James Potter’s Daughter

Harry stood in the doorway of her shop and just took it in.

It was finished.

Two years worth of work and Cedric’s Sweets was predicted to have a record breaking opening the next day.

The Daily Prophet had written numerous articles about the shop and would be there in the morning to photograph the ribbon cutting. There were tents lined down the sidewalk of people who wanted to be the first in Harry Potter’s shop.

Harry walked up and down the aisles of sweets and treats and touched Cedric’s ring on her chest.

“You’d love it,” Harry whispered, hoping he could somehow hear her. “It’s going to make so many people happy.”

It was already making Harry happy. It also had drained most of her money that her parents left her to get stocked and pay the employees for the first year. That didn’t even cover the business permits Sirius paid for or the insurance that Draco loaned her the money to pay.

There was quite a bit more to owning a business than Harry thought, but outside of ingredients and packaging, all the sales for the first year were profits to replenish Harry’s empty vault with. Well, ten percent was being automatically transferred to a trust vault for Mikael and another thirty percent was for Elise, but Harry would still earn sixty percent of the profits minus production costs.

Honestly, there was more math than anything involved. Elise was brilliant at math though so she was the business manager while Harry was the marketing manager and in charge of the potion recipes to create the sweets.

The entire shop was so perfect, so bright and colorful, so happy. It was everything Harry dreamed it would be and more.

“Harry?” Elise poked her head through the hidden employee entrance in the back. She had cut her hair recently, shortening it so Mikael didn’t have as much to pull, and Harry thought it suited her.

Elise looked mature with the dark blonde locks framing her face in a cute and angled bob. Harry called her a MILF, Ginny called her a Karen. Elise truly had grown up and matured since Mikael had been born in February, but she still had plenty of the sass, wit, and humor that Harry adored.

“Are you coming or not?” Elise demanded. “Everyone’s waiting.”

“Yeah.” Harry smiled again at the store that would be filled with customers the next day and went with her best friend to go have a celebration dinner with her family.

It was Remus’ idea, thoughtful man that he was, to have everyone who had a hand in helping with the shop have dinner together. Harry was nervous, in a way, to have it… it wasn’t as if she were on the best terms with all the invited guests…

Harry had just returned from Hogwarts and didn’t even get a chance to hold her godson before she spotted Fred waiting on her porch swing.

“Hey,” Fred grinned and his eyes didn’t crinkle in the way they usually did. “Got a minute?”

Harry gave Draco a pleading look, begging him to not start anything. Draco despised Fred, in a way that was adorable and endearing.

“I’ll just go pretend he’s not about to hit on my girlfriend then, shall I?” Draco sneered at Fred.

“That’d be great, thanks,” Fred said to Draco’s back as Draco strode past him to the door.

Draco paused for a moment, Harry could see his muscles tensing beneath his shirt, and then he went inside and slammed the door hard behind him.

Fred looked at Harry then and Harry made herself busy by stroking Hedwig’s feathers from where her brilliant girl was perched on her shoulder.

“I thought… I thought you needed time?” Fred asked, sounding so suddenly sad that it made Harry want to cry.

Harry looked at Fred and thought about how he had been her first magical friend, her best friend for a lot of hard times. Fred punched Lockhart in the nose when he made Harry uncomfortable and Fred didn’t judge Harry when she slept with Tonks.

But Fred had also taken his own confusion over his sexuality out on Harry multiple times in a way that Draco never had.

“I did,” Harry told him, bravely forcing herself to look in his eyes as she broke his heart. “And when I was ready… it was Draco.”

“Because he was there?” Fred asked in a small voice.

“No.” Harry shook her head and absently touched her necklace that held her promise ring from Cedric and the charm Draco bought her in Vegas.

“It wasn’t because Draco was there when I was ready, it was that he’s always been there,” Harry told Fred honestly.

Draco was there through… everything. As a rival to drive Harry to higher levels, as a friend when Harry needed one, and as someone who had always accepted Harry just as she was- no matter who she had been pretending to be.

Fred’s lower lip wobbled and Harry hated that. Harry hated hurting him, she did. Harry wished that Fred had never fallen in love with her so they could remain best friends forever and plan pranks together and talk shop over their lunch breaks.

“I needed time too,” Fred said. “I- not everyone’s like you, Harry.”

Harry grinned some, nobody was like her.

“You’re still my best friend,” Harry said as the only thing she could offer.

Harry loved Draco and she was in love with Draco. Harry loved Fred, but she wasn’t in love with him.

It still surprised Harry that she was so confident about being in love with Draco after what she had with Cedric. Harry had believed that a great love didn’t happen for someone more than once, but she was lucky.

Cedric had been Harry’s Lily, but Draco was her Sirius.

Cedric was Harry’s fairytale prince, Draco was her home.

“I… I don’t know if we can be best friends,” Fred said with water welling up in his blue eyes. “You chose Draco Malfoy, Harry. He’s going to hurt you.”

What Fred didn’t understand was that it wasn’t a choice because there had been no competition.

“I don’t think so,” Harry disagreed, trying for once to spare someone’s feelings. “But, don’t tell him I said this or I’ll kill you, but I think it’s worth it even if he does.”

Harry had been staying at the shop late every day that summer and not once had she seen Fred. George popped by, Ginny and Ron as well, Harry even was hand delivered an invitation to Bill Weasley’s wedding (Harry swooned and Draco scowled), but Fred didn’t show his face at all.

It sort of… proved Harry right, honestly.

Fred had only been Harry’s friend when he was attracted to her, but when there wasn’t an opening for a romantic relationship, he left her behind. Harry wished she had came to that brilliant breakthrough on her own, but it had actually been Remus who suggested it when Harry had been crying on his shoulder over it.

But Draco - silly, spoiled, darling, Draco - had worked as hard as Harry had all summer. Harry put him in the brewing and baking section, utilizing his skills with potioneering. Even when Pansy and Blaise (who were a thing) came by, Draco ignored their teasing jabs about being whipped and used his long and clever fingers to shape the chocolates in the shapes Harry described.

In return, Harry let Draco help her hire the summer staff.

Draco was hysterical as he haughtily grilled their classmates that applied for the summer positions. Draco refused to hire anyone who didn’t receive at least an E in potions on their OWLS and Harry refused to hire anyone who had ever teased her.

In the end, they hired Clara Creevey, Susan Bones, and Luna Lovegood. With Harry, Draco, and Elise working there full-time and Sirius helping out when he could, Harry thought it would get them through the summer.

And then Harry would have to replace Draco, which already broke her heart to do.

Harry hadn’t actually told Remus that she wouldn’t be returning to Hogwarts, she kind of… just planned on not riding the train and hoping he didn’t notice.

Which would be why it came up over dinner.

Remus and Sirius set up the backyard of the cottage with picnic tables for everyone to sit at. There were yellow and purple decorations, the shop colors, and everyone was relaxing with drinks and food while they chatted with each other.

Amos and Ruth showed up to support Harry and they had wept during the tour of the shop when they saw the framed photo of Cedric behind the counter. Mikael was being passed around from ‘grandma’ to ‘grandma’ as Molly and Ruth kept hogging him and Mikael just wanted to crawl across the lawn. Sirius was in his element as he talked quidditch with George, Ginny, and Draco. Remus was having a boring conversation with Amos, Arthur, and Professor McGonagall about politics or something daft. Susan, Clara, and Luna were there as well, sneaking drinks and laughing together as they had apparently bonded by accepting a ‘dangerous’ summer job.

Harry didn’t know that working in a candy shop was ‘dangerous’, but she was pleased when Ginny explained that it was working for Harry that made the position so dangerous.

Professor Snape refused Harry’s invite to the dinner, citing that he was enjoying the summer without her. Harry pointed out that her constant theft of his potions were as important to the business as anything and she received a very irritated response to that. Then Harry sent him a reminder of when the shop opened and she got a single ‘K’ in response.

After eating dinner, Harry had just been sitting between Elise and Pansy, soaking in all the warmth, laughter, and love in the yard.

“Fred didn’t come,” Elise murmured. Harry’s head was on Elise’s shoulder and Elise stroked her hair. “I can slit his throat, I know the password to their flat.”

“Ugh, sometimes I forget you’re a muggle,” Pansy said with no real malice to the insult. “Do you want to be covered in blood? Because poison makes much more sense.”

Harry smiled, but it wasn’t a genuine one.

“It’s fine,” she lied. “I mean, I worked my arse off in his shop, but his fragile male ego is too weak to help me with mine.”

“Men,” Elise and Pansy snorted in tangent, causing all three of them to giggle.

Harry was so relaxed that it caught her entirely off guard when Remus screeched across the lawn—

“What do you mean Harry’s applying to sit for the NEWTS?!”

Harry looked up and saw that Remus was glaring at her across the yard while Amos - who Harry had asked to help her fill out the NEWTS application form - mouthed silent apologies from beside him.

“Surprise!” Harry said as she straightened up. Harry gave Remus a dazzling smile and hoped he was too polite to have a row in front of their guests.

“You’re quitting?” Sirius asked as he too gawked at Harry.

“I like to think I’ve outgrown the castle,” Harry said politely. “It was a wonderful education and I’m ready to apply my talents in the real world.”

Remus might have had more to say about it, but when Professor McGonagall burst in tears and began thanking every individual star in the sky, it quite ended the current conversation.

“You look very grown up,” Remus told Harry the next morning.

Everyone was up early and anxious to get to the opening. Harry had on a yellow summer dress while Elise wore a purple one in an identical cut. The boys all had yellow shirts that said ‘Cedric’s Sweets’ in purple bubble letters. And little Mikael looked positively adorable in his little yellow suit with a rainbow bow tie that he kept yanking at.

Harry was fretting in the mirror, going over all the ways that the first day could go wrong, when Remus slipped inside the nearly vacant bedroom.

Elise was really the only one who stayed at the cottage, Harry and Draco worked late in the night most of the summer and they tended to crash in the flat above the shop where they had… privacy.

Harry looked at Remus in the mirror and tried to smile, but her lips were quivering.

“Dad… what if I mess everything up?” she asked. “Everyone’s invested so much money and time… I owe Sirius and Draco money and I’ve spent all my money… there’ll be nothing for Mikael if I mess this up.”

“Harry.” Remus put his hands on Harry’s shoulders and rubbed them gently while he smiled at her in the mirror. “Do you think we all invested in you because we didn’t believe that you could pull it off?”

Remus kissed the top of Harry’s head, avoiding the sparkles that Harry decorated her black braids with, and Harry closed her eyes and tried to absorb Remus’ confidence.

“You’re going to be amazing,” Remus said. “You’re already amazing, and I’m so- Harry, I’m just so proud of you.”

Harry felt her nose sting with tears and she waved her hands in front of her face, trying to keep from crying.

“Dad, you’ll ruin my makeup,” Harry sniffled. She turned around so she could throw her arms around Remus and hug him tightly. “I love you so much, you’re truly the best dad in the world.”

“And I love you even if I think you should go back to school.”

Harry hummed and held Remus for an extra moment, not taking the bait for an argument before one of the biggest days of her life.

At nine o’clock on the dot, Harry, her family, and her staff stood in front of Cedric’s Sweets in Diagon Alley.

Harry was beaming, her nerves pushed away when she arrived and saw the genuine mob that waited for the doors to open, and held a pair of scissors against a ribbon while the photographer for the paper snapped dozens of photos.

“You’re loving this,” Draco said in a whisper without dropping his smile.

“Me? Loving attention? You’re thinking of your other girlfriend,” Harry whispered back.

“I probably am, she’s much sweeter than you are.”

The Daily Prophet got a photo of Harry cutting the ribbon, but they also got a brilliant shot of Harry smacking Draco in the chest too.

Harry saw many familiar faces that day.

Almost every classmate she had showed up for the grand opening, including Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Harry snickered with Elise when Elise commented that Harry could have done much better for her first kiss.

Professor Snape did show up and Harry was pleased to show him the licorice flavored bat-treats she made just for him. Professor Snape didn’t buy anything, but Professor Slughorn bought loads of treats when he arrived. Even Professor Dumbledore came to see the shop and Harry was beaming when he told her that it was a wonderful memorial to a sweet student.

Harry didn’t have much time to chat with anyone though, as much as she was running around. There were things that needed restocked, reporters that wanted quotes from her, and little ways that the staff kept calling for her.

The anti-theft alarm went off once and Luna asked Harry what to do with the little black haired boy that ran off after finding himself unable to steal anything. Someone cast a charm too close to Harry’s computer - which clearly had an outlined circle around it reminding the staff not to do such a thing - and Harry had to find Remus to get him to fix it. Then there was practically a riot when their Sweet Baby candies had sold out and there weren’t any more in storage.

Not only was the first day an overwhelming success and simply overwhelming, but the entire first two weeks of the shop being open had been constant work.

Elise and Remus had to keep swapping out to take care of Mikael upstairs (Harry didn’t like the way that Mikael wanted to crawl and nobody seemed to watch the floor for a baby), but the rest of the staff worked from the time they opened at nine until well after they closed to restock and clean.

“I’m too tired to even kiss you,” Harry groaned on Saturday night. They had worked for two weeks non-stop and Harry was so pleased she insisted the shop close on Sundays during the summer. Harry was going to sleep all day long and then try and finish moving in the flat.

Harry and Draco laid in their bed together, both completely drained.

“Are you too tired to have a shag?” Draco asked her.

Harry turned her head to say yes and then decided that, no, she actually wasn’t too tired for that.

Sirius was an emotional wreck the next afternoon when Harry, Elise, Draco, and Mikael arrived to pick up the last of their belongings.

“You’re a baby,” Sirius wailed while he held Harry hostage against him.

Harry tried to plead silently with Draco or Elise to save her, but they both smirked like twats and refused.

“Padfoot, you’ll see me every day,” Harry promised her very weepy godfather. “You’re the one who said the cottage was cramped!”

“Because you’ve got a boyfriend on the sofa and a baby in your bedroom and you’re all grown up now!”

“Daaaaad,” Harry whined, looking for the emotionally-stable one in the family. Harry batted her lashes at Remus. “Get your husband, please?”

When Remus sniffled, Harry knew it was going to take forever to move her final box.

It wasn’t that Harry wasn’t sad as well… her bedroom in Remus’ cottage had been the first place where Harry truly felt at home. Harry fondly remembered when it had been just her and Remus… before Harry had to share him with Sirius.

Harry had gotten her first period in that room… she put makeup on herself for the first time in that room… Harry mourned Cedric there and learned about her godson there…

“I can’t do it!” Harry suddenly cried, hugging Sirius back fiercely. “You’re going to give my room to another orphan and replace me and I’m going to be all alone—”

“We don’t count,” Elise whispered to Draco.

“And she calls me dramatic,” Draco replied drily.

“—and nobody else is ever going to love me again!”

Harry and Sirius held each other and cried while Remus was quick to wrap them both in a hug and mumble promises that they’d never replace Harry between his own pitiful sobs.

“We’d never replace you!”

“You’re going to take back the adoption!”

“You’re the best daughter in the world!”

“I can’t go, I can’t!”

“You’re all grown up!”

“Don’t forget us!”

“That was the most dramatic thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life,” Draco told Harry when they finally left the cottage many hours later.

Draco carried the charmed boxes of Harry and Elise’s belongings while Harry snuggled Mikael as a reminder of what she was moving forward for.

“Remus was the first person to ever love me,” Harry said mournfully. “And I truly think he’s going to forget me soon.”

“Like my and Draco’s parents all did,” Elise added helpfully, causing Harry to let out a wretched sob that woke Mikael and made Draco sigh.

As much as Harry loved the cottage, she loved the flat above the shop almost as much.

It wasn’t huge, but it was comfortable. They had an open living room and kitchen that Sirius and Remus furnished for Harry as an early birthday present. The walls were a boring white, but they had been too focused on the shop to decorate much upstairs. There was a wall entirely covered in photos- Harry and Elise when they were children, Harry and Draco flying together, Mikael being held by practically every person they knew, and many more of their families and friends.

Harry and Draco’s room was painted, because Draco could use magic freely and thought he was funny to paint the walls green. Mikael’s room was a pretty blue with colorful balloons and flowers hand-painted by Luna Lovegood. Elise said she would paint her room when she felt like it, but as she stayed with George quite often, Harry didn’t think she’d feel up to painting any time soon.

“Are you truly sad or trying to guilt me about something?” Draco asked that night when it was just the two of them cuddling on the couch together.

“I’m a bit sad,” Harry admitted. “I… I didn’t have much of a home before Remus, you know. I didn’t really have a family either.”

Draco hummed and ran his fingers through Harry’s hair, soothing her and calming her.

“I hate when you’re sappy because then I have to be sappy,” Draco said quietly, as if Harry had her wand to his head. “You have created your own absurd family, Harry. Your godson, your… Elise, your parents… me. We couldn’t forget you or replace you.”

Harry smiled and snuggled a little harder.

“And we won’t forget you either,” Harry promised Draco, who hadn’t spoken to either of his parents since they disowned him in the spring. “You can be a part of our family.”

“The horror.”

Summer seemed to fly by and Harry tried to find time for Mikael around working in the shop.

It was the week before Harry’s birthday when she had taken a break from the shop to take Mikael to Florean Fortescue's for an ice cream.

Florean was a nice man that had shared his supplier’s information with Harry when she showed an interest in having a small ice cream booth during special events. Harry was chatting with him while she watched Mikael destroy a vanilla cone and was delighted to find out that he was Neville’s maternal grandfather.

“Alice and Lily were so thrilled to be pregnant at the same time,” Florean told Harry. “Now, it’s funny how it worked out, because your mother wanted a boy and Alice wanted a girl.”

“Oh.” Harry didn’t think that was funny at all. “Were they disappointed?”

“Not at all, dear!” Florean assured her quickly. “Here’s what they did… Every pink bow that my Alice bought she gave to your mother in exchange for every blue outfit your mother bought.”

When Florean promised to dig out his albums for Harry, he sort of became her favorite fellow-shopkeeper.

Harry had been so busy that summer that she completely forgot about the animagus transformation potion she and Draco had created until he reminded her.

Draco yanked Harry away from the register, where Harry had been in the middle of a conversation with Susan’s aunt Amelia, and called for Luna to take Harry’s place.

“Lightning storm in Cardiff soon,” Draco told Harry with a trace of excitement in his voice. It took Harry a moment to realize what he was talking about and then Harry became just as outwardly excited as she knew Draco was on the inside.

The two of them gathered their potions and Harry changed into more comfortable clothes before Draco apparated them to Cardiff.

“Ready?” Harry asked Draco.

Draco held up his cup and his eyes were positively gleaming in the darkness from the forest they secluded themselves in.

“My animagus form is going to be ten times better than yours,” Draco bragged.

“I just hope I can fly,” Harry said.

They both fell silent and the air around them was alive with electricity as they waited for their cue. As soon as the lightning flashed in the sky above them, they drank their potions simultaneously.

Harry couldn’t fly, though Draco could because he was a terrible and horrible little brat. Harry wasn’t too disappointed though, she rather adored being a doe and she adored it even more when she barged in her parents’ bedroom with a silver hawk on her head.

“For the love of…” Remus didn’t even look surprised to see a doe and hawk in his room at midnight. He just blinked blearily and dropped his head back to his pillow. “James junior over here…” he mumbled.

Sirius had fallen off the bed in surprise when Harry barged in and it only took him a second before he let out a joyful shout and transformed himself to his dog.

They went outside and Harry exhausted herself by running around the yard, chasing Sirius while Draco flew over them. Being an owl would have been brilliant, but Harry was overfilled with joy when Sirius told her how much her animagus resembled James.

Amos and Ruth had asked to take Harry and Draco for breakfast on her birthday only a few days after they registered their animagus forms with the Ministry. Draco seemed uncomfortable and mentioned as much to Harry, who brushed it off.

“They’re lovely people,” Harry told him before they left together.

“They’re Diggory’s parents,” Draco said in what was nearly a whine. “They can’t possibly like me.”

Draco was wrong, so… so… so… wrong.

Which Harry rubbed in his face that night after all the celebrations.

Amos and Ruth took the two of them to a private and pretty little restaurant where they could sit outside and enjoy the early morning warmth. Harry had been touched by the cake they brought for her, but it was the golden wrapped present that started Harry’s first crying fit of the day.

“This has been in my family for generations,” Ruth said as Harry carefully unwrapped the ribbon. “It’s meant to be passed from mother to eldest daughter, on the day they become a woman.”

Harry gasped when she opened the silver box and found a beautiful tiara. It was made of silver and had a floral design around the band with a mixture of different colored gems.

“Ruth…” Harry looked across the table at Cedric’s mother tearfully. “I- I’m not…”

“You are.” Ruth reached out and grabbed Harry’s hand and squeezed it, though she was crying as well. “If- if Cedric was here, he’d want you to have it. He- he was very sure.”

Harry let out a sob and Ruth jumped from her chair so they could hug while they cried all over each other.

“You’ve honored him so beautifully,” Ruth whispered. “You’ll always be our daughter in our hearts.”

“I miss him so much,” Harry admitted. “I love him.”

“I know, honey, I know.” Ruth rubbed Harry’s back. “We all do. But… but he’s gone and I know he’d be so happy to see you in love again and keeping him alive in memory.”

Harry truly sobbed when Ruth told her that she should wear the tiara at her wedding and that Ruth absolutely expected to be invited.

Poor Draco and Amos were forced to make polite small-talk while Harry and Ruth made a spectacle on the outdoor veranda. Draco was hugged tightly by both of Cedric’s parents afterward though and made to promise ‘not to be a stranger’.

“You just walk around and make people fall in love with you,” Draco scoffed after breakfast. They returned to the flat so Harry could do her hair in a way to fit the tiara for the day.

It was her birthday, after all.

“Hmm, it’s because I’m quite charming,” Harry said. She turned around once she was satisfied and smiled at Draco. “How do I look?”

Draco looked Harry over from the tiara she wore chest down to where her painted toes peeped out of the heels she wore.

“You look like we’re going to be very late to your party,” Draco said as he took long and slow strides toward her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and Harry laughed when he lifted her and then tossed her on the bed.

“Sex doesn’t count as a birthday present,” Harry said, a bit breathlessly as Draco began unbuttoning his shirt to show his pale and muscled abs.

“It does the way I do it,” Draco smirked.

“God, you’re arrogant.”

“You’re wearing a bloody priceless tiara, Potter.”

“It’s my birthday and I want to be a princess.”

Draco dropped his shirt and then fell to his knees as he pulled Harry’s legs so she was on the edge of the bed. Draco smirked at her and Harry could practically taste her heart in her throat.

“You’re a queen,” Draco said, his eyes smoldering. He hooked Harry’s leg over his shoulder and turned his head so he could kiss the inside of her thigh. “My queen.”

They were very late to Harry’s party.

Harry told everyone not to buy her things for her birthday as they had all invested in her store and volunteered to help get it running, but she was apparently to be ignored.

Elise gave Harry a picture of the two of them from when they were little girls in a picture frame that Mikael painted. It was a very adorable photo and Harry loved the messy frame from her godson.

Ginny, Pansy, Katie, and Blaise got Harry clothes. Beautiful, perfect, lovely clothes. (Harry was rather possessive over her clothes she refused to feel badly about that as she spent twelve years only wearing ugly boy clothes from Dudley.) Harry laughed when she saw the jeans Blaise got her, a feminine cut to his favorite ones that Draco destroyed.

Remus made Harry cry, again, when he told her that it was tradition for witches to get a brooch that represented their family name. Poor Remus had been a stammering fool when Harry unwrapped it curiously.

“There was a lily, I should have gotten that with ruby gems for James and Lily, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking… we can exchange it.”

Harry was delighted when she saw the moon shaped brooch with the onyx gems and the silver fastenings. Not only was it beautiful, but it was perfect.

Harry would always love her biological parents, she wasn’t a monster. James and Lily Potter were the heroes that killed Voldemort when he went to attack Harry. It was a tragedy that they died and Harry appreciated the sacrifice and gift of life they gave her.

But they were dead and Harry had never known them outside of the memories of others.

And Remus and Sirius were there. They were there and they loved Harry and they were truly her parents in the way that counted.

“I told him that Harry wouldn’t want the lily,” Sirius told Draco with an amused smile while his husband and goddaughter embraced and cried. “He’s a fool for thinking she would.”

“He’s a fool regardless,” Draco said. He shrugged when Sirius gave him a curious frown. “He actually volunteered to keep that mad girl around for the rest of his life.”

“Says you,” Elise snorted. She side-eyed Draco. “Where’s your gift?”

“Shall I make her cry again?” Draco asked with a smirk.

George had his arm around Elise’s waist and Mikael in his other arm.

“Oh, mate, you have to,” George whispered conspiratorially. “She’s wearing a bloody tiara, for Merlin’s sake, that’s a witch that wants a ring.”

Draco hummed in agreement. He had used his dose of Felix Felicis just for the occasion. And, much more importantly, Draco knew that Sirius and Remus were expecting it. Draco had properly asked Sirius on the first day of summer for permission and Sirius sent him to Remus.

After Remus threatened Draco to hades and back if he ever hurt Harry, Sirius took Draco to the Black Vault and helped him choose an heirloom ring to give Harry. Draco would have spent the entirety of the money Harry swindled from his parents on the ring - Harry was worth millions of galleons and more- but Remus and Sirius were insistent that Harry would prefer an heirloom.

Though, Draco rather thought that Sirius simply got a sort of sick adrenaline rush from knowing that another disinherited member of the House of Black would give a ring of theirs to a half-blood.

“He really loves me,” Harry said to Elise that night.

It was late, very late, but Harry was wide-awake and snuggling with Elise while they watched a movie together. Draco had fallen asleep earlier and Harry still couldn’t wipe the image of him on one knee, in front of all of Harry’s family and friends, being so sappy that Harry would mock him for an eternity.

“He’s loved you for years,” Elise snorted. “I can’t believe you said yes.”

Harry looked down at the diamond ring that rested on her ring finger and couldn’t keep from smiling.

It was terribly romantic. The entire day felt like something from a dream Harry might have had as a child.

“I feel as if… as if I don’t deserve any of this,” Harry told Elise very quietly. She looked nervously over at Elise. “Does that sound mental?”

“It does,” Elise said sweetly. She shifted around until she was laying on Harry’s shoulder. “I’ll only say this once, you needy twat, but you deserve all the good things, Harry. Look at how much good you do for everyone else.”

Harry didn’t exactly think of herself as someone who did good for other people, but either she did something great at some point or karma simply didn’t exist.

The free-flow of love in Harry’s life continued the next weekend at Bill and Fleur’s wedding. Harry was a little bit envious of both Bill and Fleur, something Draco scowled at, but Harry adored weddings.

Even weddings where Fred Weasley kept shooting Harry sad little looks that hurt Harry’s feelings.

“You’re thinking of our wedding, right?” Draco asked after the ceremony ended and he and Harry were twirling around the dance floor with everyone else.

“I was thinking of Bill and Fleur’s honeymoon actually,” Harry teased him. “They’re almost unfairly perfect.”

Draco looked at Fleur and made Harry blush when he raised a shoulder in a dismissive shrug.

“He’s a Weasley and she’s okay looking,” Draco said. “We’re a much more attractive couple.”

“You’re biased,” Harry laughed. She looked around the floor and saw that Elise was dancing with George, Remus and Sirius were dancing together, and Ginny was even dancing with Dean Thomas, who kept whispering things that made Ginny giggle.

“No, you’re right,” Harry agreed. She scrunched her nose when she saw Hermione Granger was there as well, dancing with Ron Weasley. “We really are the prettiest couple.”

Except Harry still brazenly asked Bill to dance with her, showing him that she was no longer a kid. Draco watched with what Harry could only describe as patient exasperation while they danced and it sort of made Harry love Draco even more.

Fred caught Harry at the end of the night while Draco obliged Ginny with a dance. Harry was standing by the exit, rather out of breath and with aching feet, when Fred wandered over to her.

“I heard you’re engaged,” he said as he glanced at Harry’s hand where Draco’s great-great aunt Belvina’s diamond ring rested.

“I am,” Harry said evenly. She bit her lip and hoped that a bridge could begin to mend between them. Harry was hurt that Fred wasn’t there for when she opened her shop, but she could look past it if Fred could look past his own hurt feelings. “We’re thinking next summer, after Dray graduates.”

Harry was thinking of something three times as grand as Bill and Fleur’s very classy wedding, Draco was insisting on Las Vegas. Harry wanted to be a true princess for her day, Draco just wanted to spite his parents, so Harry was sure that she would win the ongoing argument.

“That seems fast,” Fred said. “Why the rush?”

“Why wait?” Harry asked. She watched Draco spin Ginny out and smiled to herself. Draco was handsome, smart, sweet, and Harry adored him even more for his less perfect qualities. Draco could be a whiny brat when he was tired, he had no idea how to cook, he was catty, and he hated to lose.

“You think if you wait that you’ll change your mind?”

Harry sighed, she didn’t want to hurt Fred more, but she didn’t need to explain her choices to someone who refused to even be friends.

“Fred, I love him and for some unfathomable reason, he loves me,” Harry said genuinely. “I could wait fifty years and still want to marry him. I- I’m sorry, I hate that you’re hurt, and I hate that we aren’t best friends anymore, but I can’t apologize for loving him. I won’t.”

“Don’t apologize,” Fred whispered after a long moment of silence between them. Fred reached out and squeezed Harry’s left hand while he smiled a little sadly. “You can’t help who you love, right?”

Harry didn’t tell Fred that she wouldn’t change who she was in love with even if she could, Harry just squeezed his hand back and then let it drop.

If there was ever a single glimmer of Harry and Fred being friends again, Harry wanted to take it. But Harry wouldn’t disregard Draco for a friendship.

Harry was brewing in the workroom of the shop in the middle of August when Susan poked her head in.

“Hiya, Harry,” Susan said with a friendly smile. “Sorry to bother you, but that little thief came back.”

Harry frowned and cast a stasis charm on her cauldron, so grateful that she didn’t need Draco or Susan to cast spells for her anymore.

“Did he take anything?” Harry asked.

“Nope. Those charms are still in place,” Susan said. She shrugged and looked sad for a moment. “I offered to buy him something, but he just ran off again.”

“Alright,” Harry said. The little thief they had was just a small boy, maybe eight or nine years old, and showed up during their rushes and ate as many samples as he could and tried to pocket sweets. Harry wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it, considering that it was a little kid and it wasn’t as if he was ever successful at stealing anything.

Harry mentioned it to Florean that afternoon when she took Mikael for an after-dinner treat. Harry liked spending time in the ice cream parlor, it was comfortable there and Florean always let Harry look through his photo albums as often as she wanted.

“Little kid? Dark brown hair?” Florean sighed deeply when Harry nodded. “I try and catch him when he walks by here, but the kid is quick.”

“Who is he?” Harry asked.

“Nobody knows,” Florean said. “Ollivander doesn’t recognize him, and you know that old coot recognizes every child he sees.”

“Hmm,” Harry hummed and decided to distract herself from Draco’s upcoming departure with the mystery of the little thief.

Mardina, at Magical Menagerie, recognized the description immediately.

“‘E’s always tryin’ to steal biscuits and treats,” Mardina said grumpily. “I ‘ad to call the law enforcement last time.”

“Over a child stealing some biscuits?” Harry asked, appalled. Harry made a point of replacing the bag of owl treats she planned to buy for Hedwig and stalked out of the shop.

Alicia Spinnet was working at Quality Quidditch Supplies until the middle of September when she would be off to university. Harry caught her on a break and described the kid to her.

“Oh, his name’s John,” Alicia told Harry. “He’s a nice kid, he comes in the shop sometimes and looks at the brooms.”

Harry was pleased with getting the boy’s first name until she asked for a surname and Alicia told her it was Doe.

“He told you his name is John Doe?” Harry asked. “Alicia, darling… that had to be fake.”

“Mmm, I don’t think so,” Alicia said. “It’s a bit common, but why would he lie?”

Why indeed?

“And nobody knows who he is!” Harry vented to Verity, the pretty shop assistant at Fred and George’s shop. “He’s a little ghost thief!”

“He’s in here all the time,” Verity said before popping a bubble with the gum she chewed. Verity leaned her hip against the counter and seemed content to chat with Harry while she watched a group of kids giggle over the pygmy puffs.

Those puffs were a rip off. Pinkie had escaped from her cage and ran away, breaking Elise’s heart.

“There’s just something off about him,” Harry fretted. “Why’s he always around? Why does he never have parents with him?”

“Who knows?” Verity shrugged. “Maybe he’s a runaway?”

“That’s terrible, you know that, right?” Harry asked her.

“I’d feel worse but he’s also a little prick,” Verity said absently, narrowing her eyes when the kids reached for the handle of the pygmy puff cage. “Oi! Don’t open that unless you plan to buy all of them!”

The kids yanked their hands back guiltily and Harry left the store not much longer, avoiding running into Fred before he returned from wherever he was.

The mystery of the little thief was put on hold when September first rolled around and Harry had to prepare herself for an entire school year without Draco.

“Are you going to cry?” Draco asked Harry. They stood on the platform together and Harry had been tearful until Draco mocked her for it.

“Tears of joy,” Harry deadpanned. “I can finally hire an assistant who likes people.”

Draco curled his lip up in distaste. “People are terrible.”

“They really are,” Harry agreed. Despite their lighthearted teasing, Harry was clutching Draco’s hand just as tightly as he was hers.

“You’ll never find anyone to replace me,” Draco said.

“Why bother? You’ll be back in a week, bored out of your mind without me,” Harry teased him. “Who will you compete with, Dray?”

“I’ll finally have time to study, as school is intended for,” Draco said drily.

They stepped closer to each other and Harry looked up at Draco through her lashes.

“Ginny Weasley has gotten pretty,” Harry said softly.

“Red head? More like dread head,” Draco said. “Fred’s tall now though.”

“Too tall to do this.” Harry stood up on tiptoes and pressed a lingering kiss to Draco’s lips. “You’ll forget me by Christmas,” she breathed.

“Halloween, if I’m lucky.”

“Try not to wank yourself to death.”

“Try not to blow up the neighborhood while I’m gone.”

“I’ll never promise anything like that and if you don’t know that then you may as well take this ring back with you.”

“Excellent, I’ll trade it for pornography to wank over.”

Harry laughed and threw her arms around Draco’s shoulders before kissing him much more enthusiastically and not entirely properly for public.

“Have fun finally winning the house cup!” Harry yelled when Draco boarded the train and quickly opened the window for Harry to shout her final goodbyes.

“Have fun crying yourself to sleep tonight,” Draco yelled back.

“Have fun having no one to make faces at during meals!”

“Have fun having no one to remind you when you didn’t brush your hair!”

“Have fun—” Harry had to begin jogging to keep up with the train, “—being pranked by every letter I send!”

“Have fun being horn—”

“FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN!” Pansy shoved her way in the window beside Draco. “GOODBYE, HARRY!”

“OH! BYE, PANSY! I LOVE YOUUUUU!”

Harry felt rather small and alone on the platform when the train was gone and Harry was left behind for the first time.

Elise sat through interviews with Harry that week, looking for a competent brewer to take Draco’s position.

“And what was wrong with him?” Elise asked when the most recent person to apply left the shop.

Harry sighed and tapped her quill on the parchment. They had seen eight people in the four days since Draco left and none of them were a good fit. Susan, Luna, and Clara went back to school as well, but with summer ending, Harry didn’t expect them to need six full-time employees.

“He was… boring,” Harry complained. “Do we really want to work with someone boring?”

“Do we want to work sixty hours a week because you’re pining for your fiancé?” Elise countered with quickly. “Harry Leo, I swear to you if you don’t choose someone by the end of this week that I will quit.”

“Fine,” Harry complained. “I’ll just hire someone, who cares if I’m depressed and going to die of unhappiness? Oh, no, it’s all about the forty hour work week for Queen Elise!”

“Precisely.” Elise booped Harry on the nose and smirked. “Because, unlike you, my man lives just across the street.”

“I hope you get pregnant again and it’s a nine pound baby,” Harry scowled.

Elise truly shuddered and Harry could see the goosebumps on her arm.

“Don’t ever try and curse me like that,” she hissed. “I will swap your birth control with juice.”

Harry shuddered as well. As much as Harry adored Mikael and would genuinely burn the world for him if needed, Harry had no interest in having a child for at least three years…

Maybe two. Mikael was so cute.

Neither Harry nor Elise had to follow through on their idle and endless threats as the next applicant was perfectly perfect.

Harry had never interacted much with Lily Moon at school, she had been sorted in Ravenclaw the same year as Harry, but Harry sort of… forgot about her.

Lily was a pretty girl, she was short and curvy with light brown skin and the most gorgeous blonde curls. Harry liked her fun multicolored headband that held her hair back and showed off her ears that were lined with studs and hoops.

“My family moved,” Lily told Harry when Harry asked her about why they never had classes together. Lily grinned some and Harry liked the little glint of mischief in her brown eyes.

“I went to the Whitestar Academy of Magic,” Lily explained. “It’s a huge bloody kerfuffle to transfer back here, but my parents divorced and I’m finally old enough to move home. I mean, there’s no more Timmies, but I suppose my mom is worth the swap, eh?”

“You graduated then?” Harry asked, checking the form that Lily filled out.

Lily hummed and waved her right hand, showing off a variety of different rings.

“I outgrew education,” Lily said. “I’ve got a wand and a brain, I don’t think another year of sitting in a classroom was going to do much for me.”

“I could not agree more!” Harry gushed. She gestured to herself and Elise. “We’re both dropouts as well. Elise is a teen mum and I’m a family disappointment.”

Elise snorted.

“See!” Lily looked around the shop and gave it all a very approving nod. “And this place is such a beauty!”

“Isn’t it?” Harry asked with a smile, completely sold. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour and you can tell me your experience with brewing.”

Lily wasn’t Draco’s level of talented with brewing, but she was able to understand Harry’s instructions clearly enough - even spotting the trick ingredient Harry added to test applicants. By the time Lily left the shop, Harry was quite pleased to offer her the position.

“I like her,” Harry said to Elise after the interview. “She seemed fun.”

“I loved her dress!” Elise gushed, just as sold as Harry was. “And her accent? It’s so interesting!”

Harry was quite pleased by the addition of Lily and was twice as pleased when she finally caught Harry’s thief a few weeks later. Harry had just returned from the first Hogsmeade weekend at Hogwarts where she had butterbeer with Draco and her friends when she stepped in the shop and found her thief waiting beside the counter. Lily had her arms folded and didn’t even look away from the young boy while she told Harry what happened.

“Mister Doe over here,” Lily snorted, “tried to swipe a handful of choco-puffs when I caught him.”

“I said I was sorry,” the boy mumbled to the ground. “I’d be gone ‘cept she said if I didn’t tell ya that she’d call the cops.”

Harry studied the boy closely and once she got over her initial irritation at him once again trying to shoplift and her mild disgust at his filthy appearance… he was sort of pathetic looking. He was small, appeared all the more so by his oversized clothes, and there was a curl of his shoulders that was more defensive than insolent.

Harry came to a snap decision and she summoned a muggle broom from the flat upstairs to hold out to the boy.

“If you want candy, you have to earn it,” Harry told him.

The boy looked surprised and he gaped at Harry, giving her a chance to see that he had green eyes and a scar that cut through his left eyebrow.

“I can really have some if I clean?” he asked.

“And,” Harry held his eyes and wished she had ever bothered to learn legilimency, “I want to know your name.”

“Trent.” Trent snatched the broom greedily and gave Harry a rather shy and adorable grin. “Trent Bailey.”

Trent slowly became a regular fixture in Cedric’s Sweets after that day.

Trent would show up every few days, right at ten when they opened, and Harry would casually give him a list of odd jobs he could do to earn money. Harry tried to ask him some questions, but Trent only ever gave information on accident, never when Harry asked him anything.

“I can really have this?” Trent asked when Harry gave him his own shop shirt to wear. It pulled on a string in Harry’s heart to see him wearing the same filthy clothes day after day.

Trent had immediately changed and Harry subtly cast some cleaning spells on the clothes he folded neatly and tucked behind the counter.

“I ain’t had a shirt so clean in forever!” Trent said happily as he wiped down the glass display case. “D’you think I can get another one with long sleeves for when it gets cold?”

“I can get you a hooded sweater for when it gets cold, if you’d like,” Harry offered carefully. Trent was twitchy about gifts and cagey when Harry looked too interested in him.

Trent looked up at Harry with narrow eyes then.

“Only if ya think I can earn it,” he said firmly.

“I’m sure you can,” Harry said airily. “What do you wear for school?”

Trent, as he usually did when Harry asked too direct of a question, immediately dropped the rag and left the shop.

Sirius was at the shop with Harry the next time Trent slipped inside. It was Halloween and Harry and Sirius were moping some; Sirius missed James, Harry missed all her friends that mailed her condolence cards that morning.

Trent had his chest puffed out to show that his yellow shop shirt was still perfectly clean, thanks to the charms Harry cast on it, and it only made Trent’s skin appear more dirty by comparison.

“Miss Harry?” Trent walked up to Harry and peered at her. “Got any work?”

Harry remained casual, though she was rather alarmed by the bruise on Trent’s jaw.

“Actually, yes,” Harry said. “The shelf of buttercreams needs restocked. When you go back to get them, there’s bagels and juice in the break room.”

Trent nodded and gave Sirius a squinty eyed look before darting off.

“He’s a bit young to be working here, isn’t he?” Sirius asked Harry. He’d already began drinking and Harry could sense a very slight slur in his voice. Not that Harry blamed him, if her best friends had died then she would be completely sloshed every anniversary.

“There’s something off about him,” Harry told Sirius quietly. “He’s always filthy, he’s clearly not in school, and did you see that bruise? I think… I think his parents are abusing him.”

Sirius immediately sobered up and went still as he tracked Trent with his eyes when Trent returned with the boxes to restock the shelf with. Harry and Sirius were the two people least likely to take possible child abuse lightly, though Sirius was terribly unsubtle.

Harry sighed when Sirius walked over to Trent and scared the boy off almost immediately.

“That’s a hell of a bruise,” Sirius said as he traced his own jaw where Trent’s bruise was. “What happened?”

“Ain’t your damn business,” Trent snarled before leaving the boxes behind and rushing out.

“Idiot,” Harry told Sirius with a shake of her head. “He’s sensitive, Padfoot.”

Harry summoned her cloak and left Sirius in charge of the store so she could go track her little assistant. Trent spent quite some time leading Harry on what seemed to be a back alley tour of Diagon and Knockturn. It caused Harry physical pain when Trent stopped at a rubbish bin behind one of the cafes and pulled out some crusted bread to eat.

It was getting late by the time the mystery behind Harry’s little thief was solved. Harry thought Trent might lead her to his parents, people that Harry could appropriately punish for their poor treatment of a child, but Trent instead led Harry to an alley in the very deepest part of Knockturn.

Trent looked around in a very paranoid way before he lifted a blue tarp from what Harry presumed was a pile of garbage and was instead a little cardboard box house.

Harry had been heartbroken before, but it was nothing compared to what she was then.

“Trent?” Harry pulled her cloak off and slung it over her shoulder. “Trent, come out please.”

It took a few minutes, but eventually Trent did poke his head out and he glared harshly at Harry.

“Go away,” Trent said firmly, as if Harry would be frightened by a small boy living in a box. “I gotta knife and I’ll hurt ya.”

Harry did not smile, but it was a close thing.

“Well I’ve got a bed, blanket, and shower you can use for tonight,” Harry said carefully, thinking it through as she said it and hoping her dad wouldn’t turn her away. “If you’ll come tomorrow and help me paint.”

Trent’s glare lessened some and Harry liked the more age appropriate shyness on his young face.

“Is it a hotel or somethin’?” Trent asked.

“Nope. My dad’s house,” Harry said. “You’ve seen him at the shop before, and you met his husband, Sirius, today.”

“No.” Trent retreated inside his box and Harry huffed before she dropped to her hands and knees and crawled forward enough to poke her head in.

Trent was sitting against the wall with his knees pulled to his chest, only a threadbare blanket to cover himself with.

“Trent, you can’t stay here,” Harry said softly. “Remus is very kind and if you hate it then you can stay with me instead.”

“I don’t wanna,” Trent said. He had his chin sitting on his knees and he hugged his legs tightly. “You’re gonna send me back.”

“Send you back where?” Harry asked him. When Trent didn’t answer, Harry made a guess. “To your parents?”

“Ain’t got none,” Trent said quietly. “They died.”

“Oh.” Harry pulled herself fully in the box and had to scrunch herself up tightly to fit.

“My parents died too,” Harry told him.

Trent rolled his eyes at Harry, “Duh. Everyone knows that.”

“Does everyone know that I had to go live with my aunt and uncle who were very horrible to me?” Harry asked Trent solemnly. When Trent blinked at Harry and shook his head, Harry went on. “And then I went to school and one of my teachers helped me find Remus, my dad who adopted me, and I never had to go back to my horrible relatives again.”

“Can- can you adopt me?” Trent asked as his lower lip wobbled. “Please? I’ll work real hard and paint and sweep and I can scare off the sneaky man who keeps leaving traps.”

Harry laughed at the way Trent described Fred. It was the only way that Harry and Fred had interacted since Bill’s wedding- Fred left pranks around Harry’s shop, Harry retaliated by doing daft things like charming his signs to advertise her own store. It was like a small rivalry, in a way, and it made Harry hopeful that her and Fred could be friends again eventually when his hurt was gone.

“I’m much too young to be a mum to someone as awesome as you are,” Harry said - thinking of Mikael and not wanting him to necessarily share a room with Trent, who did things like threaten people with a knife. “But Remus would probably be very happy to have a great helper like you around.”

Harry leaned forward and lowered her voice to a whisper, as if she were sharing a very important secret.

“I think Remus and Sirius always wanted a boy,” Harry whispered to Trent, sensing that the kid was close to caving. “I’m great, obviously, but Sirius has started fishing and it’s very gross.”

It truly was. The little worms grossed Harry out terribly. Elise went with Sirius a time or two while Harry had been at Hogwarts the year before, but nobody had the patience for the hobby that Sirius found peace in.

“I like fishin’,” Trent said bashfully. He breathed in and it was a shaky inhale that gave away the fear he must have been feeling. “If- if I go… they won’t send me back to the orphanage?”

“Absolutely not,” Harry said confidently. “And if you think they are, you just come to me, okay?”

“Okay…” Trent bit hard on his lower lip and stared at Harry for a long moment. “I’m scared,” he said softly.

“I know.” Harry reached out for Trent and wrapped his hand in hers. “I was too.”

All of Harry’s fears that Remus and Sirius would replace her with another orphan were fulfilled that day, but Harry couldn’t find it in herself to mind.

Remus accepted Trent in stride that night and Trent looked like a brand new person when he showed up at the shop with Remus the next morning. Trent was quite adorable beneath the layer of dirt he had always worn and Harry recognized his trousers as a pair of her own shrunken jeans from when she first moved in with Remus.

Trent immediately went to work upstairs in Harry’s room where she laid paint pans and brushes out for him - Harry was surprising Draco with a red and gold bedroom for when he returned for the holidays - and Remus filled Harry in while she opened the shop.

“He went to a religious orphanage, Catholic,” Remus said with a grimace of distaste. “When he showed signs of magic, they attempted to exorcise him.”

Harry gasped and covered her mouth. She had read about those rituals in history of magic, she couldn’t imagine how barbaric it would be to have a ritual done on her like that.

“He ran away six months ago and has been hiding out here ever since,” Remus said. Remus put his arm around Harry’s shoulders and hugged her warmly. “You did good bringing him to us, Harry. I’m so proud of you.”

As distrusting as Trent was to begin with, he absolutely blossomed under Remus and Sirius’ care. He was still under the wrong self-imposed impression that he needed to work in Harry’s shop to earn his keep with the Lupins, but Harry enjoyed having him around.

Harry took Trent on walks with Mikael, letting Trent pull the wagon, and she worked on his letters with him as he was very behind academically.

“What word starts with B?” Harry asked while they walked down the streets of Diagon Alley together.

Trent’s lips silently made the letter b a few times before he grinned up at Harry with childlike mischief.

“Bullshit!” he said gleefully.

“Bull!” Mikael echoed Trent from the wagon.

Harry laughed and decided to reward them both with a new toy from Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes only to stop just inside the door.

“Bad starts with ‘b’ too,” Trent whispered to Harry, glaring at what Harry gawked at. “Is that bad?”

Harry tilted her head while she watched as Fred and Lily were quite wrapped around each other behind the shelf of muggle toys and she had an odd sense of nostalgia for her third year. Though, Harry had been a jealous and mean girl then, and Harry had a much different reaction to seeing her friend snogging a witch after all those years.

“No, Trent, that’s not bad at all,” Harry said slowly, feeling hopeful. “That’s brilliant, actually.”

“Brilliant… brilliant… oh! That’s another B word!”

Harry got the gossip from Elise that night, who was still going steady with George. They had just put Mikael to bed and were sharing a bottle of wine that Florean gave them as a gift.

“So Fred was trying to leave stink bombs in the store by floating them through the bathroom window,” Elise explained. “Lily caught him and she hexed him! George said Fred might have the scar for the rest of his life! And then I guess they started screaming at each other and dueling right outside the shop! Next thing anyone knows, they’re snogging up against the wall!”

Harry laughed and thought that Lily was sort of perfect for Fred, really. Lily was an easy-going sort of free spirit with a wicked sense of humor and was gorgeous to boot.

“Ooh! When Draco gets home do you think we can do a triple-date?” Harry asked Elise, lighting up at the idea. “You and George, Fred and Lily, me and Draco? We can go on a Sunday and ask Remus to babysit!”

“That sounds horrible,” Elise grinned. “I’m absolutely in.”

Harry had no idea why Elise found it to be a terrible idea, Harry thought it would be great.

It was even better when Pansy and Blaise joined them, making it like a dinner party at a swanky restaurant in London.

The entire beginning of dinner felt stilted and uncomfortable though… Draco politely asked Lily how she liked working in the shop, Blaise asked the twins about business, Harry and Pansy caught up on gossip…

And then there was a lull where they all just… sipped their drinks and avoided looking at each other.

“You’re becoming irritatingly famous, you know that, right?” Pansy said to Harry abruptly, breaking the tension for a moment.

“I’ve always been quite famous,” Harry said with a flick of her hair. “War hero parents, I’m brilliant and gorgeous. It’s the pain of fame, you see.”

“This is a different sort of fame,” Blaise said with a slow smirk. “Have you heard of Regulus Black?”

“Yes,” Harry, Draco, Fred, and George all said. Draco and Fred scowled when they realized they answered at the same time and Blaise pushed past their pettiness.

“You and Regulus are apparently the patron saints of the new G.A.Y. Club at Hogwarts.”

“A… gay club?” Harry asked, thinking of the type of clubs Sirius and Remus frequented on their date nights. “And that’s allowed at school now?”

Sure, Dumbledore was rather lax with things like rules and safety, but that seemed to be a stretch even for him.

“It’s for the Gays, Allies, and Youth,” Pansy explained, smirking some when she must have realized what Harry thought it was. “Clara started it under Professor Snape’s tutelage.”

“But Clara isn’t gay?” Elise pointed out. “She’s attracted to boys?”

“It’s for all members of that acronym too long to name,” Blaise said airily, waving his hand. “Apparently you and Regulus Black - as the most popular transgender students at Hogwarts - are the heroes of this club.”

That… that was amazing, actually. It was probably one of the better ways that Harry’s name was used in context to being famous.

“Harry isn’t transgender though,” Fred said, instantly irritating Draco.

“Now you believe her?” Draco scoffed. “Where were you in her fourth year when she tried to tell everyone she was female?”

“I forgot, Malfoy, that you’ve always been such a good friend to her,” Fred snarled right back. “I’m sure it must be another boy I’m thinking of that knocked her from a tree and called her friend a mudblood.”

“I actually fell trying to kiss Pansy and Hermione is not my friend,” Harry interrupted, though she was ignored.

“And you’re the one who made her cry because you couldn’t handle the idea that you might be attracted to a male,” Draco sneered.

“You’re the one who called her a slut for what happened with Tonks!”

“You completely isolated her and kissed Emily Bronson to make her jealous!”

Harry mouthed a silent apology to Lily who only looked amused by the boys’ bickering.

“This is super fun,” Pansy said loudly. She looked toward Lily while Draco and Fred fell silent, simply glaring at each other. “This was your idea, right? It’s lovely, really. Do you think they’ll murder each other by dessert?”

Harry swung her eyes to Draco and tried to ask him to please stop. All Harry wanted was a mildly chaotic dinner with her friends, not a full blown fight in the middle of the muggle restaurant.

“I actually wanted to stay home and have sex,” Lily told Pansy brightly, making Harry let out a startled laugh. “I was going to say we were sick, but then I started my period this morning and that ended that plan.”

The boys all looked suddenly uncomfortable with their faces various shades of red and the girls laughed together at the taboo topic for boys.

“Oh, Harry, speaking of that monthly time,” Elise looked at Harry and shrugged one of her shoulders up. “Remus was sick with his PMS—”

PMS being Remus’ Pre-Moon Sickness, which made him irritable and sore, quite similar to Harry’s own, very different, PMS.

“—so Trent’s at the flat, watching Mikael.”

“You left Mikael with Trent?” Harry asked, gaping at her best friend. “Elise! Trent is nine!”

“He’s a very mature nine,” Elise said, glancing around at the others who didn’t know Trent. “Much more mature than I was at nine and twice as mature as George is now.”

“Oi!” George grinned good-naturedly at Elise. “You said you loved my childlike innocence.”

“I believe I said I love feeling as if I have two children,” Elise corrected George sarcastically with a patronizing pat to his cheek. “Truly, it’s every woman’s dream to have a boyfriend as immature as her baby.”

“Wait! Who is Trent?” Blaise asked. He raised a brow at Harry across the table. “Harry, don’t tell me that you’ve hired a child worker.”

“Don’t be absurd,” Draco answered for Harry. Harry had sent Draco numerous letters about everything happening at home and Draco was well-aware of who Trent was and why he wasn’t a good choice for a babysitter for Mikael. “Trent’s Remus and Sirius’ feral foster son.”

“He’s not feral,” Lily said, defending Trent immediately. “Trent’s a dear, and he loves Mikael.”

Trent did love Mikael, everyone who met Mikael simply fell in love with his sweet blue eyes and little toothy smile. Trent was just… still a bit stab-happy, at times. And Mikael was only ten months old, Harry didn’t expect Trent to be able to change a nappie or keep him from choking on the little snacks he loved.

“Is Sirius at least supervising?” Harry asked Elise with a sigh, resigning herself to have to go home and keep the boys safe.

“Oh, Harry, Mikael and Trent are both with Mum,” George piped up when he saw Harry grabbing money to cover the meal. He chuckled when Harry looked apoplectic. “You don’t think we’d actually leave those two alone, so you?”

“Yes,” everyone said, including Draco and Fred.

Elise rolled her eyes, everyone laughed, and the discomfort from before melted away.

By the end of the night, Draco and Fred were even exchanging heatless quips with each other. Harry, Elise, Pansy, and Lily made plans to get Ginny and drag her out for a girls night during break and there was only a bit of awkwardness when Fred suggested that Draco and Blaise join him and his brothers for their monthly poker night.

Draco whined about smelling like weasels after he returned from playing poker across the street, but Harry was much too hungover from her girl’s night to even pretend to care.

Harry had closed the store for the holiday break, wanting to spend as much time with Draco as she could. Much of his two weeks away from school was spent being dragged from store to store by Harry as she was eagerly wedding planning.

“Potter, Brinsop Court?” Draco looked at the information Harry collected to share with him while she was looking for bridesmaids dresses in a boutique. “You can’t be serious.”

“You’re right, that’s my godfather,” Harry quipped. She grinned over her shoulder at Draco and was bemused by his entirely disgruntled expression.

“Dray, why does it matter?” Harry asked, walking over to him to touch his arm. “If you truly don’t want a big wedding, we can do something small.”

“Why do you want something so big?” Draco asked instead of answering Harry. “You’ve never cared about appearances before.”

“It’s not about appearances,” Harry said, struggling to explain why it felt so important to her. “I just… Elise and I used to watch these silly princess movies, you know? And I always thought I was Cinderella… and it would just be lovely to have my happy ever after moment. But I’d rather have you,” she added with a charming smile. “So if you’re unhappy with it, we’ll just sign the papers and have a dinner with our family.”

“How am I supposed to complain after that?” Draco asked, looking up at the ceiling. His cheeks turned a light shade of pink and Harry felt terrible when he mumbled something about ‘money’.

“Drayyyyy,” Harry laughed and hugged him, feeling badly that Draco was worried about something so trivial. “Have you seen your vault? Or mine? We’re rich!” Harry exclaimed. “The shop is doing great, Dray! We can have the most beautiful wedding ever and go on whatever honeymoon we want!”

“You’re putting your money in my vault?” Draco asked. Harry was confused when he huffed at her and took a step back. “I’m not a charity case, Harry.”

Harry blinked, very confused and rather hurt when Draco just turned around and left the shop.

“And then he called me HARRY!” Harry told Remus, venting about the terrible shopping trip to her dad over hot chocolate and biscuits. “Isn’t that rude? My name is Potter.”

“I can kill him,” Trent piped up helpfully with a smile for Harry. “I think he sucks anyway.”

Trent only thought Draco sucked because Draco had complained about the ‘Gryffindorness’ of their bedroom where Trent could hear. Harry made Draco apologize when she realized Trent thought Draco didn’t like the way he painted, but Trent had been a passive-aggressive little shit toward Draco ever since.

Harry thought it was funny.

“Trent, we don’t kill people when they upset us,” Remus said patiently. “And, Harry, money is a difficult subject for partners. I’m sure he’ll understand if you explain that—”

“Whatever Mooney is about to say is bullshit.”

Trent giggled when Sirius strode in the room and Remus reprimanded him for ‘language’. As if Trent wasn’t the one to teach Harry a few swears she had never heard before.

“How exactly is my advice ‘bullshit’?” Remus asked Sirius, cocking a brow when Sirius snatched up a handful of biscuits to sit on the counter and eat. “Harry and Draco are adults, Pads. They can have a rational conversation about their finances.”

“Oh? Like we did when I gave you a key to OUR vault?” Sirius asked sweetly. “Yeah, love, you took that sooo great. I think the goblins still hate us for that spectacle.”

“Wait! What happened?” Harry asked, looking from Remus to Sirius expectantly.

“Oh, Mister ‘Rational Conversation’ here had a tantrum,” Sirius said cheerily. “‘I’m not a charity case, Sirius,’ ‘I can make my own money, Sirius’, ‘I could have been earning my own income if I wasn’t keeping you from drinking yourself to sleep every night, Sirius’.”

“I never said that last one!” Remus scowled, a heavy blush on his face.

“But it’s true,” Sirius said, winking at Trent.

“So what’d you do?” Harry asked Sirius, since he was apparently the rich one dealing with the broke one having a fit.

“I told him that when he married me he also married my ridiculous and unearned wealth,” Sirius said shamelessly. “If he doesn’t want to share my money then he’s free to go marry someone without a Knut to their name.”

Harry patted Remus’ hand kindly, always fond of her dad.

“No offense, Dad, but I think Sirius has the right idea.”

And when Harry told Draco either he could share her gold or go marry someone poor, they had a brilliant time picking out bridesmaids dresses for Elise, Pansy, and Katie Bell.

They also booked Brinsop Court for that summer because Harry was determined to have her Cinderella moment.

Christmas that year was extra special with all the new members of the family to share it with.

It was Mikael’s first Christmas and Trent’s first real Christmas, as his had all been rather tragic up until then.

“Last Christmas I got actual coal,” Trent told Harry as he dug through his candy and toy filled stocking on Christmas morning. “The nun’s said it was because I had the devil in my heart.”

“Everyone should have some devil in their heart,” Harry told him solemnly as she snapped a million photos of the boys digging through their gifts. “Otherwise where would the fun be?”

Trent grinned at Harry and Harry got the perfect snapshot of him with the reindeer headband Sirius stuck on him, a chocolate smear on his chin, and just pure childlike joy in his eyes.

Harry had gifted Trent with his first ever broomstick, a Nimbus 2000 just like she had as her first broom. Mikael got one as well, a little baby one that only hovered around knee height.

Sirius bawled like a baby himself when Mikael zoomed around on his little broom and even Remus got teary eyed.

“I remember when you were his size and flying!” Sirius wailed, accepting the handkerchief Draco politely handed him. Sirius blew his nose loudly and then yelled for Harry to take a video when Mikael nearly knocked over the mugs on the coffee table.

Draco received a surprising gift from his mother, a simple pair of leather gloves with a note that she hoped he was well. Draco seemed heartened by it, but Harry was annoyed that Narcissa couldn’t be bothered to apologize to him, especially as Draco and Harry were featured rather consistently in the Daily Prophet. If nothing else, Harry thought the Malfoys would want to appear on good terms with the young and popular couple.

Elise nearly won what they called the ‘Christmas Surprise Off’ when she returned from the Burrow and screamed that George proposed. Harry had been just as happy as Elise was, squealing and hugging her while she inspected the beautiful ring.

The biggest surprise of that Christmas had been the letter Harry received though; a letter from Dudley.

Dear Harry,
I wanted to send you a letter - I used an owl, isn’t that cool? - to say Merry Christmas.
I’ve been thinking about you lately. My girlfriend is a witch, she’s really nice. She said she went to school with you- Clara Creevey?

Harry had to stop reading at that point to squeal, shocked by that. Harry knew the Creeveys were muggleborns that lived in Surrey, but she never expected them to meet Dudley!

She said that you’re happy and you have your own family now, so I wanted to say I’m happy for you. I know we didn’t get along as kids, I was a git, but maybe we could get lunch sometime?
Merry Christmas, Harry,
Love, Dudley

Harry didn’t feel up to having lunch with Dudley just yet, but she did send him back a letter, opening the doors of communication between the cousins.

Draco and Harry still flew together on Christmas, as was their tradition, and Harry’s heart nearly exploded when they finished and Draco offered to teach Trent the basics of quidditch.

“We should have a bunch of babies,” Harry told Draco that night as they were snuggled in bed and tangled up around each other. It had been adorable to watch Draco patiently teach Trent how to use a beaters bat, block a goal, and pass the quaffle. Ultimately, Trent was born to be a seeker with his lithe frame and speed, but it was good for him to know the other positions as well.

“Define ‘a bunch’,” Draco mumbled sleepily.

“Mmm… six? No, seven, then it’s like we have our own quidditch team.”

Poor Draco had been wide awake after that. Though, he didn’t complain when Harry coyly suggested they have another practice go at making babies together.

When the new year rolled around, Harry found herself feeling just as dreary as she had the year before. Draco was gone, Harry was working, and even Trent had started up school at a primary school near Lupin Cottage.

Which left just Elise, Lily, and Mikael to entertain Harry.

“I’m so bored,” Harry complained one day. “There’s nothing to do anymore. Being an adult is terrible.”

“Who said you’re an adult?” Lily asked while she filled the sweets cabinet with their monthly special.

“And who said this is terrible?” Elise asked as she made sure Harry didn’t miss anyone on her invite list for the wedding. Elise was meant to be working on the budget for the new year, but she took over for Harry when Harry couldn’t concentrate.

“I did,” Harry answered them both. “We should do something. Something fun.”

“Like a prank?” Elise asked, looking up at Harry with a slow and wicked smile. “On who? George and Fred?”

Harry hummed and looked out the windows of the shop while she thought about it. The twins were fun to prank, but they did that all the time. They still didn’t even realize that Harry had charmed their sign to flash rainbow colors instead of their usual purple.

“That’s thinking small…” Harry said slowly. “Why stop with the twins? Why not prank… everyone?”

“A worldwide prank?” Lily asked, her eyes as bright as the silver headband she wore. “Are we taking over? Becoming dark ladies? Enslaving the purebloods and leaving house-elves in charge? As a prank,” she added quickly with an innocent smile.

“Let’s save that,” Harry told her seriously. “I do have an army of elves ready for a revolution whenever I give the signal, but I was thinking more like just Diagon Alley for now.”

All through the day, the three young woman worked to build up a prank that wouldn’t just be the greatest prank Harry ever pulled, but would be the greatest prank anyone had ever pulled, ever.

And Harry did call in her army of elves for help, it wasn’t her fault that they liked her more than they did Dumbledore.

The citizens of Diagon and Knockturn Alleys woke up on the morning of January 18th in 1997 to absolute chaos and destruction (destruction that Harry would happily clean up later).

Harry had convinced Remus to let Trent skip school that day so that he could witness the glory that was letting the entire London Zoo loose through the streets. Zebras chewed on canopies, alpacas were racing down the roads, and a whale swam through the air with the incredibly complicated charms that Lily cast for it.

“Is that a LION?!” Trent shrieked, peeking out the window of Harry’s flat to see a lion snarling at a group of monkeys that were flinging feces at the windows of Flourish and Blotts.

“Do you want to pet it?” Harry offered. “It’s perfectly safe, I’ve given it gummy fangs.”

“YESSSS!” Trent yelled, pumping a fist in the air and trying to rush out without grabbing his coat.

Elise took Mikael out in his little snowsuit and Harry got to hold his hand as he took his shaking baby steps toward a giraffe that was chewing on the hair of the mascot on the front of the twins’ store. Mikael giggled when he reached for the giraffe and Harry made sure that Elise was busy petting the lion with Trent before Harry very carefully levitated Mikael up in the air to put him on the back of the giraffe.

“HARRY LEO!!”

Once the other shopkeepers and citizens realized that it was mostly safe to be outside - Harry made no promises about the rhinoceros - they all joined the impromptu zoo filling the streets.

Florean’s laugh echoed off the buildings when he saw the penguins slip and slide past him. Fred and George tried to smuggle the spider monkey’s inside their shop. Harry grinned when she saw that even the goblins wandered out of the bank to squint at the gorillas that pounded heavy fists on their door.

By lunch, Harry was thrilled that it seemed as if half the wizarding community had arrived, called by their friends or relatives in the alleys. It was full-scale chaos and Harry and Florean were making a fortune as they pushed mobile carts around, selling their goods to the people that laughed and posed for photos with the animals.

Harry was laughing to see that Sirius was riding on the back of a cheetah that ran faster than Harry could hardly watch when she bumped in to someone with her cart and apologized immediately.

“Oh, excuse me,” Harry said with a smile, offering her hand to the witch she knocked over. “I’m terribly clum— Tonks?”

Harry pulled her hand back as if she’d been burned when she realized that the witch with the long blonde hair and familiar amethyst eyes was Tonks.

“Oh, I- I…” Harry watched Tonks stand up and realized she didn’t know what to say to her.

What did Harry say to the witch whose life Harry ruined because of her own pain?

What did Harry say to the witch who let herself be seduced by a confused and hurting fifteen year old?

“Wotcher, Harry.” Tonks grinned at Harry awkwardly and stuck her hands in the pockets of her coat. “Legally, I’m allowed to speak to you, but I’d better go before my cousin spots me and decides to make good on his threat to behead me.”

Harry swallowed and nodded her head absently, too stunned by the chance encounter to properly respond.

“Bye then,” Tonks said, winking at Harry before she turned around and walked off, blending in by the crowds filling the streets.

As soon as Harry turned around, intent to run home and hide out in her shop while she tried not to get sick, she smashed her face in Fred’s familiar chest and was immediately locked in his embrace.

Harry didn’t realize that she was physically shaking with a well of mixed feelings inside of her until Fred began rubbing her back comfortingly.

“Your dad or Draco?” Fred murmured. “Who do you want?”

Harry nearly said dad, she had began to say it, when she changed her mind mid-word. Remus was Harry’s security blanket, the person she turned to with all her fears, but Harry wasn’t scared, she was… she was upset and she just wanted to see Draco.

“Da- Draco,” Harry said in an unfamiliar and pitiful voice.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Harry was hunkered down in the Three Broomsticks with a bottle of warm butterbeer and Fred’s hat pulled low on her head so she wasn’t recognized by the two patrons in the pub. Harry didn’t understand why the usually bustling bar was so empty until she heard the two patrons discussing the ‘magical muggle animals causing a ruckus’ in Diagon Alley.

For the first time ever, Harry didn’t feel like laughing at one of her epic pranks.

Harry just sat quietly, thinking over if Tonks looked miserable or angry when they talked, and she couldn’t decide what she wanted Tonks to have felt. Did Harry want Tonks to have found some happiness after all the horribleness or did Harry want Tonks to feel badly still for a mistake she made two years ago?

Harry’s mind was a mess and she was so relieved to see Draco enter the pub a few minutes later that she ran from her booth to launch herself at him.

“Potter? Merlin, what happened? Weasley just pulled me from class and said you needed me.”

Harry breathed in Draco’s scent, the familiar and cool mint scented cologne he loved, and felt more relaxed just by holding him.

“I let the London Zoo loose in Diagon Alley - technically the elves did it, but I had to help - and then I was selling sweets and basically paying for our honeymoon and I knocked someone over - on accident - and when I went to help them up it was Tonks,” Harry explained in a rush. “And I felt guilty and horrible and she winked at me and—”

“That filthy little mud ball.” Draco swore, actually swore, under his breath as he gently pushed Harry back to the booth she had been in. Harry sat down automatically and Draco sat beside her, pulling her in his side.

“I told her that I would cut her head off and mount it on my wall if I saw her again,” Draco said. He smacked the table with his wand threateningly, letting out a spray of sparks, and then glanced down at Harry quickly. “Wait, did you say you let the London Zoo loose in Diagon Alley?”

“Wait, you’re the cousin that threatened Tonks?” Harry asked him. “I thought… Sirius?”

“Sirius would have actually killed her,” Draco said, perfectly calmly. “I gave her a warning, now I have to kill her. The zoo, Potter?”

“It was a prank,” Harry said, still thinking about Draco threatening Tonks. “When did you threaten Tonks?”

“The day she was being arrested,” Draco said. “You were gone, I stole your map, I waited until I knew she was being taken from her classroom, and I told her if she ever went near you again that I would behead her. And I want to go see zoo animals,” he tacked on with a juvenile pout.

“Dray, we weren’t together then?” Harry said, trying to puzzle out Draco threatening his own cousin. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you are a ridiculous and overly noble Gryffindor who wouldn’t threaten her yourself and she hurt you,” Draco said. “Potter, I want to see zoo animals.”

Harry felt somewhat shy about knowing that Draco had been the one to threaten to remove Tonks’ head on her behalf. Harry wasn’t some weak-willed damsel in distress, Harry was a big girl who (mostly) handled her own problems. Draco didn’t usually act like some masculine and patriarchal man who went around trying to protect ‘his woman’, Harry wouldn’t love him if he did that, but it was still sweet that even when Harry had hurt Draco by sleeping with Tonks, Draco had still went after Tonks instead of Harry.

“I love you,” Harry said, pushing the thought of Tonks away. Tonks didn’t matter, she was irrelevant. Harry tried to hide her pain in Tonks and it was a mistake on her part and a crime on Tonks’, that was what Snape and Remus said.

Harry had Draco and her family, she didn’t need to let Tonks live rent-free in her thoughts.

“I love you,” Draco said with a playful drawl. “Now, zoo animals, Potter.”

Harry laughed and was happy to help Draco skip school for the day to go see zoo animals.

Quite unfairly, Draco reported that Professor McGonagall docked Gryffindor for ten points when Draco was caught by her sneaking back in the castle that night. It was fine though because Harry’s prank was listed in the Daily Prophet as one of the biggest mysteries to date in their community.

A month after Mikael’s first birthday was Trent’s tenth and Harry was nervous when Remus and Sirius asked to talk to her a few days before Trent’s party.

Harry went over to their place for dinner and was surprised and pleased that Remus said Trent was spending the night with a friend he made at school.

“Harry, dear, we need to talk to you,” Remus said after dinner ended and Harry was idly snacking on the biscuits Remus always had on hand.

Harry looked from Remus’ solemn face to Sirius’ nervous one and she raised a nonchalant shoulder.

“I wouldn’t surprise Trent with adoption papers tomorrow,” Harry said as she hesitated to select between a strawberry biscuit with chocolate glaze or a white chocolate one that looked tempting. Harry grabbed them both and stacked them on top of each other to take the ultimate bite while her parents stared at her in shock.

Harry would need to make a sweet that tasted like those biscuits did, it was divine.

“Trent’s not like me,” Harry said to them, pretending to misunderstand their surprise. “I was pleased, he might think it’s a trick.”

“You’re not… sad?” Sirius asked her. “We’re literally giving your room away to another orphan, just like you asked us not to do?”

That did bother Harry a tiny bit, she didn’t like thinking that she was being replaced, but Trent was just as much part of the family as Harry was by that point.

“I brought you the orphan,” Harry reminded him. “If you didn’t adopt him then I would have to do it myself.”

“Okay then.” Remus smiled at Harry and reached out to grasp her hand. “I suppose you’re getting a little brother, Harry.”

Harry couldn’t stop the silly grin that appeared at the way Remus said that. Harry had always had Elise, who was something like a sister to her, but an actual brother would be brilliant.

The day after Trent’s birthday, he officially (and quite happily) became Trent Lupin and Harry had a special event at the shop as celebration. All the sweets were charmed to be blue for the day and there were giant banners declaring ‘It’s a Boy!’ hung everywhere. Harry had even hung a poster-sized photo of Trent with Sirius and Remus from Christmas on the door.

Trent had scowled and rolled his eyes, but the second he saw Harry’s shirt that declared her ‘Best Sister in the World’ he got all sniffly and hugged her.

“Thanks,” Trent mumbled in Harry’s chest while he hugged her tightly.

Harry kissed the top of his head and winked at Remus over Trent’s shoulder.

“Anytime, little bro.”

Elise would forever tell people that the Spring of 1997 was the worst season of her life. Which was entirely unfair because Harry thought the winter she was fat and waddling around would have been much more miserable than any silly little madness Harry accidentally caused.

Allegedly, Harry became ill with what Remus called ‘Bridezilla-itis’.

It actually wasn’t Harry’s fault that she was having to plan a wedding via owl with her fiancé while they were both studying for their NEWTS. When Remus reminded Harry that she didn’t have to plan a wedding while studying, Harry brushed it off.

Harry loved Draco and she wanted to be his wife, she just also wanted everything to be perfect and people just were not cooperating.

“What does this mean?” Harry asked Elise when she was going through the RSVP’s and saw one marked as ‘if I must’.

Elise snorted, “It means someone isn’t overflowing with joy to attend. Who’s it from?”

“Professor Snape,” Harry said. She frowned at the list of people attending and debated where to place Snape at.

Harry would put him with Sirius and Remus, because she thought that would be quite entertaining, but her parents would be with herself and Draco along with Elise, Mikael, and Trent. Harry instead stuck him at the same table as Professor McGonagall and Ginny’s parents.

Then Harry decharmed Draco’s letter (a babbling jinx was child’s play, proof that Draco was distracted by his studies) and she read his letter.

Once.

Twice.

“He must be kidding,” Harry said after reading it a third time.

“What?”

Harry read the part of Draco’s letter that was bothering her aloud for Elise-

“‘I don’t need groomsmen, Potter. That’s a muggle tradition and I’m not doing it’.” Harry looked at her best friend with a mixture of exasperation and annoyance. “We’ve already picked your dresses! You’ll look like ponces if Draco doesn’t have any groomsmen!”

Not to mention that the wedding was in just a few months and things such as dress robes and bachelor parties needed to be figured out.

“Does he just not have three friends?” Elise asked. “I bet George would do it if you asked him.”

Harry was already getting to her feet and summoning her cloak and map.

“Draco has three friends,” Harry told Elise with a sniff. “And he’s going to have groomsmen.”

Because Harry was going to make him.

Harry checked the map as she was sneaking on the Hogwarts grounds and saw that Draco was in defense, which was perfect because Harry also wanted a word with Mister ‘If I must’.

It was shockingly easy to get inside the castle, security was practically non-existent. Harry merely strolled through the front doors and headed directly for Professor Snape’s classroom. Harry sent a few harmless snakes beneath the door and instructed them to attack the man with the greasy hair as a distraction.

Harry counted to ten and then quietly opened the door and slipped inside, still beneath her cloak. The snakes might have been overkill, as there was a duel happening in the middle of the classroom between Susan Bones and Ron Weasley that had everyone distracted enough. Harry looked around the students lining the wall until she found Draco standing beside Pansy and Theo.

Perfect.

Harry walked over to them and was careful to not touch Draco before leaning toward his ear and whispering, “Boo!”

Draco jumped a foot in the air and yelped, drawing Professor Snape’s eyes to him.

“Problem?” Snape asked him, his dark eyes flickering toward where Harry stood unseen.

“No, sir,” Draco said smoothly. “I was just surprised that Susan hasn’t sent Weasley to the hospital yet.”

A few students snickered and Harry waited until they turned back to the duel to begin harassing Draco.

“Theo, Blaise, and George,” Harry whispered to Draco. “Your groomsmen.”

Draco curled his lip up and was quite talented at speaking from the corner of his mouth.

“I don’t want them, Potter. Go away.”

“No can do.” Harry leaned against the wall beside Draco and watched Susan duel non-verbal circles around Ron while she and Draco hashed it out. “How about Neville?”

“No.”

“Quit being stubborn,” Harry hissed. “I’ve already bought dresses for the girls, you have to choose groomsmen.”

“You have caught wedding madness and no matter who I choose you’ll have a problem with them,” Draco hissed right back. “‘Oh he’s too tall to walk with Katie’, ‘no, they’ll look weird with Pans’. I’m not playing your sick games anymore.”

“I do not have wedding madness!”

“You do,” Draco said as Susan disarmed Ron and caught his wand. “You’re a maniac and I want no part of it.”

“You’re the bloody groom, Malfoy!”

Harry didn’t actually mean to yell, but Draco was being a brat. Everyone slowly turned to look at Draco who merely crossed his arms and glared at them all.

Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and then sighed.

“Mister Malfoy, you will have Nott, Zabini, and Parkinson stand with you,” Professor Snape said sternly, surprising Harry who didn’t think their conversation had been that loud. “Your fiancée was insane when you proposed, you cannot feign ignorance to that fact now.”

Harry popped the hood of her cloak off and grinned at her second favorite professor as she took being caught in stride. And being called insane didn’t bother Harry at all anymore, she had heard that her entire life.

“Pansy is already a bridesmaid, sir,” Harry said brightly. “And did you want the fish or chicken? You didn’t specify.”

Most of the students didn’t seem too surprised to see Harry Potter appear out of thin air in the middle of class, though Ron was snickering as he stepped out of the ring to leave a space for Justin Finch-Fletchey to take his spot.

“Who else is a bridesmaid, Potter-Lupin?” Snape asked.

“Katie Bell and then my baby-mama is the maid of honor,” Harry told him, as if it were normal to have such a conversation in the classroom.

“Make Parkinson a groomsmen, place Ginevra Weasley in her spot as bridesmaid,” Snape said, which was kind of brilliant actually. “And put me down for fish.”

Harry turned to Draco and looked at him and just past him to Pansy.

“Sound good?” she asked.

“Wonderful,” Draco sighed, resigned to going along with Harry’s scheme as Harry assumed all good husbands-to-be should.

“I’m still wearing the dress,” Pansy said haughtily.

“Yay!” Harry was already interrupting classes, she figured she may as well kiss Draco on the cheek too while she was there. “Ta then!”

Just to be dramatic, and just because she could, Harry stuffed her cloak in Draco’s bag and transformed herself in to what Remus called ‘proof of her parentage’. Harry trotted out of the defense classroom and finally got the surprised gasps she had been wanting before.

Harry also heard Professor Snape take twenty points from Gryffindor and she heard when Hermione Granger shrewdly asked if they could have points for Harry mastering the animagus transformation.

And just for the way that Hermione sounded begrudgingly impressed, Harry decided to go ahead and invite her to the wedding after all.

Harry received three very welcome surprises on the day she went to the Ministry to take her NEWTS. First of all, Harry discovered that mastering the animagus transformation had automatically earned her an A on her transfiguration NEWT before she even put her name on the exam, as it was an incredibly complex piece of magic.

The second surprise came when Amos tracked Harry down after her exams, as Harry had promised to get lunch together while she was there, and he gave her a preview of Prophet that would be published the next day.

“We’ve been nominated for an award?” Harry gasped, reading the headline twice.

In bold and unmistakable letters it announced that Cedric’s Sweets was voted ‘Most Charming Shop of Diagon Alley’. Harry read through the article attached quickly and saw that they also received the award for ‘best new business’ while the twins only received ‘most fun’.

Which meant that clearly Harry won their small rivalry; she had two awards, they had one. It was easy math.

“This is wonderful!” Harry cried, getting emotional over the award. She couldn’t feel too silly though, not when Amos was just as teary as Harry was.

“I can never thank you enough for how you honored our boy,” Amos said as he clutched Harry’s hand. “Ruthie and I are just… we’re just so blessed with the way you’ve kept Cedric alive.”

Harry was a very snotty and red-eyed mess by the time she left lunch with the newspaper in her hand to show Remus…

…after Harry had the appointment with the healer to confirm what she had suspected for a couple of weeks.

Harry’s parents and her brother were thrilled for Harry’s awards and Harry decided to have another celebration day at the shop in appreciation of everyone who helped make it possible.

It might have been Harry’s name as shop owner, but she wasn’t so arrogant to think that she had accomplished her success on her own.

The impromptu party was made an infinite amount better when Draco burst through the doors of the shop mid-celebration with a complexion that was somehow a few shades whiter than paper.

“YOU ANNOUNCED A PREGNANCY THROUGH A HOWLER?!” Draco shrieked, stunning every attendant into silence.

Harry didn’t know why Draco acted so stunned, they had decided together for Harry to quit taking her potion over Easter Break and then spent most of the week in bed together. Sure, Harry thought that maybe it would happen on their honeymoon, as Remus said that Harry did for her parents, but Harry couldn’t find it in herself to be upset at all by the news.

As long as Harry fit in her wedding dress, she’d be delighted to start having her own little quidditch team. 

Harry grabbed the wet start firework she had been saving for just that moment and set it off, filling the inside of the shop with an explosion of colors.

“SURPRISE!” Harry cried.

Harry Leo Potter-Lupin used to dream of the life she wanted as a young girl.

It had oftentimes been as simple as dreaming of a life filled with fun and laughter, other times it had been much more complex, wishing that she had someone to love who would love her back.

Harry had love with her best friend, her sister in all but blood, Elise Hughes. Elise had been a bright spot in Harry’s dreary childhood, always eager for pranks and tricks, attacking back at the bullies that bothered Harry. Elise grew to become Harry’s closest friend and the woman who gave Harry her perfect little godson, Mikael Harrison Hughes-Potter.

Harry had been content to just have Elise, she didn’t need anyone else. Then Harry was introduced to Remus and she found a parental love from him that made her feel like a person with worth. Sirius was a bonus, though Harry could admit that she hadn’t been thrilled by him at first. Neither Remus nor Sirius had cared that Harry had been calling herself a boy, they just bought her boy clothes and laughed themselves sick when Harry explained her prank-plans to them.

Cedric Diggory was the first person that Harry had been in love with. Cedric made Harry feel so special, so beautiful. Harry would always love Cedric, she would always remember him. Cedric had been the one that showed Harry what romantic love was meant to be and Harry could never forget that.

Harry loved her friends- the ones who were always with her, even when she was a total brat or cared more about pranks than people. Harry loved her quidditch teammates who accepted Harry and helped her become something of a leader.

But Draco…

Harry walked out on the aisle in Brinsop Court, dressed in Ruth Diggory’s tiara and a softly shimmering white ball dress with her onyx moon brooch pinned to the front, and smiled at where Draco waited for her beneath the arch decorated with white roses.

Draco was everything Harry could have asked for in a love and a partner. Draco was accepting of Harry, regardless of how she identified. Draco drove Harry to bigger and better heights, inspiring her to be her best self.

Draco wasn’t Harry’s fantasy idea of a golden prince, Draco was real and he was Harry’s true best friend in the world.

“It’s not too late to run,” Sirius whispered on Harry’s left.

“Hush,” Remus scolded him quietly on Harry’s left.

Harry looked at her father and her godfather before looking up front where her friends were, all smiling at her. Harry looked at where her little brother stood off to the side, holding Mikael’s hand. And then Harry looked at Draco and melted under the teary eyed smile he gave her.

“Why would I run?” Harry asked Sirius as her parents walked her down the aisle. “Who would run away from a happily ever after?”

Through laughter, friendship, and acceptance, Harry found a variety of loves that would last until the end of time.

And who would run from a romantic love who only sighed patiently when Harry transformed into her doe animagus form just before he leaned in for their first kiss as husband and wife?