A Step To The Left

Title: A Step to the Left

Author: Ladyholder

Fandom: Harry Potter

Relationship: Harry/Draco, background Ron/Hermione

Content Rating: Mature

Warnings: Passing discussion on torture and dubious consent on body autonomy, pregnancy

Chapter One

…the marriage of two of the most eligible bachelors to each other caused a collective heartbreak throughout the Wizarding World.

The friendship between The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter and the Malfoy Scion was a surprise to many, as none can deny. From the hints and tidbits of gossip that this reporter has managed to put together, there was no relationship between the two men while at school. The first public sighting of the two of them was almost two years to the day after the Battle of Hogwarts and it was a Ministry function.

From all accounts, the meeting was cool and cordial, but there were no hints as to what was to come.

Anabelle Mayweather

Witch Weekly

 

 

“It’s been five years, Harry. When are you going to start a family?”

Harry looked at his friend and mentally grimaced. Five years of marriage and the agitating had well and truly started. “Hermione, we’ve only been married a short time. Is it too hard to understand that we wanted the time together before we add children to it?”

“But between you there are three Ancient and Noble titles. You need to have heirs!” Hermione pressed.

Harry looked down at his friend’s gravid belly and raised an eyebrow. “We’re twenty-seven.”

“And Ron and I are on baby number two,” his old friend told him. “I was hoping our kids would go to Hogwarts together.”

“I expected that too, but life didn’t work that way,” Harry told her before taking a sip of his drink. “We’ve just started to talk about the possibility of a surrogate.”

“Ginny is still available,” Ron told him as he came up behind his wife and kissed her cheek.

Eyebrow raised, Harry looked at his first friend. “Really, that isn’t going to happen, mate.”

“You could use her for your heirs, and leave him to find his own. I know the family wouldn’t mind,” Ron offered with a smile.

Strong arms circled his waist and something in Harry relaxed.

“Ronald, your sister, while a lovely girl, is also as mad as a hatter. I know she got pushed that way by Voldemort and Umbridge, but this would be the mother of our child. I’m not comfortable forcing this on her when she can’t consent,” Draco told the couple before them reasonably.

Both Weasleys winced. Ginny’s status was a closely held family secret. She had seemed fine while at Hogwarts, but once she had graduated, it had all fallen apart. Harry had been in Auror training with Ron and had offered what help he could. In the end, she had been placed in the same private ward in St. Mungo’s as the Longbottom’s.

“Also we would like our children to be true siblings, not just by our marriage,” Draco added smoothly.

Harry hummed his agreement. They had been discussing the concept of children for the last year and had indeed started a discreet search for the needed surrogate. None of the women at any of the agencies they had looked at fit their requirements. Harry had never cared for the concept of blood purity and Draco had mostly moved beyond his stance on it, but they did want their children to be powerful. Too many of the surrogates on offer at the firms they had reviewed had been one step away from being Squibs.

“But you don’t need them to be related,” Ron pressed.

The flinch his spouse suppressed pissed Harry of on a level he tried hard not to indulge in often. “What in the hell does that mean, Ron?”

“Uhm.” The redhead stared at him for a moment before flinching himself.

Frowning slightly at how deep her spouse had just dug himself, Hermione nodded once at Draco and pulled Ron away without saying anything more.

“I’m done with tonight,” Draco murmured in Harry’s ear before letting go to fetch their cloaks. Harry didn’t even bother to sigh before he went to make their excuses. Damn Ron and his big mouth, and damn Hermione for still only thinking of how Harry’s life reflected on hers.

Back teeth clenched in an effort not to say anything, Harry stepped outside the Weasley family home. He wasn’t planning on heading back there either. Not until they stopped trying to destroy his marriage, which given the people in question was probably never.

Taking up the hand of his husband before the apparated home, he admitted to himself that it wasn’t a great loss.

~~

“You know I’m not comfortable with the thought of using a surrogate,” Harry reminded his spouse. The argument was old and well hashed. Magic gave them the option of spelling their sperm into the body of their chosen maternal candidate and not breaking their vows, but that felt incredibly cold.

“I’ve been looking at all the alternatives listed in any form of literature, even folklore and legend. There are hints of something about ‘Children by Ritual’, where couples had a child, but there was no pregnancy. But if anyone wrote down how, it wasn’t recorded on anything I can find,” Draco told him, waving a hand at the room they had dedicated to their quest.

“Time to look farther afield?” Harry asked as he drew his husband into his arms.

Draco settled into his arms with a sigh before placing a kiss against his neck. “Time to look farther afield,” he agreed.

Chapter Two

Lord Harry Potter and Lord Draco Malfoy have been a jet setting couple these last few months.

This publication has been lucky enough to bring you pictures of the two of them experiencing the breadth of the Wizarding world. I hope that our readers are enjoying the sights as much as the two lucky men are. And they do seem to be enjoying themselves. Rumor has it that they are planning on heading back out again to another distant place, and Witch Weekly will be there with them.

So while we are getting ready to head out, enjoy the results of our last trip!

 

… Creevy

Witch Weekly

 

“Where did you and Draco go on vacation?” Ron asked as he leaned in the open door to Harry’s office.

Harry looked up at his childhood friend and wondered when they had grown so far apart. Had it been in the Academy where he had gotten an honest chance to shine? Or after, when their bosses had tried to assign them as partners, but found that without Hermione, they didn’t work well together? Maybe when Harry had been promoted ahead of Ron?

The former Gryffindor had definitely noticed their friendship cooling when he had started dating Draco. And hadn’t that been a surprise? Meeting the young Lord Malfoy at a Wizengamot function had been something that Harry had expected once he had taken up his titles. Having his magic resonate like he was inside a ringing bell hadn’t been. Harry had left the event as soon as he could to find out what in the hell had happened to him.

Careful questioning of Pomfrey and McGonagall had led him back to the hideously bad time when he had gone through his magical maturation. Plus an unintended but sorely needed bout of spell cleansing facilitated by the Goblins. If he had thought that fifteen was a rough year, he had quickly changed his mind. Nineteen hadn’t been a good year for him and he had spent most of it in and out of St. Mungo’s recovering from that and the War itself.

One of the spells taken off him had been designed to muffle his sense of who his soul mate was. From all indications, it had been put on him the same night his parents had died. Since he had been in the hands of only three Wizards and one Witch at the time, the process of elimination had been very easy. If Dumbledore hadn’t already been dead, Harry would have killed him all by himself for that.

At any rate, his friends hadn’t been thrilled with his life choices after that and he wasn’t too sure what was going on now.

“We went to Athens, Istanbul and made a short tour of Rome. All very romantic,” Harry said with a mild shrug. It had been nice, but the search they were on had been a constant thought in their minds and they had spent a lot of time in some very old libraries.

“Sounds like fun,” Ron said. To Harry’s critical ear, there was a faint sour tone to his voice.

“It was,” he agreed, idly running his quill through his fingers. “What can I do for you, Ron?”

Ron tossed an embossed card onto his desk and Harry suppressed his flinch. There was no way that he was ever going to be fully comfortable with that motion. Picking up the card, he saw it was to announce the birth of the latest Weasley child.

“Congratulations,” Harry told him carefully.

“Thanks,” Ron told him, voice painfully neutral again. “So why are you two doing so much travelling?”

“Well, traveling is supposed to be very broadening,” Harry told him with a straight face. “Also, Draco wanted to check out various facilities in the cities magical communities.”

The look on Ron’s face was the same one that he wore when some idea had just been made clear and Harry almost felt bad for leading him to an erroneous conclusion. “Still looking for a surrogate is he? None of the ones here pure enough for him?”

Taking a deep breath, Potter held onto his temper. “Not what we were looking for, Ron. You seem to forget that Draco is one of the best Potion Masters in the world. He’s always on the look for new things.”

Ron shook his head and walked the rest of the way into his office before shutting the door. Harry reached out with one toe and tapped the spot on his desk that would activate the magical recorders he had set up in his first month as head of the DMLE. “Why won’t you consider using Ginny as your surrogate? You know she’s magical, her family line is well known and it would mean a lot to my folks if your kids were related to us. After all, they already claim you as family.”

Merlin, did the man never learn? “Ron, your sister is mad. Totally barking mad and I’m sorry, I don’t want the mother of my children to have that hanging over their heads. Plus, she can’t give her consent to the pregnancy and that is kinda important.”

The look Ron gave him back was unhappy in the extreme and Harry sighed. He wasn’t going to change his mind anytime soon. When he didn’t budge through another half an hour’s worth of arguments, Weasley stormed out and Harry carefully tapped the spot on his desk before pulling the vial containing the record of the scene out of its slot and labeling it. What a clusterfuck.

~~

“I’ve found a half-dozen mentions of ‘Children by Ritual’ in each of the libraries we’ve explored. I have copies of every single source I found and they only hint around the edges of things without explaining the source material,” Draco said as he looked up from one of the texts they had picked up in Istanbul. “There are descriptions of what the set-up looks like, but there isn’t a hint of what it takes to actually get this to work.”

“Have we hit all the places to look?” Harry asked as he ran a careful finger along the spines of the books in the room dedicated to their goal. It had been startling to know that Draco was yearning as much as he was for a family. When he had come across the mention of a way for them to have children that were theirs, they had jumped at the opportunity.

That had been about three years into their marriage and Draco had quickly exhausted the resources in Britain. He had looked at France and then Europe as a whole, but the information seemed to have disappeared. He had even gotten an audience with Nicholas Flammel and the old man had been willing to tell him what he knew. It hadn’t been much, but it had been more than they had had.

Draco leaned back and ran one hand through his hair and over his face before staring at him with frustration showing in his grey eyes. “We’ve avoided the one spot that might have it, yes. But if we go, we can’t go as a married couple, Harry. The library wasn’t moved far from its original home and that whole region is opposed to same sex couples.”

“Where?” Harry asked as he settled next to his spouse at the table.

“The Library of Alexandria,” Draco told him as he opened the text in his hands to show him an ornate seal. “The hints all point to the same thing. That the spell for Fillii Autem Cor et Anima or ‘Children of the Heart and Soul’ can be found there.”

“Sounds like our next trip is going to be to Egypt,” Harry agreed as he pulled his mate into his arms. “Think we can make a stop at the pyramids and stuff?”

“I think so,” Draco agreed. “We can even see if we can get a tour or two of some of the magical tombs down there. Plus the magical version of the Egyptian Museum. They are vastly more interesting than the Muggle side. After all, their hieroglyphs don’t move.”

“The Wizarding ones move?” Harry asked. Ron hadn’t mentioned that when he had gotten back from his vacation all those years before.

“Oh, yeah. It is very interesting to watch,” Draco told him.

“Well, no matter what happens, I think I am going to enjoy this trip more than the last one.”

~~

The building that their guide said was the Library looked like any of the other buildings on the street. Historic, boring and frankly, old. Stepping out of their cab, Harry paid their fare before joining his spouse at the entrance. The person standing as doorkeeper was perfectly Muggle from what he could see and he really hoped that no one was pulling their legs.

Draco had already paid the fee to get into the museum and Harry took his ticket from without a word. He was going to hold his peace until they were inside.

The building was much cooler inside and then it was outside and he sighed in relief. He had no idea how his very blond and pale spouse was handling the sun. He had already tanned up a few shades darker than he normally was in England. It looked good on him, Harry could admit that, but Draco was still as pale as ever.

“I found this wonderful stuff,” Draco told him when he hissed the question as they moved through the exhibits. “Muggle sunscreen mixed with the wizarding version and I don’t get burned. Lovely stuff.”

“I bet. And I think I want to make sure you are well protected from the sun when we get back to our rooms,” Harry informed him with a smile.

The look Draco flashed him was amused and heated. “I love a man with a plan.”

“So where is the entrance to the Library?” Harry asked a half hour later. They were in an area that reminded him strongly of the site of Petra. He had managed to see the Indiana Jones movies a few years before and the buildings had struck a chord with him somehow. He doubted he would be surprised to find out that there was a magical version of them.

“Just like at 9,” Draco said, pointing at the entrance of one of the bas-reliefs.

A quick check showed that one was around and an instant after Draco had cast an Obscourous charm, they stepped through.

Chapter Three

…and the caster of the spell must remember, the energy used to support the unborn comes from themselves.

Lest the unwary Wizard enter into this spell thinking it is easy, think on this… The birth of a Magical child it enough to exhaust the magic of a Witch for years if she is not careful and prudent in her usage of it. If a Wizard desires to use this spell to bring a child into being, they must be aware that Magic will extract a price. And unless they go into this knowingly, the price could be their Magic.

Now, in light of this information, Muggle-born Wizards and Witches are the mystery that has confused the Magical world for generations. The best that anyone has been able to trace is that Magic herself causes the children to come into being. Exhaustive testing of family lines has shown that some of the strongest Muggle-born’s have Squibs in their ancestry, but for the most part, their existence is cause for speculation.

Magical Births: Facts and Speculations

“After looking at this and reading the whole book a half dozen times, I think we can do it,” Draco waved at the stack of paper that was on his desk. For the amount of Arithmancy he had checked, he had wanted paper. Because, as he said, damn if he was going to waste parchment on that endeavor.

“So it’s feasible?” Harry asked as he stared at the spell that might hold the key to the largest, and frankly scariest dream he had ever had.

“Yes. The math bears out. However, I want to try it with something non-human first. Just to make sure that we get this right. The last time anyone used this spell was more than a thousand years ago Harry,” Draco cautioned.

“I can live with being cautious. I really can,” Harry told him without a qualm. “But what are we using to test it?”

“Cats. Mother had two male familiars that she loved dearly and they were decent little furballs. Father was less than pleased that she had them, but didn’t bother them,” Draco told him, while searching his desk for something.

“I really can’t see your mother with cats. It just doesn’t match the whole, visual perfection thing she has going,” Harry told his husband after a few minutes of trying to see his mother in law with cats. They shed after all, and Narcissa Malfoy was nothing if not perfectly turned out at all times.

“She has, or rather had, a permanent repelling charm on all her clothes to get rid of any cat hair. It works beautifully. Ah ha! Found the vials,” Draco announced as he pulled a tray of stasis vials out of his old Potions bag and grabbing two.

Harry stared at the vials and blinked. “Why do you have those, anyway? Are they still alive?”

Draco shook his head. “Mother lost them both about six months ago and I took the samples then. I was hoping that we would get to the point where we could experiment, and I thought that presenting her with a kitten from them might be a nice thing to do if we can get it to work.”

“Awww, mushy,” Harry teased his husband lightly before leaning over to brush a kiss over his lips. Sitting back up, he stared at the vials. “How many attempts do you think that will be?”

“I have enough here for about thirty attempts,” Draco told him, waving at the tray the vials had come out of.

“Here is to hoping that it doesn’t take that many,” Harry told him before taking the vials out of his hand and placing them back in the tray. Snaking one arm around his beloved’s waist, he pulled him towards him. “You are amazing, have I told you that?”

Smiling in pleasure, the blond stared down at him. “This morning, but you can tell me again.”

“My pleasure,” Harry agreed before leading the love of his life out of the room towards their bedroom. There was a bed in there and he could do a lot to Draco with that as his base. Plus, the lube was there, too.

~~

 “Why will you not work?” Draco bitched as he checked the fifth carefully blown globe of Goblin glass before setting it aside to be cleansed. Each globe was nestled on a pedestal of Goblin silver and the whole thing was specially spelled to allow a developing fetus to survive to full term, no matter what the species was. The Goblins were deeply interested in the idea of Fillii Autem Cor et Anima and were cooperating with them fully.

If it helped them conceive, it could help others. There were large numbers in Magical Britain that were suffering spell damage from the War and that damage had impacted people’s fertility. If there was a reliable way to have a child without putting the parents at risk, then the Goblins wanted to know.

Draco didn’t care. He was just happy that they had managed to get an even dozen of the globes made and that they had passed muster. Running a set of checking charms over the next globe, he stared at the results for a moment before they made sense. The globe was viable. Carefully running one finger over the surface, he stared at the small space’s contents. Viable.

~~

“We have two globes that are viable,” Draco reported, as he straddled Harry’s lap with a large smile on his face.

“Two? Any idea of how many kittens we can expect,” Harry asked as he slid his hands up his mate’s thighs to rub his thumbs against the ridges of his hipbones.

“Oh, you bastard,” Draco murmured as his hips shifted against the fingers trying to drive him wild. “There are five kittens. Two in one globe, three in the other.”

Harry hummed softly before leaning forward and kissing his mate, trying to taste what triumph tasted like. The flavor exploding across his tongue was wild and free, and he couldn’t get enough of it. Pulling away, he panted against his husband’s throat, whispering his adoration into the pale skin. “You are amazing.”

 ~~

 Harry yawned behind his hand. Once they had cleaned out the non-viable globes, both men had tied the two viable globes more fully into their magic. From their reading, the gestating embryos would be taking the energy needed to develop straight from their magic. It wasn’t a large burden, but it was making him sleepy.

Checking his watch, Harry saw that he had three more hours at work. Suppressing another yawn, he reached for his teacup. The ripple of something moving through his magic caused him to drop the cup in surprise.

“Shite!” Harry muttered before casting a wordless repair spell and then directing the spilled tea into the dwarf palm by his desk. Hopefully Neville wouldn’t notice the addition to his gift.

“Harry, it’s time,” Draco called as he swept into his office. He already had his cloak on and was ready to head out.

“That explains the ripple through my magic,” Harry commented as he shook his head before dropping his work into his filing drawer. A careful look showed that his desk was fully clean of anything work related and the locking charm was easily performed. Standing, he saw his spouse had his cloak ready for him to shrug into.

“Yes, and I am willing to bet that when it is our child’s turn, it will be a lot worse,” Draco admitted wryly before handing it over.

“Marvelous,” Harry muttered as he expertly swirled the length of wool over his shoulders. Heading out the door he paused on his way out. “Marjorie, I’ll be taking the next week off. Kingsley knows and has someone to cover for me. If there is an emergency, call my private floo.”

“Yes, sir,” his secretary called as he escorted Draco out.

“Did you tell Kingsley what we were doing?” Draco asked, sotto voce.

“Nope. But I did tell him that I was going to be taking an unexpected week off about now. And that either he let me off, or I would retire from the stress of the bullshite they keep dishing me and fully take up my titles. He was thrilled that all I wanted was a week to try to get over the stress,” Harry told him dryly.

Snickering softly, the blond lead the way into the cavernous main hall of the Ministry and towards one of the floo ports. “I’ll see you at home.”

 ~~

 As soon as Draco got home, he stripped out of his potions stained robes and made his way to their bedroom. After a quick shower, he slipped into a clean set of clothes as Harry washed his hair. Draco took a moment to admire the strong form of his husband before the ripple that was moving through his magic got stronger. “Best hurry, love. I don’t think we have much time.”

Harry came out of their room, his hair the wild nest that drying charms left it and in a set of clean clothes. “Let’s go see what we have grown.”

Hurrying to the room where they were conducting their experiment, both men saw that the tops of both globes were shivering in time with the ripples they were still feeling. Unlike when their child would be born, there was nothing special they had to do to access the kittens. Draco drew a deep breath in and then grabbed a set of Muggle rubber gloves. Reaching his hands through the special glass, he pulled the first kitten out and handed it to his husband. Harry had a large towel open and was carefully rubbing the kitten dry, making sure that it was ready for the outside world.

Both men smiled at the faint cry that left the wee one’s mouth and Harry settled the kitten in the box that had been specially prepared for just this event. Draco reached into the globe and pulled the next kitten out before moving to the second one to start the birthing process there. Repeating what had worked with the first kitten, they quickly had a total of five little wriggly bodies in their special box.

“Winky!” Draco called as he pulled the gloves off and set them aside. Looking at the globes, he ran a diagnostic spell over them. They were empty. Turning, he cast another, more in-depth spell over the kittens. “They are totally healthy and all of them are familiars.”

“Winky is here, Master Draco!” the small elf stood before them and peered in the box. “Is kittens!”

“They are, Winky. We need you to get the bottles we had prepared for this. And make sure they are warm. We’re going to need your help to make sure they are fed,” Harry told her as he reached in to pet one of the little bundles of fur.

Staring at them, Draco hoped they knew what they were doing.

  

Chapter Four

One thing that every Witch notices once she becomes pregnant is the draw on her Magical core. No matter what her strength is, during a pregnancy, every Witch will experience times when it is safer and wiser not to use her Magic.

The reason for this is simple. Your baby, no matter if the child is born Magical or Squib, is drawing from your core in order to develop their own innate magic. This is one reason why it is strongly suggested that Witches allow two or more years in between pregnancies. This will allow their magic to recover and make for an easier birth.

If a Witch doesn’t allow herself to rest and space her children, there can be long term consequences to both her Magic and the Magic of her children. The child is often at a lower power level than their siblings or might even be a Squib. It takes a very strong Witch to have children close together…

 

The Guide to New Motherhood

St. Mungo’s

“You know,” Harry started to say before a yawn over took him, “I thought the exhaustion was bad with the kittens. This is a whole lot worse.”

Draco nodded and slowly sipped at the extremely rich soup Winky had provided them. Three days after they had started the globe with their firstborn, the two of them had been hit with epic levels of exhaustion. The last time Harry had been as tired as he was, he had been running all over Britain trying to deal with Death Eaters, bitchy best friends and a treasure hunt for dubious treasure. At least this time, the end result wouldn’t be him dying to validate a prophesy.

To combat the drain on their resources, they had taken to eating frequent, calorie rich meals that were easy to handle. And sleeping. It was slowing the exhaustion down, but they were still struggling. It also didn’t help that the kittens they had created were ten weeks old and got into everything. Winky thought the little bastards were funny and the first one that Draco had pulled out had attached itself to him. Harry was going to be very happy to give his mother in law a chance to pick the ones she wanted. And if she wanted all four? Happy days.

“The records say that the tiredness will fade after a few weeks. When we get used to the draw on our magic,” the blond told him once he got to the bottom of his cup.

“Oh, goodie,” Harry told the tabletop as he leaned forward to rest against the cool surface. How in the hell had Molly Weasley managed to do this six times? One of which had been a set of twins? Harry was completely certain that she was a lot stronger than she had let anyone expect. Because he was exhausted!

The feel of a hard finger poking at his side caused him to jump. Turning his head, Harry saw that Winky was staring at him, one small foot tapping as she waited for him to respond. He was going to ignore the way his mate was snickering at how the little elf was treating him.

“Master Harry needs to eat. If’s he not eat, baby not grow,” She told him bluntly and then snapped her fingers, putting a fresh cup of soup in front of him and giving him a significant look before going back to playing with the kittens.

“Okay, Winky. You’ve made your point,” Harry muttered as he sat up and pulled the cup to him. Hot and fragrant, the soup was delicious and he could feel himself perking up as he drank it. Reaching the bottom, he realized he was still hungry. “Can I have another?”

The look their house elf flashed him was full of happiness. “Of course, Master Harry!”

Harry drank his second cup a bit faster than he had the first and sat back, content to let that digest before he tried anything else. While the tomes they had gotten from the Library of Alexandria had told them that the magic that was making their baby possible would come from them, it hadn’t fully mentioned any other side effects. He wasn’t willing to see if nausea was one of them.

“I’m taking the next month off,” Draco muttered as he slowly sipped another cup of soup.

“How are you going to swing that?” Harry asked. Draco worked part time for the Ministry as a Potions Master and had his own business on the side. The potions he produced for his business were some of the most complex Light ones available and places like St. Mungo’s bought them by the tray. It was a very profitable sideline and was increasing the Malfoy family fortunes on a daily basis.

“I was working ahead, these last few months. And really, I have most everything on hand if someone comes in with an emergency,” Draco told him smugly.

“Sounds good. I’m just restricting myself to the office for a while. So far, it seems to be working,” Harry admitted. “When is your mother coming over?”

Draco shifted and looked at the magical clock on the wall. The hand that showed visitors was firmly pointed at his mother’s name. “I would say anytime now.”

Harry looked up at the clock and then at the floo when it flushed green. “Smartarse,” he told his mate with a fond smile.

“Indeed. Winky, please bring tea for my mother along with some of those vanilla biscuits you baked this morning.”

As soon as Narcissa exited the floo, the spell Harry had laid on it to clean up all invited guests activated and removed all traces of soot. If she hadn’t been invited, she would have gotten a load of the soot straight in her face. Blinding people did wonders as an opening gambit. And if that didn’t work? Well, he had a number of other nasty surprises up his sleeves.

“Darlings, you both look so wan. What on earth is wearing you down?” the Lady Malfoy asked as she gracefully walked over and kissed Draco on his cheek and then brushed Harry’s own cheek with her own before sitting down. “No fevers. And I can see you are eating. What is going on?”

The look Harry flashed his husband was full of admiration for how sneaky his mother-in-law was at checking on them. “We actually called you over to give you something,” Harry admitted.

“Oh?” Narcissa raised one eyebrow in question before turning back to the table as Winky slid a tea service onto it. “This looks lovely, Winky. And vanilla biscuits. Lovely. Thank you.”

The house elf bobbed a quick curtsy and turned away. Harry could tell that she was very pleased with how her actions had been received. Narcissa was no Lucius and was always polite to the elves she encountered. That trait was one of many that he had learned about her only after marrying her son. “Winky, before you go, please bring the basket with the gifts for Lady Malfoy.”

“I brings. Are very wriggly,” she said and then snapped her fingers, pulling the basket of kittens from their spot by Draco’s reading chair.

The one kitten who had claimed Draco woke up and immediately moved to get out of the basket, falling out of it on his way to his person. Harry snickered softly at how utterly ungraceful the little beast was. Draco still hadn’t named it, but he was certain that was coming.

“What are these?” Narcissa asked as she set the teapot back on the tray. Her hands twitched towards the basket and then settled into her lap.

“You’ve mourned Zeus and Hades for the last year, Mother. And I thought, since you hadn’t found a new familiar, I would see about finding you one,” Draco took the basket from Winky and knelt down by his mother’s side before presenting the kittens to her. “These are the sons and one daughter of your two familiars. The one currently drinking my soup seems to have attached himself to me.”

“Oh, my.” Narcissa gasped as she looked at the babies. They were all black with splashes of the red fur of one of their fathers feathering the tips of each hair. Basically, Harry thought they looked like they were on fire all the time. They weren’t but the red running up their sides was a very arresting sight. “Their fathers are Zeus and Hades?”

“Mmmhmm,” Harry murmured his agreement as he swallowed the last sip of his new cup of soup. The little glutton wasn’t getting his food, thank you very much.

“You got it to work?” she asked, carefully reaching out to stroke a lightly shaking finger over one small head.

“We did,” Draco told her and set the basket on her lap before going back to save his meal. The kitten got the rest of that batch of soup though. “And in eight months, we expect your first grandchild to arrive.”

Smiling broadly, Narcissa petted her presents.

Chapter Five

Inheritance law for the Ancient and Noble Houses is very particular. When Houses are combined, Magic will choose the heirs to the Houses. Traits that are particular to a House have been known to only show in the heirs to the specific Houses in a multi-House family. This means that when a child is born, it is very obvious which Family they will be heir to.

This does tend to cut down on the confusion when there are several children in such Families. If there are more children born into the Family, this can mean that the traits are passed onto the subsequent children.

When a surrogate is used to provide children, a Blood Adoption is used to tie the child into all members of its new Family…

The Genealogy of the Ancient and Noble Houses

“So have you stopped looking for a surrogate, Harry?” Hermione asked him as he kicked back in a chair at Bill and Fleur’s house.

“I’m fine, Hermione. My department has caught several importers of illegal potions and just yesterday, we foiled a plan to mark the strongest of the upcoming Muggle-born children for either blood adoption by some of the more liberal Death Eater families or they were just going to kill them. Evidence is still a bit grey on that. How have you been?” Harry had officially reached the end of his rope with his two friends.

“I’ve been fine,” Hermione told him, her voice bewildered. “Why all the other information?”

“Because it is none of your damn business who I choose to have children with or even when they will arrive. And I am sick of you thinking that if you keep harping on the subject, that I will change my mind,” Harry told her bluntly. The look on Hermione’s face was offended, but Harry really didn’t care. This had been a long time coming.

“But to have them with Malfoy as your spouse?” She asked, shuddering lightly. “His parents were Death Eaters, Harry. He was one of the people who held us hostage! He was tasked with killing Dumbledore, remember!”

“As you should have been told years ago, Hermione, there are at least two sides to every story. Draco isn’t a Death Eater. He doesn’t have the brand on his left arm, or frankly, on any part of his body. He was cleared by the courts, something I thought you would respect. And if I recall correctly, he was the person who got us out of the hands of the Death Eaters, and at no small cost to himself. As to killing Dumbledore? The old bastard had such an advanced case of spell damage at his death that the healer who consulted on the case afterwards thought he would have been dead within two hours if he hadn’t been killed.” Harry told her, laying down some truths.

“But Malfoy?” She didn’t seem to be listening.

“But Hermione, Ron? He was a lazy git in school who wanted nothing more than to play Keeper for the Chudley Cannons. He barely passed his OWLS and let’s not get into the mess that his NEWTS were. He’s an Auror, yes, but he barely made it through training,” Harry shot back.

Hermione sat still for a moment, her face white. Taking a series of deep breaths, she visibly worked to control her temper. “I know you are gay, but why Malfoy? What is it about him that makes you forget everything that happened while we were at school?”

“For one, I was at his trial. All ten days of it, heard all the evidence and gave my own testimony. If you didn’t bother, go look up the transcripts, they are enlightening. The second thing, is that when I met him at a fundraiser a few years later, my magic recognized him as my soulmate. And I’m sorry if you feel that isn’t enough for you, but after a bit of thought, it was enough for me.” Harry wasn’t going to get into all the little fine details on how and why he and Draco had fallen in love. That subject wasn’t her business.

“Soulmates?” Harry could see that she was skeptical, and he nodded. “Right. I just don’t want to see you miserable if he does something.”

“And you think shoving some mystery woman at me, to bear me heirs will guard against that? Hermione, that’s just daft. And don’t even bother suggesting Ginny.” Harry raised a finger to silence her. “I know you haven’t been to see her in the last six months, but she’s under constant spells and charms to be compliant, docile and non-violent. And she keeps breaking the charms. Her Mind Healer has been working with her for the last two years in an effort to get her to the point where the staff won’t have to stun her so they can spell her food and medications into her stomach. You can’t tell me that she, in that condition, is an ideal candidate to carry a child to term?”

Sitting back in her own chair, Hermione seemed to have finally gotten the point he and Draco had been trying to hammer home for three years. Ginny was not right. Full stop. He really hoped she listened this time.

Checking his watch, he saw that the dial that was dedicated to the all important globe was firmly on good health, the countdown dial beside it still counting down the days until the baby’s birth. Sipping his hot chocolate, he settled further into his chair and left his friend to her thinking. Hopefully, she would pass the message along to Ron as well.

Chapter Six

The practice of a male carrying a child to term has been proven by Hippokratides Speusippos Xenakis. The International Conference of Wizards and the Alliance of Medical Practitioners has found that his premise is supportable, the potions are correct and the Magic needed is within reach for most of the Wizarding world.

 However, as has also been discussed, there are few Wizards who have the fortitude to take on this endeavor. Many if not most Wizards, no matter their choice of partner, are not built to carry a child to term. The level of commitment to such an endeavor would be extreme and to date, only a handful have successfully completed the process…

 

Head Mugwhump

1693

 

 

When Harry had contemplated having a child, he had never thought he would get the chance. The war, being gay, lack of experience with kids, all things that had stewed together until he had been frozen on the subject. Eventually he had shoved the whole mess to the side and stopped thinking about it. It had hurt less.

Having kids start to appear in his extended family after the war had helped. Harry got to be around kids who were young and he found that he liked them. Taking care of Teddy had also been a confidence booster. Now, with years of being a godfather and uncle under his belt, he felt better about what was coming. He was genuinely impatient for his chance at being a father.

Draco was just as anxious and was pacing him on an opposite course as they waited for Madame Pomfrey to pass judgment on their globe. Once she was, they were going to ask her for a recommendation to someone to be there for the birth and a pediatrician. Harry was tempted to ask for a list of the latter from Narcissa too.

“Well, you boys are a wonder,” Pomfrey finally said after almost an hour of concentrated spell work. “When I went to medical school, this type of thing was covered under myths and legends, hinting that Arthur had been born this way.”

Draco sighed in relief before waving at the elaborate shrine to the upcoming baby. “Given how much magic we’ve been pouring into that ball, our son is going to be extraordinary.”

Pomfrey needed. “He will be. I would not suggest that you let everyone know how he was conceived.”

Harry nodded slowly. “The magic we are fueling this with is wild. The way we conceived him is grey at best since it did take blood from the both of us to bring him into being and lay the proper conditions for his growth.”

Pomfrey cocked her head to the side as she looked at the Goblin glass globe. “I didn’t realize that either of you were wild mages. Nothing in the scans I did at Hogwarts revealed that.”

“Technically, we aren’t,” Draco said as he reached up and pulled one of the copies they had made of the source texts they were using. He had several others prepared for anyone who needed the information. Pomfrey was one of them. “But to keep him growing and viable, we needed to tap directly into our magical cores instead of funneling the power through our wands. The magic is inheritably wild. And at our power level, it is very wild.”

Harry picked up the tale as Draco passed the text to the mediwitch. “Getting to the point where we could tap into that level of our magic wasn’t easy. What a witch does without thinking about, because it is wholly natural for her to do so, took us time to get right. A witch’s body supports a magical baby from conception to birth, and the baby uses that magic to grow into their own magic. Because we are going this outside of the natural conditions, it is taking both of us to supply the correct amounts of magic.”

Draco took up the explanation here since this had been the sticking point for him. “Two strong witches or wizards can have a very strong child. That is proven fact. The books and scrolls we read as we looked for Fillii Autem Cor et Anima showed that the Ancient and Noble houses of the day started marrying strong wizards to strong witches, with the aim to increase the strength of their progeny. Over the decades, then centuries and finally millennia that some of these families and traditions have been in existence, the practice warped itself into puritatem sanguis or ‘Blood Purity’. And that is what led to a lot of really stupid shite over the years.”

Pomfrey rubbed a hand over her face and then pinched the bridge of her nose. “It is amazing what you can find when you go looking in really old books for answers.” She sighed as she looked at the tome she had been passed. “Is the information on that little bombshell in here too?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Harry told her without inflection. When he and Draco had found that out, neither of them had been happy. It had explained a great deal about Wizarding history, but it had also painted a number of historical figures with a very dirty brush.

“So, by breeding the way they did, the Ancient and Noble Houses got to be very strong,” Draco told her, voice neutral. “But then the same thing happened to them that happens when someone breeds within a small population. Inbreeding, birth defects and decreasing fertility.

“The ‘non-pure’ population weren’t having the same problems as the nobility and eventually some of the families stared to marry the daughters of the ‘best families,” Draco paused and then shrugged. “It was about the only thing that saved that layer of Wizarding Europe. Because without the Muggle-borns and the half-bloods, we would have died out years ago.”

“Merlin, what a mess,” Pomfrey said as she stared at the globe. “Well, your child doesn’t suffer from any of the ailments that are common at your level of society, gentlemen. And if the Goblins can make this work for everyone in a way that can minimize the blood aspect of it, there will be several people who would take advantage of it. I take it there needs to be two distinct donors?”

Harry nodded his head quickly. “Yes, there is no way that this can make a clone of a person. It just won’t work.”

“Well that is a relief,” Pomfrey told him, a smile moving across her face. “Now, your wee one is perfectly healthy, and should be at full term sometime in the next month. Do you have anyone to standby at the birth to do all the official things?”

“No, we were hoping that you could give us a list of anyone who you think could be discreet  and also willing to take the same Oath you did before coming to attend the birth,” Harry admitted.

Humming, the mediwitch nodded. “I know several. I’ll write you the list. Well done, boys.”

 ~~

“Harry? Why are you looking up pediatricians? Is there something wrong with Teddy?” Hermione asked as she sat down next to him at one of the café’s that had established itself in Diagon Alley after the war.

“There’s nothing wrong with Teddy. I’m looking up the doctor for my son.” And fuck all if he was going to hide the baby. Looking up, he scanned the crowd in the café and smiled as he saw Draco returning with a teapot in one hand and a tray of goodies trailing behind.

“Hello, love. Gotten anywhere?” Draco asked as he dropped an absent kiss on the top of Harry’s head and guided the tray in for a gentle landing. “I didn’t know you would be joining us, Hermione. Would you like me to get you a cup?”

“No, thank you,” his old friend said automatically. Harry could see that she was turning things over in her mind, trying to figure out what he meant. “But you said that you didn’t have a surrogate?”

Shrugging lightly, Harry took the cup that Draco prepared for him. Sipping the beverage gratefully, he savored the flavor. Unlike most of the magical people he knew, he had found that he liked a slightly more interesting flavor to his tea. There was one Muggle company that was producing marvelous teas and he had worked his way through their line, finding all the ones that he liked. The café was willing to serve it and Harry visited them frequently as a consequence.

“We don’t have a surrogate,” Draco told her as he busied himself with his own cup of tea. The spicy scent rising from the pot was delicious and Harry was looking forward to arguing about who got the last cup.

Glancing back and forth between the two men, Hermione huffed at the non-answers she was getting. “Are you two adopting?”

“Nope,” Harry told her calmly. “You should really try some of their teas.”

“I have in the past. I enjoy them a great deal,” she told him. “Please tell me you haven’t figured out a way for a man to get pregnant?”

It was only the iron control that the war had taught him that saved Harry from snorting his tea out his nose. Draco hadn’t been that lucky and had spluttered his sip. Setting down his cup, Harry carefully swallowed and shook his head. “Uhm, no. No way in hell, Hermione. Where?”

“That was discovered almost six hundred years ago by a Greek scholar.” Hermione told him promptly. “I have the text at home and was working on getting it translated. I was going to give it to you two for Christmas.”

“Uhm, wow. Thank you, Hermione,” Harry told her. “What brought on the change of heart?”

Hermione was quiet for several moments and Harry took the time to grab one of the little short bread cookies that Draco had brought over. It went very well with the tea.

“I went to visit Ginny. I didn’t tell the staff I was coming over, I just went to visit. Everything you said about her is true and I am terribly sorry that I kept pushing things with her. You’re right. It wouldn’t be fair to her or the baby if she was pregnant. Then I started researching ways for you two to have children. Since I didn’t think you would be going the blood adoption route, which left a natural way.”

“And you found that?” Draco asked carefully.

“There was another, but all the leads to it died out. The last reported text on it was at the Library of Alexandria when it burned and it hasn’t been seen since.” Hermione told him, face and voice excited.

Both men exchanged looks and shrugged. Someone had found a clue.

Chapter Seven

When a child of Magical descent is born, it needs to quickly bond with its parents. Muggle-born, Squib or fully Magical, all children born with the spark of magic within them need to know their parents. This knowing is one of the things that allows a child’s innate abilities to develop as far as Magic Herself intends.

It can be said, and has, that Squibs have no magic at all. That they cannot touch the one thing that fully separates us from the masses of ignorant Muggles that surround our enclaves. This is not the case at all. Squibs do not have the abundance of magic that allows them to channel it out through a wand or in the cases of the truly powerful, wandless spells. The magic that a Squib has is enough to allow them to connect to their Family, to experience the unforgettable feeling that there is something out there that is larger than themselves.

Muggle-born children on the other hand, do not have a ready source of Family magic to attach too. Most of the children who are born to pure Muggles are close to their parents out of the necessity of maintaining some sort of Familial bond. When they enter the Wizarding World at around eleven years old, they are able to expand that bond to encompass their classmates, their school Houses and their teachers. This is one reason why most Muggle-born students complete their education.

Why Are Children Magical

A New Parents Handbook

“Healer Andrews, thank you for agreeing to meet us here,” Harry heard Draco say as he led the pediatrician they had chosen down the stairs.

“Lord Malfoy, it is my honor to be here,” the doctor replied. Harry recognized it from the interview process both sides had gone through.

Andrews was a highly trained healer who had graduated at the top of his class and then gone straight into private practice. Both Narcissa’s and Pomfrey’s lists had contained the man, for different reasons, but both had agreed that he was highly trained, discreet and had a decent bedside manner.

Harry really hoped that he was all that and more. Because he knew that he would feel better if there was a Healer on hand when their son arrived. Pomfrey was incredibly capable, but even she admitted that it had been a very long time since she had delivered a baby solo. From the way his magic was moving, Harry knew that they didn’t have much more time before Anthony Leo Julian Potter-Malfoy showed up.

Humming, Harry contemplated the name they had decided for their son and shrugged. Their son was being named following the traditions of both families, but not after any one person. While there were a few people who had any right to bitch about what they named him, there were going to be plenty who would do it anyway thinking that they held some sway.

“… So mote it be.”

Harry tuned back in to hear the last four ritual words being said before the Healer entered the room. Turning to face him, the expectant father watched as the man took in the first sight of what they had done.

“Holy Mother of Magic,” Andrews breathed out as he got his first look at the results of three years concentrated research and a year’s practical experience.

“Surprise?” Harry asked him with a cheeky grin.

“Lord Potter, this is a wee bit more than a surprise,” the Healer told him as he moved forward, carefully inspecting every inch of their setup. “What is this?”

Draco walked over to the globe at the center of the whole thing and ran a careful finger over the Goblin Silver column it was resting on. “This, Healer, is our son. We were hoping that you would be available to be there at his birth.”

The Healer’s eyes were moving from one item to another, lingering on the texts that he could see gracing several shelves. “I would love to. How soon?”

“From the way our magic is reacting? Within the next two weeks,” Draco shared.

“So the baby is pulling magic from the both of you to allow the gestation to continue? Fascinating. Was the globe always this large?” Andrews asked, leaning forward to look closer, his hands locked behind his back.

“No, it wasn’t,” Draco told him, before pointing to a shelf filled with small glass balls. “It started out the same size as those.” The balls of glass were about the size of Harry’s clenched fist and the Goblin Silver bases were swirled up and over them, making them look like Christmas decorations.

Andrews stepped carefully over to the shelf and leaned forward, nose inches away from the edge. “So as the fetus develops, the Glass and Silver expand and allow enough room for the baby to move?”

“Yes,” Harry told him. He had spent a great deal of time with the Goblins planning the crafting of the balls that they had used for this ritual. “There is a very mild version of the tent spell in there too. Because there is an upper limit to how big the globes will grow. When they reach that, if more room is needed, the tent spell comes into effect.”

“Oh, this is utterly fascinating. Can this be done by anyone?” Andrews asked.

“No, not everyone,” Draco told him bluntly. “You have to be powerful to even start the spell. It takes the energy from your core. Harry and I were just under Archmagus levels when we started this and fully expected to reach that level by the time we hit fifty. Thanks to this, and the constant strain on our cores, we passed into Archmagus status six weeks ago.”

“Congratulations to you both,” Andrews told them. “So, I am quite certain that I can’t get to the level of detail I want with my testing spells, but I would like to do some standard maternity spells, if that is okay?”

“That is fine, Healer Andrews. I know better than to keep an expert from doing what we’ve hired him for,” Harry told him as he leaned back against the wall nearest the door. Keeping an eye on the Healer, he extended his mage senses. Everything Andrews was doing matched up with what Pomfrey had done. Something in him relaxed at that and he closed his eyes.

Not that he needed them to keep track of what was happening around him. The advanced mage sight they’d developed due to their maturation was both handy as hell and very frustrating. There were places in the Ministry that were just blinding. The Atrium was a place he had to remember to not have his sight on in. The flares of magic as people flooed in, the apparition points, the floos themselves and just the standard magic of the place made it glow. The other places, he didn’t want to think of.

The brush of fur against his ankles made him smile. Copernicus had come looking for his person. The no longer little kitten was now close in size to his Kneazle fathers and he was fiercely intelligent and devoted to an insane degree to Draco. Three of the other kittens had bonded to Narcissa and the fifth had made himself at home until Teddy had come over. Then he had bounded up on the little boy and purred himself all over the little Metamorphmagus.

Andromeda hadn’t been all that thrilled at the kitten and Harry wasn’t telling her how little Algeiba had come about. Not anytime soon at least. Teddy had fallen in love with the kitten and over the last ten months, had gone nowhere without him. The Kneazle had proved his worth when someone had tried to snatch Teddy while he had been shopping with his grandmother. The man had needed to be taken to St. Mungos before he could be processed for arrest.

Andromeda had been a lot happier with the little beast after that.

Draco reached down and ran a careful hand over the spine of his familiar and the purr from Copernicus filled the room. The graceful movements of the Healer’s wand slowed and then stopped as he turned around to look at the animal sitting watching him. “He is a gorgeous animal.”

“And the first living creature born of those balls in more than a thousand years,” Draco said smugly.

“He is? May I look at him as well? Have you noticed that he is more advanced than other Kneazles since you had to feed the globe magic while he was gestating?” Andrews asked as he flicked and swished.

“He was particularly attuned to my magic and attached himself to me immediately. I felt the first hook of our bond as I lifted him out of the globe. It was really quite extraordinary,” Draco told him.

“He is indeed highly magical, far more than most familiars are,” Andrews told them moments later. “As for your son, he is about a week from his birth and I will be making changes to my schedule to so I can be here for it.”

“Can you clear your schedule now?” Harry asked as he looked at the globe across the room. The twisting in his magic was getting stronger and he was willing to bet that their son wouldn’t make it to the due date the healer had set.

“I can. I don’t have anyone who needs me at this time,” the healer told him without a problem. “Is there someplace where I can floo my office and let them know?”

“Winky takes,” their house elf told the healer as she popped in with the tea set, pepper up potions and sandwiches. “Yous need to eat. Baby is coming soon, and yous can’t faint,” she told them firmly.

“Your elf is a menace,” Draco told Harry as he poured them each a cup of tea after drinking his potion.

Harry shrugged and grabbed his own potion. “Dobby liked her. And we needed an elf.”

Snickering softly, Draco took a sip of his tea and settled down to wait.

 ~~

 “Masters need to wakes up!”

Hard fingers that poked made contact with his ribs and Draco jerked awake as his magic rippled the same way that it had when the kittens had announced their birth. It wasn’t unlike getting a knot in the muscles of his calf. Only, it wasn’t a muscle, it was in his magic.

“Harry! Wake up. Anthony has decided to be born,” Draco shouted as he rolled out of their bed and grabbed the clothes they had set out for just this occasion.

The sight of his husband sitting straight up in bed was slightly comical due to his hair standing straight up as well. A quick flick of wandless magic and Draco smoothed the mess down. Pushing his feet into his shoes, he passed each article of clothes to him as he got dressed.

“Winky, tea? And have you let Healer Andrews know?” Harry asked around a yawn.

“I’s did. I be getting Missus Pommy from Hogwarts,” Winky nodded, her ears flapping at the speed she was moving. “Baby’s room is ready too.”

“Best get moving then,” Harry waved at her and the house elf flashed them both an excited smile as she popped off.

“Anthony is almost here, love.” Draco was struck with a case of nerves as they headed down the stairs. Because damn, what in the hell had they been thinking? They were married, sure, but neither of them really knew what to do with a baby. They didn’t even have a nanny for the love of Merlin. What if they dropped him?

“Relax, Draco,” Harry murmured as they reached the level above the manor’s ward stone. The Globe Room, as they had taken to calling it, was open and they could see the healer arranging his gear to fit his requirements. “If Ron can do this twice and not have Hermione kill him for being a prat, we can do this too.”

“Point,” Draco allowed. “Healer Andrews, how goes it?”

“Well, the globe is pulsing and the magic that has been wrapped around it has moved into the visual spectrum. I am guessing that there is something that you two need to do?”

Pulling his athamé from the spot it had been stored in, Draco nicked the meat of his thumb before passing the blade over to Harry. Hand cupped to allow the blood to collect it, he waited for his spouse to stand up beside him before he tilted his hand to allow the blood to fall on the glass.

As soon as the blood hit the glass, the material rippled back and the fluid that had protected and nourished their son spilled out. Andrews was there to catch the baby and quickly clamped off the umbilical cord before passing them the knife they had commissioned just for this event. Supernaturally sharp, the blade passed through the cord, freeing the baby from the device that had given him life.

Andrew whisked the baby off and Harry followed, making sure that everything was okay with their son. The scream of an unhappy newborn cut the air moments later. Smiling at the proof of their son’s health, Draco summoned fire and carefully scoured the globe clean, erasing any signs that a human baby had come from it.

Turning away from the magical device, Draco went over stand with his husband and watch as their son was fussed over. He kept an eye on everything that Andrews was doing and smiled. Anthony was healthy, 53 centimeters long, weighed in at four kilos and had a head of hair that matched his husband’s.

“Looks like the Potter title has an heir,” Draco said fondly. That hair bred true, all the way down the line. To be fair, the Malfoy looks also bred true. It would take Magic herself to decide if the Black heritage they both carried would show through in a child.

“Looks like,” Harry agreed. His mate reached out and pulled him in close before pressing a kiss to his head as he watched their son show his displeasure at the cold world he had slipped into.

When Andrews slipped the swaddled baby into their arms moments later, Draco could feel his Family magic recognize the child in his arms. The miracle they had worked so hard for, searched so far for, had arrived. Looking at his mate, he could see the same recognition in his eyes. Everything they had done was worth this.

 ~~

 Special Announcement! The Potter-Malfoy’s have an Heir!

 

 Epilogue

 

It has been over twenty years since the Battle of Hogwarts and the defeat of Voldemort. Life has gotten better throughout Wizarding Britain for most of the population. Innovations have appeared year in and year out, that are improving the lives of everyone from every walk of life. And that includes how we are able to have children.

Leading the way has been the Potter-Malfoys. Less than ten years ago, they unveiled a means where Witches and Wizards of sufficient magical power could gestate a child without a surrogate, blood adoptions or any other shady means of tying a child to a Family’s magic.

At the time the rediscovered spell was announced through St. Mungo’s and Gringotts, the Potter-Malfoys had only one child, Anthony (Viscount Haxley, see page 4 for details of his title, his future responsibilities and his possible peers). His birth just two years before had been, it was thought, a quiet home birth that would allow his fathers to bond with him fully and allow the surrogate’s Family magics to fade out. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For his birth had been the first birth in more than a thousand years using Fillii Autem Cor et Anima. A child born of ritual magic. Healthy and happy, the first born child of the Potter-Malfoy family is now a second year student at Hogwarts and will soon be followed by his younger brothers. Each of the children has been shown to be very powerful magically and young Lord Haxley has been shown to be a talented flyer.

I know that you, my readers are wondering if there will be any more …

“What an amazing mix of fact and sentimental tripe,” Draco muttered as he folded the paper onto the breakfast tray and settling back into the pillows on their bed. His body was throbbing pleasantly from their morning activities and he idly wondered if there was any way to get an encore performance.

“Tripe it may be, but it does paint the whole thing in a good light and avoids all the drama and angst of that first year,” Harry mussed as he finished off his morning coffee. “Plus, she didn’t interview Hermione or Ron to get some nice counter color to her gushing.”

Draco tried not to growl at the thought of those two. The events surrounding Anthony’s birth had led to some rocky times within the ‘Golden Trio’, and he knew that the strain to get past it had pushed the friendship almost to the breaking point. Hermione had been at turns pragmatic and appalled at what they had gone through to have their child. The dip into the Grey magics they had practiced had caused her to give them both long looks, but neither he nor Harry had been shining bastions of the Light since the War. Doing what they had done to survive had led to an acceptance of where they really were on the scale.

Ron however had ranted and raved for weeks. From what Draco had finally managed to piece together, the youngest Weasley male had hoped that he could convince Harry to tie their families together in a permanent, Blood-borne way. The cynical side to the Malfoy Lord was certain that the redhead was also hoping to get some Galleons out of the deal. It had taken a great deal of shouting and heated words with threats of Harry almost losing his temper before Ron had seen reason.

“Point,” Draco finally said before wandlessly moving the breakfast tray to the floor. Turning, he straddled his husband’s lap before leaning down to kiss him. “So whatever shall we do with the next hour?”

“The boys come back from Andromeda’s at noon, right?” Harry asked as he ran careful hands up and under the shirt that Draco was wearing.

“Yes,” he agreed, breath already short. The only reason he had slipped the shirt on was for just this. The feel of soft cotton sliding against his skin and Harry’s hot hands mapping every inch of it. “She’s always punctual.”

“Hmmm,” Harry hummed before pushing the shirt open and fastening his teeth on the ridge of muscle at the top of Draco’s shoulder. Releasing his prize, the green eyed wizard looked up at his mate. “Then I had better see how fast I can blow your mind, shouldn’t I?”

Draco shivered as he was manhandled into place by his mate. What he would accept from Harry was ridiculous, he thought with hazy pleasure, enjoying the feel of lips against his skin. Reaching over his head, he hooked his fingers into the slot on the headboard that he had designed, just for this.

The spread of his legs led to Harry running his hands up the back of his thighs as he pushed them up. Draco shifted slightly, accepting the new position that his husband had pushed him into. From the appreciative hum Harry was giving him, he was enjoying the view.

“You are so damn lucky I like yoga,” Draco sighed as Harry nipped at the tendons behind one knee.

“Mmmm, I am. And I am very lucky you like doing it nude,” Harry agreed as he reached the midpoint of Draco’s thigh and shifted to run his teeth down the other leg.

Draco huffed out a strained laugh at the sensation. “Merlin, you are too good at that,” he said as he shifted slightly. His cock was hard and aching already, and he could feel the precum gathering on his belly.

The feel of his husband’s breath ghosting over his skin as he laughed was wonderful. The hot tongue moving along the tender skin of his inner thighs was just as good. His mate was being a bastard though and not sucking his dick. “Potter!”

“You are such a pushy bastard,” Harry told him from his new spot, working his way up his body. His strong hands slid under Draco’s ass and pulled him closer.

The moan that maneuver pulled from him was, even to his own ears, full of need. He kept his hands wrapped around the headboard though, trusting that his partner had him well in hand.

“I love it when you let me do this,” Harry muttered into his skin and Draco shivered. The feel of teeth biting into his skin caused a whimper as the blond relaxed into the bed. The sharp teeth let his skin go and his breath caught as he bit back a protest. “The marks I leave are so pretty. I want to make sure you will be feeling this for days. Every time you sit, I want you to remember what we did.”

Draco moaned at that. He was very willing to get behind that thought. He would be even more behind it if his husband got behind him and made good on it!

The husky laughter from the middle of his chest was his only warning that his brain to mouth filter had failed before he was flipped over and Harry was covering his back. The move caused him to lose his grip on the headboard, but as soon as his knees had hit the bed, he had reached out to grab it again, trusting Harry to steady him.

The whisper of magic against his own caused a shiver to ripple across his skin. Draco moaned at the feel of the lubrication spell getting him ready. He was still stretched from their previous romps and he didn’t want to wait.

Draco spread his knees further and bowed his head, breathing slowly, trying to keep his excitement under some sort of control. Harry settled back on his haunches and ran his hands down his back and the blond pushed back into them. “One would think that you want something, love.”

“You are an arse, Potter,” Draco told him, voice starting to break at what his lover’s hands were doing.

“You love it,” Harry told him as he stopped playing and slid his cock into Draco’s ass.

“I love your cock,” Draco informed him.

“I love how your arse feels on my cock,” Harry said as he shifted to cover his back. Draco clenched down on the cock within him and smiled slightly at the high-pitched whine that leaked out of his partner. Harry snapped his hips forward and drove his cock deep within the blond’s body. Thanks to the many times they had done this before, Harry was able to run the length of his dick over Draco’s prostate and settled into a steady rhythm.

“Merlin, Potter. I fucking adore you,” Draco panted.

The sound Harry let out was smug and male and Draco promised himself that he would do something to his lover. After he got off. The burn and stretch of his muscles as he was filled with his husband’s cock was a delicious counterpoint to the stars going off behind his eyes as his prostate was constantly nudged.

The tingling at the base of his spine was pulsing in time to his heartbeat with waves of pleasure moving in counterpoint at each thrust of Harry’s cock. Draco started pushing back, chasing the tingles that were setting his blood on fire. The sharper burn that appeared on each ass-cheek as Harry slapped them just added another layer of sensation and he moved, pushing back onto the cock splitting him in two.

When Harry reached for his cock, Draco hissed. The feel of his husband’s hand on his cock was wonderful and he arched into the grip. Moving back and forth on the cock within him and the grip around his own was driving him insane and Draco started to keen.

His orgasm hit with the weight of a thousand Bludgers, locking his muscles up tight. The feel of being full, of his cock being held in a warm grip was too much and he fell over the side of sanity without a pause. From the roar of completion deafening him, Draco was certain that Harry had come too.

As soon as the aftershocks running through him had settled down enough for him to think, Draco let go of the headboard and slid down onto the bed, taking Harry with him. The cock in his ass didn’t move and he settled in to enjoy the afterglow.

Life was fantastic.