Indago:3

AN: For those of you who asked, there are Twenty-four chapters in this story. :)


Chapter Two

Twenty-one years ago…

“Harry, could you get the clamp-stick? Teddy’s not playing nice today.”

Looking up from his own cage, Harry smiled at his co-worker, Geoff. “Yeah, give me just a moment.” He carefully put the pretty little boa back into her cage and latched it securely closed. Stopping to pick up the tool from the wall, he moved over to where Geoff was holding open the cage door and pushing some of the wood and trees that decorated the environment. The poisonous snake was coiled near its favourite rock and did not seem happy. “Oi, Teddy, come on out of there. You’ve got a nicer flat waiting for you,” Harry called softly.

“Yeah, he didn’t believe me either,” Geoff chuckled.

“Could you get me the thick gloves and a hook? I hate using the clamp if I don’t have to.”

Stepping back after making sure Harry had the cage door propped, Geoff moved into the back room and was back in the next moment.

“Teddy, we have a nice new place for you. Even a mate,” Harry explained nicely to the snake in Parseltongue.

“I am comfortable here.”

“Yes, but you are getting big and this is getting too small. Your new home is much more open and we even gave you a nice spot of water. And there’s a pretty new girl right next to you.” Harry slipped on the gloves as he spoke.

The snake undulated against his rock and watched Harry with one yellow eye. “Two-legs will tap at the glass.”

“Didn’t I already promise you that I wouldn’t let that happen anymore? We’ve got you behind a barrier and everything. I told you I’d take care of you, Teddy, didn’t I?” Harry cajoled.

The black and yellow snake seemed to think it over and then relaxed out of its coil. “You did. You may move me.”

Harry smiled. “Thanks, Teddy. You’ll like the new place.” Using the hook stick, he carefully slid it under the snake and scooped him out. Once Teddy was settled under a tree branch in his new home, Harry slipped the gloves off and handed them to Geoff’s waiting hands.

“Thanks, Harry. I’m glad we’ve got you around. You have a way with the nasty ones.” Geoff laughed and hung up the tools.

“I guess I’ve just got a lot of practice at handling the arrogant testy kind,” Harry replied with a grin.

“Yeah. By the way, how is your husband? What did he get you for your anniversary? I saw in the Daily Prophet that you went out to dinner in some fancy London place.”

Harry grimaced as he wrote notes and details of Teddy’s move down in the book. “You’d think it was the first anniversary of the world’s rebirth the way they were acting.”

“Aw, come on, you know it’s a big deal. A year of marriage and you lot haven’t killed each other yet. Even when I was still at Hogwarts, you little first years were scrabbling at each other.” Geoff laughed again and leaned on the workstation. “The world was just surprised.”

“Thanks for your vote of confidence.” Harry grimaced.

“Hey, I said the world, not me. Me, I know you two are fit as a fiddle. In fact, I’m the one that sees you coming in here dazed and completely shagged-out.”

“Shut it!” Harry hissed and looked around to make sure they were alone.

Geoff chuckled. “All right, so? What did you get for your anniversary?”

Harry sighed and then grinned. “The prat snuck around and got me tickets to the Cauldron concert.”

“Wicked! I heard those are nearly impossible to get! They’re only playing in that old amphitheatre that seats less than a hundred people.”

“Yeah. Draco, in ways that I probably don’t want to know about, was able to get us second row seats.” Harry couldn’t help the bit of proud smile that snuck onto his face.

“Nice. I hear he’s working at the Ministry now?”

“Yeah. It’s a temporary position as a senior apprentice with pay, but he’s got his eye on a permanent place in the Magical Law department.” Harry put the pencil down and they both looked to the doorway as one of their Muggle co-workers walked in.

“Hey, Harry, you’ve got a visitor waiting for you up front. Mel’s getting him signed in but I thought I’d let you know.”

“Thanks!” Harry walked out of the room and down the hall toward the more public areas of the facility.

“Don’t you look smart in your lab coat.”

Harry grinned as he saw his husband at the end of the hall, a visitor badge pinned to his lapel. “I’ve got him, Mel, thanks.” The docent smiled and moved back out to mingle with the zoo guests. “I didn’t know you were coming today or I’d have worn my full regalia with clipboard and everything,” he joked as he got close enough to greet Draco with a kiss. The zoo was made up of enough Muggle workers and volunteers that speaking of magical stuff was prohibited. But the wizard way of looking at the world prevailed here so Harry never felt out of place speaking about his husband or greeting him in an affectionate manner on the rare occasions Draco would collect him after work.

“Thought I’d pop by and take you out to lunch,” Draco drawled.

“What’s the occasion?” Harry asked as they walked back to his workroom.

“Do I need a reason?”

“No, but you always have one,” Harry answered with a smile. They walked into the room where Geoff was busy cleaning out Teddy’s old habitat. “Geoff, will you be all right if I took a long lunch?”

With a knowing grin, Geoff nodded. “Sure. We’ve got those junior volunteers coming in today.”

“Oh, right. You sure you don’t need me here for when they come in?”

“Harry, the man said he’d be fine. Let’s go,” Draco said in a commanding voice.

Geoff smiled and waved him on. “Right, go on, go on. Everything will be fine here. Oh, wait!” Geoff frowned and set down the trash bin he had been holding. “Could you get Pele to eat a bit more? Or at least find out why she hasn’t even bothered with the food yet?”

“Sure thing!” Harry turned to Draco who was beginning to look impatient. “This will only take a second. Promise.”

He led them down a small hall and into another holding room where he stopped at an extremely large glassed habitat.

“And what is that monster called?” Draco asked as he peered at the five-foot long reptile.

“This is Pele. She’s a boa. One of the snakes that’ll squeeze you to death.”

“Lovely.”

Harry ignored the dry comment and slid open part of the door. “Good afternoon, Pele.”

A black eye moved to look at him and the huge muscles rippled along the snake’s shiny skin. She nodded in acknowledgement of the greeting.

“Pele, are you not hungry?

“I do not like the taste of the dark ones. I like the light ones better.”

“You lot have gotten spoiled,” Harry murmured to himself. Switching back to Parseltongue, he said, “We don’t have any more of the brown, Pele. Can you just eat the dark for now and I’ll make sure you get lighter next?”

The snake blinked and then, lightening-quick, clenched her body around the dead rat that had been lying near her.

With a shake of his head, Harry shut the door and turned back to Draco. “Right, I’m ready.”

Draco was watching the snake instinctually suffocate its already dead prey. “Interesting.” His eyes focused on Harry. “So you spend your days nattering on to the reptiles then, eh? Makes your job easy when you can just ask the beast what it wants.”

Harry grinned. “Yeah, it does. But I still have to reason with them. And reasoning with a snake is not easy a lot of the time. And I still have to take care of them and such.”

“No, no, I wasn’t degrading the ease of your work, merely finding it amusing that you found something to do with your ‘evil gift’.” Draco moved to take Harry’s elbow and they walked back into the main room. After telling Geoff that Pele was fine and jotting down notes, Harry slipped off his lab coat and set off with his husband.

Draco took him to a small eatery in Soho known to cater to wizards. They were put in a small half-circle booth in the back and were able to have a bit of privacy.

“This is a nice surprise,” Harry said with a smile after sipping from his water goblet.

“Yes, it is.”

“So…what have you brought me out here for? Our anniversary just passed and I already got my gift. Thank you again, by the way.” Harry smiled wide.

Draco smirked. “You have already adequately and quite enthusiastically shown your gratitude. But if you insist on more I shall be accommodating, of course.”

Harry blushed. He looked around but was reassured that they were quite alone.

Draco laughed. “Idiot. It’s not as if I said that you were on your knees most of that night.”

Harry flushed scarlet, but not from embarrassment alone. “Yeah, well, I have a lot of… fun saying thank you,” he admitted quietly.

“I know,” Draco said with a wolf’s grin.

Harry cleared his throat and played with his napkin. “Right well, if it hasn’t anything to do with our anniversary, then what is it about?”

“I just thought that you might like to be the first to celebrate with me over my new position.”

Eye’s going wide, Harry sat up straighter. “New position? You mean you got the job?”

Draco rolled his eyes. “Don’t make it sound as if I am the new short-order chef! I have received the highly coveted position of one of only three junior solicitors in the International Magical Cooperation Department.”

“International Magical Cooperation? You mean you’ll be running the Quidditch World Cup?” Harry asked in shock.

Again, Draco rolled his eyes. “Potter, it amazes me, your level of political savvy. No, I will not be running the World Cup. That is a completely different department. I am a solicitor. I will be handling legal cases.”

“So, if someone says that the Quidditch World Cup is unlawfully using their field, then you would step in?”

Draco closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Potter…” He opened his eyes and glared. “Yes, exactly. That would be a case I would be on. But other than Quidditch there are more mundane and politically important issues. Let us just say, I am now in line and slowly closing in on a Department Head position.”

“But aren’t Department Heads really just politicians?” Harry asked warily.

“Yes, generally that is what they are called. But they do have day jobs,” Draco answered in a dry tone.

“But you’re a solicitor.”

“Yes, and ‘budding politician’, as the paper puts it.”

Harry’s eyes widened. “You never told me you wanted to be in politics!”

“Potter, the amount of times I have mentioned moving into a permanent position in the Ministry and how often I have raged over decisions that I have stated I could have made better would have been your obvious clues.”

“No! You are not going to be a politician!”

Draco went still and his eyes pinned Harry to his seat. “What did you say?” he asked in a low and dangerous voice.

Harry swallowed hard and cast his eyes downward. “I’m sorry, Draco. I didn’t mean to challenge you or offend you in any way.”

Draco watched Harry for a few moments and then pulled back a bit of the pheromones that had slipped his grasp the moment Harry had made his outburst.

“I have a career I am forging, have been forging since the very beginning. If you were not aware of my intentions through your own ignorance, then you will need to adjust your thinking accordingly.” His voice was firm but the cold and angry tones had left it.

Harry nodded, keeping his head down, his hands in his lap.

Sighing, Draco slid a few feet over until he was able to pull Harry against him. Immediately, Harry put his head down on Draco’s lap and rubbed his cheek against his thigh. “Harry, I am not going to turn into an imbecile like Fudge,” Draco explained calmly.

“I know, Draco. But… the Ministry…”

“Yes, yes, bad taste in your mouth and all that. But you are with me and with me you will be on the inside from now on.” Draco petted Harry’s head and then pulled him up. “You won’t be happy to be caught in that position, pet. Think of the headlines: Boy Wonder in Public Sex Scandal.”

“If you’re going to be a politician then we’ll never get away from worrying about headlines!” Harry hissed, his courage coming back as he received forgiveness for his challenge and the pheromones dissipated completely. “They’ll be all over us!”

“And when did you expect them to stop? Don’t you think Dumbledore himself contends with them daily? The only difference between you and him is the fact that you are not nearly as intimidating or as sly. You are prey for the taking by them, and as a wise man once said, ‘Bad manners make the journalist.’ You are young, attractive, one of the most powerful wizards alive, and, on top of that, you vanquished one of the other most powerfuls and you are a rare magical being. When exactly did you think they would ever stop being interested in you, pet?”

Harry stared wide-eyed at Draco. “I just thought that maybe when they realized I wasn’t nearly as entertaining, they’d just… move on,” he said in a dejected voice.

Sighing, Draco took a swallow from his own water goblet and then looked at Harry. “If you want the truth, then yes, they would probably move on in a few years if you were to hide away in the country and never do more then go out to the market once a week. But you are quickly becoming quite respectable in your field, pet, because of one more amazing thing about you. And every time there is a wartime memorial or anniversary, or another child is named after the Saviour of the Wizarding World, they will again focus on you. I plan to use that publicity to make things happen. I plan to use the press for greater purposes.”

Harry leaned his head against his husband’s shoulder. “Sometimes I wonder if I should have ever come out of my cupboard,” he murmured.

Draco pressed his lips together in annoyance. He hated being reminded of Harry’s childhood. He’d have to see about dealing with those Muggle relations as soon as he was able to. Keeping the anger out of his voice, he said, “But you did. And, amazingly enough, the world is better for it. Now, don’t become maudlin. It spoils my appetite.”

Harry nodded, but stayed where he was. “Draco, what greater purposes are you trying to achieve? Are there huge flaws right now that you think you can fix?”

“Yes, there are some quite sizable flaws and I know I will be able to fix them when I have grasped the power to do so. But it will take some years to get to where I want. When the time comes, we’ll see if there has been a resolution to them or not.”

Harry nodded again. Their lunch was served a few moments later and Draco was able to cajole a lighter mood out of Harry by the end of it. They parted with a kiss and plans to meet back home in a few hours.