My apologies! This chapter came far, far later than I expected. It's almost Draco-less but you'll have plenty of him in the next. I hope you'll enjoy it!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately Harry Potter and its characters do not belong to me...yet.


Chapter 3

Later, same day…

Ron entered the office he shared with Harry only to find it empty. On his desk a note said: "Grabbing something for lunch in the cafeteria. Back in ten minutes. Harry."

So, while waiting for his best friend to return, he started to go through some of the files at hand, personal dossiers of previous offenders, trying to find a connection between them and the spread of the new drug. Most of them were, of course, former Death Eaters on the run, like Crabbe senior and both Goyles. 'Those guys' he thought 'will never learn'. Few of them, actually, had surrendered right after the final battle, seven years prior, and he still couldn't believe that Lucius Malfoy had been one of the firsts; maybe ol' Lucius had understood his mistakes, maybe he just did it to cleanse his family's name… anyway the results of this gesture had been not only a partial return of the Malfoys' respectability but also his premature death in Azkaban, under 'mysterious circumstances', shortly after his son had started to work at the ministry. "Which is kind of lucky, if you ask me" Ron had said to Harry, when news of it had appeared on the Prophet. "I know it's an awful thing to say, but the bastard tried to kill Ginny! And even if he hadn't imagine how much more 'My father will hear about this' or 'My father thinks' we could have had to endure!"

A soft clicking noise caused the young man's attention to shift towards the door from which his partner had just entered the room, making his way through the mess that covered desks, floor and any available surface.

"Finally you're back!" Harry said "You've been gone for ages!"

"Sorry, mate" the other replied "George was being difficult, but… guess what? I got it!" he grinned.

"Good. I just found out we'll really, really be needing it..."

"What do you mean?"

Harry started to describe, all the while nibbling on his bottom lip, his previous encounter with Malfoy: how he had approached him to try and work things out without using the potion and, more or less, how the prat had rejected him. For some unknown reason he didn't tell Ron how tense and sullen the other man had looked: he still felt uneasy just thinking about it, almost as if he had assisted to an unusual display if humanity he wasn't meant to –and didn't want to- see. 'He's still… just Malfoy, right?"

When he stopped talking, Ron gave him a sympathetic slap on the shoulder and said "The stupid git… now we have the potion to make him pay, though! Unfortunately we have just one vial –George told me he wouldn't give me a drop more- so we'll have to rely on your…" he snorted "personal charms soon."

Harry mock-punched his arm with an indignant "Hey!" and they both ended up laughing like mad.

"So" continued the redhead, after his chuckles subsided, drying the little tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes from laughing too much "you think you can do it?"

The other man sighed. "Of course I can. Even if my being Harry Potter won't work with him I'm still one of the most wanted bachelors around and he's a vain shallow guy, right? He'll fall for me in less than two weeks… shouldn't be all that difficult dealing with him." Who knows why, then, his mind kept saying it would be all but easy?

"It's all right. Plan's officially started. Now help me with these" Ron said, pointing at the dossiers scattered around his desk "there's loads of them and my mind keeps slipping somewhere else every five minutes."

"Ok."

The silence, barely broken by the scratches of quills on paper and pages being turned, lasted no more than ten minutes before the ginger said "Hey, it's Friday today! You're coming for dinner with 'Mione and I, aren't you?"


Three days later, around noon.

Harry and Ron stepped out of the conference room of Magical Law Enforcement frustrated and definitely hungry.

"I'm starting to think we'll never catch those guys…" said Ron, looking slightly defeated "We've been looking anywhere but we have no leads at all! The only unusual component of the drug is the damn suthernalia plant…"

"Sutherlandia" corrected Harry, only half-listening to his friend's rant.

"What?"

"The plant's name is sutherlandia frutescens, it grows in South Africa and is a cardio-tonic" he recited diligently. Then, using his most convincing imitation of Hermione's voice he added "Honestly, Ronald! Robards mentioned it in a meeting ages ago!"

The redhead chuckled. "Yeah, yeah I knew that… let's go grab something to eat at the cafeteria, I'm famished!"

Chattering the two men entered an extremely crowded elevator, whose doors barely closed pressing all the people inside one against the other. As soon as they arrived at the eighth level and the cold female voice announced "Level 8: Atrium, Cafeteria", Harry was suddenly thrust aside and squashed against a wall by a horde of ministry employees. In front of them, leading the group, he saw the one who had probably shoved him first: a young wizard almost as tall as he was, clad in smart-looking, dark-grey robes, with hair so blond it could be mistaken for white.
He nudged Ron with the elbow and whispered "Malfoy's there!"

"Great! Let's follow him!"

Just as they had anticipated the blond was headed towards the cafeteria. Ron, putting a hand on his best friends shoulder, stopped him before he could enter and stayed on the threshold.
Harry, at first, just stared at his friend, a mute question showing on his face, until realization dawned upon him. "Right…" he said. Then, lowering his voice he asked "The potion… do you have it with you?"

The other smirked mischievously. "Yep. But if there's something living with Hermione taught me is that, before doing anything, you always gotta have a good plan."

Harry looked over his shoulder: Malfoy was standing in line for a cup of coffee. "Okay" he replied "But, if he leaves, all the planning will be for nothing. So let's be quick."

"Mmm" Ron mumbled "How can we distract him enough that he won't see one of us pouring the stuff in his coffee?"

'Distract him, uh?' "I know! The cloak, my Invisibility Cloak!"

Being an Auror was a dangerous job: you could never know for sure when they would send you in the field and if you would need a quick escape route. That's why Harry had started to always carry it with him -even at the Ministry- just like Dumbledore had suggested nine years before.

"You're a genius!" Ron exclaimed. After thinking about it for a few seconds, though, he added. "Actually, you're not. It took you ages to come up with that, mate, and you're always carrying it around! Which is… kind of paranoid, anyway… it's good you have it now."

"Told you it's useful. So, I put it on and just... do it?"

"Nope. You stalked him for a whole year, back at Hogwarts... he could notice. I can... I don't know... bump into him or something. You can bet the prick will make a scene and you'll have a free hand." He smiled.

"Okay. Let's." Harry said and, after looking around to make sure no one would see, he took the cloak out of the inner pocket of his Auror robes and vanished underneath it.

Trying his best not to thread on anyone's feet, he followed Ron through the bright room full of chattering people towards the counter, where Malfoy, last in the queue, Styrofoam cup in one hand, wallet in the other, was about to pay. The ginger quickly grabbed a couple of sandwiches, then, seemingly thinking that bumping against him would have made the other wizard spill his coffee – since he was definitely taller and broader- he simply, nonchalantly, walked past him (all the while pointing at the blond's back to tell Harry to wait there) and showed the sandwiches to the old lady at the cash register.

Malfoy's eyes were wide in outrage. "Excuse me?!" he said, dangerously.

While Ron turned deliberately slowly and asked "What's up, ferret?" Harry uncorked the vial containing the potion and poured some in the cup.

"You know exactly what's wrong, Weasel! You jumped the damn queue!"

"Well don't think I don't know what you did the other day with my robes, you git!"

The invisible wizard shifted towards his best friend and tapped his shoulder to make him understand it was time to retreat.

"If you hadn't been such a careless, disrespectful oaf-"

"Whatever" the other retorted, interrupting him. The elderly witch at the counter was staring at them, worried, without uttering a word.

Ron handed her three Sickles with a smile and a "Have a good day, Lillian", then turned and walked away, leaving an irritated Malfoy behind. Harry followed him towards the elevators and got the cloak off.

"Mission complete" he said, winking.

"Good mate. I'll go eat upstairs. He's all yours" the redhead replied, then entered the elevator and pushed the 'up' button.


A writer who gets feedback is faster and happier! Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer :)
Also a big thank you to all those who read and reviewed. However, a review from a guest left me slightly perplexed. It said (and here I quote) "you better update this shit O.O"
Well. You know who you are. Was it a positive review? A negative one? Honestly, bad words won't get you anywhere, please be clearer next time. I appreciate the gesture anyway.
Until next time!