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The Optimal Balance	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17125 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe and characters belong to JK Rowling and associates. This was written for fun. I make no money from it.

Chapter List
- 1-The Optimal Balance
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 21-Ch. 21
- 22-Ch. 22
- 23-Ch. 23
- 24-Ch. 24
- 25-Ch. 25
- 26-Ch. 26
- 27-Ch. 27
- 28-Ch. 28
- 29-Ch. 29
- 30-Ch. 30
- 31-Ch. 31
- 32-Ch. 32
- 33-Ch. 33
- 34-Ch. 34
- 35-Ch. 35
- 36-Ch. 36
- 37-Ch. 37
- 38-Ch. 38
- 39-Ch. 39
- 40-Ch. 40: Epilogue
- 16
- 17
- 18
“Don’t wander too far off, Lily.”

Harry kept his eyes pinned to Lily’s red hair weaving through the crowds at King’s Cross Station a little ahead of him. He had resisted the urge to make her hold his hand as they negotiated their way towards Platform 9 ¾, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t still worried that he would lose her. Despite the fact that she was now only just under two months off from being eleven years old, she still wasn’t all that tall, which made it slightly more difficult for him to keep track of her. He let out a sigh of relief when she turned back and made her over to him.

“But Dad, I need to go.” Flicking her eyes over towards the public restrooms to her right, Lily raised her eyebrows at him. “You know, to the toilet,” she added in a quieter voice when Harry didn’t respond.

Having to resist the urge to roll his eyes – he was almost totally convinced that Lily thought him a complete idiot – Harry nodded. “Alright then, come on.”

He glanced over his shoulder to make eye contact with Draco, who was watching the interaction with an amused smirk. This time, Harry did roll his eyes, but he indicated what was going on and began to turn back towards the restrooms without questioning Draco's amusement. Draco responded by shaking his head with a strange look in his eyes, but Harry didn’t have time to try to work out if there was any kind of significance to the action.

It was impossible for Harry to stand outside the women’s toilets waiting for Lily without feeling like a creep, but he knew he had no choice. Even if the Muggles didn’t have any kind of idea who he was, he still didn’t trust strangers around his little girl. He placed his hand between Lily’s shoulder blades, grabbing her attention.

“I’ll be right out here, alright?” When it seemed that Lily was paying more attention to something behind him, Harry waved a hand in front of her to get her attention again. “Lily?”

“Draco mentioned you may want a hand?”

Harry spun around at the sound of Astoria’s voice, realisation at what Draco shaking his head had meant rippling through him. The look on Draco's face had apparently been wonder at his stupidity in not thinking of Astoria being with them. He grinned and muttered a slightly shamed thanks to Astoria as she moved past him. He was now so used to not having a woman with him when he took Lily out that Astoria had completely slipped his mind. Making his way back to Draco, he had to shake his head at the recent changes that had occurred in his life.

A scandal, a divorce, an engagement, and a change of job all in the space of ten months. Not to mention the fact that he had been outed by his now ex-wife, had destroyed Draco's privacy, and had run the risk of ruining a lot of the friendships he had cherished since he had been eleven years old himself. It had been a hell of a year and the best part of it was still to come.

Three weeks, he continued to tell himself. Three weeks and I’ll be marrying Draco. It was still a little unbelievable to him, but the excitement continued to build.

He smiled when he pushed past a man who was arguing with someone on his phone to find Draco standing off to the side of the crowd. Dressed all in black that day, the contrast between Draco's clothing and his pale hair and skin was stunning. Harry’s smile widened when Draco met his eyes and quirked his lips up in a mockery of a smile in return. Stepping up to him, shock rushed through Harry’s chest when Draco's arm snaked around his waist, pulling him closer.

“What–”

“How come you never realise when you’re being checked out, Potter?” The words were low, almost hissed in Harry’s ear, sending a shiver through him. “It’s a wonder you ever got laid at all after school.”

Harry huffed out a laugh at the insult. “I never notice because I don’t need to look anymore.” The shot of heat that warmed Harry’s limbs when Draco dragged his gaze from whoever had been apparently checking him out and met his eyes had Harry grinning. “Is he good-looking at least?”

“No, Potter, she isn’t.”

Unable to help it, Harry let out an amused chuckle. Feeling the need to mark his territory – so to speak – when Harry was being checked out by someone was about as possessive as Draco allowed himself to be in public these days and it always sent pleasure shivering through Harry. The very fact that Harry himself was the only thing capable of making Draco loosen his strict public standards was such a powerful feeling and Harry always enjoyed it to the hilt when he could. That day, however, he knew that they ran the risk of being seen by someone from the wizarding world, so he stepped back from Draco with only a small sigh. He was absolutely determined to respect Draco's boundaries, even if he found them ridiculous. The softer expression Draco wore when Harry met his eyes again almost had Harry stepping forward again, but he held himself back.

“It’s odd that we haven’t seen anyone else yet.” Harry shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and glanced around, hoping the change in subject would distract him from the inappropriate thoughts that were beginning to drift through his mind with Draco watching him like that. “The Weasleys are difficult to miss.”

“Particularly when you’re as observant as you appear to be today.” There was no malice to Draco's voice, only amusement. “Look behind you, over to the right.”

Harry spun around, automatically searching for Ron, who was the easiest of the Weasleys to spot in a crowd. Who he spotted instead had him smiling wide.

“Harry!”

Teddy Lupin’s long legs carried him through the crowds much faster than Harry would have managed. Harry knew it should have occurred to him that Teddy would be there to greet Victoire and congratulate her on graduating, but he had been so preoccupied thinking about his own boys that Teddy had simply slipped his mind. Guilt trailed slowly down his spine as he drew Teddy into a hard embrace.

“It’s good to see you, Ted. You’re here with Bill and Fleur?”

“Yeah.” Teddy ran a hand along the back of his neck, looking as though he would much rather be there by himself. “It’s still a little awkward with Bill, but we’ll get past it, I know we will. Vic’s too important for me to just let her go because her Father disapproves of me.”

The determination Harry could see in Teddy’s face caused his smile to widen further. “You are so like your Mother sometimes, Ted.”

“Yeah, that’s what Grandmother keeps telling me.”

“And how is my Aunt doing?” The smirk Draco offered up when Teddy jumped at his question had Harry rolling his eyes again. “It has been a while since she made contact with my Mother.”

It was plainly obvious to Harry that Draco enjoyed how nervous he could make people with his presence alone. The amusement in his eyes when Teddy stammered out an answer was proof enough of that. He was just about to nudge Draco in the ribs to stop him from scaring Teddy when Lily re-appeared through the crowd with Astoria in tow. Lily’s greeting to Teddy put Draco's interrogation to rest, as Teddy took the opportunity to scoop a squealing Lily up onto his shoulders and begin to carry her off towards the entrance to the platform. Harry grinned when Draco offered his arm to Astoria and, without another word, began to follow Teddy and Lily through the crowd. If he hadn’t known better, he would have assumed that Draco disliked Teddy, but, after having lived with him for as long as he had at that point, Harry knew he was a fairly good judge of Draco's moods and inclinations. This wasn’t dislike. No, it was more like Draco was testing the waters with Teddy, finding out what buttons he could push and how hard. Draco raised an eyebrow at him when Harry grabbed the back of his suit jacket to prevent him from following Astoria onto the platform.

“You have to stop teasing Teddy. Bill makes him nervous enough with his ‘overprotective Father’ routine.”

The intensity that Draco studied him with for a few seconds sent a shiver of nerves through Harry. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, but refused to look away.

“It seems the Weasley isn’t the only Father who is overprotective of his children here,” Draco murmured.

There was a strange tone to his voice and a small frown creased his forehead, causing Harry to wonder whether Draco would consider it a bad thing that Harry treated Teddy like he was one of his own children. However, he knew there was no point in denying that he considered Teddy one of his own, even if Teddy was a little too old for that to be realistic. Deciding to just brush the strange tone aside, Harry grinned.

“No, he isn’t.”

The warm look of approval that entered Draco's expression immediately after this declaration stunned Harry a little, but he smiled back tentatively anyway. At the very least, he knew he could take the expression to mean that Draco didn’t disapprove of the idea. Draco silently gestured for Harry to precede him through the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ with a small bow that he somehow managed to not make look mocking. Unable to help himself, Harry brushed the tips of his fingers over the back of one of Draco's hands as he moved past him, earning himself another small smile.

The anticipation from earlier in the day seemed to be spiking as Harry stepped through to the platform. It was time to bring his boys home and he couldn’t have been more excited.

*~*

The steam from the train washed over the platform as it pulled in, fogging Draco's view. Instead of being bothered by the billowing white cloud, he found himself rather thankful for the few seconds reprieve it afforded him from the prying eyes of seemingly everyone else on the whole platform. He ducked his head and, under the pretence of covering his mouth and nose from the steam, took a few deep breaths to try to help himself regain some of the control he had lost on the way onto the platform.

He had known that he and Harry would be the focus of damn-near everyone’s attention that day. It was completely unavoidable unless one of them chose to use either a glamour or Polyjuice and Draco knew for damn sure that neither of them was going to resort to that much of an extreme to avoid the press. Not when their children were involved, at least.

Children. Draco raised his head as he began to hear shrieks of greeting coming from up and down the platform. He knew it shouldn’t have surprised him to discover that Harry considered Teddy Lupin to basically be one of his own children. In fact, when he thought about it for a few seconds, it made perfect sense and wasn’t even in the slightest bit surprising, not with Harry’s determined focus on family, anyway.

No, what had undone him on the way onto the platform had been the light brush of Harry’s fingers over the back of his left hand just before he entered the door to the platform combined with the look of complete adoration that had been showing plainly on his face. It was such a simple thing, but Draco's hand still tingled where Harry’s fingers had touched and his stomach was still flipping when he caught a glimpse of Harry through the sea of Weasleys he was surrounded by. He knew Harry loved him, but to have it shown so openly like that and in such a public place… Draco shook his head and tried to focus.

“Oh, Mum, not here!” Draco's head whipped around at the familiar voice to see Astoria planting a kiss on Scorpius’ forehead. Scorpius squirmed, a deep red blush covering him from his hairline to his chest. “You’re embarrassing me!”

Taking the few steps that were needed to bring him close enough to be within speaking distance, Draco cleared his throat. “Your Mother misses you when you’re at school, Scorp.”

The relief on Scorpius’ face when he caught sight of Draco nearly made Draco laugh. He allowed himself a small smile when Scorpius wriggled away from his Mother’s grasp and moved to stand beside him.

“Are you saying you don’t miss me?”

The glint of mischief in Scorpius’ eyes reminded Draco so much of Astoria that he had to grin. He ducked his head to hide it from the rest of the world, but reached to ruffle his son’s hair.

“It’s good to have you back, Scorp.”

“It’s good to be back, Dad.” Scorpius’ eyes flicked over Draco's shoulder and he nodded, causing Draco to frown in confusion. “Look, I was talking to Al about where we’re going to be staying this summer. Are we going to be at Grimmauld Place much?”

Suspicion filtered through the amusement Draco had been feeling and he glanced over his shoulder to where Scorpius had been looking. His eyes fell on Albus, who was standing not too far off with Harry, Lily and James. Albus didn’t seem to have realised Draco was watching him, as his eyes were still obviously fixed on Scorpius. Al grinned and nodded, causing Draco to glance back to Scorpius.

“What are the two of you planning?”

“Nothing Dad, I swear!” Scorpius opened his eyes wide in an innocent look that didn’t have Draco fooled for one second. “It’s just… Al says there’s a lot of Black family heirlooms and a tapestry of the family tree and… I don’t know! I thought it might be cool to see what the other side of your part of the family were like, I guess. I’m just curious, I promise!”

Astoria’s light laugh reached Draco's ears over the raucous sounds of the Weasley family reunion. Meeting her eyes, they had a quick, silent conversation, but it seemed to him that she was just as clueless as he was when it came to what Scorp and Al could be plotting. When Scorpius let out an impatient-sounding noise, Draco came to a quick decision. He would tell him the truth and try to decide what to do based off Scorpius’ reaction to his words.

“I honestly have no idea whether we will be spending any time at Grimmauld, Scorp. We haven’t really planned anything out for the summer, other than the wedding and Harry and Lily’s birthdays.”

He watched Scorpius’ reaction carefully, hoping to be able to tell whether there was something planned that he should worry about. Unfortunately for Draco, however, Scorpius had inherited the Malfoy habit of being able to hide his reactions to even those closest to him. Draco watched for any kind of disappointment or excitement, or even just a bloody twitch of the child’s eyebrow, but Scorpius stayed carefully blank.

“Oh. Well, that’s alright. Maybe we can go there one day, though? I’d like to see inside the place at least once.”

With that, Scorpius ducked away from both Draco and Astoria and moved through the crowds to where Draco could see Blaise and his daughter. Draco sighed when he heard Astoria laughing quietly beside him.

“He really is your son, you know.”

“Really? I thought he more took after you, with your talent for causing trouble wherever you go,” Draco grumbled in response, but offered her up a small smile anyway. “Do you think the two of them could get into too much trouble?”

“In a house that has been magically hidden from regular society by not only the Blacks but also Albus Dumbledore for decades now? No, I can’t possibly see what dangers two almost-teenage boys could get into in a house like that. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe.”

“A simple ‘yes’ would have sufficed, you know.”

“I know.”

Draco couldn’t help returning the smile Astoria shot him before she wandered over to greet Blaise. He turned towards Harry and the rest of the Weasleys in time to hear Harry accepting an invitation for a picnic the next weekend from Hermione.

“Is that alright with you, Draco?”

Draco's traitorous stomach chose that moment to begin to flip again as he met Harry’s eyes. Clearing his throat to prevent himself from giving away what he was feeling, he offered up his polite public smile.

“Of course. Harry’s been talking about wanting to have a get-together with everyone for a while now,” he added to Hermione. “Now that the children are back, it seems appropriate.”

He knew he sounded incredibly formal and the odd look Harry shot him confirmed it. He shook his head, however, refusing to go into detail in public. Thankfully, Harry seemed to understand, as he returned to talking to Hermione for the next few minutes while Draco simply people watched.

It seemed to him that the Weasley clan got along pretty well all in all. Percy was standing off to the side with his two daughters, and Bill and George were holding court in the middle of the sea of red hair, laughing and joking with the eldest of the children. A quick glance around showed Draco that Teddy and Victoire had snuck off into one of the alcoves and were currently entwined closely around each other. It was so loud and everyone appeared to be so happy that Draco couldn’t help wondering what it had been like growing up in such a large family. A strange sensation flittered through him when he realised that Scorpius now had the chance to experience something that he had been denied when he was a youth: a large, loving family. Not that Lucius and Narcissa had been uncaring; he had been doted on as much as any other only child. But this… Draco sighed. This was something that he knew Scorpius should at least have the option to experience, even if it was the Weasleys.

“Draco?”

He blinked rapidly, dragged out of his thoughts by Harry’s soft voice. “Yes?”

“Everything alright?” Harry followed Draco's gaze and smiled. “I know they’re overwhelming, but–”

“No,” Draco cut him off. “It’s fine. I’ll have to get used to the noise at some point, right?”

“Thank you.”

The wide smile Harry offered up sent a shot of heat through Draco's chest, causing him to smile in return. Reaching down, he brushed his fingers lightly through Harry’s before curling them so he was holding Harry’s hand softly in his own. Maybe Harry had been right a few weeks back when he had suggested that Draco couldn’t live his entire life behind the shields he had put up against the world after the end of the War. Maybe this picnic with the Weasleys could be the start of Draco living a new life, one where he didn’t have to hide.
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The Optimal Balance