A/n- Written for QLFC round two.
Disclaimer- As If...
Start of Something New.
Draco Malfoy was going to kill Kingsley Shacklebolt.
He could've been paired up with anyone, anyone in the world, but Kingsley had to pair him up with the uptight brunette.
"Why can't you just hold my hand, Malfoy, it would be much easier to apparate that way?" Granger said, frowning.
"Come on Granger, won't Weaslebee be mad that his precious girlfriend would be holding my hand?" he snapped, ready for her comeback, but instead what he saw was sadness filling up her eyes and not anger.
"Look, can we just do this?" she asked in a tired voice, "I really don't fancy spending my Friday night running behind some teenage morons who decided stealing exam papers would be a great idea, especially not with me, but it's my job, so I'm doing it. So, let's just make sure that we do it quick and don't have to stay in each other's company for long."
He could see the tension in her shoulders, the sadness in her eyes and something inside him decided to not be an ass to her for once.
"Alright," he said, took her hand and apparated to where the kids were, before she had a chance to say anything.
The appeared near a modern looking building in the middle of suburban London, and Draco frowned, "This is where they are?" he asked.
"That's what the information says," Hermione replied, and then shrugged off his hand, which he didn't realise was still intertwined with hers.
The building appeared to be an apartment complex, with what Draco could see about a fifty apartments, "So, how do we figure out which one our delinquents are in?"
"We knock on doors." She replied, and walked towards the entrance on the building, with Draco left behind staring at her back.
He ran up to catch up with her, and they started to knock on doors.
The first door they knocked on turned out to be an old lady who, it looked like had about a fifty cats, "Mrs Willow, " Hermione said, reading the name plate, "Do you know if there are a couple of teenage boys living in this building?"
"Oh no, dear," The old lady replied, "I don't go out much, you see, now, forget about the teenage boys and tell me about this handsome man you are travelling with."
Draco's eyes popped out at the sudden change in topic, but he recovered fast, "I'm Draco, ma'am,"
"Oh what a nice name, Draco," she said, her eyes twinkiling, "Now, I don't suppose either of you have some time to come in for tea," and with a look Draco didn't like she asked, "Or something else I could do for you,"
Draco could see Hermione trying to suppress a laugh at his discomfort, "No, ma'am but thank you for your time," He said, then walked towards the next apartment as soon as he could.
"Not a word," he growled at her, as he knocked on the door and she made a gesture of zipping her lips.
The door opened, and a man wearing only his pants came out, and Draco didn't like the way he looked at Hermione.
"How can I help you?" he asked, in an Irish drawl.
"Umm.. We.. ahh..." Hermione stammered, and Draco noticed that her eyes were on the man's abs and her cheeks were getting redder by the second.
"We are looking for a couple of teenage boys," he intervened, "We have information they are in this building,"
"Oh, so are you the police?" He asked but didn't wait for them to answer, "It's hard to believe a woman as beautiful as you work in such a dangerous job. You must be very brave," he said to Hermione and smiled a big wide smile.
"Well, it's not that hard, I really like it, but the risks are always there," She said and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ears.
Wait... what?
"The boys?" he asked, stopping their flirting.
"No, haven't seen any teenage boys," he said, "and I'm Nick. I'd really like to hear more about your job after you catch them, so would you like to go for a cup of coffee later?"
There was no confusion that it wasn't Draco he was asking. As everyone waited for Hermione to answer, Draco looked around the hall. He saw two shadows sneaking out the door.
"There they are, freeze," He screamed and ran after them as they ran out the door.
He heard her say sorry to the man and come running towards him. They chased the boys down into the street, running between Muggle cars and other vehicles.
"Hold on," Draco screamed but didn't take out his wand, considering the number of muggles around.
"Stop," Hermione screamed too.
And to no one's surprise they didn't.
The fleeing suspect had turned into an empty alleyway and dashed down it blindly. Draco saw his chance and Hermione was close behind him. She seemed to read his mind as she came up to his right. Simultaneously, they pulled out their wands and yelled "Stupefy" and "Petrificus Totalus," in quick succession.
But the kids were fast, they duck behind a dumpster and started to yell out spells at them too.
They both countered the spells but had to hide behind walls.
"I'll go out," Hermione said, between pants, "distract them, you use the distraction to disarm them, okay?"
"No," he held her arm and stopped her, "I'll distract them," he said, adamantly. He was terribly uncomfortable with her being the bait.
She smiled, "Why Malfoy, have you suddenly gained a fancy for me?" she asked, and loosened her hand from his hold. She smiled at him briefly and walked out to distract the boys, despite his protests.
The woman had a death wish.
Draco had no time to reflect on what she said, as the boys started to fire off spells.
Hermione easily countered them, and the distraction was all he needed "Stupefy," he yelled out, and the boy on the right fell other one lost his concentration and Hermione stunned him, too.
They cuffed the two groaning boys up, and that was when he realized he was bleeding; the jump had caused him to cut his hand against something and now blood was oozing out of the wound.
"Hey, you're hurt," Hermione said, a concerned frown on her face, she left the boys on the floor and came on to check his wound.
"It's nothing," he said, but she just shook her head and healed it using a spell he couldn't even remember being taught. He realised he didn't understand a word of it either. Some wizard he was
The wound healed in a second, leaving not even a hint of a scar.
And as they stood there in that alleyway, with two teenage thieves groaned and woke up near them, Draco knew it was a start, of something unknown, or something new.
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