Chapter 2
Harry slumped into his office chair after what was meant to be a brief meeting with Hermione and a few other ministry officials. He wasn’t expecting Headmistress Mcgonagal to make an appearance, and he definitely wasn’t expecting to sit right across from Draco Malfoy of all people. Despite the tense atmosphere, the meeting was civil and Harry barely interacted with his school rival. Not that Harry had a problem with Malfoy. If anything, he was shocked Malfoy didn’t appear to have a problem with him. Harry nearly approached Malfoy on this, but decided he should talk through it with a third party first. Pepper always had good advice for stuff like this.
After being handed a large file filled with loose parchment of importance and awkward pleasantries with wizard officials of importance, Harry took a moment to collect himself before returning back home. Home. The word gave him a weird feeling. It had been a few weeks since the funeral, and Harry hasn’t stayed a single night in his own flat let alone Grimmauld Place. Years ago, Harry had always thought of the Stark cabin as a home away from home, but he hadn’t really considered the wizarding world his home since the war ended. Although, that could be due to the fact that some days felt like the war was still ongoing.
Harry shook his head out of his thoughts before he could spiral down further. Just as he returned to the present, a hesitant knock surprised the wizard into standing straight up from his slumped position. He cleared his throat and forced his voice to not waver. “Come in.”
The door slowly creaked open revealing a solemn looking Malfoy holding his own large file of documents that were identical to the ones on Harry’s desk. “Potter.”
It was meant to be a greeting, but Harry could hear the ghost of the condescending tone from their schooldays. “Malfoy. How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a way to get into contact with Luna Lovegood. Patil said you might know.” Malfoy said this as he closed the oak door behind him.
“Which one?” Harry said half joking to relieve some of the awkwardness in the office.
“To be completely honest,” Malfoy almost appeared to be blushing. “I have no idea.” The men both quietly laughed before Malfoy asked again, “so, do you know where I could possibly reach Lovegood?”
Harry hadn’t had much time to catch up with Draco Malfoy after speaking on his behalf in front of a judge and jury. From what he was told by Hermione and other friends in the ministry, Malfoy had been a great help in breaking ancient blood curses which helped lead the ministry to find several dark wizards in hiding. Even though he was being court ordered to work in the ministry, Malfoy never complained nor did he express any want to leave when his sentence is over. In fact, Malfoy had appeared to be severing all ties from his past, including any physical resemblance to his father. Although Harry didn’t exactly have explicit proof of this, it wasn’t hard to draw the conclusion. Malfoy’s hair remained cropped and gelled back stylishly, but he didn’t wear traditional robes like many pureblood ministry workers did, instead preferring a green or brown jumper and slacks which couldn’t be farther from his father’s traditional pureblood values.
Harry suddenly became very aware that he had let the silence go longer than what was normal to reply to a question. He’s noticed himself doing a lot of that lately. “I-”
“Look-” Malfoy began and stopped as Harry made his own start. “Oh, excuse me-”
“Sorry-” Harry accidentally interrupted again.
They sat there for a moment. Harry staring down at his hands on his desk and Malfoy at his feet.
“Potter.” Malfoy started.
“Malfoy.”
“I…” A beat passed as Malfoy shifted and looked up at Harry. “I agree with you.”
Now that was weird. Harry shot the blond a curious look. “Agree with what?” This lead Harry into a panic from not exactly remembering everything he had said in the meeting.
“Helping in the Infinity War. We had the power to help, and could have decreased the casualties significantly. Even if we couldn’t put our people on the front lines against Thanos’ army, then we could have helped the civilians in several countries with relocating people who were blipped.” Malfoy paused for a response, but Harry didn’t know what to say, so the blond man continued, “I also understand when you decide to leave the aurors.”
“I never said anything about leaving.”
“You didn’t have to, but,” Malfoy gave Harry a mischievous grin, “but people talk, Potter. Rumors about the great Harry Potter runnin’ off with some fit American girl to elope or something.”
Chuckling from the absolute shock of every word that came out of Malfoy’s mouth, Harry rubbed his face out of embarrassment. “Please never say fit again.”
“Only if you tell me what’s going on.” Some things never changed, and Malfoy’s dumb smug face that gets him whatever he wants is one of them.
“Fine.” Quickly coming up with a shortened version of his recent inner turmoil was much easier than he thought it would be. “When I was put on that mission to America five years ago, I met some amazing people who deserved our help, but the ministries head was so far up its own arse to realize that.”
“Potter, Hermione was thrown into her position like everyone else.”
“I don’t blame Hermione.” Harry clarified and shoved the fact that Malfoy had called her Hermione instead of Granger into the back of his mind to ask the woman herself later. “I blame myself for not pushing hard enough. I blame myself for letting this bloody department keep me away from the real fight.”
Malfoy shook his head. “I think you above all deserve a break from the “real” fight.”
Harry laughed resting his chin on his hand. “That’s a nice thought.” His voice was low and sounded older than it should, but there was some relief in being able to just talk. Sitting up, Harry suddenly remembered why Malfoy was even standing in his office. “India.”
“What?” Malfoy was caught off guard by the change in Harry’s posture. One moment the man was hunched over and tired, and the next he looked just as the papers depicted him: alert and broad.
“Luna’s been travelling with Charlie Weasley and his team documenting rare dragons and other magical creatures. They have a sanctuary in Romania, but they travel quite a bit. Last letter I received they were in India searching for Naga?” Harry shrugged. “I don’t really understand half of the things she writes, but it’s nice to hear from her. It sounded like they were going to be there for awhile.”
Malfoy blinked still switching back to normal conversation. “Right… well, thank you, Potter. Much appreciated.”
“Can I ask why you need to reach her?” Luna could handle her own, but Harry was very protective of his strange adopted sister.
“I just have a few questions for her regarding a potion for memory healing. It has several strange ingredients that come from magical creatures that may or may not actually exist.”
Harry smiled fondly. “Who better to ask then the queen of magical creatures that may or may not exist, herself.”
“Exactly what I thought.” Malfoy gave a small smile finally completely recovering from the tonal shift.
The men sat in yet another long silence, not quite sure how to proceed from there.
“Thanks, by the way.” Harry finally broke it. “For listening to me and agreeing. Not many seem to be doing that lately.”
“No need to thank me.” Malfoy had relaxed his arms so the files were swung to his side but none escaped the confines of the folder. “You’ve helped me more than I can count, so I thought I’d return a bit of the favor. I hope in the future we could maybe call each other friends.”
Harry thought on this for a moment. “I’d like that Malfoy.” With that Malfoy nodded with a content look on his face and disappeared into the halls of the ministry.
As Harry stepped through the fire place in the Stark cabin, he was quickly greeted with a small body nearly taking out his knees. Morgan’s laugh filled his ears and never failed to put a smile on his face. Pepper watched with her own smile from the couch where the two had just settled in playing Uno. Harry quickly swung Morgan into his arms make her squeal in delight.
“Look who is finally home,” Pepper stood embraced Harry once the ruff housing finally dialed down.
“You should’ve seen the office today, Pep,” Harry set the child back on the couch and plopped down next to her. “Absolutely brutal.”
“Absolutely brutal!” Morgan mimicked with an exaggerated british accent.
“That’s right!”
Pepper rolled her eyes handing Harry his own deck so he could join the game. “But you made it back unscathed. I’m impressed.” She stared down at her cards pretending that Harry wasn’t obviously letting her daughter cheat by transfiguring the cards to be exactly what she needed. “Talk to Hermione yet?”
The wizard took a deep breath, because he, in fact, did talk to Hermione, but not about what he was supposed to. “I’ll get around to it… eventually.”
“Harry.” Pepper’s voice was filled with warning, but she didn’t look up from her deck.
“I know, I know, Pep. It’s just…” He shook his head. “I had a meeting with her, but it was all strictly business. She arrived after everyone was already seated, and left immediately. I didn’t exactly get the opportunity to say “hey best friend, how’s the kids? By the way, I’m living in America.” If anyone else in the room heard, it would be a media circus.”
Pepper couldn’t help but laugh at her partner. “How could I have possibly ended up with another celebrity.”
“At least I’m not giving out our address.” Giving each other sad but fond looks, they ignored Morgan placing down half her deck in one turn.
“So is this going to become a bigger issue?” Pepper placed down a reverse card.
“Potentially, but” Harry heaved a sigh watching Morgan place a draw 4 with a satisfied look on her face. “But it’s nothing I can’t handle. I took down their government once before, and I will do it again.”
Pepper shook her head. “Draw 4, Gandalf.”