So I will have to wait 12 years for Draco?
Charlie
Charlie looked at himself in the mirror. He held Topher in his arms. Harry held Winnie in his arms. They already brushed their teeth, and are ready for the day except for the affirmations.
“I will do great things today. I am worthy of love. My body is beautiful and strong. I’m proud of myself. I will be kind to myself today. I am confident and brave. I love myself.” The family said in unison. Topher bounced up and down in his arms.
“I wub myself! Daddy and Papa and ‘innie!” Topher yelled out happily. They both chuckled at their son.
“We love you too, Pooh bear.” His husband said as Charlie kissed his son’s forehead. “Are we ready to go to Pop Pop and Granda’s?”
It was a family dinner day, and Barnaby wanted them to come over early. Charlie knew his father-in-law wanted to talk to them about something. It probably had something to do with one of the many adopted children. Though since he invited Severus and Neville, it had to be Justin, Anthony, or Draco.
When they walked into the door, the tallest father-in-law took both of his children.
“Hiya, Barnaby is in the kitchen, Charlie. He wants to talk to ya. Harry, how about ya come with us to see what I have in the garden?” Charlie didn’t want to know what the giant had in the garden. As long as it doesn’t come home with him, he doesn’t care.
The kitchen smelled wonderful. Whatever Barnaby was cooking was going to be delicious today. Like all the rest of his food. The older wizard was at the counter, dancing as he cut vegetables.
“Hey Pops, I heard you wanted to talk to me.” Charlie walked over and stole a carrot from the cutting board. Barnaby looked up at him with a smile.
“Those are for dinner.” Charlie chuckled as Barnaby handed him another carrot. “I wanted to talk to you about Draco. You need to talk to him.” Charlie chewed on the carrot. He didn’t know what to say. Out of all the people, why would he want Charlie to talk to him?
“Pops, you want me to talk to him? Why not Harry? You know he is better at words, and feelings, and nicer. I’m the grumpy one, remember?” Charlie knew that Draco and he had things in common, but he wasn’t the type of person who could help with talking.
Barnaby wiped his hands on the blue towel that was slung over his shoulder. The smaller wizard walked around and cupped his cheeks. “My sweet grumpy bear of a child. You are the best person to talk to him. You know what he is going through. You have both been changed in a way that was no fault of your own. He needs to know that he is not alone. I know you have therapy and so does Draco, but you have someone he doesn’t and that was my sunshine, Harry.”
Charlie nodded. It was true, Harry was someone that he could go to and didn’t have the judgment of others. Though he didn’t always want the help from his husband, the sweet fae never gave up.
“Okay, I’ll talk to him. I will try to get some time with him today.” Barnaby tapped his cheeks.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that you two will have some time to talk. Now help me with the rest of the dinner.” Charlie huffed a laugh and helped his father-in-law. There wasn’t much that he wouldn’t do for the older wizard.
Draco
The paintbrush tapped against the palette. Draco bit his bottom lip as he looked at the canvas in front of him. This painting was abstract. The strokes and flicks were unplanned. After what happened the other night, Draco hasn’t left his home. Severus had been over to work; everything was normal there. The older potion master didn’t even bring up what happened. He knew Barnaby would have told Severus.
Today was Sunday, which meant it was family dinner night. There was no way that he was going today. Justin would be there and he didn’t want to see him. What would he think of him? It was different when Justin was in his art therapy, but then he was a mind healer and on top of everything. Justin found out that he was in the same facility as his brother.
Draco wanted to be mad at Toby, but deep down he knew Toby wouldn’t have told Justin the reason that he was in there. He would just avoid the mind healer, no matter what it took. He looked into it and they had art therapy on a different day. For family dinners, he would make sure he would go to the ones that he knew Justin would not be at.
The potion master refused to think about why this hurt so much. How daft he was to think that a man would like him? He was broken, scarred, and marred. Maybe his father was right all along. He was weak. He has shown it many times recently. Draco couldn’t even face someone who showed nothing but kindness to him. He didn’t know why Justin showed him kindness. The man hardly knew him. Was it because he was a mind healer? That he knew that there was something wrong with him? Was he just a project that he wanted to fix? Draco will never know the answer to that question because Justin wouldn’t get close again.
Draco dragged the brush down the canvas when he heard the floo go off. He groaned. He knew it was one of his adoptive family members. They couldn’t leave him alone. Draco placed the paintbrush down and wiped his hands on the handkerchief that hung from his back pocket.
When he walked into the sitting room, he stopped quickly. It wasn’t Severus like he thought it would be. Charlie stood with his hands clasped in front of him.
*Hey Draco,* He signed slowly. *Are you okay?* Draco nodded. He knew Charlie was still working on his sign language. He summoned a journal so they could communicate.
“Good, we were worried because you didn’t come to dinner.” Draco motioned the redhead over to the couch. He was still confused out of all the people they sent Charlie over. He wasn’t much of a talker.
‘No need to worry. I was just working on a painting and lost track of the time.’ Charlie raised his eyebrow. Draco held his gaze.
“I think that is bullshit. You were avoiding your family.” Charlie leaned back on the couch with his arms crossed. Draco rolled his eyes and wrote into his journal.
‘You can see I’m wearing my painting clothes.I can show you the painting.’ He shoved the journal over to Charlie, who huffed.
“Oh, I believe you were painting, but what I don’t believe is that you forgot. You don’t have to lie to me, Draco. I have avoided my family a lot.” Draco pulled the journal back onto his lap and the pen scraped over the page.
‘I don’t appreciate you calling me a liar, Charlie. If you have nothing else to say, you can go.’ Charlie leaned over and read as he wrote. A huge freckled hand covered his. Draco wanted to pull away, but he looked up at him.
“I’m sorry, please, can I talk to you? I know how you feel, Draco, maybe not completely, but I know what it feels like to be broken. That you can never be the same as you were before.” Charlie’s voice was low and calm. Draco deflated. He didn’t want to hear this, but he figured there was no way out. The blond nodded, and Charlie squeezed his hand before he pulled away.
“Staying away from people isn’t helping Draco. Justin was really worried about you. He was at a family dinner today. He really does like you Draco.” Draco felt himself blush and hated that he did.
‘He doesn’t care about me, not really. He sees me as another patient. Someone he has to fix.’ Charlie watched as he wrote. The redhead chuckled, which made Draco huff.
‘WHAT?’ Draco wrote and Charlie smiled at him.
“You are reminding me of myself. When I first met Harry, I thought he was annoying with him being all rainbow and sunshine. I thought he saw me as someone to pity, someone to fix. After many awkward encounters. Including me walking in on him, practically naked. After my brother Bill helped me get out of my head, I asked him on a date properly.” Charlie bumped their shoulders together as Draco took in everything that he said.
“We have had our issues, Draco, but Harry has stuck with me even though I’m a grumpy bastard. Me not having legs doesn’t mean I don’t deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy. I know Justin doesn’t think of you that way. You are not the scars on your face, you are not broken because you can’t speak. ” Draco felt a tear fall down his cheek and land on the words he wrote. “Can you promise me you will at least try?”
Draco took a shaky breath and nodded. Charlie squeezed his hand and stood up.
“This was a good chat, Draco. I would love to spend more time together. I promise I will work on my signing. I need to get going. I'm on bath duty tonight. You will understand when you become a parent. That is something else you deserve to have. I can see it now, your blond hair and Justin’s curls. See ya Draco.” Charlie disappeared as quickly as he came. Draco didn’t know the ex-dragon trainer, and he had things in common. Plus, he could be so soft. He had a lot to think about.
Justin,
There was a knock on his office door. Justin looked up from the notes that he was supposed to read before his next appointment. Since Draco had an anxiety attack at art therapy, he hasn’t been able to focus on anything. It was too late; he was in too deep.
“Come in.” Justin closed the file and looked up to see Barnaby walk in with a big brown paper bag. The older wizard smiled at him, and Justin mirrored the smile back.
“Hi! I hope you don’t mind that I brought you lunch! We haven’t had lunch in a while and I want to catch up with you!” Justin stood up and walked out of his desk and took the bag from Barnaby and kissed his cheek.
“I don’t mind at all! I would have skipped lunch today if you hadn’t shown up.” Justin took his wand and flicked it toward his desk. He now had room for them to eat.
“See, I’m glad that I came. I hate to think of one of my boys not eating. I have been busy with Neville’s wedding prep that I haven’t been able to check up on you as I should. I see Anthony every week outside of family dinner because he has story time, but with you and Draco, it’s tougher. In a few more weeks, the wedding will be over and I will have much more for everyone. Now tell me, how have you been?” The older wizard smiled at him. Justin couldn’t believe someone could love as Barnaby loved.
Justin handed out their lunches. It looked like Barnaby had picked up burgers from their favorite diner when they went out to eat together.
“I’m doing okay, just been working.” He ate a chip. Fried food always made him feel better.
“I can see you have been working. I’ve told you that you need to relax. All you do is work.” Barnaby shook his head and took a bite of his burger.
Justin huffed and rolled his eyes. “I tried to do something besides work, like dating, but I ended up screwing it up. This time, all I did was talk to my brother.” Justin deflated in his seat. His appetite was gone.
“Give him time, Justin. I know you are full of love and you care about people or you wouldn’t be a mind healer. Draco should come around soon. Life hasn’t been easy for him. Just like life hasn’t been easy for you or your brother.” Barnaby reached over and squeezed his hand. It didn’t take long after meeting Barnaby that he told his newly adopted Pops about what happened between his family.
“I understand, I do. There is just something about him, Pops. That I can’t get over. His gray eyes, almost white hair, that smirk that he has when he taunts Severus. Then, when he is doing his art, there is a different side of him. It’s the only time that he looks free. Free from the world that has harmed him.” Justin groaned as his head leaned back against the chair.
“Did you know I flirted with Ruby for about 12 years before he asked me out? The first time I saw my gentle giant, he didn’t speak. He would come into my shop and get what he needed and leave. It wasn’t until I started chatting with Harry that he stayed around longer. Ruby had been hurt by the people he loved the most. My sweet husband loves with all of his heart, but it has been broken too many times.” Barnaby’s eyes always shined with love when he talked about Hagrid. He wanted a love like theirs. His own parents didn’t love each other as they do.
“So I will have to wait 12 years for Draco?” Barnaby raised his eyebrow. “Not that I wouldn’t wait 12 years for Draco. I will wait as long as it takes.” Justin watched as the older wizard lowered his eyebrow and smiled at him.
“You won’t have to wait that long. I have a feeling Draco will come around soon. Don’t give up hope. Now I wanna see you eat your burger at least. Tell me how Toby is doing!” Justin smiled, and he was thankful for the subject change.