The longest minutes of his life were passed leaning against the wall in front of the Room of Requirement, not wanting to go inside because he wanted to see what happened to the room when it settled on the needs of Potter or Granger.

When they finally arrived – ten minutes late - they were arguing. Potter clearly was not pleased to be there at all. Hermione was waving her hands as she talked, which to Draco always showed she meant business. She greeted Draco and Potter made the desired number of moves in front of the wall for the door to appear, letting himself in first and immediately retreating to the far side by the window and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Draco did a quick scan of the room and found it held nothing other than a table and chairs. He stepped over the threshold thinking that thiswas how it was going to be. The state of the room said it all.

The door slammed behind him and he heard Granger muttering a locking spell from the other side. Damn. Potter rolled his eyes, and said, "I suspected she'd do that."

"Why didn't you stop her?" Draco asked, trying to clean somethingfrom Potter's face that showed he wanted to be locked in a room with Draco.

"No point," Potter shook his head. "She'd only find some other way of getting us to talk, might as well get it over with."

"Is the baby mine?" Draco said without preamble. He'd thought of nothing else in what felt like weeks but could only have been days since finding out.

Potter turned to Draco. "Yes, it's your baby. No, you can'thave a paternity test, you either believe me or not, I don't care. You don't need to be involved; I'm quite capable enough to take care of him on my own."

Potter sat back in the chair and raised a challenging eyebrow at Draco.

"I believe you," Draco said as the relief flooded through him, watching the surprise flit across Potter's face before he covered it. "But- It's a boy? You know that already?"

Potter snorted and simmered at Draco before saying, "Yes, I knew I was pregnant less than a day after we-" Potter flushed. "Male pregnancies don't work the same as normal female pregnancies apparently and Madame Pomfrey was able to diagnose my condition as soon as I started to feel weird. She was also able to determine the sex."

Draco smiled and pictured him and Potter with a small blond child with green eyes like Potter's until he snapped back to reality - Potter didn't want him and Potter was only telling him about the baby now because everyone had found out and Weasley had let the cat out of the bag to Draco earlier.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he accused, fixing Potter in his stare and watching him squirm.

"It was a bit of a shock! I didn't even know Wizards could have babies!" He ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Madame Pomfrey offered me a potion to remove foetus and-"

Draco froze. It hadn't even occurred to him that this was an option.

"You wouldn't, would you?"

Potter glared at him. "What do you care?"

"Oh, I don't know," Draco said calmly, even as a red mist descended. "Maybe because it's my baby!"

Potter flinched. "This baby has nothing to do with you. He's mine."

A voice in Draco's head said, 'you're both mine'.

"Nothing to do with me? I'm about to become a father and you tell me it's nothing to do with me!" Draco pushed back his chair, ignoring how Potter jumped as it clattered to the floor. "Did you have to take a paternity test, is that it? Is that why you didn't want to tell me, because you've bent over for half the school and you didn't know which one of us knocked you up?"

Draco couldn't remember at time he'd felt this furious.

Potter went red, "How dare you?"

"I dare because what else am I supposed to think?" Draco began to pace. "One minute you're all over me, the next I'm a pariah and you're avoiding me - now I find out that you knew all along that you were pregnant."

"I didn't think you'd care."

"You 'didn't think I'd care'." Draco wanted to punch something, preferably not Potter at his juncture. He settled on kicking the table leg, startling Potter who reached out to grip the table as though Draco's kicking it might result in him falling. "Mybaby is inside you, Potter. Mine. I have no family left – it's just me now – and you-" Draco felt the tears of frustration threaten to fall. There was no way he was letting Potter see that. He'd already been weak enough to let the Gryffindor see him cry once before, and that had ended with Draco lying in a pool of his own blood.

"No, Malfoy. This is myson. You're nothing but a sperm donor."

Potter knew how to twist the knife, and fuck did it hurt. How could he believe that he was in love with someone who could be so cruel? Draco rued the day he let Blaise goad him into making a move on Potter, the misery of unrequited love was far more tolerable when there was still some hope that one day. . . Draco had obviously been wearing rose tinted glasses all these years to let himself believe that this stupid infatuation had been more than it was, that Potter was worthy of his love.

So now it boiled down to this – just - the two of them arguing bitterly over their unborn child – unborn son¬ – and Draco's role in this being reduced down to that of sperm donor.

"I'll show you how much I care," Draco heard himself saying. "Expect to hear from my solicitor by the end of the week. I'm putting in a claim for custody!"

Potter gasped and placed a protective hand over his stomach.

Draco tried not to let the gesture get to him as he headed for the door and flung the door open. The room allowed him to leave. This conversation was over.

-O-

Professor McGonagall peered over her glasses at Draco. "Mr Malfoy, I'm asking you to reconsider this course of action. Mr Potter-"

Draco smirked, showing confidence that he wasn't feeling. "I'm sure that you do want me to reconsider, but I can assure you that I will not. As the baby's father I have rights and I intend to ensure that I am allowed them." It had been two weeks since his threat of suing Potter for custody had taken form. Potter hadn't approached him to talk about another solution, and Draco was damned if he was going to be the one backing down.

Professor McGonagall sighed. "Very well, Mr Malfoy. Use of my office is yours for the afternoon." The disappointment in her voice made Draco cringe. Merlin forbid that anyone try to question the rights of the fucking saviour.

She left the room and for a moment Draco was alone in her office. Merlin, he was really doing this; fighting with Harry Potter for custody of his unborn child. It wasn't what he wanted. Well, yes, he wanted his child – after the initial panic when he'd first heard Potter was pregnant there had been no doubt in his mind about that.

He wanted Potter too. Draco didn't think that was ever going to change. He'd had two weeks to think about it and he still wanted them both – his baby andPotter.

The door opened again and Mr Bannister, Draco's family solicitor lead the way, followed by Potter and a fierce looking man with dark blond hair that could only be Potter's counsel.

Potter shot Draco such a fierce look of loathing that Draco knew there could be no other course of action. His child. His family. Draco shook his head and invited them to sit.

What followed was drawn out and tedious, each solicitor bringing up ancient case law that supported their case, whilst Draco and Potter looked on. Potter getting increasingly agitated until he suddenly blurted, "What's the bloody case law around someone sleeping with someone else for a bet?" He glared at Draco, his green eyes burning.

What?Draco opened his mouth to defend himself and then froze as realisation dawned. Fuck. How could Potter know about that? Draco hadn't even collected on it, and that hadn't been what it was about anyway. Blaise had his ways of getting a reaction out of Draco, and Draco's epic obsession with Potter had needed that shove in the right direction. That was all that stupid fucking bet had ever been.

"Look at him! The guilt is written all over his face." Potter crossed his arms and sat back in satisfaction. "Apparently all I'm worth is a month of Arithmancy homework. That's all my babyis worth to him."

Potter's solicitor fixed Draco with intense blue eyes, "Mr Malfoy, is this true?"

"Mr Malfoy, do not answer that!" Mr Bannister said immediately. To the wider group he said, "My client's motivations do not change the-"

Draco turned to Potter and said, "How did you know about that?" Even as he said the words a long forgotten rumour about Potter owning an invisibility cloak surfaced. Potter was more Slytherin than Draco had realised!

"Mr Malfoy-"

Draco held up a staying hand, his eyes on Potter. Potter glared back at him but remained silent.

"If this is the way you want to go, that's fine by me. Let me show you, hm?" Draco pushed his chair back and approached the pensieve in the corner of the room. He had his wand to his forehead and was extracting the relevant memories before he had time to change his mind. He knew that if he did this then Potter would know exactly how he felt about him, that he was opening himself up to another rejection – but how else could he prove his innocence? He capped the vial he'd captured his memories into and placed it on the side. "This vial contains the truth. Will you please look at this?"

Potter's eyes were fixed on his, the expression wary. After a long stretched out silence in which Draco thought he might explode, Potter nodded and stood. "Fine," he said, flicking his gaze to both of their solicitors who were both rapidly fanning through the reams of paper in front of them, presumably trying to come up with case law to cover this situation. "I'd like to do it alone." Green met grey again and Draco saw Potter's stubborn determination reflected within.

Draco didn't want to leave, he wanted to be there when Potter had seen the evidence with his own eyes, but if he insisted on staying then Potter might refuse to view the memories. "Alright." He stepped towards the door, pausing to say, "Come and find me when you're done here."

He exited the room, taking the stairs two at a time. Once he was clear he headed for the Astronomy Tower, the scene of his worst nightmare and bizarrely, the one place in Hogwarts that he felt safe.

Now all he had to do was wait for Potter to track him down as Draco knew he would; Potter's Gryffindor sensibilities wouldn't allow him not to.

-O-

The wait was longer than he expected, but it was finally over. Draco knew that the scrape of a footstep on the stairs belonged to Potter. He'd played his hand; he could only hope that he held the necessary cards for victory.

Draco leant over the side of the tower, watching the clouds shifting across the darkening sky, and when he sensed Potter's appearance he turned. Draco realised he had been holding his breath. Their eyes met and Draco maintained the contact as Potter drew closer.

Potter halted and the two of them stood, warily gazing at one another, both of them frozen. Potter's face was pale, his mouth red and bitten as he nervously chewed on his lower lip. Draco wanted to reach out and touch him, run the back of his hand across his face, thread his hand into his hair and pull him close. He wanted-

In the end, Draco didn't know who moved first, but either way he found himself with his arms wrapped around one Harry Potter who had his hands threaded in Draco'shair.

This felt like home.

After a few minutes, Potter stepped back. Instinctively Draco reached out a hand and placed it over Potter's still flat abdomen. Potter placed a hand on top of his. "Is it just the baby you want?" he whispered, bowing his head.

"It's always been you, Harry," Draco answered, thinking back to his eleven year old self, desperately wanting Harry Potter's friendship, and later, desperately wanting Harry full stop. "Our son is just icing on the cake."

"I can't claim 'always'," Harry said, his face breaking into a shy smile. "But it's been a while for me too. I thought you hated me…"

"Well, we've gone and done it now, haven't we?" Draco nodded at Harry's tummy. "We're having a baby." He felt his heart swell with pride.

Harry stepped closer and placed a hand over Draco's heart. "This means we've got about seven months to get to know one another properly before we become a three."

Draco closed the gap. "We'd better get started then," he said, and kissed Harry.

"No time like the present," Harry said with a cheeky smile. "This time, I'm on top."

-O-

Unfortunately – or as Draco came to see it, eventually, fortunately - for the soon to be Potter-Malfoy family, the same stars were still aligned and a little over eight weeks after Harry gave birth to their son, Remus, their daughter, Lucy was born to Draco. This time though, the two fathers were very much in love by the time they realised there was a second baby on the way, and it was difficult to say which father was more protective of the other.

Whichever way, the two of them had found a family in each other, and neither boy could be happier.

The End

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