Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

19 Years and 5 Minutes Later	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58416 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any characters related to that series; they are JK Rowling's. I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 1-19 Years and 5 Minutes Later
- 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
- 41-Ch. 41
- 42-Ch. 42
- 43-Ch. 43
- 44-Ch. 44
- 45-Ch. 45
- 46-Ch. 46
- 47-Ch. 47
- 48-Ch. 48
- 49-Ch. 49
- 50-Ch. 50
- 51-Epilogue
- 18
- 19
- 20
“Ready to go?”
Harry smiled as Lily entered the living room of Grimmauld, dragging a backpack behind her. Draco had left before she had woken, as he had the few previous times when he had stayed over while she had been there. It seemed the safest and easiest way of doing things for the time being, despite the fact that it meant that if he didn’t wake Harry up, then he was waking up by himself. Considering the words he had had with Molly when he had picked Lily up at the start of that week, they had both deemed it necessary to tread carefully when it came to allowing Lily to see Draco in the mornings. Despite him not liking the idea, Molly had been right about one thing that day: Lily shouldn’t have to be subjected to seeing Harry moving on so soon; at least, not in that way.
“Yeah.”
Looking her over properly when it sounded like she was preparing to go to the gallows rather than The Burrow, Harry took in the downcast eyes, slumped shoulders and slow footsteps. His usually bright and happy daughter seemed incredibly reluctant to be going anywhere, let alone a place she normally loved. Kneeling down so he could meet her on her level, he placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her from moving. She raised her head to look him in the eyes and the worry he saw there sent chills through him. He opened his mouth to find out what was wrong, but Lily beat him to it.
“Dad?”
“What’s wrong, Lil?”
“Why can’t I go with you to see Mum?”
A slight sense of relief rushed through him that it seemed to be nothing really serious and he smiled up at her. He had been expecting some kind of question like this from Lily, but much sooner. Both the boys had peppered him with questions the day he had gone to see them, but Lily hadn’t. He had figured that she was just getting used to the idea and that she would open up again soon. She had been the first of their children to know that they were getting a divorce and she had seemed to know what that meant, but Harry had suspected that there were questions she had but hadn’t yet voiced. While she was an intelligent girl, she was still only ten years old, after all.
“Come sit on the lounge, Lily.” Harry found himself thankful that there had been no specified time for him to drop Lily off at The Burrow, or for him to meet Ginny, considering he had no idea how long it would take to explain this. “You know what it means that your Mum and I are getting divorced?”
“That you don’t want to be together anymore. I’m not a moron, Dad.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest, her grumpy look completely contradicting her floral-themed shirt. Allowing himself to become distracted while Lily seemed to gather her thoughts, Harry had to wonder exactly how it was that she had turned out as girly as she was. Ginny had never been the flowers-and-ponies type of girl and Harry had certainly not purposefully pushed any kind of what was traditionally thought of as ‘girly things’ onto Lily, but most of her wardrobe consisted of floral patterns, lace and more pastels than Harry thought she could ever wear. He had to smother a wide smile as he watched her: however strange it may have been, it was a nice change from the two rough-and-tumble boys they had raised. He was jerked out of his thoughts when she began speaking again.
“I get that you don’t want to be with Mum and that you want to be with...”
She paused, looking to him cautiously before saying Draco’s name. She had not yet been allowed to call an adult she had just met by their first name and Harry knew how strange it must be. He smiled as she frowned in obvious confusion.
“Draco,” he supplied so she would continue with what she was saying. “He gave you permission to use his first name.”
“...Draco.” Lily sat back into the lounge, looking at him out of the corner of her eye as though waiting to be punished for doing something bad. When all Harry did was smile, she continued. “I know that that means that you like boys instead of girls, so you and Mum can’t stay married. What I don’t get is why she had to leave me.”
Shock stopped any response Harry had been going to make, freezing him almost completely. Ginny had worked away Lily’s entire life, so why would she assume that their getting divorced would mean that she was not coming back? Shaking his head slowly as no answer came to him, Harry turned his focus back on his daughter.
“Why would you think she would ever want to leave you, Lil?”
“You two had a big fight, then Mum took me to Grandma’s house and didn’t come back!” Her voice was rising with each word, making her sound more and more hysterical by the second. “Then you came to get me and Mum still didn’t come back for me and...” Lily flung herself into Harry’s arms as she began to cry, her shoulders heaving with each breath. “She doesn’t want me anymore!”
Harry wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his lap as she cried. It felt almost as though something was trying to rip his heart out of his chest as he listened to his little girl crying brokenly in his arms. There had only been a few times in his life when he had been hit by such a wave of despair and they had all involved his children: James had fallen off the roof of their house when he was younger and Al had crashed into the shed of The Burrow on his kiddie broom, slicing his head open on a rusty nail. Both times had involved Harry racing them to the Emergency Department of St. Mungo’s, but this was different. Lily was not as reckless as the boys – despite her fondness for beating Hugo in races on her own kiddie broom – so she hadn’t been in the Emergency Room at all expect for the times she had visited her brothers or Harry himself. No, these tears were completely different and tugged at Harry’s heart in a different way. He knew that without Ginny there to reassure her, there was basically nothing he could do to comfort Lily and that was what hurt the most.
His mind raced, trying to come up with a way to reassure her that her mother still wanted her without Ginny physically being there. Unfortunately, he drew a blank, so all he could really do was stroke her hair and allow her to cry herself out. He tried murmuring reassurances into her ear, but they seemed to have no real effect on the volume of her sobs, so he soon gave up on that avenue. By the time she began to calm down a little, he had come to a decision. Yes, he would take her to The Burrow, but he would explain what had happened to either Molly or Arthur – whichever one of them was willing to hear him out – and then he would take Lily straight to Ginny so she could reassure her in person. He had absolutely no idea what he would do if the worst happened and Lily’s fears came true, but figured he would cross that bridge when he came to it. For the time being, he just had to hope to hell that Ginny would never be that heartless.
*~*
“Harry Potter, Dad? Really?”
Draco turned from where he had been staring mindlessly out the window of the Headmaster’s Office in Hogwarts to see Scorpius standing just inside the room, one pale blond eyebrow raised in question. He smiled as he moved over to one of the two chairs in front of the Headmaster’s desk and patted the other, indicating that Scorpius should sit beside him. He had decided to come and see him on the Saturday after the Prophet article came out so he wasn’t interrupting any of his son’s classes. Despite the disbelieving tone to Scorpius’ voice, Draco could make out a tiny glint to his eyes that may have been approval as he walked over to take the other chair.
“You couldn’t have chosen someone more famous?” Scorpius continued as he sat down, the disbelief turning to sarcasm in the matter of a few seconds. “I mean, really, if you’re going to put on this much fuss, it should be someone worth it.”
“You are entirely too much like your Mother at times.” Draco returned his son’s wide smile before getting down to the real reason he had called him away from his friends. “How are things, Scorp?”
Scorpius sighed, throwing himself back into the chair so that it creaked dangerously. Draco took the time while Scorpius was composing his answer to really look him over. Despite the fact that he had inherited a lot of his Mother’s personality traits, Scorpius looked almost like a miniature version of Draco: his white-blond hair, grey-blue eyes and high cheekbones were almost the exact same as Draco had had when he was that age. Scorpius didn’t have the same supercilious look as Draco had had at that age and he put that down to Astoria’s influence. She had refused to raise him the same way Lucius and Narcissa had raised Draco, raising him instead to be the kind of boy Draco should have been. Despite the fuss that had been made about the article, Scorpius looked none the worse for wear, really. Maybe a little tired, but that could be put down to the fact that he was in his first year at Hogwarts and had yet to really properly adjust to the schedule. He refocussed when Scorpius turned to face him.
“Nearly everyone gets the Prophet here over breakfast, you know.” Draco nodded, but stayed silent. “That means that the news was all over the school by the end of breakfast.”
“I’m sorry–” Draco blinked when Scorpius held a hand up to silence him.
“No, don’t apologise. I know that the Prophet wouldn’t have let this go until they had the full story and that all the others just copy them. I also knew that something like this was going to happen eventually. I wasn’t expecting Harry Potter, but I was expecting someone to come along eventually.” Scorpius paused, looking at Draco with searching eyes. “Does this mean that we’ll be seeing James and Albus outside of Hogwarts?”
Draco huffed out a slightly disbelieving laugh. “That is all you want to ask?”
“What else am I supposed to ask?” Scorpius gave him a look that said that he thought him slightly crazy.
“I don’t know, Scorp, I’ve never done this before. I–” Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I thought you’d be upset about how quickly this happened, or that you didn’t get more warning, or...”
“Dad, stop!” Scorpius stood up and stared down at Draco with his arms crossed in front of him. “I’ve known that you and Mum aren’t properly married for as long as I can remember. I’ve also known that you are gay since I was old enough to understand what that meant. And to be honest, I don’t really know either Albus or James Potter, so it’s not like it’d be weird or anything; we tend to avoid each other. So yeah, what I want to know is will we be seeing them? Is this going to last long enough that I have to get used to seeing two guys from school around the house at Christmas and other holidays?”
Draco stared up at him in complete disbelief for a few seconds. If this was honestly the only pressing question Scorpius had, then he would think himself incredibly lucky. His only problem now was how to answer.
“I honestly can’t say how long this will last, Scorp.”
Scorpius eyed him for a few seconds, his eyes narrowing. “But you want it to.”
“Yes, I do,” he admitted with a small smile. “The way things are going, I’d say to consider it a done deal that Harry will be around for Christmas, which means that all three of his children will be as well.”
“Alright.” Scorpius nodded slowly as he uncrossed his arms and moved back to sit beside Draco. He seemed to consider things for a while before speaking again. “Alright. I want you to be happy, Dad, and if this is what you want, then go for it. Don’t worry about me: I’ll be able to deal with whatever anyone else wants to say about any of us. The newspapers can’t get in here, so it’s really not so bad.”
Shaking his head as he stared at his son, Draco wondered how he and Astoria had managed to raise such a mature, balanced and normal child. Scorpius was what Astoria’s mother called an ‘old soul’ and it was times like this that that part of his personality really showed through. Draco’s own upbringing in the Manor had been far from what was seen to be normal, so he figured Scorpius’ normality must come down to Astoria’s influence. He offered up a smile as a sense of gratitude washed through him that Scorpius had been so understanding.
“Thank you, Scorp; you have no idea how much it means to me that you approve of this. Although, I should probably tell you, if it had really come down to it, you are my main priority here.” No matter how much it would have hurt.
Draco said goodbye to Scorpius and was about to floo out of the castle when he caught himself about to give Harry’s address. He stood in front of the fire for a few seconds, his brow creased in a combination of worry and confusion. He had good news about Scorpius and that usually led to him going straight to wherever Astoria was and telling her, but this time it had caused him to think of Harry instead. Sighing as his stomach flipped, he gave his own address instead, intending fully to spend the rest of the day engrossed in something complicated enough to take his full concentration.
*~*
Nerves washed through Harry’s stomach as he and Lily arrived just outside the wards of The Burrow. He had sent word ahead that they were arriving, but he had received no response, so all he could really do was hope that they knew. He hadn’t mentioned what had happened with Lily, because he thought it best to explain in person. Something like this was better said in person, just as the words he was planning on having with Ginny were also best said in person. That way the person on the receiving end had very little chance to ignore him.
“Harry.”
“Grandad!” Lily let go of Harry’s hand and ran up to Arthur, who had knelt down so he could scoop her up easily. “Dad says I get to see Mum today!”
Harry shot Arthur what he hoped was an apologetic look behind Lily’s back. He knew he should have figured that she would give his plan away before he could say anything to either Arthur or Molly.
“How about you go find your Grandmother, so I can talk to your Dad?”
Harry watched as Lily trotted obediently inside. Taking a steadying breath, he turned to face Arthur. “I’m sorry.”
Arthur blinked at him a few times before indicating the seats behind him. “Have a seat, Harry.”
Obeying the words just as his daughter had done a few seconds before, Harry moved to take one of the seats. He perched on the very edge, his right knee jiggling uncontrollably up and down with the rush of nerves through his system.
“Well, this is quite the mess we’ve found ourselves in, isn’t it?”
Harry huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “That’s a bit of an understatement.” He tentatively returned the small smile Arthur offered up before continuing. “I really am sorry that this blew up the way it did. And that I couldn’t speak to you before that article came out. I also need to tell you that Lily really wants to see Ginny today. She’s been a bit upset recently that she hasn’t been by to collect her, so I figured the best way to remedy that was to take her with me today. Even if Ginny needs to go back out on assignment, then she can at least reassure Lily that she will be back eventually.”
Arthur nodded slowly. “That’s fine.” Harry watched him for a few seconds, wondering why he was sitting here actually speaking to him rather than at least giving him the cold shoulder, but before he could ask, Arthur spoke again. “You understand that because Ginny is my daughter...”
“You have to stand by her. I know.” Harry’s insides felt as though they had suddenly turned to ice and he found he had to swallow back the bitterness that threatened to come out in his voice. “I was hoping that one day, maybe...” He trailed off, his chest aching too much to continue.
“Give it a little time and everything will balance itself out.” The confidence in Arthur’s voice surprised Harry, but he still didn’t dare to meet his eyes. “Yes, I would have preferred to have had a little warning, but considering how volatile things have been around here, I know that that wasn’t exactly possible. Just give it time, Harry. Molly has a hot temper when one of her children has been hurt, but she does come around eventually.”
Harry hung his head so his chin almost touched his chest. He still had no idea why Arthur seemed to be speaking to him normally, if a little more formally than usual, but at this point he really didn’t care why. The mere fact that there was a Weasley other than Percy willing to speak to him was enough for now.
“I wasn’t expecting you to choose between us.” His head snapped up when Arthur’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, squeezing gently.
There was nothing else to the gesture, just simple reassurance. He stood and walked back into the house in another few seconds. The tiny spark of hope that Harry seemed to carry with him permanently had felt as though it had been extinguished when Arthur had told him he had to stand with Ginny, but it had flared again with his last words. Maybe if Arthur believed things would return to something even vaguely resembling normal, then he might actually have the right to be holding onto that hope. He took a deep breath to compose himself when Lily ran out of the house again.
“Grandad says we can go to see Mum now.”
Harry was smiling when they landed in the hallway of the house they had shared as a family for so long. The scent of the house brought back so many good memories that Harry’s chest ached, but he suppressed them in order to focus on what was before him. Ginny appeared in the doorway of the living room a few seconds later, her arms crossed in front of her. Her stance loosened the second she saw that he had Lily with him, though, and she knelt down to scoop her into a tight hug as she ran to her. Harry found himself sighing quietly in relief as Lily clung closely to Ginny. It seemed that Lily’s fears had been unfounded and Harry couldn’t have been happier about that part of this meeting, at least.
“Is it alright if I have a word to your Dad alone, Lil?”
Harry could hear the strain in Ginny’s voice and had to resist clenching his jaw in response. He knew that whatever she had had planned for him would have gone flying out the door the second she saw Lily was with him, but he also knew that he wasn’t going to get out of this that easily. It was inevitable that they would have some kind of fight over who had been right in this situation and who had been wrong and today was the best day for that fight. All they had to do was get Lily as far away from them as they could manage so she couldn’t hear what they were about to say.
“How about you go upstairs and collect all the clothes and things you think you’ll need so we can take them back to Grimmauld with us?”
Harry bit down on his tongue to keep himself from smiling at the glare Ginny shot him, but his words seemed to work. Lily slid down out of Ginny’s arms and offered him a sightly watery smile before moving off up the stairs to her bedroom.
“Nice ploy, bringing her with you.” Ginny shot him another glare before turning and stalking back into the living room. Harry found her on the lounge in front of the fire. “Using your own daughter as a shield is a bit low, Harry.”
“She thought you had abandoned her!” He had meant to keep a hold of his temper, but the scorn in her voice had scraped along what felt like very raw nerves. “I spent nearly half an hour calming her down this morning because she was absolutely convinced that you had abandoned her; that you didn’t love her at all.”
He stomped into the room and moved to stand directly in front of her, blocking out what warmth she was getting from the fire. The look of disbelief in her eyes caused him to clench his hands by his sides. He had no idea how she managed it, but she could have him on the verge of completely losing control with a mere look and that knowledge only seemed to piss him off even more.
“Bullshit. Why would I abandon my own child?”
“I don’t know,” Harry responded with heavy sarcasm. “Maybe for the same reason you tried to convince the boys that my being with Draco meant that I wouldn’t see them as often? Or maybe it was for the same reason that you gave Yasmine a completely false account of what had happened between us?”
Ginny stood slowly and advanced on him, fire flashing through her eyes. “And what reason would that be?”
“You are a bitch–”
His words were cut off when her hand connected with his cheek, sending pain blossoming through the entire left side of his head. Taking a step back to put some distance between them, Harry blinked the tears out of his eyes that had automatically sprung up in response to the pain. Gingerly raising a hand, he felt along his jaw and cheekbone, thankful that it had been an open-handed slap rather than a straight-up right hook.
“If you ever speak to me like that again...”
“You’ll what? Try to take away my family and spread vicious rumours about my character?” He raised his glasses to wipe away some of the tears that were still running in an attempt to wash his eyelashes out of his eye, apparently. “It’s a bit late for that threat.”
“You humiliated me, Harry.” He dropped his glasses back onto his nose and blinked at her in complete shock. “The Prophet printed both versions of what happened and now I look a complete fool. How long do you think it’ll take before the rest of the papers start to print yours as well?”
Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times, but the shock had apparently rendered him temporarily mute. It was Ginny rolling her eyes and turning so she wasn’t even looking at him that broke him out of it.
“You... you...” He stopped when all it seemed he could do was stutter at her and took a deep breath. “You expect me to be considerate of your feelings when all you did was lie? You lied to your boss, you lied to our children, and you lied to your parents and all our friends. Hell, the only person you didn’t lie to was me. Was the only reason you didn’t try to convince me I was wrong because you knew I wouldn’t believe you? You not only outed me in the most public way you could find, but you also outed Draco, so why should I care if you look foolish in the press?”
“Please,” she scoffed, turning back to him with scorn written clearly on her face. “I was subtle about what I was doing with the men I was with and if you hadn’t slept with Draco, then you wouldn’t have been any the wiser.”
“How does that justify what you did? You can’t just say that it all would have been fine if I’d continued to be stupid enough to swallow everything you were feeding me. If you were that unhappy, then you should have said something. Cheating for as long as you did is never justified.”
“Oh, so it is for the length of time you cheated on me for?”
Harry sighed and scrubbed his hand against his eyes again. They were going to start going in circles blaming each other for everything that had happened, he was sure of it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see an easy way to solve this themselves. No matter how civil he intended to be when he arrived, he was fairly certain that Ginny’s attitude and refusal to take any of the blame for their crumbled marriage would soon bring out the snarky sarcasm in him that he knew would set her off faster than anything else he could say. What they needed was an intermediary: someone who knew how to keep control of the situation without allowing either one of them too much leeway.
“I’m getting a lawyer, Ginny. We’ll each take what we brought into the marriage and keep whatever we made during: that’s the fairest way. What I need to know is whether you want custody of the kids.” If he could manage to get out of this house with his sanity intact and without a restraining order or without being thrown into prison for murder, then he would be happy. If that meant sorting through things in the most direct way possible, then so be it. “I also have to ask...”
“What?” The word was snapped at him when he paused to try to calm the sudden rush of fear that gripped him.
“Are they all mine?”
Ginny was silent for much longer than Harry was comfortable with. He could see something building inside her, but couldn’t tell what emotion it was. He had no idea whether to be thankful when it took less than thirty seconds for him to discover exactly what it was.
“You fucking bastard,” Ginny snarled at him, her eyes flashing. “How dare you suggest that they aren’t your children?”
“How? Quite easily. Maybe it’s because their mother has been cheating on me for longer than any of them have been alive?” Harry was slightly surprised that even at a time like this, it was damn near impossible for him to prevent the sarcasm from showing through in his voice.
She sighed and turned away from him, but he could still hear her clearly when she responded. “I got pregnant with James thirteen years ago. It was during one of the periods when I didn’t have any other lovers. I was too busy caring for James to take anyone else as a lover in the months after his birth in January and then I got pregnant with Albus on your birthday. He was born in the May of the next year. By then I had gotten sick of being used as a baby carrier and had put restrictions on when you could touch me. Lily was conceived that Christmas. As you know, the family is always around on Christmas, so there’s no way anyone other than you could be her father. Despite what you might think of me, I was always careful to use protection with anyone else I was with.”
Harry felt a shot of guilt when the first thought to drift through his mind was that she hadn’t said that she had had no other lovers between Al’s birth and Lily’s conception. It was soon overshadowed, however, by relief so strong that he sunk down onto one of the lounge chairs by the fire, covering his face with his hands. He had known that the idea that his kids might not be his own had been putting a lot of pressure on him, especially considering he had been Lily’s primary carer recently, but the relief he currently felt was making him a little lightheaded. The pressure in his chest lifted, his shoulders began to relax and he could breathe properly for the first time in weeks.
What really surprised him, however, was that when his mind cleared, his only thought was of Draco. He had good news and the only person he wanted to share it with was Draco. A rush of unbelievably strong happiness raced through him, causing him to want to laugh. For the first time in his life he had someone he actually wanted to share good news with, someone who would most likely be happy for him rather than scornful. His kids were his own and he was with someone who could manage to counter the worst of what Ginny was trying to throw at him without even being there. He was smiling when he removed his hands from his face.
“Satisfied?”
Not even the scorn in Ginny’s voice could wipe the smile from his face and he turned it on her as he stood. Moving so he could place his hands on Ginny’s shoulders, he almost laughed again when she gave him a disgusted look.
“Yes. In fact, this may very well be the first time you have truly been able to properly satisfy me at all.” With that, he released her and made his way out to the bottom of the stairs again. “Lily can stay here with you for the weekend, right?”
“You–”
“Ginny,” Harry cut her off, using a reasonable tone that he knew would anger her further, but by this time all he wanted was to be away from her. “Your daughter needs you. You need to spend the weekend making sure that she knows that you love her as much as you say you do. I’ll just go up and say goodbye.”
Harry felt the ridiculous urge to run up the stairs, but restrained himself. Taking deep breaths that felt free for the first time in what felt like his entire life, he made his way into Lily’s room to explain that she would get to spend the weekend with her Mum.
“Really?” The happiness in that one word was worth the effort Harry had put in to piss Ginny off at him. He figured that if she was angry enough with him, then she would put in every effort to make certain that Lily enjoyed herself that weekend. “When do I come home to Grimmauld, then?”
Harry stood and blinked at his daughter. Home, she had called Grimmauld home. He grinned wide again as he knelt down in front of her.
“Whenever you want to, Lil. Just send me a note with the owl and I’ll come pick you up.”
Lily ran up to him and flung her arms around his neck. Harry hugged her back just as hard, still grinning like an idiot.
“I love you, Dad.”
“Love you, too, Lil. I’ll see you soon, alright?”
“Alright.”
Harry’s thoughts drifted back to Draco and what they could do with the house to themselves for the entire weekend as he made his way down and out of the house. Not even the glare he received from Ginny dampened his good mood as he Apparated away from her.
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19 Years and 5 Minutes Later