Chapter 5

Getting settled in and ready to teach his classes at Hogwarts took up so much of Harry's time that he let what he'd noticed with Draco completely slip his mind until the weekend before school was due to start. Once word had quietly gotten around that he was back in Britain, he'd also had invitations to bring Richard out to have dinner with the families of his friends. Between those invitations and the non-resident Weasleys, who insisted that Harry had to at least visit their homes for a dinner or two, he actually managed that nearly two full weeks passed without having another dinner in the Great Hall.

This one didn't repeat the noise levels of the first night, thankfully, and he actually managed to have his son perched in a high chair between him and Remus, who'd taken the seat on the other side. "No wife tonight?" he inquired of his adoptive godfather.

Remus shook his head. "Dora's morning sickness has unfortunately relocated to dinner time, and she told me if I hovered around her one more second, she'd see to it that I never had the chance to make her go through it again."

Harry chuckled. "How's it feel to know you'll be a dad again when your youngest is so much older?"

"Probably less weird than it was for Andromeda to have Adrian when she already was a grandmother."

"True. At least Vivian's only nine. Are she and Teddy still happy about the new baby?"

"Vivian's overjoyed. Teddy's at that age where baby's aren't that interesting, even if he will see his sibling more than the average Hogwarts student would if a new baby came along."

"Twelve. The age where Quidditch trumps everything else, including homework."

"Don't reflect happily on that age, Harry. You'll be the one trying to get them to do their homework instead of play Quidditch now." Remus' tone was rueful. "Just when they get over the Quidditch obsession, they'll discover girls and you'll lose their attention again."

Hiding his amusement behind his teacup, Harry shrugged. "I'm just glad that's all they have to distract them these days."

The Deputy Headmaster nodded in agreement. "Thank Merlin for that."

Draco plopped down into the chair on the other side of Harry, looking exhausted. "Remus, is it too late to tell you and Severus I resign as Head of House?"

"He'll simply threaten to make Harry take over instead."

The Slytherin looked horrified. "The Slytherins would riot if they had a Gryffindor Head of House. Besides, he's got Millicent already."

"She told him if he ever tried to make her Head of House, he'd be teaching Potions again himself," Remus explained calmly. They were the first three in the Great Hall tonight, although those with families didn't often dine here, especially as busy as they were with pre-term preparations.

"So it's down to me or him?" Draco asked.

"I'm afraid so. At least you get a sort-of-Slytherin with Harry. That's where the Sorting Hat wanted him, so I'm told."

"What?" The sheer indignation in the surprised exclamation made Harry laugh until the blond glared at him. "How in Merlin's name did you get in Gryffindor if the Hat wanted you in Slytherin? Is that why it took so bloody long our first night here?"

Nodding, Harry spooned a bit of mashed vegetables into his son's mouth before answering. "The Hat was rather insistent that I fit best in Slytherin, but I wanted to be in the same House as my parents." No point in telling Draco that the beginnings of their little rivalry had been one of the other reasons he'd sat under the Hat insisting on anything but Slytherin.

The answer seemed to defuse Draco's ire at the implied insult to his House, and he relaxed back into the tired pose he'd begun with. "I don't know how Severus did it. He had a much more time-consuming subject plus his other duties."

"He took out all his stress on the other three Houses?" Harry suggested with a grin.

"I do remember him taking points from you for breathing too loudly or some such reason."

Chuckling, Harry nodded. "Among other things. And to think he's this one's godfather, after so many years of not wanting me to breathe in his class."

"It wasn't the breathing that frightened me so much as the thought of what you'd miss next in spending half the class trying to fight with Draco," came the oft-abhorred, now-loved voice behind Harry. Severus' hand came out to ruffle the baby's blond hair as he passed by to seat himself on the other side of Remus. "Or what you two would throw in each other's cauldrons next. If I'd taken points for all the proper things, neither Gryffindor nor Slytherin would have had any left after each of your classes."

"We weren't that bad, surely?" Harry asked. Apparently, Richard was done with the whole idea of mashed vegetables, because the latest spoonful was promptly spit out. The baby's comic disgust had him smiling as he switched to the fruit he'd held back for pudding.

"Put it this way," Remus interjected. "From what I heard – and saw a bit in the corridors and Great Hall – I'm quite glad that Dumbledore didn't double your two Houses up for my class."

That reminded Harry of something he'd been meaning to ask. "I know there's been things done to damp down on House rivalry now, and what Draco and I were doing was rather beyond what color our ties were, but does this truly work? The whole first-years-eating-together and all that?"

"Surprisingly so," Remus answered. "And Severus and I devised a spell to ensure that all years spend equal time in shared classes with the other Houses. I also suggest not allowing your classroom to divide evenly by House. Making sure group projects are assigned as cross-House work tends to help too."

Draco nodded, shaking off the tiredness he'd displayed earlier. "In Runes, I arrange the desks in a big circle and require the students to alternate how they sit. They still end up sorting it out with the more serious or studious students grouping together, but at least it's on ability or ambition and not House ties. But my classes tend to be smaller than what you'll have, Harry, now that Cultural Studies starts in first year and is required through fifth."

The newest professor actually grinned expectantly. "I'm looking forward to all the changes. Muggle Studies sounded like the most boring thing on earth when I was younger, enough that I didn't take it even though it would have been an easy O for me. It's such a useful subject now, and I would have given half my vault to have gotten Wizarding Studies any time in my years here. I'm thirty and still feel half-ignorant of a world I was supposedly born to."

"Considering you've lived on the barest fringes of it for the last decade, you've missed out on a lot. But you've got one of the best resources possible on any confusing details right next door to you," Remus said.

Harry turned to Draco with a hopeful look. "I've got the textbooks from last year that I continued with, but some of the lesson plans seem a bit quirky on the wizarding side. I've cleaned up the Muggle ones. Are you caught up enough to take a look for me and give me any tips on additions to the curriculum?"

The blond shrugged. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be. And Allie's been going nuts wanting to visit the baby again." He had helped Harry finish unpacking, as promised, and his prediction that the little girl would be overjoyed to spend time with Richard had been true. She hadn't even been perturbed by the baby's hearing aids. He glanced to where his daughter was finishing her meal at the kiddie table, nearly done because they'd arrived early. "We're ready whenever you are."

"Now's good for me. Miss the dinner rush," Harry teased. He bid farewell to Severus and Remus as well as the newly arriving professors and their families. Cleaning up the baby with the aid of a cloth instead of a spell, he pushed back his chair and gathered his son, waiting for Draco and Allie to join them for the walk back to Slytherin Tower.

Their footsteps echoed a bit in the corridors, the steady thumps of the men's boots accompanied by the lighter taps of Allie's shoes. Harry was content to walk in silence until Allie slipped between them and reached up to each man with a shy hand. Meeting the other man's eyes, Harry took the offered hand, glad the girl seemed comfortable with him.

"I meant to thank you about sharing your nanny," he said to Draco over her head.

"It didn't make sense to hire an extra nanny when we live so close and Allie loves babies so much. I assure you that Louisa certainly doesn't mind the extra salary. She's probably relieved, since if things work out with you, she'll still have a post when Allie outgrows needing a nanny."

"Makes sense. Bit of an unsettling job to have, watching someone else's children grow up and being out of a job when they do." Harry sighed. "Although eventually, she won't be solely in charge of Richard. Severus has found someone willing to get the training to become Richard's tutor since it'd be hard for him to attend the primary school here."

"Luna probably wouldn't care if he did come to class, but she does have quite a few to educate now."

They'd reached the portrait-door to Harry's quarters, and he spoke the password openly. He'd decided that first night that he had no qualms with his coworker – and hopefully friend – gaining easy entrance. If nothing else, someone nearby should be able to access his quarters for safety in case Severus wasn't available. It drew a raised eyebrow from Draco, but the blond didn't comment as he ushered Allie inside.

It took only a moment to get Richard settled with his toys, and the older girl plopped beside him on the floor to play in the baby's room. Harry retrieved his lesson plans from his desk in the living room and offered them to Draco as he joined him on the sofa.

"I did have one question though."

"Hmmm?" Draco, who had already begun to scan the parchments, met his gaze distractedly.

"Why do you still have a nanny? Because you're a widower too? The only other nannies seem to be for the nursery age kids."

Grey eyes turned wintery in an instant. "She's a Malfoy. We always have someone to look after us until we leave for school."

The change reminded Harry of the other times he'd somehow managed to offend his coworker and he shivered. "I didn't mean to offend you, Draco. I was simply curious. That's not the first time you've gone cold on me about something I've said, usually about children in general or Allie specifically."

The other man sighed, gaze going to the parchments for a moment, before rising to stare unseeing at the unlit fireplace across from them. "It isn't you, not really." He was quiet for a few minutes, obviously thinking someone over. "I had a nanny, but a house-elf, not a witch," he began softly. "Still have her, if you want to be specific, since she's still at the Manor. But you don't use elf nannies if a child is a Squib."

"Oh." Harry let the magnitude of what that meant sink in. "But she's only nine. Are you sure?"

"We've had every test and potion possible run on her. I won't resort to barbaric means like Neville's uncle did to him, to force magic, but by now, something should show. Severus even tried to look in the Hogwarts' roster, but the damn thing refuses to show anything other than the upcoming students. Even those aren't revealed until a year before the children start."

The information made Harry's stomach lurch. "And what does your family think about it?" Lucius Malfoy might have gotten a pardon after the war because going turncoat prior to the final battle had helped turn the tide, but he was still a staunch, old-fashioned pureblood.

"Amazingly, he's never wavered in how he treats her. She's had him wrapped around her finger since the day she was born." Draco took a deep breath. "As it became more and more apparent that she has no magic, he began to research Muggle schools. The nanny's Muggle-born too. We're making sure Allie's comfortable in both worlds... just in case."

"Ah. That's why you were thrown off by me being so casual about whether or not Richard has magic."

A jerky nod confirmed the statement. "I'm surprised no one mentioned it to you. We had an incident last term with a second year taunting her and the nanny in a corridor. Some people take vicious delight that the Malfoy heir's only child is a Squib, and they pass that on to their children."

"I hope the little brat was punished severely." Harry felt like growling at the thought of some near-teenage child choosing to bully delicate little Allie for something far beyond her control. It reminded him far too much of his own childhood – although he'd been bullied by his cousin for having magic.

"Severus damn near expelled him. He's very strict about any of the students bullying the staff's children. As it is, the boy will start off the term with a month's detentions." Draco turned to meet Harry's eyes, finally managing a small smile. "I believe they're to be served learning things 'Muggle style' with you, actually."

Harry grinned, knowing he shouldn't take delight in punishing a third year. "I'll see to it that the child gets a firm grasp on the ways technology can outrank magic then. Plus my classroom can't be cleaned magically."

Draco's smile expanded. "Good. It'll be nice for some of the little cretins like I was at that age to be reminded that the Man-Who-Defeated-Voldemort is damn near Muggle himself."

Snorting in amusement, Harry bumped Draco's shoulder with his and then went to sort out drinks for them both. With luck, he'd be able to remind a lot of the snottier children that it was prejudice that had brought their world to the brink of destruction twelve years ago. It seemed like some were beginning to forget.