This week I rewatched a movie I love: First Daughter.
Right away I started thinking about how it would make for a fun, cliché twist if Draco ended up as Albus’s bodyguard and even better, if after Hogwarts, Albus decided to go to a Muggle university far from the UK just so he could live outside his family’s shadow.
“Absolutely not.” Harry tossed the enrolment form onto the table.
“I’m not asking for your permission, Harry. I’m just telling you that I’m going.” His eyes narrowed, his tone defiant.
“I think it might be good for him, dear,” Ginny spoke up.
“Without security? No chance. I’m not letting him loose in another country without supervision. He’s enough trouble as it is here at home.”
“See? You don’t trust me!” Albus protested.
“And have you given me any reason to?” Harry replied, his voice rising.
“Fuck off then!” Albus exploded.
“Hey! I want respect in this house!” Ginny shouted, now positioning herself between the two before something worse happened.
“Bloody hell, I’d have got a right clip round the ear if I’d spoken to my parents like that!” Harry ran a hand through his hair, agitated.
“What parents? Oh, poor little orphan Harry.” Albus taunted. We could agree that this time he’d gone too far, however, he’d said this sort of thing before, so it wasn’t a huge shock to anyone. Ginny sighed and closed her eyes as the two began shouting over each other, only prevented from coming to blows because she was standing between them.
“Enough!” Ginny bellowed, furious, as she brandished her wand. The silent spell threw them both forcefully in opposite directions, causing them to land hard on the sofas.
“We’ll talk about this tomorrow, Albus. Go to your room.”
“Yeah, brilliant parenting that. Might as well chuck me out now, save time.
As heavy footsteps were heard on the stairs, Harry sighed wearily, burying his face in his hands.
“That’s another point to him, then. You’re getting absolutely thrashed, love” she said with a hint of humour, trying to lighten the mood.
“I don’t know what it is, even now, Albus is so difficult… everything feels like a battle… I thought things would get better, but they’re only getting worse! He’s got no respect for me whatsoever. And he manages to get under my skin like no one else, I feel like I’m thirteen again when I’m arguing with him,” he admitted.
“That’s because you’ve got the same temperament,” Ginny laughed. “I’ve told you before. You’re rowing with a mini-you, only cockier. You can’t win, love.”
“Darling… I don’t want him to go… it’s stupid, I know. I’m feeling like Uncle Vernon, refusing my permission for Hogsmeade… I suppose that’s exactly how he sees me. Like a tyrant.” His tone was hurt now, and his wife approached and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“Then prove to him he’s wrong about you. Give him this vote of confidence. Talk it through openly and come to an agreement. And I know it’s practically impossible, but try not to get drawn in by the provocations. Remember that you’re the adult.”
“I’ll think about it. I promise.”
“What do you want now, Harry?” Albus asked, leaning against the doorframe of his father’s study, arms crossed and a bored look on his face.
“I thought we could talk about arranging your trip.” Harry pointed to a folder on the desk. Albus’s eyes, a vivid green identical to his father’s, widened.
““You what? You’re taking the piss.”
“Yes. But there are some conditions. Sit down.”
Albus walked over to the chair in front of the desk.
“I knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” he muttered. “Come on then, get on with it.”
Harry took a deep breath, doing his best to project an air of authority.
“Right. I think you deserve a vote of confidence and a chance to live your own life. But…”
“There’s always a but,” Albus rolled his eyes.
“But I’m still your father and I love you, and I also have my reasons beyond that to worry about your safety. So you can go, with two conditions. The first is that you’ll need at least one bodyguard. They don’t have to be an Auror or anything like that. However, they do need to be someone I trust.”
“Hm… I’ll accept,” Albus said. Too easily.
“What?” Harry blinked a few times, incredulous. He thought he might have misheard. Albus never did anything he asked.
“I accept.Gone a bit deaf in your dotage, have we?” Albus grinned. “But I have a condition too.” He gave a sly smile. And there was the son Harry knew so well. “I get to choose my bodyguard.” Albus leaned back in the chair and stretched.
“You do realise… they need to be someone trained and approved by me, don’t you?”
“I know. They’re all in this folder, aren’t they?” Albus leaned forward, picked up the folder with the Ministry of Magic seal and began flicking through it casually.
“Yes… it just arrived…” Harry was still suspicious, it felt like a trick.
“Is it up to date?” Albus asked after a moment of silence, examining one of the pages.
“It is. With the best of the best. Choose whoever you want.” Harry smiled triumphantly. Turns out it wasn’t so hard to be the mature one handling the situation. Looked like the score was shifting in his favour.
“Already chosen.” Albus closed the folder and handed it back to his father.
“Really? Who?” Harry raised an eyebrow. He’d been expecting hours of negotiation, shouting matches and tantrums, not something so… easy.
“Surprise.” Albus gave an innocent smile that Harry knew held not a shred of innocence. “Oh, and the second condition?”
“The second condition is that you start calling me Dad again… Father is fine too.” He shifted in his chair, anxious.
“Alright then… Daddy.” Albus clicked his tongue and stood up as his father started shouting behind him, telling him to stop with that sort of stupid joke.
Now all that mattered to him was his new life, just days away.
The leaving party was one thing Albus hadn’t managed to escape.
He’d tried his hardest to keep it a small gathering, but when it came to his family, the concept of small didn’t exist, so soon his house was packed with Grangers-Weasleys. Even Hagrid came, bringing a leaving cake like always.
Albus was in one of the armchairs, drinking tea with vodka (his potions-camouflage specialty always came in handy). He was doing one of his favourite robes when in the midst of his family: recreational dissociation. His mind was far away, more precisely at Stanford University, just him, the sun, normal people who had no idea who the incredible Harry Potter was… and…
“Darling, get the door!” Ginny called out.
Harry was very happy, he was always happy when surrounded by his family and friends. But his smile died when he opened the door and saw the man with the immaculate posture and refined, perfectly black clothes. Not his usual wizarding robes. More like dark trousers and a dress shirt, too casual for him.
“Er… Scorpius isn’t here, Draco,” Harry said quickly, forcing another welcoming smile, assuming it was just a mix-up between father and son.
“I know perfectly well where my son is, Potter.” Ah, always that superior, passive-aggressive tone from Malfoy. Great, Harry thought.
“Right.” Harry’s idiotic smile remained as they stared at each other for a few seconds of very awkward silence. Harry expected Malfoy to leave, but the man stood there like a stone column. “So… Sorry, but what are you doing here?” Harry decided to ask outright, just to end this agony.
“Working, Potter.” The reply came in the same tone. Harry wanted to punch that arrogant face.
“Hm… Here?” Harry pointed to the floor of his own house.
“Well, good for you for having so much time to waste, Potter. Must be nice, Potter, being a figurehead. All the glory, none of the actual work.” Draco’s expression remained impassive throughout, and even without showing any emotion, you could feel the controlled arrogance in his voice. Harry wondered how much it cost him to stay so grounded. “Excuse me.” Draco brushed past him, knocking his shoulder with a bit of force, leaving Harry stunned behind him.
“Hey!” Harry’s heart started racing, he grew nervous, worried about Malfoy’s intentions there in his home. “Malfoy! Stop right there.”
Draco ignored him and kept walking, until he stopped behind where Albus was sitting, and then the penny slowly dropped.
“No. No. No. Get out of my house, Malfoy.” These words ended up catching the guests’ attention, who now had their eyes and ears fixed on them.
“He’s my bodyguard!” Albus protested, already a bit tipsy from his tea.
“Hahaha, very funny, son. Very funny indeed. I said it needed to be someone from the Ministry. Malfoy isn’t even trained.” Now his expression was delirious and triumphant at the same time. Shit, he was feeling more and more like Uncle Vernon.
“As it happens, he is.” Albus returned the triumphant smile, and with a wave of his wand, the folder with the Ministry seal came flying into his hand. He opened it and handed it to Harry.
The delirious gleam in his father’s eye grew darker and darker as he read the page with Malfoy’s information. He closed the folder furiously and looked at Hermione, who was apprehensive beside Ron.
“Hermione, my office, now!” He shouted.
“You asked for the updated files, from all departments. That’s what I sent,” she defended herself.
“Yes. Updated with all the security departments, which I happen to be the head of. I don’t remember training or approving any Draco Malfoy!” His voice grew progressively louder until he was shouting again.
“Harry… calm down… just listen to me, please… He wanted to join, he had very good grades, he just didn’t want to be trained by you… so I… I thought it would be good to have him around, you know… to keep an eye on things… he went to a special agents section. It was his idea… and after analysing the proposal, I thought it was interesting for the Ministry.”
“And you did it all behind my back! Now Albus is about to go to another continent with him!” Harry’s fury made the windowpanes rattle.
“Harry Potter!” Hermione said firmly. “You may doubt him, but don’t doubt my judgement. I am perfectly capable of evaluating an employee, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that your son will be in good hands. Apart from your personal grudge, you’ve got nothing against him, have you?”
Harry had a few good answers for his friend, but if he opened his mouth now, she would certainly never forgive him. So now he just had to accept it; he had no energy left for another tug-of-war with Albus.
The crowd insisted on accompanying Albus to the airport: lots of crying, hugs, and all that sentimental goodbye business that his family loved. The last one to speak with him was his father.
“You couldn’t go without one last stunt, could you?” Harry sighed and placed his palm on his son’s face, stroking his cheek. He studied his face carefully, a younger, wilder version of what he himself had once been. Dark hair, straight and falling over his eyes, baggy clothes in an attempt to hide from others.
Everything about Albus screamed I am me, not you.
“So you won’t forget me, Dad.” He smiled, and Harry smiled back, then pulled him into a tight hug.
“Behave yourself, you pest.” He breathed in the scent from the top of his son’s head, hesitating to let him go.
“No promises.” Albus laughed, and his father laughed too.
He could only breathe once they were finally on the plane, sitting in their mediocre economy-class seats. That had been one of his requests. He wanted to be a normal student and do things the way they were supposed to be done, and he was savouring every minute of it.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk. I can’t believe you actually agreed,” Albus laughed, looking at the blond man beside him.
“It’s just a job” Mr Malfoy replied tersely.
“Yeah, but like… aren’t you rich? Why are you working?”
“Aren’t you rich? Why are you in this rubbish economy class?” He returned the question.
P.S.: All the images are from Pinterest. These days it’s practically impossible to browse that site without being bombarded by AI, seriously, I don’t even know what Tom Felton really looks like anymore.
P.S. 2: English isn’t my first language, so I use Google Translate sometimes. Bye.