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19 Years and 5 Minutes Later	By : TheMightyFlynn Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 58417 -:- 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
- 30
- 31
- 32
A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys!

Harry’s hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly as he made his way towards the Burrow that night. He had no idea what to expect when he reached the house, but he wasn’t really expecting a warm reception. No matter how many times he had told himself that Molly herself had invited him, he still couldn’t shake the sensation that he was going to be ignored by most, if not all, of the family. And, unfortunately, he still found the idea understandable, no matter how much it hurt.
“Dad!”
He grinned and knelt down as he turned the corner and saw Lily come pelting out of the Burrow. She threw herself into his arms before he could adjust his position to be able to take her weight and he nearly fell on his arse. The laugh he let out as he just prevented himself from overbalancing from the force of the impact was completely involuntary and sounded so relieved to his ears that it surprised him a little. A quiet snuffle in his ear soon stifled any good feelings that were running through him, though.
“Oh, Lils, I am so sorry…”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He responded in kind, because he knew that he couldn’t offer any further explanation about Ginny’s behaviour now than he could when Lily had first asked him. His automatic reaction of stroking his hand between her shoulder blades in a gesture of comfort didn’t seem to be helping at all and neither did the meaningless words he couldn’t stop murmuring. There was absolutely nothing he could do to help either her or the boys to feel any better about the situation and the feeling of helplessness caused his hands to tremble a little as Lily pulled back from him.
“Will Mum be alright?”
Harry shrugged helplessly and shook his head, unsure of how to respond. How the hell did he explain to his ten-year-old that her mother was going to be locked away for what seemed like it was going to be a long time? Lily wasn’t a stupid child and would know if he was lying to her, so pretending that everything was going to be normal from now on in wouldn’t work. He sighed. The truth was always the best way to go, he knew.
“I don’t honestly know, Lil. We’ll try to get her all the help she needs so she will eventually get better, but I don’t even know exactly what’s wrong yet.”
Lily stared at him for a few seconds, obviously considering his words. He knew she was intelligent enough to realise that something big had gone wrong. All he could really hope, for both her and the boys, was that he could try to keep them from suffering too much from this. He had seen enough children who had needed therapy from the trauma caused by their parents getting a divorce and dragging them into the proceedings, using them as pawns in their fight against each other. He was determined that his own children wouldn’t follow that path. He returned his attention to Lily when she took a deep breath.
“So… When she left me… That was because she’s sick?”
Harry moved to scoop her into his arms again as pain flashed through his chest. He knew that children were resilient, but for Lily to be willing to forgive Ginny for treating her the way she had… He needed for this loyalty to not come back to bite Lily later on, because he couldn’t bring himself to disabuse her of the idea.
“I think so, Lil. Your Mum loves you and the boys so much, but she needs help.”
Lily seemed to weigh his words again, but the silence was much shorter this time. “What about Draco?”
Harry blinked. “Draco? What about him?”
“Are we still going to see him? Grandma said that Draco was hurt because of something Mum did, but you saved him.”
Smiling as he stood and slowly made his way towards the house, Harry felt the mild confusion that had settled over him lifting. “He’s in the hospital at the moment, but he’ll be fine. I can take you to see him tomorrow, if you want.”
“So you’re still with him then.”
Harry’s head whipped around at the strange tone to James’ voice. He stopped in place when he realised that James was blocking his entry to the Burrow, his arms crossed across his chest. Al stood a little behind James, a worried look in his eyes as he glanced between the two of them. Harry had had the feeling that James would be the difficult one in this situation and, unfortunately, Albus tended to follow along with whatever James did or said. Kneeling down so he could deposit Lily on the ground, Harry took a breath to respond, but was cut off.
“I like Draco.” Lily moved to stand in front of Harry, her hands on her hips. “Dad’s happy, so what business is it of yours?”
“Lily,” Harry began in a warning tone, but was cut off again.
“Mum and Dad are getting divorced because of him!” James took a step forwards, allowing Al to slip out of the house behind him. “Why can’t anything in this family be normal? My friends all have normal families, even the divorced ones. And just because you like him probably means I won’t!”
“Alright, you two, that’s enough.” Harry stood, placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder and stepped between them. “Lily, I appreciate the support, but provoking your brother isn’t a nice thing to do. James, we can discuss this later.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“You want to ‘discuss’ this? Do it now. Why would you want to stay with someone who destroyed your marriage? I read your version of what happened and I read Mum’s. You know what’s the same in both? He broke up your marriage. You were happy before he came along but now, all of a sudden, you’re not.”
Harry glanced over to where Al stood a few steps away, looking between him and James. Lily still hadn’t backed off, standing in front of James, her hands clenched in anger. Harry shook his head. This is not the way he had hoped this meeting would begin, but at least he had been expecting some kind of resistance from one of the boys.
“Al, could you take your sister inside, please? I need to have a word with James.” Albus sighed, but took Lily’s hand to drag her into the house behind him. Harry waited a few more seconds before speaking again. “I understand that you’re angry over the divorce, but Draco didn’t break us up. He opened my eyes to who I really am and what I want out of life, but your Mother and I aren’t divorcing because of him. This divorce would have happened eventually anyway, once I realised how truly unhappy I actually was.”
“But…”
James spun on his heel and stomped off across the grass away from Harry. He was obviously struggling with one of the things Harry had said, but which one was up for debate. Harry contemplated following him for a few seconds, but decided to let him go for the time being. There was no reason to crowd him when he obviously needed space. James stopped with his back to Harry, halfway across the yard.
“You didn’t even wait until you’d broken up with Mum before getting into another relationship. I don’t care that it’s with another guy, but did you really not care about Mum that much? All those years of marriage and you can just throw her away like that?” He spun around, his hands clenching by his sides and eyes flashing with anger. “What does that mean about me and Al and Lily? Are we going to be replaced as well?”
Harry’s lips compressed as a deep sadness washed through him. Was it possible that what Ginny had told the boys a few weeks back had stuck in James’ mind, or was this coming solely from him? There was no way to tell, but Harry knew that he had to clear this up. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, raised his hands in a gesture of peace and moved over to the bench that he had sat on to have a similar discussion with Arthur not that long ago.
“Jamie, I know that it all seems sudden and parts of it really were: I had no idea about my preferences before Draco came along. The thing is, neither your Mother nor I were happy in this marriage. Truly happy people don’t cheat on their spouses, no matter the circumstances. Now, I’m not trying to excuse what I did – or what your Mother did, for that matter – but us being together wasn’t working. It took me a long time to realise it, but now that I know what true love feels like, I couldn’t go back to what I had with your Mother.”
James stood there and stared at Harry for a long time, his hands clenched by his sides. Harry found himself unable to unclench his own hands in his lap, but he figured it was for a completely different reason. His stomach fluttered with nerves as he watched James watching him. It was amazing to him just how important he found his kids being able to accept this, despite knowing that it shouldn’t surprise him at all.
“You love him.”
“I do.”
“And you don’t love Mum.”
Harry knew in that moment that things weren’t going to go anywhere as smoothly as he had hoped they would and steeled himself for the explosion he figured was inevitable. “No, I don’t.”
Anger flashed across James’ face, but instead of screaming, or hitting Harry, all he did was glare. “You’re right: we can ‘discuss’ this later.”
With that, he stalked off around the side of the house, leaving Harry sitting in the front yard by himself. Harry sighed and fell back against the back of the bench, thunking his head against the hard wood of the house. He knew that wishing that all three of his children would simply accept the divorce was stupid, but figured that having the hope that one part of his life could go smoothly wasn’t too much to ask. He gathered himself, however, knowing that he still had the rest of the family to face.
*~*
“He’s taking this awfully well.” Astoria’s voice was pitched low so as not to wake Scorpius up, but Draco heard her fine. “Suspiciously well.”
Draco blinked the haze from his eyes – the Healer had just been in to administer another dose of pain potion – before glancing over to where Astoria sat, then back to Scorpius asleep on the other side of the room. Scorpius had taken the news that Draco and Harry were still together surprisingly well, but exactly what that meant, Draco had no idea. He knew that Scorpius wasn’t the kind of child to make a scene over many things, but this was an entirely new situation for all three of them. Turning back to Astoria, he shrugged.
“You don’t think he’s planning on making things difficult, do you?”
“Not planning on it exactly, no.” Astoria ran a hand through her hair, still staring at Scorpius. “But what if he knows Harry’s boys and doesn’t get along with them? If these kids don’t get along at all, then I can’t see either of you two being happy for very long.”
Draco closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his waist as his chest ached at the idea. The thought of losing Harry at this point, after everything they had been through, was more painful than he would ever admit aloud, but he knew he had to think of Scorpius first. If the children couldn’t – or wouldn’t – get along, then Astoria was right: the relationship wouldn’t survive long. He shifted in the bed, using the movement to distract himself from the ache in his chest.
“Maybe it won’t be so bad with the boys because they’re in school most of the year.” He opened his eyes again when he heard her let out a small noise, almost like a soft sigh. “You don’t think so?”
Astoria offered him a small smile before moving so she could bend over and place a soft kiss on his forehead. “I love that you love him enough to try to figure ways around something like that. However, we can’t know if they’ll get along or not. I have the feeling that Lily will hold on for as long as possible, though: she seems to like you a lot.”
Draco returned her smile. Lily really did seem to like him and he felt the same way about her. When Astoria had fallen pregnant, Draco had been secretly hoping for a girl. He loved Scorpius with everything he had and would never give him up for anything, but he had always wanted a daughter. Not that he would ever admit that to Astoria, or anyone else, for that matter.
“She’s a good kid. Perhaps she’ll be able to influence the boys.” He could feel the pain potion working its way through his system, dulling his mind and trying to force him to sleep. He fought against it for the time being, however. “Tori, I know he loves me. And I love him. Maybe that’ll be enough.”
He blinked up at her when he felt the bed being lowered down. Her soft laugh reached his ears just as his eyes were closing again.
“Maybe it will. Sleep now; we can talk about this in the morning.”
It was the last thing he heard.
*~*
Harry glanced around the dining room table, his hands once again clenched in his lap. George and Percy had decided to stay the weekend at the Burrow, apparently so they could be present for his interrogation. Harry knew he could rely on Percy, but George had been shooting him strange looks since he had entered the house a few minutes before.
Thankfully, Arthur had been able to find James and bring him back inside, so that was one worry off Harry’s mind. He was now upstairs with his brother and sister and Harry could only hope he and Lily didn’t come to blows over this. He sat back in his chair as a cup and saucer landed in front of him.
“Tea?”
“Thanks.”
At least the civility that Molly had shown him at the hospital hadn’t left yet. Maybe George was going to be the only one who was going to make things difficult. He wrapped his hands around his cup when the teapot stopped pouring, using the cup to stop himself from clenching and unclenching his fists. With what had happened with James, Harry really wasn’t expecting the rest of the night to go any better. He knew that none of the Weasleys truly approved of his relationship with Draco, but, technically, that wasn’t what he was there to discuss. Technically, he was there to discuss Ginny and the punishment she was to receive for what she had done. If he was very lucky, then Draco wouldn’t even be brought up at all.
“So, I believe we need to have a proper discussion about what has been happening to this family over the past few months.”
Harry raised his eyes from his tea to lock with Molly’s as she took a seat at the table, two chairs away from him. She sounded almost as nervous as he was feeling and he couldn’t help offering her a small smile. The fact that she had apparently included him in with the rest of the family hadn’t escaped him, but there was no way he was going to make a big deal over it.
“Now, I know that there are things that have happened that will be difficult to overcome. I’m still having trouble understanding quite a bit of what has happened, but I’m hoping we can come to some sort of arrangement so that, one day in the future, we can all get back to something resembling what we have had over the years.”
Harry bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from snorting in disbelief. He knew that it would prove damn near impossible for the Weasleys and the Malfoys to ever get along, but at least Molly was apparently willing to try to understand his side of things.
“Harry, I know that you’ve spoken with Kingsley about what will happen to Ginny–”
“Why should she be punished for standing up for herself?”
Harry caught himself just in time before he let out a frustrated sigh. “Maybe because she almost killed someone?” He knew he was making things worse, but really, how else was he expected to react? “And because she was apparently trying to dose me with some kind of home-brewed love potion?”
“Well maybe if that ‘someone’ wasn’t a home wrecker–”
“Now, now, boys!” Arthur’s hand landed on Harry’s shoulder, keeping him in place as he went to shove himself up from his chair. “This isn’t why we’re here.”
Harry kept his eyes lowered, staring into his cup as his heart raced. The amount of adrenalin that had begun to pump through his veins the second George insulted Draco was causing his head to spin and his breath to come in short bursts. However, he managed to keep his mouth shut in the hope that someone else would shut George up about Draco and they could all refocus.
“If that’s not why we’re here, then why is he here?”
Harry’s jaw clenched. “I’ll get the kids and go.”
“No.” Harry forced himself to glance up at the sound of Molly’s firm voice. “You are here because I invited you. As are you, George. You two will get along for the next few minutes, or you will suffer the consequences.”
Harry nodded and lowered his eyes to his tea cup again. He knew the threat was hollow, but the respect that he still – perhaps foolishly – held for Molly kept him in line. With his eyes downcast as they were, he didn’t see George’s reaction, but figured it must have been something similar to his own.
“Good.” Molly appeared to have appointed herself the mediator in this situation, which Harry was quite thankful for. “Now, something like this deserves a lot more time than we all have, but we’ll push through. We all know that Ginny is currently being held in a waiting cell for what she did. Kingsley wasn’t able to give me any details on exactly what happened other than that Ginny cast a curse that had the potential to cause serious, permanent damage. He – he said that it’s probable that she will be sentenced to Azkaban for it…”
Molly trailed off when her voice faltered. Harry knew how much having Ginny had meant to both Molly and Arthur, but he still couldn’t feel as sympathetic towards her as he knew they all did. Sure, he was willing to try to get her the help she obviously needed, but beyond that, he was done with her. Not that he would voice that opinion to Molly and Arthur. He cleared his throat and gestured to Molly, asking for permission to speak. He smiled when she waved a hand at him.
“I don’t know how much I’m allowed to tell you because I’m now retired and not a part of the active investigation, but Kingsley and I agree that Ginny needs some serious professional help. We discussed trying to get her admitted to the prison section of St. Mungo’s rather than trying to have her thrown in Azkaban. They’ll be able to help her a lot more in the hospital than if she was in the prison proper.”
He fell silent, glad that they had managed to steer the conversation away from Draco again. If he could keep everyone else’s attention focussed on Ginny and what had happened there rather than on Draco and their relationship, he would leave the house happy.
“So what you’re saying is that you want to try to get my sister put in a mental hospital?”
Unable to help it this time, Harry sighed. “Yes, George. It’s what she needs. Would you prefer she be stuck on a rock in the middle of the ocean? Because that’s the alternative: Azkaban or the hospital.” Azkaban had been improved over the years since the War, with the Dementors being replaced by Aurors, but it was still not what Harry could ever consider a nice place to visit. “They’re not simply going to let her get away with what she did without being punished.”
“You mean you aren’t.”
Arthur wasn’t fast enough this time to prevent Harry from pushing his chair back and standing to face George. His hand flew to the side of his trousers, placing his fingers over the handle of his wand as George matched his actions.
“You have something to say to me, Harry?”
Taking a slow, deep breath, Harry met George’s eyes without hesitation. “Draco almost bled to death because of what Ginny did. In fact, if I hadn’t had the kind of training I have had, he probably would have bled out on me at the ballroom. The man I love is lying in a hospital bed because of Ginny and you’re standing here arguing with me over whether she should be punished for it or not?”
“Harry–”
He turned and smiled at Molly as she stood as well. “I’m sorry, Molly, but I can’t stand here and listen to this. Thank you for trying; I really do appreciate it.”
Harry exited the dining room before anyone could try to stop him and called up the stairs to his kids. Apparently he was going to have to wait to see whether things could be patched up here, but it seemed like he had made a somewhat positive start. If only George hadn’t been there…
“Harry?”
He spun around at the sound of Molly’s voice behind him. Before he could respond, however, Lily landed beside him, obviously having jumped down the last few steps.
“Are we going home now?”
“No, dummy, we’re going to Grimmauld.”
Harry sighed. “Don’t call your sister names, James. Yes we are going to Grimmauld; go say goodbye to everyone.”
Molly stayed where she was as all three children filed past them. Butterflies fluttered through Harry’s chest when Al disappeared through the door to the dining room, leaving them alone.
“I really am sorry, Molly, but I couldn’t listen to that any longer.”
She nodded silently and Harry could tell that she had been crying again as she lifted her head. “Did you mean what you said?”
Biting back another sigh, he nodded as well. “They’ll ask me to speak at Ginny’s trial and I will recommend placing her into St. Mungo’s rather than Azkaban. I can’t guarantee they’ll take my advice, but it’s all I can do.”
What he didn’t add was that it was all he was willing to do. As much as he knew that this was what Ginny needed, she had almost killed Draco. If it truly came down to it, he knew that he would choose Draco and his wellbeing over Ginny any day. He shook himself out of his thoughts when Molly began to speak again.
“No, I know I can trust you to keep your word on that. What I was asking about…” She paused, a look of uncertainty crossing her face. “Do you love him?”
Harry blinked. Had he really said that to George? He supposed he must have; not that it was a bad thing that the family knew how he felt for Draco.
“I do, yes.”
He watched as Molly’s eyes closed and she took a shaky breath. He had no idea how she was going to react, but it seemed he would have to wait to find that one out as well, as the kids all piled through the door almost on top of one another. Molly hugged each of them in turn, promising to see them all again soon. Harry offered up a small smile as he turned to follow them to the floo. Molly grabbed his hand just before he could enter the living room, however.
“I hope we’ll be seeing you soon, too, Harry.”
He exited the Burrow feeling lighter than he had in a long time. Maybe, if luck was finally on his side, things would start to look up.
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19 Years and 5 Minutes Later