A/N: This is my first attempt at Harry Potter fiction so I'm hoping it isn't too bad. I don't really know their voices considering how much time has passed. Just a short one-shot. Hope you enjoy! Reviews are like candy, the more I get the happier I am lol =)

Sometimes Hello is a Second Chance

Harry sat in the yard of his home, watching six children race around on brooms playing their own little version of a game that Harry had loved from the moment he learned about it. This game was called Quidditch. He couldn't help allowing a small smile to grace his lips as he watched his eldest son, James appoint himself Keeper, the position he actually occupied in his soon to be fourth year at Hogwarts. James appeared to be the only one taking their game seriously at the moment however. Lily was watching Rose zoom around on her broomstick attempting to make shapes and have her younger cousin guess them. Harry thought the last one was a heart, but he couldn't be sure. Hugo hovered close to James, seemingly absorbing his every word. Harry could only hope whatever his eldest was saying it wouldn't get Hugo into very much trouble down the line because James seemed to have inherited that particular talent. His youngest son Albus and his best friend, whom he had met for the first time a week ago when he came to stay with them for a bit during the Summer holidays, were talking animatedly about something and it appeared had decided to abandon the game altogether as they were now sitting cross-legged under the rest of the children, their brooms forgotten at their sides.

As he watched Al from across the yard he couldn't help once again visiting the irony of his sons choice in a best friend. Just as Al had, at the time, feared and Harry had expected he had been sorted into Slytherin. What happened next however Harry doubted even a true seer could have predicted. Shortly after being sorted he ran into a tall, skinny, boy with white blonde hair and piercing eyes named Scorpius Malfoy. They had been placed in the same room and been given all the same classes. Before long they had become almost inseparable. Harry distinctly recalled the letter he had received during Al's second full week at Hogwarts.

Dad and Mum,

Hey! Hogwarts is even more amazing than you said.

Hagrid's house is so cool and Fang is as tall as me!

I'm doing pretty good in all my classes, though not as

good as Rose. Everyone says Defense Against the Dark

Arts is my specialty. Scor says go figure since you are an

Auror and all, Dad. I don't think I've told you about Scor

yet. Well his real name is Scorpius Malfoy, but we all call

him Scor, just like everyone calls me Al. He's really awesome,

I think we are going to be best friends, James said you wouldn't

like that, and Uncle Ron definitely won't, but I don't see why.

Scor is really nice, and he said his ENTIRE family has been

in Slytherin so it must not be as bad as I thought, good thing

too since I'm in it. Anyway got to go, Scor and I are going to

see Hagrid again. Love you.

-Al

Suddenly someone yelled his name and he was brought out of the memory to find himself looking at what he assumed would be Scorpius in twenty years time. His father, Draco.

"Can I sit, Potter?" Draco's drawling voice stated, and Harry noticed it hadn't changed much since their school days, though perhaps it sounded less cold.

"Sure." he responded still watching Albus and Scorpius, wondering vaguely if this was destinies idea of irony, a way of showing people how time passed and situations changed.

"Strange isn't it?" Draco said aloud and Harry didn't have to turn toward him to know that he too was watching almost carbon copies of themselves sitting in the grass, playing some unknown game, and getting along the way they never seemed possible of all those years ago.

"Definitely, beyond strange." he found himself responding almost without thinking. "How shocked were you when you got that letter?" Harry continued, the memory of spitting his coffee out onto the poor barn owl still fresh in his mind.

Draco laughed and it seemed a little less chilly than it used to. "I don't even know if shocked can begin to describe it."

"Malfoy, you ever think if maybe our lives had been different, our upbringings not quite so…controlled, that we'd have ended up like them?" Harry questioned gesturing toward their sons, who had decided to rejoin the game, though both looking oddly up to no good.

"I don't know. I've thought about it. I always had a fancy for the Dark Arts, but never to the extent I was forced and you always had an aversion to them. Seems regardless we probably would have found it difficult to become friends, even if I hadn't been taught to dislike your very name since childhood. Of course my jealously didn't help matters either."

"Jealousy?" Harry asked, quite stunned. Of all the things he had expected to come out of Draco Malfoy's mouth, that wasn't one of them.

"Obvious wasn't it Potter? You must be thicker than even I remembered. You got all the attention didn't you? And I couldn't help but envy you for it, which made me kind of respect all the crap that you did, standing up to my father, nobody stood up to him. So of course I had to hate you, what was my alternative." he finished and Harry laughed internally a part of the old Draco was still there.

"Funny isn't it, how childhood rivalries can turn into real adult hatred without you even realizing it." Harry stated, remembering how even after all these years that had passed he could still remember with absolute clarity the deep rooted feelings of hatred he had felt for a boy he had never taken the time to attempt to understand or like.

"Seems to me we have no choice but to be civil now, for the kids sake." Draco stated, knowing no matter how much time elapsed he would never be able to completely forget that boyhood rivalry, maybe it was childish and stupid of him, but feelings that have been allowed to grow and fester for so long can sometimes never be gone.

"Seems so, Malfoy. Look it's not like I expect us to become best friends. Because that would never happen. You're lucky Ron even let Rose and Hugo come over and play when he found out Scorpius was staying with us, some wounds never really heal and we had our fair share of unpleasant encounters, but I'm willing to bury the hatchet and try for some civility, and maybe in time we will forget that we are supposed to hate each other. For some reason or another Albus and Scorpius decided they were going to be best friends, which means we are going to see a fair share of each other, it isn't a situation either of us counted on, or one we particularly like. But we are two adults, and seeing you today, I can tell you love Scorpius, and I love Albus. And they wouldn't want their fathers hating each other, so how about we shake hands, go inside where I think Ginny should have some tea waiting for us, and try to get along while the kids play a little longer. It doesn't look like anyone is quite ready for goodbyes." Harry finished casting a glance over to where the kids played, unbeknownst to their fathers childhood hatred.

"I think I can manage that, Potter. Just don't go and try to become best friends with me, I really don't think I could take it." he smiled and put out his hand, and unlike so many years ago this time Harry took it. Glancing back at the kids Draco laughed. "Who ever would have guessed this?" he said turning toward Harry. "The Malfoy's, Potter's, and Weasley's co-existing in perfect harmony, think the world's about to end?"

"Probably, only realistic explanation isn't it?" Harry smiled, turning around and leading Malfoy toward his house, once again allowing the irony of the situation unfold in his mind. And as they walked up to the house together, they both cast a backward glance at the children, all roaring with laughter and thought whatever discomfort being forced together may cause them it was worth to see those bright shiny faces at the end of each day.

Okay that's all folks, hope you enjoyed it. Just wanted to put my own spin on what may have occurred if Albus and Scorpius did happen to become friends, and I like to think Harry and Draco would try, for their sons sake, to be nice to each other. Reviews make me smile.