1000 Days of Harry Potter

Day 94

"Okay, how do you get him to go to bed at night?" Potter asks, looking a bit desperate, catching Draco by the arm before he can slip away. "I can't do another month like last time. I'll go insane!"

A small smile creeps onto his face, and Draco finds himself answering, "Invite me to stay for dinner and a drink, and I'll teach you all my secrets."

"Please stay for dinner and a drink!" Potter begs immediately, widening his eyes and exaggerating his desperation just a bit.

Draco can't help laughing at his antics. "I have to say, I like hearing you beg, Potter."

"Har har," Potter rolls his eyes. "Come on."

The meal he's prepared is obscenely good, and Draco has to regulate his reaction, so as not to give him an even bigger ego than he's sure Potter already has. "Merlin, Potter, that's not half bad!"

He grins. "I know."

Later, after Teddy is in bed, Potter passes Draco a wine glass and collapses on the sofa beside him, sprawling dramatically.

"Alright, share your secrets."

"I only have one: Bribery."

"What? Really?"

"No," Draco laughs. "Well, not usually. That was my mother's method though."

"And you turned out just great."

"Is that sarcasm, Potter?"

Potter gives him another heart-stopping grin. Draco catches himself at the thought. Okay, Potter has a nice smile, but heart-stopping? No. It's...fine. It's a fine, perfectly normal smile—

"Yes," Potter interrupts Draco's slightly hysterical train of thought. "But I actually do mean it. In regards to the current 'you,' anyway. Teddy loves you, and not because you give him whatever he wants or bribe him into good behavior. I know you don't. He talks about you all the time."

"He talks about you, too," Draco concedes. "Although that's not surprising, seeing that he never stops talking."

Potter groans and takes a long drink. "He truly doesn't."

"He's great, though," Draco sighs.

"Yeah, he is."

"Are we doing okay?" Potter asks, frowning slightly. "Raising him like this? He doesn't seem to mind all the inconsistency, but...I'm not sure. I worry about it."

"I think so. But it might not hurt to make sure we're on the same page, you know? Parenting?"

"What do you have in mind?"

Draco is terrified to voice the idea that he's had over the course of the evening, but he and Potter have spent a reasonable amount of time around each other in the past few months without a single murder attempt, so he does.

"We could try being...friends? Maybe spend some time together with Teddy and talk about how we want to handle...parenting situations?"

Potter nods thoughtfully. "That's a great idea, Malfoy."

"You should probably stop calling me Malfoy, if we're going to do this."

"Right. Draco, then. No more surnames."

"No more surnames. What if we just plan on dinner once a week? At the home of whoever has Teddy. And after he goes to bed we'll have a glass of wine and...talk. Like this. I could do Fridays?"

Potter, no Harry, Draco reminds himself, considers for a moment. "Sometimes I have to work late on Fridays. What about Sundays?"

"It's a plan."