The New Minister

A/N: I know I really shouldn't be starting another story when I'm still working on 'Freedom,' but I have hit a sort of block on that one, and need to get my creative juices working somewhere else in the meantime...sorry for all those waiting on an update of that story.

So here's my next story. It won't be long...less than ten chapters, at the most. Enjoy! :D

The New Minister

The day that I was finally promoted to being the Minister of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, I found something out that I had not known previous to taking the position.

Draco Malfoy worked for me.

I had known that he had taken a position at the ministry, but I had never heard where he had started working and had honestly not thought of him in the last few years. After the war was over, his family’s name had been dragged through the mud, and honestly, some of it was warranted. Unfortunately, most of it was not.

The Ministry, in an attempt to mollify the public—who were out for blood on the supposed murderer of the beloved Headmaster, and for the right-hand man to the dark lord himself—decided to freeze the Malfoys’ assets for a decade.

When I looked through the employees on my list, I found that Draco Malfoy was one of my paper-pushers. Funny how I thought that he would amount to more than that. He may have been bereft of his beloved fortune, but I never thought that he would allow himself to be demeaned into a position for that long without at least trying to do something more with his life.

I decided that I would confront him about it.

It was surprisingly difficult to find his office, but when I did, I realised that it was nothing more than a broom cupboard that had a piece of parchment tacked to it, reading simply ‘Malfoy.’ It made me wonder. I knocked on the door and there was a gruff, ‘come in,’ from within.

I opened the door and found myself in a tiny cupboard with a desk filling more than half of it and two stacks of papers, one of each side of the desk. There was a man with bright blond hair, long enough to fall into his eyes, sitting in a hard-backed wooden chair, bent over a piece of parchment and scribbling on it with an old, worn out quill.

‘Just put them on the right stack,’ he said, not lifting his head from his work. He hadn’t even noticed who had walked into his office…erm…cupboard…he just assumed that it was someone to give him more paperwork. I skirted my way around the desk and sat myself on it, since there were no other chairs besides the one that he was sitting in. It was cramped and small and there was only one dull light hanging from the ceiling.

‘Draco Malfoy,’ I finally uttered and he lifted his pale grey eyes from the parchment at last. His mouth hung open for a second before he snapped it shut, his shock gone in the blink of an eye.

‘Granger,’ he said stoically. ‘What brings you to my humble abode?’ he drawled sarcastically.

I pushed the parchments that he was working on away and moved to sit in front of him, glad that I had worn trousers today instead of a skirt, my feet on either side of his legs on his chair, the heels of my Jimmy Choo’s hanging off the sides. ‘I was just looking through my rota and found the name “Draco Malfoy” on it. I honestly didn’t know you worked here. I had to see it for myself,’ I said.

He looked up at me and his expression turned from detachment to grief in a breath. ‘Come to see how the mighty have fallen? See how they shoved me in here, not even a cubicle for Malfoy, no! He’s a disease, he’ll infect everyone with his maliciousness. Let’s stick him in the broom cupboard, yes! That’ll teach him a fucking lesson.’ His expression was torn and for the second time in my life, I felt pity for him.

‘And why haven’t you tried to get a better office?’ I asked him seriously.

‘Granger, I have been petitioning for it for the last four years, but the fucking Minister of this department is the most pig-headed person that I have ever encountered. Not to mention the fact that he feels personally violated by what my father has done and therefore hates me on principle.’ Even though this was Malfoy, and he was whining, as he does, I still felt as though he had been wronged thoroughly in this arrangement. ‘I’m stuck in a dead-end job, with no hope for any kind of promotion.’ He looked at me with a determined gaze. ‘But just you wait, Granger. Once I get my money back, I’m going to make the Malfoy name bearable again. Make it so that people don’t shriek or hide away or make nasty faces when they hear my name. I’m going to change people’s opinions of me. Just four more years.’

‘And why do you need money to make that happen?’ I asked him curiously. His hands, with no armrests on the chair, had finally settled around my ankles, and he absentmindedly started rubbing them. At first I thought I should be angry at this, but I found that I rather liked it. I hadn’t had any real kind of male contact in a couple of years.

‘I can’t do anything worthwhile without money, Granger. No one will listen to me. So what’s the point in trying?’ His eyes were full of a sadness that I had only seen in Harry’s eyes before. It was the sadness of knowing too much, too young. It was knowing how bad the world could be before you’re supposed to know those things. It was knowing that no matter how hard you tried, you would never get out of the role that you were thrust into. But I felt, in that moment, that I saw his name on my rota for a reason, that he came to work in my department for a reason, and I was going to help this man, even if it killed him.

I leaned forward. ‘I’ll listen to you,’ I said softly.

‘Why?’ he asked. ‘I don’t want pity, Granger.’

‘I’m not giving it. I’m merely suggesting that if you have any ideas, any suggestions that you think would do well for this department, send them my way and I’ll look at them seriously. I won’t throw them away just because they have your name on them.’

I saw a smile flit across his mouth for a brief second and it was all I could do to stop myself from grinning madly. ‘Actually, Granger, that would be great. I’ll try to think of something.’ He gave my ankle another gentle squeeze. ‘And where is “your way” then?’

‘Just send it to the Minister of the Department’s office,’ I said with an innocent smile.

‘Why there?’ he asked angrily. ‘I already told you that that bastard hates me.’

‘Malfoy,’ I said with a gentle smile. ‘That bastard got fired last week. In which case the Deputy Minister took over.’

‘I’m sorry, Granger, I don’t pay attention to politics. Who was the Deputy Minister?’

I smiled largely and jumped off his desk. I skirted my way around to the other side and put my hand on the door handle. ‘Me,’ I said shortly and his face was smacked again with that shocked expression.

I opened the door and was about to make my way out when he stopped me with ‘Granger.’

‘Yes?’

He smiled then, and it was not only quite endearing but also incredibly handsome on his pale features. ‘Thank you.’

‘Ta,’ I replied and closed the door. I smiled to myself. If it was the last thing I did, I would make that man who he deserved to be, not who everyone thought he was.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Please review!

~BooBoo