Memoirs of a Male Escort

Authors Note: Many thanks to my lovely beta Alexandra. So I'm leaving for Philly today, and probably won't get a chance to post again until middle of next week. I hope you are all enjoying the stories and the cliffhangers wink. I hope I have lots of reviews when I get back!! I'm also working on another story (I know, I know) called Rivaling Affections, which is of course another Harry/Draco. I will most likely start posting it when I get back, so look for it mid-next week.

Chapter 8 Danger

It’s not my place to say what Draco does is wrong. People make their own choices in life and what works for everyone else just might not work for them. One would think that someone as handsome, smart, and witty as Draco wouldn’t need to be an escort, but that’s probably why he’s so good at it.

It’s not in me to judge him.

--

Harry walked briskly from his new office toward the lift, his assistant Colin in tow. The Creevy boy had been a menace in school, but as his assistant Colin’s habits of obsessing over and studying Harry’s every movement made him invaluable. He managed to anticipate things Harry could never hope to even ask for.

“What’s on the agenda today, Colin?” he asked as they entered the lift.

“Really sir, I don’t know why you always insist on using the public lifts,” Colin replied, ignoring the question and looking over his clipboard notes.

“Why shouldn’t I use these?” Harry asked amused. He had this conversation with Colin no less than once a week.

“You have a dedicated and private lift for your use alone, sir. It’s a matter of safety,” he added.

The safety angle was a new one. Harry smiled and went with it. “Safety eh?”

“Yes, sir,” he answered, nodding his head knowingly. “If someone were to want to hurt you, or Merlin forbid assassinate you, they could get to you very easily if trapped alone in a public lift.”

“Ah, but wouldn’t it be easier to track me down if I used my own private lift?” Harry asked, still smiling.

Colin sighed, having lost the argument again. “Yes, sir. I suppose it would sir.”

Harry patted him on the back and laughed. “It’s okay Colin, you can try again next week.”

“Yes, sir,” he mumbled. “Today you have a meeting with the Auror department and you need to assign a new department head and assistant head.”

“Kingsley is going back to his department head position. He asked me about it yesterday and I agreed,” Harry noted.

“Very good sir, then only assistant head needs to be assigned. After that you have a lunch meeting with the Magical Species United committee.”

“You mean Hermione?” Harry asked with a laugh. He found Colin’s firm following of protocol very amusing and decided to have a bit of fun breaking some of his habits.

Colin rolled his eyes. “Yes, Ms. Granger, sir.”

Harry laughed again. “It’s Mrs. Weasley, Colin.”

The boy blushed and scribbled furiously on his clipboard. “You’re right sir, so sorry sir.”

Harry turned to Colin and frowned. “Colin, look at me. You really need to stop being so formal with me. I’m still the same Harry you went to school with.”

“You’re Minister Potter, sir, and I intend to be the best assistant any Minister has ever had, because you deserve the best sir,” Colin said, puffing out his chest and standing a bit taller.

Harry sighed and resigned to letting Colin be his tightly wound self for the moment. Big changes may never happen, but over time Harry would get Colin to relax a little more around him. Colin continued to rattle on about meetings he had scheduled in the afternoon and the lift arrived at the first level for law enforcement and Auror offices.

“What about the flowers?” Harry asked abruptly, interrupting Colin talking about a delegate from Africa coming at the end of the week.

“Flowers, sir?” Colin asked, completely distracted by his broken train of thought.

“The flowers I sent to Malfoy, has there been any reply?” Harry asked.

Colin frowned. “No, sir. No reply as of yet. Would you like me to send something else?”

Harry shook his head quickly. “No. He’s probably still angry with me.”

“Why don’t you go and speak with him. I can rearrange your schedule to give you an hour this afternoon,” Colin replied, already running his wand over the daily agenda moving things around.

Harry put his hand firmly over Colin’s. “No, I won’t be going to see him.”

“But Harry… sir… I thought you liked him?” Colin asked, blushing at his slip.

Smiling at his progress with Colin, Harry nodded. “I do. I like him a lot… far more than I should actually. That’s the problem.”

“I’m not following,” Colin said, looking quite perplexed.

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, a nervous gesture he had developed as a boy and never seemed to get rid of. “I’m not some lothario, Colin. When date a man, it’s not for casual sex, in fact, I don’t even have sex with someone unless we’re in an exclusive relationship. I learned that the hard way.”

Colin nodded, understanding. He had been Harry’s assistant as head of the Auror department and could surely remember the scandalous interviews given to the Profit and to Witch Weekly from Harry’s former lovers. It had been a rough few weeks.

“So his job…” Colin said, letting his voice trail off.

“Is a bit of a problem for me. I won’t date a man who’s not monogamous, and Draco is the antithesis of monogamy,” Harry sighed.

“Sir, you just called him Draco,” Colin noted.

Harry sighed. “Right. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to nip this in the bud right now before it gets out of hand. Make a note not to let me talk about Dra- Malfoy anymore,” Harry said and proceeded into the Auror offices.

--

“Auror Roberts,” Harry shouted as he walked into the room.

A brunette head popped up over the row of cubicles and the woman’s blue eyes went wide as she saw Harry approach. Harry smiled and extended his hand for her to shake and she did so with shy enthusiasm.

She was tall and wearing standard issue Auror robes and her brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail and way from her face. “How are you today Amy?” he asked.

She laughed nervously and smiled. “I’m well, sir, and you?”

“I’m wonderful. I’m here to choose a new assistant head for the department. Can you think of anyone who might fit the bill?” he asked.

Amy fidgeted slightly, and judging by the look of her nails, she desperately wanted to chew them. “I’m not sure, sir. Auror Lovegood is quite intuitive and Auror Finnigan has a very high capture record,” she replied.

Harry nodded and pretended to think it over. “Yes, both are quite good, but I could never take them out of the field. A good assistant head needs to be good with people and diffusing situations. I think you are more suited to that task.”

“Sir?” she asked.

“You showed a level head and the want and ability to intercede when you saw things getting out of hand a few weeks ago. I think you have great potential, and I’m making you assistant head of the department. Kingsley will be back next week and you’ll answer directly to him,” Harry said with a smile.

Amy’s eyes went wide again and she laughed. “Do you mean it sir?”

Harry nodded and she threw her arms around him in a tight hug. Harry laughed and Amy withdrew quickly and muttered an apology.

“It’s okay. I hope to hear great things about you, Auror Roberts,” Harry said as he turned and left.

He sighed and smiled to himself. Those were the parts of the position he liked, giving people good news and promotions. He was about to have to do something he didn’t like though, and that was having a lunch meeting with Hermione.

He assumed she would be livid over the incident between him a Ron a few weeks back, and she had every right to be. He had been avoiding her easily enough until she decided to set up a formal meeting as committee leader instead of just lunch with Hermione.

It was very sneaky.

One should always be weary of a sneaky Hermione.

--

“Harry James Potter, you’ve been avoiding me,” Hermione said as soon as he stepped into his office. Colin cringed and shut the door promptly with himself on the other side.

“Coward,” Harry whispered in jest and then turned his attention to Hermione. She was sitting in the chair across from Harry’s new desk and giving him her best impression of a stern McGonagall look.

Harry smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Very busy, new job and all.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Too busy to come a visit your best friend after you’ve sacked her husband?”

Harry winced. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” she said. “I would have fired him too. He was a right prat and had no right to do what he did, but that’s our Ronald,” she sighed. “Always the hothead. But don’t worry, he’s gotten quite the dressing down from me and Molly.”

“That might have been worse for him than losing his job,” Harry said, cringing.

Hermione nodded. “I’m sure it was. Anyhow, I just wanted to see you, see how you were doing. I heard this whole incident was over Draco Malfoy?”

Harry laughed. “Come for the juicy gossip, have you?”

Hermione blushed. “I just hadn’t known you kept in touch with him.”

“I didn’t,” Harry said and began to fill her in on everything that happened the night he became Minister.

“You are so childish sometimes,” she said, shaking her head. “This is a great honor, Harry. There has never been a Minister as young as you in the history of the Ministry, and you wanted to put it all in jeopardy to make the Wizengamot uncomfortable?”

“Well, when you put it that way it sounds much less intelligent, but I was frustrated, Mione. Surely you can understand that?” Harry sighed.

“And Malfoy, is he to be a regular now?” she asked tentatively.

Harry shook his head. “I don’t think so, no. I haven’t seen or spoke to him since.”

She frowned slightly. “I’m sorry, Harry. It sounds like it upsets you.”

“It does,” he relied honestly. “I actually like him, more than I’ve liked a guy in… well ever. But his job… and you know me; I’m a little possessive. I could never deal with him being with anyone else. I just need to let it go.”

Hermione nodded. “It’s reasonable to want to be with someone who only wants to be with you, Harry. I think it’s healthy that you’ve already taken note of it and decided not to dwell on it.”

“If only it were that easy,” Harry muttered. “I kissed him.”

“Oh no, Harry, you didn’t? You didn’t sleep with him did you?” she asked. “I know how you get once you’ve slept with someone.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “And how do I get?”

“You know what I mean. You never sleep with a guy unless it’s serious, and then if something goes wrong after that it crushes you,” she said softly.

“I know. I shouldn’t have even kissed him. Now I can’t stop thinking about him,” he groaned, flopping back into his chair dramatically.

“Was it good?” she asked.

Harry groaned again. “It was brilliant, Mione. You have no idea, best kiss ever.”

She pouted prettily. “Even better than when you and I kissed?” she asked.

Harry feigned gagging noises. “Of course, it was twelve thousand times better than that,” he said. They had kissed once prior to her marrying Ron. She had wanted to make sure she was making the right choice, and Harry had wanted to make certain he would never have any real attraction to women. They had both hated it and it had become a secret running joke between them ever since.

“Wow. That’s impressive. Daniel only got a ten times better,” she said. Daniel had been Harry’s last boyfriend.

“He used too much tongue,” Harry said simply. He had managed to stay friends with most of his ex’s, at least the ones that hadn’t run to the tabloids, so it was easy to think about them now.

“Well, just be careful with this whole Malfoy thing. I don’t want this to be another Jacob,” she said.

Jacob had been Harry’s first long-term boyfriend, and he found out later that Jacob had been cheating on him the entire time. It broke Harry’s heart and it took quite some time to get over. “I don’t want that either, which is why I’m staying away.”

Hermione shook her head. “I’m telling you to be careful, because you won’t be able to stay away,” she said, her chocolate brown eyes going serious.

“I will, I just said-“

“No, Harry, that’s why I’m here. Malfoy is in danger,” she said quietly.

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