Chapter One: Department of Magical Law Enforcement
"No. No, no, no, no, no." Harry Potter blinked down at the sheet of parchment in his hand through his round glasses. "I can't be paired with him!" The Department of Magical Law Enforcement had just released the year's Auror Investigative pairs and a list containing each Auror's partner had been owled overnight to every Auror in the Ministry. "There must be a mistake," Harry muttered as he rounded the corner, headed to the Auror Offices for further investigation as to why he had been paired with this particular individual. Eyes glued to the parchment, scanning the writing over and over again in hope of a mistake, it came as a shock when Harry collided with another person coming in the opposite direction. His head hit the floor hard when he fell, and his glasses clattered onto the cold marble stone next to him. Harry groaned, lifting his head and searching for his glasses. A blurry figure was furiously brushing themselves off less than a few metres away.
Harry's hands brushed over the cool frames of his glasses and he returned them to his face, turning back to look at the person he had knocked into. A cold, familiar voice greeted his ears and accompanied a long face, framed with soft blonde locks, completed with a hard, sharp stare. "Watch where you're going next time, you-" The man looked up from his hands which were still brushing furiously over his overly expensive robes and faltered when his eyes met Harry's. "Oh. It's you, Potter." Draco Malfoy spat, now caught off guard, his only defence was to attack. Harry's already bad mood darkened, not feeling fit to deal with Malfoy's rubbish, today.
"Malfoy." Harry realised that the piece of parchment that he had been studying moments ago was now no longer in his hands. He panicked. If he could change the partners before Malfoy saw the list, then Malfoy would never need to know that they had been paired together. The last thing Harry needed was the prat getting any ideas into his head. That Harry might have requested they work together. That would be the death of him. Spotting the parchment, Harry bent down to scoop it up, but Malfoy was quicker. "Writing a love poem, Potter?" Harry's insides boiled as Draco lifted the parchment to his face and his eyes danced over the writing. Malfoy raised one delicately sculpted eyebrow. "I was not aware that The Department had released the listings yet," Malfoy said, eyes still grazing the paper, evidently searching for his own name. Harry felt his stomach flip when grey eyes flickered back up to meet his. Harry watched Malfoys expression change rapidly from shock to determination. "Potter, I have a meeting to go to. Why must you always waste my time?" And with that, Malfoy thrust the parchment back to Harry, turned on his heels and stalked in the opposite direction to where he had been heading prior to their collision. Harry watched Malfoy disappear into a crowded lift full of weary witches and wizards who all took a cautious step backwards when the man entered, paying them no mind, and waited until the lift's doors had shut and sunk through the ground. Harry lifted the parchment to his face again and studied it.
And sure enough, the words had not changed. Near the very bottom of the page, just underneath Borris Crockford and Anita Woolsworths' names were the words that Harry Potter, the saviour of the wizarding and muggle worlds, the Chosen One, the Golden Boy, was most afraid of- Mr Harry Potter - Mr Draco Malfoy
It would have been an understatement to say that the tiny witch behind the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's main desk was frightened when two very important, and considerably famous wizards came storming into her office, one after the other. It would also have been an understatement to say that the blonde man she knew to be Mr Draco Malfoy was upset. -He was furious. She was relieved to hear the door of the office open again after five whole minutes of attempting to explain to the Auror that the partners had already been decided and were unable to be changed without upsetting the whole system. This had resulted in a "System? What system?" Before the blonde could continue, the door to the office had swung shut, and another man had entered the office.
Harry muttered a low, "Oh, for the love of Merlin." Could he not go anywhere without being haunted by this man? Draco Malfoy turned from the desk where he appeared to have been getting quite worked up with the woman behind the counter. "Mr Potter, what a pleasant surprise!" The witch spoke from behind the desk, clearly relieved that she no longer had to deal with the other Auror's anger. Harry thought he heard Draco mutter something darkly before stepping around Harry and heading for the door. He shook his head and sighed, nodding to the woman behind the counter. "The pleasure is mine." He placed the parchment down on the desk and pointed to where his and Malfoy's names were printed neatly on the page. "I'd like to inquire about changing the partners for this year's field investigations." The witch's shoulders sagged slightly as she began to explain again, "Mr Potter, as I just explained to Mr Malfoy, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement has already chosen the partners and it would be inappropriate now to request that he-" "Forget it, Potter, I have already tried." Harry jumped, not aware that Malfoy was still there, witnessing the whole thing. The blonde folded his arms coldly and glared at Harry right in the eyes. "We'll just have to put up with each other." Great. Harry thought, shaking his head angrily. "Thanks for your help." He muttered to the woman behind the desk, snatching up the parchment and heading out past Malfoy, and through the door. Great. He repeated. He was stuck with Malfoy as his partner for a whole year. He would go insane, surely! A year. It wasn't that long, he supposed. If he thought about it, it was only about a total of eleven months, minus Christmas holidays, sick days and vacations, which he would no doubt, need and deserve by the time they came around. Eleven months. That was only about 45 weeks. Which was only around 315 days. Which was only 7560 hours. 453600 minutes of Draco Malfoy. That was all. Harry tried to be optimistic, but the situation was too grim to get any further than beginning to count down the minutes. He would have to spend approximately 453599 minutes alone with Draco Malfoy. Merlin help him.