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At Draco's insistence, Harry bought up a VIP box for the Mid-Winter Revelry. The theater was muggle and normally used for plays, but the National Centre for Circus Arts had engaged it for their talent showcase slash fundraiser. It was the first time Draco was going to see his daughter perform and he was probably at least ten times more nervous than she was!
Not that he had seen her yet.
Harry was waiting for Draco and his family in the entryway of the theater. He watched as Lucius scrutinized the place as if looking for faults that made it obviously inferior to Wizarding venues. Narcissa and Astoria whispered softly to each other, both looking demurely excited. Meanwhile, Scorpius was bouncing and trying hard to calm down and act like a well behaved little boy.
“Are we dressed appropriately?” Draco asked, suspecting that they hadn't quite managed to pass as muggles.
Harry looked them over, taking note of their expensive and well tailored attire. It actually did look like something that muggles concerned with high fashion would wear. He nodded. “Yeah, and actually, this is probably one place that you could have gotten away with dressing as you normally would. Enough people come in costumes as a way to have fun and pretend to be part of the act that you wouldn't have caught any undue attention.”
“That sounds entertaining,” Narcissa murmured with an elegant smile.
“This way,” Harry beckoned. “The show is supposed to start in five minutes.”
They had plenty of time to settle in, however, as the show started almost five minutes late – as usual. Harry bought a variety of muggle snacks to share, positively delighting Scorpius. Then Harry leaned over the railing to wave at the entire Weasley clan – who had also shown up to watch Lily. Only Ron, Hermione, George, Molly, and Arthur had ever managed to visit Minnesota at the perfect time to see a performance in the past.
“Merlin's scraggly beard!” Lucius blurted out in dismay as he looked down. “Almost half the audience is comprised of Weasleys!”
Which was actually an exorbitant exaggeration, but made Harry chuckle anyway. A closer look at the crowd produced a small shock. Minerva McGonagall was sitting next to Molly Weasley like they were best friends! Harry wasn't sure he had ever seen her out of Hogwarts before and felt a tiny zing of pride that his daughter had invited her.
The opening act was an ensemble piece that included everyone. The entire cast wore such elaborate costumes and make up that it made it rather hard to determine who was who. Harry only knew which one was Lily because he had seen her practicing in her costume. When she flipped her way onto stage, Harry pointed her out.
“That's her,” he added aloud in case the pointing wasn't overt enough.
“She looks like a doll,” Draco murmured in surprise.
Harry nodded in agreement. “Yeah, the theme is fairy tales, so they're going to do a couple of different bits – the first one is a story about toys, I think.”
Luckily, the narrator explained things to the audience after the opening song was over. The scene showed all the toys get up the moment the human left, and then start playing. They spent a few minutes jumping and performing tricks on an enormous trampoline.
When Lily was scooped up by an older boy swinging from a trapeze, Draco felt his heart stop and clutched his chest. He felt like he couldn't breathe for a long moment as Lily was thrown to another swinging boy. When she did a spin and connected safely with the boy, Draco nearly swooned from relief.
Harry normally had his eyes glued to Lily, but Draco's actions caught his attention and he chuckled. “Try not to worry. Lily knows what she's doing.”
“I can't help but remember watching you fall off your broom in our second year – after breaking your arm and catching the snitch – and I have to wonder which would be worse; her falling off a broom, or her falling during this performance,” Draco said, his stomach doing odd little flips as he watched Lily let go of her partner, do a flip in the air, and then plummet toward the trampoline.
Scorpius gasped and dug his nails into his cheeks until his sister was safely bouncing on the trampoline once more.
Astoria giggled softly. “I daresay that her fearless bravery must be inherited from you, Mr. Potter.”
“Please, call me Harry,” he insisted with a smile at her.
Astoria returned his smile and held a hand out to him. “As you must call me Astoria.” They shook hands briefly in agreement before focusing on the show once more.
Draco was disconcerted to realize that he didn't like seeing his wife and ex-lover get along. He felt strangely jealous, but he couldn't figure out if he was jealous that his wife was being nice to Harry, or if he was jealous because Harry was being nice to Astoria. He was so distracted by his own thoughts that he almost missed when Lily did her next astonishing feat.
The rest of the show passed in near constant excitement. The last act was from the Little Mermaid. Lily was playing the role of the Sea Witch, singing a cajoling song to tempt the mermaid to make a bargain for legs instead of a fin. Her song was punctuated by an array of flashy tricks meant to dazzle the mermaid – along with the crowd.
When the show was over, the entire cast gathered on stage to bow or curtsy to the audience. The Narrator introduced them all by name and encouraged the audience to clap – and also to remember to donate as much as possible.
They waited for Lily in the lobby – along with the families of all the other performers. When she was done changing and removing her makeup, she practically skipped all the way to her father. She ended by leaping into Harry's arms.
“Did you see that triple spin?”
“Of course I did!” Harry assured her.
“It's not quite the same as Circus Juventas, but I'm happy here,” Lily informed him with a joyous grin. “Thank you so much for letting me go to school here.”
Harry opted to hug her rather than respond. Then he set her down and nudged her toward the rest of her family. Scorpius promptly tried to squeeze her to death.
“That was absolutely brilliant!” He announced. “My stomach was twisting and turning the entire time!”
“Mine too,” George added with a laugh.
Draco looked away and bit his lip before he could confess to being half terrified the entire time. Harry subtly nudged him with a shoulder. Draco responded by stepping forward and placing a hand on Lily's head.
“I was amazed,” he told her rather simply.
She grinned at him. Her relationship with him wasn't quite to the point of long hugs and kisses on the cheek, but she liked him a lot more than she thought she would. Hearing him praise her made her almost as happy as she was when Harry praised her. She gave into the moment and gave him a quick hug.
Draco felt like his heart nearly melted right out of his chest.
***
Part of the agreement Harry had insisted on when he pulled Lily out of Hogwarts was that she had to learn magic from him – and Hermione – so that her magical talent didn't go to waste. Therefore, the two of them were currently having a bit of a duel.
Lily cast a shield to block a forceful Aguamenti. “Daddy... did you love Draco?”
Harry was so flustered by this question that he completely forgot to block the Aguamenti Lily cast. As a result, she utterly drenched him. With a sigh, he cast a drying spell.
“Yes, I think I did,” Harry admitted, answering the question. “For a while there, after he left, I felt like the world was ending. I don't think I would have been so depressed if I didn't love him at least a little.”
“Do you think he loved you?” Lily wondered.
“No... I think he was just having fun. And I can't blame him; the war was every bit as hard on him as it was on me. We both needed time to just play around for a change,” Harry explained.
“Did he make you happy?” Lily asked softly. She knew that her father was happy in a general sense, but not as much as he could be.
“Er... yeah...” Harry answered with a shrug. “At times he made me very happy. More importantly, he seemed to know what to do when I was angry or frustrated to calm me down.”
“So... then why did he leave?”
Harry sighed heavily, wiped a hand over his face, and then sat down in the nearest chair. “Because I couldn't give him what he needed.”
“What did he need?” Lily wondered.
“A chance to be the man he wanted to be,” Harry stated flatly, indicating that the subject was closed. Lily accepted this with a nod, then sat in her father's lap so that she could give him a hug.
“I love you daddy.”
This made Harry feel a lot better. He returned her hug for a long moment. “I love you too.”
***
Valentine's Day was coming up and happened to be on a Sunday night. Harry had plans to take Lily on a daddy/daughter date at Honeydukes – which was having a sort of tour to explain how the chocolates were made. Lily was eagerly looking forward to it, especially since there was supposed to be a few new flavors that weren't for sale yet that the tourists would get to try out and give feedback on.
The Wednesday before Valentine's, Harry had met up with Draco at a tea shop to simply talk for an hour or so before Lily was done with school and needed to be picked up. They were somewhat awkward at first because they were alone and had nothing important to talk about. Then they started talking about Quidditch, which was a neutral enough topic that they managed to pass the entire hour without arguing.
The two of them walked rather quietly from the tea shop to the National Centre for Circus Arts. Then they didn't talk much as they waited for Lily to emerge from the building. She burst through the doors like a blast of sunshine that warmed up the whole street.
“Daddy! You should have seen me! I was practicing on the Cyr Wheel and I felt like I was flying! I had so much fun,” Lily gushed as she flung herself into Harry's arms and squeezed him tight.
There was a rich laugh from somewhere behind Harry. “I thought that you weren't going to bother trying the Cyr Wheel because you loved acrobatics too much!”
Lily gasped and pushed free from Harry's arms so that she could run down the steps and leap into the man's arms. “Jeremiah!”
“Lily Bug!” Jeremiah greeted her happily as he caught her and flung her up into the air. She spun one full rotation before he had to catch her again.
“What are you doing here?” Harry asked incredulously.
Rather than answer, Jeremiah shifted Lily to his right hip and grinned at Harry. “You are an extremely hard man to find. I know you said that you were moving home to London and that was that, but I fully expected Little Miss Lily Bug to talk you into coming home within a month. When you weren't back by the sixth month mark, I got so worried that I came all the way here just to find you. It was like you had vanished! I tried everything to find you and was just about to give up when I decided to see if there was a circus school around. Looks like my hunch paid off.”
Harry grinned and pulled Jeremiah into a hug, effectively squishing Lily, who giggled and took this in stride. “Looks like!” Harry agreed.
“Jeremiah! I was the Sea Witch in the Little Mermaid!” Lily informed him excitedly.
“I bet you were utterly wicked,” Jeremiah stated with a grin. He rubbed his nose against hers.
“I was!” Lily assured him. “And yes, even though I love acrobatics most of all, I am playing around with the Cyr Wheel and Aerial Silks. I'd love to practice with you. I bet if I asked my teachers, they'd let you teach me a routine.” She slid down his side and tried to drag him into the building. “Come on!”
“Whoa there,” Jeremiah cried out, also chuckling. “I came to ask your daddy an important question.”
Harry still had an arm around Jeremiah and was now looking him in the eye. “You did?”
Jeremiah nodded with a soft smile, his ear length golden blond hair falling into his face. “I realized that the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life was to let you go without at least asking you to stay. I really didn't think you'd stay away, but you did and that hurt so much more than I ever thought possible. Now that I've found you again, I'm never letting you go. Will you marry me?”
Lily squealed and jumped up and down in highly enthusiastic approval. Harry looked to her and laughed. “Looks like she thinks I should.”
“Yes, but do you?” Jeremiah asked with perhaps the most seriously look he'd ever had in his pale blue eyes.
Harry smiled at him. “I think that I should have an in depth conversation with you – and then after you're done freaking out – if you still want me to answer that question, I will.”
Lily squealed even louder. “That means yes! Hooray!” She flung her arms around Jeremiah and squeezed him so tight that he couldn't breathe.
Harry laughed. “Lily! Let the man breathe!” Then he looked over at Draco, who was watching them with an expression like he was literally biting his tongue – and perhaps holding back an urge to hex something. “Draco, would you mind watching Lily tonight?”
“Er...” Draco was torn. Any other time, he would have told Harry that he never needed to ask. Of course he would be delighted to have his daughter spend the night at the Manor. At this exact moment, he was about 99.5 percent certain that Harry was going to have “let's get reacquainted” sex followed by possibly getting engaged. Taking Lily would just make those things even easier to do. Holding his breath to keep control of his very real need to turn this newcomer into a frog to feed to Sunshine, Draco nodded.
Lily bounced over to him and gave him a hug. “Draco! Isn't it wonderful? I was sure that daddy and Jeremiah would never admit how they felt about each other!”
“Lily!” Harry cried out in embarrassment.
“Well,” she stated as she gave him a significant look. “You've only been 'special friends' since I joined Circus Juventas. I am fairly sure that everyone knew that you two liked each other – only you'd never tell that to each other.”
Jeremiah burst out laughing. “I always said she understood more than you gave her credit for!”
Harry sighed heavily. “It's not that I wouldn't admit that I like you, it's that I didn't think you were serious about me, and I wasn't quite ready to be serious about you. But now that you came all this way to ask me to marry you, I think you must be serious after all.” He tucked a stray strand of golden hair behind Jeremiah's ear.
“Very,” Jeremiah stated with an earnest gleam in his icy blue eyes.
“Serious enough to stay here with us?” Harry asked, softly, not quite daring to believe it.”
“Yes,” Jeremiah replied with confident nod, and then kissed Harry. Lily purred happily as she watched this.
Draco shoved his dismay, anger, and strange feeling of betrayal to the back of his mind and locked them up for the time being. Then he sighed in defeat. “Let's go, Lily, and give your father time to talk to his – er – special friend in private.”
Lily nodded in agreement, but then pulled her hand free from Draco's. “Just a moment. Daddy, can I have a couple of Galleons so that I can stop by Uncle Ron's shop and buy something for Scorpius?” She held out her hand expectantly.
“Er... Do you really think that Draco will take you there?” Harry countered with one brow lifted.
“You will, won't you?” Lily asked with such an angelic smile that almost anyone would have given in.
“I suppose that depends on what you want to buy him,” Draco murmured diplomatically.
“Oh... nothing much,” Lily assured him, still looking far too innocent for their comfort. “They've just got a toy scorpion that looks and acts like a real scorpion, and it even stings! I just figured that it would be so cool to give to my little brother, since his name is Scorpius.”
“You want to give him a scorpion?!” Draco asked in dismay.
“A toy scorpion,” Lily emphasized with a nearly maniacal grin.
Harry laughed and fished some coins out of his pocket. He separated out five golden Galleons and handed them to her. “There, that should be more than plenty – if you manage to talk Draco into bringing you. I warn you now, Draco and Uncle Ron do not like each other at all, so I'm willing to bet you those Galleons that you're not stepping one foot into that shop.”
Lily immediately put on her poutiest puppy dog face and tugged on his sleeve. “Please Draco? Please ?”
Draco tried to remain impassive but felt his heart melting like an ice cube tossed in a glass of hot cider. He looked to Harry. “How do you ever manage to say no to her?”
Harry laughed. “Not easily. Hey, should I just pop over when I want to pick her up tomorrow, or should I firecall first?”
“You can just pop in, and don't worry, if you haven't arrived by the time she needs to come to school, I'll bring her,” Draco assured him.
“But before any of that, we're going to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, right?” Lily asked insistently, tugging once more on Draco's sleeve.
“That's impossible since I cannot associate with Weasleys,” Draco informed her haughtily.
“Oh but papa!” Lily protested with a becoming pout. “Uncle Ron is so funny, and their shop is the best!” She turned up her charm a bit more, literally purring. “I'll sing you a song.”
Draco really didn't have it in him to resist those pleading green eyes – especially not when she called him papa, which made his breath catch just a little. “Fine, I'll take you, but you'd better not run away or play hide and seek – otherwise I'll have no choice but to interrupt your father's conversation.” Which honestly wouldn't bother Draco in the slightest.
“I promise,” Lily vowed as she held up her right hand, then she smirked at Harry. “And now you owe me five more Galleons.”
Harry chuckled as he dug in his pocket. “I honestly have no idea how you ended up so very Slytherin. Here you go. Behave. I mean it, behave . And Draco? She's supposed to learn a Forgetfulness Potion tomorrow before school. I'm sure you'd just love to show her that.”
“Or you can just forget to teach me and say that it was because I brewed the potion and gave it to you,” Lily suggested.
Draco snorted in genuine amusement. “Nice try. Come on.”
Lily slipped her hand in his and followed him into the dark, dank, and dead-ended alley. She was singing as promised – which ended abruptly when a loud crack sounded.
“That didn't sound good!” Jeremiah exclaimed in alarm. “Lily?!”
Harry chuckled and took hold of his hand before Jeremiah could go running into the alley. “They're fine. Come on, I have a lot to tell you.”
“But... how well do you even know that guy? He just took your daughter into an alley!” Jeremiah was clearly worried. “And then she stopped singing so abruptly that I think he must have knocked her out!”
Harry looked him in the eye to convey how serious he was. “They are fine. Draco would never harm a hair on her head. And I've known Draco since we were both eleven years old.”
Jeremiah wavered hesitantly, and then sighed. “Well, if you're sure.”
“I am. Now, more importantly, I have some things I need to tell you before I can agree to marry you,” Harry reminded him.
The utterly serious aura around Harry made Jeremiah a bit apprehensive. “Such as?”
“Well, first of all, I'm a wizard,” Harry stated, knowing that Jeremiah wouldn't believe him.
“Oh sure! And I'm level 298 warrior! Wait, are we talking Warcraft here? I never knew you played; we could have been teaming up this whole time!”
Harry chuckled. “No, I mean for real. I'll show you, and please try not to freak out until after I've explained the rest.” Harry led Jeremiah into the same dark alley that Draco and Lily had disappeared from not two minutes ago. Then he side-along Apparated Jeremiah to his house. They were inside the Notice Me Not ward, but outside the Fidelius Charm, so all Jeremiah saw was a tiny derelict lot.
“Hold on one second,” Harry murmured as he conjured up a piece of paper with the words: 12 Grimmauld Place. “Here, take a look at this.”
“What the?!” Jeremiah exclaimed as he looked all around. He had heard the loud crack and felt the nauseating feeling of Apparation, but he couldn't quite believe what was happening. After he looked at the paper, he yelped when he saw a house squeeze itself between two others.
“You remember Ron and Hermione, right?” Harry asked, basically ignoring Jeremiah's pale face and wide eyes. Jeremiah nodded because he couldn't quite speak at the moment. “Great! Well, they've been living in my house while I was in America, so you'll probably see them tonight. Although they're at work right now. How about I make us some dinner so we can eat while we talk?”
“Uh... yeah...” Jeremiah managed to whisper in agreement.
Harry led him to the house, and then stopped outside the door. “Er... try not to scream when you see Kreacher. He's my house elf. And also, I warn you now, the portrait of Mrs. Black is going to start screaming. Just ignore her or she'll start wailing about muggles.”
“Uh...” Jeremiah gave Harry a strange look as he tried to think of anything to say.
They quietly entered the house and there was nothing but silence until Jeremiah accidentally knocked over the troll foot umbrella stand. Suddenly, a pair of newer burgundy curtains flew open and a voice like nails on a chalkboard screeched: “Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers —”
“Mrs Black!” Harry chided sternly.
She stopped with a nasty sounding cough to clear her throat. “Sorry, habit. I keep forgetting that there's a true Heir to the House of Black living here now. Not that it makes having you here any better.”
“Yeah yeah,” Harry muttered and then pointed down a set of stairs. “The kitchen's that way.” He flicked his wand at the troll leg, which promptly righted itself again.
In the kitchen, Jeremiah gasped. Then he stood staring with an expression like he was going to be sick.
“Would Master like some tea? Ach! Master brought home a muggle!” Kreacher clutched a hand to his heart and looked like he was going to be sick.
“Calm down Kreacher,” Harry said, holding out his hands soothingly. “This is Jeremiah. He's not going to hurt you.”
“Harry, what is that thing?!” Jeremiah cried out in mild horror.
“This is Kreacher, my house elf. He's mostly harmless and has served in this house his whole life,” Harry explained. “Yes Kreacher, tea would be lovely. But then you can take some time off and relax while I cook dinner.”
“Master doesn't think Kreacher can cook?” Kreacher asked with a tone suggesting that he felt the deepest offense.
“Oh I know you can,” Harry assured him. “You're a very good cook, I just want to cook on my own today.”
“Well, if Master insists...” Kreacher grumbled as he trudged to the stove to make the tea he'd offered.
Harry gestured for Jeremiah to sit at the table. “So, as I was saying, I'm a wizard. I moved to America for so many reasons, but when Lily turned eleven, I just couldn't let her go to any school but Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry – where I went. I thought she'd love it there, since it was my first real home. Sadly, she didn't, which is why she's now going to the National Centre for Circus Arts.”
Jeremiah felt like his head was spinning just a little bit, but the last part made him frown. “And... if she isn't going to your school, why didn't you just bring her home?”
“Ah... that's a bit more complicated,” Harry murmured, grateful when Kreacher handed him a cup of tea.
“Would Master like the chocolate or the peanut butter biscuits?”
“Er, chocolate,” Harry decided, remembering that Jeremiah loved chocolate.
With a snap of his fingers, Kreacher summoned the plate of freshly made chocolate biscuits he'd baked just a hour ago. When the plate arrived, he set it on the table in front of Harry.
“Thank you Kreacher; you can take a break now.”
Kreacher sighed as if Harry had just told him to go hang himself in the backyard. “Yes Master.”
When Kreacher was gone, Harry took a sip of his tea before setting his cup down and smiling at Jeremiah – who was tentatively trying the biscuits. “You're taking this pretty well, so far. I'm glad. Anyway, when I came back, I really didn't expect to run into Lily's other father. I probably should have expected it, but I didn't. He had no idea she existed until the moment he saw her, but – as you may have noticed – she looks just like him.” Harry paused to smile fondly and shake his head.
“She has my eyes, just as I had my mother's eyes, but just about everything else came from Draco,” Harry explained. “We were together for a few months just after, well, the war, but we broke up because I wanted something from Draco he couldn't give me. It was a bad breakup. He left and wouldn't speak to me again, so I had no way to tell him that I'd accidentally taken a fertility potion instead of a headache potion. Him leaving is one of the reasons I moved to America...”
Harry looked haunted for a moment, but then shook his head and took another sip of tea. “Anyway, when he found out about her – and she found out that she had a little brother – well... returning to America was no longer an option.”
“Hang on, wait... no, back up. Huh?!” Jeremiah asked in clear confusion.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle softly. “You see, in the Wizarding World, there's such a thing as a fertility potion that gives a wizard a chance to get pregnant – but it only works on those who have enough magic. I couldn't claim I'd cracked the genetic code or something and sell it to muggles – non magical folk. It wouldn't work on them.
“So, one day, I was seriously upset because the reporters were all hounding me again, and I accidentally grabbed a fertility potion instead of a headache potion from the Apothecary. Draco and I had sex, which led to our nasty argument and breakup. It wasn't until a couple of months later when I was rushed to the hospital for dehydration and malnutrition that I even knew it was possible for wizards to get pregnant.”
Harry huffed a tiny laugh and looked away. “I was raised by muggles, so I didn't learn all the things that most magical kids did while growing up. My best mate, Ron, he knew it was possible but didn't ever think to tell me because he just assumed I knew.”
“Uh... Well... I imagine that must've been quite a shock,” Jeremiah murmured, a small smirk letting Harry know that he was trying to imagine what he'd do if he found out he was pregnant.
“Yeah,” Harry replied with a chuckle. “And it was a rough pregnancy too because I was so depressed that Draco had left – which was weird because we hated each other in school. We fought on opposite sides of the war, but after the final battle, I spoke in his defense. We were only kids – for Merlin's sake!”
Jeremiah frowned in confusion. “What war?” The way Harry talked, he couldn't be referring to any of the wars in the Middle East that most people would assume he was referring to.
Harry looked away and scratched the back of his neck. “I... I don't really like talking about it. How about I let you read about it for a bit while I make dinner, and then I'll answer any questions you have.”
“Alright,” Jeremiah agreed, too curious to let the matter drop.
Harry picked up his wand, but before he could do anything, a silvery otter burst into existence next to him. “Harry, are you home?” Hermione's voice asked. “I'm coming home early and bringing an armload of cases with me. Do you think you could make your famous seafood alfredo for dinner? I could murder a whale!”
Harry chuckled and pointed his wand toward an empty corner. “Expecto Patronum!” Harry cried out. Followed by: “Tell Hermione: sure thing 'Mione. I was just about to make dinner anyway. Just so you know, Jeremiah's here and Lily's spending the night at Draco's. Kreacher's mad at me for giving him the night off, so you might have to console him if you want anything.”
The magnificent stag nodded in understanding before running through the nearest wall and disappearing. Jeremiah was staring at the place it had been standing in awe. “What was that,” he whispered as if it was forbidden to talk about it out loud.
“That was my Patronus – which is a powerful protective charm that –” But he was cut short when Hermione's otter returned.
“Did you say Jeremiah? Harry! You know you're not supposed to break the Statute of Secrecy! I'm pretty sure that even you would be brought up on charges! You're darn lucky that I had my office warded and silenced because I was reviewing private information and –”
Harry didn't even wait for her lecture to stop before casting his own Patronus again. “Hermione! Calm down, I'm not breaking the Statute!” The stag ran through the otter and ended her rant.
It barely took ten seconds for the otter to reappear. “What do you mean you're not breaking the Statute???”
Before Harry could cast his Patronus again, Hermione's otter was replaced by a new one. “You know what, I'll be home in a minute.”
Jeremiah chuckled. “So... is that like wizard texting?”
“I never thought of it like that before,” Harry stated with a smile.
“So, what's this Statute thing about?” Jeremiah asked curiously.
“It's the law that says that witches and wizards aren't allowed to tell muggles about us unless we get married or have a child together – and if you accidentally found out and couldn't be trusted to keep the secret, I'd have to Obliviate you, which means erasing your memory,” Harry explained.
“Ah... Well, thank you for explaining before we get married. I think I'd feel a bit betrayed if you waited until after the wedding day,” Jeremiah murmured with a smile.
“I'm still waiting for you to freak out,” Harry stated with a chuckle.
“Yeah... I'm holding it back. I think if I just keep taking deep breaths...”
Hermione Apparated into the kitchen. “Jeremiah! Er, Hello. I really thought Harry was having me on.”
“Hello,” Jeremiah returned the greeting. Then he turned a grin on Harry. “So, if I'm understanding you right, I'm being let in on the big secret because you're going to say yes?”
Harry chuckled. “Like I said, I'm going to wait a few days before answering so that you'll have time to process all of this, and if you still want to marry me...” He shrugged because he actually wasn't entirely sure that he was definitely going to say yes. At the moment, he was about 80 percent leaning towards saying yes. “But first...” He summoned that book he had mentioned. It was titled: The Facts You Need to Know About the Second Wizarding War, by Hermione Granger.
“Oh Harry!” Hermione exhaled in teary eyed pride as she immediately grasped the situation. She practically threw herself at him in her haste to hug him. “I'm going to call Molly and ask her to keep Rose and Hugo overnight.”
“Thanks luv,” Harry murmured, kissing her cheek.
While they were still hugging each other tight, a silvery Jack Russell Terrier burst into existence. “Mate, did you know that that poncy bastard Malfoy brought your daughter into my shop? It was hilarious! She tricked him into eating a Canary Cream by claiming that it was a pastry to help one relive a happy memory! That girl is going to run a branch of Wizarding Wheezes of her own someday.”
Harry cast yet another Patronus Charm as Hermione tossed a pinch of Floo powder into the fireplace and called out the Burrow. She promptly stuck her head the green fire as Harry told his stag to tell Ron that he wanted a copy of the memory to watch in his Pensieve.
“I'll bring you to Diagon Alley to see Ron's shop tomorrow,” Harry promised Jeremiah.
“Are you sure that's wise?” Hermione asked as she pulled her head out of the fire. “Molly says that she'll keep the kids as long as we want.”
“Brilliant,” Harry stated with a grin. “And yeah. If I decide to marry Jeremiah, he's going to see Diagon Alley at some point anyway. And if he sees it now, well,” Harry shrugged as if saying that it might be for the best since that way, he'd have all the information he needed to decide if Harry was worth marrying after all.
Hermione nodded in understanding. “In that case, you didn't hear this from me, but there's going to be a big announcement at the Ministry tomorrow at half one. The press have all been invited, so...”
“So that's going to be the best time to go!” Harry exclaimed with a grin. “Rita and her ilk won't be able to hound me!”
Jeremiah cleared his throat. “I was going to say: Harry, the dude in this book has the same name as you, but since you're talking about the media hounding you, I'm now thinking the dude in this book is you...”
Harry and Hermione both laughed softly as they nodded in confirmation.
“So... your parents were murdered when you were just a baby?” Jeremiah asked as he pointed to the part in the first chapter that talked about it.
“Yeah,” Harry confirmed in a soft and wistful tone of voice. “That book is the official and only authorized book that explains what happened. It's rather short and to the point because I didn't want it to come across sounding as if I was anything other than a kid doing what I was expected to do.”
“Oh,” Jeremiah replied vaguely as he continued to read the book. Harry kissed his cheek before leaving him alone and making dinner. Jeremiah looked up from time to time to watch Harry levitate ingredients out of the cupboard or summon utensils out of the drawer.
Hermione set her files on the table to work on so that she could be on hand to answer any of Jeremiah's questions if need be. All in all, Jeremiah felt a bit like he was studying for a test. Perhaps the most important test of his life.
He got to the part where Voldemort had used Harry to resurrect himself before promptly calling together all his Death Eaters to go out and terrorize everyone they could. Jeremiah had to push the book away and rub his eyes for a moment. Hermione leaned over to rub his back in sympathy.
“Something wrong?” Harry asked when he looked up from stirring the alfredo sauce.
“You were... What? Only fourteen when this psycho took you hostage and planned to kill you in a duel. God! How... how can you live with that?” Jeremiah asked in anguish.
Harry shrugged. “I had friends to help me keep myself together.” Harry had walked over to refresh their tea and now slipped a hand into Hermione's, who squeezed his hand and smiled at him.
“The next couple of chapters are even more depressing. You might just want to skip to the end,” Hermione advised pragmatically.
“Nah, then I'd just have to go back and read those chapters later,” Jeremiah murmured.
“Hooray, I was hoping you'd be in the kitchen making dinner,” Lily stated from the fireplace.
“Miss me already?” Harry joked with a wide grin.
“Yes! But that's not why I'm calling,” Lily informed him. “Draco had a surprise for me! He and Grandma Narcissa remodeled a room for me. I now have my very own room in the Manor, but that's not even the best part! It's got it's own practice equipment. There's a trapeze, some bars, a tight rope, and the whole entire floor is a trampoline! They say it's so I won't get hurt if I fall, but I never fall. Plus, I can use the ballroom to practice spinning in the Cyr Wheel if I want. And my bed just floats about the room wherever I want it. And my closet! Oh... it's so full of clothes – robes, dresses, costumes... I feel like I died and went to heaven!”
Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. “I'm glad you're happy Lils, but is Draco there?”
Lily giggled and cupped a hand along the side of her mouth so that she could whisper. “He said: Of course I'm here, Potter. This is my house, where else would I be?”
“Try not to learn how to sneer like that,” Harry advised his daughter.
Lily snickered and moved her head out of the fireplace so that Draco could put his head in it. He rested his chin on a hand and smirked at Harry while trying to come across as bored. “Something I can help you with?”
“Giving her her own room I can understand. That makes sense, but turning her room into practice studio? Making her entire floor a trampoline? Giving her an entire wardrobe? That's excessive! You're just going to spoil her,” Harry protested.
“Nonsense!” Draco denied haughtily. “She's a Malfoy, and Malfoys should always expect the very best.”
“There's a difference between having the best and having everything,” Harry pointed out.
“Having everything is the best!” Draco stated with a tone like he honestly couldn't understand how Harry didn't know this.
Harry snorted. “And did you also give her a diamond tiara to go with all that?” His voice was dripping with sarcasm.
“Er, no,” Draco replied with a tone that was clearly wondering why he hadn't thought of that. “Do you think she'd like a tiara? There's actually a couple of different ones in our vault. Would she prefer just diamonds or do you think she'd like emeralds to match her eyes?”
“Oh for the love of Merlin! Save the tiaras until she's turning sixteen at the very least,” Harry cried out. “And now I'm going to have to figure out something to top that.”
Draco shrugged. “Just give her a key to your vault and let her buy whatever she wants.”
“Er, no,” Harry stated flatly. “I fear she'll have inherited your lack of prudence with money and will empty the vault in a matter of days.”
“I'll have you know that I am a genius with money!” Draco protested snidely. “If she inherits that from me, she'll turn your little Potter and Black fortunes into something resembling the Malfoy fortune.”
Harry sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples to rub them. “You know what, I don't even know why we're bickering about this. Goodbye!” Harry flicked his wand at the fire to put it out and end the call.
Hermione bit her thumb nail in thought. “You know, he has a point. The Potter fortune and the Black fortune on their own will support you quite well for the rest of your life – and Lily too if she needs it – but you don't really do anything with them. If you just invested a little here and there, you could quickly increase what you have...”
“Since when do you care about investing?” Harry asked with a raised brow.
“Oh, since Ron's share of the profits from the shop were so much that we could actually save for muggle college for the kids – if they want to go. I looked into how to use the money properly so that they'd have as much as they could ever need, and now suddenly...” She trailed off and looked away.
Harry chuckled and rolled his eyes. “No need to finish that sentence. You've never met a subject that you didn't excel at learning! You've also got a key to my vault and permission to use it for household expenses. Why not use some of it to challenge Draco to a bet over who can make better investments for a month, or something like that.”
“Harry, that's brilliant!” Hermione exclaimed in excitement. I'm going to firecall him now, but I'll do so from the hearth in my bedroom so I can get cleaned up for dinner when I'm done. Will you send a Patronus to Ron to ask him when he'll be home?”
“Sure thing,” Harry promised.
“Wow,” Jeremiah murmured as he listened to them – still mostly reading the book Harry had given him. “You two really are best friends. No wonder you and Ron visited Harry two or three times a year.” Because as much as he dearly loved his own best friend, he couldn't imagine trusting him with his bank account. Not to mention, with all the magic they all seemed to know, it was almost twice as strange to hear them talking about fortunes like the subject was as commonplace as the air they breathed.
Harry grinned at Jeremiah before casting a Patronus to ask Ron when he'd be home for dinner and warning him that Jeremiah was visiting. Ron responded by simply coming home.
“George can handle the shop, we're a little slow today anyway,” Ron explained with a shrug. “Jeremiah, how've you been, mate?”
“Lonely. I couldn't stop missing Harry and Lily,” Jeremiah confessed with a slightly haunted look in his eye. “I felt a bit like I was missing an arm or something, so I decided to come find them.”
“Ah,” Ron stated in understanding. “I was wondering if you two would ever admit that you like each other.”
Harry chuckled. “You and Lily both, apparently.”
“And me,” Hermione added as she reentered the room. “The bet's on, but it's probably best not to ask me for details until after I've won.”
“Er...” Harry droned in apprehension.
“What bet?” Ron asked curiously.
“I bet Malfoy that I could make more money in investments than him next month,” Hermione stated, giving Ron a look that dared him to protest.
“Er... What?” Ron asked, looking faint and a little green.
Harry patted him on the back. “Don't worry, she's using my money.
“Oh!” Ron exhaled in relief. “In that case, I won't worry so much. Wouldn't matter either way since I know you'll win, but, er... What exactly will you win?”
“As I said, it's best not to ask me that,” Hermione stated with an innocent smile.
Ron paled. “Er...”
Hermione simply patted him on the arm and walked over to the stove where Harry was just finishing up their dinner. “That smells so good!”
“Set the table?” Harry asked.
With a nod and a flick of her wand, Hermione cleared her files off the table and had the plates setting themselves just so.
“What about the kids?” Ron asked curiously as he noticed that there were only four plates.
“They're at your mum's for the night,” Hermione informed him.
Ron looked positively delighted and pulled his wife close for a kiss. “You mean we have a night to ourselves?”
She grinned at him. “I guess we do.”
Dinner was fairly relaxed. Jeremiah asked every question that entered his head and they did their best to answer him. After the table was cleared and the dishes were charmed to wash themselves, Ron not so subtly dragged Hermione off to their room, and Harry invited Jeremiah on a tour of the house – ending with a passionate overnight stay in Harry's bedroom.
***
“Is Lily ready to go?” Harry asked the moment after he Apparated into Malfoy Manor. He'd been using Draco as a focus, so it was no surprise that he'd appeared in Draco's private study, which was empty except for the still rather fit blond. He seemed to be relaxing as he drank tea and gestured an invitation for Harry to sit down and join him.
“She'll be along in a moment. Apparently, she needs to find her lucky star,” Draco informed Harry with a shrug to indicate that he had no idea what that meant.
Harry chuckled. “It's a little metal gold star that she licks and sticks to her cheek whenever she needs a little more confidence than usual.”
“Ah,” Draco murmured in understanding as he watched Harry sit down and take a sip of tea from the cup a house elf handed him. “Don't marry him.”