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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
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- 30
- 31
Tuesday morning saw Harry wandering slowly down through the grounds of the Manor, searching for what Lily termed ‘the most perfect place to have a picnic’. She had been insisting on all six of them going on a picnic together, but the three boys had been reluctant, so they had compromised: they would stay on the Manor grounds where the boys would be allowed to roam as they saw fit. Harry was certain that he had already seen Scorp and Al scheming together just before they left, their heads bent together and whispering quickly. What it could be over was something that had been playing on Harry’s mind for the past twenty minutes as they walked.
Considering they only had four days before the wedding, Harry’s nerves over what the boys could be up to had been escalating. He and Draco had run through every scenario they could come up with over and over again the night before, but they still hadn’t been able to come to any solid decisions for what they could do. Neither had Ron or Hermione when Harry had spoken to them over the weekend. Smiling as Lily shot past him, chasing Bastet once again, he decided that just for that morning he was going to pretend that what was going on with the boys didn’t exist. He was going to have fun with his kids and Draco just as they had originally planned before this had all started.
“Lily,” he called out the second she stopped running. She turned to face him, Bastet struggling in her arms. “There’s a duck pond just over that way.”
Pointing off to his right, Harry grinned when she took off again, still holding Bastet. The cat’s fluffy tail flopped over Lily’s arm as she ran, providing Lily with what appeared from the back to be a rather hairy scarf.
“I almost feel sorry for that cat.”
Harry automatically slowed his steps so Draco could catch up to him. “Considering Bastet doesn’t really seem to think that she needs an owner, I’d say they are both worthy of sympathy.”
Draco's responding laugh sent a shot of warmth through Harry’s stomach. It was so nice to see him so happy and relaxed that Harry could almost hold true to his decision to not think about what the boys were up to and just pretend that everything was alright. Almost.
“Nothing has happened with the lockbox? No one’s tried to get into it?” The good humour that the short laugh had brought to Draco's face faded quickly at Harry’s question, causing him to immediately regret asking. “I mean, not that I think they will try to get into it, I just–”
“Have never been this worried about what your children are doing?” The knowing look that Draco shot him had Harry ducking his head as a slight blush tinted his cheeks. “Believe me, Harry, I feel the same way. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, but…” He paused, shaking his head. “Are we absolutely certain that we aren’t blowing this out of proportion?”
Unable to help himself, Harry sighed. “You’ve been talking to Astoria again, haven’t you?”
“She makes a convincing argument.”
Harry nodded. “She does and she almost had me convinced that this is nothing when we were first trying to decide what to do about it, but I just can’t–”
“I know, I know,” Draco interrupted with a frustrated sigh.
It was a discussion they had been having over the past fortnight that always ended in one of them getting the huffs with the other. They went around and around in circles, repeating their stances on what was going on but never once deciding on anything. Taking a breath and letting it out slowly, Harry shook his head.
“Sorry. I know I’m repeating myself. I did decide that I wasn’t going to bring this up today, but apparently I can’t help it.”
“As is only right with a parent who is afraid for his children, but–”
Draco was cut off abruptly by the sound of a shriek and a huge splash followed by shouts of laughter. The two of them took off for the pond where Harry had sent Lily a few minutes before. Harry had the brief sense that he really shouldn’t have been stupid enough to send Lily running off behind the group of trees in front of them that hid the pond, but he knew it was too late. It took them less than a minute to reach it and when they did, Harry had to stop to take in the scene before him. All three boys were standing at the edge of the pond, almost doubled over laughing as Lily spluttered in the water while Bastet sat a few meters from them, glaring for all she was worth between trying to clean what was obviously duck pond water from her fur. He sighed again.
“What happened?”
“Dad did you see that?” Al gasped out. “She just went straight in! Almost head first!”
“Because you threw my cat in!” Lily staggered up out of the water, her clothing dripping wet and her shoes caked in mud. “I didn’t know if she could swim!”
“I didn’t throw the stupid cat in, I swear!” Al stood up straight and met Harry’s eyes with no hesitation. “I can’t even get near the bloody thing or it’ll scratch me to death!”
“Watch your language, Albus,” Harry responded without even thinking about it.
Knowing that he would probably never learn exactly what had happened to cause Lily and Bastet to fall into the duck pond, he set about getting each of the children sorted out. He cast drying and refreshing charms at Lily, instructed James and Al to start setting up the picnic they had brought with them and asked Scorpius to find some fallen branches so they could transfigure them into seats. Through it all, Lily and Al took little shots at each other, making snide remarks about cats or Quidditch skills. It was not the start to the picnic that Harry had wanted to have, but he figured that anything that drove his attention away from worrying about the boys could only be a good thing.
“You really actually like giving out instructions, don’t you?”
Harry grinned as he turned to where Draco stood behind him, his arms crossed across his chest. “Only when they’re followed.”
“Tell me why you never took up McGonagall’s offer to teach then?”
With one last check on Al and James, Harry turned to stroll over to where Draco stood in the shade of one of the many copses of trees that littered the Manor grounds. With the sunlight filtering through the leaves, Draco's pale hair seemed to almost be glowing in places. Harry grinned as Draco reached for him seemingly automatically once he reached him. Allowing himself to be drawn close enough to Draco so he could press their lips together briefly, Harry hummed contentedly.
“I’m really not sure I could deal with that many children every day.”
It took a few seconds for Draco to respond and when he did there was a strange tone to his voice. “Harry,” he began slowly, sounding almost as though he thought he was speaking to someone with a limited mental capacity. “You own an orphanage.”
Stepping back a little so he could see Draco's eyes, Harry tilted his head to the side. “Well, yes, but–”
“An orphanage that is connected to both a children’s medical centre and a day-care centre.”
“I know that, but–”
“You actually chose to open these things, you know. No one forced you; it was entirely your own decision.” When Harry opened his mouth to respond, Draco grinned briefly and continued, raising his voice a little so Harry’s objections were drowned out. “And the children you look after there are under a lot more pressure than the ones at Hogwarts, you know. They’re also a lot younger in some cases, which can be much worse than hormone-driven teenagers, especially if they need special medical attention.”
Harry waited a few seconds after Draco had stopped talking before raising an eyebrow at him. “Are you done?”
Cocking his head to the side in the same way Harry had a few seconds before, Draco grinned again. “I am. Please, proceed.”
Rolling his eyes as Draco swept his hand in a grand gesture, Harry shook his head. “Are you absolutely certain? I’m sure you could go on and on for days if you really put your mind to it.”
A crunching sound heralded Scorpius’ arrival through the trees, the fallen leaves and branches cracking beneath his shoes. Harry grinned when Draco's mouth – which had been open to respond – snapped shut with a click. Scorpius carried a bunch of larger branches that Harry knew would be easy to transfigure into seats for the lot of them, but it was the look on his face that caught Harry’s attention. His grey eyes flicked back and forth between Harry and Draco before shooting briefly off to where James and Al stood by the picnic blanket. The glance over to the others was the shortest of moments, but it sent a shiver of suspicion down Harry’s spine.
“Scorp?” Both Scorpius and Harry jumped at the sound of Draco's voice. “Do you have enough?”
It became obvious to Harry fairly rapidly that either Draco hadn’t noticed Scorpius’ eyes flicking over to James and Al, or that he had imagined the tiny movement. It certainly seemed that neither James nor Al had had any kind of reaction to Scorpius arriving back other than to include him in their game of attempting to one-up each other with tales of what they had supposedly gotten up to in their spare time at school. Perhaps Harry was imagining it. Or perhaps he was simply losing his mind. As no one else was reacting to it, however, he decided to simply ignore the sensation. Stepping up to where Scorpius had dropped the pile of branches, he took half of them from Draco and transfigured them quickly into passable seats.
It took a while for everyone to get settled down on their makeshift seats and to begin to pile food onto their plates and even longer for Harry to convince Lily to stop calling out to Bastet, who was sitting a few meters away from them with a disgruntled look on her face. Eventually, though, he was able to glance around at his family eating peacefully together. It was a sight that Harry knew he would never get sick of, even if he did continue to catch either Al or James pelting Bastet or Lily with bits of food.
“So what’s going to happen with the rehearsal on Thursday, Dad?”
Harry chewed and swallowed as rapidly as he could manage without choking. “Well,” he began, before glancing over to Draco when he realised that he had no real idea. “I, er… Draco?”
With a roll of his eyes and a shake of his head, Draco began explaining. “We will all gather in the church – which is close to one of my parent’s summer homes in Tuscany – and run through the ceremony. We won’t bother with the clothing, but we will each have roles to play–”
“Like groom?”
Draco shot Scorpius a look before continuing in a sardonic tone. “Yes, like groom, Scorp.” He paused to take a sip of his water. “James and Scorpius will both be groomsmen; Albus will be an usher, showing each new arrival to their seat; and Lily will be a flower girl. Both Ronald and Blaise will be the best men for Harry and I respectively, so they will have to be part of this rehearsal as well. I assume Ronald knows?”
“Yeah, I even told Hermione so he won’t forget.”
“Good.” The efficiency that Draco was explaining everything with was beginning to cause Harry’s mind to spin with all the details, but he knew that Draco would never allow him to forget anything about the plans they had made. “The rehearsal will cover everything that will happen during the ceremony and everyone will be expected to be on their best behaviour.” This was obviously directed at the three boys, but even Lily nodded in silent agreement with them. “I am unsure whether Ronald will be bringing Rose and Hugo, but Blaise will have Carmel with him, so you all should have enough to distract you from the boredom I am sure you will all be feeling by the end of the ceremony.”
Harry couldn’t help frowning a little when both Al and Scorp shot James strange looks. His automatic thought was that this had something to do with their plans, but it seemed he was definitely wrong this time, as a deep blush was spreading rapidly across James’ face.
“Jamie?”
“What?”
The defensiveness to James’ tone caught Harry a little off-guard and he blinked in silence for a few seconds in response. It seemed that he wasn’t going to get a chance to question him, however, as James shoved himself to his feet, shot Al a dirty look and stomped off towards the pond. Harry made to go after him, but a gentle hand placed on his arm prevented him.
“I’m not sure this is something you want to be involved in.”
Harry’s eyes locked with Draco's before he glanced back to James. Confusion still fluttered through him until the sound of Al and Scorpius snickering reached his ears.
“James likes Carmel, doesn’t he, Scorp?”
“I do not!”
Harry watched as James spun and glared at his brother. His eyebrows felt as though they were trying to take up residence in his hairline as he watched Al teasing James and James obviously trying to not pull out his wand and hex him.
“James and Carmel?”
His voice was low, but it seemed Draco heard him anyway. The hand holding him from standing up tightened for a few seconds before vanishing.
“You cannot be trying to tell me you never liked anyone during school?”
“Not when I was thirteen,” Harry hissed in an attempt to not allow James to hear him.
Draco's low chuckle grabbed Harry’s attention for a few seconds from the squabble in front of him. “You were so far in the closet you didn’t get a crush on anyone?”
The amusement clear on Draco's face caused pleasure to ripple up Harry’s spine and the desire to teach him a lesson to burst in his chest. Leaning close, he grinned when Draco's breath hitched.
“I remember a pair of determined grey eyes and a set of long fingers attempting to grasp the Snitch before me being things I focussed on quite a bit.”
The words were whispered so none of the children heard him and he leant back quickly just in case any of them happened to glance over to them. The effect they had on Draco was instant: a bright pink began to spread across his pale cheekbones just before he ducked his head to cover it up.
“Damn you, Potter.”
“I probably am, yes.”
“Am what, Dad?”
A quiet chuckle from Draco had Harry shaking his head as he scrambled to answer Lily. “Er… Going to look for Bastet, Lils. Want to come?”
“Yes!”
Lily grabbed his hand and dragged him to his feet. She moved off towards the trees where Scorpius had found the branches, calling out to Harry to hurry up, ‘or else they would probably never find her!’ Harry remembered to grab James, just to get him away from his brother and any potential conflict they were building up to. Steering James away from Al and Scorpius, he cast one last look in Draco's direction. The pink of the blush was still staining his cheeks, but there was such warmth in his eyes that Harry couldn’t help smiling wide in response.
“We’ll continue this later.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Exactly what it was they were going to continue, Harry had no idea, but he found himself rather looking forward to it as well.
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The Optimal Balance