By Ange Black
Disclaimer: I own don't Harry Potter or Phantom of the Opera, although I do own all characters and publications of my creation.
"Fear can turn to love - you'll learn to see,
to find the man behind the monster: this ...
repulsive carcass, who seems a beast, but secretly dreams of beauty, secretly, secretly…"
-I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt it
Phantom of the Opera
Chapter Six:
"I told you Potter." Draco Malfoy said in a tired drawl. "Blaise wasn't serious, he was just joking about some book he read."
Draco Malfoy was tired, very tired. He had woken up 8 o' clock yesterday morning to go to work and had been up all night answering questions from various Aurors. Finally, a few hours ago, his least favourite person in the world had shown up, Harry Potter, head of the Auror department of the Minstry of Magic. All of his friends all of his friends had been able to go home about twenty minutes after they had been unceremonyly dragged in to the Minstry of Magic for questioning in a small room with an overly large mirror. Draco was pretty sure that there were people watching behind it.
Harry Potter was also very tried. He had been up almost the whole night worried sick about one of his best friends. Then, he had been called in to the office on a Sunday morning to question her groom to be on the account of plotted murder. It had been a great start for his week off.
Harry stood up from his chair across from Malfoy and paced. His eyes slid from Barb Ellis, who was yawning and reading a newspaper, to Draco Malfoy.
"Malfoy," he repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. "We know that the phrase was not used in that cannon. Barb, anything yet?"
Barb Ellis was a tall, bony woman with frizzy pepped hair who wore bronze coloured robes. She was a kind, but sharp when needed, type of woman, and very much like Harry's mother in law. A year behind Harry in Hogwarts (who often wore her Hufflepuff Prefect's pin to casual Fridays), Barb often played the role of "Good Cop" when she helped to question people.
"I don't think the arrest was reported." Barb responded "But I should keep looking."
"What do you MEAN "the arrest"? Draco questioned angrily. "THIS DOESN'T COUNT AS ARREST! DOES IT?"
Harry shook his head.
"Listen, Barb, why don't you go take a coffee brake? We've been at this for hours. Oh, and please get me some tea. Thanks." Harry said.
Barb nodded with a smile and headed toward the door, when she opened it, Draco said quite loudly: "And get me a coffee! Black!"
After Barb had left the room, Harry sat right back down with his "Bad Cop" face on.
"Listen Malfoy." Harry said with a hint of dislike. "Just GIVE me the memory, okay? I know you haven't gotten any sleep, and…"
"Unlike you." Draco whispered under his breath. Harry ignored this comment.
"And, it will just be easier for the both of us. It will take a few hours for me to get the warrant, so I'll get the memory anyway."
"Fine." Draco said, giving in. "Just get me back my wand and a bottle."
Harry left the room, and a few moments later, Draco could hear some congratulatory remarks coming from the other side of the one-way mirror. Harry burst in to the room a few minutes later with two other people, Barb Ellis and a Hit-Wizard whose name was unknown to him.
"Here." Said Harry, handing him a bottle and his wand. "And don't try anything funny, I've got back up in here and there's a full guard in the hallway.
Draco put his head with his wand and muttered an incantation. He then pulled the memory, in from of a silvery string, out of his head and put it in the bottle. Harry picked it up, corked it, and motioned to Draco that he way free to go. Ellis, Harry and the Hit-Wizard left the room, leaving Draco to exit the room on his own.
After taking his wand off the table, Draco walked out of the door and walked in to the Auror Department of the Minstry of Magic. While he passed Potter's office, he noticed that there was a crack in the door and that Potter and Barb Ellis were having a conversation.
"So, Potter." Said Barb Ellis. "How the family?"
Harry handed her a frame with a picture of the Weasley and Potter families last summer at the Burrow. The picture also included Hermione and Ted.
"Pretty good." Harry replied. "The in-laws are staying for the week, which is why I asked for some off time."
"Oh." Barb said. "They look pretty nice though."
"Yeah, they are." Harry said. "I've known Molly since I was eleven, helped me with the Hogwarts station barrier and everything, she's almost like a mother. Plus her youngest son, Ginny's brother, is one of my best friends."
"Ron right?" Barb asked. Harry nodded while he took a sip of tea. "Who's that guy next to Hermione Granger who isn't moving?"
"That's Ted Gates, Hermione's boyfriend." He said. Barb still looked puzzled.
"Oh, he's a Muggle." Harry explained. Barb nodded her head.
"Oh, yes." Barb said. "But why would she want to date a Muggle? Magical Messenger says that Victor Krum still likes her."
(A/N: Magical Messenger is kind of like Star Magazine.)
"They fell in love." Harry said in defense for his friend. "And besides, you can never quite trust those tabloids, especially when Rita Skeeter is the editor. No, Victor and Hermione are just friends now. Plus Victor's also gotten himself a beau."
"Really?" asked Barb, sounding interested. Barb was somewhat of an Aunt Petunia, she was very noisy.
"Yes. Well, I must get going." Harry said, checking his golden wristwatch. "Molly and Arthur arrive in an hour and I'm pretty sure the house is in an uproar."
Barb laughed.
"Yes, I must get off to my brode as well, they all must be starving! Bye!" Draco heard a loud pop and knew that Ellis must have Dissipated. Then, hearing footsteps toward the door, Draco walked quickly toward the front desk, where his coat, dragon skin boots and earring had been detained.
The girl at the desk seemed bored and had buried herself behind the latest Teen Witch with a picture of Gideon Crumb on the cover.
(A/N: Teen Witch is kind of like Seventeen.)
'Obviously an intern.' Draco thought to himself. He had to clear his throat two or three times before she noticed that Draco was there. She put down her magazine down on her desk and rolled her eyes. She still had curlers in her blonde hair.
"What you want?" she asked with out looking up.
"Um, I was taken in for questioning and my some of my stuff was confiscated…" Draco said.
"Name?" She asked rudely. Draco sighed.
"Draco Malfoy." The girl opened up the drawer next to her with the letter D in it and began to rummage through it.
"Nope, nothing under Draco. Sorry." The girl picked her magazine back up and popped her bubble gum.
"Rachel." Came a voice behind Draco. "Try the "M" drawer, please."
Rachel looked up from her magazine and sat up stright immediately.
"Yes, sir!" she exclaimed. She went to the "M" drawer, pulled out Draco's trench coat and Dragon hide boots and then handed them to Draco.
"Here you go sir." She said. "Have an nice day."
"Thanks." Said Draco. 'For nothing.'
Draco turned around to leave the offices, but Harry Potter stood before him in the doorway.
"Sorry about Rachel." Said Harry. "She's an intern from Hogwarts. Doesn't know the ropes yet."
"Oh." Draco said sarcastically. "Hadn't noticed."
Harry sniffed. His plan to make nice hadn't worked as well as he planed.
"Listen, um, about Hermione…"
"What about Granger?" Draco asked. He was pretty peeved at Potter. First he had been pestering him with questions, now he reminding Draco about his "fiancée".
"What are you going to do about the marriage thing? I mean, I KNOW for a fact that the both of you don't like this arrangement."
Draco sighed; he had known that this was coming.
"I don't know. Tell her I'll owl her or something."
Harry bit his lip and nodded.
"Fine. I will." Harry said as he walked in to an open lift backwards. Draco shrugged at Potter and waited for the next lift to come. He didn't want to deal with an awkward silence.
After waiting a few seconds, the lift next to the one Potter had gone down opened and Draco ran in and took it down to the Atrium to Floo home. After the night he had had, he didn't feel like being shoved up a pipe. As he strode in to the Atrium, he caught a glimpse of a woman who he thought was Pansy. As it turned out, it was Pansy.
"Pansy!" he yelled across the hall. "Pansy!"
Pansy looked up from the paperwork she was doing and quickly turned back around. Draco signed, threw his Floo powder in to the fireplace he was next to, walked in to it and said "Malfoy residence, London."
