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Elpis, Greek Goddess of Hope

-

My papa was so lonely when Dad died. Sometimes, he had his good days. Other days were horrible.

On his good days, he'd smile. That was the only real time we could tell if it was a good day or a bad day. Seeing him smile was very rare, but it was always the brightest on the good days.

The bad days nearly killed me. He'd lie in bed all day, sleeping or crying. All too often, he was crying. Losing his husband and his daughter took a huge chunk out of him and he couldn't deal with it.

I lost my sister and my dad that day, but I hadn't seen any of it. Sometimes, I'd have my own bad days. Whenever I dreamt of them, it'd be a bad day for me. I wouldn't cry as much as Papa did, but I'd still refuse to get out of bed.

I hated the bad days. When I was too young to take care of him, Uncle Remus would come by and sort it all out. He'd cook Papa breakfast, get him showered and at least drag him out into the lounge room so that Papa didn't wallow in bed all day. I could never do that. Not even when I got older. I could get him food, but I could never convince him to be out in the sunlight like Uncle Remus did.

But when Uncle Remus died, Papa nearly came out of his shell. He saw how much Uncle Sev was hurting and helped him out as much as he possibly could. He knew what Uncle Sev was going through. Seeing another suffering like that helped him more than I'd like to say. It doesn't sound that good when you think about it. Someone else had to be in as much pain as he was before he could do anything.

I think for Uncle Sev's sake more than anything, Papa's bad days started to become fewer and fewer.

It kinda hurt that he'd do that for a man he hated for most of his life, but couldn't do it for his son.

-

Harry sighed deeply, his mind completely boggled by the information before him. Sure, he had heard Draco mention it before, but he had never once imagined it could have been as true as this.

His mind was possibly scared.

He had walked in on their alone time.

And had run out of the room as quickly as his knobby knees had allowed him.

Severus Snape and Remus Lupin were definitely in a relationship together and he had a very sudden urge to burn his eyes out.

"I warned you," came the smug voice of Scorpius. He was hiding under his Invisibility Cloak, as was expected of him. His parents nearly shared heart attacks when he was caught without it by Theo that day on the lake. The other teen had walked up on them and had started to yell at the three of them for allowing the blonde kid to be so open to the students. It didn't seem to faze Scorpius at all, but the other two had insisted that he started to wear the Cloak everywhere again.

Scorpius let out a loud yawn from next to Harry and Harry could hear the material moving as the boy stretched. "I think that's bedtime for me. Maybe you should come back tomorrow. You can probably get your answer then."

Harry sighed again before he agreed with his son. "Yeah, sure. I'll walk you down to your room."

Although it hadn't been confirmed yet, Harry was certain Scorpius was his child. Oddly enough, it made sense to him. He knew that because of that, he was also the future husband of Draco Malfoy. That caused all sorts of havoc on his system, but he was fine with that. At the age of seventeen, he had found the one person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

He hadn't admitted to himself that he was in love with the feisty blonde. No. He was dangerously attracted to him, but not in love with him. Not yet, at least. Just thinking those thoughts had his face burning. Thinking about loving anyone was enough to make you blush, but knowing these things was pretty damn frightening, yet exciting.

There were the doubts in his mind about the two of them actually marrying and having two children together. It was a highly farfetched idea to begin with and they had never been able to stand each other prior to Scorpius' arrival. In fact, killing each other had been quite high on both of their priority list. Had you mentioned the idea to anyone six months ago, they'd throw you straight into the Closed Ward at Saint Mungo's.

And he was madly obsessed with the blonde man. It was almost as if they were perfectly fitted for each other. When they kissed, they knew the dance by heart. When they embraced, their bodies moulded against each other in a perfect fit. It was anything Harry could have wanted.

Draco Malfoy was his, regardless to whether if he was Scorpius' papa or not.

"I've heard things about your Muggle relatives, but apparently you didn't even allow your own kids to meet them," said Scorpius, his voice very light as they headed down to the dungeons.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. He figured his children weren't to have anything to do with the Dursley family. They were foul creatures in his mind and would rather suffer his childhood again with them than to expose his kids to them.

"I'd rather never hear of them again, let alone let my children near them," Harry answered easily. "Why? Do you know anything about them?"

"They were hunted and killed because of their ties with you. Voldemort believed that holding them hostage was a good way to drag you into his claws. I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be so cold to your own blood. You just let Voldemort have them. No one would explain to me why...I guess it really isn't my place to know in all seriousness..."

The look Harry sent him shut him up instantly. Although he was his son, Scorpius had rarely seen that look on Harry's face. It was of absolute loathing-something he normally reserved for the likes of Voldemort and the parents who attacked his sexuality. It was then that Scorpius realised why the Dursleys were a forbidden topic within his household.

Dudley's one and only child was three months younger than Scorpius. They met by accident one day. Harry and Draco had taken Scorpius to the local kindergarten a few weeks before Draco's murder, only to find Dudley Dursley, his wife and their daughter (whose name Scorpius never knew) checking it out as well. It took one look between the two of them before the larger man walked away, grumbling about how he'd never want his child in a preschool like that. Scorpius had never seen of him ever again and heard of his death about four years later. His daughter had been carelessly given to Fenrir Greyback. The news of that hit Harry hard. It was the first and only time Scorpius had ever seen Harry drunk.

That one time scared Scorpius. He had heard through loud yelling with his Uncle Sev just what had happened to the girl. They used terms he would later understand (and cringe at) before his papa took off into the study. At one point, Scorpius had entered the room to find his papa curled up in one corner, surrounded by several bottles of alcohol. He had yelled at Scorpius to get out of the room. The yelling was never ending that night. He cried and cried and yelled and cried some more and it scared the nine-year-old so much. Harry avoided him completely the next day, but had ended up crawling into bed with him that night. Scorpius never minded it when it happened. They were all they had.

As he got older, it happened less. Then again, as he got older, his friends told him just how abnormal it was. It wasn't right to share your bed with your father. The first time someone accused the two of them of doing obscene things, Scorpius had attacked them. It was never brought up again. His friends had understood. They knew that the two of them missed Draco terribly. They knew how much it hurt Scorpius and his papa to know that Draco was gone. Scorpius was overly thankful for those friends.

"The Dursleys aren't nice people. They hate anything that's different. A child born to two men with magical abilities is beyond their normal. They'd order the baby's death in a heartbeat before allowing it anywhere near them."

Scorpius fell silent at that. He could tell it wasn't exactly the easiest subject for his papa.

So instead, being the wonderful child he was, he changed the topic.

"Are you in love with my dad?"

He was very lucky Harry didn't trip over his own feet.

"I'm going to kill you."

-

Draco was working on yet another potion, thinking over everything so he could get it right. Now that he knew that Harry's Scorpius' father, the younger blonde had no issue with handing over Draco's journal with all the potions inside. He had gone into great detail, explaining why he'd use a specific ingredient over another and why that extra four stirs weren't as stupid as someone would have expected.

As expected, his words were scribbled over in two different styles. The first he recognised as Severus'. The second was new to him, but it screamed out Scorpius. It was as messy as Harry's handwriting with a touch of attempted elegance. Sometimes, he'd write in a cursive style and other times it was hardly legible. But whenever he wrote something, it was in a green ink, so different to the black Draco had used. The strangest part was, however, that it was never the ink from a quill. It appeared to be more of a gel that rolled across the page. Draco had never seen any quill that could do something like that. It was beyond strange.

Then again, he reasoned, he had never lived a day as a Muggle. He had no idea what Scorpius was using since it was most likely a Muggle invention. It nearly disturbed him that his son-the heir to the Malfoy legacy-was raised as a Muggle because his papa was too scared to lose him.

Sure, it made sense, but it would have been torturous.

He had only just finished off the final touch to his potion when the door opened up. Draco barely registered the two others but couldn't stop his smile from taking over his face when a familiar pair of arms wrapped around his torso.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked, wondering why his son was holding him as tightly as he was.

"I just wanna hug you," Scorpius replied, his eyes now roaming over the potion before him. "I think you forgot something."

"Go away."

Scorpius ignored him, now leaning forward to take a whiff of the concoction. "I know you forgot something. I wrote in..."

"That's why I didn't do it," Draco told him, his eyes glancing up to Harry and back. "Your extra little bits were to make it tastier. I don't really know why you'd want to make this potion taste any better. Who cares about that sort of stuff?"

"Uncle Sev does. You wouldn't know it, but he adds a lot of extra ingredients into those headache potions he's addicted to. That's where I got these ideas from. Besides, when you're an addict like Uncle Sev is, the taste is really important."

Harry repressed his shudder, trying not to remember what he had walked in on not that long before.

Scorpius sighed heavily, realising his dad wasn't going to listen to him. "It's Christmas in three days," he beamed. "I can't wait." Two pairs of green eyes met each other. "What do you want Harry? Is there anything I can buy you?"

Releasing Scorpius, Draco looked up at Harry as if to ask the same thing. There was a coy smile from Harry that had Draco blushing immediately, causing Scorpius to pretend to vomit.

"You should join us for Christmas morning," Draco suggested as he started to pack away his utensils. He carefully cleaned off his knives and weights before stacking them in the carry case he had. Although Scorpius had his own tools, Draco insisted he used his own. He said something about preferring the feel of his own knives, rather than someone else's. "It'll be good. We're opening the presents here..."

"I've always had Christmas with Ron and Hermione," Harry said, stopping Draco's words. "I don't know...I'd love to, but I don't want to put any strain on our friendship..."

"I can talk to Aunt Hermione," Scorpius offered. "And since she's with Ron, you'll just be the third wheel."

A blonde eyebrow rose at the term. "We need to de-Muggle you," Draco grumbled. "I would love to have my child using wizarding sayings. These Muggle sayings make no sense."

"Yeah, because they really made sense to me when I first got here," Harry commented sarcastically. "When I first met you, you went on about things I had never heard of before. It's about time someone gave it back to you."

"What does not being in that relationship and a wheel have anything to do with each other? It's stupid and he's not allowed to do it anymore."

"It's fine," Harry argued, a smile on his face. "You're not going to get upset over him using Muggle terms. I thought you'd be a little less closed-minded by now."

Draco's jaw slipped open. "I'm doing those things with you, a half-blood. I don't think I'm closed-minded anymore."

"Then shall we go to a Muggle shopping centre to see how accepting you are these days?"

The suggestion wasn't taken too well. "A Muggle shopping centre? Do you have any idea how strange that would be? It'd be like..."

"If Hermione can do it in Diagon Alley, then I'm sure you can manage. Hermione is, after all, a Muggleborn."

Although they were playing, Draco was getting more and more frustrated.

"So are you joining us or not?"

Harry sighed heavily and moved over to Draco, his hand wrapping around Draco's wrist. Whenever they were in front of Scorpius, they had decided on being not-so-physical with each other. Unfortunately, it was a hard feat. The need to touch was overly strong.

"I'll talk to them about it. Okay?"

Draco made a noise to show he accepted that idea before he quickly pressed a kiss to Harry's lips.

"I have to go now, though," Harry continued, feeling warm inside now that Draco had kissed him. He desperately needed at least one kiss from the blonde a day. He was, thankfully, hitting that quota. "Quidditch practise."

Wide green eyes turned to Draco. "Can I go watch? Please?"

His dad sighed. "If it's okay with Harry." There was a shrug to his shoulders.

"Harry?"

"Yeah, sure."

-

The wards in his office were going off. Someone who wasn't meant to be on Hogwarts grounds had entered it through the ForbiddenForest. Albus looked up at one of his several trinkets, which was screaming at him to say that the intrusion had occurred.

He was instantly on his feet, heading to his fireplace to warn the other professors.

-

Draco jolted awake when he heard his door open. He had put as many curses on the door so that no one his age could get in. That meant that it was either Severus or a Death Eater.

What he saw had his blood running cold.

Lucius Malfoy was standing at the foot of his bed before Draco could have reached for his wand. Draco was at the mercy of his father instantly. He could only gape up at the wand pointed at him.

"I have a few questions I need answered," Lucius claimed, not even giving his son a greeting. "You're going to answer each and every one without me hexing you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Father," Draco responded once he was capable of doing so. His mouth had gone extremely dry with the shock of it all.

"You've turned your back on your mother and me. Why?"

"I don't want to be a Death Eater..."

"Why not?"

"I don't agree with it. I'm not a killer and I don't believe people should die because of their blood lines..."

"Are you sleeping with Harry Potter?"

That stunned him. He had never expected his father to be so upfront with that question.

"I'm not."

"Then what is your relationship with him?"

Draco observed his father's face as he spoke. There was no emotion in his voice and even less on his face. He was interrogating his son as if he was the enemy.

"My relationship...?"

"Yes. Your relationship."

Draco had to consider if he was going to answer that one truthfully. "We're...it's complicated..."

"Do you intend to sleep with him?"

That dried Draco's mouth again. "...yes."

The wand in Lucius' hand quivered lightly. "Your mother and I are so disappointed in you, Draco. You are our son. I'm not going to let this happen. You're not allowed to have that kind of relationship with him. You are to capture him when you get the chance..."

"I'm not doing that, father," Draco objected, shocking himself. He was incredibly new to this 'openly defying his father' thing. "Harry Potter is my future."

Lucius' mouth lost the tightness it had had before. "What kind of trickery has he used on you, Draco?" His voice wasn't calm at all. "For you to say such things...it's madness. I taught you how to overcome the Imperius Curse. I taught you that a long time ago. This makes no sense..."

"It's love."

That halted the older blonde completely. "Love?" The word was spat out as if it was a bitter taste in Lucius' mouth.

"Something happened, father, and I love him. He loves me, too..."

"I have been aware of your homosexuality for a while now, Draco, and I'll have you know it's not appropriate for a Malfoy to be that way. You cannot create an heir with a man and I would die long before I will see you loving Harry Potter. He is the enemy, you insipid boy!"

"What if I could have a child with him? What if, by some creative force, someone makes it possible?"

"Draco! I am here because the Dark Lord has told me I must disown you or kill you if you continue this. Your mother will not have me disown you and abandon you like some creature meant for the streets and I don't wish to kill you. However, I have very little choice, boy."

"I'm not meant to be a Death Eater," Draco told him simply. "I don't agree with the Dark Lord's cause. I love the enemy as you said. Disown me, father, but do not kill me. Not for another ten years. If the war isn't finished by then, you can kill me. I'll find you myself so you can do it. But please, wait until then."

Lucius couldn't believe what his son was saying. It made no sense for the boy to want this.

"Draco...what do you know?"

The younger Malfoy was glad his father couldn't read his mind. Images of Scorpius flashed in his head. He knew Harry Potter was his future husband, and that Scorpius was to be born in five years. But he couldn't tell his father any of this. He shuddered to think what his father would tell the Dark Lord.

Then again, if he could convince his father of Scorpius' existence, then maybe the other man would understand where he was coming from.

"What if...what if I knew something that would change your mind?"

"Change my mind about what?"

"About the Dark Lord and what he's trying to do. What if...what if I knew something about the future?"

"How would you know these things? Are you that advanced with your potions that you created one that allows you to see these things?"

That was a pretty good way to get around the Scorpius issue, Draco realised. He could tell Lucius all he wanted without revealing that Scorpius was in his life.

"Yes. My child..."

"Child?"

"A boy. Scorpius. I called him Scorpius James. He's my baby boy with Harry, Father. We get married and have him together in five years. He's the most amazing thing that could and will ever happen in my life." Even as he spoke, he could feel the smile growing on his face. "He's identical to me, but he has Harry's eyes and his height. He's my baby boy, Father. I'm his dad and Harry's his papa. The Dark Lord...the Dark Lord kills me in ten years because I'm Harry's husband. He kills me and our second baby. Our unborn daughter."

He could see his father falling to pieces at this information.

"Children? How is that possible?"

"I'm going to create a potion that takes away the DNA of the surrogate mother and replaces it with the other man's. Father, we're so happy together. I might only live to see the first five years of Scorpius' life..."

Both of them looked at Lucius' wand. It was glowing lightly. The Malfoy patriarch hissed out a curse before he turned away.

"Dumbledore's noticed me," he muttered. "Draco, I can't do anything about prolonging your time. I'll tell the Dark Lord this, but I can't guarantee that I won't be back to finish what I should have done here."

"Of course," Draco breathed, lowering his head. "And I'm sorry. I must have caused you and mother so much trouble."

That was the last Draco said before Lucius disappeared through the door.

-

Christmas Day came, and Harry was there with Draco and Scorpius for it. The moment Lucius was gone from the grounds, Draco had gone to Scorpius and had curled up in bed with him. The next morning, Harry had walked in and listened to the other teen.

They put that behind them, though, since the Christmas celebration was supposed to be a time of cheer.

"I'm surprised wizards celebrate Christmas," Harry admitted, sitting next to Scorpius as he opened his presents from his parents. "I thought it was a Muggle thing with the religion and all."

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "I don't mind any reason to get presents."

Harry gave the blonde a grin, leaning over to kiss him just as Scorpius got through to a new cauldron.

"Oh wow," Scorpius smiled, his hands nearly trembling. "This is amazing. It's a classic..."

Draco broke away from Harry to glare at the younger teen. "Are you serious? That's the best on the line at the moment."

"At the moment, Dad. I'm used to the things of the future."

Harry laughed before he made eye contact with Draco.

"I think he's a little ungrateful."

"So I've noticed."

They kissed briefly again.

"I hope your father..."

"Can we not talk about that, Harry?" Draco asked quickly, not wanting anything to do with his father. If what Draco had told him didn't convince him, he would willingly accept the disowning. However, he was happy with Harry and Scorpius, and was looking forward to their future together. It was everything he could have wanted.

"Scorpius, I hope your papa's good in bed."

The blonde teen, who had been sipping on his Christmas beverage, nearly choked, his eyes watering as he struggled for air.

"Is that really something you should be saying? I mean, that's just wrong. How can you say that in front of your kid? That's just..."

Harry wrapped his arms tighter around Draco, his teeth instantly clamping onto Draco's earlobe.

"You git," Draco hissed in pain.

"Scorpius was right. That was completely inappropriate. I'm sure I'm excellent in bed," Harry countered.

He caught Draco's eyes. "Are you sure you're his papa?"

"I better be."

It made Draco's heart beat faster.

The man really wanted to have a family with him.

It was the most perfect Christmas he could ever imagine.