Coeur Loyal, chapter one.

[issahime]

Title: Coeur Loyal
Rating: Pg-13
Warnings/Spoilers: Oh, good lord, yes. Spoilers for everything, probably. Also, for this story I have killed the epilogue, cut it up into little tiny pieces, stitched what I liked back together, and mailed the rest back to JKR. Also also, contains infidelity and mpreg, though not detailed.
Notes: The idea and title for this come from the life of King Henry VIII. All parts can be found via the series tag. In this story, Merlin is a title, like Caesar or - to a lesser degree - Minister. The concept for that comes from Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon books and has little or no bearing on the actual people Myrddin, or much grounds in the Arthurian legend. Anyhow, here I'm using it in the way Caesar was used in Rome: it's a title awarded by the Wizengamot to wizards who perform extraordinary service for Wizarding Britain. It's a step up from Order of Merlin, First Class, and is rarely awarded.
Summary: "A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter." - Proverbs 11:13


This isn’t only my story. It’s the story of my family, and it might be called cautionary.

My family is a varied one.

There’s Dad: that’s Harry Potter. Savior, Chosen One, Hero, Head Auror, Minister, and recently named Merlin. Once upon a time, he was Just Harry. But not anymore. If Just Harry is still there somewhere, I’ve never met him.

Next, there’s Mother: Ginny Weasley Potter. No hyphen. I told you about her, already.

My brothers: James Sirius, Scorpius Hyperion, and Albus Severus. James is oldest – he’s four years older than me. Scorp and Al are twins – a year older than me – but Scorp is seven minutes older, and he never lets Al forget it.

Then there are the Malfoys: Papa Draco, Grandpere Lucius, and Grandmere Narcissa. That’s a very long part of my story, which we’ll get to in a bit.

The rest of the family, I’m sure you’re familiar with. You’re probably already familiar with this bit of the family. We’ve never really had much by way of privacy. Maybe the Malfoy connection surprises you, though.

There’s an old law that’s still on the books with the Wizengamot, which protects a man’s right to keep a mistress on the side, if his legal wife proves unable to give him a viable heir. Viable meaning a male child who survives the first five years of his life. It dates from the time after the Burning Days, when our population was severely depleted and extinction seemed a distinct possibility. There’s a clause in the law which says that the legal wife may demand her husband’s fidelity, after she provides him a viable heir.

Papa Draco is Dad’s “mistress”. Mother tried to demand his fidelity, but I’m not viable, and James is Dad’s heir, besides.

I think I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the start:

2002, July

By Dad’s twenty-second birthday, he and Mother had buried a son, and none of their three other children had survived the pregnancy. The healers said it was residual spell damage from the war, and that the only way Mother could carry a baby to term would be to go into one of the long-term wards at St. Mungo’s as soon as the pregnancy was confirmed.

Dad and Mother were living in Grimmauld at the time. Dad had fixed it up before their wedding, as a surprise for Mother. After the last miscarriage, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron had come to stay semi-permanently to help Mother through her depression. Dad dealt with his depression by logging more hours at Auror Headquarters and being hand-picked by Gawain Robards to take over the DMLE once he retired.

Uncle Ron has always had a wicked temper. Aunt Hermione told me that he once left her and Dad alone out in the forest during the war, in a fit of pique. None of the other Weasleys has his temper, except maybe Uncle Bill, but his is tainted by the werewolf curse. As far as I know, Uncle Ron doesn’t have that excuse.

Dad and Uncle Ron had one screaming row when he and Aunt Hermione were staying with my parents. They were in the study, where the Black family tree had been restored and the Potter family tree was hanging opposite it. I don’t know what all was said, but I know Uncle Ron was angry that Dad spent more time at work than with Mother. I also know that he blamed Dad for all of the dead babies. After all, Grandma Molly had seven children, before the war claimed one. No Prewett or Weasley woman had ever had so much trouble, and the Potter family tree was full of childless couples, late births, and single children.

Aunt Hermione got into it then, and Uncle Ron has never repeated his accusations. Sometimes, though, he glances at me, then pointedly at the family tree, then Dad, and I know that he’s thinking it so loud he might as well say it.

Of course, I wasn’t there for any of this, but Kreacher still has a habit of talking to himself when he forgets that anyone’s in the room. He’s also none-to-fond of Uncle Ron now.

Anyway, on Dad’s twenty-second birthday, he left England for a week-long conference on wards in Ottawa. He told Mother that he had to catch an early portkey, and he still had things to do at the office before that, which is why he left Grimmauld at half six. (His portkey didn’t actually leave for six hours, which Mother must have realized. What does that tell you about their relationship?)

He did go to his office, and he did actually do some work, but he also met up with Draco Malfoy, who was also going to the conference. I don’t think they planned it that way: Dad says they were barely friends at that point. Sometimes I wonder, though, given what happened next.

Draco was at the ministry more than his family’s manor in those days, Dad says. He was an Unspeakable, specializing in the development of potions, poisons, and antidotes - the best in the department, he’s very proud of pointing out – and he was never away from his lab for long. In fact, since the conference would take him away for a week, Dad says he was frantic about what would happen there in his absence. (Draco says he was merely making sure everything was prepared to be into a week-long stasis and that Dad is over-exaggerating. As always.)

They ended up waiting for their portkey together, sharing tea and croissants for breakfast, then grabbing a quick lunch as well. Dad says that their relationship didn’t really go past friendship til later, but that the change started there, waiting in the Ministry Cafeteria, sipping low quality tea.

Draco wasn’t married, of course. He finished his schooling in France after the war, and returned to England around the time that Baby Arthur was being buried and Dad was shooting through the ranks in the Aurors. He entered Unspeakable training almost immediately, and he and Dad didn’t see each other much until Dad had to consult with the DOM on a case involving a potion-smuggling ring.

They were mostly just cordial to each other, though they did eat together if they happened to find themselves in the cafeteria at the same time. It wasn’t until the conference that things changed.

No one likes to discuss the Ottawa Conference, but based on the twinkle in Draco’s eye and the way Dad squirms a bit when it’s mentioned, I figure that it simply isn’t something they wish to discuss with their children. (And as that is something I don’t wish to discuss with my parents, that’s all for the better!)

After they got back from Ottawa, Dad and Draco spent a lot more time together. They began scheduling meals, and not just lunches. You might call them dates, but there wasn’t really much romance to them. The meetings were only noted in the news because of Dad and Draco’s long history.

When Draco told Dad he was pregnant, Dad was a bit dumbfounded. Actually, he passed out cold in Draco’s lab at the ministry. To be fair, Dad had no idea that wizards could get pregnant, because before that, they couldn’t. Draco had been experimenting with fertility potions, and he finished development on the Male Fertility Potion only a few weeks before that. He used himself as a test subject without telling Dad. Dad was a bit angry about that, until Draco gave his reason:

“Anyone can see how desperately you want children, Harry, and how close those miscarriages came to destroying you. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to get your hopes up, in case it didn’t work.”

Dad says he nearly cried when Draco told him that.

Mother was nearly crushed when Dad told her about Draco and the baby, but Draco had agreed that she and Dad could raise the baby, as was traditional when a mistress bore the heir to an old family. Mother still wasn’t happy, but she could see how excited Dad was, and she didn’t have the heart to raise too much of a fuss. So she went into a false confinement at the same time that Draco went into a very real one. (Mistresses may have been legally allowed and politely ignored in society, but homosexuality was still very illegal at that time.)

James Sirius was born at Malfoy Manor and transported to Grimmauld Place as soon as the healer cleared him for floo travel.

A month later, Draco stood as godfather for his own son during the Naming Ceremony at St. Marguerite’s. Mother, who had fallen in love with James the minute she saw him, had stood, hand hooked through Dad’s elbow, and smiled as the newspapers took more pictures than they could possibly need.

I’ve seen those photos, and Mother looks so naïve. Dad can’t keep his eyes off Draco holding James, pride shining from his every pore. Mother keeps looking at Dad with hope, as if she believes that now he’ll be only hers again. It’s really a bit heartbreaking.