Song- Lay By Me

(Usually I don't do this because I like suspense and everything but I don't want you guys to spend the next few chapters constantly in fear of upcoming angst or something and not being able to fully enjoy the fluff so I'm just gonna tell you now we're nearing the end of the book and it's all uphill from here)

Draco was finding that the Slytherin kingdom was much more accepting of him and Harry than Durmstrang had ever been. And although the place still felt foreign, it felt far more comfortable than Durmstrang ever had.

And there was the factor of a severe lack of gold and an influx of silver.

Harry liked to tell him Draco's silver crown made his eyes look amazing.

Draco liked to tell him the gems in Harry's crown matched his eyes.

Blaise, on the occasions he came over, liked to tell them to shut the fuck up.

"Do you ever think about continuing the lineage? Like, having an heir?" Draco murmured one afternoon, laying back on their huge green bed.

Harry turned around from his spot at the dresser grabbing clothes, and raised an eyebrow at Draco. He looked down at Draco's crotch, and then his own.

"I'm pretty sure that doesn't work, Draco," he laughed softly, but there was a shocked shakiness to it that Draco was sure he hadn't meant to come out.

"I mean, like, there are children who have lost their parents. They go to small little institutions and are kept there until they are of age because no one knows what to do with them. We're kings, surely we could save one or two from that."

Harry had stopped sifting through clothes, and his bright eyes were now on Draco, wide and in awe.

The thought hadn't hit Draco until now that Harry would have been one of those kids if his aunt and uncle hadn't been forced to take him. The thought made him sick.

"I love you," Harry whispered, rushed and breathless and wide-eyed. 

"I love you too," Draco murmured, blushing and slightly confused as to why Harry looked like that.

"You're fucking brilliant, Draco, god, I love you, I've always thought about having children, I never even considered adoption, I just figured since we were both guys we would never be able to have a child and I was going to have to live with that. God, I never even considered it, can we do that now?"

Draco laughed softly. "Harry, we've been married three months, do we not get a break to ourselves? Once we have a child, that will be our world."

"You're my world," Harry murmured, sheepish at his romantic words. "And if you're ready for a child, I am too."

Draco shook his head slightly, laughing. "You're something else, Harry Potter."

"You're beautiful, Draco Potter."

------------------------------------------------

"Him."

Draco followed Harry's gaze and his eyes fell on a small child sitting on the floor. His hair was brown, with blue dust from the chalk he was playing with settled in it. Brown eyes focused intently on his terrible drawing of a dog. He couldn't have been older than six.

"What's his name?" Harry asked Hannah, the woman in charge of organizing adoptions.

"Theodore Lupin."

Both boys tensed, memories of Theodore Nott surfacing.

"He responds well to Teddy, though. We've taken to calling him that."

Harry smiled slightly. "Teddy," he murmured.

"He's almost six years old. We find he had a tendency to try to run away from here. He likes drawing, but we can't afford to give the kids new pencils and paper so we give them chalk."

Draco turned sharply to her. "You can't afford pencils and paper?"

She shook her head. "We were a self-run country before you two came along. Money is tight."

Draco frowned. "Buy them whatever makes them happy. New beds, toys, clothes, proper health care, supplies, everything. Anything you would get if you could afford it, buy it. Do renovations on the building. Make it a more happy environment for the kids. Send all costs straight to me."

"Your Majesty," Hannah whispered breathlessly, eyes filled with tears. She opened her arms as if to hug him, before remembering his status and closing them again. "I don't... Thank you."

Draco smiled pulling her forward and hugging her tightly. "Of course."

She was almost gasping when he pulled away, genuinely crying now. "You're a saint, Your Majesty."

A genuine smile split across Draco's face. He hadn't realized how much these places might need help to become a better kingdom, but he was planning many more stops on the way home.

Hannah briefly rushed off to inform her co-workers of the new changes, and Harry spun around and hugged Draco so fast it made Draco's head spin.

"Wha-Harry!"

"Thank you," Harry whispered, so softly Draco almost didn't hear it. "I love you."

Draco relaxed, hugging him back. "You realize you're allowed to make these decisions too," he laughed softly. "If I hadn't said it, you would have."

"It's the fact that you did it without hesitation, without any selfish thoughts. You just immediately wanted to help."

Draco smiled as his husband pulled back from their tight embrace. "No child should have their whole life ruined because they don't have parents."

"We're getting new toys?" A young girl squealed. 

All the kids turned toward Harry and Draco, just now starting to realize the kings of their country were standing there. Jaws dropped, and a few of the older ones bowed slightly.

Harry beamed. "New toys, new clothes, new beds, more food, everything!" he cheered. 

A few of the kids screamed with delight, a few ran forward and hugged them, and most just yelled and shook each other.

Harry laughed as a little boy released his hold on him and dashed off. He was chatting avidly with a few of the little kids with questions, and Draco studied the other children in the room.

Most of the children were running around the room. Teddy was still coloring, but he seemed much happier now. A few of the older kids were carefully watching the little kids, making sure they weren't getting hurt running around. Draco paused as he studied one of them.

He sucked at approximating teenager's ages, but she was clearly a teenager. Her skin was a medium-dark tone, and she had brown eyes that were carefully watching the kids. Her hair was curly and black. Burn marks were on the bottom left half of her face, down the left side of her neck and arm, and Draco was pretty sure, based on the way she leaned on her right leg, they were on her left leg too. The fact that she wore jeans in warm weather confirmed this.

She seemed fairly happy about the turn of events, but still seemed to have a sort of weight on her shoulders.

Hannah came back to talk with him about Teddy, and Draco leaned forward, having to talk a bit louder over the excited kids.

"Who is she?"

Hannah's eyes rested on the girl and softened. "That's Willow. She's one of our longest residents here. Sixteen years old. Her parents died in a fire when she was just four, and... hence the marks. We could never get her proper treatment, so she seems to have problems walking at times. It also doesn't help that her legs are getting pretty bad anyways. She might not be able to walk in a few years at this rate. We might be able to get her some medical attention now though, because of your generosity. She'll be out of here in two years anyway."

"Harry," Draco murmured, tugging the boy away from the kids he was talking to. "How would we feel about a daughter too?"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I just had a little girl smack me in the face with a rubber ball," he replied a bit tightly.

Draco nodded toward Willow. "Her."

Harry's face softened when he looked at the girl, and Draco saw the confirmation before Harry nodded. Hannah started giving Harry the same information she had given Draco, and Draco walked toward the girl.

"Hello," he said softly as he leaned against the wall next to her. "You're Willow, right?"

"Your Majesty," she responded immediately, pushing off the wall and falling into a curtsy. By the face she made at the motion, it must have hurt quite a bit.

"Please try not to hurt yourself at my expense," Draco said quickly, taking her hand to keep her steady. Once she was leaned against the wall again, she relaxed a bit and he let go.

"We appreciate your generosity, Your Majesty," she said. Her voice was quiet, although she did not appear shy.

"It was the least I could do. Willow, I have a question for you."

She nodded. "Yes, anything."

"How would you feel about me and Harry adopting you and Teddy?"

Her shocked eyes flew from him to Harry to Teddy and back. "You're-you're not serious, Your Majesty."

"I am."

"But-" she gestured around. "Wouldn't you rather have a younger child? Or one that isn't-" she winced. "Broken?"

"No," Draco responded firmly. "We want you, and it's your choice if you'd like us to adopt you. You may want to factor in that you will be a princess by all standards and will have a lot of eyes on you a lot of the time. If that makes you uncomfortable, you might want to reconsider."

She barely seemed to hear his words. Her eyes were filling with tears. "You want me to be a part of your family?"

"Yes."

She barely seemed to be able to breathe, a smile so wide on her face that Draco was afraid it might hurt where the burn on her face was. "Yes. Yes, please, yes, I would love to be your daughter."

"May I hug you?"

She was hesitant, but nodded, pushing herself off the wall. Draco hugged her gently and carefully, afraid of hurting her.

Harry walked over, smiling at her. "Hi Willow, I'm Harry." He held out his hand to shake hers.

Draco left them to talk and walked over to the little boy on the floor.

"Hi, Teddy," he murmured. "My name is Draco."

The boy looked up, a curious smile on his face. 

"I know," he giggled. "You're a king."

"How would you like to be a prince?"

Teddy's face screwed up in confusion.

"Would it be okay if Harry and I adopted you and Willow?" Draco asked gently. "We would be your parents and you would be a prince."

Teddy beamed. "Really?" he asked, surprise and joy spread over his face.

"Really."

Teddy threw his arms around his neck. "Yay!" he squealed with joy.

Draco hugged the little boy back, unable to hide his smile.

"Do I get a crown?" Teddy asked after he pulled away.

Draco nodded. 

"Is it gold?" Teddy's face screwed up in disgust.

Draco tried his best not to laugh. He already loved this kid. "No, it's silver. And green."

His face brightened. "Green is my favorite color!"

"Mine too!" Draco high-fived the little boy.

Harry turned from his spot talking to Willow, and smiled at him.

Things were looking up.

***************************************

It had been three weeks since Draco and Harry had adopted Willow and Teddy, and both of them could honestly say it was the best decision they had ever made.

Willow was adjusting well to her new wheelchair, although it wouldn't be necessary. The combination of medication and her not being on her feet would ease the pain of walking and soon she would be able to be pain-free when she walked. This also meant she couldn't go upstairs in the castle, but she didn't seem to mind, as her bedroom was on the first floor anyways. She was taking to practicing guitar, something she had never been able to do before. Harry had gotten her a tutor who was currently teaching her. She also enjoyed piano and was practicing dance very carefully through her physical therapy program. 

She still didn't like to wear shorts or dresses, opting instead for t-shirts and jeans, but Draco figured whatever she was comfortable with was okay. The only time she had worn something else was when Draco and Harry had come and made a speech to the kingdom about the new prince and princess of Slytherin kingdom. She had worn her silver and green tiara and a deep green gown, with long white gloves to cover her arms as best she could. To ease her discomfort in the outfit, Teddy had also worn a deep green dress and gloves, as well as his own silver and green crown.

Blaise enjoyed coming around every once in a while and, because his hair used to be like hers when he went by female pronouns, he was teaching her how to do box braids. Ron would also come by sometimes, and sometimes he brought his younger sister Ginny to show Willow how to apply makeup to best cover the burn marks on her face, as Willow was still extremely self-conscious about them. Although once, Ginny had brought her girlfriend Luna with her, and Luna had simply cupped Willow's face in her hands and given her a long and amazing talk about how beautiful she was, which led to Willow bursting into tears and hugging her tightly.

Teddy was having a fantastic time already. He loved wearing his crown around the castle, and he greatly enjoyed the staff dramatically bowing to him with smiles on their faces. He had already put an easel in his room, as well as a large drawing desk. He was decorating his room with paintings, and would sometimes bring them to the staff as presents. On one of their cook's birthday's, he painted her a flower, which she hung in the kitchen in plain view of everyone there, much to his delight. Teddy was quickly becoming popular among staff and the people of Slytherin kingdom.

He also greatly enjoyed dying his hair once he found out how. It had taken several tries and many stained sinks, but he had learned how to dye his own hair. It was currently purple. He had also taken to wearing pants and t-shirts most of the time, but every once in a while he would wear a dress and try some of Willow's makeup and put on little heels and strut around the castle. Despite this, he still seemed to go by male pronouns and didn't ask for any changes, even though Harry had asked him if he wanted them to call him something else. He just seemed as though he was a boy wearing dresses, which everyone was fine with. 

Hermione and Pansy visited when they could, Hermione bringing him dresses and shoes and shirts and hair dye, and Pansy bringing him makeup and new pencils. He had started to appreciate the art of makeup early, and seemed to enjoy every new art form he found. He also greatly enjoyed playing soccer in the gardens with Ron.

Draco was finding more and more places in his kingdom to repair and update. He got letters everyday from the orphanage, sometimes from the kids thanking him for the new toys, sometimes from the staff thanking him for the payment of a new renovation. He was also funding a project to build many new houses for those who didn't have them, as well as three free food programs across the kingdom in different areas, offering free hot meals for those who couldn't afford one. He was doing his best to lower taxes and raise wages, and received dozens of letters each day thanking him for his efforts. He had also opened a new building in town that was a support center for youth who found themselves realizing they might be a bit different, whether they weren't the gender they were born as, or they liked someone outside of the social norms, or they just felt a bit different from everyone. It was a place for them to talk to each other and open up, and realize they weren't alone. Across the street from that, he had opened a therapy office for people who felt suicidal or depressed or just not right. He didn't want anyone else to go through what Blaise had had to go through. He was changing his own little world, and it had never felt brighter.

Harry was working on a project he had referred to as the Granger Initiative, a fond mention to his friend. He was hiring people all over the kingdom to help him with making the kingdom look beautiful. Some people planted flowers and trees, others painted buildings light colors and did mural art, some set up lights that would turn on when it got dark and light up the whole kingdom, some posted supportive messages on papers and stuck them to walls and in windows. He was also working on improving conditions in animal shelters, making life for the animals better and raising awareness for both the animal shelter and the orphanage in hopes that more people would be open to a new family member. He also had a project he had, with his daughter's consent, named the Willow Project, in which he and several others went house by house and worked on ensuring the fire safety of each one, from safe fireplaces to installation of sprinklers.

The kingdom of Slytherin had never felt brighter, and Draco and Harry had never been happier.