Favoring The Bold {Drarry}

- m -

"Well," started Harry as he turned to the blonde man beside him. "To the park?"

"To the park," Draco agreed with a small smile that he covered by pinching the bridge of his nose in fake exasperation.

"C'mon boys!" called the darker man up the stairs while still watching Draco with that goofy grin on his face. "We're going to hang out at the park!"

The boys raced down, causing James to trip on the bottom step. Before his face hit the floor Draco reached his hand out and his magic caught the boy just in time. Harry looked at him with narrowed eyes as he stood the boy up and brushed James off.

"Oooh, you're in trouble now," whispered Teddy from beside the taller blonde before sliding as far from him as possible.

"What?" asked Draco confused before Harry turned to him.

"Boys, go wait outside. I need to talk to Draco for a minute." Once the boys had ran outside he started speaking. "What was that?"

"I stopped James from possibly breaking his nose?" Draco said more like a question than a response.

"No. You used magic f-"

"Well of course I did. We wouldn't have been able to reach him in time."

"So we let him fall," said Harry with his eyes closed.

"You do realize you aren't making sense, don't you?" Draco said raising an eyebrow while turning to face the man head on with his arms crossed.

"Draco, we were raised a lot differently, okay? I get that. I've been raising the James in a way that I think is the best way to combine muggle and magic."

"Is that it then? You were dropped on your head a lot as a child?"

"Can this not be an insult contest, Malfoy! I'm not trying to work through your loss of childhood or whatever. What I am saying is that you broke one of the only rules I have for wizards in this house. 'Don't use magic if you don't have to'. If we couldn't reach him its okay. He wasn't in imminent danger, he's eight! He's going to fall. He's going to get scrapes. I'm not going to raise him to not know what pain is or what it means to work for something. That would be wrong of me...wrong of us."

"What's wrong with him?" asked the blonde quietly.

"Nothing is wrong with him, but I want him to understand limits. We didn't when we were growing up. When he was four years old he started asking why he didn't have a mom. I explained as best I could then he asked where his dad was."

"What did you say?" Draco was whispering now. Where was he four years ago.

"I told him I didn't know. He asked me for two years where you were and I couldn't give him an answer. He cried for days, Malfoy. Days! Wanted me to bring you home with magic. I just couldn't do that. Wanted me to bring Teddy's parents back for Christmas one year. Said he wanted us all to celebrate like families do in the movies. I had to set limits. I'm glad you care about him enough to not want him to get hurt, but please refrain from unnecessary magic."

Draco nodded at the man he had known for so long- loved for so long- and how much he had matured. How much of that was because of him and he wasn't even here to see it happen. He couldn't help but smile sadly to himself as he followed Harry and they all made the trip down the block towards the park.

"Uh- Dad...?" James said as he turned to face the two men behind him and started walking backwards.

"Yes?" They both answered.

"Not you, Dad," said James exasperatedly towards Harry before pointing at Draco. "Him, Dad."

The pale man smiled at the boy.