((( a go at something semi canon (though not epilogue) compliant )))
Sitting in a sunny spot in Andromeda's countryside garden, it was hard to remember life ever being anything but lazy summer heat and glasses of cold lemonade. Harry had spent the entirety of the day in the sun playing with Teddy, and his flushed skin felt like it blurred together with the warm, still air, making it easy to forget he even inhabited a physical form to begin with. His mind felt equally foggy. It was no wonder to him why he kept returning to just exactly this sunny spot. Comfortably seated on the café set, perched on the top of the sloping garden, Harry watched Teddy tirelessly rummage through the berry bushes skirting the fence. Somewhere behind him, Harry heard Andromeda's spellwork through the open kitchen windows, and the subsequent boiling of water. Everything was the cloned image of the preceding afternoons, a routine that had been years in the making. The only new addition was the presence of Draco Malfoy, sitting beside him across the table; admittedly, even he had started to carry a sense of tentative familiarity. By autumn, Harry and Malfoy would have occasionally coincided at Andromeda's for a year, though it had taken months for the joint visit to be regarded as intentional. While Harry had visited the grandmother of his godson for as long as Teddy had lived with him, Malfoy had only recently reestablished a relationship with Andromeda. It had been awkward at first but, a year in, Harry had yet to find his presence uncomfortable. It had even surprised Harry himself how willingly and easily he had given up any lingering feelings of resentment, though he didn't dare speak on Malfoy's behalf. "When're your classes starting back up?" Harry asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them after Andromeda had excused herself to prep dinner. Harry had turned to look at the other man, the sun shining in his eyes, first making him squint. A moment later, Harry admitted defeat, taking off his glasses to lessen the glare of the setting sun against the lenses. He rubbed his eyes. "Or are you starting your residency by now?" Over the course of the last year, Harry had learned more things about Draco Malfoy than held ever thought he would, and not against his will either. Putting back on his glasses, this time a bit further down his nose, he offered the other man his full attention. Though Harry would hardly qualify them as friend, their interactions no longer felt hostile. There was still a timidness to their interactions, Harry never really knowing what line of conversation to string up when they were left alone; but he did no longer have the instinct to flee from it.
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