Thank you YetiBettyFoufetti for looking over this chapter as well!

Chapter Text

"Next question."

The crowd turned to face Ulmer as a murmur of discontent rose up in the packed room. Amongst the different voices fighting to make themselves heard Draco was able to pick up a few words that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up: "... the people have a right to know…"; "... a Dark Wizard…"; "... in these unprecedented times…"

One wizard stood up and pointed his finger at him, saying something Draco couldn't make out over the hubbub and Blaise murmuring in his ear "Stay calm. It's nothing."

"Silence!" Ulmer's voice filled the entire room. The whispers stopped abruptly. A witch from the Diagon Times asked a question about Cole's wife and the press conference was back on track. Draco didn't dare move from where he stood, afraid that if he lost the contact with the wall he was learning on he might lose contact with reality altogether.

"It was nothing, you see?" Blaise asked while his quill wrote down Ulmer's answer by itself. The artificial easygoingness in his tone didn't fool Draco. Ron and Harry were whispering to each other behind Ulmer's back.

Nobody said a word in the lift. He was the last one to get out and follow the others into the meeting room. As he closed the door behind him and took his usual seat at the large, oval table he could tell everybody avoided meeting his eyes.

"Well, that was a shitshow," Conrad said next to him.

"Yeah," Ron said dazedly, one seat over. "It was."

"This whole situation is a shitshow," Christopher offered. "We should have-"

"Oh, shut it, Christopher. Nobody cares what you think we should have done. What's done is done. We have a situation on our hands and we need to deal with it," Conrad erupted.

"Indeed," Ulmer said pensively, chin resting on his hands. "In any case," he continued, letting himself fall back on the backrest of his chair, "We need to continue at top speed. The sooner we find the faction responsible for this attack, the sooner the people will recover from the shock. Ah, and Malfoy, you should prepare an alibi for Thursday morning. And for Wednesday night, just to be sure. If you have one."

Draco was about to open his mouth - he did have one, of course, and he'd give it right away - when multiple things happened at the same time. He took notice of each individually, as if time itself had slowed down. First, he saw Ron standing up out of the corner of his eye and felt the reverberation of the table as he slammed his fists into it. Next to him, Conrad tensed up. On the other side of the table, Harry was already on his feet, pointing a finger dangerously at Ulmer.

"Are you insane?" Harry's voice traveled all the way to him and suddenly everything was happening way too fast. "He's not a suspect!"

"How dare you ask that?" Ron demanded angrily.

"I'm not saying he did it. We need to appease the people-"

"You should have appeased the people five minutes ago when you were asked about it! Instead of making it worse by refusing to answer!"

"You will not talk to me like that, Weasley! Just because I let you run the department like you wish doesn't mean you've got the supreme power here!"

"I have an alibi," Draco intervened, leaning forward. His words were drowned up by the screaming match taking place between the three men.

"... two weeks after having me endorse Fudge you dare…"

"... had enough of this…"

"... you are both out of line…"

"I have an alibi!" he repeated, shouting this time. The three men turned to look at him as if they had forgotten he was there.

"Out of the question," Harry said briskly. "You're not giving out alibis as if you were a suspect."

"Merlin, Malfoy isn't taking it personally. Why are you?"

"It's about the principle of it," said Ron. "He's our colleague. You should have taken his side this morning."

"He's got the skills, he's got a criminal record. What do you want me to do? Let him prove it with-"

"He. Has. Nothing. To. Prove!" Harry shouted. "He's not a suspect!"

Draco raised himself up, ready to demand Harry to stop - this was getting out of hand and he didn't see how an intradepartmental fight could help anybody - when he felt Conrad's hand on his shoulder. The man shook his head. "Let them deal with it, mate."

There was something in his tone of voice that made Draco stand back down while the shouting continued over his head.

"I will not be seen taking the side of a former convict-"

"But you have no problem taking the side of the politician responsible for the last war, do you, Ulmer? Lining your pockets with his money?"

"Potter, you're crossing a line you don't want to cross."

"I think you will find I don't give a shit about your imaginary line, Ulmer."

"Potter…"

"You had no trouble being Lucius's lapdog when it suited your pockets either, did you?"

All the color drained simultaneously from Draco's and Ulmer's face as the latter erupted: "Enough of this. Everybody, out!"

The ten or so quiet spectators promptly hurried towards the exit, stepping on each other in their rush to get away from there. "You too, Malfoy," he screamed at Draco who, still frozen in place by Harry's words, hadn't moved. He stood up immediately.

"He can stay if he wants to," Harry retorted, but Draco didn't turn back.

"Jesus," said Conrad when Draco joined him in the open space, just outside the meeting room. They both stared at the closed door, through which they could still clearly hear Ulmer and Harry's raised voices. "What a mess."

Back in his office it took Draco a couple of minutes to remember what he was doing before stopping to attend the press conference - cross referencing moon cycles with brewing time. He got back to the cumbersome work, determined to make some sort of progress.

He was still at it, struggling to keep his mind on task, when Harry burst into his office. Even though he had had more than one hour to calm down - what could have possibly been fighting about for so long? - he could still feel the anger throbbing in his veins. He didn't look up, praying that Harry would just turn around and leave before they'd start fighting again. Instead, Harry started speaking, explaining things Draco was in no mood to listen to. He didn't even wait for him to finish before lashing out.

"What's wrong with you? Do you know how difficult Ulmer can make my life? How difficult he's already making it, without you and Ron using me as an excuse to have a go at him?"

Harry stared at him from behind his desk, taken aback. "Draco, he had no right to ask you for an alibi."

"Of course he had a right to, Harry! Of course he had a right. I would have done the same in his position."

"No, he didn't," he stressed, circling the desk to get to Draco. Draco backed away, leaving his chair.

"Didn't you hear the people downstairs? It's already on everybody's mind. Ulmer wanted me to prove-"

"Draco, half of the people in the room were angry at the wizard who'd asked that question. Surely you heard that." Draco stared blankly into space. "You do know most people - me included - believe your trial was a sham? For fuck's sake, they didn't even let me testify."

"My trial was not a sham," he exclaimed, the force behind his words stopping Harry in his tracks. "I plead guilty. I am guilty."

"Jesus," Harry exclaimed, rubbing his temples. "You really do - Jesus."

"And did you really have to bring my father into it? I told you those things in confidence. He's never going to get over that."

"Draco… Ulmer can't do anything to you."

"Of course he can do things to me, Harry! It's only you who can walk around the Ministry doing whatever you please. The rest of us have rules to follow and bosses to report to."

"I won't let him do anything to you. He's writing up a statement right now to make up for his blunder at the press conference. He'll never put you in that position again, I promise."

"Is this what this is about?" Draco shouted, not believing his ears. "You, getting to play the hero again?"

"Of course not. That's not what I was doing-"

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" he scoffed. "You just have to save everyone all the time, don't you?"

A flush went out Harry's neck. He crossed his arms. "So what if I do? What's wrong with that?"

"I don't need you to protect me!"

"Will you quit being so goddamn proud? If it's in my power to protect you, why shouldn't I?"

"You don't have to protect everybody, all the time."

"You're not everybody. You took care of me. Why can't I take care of you!"

"It's not the same thing."

"How is it not?"

"It just isn't!" he shouted, all too aware of how tense his muscles were getting. He crossed the office with a long stride, trying to hide his incipient tremor from Harry, and made for the sink at the far corner of the room. He started washing some random dirty vials Ana had left behind that morning. Cold water always helped.

Harry followed him. "What are you doing? Will you leave the goddamn dishes?"

"Look, we both have a lot of work to do. Let's just-"

Coming to a halt next to him, Harry turned off the tap. "Are you shaking?"

"I'm just tired."

Harry grabbed one of his hands. "Draco. Look at me." Instead of complying, Draco broke free of his grip and turned his back at him, putting his hands in his pockets. "Draco."

"I need to get back to work. You too, I imagine." He couldn't hear any sound coming from where Harry was standing and he didn't dare look back. It felt like a long time passed until Harry spoke again.

"Please," Harry pleaded. "Please, Draco. Don't shut me out. I won't know how to deal with it. I'll screw everything up again."

"You always shut me out," Draco retorted with pettiness.

"I know. I know I do." He could hear Harry's footsteps, coming towards him. His arms reached around his waist and he buried his face in his back. "I know I'm a mess. But you can't do the same. I'll go crazy."

"That's hardly fair, isn't it?" he said, letting out a hollow chuckle.

"I'm in love with you, Draco." Draco felt Harry's arms tightening around him, his whole body pressing against his. "I've been in love with you ever since those months we spent together."

"Harry… "

"I never stopped thinking about you. I still dreamt about you six years after you left. I'm sorry I can't explain it better than that. I'm sorry I don't have the words to tell you all the things I love about you. I'm sorry I didn't say it to you two nights ago. But please, don't shut me out again."

Draco broke free of Harry's embrace. He turned towards him. "Harry. You can't do that to me."

Harry looked around, as if Draco might have been speaking to someone else. "Do what, Draco?"

"You can't start saying things like that to me, Harry. Not unless you-"

Harry opened his mouth in disbelief. "You don't believe me, is that it?" he blurted, backing away. "You actually don't believe me," he repeated, bewildered.

"It's not that I don't believe you. I'm - It's… just..." he stuttered, still shellshocked by Harry's words.

"Just what?" Harry started pacing up and down behind Draco's work table, as if trying to come up with a new lead for a case. "What else do you want me to do to prove it to you? My actions aren't good enough, my words aren't good enough- "

"It's just- You never accepted what I've done-"

Harry stopped pacing, came towards Draco and grabbed his arm. Pressed down on his Mark and looked him straight in the eyes. "If you're talking about this god damn thing again, Draco, I swear I'm going to lose it."

"Yes, I'm talking about this. What will happen when you'll realize I actually did all of those things?"

"Draco! How can you- ! Jesus!"

He let go of Draco's hand just as the door opened and Conrad came into the office. He took them in for a second: Draco, grabbing his own arm as if he was hurt and Harry inches away from him. "Alright there, Harry? Did you survive the fight with Ulmer?"

Harry mumbled something about it sounding worse than it actually was.

"Great. I'm just back from St. Mungo's. The team there thinks they're close to a cure and would love your input, Draco. I said I'll bring you around if you're free."

Draco turned back to look at Harry. It didn't feel right, stopping in the middle of this conversation.

"Go," Harry said, reading his thoughts. "We'll finish this later."

"Harry…" He made to leave, but Draco grabbed his arm desperately. "You know I feel the same."

Harry's eyes settled on his. All the muddled up feelings seemed to have cleared off and all that was left was a quiet, placid determination. "I don't, actually. You left. You got married. You were doing just fine without me."

"OK," Conrad said awkwardly, turning on his heels and heading towards the door. "I'll tell them you were busy."

"No," Harry commanded, getting to the door before him. "He's coming."