Security Detail

“POTTER! In my office, NOW!” Harry sighed and closed the file he was working on before standing and returning Ron’s look of exasperation.

“What’s Robards want with you now?” He could barely hear the redhead, his voice was so low.

“Your guess is as good as mine. Wait for me for lunch, yeah?” Harry stood and made his way to Robards’s office, thankful for once that all his training led to a much faster gait. He wound his way around towering stacks of parchment containing various case details, suddenly thankful when he realized people weren’t staring because they couldn’t see him. It wasn’t uncommon for Robards to be yelling at aurors, but it was uncommon for it to be Harry he was yelling at. He was sure people would be staring if they could.

Or maybe I’m just off my marbles. They only paid attention to me for the first week or two before they realized I was training harder than they were-in training I wasn’t even required to be at! Maybe they’re not staring after all.

He walked straight past the secretary with curly blonde hair, only vaguely recognizing that she was the fourth secretary he’d seen in as many months and made a note to ask around about it.

He knocked once and poked his head into the spacious office. Robards’s office was the exact opposite of the cubicles: spacious, decorated, and intimidating. Everything was exactly in its place, a far cry from the claustrophobic atmosphere of the cubicles. When he was signaled to, he took a seat at the large leather armchair in front of the desk his boss was sitting behind.

“You wanted to see me Sir?”

“Please, call me Gawain. I keep telling you this-”

“Only before you give me bad news.” Harry practically collapsed in relief. Robards didn’t seem to be in a sour mood, at least with him, and for that he was thankful. He hated being yelled at, even if Robards’s job was to yell at people for not doing things exactly right.

“Now Harry, I’ve got a rather mundane favour to ask of you. It’s child’s play, compared to some of the first assignments you took on when you started-”

“Sir, with all due respect, I was assigned to find death eaters that were on the run within days of me killing Voldemort. Everything after that seems like child’s play.” The older man cleared his throat and put down his drink.

“Right, right. I’ll be frank then, shall I? I’ve got a rather important figure that I need protected. He’s been receiving death threats lately-and a good chunk of them are credible. Now before you interrupt me again,” Harry closed his mouth and smiled sheepishly. “I want you to know that there are very few I would trust this job with. Protection detail isn’t necessarily hard, nor is it really that exciting. But this particular person is an incredible asset to the ministry and that calls for the best.”

“Right, so who is it?” Robards burst with laughter.

“Never one to beat around the bush, are you? Oh dear Merlin, I needed that today. Today wasn’t exactly going my way, you see. I needed that.” He chuckled again before answering Harry’s question.

“I’m afraid the death threats are being made to our best prosecutor.” Suddenly information clicked in Harry’s head.

“You’re talking about Draco Malfoy.” Harry didn’t let any emotion out through his voice. He wasn’t sure what to think-on the one hand, he and Draco had reconciled shortly after the war and on the other, he and Draco weren’t exactly chummy. They’d made amends, Harry helped clear his name quite publicly, and they moved on. Last he’d heard, Draco was happy as a clam to do nothing but make sure the bad guys were safely put behind bars.

Harry had been a major part of reforming the prison system, ensuring that people convicted of petty theft wouldn’t end up in Azkaban. It was too desolate, too terrifying for people to be rehabilitated. He’d very quickly gained the support of the public when he showed building and reform plans. Minor crimes were now being punished, the criminals were being rehabilitated with mind healers and only the uninhabitable people were sent to Azkaban. The dementors were exterminated, only to be replaced by a vampire coven that agreed to work with the ministry upon magical creature law reform. Hermione had made sure that the laws were reformed very quickly to better support the magical creatures of the wizarding world.

Robards looked uncomfortable. “Yes. I know you didn’t get along with him in school, but you’re the best we’ve got and we need him. The other prosecutors are fine to do petty theft crimes and all that shite, but we don’t have anyone that would be able to convict Lewis Granifelde of all those murders besides Prosecutor Malfoy.”

“Do you think the death threats are because of this case specifically or because he’s the only prosecutor allowed to go to trial with Azkaban on the table?” Robards looked away.

“I’m not sure. We’re so unsure of everything with the Granifelde case-we’re still collecting evidence from his first murder, let alone the one that came in last week. The evidence collection squad is so overstaffed and we’ve only got so many Aurors to look over all the evidence they recover. It’s possible he doesn’t want to be chucked into Azkaban, but it’s also possible that it’s someone that hasn’t forgiven his father and grandfather for what they’ve done. And I know you want to believe the best of people, but some people really do still hold a grudge against the Malfoy family for what Abraxas and Lucius-and even Draco-did.”

“Is it enough of a grudge to kill over? That seems excessive, don’t you think?” Robards looked at Harry for so long before he spoke that Harry thought the floor would swallow him whole any second.

“I know you know what it feels like to hate someone. To truly hate them.” Harry’s mind immediately summoned the vision of Bellatrix LeStrange cackling and singing as she murdered Sirius. “You’d give anything to personally deal the final blow to LeStrange, wouldn’t you?” Harry nodded. He wasn’t proud of the way he felt, but in a heartbeat he’d take the opportunity to kill her himself if given half a chance.

“Some people still feel this way about the Malfoys-about any Malfoy. Including Draco.”

“Even though he was just a kid?”

“Even though he was just a kid.” Harry looked down at his hands in his lap. He felt overwhelmed with sadness; how could anyone blame a child for what their parent did? How cruel did they have to be to not see that children cannot be held accountable for anything when they’re being told to do it by their parents? The very people that children trust most to guide them are responsible, not the children being led astray!

“Look, it’s not fair. Not by a long shot. But it’s reality and it needs to be dealt with. These people are threatening his life and they’re credible threats. Multiple attempts have been made on his life already. Now, are you going to accept the job or not?”

“You’re giving me a choice to refuse?”

“Potter, it’s a twenty-four, seven watch deal. I always ask the agents if they want to take a full duty case. You don’t get to go home at the end of the day, you don’t have your own time to yourself, you may end up going into hiding at some point-full duty isn’t optional once you agree. My only exception is pregnancy unless you’re already in hiding. Do you understand now why I give agents the option to back out?” Harry nodded.

“I’ll take the case.” Robards held out a case folder but he didn’t let go when Harry reached out to take it.

“In order to be full duty there’s a few things that have to happen first. You’re going to take this case home and you’re going to read over it. Thoroughly. Not everything is listed like possible safe houses for obvious reasons, but everything you need to know before taking the case is here. Then I want you to really think about your life living with someone else. Your schedule will match Draco’s. You only get the same amount of sleep as Draco. You and he will be eating the same food and attending the same meetings, work, court cases…do you understand?” Harry nodded. “You’ll have the next forty-eight hours to decide. There’s extra training crash courses for full duty that you’ll start immediately after that.”

“What do those entail?”

“Things like safehouse locations, emergency portkey making, muggle technology updates-more in depth than the semi annual training-that sort of thing.” Harry nodded and Robards let the file go.

“I’ll think very hard on it and will let you know in two days.” He left the office and met Ron for lunch.

They went to the Leaky Cauldron instead of the cafeteria at the ministry and ordered their usuals when Ron started asking questions.

“Alright, out with it! What did Robards want?” Harry chuckled, he just couldn’t wait to see the look on Ron’s face when he told him.

“He wants me to take full duty to protect our best prosecutor.” He could practically see the wheels turning in Ron’s head and couldn’t help the laughter bubbling out of him as the redhead’s eyes widened impossibly slowly with realization.

“No-no, you don’t mean-”

“Oh yes I do.”

“Don’t tell me you-” Harry only nodded in response, outright laughing as Ron’s face paled more than it already was. “Look I know he’s not all bad but seriously?”

“Seriously. He was right about one thing when we were kids.” He continued on after seeing Ron’s slightly confused expression. “He’s an important little shit.” The two laughed and talked over lunch before Harry went home to bury himself in the case file that Robards had given him. It was going to be a long night.