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Returning to Sanity	By : AchillesTheGeek Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 31213 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books or films, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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90. Mentoring returned
Sunday 22 November et seq
Elphias Doge was concerned.
For reasons of diplomacy, he had been invited to the Zabini-Delacour wedding in France, but had politely declined, citing his advanced age. The truth was he actually preferred his own company, and didn't really want to cramp anyone's style, but no-one needed to know that. So instead of a busy weekend full of meeting people and having inconsequential discussions, while taking care not to say anything of consequence himself, he had spent a peaceful time in England, tending to his garden when the rain let up, and sitting inside drinking mulled wine when it didn't; but, as he ventured out into Diagon Alley on the Sunday afternoon, he began to realise that all was not as it should be. There had been a general undercurrent in the conversations in the Wizarding World, in the words spoken behind the hand, the little facial movements which people made when they thought no-one was watching. But Elphias was watching, and he remembered. This was a development he remembered from before the first Wizarding War against Voldemort, and not one he liked. It seemed that the old blood prejudices, which had been put away after the War, were not in fact dealt with; they were still there, just hidden, and now gone underground.
Of course, there had been no outright accusations, no violence or skirmishes or anything one could get hold of and deal with; just mutterings and gossip. But after the week spent trying to present a more balanced view, he was sick of it.
And then the meeting on Wednesday had been a major wake-up call. They had been wrong, so wrong, about Harry Potter. Not just the people in the room, of course; the whole Wizarding world had a romanticised, and completely fictional, view of Harry's life. Now, they could, and definitely would, take steps about that as far as it impacted Harry; but who else?
Elphias was a slow and methodical thinker. He had a fine legal mind and could handle the Wizengamot easily because he had watched their posturing and manoeuvering for the better part of a century; but handling this sort of tricky gossip was another matter entirely So it was that it took him until the Sunday evening a week after the wedding to decide he needed to take firm action, and, more importantly, the best person to help.
Accordingly, on this rainy Sunday evening, he Floo-called Lucius Malfoy.
"Elphias!" the Malfoy patriarch intoned as he swirled the glass of port. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"There's something I'd like to discuss with you," the Chief Warlock replied. "May I come through?"
"By all means," Lucius replied.
ooOOoo
Lucius sat in his study till very late that night, thinking over everything that the Chief Warlock had said. Of course, Elphias was right, and there was too much gossip about. Of course there was a huge risk of it all reverting to blood-status warfare. And of course neither of them wanted a return to that. Elphias, Lucius was sure, out of a general Gryffindorish idealistic desire for fair play; Lucius, for the much more pragmatic and simple reason that he was quite sure that such a return would see the Malfoy family the first ones at the end of some vigilante's wand.
The problem was that neither of them knew what to do about it.
He was roused from the semi-slumber he had fallen into as the clock struck midnight. He stared around him bleary-eyed. The port bottle was empty, the fire in the grate had gone out, and he had nothing to show for his hours mulling over the problem except for a sore neck and an ache in his back.
It was a rather worried Lord Malfoy who went to bed that night. As he lay in the sheets, Narcissa rubbed his temples while holding him close.
"That's nice," he said, sleepily.
"What did Elphias Doge say that's got you so worked up?" she asked.
"Just some home truths about this enchantment lifting," Lucius replied, and then went on to recount most of the conversation for Narcissa. He found, as always, that talking things out with her did help him organise his thoughts; but neither of them was able to come to any sort of conclusion or plan of action.
"Let's sleep on it," Narcissa suggested. Lucius, seeing the very obvious wisdom of that, agreed, and hunkered down to sleep.
And then sat up bolt upright, a truly evil, Slytherin-worthy grin on his face.
"Got it!" he said.
Narcissa smiled at him.
"Care to share?" she asked.
He did. And they both smiled, and slept well that night.
ooOOoo
As Lucius worked hard at his plans during the week, Harry and Draco settled into a happy routine. Harry helped Draco with his potions work as much as he was allowed to, which was generally each morning. To his surprise, he found what Draco was doing very interesting, and learnt a lot himself. He tackled Potions Master Borage about this; from what he had heard, he had expected Draco to be doing a lot of very uninteresting preparation work.
"No need!" Borage replied succinctly. "He knows all that. Snape did a good job with him; so I'm happy to get him onto work that is actually stretching him. I know a lot of Masters see their apprentices as not much more than cheap labour, at least in the early stages; as far as I'm concerned, we have house elves for that."
Apart from helping Draco, Harry spent most of his time working hard on his Muggle Studies project. Somewhat to his surprise, he found the research fascinating: it was very interesting comparing the two judicial systems, the British Muggle and Magical. To be sure, both systems had their flaws; he was well aware of the wizarding ones, of course, having done a lot of research for the Potter Code, and he became increasingly aware of the Muggle ones during his reading.
Naturally, his findings had a direct personal application: there seemed to be a whole string of systemic failures as far as his own life was concerned. To begin with, his primary school teachers should have reported the signs of abuse they had seen; he knew perfectly well that they had seen them, of course, but can't have reported them. Or perhaps they did report them, and were not believed, or their reports buried. And then there should have been Muggle health visitors checking him out; he couldn't remember a single such visit. And surely the neighbours who did not believe the Dursleys' claims about him must have reported signs of abuse, while those who did should have laid official complaints about his alleged delinquency. The list went on and on. Though Harry found himself oddly detached from the whole thing now; it was as if it had all happened to someone else.
As they went to bed on Tuesday night, he discovered that his mulling things over had not gone unnoticed.
"All right Potter," Draco said, staring at him, "you've been distracted all evening. What's going on?"
Harry blushed bright red.
"Er – it's not really that important…" he began.
Wrong thing to say, apparently.
"How can it not be important?" Draco said archly. "It has obviously been occupying your mind all day. Why, it's even distracted you from thinking about me!"
Harry was indeed distracted; so much so that it took him a few anxious seconds to realise that his husband was joking. He should have known, really; Draco only called him 'Potter' these days when he was teasing.
"It's only my Muggle Studies project," he said apologetically. "I was just thinking today about all of the shit that happened to me before I came to Hogwarts…"
"Harry…" Draco began, but he was cut off.
"No, it's ok really, Dragon. I was just thinking that it just doesn't hurt the same way any more. It's still terrible, of course, and should not have been allowed, but it's like it happened to someone else. Does that make sense?"
"Do you mean that you're finally beginning to accept that you belong to a completely different family now and not to those pathetic excuses for human beings? And that this family actually loves you?"
"Oh I think so," Harry replied, then added waggishly. "But I wouldn't say no to further demonstrations of that love …"
ooOOoo
Wednesday 25 November
Harry woke up with a brilliant smile on his face. Draco had definitely made it clear that Harry was loved last night; now it was Harry's turn to reciprocate, he decided, as his hand wandered down the bedsheets. The blond was still asleep, but that didn't last long.
"Mmm," he practically purred in delight, "if I have to wake up, that's certainly the way to do it."
Harry smirked at him, rather chuffed to have found a safe way to wake up the definitely-not-morning-person that Draco had become during the pregnancy. At least, one that didn't involve pain.
ooOOoo
"Is it my imagination, Minerva," Flitwick asked the Headmistress at breakfast, "or are Harry and Draco looking in a rather better mood this morning?"
"Yes indeed," Minerva replied, her eyes twinkling mischievously, in a way that would have done Albus Dumbledore proud. "I wonder what could have happened to cause that?"
Filius blushed as it occurred to him just exactly what McGonagall was referring to.
"Ah," he said softly. "Never mind."
"Are your mentoring sessions continuing?" the Headmistress asked, deciding to give her friend a reprieve by lapsing into serious subjects.
"Ah!" the half-goblin replied. "No, they seem to have fallen by the wayside a little, I confess. Do you think I should do something about that?"
"I think it would be wise," the Headmistress replied with an accompanying brief nod of her head. "Especially given all the business of this enchantment lifting. It's all still rather vague; I suspect both the Potter-Malfoys might welcome a chance to talk about it."
"Hmm," Flitwick mused. He was always a little wary of these well-intentioned suggestions from the Head; although to be fair, the ones coming from Albus had always rather reeked of manipulation to him, while Minerva's clearly were motivated by genuine concern for the student body. He decided to steer the conversation in a different direction.
"As you can imagine," he said, "my Ravenclaws have been discussing that at some length."
"Indeed?" Professor Merrythought, sitting on Flitwick's left, interjected. "And what have they decided?"
"On the whole, that it was a good thing for a short time, but also a good thing that it's lifted. It stopped us from rushing into decisions that would almost certainly have been motivated largely or entirely by revenge; but now we can see that, and appreciate that the decisions were generally good ones, helping to build up our society again, and own them without any form of compulsion."
"An interesting view," the aged Defence Professor replied. "And, interestingly enough, one that my mother put forward to me. She was commenting on the difference between the events after this war and the last couple, the first Voldemort war and the aftermath of the Grindelwald-Dumbledore confrontation, when no-one could say a word against Dumbledore. She had been very concerned at the time because he became entrenched in a position of considerable power as a result; and after Voldemort's first defeat the animosity against pure-bloods was horrendous. This time, we've seen a real attempt to build a system that will include everyone, and has a chance of lasting more than five minutes…"
“And I’m sure that’s largely down to the character of Mr Potter, now Potter-Malfoy,” Pomona Sprout added. “If the enchantment had been due to Albus, say, I think we would be facing a huge backlash of witches and wizards claiming that the decisions of the last few months were moot and all the laws should be reviewed; but as it is Mr Potter’s magic, there seems to be a general feeling that we should just get on with things."
“Indeed,” Flitwick agreed, “and that certainly seems to have played out amongst our students.”
“I concur,” Slughorn added in his pompous way. “Why, only the other day I came across two Hufflepuffs helping some of my snakes with their charms work.”
“Ah!” Sprout interjected. “And gave them ten points each, perhaps?”
Slughorn nodded, and Pomona continued, “I had wondered where those points came from.”
McGonagall sat back in her chair. Slughorn admitting such a thing was completely unprecedented, and to have given points for it was quite shocking. Gone were the days of the obvious and unchecked bias of Severus Snape, it seemed. The Headmistress was secretly very pleased with how smoothly the school was running, and how her staff were really looking out for their students; but she was of the Old School and it would be a cold day in Hell before she told them so.
"Pass the butter," she requested, and breakfast sank back into its normal groove.
ooOOoo
The afternoon found Harry once more sitting in the library, considering the short-comings of his own experience with the Muggle system, or rather, since he had never actually been contacted, his lack of experience; and all of the things that should have happened. But, he decided, 'should haves' right no wrongs, and bring no comfort; so as he considered the failings he focused on how their own Wizarding system might be improved. He also decided he needed to cast his net a little wider: the systems in other countries were quite different, in both Muggle and Magical Law, and by now he was heavily invested in the whole thing and wanted to make the Potter Code the best he could. He also wanted to extend Lucius's work with the orphanage to ensure that magical children were protected; if he could stop even one person from having a childhood like his own then his work would be a success.
He was busily writing up his thoughts and was rather startled when a discreet cough alerted him to the fact that he had company. He looked up to find the eighth-year co-ordinator smiling at him.
"Professor Flitwick!" he said in surprise.
"Indeed, Mr Potter-Malfoy," Flitwick replied. "The Headmistress and I were chatting about pastoral care this morning and I was wondering if perhaps we should re-institute our mentoring sessions?"
The broad grin on Harry's face was answer enough for Filius, who suggested they adjourn to his office. It took Harry almost an hour to fill Flitwick in on his hopes and intentions.
Filius was most impressed with Harry's endeavors, and encouraged him to persevere.
"You are absolutely right about the improvements needed," he twittered. "And you bring a very refreshing perspective to the issue. But I also have to ask you how you feel about the enchantment?"
Harry's brows knitted.
"I confess, I don't really know what to think," he said. "I had a discussion with Hermione on the weekend—" and here Harry stopped, seeing an uncharacteristic smirk on Professor Flitwick's face.
"I suspect," the Professor said drily, "that it was a rather one-sided conversation."
Harry grinned. Clearly Flitwick had Hermione's measure.
"Er, yeah. And she was getting a bit agitated about me compromising other people's free will, until Draco pointed out that I had no intention of doing so, meaning that I was as much a victim of events as everyone else."
"There is a truth in that," Flitwick mused; then added, after a few seconds' thought, "yes, I can see how that is a helpful way to think about it. Does it help you?"
"Well, yes, I suppose it does," Harry said, a little surprised to be asked the question. Flitwick could see that Harry hadn't thought about his own need for help at all; clearly, regardless of Harry's academic performance, the mentoring sessions were still very necessary.
ooOOoo
Thursday 26 November
Harry had told Draco all about his mentoring session with Flitwick, and the blond could see that they would do his husband a great deal of good. He could also see that his husband had been a bit shaken up about it, not least because they really didn't have many answers; and while the physical closeness that they both offered and enjoyed was helping, he decided something a little more deliberate was called for.
Accordingly, Harry woke on Thursday morning to find a small table in their room, set with crisp white damask napkins and silver cutlery.
"Er, Draco, what's this?" he asked, a touch sleepily.
"I was hoping that my husband would like to have a private breakfast with me," Draco replied simply.
"I'd love to!" Harry replied, then, a little worried that he might have forgotten some important date – not that he could think of one, Draco's birthday was in June and their anniversary in September – asked, "er, is this in honour of some special occasion?"
"Yes," Draco replied with a poker face, secretly a little delighted at the slight look of panic that Harry was now sporting, before putting him out of his ministry. "It's in honour of the fact that I love my husband."
"Prat," Harry said, suppressing a laugh as he climbed out of bed and sat at the table. He lifted the cloche in the centre of the table and his laughter spilled out of him.
It was pancakes again …
ooOOoo
Draco's morning was interrupted so he could visit Arthur for his own mentoring session at the Ministry. Not needing to help in the Potions Lab, Harry felt at a bit of a loose end until Narcissa, who knew their schedule, had been told about Arthur's plans to keep up the mentoring, and suspected Harry could do with a break from the castle, Floo-called to ask if he would like to come to the Manor for the morning and visit with Teddy and Andromeda. When he arrived, he found the other two were already there, and not long afterward, Miriam and Margaret Granger turned up. He could see that the three witches were rather wanting a private chat, so he suggested that he could mind the two children while they did so.
"Are you sure?" Narcissa asked. "Dippy would be very happy to look after them."
"I'm sure she would," Harry replied, "and that she would do a great job. It's just that so would I."
Narcissa looked closely at her second son and realised that in truth, he really did want to do this; though she rather suspected he was also giving them the chance to chat without distractions. She wasn't going to look a gift unicorn in the mouth, she decided; in truth, she was delighted to take the opportunity to have a quiet discussion in her study without the presence of precocious little children.
"Very well," she said, "but you have to explain to Dippy why she wasn't called!"
With that repost, she led Margaret and Andy to her study while Harry grabbed Teddy and Miriam and took them into the drawing room that had been set up for them.
Harry had been playing with the babies for about an hour when he was interrupted.
"Ah, a meeting of brilliant minds, I see," a familiar voice drawled.
"Hello, Lucius," Harry said, smiling at the man as he stopped Miriam from trying to hit Teddy with her hammer. Not that the foam toy would have done any harm, but it wasn't a habit he wanted them to get into.
"Tea?" Lucius asked. "I heard you were in the manor so I came looking for you, rather hoping that we could have a little chat."
"Sure," Harry replied, rising to his feet. "Except I have these two to look after."
"Dippy!" Lucius called, and the little elf appeared at once, looking a little dusty, though the pillow-slip she was wearing was quite clean.
"Yes, Master Lucius?" she said with a bright smile. "How can Dippy be helping Master Lucius today?"
The two babies giggled at her appearance, and Harry found himself smiling as well.
"You seem happy today, Dippy," he said gently. "What have you been doing?"
"Dippy is being dusting Master Abraxus's treasure room!" the elf replied proudly.
Lucius laughed at this, and said, in answer to Harry's questioning look, "my father had a reputation, entirely deserved, as a harsh, cruel tyrant; but he had a little secret vice: he used to collect china figurines."
Harry's eyebrows rose disbelievingly, but Lucius went on by way of explanation. "He adored them; but he also felt it wasn't a suitable occupation for a Slytherin or a Malfoy, so he hid them away. The room they are in has been ignored for years, but we decided to open it up and air it; and Dippy is busy removing decades of grime for them. Though I see you have been using an apron?"
"Oh yes, Master Lucius!" she replied happily, her head nodding. "Dippy is very happy to be adopting Master Lucius's suggestion!"
"Very good," the man replied. "Now, do you think we could tear you away from dusting for a few minutes to watch over these two while Harry and I have a chat in my study?"
The little elf stood there, water coming to her eyes.
"Master wants Dippy to mind the babies?" she asked nervously.
Lucius nodded. Instantly, the little creature leapt on him and cuddled his lower legs, they being all she could reach.
"Oh, thank you, Master Lucius, sir!" she exclaimed. "Dippy is being taking good care of the little ones."
"I'm sure you will," Lucius replied, then turned to Harry. "Shall we?"
Harry shook his head in wry amusement at the whole scene, and walked out behind Lucius. I do wish Hermione had been here to see that, he mused. It would knock S.P.E.W. stone dead.
ooOOoo
"So, what did you want to discuss?" Harry asked once they were ensconced in Lucius's study, and had foregone tea entirely in favour of butter beer (for Harry) and fire whiskey (for Lucius).
"Ah," Lucius said, putting down his glass. "I had a chat with Elphias Doge over the weekend. He is rather – concerned."
"Yes?" Harry asked, wondering where this was going.
"Yes. As you are aware, it seems we were under an enchantment that has lifted; as a consequence of that lifting, Doge is concerned that people will be taking a long, hard, and very cold look at what's been going on. Especially as regards pure-bloods."
"And," Harry continued, grasping the point, "as regards particular pure-bloods whom they may feel should be in Azkaban, not swanning about the Ministry."
"Yes," Lucius agreed with a smirk, "something like that."
"But you have a plan?" Harry asked.
"Indeed. How did you know?" Lucius asked in mock-surprise.
"Otherwise you'd be rather worried, I should think," Harry replied.
"True. As you know, I've been working quite a lot in the Muggle housing world, particularly looking at those Mud- - er, Muggleborns, who were dispossessed during the War. We've managed, quietly, to rehouse everyone we know about. We offered to build new houses for them, as most of them were traumatized about their current locations and actually wanted to move. As a result, their existing houses are now available. At the same time, your friend Miss Granger has been doing some research tracking down squibs. Many of them, having been disowned from pure-blood families, are destitute. And bear a huge grudge against the Wizarding World. How we didn't see the danger to the Statute of Secrecy I don't know.
"So we have a plan to move them into the unused properties, thus getting them back close to the Wizarding World."
"I see," Harry said, thinking this through. And he really could see: not only was this going to benefit the squibs, and the Wizarding World, the idea had an obvious appeal for Lucius personally.
"And the fact that you get to be known as the man who brought the Squibs back into our world is just a happy bonus, right?" he continued.
Lucius smirked. "Oh," he said casually, "I'd be quite happy for my son-in-law to take the leading role in the enterprise."
Harry's smirk became a full-on belly laugh.
"So you'd have my backing as well. You truly are the arch-Slytherin, Lucius."
And for once in his life, Lucius Malfoy was rendered speechless.
ooOOoo
The last three weeks of the term flew past for Harry and Draco. Now that Harry was back in the Castle full-time, his days were filled, helping Draco, working on his Muggle Studies project, and finding himself drafted in to teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts students. Not that it took any effort on Professor Merrythought's part to convince him; he really loved the lessons, which became an extension of his former work with Dumbledore's Army. The students all loved him, and clearly valued the chance to be taught by a bona-fide war hero.
Draco's morning sickness seemed to all but disappear now that he and Harry were sleeping together full-time again, and they were not at all sorry about this turn of events, especially as the blond's apprentice duties soaked up so much of his time that Borage had to put his foot down and insist that Draco stay out of the potions lab altogether after eight p.m. and on the weekends, something Harry was most grateful for. Though Draco did still manage to find plenty to do, especially as his own Muggle Studies project had slipped a bit. But Harry made sure they spent the Saturday nights at Malfoy Manor, where Narcissa practically forced Draco to abandon his books and be social.
Flitwick continued the Wednesday meetings with Harry on a weekly basis; and Arthur, with Borage's blessing, had them both over to a session each Thursday at eleven o'clock, where he stuffed them full of tea and pastries and discussed all manner of topics. Harry was delighted to see that, over the weeks, Draco came to warm to Arthur and discussed everything that was going on. So much so that, after having had a visit to St Mungo's on the morning of the last meeting of term, the blond even took along pictures of the scan that he had had. It was quite special to them, showing the twins clearly, though not yet giving any indication of sexes, and Harry was rather teary-eyed both to see actual visible proof of his own flesh and blood, and that his husband made sure there were copies made for both the Weasleys and the Malfoys.
Arthur was, of course, delighted to see the scan; especially when he was told that the copy he held was for him to take home and show Molly. And if his eyes moistened a little, none of them commented on it.

Notes:

Grateful thanks as always to the wonderful Bicky Monster for helpful suggestions. This chapter was especially difficult, and needed a lot of coaxing; in fact, it's been split in half, so the next one, hopefully, won't take seven weeks to get up!
I notice that the interval actually includes the second anniversary of RtS; it astonishes me that my intended twelve chapter story is now ninety chapters long, has garnered over 220K views on , and still isn't finished ...
Other locations: See my profile for details about facebook and AO3. The story is also now available on AFF should anyone prefer that site.
Thanks: To all who are following! It gives me a lovely warm feeling that you're interested. And double thanks and tea and scones and jam and clotted cream to all who have commented.
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Returning to Sanity