Sorry for the... like half a year hiatus.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, his characters yadda, yadda, yadda...


Chapter 6

Evening, same day

It took a while to wake Ron up. After having tried pretty much anything –from shaking him, to calling him, to slapping him- Hermione lost her patience, drew out her wand and muttered "Rennervate". The red haired man's eyes opened slowly and focused on his wife and best friend.

"Merlin, guys, what happened? I had the weirdest dream about Hermione telling me she was..." in that moment realization hit him it hadn't been a dream at all and, wide eyed, he asked "'Mione, are you really...?"

She gave him a slightly tearful but enormous smile and just said "Yes."
Ron was up and fiercely hugging her in a matter of seconds and, after he started repeating the phrase "I'm gonna be a dad!" like a mantra, they both started laughing uncontrollably.

Harry watched them smiling and decided to move to the kitchen to give them some time alone. Despite being extremely happy for them, there was still a little voice, deep inside him, who was telling him they didn't really need him anymore. They weren't only a great couple: now they were going to be a family. 'Someone who loves you no matter what, whom you can share all your joys and worries with...' Merlin knew if he wanted that.
His jealousy, though, was short-lived: he hadn't moved more than two steps from the living room when two pairs of arms grabbed him and dragged him into a crushing embrace.


"So" said Hermione, quietly slurping her noodles from a steaming box of Chinese takeaway. "Who's this man you're dating?"

Harry's noodles slithered right into his windpipe. "Who?" he spluttered.

"Oh, you know" she laughed "When I asked if you were seeing anyone and you said no? Well, you're a dreadful liar. Who is he?"

Ron made a weird sound halfway between a snort and a gurgle and his best friend shot him a dark look. What if Hermione found out about Malfoy?

"Ehm... he's just... you know... a guy" he said lamely.

The witch's face clearly said something among the lines of 'you don't say' so he added "We're not even going out, actually. There's just this guy at work who's very fit and I thought I could ask him out one of this days, that's all."

"Ok, but who is he? Do we know him?"

"I'm not telling."

"But why?"

Ron, this time, laughed out loud. "Oh, come on 'Mione, give the man some breath. When he's ready to let us know, if this guy is even worth it he'll tell us, won't you mate?"

Harry hid his surprise for how easily the redhead had deflected his wife's attention behind a smile and a muttered "Sure", wondering how he had become so good at avoiding her prying. He imagined that living with her must have made him Hermione-resistant.

"Alright" she said, circling Harry's shoulders with her arm "I'll lay off. It's just... I'd love to see you settled, you know that?"
Feeling the concern in her voice prompted Harry to return her half embrace. "I'll find him, one day. Maybe not right now, but I will. Promise."

After dinner was over, he said goodbye to his friends and tidied up the mess in the living room, then he went to sleep. He dreamt of "settling down" with Malfoy who, stretched out on the couch in just a pair of denims and with a ridiculously large portion of delicious looking alabaster skin exposed, ordered him in a whiny voice to iron his socks.


A day later – 9:00 AM

Harry got out of the fireplace in the Ministry's Atrium and dusted off his Auror robes in a pretty good mood. Even though his sleep had not been particularly relaxing, he'd spent the evening before with his best friends, he would soon have a godchild and, he was sure, with the new mixed teams strategy they would be solving the drug case before long. Mounting the elevator and greeting colleagues until he reached the second level, he thought that nothing could really go wrong that day. Except maybe...

"Potter!"
He had already jumped three feet high and drawn his wand, pointing it at the offending voice in his office, when he noticed Malfoy, who had been clearly leaning onto Ron's empty desk, standing with a frown on his face.

"Hello to you too, you lunatic. You should think twice before startling half asleep, very much armed Aurors first thing in the morning." He snapped.

The blond smirked. "Oh, so I startled you? I thought such a valiant Auror, not to mention Saviour-of-everybody's-magical-arse would be more difficult to scare..."

All right. He had served it to him on a silver platter. Trying very hard not to fall into their familiar banter, he sighed and replied "Of course you didn't. I mean... you just caught me by surprise that's all." Seeing the blond's mouth open to retort he quickly added. "What do you want anyway?"
Of course, he knew very well what Malfoy wanted. He must not be all that happy to suddenly have to work side by side with the man who'd been his "arch-nemesis" for years. All he had to do, now, was convince him that they would work better together. 'At least we would if he shut that annoying little mouth of his'.

The wizard gave him an evaluating look, as if to see if he was lying, then answered "What, you don't know? I've been told I'll be working here, with you, until the task force is dismantled." Harry could almost hear the silent continuation 'Which is ridiculous, of course, aren't you going to use your Saviour-of-the-wizarding-world thing to free us from this very much unwanted partnership?'
"Potter are you listening? What are you smiling at?"

The black haired wizard cleared his voice. "It's nothing. Anyway, yes, I did know, I was told yesterday" 'I was actually the one who suggested it in the first place' he thought. 'But I'm not gonna tell you that.'

"And?"

"And I think it's a great idea."
Harry had to restrain himself not to burst out laughing at the horrified look on Malfoy's face.

"Are you serious? Why would anyone put us together? Everyone knows what our relationship is like!" the blond said, colouring slightly as soon as he saw Harry raising his eyebrows at his use of the word 'relationship'.

"Why wouldn't they?" Harry asked. "We seemed to work together well enough yesterday..."

Silence stretched. He could see Malfoy averting his eyes and pressing his lips in a thin line; when he finally met his gaze, he said, in a low voice "Sharing a table and some ideas didn't make us friends, Potter. I was high on caffeine, Merlin knows how many coffees I've drunk yesterday, and pretty stressed. That's probably why I was friendlier than usual but it was just that: an isolated occasion."

Harry's first reaction was to feel stung. Not because his and Ron's plan was failing, no. He'd thought they were getting somewhere, putting an end to a long time, childish enmity... for a moment he really believed he could become friends with that weird, kinder but still witty Malfoy.

In a moment of Gryffindor bravery he said just that. "You know, it's quite a shame. You're a prick – you really are" he added before the blonde could interrupt him. "But you're also smart and hard working. Maybe we're not friends but we're going to work together because I need your knowledge and you need me to act out your ideas in the field. And who knows, we could become friends when all this is over. I kinda liked 'tame' Malfoy" he concluded with a sincere smile at his new partner's shocked face.
Than a realization hit him. 'Was that another one of his stupid self-defence acts? Isolating himself so that he won't get hurt?'
The glimmer of emotion he could see behind Malfoy's usually guarded eyes confirmed his suspicion.

Draco Malfoy grinned and replied. "Polite? Maybe. But tame? Not a chance!"
Then, when he and Harry managed to reign in their chuckles, he whispered "When do we start?"


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