Disclaimer: Look! Look! *points gleefully* It's the official document saying that I own them all! Look, it's right there! That pig with wings has it in his mouth!

Warnings: A couple of weird ideas.

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Smoke & Mirrors.

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Part Seven. Lovers and Fighters.

Morgan was already sitting at the dining table when Draco made his way down, ready to start off on the unwelcome day. "You're up." Was the younger man's flat, cheerless greeting.

"Well I promised a noon rising so I'm only," he glanced to the window, trying to gauge the sunlight, "two, three hours late." He sat down, accepting the slightly cool coffee that was placed in front of him. "Did I miss anything?"

"I've been opening the week's mail." Morgan gestured to the pile of parchment to his left.

Draco glanced at it, his brain taking a few seconds to register that the top letter was addressed to him. He stopped taking his sip and slowly lowered the mug from his lips. "You opened my mail?"

Morgan ignored the quiet, accusing tone and shrugged. "I placed one of yours in my pile by accident. But after I read it … I felt the need look through the rest."

Draco pursed his lips. "Did you?"

"You got five." Morgan crossed his arms, the blank expression finally leaving in favour for a scowl. "And four of them are death threats."

The blonde resisted the inclination to sigh and instead went with casual indifference. "Only four? Huh, slow week."

"Slow week? That's all you can say? Don't you think you owe me some sort of an explanation?"

"Like what?"

"Like how long has this been going on?"

A small shrug as he thought about it. "Since the war was won. It started a couple of weeks after that."

"And you never told anyone?"

"Don't be foolish, Morgan, not this early in the day. Of course I told people. Severus, my father, Dumbledore, a couple of others."

"Okay then, fine, so you just never told me?"

"You didn't need to know."

"Oh that's bullshit and I can tell from your face that you know it." Morgan jumped to his feet and started to pace. "I mean … god, some of this stuff is just the regular, boring 'I'm going to kill you' or 'you're dead, arsehole' but there's some shit that is seriously messed up." He grabbed up one and started to read aloud. "I will pull each nail from your fingers, reveling in your cries of pain as I place each exposed cuticle in acid."

Despite the content, Draco smiled. "Ah, Green Pen."

Morgan stopped his pacing, his mouth hanging open for a second. "What did you say?"

"Green Pen. That certainly sounds like the usual style."

Morgan looked at the green writing in front of him. "You mean this guy or whatever writes to you so often you can tell that it's … whoever?"

A nod. "Green Pen has been writing to me since the beginning. One letter a week, like clockwork. In fact, if we had the mail delivered every day this would have arrived on Tuesday."

Morgan was starting to look dangerous. "I can't believe this! I mean, hell, I know I'm just a sidekick, but I thought I was your friend too. Why didn't you ever tell me about this?"

"Because you just would have started worrying about it."

"You're damn right I would have! These people are mental and they've got it in for you."

"Déjà vu, really."

"Well, I hope you both know that I'm going to remember this little concealment."

"Both." Draco looked around comically. "Only one of me here."

"You and Harry."

The blonde frowned. "Why him?"

Exasperated, Morgan sat back down. "For not telling me! What do you think we've been talking about?"

"Well he had a good reason to not tell you."

"He truly does hate me?"

Draco did sigh this time, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table. "He didn't know."

If Morgan had been stunned to find out about the letters, he was absolutely flabbergasted to hear that Harry might not know. Until he scoffed. "Oh come on, you lived with him for an eternity. You honestly think he never found one of these letters?"

"They were automatically filtered out when I lived at the apartment. They used to be redirected to my parent's house. That's why I've always insisted on having our mail sent through the muggle way. Mail room people are easier to bribe than owls."

"But still …" He was cut off.

"You didn't need to know, Harry didn't need to know. In fact a lot of people have fallen under the 'Don't need to know' category about this minor issue. I said I'd look after you, not the other way around." Draco stood, smoothing down his robes. "While your concern is sweet, it's also unnecessary."

"These people have to be found!"

Draco sifted through the mail and retrieved the four letters. He counted them off as he dropped each one to the surface of the table, into three piles. "Death Eater, vampire, vampire, Green Pen."

"That one's the worst of the lot."

"Therefore, probably the most harmless." He pushed his fringe back and picked them up again, carrying them over to a cabinet and putting them away as Morgan looked on reproachfully. "How does that saying go? Out of sight …?"

"Won't work."

"Look, can we discuss this later, preferably not until we're both dead? We have to go into HQ, I need to have a word with Ginny about something." Draco headed for the fireplace, hearing his friend start to follow him.

"I'm not going to let this go."

"Then don't, just don't let it interfere with anything, we have work to do." He disarmed his own protection spells, threw the powder in and then sent the disarming spell for the grate at the other end.

They stepped out directly into the HQ room, the new renovations being completed therefore removing the need to walk through the ministry halls.

"And the man of the hour graces us with his presence." Was the snide remark from their right.

"Drop it, Thias." Draco pushed past the young man and headed for his desk.

"Glad you're here, actually, Hermione and Harry want to have a word with you."

"Just the one?"

Morgan snorted as Thias glared. Whatever the Trainee's reply was going to be was cut off as The Boss came out of his office and called a greeting to Draco. Well, it was a kind of greeting.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Morning, Boss." Draco smiled cheerfully and scribbled something down, clicking his tongue for one of the owls to come over. After handing it over, he watched it fly off before turning to look at his superior. "Having a good day?"

"I was until I saw you here. You're supposed to be spending as much time at home as possible. It's not safe for you to be wandering around, not without a guard."

"You fret too much."

"You have renegade Death Eaters and half of the undead out for your blood!"

"Don't be silly, I'm sure it's more than half."

"Draco." It was more of a growl than anything else.

"Just had to come in and see a couple of people. I'll be back home and safe in less than an hour with any luck."

"Just make sure that you are. Ah, Harry, Hermione, come here and make sure he doesn't go anywhere that he doesn't have to." The Boss leaned in, glaring forcefully. "I don't want you leaving this room until you have to Floo back to your home."

Draco smiled pleasantly and patted the older man on the arm. "Whatever you say, Boss."

"There's also a small matter of some questions you haven't answer yet." He nodded to Hermione. "Take care of it."

Morgan smiled uncomfortably as Hermione and Harry reached the group and came to a stop. He could have sworn it suddenly got physically colder as Harry and Draco exchanged civil nods. "I'll, er, just go check something at my own desk." He hated leaving Draco with them, but the tension that sometimes rose up always drove him crazy.

Draco kept his eyes on Morgan, not in the mood for anything they might have to ask him.

Hermione was not going to be put off so easily. "You still never told us the name of your last guest, the night of the party. The one that only you spoke to."

Draco said nothing, didn't even look their direction.

She huffed. "We already talked to the guy that goes by the name of Labyrinth. He wasn't very helpful."

Draco looked at her, trying to see if she was lying. "You spoke to him?"

"Yes."

"In person?"

"Well, no. He sent us a message through one of his lackeys. He said he didn't go."

"He didn't."

"Then who did?"

"You didn't, maybe you should have. Maybe you, with all your vast knowledge, could have spotted something that us mere mortals clearly missed."

"Don't use that bored tone with me, Malfoy." Her fake eye swiveled around, a clear sign that she wasn't in a good mood."

Draco ignored them again as he noticed Ginny walking through the main doors, looking nervous. He gave a wave and she hurried over.

"Hey." She hugged him awkwardly. "Sorry I couldn't make it, was on duty."

"Didn't miss much, funerals don't make the most lively gatherings."

She paid no heed to the tasteless joke. "My mum missed you at Christmas, I think she was really starting to warm to you."

"Yeah, well, I thought it might be best if I didn't go. Your brother and all. I told Harry to pass on my apologies." He looked at the man in question, for the first time today, scowling a little.

"He did, just wasn't the same. I, um, I don't think she blames you for it."

"She'd be in the minority then. Did you get it?"

Ginny nodded and cast a wary look to Hermione as she pulled a small package out of her pocket.

Draco took it and indicated to Morgan to come back, an order which was followed reluctantly. "Guard this with your life." Draco watched carefully as it was placed in Morgan's inside pocket, the younger man's hand remaining over it on the outside of his clothing.

"And what was that little thing?" Thias asked, glaring suspiciously.

"Nothing." Ginny may have said it a little too quickly because she received three frowns.

"Ginny." Hermione said in a warning tone. "What was that?"

"I don't know." The young woman said honestly. "And I don't want to." He gaze drifted back to Draco. "If they find out I did that …"

"They won't."

"They might."

"I'll take care of it." Draco raised his head slightly higher. "Well, it's been fun chatting to the old gang again, but I should get home before The Boss has a heart attack."

"I should probably have you arrested for whatever that is." It was clear that Hermione was trying to use her eye to identify what the package had been.

Draco silently wished her good luck, smiling a little. "Then do it, already."

She stared at Morgan's pocket in wonder, trying to figure out why it wasn't working. "That aside, The Boss has ordered us to find out who the last guest was."

"Then you'd better get to work, you're going to have a tough time investigating that."

"If you don't tell us, we have been authorized to detain you." Thias said, smiling unpleasantly.

"But I have to get home." Draco pointed out. "It's not safe for me to be wandering around, and all that rot." He was really starting to enjoy this.

"Why won't you just tell us?"

"Maybe it was his boyfriend?"

Everyone looked to Harry, it had been the first time he'd said anything since they'd all been standing there.

Draco titled his head, any sign of amusement gone. "He speaks."

"Nice of you to finally notice."

Everyone but Thias started to look even more uncomfortable as Draco and Harry frowned at each other evenly. Thias was looking just short of delighted.

"What do you mean by 'finally notice'?"

"Just that for the last week of you living at the apartment, you seemed to ignore me every time I tried to say something."

"You didn't try to say anything, you tried to scream things at me. It gets tiring after awhile."

"Well, I admit that I might have been a little on edge, but I was trying to decide with you were worth the effort."

Draco's voice dropped to an even colder level. "And you found that I wasn't?"

"Something like that. I've been doing some thinking the last couple of weeks. Before, I was just confused, but now I know what I'm doing."

"Care to enlighten the rest of us?"

"Everything was so confusing, but it's all sorted. I don't feel guilty, or miserable … I think I've finally just settled for furious."

Draco crossed his arms, keeping his voice even and ignoring how most of the office was falling silent, watching them both. "And what did I do to make you so upset this time? Bought the wrong type of coffee? Talked to some guy in the street a bit too long when he asked for the time?"

Harry snarled, causing Thias to move away slightly even if he was still grinning like an idiot. "I think you know what you did."

"Actually no, for once I'm at a loss to the cause of your little temper tantrum."

Harry's frown deepened even further. "You must really think I'm dumb. What? You never thought I'd find out? Never thought that I wouldn't hear it from somewhere?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Like I said, maybe the mystery guest was your boyfriend."

"And you think that I have one because … ?"

"Your little undead friend told me all about it."

This threw Draco off slightly, being totally unexpected. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, our old acquaintance from school who now hangs around with his corpse friends, he told me all about what you got up to during the war. At first I didn't believe him, but it just sounded so much like what you do, when  thought about it." Harry smiled, looking vicious. "had another little chat with him just a few days ago. Got it all sorted out. He told me it all."

"He told you what?" Part of him was starting to panic, though Draco couldn't work out why.

"He told me about how I wasn't the only one back when you were a spy. Tried to make sure you'd have someone to run to on each side? Covered all bases so that you'd be okay, no matter how the war ended? He told me about your other companion."

Draco could see the jealousy and anger in Harry's eyes. He knew he was in trouble but tried to slip out of it anyway. "He told you what exactly?"

"Don't bother, Malfoy. I'm tired of all the shit you bring into my life. You won't get out of this one." Harry crossed his own arms, mimicking Draco's stance.

Draco found he had nothing to reply to that.

Thias looked like he was about to explode from the 'good news' patted Harry on the arm. "Are you saying that he was seeing someone else, a Death Eater, while he was with you?"

Harry nodded. "Exactly."

Draco regained his composure and forced his voice to not growl he defence out. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I think I do." Harry gave a blatantly false smile.

"And," Morgan forced a cough to clear his throat. "Who was it?" He asked, looking at Draco in concern.

Harry's smile turn into am angry sneer. "Some arsehole called Jonas Cordain."

Fear sparked in Draco's eyes, but he blinked and then it was gone. He vaguely registered than Morgan's hand had landed on his shoulder and given it a squeeze.

To Be Continued.