An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Harry Potter - Rowling
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Mystery
Summary:
After years of avoiding Draco Malfoy, Auror Harry Potter is forced into a situation where he can’t anymore.
“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt Astoria?”
“No. No one. Me, yes. Her? No one.”
“Who would want to hurt you? I mean, the war has been over for twenty years.” Despite what he thought of Malfoy, Harry had never heard even a hint of scandal about him, personally or more surprisingly, professionally. His investment brokerage was considered one of the best in all of Europe, and honest to a fault. Having a wife who was one of the top prosecuting solicitors probably kept him on the straight and narrow.
“Sweet Merlin, how did you get to be so old and stay so naïve? There are still people out there who know my family betrayed Voldemort to save your life.” Malfoy’s tone implied they would be out for his blood.
In general, Harry supposed he was right. His gut instinct said not in these circumstances. There was more to Astoria’s murder than someone trying to get back at Malfoy for something he’d done in the war.
“Don’t you think someone might have had a grudge against Astoria?” Harry asked.
Malfoy shook his head emphatically. “No. No one. Everyone loved her.”
“Oh, come on, Malfoy. Now who’s being naïve? She sent how many people to Azkaban in her career? Lots. If you’ll remember, I’m the one who arrested them, and she’s the one who prosecuted them. I’d be surprised if they all loved her.”
Malfoy leaned his head back against the sofa and closed his eyes. “You’d do better asking Hermione about that.”
Harry started. “Hermione?”
One eye opened, and Malfoy turned his head towards Harry. “They do work together, you know?”
“Since when do you call her by her given name?” Because Hermione had never mentioned that she was on a first name basis with Draco bloody Malfoy.
“Would you rather I still called her a Mudblood?” Malfoy snapped, and then exhaled slowly. “You know, I’m really too tired for this. My wife was very fond of her. And as it happens, I call most adults I know by their first name. Except you and the Weasel.”
Harry took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. As much as he’d like to call Malfoy on it, he was going to be the grownup and ignore the Weasel comment. “You know absolutely no one who might have cause to hurt Astoria? She didn’t talk to you about her current cases or any cases in the past that concerned her?”
“She didn’t talk a lot about work with me.” Malfoy shrugged. “We left our jobs at the office. We had other, better things, to talk about.”
Harry was running out of patience with this whole conversation. But he took a breath and reined in his annoyance. “When was the last time you saw Blaise Zabini?”
“Excuse me? What does he have to do with anything?” Malfoy glared at Harry, but his face was red.
“He may have used a similar spell in the past. Does he have a reason to want to hurt Astoria?”
“No. I haven’t seen him in probably a decade.”
“What did you see him about at that time?”
“As if it’s any of your business –”
“As long as I’m in charge of this investigation, everything is my business.” Harry raised a hand. “Just accept it and let’s move on to why you were doing business with Zabini?”
“I wasn’t doing business with him. I saw him at a party. We spoke. That was it. This is a useless conversation to be having.”
“I think it’s actually very interesting. So there is no connection between Astoria and Zabini? And you can’t think of anyone who might want to hurt Astoria?”
“If I could think of someone, anyone, you can be sure I wouldn’t be sitting here chatting with you about it. I’d be talking to them. Or not talking.” There was a definite menace to Malfoy’s tone.
Harry raised an eyebrow. “Taking the law into your own hands will only get you into trouble.”
“And I’ve never been in trouble before?” Malfoy had a good approximation of his old smirk on his face.
