Chapter Text
Harry sighed deeply after closing a file, leaning back in his chair and placing it on top of the pile. He stretched his arms above his head and groaned.
He was 24, a bachelor, fairly attractive (he’s heard from others), and an Auror, yet he wasted away behind papers. Harry knew that there’d obviously be a fair amount of paperwork that came with being an Auror, but he hadn’t anticipated the mountain of a pile that occupied the corner of his desk.
Then again he hadn’t anticipated being partners with Malfoy either. In fact, he hadn’t anticipated Malfoy to be in the Auror program at all. When he and Ron had seen the git during Auror training he’d been quite surprised, from Malfoy’s potion experiences and the books Harry had seen him borrow from the library in Hogwarts he would have guessed Malfoy would go after being a healer or potioneer at least.
Not that Harry paid a weird amount of attention to Malfoy during Hogwarts.
Nope. Absolutely not.
Harry checked the time and sighed again with relief when he realised it was nearly the end of the workday. Muttering a ‘thank merlin’ when he heard a breath hitch next to him, turning to see Malfoy staring harshly at his papers and the tips of his ears bright red.
“Malfoy? You okay?” The blond put his head in his head and Harry saw his shoulders rise as he took a deep breath.
“Yeah, just tired.” Harry hummed in acknowledgement. Opening a new file and dipping his quill in ink when he heard Malfoy speak again.
“Are you aware of it?” Harry frowned in question.
“Aware of what?”
“When you speak parseltongue?” Oh, did he accidentally slip in parseltongue? That must’ve been why Malfoy acted strange earlier, Harry couldn’t imagine that he’d be thrilled to hear the language that the murderous bastard who lived in his house had spoken.
“Not really, sometimes it accidentally slips out. When I focus on trying to speak it I do but sometimes it just… happens?” Harry cringed when he made his answer sound more like a question instead. He figured that Malfoy would at least get it a little, he’d heard the blond swear in french every so often when he got upset.
“Ahh, I see.” Malfoy focussed back on his papers, ears still a rather pink shade. Harry raised an eyebrow, alright then, turning back to his paper he realised he’d spilled a drop of ink onto it. He spelled it off and groaned in annoyance when a faint stain remained.
He loved being an Auror.
~^*^~
Harry was making his way to the break room for a cup of much-needed coffee when he heard Pansy’s shrill laugh, silently pitying whoever was on the other side of it.
“Pansy!” Oh, Malfoy? Never mind.
Pansy was Hermione’s fiancée after they both planned a proposal at the same dinner and both bit into a ring at dessert. After Hermione became the youngest minister of magic Pansy had become her secretary, every so often she’d come to his and Malfoy’s office to dish out gossip that she couldn’t wait to share after work.
“Poor ickle Drakypoo, getting a stiffy during work.” Harry’s eyes widened, he paused outside the door.
“What! I never said that! I do not get hard just by him saying a few words every day.”
“So you’re admitting that if it were more than just a few words you’d get aroused?”
“No! That’s not what I’m-” Malfoy groaned, Harry imagined him pinching his nose in annoyance. “It’s just a rather intriguing language?” Pansy laughed.
“I can’t believe you have a language kink! And that language of all languages! You can’t even find some else who says it to blow off some steam, you’re stuck with one person!” Pansy snorted, “just your luck that it’d have to be the same person you have a crush on.” Harry’s eyebrows shot up, Malfoy had a crush on someone? He quickly tried to go through all the bilingual guys in their department, but none really seemed like Malfoy’s type.
“Okay just let me make my tea in peace.”
Harry decided he could skip coffee today and went back to his office. Sitting down at his desk he mentally went through all the guys again and tried to find any aspects that Malfoy could like of each guy. He didn’t realise he was muttering until Malfoy came back in and gasped. Harry looked up.
“What?” Malfoy’s cheeks were flushed with his ears this time, his hands were clutched around his cup and one raised to tuck his hair behind his ears.
“You were speaking parseltongue again.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“And glaring at that file as if you were going to burn a hole through it.” Malfoy pointed at his desk, Harry looked down to realise he had been staring at the file when he’d been making a mental checklist.
“Do you need help with it?” Harry looked up in surprise at Malfoy’s offer.
“Oh…” Harry blinked and cleared his throat, “oh, no I’m fine, thanks.” Malfoy nodded and walked to his desk.
Harry looked back to his desk, pulling the file he’d stared at to him and opening it. Picking up his quill and tapping it lightly against the wood, his brain went back to going through the possible guys Malfoy had a crush on.
Was it Starewings from the office across? He’d seen Malfoy and him chatting a few times, and Harry knew he spoke Spanish. The guy never shut up about it, he was a good Auror but a terrible show-off. Surely he wasn’t Malfoy’s type? Unless Malfoy was into overly confident guys, who were a bit repetitive with their glory stories. Sure Starewings was okay looking, but Harry was definitely better looking than him. As well as a better Auror, Harry had beaten Starewings in combat training right in front of Malfoy before. So it couldn’t be Starewings, right? Harry was better than him in every aspec-
Harry’s train of thought stopped when he heard a crack and realised he’d snapped his quill, swearing softly as he stood up to throw it away. He turned to see Malfoy looking at him with wide eyes, he must have spoken parseltongue unconsciously again.
“Sor-” Harry opened his mouth to apologise but Malfoy had stood up and sped out of the room before Harry could even finish.
“-ry?” Harry blinked in surprise. “Right.” He took a second to process what had just happened before shaking his head and sitting back down.
~^*^~
“Potter, Shacklebolt’s told us to interrogate some people from the crime scene, I can do the couple but there’s a…” Malfoy leaned against the door frame, massaging his temple and looking back at the file. “A special perso- thing? We need you.” Harry got up from his desk and walked to where Malfoy was, taking the file when the blond handed it to him.
“Special?”
“It’s… a snake.” Malfoy pursed his lips.
“Oh, um, you don’t have to-”
“No, Shacklebolt said it’s best if I’m present to make sure nothing goes wrong. Snakes strike faster than humans can so you may not be able to react fast enough along with the fact that this particular snake is highly venomous and you will die if you don’t receive treatment immediately after getting bitten.” Harry looked up at Malloy. “Alright, if you get bitten.” Harry passed the file back.
“Where’s the snake right now?”
“They’ve put it in a glass cage, for now, it’s in room 12. We’ll have to take it out when you talk to it.”
“Alright then, let’s get going.”
They reached the room and Harry entered first, the room was empty save for the table with a glass box on it. The snake was resting on a fake branch inside, it was rather big, Harry guessed it was at least half his height and had the same width as his wrists.
He walked towards it and slowed a bit when it lifted its head, its eyes were a glowing yellow and they bore into Harry. He wasn’t sure if the snake could hear him at all behind the glass wall but started to speak anyways.
“We’re not here to hurt you, we just want to ask some questions then we’ll let you go. Can you hear me?” The snake tilted it’s head, hissing something behind the glass. Harry now stopped in front of the glass, but still had a hard time hearing the reptile, he caught some parts of what it said and tried to make sense of it.
“Let me out the box, and I will not hurt you, I wish only to talk to you human.” Harry nodded and lifted the lid of the container, he could hear Malfoy’s breathing quicken from behind him as the snake slid out slowly and latched onto the brunet’s arm.
“What’s your name?” The snake looked up at him.
“ My masters call me Vetiti.” Vetiti tilted their head, “ what do they call you, human?”
“ Harry, nice to meet you Vetiti, will you be able to answer some questions about your masters?” Vetiti nodded.
For about half an hour Harry continued to interrogate the snake and translate for Malfoy, when he finished he thanked Vetiti and told them that he’ll be placing them back in the cage for now but someone will come to let them free and to please not bite said person.
“ I don’t bite, masters say it’s rude.” Harry smiled and placed Vetiti back in the cage, closing the lid and turning to Malfoy who was still at the door. He looked flushed and the notepad he had used to write down notes from the interrogation was lowered to cover himself.
“We’re done, can I head back now?” Malfoy nodded stiffly but didn’t reply. “You feel okay? You look a little flushed.”
“Yeah, yeah I’m- I’m fine,” Malfoy said with a strained voice, still not removing the notepad and proceeded to turn around and walk briskly out the door.
Harry made a mental note to check on Malfoy a little later, he knew the blond had a habit of overworking. Shrugging it off for later he waved at Vetiti and went to head back to his office.
~^*^~
“Are you sure you didn’t mishear?”
“‘Mione I literally heard Pansy say Malfoy gets hard listening to some guy speak a different language.”
“Okay fine, we’ll need to discuss you eavesdropping on my fiancée sometime, but did Draco confirm it?” Harry opened his mouth to say yes but paused, thinking about the question and replying. Hermione thanked the waitress as she put down their coffees.
“Kind of?”
“Harry, ‘kind of’ is not confirmation.”
“He said it was an intriguing language.”
“Harry, I find french intriguing that doesn’t mean it’s a kink.”
“Okay, fair but I-” the café’s door opened with a jingle, Harry turned and saw Malfoy step in with Zabini.
Zabini.
Zabini was multilingual, Pansy had told them, could the guy be Zabini? Though Zabini does seem to be currently leaning more towards Harry’s best mate there’s no stopping Malfoy from forming a crush on him. But it couldn’t be, they thought of each other as brothers.
Right?
“Hermione, Harry.” Zabini regarded both of them with a nod, Malfoy doing the same next to him.
“Blaise! Coincidence seeing you two here.” Hermione smiled.
“Yes, Pansy prefers loud pub nights, Draco and I rather like the silence that comes with cafés.”
“If it’s your first time here they have great pastries, the chocolate croissants are amazing.”
“They have chocolate croissants?” Malfoy spoke up for the first time in the conversation, Hermione smiled a bit wider.
“Yes, and great cupcakes, too. Harry’s also taken quite a liking to their treacle tart, I haven’t had it yet though, is it good Harry?” Maybe it was because a few minutes ago they were just talking about Malfoy and now he was in front of them, or the fact that Harry just learned that Malfoy has a sweet tooth and that’s really quite cute, but Harry may never know why the fuck his brain decided for him to spit out parseltongue.
“ Wh- what? Oh, yes. It’s my favourite place to get it.” Harry saw Zabini’s eyes widened slightly before side-eyeing Malfoy, whose own eyes were wider than dinner plates and his pale skin was flushed all the way down his sweater.
“Did I speak parseltongue again? Sorry about that, it happens every so often.” He looked to Hermione for back up, she’d heard him slip parseltongue several times and knew he didn’t even know when he spoke it most time, but saw her eyes darting between Harry and Malfoy with a calculated look on her face before something seemed to dawn on her,.
Zabini cleared his throat.
“I think Draco needs something refreshing from the hot sun we just walked in, we’ll chat with you all later.” Zabini smiled politely, leading a still red Malfoy to the counter.
~^*^~
“To Harry and Draco!” Hermione toasted and everyone raised their glass with a cheer.
They had just closed a rather tough case. Harry and Malfoy had been stuck on it for months, finding new leads that later proved to be wrong. They’d been extremely frustrated when they went through the crime scene again and were beyond alleviated when Malfoy had found a new clue, leading them to finally closing their case.
After Hogwarts, some of the former Gryffindors had arranged weekly pub nights. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and Luna who would sometimes tag along with Ginny, would talk and catch up on Friday nights. Then Pansy joined them with Hermione, along with Theo with Neville, and Blaise who Ron of all people had invited, and finally Malfoy when they became partners.
Through these pub nights, Harry had learned that Malfoy is the definition of lightweight, as well as the fact that Slytherins are terrible friends to have when you’re drunk.
Last pub night Malfoy had gotten on top of one of the tables and serenaded the entire bar, they were chased out with Pansy and Theo still wheezing and Blaise declaring new blackmail material.
Sometimes he was grateful he chose to not be a Slytherin.
Harry felt something rest against his shoulder and turned to find Malfoy drunk yet again, giggling and attempting to bury his face in Harry’s neck.
“Uh, Malfo-?” Harry was shushed with a finger against his lips, though not for long when Malfoy’s shushing dissolved into giggles again. Harry looked around the table and found everyone preoccupied with each other or something happening in the bar to notice them. He turned back when he felt Malfoy’s arms curl around his and something tickle his neck, and realized Malfoy’s hair was out of the neat side braid he kept it in, instead, draped over his shoulders as well as Harry’s in this situation.
Harry continued to stare at Malfoy’s hair, perhaps he was a little tipsy as well. He would have thought that the blond would look too much like his father if he grew out his hair, but though looking similar there were drastic differences from the two. Malfoy’s hair was a little wavy because of his mother, it was subtle and not something you’d notice right away. His hair also looked softer, especially after quitting the gallon of gel he’d put in it before.
Malfoy looked up at him with lidded eyes, then grinned brightly. Harry’s eyes widened, after growing more comfortable with each other he’d seen Malfoy’s smile slightly here and there, but never more. Malfoy was actually really pretty.
Okay looking. Malfoy was okay looking.
“Malf-”
“Can y’ talk?” Harry paused, Malfoy wanted him to talk? Even though he kept interrupting him?
“Talk?”
“Yah! Th-tha-the-” Malfoy glared weakly at nothing, as if mad at himself for not being able to find the words. “Sss- hiss language?” Harry’s eyebrows rose to his hairline.
“You… you want to hear me speak parseltongue.” Malfoy lifted his chin from Harry’s shoulder in excitement, nodding furiously with a grin back on his face. Harry opened his mouth but stayed silent, struggling to find a way to react to that.
Why would Malfoy want to hear him speak parseltongue? Harry thought it had made him uncomfortable, from the way that he had reacted the first few times he’d said it.
“Why do you want to hear me speak parseltongue?” Malfoy shrugged, Harry frowned. “O...Kay?” Malfoy giggled again and his arms tightened around Harry’s.
Harry really didn’t get Malfoy at all, he was already chasing some bilingual bastard so why was he asking Harry to speak parseltongue? Didn’t it make him uncomfortable? His previous reactions seemed to make that quite clear.
Malfoy ended up falling asleep on Harry’s shoulder while his thoughts went wild, and he was given the job by Pansy and Hermione to deliver the git back home safely.