Disclaimer: Not mine. Belongs to JKR. See earlier Disclaimers if you really care.
A/N: Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry this is late! November was a very hectic month for me in RL. I didn't even start this until yesterday Dx. Don't worry though, I never abandon fics! I'll get to writing eventually.
Chapter Eleven — July 13th
"Stupefy!"
"Locomotor Mortis!"
"Conjunctivitis!"
"Immobulus!"
"Suspensum Aperio!"
"Hey!" Harry exclaimed as he was flipped upside down by Draco's spell.
Draco smirked smugly at him, slipping his wand into its holster. "Been slacking on your duelling skills, Harry?"
Harry narrowed his eyes. "No."
"Ah, well," Draco continued. He circled Harry's upside-down body, chuckling as he did so. "I am a Malfoy after all. No one beats a Malfoy."
We'll see about that, Harry thought, Levicorpus!
Draco gave a high pitched squeal as he, too, was flipped upside-down and hung in the hair by his ankles.
"You were saying?"
Draco scowled at him. "You cheated!"
"You didn't take my wand away," Harry pointed out. "The duel doesn't end until you take my wand away and have me bound and at your mercy."
"We're partners. I don't need to bind you to win a practice duel!" Draco spluttered.
Harry leaned closer, so that his nose was nearly touching Draco's. "Maybe I want to be bound."
Draco blinked and squirmed a bit — which was quite a feat, considering his current position — and lifted a hand to hold Harry away from him. However, he once again forgot the fact that they were dangling upside down, and once he pushed Harry away, the brunet swung right back as a pendulum would, causing the two men to smash foreheads.
"Ow!"
"You boys act like children around each other," a feminine voice behind them alerted them to Hermione's presence. Two flicks of her wand and both men collapsed to the ground head first, causing her to giggle.
"Was there a reason you're in here?" Draco snapped, obviously agitated at everyone for making him look like a fool (not that he would admit that, as Harry knew).
"I'd like to remind you that if you don't want to be late for you meeting with the Chinese Minister, you better get a move on," Hermione replied, tilting her head giving them a sickly sweet smile that sent chills down Harry's spine. He wondered absently where she had learned to smirk like that. "You have, oh, just about ten minutes to get it together, no big deal."
"Fuck!" Draco's cursed before bolting out of the practice room. Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"He takes over an hour to primp his hair," Harry explained. She smirked again.
xXxXxXx
"Harry Potter! Such an honour to see you again, my boy! Come in, come in." The minister ushered them into his office. "My, my, and Draco Malfoy, yes? Wonderful family, the Malfoys. My father had the pleasure of working with your grandfather and so on and so forth. If you're anything like them, it will be a pleasure to work with you as well."
Draco gave the Minister a forced smile, not even attempting to make it look genuine. He wasn't proud of his ancestors' underhand dealings or of their views on pureblood supremacy. After all, he had supported their views as a child and look where that got him. "I'm sure it will be delightful."
This seemed to please the Minister, who gave them a grin before taking a seat behind his desk. "Please, sit." They sat. "I've called you here today just for a report on your progress, nothing big. You're welcome to stay as long you need, of course, but I do hope I'll get to witness England's best Aurors and their 'supreme efficiency', as Kingsley assured me." The Minister paused to take a sip of his tea, watching the two of them - with a rather creepy expression in his eyes, in Draco's opinion - over the rim of his mug. "Well, go on, impress me."
"We're quite close to tracking down Wyclyve and his men, sir." Harry offered as he handed a folder they had complied across the desk for the Minister to take. "We've spoken to several informants, who will remain anonymous for the time being in respect for their privacy. They've pointed us to several places Wyclyve frequented often in the past and if we can get an idea of what he's thinking, we'll be able to catch him."
"Yes, yes, of course. I have faith you'll catch him just fine," The Minister waved it off before clasping his hands together and leaning forward eagerly. "Now, about these places you mentioned—"
"Yes, um, about that…" Draco watched as Harry glanced over at him, to which Draco responded with a minute nod. The two of them had agreed to not inform the Ministry what they knew of the half-blood's hideouts, or at least not yet, since they didn't want to risk the Minister sending in an Auror raid before the Wyclyve case was closed. "I'm afraid we can't release that information just yet."
"And why not?" The Minister was frowning now, glaring reproachfully down his pointy nose. "This is my country and I will not let these hooligans put my country in Danger.
"Minister," Draco cut in smoothly, drawing the older man's attention away from Harry. "If you would allow me an explanation?"
"Yes, yes, of course," replied the Minister hurriedly, as if realizing that he wasn't being as subtle as he thought he was.
"We're working undercover," said Draco, causing the Minister's bushy black eyebrows shot up to his hairline at his bluntness. Usually, they wouldn't have revealed even these details. Kingsley understood the importance of keeping an operation secret. Besides, Harry and Draco always got good results. If they said they couldn't tell him something, they must have a good reason. However, this wasn't a normal operation, what with the being in a different country and all. They couldn't risk fouling Britain's relations with the Chinese. Draco wasn't sure just how much they could get away with not telling. "Wyclyve doesn't work out in the open and you know it. That leaves one route: infiltration from the inside. We find who's working for him, what he's planning, and that will give us where he's hiding out. And if we know where he's hiding out…" Draco trailed off, leaning back in his chair with a smirk and opening his arms in the universal 'what' motion. "I'm sure even you can guess how this will end."
The Minister fidgeted awkwardly but managed to blunder out a response, "Er…um, what a wonderful idea. I merely wanted to assist you," the Minister recovered, "My men are skilled in digging out these scoundrels. They've been trained to sniff them out, so to speak. I'll assign a team to work with you. Yes, it is so very dangerous, after all, and I don't want England to lose its best Aurors —"
"I'm sure we'll be fine, Sir," Harry cut him off, "We are England's best, as you've said?"
The Minister gave a fake cough; his face pinching in a rather disapproving way. After a moment, however, he regained his posture and smiled wickedly at the two Aurors. "Very well. If that is all, gentlemen, I must call this meeting to an end. I'm very busy, you know."
Draco gave him a cold sneer reminiscent of the one his father had given Fudge many times all those years ago and swept out of the room, Harry right by his side.
xXxXxXx
"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Harry asked as he swivelled his Yogurttime stool to look at Draco before swivelling back to refill his spoon with another scoop of Mocha-flavoured frozen yogurt.
"There's something he's not telling us," Draco murmured as he swirled his spoon among the Oreo shavings in his own cup of green apple yogurt. "I don't think we told him enough for him to form his own plans, but the Chinese Minister is a smart man. We'll have to watch what we tell him."
"Relax, Draco. It'll be fine. We're very close anyway. Hermione's looking over the profiles that Av—Phier's given us as we speak If anyone can find who the spy is, it will be her," Harry reassured him.
"Speaking of Phier, Harry, do you—"
"Have you tried this Mochi stuff? It's really good. We should get some to bring back to England. Here, have some," Harry babbled and shoved his spoon at Draco, who leaned away slowly.
"Harry, I was aski—mphh!"
Harry grinned and calmly licked the remains of yogurt off his spoon. "Good, isn't it."
"You," Draco jabbed his own spoon at Harry, "should have been in Slytherin, taking advantage of my talking to shove food in my mouth."
"I know," replied Harry.
A/N: I was going to post this last weekend, but then my computer crashed and I had to spend all week recovering my files -_- Take pity on me and leave a review, please?