#jpi

“What’s up, my love?” He asked, immediately wrapping his arms around her and bringing her closer to him. She could smell the mint on his breath as she looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest as she did so. 

“The hot water isn’t working,” she pouted. 

“Can’t the house elf fix it?” It was a genuine question which was why he was mildly offended when she scoffed. 

“The house elf is sleeping, I don’t want to wake him up.” She took a step back, the muscles in her neck tensing up at the awkward position. 

“But waking your dad up is fine?” 

She scoffed again, folding her arms over her chest. 

“Do we even know if the house elf knows how to fix this? I know my dad does and he doesn’t go to sleep until later anyway.” 

Draco had an amused look on his face that only made her frown deepen.

“Besides,” she said, feeling the need to continue, “you act as if my dad doesn’t love hearing from me.” She stuck her chin out at him in a childish manner making him playfully shake his head as he reached out to squeeze at the flesh on her hips. If there was one thing he knew to be true it was that James Potter would never complain about hearing from his daughter, no matter what time it was. 

James didn’t come until the next morning. Much too early for Draco’s liking - not that he would ever admit that - but he thought this was all pretty normal. It was no surprise to him that he was at his daughter’s beck and call and he wasn’t at all shocked that she had chosen the help of her father over the help of a house elf knowing that she had not grown up with one and still wasn’t convinced they needed one. 

And he wasn’t with his wife at every hour of the day, so he had no clue how often these calls to her father took place. 

It wasn’t until a couple of months later that he heard her call her father again. 

“Dad,” she said, not too quietly in the middle of the shop, “how much is too much for floo powder?” Draco was glad that she sent the patronus before he let out a snort. 

Her head snapped towards him. 

“What?”

“Are you serious?” He asked, knowing that she most definitely was. 

“I don’t know what’s an appropriate price for floo powder.” They were standing in front of a bunch of different floo powders, with a large price range. If Draco was being honest, he too didn’t know the appropriate price for floo powder, but he just wanted to tease his wife about how reliant she was on her father, sue him. 

“You could have asked me,” he teased. 

“Please,” she scoffed, turning around to look back at the different types of floo powder. “We both know your house elf did that stuff.” 

She was right and Draco didn’t have anything to say back, but fortunately, James Potter was quick to get back to his youngest child and he was saved by his patronus. 

“The more expensive stuff will give you a smoother ride, but really, you’re just paying for the brand name. The cheaper stuff though often gets stuck in your throat so I’d go somewhere in the middle. Usually about a galleon a pound is pretty average, we always use Floo-Pow and it’s usually on special. Let me know if you need anything else, I love you lots.” 

Draco couldn’t help the snigger that had escaped him which earnt him a mean glare from the pretty girl picking up a container of Floo-Pow. 

Before she could put it in the basket, Draco snatched it out of her hand. She let out a sigh that Draco ignored and looked at him expectantly as he analysed the container. 

“I don’t think we buy this one.” 

“Well which one did you buy?” 

Draco shrugged, “probably the most expensive one.” He put Floo-Pow back on the shelf and reached over her to grab one at the end of the shelf. “Wildsmith sounds familiar,” he muttered, putting it in the basket she was carrying. 

“Hey,” she wined, “we don’t need the most expensive one.” 

“Well I don’t know about you my love, but I want a smoother ride with nothing getting stuck in my throat.” 

“But you’re just paying for the brand name,” she whined, as if this was something she had always known and had stood by her entire life. 

“You’re literally just repeating what your dad said.” He couldn’t understand why she cared about the price of this anyway, it was not like she had to pay for it nor was money ever an issue in their relationship. 

She shrugged her shoulders, taking out the container Draco had put in her basket and replacing it with the one her dad had recommended. 

“Because he knows these things,” she explained, as if it was obvious. Draco knew that if he rolled his eyes he may not be able to call anyone his wife anymore so he refrained from doing so. 

“Fine,” he grumbled, reaching back over her to grab the container she had put back in the wrong spot, “we get both and then decide which is better.”

“Deal.” 

It was also no surprise to Draco that his wife thought that anything her father said was fact. Nor was he really surprised that she had sent a patronus to him for this. She valued his opinion and even if he loved to tease her about it, he knew what it was like to value the opinion of your father even for something as simple as floo powder. 

But it was only later that day when she called for her father again. They were unpacking everything they had bought, placing both of their preferred floo powders on top of the mantle. Draco didn’t say anything when she didn’t call for the house elf to unpack the bags he had carried in and had asked him to help her unpack. But he had naturally assumed that she would be happy to let the house elf make them dinner. 

But when he had suggested it her head had snapped towards him and suddenly she was taking long strides towards him and raking her fingernails up and down his chest, pouting up at him and whining that, “it would be so romantic if we cooked together though don’t you think so baby?” 

James Potter’s daughter wasn’t used to hearing the word ‘no’ and Draco understood why. It was why he was listening to her tell the story about how her grandmother, James’ mother, always used to make this pasta dish that was ‘just her absolute favourite!’ and how she always made it whenever she new her son and his family were coming over because she knew that her granddaughter loved it. 

“So you’ve been spoiled your whole life then?” Draco liked to tease her, but he genuinely liked the story. Pasta was her favourite food, and now he knew why. 

She was cutting up a carrot and Draco had snaked his arms around her waist, letting his head fall into the nape of her neck. 

“I can’t help that I was her only granddaughter.” She knew Draco was teasing, but she couldn’t help but grumble it out. “Besides,” she continued, a confident look on her face, “you’re one to talk.”

And he knew she was right. 

Draco was happy to stay like this. Not only could he smell his favourite perfume that he always bought her, but she had just washed her hair and the ends were tickling the tips of his nose. And he knew that when she finished cutting the carrot, he would move and start helping her again, but he really just wanted a few more seconds in this position. 

But all of a sudden she stopped moving and Draco pulled his head up to see what was wrong. 

“Huh.” Was the only word that left her pretty lips before she was moving out of Draco’s grasp to go to the fire place. 

Part of Draco was curious to see what she doing and the other part of him had nothing better to do but follow her, so that was what he did. 

Without uttering a word to him, she knelt down on the ground and putting some of her floo powder in the fire, she quickly stuck her head in. 

Draco was standing behind her. He couldn’t help but admire the curve of her back in her bent position, but the thought was quickly put to the back of his mind when she said, “Dad, finally, it took you long enough to answer.” 

Draco was glad that her back was towards him so she couldn’t see the way his eyes rolled at her impatience. It had barely been a minute in James Potter’s defence. 

“Sorry princess,” he could hear James say, “what’s up?” 

“Dad,” she repeated as if this was an urgent matter, and Draco couldnt help thinking that given her sudden need to call her father, it was. “What wine did Gradma have with that pasta she always made me?” 

Draco couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even like wine! Sure, she drank it when there was nothing else available, but he had never seen her drink wine willingly and he knew that she was not going to be drinking any wine tonight. Was this really that urgent?

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear James reply, but he did hear them say goodbye and watch her stand back up, a beaming smile on her face. 

“I can’t believe I forgot that!” 

Draco, like the good husband he was, prompted her to tell him more about her experiences with her grandmother, but really, he was just trying to understand why it was so important she just had to call her father for a question that could have been answered at any time. 

Draco had seen his wife call or complain to her father about very frivolous things. When they were just boyfriend and girlfriend and Draco would spend dinner at their house in Godric’s Hollow, he once made a joke to her that if he drank everytime the word, Dad!’ left her mouth, he wouldn’t be able to walk straight for a month. 

They were sitting on the family lounge, just the two of them after she had made her father make Harry move. ‘Dad! Harry’s being annoying and won’t leave us alone.” 

He was sitting with his back leant against the back of the lounge and she was sitting crosslegged, facing him, playing with the tips of his fingers. But when he got out his ‘joke’ she dropped his hand and stared at him dumbfounded for a solid five seconds before she yelled out, ‘Dad!’ She kept eye contact with him. ‘Draco’s being mean to me.’ 

But he thought that when they moved out together she would grow independent. Or that she would at least start to rely on him rather than her father, but he quickly learnt that that was not going to happen anytime soon. 

It was only a couple days later when their owl brought their mail. She had taken it from the owl, given it a little treat and was now giving Draco a run down of the letters they had received. 

“This one’s from your mum,” she said, passing him a letter. “This one’s from your work.” She gave him another. “This one is for me.” She put it to the side. Draco was watching her go through the letters and his eyebrows furrowed together when she paused at the next one. He watched her open it and read it intently. And then he watched her send a patronus to her father. “Dad,” she said, “do we really need floo insurance?”

Draco knew that now that they had their own floo network, they would have to get floo insurance, but he bit his tongue, not wanting to start a fight on their one morning this week together. But really, if she had just taken two seconds to tell him what the letter was about he would have told her that he was already in talk with the insurance company and they only needed the paperwork to be processed before the insurance was finalised. Sure, Draco could have told her this before but he didn’t think it was something she was interested in and he didn’t want her to worry about it. 

No, he was going to tell her. They could talk about this. They were adults. 

Draco went to open his mouth to tell her that he needed to start trusting him more than her dad because he had already sorted it out, but he was cut off by the one and only James Potter. Well, his patronus. 

“Good morning princess, yes, you should have floo insurance. Draco should know what to do, but if he isn’t sure let me know and I’ll help you set it up. I love you lots.” 

“Do you know what to do?” 

Draco didn’t mean for his spoon to clank so loudly against his bowl, but it did and he couldn’t take it back. 

“Does it matter? I’m sure you’d feel better if your dad did it anyway.” 

She frowned at his words. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Nothing,” he sighed, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have snapped. I’ve already dealt with the floo insurance, it should all be processed by Tuesday.” 

“Who did you go with? Were they cheap? What does it cover? Should I ask my dad to see who they are with?”

“No,” he said a bit too quickly, cutting her off slightly and making her frown once more. 

“I feel like something’s wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong, I just,” Draco sighed, running a hand through his already messy morning hair, “sometimes I get jealous about how much you rely on your dad still.” 

She softened at his confession, immediately getting up out of her chair to go and sit on his lap. He welcomed her in his arms, wrapping them around her hips as she held his face in the palm of his hands. 

“I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I’ve just always relied on my dad and I know he will never be bothered by me no matter how stupid my questions are.” 

“You could never bother me either, you know that right? Even when I’m at work. No matter what, you come first.” 

She did know because Draco had never made her feel stupid. Of course, he teased her relentlessly, but not once had he ever made her feel inferior and always gave genuine responses to whatever she said or asked. But hearing Draco actually say it made her feel even better and she made a silent promise to start making her beautiful husband feel relied on. 

She still called her dad almost everyday. It was often Draco would come home to find her sending a patronus to him. ‘Dad, you haven’t answered me all day.” “Dad, where’s mum?” “Dad, Harry is being a literal child. Tell him to grow up.” 

Draco was happy for James to sort that one out. And he didn’t mind that she still spent lots of time talking to her dad through the fire place. 

“Dad, you’ll never guess what happened to me today when I was making lunch.” “Dad, you’ll never guess who I saw at Flourish and Botts today.” “Dad, what did Sirius tell you the other day/.”

Because she kept to her promise and now, Draco was also receiving various patronus messages from her. 

“Draco, the floo insurance people are saying that we are late for a payment, but that’s not a thing, right?”

“Draco, can you please pick up some more Sleekeazy’s hair potion on your way home. I’d send the house elf but he said he wasn’t feeling well and I feel bad.” “Draco, Gringrotts are trying to charge me for entering our vault, that’s not normal right?” 

Draco loved it. He loved seeing her patronus make it’s way into his office for everyone to see that he had a wife who he loved and who loved him and trusted him. 

It was a normal Wednesday afternoon when her patronus entered his office and he already had a dumb smile on his face, wondering what question his pretty wife had for him today. 

“Draco,” instantly, he could tell that this wasn’t one of her usual patronus messages, her voice was small and in pain, “I think I splinched myself and I don’t know what to do.” 

Draco was up and trying not to curse her for not sending her location in the message. He was quick to send one back, saying that she was going to be okay, she just needed to tell him where she was right now. 

She was in Diagon Alley, just outside Ollivander’s. Draco didn’t bother to tell anyone he was leaving, he was the boss and he didn’t have time to tell them he had to go. His girl needed him.  

He took long strides to get to her and when he was in ear shot she said, “I’m sorry, I know I could have asked someone else but I wanted you.” She wasn’t crying which was a good sign, but Draco wasn’t convinced he wasn’t going to start at her words. 

“Where’d you splinch yourself my love?” 

“My pinky.” She held up her left pinky finger and found that the top part had been cut off. Nothing that a quick regrowth potion couldn’t fix, but still, Draco could sympathise, quite scary. 

He grabbed it in is own hand and he gave it a kiss just under the little specks of blood. 

“C’mon my love, lets get you to St Mungo’s.” 

She held onto him as he apparated her and they were happy to give her a quick regrowth potion and make her sit for fifteen minutes to ensure she was okay. 

“I’m sorry,” she frowned as Draco sat down next to her in the waiting area. 

“Why?” He wrapped her arm around her and she rested her head on his chest. 

“I feel like I’m always bugging you with quesitons at work and now you had to leave because of me.”

“Don’t be,” he pushed his head down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “I told you, you always come first.” 

After fifteen minutes she was given the okay to leave. 

“Draco,” she said, “will you please apparate me back home first?” She had such a sad look on her face that he couldn’t say no. Not that he was going to anyway. 

But even after they arrived home, she still had such a sad look on her face that Draco would have done anything to make it go away. 

“Have fun back at work.” She was already burying herself in his chest, hugging him goodbye. 

“Don’t be ridiculous my love.” She pulled back instantly, giving him a quizzical look. “You’re injured, I can’t leave you.” 

“No, Draco,” she sighed, “I can’t make you stay home to look after me, it was only a small cut and I promise I’m fine.” 

“I don’t care, I can’t leave my girl injured.” 

She smiled at that and Draco was happy to lead her over to the lounge where he made her sit while he made her a cup of tea. 

That night, they had been invited to Godric’s Hollow for their weekly dinner as James and Lily missed their children. 

“Do you think you’ll be okay to go?” Draco teased. 

“I’ll try to be brave.” 

But Draco didn’t even suggest apparating and instead made his way over to the fireplace, getting her floo powder ready for her as she wrapped her coat around herself. 

She went first and even though Draco followed immediately after, she was still about halfway through her splinching story by the time he got there. 

“Are you okay dear?” Her mum asked, coming over to inspect where the splinching had occurred. 

“Yeah, lucky it was just my pinky finger,” she said, pointing it up to show them. 

“You should’ve called me!” James scolded and Draco had only seen this emotion on his wife once or twice before, but he knew that she was embarrassed. 

“Oh, well, I mean,” she stuttered a bit more before she finally got it out. “I called Draco.” 

“Oh,” James said, taking a small step back. 

“He took really good care of me though,” she said very quickly, taking his hand into hers as he took a step closer to her, “he even stayed home from work to make sure I was really okay.” 

Draco was relieved to see a genuine happy look on James Potter’s face.