Draco | James WHO: Draco Malfoy & James Potter Sr. WHAT: Long overdue 1:1 time. WHERE: The Potter cottage. WHEN: Today unless James' player wants to say otherwise? RATING: PG STATUS: Threading!
Draco felt good, really good, which meant he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Didn't it always? It was hard navigating his way without a Mental Healer even if he had been far along in his therapy at home. He kept up his exercises and repeated the affirmations as often as it took to get himself out of bed. Most days? He succeeded. Some days? He didn't. He was working on taking it one day at a time, just like he told Sirius.
It had been easy to keep to the girls at the Manor, his kids, mum, Fleur, Astoria, Amelia, Gideon, Colin, the students, and a handful of others. He mostly interacted with the rest of the village through the journals. The party had been a big step for him, but it didn't mean he was perfectly okay. Like everyone else, he was a work in progress. It wasn't easy leaving behind the worst bits of himself and trying to find that which he liked best. It wouldn't have been easy in the best of circumstances, but it definitely wasn't easy in a time crazy village where he was constantly confronted with the past and future. Reconciling the two were difficult.
Most recently, he was trying to digest how close the Potter and Black lines ran. He knew his family intermingled, of course, but seeing it was completely different. The emotions were mixed. He partly felt robbed of a chance he might have had with more of the "liberal" family members around and he partly felt disgusted by how much their blood crossed. Like Astoria said, it wasn't terrible, but he felt like he did something wrong in not letting his kids know more of their history. His son bloody married a cousin several times removed. Still, like Harry said, Polaris didn't have a second head. Draco thought the sun rose with his granddaughter. It was legal. In some cultures, it was common. And the blood was negligible. Still. Was he as bad as the Blacks before him? Did he deny them what might have been a larger family? He wasn't going to focus on the Weasley connection, but that was weighing on him too. In some ways, whenever he insulted them in the past, he insulted himself.
That wasn't the reason he went to James Potter. James had been kind to him. When Lucius made him feel small, James validated him. When the Blacks hurt him, James and Lily (and Molly Weasley) welcomed him to their family. He stepped back out of respect for Harry, but when he saw that muddy print in James' journal...
Draco wasn't stupid. He knew something bad was going on. He didn't push James that day, but he did want to check in on him. It was the least he could do. Besides, he did love Hope and Hope seemed to like him well enough. Draco suspected babies liked most people.
He sat on the couch with her in his lap. He couldn't help thinking about the fact he was going to hold his own grandson in a few weeks. He didn't want to screw up. Merlin, he didn't want to screw up. Polaris already loved him. His kids already loved him. This baby? And Amelia's? He had to do the work, not some future him. It was a scary thought.
He glanced up as the baby squealed in delight over the little bear he was making talk. Damn, was Draco Malfoy really making a stuffed toy talk? He should just charm the damn thing. Still, Hope was cute.