a single stomach muscle.”

Max smiled softly and slipped his hand around the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss. “I love you.” He declared.

Harry smiled. “If you love me so much, you’ll get me a nice cup of tea.” He said cheekily.

The smile that lit up Max’s face and eyes made Harry feel so much better for having put the smile there and he slid himself carefully into a seat amidst his babies, opposite Farren and Braiden, the latter was peering around, sitting quietly, the former was banging his little plastic spoon noisily on the table, making enough noise for all of his other brothers and sisters.

“I’m working as fast as I can.” Max laughed, bending over Farren and kissing him, getting a little giggle.

Max went back to the oven, and the saucepan of porridge that he was warming on the hob. He had a chopping board filled with partially mashed bananas ready to add to it once it was dished up.
Harry kept Leolin with him, sitting him on the table so that he wasn’t doing more harm to himself and Leolin was just staring at him.

“You are being very creepy, my love.” He said with a smile as he bent forward, slowly, to kiss that tiny mouth.

“Ma.” Leolin replied.

“Here, Caru.” Nasta said, kissing the side of his head as he placed a prepared, cooled bottle on the table. “Max made it up while we were on the tour.”

“Oh, what’s this?” Harry cooed in over exaggeration. “Is this your breakfast? Come here, my sweetness.”

Harry tipped Leolin down into his arms, making sure his son could still see his face when Leolin let out a very unhappy cry at having his line of sight broken, before presenting him with the bottle teat. He smiled as his Faerie baby wrapped his lips around the bulb of the teat and sucked and swallowed slowly, never once breaking eye contact with him, and Harry made sure to stare into those golden eyes so that Leolin knew that he was here and not going anywhere. Leolin always ate more when Harry was the one to feed him and he ate the most when Harry retained eye contact with him while feeding him.
Max served Farren his banana porridge and Harry saw, in his peripheral vision, Farren tucking in happily with his little spoon. Next to him, Braiden was doing the same. Regan was still spoon fed, but Tegan was just managing to manoeuvre the spoon to her own mouth, she was very messy in doing so however, and Calix could not be trusted with his own spoon. He took more interest in flinging the food everywhere rather than eating it, so Nasta was feeding him while Blaise supervised Farren and Braiden and Max fed Regan while keeping an eye on Tegan.
This is what Harry needed. Normal. Something that they always did and with Leolin in his arms, feeding, a cup of his favoured honey tea by his hand and his mates feeding his babies around him, the only thing that was out of place was Blaise’s shaved head and the lingering pain in his belly and lower left leg.
He could try to convince himself that Draco was just upstairs, was in the bathroom showering or maybe even having a lie in, but it didn’t work for long. Draco had never stepped foot in this house, it was devoid of his scent and on some base level, he could sense that, he could smell it and it was abnormal.
Leolin finished suckling and Harry put the unfinished bottle down and he hefted his tiny boy over his shoulder and rubbed at his lower back firmly, waiting until he heard the, rather loud, burp. Harry pulled him back and looked at his son bemusedly.

“Did you hear that? That burp would have rivalled Caesar.” He chuckled.

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Max grinned. “Caesar’s a complete pig, but it was certainly louder than he usually produces.”

“Who’s such a good boy!” Harry cooed, rubbing his nose against Leolin’s tiny button of a nose.

Leolin giggled and babbled wordless noises for a moment before he reached forward and dug teeny nails into Harry’s cheeks and bent forward to kiss him. He couldn’t pucker his lips, so he just mouthed at Harry’s lips as he did with his bottles and it made Harry laugh as he cuddled Leolin to his chest.

“Do you want to sit back in the family room?”

Harry nodded. “Please. More tea too.”

“Did you want breakfast?” Max asked him.

“Can I have a bit of toast, please?”

“You can have anything you want, my love.” Max declared happily.

“In that case you will serve it to me naked, slavered in butter.”

“The toast or Max?” Blaise quipped.

Harry giggled. “Max, obviously.”

“I don’t think licking up that much butter would be good for your health.” Nasta insisted.

Harry’s pupils widened with lust and his grin could only be described as salacious. He let out a dirty chuckle and looked at Max as if picturing him naked and dripping in melted butter.

“Stop it.” Max said lowly, but he was smiling. “Go in the room, I’ll bring you your toast and tea.”

“Nas, a little help please, gorgeous.” Harry insisted, holding an arm out as he tried to stand up using the table and found that he couldn’t get himself up off of the chair.

Nasta smiled softly and bent right down and scooped both him and Leolin up into his arms. He stood with a small grunt that made Harry chuckle, before carrying them next door, into the family room. Harry was settled down comfortably on the large settee with Leolin in his lap and he breathed deeply.

“This new house is home, now.” He said with a smile, looking down at Leolin when he made a soft noise to gain his attention, regaining eye contact with the golden eyes of his Faerie son. “I love it. We can settle down here. We can have as many children as we want. This is home. Not to say that our old home wasn’t home too, it will always hold a special place in my heart, but…”

“But it’s been tainted now.” Max said sadly as he brought in Harry’s toast and tea.

Harry nodded sadly. “I gave birth to all eight of our babies in that house. It will always, always be special to me. But I am glad that we aren’t living there now. It was much too small.”

“I’m having it fixed up.” Max said with a smile. “We can keep it as a holiday home, or to show the kids where they were born, but I definitely understand never living there again. I don’t want to live there either, not after…not after that.”

Harry sighed and nodded. “Here’s to happier memories here in our new home, because I’m warning you now, I am not moving again! This is our forever home.”

“To our forever home, then.” Blaise said, clinking his mug of coffee off of Harry’s tea cup before he sat down next to him.

Harry chuckled and took a sip of his tea.

“To our forever home.” Nasta echoed softly.

Max bent over the back of the settee and he kissed Harry’s head, then Blaise’s. “To our forever home.” He agreed.

Harry sat back and he rested some more. He had a Healer visit in a few days, just to see how he was healing up, and to check his potion dosage too, though Max had that well in hand. He nibbled on his toast, not able to eat much because of his healing stomach, but he did his best and he drank his tea and then he just rested. He smiled at his children, who had all been brought in one by one as soon as they’d finished eating, as they played on the floor around his feet. They had so much space it seemed that they were all deserted on their own personal desert islands.
He looked down at Leolin and he smiled at the little Faerie, which reminded him that he needed to host the Faeries soon, Dain and Kailen would be furious with them for putting Leolin in harm’s way, but Harry just hoped that they were more relieved that it had only been a bit of shock and not anything more serious, though Harry knew exactly how lucky they had been to escape with just shock and not a broken neck.
He sighed tiredly and hefted Leolin more firmly, more securely, to his chest. He kissed his son before he took a drink of tea. The Faeries wouldn’t be happy, he knew that, but the sooner that he got their angry visit over with, the sooner he could go back to normal and put all of the fight in the past. He would be having a heat period soon, in a month now, and he needed to be ready for that. He needed Draco back for that as he refused to have another heat period without a mate after the one and only time that it had happened. He never wanted to feel that burning pain or confusion again, it had been truly frightening and he refused to do it, so Max and Nasta would just have to get over their anger and guilt and Draco would have to do well at his anger management classes, because anything else would hurt him and if it was one thing that he knew by now, it was that his mates would never purposefully want to hurt him. Even Draco had admitted to not ‘seeing’ him when he attacked. Harry didn’t know if that was what had coined the term ‘blind fury’ but he fully believed Draco when he insisted that when he had gutted him, that he hadn’t been truly seeing him. To believe anything else would be to believe that his own dominant mate had attacked him, had tried to kill him, and that idea was so wrong that even his Dracken denied such thoughts.
He looked around him, at his new home, at his mates and his children, and he breathed deeply and he let go of everything. They could get over this now, because he refused to allow anyone to stand in his way, not even his own mates. They would get over this, because he refused to accept that anything else would happen. They would be completely fine, as they always were, because he would ensure it with absolutely everything that he was and if his mates cared a damn for him or his happiness, then they would do exactly the same too.

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A/N: I am tentatively moving forward with this fic after a small break from it in which I tried to distance myself from all the stress and bad feelings I’ve come to associate with it. I believe that this has worked for the moment.
Today is our fifth anniversary, so happy fifth birthday, Rise of the Drackens! I thought that this was the perfect day to come back on and hopefully none of you will be insensitive to the fact that I did take a small break to work on some other fics, it was my choice and there’s nothing that you can do about it.
I hope that you’ve all enjoyed this chapter, lovelies. Oh! Before I forget. I posted up the floor plans for the house on my Facebook page, under Star Mass, but I’ve also put it up on the Wikia page too, for those of you who can’t, or just don’t want to add me on Facebook:

http://riseofthedrackens.wikia.com/wiki/House_Layout

StarLight Massacre. X
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The Rise of the Drackens