Fatherhood | drarry teen adoptive parents au

forty three | the hardest day

The day before Casper's first birthday, Harry was awake before the sun came up.

"This is it," he whispered to Draco, who was flat on his back beside him, blankly staring at the ceiling. "The hardest day."

"It's gonna get a lot harder than this," said Draco grimly, but it was clear he was dreading it too.

Wordlessly, Harry got up from the bed and grabbed two robes. He passed one to Draco, and the two of them padded out of the Gryffindor dorm and down the stairs to the nursery. Inside, Casper was sleeping, and they watched him in silence for what seemed like a very long time.

Harry became aware that he was crying softly; a small tilt of his head confirmed that Draco was too. He slipped his hand into the other boy's, and then they couldn't take it any longer and scooped their baby up together from his crib.

"Back to bed?" Draco asked, his voice cracking. Harry nodded. He hoped it wasn't for the last time.

The pair of them had hardly slept for nights on end since receiving the latest letter from Narcissa, completely torn over what to do.

At first, they'd taken conflicting sides; it had caused some ferocious arguments between them.

"She said she'll do better with Cas than she did with you," Harry had insisted one night. "It's got to be better than trying to hide him through an actual war, Draco. And besides, people deserve second chances."

"Maybe they do, but not with our baby, you lunatic! She fucked me up once, isn't that enough for her?" Draco cried. "He's not my mother's shot at forgiveness, or the symbol of the son she shouldn't have ruined, he's a human being!"

After that, the plan had been to smuggle Casper to Molly Weasley, though they'd soon found out that she was preparing to fight: there was no room for a baby under her war paint. Besides, didn't she have enough children to worry about, without adding an eighth?

It was Hermione who had made the decision in the end. "What would Lily do, Harry?" she'd asked quietly in the Common Room one night, her face illuminated by the fire.

"She'd do anything," Harry whispered.

He eyed his son on the floor, who was struggling to pull himself up to a standing position with Draco's help, and laughing gleefully at himself when he fell.

And, just like that, Harry and Draco knew what they had to do.

***

After relaying their intentions to Dumbledore, Draco's eventual reply to his mother had been curt, but to the point.

6th April 1997

Meet us at 10 tomorrow night at Hogwarts' gates. Bring nobody.
Draco

They'd drawn up a list of Oaths too on Draco's nicest parchment, enough to keep Narcissa busy.

"You alright, Harry?" Draco asked quietly as the two of them lay back down in bed, Casper still asleep between them.

Harry could hear his heart audibly break.

"We're going to miss his birthday," he whispered, tears dripping down his face. "This wasn't how it was supposed to go."

Draco felt his own heart wrench too, but he forced himself to look stronger for Harry. He pushed his love's dark hair back from his forehead, which was burning up.

"What better gift could we give him than safety?" he asked tenderly.

They couldn't bring themselves to leave the bed once the day began, and didn't bother to head to any of their classes or even for dinner. It was the last day of the Spring term; they'd not be missed too much.