Chapter 2
The children were still in Teddy’s room, and with it being only three hours after the incident had occurred, all four of them remained shaken and terrified, even with the presence of their Aunt Hermione.
The woman explained to all of them the situation, using the best phrasing she could possibly think of with children, and held back tears as she felt her mind drift off to imagine her own children experiencing something so terrifying. James seemed to be glued to his sister’s side, the thirteen year old holding his five year old sister in his arms as she cried. Albus and Scorpius, on the other hand, were hidden behind them on the bed, completely silent other than Scorpius’ quiet whimpers.
Harry and Draco entered the room, the latter guiding the former with his hand. Hermione, taking this as her cue to leave, told the children goodbye and left. James was glaring at Harry suspiciously as the man entered the room, and Lily hid her face in her brother’s chest at the sight of their father.
“Children,” Draco spoke softly, “I presume your Aunt ‘Mione told you everything, correct?”
The children all nodded their heads. Draco looked up at Harry as he knelt in front of the children, knees cracking and blonde hair falling ever so slightly out of place. Harry watched the man, so different from the boy he knew, and was taken aback at how good he seemed with the children, how soft he had become.
“Your father doesn’t remember much, but he’s still your dad. He still loves you, right Harry?”
Harry nodded, mouth gaping as the children stared at him with a mix of green and grey eyes.
“You don’t need to be afraid of him. It’s just like he’s stuck in one of those bad dreams he and I have. You know how those get, loves. But he is going to be okay, and he’s going to remember everything in a month. For now, I just ask that you be patient with him, okay?”
All four children answered with a quiet “yes, Papa,” and Draco reached out his arms for all of them to fall into. Only one of the children remained, his eyes glued to Harry. Harry started slightly. He hadn’t noticed it earlier, but the boy looked exactly like him, green eyes and raven hair to boot. The only thing he was missing were the glasses and the scar, and Harry hoped he never received either. The boy stared for a moment longer before slowly standing up and making his way over to Harry, who stood frozen at the sight of the eleven year old. The boy tugged on Harry’s pajama sleeve, prompting Harry to kneel down in front of the boy as his small arms wrapped around Harry’s neck.
“Are you okay, dad?” the boy mumbled his question into Harry’s neck.
“I’ll be okay, um-”
“Albus,” the boy muttered again.
Harry smiled softly. “Albus.”
After a moment of hugging, a soft cough brought them back to the real world, where Draco stood smiling at them, the other children remaining behind him. He gestured for Harry to stand up before the entire group made their way downstairs.
***
The children had already stolen Harry’s heart, and it wasn’t even time for dinner. Lily had taken it upon herself to teach Harry every animal name she knew, assuming he had lost his entire memory rather than a decades worth, and insisting that animals were the most important thing to know.
“Especially dragons,” she spoke in the most serious voice a five year old could muster.
She went through a dragon book and a magical zoo picture book before his attention was stolen by Scorpius and Albus arguing over which Quidditch team was better.
“Obviously,” said Albus, “it’s the Hollyhead Harpies. I mean they have Ginny Weasley, Scorp!”
“But the Chudley Cannons have such good offense and their seeker is brilliant,” the blonde boy argued.
Harry had startled at the mention of Ginny, having not even thought about her through this entire ordeal. He wondered, briefly, if she had ended up with Dean, but shook his head at the thought.
“I think you’ll find that Puddlemere is the superior team,” a posh voice said behind him, and Harry felt a prickle on the back of his neck. Harry turned to see Draco standing in the doorway, a cup of tea held delicately in his hands. “Dinner is ready, darlings.”
The children ran over each other to get into the dining area, and Harry stifled a laugh as Draco scolded them for bad manners. Draco turned to look at him, shaking his head and laughing quietly.
“They are most definitely your children,” the man whispered to Harry, his spot in the doorway a mere two feet away. “You would think they were raised solely by you with how they behave sometimes. But then you see them in public and they’ve somehow made a turn for the better.”
Harry smiled slightly, looking down at his hands.
“I wish I knew them,” Harry said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“You will,” Draco spoke, his voice stronger than it had been earlier in the day. “Once you return to your part of the timeline, you’ll make the same choices, and then you’ll get to see them through everything.”
Harry nodded, although part of him was screaming that he didn’t believe a word Draco was saying. He stayed silent for a moment, not registering Draco’s presence getting closer until the blonde was kneeling in front of him.
“Harry,” Draco whispered, bringing his hand up to cup the man’s tan cheek, “darling you don’t have to worry about it not happening. You’re going to know them and see everything.”
“What,” Harry’s voice broke and he cleared his throat. “What if I didn’t just go through time but another universe like the Healer said? What if when I go back, there’s no way that I can have this life again?”
“Harry you will,” Draco whispered, “I promise. Now let’s go eat some dinner.”
***
The children went to bed after a few hours of play-time in the living room in which Harry had learned a few more things about all of them. Teddy, he found out, was a Hufflepuff, and was very proud of it. James was a Gryffindor, a fact that surprised no one. Albus was a Slytherin, and everyone had expected for Scorpius to end up in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, but he had somehow managed to get into Slytherin, and when Harry asked how, the boy simply winked.
He also found out that Lily had already decided she wanted to be a magizoologist or a dragon trainer, and that she was already hounding Charlie for an internship despite being the age she was.
Draco seemed to be most fond of James and Scorpius, and the two boys had remained cuddled up to the blonde on the couch as Harry sat awkwardly in the armchair nearest to the window. Teddy and Albus seemed content to sprawl across the floor and read as Lily played with her toy dragons, and Harry found that, despite the feeling that he didn’t belong there, it was all quite calming.
Once the children had been sent to bed, Draco and Harry sat in complete silence until Harry broke it with a loud yawn. Draco simply chuckled and offered to bring him to their room.
Harry walked into the room, feeling completely out of place as Draco grabbed his pajamas from the top of the trunk and lay them on the bed. Draco glanced up and caught Harry’s eye before sighing.
“Your pajamas are the ones right there,” he gestured to the clothes on the other side of the trunk. “The ones with the snitches on them.”
Harry simply nodded, grabbed the clothes, and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him and locking it as he, for the first time, looked himself over in the mirror. He had aged for sure, a fair bit of stubble on his chin and two more scars than he had previously. His hair was the same messy black mop, but it had bits of grey in it, and he remembered that he was supposed to be in his forties. He shook his head before stripping down and hopping into the shower, the warm water feeling like a blessing.
After changing and brushing his teeth, he walked back into the bedroom, glancing at an already dressed Draco flipping through a novel, sprawled on the bed with his reading glasses askew. Harry stared for a moment before clearing his throat. Draco looked up, tipping the glasses down to see Harry clearly.
“I was wondering where I can sleep?” Harry was happy that his voice was deeper with age, and that the adolescent voice cracks he was so familiar with weren’t showing right now. Draco looked taken aback for a moment, before seeming to remember that Harry would feel uncomfortable sleeping next to a man he had hated only hours before.
“This way then,” Draco muttered, before leading Harry into a room across the hall. The two bid each other goodnight, avoiding each other’s eyes as they did so, and Harry shut the door, leaving it open only a crack. He noticed that Draco did the same.