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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
- 33
- 34
- 35
A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! This fight between them seems to be polarising everyone! That isn't going to change, unfortunetly, I don't think.
Anon: I can honestly see both sides of the arugment. I think they both did pretty shitty things, but then, I'm the one who wrote it, so I don't think that counts for much!
Hestia: It's alright, continue asking if you want. It was people's persistence in asking me to continue from the original story that led to the chapters after it, after all!
Jan: Thank you!!

Trailing slowly up the stairs of the Manor after his boys, Harry sighed as his nerves jumped. By his calculations, it had been roughly an hour and a half since Draco had Apparated out of Grimmauld Place. He knew that it was probably pretty stupid of him, but Harry found himself hoping that that was enough time for Draco to have calmed down a little. Not that Draco didn’t apparently have every right to be pissed off, Harry now knew, but he would much rather avoid a screaming match if at all possible. He watched as the boys reached the floor that their rooms were on and turned off the staircase, walking slowly, almost as though they thought they were going to the gallows. Under nearly any other circumstance, Harry would probably have thought it funny.
“Dad?”
Harry jumped at the sound of Lily’s voice coming from behind him. Turning, he saw her standing just at the top of the stairs, a small frown on her face.
“What–” His voice cracked, sounding tired even to him, but he knew it was only going to get worse. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “What’s up, Lil?”
Lily hesitated a few seconds before answering. Harry used the time to check that both of the boys headed into their respective rooms with no problems before turning back to her.
“Lily?”
“Where are Draco and Scorpius?”
Harry had felt the tug of the tracking charm the second he had entered the Manor through the floo, telling him that Scorp was up in his suite of rooms in Astoria’s wing of the house. He could only guess at Draco's whereabouts, but had to assume that he was either in one of his workrooms or their bedroom. Stepping over to where Lily stood, he knelt down so he was on eye-level with her, assuming that what she was about to ask had really nothing to do with just wanting to know where Draco and Scorp were.
“They’re here. Scorp is in his suite in the other wing of the house and I think Draco might be in our rooms. Why?”
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Lily frowned. “I don’t want everyone to be angry at each other.”
Harry had to hold back the sad smile her words caused. “I’m not angry at anyone, Lil. Your brothers and Scorp are definitely in trouble after what they did and I’m not really happy with you for running away like you did, but I’m not angry. Not anymore.”
It was mostly the truth. Having spent the past hour lecturing the boys – after being lectured by Astoria himself – Harry had purged a lot of the anger that had built up in him. What remained was mainly directed at himself for his rash actions. Harry knew, however, that he still had to find Draco and speak to him about what had happened and what that conversation would produce was up for debate. He blinked when Lily shifted restlessly in front of him, dragging him back to reality.
“So… The wedding is still on?”
Unable to help it, Harry offered Lily a small smile. “Yes, Lily, the wedding is still on.”
While he knew that he had fucked up with Draco by stopping him from going after Scorpius, he was fairly certain that that was nowhere near enough for them to break up over. Or, at least, he hoped it wasn’t. His smile widened when Lily grinned.
“Off you go, then. Into your room and wait there until I come to collect you. You’re still in trouble for running away with the boys, even if it was their idea.”
Lily’s grin faded and she let out a gusty sigh, but Harry held firm. There was no way he was going to allow any of his kids to think that they would be allowed to get away with behaving in this way without consequences and if the way to do that was to ground them until they admitted how wrong they had been, then that was exactly what Harry would do. First though, he had Draco to deal with. Standing, he motioned for Lily to precede him down the hall. He watched her enter her room, then cast a light warding charm over all three bedrooms; one that would tell him if anyone either entered or exited them.
Harry’s nerves kicked in again as he headed towards his and Draco's suite of rooms. Despite his words to Lily, there was an annoying little voice in the back of his mind telling him that he had actually fucked up badly enough that Draco would want to either cancel or postpone the wedding. The idea, of course, sent chills running up and down his spine and caused nausea to rise in his throat. After everything they had been through together over the past ten months, there was no way he was going to give Draco up without a fight; that he was absolutely determined about. Taking a somewhat shaky breath as he reached the door to their suite, he let it out slowly.
“Draco?” The entry room was empty, so Harry stepped lightly over to the door to the bedroom itself. “Draco?”
The door wasn’t warded in any way that Harry could tell, so he turned the handle and pushed gently. What he saw had the blood draining from his face. Two small suitcases sat open on the bed, one at least half full with clothing. Harry’s hand clenched on the handle of the door and his heart stuttered in his chest as panic began to settle over him. Stepping further into the room showed Draco standing at the wardrobe, holding one of Harry’s old t-shirts in his hands, examining it as though he was about to critique it.
“Draco, what–” Harry’s voice was low and he did actually manage to hold it steady until it cracked. Clearing his throat, he began again. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Yes.”
Harry’s stomach dropped into his shoes, a cold sweat broke on his forehead and his eyes slid shut involuntarily. He took a breath to respond – or to begin apologising before Draco had a chance to continue with the thought – but Draco spoke again before he could.
“On a honeymoon with you, if you recall. Since you have so far refused to pack properly, I have taken it upon myself to do it for you.”
Apparently the t-shirt didn’t pass Draco's inspection, as he scrunched it into a ball and threw it back into Harry’s side of the wardrobe. He appeared to be completely clueless as to the impact his words had had on Harry, as he continued to search through the wardrobe, his back towards the door where Harry still stood.
Of course it was the packing for the honeymoon that Draco was taking care of. Harry sagged as relief shot through him. Taking the opportunity presented to try to calm his racing heart, he took several slow breaths. Once he was certain that he could speak without his voice shaking, he took another step into the room and clasped his hands behind his back, simply watching for a few minutes as Draco worked.
“Is that all you wanted?”
Turning from the wardrobe, Draco walked over to the bed and placed several garments into one of the suitcases. He kept his back to Harry the entire time.
“I, er… No, I…”
Harry paused, unsure of how to continue. It was obvious to him that Draco was, at the very least, unhappy with him over what had happened. The thing was, he was so used to having something to bounce off, some kind of anger to meet head-on, that he was completely wrong-footed when it came to being given what basically amounted to the silent treatment. Running a hand through his hair, he let out a small sigh.
“Look, if you’re going to say something, just come out with it, will you?” Moving from the wardrobe to the bed again, Draco deposited another armload of clothing into one of the suitcases. “Unless you’d rather draw your wand on me again.”
That last was spoken so quietly that Harry wasn’t certain whether he was actually supposed to have heard it or not. Draco continued on his way back to the wardrobe again and began searching through it again as though he hadn’t spoken. Harry, however, wasn’t about to let the tiny opening he had been offered go.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care.”
“I reacted on instinct.”
“I don’t care.”
“It looked like you were threatening him.”
Throwing his latest armload of clothing onto the floor at his feet, Draco spun to face Harry. There was colour high on his cheeks and his hands clenched sporadically at his sides.
“Do you have any idea how fucking insulting that is? To think that the man I am going to marry in two days thinks that I could harm my own son in any way…” He trailed off, his lip curling in obvious disgust. “Do you trust me at all?”
It was like a shot straight to Harry’s gut. His stomach muscles clenched and his breath left him in a rush as he stared into Draco's steely eyes.
“I love you, Dray, you know that. But–”
“Love and trust are two completely different things, Potter,” Draco spat before turning back to pick up the discarded clothing. “And the phrase ‘I love you’ should never be followed immediately by the word ‘but’.”
Throwing the clothing back into the wardrobe, Draco stomped over to the ensuite and slammed the door behind him. Harry’s eyes closed again as he realised that he had actually managed to make things worse. Clenching his hands into fists and letting them out again seemed to help with some of the twitchiness he was feeling due to the mix of emotions running through him, but he knew that he needed to go after Draco. Again. Huffing out a breath, he strode purposefully over to the door of the ensuite and opened it slowly.
“Draco?”
“Fuck off.”
“I can’t do that.”
Stepping inside revealed Draco standing at the sink, his forehead resting on the glass of the mirror. He looked so worn out that Harry’s fingers twitched with the desire to reach out and touch; to soothe. But he knew he shouldn’t. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he rocked on his toes.
“I don’t know how else to say this so that you will begin to believe me, but I am sorry, Draco. I didn’t mean to insult you, I didn’t mean to override your authority with Scorpius, and I certainly didn’t draw my wand to attack you in any way.”
“You say that like you expect it to make everything just magically go back to how it was.”
“I don’t want everything to go back to how it was.”
Harry’s stomach flipped when Draco's head whipped around so he could stare at him with an emotion Harry couldn’t quite make out. There was a moment’s pause before Draco spoke again, this time in a low tone that was so deadly serious, Harry’s insides shivered.
“What does that mean?”
“That this is a discussion we should have had before the boys came home. Things between us have happened so fast that we haven’t really had a chance to discuss the important things. We were both so caught up in the boys coming home from Hogwarts and making sure that they were all settled in and comfortable with our relationship that we never actually talked about anything. Then there was all the worry and confusion over what they were up to that I think the subject just got forgotten.” Harry paused to take a deep breath, feeling slightly encouraged by the fact that Draco hadn’t interrupted him. “After you left Grimmauld, Tori pointed out that there are obvious differences between how we each parent the children. I know that everything has been fine up until now, but I think that that’s because out of all four of them, Lily is the easiest one to deal with. Pay attention to her when she speaks and let her get her way with what she gets to eat occasionally and she won’t cause you any trouble. But the boys are obviously much more complicated than that and, equally as obviously, we deal with that in different ways. That is what we should have focussed on before the boys came home, not whether they would be able to adjust to living together, or whether they would get along in general.”
Draco hadn’t stopped staring at Harry the entire time he spoke. It was slightly unsettling to be caught in his gaze for so long, but Harry stood firm, not allowing Draco to intimidate him into silence. It seemed to take forever, but eventually Draco let out a sigh and pushed himself off the sink.
“Tomorrow.”
Moving quickly, Draco slipped between Harry and the doorjamb and stepped out into the bedroom. Standing and blinking at the now-empty ensuite, Harry frowned.
“Excuse me?”
“I said ‘tomorrow’, Potter. I do not wish to discuss anything with you at the moment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some more packing to do.”
Turning slowly back towards the bedroom, Harry tried to process what he had just been told. Draco was angry with him. That was plainly obvious and, really, Harry couldn’t blame him for that much. But this refusing to even speak to him? That was a new development; one Harry found himself disliking intensely. He knew he had pretty much only two choices here: either he could accept what Draco had said and slink out with his tail between his legs, or he could challenge him. Not being one to ever back down when he thought what he was doing was right, Harry took a deep breath and steeled himself for what he was about to do.
“Draco.”
“Harry.”
“We should talk about what happened now, not tomorrow.”
Draco froze, his arms full of clothing. “Fine.”
“‘Fine’?”
“Fine.” Draco threw the clothing to the floor once again and spun on his heel. “What exactly is it you want to discuss? Could it be the fact that you automatically assumed that I was a danger to my own son? Or perhaps it could be the fact that you prevented me from disciplining him?” He advanced slowly, his hands clenching and eyes flashing again. “Or maybe you want to address the fact that you drew your wand on me?”
“Hey, come on. You drew yours on me as well. I was only trying to protect my son.”
“I was protecting myself.”
“‘Protecting’?” Harry couldn’t help scoffing. “You had your wand out before you turned. You were ready to start throwing hexes by the time you faced me.”
“And it appears that that was a good thing, as yours was already out, wasn’t it?”
“Draco, there is a huge difference between you being ready to just start throwing hexes around and me putting a shield between you and Scorpius.”
“Yeah: you shouldn’t have done it.”
“Oh, so it’s perfectly alright for you to start these things by facing me down with your wand in hand, but the second I draw mine, it becomes a problem. That’s a really nice double standard you have there.”
“For fuck’s sake!” Draco spun around again, his hands coming up to clench in his hair. “This is why I said to wait until tomorrow. I don’t… God damn it. I can’t deal with this now. Why can’t you just give me time to think?”
Still reacting purely on instinct, Harry shrugged helplessly. “I can’t lose you. Not over something like this. If you have time to think, you might change your mind, or decide that we are moving too fast and that we should take some time apart. I love you, Draco. And, despite what it may seem like at the moment, I trust you completely. I wouldn’t allow my children anywhere near you if I didn’t.”
Watching Draco as he was, Harry caught the moment that he almost seemed to give in. His shoulders relaxed a little and he let out a small breath before allowing his arms to fall to his sides.
“I don’t want to fight.”
The statement was quiet enough that Harry almost thought he had imagined it. When Draco turned back to face him, however, it became clear that he had actually spoken. With dark circles forming beneath his eyes, his skin pale enough that it almost appeared translucent, and his Occlumency shields obviously completely down, Draco appeared… Well, Harry considered, vulnerable was the closest he could probably come to being able to properly describe it.
“I can’t.” Draco waved a hand towards him, shaking his head. “I just can’t at the moment. Let me sleep on it. Please.”
Taking the chance that he wouldn’t be pushed away, Harry stepped forward and stretched a hand towards Draco. He was rewarded when Draco practically collapsed into his arms. Wrapping his arms securely around Draco's waist and shoulders, Harry simply held him for a while, not wanting to risk speaking at that moment. He had no idea how long he waited, but eventually Draco took in a deep breath and shifted a little closer, adjusting his stance.
“Draco?”
“Mmm?”
“I really am sorry.”
Draco nodded, his forehead rubbing against Harry’s shoulder. “So am I.”
Harry couldn’t help the small smile he gave when Draco still didn’t move away from him. “Forget the packing for the time being. I’ll send one of the house-elves to your parent’s house for some of that chili chocolate you like.”
Draco let out a small huff of breath against Harry’s shoulder. “There is really no need to suck up, you know.”
“This isn’t me sucking up. This is me doing the right thing and looking after you as you deserve. You’re obviously over-stressed and that is partially my fault. I know that that particular chocolate tends to help, so I’ll get the bloody chocolate.”
It was a while before Draco did anything other than stand there in Harry’s arms. When he felt the slight pressure on his arms that indicated that Draco wanted to be able to move, Harry let him go, albeit slightly reluctantly.
“This won’t make me any more willing to talk about anything today, you know.”
“I know. But not everything needs to have an ulterior motive.”
Draco seemed to consider Harry’s words for a few seconds before nodding. It seemed to be the only response he was going to get, but Harry figured that it was better than nothing. Perhaps Draco was right; perhaps if they spent the night just cooling down and thinking things over for themselves, they could have a real discussion about what happened in the morning.
Harry didn’t even wait to see what Draco would do once he moved away, he just marched straight out of the room in search of a house-elf. His mind was already racing through some of the things he knew helped Draco to relax and, even if Draco did think that he was being a suck-up, Harry found himself looking forward to maybe helping Draco to unwind a little. Draco had helped him through a hell of a lot when they had first been together, after all. Now he figured it was his chance to return the favour. Even if they were facing another stress-inducing conversation in the morning, he thought that he would do what he could for the time being. It was what a reasonable husband would do, after all.
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The Optimal Balance