Second Chances

Draco Malfoy stood before the full length mirror in what had once been his bedroom at Malfoy Manor, struggling to get his ruffled silk cravat to lie down properly against the front of his new dress robes. He had been fighting with the cravat for a full fifteen minutes, and it simply refused to cooperate.

Sera gently pushed his hands away and made quick work of the cravat. "There," she said. "You look quite handsome."

"Thank you, love," Draco said, pressing a kiss to the top of his daughter's carefully coifed head.

There was a rap at the door, and then it opened. "It's time," Damien announced.

Draco took a deep breath and allowed his children to lead him down the stairs and out into the arbor.

The summer sun shone down brightly through the trees, casting cool, shifting shadows over the rather sizable group assembled in the clearing there. The children left Draco at the edge of the clearing, and a moment later Harry appeared at his side.

With a timid smile, Draco took Harry's hand and tucked it into the crook of his elbow. "Are we sure about this?" he whispered.

Harry bit his lip to hold back a laugh. "Too late now," he whispered back.

And in that moment, it was too late to turn back. Everyone moved to create a pathway through the middle of the clearing, their eyes on Harry and Draco. Draco tightened his grip on Harry's hand, took a deep breath, and then they walked together to stand on a slightly raised dais before their friends and family.

The hand-fasting was simple and uncomplicated, the exact opposite of Draco's wedding so many years before. He and Harry exchanged heartfelt vows of fidelity surrounded by people who cared for them and wished them well. A kiss, and they were wed.

The newly married couple radiated joy as they stood accepting the congratulations of their friends and watching the goings on around them. Sera and Armand, whose youthful romance had died out around the time of final exams, sat under a tree, sharing stories of their summer holidays. Adrian and Damien were standing near the punchbowl and looking awfully suspicious; Draco had a feeling that, should he investigate, he would find a bottle of firewhisky missing from the liquor stores. The appearance of an especially giggly Ella Weasley, who seemed hardly capable of standing upright and was leaning heavily on both boys, strengthened Draco's suspicions. Before he could gather the will to go and discipline them, Narcissa and Molly Weasley converged on them, Narcissa calmly reprimanding the twins while Molly harshly scolded her granddaughter. Once the children were safely tucked out of harm's way, the two women actually engaged in conversation, commiserating over the struggle to raise well-behaved children in the modern wizarding world.

"Can we slip away yet?" Harry murmured in Draco's ear.

Draco chuckled and wrapped his arm more securely around Harry's shoulder. "Someone's impatient," he teased.

Harry replied with a nip to Draco's earlobe, and Draco decided rather suddenly that it was, indeed, time for them to make their getaway. Taking Harry's hand, he led him to the edge of the clearing, and then looked back over his shoulder one more time.

A back garden full of Weasleys, and Harry Potter in his bed. Never in his wildest dreams would Draco have imagined even wanting such a thing, much less seeing it come to pass. And yet, here they were.

Turning his back on the celebration, Draco led Harry out of the arbor, pausing on the doorstep. He threw open the door with a flourish, and then surprised Harry by sweeping him up into his arms and carrying him across the threshold. Harry retaliated by nipping at Draco's ear again, and then at his throat.

They made it as far as the front parlour, and only remembered at the last possible moment to lock the door.

Later, as they lay on the parlour sofa, wrapped in one another's arms, Draco apologised quietly. "It isn't quite how I had envisioned our wedding night."

Harry smiled up at his husband, his eyes shining with love. "It was perfect," he said.