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The Optimal Balance	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 17124 -:- 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
- 18
- 19
- 20
“Scorp’s really good at potions too, you know. Not that I think you’ll be any good; you actually have to have a talent for magic for things like potions to work, you know.”

“Shut-up, Al! I do have a talent for potions! Just because you’re too stupid to be able to work out how to do anything other than sit on the sidelines at Quidditch practice doesn’t mean I’m that dumb as well!”

Harry bit back a sigh as he stepped outside the Manor on Sunday morning. The sun had been beating down for a few hours by that time and, judging by the argument he was about to interrupt, he was beginning to think that telling all four of the children to go play outside for a while had been a bad idea. Still, he slowed his steps so he could hear Al’s response.

“The sidelines? What would you know about Quidditch? All you do is sit inside with your stupid books and read all day long! Even that cat of yours doesn’t sit there with you, she runs off the second you try to touch her. Why didn’t you get a pet that actually likes you?”

“You–”

“Alright guys, that’s more than enough of that.” Stepping around the corner of the hedge he had been hiding behind, Harry was just in time to grab Lily’s hand as she swung it backwards to punch her brother on the chin. “What do you two think you’re doing?”

“He’s–”

“She–”

“One at a time, please. Lily, you first.”

“But, Dad, she–”

Albus’ mouth closed with a snap when Harry shot him a look. “I leave the two of you alone for less than two hours and when I come back, you are just about to come to blows. So. You are going to stay quiet while your sister speaks. Then you will get your chance to tell your side.”

Harry watched as Al obviously debated with himself the merits of talking back to him. The quick flash of emotions across Al’s face sent amusement through Harry, but he tried to hide it by crossing his arms across his chest. Lily was smiling smugly at her brother, a habit that she seemed to have picked up from Draco. When Al said nothing more, Harry focussed on Lily.

“Lil?”

“Al’s been saying I won’t be magic enough to go to Hogwarts this year! He thinks that I’m wasting my time because he wants me to be a squib! He keeps saying I’ll have to go live with the Muggles because no one would want me in the magical world.”

The slight wobble to her voice as her words trailed off almost had Harry laughing, as he knew for a fact that Lily could cry on demand to get her own way if she really wanted. Al rolled his eyes, but stayed quiet, something Harry was thankful for. Reaching to place a hand on Lily’s shoulder, Harry let out a small gasp when she turned and wrapped her arms around his middle with an overdramatic sniffle. His hands automatically went around her shoulders, but he turned his attention to Al, who was shooting Lily a disbelieving look.

“Al?”

“She hid my Quaffle.”

Harry waited for more of an explanation, but Al seemed to think that this was more than enough of an excuse for the two of them to be arguing. Considering how obsessed he had been with Quidditch when he was Al’s age, Harry figured that if he had had a younger sister who had done that to him when he was twelve years old, he probably would have started telling her off as well. He couldn’t admit that, though. Standing there with Lily’s arms wrapped around his middle and Al glaring at her back, Harry shook his head. Maybe the lunch at the Burrow he had come outside to find them for would calm them both down? Or even wear them out a little, as they would have all of their cousins to run around with. He sighed when Al cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Alright, look. We are going to go to the Burrow and the two of you are going to stop fighting. You won’t have to be near each other for the next few hours, so you will both have time to cool down. Lily, you will give Al his Quaffle back. Al, you will stop telling your sister that she is a squib. And,” he added when Lily pulled back from his chest, her mouth open and obviously ready to protest. “If the two of you do not stop provoking each other, I will have to punish you. Do you really want to start the holidays missing some of your favourite things? Because I will take them from you and you will not be getting them back until you apologise and show me you can act like civilised human beings.”

He watched as Al’s face contorted and shock crossed Lily’s. It seemed that Al was faster than Lil to recover, however.

“You can’t do that! It’s illegal to steal things!”

“I haven’t done anything!”

“Why are you always on her side?”

“He’s the one who started this! It wasn’t me at all! It never is, but you won’t listen to me!”

The last things they both yelled at him were so in sync that Harry couldn’t actually understand either of them. He got the gist of it, though, when they both turned and stormed back towards the Manor, Lily’s hands clenched and Al stomping on every little piece of green that sprouted through the paving stones. Caught somewhere between amusement and frustration, Harry let out a growl as he ran his hands through his hair.

“Oh, you are a terrible person, Potter.” The drawling voice came from just off to Harry’s left, causing him to grin. “If only the press knew how poorly you treat your own children; you’d never be lauded by the public ever again.”

“And we all know what a horrible tragedy that would be,” Harry responded as he turned towards where Draco stood just by one of the greenhouses, obviously having just exited, if the dirt on his hands was anything to go by. “I can just see the headline now: ‘The Saviour’ Caught Parenting His Own Children in Shocking Scandal!’”

Harry couldn’t help laughing when a wide smile spread across Draco's face. Stepping up to him, he ran his hands around Draco's trim waist, admiring the fact that he had managed to keep the black shirt tucked into his trousers despite the fact that he had been working. The amusement he saw in Draco's eyes when he looked up kept the smile on his face.

“I didn’t have time to be a real teenager, were you this difficult?”

Draco raised an eyebrow at him. “I am never difficult, Potter. Malfoys are above all of that nonsense.”

His haughty tone had Harry chuckling again. “Really? So you’re telling me that you never once threw food at the house-elves, or deliberately broke a toy you were given because it was the wrong colour, or even tried to fool your parents into thinking that you absolutely needed a new broom because that was the only way you could get onto the House Quidditch team?”

A quick smirk flashed across Draco's face before he spoke. “That is exactly what I’m telling you, because you cannot prove any of it.”

Putting a bit of pressure on Draco's hips, Harry dragged him close enough to place a quick kiss on his lips. “I need to find Scorpius and James. Do you think you could run interference for me inside? I wouldn’t want one of those two acting out on the furnishings or anything like that.” He grinned when Draco nodded instead of responding. “Draco? Don’t wear robes today.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just trust me on this one. Don’t wear robes. It’ll be easier this way.”

“Have I ever mentioned that you are incredibly strange?”

“Not that I remember, but I’m pretty sure it was indicated in your tone of voice quite a lot over the years.”

What Harry didn’t add as Draco shook his head and started off towards the Manor is that the robes covered him up and Harry wanted to be able to show him off just a little. No matter that everyone there would be married and completely uninterested in what Draco looked like, he was one part of Harry’s life that he was incredibly proud of and he would take every opportunity of showing him off to his friends and family.

Harry’s mind drifted through some of the things they had planned for his week off from work as he made his way down through the Manor’s grounds. He knew the boys would need to go shopping for new clothes, due to how much they had grown over the past school year, but he didn’t know exactly which day they would put aside for shopping, or even where they would go. The Weasleys always had things planned for the first week of the holidays, but he was fairly certain he wanted to try to start some of their own traditions this year. Of course, Lucius and Narcissa would want to see Scorpius as well, which would be happening soon. He sighed as more thoughts assaulted him. He wanted to go into Muggle London for a trip, but he was unsure whether Draco would want to go with them. They also needed to get all three of the boy’s wedding clothes fitted properly, as well as getting them to rehearse what they would need to do during the ceremony. Lily, of course, wanted to have a proper picnic now that the weather was nice. That meant that they would have to find somewhere quiet that the Muggles couldn’t find, because the boys would want to bring their broomsticks.

And with all of that on his plate, he wanted one more thing to be added. Harry wanted one night without any of the children so he could take Draco on a date. Not a ‘go out and grab a quick bite at a pub’ type date, either. He wanted a fancy restaurant, he wanted to wear formal robes or a suit, and he wanted posh waiters who would look at him in envy because of how unbelievably good Draco looked. His mind was just rushing through all the fancy restaurants he knew of in Muggle London when a rustle in a tree nearby caused him to jump. Squinting up into the branches, he could only just make out a crop of blond hair in amongst the leaves.

“Scorpius? Why are you up a tree?”

Harry thought it a reasonable question, considering he had figured he was much more likely to find one of his boys up there rather than Scorpius. A small rustle preceded a few snapping branches to Harry’s right, causing him to step over to a second tree just before James jumped and landed at his feet.

“We were talking.”

There was a tiny bit of a defensive tone to James’ voice. He stood before Harry, his arms crossed loosely around his waist and a slightly sullen look on his face.

“While you were climbing trees?”

“Yeah.”

Harry sighed. As much as he loved the idea that James was feeling a little more like himself, he would have much preferred him to not have gotten his attitude back before the rest of his personality. Before he could react, however, Scorpius joined them, jumping down from his tree with a small thud.

“It’s alright, we weren’t doing anything bad, I swear. I was just asking him about Grimmauld Place, that’s all.”

This caught Harry’s attention completely. He knew he should be trying to hide his curiosity over why Scorpius was so fascinated with Grimmauld, but he couldn’t quite keep his face straight enough to hide it completely.

“And what is so interesting about a dusty old house? I’ve had everything that had even the slightest bit of Dark magic to it either cleansed or removed, in case that’s what you are so curious about. There’s no more curses and a lot of the older furnishings and original paintings have either been removed or renovated over the years to make them safe.”

“Oh, no, it’s alright. I really was just wondering about it because of my family connection to it, I swear.”

It struck Harry in that moment just how alike Draco and Scorpius really were; physically if not mentally as well. He could definitely see Astoria’s influence on his personality in his sense of humour and his willingness to show his emotions openly, but this ability to convince people to see things his way was all Draco, Harry was certain. It was a shame for Scorpius, then, that Harry had had all kinds of training to prevent him from being taken in by someone who was trying to convince him to let them have their own way. Harry smiled.

“Alright then.” He nodded to let the boys both know that he had supposedly agreed that whatever they were up to was nothing. “Look, we have to be at the Burrow in half an hour, so could you both get up to the house and get ready?”

This sudden fascination with Grimmauld that Scorpius had developed was more than a little suspicious and he knew he would have to give the house a once-over before he allowed any of the children back into it. Turning so he could follow James and Scorpius back up the path towards the house, Harry allowed his mind to wander through the possibilities he could be facing. There could be something that he and the Curse Breakers had missed when they had swept the house the first time over. There could be a particular painting Scorp wanted to speak to. There could also be any number of tiny objects that weren’t cursed exactly, but were still more dangerous than a child should have in his possession. Perhaps he could ask Bill about it that afternoon, he considered as he entered the house. When he wasn’t immediately met by screaming children or a harassed Draco vowing to never have contact with children again, he smiled. The other possibility was that Scorpius really was just curious about his heritage and Grimmauld Place was the one house left that held anything to do with the Black family. All he could really do at that point in time was hope.

*~*

Draco spent the entirety of lunch and part of the afternoon feeling incredibly exposed. He had allowed Harry to talk him into not only not wearing his robes to the lunch at the Burrow, but also exchanging his usual black and white for a pale blue-grey shirt that he rarely wore. It had felt as though the eyes of every single Weasley there were on him during lunch and, now that they had moved out into the orchard at the back of the property for a quick game of Quidditch for the older kids, that feeling was only just starting to subside.

Stepping away from Harry for a few minutes, Draco took a deep breath to clear his mind. Scorpius seemed to be getting along with the Weasley children quite well, which Draco was thankful for. He knew that Scorp would have met some of them at Hogwarts, but Draco hadn’t yet taken the time to ask about which of the children he had made friends with other than the ones he had already known. The idea that Scorp was able to make friends much easier than he had ever been able to caused Draco to smile to himself, knowing that his son would have a much easier path through life than he had had. He was just standing there watching the children flying overhead when a small hand tugged on his sleeve.

“Is it true?”

Draco glanced down to be met by the bright blue eyes of a young boy a few years younger than Scorp. His pale blond hair told Draco that he had to be Bill and Fleur’s youngest. He glanced around to see where the boy’s parents were, but when he couldn’t find them, he knelt down in front of him so they were on eye-level.

“Is what true?”

The boy’s eyes flicked down to Draco's left forearm before returning to his eyes. “That you were… You know? With him.”

Draco bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from sighing. He had been expecting to be interrogated by the adults about his time with ‘him’, as Louis had so succinctly put it, but not by a child.

“Yes, I was,” he replied cautiously. “But that is all far behind me. I regret doing anything that he had commanded me to do, but I had no choice at the time. I have that choice now and I choose to be a better man than I was a teenager.”

A thoughtful expression crossed the boy’s face as he processed that information. Draco could almost pinpoint the moment he came to his next decision and had to resist the urge to laugh.

“Can I see it?”

The words were whispered in an afraid tone that told Draco that showing the boy the scarred remains of his Dark Mark would be a very bad idea. He smiled, but couldn’t prevent himself from unconsciously rubbing his hand along the Mark beneath his sleeve.

“There’s nothing left to see, Louis. The Dark magic that was connected to the Marks left when Voldemort was killed at the end of the War.” When all Louis did was stare at him with wide eyes, Draco offered him another smile. “There’s no way he could come back, if that’s what you’re worried about. Your Uncle Harry took care of him twenty years ago and made absolutely certain that there was no way he could manage to come back.”

“Are you sure? Really, truly sure?”

Draco allowed himself to smile properly at that. “Yes. I have complete confidence in your Uncle Harry and his ability to stop bad people from doing bad things. He has protected all of us for a long time as an Auror as well.”

Louis nodded. “I know.”

“Do you want to be like him when you grow up?”

Louis’ nodding became more vigorous, causing his hair to flop into his eyes. “Yeah, I do. I’ll be an Auror just like Uncle Harry and I’ll stop all the bad guys!”

Draco grinned. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah, of course I am!”

“Then why don’t you go tell him?”

He watched as Louis took off without another word, heading straight for Harry. Shaking his head, he stood and brushed the grass off his trousers.

“You handled that well.”

Draco spun around to see Fleur watching him from a few steps away. She would have been just out of his line of sight when he was kneeling, leading him to wonder just how long she had been standing there. He offered her a small nod when she smiled at him.

“Children are easy to deal with.”

“True, but only for some. And I doubt that many of the former Death Eaters would be able to ‘deal with’ a child asking to see their Mark. Either they would point-blank refuse, or they would try to terrify him. You used the opportunity to turn his thoughts towards something more positive. It’s easy to tell that you have a child of your own.”

Draco had absolutely no idea what to say to this, so he merely offered her a polite smile. Fleur seemed to take that as an answer, as she smiled back and turned to watch the Quidditch game.

Listening for an indication that she was about to start speaking to him again, Draco found he couldn’t quite enjoy the game. A slight sheen of sweat was beginning to form on his top lip, which he attributed to a combination of the warmer weather and the shot of nerves that were shivering through his stomach. He, of course, knew that she was Bill’s wife and therefore would know that it was he who had let in the Death Eater who had scarred Bill. What he didn’t know was whether she held any form of grudge against him. Hell, he didn’t even know if Bill held a grudge against him, to be honest. It wasn’t like this was something that was discussed in polite conversation.

“He has always been fascinated with the War and any who fought in it.”

Draco had to stop himself from scoffing. “I didn’t fight. Not really. All I was trying to do was keep both myself and my parents alive. By any means necessary.” He could feel Fleur’s eyes on him, but he kept his own eyes glued to the children flying above them. “I’ve never spoken to anyone outside of my family and friends about what happened during those two years at the end of the War, mostly because my story doesn’t differ that much from others who the press and public are much more interested in.”

“He threatened your parent’s lives if you did not comply with what he wanted.”

Draco nodded, but still didn’t remove his eyes from the game. “Exactly. It’s a story that has been told over and over by people who have a better public image than I do.”

They fell silent for a while after that. Draco watched the game, allowing his eyes to drift over all ten of the players rather than settling on just one. Each of the Weasleys flew, some better than others. Then, of course, there was Teddy, who was older and a much more experienced player than the rest of the children. It was obvious to Draco that he was holding himself back a bit, though. Draco was just relaxing a little when Fleur spoke again.

“I believe that the world would be interested in your story.”

Draco looked over at her in surprise. “You think I should try to shop a sob story around? Try to improve my social standing by appealing to the public’s softer side?”

“No, of course not. But I do believe that telling them all what it was like from your side of the War would help both the current children of the former Death Eaters and help to soften the public’s opinions of those they are currently afraid of.”

A shout went up from the back of the house, causing both Draco and Fleur to look over. Arthur appeared to be standing in the doorway, waving for everyone to come back to the house.

“Ah, it must be time for tea. I hope you will think on what I have said, Draco. I would be as interested as anyone else to discover what it was like for you to live under that kind of pressure for so long.”

With that, she turned and started to make her way back to the house. Draco watched her go, shock rushing through his veins. He had no idea how long he stood and stared, but he knew that the sounds from the game had completely died out before he was dragged out of his thoughts by a hesitant voice.

“Draco? You alright?”

He smiled properly as he turned to face Harry. The smile faltered just a little when he saw that Harry wasn’t alone, but he held it by keeping his eyes fixed on Harry alone. He could just make out the faces of Hermione and Ron standing a few steps back from Harry, but he couldn’t focus on them.

“Of course,” he answered softly, knowing that the quiet tone of voice would force Harry to step closer to him.

True to character, Harry moved forward until he was just within arm’s reach. “You’re sure?” Harry let out a breath when Draco grabbed his wrist and dragged him forward a few steps. “You do realise we’re not alone, right?”

“I’m not looking to fuck you, Potter,” Draco whispered. He grinned when Harry leant in to catch his words. “Unless being watched is something you would be into, of course.”

The shades of red Harry was capable of turning had always held some kind of fascination for Draco, but he knew he couldn’t act on any of the ideas that it caused to spring to mind at that point in time. Instead, he slid his hand down so he was holding Harry’s hand lightly in his own and turned to their audience.

“Weasley.” He nodded formally, an action he knew would look ridiculous on anyone else who had just put on a display like he had. “Granger.”

“What are you–”

Weasley was cut off with a grunt when his wife elbowed him in the ribs. Draco allowed himself to smirk in response.

“We should all be getting back inside before Arthur comes looking for us.”

Draco watched the two of them go before turning to Harry, who was watching him with an incredulous expression. Raising his eyebrow seemed to loosen Harry’s tongue.

“What the hell was that?”

Draco's smirk returned as he began to move the two of them off towards the house. “You wanted me to express myself more in public, correct?”

“In public, yes. Saying something like that in front of Ron and Hermione, probably not.”

“Really?” Draco grinned when Harry huffed out a breath at his surprised tone. “Perhaps you should have made that clear the first time.”

“You’re insane.”

“That isn’t a nice thing to say.”

“You’re going to drag me down into insanity with you.”

“At least I won’t be alone, then.”

“Draco?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

Draco stopped a few steps away from the backdoor of the house so he could raise an eyebrow at Harry in question. “For embarrassing you in front of your friends?”

“For being willing to loosen up a little in front of other people. Even if it does mean I’m going to be embarrassed in front of them more often than not. I don’t know what made you change your mind about this, but… I like it.”

Leaning in, Draco brushed their lips together softly in response. Even if it was just in front of Weasley and Granger, it did feel as though he had made a bit of a breakthrough over the past day when it came to his aversion to displaying any emotions in public. He knew he would have time to examine the thought when they were back in the Manor, but for the moment, he was more than happy to just let things play out as they would.
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The Optimal Balance