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He finally gave in to his friend's girlfriend
When she said, "there's someone you should meet"
Harry couldn’t bloody believe it. The one time, the /one/ time he gave into Pansy Parkinson’s meddling in his love life as his Auror colleague (and the only unmarried one at that), here he was, at a nice looking Muggle restaurant on a Friday night, arriving at a reasonable hour and his “date” was late. Almost 10 minutes late to be exact.
At a crowded restaurant way cross town
He waited impatiently
Honestly, he should have known she had it out for him. He had wanted to turn him over to Voldermort after all during the Second Wizarding War, he shouldn’t have assumed with time and a little bit of guidance that the Slytherin had (*knock on wood*) shed her skin. This was most likely just one gigantic prank and he was being filmed via Amplifying Charm on some enchanted camera or something similar hanging somewhere nearby.
Sneering to himself (a terrible habit one often picks up in Auroring, given he’d seen Arthur Weasley and of course, Ron, mimic the same expression in private once or twice), Harry went to go check his watch again and rehearse the speech he would give to Pansy on Monday when he tore her a new one, the door finally opened and a new person came in.
She walked in, their eyes met and they both stared
And right there and then, everyone else disappeared
Being that the place wasn’t very crowded, any new person got attention and as soon as Harry looked up, that knot of anger that had been building up suddenly stilled, as did his chest and heart for several moments.
The woman that had walked in was stunningly beautiful, a halo of ice blond hair framing delicate cheekbones and pale blue eyes that almost looked sliver in the warm lights of the tables, windows and ceiling. She was dressed in a black turtleneck with frills at the top on the shoulders, melting down smoothly to her fine, pale hands and chequered green pants with simple heels. She must have been a Slytherin as well, like Pansy, if it was his date that was.
He watched her every move as she spoke to the man he had addressed only moments earlier and when he pointed over it and their eyes met, he didn’t expect a startling movement of shock to come over her, before cold fury equipped from under it, a rather familiar twist in her expression dissolving his awe as she stormed over towards him and he backed up quickly on his feet as she got to the table. “Is this a bloody joke!?”
But one boy, one girl, two hearts beating wildly
To put it mildly, it was love at first sight
“I…uh…no…who…?” Harry couldn’t help but stutter, a red staining his cheeks that could rival a Gryffindor’s robe as he tried to get himself together without looking like an absolute clot and speak to the girl, who still looked like she might kill him. “Sorry, sorry, I apologise for that. I didn’t expect you to…well, blindsight me. I’m Harry. I’m…also assuming Pansy sent you?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Only Pansy didn’t say /you/ would be here Potter.” The way her voice said his last name made his mind ring like a bell. There was just something so familiar about it that he couldn’t put his finger on. He was sure he’d never seen the girl in his life, but it just seemed she knew him. Then again, everyone knew him, so it wasn’t a good comparison.
She could obviously see the look of struggling and awkwardness come over his face, as she sighed and looked at him with pity. “You don’t know just who I am, do you, Potter?”
“Well, no. Sorry.” Harry bit his lip sheepishly. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere, but I don’t even know your name. Christ, I forgot to even ask it. Some date I’m turning out to be.”
He smiled, she smiled and they knew right away
This was the day they'd waited for all their lives
Somehow, she couldn’t help but laugh, shaking her head as Harry seemed to brighten a little bit. “Always so awkward, Potter, but thankfully, I can take it from here. Dragaria Malfoy, at your service.” She even bowed her head, giving Harry more nostalgia he couldn’t place, until he processed what her last name was.
“Dragaria…Malfoy?” Harry’s eyebrows drew together. “You’re a Malfoy? I don’t mean for the surprise, but …didn’t know that there were others, well, beyond one of my old classmates anyway. At least, when we were in school, I only knew of them.”
“It’s…complicated.” Dragaria swallowed. “I’m not sure I could make you understand…or worse, I could make you judgy. I don’t remember if Gryffindors are judgy however, I only just reconnected with Pansy after a rather long spell. She used to be my best friend in school.”
Pansy had only ever been best friends with two people at Hogwarts. Blaise and Draco.
Now, given Harry knew that Blaise would never pull off a wig or even a transfiguration spell like this given that Blaise doesn’t have the brains God gave even a fiddler crab since leaving school altogether, there was only one option here. This girl /was/ Draco. Oh fuck.
Harry wet his lips, stunned mullet look obviously making Draco- sorry, Dragaria (he would have to rejig his brain fast if he wasn't to make this any worse) - look rather nervously at him, before he finally shook himself out of it. “Dragaria. Of course, I remember now. I really shouldn’t have forgotten but I’m so busy, I never remember anything.”
“You…do?” She asked a little wary and he nodded quickly, a smile actually appearing on his face as he couldn’t help but say. “Yes, you and I used to be rival Seekers. You hated me but at the time, I didn’t really hate you till you started picking on my friends.”
He was rambling again, lord help him.
For a moment, the whole world
Revolved around one boy, and one girl
“I was actually wondering what happened to you, it’s honestly good to see you both in person and just…looking really happy after so long. I don’t mean to be so brazen, but can I just call you Aria? Dragaria is…a little hard to wrap around the tongue.”
He knew that this was only partly true and he was mostly likely sounding to her like he was blowing hot air out of his arsehole to cut though the tension (if she leaves, he might just die a little inside), but the way she suddenly smiled, looking like she might cry in front of him (she even looks pretty when she’s about to), made his heart beat rather fast.
“Usually I wouldn’t say yes on a first date to a nickname-” She started, before swallowing and nodding shyly. “-but sure. Just for now. Maybe you aren’t such a terrible date after all, Potter.”
“If tonight says anything, I’ll make it up to you if I am.” He challenged and he swore he could see the old competitive expression break out under the now smirking pale face before him before he uttered “Also, pelase, just call me Harry. I think we’re old enough now for that.”
“We’ll see how you measure up, Harry. For now, let’s start with a good red. They’re better at this time of year…”
In no time at all, they were standing there
In the front of a little church
It seemed that the date flew by for Harry, for the weeks and months after did as well, as despite their history and previous misgivings, him and Aria (no longer the other, he’d finally learnt to dispel the mild confusion in saying her name in place of her old one) were practically inseparable (Pansy was so smug, but pleased), even with the petty arguments they would get into, so it made sense to move in with each other and get married, of course.
However, with Malfoy’s, weddings were a ludicrously grand affair as Harry remembered as well had been haunted by ever since he decided that Aria was going to be his about 6 months into their relationship.
This somehow didn’t compare with the abloute terror that he come over him once his peudo family the Weasley’s found out he’d proposed on a summer’s sunset on a picnic and bombarded him with suggestions for the wedding, resulting in Aria (who at first had been given the cold shoulder till they warmed to her and forgave her for what her previous self did, as they seemed to) Apparating them to their apartment and making tea to calm themselves both down enough to go to turn everything off or hex it and go to bed for a long nap.
Among their friends and family
Repeating those sacred words
Despite this and of course, meeting Narsissa for the first time which happened to be an event in itself (“It’s only my mother, Harry. She’s technically related to you though Sirus you know.” “That doesn’t help the fact that she could make me piss my pants, love.”) for both his heart and his head, he’s standing in the middle of a church holding Aria’s small hands in his own in a dress shirt and suspenders holding into formal pants and shoes.
She outshines him by miles however, in her green trimmed and white A-line finery, her birdcage veil covering the fat tears of green and gold streaking down her face from her eyeliner she’d applied that morning as they said words, but his memory makes it out like they were swimming at the time, as it’s all noise and nothing coherent.
Preacher said, "Son, kiss your bride", and he raised her veil
Like the night they met, time just stood still
“With the power vested in me, I now pronounce you, husband and wife. You may kiss your bride Mister Potter.” When the priest nodded, Harry peeled back the netting partly covering Aria’s face delicately and pulled her up to him so they could kiss, both feeling wobbly and light even before glasses of champagne would be served at the reception.
For one boy, one girl, two hearts beating wildly
To put it mildly, it was love at first sight
The cheers that were coming from down in the pews filled with Weasley’s and Malfoy’s and others before them could rival a fully sold out Quidditch match they were that loud (mostly Weasley’s, Malfoy’s had a much better understanding of deorum) and it was their ears ringing out for mercy that made them break apart and hold up their joined hands cheesily, Aria rolling her eyes while harry just grinned slyly.
He knew she hated cheesy things, it was the bane of her existence to be cheesy.
He smiled, she smiled and they knew right away
This was the day they'd waited for all their lives
It was only after the whole ceremony in the carriage drawn by Thestrals (that finally or really, terribly, most could see now) that was taking them to a Portkey for their honeymoon did they get a moment of peace and Harry fell in love all over again with the woman beside him, a lopsided smile gracing his features as he watched her beaming to herself in a green fur coat and white hat, her golden diamond and emerald Briolette ring a fixture in the late moonlight as snow fell around them, a spell keeping it from hitting them as they rode.
For a moment the whole world
Revolved around one boy and one girl
If he could freeze (ha, freeze) this moment in time, just to capture it and put it in a bottle or a picture frame or even a Pensieve just to keep this all to himself, he would have.
He was holding her hand when the doctor
looked up and grinned "Congratulations, twins!"
The only time Aria ever smacked the crap out of him was when they found out she was pregnant the first time, only 3 months after their wedding.
Given her changes over the years with her physical appearance, Harry wasn’t sure if she even could get pregnant in the first place and should they even want children (he did, she was on the fence still), they might have to look into adoption or surrogacy (which Hermoine offered after the birth of Rose), but, somehow, wizarding technology reared its strangely potent head again when Aria went for a regular check up at her mother’s instance after feeling peaky and he came home only to fly across the room like Ascendio had been cast and scrambled to his feet to find her angrily stabbing the hexed papers into his chest.
Beside the rather ugly looking handprint that graced his face for almost 2 weeks (and the snickers that followed his back frome very department he left) - they had just been wrapping their heads around possibly being parents now (oh fuck, they were /parents/ now) when the mediwitch casted Corus over his wife at the ultrasound appointment and the word had barely left the witch’s tongue before three balls of bright white light appeared, clustered above Aria’s chest and lap, one over her heart turning a dark pink while the others, pulsing a good deal faster than the larger one, hovered over her stomach with tinges of all different colors, mostly green, before they gradually faded away, leaving two rather shocked people in their wake.
“Well then, congratulations!” The medicwitch grinned at them. “A set of twins and by looks of it, one of each as well by that reaction! A wee lass and a wee lad. The joy of it all.”
One boy, one girl, two hearts beating wildly
To put it mildly, it was love at first sight
Harry could clearly see that Aria was attempting to be brave and he was as well, but he needed to be braver for the both of them obviously and so, he smiled, no grinned even, taking her hand gently as not to startle her and watching as her paler than normal face lifted up to see his, eyes wide and in shock like the day they’d gone ont heir blind date all that time ago.
“At least they won’t be 10 mintutes late to us meeting them, right?”
He smiled, she smiled and they knew right away
This was the day they'd waited for all their lives
The remark made Aria blink, but then the most beautiful, shocked laughter came pouring from her mouth and it made Harry grin grow just that much larger knowing the tension was starting to be washed away. “Screw you, Potter. Of course you would see the bright side and make a joke about it and my one flaw. Screw you right off.”
He knew everything, despite looking like it wasn’t, was going to be okay then.
And for a moment the whole world
Revolved around one boy and one girl
A few months later, Albus Scorpious and Lillian ‘Lily’ Narsissa Potter came screaming into the world and Harry couldn’t be happier, surrounded by family all crowded around the little ones like they were precious objects in need of glass cases, new Potters that added to the line Harry only ever though he’d be the only one of in his existence, catching Aria’s tired eyes from her hospital bed and both of them smiling at the other, tears in both of eachothers.
Neither of them were ever happy growing up, but now, they had that chance and with their children, these new little beings of potential that would be treated fairly, but not spoiled or starving like their parents used to be, they were taking it for all it was worth.
The future looked bright, much brighter than before and it all started the same way most things do. One boy and one, albeit very unexpected, girl - love at first (or maybe 500th) sight.