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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
- 20
- 21
- 22
A loud shriek from a bird just outside the window of the Manor’s kitchen startled Harry out of the stupor the morning newspaper had lulled him into on Tuesday. Since the boys had returned from Hogwarts, Harry had taken to rising a little earlier than he was used to in order to have some time alone in the mornings to just relax and read the sports section of the paper. It was quite refreshing to be able to just sit there in the quiet of the morning with no noises around other than the rustle of his newspaper and the crunch of his toast as he slowly munched on it, so it was with some reluctance that he listened to footsteps echoing through the house towards him. He bit back a sigh as the door to the kitchen was pushed open, preparing himself for one or more of the children to burst through.

“Good morning, Harry.”

Harry’s head whipped towards the door the second he heard Astoria’s voice. Standing in the doorway, she had her arms wrapped around herself and a somewhat sheepish smile on her face. Harry grinned, but resisted the urge to rib her about her obvious embarrassment. Instead, he gestured to the chair opposite to him and waved his wand, sending the teapot floating over towards her.

“Morning. How are you?”

Astoria took a while to answer, getting comfortable in the chair, adjusting her clothing and pouring herself some tea. When she finally looked up to meet his eyes, however, she was smiling wide.

“I’m quite well, thank you.”

She fell silent again, sipping delicately at her tea. Harry watched for a few seconds before dropping his gaze back to his paper, assuming that it was none of business what she and Roger had gotten up to the night before, despite his raging curiosity. He had gotten through half of a story about the Chudley Cannons’ chances at ending up bottom yet again before a light laugh dragged his attention back to Astoria. His eyebrows shot into his hairline, but she just waved a hand at him, still laughing.

“You and Draco are so different,” she gasped after a few seconds. “Draco's such a gossip that by this point I would have expected to be being interrogated on every single little thing that happened last night. You, however, are just sitting there looking like my personal life is none of your business.”

Harry raised a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Your personal life isn’t any of my business.”

Astoria just shook her head and shot him an affectionate look that he had seen her gift Draco with on multiple occasions before. Pushing her chair back, she stepped around the table to place a hand on Harry’s shoulder.

“If it wasn’t clear to me before, then that statement would have just clarified why the two of you are so good together.” Bending slightly, she placed a soft kiss on his forehead before pulling back. “Don’t ever be afraid to ask me anything. I trust you with the safety of both my son and my overly-nosy ex-husband, so a little gossip isn’t going to hurt anything.”

“Oh…” Harry sat there for a few seconds with what he had to assume was a completely stunned look on his face when Astoria stepped back to her chair. “I, er... Thank you.”

The smirk he received in response was so reminiscent of Scorpius that he had to shake his head in wonder. Still, he kept quiet for a few more seconds rather than just barge in with questions. He was unused to gossiping about something like this; he figured it came from the fact that his best friends had married each other. That had meant that he really didn’t want information about what was happening in either of their sex lives and had caused him to miss this particular part of being an adult. When his mind couldn’t come up with any questions he felt were suitable to ask, he decided to just stick with the safer ones that occurred to him.

“How was it? Will I need to be bribing someone to get Draco out of Azkaban for cursing him?”

It seemed as though that was really all she had wanted, as in the next second, Harry was nearly overwhelmed by a rush of words that he had no hope of being able to keep track of. Astoria described everything from what Roger and his parents had been wearing, to the floral arrangements on the tables of the restaurant, to how rude the waiters were. Harry was attempting to not allow himself to tune the words out when he heard the sound of the door opening and closing softly behind him. He turned in his chair to see Draco smiling at them from the doorway. He wasn’t certain whether he shot Draco a look that pleaded to be rescued, but it must have been obvious that he was in over his head with this one somehow. Draco stepped forward, tilted Harry’s chair back just enough so his head fell backwards naturally and, with an extremely polite excuse us to Astoria, he kissed him.

Harry was aware that Astoria had fallen silent, but beyond that, all he could focus on was the strong scent of Draco's aftershave. Upside down as he was, it was rather difficult to manage to kiss back properly, but it seemed to him that he had managed to do something right, as Draco let out a soft sigh as he broke the kiss.

“Good morning.”

Harry hummed in response, causing Draco to chuckle. Draco moved quickly around the kitchen, making himself tea before settling down on one of the spare chairs at the table. Harry’s eyes didn’t leave him until he was seated, taking in his white shirt tucked neatly into his black trousers. When Draco finally seated himself, Harry dragged his eyes away only to find Astoria smirking at him. He cleared his throat self-consciously before dropping his gaze to the table. Draco placed his tea down after a few seconds and laced his fingers together before him on the tabletop. Instead of beginning the interrogation of Astoria that Harry knew was coming, however, Draco turned to face Harry first.

“Did you know the boys are already awake and conspiring together outside?”

Harry blinked. This was about as far from what he had been expecting Draco to lead off with that it took a few seconds for the information to sink in.

“Outside? Already? It’s only…” He trailed off when he glanced up to look at the clock ticking above the sink. “Half eight. Damn it.”

Harry shoved his chair backwards, folded the paper and placed it to the side of the table, ready to collect and finish later on. He could feel two sets of eyes on him, watching as he moved over to the sink to deposit his plate and teacup. Turning back to the table, he automatically brushed his hands over his thighs, sweeping the crumbs from his fingers. The move earned him a roll of Draco's eyes. Instead of reacting to that, however, he turned to face Astoria.

“Good luck. I have a feeling you’ll need it.”

Astoria merely laughed and waved a hand at him as he headed towards the backdoor. Draco didn’t even bother waiting until he was out the door before beginning his interrogation.

“How severely am I allowed to curse him?”

“Not at all,” Harry called through the door before he set off down the path.

Draco yelled something back at him, but by that time, Harry was too far away to hear whatever it was. A huge grin stretched across his face as he made his way down through the Manor’s grounds. It was obvious that Draco's mention of the boys already being up was his way of basically telling Harry to bugger off so he could have some time alone with Astoria. The idea that Draco was more than willing to be so transparent in front of him widened Harry’s smile even further as he walked along the path that would lead him down past the greenhouses and towards the peacock enclosure and the open area that the boys had taken to playing pickup games of Quidditch on.

It occurred to Harry that he probably should have asked Draco exactly where the boys were as he rounded the corner. The field was completely empty, as was the peacock enclosure. Harry spun in a circle, a frown creasing his forehead as he tried to remember where else he had seen all three of the boys together. He wandered slowly down the path, listening for anything that would indicate the presence of three normally rather lively boys.

The path led down through the Manor’s immaculately manicured grounds and Harry couldn’t help shaking his head in wonder. Spread out before him was a lawn that would have had his Aunt Petunia turning pea green with envy: lush green grass covered the ground in a slight downward slope, leading towards a small pond; on one side of the lawn stood a series of neatly trimmed topiaries, while the opposite side was edged with rose bushes in differing shades of red, pink and white. A cobblestone path led down the very middle, only broken in the dead centre of the lawn by a large white gazebo. Harry had, of course, seen it all before, but it never ceased to amaze him. He set off down the cobblestone path in search of the boys, but pulled up short when the sound of James’ voice reached him.

“…but the portrait said that it had to be his voice, not someone else’s.”

Harry’s insides froze. It took him a few seconds to realise that, in this case, ‘his’ couldn’t possibly be referring to Voldemort. He shook his head and immediately moved off to the side of the path, putting himself out of the line of sight of anyone who may have happened to glance out the doorway of the gazebo. It had been quite a while since any kind of memory of his past had intruded like that and it had left him slightly shaky, but he attempted to push it aside as best as he could. Focussing back on the gazebo, a sharp sense of thankfulness to whoever had designed it rushed through him when he examined it properly and realised that two sides of it were completely enclosed. He had to assume that it was designed that way to hide whoever was inside rather than whoever was outside, but he figured he would take his luck as it came to him. Crouching down so he could move up to the side of the gazebo, he held his breath as his shoes crunched on some loose stones.

“Did you hear something?”

“It’s probably just one of those fucking peacocks.”

Harry’s eyes widened at Scorpius’ use of that kind of language, but he stayed still, wanting to find out exactly what the two of them were up to. Still moving in a crouch, he pressed his back up against the wall of the gazebo and settled in to listen to whatever it was that the two boys had been speaking to a portrait about.

“Yeah, probably.” Footsteps thudded across the wooden floor, followed shortly by a thump as James obviously threw himself down onto the seat inside. “Have you told Al?”

“He knows. It was his suggestion to nick those potions from Dad.”

“You don’t think Draco knows it was you?”

Scorpius scoffed. “Please. He’s so wrapped up in your Dad that he doesn’t see hardly anything anymore. I’d be surprised to learn that he even realised they were missing in the first place.”

Harry made a mental note to ask Draco about any missing potions when he got back to the house. His heart was beginning to beat a little too rapidly as he listened and he had to take a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. Frowning, he cocked his head to the side in an attempt to catch everything James and Scorpius were saying.

“So Al was saying he might try and convince Lily to suggest going to Grimmauld as well.”

“You don’t think that would be going too far? All four of us asking whether we will be going back there?”

“Don’t underestimate Lily’s ability to convince an adult to do what she wants. Being the precious baby of the family as well as the only girl apparently has its advantages.”

There was a tiny touch of resentment to James’ voice, but nothing more than Harry had heard from any of his three children before when they were complaining that one of them gets preferential treatment over the others. What he was more concerned about was the fact that there appeared to be something sitting in Grimmauld that the boys had found out about from a portrait that required a certain person’s voice to… This part drew Harry up short. He had come in at just the wrong part of the conversation to discover exactly why the boys thought they needed a particular person’s voice. His fingers twitched with nerves as the silence in the gazebo went on slightly too long for his liking. He almost let out a sigh of relief when Scorpius spoke again.

“You don’t think that whatever’s in there will be dangerous, do you?”

“Well…” James paused, causing Harry’s heart to thump against his ribcage. “The portrait didn’t say exactly what was in it, just that we couldn’t open it without the voice recognition thing. Do you really think you can alter them?”

“Of course I can!” The indignant exclamation held so much insult to it that Harry was hard-pressed to not laugh. “I wouldn’t have said I could if I didn’t think I could.”

“Alright, alright, calm down! Look, we’ve got your grandparents coming over tonight, right? So that means that Al might be able to corner Lily and convince her to try asking whether we could go to Grimmauld once during the holidays. None of the adults will be paying all that much attention to us three; it’ll all be about you.”

“Lucky me.”

“Well, lucky us actually.”

There was a thump from inside the gazebo right near Harry’s head, causing him to jump. He came out of his crouch and moved in the opposite direction to the thump, around towards the back of the gazebo. The sound of two sets of footsteps descending the stairs at the other end of the gazebo reached his ears and he huffed out a relieved sigh. For a second there, he had thought that maybe one of the boys had managed to catch a glimpse of him accidentally through a hole in the wall, or something equally as unlucky. He stayed at the back of the gazebo just in case one of them decided to glance behind them. This conversation had given him a lot to think over, but one thing was absolutely certain: he and Draco had to go through Grimmauld with a fine toothed comb to try to discover exactly what it was the three of them were after.

*~*

Draco's attention had been fixed directly on Harry for what felt like hours. He smiled and managed to respond appropriately to whatever it was Astoria’s Mother was speaking to him about, but his eyes continued to be drawn back to where Harry stood across the room with Narcissa. There had been something strange about Harry all day, but with the children distracting him and then the arrival of both his and Astoria’s parents just after lunch, Draco hadn’t been able to find the time to ask what was wrong.

“…but it turned out that it was just the neighbour’s Crup, Banjo!”

Draco forced a laugh as he caught the end of Caroline Greengrass’ story. Over the years, he had developed a ‘listening attentively’ expression, thanks to her repetition of stories about Banjo the Crup. She only ever told these stories when she had had a few too many glasses of champagne, but that had turned out to be often enough over the years of his marriage to Astoria to help him to perfect the expression. That expression had actually come in quite handy in many various situations over the years he had known Caroline, but Draco hated to think that he actually owed Banjo the Crup anything. He smiled wide and quietly offered to refill her glass of champagne in a rather desperate attempt to get away before she began another story.

“Oh, thank you, dear. You know, I don’t know why Astoria let you go, I really don’t. Such a nice, charming boy.”

Draco's smile became fixed as he turned and made his escape over to the sideboard. There was absolutely no chance in hell that he was explaining his sexuality to Caroline when she was in this condition, but perhaps he wouldn’t have to. He shot Astoria what he hoped was a smile that was as charming as Caroline had claimed he was. She rolled her eyes at him, but slowly began to weave her way through the informal living room, dodging around lounge chairs and people.

“That expression could either mean ‘save me’ or ‘kill me’ when it comes from someone who has just been speaking to my Mother.”

Draco huffed out a chuckle as he turned and presented Astoria with the glass of champagne he had taken from Caroline. “The former in this case, thankfully. Do you think you could rescue me from the stories about Banjo? Please?”

He watched as Astoria’s eyes narrowed. It was a bit of a struggle for Draco to not hold his breath in anticipation as Astoria studied him, but he managed it.

“You will tell me what’s got you so worried later on, right?”

A sense of relief washed through Draco as he handed the glass over with a grateful smile. “Of course I will, if you insist on it.”

“You’re dumping my Mother on me; of course I’m going to insist!”

With that, she swatted at him until he moved out of her way so she could make her way over to Caroline. Draco didn’t even wait to watch her go, he just turned and swept immediately over to where Harry stood in the corner of the room, speaking to Narcissa in a low tone.

“Unfortunately that is all the information I can give you on Grimmauld Place. Our two sides of the family had split a little by the time I was born and I never really spent that much time in the actual house itself. My Cousin Sirius was your Godfather, I believe?”

Draco's muscles tensed as he came up behind Harry. What motive his Mother could possibly have for grilling Harry about Grimmauld, he had no idea, but he would put a stop to it if he could. Resting a hand lightly on the small of Harry’s back grabbed his attention and Draco was gratified to see a warm smile spread across Harry’s face when he turned to face him. Harry leant back slightly, just enough so that his shoulder rested against Draco's when he stood still.

“Yes, he was,” Harry answered Narcissa when he turned back. “He left me the house in his will. The magical contract connected with the house ensured that the house would be able to be passed out of the Black family as long as it was willed by the last rightful owner. I haven’t used it much over the years, to be honest. All I really did was clean it out as much as possible, then move in once Ginny and I decided to divorce.”

Draco almost snorted in amusement at Harry’s choice of words. He opened his mouth to ask Harry what was going on, but Narcissa got in before him.

“I would assume that you don’t know much about the history of the place, then. It has actually been in our family for many generations before Sirius inherited it on his Mother’s death.”

“Well, no, I don’t. But that’s why I came to you tonight with these questions. I hoped that there wasn’t anything in the house that a team of Curse Breakers would have missed on a thorough sweep of the house. Do you know if there’s anything dangerous in there that could be overlooked, or that doesn’t give off Dark magic but could be dangerous anyway?”

Draco's hand on Harry’s back clenched, scrunching the shirt he wore in his hand. It caused Harry to turn and wrap his arm around Draco's waist, pulling him close to his side.

“It’s alright, nothing’s happened.”

There was a reassuring tone to Harry’s voice, but it did nothing to prevent Draco's mind from skipping straight to a myriad of situations where Harry would need to know about Dark objects that could be left in Grimmauld. Unfortunately for him, most of those situations starred their children. His attention was forcibly dragged to his Mother when she answered Harry’s question.

“Nothing springs immediately to mind, I’m sorry. Is there anything in particular you are thinking of?”

“No, I just… I don’t want to allow the children to run free around a house that we may have missed something dangerous in. I had Bill Weasley and a team of Curse Breakers sweep the house after the War and we think we got absolutely everything that could be even the slightest bit dangerous, but I just need to make totally certain.”

“Perfectly understandable, I assure you. You wouldn’t believe how cautious Lucius was with Draco when he was a toddler and began getting into all the drawers inside the Manor.”

Both Draco and Harry nodded to Narcissa when she excused herself. Draco shook his head as he caught sight of the fond smile his Mother was shooting his Father; it was still quite strange to see the two of them being so open in front of Harry. He pushed those thoughts aside, however, when Harry’s grip around his waist tightened a little.

“What’s wrong?”

Harry smiled. “I caught Jamie and Scorp talking about how they had to get into Grimmauld because a portrait told them about something that could only be opened using ‘his voice’.”

The quotations were clearly stated in Harry’s tone, but that wasn’t what Draco focussed on. “Did you confront them about it?”

“And give them reason to stop talking about it so openly? No, I let them think that they’re getting away with whatever it is they’re planning. Are you missing some potions, by the way?”

“Potions?” Draco frowned. “The only ones that come to mind are three vials of Volubilis Potion, but that can’t be…” He trailed off as what Harry had said sank in. “Volubilis Potion changes your voice. It’s generally used in prank potions from places like Zonko’s.”

“Is it possible that it could change your voice to imitate a certain person?”

“Not without significant altering.”

Harry nodded slowly. “Do you think Scorp is clever enough to be able to pull that off?”

Draco drew his bottom lip in between his teeth as he considered he question. “I… I am honestly unsure. He is an incredibly intelligent child, for twelve years old. However, altering an already made potion is a highly advanced and complicated thing to do. I doubt that it is within his capabilities, but I wouldn’t ever rule it out completely, just in case.”

Draco kept his eyes fixed on Harry’s face, watching his expressions change rapidly. When it seemed that he had come to a conclusion about something, Harry looked up to meet Draco's eyes.

“We’ll have to tell Astoria. Once both sets of your parents have left tonight, we’ll have to sit down and try to work out what we’re going to do about this. If they have been told about something dangerous that is still in Grimmauld somewhere, then we can’t allow them to have access to the house until we are certain that there’s nothing there that can injure any of them.”

Draco let out a soft sigh when Harry fell silent. “Two and a half weeks before the Gods-be-damned wedding and it appears that three of our children are attempting to unearth centuries old curses. Wonderful.” He frowned when Harry grinned at him. “What is so amusing?”

Harry merely shrugged in response and tugged Draco a little closer to him. Standing there in the living room of the Manor with Harry in his arms usually had warmth pooling in Draco's chest, but this time all he could feel was nervous.

“Harry?”

“It’ll be fine, Dray. We won’t let them hurt themselves or anyone else.”

Draco nodded slowly. He wasn’t certain whether the confidence he could hear in Harry’s voice was real or feigned, but he allowed himself to relax just a little. No matter what their children were up to, he knew that Harry was correct: they would do everything they could to prevent them from injuring themselves.
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The Optimal Balance