Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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The Second Wizarding World War came to a startling end during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Harriet Potter won.
The Dark Lord lost.
Harriet celebrated her victory with her allies while Voldemort's followers looked on in defeated disgust.
Draco Malfoy had never truly shared his parents ideals, they were merely the notions that he had been surrounded by since birth.
Harriet Potter had unknowingly shown him a different path, a path that he hadn't followed until he tossed his wand to her at the end of the fight.
While Draco stood on the cracked stones of the castle's ruined entrance, he could feel his mother and father's scowls burning into him, yet the look in their eyes conveyed silent relief.
Draco sneered across the battlefield as he watched Harriet celebrate her hard-won victory with her friends.
He stared at her messy, dark hair that whipped in the wind as her serpentine green eyes flashed.
Draco didn't sneer because he had lost the war, he sneered because he knew that he had lost Harriet.
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Harriet Potter did not return to Hogwarts for her final year of magical education.
Instead, she chose to go straight into the Auror recruitment programme at the Ministry of Magic.
Draco graduated a month after the war's conclusion and to his parents' dismay, he followed his old foe into the same vocation.
Auror training exercises were often completed by their participants in solitude, which meant that Draco and Harriet saw very little of each other for the next three years.
Their classroom instruction in the program was brief.
During those periods where they were in relatively close proximity, Draco lacked the courage to swallow his pride and approach Harriet.
His heart lifted at the idea but his mind balked.
How should he speak to the omega anyway?
Should he tell her the truth, that he had been in love with her since the day they had met?
Should he apologize for all of the cruelty that he had previously shown her and explain that his behavior had only been immature attempts at flirtation?
Draco turned the idea over and over in his brain at each classroom session while he looked at the back of Harriet's head from where he sat.
His grey eyes were soft.
His heart was heavy with longing, but every time, he sighed to himself as he watched his darling stand and leave.
Draco held his silence through their classes, through their graduation, and through their assignments afterwards.
Harriet was given an office in the Ministry's headquarters.
Draco was deployed overseas to a distant forest in Romania.
He went to his exile gladly and began his mission from the Ministry.
A change of scenery was exactly what he needed.
Draco Malfoy willingly accepted any help that he could find in forgetting Harriet Potter.
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He didn't particularly care how long his assignment took to complete.
A part of Draco expected to be in Romania longer, but on the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, a letter arrived, carried by a tawny owl.
Draco walked across the living room of his flat and took the envelope from the bird as he narrowed his eyes.
The sound of violin music floated up from the street through the open window as he sat down on his brocade sofa and slit the letter open with a finger.
He frowned as he scanned over the words listed on the parchment:
Dear Draco Malfoy,
The Ministry of Magic has received reports about your recent works on your assignment and hereby declares your task completed. Please report to the Head Auror's office by nine o' clock Friday morning for a briefing on your next engagement.
Kind Regards,
Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic
Draco sighed as he looked up from the letter and blinked at his sparse apartment.
He passed a hand over his face as a frown marred his handsome features.
Despite throwing himself into his work, despite focusing on his research and enjoying the thrill of chasing dark wizards down one by one, it had all been for naught.
He hadn't forgotten the slightest detail about…...her.
He remembered Harriet Potter's voice perfectly, along with the light in her green eyes, the softness of her lips, and the kindness of her ways………
Draco leaned back on his elegant sofa as his chest rose and fell in one quick, deep breath.
Perhaps it was time for him to finally gather his courage and face his fears.
Draco's frown turned into a determined scowl as he silently decided that yes, it was indeed time he confronted Harriet Potter.
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Early Friday morning, the doors to the Auror Department burst wide open as Draco strode in proudly.
He wanted Harriet to see him as confident, strong, and powerful.
He needed Harriet to know that he was the kind of alpha who would make a good mate and the kind of man who would fight alongside her.
Draco's auror outfit highlighted his striking features and showcased his trim physique with silver embroidery on his long, black jacket and his tight waistcoat.
His dark boots clicked over the floorboards as he walked along.
Tall, dapper, and devastatingly debonair, Draco easily caught the eye of several secretaries as he walked past the department's reception desk.
He smirked to convey a sense of arrogance while he felt his insides tremble with anxiousness.
Would Harriet find him handsome too?
Draco's chest tightened as he approached the Head Auror's office.
He reached a hand out and turned the knob.
Draco wasn't sure that he was prepared to find out the answer to his own urgent question.
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A lump formed in Draco's throat as his grey eyes landed on Harriet as soon as he opened the door.
She sat alone, in a chair by the Head Auror's desk, with her lustrous, dark hair spilling over her shoulders and her green eyes glowing at him from behind her glasses.
"Malfoy……" Harriet greeted him as she stood.
Draco could tell that he had caught her off guard by the way her eyes widened.
He felt an unignorable urge to soothe her as he nodded, "Hello, Potter……...you're looking well."
"...You are too." Harriet nodded back.
Draco straightened his spine as much as he possibly could when he noticed that Harriet's eyes roamed over him before she remembered herself and cleared her throat.
"...I'm certain your family will be glad to have you home." Harriet replied stiffly as she sat down in the chair again, "You've been gone for a while."
Draco's grey gaze glimmered as he took a seat across from her and nodded, "I suppose they will……….Two years has passed quickly enough."
"It has, yes." Harriet agreed.
They stared at opposite walls once their awkward exchange ended.
Draco struggled to find words.
He needed to say something.
He had to say something, anything, really…...anything at all…….
"Been knocking around the office this entire time?" He asked with a smirk, "I imagine that must have been a bit boring for The Chosen One."
"Actually, it suits me better." Harriet nodded.
Draco frowned as his beloved prematurely extinguished his attempt to spark another conversation.
Before he could say anything else, the door opened and Maxwell Hippingrun, Head Auror, stepped inside the room.
"Ah, good, you two are already here!" Maxwell exclaimed as he clapped his hands, walked over, and sat down at his desk to face Draco and Harriet.
Draco narrowed his eyes as Harriet nodded at the head auror and spoke, "Yes, I made it here first, but Malfoy was rather punctual this morning."
Draco glared over at her as the Head Auror went on, "Very good, very good." His brown eyes flickered to Draco as he spoke, "I kept my letter to you brief, on the rare chance that it was intercepted by our enemies…..Potter already knows…….Your work in the field really has been quite exceptional during your brief time in our department. I, along with the other members of our profession, have determined that you will be the best partner for Potter in the assignment to come."
Draco felt his pulse quicken as he listened to Maxwell's statement.
He glanced over at Harriet as if he expected her to burst out laughing and explain to him that it was all an elaborate joke, but Harriet's expression remained serious.
She frowned at Draco until he turned his gaze to Maxwell and asked, "I….I beg your pardon, sir?"
"You and Harriet Potter will be working closely together for the next few months." Maxwell nodded, "The both of you will be conducting some research here in the office….then you'll be sent out on a field mission together."
"A field mission where?" Draco scowled before he could stop himself.
"That will be determined by what your research uncovers." Maxwell shrugged, "For now, though, we are a bit short on space. Potter has graciously volunteered to divide her office in half, for our convenience and yours. At least with that configuration, you two won't have to worry about running up and down the hallway to discuss your findings with one another."
Draco couldn't believe it.
It was as if his dreams were coming true.
He had come home to be chosen as Harriet's work partner.
He would spend all day every day at the office with her.
He would even share her workspace.
Finally!
Draco struggled not to grin as he marveled at how events had turned in his favor at last.
As he and Harriet stood to leave Maxwell's office, his mind already began to indulge in romantic fantasies.
He would bring her breakfast every morning.
He would charm her and win her heart.
She would have a heat and he would be there to comfort her…….
They would start the most passionate love affair ever witnessed by Ministry walls and once their mission concluded, Harriet would be his mate and his wife.
Draco practically floated down the hallway as he followed Harriet to her office.
Her footsteps stopped outside of a simple, brown door.
"Sorry if it's a bit cramped." She murmured as she switched on the light and welcomed him inside, "It's not much, but it's enough…...It should suit us both for the short while that we'll be working together. I expect you'll go on another foreign mission after we're done with this?"
Draco was so preoccupied with looking around Harriet's office that he didn't hardly hear what she said for a moment.
After she stopped speaking, he eventually realized the silence was odd and her words echoed back to him.
He looked over at her as he nodded, "...Oh, yes, I'm certain. I enjoy traveling."
"That surprises me, Malfoy." Harriet chided as she walked over to her desk and bent down to pull something out of a drawer, "I never imagined you as a wanderer."
"I may just be looking for something that I haven't found." Draco cryptically replied.
Harriet would have come up with a witty reply, but as she fumbled in her drawer, the sudden motion of her arm caused her to falter.
Her elbow surged forward and knocked a picture frame over on her desk.
Everything had gone lovely for Draco until his good fortune abruptly ran out.
His world shattered as he gaped down at the photograph displayed in the frame.
Harriet was there, in the picture, dressed in a gown of long, flowing, white lace, with a man in a suit beside her.
"Who's that?!" Draco demanded before he could stop himself as painful jealousy clouded his judgement and his manners.
Harriet blinked up at him before she followed his gaze down to the picture frame.
"...That's my husband, Malfoy." She said as she ended Draco's world with a nonchalant shrug, "Who else would it be?"