Never Gonna Make you Cry
Authors Note: Ok, so this is my 2nd fanfic (please check out my first one, it's a short, cute, fluffy, funny one-shot about Draco and Hermione and Christmas and fun stuff like that… anyway, I love review, and chocolate, and lots of other stuff, but as long as ur reading my fic, u could just drop me a few lines (aka a review)…
Im not entirely sure where this is going, but I intend to finish it (it's definitely a dramione).
Everyone's a little OOC… but not too much, I hope…
Important Notes: THIS IS NOT A MARRIAGE LAW FIC… also, it's not really compatible with books 5, 6, or 7, and the epilogue (obviously)… Draco joined the light side and got his name cleared!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the characters/the wizarding world/draco (yummmm!) they belong to JK ROWLING (who I once tried to see in Edinburgh, but I went to the wrong coffee shop…) … I believe my story is FAIRLY original (as original as you can get within a certain basic story type), so please no copying my ideas…
Chapter I
"Draco Malfoy?" Helena called, "Mr. Malfoy?"
"In here," he called, tucking his double espresso shot away, as the young witch opened the door. "What is it, Helena?" His voice was barely polite, the stress of day-to-day life etched on his face, and in his tired eyes.
"Mr. Shacklebolt sent me," Helena said timidly. Like most girls, Draco's attractiveness, intelligence, and reputation for a ruthless business mind terrified her out of her wits. She visibly trembled as his frown deepened. Fuck. Draco thought. Now the Department head is on my tail, too, not just my manager. An unpleasant, serpentine feeling grew in Draco's gut.
"Let me guess." He said with a withering glare in the general direction of the magical memo Helena was holding. "He has problems with my performance on case #98723, too. Manager Jenkins has reported to him, and he'd like to see me in his office. ASAP." Helena nodded, looking for all the world like a mouse cornered by a cat, or a snake, Draco thought.
"Tell him I'll be down in five minutes," he said, clearly dismissing the girl. Unfortunately, she seemed to be frozen in place with fear of Draco's stormy expression. "GET OUT OF MY FRIGGIN OFFICE NOW OR I WILL CALL THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL LAW ENFORCEMENT!!!" Draco shouted, sending a stack of papers tumbling off his desk in the direction of the auror department head's terrified secretary. The girl abruptly turned, running from the room, slamming the door after her. Deep breaths, deep breaths. In, out, in out. Draco tried to focus. It's not her fault. Let's be cool and collected in front of Shacklebolt. Come on, Drake. You can do it. You're the youngest auror squad leader in three centuries (besides potter)… have confidence!!! Draco's self-pep-talk seemed to work somewhat, because he straightened up, flicking his wand and sending the various papers on his desk flying to the appropriate file cabinets. Sighing, he finished his espresso shot, and stood, straightening his stylish green robes.
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Draco knocked on Head Auror Shacklebolt's door exactly six and a half minutes later. He'd used the floo in his old pal Blaise Zabini's office, which was quite near Shacklebolt's, so he didn't have to walk (A Malfoy shouldn't have to WALK or, heaven forbid, take the lift, he thought with a touch of his old pureblood-supremacy-based arrogance.) The door opened magically, and Malfoy entered Shacklebolt's waiting room. Helena was sitting at the desk with a flashing sign that read 'secretary' on it. Draco sneered at it, and at her in general (spineless brainless fool! He thought contemptuously), and Helena squeaked (she actually squeaked???!!!) and gestured for him to enter Shacklebolt's personal office. Why don't I get a secretary?? Draco wondered as he walked. Our section of the auror department has a secretary, to organize our individual memos and auror-squad paper work…Draco fumed. He still had to do his own paperwork, and then magically copy it, and then submit one copy to the secretary (which the secretary gave to Helena, who gave it to Shacklebolt) and keep one copy for himself. Overall, there was, in his opinion, too much red tape clogging the important process of bringing dangerous dark wizards to justice.
"Come in," called Shacklebolt, his deep voice echoing before Draco had even knocked. Smirking slightly, Draco flicked his wand and the door opened. "Please sit down, Draco. Tea?" Shacklebolt's countenance was grave. Clearly, he didn't want to give Draco this talking-to any more than Draco wanted to get it.
"No, thank you," Draco said, his smirk shifting infinitesimally towards a sneer.
"Then I'll get right down to business, Draco," Shacklebolt poured himself a cup of tea, sighed almost inaudibly, and stirred three lumps of sugar into the steaming brew. "You know that your intelligence is unquestionable," he began, "and that your place in the department was secured after your valiant and effective efforts for the light side in the war. The ministry allowed a breach in customary procedures when four new aurors—yourself included—were allowed to enter the department without going through mandatory three-year training. We felt you had already had the necessary field experience."
"Sir," Draco said, annoyance now lacing his voice, "I know all of this. I'm somewhat behind schedule in my memos, so if we could keep this short and sweet…" Draco trailed off, his point clear. Shacklebolt nodded.
"I'm sorry, Draco, but this is procedure. I'll try to keep it quick." He took a brief sip of tea, and continued. "The ministry feels that this may have been a mistake. All four aurors have now risen to relatively prominent positions, but they lack the discipline and ability to conform to standard ministry procedure that is gained through the three-year training course." At Draco's outraged snort, Shacklebolt held up his hand, asking for silence. "We do not question your abilities—but fighting in battle is very different from the rounding up and organized investigating you now are in charge of and participate in. Many members of the board felt it was necessary to send all four of you back to auror training for at least a year and a half—in light of the breaches of ministry procedure that could have been detrimental to wizarding secrecy, and the function of the auror department and ministry in general." Draco's mouth dropped open. He truly loved his job. He got to hunt dark wizards, boss people around, and was on the same level as Potter (he actually was in charge of a larger—though not more important—force). Kingsley continued. "I however felt this was unnecessary. The board left the final decision up to me. Instead, I have to decided to provide you, Miss Lovegood, and Mr. Potter with tests, which if you pass you will be allowed to keep your position."
"What about Ron Weasley?" Draco asked.
"He will not have a test, he will merely continue as he has, because he is not in a leadership position now, he is still in a low-rank, so we didn't determine it necessary for him to mend his ways as of now. I will continue, if you will allow?" Kingsley inclined his head, asking for permission to elaborate further, and Draco nodded shortly. "Because your breach of procedure was—from most points of view—the most potentially hazardous, you have the most challenging test. I will not lie to you. It will not be easy. If you wish to instead return to training for a year and a half, I will allow that, because you show much promise. However, if you accept the test and pass, you will retain your current position. If you fail, you will have to go back to training anyway, and will start again at the bottom." Draco looked at Shacklebolt warily. Oh, sweet merlin's beard! He thought. I'll probably be off-duty for at least a month, the squad will fall behind, and I'll fall out of sync with the rest of the department. Damn.
"What's the challenge?" Draco asked warily, but with a hint of curiosity in his icy grey eyes.
"You know of the marriage law—which you were able to avoid by the skin of your teeth I may note—that was passed to repopulate the wizarding world after the war?" Draco nodded. "We lost many witches and wizards who didn't believe that, after earning their freedom by defeating Voldemort, they deserved to be 'enslaved'—many of them defected to the muggle world. Tomorrow, the marriage law will be repealed. I'm telling you this in confidence, and it must remain secret until the daily prophet is released tomorrow. Do you understand?" Draco nodded again. "Well, as I was saying, the ministry has seen that the population is increasing mainly not from the marriage law, but simply from previously married couples. Also, the wizards who defected have been a great loss to Britain. One of the greatest losses has defected to the Muggle world. She is living in a flat in London. Your job is to convince her to return to the world that she believes has betrayed her."
"Who is the witch?" Draco asked, with a sick feeling in his gut. The minister sighed and closed his eyes.
"Miss Hermione Granger."