1000 Days of Harry Potter

Day 679

"I DON'T WANT YOU!" Teddy screams, so loudly that Draco's ears ring. "I WANT HARRY! I WANT MY OTHER DAD! I WANT HARRY!"

It's been a long time since Teddy has screamed at either of them like this, and Draco doesn't know what has triggered this particular episode, only that after nearly an hour of screaming and trying to get Teddy to go to bed, he'll do almost anything to make it stop.

"Fine!" Draco hisses. "Fine. I'll go call him, okay? Calm down. I'll call him and ask him to come over. Merlin."

He stomps down to the Floo in his office, leaving Teddy crying incoherently upstairs.

"Potter Residence!" Draco calls, and Harry's living room comes into view. "Harry?"

He cringes at the unmistakable sounds of kissing when they reach him: lips smacking, a low, muffled groan, a gasp, a sucking noise, a breathy, feminine giggle that sounds like Harry's name. More kissing.

Fighting down the urge to gag, Draco calls a little louder, "Harry?"

This time, he gets an answer. "Draco?"

"Do you have a minute? It's Teddy."

"Yeah, be right there!"

Harry appears in front of the Floo a few seconds later. He's dressed in a nice button-down shirt and trousers, hair sticking up and lips slightly swollen. He fixes his crooked glasses as he kneels down. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Teddy is screaming for you and I can't get him to calm down. Any chance you can come through and talk to him? I'm really sorry to ask, I'm desperate. I've tried everything I can think of."

"Of course!" Harry glances over his shoulder, shrugging apologetically at someone out of Draco's line of sight before turning back to look at him. "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll come through."

"Thanks," Draco forces himself to smile.

"But Harry!" He hears Harry's date/girlfriend/whatever protest in a pouty voice, "what about our plans tonight?"

"Sorry," Harry says gently, standing and moving out of sight again. "Rain check?"

"Will you make it up to me?" 

Draco ends the call, not wanting to hear the answer. He carefully composes himself and waits.

This isn't about us, or what we want. Harry's words from Teddy's ninth birthday echo in Draco's mind. We have to put Teddy first.

Harry steps through the Floo a few short minutes later dressed in pajama pants and a comfortable-looking Weird Sisters tee.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your, um, your date."

"It's alright." Harry shrugs and smiles, touching Draco's arm in a friendly greeting before going upstairs. "I don't mind."

Draco follows him up the stairs and watches gratefully from the doorway as Harry calms Teddy down, climbing onto his bed and pulling him into his arms. He rocks him gently while stroking his turquoise hair until his screams calm to hiccupping sobs, then silent tears, then stop altogether.

Harry falls asleep on Teddy's bed with him in the middle of reading him a book about dragons, and Draco takes off Harry's glasses for him, pulls a blanket over them both, and leaves them, wishing that things were different. He allows himself a rare moment of openly wishing that he could climb in with them next to Harry and the three of them could fall asleep together like that, a little family, before shoving the feelings down and going to bed.