Epilogue: Happily Every After
Two years later:
Blaise looked up as the other man slid into his seat across the table from him. "Long time no see, Draco."
Draco shot him a smirk as he ran his hand through long platinum strands, even longer than his father had worn his hair, Blaise noted. "Becoming a Master in potion making isn't as easy as I make it sound in my letters."
Blaise laughed, thinking of how Draco ranted in his letters about the demands of the Masters he was working with. "Have they stopped bringing up the fact that you don't sleep on campus?"
"No. They keep telling me that I should be around at all times." The Veriae shrugged. "I've gotten used to ignoring them. Their glares have nothing on my godfather's."
"Draco, I don't think anyone can glare like your godfather. Although," Blaise's eyes laughed merrily as he spoke, "If I remember correctly, you could come close."
"I find myself improving. They're going to start having me lecture next semester in Durmstrang."
"Not Hogwarts?"
"No. Believe me, I tried. I think they don't want my godfather to grade me. They think he'd favor me or something like that."
Blaise snorted into his wine at the thought of Snape favoring anyone enough to up their grade. Nope, it wasn't compatible with the reality.
"So how's your better half?" Blaise asked.
"Well right now we're arguing-"
"You don't say." Blaise's tone was dry and sarcastic.
"-about children."
Blaise choked on the wine he was drinking and decided that, even though it was really good wine, he should not drink it during this conversation.
"I can honestly say that is the last thing I thought you were going to say."
Draco smirked. "I enjoy surprising you."
"So what exactly are you arguing about?"
"How they will come into existence."
"Oh, you mean whether you're going to use a potion or a spell?"
"Yes."
"Let me guess, you want the potion, he wants the spell?"
"Exactly."
Blaise grinned lopsidedly at him. "Well, I think whoever has to carry the baby should decide."
"Blaise, that is disgusting."
Blaise couldn't help but laugh at the look on his friend's face. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. Well, if memory serves me correctly, the Hereditary Potion and Spell are both administered at the same time of birth, right?"
"Correct. As long as the baby hasn't gone through a naming ceremony, either one can be used to change his or her heritage to another family's."
"Well, why don't you just adopt twins and use both?"
Draco shrugged off his outer cloak and dropped it into the House Elf's waiting hands as he entered the Manor. The Masters had kept him late again. He sighed. Harry didn't like it when he wasn't there to help tuck the children in. He would have to apologize for the ill-manners of his teachers, yet again.
"Master Draco, Master Harry and the little Master and Mistress are waiting for you in the little Mistress's room. They is having Master Harry tell them stories while they wait for you."
Draco thanked the House Elf and strolled towards the room he and Harry had fashioned for the younger twin. She was "Harry's twin", and had been made a Malfoy by Harry casting the Hereditary Spell on her, while the older twin was "his twin", having been made part of the family by the Hereditary Potion that Draco himself had brewed.
The door was open and he paused in the hallway as he realized that Harry was nearing the end of the story. As always, he couldn't speak more than a sentence without one of them asking a question.
"And Draconis protected Harold with his wings as Harold said the spell to kill the Big-Bad-Wizard."
"Did he have wings like Father does, Daddy?"
"Yes, exactly like Father does."
"What happened after the Big-Bad-Wizard was killed, Daddy?"
"Well, Harold and Draconis decided to have a family, of course."
Draco moved to stand in the doorway. Harry was sitting in the middle of the bed with one child on either side, listening intently to him. Harry looked up at Draco as he entered.
"And did they all live happily ever after, Daddy?"
"They did." Draco answered, stepping up to the bed to hug and kiss his children good-night. "They all lived happily ever after."
Headmaster Severus Snape surveyed the hall as Hermione Weasley, Minerva's replacement as Transfiguration teacher lead the new First Years into the Great Hall for the Sorting. His eyes swept down to one end of the table where Ron was watching his son in the gaggle of First Years. He allowed himself a small smile. From this year on, he wouldn't have to worry about young children exploding their cauldrons in his dungeons anymore. Casting a glance at the wizard sitting next to him, he wondered how the children would react to their new Potions teacher. He'd seen Draco teach as part of his application to be on the Hogwarts staff and his godson had impressed even him on how strict a teacher he could be.
Next to Draco sat his husband, and the only Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to remain at Hogwarts for more than one year (ten, to be exact, and still counting): Harry Malfoy. Though, Snape thought with a hidden grimace, he would always be "Potter" in his eyes. Harry was watching eagerly for his own two children to be sorted, his hand reaching for Draco's under the table.
Snape turned his attention back towards the group of students and picked out two very blond children in the crowd. One, a girl, was standing in the front. The other, a boy, was more towards the back hidden behind the other students. But the hair gave them away as the two Malfoy twins that Draco had written of constantly in his letters. Snape looked forward to seeing how they'd grown. He'd not seen them since their naming ceremonies.
"Malfoy, Lily." Hermione's voice rang out and the front most blond head moved out of the crowd. Lily Malfoy smiled brightly at her two fathers before she sat down on the chair. She had wavy golden hair, much more gold than platinum; Harry's eyes, Harry's smile, Draco's nose and poise. Everyone waited as the hat was placed upon her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" it yelled, and Harry smirked at Draco before joining in the applause for his daughter.
"One more left, Harry," Draco reminded him over the chatter and Snape fought the urge to groan. Would the rivalry between those two never stop? For one minute?
Draco edged forward in his seat as Hermione's eyes fell to the next name on the list.
"Malfoy, Lucius."
Snape's jaw dropped as a carbon copy of the Lucius he had gone to school with made his way through the small huddle of first years, and nodded respectfully at his fathers before sitting down. The elder twin waited patiently as the hat was lowered towards his head. No sooner had it touched the long platinum hairs that were brushed back into a horsetail did it shout:
"SLYTHERIN!"
Draco beamed at his son as Lucius sat proudly at the Slytherin table, very much in the same seat that Draco himself had occupied during his years at Hogwarts. The twins shot each other challenging looks across the hall and Snape fought the urge to groan, thinking of all the trouble two Malfoys - who were part Potter - would cause, now that they were in different houses.
"Well, I think that we needn't have feared, Harry," Draco spoke as the Sorting continued. "Our inter-house rivalry legacy will be continued."
Nothing else was said until "Weasley, Mordred" was sorted.
"Mordred?" Snape asked the blond next to him as the redheaded boy sat down on the stool and his mother dropped the hat on his head.
"It was apparently Mrs. Weasley's idea," was all the Malfoy patriarch would explain. "And Mr. Weasley didn't have the determination to tell her no, not after twelve hours of labor."
Snape nodded, wincing slightly, and thanked whatever force was guiding the universe that he would never have to worry about children of his own.
"SLYTHERIN!"
At the other end of the staff table, the flying instructor, Ronald Weasley, began to choke on the very air he was breathing. Hermione, however, smiled proudly at her son and watched him swagger over to the table over which hung green and silver banners. The redhead plopped down next to Lucius and, from the conspiring grins between the two, Harry and Draco both knew that something was being planned about this turn of events.
Draco couldn't resist. "You should be happy, Weasley," he smirked down the table at the sputtering Ron. "My boy will make sure yours grows up right."
Ron shot a glare at Draco but didn't say anything, pointedly returning his attention to the Sorting Ceremony.
Later that night Harry remarked on how quiet it was in the Manor, now that Lucius and Lily were staying in the Hogwarts dorms.
Draco's smile was predatory as he whispered in Harry's ear, "I bet I could make you scream loudly enough that it echoes."
And he would have proven that was there not the sound of a nervous House Elf trying to get their attention. "Masters, there is a guest demanding to see you in the fire."
Draco sighed and got up, pulling Harry off the couch with him. The two walked into the foyer where a very irate Severus Snape waited for them in the fireplace.
"Draco, I need you to floo to Hogwarts immediately. You are needed as Head of Slytherin House."
"Why?" Harry pouted.
"Because your son and his Weasley friend were just caught sneaking into the Restricted Section of the library."
Harry burst out laughing as Draco shrugged and went to grab some floo powder. He had a feeling the two wouldn't be punished for trying to sneak into the Restricted Section on their first night of Hogwarts. No, Draco would chew them both out with a lecture to rival and perhaps utterly destroy one of Snape's own; but it would not be about breaking the rules… no, it would be about breaking the rules and getting caught.
Closing Note:
Well, it's done. What was the center of my free time, and sometimes the bane of my existance, what started as a small plot bunny that grew beyond my wildest imagination, has finally come to its final stage. I'm a bit sad that its done,but I am also happy that it's done because, let's face it, I made it! I promised that I would finish the story when I started it and blindly posted it on the 27th of April, 2004. Now, on December 23rd of 2005 I fufilled that promise to myself and to those who would become my readers.
And I find now that some thanks are in order. First to my beta. My absolutely wonderful, deity of a beta, who has helped me through many a grammatical stumbling block. Hugs to you and thank you! Second, to my readers and reviewers. Those that were here at the very first chapter, who inspired me to write the second, and are now sitting here reading the last chapter (number 42)... guys, without your responce that first day this story may not have even had a second chapter, much less a forty-second. Those that joined me along the way, and were bright new lights of inspiration, those who wrote that they had stayed up entire nights in order to read my story from start to psudo-finish, I could not have continued without you. And those who only read this story because someone else requested that you do, and wrote to tell me that you were impressed or agreed with the recomendation, sometimes it was only your review that kept me typing. Literally, whenever I saw reviews appear in my mailbox my day brightened just a little more. In words, I cannot tell you how much this story survived only because of that. I can only tell you all thank you from the very deepest part of my heart, and assure you that as I move on to other stories I will not forget your words of encouragement.
hugs,
Rio the InferiorBeing