Last chapter!

()()()

Harry was quiet throughout dinner, responding to Draco's attempts at conversation with simple yes and no answers. He clearly had something on his mind.

"Something's troubling you, is there anything I can do to help?"

His question was met with a pained look as Harry's glamoured face bit his lip nervously before shattering all of Draco's illusions by saying, "I'm leaving."

"You're what?" Draco spluttered, undignified in his shock and not caring. "Why? What about-" What about us?

"I don't belong here," Harry replied. "This place is claustrophobic. This-" He waved his hand between the two of them and refused to meet Draco's eye. "This isn't what I want. I don't want to be with you, I should never have let things get as far as they did. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" This couldn't be happening! Draco had thought he was getting through to Harry. How could Harry be leaving? Draco had been sure that he would stick around for Gabe's sake if nothing else. He had clearly gone to a lot of effort to be here, close to his son. Draco had been under no illusions that Harry had come back for him but he wasn't above making the situation work in his favour.

"Yes, I realise that this might sting you for a while, but like I said when we started this thing, it didn't mean anything; I have nothing to offer you." He pushed back from the table and stood up. "I think it best if I just go now."

No! Panic drew in over Draco. He wasn't about to let Harry out of his life for a second time. He'd only just found him again. He was his life, his love, the only person he would ever love. He was his Harry. His. He'd already been through hell and back when he'd thought he had lost Harry to death. Getting this second chance had given him back his life, his hope – it had dragged him screaming out of the life of comfortable numbness he had been living in – high up in his manor house, surrounded by all the material wealth he could ever want with more money than he could ever spend – none of it had meant anything. Draco would live the rest of his life as a pauper living on bread and water and nothing else if he could do it with Harry back by his side.

"I'm not letting you go," he said with a calmness he didn't feel. It was time to show his hand. Much earlier than he had planned, too soon by far, but faced with Harry's imminent departure from his life, Draco knew he had no choice.

"I'm sorry, but you don't get a say in the matter," Harry responded. His fake face was pale and there was sweat on his upper lip as though he was struggling to stand.

"I think I do. After all – I am still your husband, am I not – Harry?"

Harry gasped and stumbled backwards. "You're mad! I'm not-"

Draco raised his wand and muttered the spell that would remove the glamour, watching with satisfaction as it fell away and he was gazing at his husband's horrified face. "Harry, I know."

"Oh, Merlin," Harry rasped, reaching out and grabbing hold of the back of a chair to steady himself with shaking hands. "What are you going to do to me?"

()()()

This could not be happening. All his plans, everything – evaporated in a puff of smoke at the sound of those three simple words spoken from Draco's lips; 'Harry, I know'. His fingers tightened around the back of the chair in an effort to support himself. Draco knew. Draco knew. Draco knew. How long had he been playing him for? Had he planned this – luring Harry back in, getting him pregnant again, laying a trap for him so that he could cast him out in the cold again?

"Harry, I'm not going to do anything to you," Draco said with a calmness that Harry was sure wasn't real. "When I found out, yes, I was angry, shocked – you put me through hell when I thought you were dead – but Harry-"

Draco's hand was inching across the table towards him, and although Harry was standing and the hand wouldn't get anywhere near to him, he panicked. "Back off," he threatened. "This doesn't change anything, I was leaving anyway, and I'm still leaving." He wanted to add that Draco wasn't getting his hands on his baby, but at least he still had one secret.

"Harry-"

"How long have you been playing me along?"

Draco's features twisted, "How long have I been playing you along? How can you ask that when you've been right under my nose this whole time, pretending to be someone else, having me fall for you all over again?"

"Fall for me, Draco? You wouldn't know love if you fell over it. I was only ever here for Gabe – remember him? The child you bent over backwards to make sure I would never see again! The only person in the whole world who is real family to me and you took him away from me. Have you any idea what that was like?"

"If Gabe's so important to you, why are you leaving now?"

Harry's next words were calculated. "Because, as much as I love my son, I can't bear to be around you any longer; letting you touch me makes my flesh crawl!"

Draco's pained gasp was fuel for Harry's anger.

"Now that the game is up, I'll be suing you for access to Gabe – but I never want to lay eyes on you ever again." The words spewed off his tongue, designed to hurt Draco as much as possible.

"You don't mean that, you couldn't be with me the way you have been these last few weeks of you really felt like that about me! If I made your 'flesh crawl'-"

"It's amazing what someone will do for their child, Malfoy," Harry spat.

"Harry, please, we have to talk about this," Draco said soothingly, the hurt still simmering beneath the surface evidenced by the shaking in his voice.

"No, I don't think that we do," Harry threw back at him, and without even needing to reach for his wand now that the glamour was gone and he was in full command of his powers again, Harry wandlessly Apparated.

When he reappeared it was to find that he was not at Shell Cottage as he had planned but still in the manor's dining room and Draco was still seated at the table, his face resigned into a blank expression.

"What-?" Harry started before remembering. "You stopped Apparition out of the manor after the kidnap." Fuck. Harry had totally forgotten about that, he had not planned on Apparating directly from here after all; he had been planning to go back to the cottage to pick up his things.

"Harry, you're not going anywhere until we've talked," Draco said. "If you still want to leave afterwards then I won't object."

A tiny glimmer of hope settled in the pit of his stomach as Draco's earlier words sank in - fall for you all over again – could that be true? He'd already admitted to himself that he still loved Draco. What if there was a small chance that Draco wasn't planning on casting him away again now that he knew he was Harry? What if Draco had changed and now regretted the things that had passed between the two of them in the past? What if he was willing to allow Harry access to Gabe?

Yet, how could he trust a word Draco said? There were too many 'what ifs'. Draco hadn't listened to him before and had cast him out of both his and his son's lives. Harry had lost his entire family in one day and had been alone. Draco and Gabe had been everything to him. Yes, Draco had been behaving oddly in their last few months together, had hated Harry going anywhere without him and had become extremely possessive, but Harry had assumed that it was due to his pregnancy and once Gabe was here, Draco's desire to protect his family.

Harry had hated it; Draco hadn't liked him spending time with his friends, and the more Draco had disliked it the more Harry had done it; Draco had an army of house-elves helping to care for Gabe, Harry had been feeling superfluous to requirements and as though Draco really had only wanted a son and heir out of him, and what better for a Malfoy in the post-war climate to have than child from the loins of their Saviour?

So his visits to his friends had increased. He'd spent a lot of time with Hermione and Ron; the only two people in the world he truly trusted. It had been them he'd been going to visit on spec following an argument with Draco about Merlin knew what, when he'd found Charlie there instead – and in his distress had let the older man hug him close and whisper comforting words into his hair.

That had been how Draco had found him, and that had been the last time he had seen Draco until Narcissa had invited Ewen Johnson into her home.

When the Muggle plane had crashed with Harry on board, with everyone presumed dead, it had been Narcissa and not Draco who had Portkeyed to Australia to identify his body. It had been Narcissa who had found Harry very much alive and merely suffering from a couple of broken limbs after he had Apparated out of the plane before impact and landed awkwardly near the scene.

His body had been alive, but inside Harry was very much dead. He'd lost everything he'd ever cared about and had no hope of ever getting his son back into his life. Draco must have hated him for a long time before finding him with Charlie that day if he hadn't even been willing to see Harry to let him explain. One drop of Veritaserum and Draco could have had the truth. Harry had been blocked out of the manor and denied access to his son.

What did Harry have left worth living for? He'd told Narcissa that he had not intended to Apparate out of the plane, that he had intended to die that day. His magic had acted in self-preservation.

Narcissa had given him back his hope. Harry knew now that she had seen his despair and was concerned that he would take his life in some other way. It had been she who had let Draco and the wizarding world believe that Harry Potter had met his death that day in that accident, and it had been her who had come up with the plan for Harry's disguise as Ewen. With the glamour on, she had said, Harry could visit her at the manor and have a chance of seeing his son.

No one had known that she herself would not live much longer, that cancer would take her. Even in death she had thought about Harry.

It was thinking of Narcissa now that made Harry nod and say to Draco, "Alright, I'll listen." He owed her that much.

()()()

Draco let go of his breath. Thank Merlin he had changed the wards to stop Apparition out of the manor for anyone other than himself and the Notts, because if he hadn't, Harry could be anywhere now and Draco couldn't lose him for a second time.

"Harry, I'm not going to do anything, I promise. I only ask that you listen to me." Draco watched the warring expressions chasing over Harry's face – the fear, the hope, the desire – and he felt bolstered. "Come, let's talk about this in the sitting room. Pansy and Theo are both out; we'll have comfort and privacy." The Floo was also out of use in there in case Harry had any ideas in that regard.

Draco let Harry lead the way and waited for him to perch on the edge of an armchair before sitting himself in one opposite so that he could see Harry's face as they talked. It was so good to have Harry back as Harry again; even though he'd known for some time that Ewen was Harry, and he had been able to get used to the idea that all of his dreams had come true, that Harry was alive, actually seeing him as his true self was like a miracle.

"I want you to know, I'm not angry with you – when I first realised Ewen was really you, I was furious – but I realise that the fury was really only directed at myself. If I hadn't acted the way I had, then none of this would ever have happened and you wouldn't have had to resort to such measures to get access to Gabe. For that I am truly sorry."

"I hate you," Harry said. "I hate what you made me do."

Draco sighed. "I hate myself for what I did to you, Harry. I was blinded by jealousy. I was so convinced that you would leave me that in the end I made it happen, I drove you away and then made you pay."

"I don't understand. I was so in love with you, Draco. The thought of being with someone else never occurred to me. You were the one. When I was pregnant with Gabe I was so happy, you and a family were all I ever wanted." His green eyes shot up and glared challengingly at Draco. "I don't understand what I did wrong – why you changed so much."

Draco knew this was the time for complete honesty. He should have told Harry this when he'd first found out, instead he'd just let it fester and fester and he had convinced himself that when Harry found out he would lose him because of it. In the end, it was because he had been too scared to tell Harry that he had lost him anyway.

"Do you remember our first time together?"

Harry nodded, his expression confused. That had been when Harry was stupidly in love with Draco and convinced that he had no chance, but that first kiss had changed everything. "Of course I do."

"Well, I never told you, but I found that we were helped…along." He paused and closed his eyes. This was it. "I found out later that I was under a spell. Daphne cast it – it was to give me allure to attract the person I coveted. She thought she was helping me – she knew all about how I felt about you and she thought it might work in my favour at the trial. She said she wanted to help us along." He ran a shaking hand through his blond locks and looked beseechingly at Harry.

The surprise was reflected on Harry's face, but not the horror Draco had expected. "I don't understand."

"This was before you and I got together! I'd been at the Manor with Mother before the trial. I was all nerves about seeing you, scared I might go to Azkaban and that- I didn't want you to witness my downfall, yet you were my only hope! Daphne had come to visit with her mother and we'd stayed up half the night, I confessed how I felt about you and she must've thought she was doing me a favour, but-."

"So-?"

"So – the only reason you wanted me was because you were drawn in by the bloody spell! She used an old spell used by part-Veela who needed a hand attracting their mate. She knew that many generations, back I have a Veela ancestor so the spell would work for me!"

"You think that we got together because Daphne Greengrass cast some love spell on you to make me want you?"

Draco nodded.

"How long do the effects of the allure last?"

"Until the mate gives birth to their first child." Draco couldn't look at Harry as he spoke.

"You were waiting for me to realise I didn't want you anymore?" Harry paled. "You were waiting for the axe to fall? For me to leave you?"

Draco grimaced. "After Daphne told me what she'd done – when you were pregnant with Gabe – she was so proud, like she'd done me a favour – she seemed to want a thank you for 'helping me out'!"

"So that was why you fell out with her," Harry scratched his head. "I never really bought that excuse about her parents forbidding her to stay friends with you because you had broken your father's promise that you would marry Astoria."

"No, that is true, but Daphne never was one for following the rules." Draco sighed heavily. "I couldn't forgive her. Yes, I wanted you, but I wanted you to want me because I was me, not because of some spell. Yet – I never told you because I was scared that you would leave me, I'd hoped that when the spell wore off you would stay with me anyway, that you'd fallen in love with me. But – I couldn't help but wait for the day you realised that you weren't in love with me after all."

Harry jumped to his feet, his green eyes blazing. "All those times when you were really possessive and didn't want me to go out – why you wouldn't even let me explain about Charlie; because of some fucking spell?" Harry was shaking with anger.

"Harry-"

"I think you've talked enough, don't you? I'm leaving now." Draco stood up so he was on a level with Harry; fear an iron fist around his heart.

"Please, Harry-"

"Don't worry; I'll stay at Ron and Hermione's tonight. We can talk some more tomorrow. I just – I – I can't look at you right now."

"Do I have your word that you will come back tomorrow?" Draco hated the lack of control he had over this situation. If he trusted Harry and let him go now, he might never return and where would that leave Draco?

Harry was silent for so long that Draco thought he might not answer. So Draco took the chance to say what he had been itching to say the whole time since he'd realised that Ewen was Harry.

"Harry, I have to tell you this – I love you. I can't take back what I did, but you have to know that not a day went by when I didn't regret it. I thought-"

Harry laughed; a hollow empty noise that chilled Draco to the bone. "You love me? Do you realise what a joke that is? You've just been telling me that you thought I might leave you because the spell wore off and any moment I was going to realise that I didn't really love you!"

Draco flushed and he knew that the guilt had to be stamped across his face.

"It all makes sense now – how you were behaving. What I don't understand is why you never told me? We were married – we could have worked through it together. But the way you behaved - is it any surprise that I wanted to spend more time with my friends?"

"I know I drove you away with my jealousy and paranoia. I was so worried I would lose you that I sent you into someone else's arms!" That had been the single most desperate moment of Draco's life to that point – worse than facing down Dumbledore, or living in the manor during the war… Seeing Harry in the arms of another man had ripped his heart clean down the middle.

"There was never anyone but you for me. I didn't need any blasted spell-"

"So Pansy lied when she saw you kissing Blaise?" Draco said the words and then cringed. This was his first reaction to Harry telling him there had never been anyone else? He wanted to kick himself!

"What-? No, but it's not what you think."

"I'm thinking a lot of things," Draco said. "But the main one is that I don't care about that. I want you back regardless of any of it." He was lying of course. The thought of Harry as much as touching anyone else was like taking a bath in acid – it burned at his skin and slowly ate away at his insides, but he had to let it go. If he wanted Harry back in his life he couldn't afford to hold onto the negatives.

"Even after everything that you did, you still expect me to come back to you with open arms?"

"I never expected anything, I just hoped."

"Draco I can't- I have to go."

When those green eyes pleaded like that, Draco had never been able to resist.

"Do I have your word that you will return?"

"You do."

"Then the Floo in the drawing room is working."

He watched as Harry turned and left the room. Draco collapsed down onto the sofa and dropped his head in his heads. What had just happened?

()()()

"You have to tell him, Harry, he has a right to know," Hermione said gently as Harry jumped to his feet for the fifth time in ten minutes and moved agitatedly around the room. "This spell thing explains a lot. He must've let it fester away at him all that time, worried that you might come to your senses and leave him."

"What difference does it make?" snapped Harry. "Draco still put me through hell because he was expecting me to leave him, so finding me with Charlie was merely fulfilling his expectations and he never gave me the chance I deserved! He still thinks there was something going on!"

"Mate, you need to calm down, this isn't good for the baby," Ron piped in from the armchair by the fire where he was listening with wide eyes as Harry had first imparted that he was pregnant again and had proceeded to tell them about Draco finding out he was really Harry. Harry stopped and sat down again, his left leg twitching anxiously.

"I'm just going to put the kettle on, I think we could all do with a brew," Hermione said and left the room leaving Harry and Ron alone, Harry glaring at Ron.

"Ron, what am I going to do?" Harry said despairingly, looking to his best friend for reassurance. "I can't believe I've made such a mess of this."

Ron looked at his hands as he replied, "You know I don't have a lot of time for Malfoy, but – Harry – now that it's all out in the open – have you even told him that there was nothing going on with Charlie now that you've got the chance? Or that you've only ever been with him? I know you, Harry and it's always been him, even before we knew what sex was it was always him for you; I didn't see it at the time, but looking back it's obvious." He paused for a breath and raised his eyes to meet Harry's. "Bollocks to love spells and all that shit, even if it is true, what the hell does it matter? You still love him, else you wouldn't be in this mess, and I know you seem to think he's been fucking around these last years, but where's your proof?"

"I-"

"Harry, he fell for you a second time without even knowing you were you – doesn't that tell you something?"

"He took my son away from me," Harry protested feebly, knowing that it was a token argument, that Ron had a point – for once.

"He made a mistake – regardless of the whys and wherefores of this just think what was going on in his head when he found you in Charlie's arms? All of his worst fears came true. He over reacted, sure, but you pretended to be dead! Doesn't he deserve a second chance – don't you?"

A second chance. Another bite of the cherry or whatever the Muggle phrase was. Could he risk it? If he went to Draco now and Ron was wrong, then Harry could lose a second child to Draco.

"You don't have to tell him about the baby until you're sure," Ron said, reading Harry's mind.

"When did you become so-"

"-wise? Living with Hermione has to have some perks, mate."

Harry stood up again; suddenly sure of what he had to do.

"I'm going back to the manor," he said decisively. "I'll Disapparate from outside."

"Good man," Ron said. "I've got a good feeling about this; but if for some reason it goes badly and you want to escape, go to the cabin – Malfoy doesn't know about it – you'll be safe there until me and Hermione come for you."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath.

()()()

When he walked from his cottage up to the manor it was past midnight and the only sounds were of the occasional owl and of the scurrying feet of nocturnal animals going about their business.

There was one light on at the manor; Draco's bedroom. Harry wasn't sure if the wards were set to alert Draco of his presence, but they were set to allow him entry, so he passed through and made his way to the stairs.

Draco was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the wall, his eyes red from apparent tears. He must have heard Harry's arrival, but he didn't react as Harry closed the door behind him and leant back against it.

"You misinterpreted what you saw that night with Charlie," Harry began. "I've never been with anyone but you. I didn't need any blasted spell to want you – I'd been in love with you since I was thirteen! That day we first kissed, I had been fantasising about that moment for four years!"

Draco continued to stare at the wall.

"I'm sorry for what I've done; I'm sorry for pretending to be someone else, sorry I let you think I was dead; but Draco, if it hadn't been for your mother, I probably would have been not long after the crash. You couldn't even be bothered to come and identify my body! I wanted to be dead."

He moved further into the room until he was standing less than a foot away from Draco.

"Are you listening to me?" Harry waved a hand in front of Draco's face, and a pale hand snaked out and caught hold of it, pulling Harry down beside him.

"I didn't go because I couldn't bear to look at your body and know that there was nothing left of you inside. I didn't want that to be the last memory I had of you! I knew it was entirely my fault, that I had driven you into someone else's arms-"

Harry opened his mouth to protest but Draco squeezed his wrist.

There was a long pause before Draco continued, "What I did was horribly cruel and you don't know how much I regret it. I was sick with jealousy and it was all I could think about for weeks; I sought sole custody of Gabe because I wanted to punish you for daring to let someone else touch you! It was the worst I have ever been, Harry. I turned into a possessive, jealous shell of a man, too proud to let you even explain what had been going on with Weasley."

Harry felt a tear escape and wind its way down to his chin.

"After a couple of months, my mother managed to get through to me, said that Gabe didn't deserve to be deprived of his father, but by then you had left for Australia and then- then you were dead." His voice cracked into a sob. "You were dead, and I had cast the curse that killed you."

They were in each other's arms then, sobbing freely. Eventually Draco broke free and said, "Please give me a second chance."

Harry thought about the misery his last few years had been, about Draco's cruelty and his own estrangement from his son. Gabe had taken over as the number one priority in Harry's mind because that's what parents did, they put their child first, but- if he hadn't still loved Draco he wouldn't have slept with him; and he could dress it up however he liked, but he knew deep down that he wasn't the type for sex without love.

"I-"

Draco placed his hand over Harry's.

"I want to," Harry said. "But I need to be sure this won't happen again – if I want to go shopping with Blaise that I won't be locked out of the manor when I return."

"Blaise wants you," Draco said and then clamped a hand over his mouth, his grey eyes watching Harry over the top as though he thought that this revelation would make Harry change his mind and go for Blaise instead.

"Blaise likes Ewen; he never came near the real me. Besides, he kissed me, not the other way around – it was all one-sided."

"No, he suspects you're Harry Potter, he told me the other day, said that something you said when you went on a picnic made him think." Draco shook his head as Harry began to piece together the timeline. "No – I already knew before he said anything. What clinched it was the kidnapping – the wards around Gabe were keyed for a blood parent only. Jamieson hadn't figured on you."

"Oh." Draco had known for longer than Harry had realised, and in all that time since then, Draco had been trying to draw him closer, spending time with him and Gabe, making Harry feel like he was family. The baby had been conceived since then; and Harry was starting to suspect it was definitely the same day as his visit to Cerne Abbas.

"Will you give me that second chance, Harry?"

Harry said, "I do love you, Draco – I loved you long before Daphne Greengrass interfered, I loved you after you broke my heart- it just is what it is."

"Is that a yes?" Draco's voice was hopeful.

"I suppose it is."

()()()

Draco heard the words he needed to hear and felt the tension leave his body. Harry loved him. Harry was giving him a second chance.

He wrapped Harry in his arms and buried his face in his hair. "I love you, Harry. So much. I promise I'll never let you down again."

Harry moved to straddle Draco and whispered in his ear, "Show me how much you love me."

Later, after a sleepless night spent making love, talking and simply lying there on their sides just staring at each other, Harry told Draco he was pregnant again, and about how scared he had been that Draco would take this baby away from him. Draco wasn't angry that Harry had been planning to flee, he was angry at himself for making Harry feel that way.

He didn't care about any of that because he was the happiest man alive; he had his husband back, a healthy son and another child on the way.

"Do you think that the spell had any effect at all?"

"I don't know," Harry propped his head on an elbow to look down at Draco. "Maybe it gave me the kick I needed to make that move, but it was only a matter of time – I'm a pathetic mess when I'm in your vicinity – I'm just surprised it never happened sooner."

Draco laughed. "I wanted it too; but I was sure the reason you kept pulling back was because you only saw us as friends. I told myself I was lucky to have that after everything that happened during the war." He unconsciously scratched his left arm where the faded remnants of the dark mark remained. "You were right in a way, I was dazzled by Harry Potter, but not for the reasons you might have thought. I wanted so much to be your friend the first time we met in Madame Malkin's. Your rejection hurt."

"Poor little Draco," Harry teased, startling when the bedroom door opened to reveal a sleep ruffled Gabe. Both of them froze, watching the little boy carefully as he looked from one parent to the other. This was the first time Gabe had seen Harry without the glamour and his tiny face was confused.

Draco sat up and opened his arms, "Come here," he invited and Gabe walked across the room and clambered up to his side, all the time his suspicious eyes on Harry. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."

"You're Daddy," Gabe announced staring at Harry with fascinated green eyes. "You came back from Heaven."

"I wasn't really in Heaven, Gabe – I nearly was and your father thought I was, but I had to go away for a while and then when I came back I had to pretend to be Ewen first."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to make sure that you and your father still liked me before I told you who I was."

"I liked Ewen, he was fun."

Gabe clambered over Draco's middle and bounced on the small section of mattress that currently separated them. "Tell me the story of how you beat the bad man," he demanded. Harry's amused eyes met Draco's over their son's head and Harry ruffled Gabe's hair and launched into his story.

Draco settled back against the pillow and thought that Gabe had been a lot easier than he'd anticipated; but the rest of the world might not be so easy.

Whatever life threw at them; he and Harry could handle it together.

()()()

One year later

Harry stood nervously at the head of the ornate dining table in the little used Great Hall at Malfoy Manor and surveyed the group assembled before him, each person holding a flute of Zabini's Luxury Champagne. He shuffled his feet nervously. "Draco and I invited you here today to witness us renewing our bond to one another, and we're both so pleased that you decided to join us. I know that some of you are still angry with me for letting you all believe that I was dead."

Harry let his gaze sweep across the room, these were the people who had stood by him all of these years, the ones he considered real friends, who he regretted lying to more than anyone else – and some of Draco's old friends too. Luna and Neville, Molly and Arthur, George and Angelina, Bill and Fleur, Charlie and Blaise (Harry had not seen that one coming!), Ron and Hermione, Theo, Pansy and Eddie (no one had seen that coming), Ginny and Dean, Katie and Oliver, Seamus and Hannah, Hagrid – and Daphne Greengrass.

It turned out that he had never actually been declared dead thanks to some creative meddling by Narcissa, so his return had been less problematic than he had anticipated legally, however The Prophet had really gone to town, lapping up his amnesia cover story – putting to rest the weekly conspiracy theory articles. Not everyone believed their story, but the people who counted were in this room and trusted. The only worry had been Bevin's the PI, but Draco had paid him off and committed him to an Unbreakable Vow.

"I truly regret that some of you were hurt by my actions, and I can only hope that you can forgive me over time," Harry continued. Molly Weasley had given him the biggest earful before almost smothering him to death between her breasts. She had been angrier with Ron for keeping her in the dark than she had with Harry.

It had been Draco's idea to renew their marriage bond, claiming that with all that had passed it would be a clean start for them both, and Harry had been all for it. Their son had been born four months earlier, and with Molly, Arthur and George's permission, this time they had felt ready to call the baby Fred. Hermione and Luna had given birth in the preceding weeks, both having girls – Rose and Harriet. Gabe had assumed the protective older brother role to all three of them.

It hadn't been an easy year, not by a long shot; Harry had upset a lot of his friends by his deception, but ultimately they were so pleased he was alive that he may not be entirely forgiven, but he hadn't been rejected either. Harry planned on making sure he never hurt them again. All the time Draco had been at his side, and they were closer now than they ever had been before – there were no misunderstandings and no well-meant spells to cast doubt over their love for one another. It had been a year of getting to know one another again, and this time Harry had held nothing back, not even about him and Hermione during the war. Draco's eyes had almost popped out of his head at that revelation!

"If you would all like to take your seats, dinner will be served."

Harry took his seat beside Draco and slipped his hand into his husband's. Draco squeezed his hand and leant over to whisper in Harry's ear, "How long until we can be alone? I can't wait to re-consummate our bond…"

Harry shrugged, catching Hermione's eye along the side of the table and raising his glass. Out of the side of his mouth he whispered, "You're the Slytherin here; it depends how much you want it." He turned and raised a challenging eyebrow to Draco, who picked up his glass, knocked back the contents and said, "You'll see how much I want it."

It was the shortest wedding reception in wizarding history; everyone remembered enjoying themselves, but no one could remember leaving.

The End.

()()()

Thanks for sticking with it folks, and thank you for reading. :-D