Chapter Text
Draco had had half an hour to come to terms with what Mrs. Perkins had explained right after Potter had taken his place beside his school rival in disguise. Namely, that the ministry had adopted a new buddy system for their Auror training. They would pair newcomers up with the ones further along their apprenticeship to have them benefit from each other.
Teaming up the third-years with the first-years gave them a chance to take on some responsibility, training to work in a leading position. Having someone pester them 24/7 would also help them refresh old topics for their final exams at the end of this year.
The newcomers on the other hand would get a chance to partake in missions, very basic, hard to mess up missions mind you, right from the get go. No months spend locked up behind ministry doors, learning about bewitched cutlery and secret potions gone wrong.
In theory, Draco believed this to be a very well thought out system with lots of benefits, especially because they would be asigned an additional mentor for when they would be unsure or get stuck on a case.
He just couldn’t bring himself to think the same after it had sunk in that he would, in fact, be pairing with Potter. For two. Whole. Years. Until he was in his third year himself and would get to choose a partner of his own.
Someone out there, pulling the strings of the universe, really had it in for him.
Luckily enough, Draco had already learned all the spells that let you check another person or object for dark magic and any sort of incantations that alter their appearance.
Mrs. Perkins had taken the time Draco had spent on freaking out, to demonstrate them all on poor Will. Now, Draco found himself standing right in front of Potter, being expected to perform them on the man and vice versa.
Draco would really admire this unexpected, hands-on approach of teaching, if the possibility of getting found out wasn’t scaring the wits out of him.
He had to admit, albeit reluctantly, that his scar-headed childhood nemesis had recently become quite capable at a lot of their former school subjects. Once he and his sidekicks had actually stopped doing forbidden things all night and gotten a decent amount of sleep and study time, Potters marks during their eighth year had increased from barely average to acceptable, especially in those subjects he already had a natural talent for.
Casting spells of any sort just so happened to be one of them.
Mrs. Perkins was making her rounds, watching one pair after another perform their task. Correcting a little mistake in pronunciation or wand movement every now and then. Sometimes pausing to explain a spell all over again.
Draco quite enjoyed a purple-faced Weasley being asked to perform the same variation of Revelio over and over for the last 5 minutes. Oblivious to the fact that his raised pinkie was the only reason his detection spell kept making parts of his victims clothing invisible instead.
“You caught all the spells we are meant to perform on each other?”, his, urgh, partner quietly whispered to him.
“I am quite capable to perform some sixth-year magic, thank you Potter”, Draco snarled back indignantly. Who did that git take him for? He might not always have used his magic for the right cause, but bad judgement calls didn’t mean he was incapable altogether.
“Okay, take it easy on me, please. I was just wondering because you seemed absent during her explanations. And I really don’t wanna end up like the poor sod.” Potter made a head movement in Weasleys general direction, where his partner desperately tried to cover himself up in front of a sniggering crowd of onlookers and their instructor. Merlin was Draco glad that he wasn’t the bastard having all the bad luck for a change.
Looking back over at the man beside him, he was still giving Draco a lopsided smile. Seemingly unbothered by the hostile answer and his new partners behaviour in general.
Since when did Potter try and diffuse the tension between them? Since when did he bother to talk to Draco at all, the Malfoy heir wondered.
It irritated him beyond belief, both the determination to have an actual civil conversation and the polite willingness to be helpful.
Draco was wondering if that toilet had sucked him into a parallel universe or something, until he remembered, that Potter had not been civil or helpful to him at all. He had been talking to and smiling at who he thought to be Dylan.
The saviour of the wizarding world would probably not be caught dead, nonchalantly conversing with the likes of a Malfoy.
A tiny voice in the back of his head reminded Draco about the time Potter had shown up at his trial, knocking everyone off of their high, prejudiced horses by unexpectedly taking his side. Not only had the man he had plotted against spoken up for him, but for his mother as well.
But Draco wasn’t going to go there. He was going to keep it simple. Professional distance, work relationship, no psychoanalysis and tearful reunions and coming to terms with his past.
And definitely no friendly feelings.
The man had a talent for finding out your darkest secrets, had been unable to keep his nose in his business before he learned how to cast his first spell. Draco was not going to give Potter a reason to do some research about his alter ego.
So, he decided that he should try again. Start over with the man still waiting for a reaction from him.
Taking a deep breath, Draco mustered what he hoped to be an apologetic smile. Which was harder than he thought. His brain seemed to link the image of Potter to dismissive smirking at best.
But he managed, and he whispered an actual apology with it. For good measure.
“Sorry, I… ” Draco sighed, running his hand through his hair for authenticity. The pureblood training of body language and how to use it to influence your conversations, coming in handy.
“With this being our first day… and there has already been such a surprise. I guess I’m just a bit on edge.”
“Yeah, I get that. It’s the same for all of us, really.” Potter gave him a reassuring smile.
“Surely not for you.”
“Why would that be?” It was the first time the friendly expression vanished from his rivals’ face, replaced by a pensive look.
“Well, I know who you are. What you have done. I mean, who doesn’t? In comparison, this had to be a piece of cake to someone like you?” He was just trying to be honest, their past aside, but the look on Potters face told Draco that that didn’t seem to be good either.
“I’m sorry. Yet again. That was presumptuous of me.” Draco offered and it seemed to work. A little.
Potter was just about to respond something when they were interrupted by a stern voice.
“While I appreciate that the two of you seem to make an effort at bonding with each other, I would prefer you to do it after your turn.” Mrs. Perkins said matter-of-factly, but there was this little twinkle in her eyes that never seemed to leave. That is what it looked like if you really loved your occupation.
Draco wanted that for himself, too. He really did.
He was so sick of settling for less.
So, he made a mental not to find out what about his statement had made Potter mope and concentrated on the task ahead.
“I’ll go first.” Potter spoke up, waiting for Draco to get into position.
He did. There was no use in prolonging this unnecessarily.
The other trainees stared at him as if it was the biggest honour in the world to have the Harry Potter perform a spell on you. As if he was somehow blessed now.
Draco was sure that there were more than a handful of wizards and witches at the bad end of one of Potters stunning spells, disagreeing with this sentiment. Himself included.
But there was no denying the power behind the magic washing over Dracos skin, through his cells, turning him inside out for the slightest trace of deceit. It was intense, but to his surprise, it didn’t feel invasive or uncomfortable. Just... thorough?
Twelve spells in total Draco had to endure. And Potter didn’t mess up once.
Twice, he halted for a few moments. Confusion ghosting over his features for a second only, before it vanished again and he resumed his work on his partner. Draco tried not to give away how frantic his heart was pounding in his chest. He stood as still as possible, letting Potter work on.
The other man must have felt the slight tingle of one of the spells, finding something was a little bit off. But unable to point out what exactly it was that was wrong, he seemed to decide that it probably was nothing. Especially because Mrs. Perkins didn’t react to it either.
When Draco had tried those spells on himself, the tingling had been so small, he had barely noticed it. He only did because he knew what he was looking for. It was kind of impressive that Potter had been able to pick up on it at all.
The examination ended without result and Draco was officially cleared for training. It felt like he had stopped breathing for the entirety of Potters performance, so now that it was over, he sucked in a huge breath of relieve.
The rest of the task, and all of the day really, was a walk in the park.
Draco passed his first test with flying colours, intentionally messing up one of the harder spells on Potter, to not raise any suspicion. He worked effectively and quickly and Mrs. Perkins seemed pleased with their overall performance, mumbling something on the lines of ‘promising pair up’.
They were led out of the room and further into the bowels of the ministry, once every team’s security check had satisfied their instructor. Draco got a work ID, the fireplaces were opened to the flat in wizard London he rented just to be able to give an address to the ministry staff.
He couldn’t possibly tell them to come and pick him up for missions at Malfoy manor. It would probably be frowned upon. By society and his dear mother alike.
A few hours and a tour around the place later, he was trotting behind Potter to their very own tables within the open space office.
It was bustling with life, people running in and out, paper planes flying over their heads by the dozen, delivering files from one employee to another.
A few tables to the left, a woman was holding a cloth to her bleeding nose.
“Sting hex gone wrong”, she smiled at Draco when she noticed him looking at her.
“Better watch yourself, dear. Especially with Auror Potter here. Quite stubborn, if you believe what Murphy has to say.”
“Thant’s rich, coming from you, Sophy.” Potter laughed and continued on his way to their tables. The witch threw Draco a mischievous wink before turning back to her own fussing partner, leaving the blonde to ponder on her words.
“Who’s Murphy?” Draco asked once they arrived at two tables standing back to back on the far-right corner of the room.
“My old partner. You’ll probably run into him sooner or later so I should warn you that not even half of the stories he is going to tell you, are true.” Potter chuckled and slumped down into his chair.
Having witnessed the man in front of him defeat a teacher in first year, a ginormous snake in second, compete in a suicidal tournament in fourth year, doing whatnot in between and ultimately killing a psychotic maniac with a father complex, all before finishing school, Draco didn’t need much imagination to figure out what kind of stories this Murphy would have to tell. And he had a hard time believing that the man needed to exaggerate, either.
It was apparently going to be quite the task to keep both their asses out of unnecessary trouble.
They had been told to settle into their new workplace, maybe get acquainted with their new partners a little and then basically call it a day whenever they felt like they had done it.
Seeing that Draco had yet to bring his stuff for work, there was no getting settled in until tomorrow. Which left him with Potter and the weird end to their last conversation.
Draco didn’t want to leave with anything creating uneasy feelings between them. He wanted their work relationship to be easy, predictable and without unnecessary drama. So, he decided to make short work of their little misunderstanding and clear it up.
“Listen, Potter, about earlier…” Draco started, fumbling a little with a pen from Potters desk, but he was already interrupted by the brunette. How he hated when people did that. But he didn’t show it, for peace sake.
“Yeah, about that. I overreacted a little. Just forget about it?”
It was a hopeful sounding request and Draco could easily see other people complying with it. Especially considering the boyish smile accompanying it.
But Draco was not like other people, never had been. And Potters words and actions had never worked on him the way they were intended to, either.
He was determined to get to the bottom of that weird reaction his former rival had had earlier.
In order to be able to predict Potters moves in the field, he needed to understand the man himself. What motivated him, what irked him. That was why he was going to find out as much of the Auror in front of him as possible.
That was positively the only reason.
Getting to experience what it was like to be on friendly terms with the man that had despised from the moment they first talked to each other, didn’t at all intrigue him.
It was pure, professional partnership and the urge to survive their first few missions.
Nothing else. At all.
He wanted to tell Potter to cut out the crap and spill whatever it was that was bothering him, but Draco felt like that wouldn’t help his case either. So instead, he scraped together every bit of patience present in his mind to swallow his need for scathing sarcasm.
“Look, I may not have as much experience as you do and this is my first day on the job, but I am fairly certain that in order to make this work, we have to get along. And to give that my best shot, I need to know what exactly it was, that bothered you about the things I said earlyer.” Draco argued.
That sounded reasonable, right?
Apparently reasonable enough for Potter, because he huffed out a frustrated breath before grumbling his answer to Draco.
“I just don’t like when people assume that I am different. Special. However you want to put it. I just want to live a normal live. Being totally honest, and at the risk of sounding full of myself, I think I have earned a shot at it.” Potter looked at Draco uncertainly. Like he was scared of the blonde’s reaction. Okay, maybe his eyes were a bit round, his mouth hanging slightly open with the surprise that answer and the honesty swinging in it had caused Draco to feel, but he wasn’t looking that shocked.
Just dignifiedly astonished.
He rearranged his expression into a neutral mask, thinking about something to reply to that. Apparently, what he had said had in fact been presumptuous.
“It is not a big deal, really.” Potter continued, saving Draco from the difficult task of finding a way to continue that conversation.
“I was just kind of relieved when you said you didn’t envy Ron’s partner for the pair-up. The way you said it made me think that you didn’t give a damn about his fame. Or mine, for that matter. You kind of reminded me of someone for a second.”, he quietly laughed to himself. “I hoped, that we could be an actual team, you know?”
“So you are tired of the Fanclubs? The hero worship?” Draco quipped.
“You have no idea.”
And Potter did look genuinely exhausted, admitting that. Like dealing with the gratitude of a nation was the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life.
For a second, Draco wanted to tell him, that he was ungrateful.
That it could have been so much worse.
That he should spend one day in his shoes.
But he didn’t.
Potter had opened up to him, told him what he had wanted to know. He was not about to ruin the hard work he had put in today to form the basis of a functioning partnership.
But he did have another idea.
“Well, if that is what you want, then I am happy to comply!” Draco smirked.
“I hope you can cope with not being handled with kids gloves after all that horrible, disturbing amount of appreciation and love.” Draco taunted, but in a friendly way. Not as offending as he usually would. And it seemed to work, because Potter seemed to relax a little, letting out a quiet laugh.
“Only one way to find out.” Was the answer Draco got and he was genuinely surprised at how effortless it was to talk to Potter, once they had the first few misunderstandings out of the way.
The honesty and sincerity of that talk, he had to be careful with. No amount of pureblood training had prepared him for that and too much of it might lead them into dangerous territory.
But other than that, this could turn out to be less disastrous than Draco had feared it to be in the beginning. If this partnership meant that he could be himself for the next two years without having to feign to be somebody he was not, then he might just have found the one redeeming quality to this whole Potter mess.