"You ready for Norwich?" Pansy asked him over the brim of her to-go coffee mug.
Draco sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Truth was, he hadn't been "ready" for a book burnout in quite some time. The process aged him, and wore him down. The children's crestfallen expressions as their books were confiscated, the white-hot rage of the teachers . . .
It was beginning to be too much for him. But he was squeezed in the confines of familial obligation. If he were to quit working for the government, his father would all but disown him.
"Draco?"
"Hmm, yeah?"
Pansy rolled her eyes.
"You aren't thinking about your coffee man again, are you?"
Draco honestly hadn't thought about the incident last week since the day it had happened; he'd been far too busy trying to wrap his head around Severus' new incentive program that whipped them into shape. The office, as he'd predicted, had turned into a madhouse, and the air of friendliness had all but shattered like glass.
It was all Riddle's doing, he knew that, but he couldn't help but harbor a resentment toward his boss. Severus had eyes in the back of his head, and was assigning partners schools based on how well they performed. The competition was fierce.
Last week, a few days after the coffee incident, Draco and Pansy had performed a sweep at a local community college that had claimed to be unaware of the updated laws and clauses about books even though they had made national news. They'd done such a good job in the eyes of Riddle that Severus had appointed them head partners of the department, and placed them in charge of their current project: Norwich Elementary.
Draco wrung his hands together; he was nervous; the beads of sweat perspiring on his neck was proof enough of that. He had a feeling in the back of his head that this mission wasn't going to go the way they wanted.
"I'll have you know, I have much more important things in my life to focus on than that man," said Draco matter-of-factly.
"Oh, really?" leered Pansy teasingly. "Like . . .?"
"My . . . my work," Draco stammered, cheeks flaming up. "I don't have the time nor desire to focus on dating right now."
"Who said anything about dating?" Pansy asked innocently, absentmindedly twirling a strand of jet black hair.
Draco glared daggers at her.
"Pansy, Draco, how are you guys?" came Theo Nott's voice. Draco startled; Theo had snuck up right behind him. He turned around to greet the man.
"We're well, thank you," Draco said politely.
"Excellent. So, turns out, Severus appointed me to accompany you to Norwich. Not that he doesn't trust you, but Norwich is notorious for their studies. He wants backup, and Blaise is going to stand by incase we need him, as well."
Blaise was Theo's book exterminator partner.
"We don't need Blaise," Draco said frostily, frankly offended that Severus thought they needed the help. Were they not competent enough on their own?
"Not up to you," Theo said lightly. "Now, when are we going?"
"Now, ideally," said Pansy. Neither she nor Draco was the fondest of Theodore Nott, for reasons that Draco was still ashamed of.
Within the first year that Draco worked for the Peace Preservers, he and Theo had slept together. Draco could go into the melancholy, humiliating details, or he could leave it as is: he'd wanted something more, and Theo hadn't. Things had never quite recovered between them.
"Great, I'm all ready to go," said Theo delightfully, walking forward to stand between Draco and Pansy. "Shall we go select our Peace Preservers?"
"No need," interjected Severus, stalking up to the group. "Riddle has already hand-picked your Peace Preservers for this mission specifically."
To maintain anonymity among the Peace Preservers, office workers were prohibited on Riddle's orders from interacting with the Peace Preservers outside of work, and during work, they were to only see the Peace Preservers while they were in uniform. As this rule wasn't entirely enforceable, there remained a considerable amount of Peace Preserver/office worker relationships. Draco had participated in no such relations, considering how close he was to his parents and how close, in turn, his parents were to Riddle. His parents would all but strangle him if he came home with a story about a Peace Preserver on the tip of his tongue- they didn't even know he was gay, for Christ's sake.
"Well, isn't that just lovely," Pansy tossed him a saccharine smile. "Thank you, Severus."
"Kiss arse," Draco mumbled.
Theo laughed.
Pansy looked at the pair of them. "Er, did Draco say something funny, or . . .?"
"Nothing, it was nothing," said Theo, waving his hand and tossing Draco a wink once Pansy's gaze had moved on.
Severus did not look amused. "If you three are quite finished with your jests, you have a school to attend to. Your Peace Preservers are waiting for you on the first floor. Go."
Without any further argument, the trio made their way out of the office, Theo bidding goodbye to Blaise once they passed his cubicle. Blaise looked uncharacteristically cranky, and Draco deemed it due to Severus selecting Theo rather than him to accompany them on their mission.
"Riddle himself volunteered to be backup on this mission," said a Peace Preserver whose voice Draco recognized as Parker Gonzolas. "That's when you know it's important. I trust you lot know what you're doing?"
"This ain't their first rodeo," drawled another Peace Preserver in his thick American accent who Draco knew to be Todd.
"Damn right it isn't," grinned Pansy. "We have all the necessary documents to show them the rules, and we're going to tear this school down to the ground."
Pansy could be power-hungry when she wanted to be. Draco knew better; he knew she was compensating for a lack of power when she was a child.
"A bunch of people are about to be jobless," said Parker. "How do you feel about that?"
"Don't shoot the messenger; that's how I feel about it," chuckled Theo. Draco was convinced that Severus' incentive program had flipped a switch in all his coworkers and turned them into ruthless animals.
"Damn right," said the American.
"What about the kids?" asked Draco, in spite of himself. "What are they gonna do?"
"They're gonna complete their education under the new teachers that Riddle hires, and then they're gonna grow the fuck up and get big boy jobs like the rest of us," said Theo.
"Norwich Elementary will be no more after today," said yet another Peace Preserver, one Draco couldn't identify by name. "People are gonna be pissed. This is a very prestigious school."
"All the more reason to destroy it," said Theo.
"Damn right," agreed the American.
"Yeah," said Draco dazedly, staring out the window of the bus. "It's gonna be a good day."
The rest of the ride passed uneventfully, the Peace Preservers making mindless chatter with Pansy, Theo and himself, and Draco was already exhausted by the time the bus pulled up to the grounds of Norwich Elementary and they hadn't even started yet. Furthermore, Severus had appointed him to be the one to talk to the principal. Dread bubbled in Draco's chest.
As Draco and the others exited the van, students walking outside stopped and pointed at them, whispering to their friends. Anticipation surged through Draco like a foamy ocean wave.
"Stay calm." Pansy was instantly at his side, with a hand on his shoulder. "Take deep breaths." The hand rubbed soothing circles over his collar bone.
Draco was half tempted to shrug off her touch, but found he didn't have the
strength. He drew in air and released it on a shuddery exhale. Then he turned to face Pansy.
"Is it that obvious I'm terrified?" he asked her in a small voice so the others couldn't hear.
"Only to me because I know you so well, you toerag."
Draco chuckled weakly.
"Now, come on. We've got some arses to kick."
"Come help me unload these carts, Richard and Bethley, will you?" asked the American to the third and fourth Peace Preservers. While Richard and Bethley helped the American unload the carts, Parker walked over to Draco.
"You nervous?" he asked.
Draco shrugged. "I've done this a lot," he answered coolly.
"The stakes haven't been this high before, and you know it," responded Parker as though he could see right through Draco, and it unnerved him. "If you succeed, Riddle may have Severus promote you. You could overlook your entire department alongside him."
"Magic will exist before that happens," Draco said dryly. "Besides, maybe I don't want to be promoted. Maybe I'm perfectly happy with exactly where I am."
"Come on," scoffed Parker. "A guy with as much potential as you? You could be doing so much more than Severus' bidding. A guy like you could be working on the front lines with us."
Draco thought it was rather uncouth to tell Parker just exactly how he felt about the Peace Preservers, how they were a bunch of mindless, faceless sheep that followed Riddle's every order like a pack of dogs, so he refrained and settled on, "I don't have any interest in being a Peace Preserver."
"Why not?" Parker pressed, and damn if the man was not persistent. "You'd get paid at least twice as much, and you'd be way more respected by Riddle."
But what about my family? Draco wanted to ask. His family would laugh at him if he became a Peace Preserver. No, Draco was to stay put, exterminating books and destroying schools for the advancement of Riddle's agenda.
"Riddle respects me plenty. Trust me. My family has a personal relationship with him."
"As does mine," said Parker. It was at this moment Draco wondered what he looked like beneath the helmet, the snow white sheathe of armor coating him from head to toe. It was unnerving having such an intense conversation with someone who was basically anonymous, even though they'd been working together for years. Draco had not once seen Parker's face. Not once.
"Does it ever bother you that they don't let you show us your faces?" Draco asked.
"Bother me? Of course it bothers me."
He hadn't been expecting that response.
"Nott, a hand, will you?" grunted one of the other Peace Preservers.
"But I do what I do when anything else bothers me. I sit in front of the telly, turn on my program, and forget about it for a while."
Draco found most of the programs on the telly to be mind numbingly boring; they all seemed to be about the exact same thing. The guy getting the girl, who fell for him in spite of his poor treatment of her.
"I hate the telly," he confessed.
He could almost hear Parker's eyes widen.
"Don't let anyone important hear you talk that way. Understand me? You're too delicate, they'll whisk you away with one blow to the face. Draco, you have to promise me. Don't let people who are important hear you talk that way."
"I am not delicate," Draco argued.
"You . . . You're . . . I mean . . ."
"You mean what?"
"You aren't . . . tough. Forgive my forwardness, but you don't seem the type to be able to hold his own in a fight."
Parker was right on the money; Draco couldn't. But he wasn't about to let the other man know that.
"What do you know about me or my fighting skills? We just work together. You have no idea what goes on in my life."
"Draco-"
"You see a very, very small part of me that I turn on specifically for this job. I have to pretend to be nice to tolerate half you fucks." He knew he was getting defensive and angry, but he couldn't help it. Parker had struck a nerve.
"You are rather polite, for the most part," commented Parker. "I assumed most of it was bullshit, but are you really saying you don't like us? I thought we got on rather well, work aside."
Draco sighed. He couldn't do this. "We do, and I'm sorry," he said. "But I'm not some fragile flower. I can handle the truth. And I can handle whatever Riddle throws my way. If he finds out I don't like the telly, I'll damn well stand straight up and say I don't like the fucking telly."
Parker was shaking his head. "Draco . . . That's too dangerous, and you know it."
"Who are you to say what's dangerous, when you put your life on the line every single day fighting people who break the laws?"
"Well, it isn't every single day," argued Parker, "and on days like today, we consider this light work. Most of the pressures fall to you. On that note, are you really ready to talk to the principal? You look like you're going to be sick."
"I'm fine," Draco said lightly. "More importantly, I wonder how you handle the stresses of the job every single day. That's the reason I couldn't be one of you, I think."
Now he was being overly polite so Parker wouldn't detect any apprehension in his tone, also so he would forget that he'd nearly hit the target with Draco's fragility. Draco had gotten bullied quite often as a child, mostly for his love of books. There had been a movement to ban books long before Riddle had taken over, and Riddle had just exacerbated the supposed "evilness" of books to the public and made it easier for himself to impose The Law.
"How very perceptive of you, Draco. It is quite stressful, and it isn't for the weak of willed. That isn't to say you couldn't handle it, because I think quite the opposite. I think you'd make a wonderful Peace Preserver."
"Carts are all unloaded!" exclaimed Pansy, marching over to them. "You ready?"
"Yeah, I suppose."
"Then let's go." The Peace Preservers, save for Parker, began wheeling in carts with Draco in the lead.
"You know how this goes, Draco," Pansy said soothingly. "We've done it a hundred times before."
Then why did this time feel different?
"We're hosting the burn party at my place tonight, and you're all invited," said Todd. "Of course, we have to record ourselves throwing each and every book into the fire and submit it to Riddle, which kills the fun a little bit, but there will be a barbeque."
Cool air hit Draco's face as they burst through the front doors of the school. Almost immediately they were swarmed with workers from the front office.
"What is the meaning of this? What are they doing here?" demanded one older lady in a pale pink jumpsuit. "We're a private institution, there are laws that-"
"Riddle doesn't exclude private schools from his clauses, nor has he pretended to," Draco said dully, as though he'd said it a hundred times before. He definitely had. "If you have questions, you can address my superior, Severus Snape." He thrust her his business card, along with a warrant signed by Riddle granting them permission to raid the school.
"This is an outrage!" cried another woman. "Just think about what you are doing. Think about the children."
"Believe it or not, madam, but what we're doing is solely for the safety and wellbeing of the children," Pansy said smoothly. "If they do not begin school under Riddle's curriculum, they will not find work when they are older."
She was right. More and more places were requiring a diploma from Riddle's curriculum, which had been implemented into thousands of schools across Britain. They still had thousands more to go, but progress was progress.
A tall man in a suit stepped out of the office and sauntered over to the group.
"When my school is being raided, I want to damn well make sure I know why," he said fiercely, and Draco knew right then and there he was the principal.
"R-Riddle's orders," Draco said crisply, and he'd known this was coming, this was the speech he'd spent all week practicing in the bathroom . . .
He thrusted a warrant at the principal, and the principal's dark, beady eyes bore into Draco's as he took the document and scanned it.
"Your employment is terminated effective immediately, and tomorrow first thing Riddle's going to send a crew in to renovate the classrooms to fit his curriculum."
"I couldn't have had any notice?" exclaimed the principal. "What the hell am I supposed to tell my staff?"
"Not my problem," Draco said coldly. "Now, if you don't mind, we don't have all day."
Semantics. They did, in fact, have all day.
"You won't get away with this," he growled, shaking his hand in a fist at Draco. Draco flinched out of habit. He'd been hit as a child, and the sight of a fist still frightened him. Maybe Parker had been onto something.
"I'll appeal, and sue all your sorry balls off."
"Oh, you won't stand a chance," came Pansy's smooth voice from behind Draco. "Against Riddle's lawyers? Forget it. He sent us here personally, so if you know what's good for you you'd move out of the way. We're quite a busy lot."
The principal looked conflicted, like he wanted to argue but at the same time knew that there was nothing he could say. He eventually conceded, moving out of the way.
"That's better," said Draco maliciously, mask in place. "Now feel free to sit back and relax while we destroy your school, as Riddle intended."
"Fucking self righteous bastards!" the principal roared as Draco led the others away.
"Time to split up," said Parker. "Todd and Bethley, take the East Wing. Richard and I will take the west."
Theo was also holding a cart.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"Stop kids in the hallways, ask them to empty their lockers and confiscate their books," instructed Parker. "That'll be less work for Riddle's crew to do tomorrow. Draco and Pansy, you go with him."
As the three began strolling throughout the rather nicely decorated interior of the school, Draco began to feel guilty for all these kids whose lives were about to be forever changed. He'd been taught with Riddle's curriculum for his entire four years of high school, and it had been miserable.
Theo and Pansy were in the middle of emptying some teenagers' lockers while Draco couldn't help but examine the books. He pulled out one, stroking its spine and bringing it to his nose to inhale its aged, yellow pages. He hadn't smelled a book in years. Why did he feel compelled to do so now?
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a voice, an angry voice, no doubt protesting what Theo and Pansy were doing.
"Hey, what the hell is it that you think you are doing?"
Draco recognized that voice. That was-
He rounded the corner with the cart, and the sight that befell him was enough to have given him a heart attack. It nearly did.
Outside a classroom were two desks set across from each other, one with a young girl and the other none other than the man that had spilled coffee on Draco last week. Harry.
"We're just doing our jobs," said Theo, none too kindly.
"You're gonna need to hand over that book she's holding," said Pansy in her usual patronizing tone she saved just for these missions.
"I will do no such thing," growled Harry, standing up and blocking the young girl from view. Then, all too quickly, his eyes landed on Draco, and widened to the size of marbles.
"You . . ."
Draco could feel his heart jackhammering in his chest. He needed to calm down. Now.
"Of course you're working for them. I dunno what I was expecting, really."
The words stung, more than Draco cared to admit.
"Here I was thinking I met someone who had a mind for himself, who could think."
Draco flinched, curling his hands into fists and digging his nails deep into the skin.
"Wait a minute," said Pansy. "You two know each other?"
"No," said Draco at the same time Harry said, "Yes."
A most uncomfortable moment of silence, and then, "He spilled coffee on me at the cafe."
Pansy lit up like a Christmas tree. "He's the one who- Oh, Draco, that's- Oh. Erm." She immediately gained composure, like she only now realized the damage she'd done by speaking like that.
"Who what?" asked Harry, taking a step closer to Draco. "I what?"
"N-Nothing," Draco stammered out, praying to God his cheeks weren't as flushed with humiliation as they felt.
"This is cute and all, but we have a job to do," said Theo. "Sir, if you'll hand over the book, we'll be on our way."
"No way," Harry snarled. "This is Sasha's favourite book, and I've been teaching her how to read it for over four months. You can't take it from her before she's finished. That's just cruel."
"That's the way the world works, I'm afraid," said Theo. He extended his hand out and gestured with his fingers. "The book. Now."
"Why do these people want my book?" asked the child, Sasha, and Draco's heart broke clean in two. He didn't, he didn't, he didn't.
Draco leaned down to talk to the child. "We're just gonna borrow it for a little bit, okay? Just a little while. It's very important, top secret, I'm afraid."
"So important, not even I can know?"
"That important," Draco responded with a nod. His spirit was beating him senseless as he spoke, but he knew it was the only way to get the girl to comply without forcibly ripping the book from her hands.
"O-Okay." She held out the book for Draco to take. An astonished Theo and Pansy watched him dump it in the cart with the others. He refused to look at its title. That would only increase the pain.
"You're sick, all of you. You know that?" said Harry, and boy did the words sting. It wasn't like it was Draco's fault he worked for the government. It was what he'd been raised to do, all he knew. He'd be disowned if he worked anywhere else, he was sure of it. His family closely followed Riddle's rules, and anything that went against that, even something as simple as a job, was strictly forbidden.
Though sometimes, Draco couldn't help but blame himself. What if he was strong enough to continue on without his family, and do something right? What if he quit his job and found an honest living, something that didn't involve ripping the rug out from beneath people's feet? Why couldn't he man up and do that? Was he really going to hide behind his blanket of security forever?
"You're talking to us like we have a choice," said Draco, suddenly angry, very angry. "This is our job."
"A job that you agreed to do," argued Harry. "A job that you willingly signed up for. A job that destroys lives. How does that make you feel, Draco?"
Draco averted his gaze to the ground to avoid the piercing stare of Harry's too-green eyes.
Then he looked back up. Harry stared at him with nothing but contempt on his face, such a starch contrast to the sweet gentleness that had been on his face a week prior.
"N-Nothing, it makes me feel like nothing. Because it's my job," Draco answered stiffly.
"I bet you're real proud of yourself," said Harry, taking another step closer, and it was all Draco could do to not back away. "Confiscating and burning books that belonged to our children, who don't know any better aside from this corrupted evil-"
"Not that I don't love this sentiment, cause I do," interrupted Theo, "but we've gotta scram. There's two more stories of this monster that we haven't even started on."
"Do you have any idea how this makes them feel, Draco? Do you?"
"Leave him alone, for Christ's sake, it isn't our fault!" shrieked Pansy, causing Sasha to jump.
"Sasha," said Harry, speaking in low, gentle tones that caused Draco's chest to stir, "go back inside your class."
Sasha obeyed. Once the door closed behind her, Harry rounded back on Draco.
"You think this is funny? You think this is some kind of joke? Infiltrating our school, ruining everything?"
"I'm here on Riddle's direct orders," said Draco, forcing himself to keep his mask in place even as Harry seemed to dissect him little by little.
"Are you a teacher?" Theo asked.
"I'm a tutor."
"Will you go inside and tell your class that we're about to interrupt their lesson to confiscate books?" asked Pansy bluntly.
Harry's eyes narrowed at her. "Go in there and do it yourself. I'm not getting involved."
Then he returned his attention to Draco, eyes hardening. "When I met you at the coffee shop, I thought you were a decent person. Turns out I was sorely mistaken."
Draco felt something inside him crumble, and it took everything in him not to physically deflate from the harsh words.
Before he could say anything more to Harry, the handsome man had begun walking away from the scene, leaving Draco to stew in his own self loathing.