Custody (REDRAFTED- NEW ONE IS POSTED)

Chapter One

“He’s my cousin Potter!”

Harry rolled his eyes. This fight had lasted longer than most of them did. “Malfoy, we’ve been over this hundreds of times. As his godfather, I’ll be taking care of him.”

“You don’t even share any blood!’

It was a year after the Battle of Hogwarts, Andromeda was killed by a group of vengeful death eaters. The matter of who rightfully deserved the custody of Teddy had been a fight that had lasted for nearly a week while Teddy went back and forth between the houses. Draco had been the first to declare that he was going to be taking care of Teddy. This was immediately followed by Harry saying that he would be the one to take full custody of Teddy.

“Fuck you Potter I said it first.”

“Real mature Malfoy.”

“BOYS You better not be having another fight over Teddy again.”

The angry cry came from the doorway, making both men turn around. Harry winced. “Sorry Hermione.” he said meekly. Hermione walked over to them, carrying Teddy on her hip. Harry grinned. Teddy’s hair was black. At the same time, Draco smirked. The toddler’s eyes were silver. Hermione glared at the two boys. “I need to talk to you two.” Harry nodded. Hermione put Teddy down, helping him walk into his playpen. Draco opened the door for the toddler who started playing with his toys the second he got into the playpen.

“This isn’t a healthy place for a child to grow up. Constantly traveling back and forth. Not to mention the constant fighting. Malfoy, I know that you want to be a good cousin and Harry, you want to be the best godfather. So let me ask you this. We agreed to put all our grudges behind us, yes?”

Both boys muttered in agreement. It was never fun to be scolded by Hermione. In their eighth year, they had all decided to put their old grudges and childish arguments behind them. The relationship between Harry and Draco was rocky to say the least. At least they weren’t trying to kill each other every time they saw one another.

“Well, I was reading up on a way you two could both get what you want. Seeing as Harry is Teddy’s legal guardian and Malfoy, you are one of the few remaining blood ties to Teddy, both of you have rights to Teddy. After a little bit of thinking on how this could work without all the traveling, I got an idea.”

Harry didn’t look towards Draco to see his reaction but he could tell from the way the tension in the room seemed to spike that the blonde had figured it out as well.

“What if you decided to raise Teddy together?”

“There is no way-”

“Living with Potter?!”

“Hermione… I don’t this is a good idea.”

“Do you know what this would do to my reputation?!”

Hermione sighed. “Look you two idiots. Face the truth. If either of you take care of the kid on your own, we don’t have to be seers to know that it will not end well. Both of you know what it feels like to be in the custody of people who aren’t the best influence.”

Both boys winced. “Draco’s a good influence?” Harry cracked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Think about it.” Hermione said, hurrying out of the room as Teddy’s cries filled the tense silence.

Harry looked thoughtful as he processed what Hermione had suggested. He lived alone. After Ginny’s death in the war, he hadn’t tried dating again. He didn’t have much in his little apartment anyways. It would be easy to move to somewhere new. It was definitely going to be a struggle living with Malfoy but maybe it was worth it for Teddy. He was calm and quiet as he thought this through.

Draco, on the other hand, was freaking out. He was trying his hardest to keep his composure. Like with Potter? That would be impossible. He had developed a major celebrity crush on Harry when he was younger. That crush had continued well on into his years at Hogwarts. The thought of living in the same house, not to mention raising a child together was…. A fanboy’s dream come true. He had turned away so Harry couldn’t see how much he was freaking out.

“I don’t see why we don’t do this.”

“I think the seven years of hatred and the no-murdering contract is a good reason as to why we should not do this.”

Harry ran a tired hand through his hair. This made his messy mop of hair even worse. He winced as his finger caught on a tangle. “Malfoy, you never had to grow up without a family. You’ve never had to be away from your family. I didn’t even know I had a godfather until I was thirteen. I don’t want that for Teddy.”

Draco frowned. He had never known that. “I thought that you lived with your muggle family when you were younger.”

“The slytherin has done his research. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that I’m starting to gr-”

“Don’t say it. That information is common knowledge or have you forgotten that you’re the wizarding world’s favorite celebrity.”

“Am I your favorite?”

“No.”

Harry’s grin widened. He loved teasing Draco. It was amusing. He would get all defensive. Occasionally, he would get this adorable blush- wait adorable? This was not the time for questioning this. “Anyways, let’s just settle on saying that life with the Dursleys is not pleasant in any way. I wouldn’t consider them my family.”

“Why? Did they ever do anything?”

This was all knew to Draco and he was extremely curious. Yeah, he didn’t have the best home life but how bad was Harry’s? He figured that his muggle family would have adored him, having a wizard in their midst. Especially because that wizard was Harry Potter.

“A lot of things.” He didn’t want to think of the memories of that portion of his life. It was over and he didn’t have to deal with it anymore. That’s what he kept telling himself. “Look Malfoy-”

“Fine.”

“What?"

“I said fine. But just so you know, I’m not going to be the mother.” He quickly left the room to help Hermione with the shrieking toddler.