Scorpius had two cups of coffee in his hand with a file tucked under his arm. "Come on, Rox." He set the mug down in front of his partner who looked up beneath her cloud of hair and scowled at him.
"Why do we never get a break? Bloody Al is so busy playing musical partners we have to clean up all his messes."
"It's just paperwork," he said. "And drink the coffee, maybe you'll feel better."
"No, Merlin, Score, don't you want a life? We had to work overtime last night, come in early this morning…I was supposed to go out with Dom, but now I'm stuck in this bloody office until closing because someone had to get our overtime approved." She took a big swig of coffee before finding an elastic to hold her curls back with. Scorpius handed her the file and she took a quill out of her desk drawer, frowning the entire time she filled it out.
Scorpius busied himself with his own work, occasionally looking up at Roxie who threatened to hex him if she caught him looking at her. Their desks were directly across from each other, like all the other partners in their division. Al was the only one with an empty desk facing his. His desk looked the most lived in, though, with pictures of his family, a disaster of a mug made by Lucy from her muggle-artist days, and pictures that Stella drew him. There was even a small picture of Vince still stuck to his desk he couldn't bear to take off. He was out today as backup on a mission with another pair. It was hard to look at Al's desk, the same with Teddy's or Harry's office. Each one had a homage to family that loved and cared for them. Score didn't even have a picture of his parents, just one of him and Roxie at the division's Christmas party a year ago. He wouldn't have even had if Roxie hadn't put it on his desk herself declaring that she looked fantastic so it should stay.
"Oy, Malfoy, if I have to be working you can't be spacing off." Roxie punctuated this by throwing a piece of paper at his head.
"Sorry, just thinking."
"Dreaming about your future family? I'd offer to marry you, but I don't fancy living with you and you know Ministry policy. I'd probably be reassigned to a partner I'd curse in the first day and get stuck on probation."
"Don't be absurd," Scorpius said. "You'd last a week."
"You better have a damn good ring, hypothetically speaking."
"The best, and hypothetically speaking, you can't wear your Auror robes to the wedding. Mum would expect something traditional."
"I don't want to know." It was Harry, appearing behind Roxie's desk. "Are the two of you getting any work done?"
"Here you go, sir." Roxie gave her uncle a smirk as she passed him one of the files and then reached across to hand him a stack of Score's paper work. "Can I leave? I don't need the overtime and I'd like to actually be able to go home at a decent hour."
Harry nodded in affirmation before going to one of the other desks to collect more files. Roxie was packing up her things and letting her curls down before reaching for a tube of lipstick. "Do you want to come with?" she asked Score. "We can go to that new wizarding club I've been dying to try. If you flash your badge you get complimentary appetizers, because they think you're undercover." She grinned. "Besides, Dom going to dinner with her boyfriend since I cancelled."
"No, I still want to finish some stuff up and I told Al that I'd see that muggle movie with him if we got done about the same time."
"That lame one about the group of people that run around and save muggles?" Roxie snorted. "I guess the future Mrs. Malfoy will have to wait another night."
"If you're that dead set against going alone I'm sure Lucy or Lily would go with you."
"Lucy with Lorcan as always and little birdy told me that Lily will be busy all night."
"Working?" he asked, barely glancing up.
"No, Zabini's back in town. Honestly, she turns down every guy but him." Roxie rolls her eyes. "If he was chasing after dragons with Uncle Charlie then they'd probably have two red headed children."
Scorpius looked up to glare at her.
"Sore spot, I know." Roxie finished gathering up her stuff, slipping off her robe and waving a wand to straighten up the clothes she had beneath. She messed up her hair a bit before unbuttoning her blouse a bit lower. "I'll have to change won't I?" She scowled at her trousers. "These are a pain to transfigure." She gave patted his shoulder before disappearing in what seemed like a whirlwind.
Scorpius worked diligently as the remaining Aurors filtered out of the room. Harry was still working, he had told anybody that they were welcome to stay as Ginny was on assignment and he was using it as a chance to catch up on some back work. He'd probably find his father in his office too, him mum had been complaining about how much he had been working lately.
There was handful of people still at their stations when Al came through the door alone. He ignored everyone and went straight to his father's office. Scorpius looked up and saw him hand him a file and gesture wildly. Harry leaned back in his chair, nodded, and steepled his fingers. By the end of it, though, he was pinching the bridge of his nose and immediately reaching for the phone in his office. The one connection he had to the muggle world at the Ministry.
"Bad day?" Scorpius asked, as he watched his friend head to his desk to sit down. When he didn't respond he walked over and saw him taking deep breaths, palms flat on his desk.
"Score, I thought you'd have went home by now." His voice was quiet, eyes not meeting him.
"Roxie wanted to leave to check out this new club. She invited me, but I didn't feel like going." He shrugged his shoulders. "I was going to ask you to catch that movie with me, but I don't feel up to it now."
"She let slip that Zabini was back in town?" Al questioned, and didn't even look to see Scorpius' gesture of affirmation. "As her brother the relationship makes me cringe. At least with you I could pretend there wasn't a physical aspect."
"Thanks, mate." Scorpius rolled his eyes, an action that made Albus laughed. He may have been able to resist the action with Lily, but Roxie did it even more than her.
"I don't like to drink alone, want to come to the Phoenix with me?"
"I don't know…" It was wizarding brewery that was relatively new and situated close to the Ministry offices.
"Malfoy, you and I both know you can't cook to save your life and you've probably ordered take out the last five days."
"Three," he corrected.
"Going out to eat is slightly less pathetic, come on." Al gets to his feet and opens the drawer to take out his wallet and exchange it for his badge before depositing his robe in there. When he goes home he tries to leave every trace of Auror behind. It was something that Harry did, Scorpius knew that much. If his father came home still dressed in his robes or with a badge, something bad had happened or he was anticipating something bad to happen. Some days Al does forget his badge or something, but Scorpius can always tell how hard the day has been for his friend by how deliberate he makes this action.
Not much later the two of them are sitting at a table, each with an order of fish and chips and a pitcher of beer to split. Albus hasn't said anything since they've gotten the food, just steadily drained his glass before refilling it, stopping only for a few bites of food. The bar is busy, as always, but it's there are only a handful of good, basic bars in London that cater to solely to wizards. Sure, there are the clubs and ones that are for specific clientele, but none that you can just order a beer, sit in a booth and pay with sickles.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened or do I have to bug Boyd and Nate for the info."
"It wasn't bad, just… We've been having trouble lately with muggle-wizarding interactions. There have been spikes in magical usage around muggles and more attacks on barriers that have been used to shield the muggles from seeing our buildings." He sighed. "Dad's having a hard time, the Ministry is running on a strict separationist policy."
"And your dad's an integrationist," Scorpius finished. Lately this was a political issue that was creating the most divides, departments in the Ministry were suffering because of this ongoing debate. Separationist wanted things like they had always been, keep the wizarding world secret and magical beings away from muggles—the claimed it wasn't superiority like Voldemort and pure bloods, just the simple fact it would be hard for them to understood a whole other world and that some may try to exploit or persecute magical beings. Integrationist wanted to slowly meld the two worlds, send young children to muggle schools before shipping them off to magical boarding schools. Live in muggle neighborhoods, learn to use and understand their technology. Their end goal was creating a transparent world decades in the future.
"I hate politics, I just want to do my job, but…." He clutches his glass so tight Scorpius is glad he doesn't have some sort of heightened strength or it would be shattered by now. "Obliviating memories, that's what I did today. It doesn't get any easier and then when you see their faces you feel like such a monster."
"Merlin…" He rubs his hand over his face. Roxie and him don't do anything like that, they do investigations into dark magic, trying to puzzle things together before they send more experienced Aurors out. When they are out in the field they work with parents that have kids who are starting to show their magic, mostly muggle parents or muggle-wizard parents. "Does your dad know about?"
"Why do you think he's gone at so many meetings? He explains to people until he's blue in the face that it's exactly like Voldemort all over again. He told me that people used to be scared of just saying the name and—"
"Fear of the name increases fear of person," Scorpius recited, something his father told him years ago.
"Yeah, if this is the only contract with the muggle world we have then eventually it's going to bite us in the arse."
Scorpius didn't respond to that, just poured himself another glass of beer before Albus could finish off the pitcher. He didn't particularly like the alcohol, he hated it when his head got fuzzy, but it was better than Albus starting on a third one. "I'm going to get some water, want one?"
Albus looks up at him with a lazy grin. "You know, Roxie is right, you worry too much."
"That's a yes." He goes to the bar and leans against the counter. The bartender is at the other end making complicated drinks for three witches that look barely legal.
"You with him?" a man asks as leans against the counter besides Scorpius, head tilting in the direction of his friend. He's tall, which for Scorpius is saying something as he's probably a good head taller without the lithe build he has.
"Al? Yeah…" he answers warily and hopes this isn't some media ploy. He hasn't had issues with magazines or the press in ages, but he wouldn't put it past them to start up again because there's nothing better to report on or a story they want to bury with some sensationalized piece.
"I wouldn't peg you for his type, but it's good to see him with someone else." The man gives him an encouraging smile. "Steve, I'm—"
"Pardon me for interrupting, but I think there has been a bit of miscommunication. I came with Al here, after work, but the two of us are not together. At least not in the way I believe your implying."
"Shit, sorry man, I should have known, I mean—"
"I don't look like Vince, I know." He rolled his eyes and silently cursed Roxie after doing it.
"I just thought, I mean I saw the two of you together and…Wait, you're his friend he talks about, the other Auror."
Scorpius nodded.
"I met him through Vince, haven't seen him since the transfer."
Is that what Albus referred to it as? They didn't talk about, Scorpius had tried, like had all those years ago with Julian, like how Al had done after break up with Lily. "Go talk to him."
"Yeah, I will, but…" He gave Scorpius a smirk. "I don't know a whole lot about you, but if you'd like, I'd like to talk to you sometime."
Every part of Scorpius protested to the offer, told him to say no, but there was a tiny voice in his head that caused him to look at Steve and something that made him want to say yes. "We'll see," he responded, not knowing exactly where the words came from.
"Ask Al how to get a hold of me if you're serious." His tone had none of the playfulness it held before but a bit of confusion. Panic welled in Scorpius' chest, he probably was joking, trying to ease the tension. What the hell had come over him? "Relax, did you come to get water?" He gestured at the bartender who looked a bit pleased to get away from the witches. Scorpius had a pitcher floated to him before he could say another word.