Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Thanks to erbkaiser, my fellow Magpie, for looking this over for me.

Written for Round 10 of the Quidditch League FanFiction Competition. Go Magpies!

It was an extremely quiet night in the Auror office. The Ministry as a whole was all but deserted since the Aurors were the only ones with an overnight shift. Harry Potter sat at his shabby desk, staring at the clock as if to wish it to move faster. He sighed quietly as he realized he still had a good four hours to go until his shift was finished. Merlin, was he bored! This was certainly not what he had been expecting when he decided to go into Auror training. Granted, their department was busy, but most of the excitement happened during the day shift. A range of issues often crossed their desks: from petty theft; to creature smuggling; even to chasing after the occasional Dark Wizard. Oh, what he would give for a little excitement.

One might ask just what the great Harry Potter was doing on the graveyard shift where the most exciting thing to happen was taking care of the sporadic drunken dunderhead. The answer to that question could be summed up in two words: Draco Malfoy. It was a complete shock to everyone when Malfoy decided he wanted to be an Auror after the War. It was an even bigger surprise that the Head of the department, Gawain Robards, admitted him to the training program. No one thought Malfoy would make it through, to the point that Ron had even started a pool for how long he would last. There had been numerous wagers, from one day, to a few months. The department hosted a lot of disappointed Aurors on the day Malfoy graduated from training and became a fully fledged Auror. The pot had been large at five hundred galleons and it all went straight to Harry. Apparently he was the only one who thought Malfoy would make it through the whole training. He happily took his winnings, ignoring the scowls from his co-workers.

That whole situation was what led to Harry having what was quite possibly the most boring job ever. Everyone hated Malfoy and they all flat out refused to work with him. One of the department rules was that everyone had to have a partner and no one was jumping at the chance to partner up with Malfoy. Harry thought it was a bit ridiculous, if he was being honest. Sure, he was a major git during school, but it was quite clear that he had changed. Well, somewhat changed, because Malfoy was always going to be part git. After numerous fights between everyone, Harry volunteered to partner up with the prat, even though he knew it meant being on the worst shift in all of history. The twin looks of shock on both Ron's and Malfoy's faces were quite humorous. The resulting blow up between him and Ron, however, was not funny at all.

"Harry, how could you? Why would you want to work with a Death Eater? He should be in Azkaban, not out and free to be working here!"

"Ron–," Harry started, warily running a hand through his hair. "Just calm down, will you? He's not that bad."

"Not that bad? Not that bad? Have you gone completely barmy? Bloody hell Harry, I never thought you would turn traitor!"

Harry had seen red at being called a traitor by his best mate and the two hadn't spoken since. Needless to say, his relationship with the entire Weasley family was on the outs. Luckily, he still had Hermione who had taken his side in the matter, effectively putting a damper on anything ever developing between her and Ron. He was pulled from his musings by a throat being cleared.

"Potter, I'm bored. Entertain me, won't you?"

"Piss off, Malfoy. It's not my job to keep you amused."

"That's not nice, Potter. And here I was, thinking we were friends. What happened to all that onwards and upwards bull?"

Harry sighed. The fact of the matter was that Malfoy was right. He never in a million years would have guessed it, but here it was. They were friends. He was starting to think the boredom had warped his brain as it turned out to be easier to be friends than he thought it would be. One would think the ghost of the past would be too much to get over, but they surprisingly got on quite well.

"All right then, how about we play a game to pass the time?"

"Game? What kind of game?"

"I don't know, Malfoy. I'm not the only one here, you know? You can contribute as well."

"Fine, fine, don't get your knickers in a bunch. How about a rousing game of Exploding Snap? I have a deck in my desk."

"Anything is better than starting at that unmoving clock. Deal me a hand."

As they played the admittedly childish game, they reminisced about the small handful of interesting cases that had been assigned to them, occasionally being interrupted by the loud BOOM of the cards exploding. Their light-hearted banter was interrupted, however, when Malfoy brought up a touchy subject.

"So, Potter, what's going on with you and the Weaslette?"

Harry gritted his teeth and frustratingly ran a hand through his hair.

"Nothing, Malfoy, nothing is going on, as you well know since I've asked you many times to stop bringing it up."

"When have I ever listened to you? Besides, I told you I wasn't going to stop asking until you told me what happened. So let's hear it."

"I really don't want to talk about this with you."

Malfoy sent him his signature sneer and Harry sighed.

"Fine. But if you ever tell anyone, I will Avada you without further thought. No one knows this but Hermione, so I will know it was you if it gets out."

"Potter, I'm hurt. And here I was thinking you trusted me."

"Whatever, Malfoy. Do you want to know or what?"

Malfoy said nothing further, just waved his hand to tell him to get on with it.

"After everything was done and over with, Ginny wanted to get back together but I wasn't interested. She hounded me and wouldn't let it go. She took every chance she could to corner me and badger me about getting together. Actually, I should thank you because as soon as everything went down with Ron over you, she took his side and finally gave up. I guess you can be somewhat useful."

"Hardy har, Potter. That wasn't interesting at all. You are trying to distract me so I won't notice you are leaving a huge chunk of the story out. What is it that Granger knows? Are you with her, is that why you were interested in the Weaslette?"

"What? No! I consider Hermione my sister. She's the only family I have. Besides, I think a certain friend of yours has his eye on her."

"Zabini? Yeah he's had a crush on her since Hogwarts and now that the Weasel is permanently out of the way he has hope. Now stop trying to change the subject."

"Fine. I didn't want to get back with Ginny because I didn't like her in that way."

"What? That's it? So what? You can't be attracted to everyone, you know."

Harry could feel the heat creeping up the sides of his face. He stared at Malfoy, silently urging him to drop it. All he received in return was an annoyingly perfect arched eyebrow.

"Fine! Fine, you really want to know? It's because I like men, okay?"

Harry slammed his eyes shut, mentally berating himself for telling his secret, and waited for the insults to start. Instead, all he heard was silence. Opening his eyes, he found Malfoy looking at him with an odd pensive look on his face.

"Well? Aren't you going to say something? Go on, Malfoy, I can take it."

"Do you want to go get some coffee when our shift is over?"

"Coffee? We get coffee every day after our shift, Malfoy. Or has my confession addled your brain?"

"I meant somewhere different, maybe a little nicer?"

Harry looked at him in surprise.

"Are you...are you asking me for a date?"

"So what if I am?"

"Then I would say I would like that."

Then something happened that Harry had never seen before. Malfoy actually smiled, a real smile, directed at him.

"I knew you always wanted me, Potter."

"Piss off, git," Harry said with a laugh.

Maybe spending his nights in the Auror Office wasn't so bad after all.

Prompts: Auror Office.

(1) ghost

(5) range

(12) onwards