Chapter 4
Draco woke up with his head throbbing. He groggily sat up and looked around. Where in Merlin's name am I…? It appeared he was sitting on the floor of someone's living room-- this definitely was not Bellatrix's house.
He was startled by the sound of snoring, and he looked over his shoulder to see Harry passed out on the couch behind him. His glasses had fallen on the floor in front of him, and his dark hair was bedraggled.
Feeling a sudden pang of disgust, Draco remembered what had happened. Hazy flashbacks of last night's skirmish with the Weasley replayed in his head, followed by some glimpses of himself running away with Harry before the police could catch them.
He then had a brief flashback of himself and Potter standing before some pathetic muggle policeman….what exactly happened there? He couldn't remember. Nor did he bother to try. Because at this moment, he felt himself about to vomit. He ran to the bathroom and retched, coughing and wincing in disgust. Damn, he never expected fire whiskey to burn the throat like that. It felt like he was behind that toilet for an eternity.
"….Malfoy?" The sound of Potter's groggy voice made him jump.
Draco turned to see that Potter was standing by the open door, rubbing the left side of his forehead as he held his glasses in his other hand. He then put his glasses on and fixed an exhausted frown on Draco. "….the hell are you….why….?" The Gryffindor was sputtering, still dazed from his recent drunken state.
Draco's head was a bit clearer now, so he stood straight and grabbed a random clean towel to wipe his mouth. He threw the towel aside and stomped passed Harry, purposely bumping his shoulder against him.
"Don't get any wrong ideas, Potter," spat Draco as he made his way toward the front door, his face hot with fury and humiliation. "I was only interested in slaying the Weasley. Nothing else. And if I hadn't drank that much whiskey, I would've slayed you too, for failing to protect Parkinson from that arsehole."
"Malfoy," Harry's voice was stern.
Draco stopped at the front door and looked over his shoulder, glaring at Harry.
But Harry's face was solemn. "Thanks. For covering us last night."
Draco winced. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"The police pressed charges against us for physical assault-- it was either that, or spend two nights in the muggle prison," said Harry. "You simply stepped up and paid the charge for both of us. So yeah….thank you."
Draco raised an eyebrow. Did he actually do that?! "I recall doing no such thing, but whatever," scoffed Draco, turning to open the door. "Just don't depend on me to cover your arse next time we lash at the Weasel. I'll deal with my own schemes against the Weasel, and you deal with your own." He stepped out and slammed the door behind him.
Draco was typing nonchalantly on his laptop, addressing matters related to his family's new business. Damn, it sure was a hassle, living like a muggle. He rolled his eyes as he tried to brush off the reminder that he had no wand-- he wasn't going to let himself experience the stream of negative, vindictive emotions that always came whenever such things would remind him about the cursed Weasley git who was responsible for this in the first place.
He was sitting in a quaint muggle coffee shop, which had grown to be one of his favorite spots to work on all this boring garbage to manage his duties in his family business. Especially when it involved doing the most mundane things like checking emails and replying to idiots he was trying to network with.
Then he felt a pang of unease when he noticed the subject of one of his unread emails. It was an email from Arthur Weasley-- he was one of the few wizards in the Ministry of Magic who had learned how to use muggle technology so that he could keep in contact with those whose wands he had confiscated.
Draco opened up the email.
Draco Malfoy,
Come to the Ministry Headquarters at your earliest convenience.
-Arthur Weasley
Draco felt his face suddenly heat up. What could the git want now? He tried not to panic over the myriad of possible punishments he could undergo for having attacked his son….
He checked his cell phone, realizing he had three missed calls from Arthur. Draco cursed under his breath. He really needed to get used to checking his phone more often.
He closed his laptop and packed up his stuff. He stomped toward the exit, catching a glimpse of red hair as he passed by a nearby table. He looked over his shoulder…..trying to resist the temptation to strangle if it happened to be Ron.
No, it wasn't Ron. It was his stupid sister. She was sitting at a table with…Granger?
Yep, it was Granger, alright. He recognized the frizzy, bushy hair and uptight look on her face. He leered them with disgust, suddenly remembering that it was Granger who called the police on him and Potter last night. He felt his fury intensify as the Weasley sister shifted her gaze to him, then said something to Granger, making her turn to lock eyes with him as well.
Draco fixed his murderous glare on them for a few brief moments, then instantly turned to walk out the café.
"You better have a damn good reason for calling me here," Draco spoke snappishly as he faced Harry Potter in his office. Apparently, Arthur Weasley had contacted Draco on behalf of Harry, since Harry was not well-acquainted enough with muggle technology to reach him.
Harry fixed a stern gaze on Draco. "Malfoy, did the news not spread to you? Ron Weasley is missing."
Draco tensed. "What?"
"You heard me. Ron is missing," Harry was speaking curtly, looking as if he was trying to suppress inner distress. "Obviously, that puts Arthur Weasley in a state of panic. He's become extra suspicious of all Slytherins who were connected to Death Eaters and believes any one of them could be responsible for his son's absence. But he's also become suspicious me, since he knows I beat his son's arse last night, accompanied by you of all people."
Draco stared at him blankly, too stunned to reply.
Harry went on, "Thankfully, however, Arthur does have a special place for me since I am-- no….I used to-- be best friends with his son. So….he almost fired me from my Auror position, but then decided he would rather give me the benefit of the doubt and see if I can actually track down his son and uncover why he really went missing."
Draco clenched his fists. "I'll tell you why he went missing-- the coward chickened out after our attacks! He couldn't face the consequences of his wrongdoings, so he simply went into hiding."
Harry crossed his arms. "Hmph. You would know, since that's such a Slytherin thing to do."
Draco's lips twitched, giving a brief sideways smile. "The Weasel is a pathetic excuse for a Gryffindor. But don't ever put him in the same house as me."
Harry met his gaze sternly for another moment, then went on, "Arthur Weasley wants me to find out what happened to him, and he's counting on me since I'm his highest-ranking Auror. So I will do it. But I requested that he lets me work with you on this case. Especially since you and Pansy remained quite close and….you mentioned that she shared a lot with you about her experiences being in a relationship with me as well as her experiences being on house surveillance under Ron's supervision. Arthur was therefore convinced you would be a valuable asset to work with in tracking Ron's whereabouts-- or at least, he was convinced that allowing me to work with you would also mean more surveillance for another Slytherin whom he's already suspicious of."
Draco winced. "The hell?! You think I wanna work with you to hunt down the Weasel? I told you-- I'm only interested in slaying him!"
"Well, we can't slay him if he's missing, right?" Harry gave a short chuckle. "There's a 99% chance that Ron is only missing because he simply wants to avoid contact with anyone who is traumatized by his recent…incident with Pansy." His fists clenched for a moment, before he went on with a stiff tone. "However, Arthur refuses to believe that about his son. He refuses to believe that his son would run away for such a reason-- even worse….he refuses to believe that his son even raped Pansy to begin with. He thinks she made it up."
Draco felt a surge of rage course through him.
Harry shared the same feeling, as he continued to speak with a seething tone. "Arthur thinks that Pansy made it up as part of some scheme to get excused from house surveillance or something. I dunno. But Arthur's now convinced that the Parkinson family may have done something with him because they believe that he raped her."
Draco fumed. "I was able to meet with Pansy briefly before I started working on my family's business matters this afternoon. There's no way she was lying. No way."
"I know," said Harry, looking like he was about to smash something. "I wanted to punch Arthur Weasley and give him an even more ruthless beating than I did with his pathetic son, but…I restrained and simply negotiated with him to allow me to work with you-- a close friend of Pansy-- to try and track his son and bring to light what truly happened to him. We know the truth-- it's just a matter of bringing it to light so that Arthur is convinced. So that he can see his son for the monster that he truly is."
And also, so that he can stop having his ridiculous prejudices against Slytherins….that hypocrite…Draco added silently.
He stared at Harry and then found himself smirking. "Well, I'm all for dragging that Weasley out of hiding and giving him what he deserves. So sure-- let's work together. Whatever. But be careful Potter…once you have a Slytherin on your side, you can be assured that you will get your way….but you can't be assured that you'll escape any traumatizing compromises in doing so."
"I'm well aware," said Harry, gazing at him with a glint of confidence in his eyes. "You're lucky Arthur trusted me enough to speak alone with you-- he was going to accompany us here, but he had some emergency matters to take care of regarding another case involving….other Slytherins he was highly suspicious of. But anyway….I will see you this evening at that new café in Diagon Alley. We'll discuss how we're going to track down that bastard in more detail."