Authors Note: Ah, here we are, the last chapter. This little story of mine was never supposed to be anything else than the courting period, and alas, that stops with the bonding ceremony. However, I have written this epilogue thingy, which gives you a little glimpse of the future life of Harry and Draco. Thank you all for staying with me all this time, and may you enjoy this last chapter as much as you have the others. I'm going to miss writing for you, love you all!
Chapter 24 – An Epilogue or a Glimpse of the Future
After that eventful Christmas Eve, Draco and I spent the last two weeks of the vacation alternately between Sirius and Remus, and his mother. They were all three of them more than happy to have us over, and I found to my great delight that Draco's mother was an absolute dear. She took me in as if she'd known me all her life, and did everything in her powers to make me feel welcome. She even invited Sirius and Remus over for dinner, and although it was a tense evening, I appreciated the effort and thought behind it. Draco's father was never mentioned, as he had been captured the night Sirius was freed, and now spent his time in Azkaban. Both Draco and Mrs. Malfoy, or Narcissa as she wanted me to call her, were better off without him. The rest of our time in school was also spent well, and we both graduated with remarkably good grades, Draco's being among the highest in our year, just after Hermione's. With the help of Draco, Ron and Hermione, I also managed to vanquish Voldemort at the end of our seventh year, but that is a whole other story, for a whole other time.
The End.
Harry put the quill carefully down next to the piece of parchment, and read it through one more time. When he was sure the ink had dried, he put it together with all the other parchments, and tied them together with a piece of red string.
"Are you finished for the night, mate o' mine?" Draco's voice could be heard through the door to the bedroom, and Harry smiled softly.
"Yes, I just finished writing the last page," Harry called back, and suddenly Draco came to stand in the doorway. He was wearing a pair of pyjama bottoms with a white t-shirt, and he looked every bit as delicious as he had all those years ago, when Harry first met him on the train after their respective transformations. He had filled out a bit, his stomach wasn't as lean anymore, nor his muscles as defined, but he was still more than fit enough. Not that it mattered, even with a beer belly worthy of Hagrid he would have been perfect in Harry's eyes. He was perfect. Scornfulness and that first grey hair included. Harry smiled up at the Veela, waiting for him to say something. He knew he would, he was smirking too hard about something to keep quiet for long.
"So you've finally finished that dratted book of yours, have you? Took you long enough." Harry laughed, and Draco came over and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Let us see then." Harry held the collection of parchments up and Draco leafed through them, careful not to tear any of the pages. "The Challenge of being a Veela's Mate, catchy title, I'll give you that. But I don't think it was that much of a challenge, do you? We did well enough, didn't we?"
"Yes, we did," Harry smiled softly and reached up to put his hand atop of Draco's, which was still resting on his shoulder.
"Now, don't you go mushy on me, Mr. Potter-Malfoy!" Draco admonished and Harry laughed, shaking his head.
"I won't." He assured. "I guess all the writing has just brought me in a bit of a nostalgic and sentimental mood, you know?"
"Yes, I suppose you're right. And I'll probably, horrors of horrors, go a bit sentimental as well when I've read through this. I can read it, right?" Draco asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Of course you can, it's as much your story as it is mine. And it might give you a valuable glance into the mind of a teenage Gryffindor," Harry smirked and Draco snorted.
"Yes, I'm going to need it too, aren't I? I can't believe your daughter went ahead and got herself sorted into Gryffindor! Honestly! At least Lucas had the presence of mind to end up in Ravenclaw. I don't know what I would have done if two of our children had turned out to be Gryffindor goody-goodies."
Harry laughed, turning his head to look up at his agitated husband. "So when she brews a perfect potion, she's your daughter, but when she does something you don't like, she's mine?"
"Naturally," answered Draco, his head turned upwards in a haughty smirk.
"You're hopeless." Harry smiled, shaking his head. "And we might yet have two Gryffindors, you know. There's still plenty of time to go before Tavin is going anywhere near Hogwarts, with a bit of work I can easily influence him over to the 'light side.'"
"Over my dead body! Tavin is the epitome of a Slytherin, I just know he'll make me proud by choosing the right house!"
Harry grinned, turning around so that he was completely facing Draco. "Ha, that was exactly what you said about Rose, and look how that turned out!"
"Details, details, I've had two children to practice on now, Tavin will be a Slytherin, if it's the last thing I do!"
"Won't work, he's clearly Gryffindor material." Harry smirked mischievously.
"He is not!"
"We'll see, we'll see." Harry said evasively, grinning broadly.
Narrowing his eyes, Draco looked down at the face of his mate. "What do you know?" He growled.
"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," Harry blinked innocently.
"Oh, don't give me that crap. I know that look! You know something!" Draco ground out, his hands crossed menacingly over his chest.
"Hm, maybe I do, maybe I don't," said Harry in a bit of a singsong voice. Draco's eyes narrowed even more and the brunet couldn't help laughing. "I'm not telling, but I can say this; it involves Tavin, his new room, and a sickening amount of red and gold."
"Tell me he didn't?" whispered Draco, and proceeded to run across the hallway to his youngest son's room, where the door was slightly open. Peering inside, he could see Tavin lying peacefully on the bed, his little chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. However, that was not what caught Draco's eye, no, that was the bed in itself. It was an almost exact replica of the ones that used to be, and probably still were, in the Gryffindor dorm. Dark red, gold trimmed canopy included. The walls around it were covered in the Quidditch wallpaper of every little boy's dreams, golden snitches on a red background. Plastered on top of that was poster upon poster of famous Quidditch teams, clearly dominated by the orange colours of the Chudley Cannons and their star keeper, Ronald Weasley. Or, as he was called in this family, 'Uncle Won'. On the floor underneath the window, which by the way had red curtains, lay a striped rug of burgundy and golden colours. And, as if to put insult to injury, on the bed, tucked safely inside the arms of the six year old, lay a small plush lion.
Draco fought the urge to scream, and stomped back to the study where his mate was sitting laughingly on the chair. "You've corrupted him!" Draco snarled, throwing his hands up in the air in a motion of despair. "What did you do? It must have been something serious to have ruined all my years of hard work!"
Grinning broadly, Harry looked up at Draco in what could only be called a self-satisfied way. "Ron and I just took him to a school Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin." He smirked. "Gryffindor demolished Slytherin, by the way."
"You, you, you bastard! You've corrupted my children!" Draco wailed and Harry couldn't help, it he almost fell off the chair laughing.
"Aww, it's not so bad, love, you do have one in Ravenclaw after all." The brunet stood up and put his arms around his husband's neck in a comforting embrace.
"But it's not the same," sniffled Draco. He pouted and sulked some more, before a thought suddenly seemed to hit him. He looked down at Harry, and his eyes took on a mischievous glint. "But, since you have corrupted all of them, the least you can do is give me another one. Or maybe two, twins would be nice, don't you think?" He smirked before bending down to lift Harry up, carrying him into the bedroom bridal style.
"Hey, you play dirty!" Harry whined, kicking his legs a bit back and forth. However, the tight grasp he had around the other man's neck and the way his eyes shone gave him away.
"Why of course, you might have ruined my children, but I'm still a Slytherin!" And with that he captured Harry's lips with his own, kissing the smaller man until he stopped kicking. Which, to tell you the truth, didn't take very long at all. No, not very long at all.
Ah, there we have it people.
The End.
Waaah, I can't believe it's over -cries- my little baby, all grown up, written and finished… it even has an epilogue -wails- I remember when it was only a mere toddler, barely four chapters, demanding my attention day after day… -sigh- There's nothing to do about it, babies must grow up and stories must end. That's the way of the world, unfortunately. And, I suppose it's time for me to give out my thanks again. Well, here goes:
First and foremost, I would like to thank my reviewers. All of you. You've been with me from the beginning, giving me advice and lavishing me with praise. If it weren't for you, my head would be two sizes smaller. At least. So thank you!
Then, of course, there's the usual Hielo thank you. Thank you for waiting, thank you for bullying me into posting, thank you for being there all the way. I love you.
And last, a special thank you to my brother. My computer has been hell on earth these last few weeks, and if it hadn't been for him, I would never have managed to update as frequently as I have. So thank you a bunch!
-Sigh- Now, there's only one last thing to do, and I bet you can all guess what that is? Hehe, you should be able to, you know me well enough by now. Yes, I am of course talking about begging for reviews. I really think I deserve one last for finishing the story, yeah? I didn't abandon it, and I updated almost every day. So, pretty please? One last review to tell me what you think of the ending? I'd be forever grateful.
All my love, triola.