5 years later…
A shadow materialized, lengthened and finally stepped out of the dark alley way in front of a ground floor townhouse on the outskirts of London. The tall, robed form strode deliberately to the front door, checked left and right then knocked. After a long pause the door cracked open and a haunt face poked out.
"Yeah, what you want?" Yaxley grunted.
"It's Yaxley, isn't it?" The figure asked in a hushed voice.
"Depends who's asking."
Harry threw the hood of his robe back and shoved open the door, forcing his way inside.
"Oh my God! You're Harry Potter," Yaxley spluttered. "Shit. How the hell did you find me?"
"Haven't you heard?" Harry sneered pulling his wand. "I'm the chosen one."
Then wordlessly he pointed his wand and Yaxley fell paralysed to the floor.
o0o0o
Harry aparated just outside the grounds of Azkaban. Levitating the Paralysed form of Yaxley ahead of him, he walked briskly towards the gates.
A portly, pock-faced wizard met him at the gate and Harry greeted him with a smile that didn't even come close to reading his eyes. "One paralysed Death Eater, as ordered."
"That's the third one you've rounded up this week; you're on a roll you are, Potter." The guard's voice was gravelly but strong.
"Nah, once you know how they move, it's a piece of cake tracking them down." He handed the guard a body receipt and the man signed it and handed it back.
The guard tutted and shook his head. "The ministry lost a mighty fine Auror when you quit. Bounty hunting is no life for the-boy-who-conquered."
Something in Harry's pocket vibrated and he pulled out his phone to see a new message. He shrugged at the guard and said, "Duty calls." The turned on his heel and strode back to the apparition point.
When he materialized again back at his office he found himself face to face with Lucius Malfoy. The shock was so intense that he almost disaparated right back to Azkaban. Seeing the father of his old lover brought back way too many memories that he had been working so hard to obliviate.
"Mr Malfoy," Harry greeted him with a curt nod of his head.
"Mr Potter," Lucius responded and even offered what might have been an awkward sort of smile.
He opened the door to his office and waved Malfoy inside. "What can I do for you?" he asked once they were sitting.
"It's a rather delicate matter," Lucius Malfoy started. "As you may know over the last few years I have been involved with an organisation focusing on bringing dark wizards and troublemakers to justice. I think the war taught us all some very… disturbing lessons." At Harry's nod he continued, "It seemed that Scabior, he was one of the snatchers during the war, has returned to his dark ways. It seems he murdered his Muggle wife yesterday."
"Why would he marry a Muggle?"
"That I can't tell you as I don't know myself, though I think we can assume his reasons were not good."
"So I presume since you're here talking to me that he's on the run."
"Indeed, he hasn't been seen since the day of his dark deed."
"It sounds like an open and shut case, why come to me? Why not let the Auror's do their work." Harry pulled out a cigarette and offered one to Lucius who took one then Harry lit them both. "Don't tell me you have no faith in our legal system, considering that your son himself is an Auror."
Lucius looked at him sharply and Harry inwardly kicked himself. The older man must have heard the note of bitterness in his voice. Lucius had been one of the strongest objectors to his relationship with Draco. But that was years ago.
"Ordinarily I have much faith in our fine Aurors," he inspected his perfect manicure. "But this matter is a little different."
"Different how?"
"Scabior holds a certain charm and as a result makes friends and loyalties easily. The consensus around is that he is innocent. An opinion based solely on his likable persona. I am afraid that an Auror might let him slip through the cracks, on a misguided act of mercy."
"You expect no such acts of mercy from me?" Harry inquired.
Lucius smiled coldly. "You've been earning quite the reputation, Mr Potter."
"Well then I suppose we should skip the niceties and discuss my fee."
Lucius slid a thick envelope across the table and Harry gave an impressed whistle when he looked inside, there were notes equivalent to at least a three thousand galleons.
"That's half. The other half will be yours after you hand Scabior over to me." But before Harry could tuck away the envelope, Lucius placed a hand over his. "There is one other condition. No-one need know that I have commissioned you to perform this particular capture. After a fair trial it will no longer matter, but until then I would prefer that this transaction stayed between us."
"I am the master of discression."
o0o0o
Draco Malfoy was buried within piles of paperwork when Kingsley Shacklebolt cleared his throat just inside his office door.
"Come on in and take a pile," Draco said without looking up.
Kingsley smiled wryly and took a seat opposite. "You know we have various ranks of secretaries and assistants who are here to help with this shit."
"Nope, not for me." Draco signed another form with a flourish and placed it on the pile to the left then grabbed another from the right and started scribbling. "Found out the hard way that if I want my paperwork neat and done right then I have to do it myself."
Kingsley chuckled. "I wanted to congratulate you by the way. I heard you managed to track down the wizard who murdered Caroline Gordon."
"Nothing to congratulate, the man left a magical trail like an incontinent dog. All I had to do was follow." He signed the form and placed it on the file and grabbed another. "Still haven't managed to find Yaxley, though. Slippery little bastard."
"Didn't you hear?" Kingsley shifted in his chair. "Potter made the capture last night and delivered him to Azkaban."
That made Draco pause. He took a shuddering breath and forced himself to keep writing. "Why do we bother with Aurors when we can just pay a bounty hunter to do the job?" he muttered sarcastically.
"You know how it works. When we get an escape we have to catch them as fast as possible using whatever means. If they can take some of the load we can concentrate on more important matters."
Potter was one of the finest bounty hunters in Europe, not surprising really the guy had been setting the world on fire with his skills in everything from Quidditch to duelling since they were kids. A flash of a smile danced around his memory, a feel of lips, strong hands, long nights exploring their joint passions. But that was in the past now and there was no going back, Draco had seen to that.
"The two of you were pretty good pals for a while," Kingsley said. "All through Auror training you were inseparable."
"Yeah…" Draco cleared his throat. He really didn't want to talk about Harry. "We sort of lost touch after I married Astoria."
A bitter knife twisted in his stomach. Marrying Astoria had been the biggest mistake of his life. That last day in the cottage with Harry he'd received an owl from his father. Apparently Astoria had come to him after she found out she was pregnant. It had just been a fling but if she was pregnant then he had to take responsibility. He had been just trying to do the right thing, be a good man not that it mattered in the long run. She'd lost the baby soon after they married and two years later they divorced.
"So was there something specific you wanted?" Draco asked but smiled to lighten his sharp tone.
"Yes," Kingsley smiled. "Almost forgot. A new case has come through and I thought that you would want to take it."
Draco looked up and gave him a raised eyebrow.
"Scabior Crowley was spotted fleeing from the scene of a murder of a Muggle woman yesterday morning."
"No way."
Kingsley shrugged. "It's true the file was just placed on my desk. He's now wanted for questioning in the murder of his wife Lucille Crowley."
"What!" Draco snatched the file and ripped it open. It had to be a mistake. "This isn't possible. Scabior loved his wife. I mean I only met her once or twice but he spoke about her all the time. But then why would he run?"
Kingsley gave him a palms up. "That's what you'll be finding out. But I can imagine being an ex-Death Eater and that he's been in Azkaban before he wouldn't be wrong in assuming that benefit-of-the-doubt would probably not apply. I think nearly all of us older veterans remember the no-trial life sentencing of Sirius Black."
Draco dwelled on this. Scabior had been much like himself, whisked off in the excitement and even the romantic myths of war and blood-ties but had soon realized the realities of death and bloodshed. He and Scabior had shared many a silent drink after the end of the war, it was Scabior who pushed him to follow his heart and apply to the Auror training program. Scabior who supported his relationship with Harry Potter, even when Draco's own father made it clear that he found his sexuality unacceptable.
"Alright, do you think you could send out a press release? Put the word out that Scabior is only wanted for questioning and that we believe he may have seen something important or may even be in danger himself."
"Would that be the truth?" Kingsley asked.
Draco puffed out a sigh. "I hope so."
o0o0o
The huge black dog bounded towards Harry Potter as soon as he entered his small, one bedroom house in Godric's Hollow. A deep, loud woof was the only warning he got before he was engulfed in black fur and thick paws.
"Yes, Padfoot, I know I've been gone all day." Harry scratched the dog behind the ears and down his throat and back. From such a tiny puppy Padfoot had just kept on growing. To be honest Harry wasn't quite sure if it had stopped yet.
The big black dog was an almost mirror image of Harry's godfather, Sirius, in his dog form. When he first scratched at the door of that cottage in France, it had been the eyes that reminded Harry of Sirius, but now it was almost plausible that this mischievous and intuitive dog could actually one day change and reveal it was Sirius all the time…
It wasn't of course. Harry knew that. He'd seen Sirius die. Still Sirius had spent quite a lot of time as a dog while in hiding… Maybe he met a pretty lady dog and fell in love. This thought brought a wry smile.
"Is that true?" he cooed at Padfoot, scratching his big furry head. "Are you the grandson of Sirius Black?"
Padfoot barked and wagged his tale then bounded into the kitchen. Laughing Harry followed. What would he have done without Padfoot these last few years?
Draco leaving him that day had been the last straw that broke his back. Harry had suffered rejection and loss and heartache all his life.
Growing up he learned to hide the hurt that came with the obvious distain that his Aunt and Uncle showed him, Cho had liked him but had never stopped loving Cedric, Ginny said she loved him but then during that last year while he was fighting for all their lives she'd fallen in love with Neville. All his life he'd been little more than a pawn in a game he never asked to play, used by everyone and yet treated as though he were worth nothing.
He had discovered that he preferred men in his early twenties. With Hermione and Charlie in Romania and Ron and Luna in Ireland Harry and Draco had become firm friends in the Auror Academy. He watched Draco date women from all over the wizarding world but was the only one who knew that the pureblood heir to the Malfoy millions preferred men also. For years they were each other's only ally and confidant in the dangerous world of gay clubs and sexual discovery.
They weren't lovers right away. At first they were merely friends both believing that there was too much history for them to be attracted to one another. But one night Harry found Draco beaten, bruised and sobbing on the shower floor. He'd been attacked by a jealous lover. Harry had flown into a rage and was about to hunt down the bastard but Draco stopped him.
That night he held the man who had become his best friend in his arms and the next morning they made love and it was right.
That last morning in the cottage Draco's note had read simply:
It's time for me to return to the real world.
I'm going to marry Astoria.
Its over.
The complete shock of that moment still hit hard. One moment he and Draco had been happy, they'd been a real couple having fought side by side both on the job and for their alternate sexuality. Harry had known that Draco saw women from time to time, but he really had thought that it was all behind him, behind them both. Maybe he wouldn't have taken the note so hard if he'd known it was a possibility.
Harry had never really been sure about anything. Dumbledore's cool machinations had kept him guessing all through his teen years, but damn it he'd been so sure about Draco. He'd been so sure that they were different, that they were the two, the special two.
"Green, naïve idiot," Harry muttered to himself. "Should have known better then to care about that spoilt, precious bastard."
He looked down at the sausages he'd been preparing for dinner and suddenly didn't feel hungry any more. Tipping the uneaten food into the bin he clumped out of the kitchen, took a quick hot shower and climbed, naked, between the sheets. Padfoot padded in and curled up in his dog bed. Harry reached down and stoked the dog's long, lush black fur until his eyes grew heavy.