Second Chances

08. Girl or Boy?

"What's that?" Tom asked softly as he walked into their evening living room. Once they had gotten back to the manor they had had a late lunch before Harry had settled down in the Green room going through all the clothes they had bought, folding them and placing them in the chest of draws that they had bought for the nursery, of course it was a huge carved pine piece that would fit in perfectly in the manor, but Tom liked it and Harry didn't mind how fancy it was, the carvings of Griffins around the outside were lovely. Tom had sat alternately going through his paperwork and looking at the different things they had bought.

After supper Tom had had to have his meeting with the Death Eaters before quickly making his way to their evening living room where Harry had been without his 'shadow guards' as he called Rodolphus and Rabastan for the first time. Stepping inside he found Harry seated on his favourite sofa staring at the letter in his hands. When Tom walked in he didn't even look up concerning to the older man, so he made his way over before speaking.

"Oh is the meeting over already?" Harry blinked turning to look at the clock.

"Yes, have you been sitting here the whole time staring at that? What is it?" Tom frowned concerned as he seated himself next to Harry.

"Hermione slipped it to me before Rabastan took her back. It's a letter from Ron," Harry sighed looking back to the letter with a small frown.

"He is your other friend correct? I did not want to ask because you were upset enough but what was his part in everything that happened at the Order?" Tom asked the question that had been burning on his mind for weeks now.

"He wasn't there...by the time that I got to Headquarters Ron and Ginny had been sent to Egypt to stay with Bill and Fleur for the summer to keep them safe. I know exactly what Ginny would say...but Ron...I...I didn't want to think about it, he's not the most understanding and he has a tendency to fly off the handle about things. But it seems that Bill, Fleur and Ron caught wind of what had happened and came back. Ron wrote this and asked Hermione to give it to me, she said I should read it," Harry admitted.

"Then why haven't you?" Tom asked quietly. Harry sighed and dropped his hands into his lap looking back up at Tom.

"Ron was my first ever friend, the first person my own age who had actually been nice to me, and he didn't make me feel like an idiot or wrong for not knowing about the wizarding world and details about it the way Draco did. He's been a prat at times over the years, but they're outweighed by the times he's stood beside me. I love him like a brother. I don't want to open that and read what the others all told me while I was at the Headquarters," Harry admitted quietly. "I've been trying to will myself to read it...but I haven't even been able to open it,"

"What...what if I opened it for you and read it out?" Tom suggested unsurely, feeling that heat pulse through his body when wide green eyes met his.

"Would you?" Harry breathed out in relief.

"Of course! If you don't mind," Harry bit his lip lowering his eyes. Tom found himself moving before he realised it, acting on instinct as he had been doing from the moment Harry had stepped into his office, bedraggled and tired. Reaching forward to gently touch Harry's cheek Tom leant in and brushed their lips together gently, barely a touch before he slipped his hand around to the back of Harry's neck and pressed in firmer, opening his lips slightly and closing his eyes in pressure as Harry made a noise of pleasure into his mouth and followed his example, opening his own mouth allowing Tom to deepen the kiss. The taste of Harry got the better of Tom and he thrust his tongue hungrily into Harry's mouth leaning in closer to him, tilting him slightly back against the arm of the sofa and running his other hand gently over the bump that protected their growing baby to slip further back to cup Harry's hip.