Secrets and Promises (Abandoned Story)

Series Title: Secrets and Promises
Fandom: Harry Potter
Series Rating: NC-17
Genre: Mystery & Romance
Pairing: Draco/Harry, but also mentions of other past and other relationships as the story progresses.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy et al are a fictional characters created by J.K. Rowling as part of the Harry Potter series. We just borrow them to play. We don't make any money from it but we do have a very good time. [Beckett, Cocoa and the Malfoy Townhouse are inventions of slashpervert.]
Series Summary: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are Aurors who work for the Ministry of Magic. In this series they find themselves investigating a serial killer and discovering they are in love with each other. It follows them as they struggle to build lives and heal their past wounds, now that the war is behind them.
Notes: This series is written based in part on the RPG Ambiguous Desire.

Chapter Number/Total: 9/?.
Chapter Title: Mess at the Ministry
Chapter Authors: slashpervert, aveeno_baby, nefernat, and citrus_tears.
Beta(s): nefernat
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Words: 2800 Words
Chapter Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley.
Warnings: Language, some violence.
Summary: Murder investigation meeting is disrupted by fight over Harry & Draco’s new relationship.


Monday, Oct. 28, 2003

With Hermione coming back from the conference late the night before, looking very tired, they'd said 'hello' and had a brief talk before both of them went to bed. That morning they'd briefly chatted while running around in the flat getting ready for work.

Ginny sighed. She checked the file she had put together with all the information on the murders and her own research, and then looked around her desk to see if she'd missed anything. Grabbing her bag and the folder, she left her office to go to the Aurors Department where they were to meet in one of the Conference Rooms.

Draco smiled all the way up in the elevator, thinking about the way he had woken Harry up this morning. Definitely his favourite way to wake up, decided. Now he tried to turn his mind to the important work ahead of him. Thoughts of meeting with Granger certainly took the grin of his face.

He went to his office and gathered up the files and notes he had taken, then walked into the meeting room.

"Good morning, Miss Weasley," he said before taking a seat and looking back toward the door, hoping Harry wasn't far behind him.

Harry opened the door and slipped into the office. He smiled at Ginny as he placed cups of coffee and tea on the table before he took his seat next to Draco. "Morning, Ginny," he said, pushing the tea over in front of Draco.

Draco reached for the tea, his fingertips lightly brushing Harry's as he took it from him. He hid a small smile by taking a sip of the tea. He was surprised that Granger was late for the meeting. She was usually punctual.

"Good morning," Ginny said, nodding to the both of them. With interest she watched the little display. "And seeing as how we'll be working together for a while longer, I suggest you drop the whole 'Miss Weasley' thing. You know my name," she said to Draco.

"Hermione will be here later. She had some sort of emergency come up and had to deal with it right away." Finishing the last of her tea, she got up to re-fill her mug.

Draco was right, Hermione was rarely late for anything. So when she'd been called away just minutes before the meeting to deal with a catastrophe, as the girl had put it, she'd been furious to find it was just an intern who caught their hand in a toaster.

Running down the hall to her office, she stopped short as she approached the doorframe, seeing Ginny attempting to stall. "Sorry I'm late. Interns."

Ginny nodded gravely. "Ah yes. 'They who cause emergencies'", she quoted and winked at Hermione.

"Well, now that you're here, I take it you want some coffee. Oh and please close the door as I have something to say that I'd rather keep in this room."

Taking both mugs, she placed Hermione's in front of her before moving back to her own seat.

She scoffed. "Emergency means someone's dying. Not getting your hand caught in a toaster because you didn't bother to read the warning label...”

Shaking her head, Hermione took a sip of the coffee gratefully. "I hope you are talking about what I think you're talking about."

Ginny snorted, glad that she had just swallowed the sip of tea she'd taken.

Now that the door was closed, she cast a Silencing Spell and put down her wand. Standing up, she looked at Draco, took a deep breath and then, letting all of her frustration out, yelled at him, "DRACO MALFOY WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT WHEN YOU TOLD HER ABOUT THE CASE? YOU KNOW YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO DIVULGE ANY INFORMATION HOWEVER SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT IT MAY SEEM!!!!!"

Getting it all out, she took another deep breath, sat down, took another sip of her tea and looked at Draco, her eyes blazing still.

Hermione jumped slightly and dropped her coffee in shock. The steaming liquid splashed onto her leg, and she winced. "Ginny!"

"What???" Ginny asked, whipping her head around at Hermione. She couldn't deal with Hermione's calm logic. Not now, not while she'd spent precious hours investigating this. Hours she should've been spending on the murder investigation....

"You can't start off a meeting by screeching at him!" She shook her head. "Now help me with this coffee before it stains the carpet."

"Of course I can!" Ginny huffed. "He's partly responsible for me doing two investigations at the same time!" She glared again for good measure. Taking her wand, she rattled off a coffee stain removing spell, a cooling and then a cleaning spell. Taking Hermione's mug, she quickly refilled it and set it down in front of her again. "There."

"Thank you. Now can you compose yourself for a bit so I can at least conduct this meeting in some semblance of normalcy?" She picked up a folder from her desk and rifled through it. A paper was missing. "Gin. Did anyone take anything from my office while I was gone?"

"I'll try," Ginny tried to say with as much dignity as she could muster. She frowned at Hermione's question. "Not that I know of. But you'd better ask your secretary. I mean, I haven't taken anything but I've also spent more than half my week in the library."

Draco's calm demeanour slipped a bit when Ginny started yelling. He expected drama like this from Hermione, but didn't know the Weasley woman well. His eyebrows shot up and he did his best to swallow his tea without coughing. He glanced at Harry to see his reaction. Then leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head and watched the show. Especially since the women hadn't seem to leave him an opening to do so anyway. His face and posture now was one of tolerant amusement.

Harry slouched in his seat and sighed, glancing back at Draco before he tilted his head up towards the ceiling. He was used to the Weasleys’ temper by now.

Seeing Harry's reaction, Draco tried not to smile. He ignored Ginny's "outburst" and, like Harry, waited for the women to calm down and get down to business.

Hermione shuffled her papers, a bit upset about the missing piece. Clearing her throat when neither Draco nor Harry was commenting on Ginny's outburst, she then said, "All right, let's get back to business."

Draco sat up and shuffled his papers a bit, "We should review the status of the investigation so far, with each of us giving our reports."

"Yes, let's all give the status first," Hermione agreed. "And then we can discuss what else we need to look at or investigate." Seeing as how Draco had his papers all ready, she nodded at him. "Why don't you start, then."

Draco briefly glanced at each person, then began, "I have compiled a list of potential rituals that organs collected this way might used in. But we really don't have enough information yet to tell us who might be doing this. I also have a list of Death Eaters unaccounted for, but there is no way of knowing whether this is related to them or not."

Having calmed down, Ginny was listening to Draco's report. When he mentioned the list of potential rituals, she sat up a bit straighter. "Draco, do you happen to have an extra copy of that list? It comes very close to part of my research and it would be good to discuss that later on..."

Draco nodded, handing each of them copies of both lists. "Certainly," he replied.

"Thanks," Ginny said as she skimmed the list of rituals. Finding a couple that fit what she had found, she nodded. "What else did you find?"

Hermione ran down the list of rituals, her head swimming with information. "These are... horrible. They're not typical. Far from it..." she interjected.

"No they aren't," Ginny agreed. "But a couple of them make sense, in this situation."

Harry moved a bit closer to Draco and leaned over, looking at his copy of the list. "They make sense because this person is a complete bastard," he murmured.

"Indeed," Draco said, sounding a bit too much like Snape at that moment. Inside, he stilled, feeling Harry lean so close was ... distracting.

Harry nodded, his chin brushing Draco's arm. "So, now what do we do?" he asked.

Draco knew what he wanted to do now, but it had nothing to do with the investigation. "Um," he started and then took a breath to steady himself, "If Miss, I mean, if Ginny is correct, then we have to wait for another body to see if this is truly a serial killer."

"They make sense because a couple of these rituals fit the profile I'm drawing up for the murderer," she said. "And yes, we need to wait for another body, but it should hold true then, too."

Harry nodded again and sat up straight, noticing Draco's slight stutter. He nudged his foot against his and tried to hide a smile. "Now we wait for another murder. It just...it seems so wrong."

"We don't have much to go on yet," Draco said, "So, unless your interviews have found a connection between the victims, the case is stalled." Draco shifted slightly, aligning his foot and leg with Harry's so that they touched from foot to knee.

Ginny narrowed her eyes. Draco was very... fidgety... she decided and also noticed Harry's close proximity. Surely he'd read the list by now. She filed this away and decided to keep her eyes open; this was odd behaviour. "There might be, but it would unfortunately take a third victim to confirm. Plus, the third victim would tell us more about which ritual from the list we are dealing with."

Harry sighed. "All right. Just wish we could catch them before." He pressed his leg against Draco's, leaning back in his chair more.

Hermione shook her head. "I'm just not quite sure waiting is the best option. Isn't there any other way?"

Draco shrugged. "I would love to hear your suggestion on this one." He slipped one hand into his lap and then patted Harry's knee fondly.

Hermione flinched. "Um. Harry? Can I talk to you outside for a moment?"

Harry sat up in his seat and nodded. "Sure," he answered, getting up.

Pulling him out into the hall, she closed the door behind them and put a quick Silencing Charm on it as well. "What was that in there? Are you being Confunded? Do I need to call in a Mediwitch? Do I need to hex him?" she hissed.

"Whoa, wait. What're you talking about, Hermione?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Her jaw dropped. "Did you not... Harry... Draco Malfoy is practically fondling you in there!"

Harry blushed, crossing his arms over his chest. "He is not! Are you seeing things, Hermione? Maybe you should get glasses," he said quickly.

Hermione snorted. "I know what I saw, and don't even start telling me we aren't in a meeting. I know where we are and I know what I saw and I saw Draco Malfoy with his hand no farther than three inches from..." She turned away. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"The restroom is down the hall, Granger," Draco said from his place leaning against the now open door.

Hermione spun around, her head racing with thoughts she didn't really want to connect at the moment. "You. Don't say a word."

Harry blushed even harder. "It was my knee!" he yelled just as Draco came out of the room.

Hermione started to calculate. Ron had said that Harry had cheated, that much was true, but he didn't know. He didn't know with whom. Oh, this was rich. "This meeting is over."

"What? Why, Hermione?"

She had already turned to face the door, but Harry's comment, innocent as it may sound, was the last straw. Spinning around, her hand connected with his cheek so fast you could hear the echoes as she stormed inside the conference room, collected her things, and stormed out again. "Don't ask me to fix this when it blows up in your face...” were the last words she'd utter to him for the rest of the day.

Draco's face turned pink and he stood blocking Hermione's path as she turned to leave. "Granger, how dare you!" he said in a cold, angry voice.

Hermione just stared. "I'll hex you into next week if you don't move right now, Malfoy. And I don't care about the consequences." Her wand at the ready, she shook violently. She needed a cup of coffee and she needed it now.

Harry stood there, blinking at the two of them. That happened way too fast. "Let it go. The both of you," he muttered before he turned and walked away, hand covering his nose as he felt blood start to come down.

Draco looked over his shoulder at Harry and paled when he saw the other man's face. He stepped away from the door but between Harry and Hermione.

Hermione shook her head. "Cold water and ice, Harry." she muttered before running down the hall to her own office, where she locked herself in and threw a photograph at the wall.

Draco scowled at Granger but turned quickly to follow Harry. Catching up with him, he grabbed him by the arm, trying to get him to turn towards him.

Harry shook his head, trying to pull his arm out of Draco's grasp. "Let me go," he said weakly, sniffling.

"Never," Draco said, putting his arms around Harry's shoulders and pulling him against his chest.

Harry let out a sob, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. "I fucked up..."

Draco shook his head, holding Harry tight. "No, I think that one was mine," he said. He noticed that several heads had popped out of nearby offices at the commotion. He scowled at them and they retreated. He stroked Harry's back soothingly.

"I h-have to go," he murmured, using the sleeve his cloak to wipe away his tears and blood. It was still running, but Harry didn't care. He had to go. "...If you w-want to come...”

Draco looked at the blood on his silk tie and running down his lover's face. "Let's go home," he said. "But first, let me fix that." He pulled his wand and did a quick charm to clean up Harry's face and then kissed his cheek.

That only seemed to make Harry want to cry harder. He pulled Draco's sleeve as he started to walk down the hall again. "Let's go!"

Draco fell into step beside him. He reached into his jacket and pulled a handkerchief out and passed it to him.

"Thank you," Harry mumbled, looking down at the floor. He wiped at his eyes again then at his nose, checking if it was still running. It was really a hard hit. Harry didn't know Hermione had it in her. "I'm a horrible friend," he stated, rubbing at his sore cheek. He knew it was going to bruise.

When they got to the elevator and the door closed, Draco flicked his wand and stopped the elevator. He turned to look at Harry. "Don't ever say that again," he reached out and took Harry's chin in his hand, looking him in the eyes. "She had no right to do that."

Harry looked down, even as Draco held his chin. "But she did, didn't she? That means... I messed everything up." He started to cry again, squeezing his eyes shut. "They're m-my best friends..." He could feel his nose running again and he knew it was probably a mixture of blood and snot.

Draco shook his head, using a simple spell to stop the blood flow and clean up Harry's face. "Harry, look at me," Draco insisted.

Harry opened his eyes and looked up at him, feeling shaky.

Draco's breath caught, as always, looking into those green eyes. "I won't apologize for how I feel about you or for being with you," he said, his left hand still cupping Harry's chin.

"I didn't ask you to," he answered, his voice hoarse.

"But you regret it?" Draco's voice was shaky and he tried not to show how scarred this whole thing made him.

"I don't regret this," Harry said, stepping a bit closer to Draco. "I regret how I did it, though."

Draco leaned forward kissing Harry gently. "This is how it is," he whispered, "And I will take this over not having you, any way I can."

Harry rested his forehead against Draco's, sighing. "Let's go, Draco," he murmured, noticing that they were in the lift still.

"Home," Draco whispered to him and restarted the lift.