They spent the rest of their honeymoon at Malfoy Manor, and Harry did his best to avoid walking by the portrait of the Malfoy in-laws. It really wasn't so bad at the manor. Not with Draco, anyway. They explored the grounds, rode brooms, lounged, ate fantastic meals, and sometimes shopped in Diagon Alley. Harry spent several hundred galleons at Flourish and Blots trying to restore the empty library with acceptable tomes, and Draco was happy to help him spend the money.

But all good things must come to an end and September first was looming one week away. It was time to return to Hogwarts.

Harry watched Draco pack with a distracted air. "I think it will be good to get back, don't you?" he said, trying to animate Draco.

"Uh huh," he answered.

"Yeah. I can't wait to fill my classroom with blast-ended skrewts dressed in pink tutus."

"Yep." Draco stuffed a book in his bag and then looked up. "What?"

"Just wanted to see if you were listening." He walked over to Draco and pulled him into his arms, giving his lips a thorough kiss before he pulled back to look at his face and push the blond fringe from his grey eyes. "It's time to go back home. I mean Hogwarts."

"No, that is home. I've decided wherever you are, that's home to me."

Harry gave a breathless laugh of surprise and blushed. "Oh. That's…thanks. I feel the same about you."

Draco butted his head gently to Harry's forehead. "I hate to say it, but getting back to the routine will do me good."

"Right." Harry released him and returned to his bag. "So let's get this done so we can floo."

A pop sounded behind him and Harry looked back to spy Dobby, layered in socks, hats, and jumpers. "Dobby is wishing to say good-bye to Harry Potter, sir." He looked nervously at Draco and said nothing. But it was Draco who sidled over and crouched to talk to the house elf. Dobby cringed.

"Dobby. Look, I just want to thank you for all you've done. I know that you wouldn't have done it for me in a million years, but I'm glad you wanted to do it for Harry."

"Well…Dobby is grateful to Harry Potter for freeing him, begging your pardon, Master Draco. But the Malfoys were not good to Dobby." Dobby cringed, eyes darting. He suddenly dashed for a table and grabbed a vase, but before he could clobber himself with it Harry tugged it out of his hand.

"You can't punish yourself for something that's true, Dobby," said Harry. "I certainly appreciate your coming back here. And I'd like to ask another favor."

"Oh, anything Harry Potter wants, Dobby is happy to be doing, sir!"

"Well, maybe not this. I'd like to ask if you'd stay on at the Manor with Kreacher, keep an eye on him and the place. I'll pay you, of course. Happy to."

This was clearly a great dilemma for Dobby. He didn't want to disappoint Harry by refusing and he certainly didn't want to take his money.

"Would you do it, Dobby?" asked Draco. "And Harry won't pay you. I will."

This seemed like an entirely different situation. Dobby narrowed his eyes at Draco. "Master Draco would be paying Dobby, sir?"

"Yes. I owe you, after all, for all the trouble we Malfoys caused you. My father didn't treat you very well. Um…neither did I, I guess," he added sheepishly. "So…I'm sorry about that."

Dobby's jaw dropped in shock. "You is apologizing to Dobby, sir? A house elf? A Malfoy apologizing to a house elf?"

"Yeah, I know. It's the end of the world as we know it. But there you have it. I am apologizing to you." And he bowed to Dobby.

Dobby nearly exploded from confusion. "I is too surprised to speak!" His bat-like ears flopped and he blinked his great green eyes. "But I is accepting Master Malfoy's apology, sir…and I is accepting his salary, too!"

"Fine. Whatever you made at Hogwarts, I'll double it. Will that do?"

"Oh sir! Dobby cannot accept that! I will take what I made at Hogwarts, sir, and be happy. Thank you sir, thank you both!" And he Disapparated with a pop.

Harry stared at Draco and Draco, looking uncomfortable under the scrutiny, adjusted his robes. "Well, it was the least I could do, right? We made his life miserable and I'm feeling generous today for some reason. Quit staring at me, Potter. Are you ready to floo?"

* * *

They returned to Hogwarts and fell again into the routine of preparing their classrooms and lessons for the students to arrive.

September first came and the welcoming feast was prepared. The teachers took their places at the high table, with Hagrid absent assisting the first years across the lake and McGonagall ushering in the rest. Harry almost took his usual place on the other side of Dumbledore but remembered in time and slid into the chair beside Draco. Draco looked at him. "What are you doing?" he hissed as the students settled into their seats, waiting for the first years to arrive and get sorted.

"I traded with Flitwick. Seemed silly us not sitting together when we're married and all."

Draco leaned back and glanced at Flitwick now listening to the rants of Trelawney where Harry used to sit. "Oh you owe him big."

Harry looked back too. "Yeah. I'll have to think of something really nice to do for him. Maybe get him a date. I hear he's quite the ladies man." He looked at Draco and they both giggled.

Dumbledore eyed them both and smiled under his mustache. "Welcome back, gentlemen. You seemed to have survived your honeymoon well enough."

"Thank you, Albus," said Harry with a blush he couldn't control. "We did just fine."

The great doors opened, and the tiny first years marched in headed by McGonagall. She herded them forward and began the sorting.

Harry looked out at the many faces and smiled at the ones he recognized. His group of fifth years were now sixth years and he spotted them sitting at their various house tables. Malcolm Treeloft, the sullen Slytherin, was sitting at his house table, but he made sure he was on a bench closest to Hufflepuff where his boyfriend Rupert Fenwick sat. So they were still together, he mused. Perhaps they had gotten together over the summer holidays. Serenity Hudson was sitting at Ravenclaw but he saw her send a magical parchment note to Felicia Rosencrantz at Gryffindor. It looked to him like there was a lot of cooperation between the houses these days.

The sorting was complete and Dumbledore approached the lectern ready for his welcoming speech. "Welcome one and all to Hogwarts! We are in for a good year as always. I trust your House Boy and Girl are ready to instruct you on the finer points of each of the house rules, and that the Quidditch captains will be gearing up for splendid practices. You know, I always think of September as a rather hopeful time. A time for beginnings. The weather cools, the leaves change, and we prepare for another year of learning…and at last after a great while, without the fear of Dark Lords interfering."

Many faces turned toward Harry in appreciation.

"Which reminds me," said Dumbledore. "I must congratulate our teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts-" Harry sat up straighter, caught unawares. "You see, this is the first time in almost fifty years that a Defense teacher has returned to his post twice in a row. I believe I am free to divulge that Voldemort had cursed the position, and no one was ever able to spend more than one year in that post. But since his vanquisher fills that spot now, it is little wonder that curse is vanquished as well. And so I'd like to formally welcome back Professor Potter…indeed all our teachers."

Everyone applauded. Some whistled, yelling Harry's name.

Draco rolled his eyes.

Dumbledore droned on, explaining this rule and that. Draco dropped his hand on Harry's thigh under the table and gave it a little squeeze before merely leaving it there. Harry gave a contented sigh. He was really home. Draco was beside him, his classes were ahead of him, and Hogwarts surrounded him like friendly arms. It would be good to get back to the business of teaching, back to the business of magic. "Never a dull moment," he murmured.

Draco looked at him, catching his words. He smiled. "Not with the Malfoy/Potter team."

"That's Potter/Malfoy," said Harry with a smile.

THE END


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