Chapter 15

When the first batch of the potion was ready, Draco tried it on herself - on the scars the Sectumsempra left on her - and after they disappeared without a trace, she also gave a few vials to Snape for the scarring on his neck.

Unfortunately, Snape's injury was more severe, so it didn't disappear like Draco's, but it helped close the wound at least. This meant that he could forego half of the potions he had to take every day, making him less snappy, so Draco had already started a next potion to repair some of the nerve damage he had - maybe allowing him to do more magic, again, even if he couldn't walk.

Hermione asked whether she could use the vial Draco gave her on Ron's scars instead, and that's when Draco realized almost all the school could have used the potion after their year with the Carrows, not to mention the war, so she started brewing a couple more.

At first, she gave them away for free, but soon so many people wanted a vial or two (sometimes the Hogwarts students even wanted to send them to their relatives), that she had to charge for the ingredients, making Harry say.

"Kreacher can always replenish the ingredients for you for free, I don't mind donating them if you help so many people," he offered. "But maybe you should charge for your work."

"I feel like I owe people as much, to brew them for free," Draco said. "And as much as I appreciate your offer, I don't want to depend on you financially - even if it was for a good cause."

"I'm just saying, you could start a small potions business," Harry said. "And then you wouldn't have to depend on anyone."

"Clever," Draco noted. "You're trying to convince me to add a fee that I don't want to by saying I wouldn't need your monetary help then because you know I want that even less."

"Yes," Harry didn't even try to deny what he was up to, just trusted that an admission and a sunny smile would save him, and Draco couldn't help but think that he was right because it did.

"Well, since you provided me with the space to brew, I also made you one," Draco put the vial down on the table. "If you wanted to get rid of the text on your hand…"

Harry contemplated it just a little before he made the lines Umbridge made him write disappear, and when Draco thought he was finished, he also tried it on his scar.

"What did you do?" Draco asked, strangely upset.

"What?" Harry shrugged. "I'm only allowed to use it on the scars you don't like?"

"No, but you can barely see your scar now."

"That was kind of the point," Harry said. "If not to erase it completely."

"It's… it's who you are," Draco said and felt strangely protective of Harry's scar, maybe because ever since she knew Harry it was there, so it felt like he just carelessly threw away something that was a part of him.

"Maybe it's not, and you've just said it's not completely gone, just not as visible, and I can appreciate that," Harry shrugged. "Enough people recognize me already. I don't need a ghastly brand of dark magic on my forehead, making me stand out even to strangers."

"It's not ghastly," Draco said. "And now your friends going to kill me as if I gave you the potion to help you do this when it hadn't even occurred to me."

"Did you just call me so handsome that I'm even attractive despite it?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Don't ever repeat I've said this," Draco got close to him, even if they were in her dorm so it was not like anyone could overhear them. "But I think I like you even more with it."

"Then, I guess it's lucky it hasn't disappeared completely."

"I guess so, although you have to get extremely close to you to see," Draco told him.

"How close?" Harry teased back without missing a beat - and that's why their homework was long forgotten, and they couldn't even finish it later, because they had a DADA meeting next.

Draco was already plenty busy before a whole lot of new orders came in for the potion, and she started to spend some time with Teddy as well.

The infant didn't do much, only slept and cried and ate most of the time, but he also made babbling sounds when Harry was holding him as if trying to talk to him, and he also liked to grab a fistful of Draco's hair, pulling on it, and if she wasn't fast enough, Teddy would even attempt to chew on it.

"No, no, no," Draco would push her hair back several times so Teddy wouldn't be able to reach it. "My hair is not for you to eat."

"He likes you," Harry declared.

"Yeah, because pulling out my hair is a sign of affection," Draco said.

"I think he likes to hear your voice. And that's why he grabs any opportunity he can to get you to speak."

"I don't think so," Draco said. "But now the way you tried to woo me makes so much more sense."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was very forward when trying to get you to date me," Harry said.

"This year, yes," Draco said. "But what about before?"

"Fine, but that was just as much your fault," Harry conceded.

"Yes," Draco admitted, but when she almost forget they were there because of the tiny and defenseless wolfcub, she changed the topic. "So my next favorite thing, then: proving you were wrong."

Draco pinned her hair up and talked a lot holding Teddy, who seemed bored if not fussy.

"See?" Draco said to Harry. "So much for him liking my voice."

"I think you forget he's a kid. When he was pulling on your hair, you only used a monosyllabic word on repeat, and with a tone that was anything but flat."

"Bla-bla-bla," Draco tested that theory, feeling utterly ridiculous, but… as it happens, Harry was right, and Teddy was now looking at her.

"Do go on," the savior of the wizarding world gestured at her.

"I don't know what to say," Draco said. "But I bet you can do much better than me."

When Harry took Teddy, put him down, and started babbling the most unintelligible way, while also waving his hands around to the sound he made, it took him 2 minutes to have Teddy happily laugh at him, moving his arms also, as if trying to imitate him.

And even if Draco didn't want to, she had to admit they were charming together, plus the infant's response only encouraged Harry, who in turn moved more ridiculous, making Teddy all the more engaged, if not entertained.

It made her think Harry should have children on his own too, and it also got Draco to consider that if Harry was still with Ginny, they'd have exactly just that. With Draco, however, it's not that it was impossible, just unlikely.

And made her wonder if she was selfish to realize that but still want to keep Harry for herself.

"Look at Draco. Looky-looky-look," Harry by then had Teddy back in his arms. "She's missing out on all the fun-fun."

"Fa-fa!" Teddy liked the sound of that, apparently.

"Yes, all the fa-fa," Harry agreed.

"Well, Teddy, you should learn at an early age that I'm incapable of fun-fun," Draco couldn't help but say, and when the last part caught Teddy's attention just as much as it did when Harry said, she might have tried to keep it. "Yes, yes. I'm no fun-fun."

"Don't listen to her," Harry said. "Draco just needs some encouragement to have fa-fa. Just tell her. Loudly so she can hear. Fa! Fa! Faaa, fa!"

So somehow, Harry was trying to get close to Draco with Teddy, "demanding" fun (whatever it meant at that point), while Draco only took a step back first involuntarily, but ended up avoiding the Harry-Teddy duo as if they were playing tag, and she even pretended to be scared when they almost caught her.

"Sorry to interrupt this lovely scene," Snape appeared at the door without a warning, his levitating chair now allowing him to drop on them even unannounced. "But with so many requests each day, I could use Draco's help to brew for a couple of hours."

"Yes, I'll be right there," Draco tried not to believe she was disappointed to leave, and when Snape gave her a look on the way up to the lab, she asked. "What?"

"I didn't think you wanted to co-parent with Potter."

"I don't," Draco said. "But he asked, and I said I'll watch Teddy sometimes."

"And how long you can keep it up?"

"Keep what up?"

"Being a completely different person when you're with Potter," Snape specified.

"I'm not," Draco said. "It's not like I suddenly like kids, just that with time, I think I can grow to like Teddy."

"And if you're wrong, what then?" Snape questioned. "By the time you'll notice, it might as well be too late. It's not like you can just leave a child after 5-10 years saying you only then realized you weren't fit to be a parent."

"You think I'm not?" Draco asked directly.

"I haven't said that, I wouldn't know," Snape was patient enough to explain, which was rare on its own. "But you're different than Potter."

"So you're protective of Teddy," Draco surmised.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm NOT," Snape repeated. "I'm protective of you."

"Me?" Draco was confused.

"You aren't Lucius Malfoy," Snape said.

"And I'm glad not to be."

"You don't think you're above working on something tiring every day, like potions," Snape said. "You could start an order-based service with the amount of brews you're handing out already."

"I don't want to start charging people. And just because I accidentally created a potion - with your help - that seems to be popular, it doesn't I can do it with the next potion I'd create, and the next."

"Or, you don't even consider it, because even when Potter wants what's best for you, he'd only keep you as his wife, and the mother of his adoptive kid."

"I'd rather just start brewing if you don't mind," Draco shook her head.

"I'm sorry if I overstepped," since Snape healed somewhat thanks to the potion, he was less irritable, but Draco never thought she'd hear him say sorry. "But old habits die hard, and currently you find yourself without parental advice, so as your formal Headteacher, the least I can do is warn you."

"Well, you're off because I like helping others, but I don't necessarily like to brew."

"You're good at it," Snape said, still somewhat begrudgingly.

"Even if that's true," Draco said. "Am I not allowed to pick something else I want, then?"

"Fostering a child that's not even yours?"

"I'm grateful for you trying to give me advice, Professor. But why do I get the feeling that if I was pregnant, and the kid was mine, you'd still just oppose the idea the same?" Draco asked.

"It's no secret that I dislike Potter," Snape said. "But he's also as if a different person in your company, and I can't help but think that your little masquerade of two can't last forever."

"I'll take that bet," Draco said. "And, you're right. You're overstepping."

And, Snape wasn't going to push her, so that was it, but it also made her consider. If she wasn't the potionieer nor the stay-at-home adoptive mother, what was she going to do after Hogwarts?

Maybe starting at least a part-time job even earlier than the end of the school year would be smart, so she'd earn something by the time she'd get her NEWTs, not starting from zero when she finished school.

But even if she didn't have to consider Lucius' berating opinion of any job she could think of, she had no better idea what she wanted to do.

"Are you okay?" Harry appeared later when it was time for them to return to the castle. "You seem tired."

"I'm fine," Draco said. "I'll finish up here soon, just give me 10 minutes."

And she did, and they even said goodbye to Andromeda before getting back.

"Snape told you something, didn't he?" Harry could sense it. "I should talk with him."

"He only complimented me," Draco said. "Saying I could live of brewing."

"From what I've seen, it's true."

"But instead it made me think. When I came back for my final year, I didn't want to leave the country, constantly live in fear, or be an outcast," Draco said. "So my main goal was to try to find a way to coexist with Hogwarts students."

"I'd say you did just that. You coexist with me pretty well," Harry said, but Draco went on.

"I only kept thinking of disasters and how I wanted to avoid them. I was only so sure what I did NOT want to do, and now I don't exactly know what I want to do."

"You have some time to decide," Harry said.

"And what if it's something…"

"Something?"

"That involves an environment that's not fit for a kid?" Draco asked. "Or it's in another country?"

"Then we'll figure it out," Harry said. "You know you can't get rid of me just by moving to another country, right?"

So Draco was less preoccupied after, and when her research into Snape's sickness took her further than just a couple of books on healing, she asked Madam Promfrey. When the healer took her request to help seriously, and they started to work together, one day everything had just clicked.

She wanted to help heal people, even if it took immense concentration and loads of studying, and she'd have to learn to keep calm in situations where most people would lose their heads. It wasn't a comfortable job, nor did it pay well, but if there was any chance at all that Draco could do it, she could consider nothing else.

And, it made sense why she wouldn't even deliberate it while being a Malfoy - Lucius would have never let her, and Narcissa would have tried to talk her into something similar but not quite so close to sick people.

It was so personal that Draco didn't even tell Harry yet, but she had applied for an internship at Mungo, and a few others in America, and started to shadow Pomfrey when she could - which wasn't often, at all, but still.

It was then that Draco hadn't even paid much attention to their usual DADA club, and instead of a good memory, she had hope for the future, and somehow it grew so strong that instead of a noncorporeal Patronus, she just happened to produce a corporeal one.

Harry was teaching some first-years the correct stance for defense, so he missed it, and he had to ask later.

"What is it? Would you show me?"

"Don't make a big deal out of it," Draco said. "For the record, I much rather have a snake."

"And the whole school would assume you're evil."

"As it happens, the snake can be also a symbol of knowledge, and healing," Draco told him. "Instead, I get a flightless bird that looks funny, and I've never even seen before."

"Is it a swan? Can those fly?" Harry wondered.

"I know what a swan is! I'm not daft," Draco took offense. "But Hermione said my pathetic of a bird lived mostly far down on the south."

"Are they—"

When Draco concentrated on the new feeling she'd found while producing the Patronus Charm, and it took form, Harry couldn't entirely hide his smile.

"A penguin!"

"Yeah, that's what she said it was called. Bloody useless for a bird, that's what it is," Draco sighed, canceling the charm. "But at least I didn't get a lion."

"I don't know," Harry said. "I mean, penguins have to survive on ice and stuff. Even laying eggs in the cold isn't as easy as you'd think, and they can swim."

"How do you so much about some random bird?" Draco asked, because she couldn't even identify it, and yet Harry just talked about it as if he had one at home.

"Muggle television?" Harry asked. "They are considered cute by some people, so they make them talk for kids' cartoons."

"That explains why some of the younger students came over to fawn over it," Draco said, still humiliated just thinking about it.

"I could also take you to a Muggle zoo, so you could see," Harry offered.

"Now you're just dropping random words and saying they mean something. 'Zoo' sounds like something Teddy would enjoy repeating on a loop, not a real thing."

"Care to bet?" Harry smiled. He was in an especially good mood as if Draco had just done something incredible by producing the charm when Harry was known to do it since 13. "But it's not a ferret, as I thought it would be."

"Don't even go there," Draco started.

"And you have your own," Harry added. "Mine is just the same as my parents."

"Can't it change with time?" Draco asked.

"Rarely, but mine didn't," Harry said.

"Well, if Lucius Malfoy was a bird, I'm pretty sure it would be a peacock," Draco stated. "And no matter how I don't even know much of mine, at least it's not that."

"And, you have a powerful enough memory to produce it," Harry suddenly went back to serious after laughing at Draco's suggestion.

"It's more like hope than a memory," Draco shared with him. "So I'm not even sure it would work on real Dementors, mind you."

"Now that you know how to do it if you practice it, it will," Harry reassured her. "So any time we aren't together, you can send me one."

"Ah, you only offer in the name of practice?" Draco chuckled. "And not because you would ever miss me, right?"

"Or worry about you," Harry nodded. "These things I would never do for you."

"Thought so," Draco said, but before Harry could kiss her, she added. "But if these birds are as tough as you claim, just in case you ever started to worry, you could just trust I can handle things the same?"

"I know you can," Harry kissed her, but then he cheekily added. "Unless it's a Muggle pop quiz because then you just better call me. With your new spell. And I'll rush to help."

Somehow, even when he was teasing Draco with such nonsense, she couldn't be mad at him, since she knew he was secretly very fond of her quirks, and he only offered to help, even with the said pop quiz.