Chapter Text
Harry giggled when Charlie fell onto the couch beside him and patted his arm, "You made a wonderful effort, much better than I have seen others do before," He complimented, "At least he's taking a nap now."
"Because of a sugar crash," Charlie mumbled, "He's a great kid, I would buy him all the candy in the world if I could, even if he bounces off the walls."
"I am though surprised he didn't display any accidental magic by how many chocolate frogs you let him eat."
"So he has shown evidence of magic?" Charlie asked quickly changing the subject.
Harry nodded, "Yes, he first displayed it when he was four." Harry smiled fondly at the memory, "It was two days before the full moon, and Fenrir was, erm, helping me with my issue so we left Sirius with one of the few werewolves in the pack I trusted, her name was Jane. But that time Sirius wasn't excited about staying with 'Aunt Jane' that particular time. He was so furious that I didn't come back after the first day, and when I finally did return the morning of the full moon, he had somehow managed to turn her beautiful brown hair blue." He giggled, "I felt bad for her, it took weeks to fade, but I couldn't help but be ecstatic at the news."
"So he has always been a handful then?"
"Half of the time, he is really sweet and a really good kid. He's a gift."
"I'll show Sirius the dragons after his nap and after lunch." Harry nodded, "And I will look into taking a vacation so we can get you back to Britain, alright?"
"Thank you, and I will at least pay for the travel when we get back in full." Harry said, "And you won't say anything about it. If I have to force the galleons down your throat myself, I'll do it."
Charlie refused to acknowledge the statement, "The next full moon is in two weeks, would it be better to get there before or after the moon?"
"First I need Remus to help me with the few kinks and issues with my case, Sirius will be fine. I don't know what will happen since I don't have a pack anymore. Of course, if we have to wait until after, I will perfect understand and I'll leave a few days before and wait it out until the moon and the-"
"Harry," Charlie interrupted the younger's nervous rambling, "You're fine, don't worry about it. I just wanted to know your preference. I can easily take a few weeks off to help you through this, I just wanted to know."
"Sorry, my way of thinking has... adapted over to years due to how my life has played out before," Harry smiled slowly, "Thank you for dealing with it all, I promise we will be out of your hair in no time."
"Stop that, you need to know you have more self-worth than you used to think," Charlie said, cupping Harry's face in his large calloused hands, "You're a treasure Harry and deserve more than I can give you. You're going to let me help you and your ridiculously precious son get your life back that was stolen from you, alright?"
Harry gave Charlie a watery smile, unsure when the tears started to collect in his eyes. "I don't know what to say, but thank you. Whoever you chose to spend the rest of your life with is going to be a very lucky person."
Just as the red-head was going to reply, going to tell Harry that he was wrong, that Harry was the one anyone would be blessed to have, they heard Charlie's bedroom door open followed by the sound of small bare feet on the hardwood floors.
Harry moved away from Charlie as Sirius walked in and held his arms open for the boy.
Sirius sluggishly crawled into Harry's lap and laid against him. The boy smiled at Charlie when Harry started running his fingers through his hair.
"That was a short nap," Charlie commented, "Are you sure you are rested enough to go see some dragons in an hour or so?" Charlie guessed a half hour was decent nap time for a six-year-old, but for some reason still thought he would have slept longer.
"Yep!" Sirius beamed, "Can mommy come with us too?"
"Of course, but only if he wants to," Charlie said moving his gaze from Sirius to Harry.
"Did you know my mum had to fight a dragon?!" Sirius beamed proudly and sat up quickly in Harry's lap, "He said it was a... hungry tail?" Sirius looked at Harry to see if he was right.
"A Hungarian Horntail, you were close Siri," Harry chuckled, "Charlie was there when I faced off against her, he was the one who brought all the dragons over from Romania, from the reserve that you're going to see."
"Wow!" Sirius was practically bleeding happiness and awe, "That's amazing!"
Harry maneuvered Sirius out of his lap and next to Charlie as he stood up, "I'm sure you're just bursting and ready to go see those dragons, so let me whip up some sandwiches before you head off."
"So, you don't want to come?" Charlie asked as he watched the younger wizard walk into the kitchen and start taking things out.
He shook his head sheepishly, "I hope you don't mind, I wanted to take a bath and wrap my head around going back to normal civilization."
"I don't mind at all, Sirius and I will have a blast, right?" The boy nodded happily, "And I know how hard everything has been for you recently, so I can understand the need for a little quiet time."
Harry smiled at Charlie as a silent thank you and went to work on their sandwiches and tea, smiling to himself over Sirius's excited chatter and Charlie's just as enthusiastic replies.
--
"Hey, Charlie!" A voice called out as Charlie made his way into the reserve with Sirius, "I thought you weren't coming in today?"
"Hey Dana," Charlie said, "I'm just here to show Sirius the dragons," He gestured to the dark-haired boy side him, "Plus his mum needed some time to get his bearings."
"Ah, so you're babysitting?" She said with a grin as she crouched down before the boy, "Hello there, I'm Dana! I work with Charlie here. Your name is Sirius, right?" He nodded, "Are you excited and ready to see the dragons?"
"Yes! I want to see the one mommy fought!"
Dana looked up at Charlie with a raised eyebrow, "And which one is that?"
"Hungry tail!"
"Hungarian Horntail," Charlie smiled, "This is Harry Potter's son."
"Oh, gotcha, makes sense now," She stood and placed her hands on her hips, not at all phased by the fact the savior of the wizarding world was apparently not dead and had a son, "Off to the Hungarian Horntails it is!"
The three stopped outside a large fenced are after a few minutes of walking. The fence was twice as tall as Charlie and encircled roughly around fifty acres for the dragon. There were enchantments to keep the dragons contained, the fences showed the boundaries. Currently, the only Hungarian Horntail that they had at the moment was a female and just laid a nest of six eggs. She used to be with the other dragons but was moved to another part of the reserve where she could safely tend to her eggs rather than be bombarded with the activities of the other dragons. Her babies would be hybrids, the dad was an Antipodean Opaleye, and Charlie thought the baby dragons were going to be quite the pretty and enchanting hybrid.
Charlie hoisted Sirius upon his shoulders as Dana started to speak, "Ok Sirius, do you see that black mass over at the edge of the trees?" The witch transfigured a pair of binoculars for the boy and handed them to Sirius, "She's sleeping with her eggs right now, isn't she pretty?"
It took a moment for Sirius to find the dragon, seeing she blended into the shadows of the trees, "Yeah! Wow, how did mommy defeat that huge dragon?!" He said in wonder.
"Your mum was quite brave, wasn't he?" Charlie mused, "Do you want to see the others?"
Sirius nodded to both of Charlie's statements and stayed on Charlie's shoulders as they went towards where the other dragons were being held.
Dana left them once they reached the other pin, saying she needed to check on another dragon who was injured the other day.
Sirius 'oooh-ed' and 'ahh-ed' at the other dragons as the did their own thing, flinching and screaming a few times when they would roar. Thankfully it was more of a happy scream than one of terror. It surprised Charlie that they were all pretty active compared to how they usually were and flying around.
"Mommy said we are going to London, what is it like?" Sirius asked, now resting in Charlie's arms rather than on his shoulders.
"Well, it's rather damp and gloomy, but it's summertime, so it could be sunny when we get there," Charlie said.
"It's always cold in Russia," Sirius said sadly, "I want it to be warm when we get there."
Charlie chuckled at the pouting tone in his voice, "I hope so too, I haven't been there in a few years, I could be wrong."
"I like you, Charlie," Sirius said innocently, "You're nice and you have dragons!"
"I like you too, you're a good kid," The older wizard said with a smile, "I'm sure you'd make a fine dragonologist one day if you worked hard enough."
Sirius looked up at Charlie with a wide smile, "You think so?!"
"Of course, now I have to go talk to some of my coworkers, is that alright? Then we'll go home and see how your mum is doing before dinner." Sirius nodded and Charlie headed towards the entrance of the reserve where the offices were.
Charlie set Sirius down once they got into the office area of the small building, letting him wander around the place curiously as he spoke with the two other dragonologists there.
"Hey Charlie," A tall man named Luca, "I saw you out and about with a little boy, who is he?" Luca asked, glancing behind Charlie to look at Sirius playing with a model dragon that was on someone's desk.
"That's Sirius, he's Harry's son."
"Harry?" Luca didn't question it any further, Dana came by earlier and explained who Sirius was, "What did you need?"
"I need to talk to you about taking a two week leave so I can get Harry and Sirius to Great Britain if that's ok." Charlie said, "I would have normally given everyone more warning time, but everything has been kind of sudden and-"
"Charlie," Luca said softly, smiling at the redhead, "You have been here almost as long as I have, you should know better than to feel bad about the lack of notice. You could take a whole month off and we wouldn't bat an eye. Take two weeks off, or more if needed, we'll be fine here."
Charlie grinned sheepishly, "Right, thank you. I just feel bad leaving you guys short-handed." Luca rolled his eyes playfully, "I better get Sirius back, I'll write you when we arrive."
"I will hold you to that, have a good evening."
"Likewise," Charlie went back to Sirius who was still in his own little world with the little dragon, "Ready to go home?"
Sirius looked up and nodded, but looked a little reluctant to leave the toy.
"You know," Charlie crouched down to Sirius's eye level, "I have a few of these at home that I can give you, would you like that?"
The boy beamed and nodded, putting the dragon back where he found it, "Yes! Let's go!"
With a smile, Charlie took Sirius by the hand and made their way back to Charlie's home.
--
"Welcome back," Harry said from the kitchen when the two walked through the front door, "Dinner should be ready in a half hour."
Charlie didn't know what to think, the whole situation way too domestic to his norm.
Harry stood over the stove top stirring something in a pot that smelled divine. He looked better than the day before. His hair was half-up so his face wasn't obscured by the inky tresses, and he didn't look as tired. The dark circles under his eyes were almost nonexistent. And sweet Merlin, he thanked every religion's god because Harry looked amazing in those tight jeans and a button-up shirt.
The younger wizard seemed to be coaxing alive his previously dormant libido with every shift of his hips.
Charlie coughed to cover the blush he felt rising to his face and took Sirius's coat from him to hang it up on the coat rack by the door along with his.
"I wasn't expecting you to make dinner," Charlie said as he walked into the kitchen, Sirius not far behind.
Harry simply smiled, "I told you I would at least be doing the cooking if you won't allow me to pay you back with actual money. Plus I enjoy cooking, I've been the cook for the majority of my life, even in the pack."
Sirius nodded, "I love mommy's food!"
"Just... don't push yourself," Charlie said reluctantly. Harry was far too much like his mother about the kitchen and cooking than he would like.
"Of course not," Harry blew on a spoonful of what looked to be a stew of some sort before holding it out to Charlie, "I need your opinion."
Charlie blew once more on the spoon before he allowed Harry to feed him the broth. It was amazing, to say the least, and that Charlie knew his mother would have a run for her money if put up against Harry in cooking. But he didn't verbalize this.
He was too focused on the fact Harry was staring at him, more importantly, his lips. Sure at first it would have been to make sure he didn't spill anything as he fed Charlie, but he was still staring.
Charlie grinned on the inside and slowly licked his lips that effectively caused Harry to snap out of his frozen state and blushed as he hurried back over the stew.
"D-Does it fit your expectations?" Harry asked as he now avoided Charlie's eye as he blew on a spoonful to let Sirius try.
Sirius hummed in delight at the taste, "It definitely exceeds my expectations, it's delicious." Sirius nodded in agreement.
"Good! Did you enjoy the dragons, Siri?" Harry asked, sitting down at the table beside the boy.
"Yes! They were amazing!" Sirius started, easily diving into explaining how amazing each and every dragon was, and the fact that Charlie said he could be a dragonologist when he got older if he wanted to.
Charlie contented himself with listening to the two converse until dinner was served and he joined in the conversation, learning more about Harry and Sirius's time in the pack and how Harry tried his best to start getting Sirius ready for school and eventually entering the wizarding world.