partner with him when he and Malfoy had to share the same small space. Without Hermione there to act as a buffer between them, Harry couldn’t seem to stop himself from falling back on old behaviour, letting Malfoy get to him as much as he ever did when they were at Hogwarts. He was certain that Malfoy was taking his sweet time just to piss him off, but he had nothing to prove it except his suspicions and the asional look Malfoy sent his way when he thought Harry wasn’t looking.

They’d been rubbing each other up the wrong way all week, ever since Hermione had left with Ron on their long awaited honeymoon. The Auror department had a policy of ‘floating’ their temporarily un-partnered Aurors to other sections of the Ministry. It was for safety reasons, Kingsley said, because sending out into the field a pair of Aurors who hadn’t had time to learn how each other worked yet was apparently dangerous. So lone Aurors were always at the top of the pile to be lent out to other departments who might need their services; the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts, Muggle Liaison, and curse-breaking. While usually curse-breakers were called in to assist Aurors when they came across something suspicious in the field, they also had their own jobs that sometimes required protection, someone to watch their back.

And so for two weeks, Harry was that protection exclusively. Which wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that Draco sodding Malfoy wasn’t the curse-breaking department’s golden boy, who was almost always assigned the trickier cases, the ones that would most likely require an Auror to be present. With the exception of a handful of cases, Harry and Malfoy hadn’t had much cause to be around each other, and certainly never alone for any extended period of time. That suited Harry quite well; although he’d spoken in defence of both Malfoy and his mother at their trials, the blond was still an absolute git, and the less Harry saw of him the better, as far as he was concerned. Their interactions with each other extended only to the asional nod in the hallways or greeting in the lifts, and when they crossed paths while on a case or down the Leaky, Harry usually left Malfoy for someone else to deal with. Hermione didn’t like Malfoy any better these days either, but she was at least able to remain civil and professional when she needed to be.

Apparently, Harry couldn’t say the same thing for himself. He couldn’t seem to help himself; just the sight of Malfoy made his chest tight and his skin prickle. They’d been sniping at each other all week, as they worked together to clear an old house of its dark artifacts. Usually, curse-breakers would work alone in this, but the address had been known to house more than a few remaining Death Eaters on the run. Harry had been tasked with watching Malfoy’s back while he concentrated on lifting the curses and taking inventory of all the cursed objects held within. All that meant for Harry was that he’d got to spend most of t

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