Please...

Chapter Twenty Three

"How long!?"

"Around two hours, honey. And you'll have Remus here, right? You'll be okay."

Harry shook his head. He didn't want the playdate anymore. "No."

"Harry, honey, please?"

Harry shook his head again. "No."

"What if we make a deal, huh?" Severus suggested. "What if, you do the playdate, tomorrow, you and I will have a day together? Just the two of us, unless you want Remus to come along. All day, just us. Could we do that?"

"D-Don't you gots to teach t'morrow?"

"Tomorrow? No, tomorrows Saturday. I don't have to teach. We could go sledding, see a movie, maybe try out a new cafe or restaurant? Maybe even look around a toy store for a bit?"

"J-Just us?"

"If that's what you want. I'm not promising that you'll get toys if we go, though, okay?"

"Uh-huh. Pappy comes, too?"

"If you want him to and he doesn't have anything to do. So, can we try the playdate? Draco's mother is home all day today, if we really needed to we could end it early."

Harry nodded. "'S long as Pappy stays and I-I can have Lily and Batty," he said quietly.

Severus kissed the boy's hair. "Of course. Draco will probably bring his own stuffie as well."

"Okay... I'll try. Love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too, my sweet boy. Now, why don't you go wake Pappy, and I'll set the table. How about chocolate chip waffles today?"

"Really!?"

"Sure. It's a big day! Your first playdate, you need some good food! Now go on and wake up Pappy, and I'll get started on breakfast."

"Can I dump in the coco chips!?!" Harry exclaimed.

"Of course."

Harry jumped off Severus' lap and ran down the hall, shouting 'YAY!!!' as he did so.

Severus let out a sigh and began to set the table. That was harder than he thought it was going to be.

Hopefully the playdate turned out okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry hid behind Remus' leg as Draco walked closer. He peeked out, and saw the blond smiling back and waving.

Soon Draco's mother left, leaving the three in the sitting room. "Alright, kids, what should we do? Or what do you two want to do?" Remus asked.

"Games!" was Draco's immediate answer.

"Games are okay..." Harry agreed.

"Alright, a game it is. Harry, why don't you go show Draco all of our games?" Remus suggested.

"O-Okay... It's o-over here." Harry led him to the bin where they stored the games, and the two went through them.

"What's Uh-noo?" Draco asked when Harry held the red box.

"A card game. A Muggle one," Harry replied. "And... Uh, it's called Uno, not Uh-noo. Do you... want to play that one?"

"Sure!"

The two sat on the floor in the sitting room, Lily carefully tucked under Harry's arm. Once they got started playing, Harry thought the playdate might not be so bad after all...

"I win!" Draco exclaimed for the second time in a row.

"Pappy, Draco beated me again!" Harry said in response.