Monday, September 3rd, 2001
Their first destination was the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. There, a man was perched uncomfortably on his desk, tensing slightly more as Harry and Tonks entered the room. As they walked past, he slipped a folder into Harry's proffered arm discretely, no words exchanged, and the pair continued to walk out as if nothing had happened.
They split up at the lifts, Harry and Tonks able to get in with the half dozen others heading down, while Draco under the cloaks protection took the less busy stairs. So far, so good. He arrived on the 8th floor several minutes later, having a tougher time discretely moving around the busiest level in the building, and found Harry, Hermione and Tonks talking near the Fountain of Magical Brethren, as glorious and offensive as it was before the War.
"…I do, however, owe Katie. If she hadn't shown up when she did, I would have cursed that simple minded clerk and then Azkaban would have a new occupant," muttered Hermione, earning a laugh from Harry.
"All that matters is that we have his documents. Remus should be in the cafeteria, where we should be heading right now. We'll meet you at the hospital, okay?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded and kissed his cheek, doing the same for Tonks, before leaving. "Come along then, my baby cousin isn't going to wait around for us all day. Odds are he's already at the doors, cursing under his breath," Tonks said in a low voice, linking arms with Harry.
"Also, the sooner we get there, the sooner Remus will go home. The full moon was last night but Remus insisted on getting in on this little hijinks. He's hobbling around with his cane and he'll pretend it doesn't wipe him out but I'm betting he'll be in bed for most of the week."
Draco was too distracted to follow their conversation after that, noting that no one had stopped them once to say anything to Harry Potter, savior of the wizarding world. Did they not treat him any different after defeating the Dark Lord, or had defending him and befriending his mother somehow manage to overrule all of Harry's previous accomplishments?
They arrived at the cafeteria quickly enough, Draco tapping Tonks' elbow to remind her of his presence. She held the door open for him and Harry as they entered the large dining hall, where perhaps a dozen or so were sipping late morning coffees or starting early lunches.
Perhaps here people would trip all over themselves to get a seat next to the Chosen One– but no, Harry was able to get two coffees and a piece of chocolate cake from the counter before finding Tonks and her husband at quiet corner of the room, untouched and unnoticed.
"Remus, how are you holding up?" Harry asked, sliding the cake across before the old werewolf could protest. He laughed and accepted as his wife took a sip from her coffee with eyes trained on his every move.
"I'm more stiff than sore right now, but that will come later when I stop moving," replied Remus, wincing slightly. Draco could see the way the man moved slowly and thought back to his first night out of Azkaban: sore all over, scared to move one muscle the wrong way, uncomfortable in his own body.
Why is he doing this for me?
"Suffice it to say, if you were taking what I am, you'd be laid out on the floor, drooling." Remus joked, his tired eyes sparkling.
Draco watched as the papers he needed were slid across the table, Tonks discretely tucking them into the pre-existing pile and disillusioned them. Draco had already filled out most of the questions those forms would ask on the forms required for the auror department, so transferring the answers over would be easy, and for everything else there was his impending physical, one of only two things left to do.
That this should have normally taken a full day with all the public scorn and the pernicious press, trailing after them taking photo after photo, disgusted Draco, but they were so nearly free. Then the last person they wanted to see joined them at the table, sitting directly across from Draco.
"Mr. Minister, look at you slumming it with the rest of us," Tonks joked, torn between pleased to see her friend and unhappy with his timing. Perhaps he could sense that because he looked around the group, trying to make sense of their purpose. "Remus, you're around and about earlier than usual."
Remus coughed into his one hand and lifted his cane with the other, saying "I'm not without my aches, but apparently I missed the deadline with my annual health reports, so I came in to grab my forms." Kingsley discretely peeked down, checked and was pleased to see that Remus did indeed have his annual lycanthrope paperwork in front of him.
"I'm glad to see you're submitting the forms, Remus. It's excessive but if it means letting lycanthopes work at the Ministry and receive some benefits, it's worth it, right?" Kingsley asked rhetorically, not for the first time. Remus, as he knew, was a staunch opponent of the abusively invasive paperwork, but doing it made Dora's life easier, meant he could work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and today of all days, it actually worked out in their general favor. As such, he simply nodded and took another bite of his cake.
Kingsley nodded in return and looked around the now silent group. He caught Harry's eye, despite Harry's best effort, and went into politician mode.
"I imagine you saw this morning's paper," he began, prepared to go into a well rehearsed defence of the decision. The Ministry was under immense pressure to turn the decision by the Wizengamot to tie Draco Malfoy to whoever sponsored him as a positive thing, rehabilitation over punishment, atoning for past sins, while somehow also showing how far the Malfoy's have fallen from grace and participate in the public shaming part of the exercise. Of course, Kingsley had no intention of mentioning that.
"Of course. Hermione was pretty put out by it, but there's not much for it. Draco will be here tomorrow morning for his first day on the job all the same," Harry said, choosing his words carefully while keeping his voice casual. Kingsley nodded and exhaled, grateful he wouldn't get much opposition from Harry over it.
But Harry wasn't done speaking, and while it went against the plan to say anything, it was something that very much needed to be said. "That's not to say we're okay with it though, Kings. He's a fucking human and you're giving the world permission to treat him like an animal. We won't make it easy for you from here on out."
Kingsley locked eyes with Harry, unhappy to be butting heads again, but said nothing. He had challenged Harry in the past and vice versa, when laws came up for votes and when it came to Draco Malfoy. Despite that, though, they were friends.
"I should head back to my office," he said instead, opting for neutrality. He smiled and nodding to Tonks and Remus and took his leave. Despite agreeing with Harry, he knew Hermione and knew this wouldn't stand with the witch. He hated to check, but if they were up to something, it was better he cut it off now before it was too late.
"Do you think he suspects anything?" Draco asked after the Minister left, noticing the shifting looks between Tonks and Harry. The latter nodded and without a word stood up. The rest of the table followed, Remus the slowest.
"C'mon, we should head straight for the Records department. We can deposit all of this and then go straight to St. Mungo's," Harry whispered, waving his wand over the pile to have the information on the forms Remus had supplied them fill themselves out as he tucked them under his arm. "We might have fifteen minutes before Kingsley figures us out."
Draco nodded and followed Harry, who led the way out of the cafeteria. Thankfully the atrium was less busy as the late morning types disappeared and the lunch rush was yet to begin. They made it to the fifth floor without any interruptions or delays and found a witch waiting at the reception desk with no one in their way.
"Penelope, how are you?" Harry asked, walking up to the desk. Draco hung at his side, waiting for his cue to reveal himself.
"Hello, Harry! I'm well, and yourself?" She asked, smiling up at the young Gryffindor she fondly remembered from their years at Hogwarts. He had killed the basilisk that had petrified her, so as far as she was concerned, he was the Boy Who Could Do No Wrong. "Oh you know, just rebelling against the system. My usual," Harry joked, reaching out and pulling his invisibility cloak off of Draco.
Penelope covered her mouth to try and muffle her gasp of surprise, making Harry smile that endearing boyish grin he used when he expected someone was about to be mad at him. "We have all of his paperwork to start with the Ministry right here. Would you mind filing these for us?"
Penelope glared at Harry, not amused that she was being brought into whatever he was up to, but sighed and accepted the paperwork. "You owe me one," she muttered, smiling when Harry nodded and gave her another smile. Penelope cracked a small smile in return and shooed the two wizards away, turning and bringing Draco's paperwork to the backroom to be properly filed.
"Now, back to the atrium and so we can floo to St. Mungo's, best to put the cloak–" but Harry didn't get to finish his sentence before flashing lights blinded both men and recorders were shoved into their faces. Without noticing, they were swarmed by reporters as they entered the atrium, questions about 'why they were working behind the Ministry's back' and 'were they worried Draco could be sent back to Azkaban for this' and 'did Harry do this because he is ashamed to be seen with Draco' being shouted at them from every direction.
Harry, having none of this, grabbed Draco's arm and Apparated away with the loudest crack he could manage. They arrived at the Apparation point across the road from the hospital but as they crossed the street and made to enter, reporters that had been camped out encircled them and demanded many of the same questions the pair had just been assaulted by, photos being taken with bright flashing lights, hands grabbing at them to try and stop them from trying to push their way through.
In retaliation, it seemed Kingsley had given the press free reign to make up for their PR loss. Harry didn't blame him, but the bruises forming on his arms were not exactly appreciated either.
The two pushed through to the front doors, where security guards prevented the onslaught from continuing. Once inside, Hermione pounced on them, her face flushed with anxiety and the worry lines around her eyes evident.
"I tried to have them removed from the premises entirely but the best I could do was to keep them out of the hospital proper. If you could have flooed in you would have avoided them entirely, but I'm guessing you didn't make it out of the Ministry unscathed," Hermione said, talking herself into a tizzy as she accurately guessed what had transpired over the past few whirlwind minutes.
"Don't worry, Hermione. Nothing but a few fingertip sized bruises." Harry joked, kissing her forehead and waving to the doctor standing ten or so feet away waiting for his signal to join the conversation.
With Draco securely inside the hospital, they could finish the examination and while it was a minor win at best, it was a sign to the Ministry and the Wizengamot that they didn't plan to make their planned abuse of Draco any easier.