Upon my return from Azkaban, I am startled to find Draco waiting for me in my bedroom, sitting patiently at the foot of the bed.

I frown at him. "What are you doing in here? This is my space."

"You weren't at dinner," he says, his brow creased. "Were you at Azkaban this entire time?"

I glance at the clock. It has gone ten o'clock. I forgot it was conception night.

"I'm sorry," I sigh, dumping my tote bag in the corner of the room. "The visit took it out of me. I couldn't face dinner with you and your mother. All you ever do is argue and it's tiresome."

Draco mutters something incomprehensible as I kick off my shoes, my feet tired and aching from all the walking Azkaban requires me to do.

"How was your father?"

I shake my head, and to my horror, a loud, unexpected sob escapes from the back of my throat.

Draco instantly jumps up, sweeping across the room to me.

"Harper?" he asks, clasping my upper arms. "Look at me. What is it?"

I lift my head, and slowly look into his eyes, hating seeing the pity in them. "I miss him." I whisper. "Even after what he's done, I miss my father. He's not even there anymore. Azkaban has destroyed him."

Draco pulls me against him, letting go of my arms to wrap his own around me, cocooning me in a hug that I so desperately need.

I bury my face in his shirt, inhaling him. He smells so wonderful and comforting. I clasp my hands to his back, holding onto him tight.

"We don't have to do anything tonight, Harper," he murmurs above my head. "Not when you're like this."

"It's okay," I say, my voice muffled against his chest, "I'll be alright in a bit."

"No. I'm not having sex with you when you're upset."

"I don't want you to go," I confess, telling him the real reason. "Not after- after being there. I don't want to be on my own."

"Then I'll stay." he murmurs, lifting a hand to cup my cheek as his grey eyes gaze softly down at me. "But not for sex. I'll stay for you."

I am so grateful to him, for his company, that I find myself crying quite uncontrollably. I'm so emotional as fuck that I wonder if I'm actually pregnant already.

But it's usually the way after a visit to Azkaban. And I usually deal with it by going out and finding someone to help me fuck it out my system. It's not difficult to find that.

But now I'm not allowed to fuck anyone other than Draco. And of course he has to be a fucking gentleman about it. Arsehole.

Once I stop crying, he leads me over to the bed, and, instead of undressing me and riding me to oblivion like I so desire in that moment, he settles back against my pillows and holds out his arms, beckoning for me to climb inside them.

I oblige, taking what I can get, burying my face in his shoulder as he wraps his arms around me, hugging me. I breathe in, his scent calming me.

"Why do you keep going there?" he asks, his voice muffled against my hair as he holds me tightly to him. "If it upsets you so much?"

"Because he's my father and I love him." I answer honestly. "And if it was the other way around, I know he'd visit me, even if I've gone mad like he has."

"What do you talk to him about? I wouldn't know the first thing to say to Lucius. And it certainly wouldn't be anything nice."

I shrug. "Anything and everything. I mean, it doesn't really matter what I say. Today I told him about my new job."

Draco stiffens. "Is that what you're calling this? A job?"

"Well, I'm being paid for this, so yes. It's a job. I even found the advert in the job vacancy section."

Draco squeezes his arms tighter around me. "I don't like to think of it like that."

I pull out of his embrace and sit up, staring down at him. I notice a pink tinge on his cheeks.

"Draco? This is a job. We can't think of it as anything else. You do realize that, don't you?"

He shrugs, not quite meeting my eyes. "Can we not discuss the surrogacy tonight, please? Right now, I just want to be a friend. Your friend."

I swallow, feeling something strange stir inside me. It's a sadness that has nothing to do with my visit to Father.

He reaches up and pulls me back down to him, and I surrender, snuggling against his hard body, enjoying the comfort of him.

"Tell me what your childhood was like." His voice is soft and gentle as he tenderly traces patterns on my arm with his fingers. "Tell me about your father. Did he treat you well?"

I nod, smiling up at him. "He was a wonderful father," I whisper, my voice trembling with emotion. "When Dolores left for Hogwarts and it was just me and him, he made up for it by doing all the things my sister would do for me. He would braid my hair and play dolls with me."

I sense the surprise in Draco. He possibly cannot imagine the once intimidating figure of Coriolanus Snow doing such a thing.

"And then I left for school myself, and when me and my sister returned each summer, we noticed the change in him. It was terrifying."

I hadn't realized at the time, but it coincided with the return of Lord Voldemort.

"He stopped being around so much and hired us a nanny even though we were both too old for one. But he was frightened about leaving us alone. It was only after the war that I realized our nanny wasn't a nanny at all, but a trained assassin who he had hired to protect us. I guess he feared that You-Know-Who would find a way to punish him through us if he ever took a wrong step."

"Like Lucius." Draco growls angrily. "Except he didn't care what happened to me and Mother. He just watched it happen."

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Draco stays silent, but I feel his lips press into the top of my head as he holds me that little bit tighter.

"Talk to me," I whisper, feeling the thud of his heart beneath his chest. "Tell me about your father."

He gives a heavy sigh and at first I think he isn't going to say anything. But then he speaks, his voice heavy and morose.

"Nothing I ever did was good enough for him. Growing up, I was desperate to make him proud of me. Mother adored him, and I guess it made me want to be like him. But I seemed to disappoint him all the fucking time. He never showed affection, just threw gold at me to shut me up."

"I'm sorry," I say when he falls silent. "I'm sorry he made you feel that way. I was lucky with my father. He was always so proud and loving. And so affectionate, too. But it made it so difficult to believe when it came out that he had been a Death Eater all this time, cruelly taking innocent lives. He was convicted of killing eight hundred and ninety six people, including women and children. I still can't comprehend it, Draco. He was our father who built us a treehouse, played with dolls and braided my hair. He loved us so much, so how could he be a... a- a monster?"

When I look up at Draco, his face is full of guilt.

"I knew," he says hoarsely. "Harper, I'm so fucking sorry but I knew what he was."

"What do you mean?" I ask, my voice shaking as my heart begins to race. "Draco, please tell me. Did you see him kill people?"

A pink tinge rises to his face as he gives the merest of nods. He actually looks as though he's about to burst into tears.

"I'm sorry, Harper," he murmers quietly, "but your father, he was one of the worst ones. He scared me more than You-Know-Who."

I suddenly sit up, looking at him aghast. "And you want his grandchild?!"

"No, I want your child." he says quickly, sitting up himself to clasp my hands. "I don't know what made your father do the things he did, but I do not believe it was genetic. I know I've only known you not quite a week, but you are one of the most amazing people I have ever met. You're perfect to me."

I hastily pull my hands out of his, my heart racing crazily at his words. "Draco, you can't say things like that."

"It's true, though. You're beautiful, smart, funny and kind. I see why Astoria chose you."

"What about you? Why did you choose me? You didn't know me when you agreed to it. You're not seriously going to tell me that you knew all those things from one five minute meeting?"

He looks a little embarrassed. "Okay, I'm shallow. You're fucking gorgeous, Harper. I still can't understand why I never noticed you at Hogwarts. Maybe then I wouldn't have-" he stops, looking even more embarrassed.

"Shit, sorry. I'm being really inappropriate. Anyway, I wasn't just attracted to your looks, but also your name."

I frown, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I was so fucking terrified of your father, but as I've already said, my father had the utmost respect for him. When your father came to the manor they would treat him like royalty. The idea of having his blood in the Malfoy name... I don't know, it's just my ongoing instinct to make my father proud of me. Stupid really, considering where he is now."

"I'm starting to think we both need some serious therapy," I say, smiling wryly. "Thanks to our fathers."

He smiles back at me, and then I find myself helplessly yawning, feeling so exhausted by recent events.

"I should leave you to get some sleep," Draco says, "it's late and you're clearly shattered."

"Please don't go," I say. "I really don't want to be on my own. It's the dementors. It affects my dreams after I've been around them for a long period of time. And if I wake up alone it terrifies me."

Draco frowns. "What do you normally do after a visit then?"

"Go out on the pull. Getting laid usually does the trick."

Hint hint.

"I'm not going to have sex with you. Not tonight. It wouldn't be right."

"But you'll stay?"

"Of course I'll stay. Come here."

He pulls me back into his arms and we settle back down, with me snuggling against him.

"Sweet dreams," he whispers after we turn the lights. "And remember, I'm here if you need me."

When I wake up, his arms are still around me, holding me tight, keeping me safe.

*****

Two days go by and Draco doesn't visit my room. I feel confused, wondering why he is staying away. I can't help but feel both panicked and disappointed.

I want to ask him about it whenever our paths cross, but somehow, I am scared of the answer. If he doesn't want to continue with the arrangement, then I will have to leave.

And I don't want to leave him, not after we both opened up about our fathers. Something I suspected he had never done before.

So when, on the third night, he enters my room, I almost cry in relief at the sight of him.

Our eyes meet, his face full of hunger and longing. I slowly get to my feet, breathing hard as he kicks the door closed behind him.

Looking back on this moment later, I realized this was the point when we should have terminated everything. It was at this point when we should have realized that we had crossed the line so far, that it wasn't even a line anymore, but rather just a dot in the distance.

But we don't do that. Instead, he crosses the room to me and kisses me hard, lifting me clean off the floor. I wrap my legs around him, my core literally throbbing as I feel his hardness straining through his trousers. Not letting me go, he stumbles us over to the bed and we clumsily fall down on the mattress. We tear at each other's clothes like starved animals, ready to feast on some freshly killed prey.

"I've missed you," he groans against my lips, "I need you. Tell me you need me too."

"For fuck's sake, Draco," I gasp, utterly breathless for him. "Just shut up and fuck me."

And oh, how he obliges. 

"Oh fuck," Draco groans, slamming me down on his lap (not a Marge-approved position), "you feel so good."

We are so frenzied, and I can feel the momentum burning and growing between us, our bodies like a hot ball of energy.

"We can't-" I gasp as I feel him about to explode, "we need to be-"

"Fuuuuuuck," Draco rasps as he tenses and shudders all at once, his fingers gripped tightly in my thighs as he pulls me hard down on his lap.

The feeling is too much, and I find myself toppling with him, exploding sensations of ecstasy ripping through my body.

It seems to take us an eternity to recover. And when we do, I notice I'm still sat on his lap.

"What are we doing, Draco?" I ask when afterwards, we collapse down on the mattress side by side (post ejaculation pillow forgotten about). "This is starting to feel inappropriate. Not to mention disrespectful to your wife."

Draco turns his head to look at me, his eyes flashing with the same pain I feel. "Do you want me to go?" 

I shake my head, because I really do not want him to go. I want him to stay with me so badly, it's like a different yearning to sex. Normally, I find it a relief when sexual conquests leave, and I can get on with life. But here, right now, I yearn to feel this man's arms around me and to discover every little detail I can about him.

"Then I'll stay," Draco says, pulling me even closer to his side as he leans down to press a kiss against my forehead.

My whole being is full of butterflies as I lie in his arms. This is like nothing I've ever experienced before and I'm fucking terrified. I cannot possibly start falling for this man who isn't mine.

But, as I fall asleep in his arms, I realize I may already be too late.

Especially when he wakes me up in the night to slowly fuck me once more.

*****