Work Text:
“...and you would not believe how he parades around the flat in the most inappropriate pants known to mankind, I swear, Pansy—”
“Actually I would believe, seeing as you’ve given this exact same rant, oh, the past sixty times you’ve called. Now, are you almost home? I’ve a date tonight and I want to have plenty of primping time.”
Draco made a face even though Pansy couldn’t see him from the other side of the phone. He graciously ignored her comments about his supposedly-unreasonable-but-in-reality-perfectly-valid number of complaints about his flatmate and replied, “Yes, I’m walking up to the door now. Make sure to tell me all about this newest one.”
“Of course darling, ta!”
Later, Draco blamed the sound of Pansy hanging up and the grating noise of the key in the lock for why he didn’t hear before he saw.
Opening the door revealed 1) an impossibly messy flat and 2) a blurry projectile that knocked the wind out of him.
Draco crashed onto his bum in the doorway to his own flat. He looked down in disbelief: the projectile was actually a small human! When he glanced up again, his flatmate was framed in the doorway grimacing sympathetically.
“Teddy! Sorry about that mate, let me just get him off you.” With that statement which explained exactly nothing, Harry Potter crouched down and attempted to pull apparently-Teddy off Draco. Unfortunately, it was clear that Potter had never in his life interacted with a small child. His hands hovered, obvious in intent but unsure of how to lift the child safely.
In the meantime, Teddy was busily exploring Draco’s bag, tugging on zippers and peering inside. Attempting to save his precious reference books, Draco decided to help Potter. “Like this,” he grunted, heaving Teddy up by his armpits, smoothly rising to his feet, entering the flat, and closing and locking the door behind him. “Now, Potter, explain.”
“Well—”
“Because while I would normally believe it impossible to accidentally get someone up the duff and birth the whelp today since I last saw you on—” he checked his phone, ignoring Teddy’s squirming under his arm “—Wednesday, I believe your level of imbecile might actually be able to manage that.”
“Hey!” Potter protested. “This isn’t my kid! This is Teddy Lupin, my godson. Teddy, meet Draco Malfoy.”
“Dayco!”
“Close enough.”
“It is not—”
“Draco, can I have a word with you in private? Teddy, why don’t you go play with your blocks?”
“No!” Teddy screamed cheerfully.
Potter looked panicked. Normally, Draco would delight in it, but he felt a strange sense of pity for Potter and piped up, “Then how about Po—Harry and I come over and you show us how to play blocks?”
Teddy thought for a moment. “Okay!”
Potter still looked like a deer in the headlights. Draco grabbed his hand and tugged him over to the corner that had apparently become block city. As Teddy began to bash blocks against each other, he leaned towards Potter’s ear, hissing, “Now tell me what is going on. I leave for one day and the flat is a disaster!”
“It’s not like I wanted to make a mess!” Potter shot back, his lips right by Draco’s ear. Draco felt a tingle but immediately shook it off. He was a little touch-starved, so what? It didn’t mean anything! “Anyway, Teddy’s fathers took off on a weekend trip and I agreed to look after him.”
“And what, you decided that a three-year old should have free reign of the flat? For god’s sake, Potter, who is the adult here, you or him?”
“I’m trying my best! I’m just not, er, the best with kids.”
“Well just reference your own childhood like everyone else! It’s not that hard!”
As soon as the words were out, Potter’s entire body language shuttered. “No,” he replied succinctly. “My parents died when I was a baby and my aunt and uncle were horrid.”
With effort, Draco removed his foot from his mouth. “I’m...sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, well, it’s whatever. The problem is, I have no idea what to do with him now.”
As if he could tell he was being discussed, Teddy got up and plopped himself between Draco and Potter. “Hello!” he screamed. “What’re you talking about? Why are you whispering? Are you best friends?”
Potter’s mouth opened and closed. No sound emerged.
“Yes, of course we are,” Draco answered, smoothly slinging an arm around Potter’s shoulders. He effortlessly put on the voice he always adopted around his young cousins, the one that accompanied shamelessly lying to their faces. “Would you also like to be best friends, Teddy?”
“YES!”
“Okay, well first we need to learn what ‘indoor voices’ means.”
After that, Draco actually found himself enjoying the weekend with Teddy and Harry (he’d had to switch from Potter after Teddy got confused). With Draco’s help, Teddy went from a rampaging toddler to the best kind of rambunctious child to be around. Draco found the stress of cramming for his introductory physics exam that morning simply disappeared. Where he’d thought that he’d be dead to the world this weekend, he found that minding Teddy energized him instead.
He blamed his surprisingly pleasant mood for his current situation.
With his guard down, Draco had had to begrudgingly accept that Harry was not nearly so boorish as Draco had thought. In fact, he was rather charming and genuine once Draco allowed himself to get to know him. As the weekend passed, Draco found himself spilling his innermost thoughts to Harry, who responded in kind. It made Draco feel special. It made Draco feel wanted.
It made Draco feel butterflies in his stomach when he looked at Harry, and he had the sense that Harry felt them too.
Who said that children were bad for relationships? Draco secretly ordered Teddy an enormous plushie and told Harry he should bring the kid round more often.