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“We should get married,” Harry said.
“Sorry, what?” Theo asked.
“It would solve both our problems,” he said as he leaned across the table to look Theo directly in his sapphire blue eyes. He was a few sheets to the wind, but he could feel in his gut that this was perfect. Harry always went with his gut. It had served him well during the war and it still did now.
Draco, Harry’s Auror partner, nearly spit out his drink at the suggestion. “You can’t go marrying him, Potter! It would be a fiasco!”
“Why?” Harry asked.
“Because,” Draco began with a huff, “he’s the son of a Death Eater, still universally hated, and a man.”
Harry’s brow wrinkled. “So what? I can love who I want. Chosen One, remember?”
“Like I could ever bloody forget,” Draco mumbled.
Theo, on the other hand, had been quiet, as he often was. “It’s a generous offer, Potter, but Draco is right. You can’t tie yourself to me. It’s like jumping aboard a sinking ship.”
Laughing, Harry shook his head. “You’re being ridiculous. With the Potter and Black vaults behind me and the money from the Order of Merlin, I have plenty to make sure you get the treatments you need even if my Auror benefits wouldn’t cover them for some reason—”
“You could just give him money,” Draco suggested. “That would be helping a charity case rather than tying yourself to him.”
“But that wouldn’t include our benefits,” Harry reminded him. Then he grinned. “Not to mention that he said St. Mungo’s Healers will barely look at him with his last name. Maybe with the last name ‘Potter’ that would change.”
Draco having apparently taken up the position as Theo’s spokesperson, said, “What makes you think he would want to take your name?”
“Of course I would bloody take his name,” Theo said. “I would be a fool not to.”
“But—” Draco said in confusion. “What about your line?”
“I would love nothing more than for the Nott line to end with me.”
“See, that’s no obstacle,” Harry declared. “And I would have my plus one for all the Weasley weddings so they would stop trying to find someone for me to go with. Molly threatened to invite Parvati Patil for me if I don’t come up with someone on my own. Parvati hates me, but loves my fame.”
“Yes, but magical marriage is permanent, Harry. It wouldn’t just be for the summer wedding season,” Draco said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as though he had a headache.
Theo was watching him with round, wide eyes. Part of that, of course, was the illness. It was making Theo waste away, giving his face a shrunken look except his eyes. But his cheeks were flushed right now, more color than Harry had seen in them in the time he had known the other man.
Somehow, becoming tolerant and then friendly with Draco had brought the other snakes slowly but surely into his life. It had shoved a wedge between himself and Ron, but Hermione, thankfully, was still a close friend. She and Fred, her husband had been here earlier but left a little while ago.
Harry wondered what she would think of this idea. Honestly, she would probably have six other plans lined up for how to help Theo, but… Harry liked this one. It felt right. “I’ll send a Patronus to Kings and see if he can marry us tonight.”
“Tonight?” Theo yelped. “Oh no. Not while you’re drunk, Harry. You have to be thinking clearly—”
Harry sent his Patronus despite Theo’s protest. “Could someone get me a Sober Up?” Harry asked next. Blaise Zabini was up and over to the bar in a moment. Harry knew he had been worried about Theo for some time. Perhaps he, too, thought this was the perfect solution.
Draco was trying to come up with other solutions to Theo’s problem — none of the Slytherins had been left with any money after their war reparations were paid so Harry was the only one in a position to just pay for the expensive treatments outright if need be — when, less than ten minutes later, the Minister for Magic walked into the bar.
“What’s wrong, Harry? You said it was urgent?”
Blinking and wondering if the Sober Up had worked or made him drunk enough that he was seeing things, Harry explained, “I need to get married. Tonight.”
Now it was Kingsley’s turn to blink at him. “I’m sorry, Harry. I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”
“We’ve been keeping it quiet,” Harry lied smoothly. “But Theo and I are madly in love and I can’t stand to go another night without letting the world know.”
“Harry, there are proper channels—”
“But you could do it for us, for the Chosen One? Tonight?” Harry suggested. He normally hated throwing around that ridiculous old title, but for this, he was willing.
“Kiss him and show me,” Kingsley sputtered.
Theo looked panicked. “He can’t, Minister! I have a heart condition that drains my magical core. It’s complicated, but if Harry kisses me, it could affect his magical core as well. We… we want to be able to kiss each other, but I can’t afford the treatments that will cure me—”
“Harry, this isn’t some kind of cocked up savior thing, is it?” Kingsley asked with narrowed eyes. “Because it would be permanent. And you know how I’ve struggled with being public about Sirius' and my relationship. The wizarding world isn’t very accepting of relationships like ours. And if you’ve never even kissed…”
“I’m sure about this,” Harry stated. “I love him.” Somehow, looking at the other man, who looked so weak and hopeless, Harry had come to realize that he did feel strongly about him. Not love, precisely, but enough to want this.
Kingsley sighed, swiping a hand down his face. “Is he sober?” he asked the rest of the table, though he could have used a charm to find out.
Draco nodded. “Just took a Sober Up a little while ago. I wouldn’t let him make a choice like this drunk.” His partner was clearly offended that Kingsley thought so little of him.
“Fine,” Kingsley said. “Fine, let’s do this. Do you want to do it here? Or wake everyone at the Burrow? Or in my office?”
“Right here is fine,” Harry declared.
Shaking his head, Kingsley clapped his hands, calling everyone in the bar to attention. “We are gathered here today to see the marriage of Harry James Potter to… what’s your name?”
“Theodore Thanos Nott,” he said, leaving the room suddenly in a hush.
Kingsley repeated his name and then began the words of the magical ceremony. Before anyone could protest, Harry and Theo were married.
***********
“You what?” Hermione demanded.
“I married Theo Nott, well, Potter now. Last night,” Harry said slowly.
“Last night after I left the bar? And Kingsley went along with it?” Hermione asked in shock.
“He did,” Harry agreed. As she glared at him, he said, “It seemed like a good idea.”
“You have the worst good ideas! Harry, magical marriages are permanent!” Hermione groaned.
“There’s a loophole to that, actually,” Harry said. “They’re permanent once they’ve been consummated. Thanks to his illness, we can’t do that even if we want to, so—”
“Do you want to?” she asked. Harry always kept his crushes close to his chest, so it was a fair question.
It just wasn’t one he was sure about the answer to. He kept thinking about Theo’s beautiful blue eyes, but they couldn’t so much as kiss to find out if there was more than a spark between them. He knew he was blushing when he said, “I’m not sure.”
“That’s a yes if I ever heard one,” Hermione snorted. “So is Mr. Potter moving in with you?”
“I think so, yes. Nott Castle is in shambles from what I understand. He doesn’t have the money for upkeep since the war, or the inclination to care from what I can tell.”
“Well, Grimmauld might be a good change of pace for him. Have you filed the paperwork yet?”
“Yes,” Harry said. “Kingsley said my benefits for him would be effective immediately. He looked mad when he told me—”
“Because he figured out you had lied and were just doing it to be the savior again.”
“Why does everyone think I want to play savior?” he whined.
“Because, Harry James Potter! It’s what you do.”
********
Theo started his treatments later that same day. Though they had been horrible to him last time he dared seek help, when he was weak and felt like it was the end, having Harry by his side loudly announcing that his husband needed to be seen made all the difference.
It was hard to believe that within a few months, he might be back to normal. His father had cursed him, said he would have to be tough enough to prove himself worthy of the Nott name before he could produce the next heir. As if Theo even wanted to do that. But the pain and constant fatigue had gotten to him. He would be grateful to be healed, to have a life to look forward to.
And if Potter, gorgeous Harry, who he had wished for from afar for years, were somehow part of that deal? Theo was blessed beyond anything he could have hoped for. Of course the marriage could still be dissolved, but maybe, in time…
It was foolish to think such things. But Theo could hope.
*********
“You found someone to bring?” Molly asked, both delighted and shocked. “By yourself?”
“I did,” Harry said, a little more flatly than he meant to. It was a little insulting that she was so surprised, though he supposed he had earned it.
“Well, I had a few more ladies lined up for you to meet—”
“I’m married now, actually,” Harry said.
“You what?” Molly exclaimed. “Where did you do it? When? Oh Harry! You’re my son, too. It should have been here!”
She was not pleased when he explained the circumstances of his marriage, leaving out the spontaneous decision and emphasizing how much Theo meant to him. Finally, Molly harrumphed and said, “Well, you’ll need to bring your young man to dinner next Sunday. We’ll all want to meet him. And Harry, dear? Name the date and we’ll have a celebration for the two of you. I just want you, all of you, to be happy.”
*********
The months passed slowly, but finally Theo was cured. He couldn’t be happier, but now he worried.
Over the months of living with Harry, of carefully working up to holding his hand not only in public but sometimes when it was just the two of them at home, Theo had fallen even more head over heels in love with the man. The problem was, he didn’t know if Harry felt the same, if he had any feelings for Theo at all.
With the weddings finally wrapping up, and himself cured, their reasons for the marriage were almost gone. They could, technically, dissolve the marriage now. Or, as Theo hoped and prayed, they could make it permanent.
He wasn’t sure what Harry wanted, and there were so many things he was afraid to ask.
He held his husband’s hand as they walked through the halls on the way out of St. Mungo’s. As Draco had predicted all those months ago, it had been hard on Harry to have him as a husband, but the Chosen One had never faltered in declaring his love and saying he didn’t care what anyone thought.
“There’s something I want us to do on the way home,” Harry said, sounding suddenly nervous.
Theo felt a pit open up in his stomach. Dropping his voice, he said, “If it’s dissolving the marriage, Harry, I understand—”
Stopping so fast and hard that he accidentally jerked Theo back with him, Harry asked, “Do you want that?”
“Merlin, no!” Theo answered before he could stop himself, then blushed hard. His free hand rubbed the back of his neck as he continued. “I just want you to know you’re not trapped with me.”
“I could never be trapped with you,” Harry said, cupping Theo’s face tenderly. “Now that we can, may I kiss you?”
Theo inhaled sharply. “Yes,” he hissed, his breath too harsh to give a normal reply.
Harry’s chapped lips were instantly on his, right there in the middle of St. Mungo’s hallway, and the kiss was as mind-blowingly sweet and perfect as Theo had been imagining it. He wanted other kinds of kisses from Harry, too — sexy, harsh kisses and long snogs — but this, their first kiss, was exactly what Theo had hoped for.
When he pulled away, Harry was breathing heavily, too. “That was everything I thought it would be,” he said, staring at Theo with those expressive emerald eyes. “Now, husband, before we go home and discuss making this marriage permanent, I was hoping to stop by the war orphan’s home. I don’t know how you would feel, but, someday… I want a family. And I would like to give a home to someone who needs it—”
“Someone else who needs it, you mean,” Theo said with an adoring smile.
“I would like to introduce you to some of the kids. I go pretty regularly and—”
“Yes, Harry!” Theo agreed. “A thousand times yes. I want to meet them, and I want to bring one home with us. Well, maybe not tonight—”
“No, we definitely have other things to do tonight.” There was heat in Harry’s eyes. “But soon, if you would be open to it?”
“Soon,” Theo agreed. “I want a family with you.”
“And I, with you.”