𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐎 𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐒

Chapter 7

Chapter Number/Total: 7/44
Chapter Title: "Real" Family

Draco was getting better, yes. Harry could tell, but he wasn't sure if he was getting better. He wasn't comfortable being away from Draco. It made him twitchy and nervous, and most unpleasant thoughts swam through his mind, like what sort of danger Draco could get into while not in Harry's immediate vicinity – but he did feel ... okay ... leaving for only about fifteen minutes to pick up Teddy.

He couldn't not pick Teddy up, and he didn't want to not pick Teddy up, even though Andromeda had been nothing but reluctant to let the little boy go with Harry. She'd found out he and Draco were seeing each other from that wretched first article. And now, after the second Skeeter fiasco, she seemed even afraid.

Harry couldn't blame her exactly. He knew the grudge between her and Narcissa didn't help matters and he also knew that Teddy was the only person she had left. He knew she was bound to be highly protective of her only grandchild. She'd actually sat Harry down for a talk, asking all sorts of questions while Harry felt increasingly uncomfortable being away from Draco. He'd tried to answer as honestly as he could, even admitting to her that he was in love with Draco, and she'd finally let him go, still reluctant, with the small boy packed up to tag along.

Harry finally entered back into the house with Teddy, and immediately strode off to find Draco, needing the sight of him to calm his nerves. "Draco!" he called down the hall, away from Mrs. Black.

"Daco!" Teddy echoed, though it sounded more like 'taco' than Draco's actual name.

Draco laughed, having been waiting in the sitting room. Now he came to the hall and reached out for Teddy. "Well, hello to you too," he said to the boy, also smiling at his lover.

Harry grinned, handing the fuchsia-haired child over to Draco. Teddy very happily went, smiling and showing his teeth.

"Aren't you just a big boy now?" Draco said, hefting the child in his arms. "Getting heavier," he added. Then he leaned over and gave Harry a quick kiss.

Harry returned the kiss, smiling again. "Getting into a whole new world of trouble now as well," he said. "He can pull himself up and walk along the edges of things."

Teddy giggled as Harry waggled his eyebrows at him.

Draco led them back into the sitting room, where he had already moved anything dangerous or breakable out of reach, and cast a few Cushioning Charms. He pulled out the small box of toys they now kept for Teddy, and set it on the coffee table and then the boy beside it. "Show me what you got, Teddy," he told him.

Teddy looked up at Draco with little furrowed eyebrows for a moment, before getting rather shakily up on his knees and quickly grasping the edge of the table to pull himself to his feet and reach for the toys.

Harry let out a laugh, watching him.

Draco nodded, grinning. "Very good," he told the boy. "You will be ready for a broom in no time!"

"Boom," Teddy repeated, reaching for a beanbag-like toy of a Quidditch player mounted on a broomstick. Harry had bought it for him.

Harry laughed again. "And clever, too," he said.

Draco sat down on the sofa, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees as he looked at Teddy. "I missed you," he told the boy. He hadn't got to see him when he had been sick and realised how much the child had come to mean to him.

Harry looked up at Draco, and his gaze turned very soft. "He missed you, too," he said. "Andromeda told me that he's been talking about you." He didn't add that she had sounded a bit alarmed when she'd told him.