AUTHOR'S NOTE: I cross-post here (FFN), Archive Of Our Own (AO3), and Wattpad as alexanderavery998. If you find my fics anywhere else, please let me know, because that means they have been stolen and reposted without my permission.
This fic came into being after I asked myself, "What if the Elder Wand's power didn't die?" The following is the spontaneous and winding result. Enjoy!
~ CHAPTER ONE ~
For the first time in months, Harry was looking forward to a date with Ginny.
Harry shrugged a dress shirt over his shoulders, examining his reflection in the mirror. The pale blue looked good against his brown skin, but he wasn't sure if it went with his tie. Besides, Ginny would be expecting him to dress much nicer than he usually did. He tossed the shirt onto his bed and picked up one that was dark purple silk with ivory buttons. It was the nicest shirt he owned, a birthday present from Hermione. Harry pulled it on and threw the red tie haphazardly around his shoulders. Sometimes it felt as though he and Ginny never had time for each other; he was busy with Auror duties, while Ginny was frequently away with the Holyhead Harpies. However, tonight was going to change that. They had made dinner reservations at the Shooting Star in wizarding London, and Harry was ready to reconnect with her.
He was halfway through buttoning up the shirt when the doorbell rang. He turned to look at the alarm clock on his bedside table, frowning slightly. Ginny was half an hour early.
He hurried down the narrow hallway towards the front door, checking his watch. This was rather unusual behaviour for her. The Weasleys were known for their tendency to skirt the edge of being late, and Ginny was no exception. The earliest he'd ever seen her arrive anywhere was two minutes early, and that was for the most important Quidditch match of the season.
Harry opened the front door, but it wasn't Ginny.
It was Malfoy.
Draco Malfoy was the last person Harry was expecting to see. They ran into each other occasionally in wizarding London or at the Ministry, but they rarely gave each other more than a curt nod. The last time they'd spoken was after Malfoy's trial; Malfoy had apologised and thanked him for testifying. Then they had shaken hands and parted ways. Harry had assumed that that was as far as their reconciliation would go. Malfoy had gotten a Ministry job in the same department but on the other side of the building, and that was that. They hadn't spoken since. So what was Malfoy doing on his doorstep?
"Malfoy?" Harry said incredulously.
Malfoy gave him a curt nod. "Potter."
He looked very different than he had after the war; he had grown out his white-blond hair, now twisted into a neat knot on top of his head, and his pale skin was no longer sickly. The dark circles under his eyes were less pronounced and he had filled out some, leaving his features less pointy and his body frame less fragile. He almost looked handsome, if such a thing were possible.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.
Malfoy tipped his head slightly, looking amused. "Your manners are as poor as ever, I see. Aren't you going to say hello or invite me in?"
"I didn't hear you say hello," Harry said, irritated.
Instead of responding, Malfoy's eyes strayed to Harry's half-buttoned dress shirt and the dark red tie draped around his shoulders. "Don't tell me you're actually planning on wearing those together?" he said after a beat.
"Look," Harry said, losing his patience, "I have a date with Ginny in less than half an hour, so if you're not going to explain what you want, I'm closing the door in your face."
"Relax, Potter, I'm not here to ruin your date with the Weaslette." Malfoy's eyes drifted back to Harry's face and he smirked. "Although I'm sure your untimely demise would be quite the date-ruiner, wouldn't you agree?"
"If you're planning on murdering me, Malfoy, I'd suggest not warning me first," Harry said drily.
Malfoy snorted. "Look, I'm not kidding about the untimely demise part, but I'm here to stop it from happening. Will you please just let me come in and explain? Then you can decide whether you still want to go on your date with the Weaslette or not."
"I'm going on this date with Ginny regardless of what you have to tell me," Harry said firmly. "We planned it weeks ago."
"Fine, whatever," Malfoy said, waving it away. "Does that mean I can come in?"
"I suppose you're not leaving me the choice to say no?"
Malfoy smirked broadly. "Wow, Potter, you're awfully observant today."
He pushed his way past Harry into the entrance hall. Then he strode into the living room and sat down on the couch. He looked very out of place in Harry's messy flat, wearing perfectly-tailored black dress robes and black dress boots.
"Please, make yourself at home," Harry said sarcastically, following Malfoy into the living room.
Malfoy ignored him. "Merlin, Potter, you are in desperate need of a house-elf," he said, wrinkling his nose at the sloppy pile of books and papers on the coffee table.
"Hey, I have Kreacher!" Harry protested. "He just prefers to stay at Grimmauld Place. Besides, I don't mind a little clutter. My Muggle aunt was a clean freak and I'd rather not follow her example."
Malfoy tipped his head but didn't say anything. Harry shifted in place before sitting down in a chair next to the couch.
"So? What is it you wanted to tell me?" he asked. "Ginny will be here soon, so let's make this quick."
Malfoy continued to scrutinise him. After a long pause, he said, "Do you know where the Elder Wand is?"
Whatever Harry had been expecting, it wasn't that.
"What? Of course I do," he said, taken aback.
"Do you?" was Malfoy's response.
"Well, yeah," Harry spluttered. "It's where I last put it. But if this is some stupid trick to get me to tell you where it is, then —"
But before Harry could finish his sentence, Malfoy pulled the Elder Wand out of his inner robes pocket and raised his eyebrows at him.
Harry leapt to his feet. "Malfoy, what the hell?!"
"Relax, Potter," Malfoy said calmly, holding the wand out to him. "It hasn't switched loyalties. I took it with the intention of giving it to you, not of taking it from you, so it's still your wand."
Harry snatched it out of his hand. Malfoy was right; Harry could feel the same power pulsing through the wand that he remembered when he had first held it, so it hadn't switched allegiances.
"B-but...how did you...? Malfoy, you have thirty seconds to explain yourself before I kick you out on your arse!"
Malfoy held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, Merlin, calm down. I had to take the wand to prevent somebody less desirable from snatching it. Although the Ministry has rounded up most of the Death Eaters, there are still a few unaccounted for, and they're spreading their rhetoric to the younger generations. I'm sure you've heard about the trouble we've had lately with the so-called Neo-Death Eaters?"
"Yes, yes, I work at the Ministry, too, you know," Harry said impatiently. "That still doesn't explain why you broke into Dumbledore's grave and stole the Elder Wand! It doesn't even belong to you!"
"Eh, that's a minor detail," Malfoy said, waving it away. "What I want to know is why you thought it was a good idea to place the world's most powerful wand in an unprotected grave! Were you trying to get it stolen?"
"Well, it was fine until you came along," Harry said drily.
Malfoy shook his head slowly. "I take back what I said about you being observant," he said. "It must've been an anomaly."
"Look, Malfoy, let's get to the point, shall we?"
"The point," Malfoy said testily, "is that the Neo-Death Eaters believe they can rise again if they gain possession of the Deathly Hallows, and you foolishly left the Elder Wand completely unprotected. I saved it just in time." He leaned down and rolled up the hem of his robes, revealing a very nasty bruise on his left leg. "They certainly weren't happy to have their plans foiled by an ex-Death Eater. They nearly cost me a limb before I hexed them into oblivion."
Harry winced as Malfoy dropped his robes.
"Well, it's a good thing you got there in time," he said reluctantly. "But how did you know where to look for the Elder Wand?"
"Granger," Malfoy said promptly. "I went to her as soon as I thought the Elder Wand might be in danger. Once I convinced her to release me from a Full-Body Bind, she seemed happy to help."
Harry snorted. That sounded just like Hermione. "But how did you know that the Elder Wand would be in danger?"
Malfoy smirked, looking very proud of himself. "A couple months ago, I hooked Minister Kingsley up with a buddy of mine who was willing to go undercover as a spy in the Neo-Death Eater movement. You remember Theodore Nott? Yeah, he brought us the intel yesterday afternoon."
"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Harry said, feeling more than slightly annoyed. "I'm the owner of all three Deathly Hallows! I should've been informed!"
Malfoy shrugged and leaned back into the couch.
"You're informed now," he said unhelpfully.
It took everything in Harry's power not to snap at him. He took off his glasses and massaged his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
"Blimey," he said finally. "So where does the 'untimely death' part come into play?"
"Ah, I thought you'd never ask," Malfoy said. "Now that you're in physical possession of the Elder Wand, you're in direct danger of being murdered in your sleep. Congratulations!"
"Great," Harry muttered. "Just what I needed."
"Oh, and one more thing," Malfoy said carelessly, putting his hands behind his head. "I've been assigned to be your bodyguard. So your insistence that I leave before the Weaslette gets here? That'll be a slight problem."