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There was nothing that Harry loved more than lazy Sunday afternoons in the garden.
It was a chance to reset, take a breath and talk about their busy lives. Sometimes Draco and he talked about their week, sharing gossip about their colleagues and friends. Other times they talked about their childhoods.
Harry loved to hear stories of Draco’s childhood at Malfoy Manor. His husband’s younger life was so different to his own that it might’ve taken place in the pages of a book of fiction.
“Did I ever tell you about Cepheus?” Draco said, sipping his tea and lounging in a deckchair. The two had been planting their summer vegetables and were taking a well-earned break. “He was my mother's pet Crup. Gods, but he loved her. Used to sit beside her on the chaise-lounge and growl at the elves.”
Harry chortled. He could hardly imagine his patrician mother-in-law snuggling with a pet. “Was Lucius a noted Crup-lover too?”
“Merlin, no,” Draco answered, grinning. “Father hated Cepheus. He said he didn’t have time for frivolities such as lap-crups, but I believe Father was scared of him. Once the creature even took a nip of his big toe! I loved Cepheus though. The two of us used to play fetch during the afternoons when I’d finished my lessons, and I’d walk him around the lake. The peacocks always shifted whenever they saw him coming,”
It was a sweet scene to envision. Harry ate the rest of his Hob-Nob before he replied. “I would have liked a dog. Ours wasn’t the sort of house where pets were welcomed. Petunia couldn’t have borne it if the poor creature had left hair on her precious furnishings. It’d likely have ended up beneath the stairs with me.” Harry reached over and took Draco’s hand in his, knitting their dirt-stained fingers together. “The closest that I ever got to a pet were Mrs Figgs’s flea-bitten cats! I think, partly, that is why I loved Hedwig so much. She wasn’t only the first birthday gift that I’d ever been freely given, but my first pet too.”
“We should get a Crup,” Draco suggested. “Teddy could play with them, whenever he visited, they’d be a reason to get out walking and we’ve got a little more time to spare, now you’ve gone part-time at the DMLE.”
Harry didn’t answer. The warm sun, and his tired muscles had joined forces, and he could feel his eyes flickering closed. It had been a long week, and a busy morning: an afternoon nap sounded like just the ticket. Harry felt Draco’s familiar magic washing over him, casting an anti-sunburn charm as he succumbed to sleep.
~
Draco was acting very particularly.
That, on its own, wasn’t unusual – Draco often got a bee in his bonnet about his patients at St. Mungo’s or visiting his mother at the Manor, and was unable to think about anything else.
Today, however, Draco was the worst that Harry could remember seeing him. Draco had let their breakfast burn, had spilt their morning tea, and had fussed non-stop about Flooing over to Luna and Rolf’s farm.
“I don’t know why you’re so nervous today,” Harry scolded, as the two of them sat in Luna’s lounge, drinking a cup of her very odd Dirigible Plum tea. “Normally you avoid Lovegood Farm like the plague. You told me last time that all the country air gave you a rash!”
Draco rolled his eyes. “I might have had a change of heart,” he answered primly, glancing at the door for about the seventh time. “Luna and I get on very well nowadays.”
That was the moment that Rolf, Luna and a certain somebody else joined them. In Luna’s arms there was the smallest, fluffiest little Crup that Harry thought he’d ever seen.
“Surprise!” Draco said, as Luna placed the little magical creature into Harry’s cautious arms.
Harry could only shake his head. “I assume this is why you’ve been acting quite so strangely this morning?”
“This is called Corvus,” Draco explained, “and he’s six weeks old. We’re not going to do any of that cruel tail-removal either. We’ll cast a miniature glamour on him whenever we take him out for a walk. And yes, I know you’re going to tell me off for getting us a pet without consulting you, but after you told me you would have liked a dog of my own… Well, you couldn’t expect me to hear that and not act on it, surely? What kind of a husband do you take me for?”
“He’s a rescue Crup,” Luna interrupted, leaning over to stroke Corvus’s silky ears. “We rescued him from a wizard that wanted to test dangerous spells on him! He doesn’t have anyone else in the world, Harry. As soon as Draco heard where he’d come from, he insisted that Corvus was the right pet for you.”
Harry looked down at the pup. Corvus gazed back with brown eyes. If this wasn’t love at first sight, Harry wasn’t sure what was.
“Thank you,” Harry said, closing the space between Draco and giving his husband a kiss. “I’ve always wanted a pet, and he’s the one I’d have chosen, out of all the dogs in the world. Besides,” he quipped, a grin on his face, "perhaps Lucius will be frightened of this little one as well.”
Laughing, Draco petted their Crup. “That’s rather likely,” he answered.