Hello all. Since this is much preferable to doing my homework, I am writing this at 1:15 am. Hope it doesn't seem a bit abrupt from tiredness.

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter and its characters. I'm only borrowing them for my own use.


Harry was getting frustrated. He'd had Draco within his grasp and then just let him slip away again. He knew the area that the ex-Death Eater seemed to have made his home territory thanks to a sighting by Ron a few days before.

"I dunno, mate, he seems to be about his normal self to me," his friend had reported dubiously, rubbing his head. "Same sneer and everything."

"He's in serious trouble," Harry had insisted, but he was sure that Ron didn't believe him.

He'd gone back to that area somewhere within Knockturn Alley to try and find out if he could get some more information. Things had gone far better and far worse than he could have imagined. First, there was the fact that he had actually located his quarry! Then, there was the fact he had escaped, and was now perfectly aware that Harry was looking for him. Whatever else happened, Harry was determined to catch Draco, and when Harry was in that state of mind, nothing really stood a chance.

The thing was, he kept getting distracted by his job at the Ministry. An Auror was always on call, their department having adopted the old Order of the Phoenix way of communicating – via Patronus. So the department could always get ahold of him wherever he was, and they seemed to take advantage of this fact.

He'd arrived back at the Ministry to find out that there was a particular smuggling ring that needed putting down. They're gotten a lead and needed him to head the investigation, which was bad news in light of the recent Malfoy development in his life. He was worried about what Malfoy could get up to in the meantime.

"Do you think he could be a part of it?" Ron had asked him through a mouthful of his sandwich at lunchtime. "I mean, that time I saw him was right in their territory."

It was true, both times he had been sighted he'd been right in the middle of the worst area of Knockturn Alley. They'd been trying to catch the smugglers at it for some time now, and Ron had been on patrol at the time.

"No way," Harry had defended Draco. "I'm sure he wouldn't."

Problem was, Harry didn't believe that line any more than Ron did.

"Harry! I've got great news!" his red-headed friend interrupted his thoughts, coming up to his desk and straddling one of the chairs in front of it casually.

"What is it, Ron?" he asked distractedly and immediately felt bad. He'd been neglecting his work of late, and also his friends. Poor Ron and Hermione were worried about him, and he wasn't even paying attention to them.

Ron grinned. "We managed to get someone on the inside of that smuggling ring! Finally one of our agents got through. Won't be long now till we've caught them at it!"

"That's fantastic!" Harry beamed in return, mustering some enthusiasm for his friend's benefit.

"We've been arranging a fake shipment of dark artifacts, so hopefully we'll be able to spring a trap on them and catch them in the act," Ron continued, waving a hand in the air.

"When's it being put into action?" Harry nearly cringed when he remembered that he was the one who was supposedly heading the smuggling ring investigation, and here Ron was making up for his slacking and without a word to anyone but him.

"Next Friday at midnight they'll be moving our fake load," the red-head said easily. "What they've really got is a load of chocolate frogs, just in case we slip up, but I really doubt we will. We've finally got 'em Harry!"

"Good job, Ron. That's brilliant," Harry managed a real smile, because he realized at that moment that Ron was well and truly pleased with himself for managing a whole investigation by himself.

"We just have to wait till then," his friend said confidently.

*******

Harry settled into a corner under the protection of a Disillusionment charm, catching a momentary flash of movement as the rest of his team settled in to wait for the smugglers to arrive. He saw who he assumed to be Ron concealing himself into another dark corner after setting up an Anti-Apparation ward and smiled. This would be over quickly. The plan was typically Gryffindor, but it wasn't as if the plan really needed the refined technique and strategy of a more Slytherin-like plan. And even if it did, he was sure Ron could handle it, as his friend was a brilliant strategist.

11:40 pm. His brief tempus charm revealed the length of time till the criminals showed up. Harry hoped they were early; his legs were already beginning to get stiff from remaining still for so long. He tried to shift his legs without betraying his position, then winced as a joint cracked somewhere in his back.

11:42. This was getting ridiculous. He had to stop checking the time or someone would see him. He twitched as a droplet from the roof above him landed on his exposed neck.

He tried not to fidget, and only just managed not to cast another tempus charm.

After what seemed like forever, but in fact was only about ten minutes, he finally heard what he'd been waiting for. The sounds of footsteps were echoing eerily through the streets, approaching the spot the Aurors lay in wait for them.

"Hurry up! They're expecting the full shipment in less than half an hour!"

Harry recognized that voice. Mundungus Fletcher, who else? He should have known, really, he knew Dung was an illegal smuggler. Although why he had decided to become a member of a ring of Dark Artifacts smuggling was beyond him. The difference in sentences was really quite remarkable, an entire year separating a Dark Artifacts smuggler's sentence from that of a normal smuggler.

The rest of the figures spread out, all wearing long dark cloaks with their hoods concealing their faces in shadows. He saw one walking straight towards him, in fact, coming quite close to where he was standing. The way the person walked seemed familiar somehow, as if he'd seen it enough that it'd become recognizable. Almost as if the person was attempting to mask a lazy, casual saunter with a skulk and failing miserably. How often had he seen that stride before? Too often, he was sure.

He looked up to make sure that everything was in position and then raised his wand to release red sparks into the air, a signal to the rest to commence an attack. His orders to the others had been to capture, kill only if your life is in danger.

The sparks caused the rest of the smugglers to panic immediately and to start trying to Apparate away from the ambush. Once they found that they were unable, they attempted to flee back into the safe darkness of the alleyways. Only trouble was that those shadowy nooks were already occupied by Aurors. Once they'd reigned themselves in and realized their escape was cut off, they began shooting stun spells in every which direction, hitting their own people more often then Aurors. Harry's teammates were already making short work of them, easily rounding them all up and capturing them quite effectively.

Harry was left with only the figure nearest him.

The man put up a Shield charm first and then tried to Apparate. He couldn't, and immediately cast first a Lumos then Finite Incantatum, revealing Harry's location to him and removing his Disillusionment charm. Harry cast a hasty Protego before the two began trying to hex each other in earnest.

"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus!" Harry bellowed, shooting off jinx after jink.

The hooded man deflected them all quite easily, almost as if he was experienced in dueling. He was in the midst of contemplating this when a long dark ribbon shot out of the end of his adversary's wand straight at his face. He soon saw that it was actually a viper as it wrapped itself around his neck and prepared to strike his face.

Stop! Harry hissed angrily.

The snake desisted, looping itself benignly around his shoulders without so much as another hiss of protest.

"Potter…" the person before him faltered, recognizing the Parseltongue trait of the wizarding savior. The cloaked figure lowered their wand hesitantly, as if they didn't want to hurt him.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, casting his spell quickly while the enemy's defense was down.

The wand arced into the air and the person was knocked flat on their back by the Disarming charm – his specialty.

The person raised themselves onto their elbows and raised his hands in surrender. As Harry advance upon them, wand raised in warning, the person shrugged their shoulders and tossed their head, effectively removing the concealing hood.

"Malfoy," his own shoulders slumped at the sight of the pale, pointy face and platinum blond hair.

"I told you this is where I belonged," the former Death Eater smirked in bitter triumph.

How was that?