The wasabi and ginger crisps were not good. But the sandwiches they got to go with them were, and the crisps Harry had picked out were pretty alright.

After that was, of course, dessert. Which is how Harry found himself standing in the middle of a gelato shop that was so fancy and minimalistic it could be mistaken for being an empty room someone had managed to drag a counter and freezer into. The menu board, a large blackboard covered in white rounded writing, only made the shop look marginally more occupied.

"There's a flavour called Chocolate Dirt," Malfoy said.

"Have you ever considered just getting something you know you'll like?" Harry said sarcastically.

"It's chocolate, who doesn't like chocolate?" Malfoy said.

"Luna prefers vanilla," Harry said.

"Not pistachio? Or...Banana pudding?"

"What?" Harry frowned. Malfoy tapped the front of the display where the flavours were labelled, including a banana pudding flavour. He ignored the glare of the posh-looking young man behind the case, "It seems more her character to prefer something strange."

"Luna isn't strange," Harry said, "She's just... unique."

"I didn't say she was strange, just that she would prefer it," Malfoy said, turning away from the glass for a second to look at him, "You have to admit that she's a bit odd though."

Harry didn't have to admit anything. Luna's friends could tease her about being strange because they weren't mean about it, but no one else was allowed. "Luna's great."

The door swung open with a faint electronic chime.

"Welco-" the woman behind the register started to say and then stopped abruptly and blinked at the small figure in the duck onesie stomped inside.

Asbestos tugged on the edge of Malfoy's jacket and held up a slip of paper, "Work."

Malfoy took the work memo, read it and then handed it to Harry.

Harry read through the auror shorthand and codes and sighed deeply.

"Is it urgent?" Malfoy asked.

"It's- fuck these are the worst..."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow, "Is it urgent? Or can I get my gelato?"

Asbestos nodded, going up on her tiptoes to look through the bottom of the glass.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Get your stupid gelato."

"Excellent," Malfoy said. He ordered two scoops, one pink and the other purple. Asbestos got three scoops, all chocolate. The shop was so minimalistic that their waffle cones were black.

"Are you going to get one?" Malfoy asked.

"We're going to a job," Harry said.

"So?"

Harry sighed.

"Are you-"

"No," Harry said, "I'm not going to get a gelato."

"Suit yourself," Malfoy said with a shrug.

Malfoy left the shop first, holding the door open for Asbestos.

Harry followed and heard the guy behind the display say, "Holy shit, that is the ugliest kid I have ever seen-" and the door shut and cut off the rest.

"This way," Malfoy called, already disappearing down a narrow alley. "So what sort of call is it? I'd like to know what we'll be headed into," Malfoy said once Harry had caught up.

"Neighbourhood dispute," Harry said, "Usually two neighbours that have snapped and ended up fighting, except one of them has magic, so that's where we come in."

"Sounds rather fun," Malfoy said.

"Sounds exhausting, is what it is," Harry said.

Malfoy swiped his tongue up the side of his gelato, pink and purple melting over his tongue into a pastel cream. He tsked and frowned at his black cone, "This isn't gelato. This is just ice cream. Gelato is much richer and denser than this."

"Is it any good?" Harry said distractedly, not really hearing anything Malfoy said.

"That isn't the point? I was expecting gelato. Now I am inherently disappointed by the experience," Malfoy said.

There was a smudge of ice cream on Malfoy's lip, and Harry found himself raising his hand to wipe it off before the confused, half-smile on Malfoy's face made him stop.

Harry cleared his throat, feeling far too hot in his own skin, "You, uh, you have some ice-cream," he gestured to his own mouth.

Malfoy tongue darted out, licking the smudge of ice-cream off and somehow pulling the breath out of Harry at the same time. He had to look away and ended up looking down at a thoroughly unimpressed Asbestos.

Asbestos bit a chunk off her ice cream and then held it out. Harry took it without thinking, which seemed to be the right response because she grabbed Harry and Malfoy at the knees, a handful of fabric in both hands and apparated them away.

They landed in a small front garden in a quiet rather nondescript neighbourhood. The house they were standing in front of had a near twin built right beside it with an identical if slightly more yellow lawn. In fact, the two gardens were like a storybook illustration of the grass always being greener on the other side, with perfect green grass and flowers in full bloom on one side, as the other garden, looked well, ordinary and a bit sad in comparison. It was easy to guess which house had magic to help things along.

Asbestos snapped her fingers at Harry impatiently until he gave her ice cream back.

Harry could feel the faint buzz on his skin of strong interwoven wards, hiding the two houses from the street and gently pushing muggles away with a mix of notice-me-not and repelling charms.

The two junior aurors that Harry obviously knew the names of, Kalya and Joshua? no... Jeremy? were standing under a tree in the corner, looking up at something in the branches. Malfoy and Asbestos wandered over to them and started chatting.

Harry looked around for the Senior Auror and found Shunter standing in front of the nicer house behind him. Her hands were on her hips, and she was frowning severely, an expression that on both her and Professor McGonagall was always pants-wettingly terrifying. The rail-thin old man she was glaring at seemed unaffected, Harry had to assume he was either exceptionally brave or exceptionally stupid.

Harry walked over, trying not to make too much noise so he could listen in on what they were talking about.

"I understand the nature of your complaint," Shunter said with the sort of firmness that was meant to try and continue the conversation, but with the sort of weariness that came from having failed to continue the conversation many times before, "but, Mr Hickenbottom-"

"Hickenbotham," the man in the doorway corrected sharply, frowning through his long stringy grey beard, "It's Hickenbotham."

Shunter's mouth pressed up in a vice-tight smile that held no amusement but possibly contained a multitude of suppressed fury. "Mr Hickenbotham," she tried again, "I understand the nature of your complaint, however, you are not allowed to transfigure your neighbour's dog-"

"He lets it out where ever he pleases, and it shites on everyone's lawn! And I get most of it!" Mr Hickenbothem said with indignant rage.

"-You can't transfigure your neighbour's dog," Shunter went on, ignoring Mr Hickenbotham, "It's a blatant-"

"I've talked to the old fool, of course I have! He just won't listen-!"

"Mr Hickenbotham!" Shunter finally snapped, "You used magic on a muggle! You broke the statute of secrecy! I do not care about your neighbour. I do not care about his dog. The simple matter is this: You broke the statute of secrecy, not accidentally, but with intent!"

Mr Hickenbotham opened his mouth and then, wisely, decided to close it again.

Shunter took a deep breath, calming down marginally as she pulled out her notebook. "It was a minor use of magic and your first offence, so you'll likely be let off with a fine and warning, but you will have to testify to the Wizengamont. You'll be owled the date of the meeting once all the paperwork is filed, failure to show may result in a more severe penalty. Do you understand?"

Mr Hickenbotham nodded sullenly.

"Good," Shunter said, handing a copy of the ticket to him, "I hope to never see you again, Mr Hickenbotham." She shoved her notebook into her pocket, "Now please return to your home-"

"Well, I never," Mr Hickenbotham inflated his thin chest, all his self-righteousness returning in one fell swoop, "So this is what my taxes pay for? Harassing innocent wizards? I'm going to tell the Wizengamont about this! You'll see-!"

Shunter flicked out her wand and levitated Mr Hickenbotham a few feet back into the house, ignoring his indigent squawking, and charmed the door shut behind him, "Please remain in your home until the situation is resolved! Thank you!" she said cheerfully, turned on her heel and headed for Harry once she spotted him.

"You get all the fun assignments, don't you, sir?" Harry said.

Shunter rolled her eyes, "A laugh a minute, Potter. But this sort of work is just part of the routine."

Harry nodded.

"You're missing out the big case we've been working on."

"With Ron?" Harry asked.

"Auror's aren't allowed to discuss ongoing investigations outside of the aurors they're working with," Shunter said.

"Just a guess. He's been busy lately," Harry said quickly. Neither he or Ron bothered with that particular rule between the two of them, they were best mates after all.

"Mhmm," Shunter said doubtfully, "Enjoying your little rebellion with the Liars Department?"

Harry stiffened, and was about to defend his decision again when he heard Malfoy laughing behind him and felt himself relax. "It's been pretty great, actually."

Shunter frowned, "I know you've been frustrated with the work you've done as an Auror, but everyone has to go through it. Juniors work with Seniors to learn the basics. Aurors work basic cases and walk patrols in Diagon and Hogsmeade, and Senior Auror's work the big cases. You have to learn every aspect of the job."

"I haven't done any patrols," Harry said.

"Well-"

"Is it because I was promoted too soon?" Harry said.

Shunter's eyebrows twitched up.

"I didn't realise it until recently- I know, I know," Harry said ruefully at Shunter's expression of disbelief, "I don't really pay attention to those sorts of things. I would have turned the promotion down if I had known."

Shunter smiled ruefully, "I'm not sure they would have let you. There's a lot of pressure to have you succeed, Potter."

Harry sighed.

"And you aren't suited for patrols anyway. You're too impatient," Shunter said.

"Great."

"Different people are suited for different work," Shunter said. She turned to the tree. The addition of Malfoy and Asbestos hadn't seemed to progress whatever the Juniors were working on, but then again they were just standing back and eating their ice cream watching the show.

Shunter pointed at the Juniors, "Those two are prime patrol Aurors, I doubt they'll be promoted past that. And you'd be a good fit for Senior Auror. You're good at investigative work and raids. You think well on your feet."

Harry frowned to himself, looking at the Juniors desperately waving their wands at the tree with no success, their spells bouncing off the branches and sputtering into sparks. "...Even though they want me to be the next Head Auror?"

Shunter didn't say anything.

"Even though it should be you?"

Harry glanced over at Shunter and saw her expression tighten.

"You're the most qualified, the next in line," Harry said, "Not me."

"It's out of my control. The higher-ups have their plans."

"Their plans are stupid," Harry said.

Shunter hid a laugh with a hurried cough, but her amusement quickly faded. "It's out of my control."

"But not mine," Harry said, "I'll turn them down."

Shunter's expression very carefully didn't change, "...That may not be... a possibility."

"Why?" Harry asked.

Shunter sniffed, "I've heard...let's say rumours, that the intention of those... more qualified, are planning to promote you to Head Auror by the time you're twenty-five or six. It would make you the youngest Head Auror in the history of the department."

"Those more qualified, I figured Robards? Who else?" Harry asked.

"Maybe Kingsley, a number of the more senior members of the Wizengamont, just rumours of course."

"Of course," Harry repeated sourly.

"They did the same thing to Albus Dumbledore. He was a professor, so they pushed him into being Headmaster," Shunter said, "You see it a lot throughout history, powerful people in powerful positions. I don't know if they just like the tradition or believe that someone with great magic is destined to greatness like Merlin. Or, and this is very cynical of me, having them in powerful positions keeps them pinned in one place so they can't cause trouble. You can't learn dangerous magic and gather followers if you're too busy working a demanding job."

"It doesn't sound cynical to me," Harry said.

"I prefer to think things aren't quite so bleak," Shunter said with a sour smile. "Now shall we actually get some work done?"

"Yes, sir," Harry said, following her to the tree.

"Wands down," Shunter ordered, "What's the situation?"

Kalya and Jeremy stood to attention.

"Uh, the object of illegal transfiguration is still up the tree-" Kalya said.

"You can call it a dog, Junior Auror Bhasin," Shunter interrupted.

"It's more like a cat- or a squirrel now," Jeremy said faintly, "or kind of both-ish?"

"Why is it still in the tree?" Shunter asked.

"Uh-uh...um-" Jeremy stuttered.

"There are branches in the way we can't hit it with our spells, M'am," Kalya said.

Shunter didn't look impressed, "It's 'sir' Junior."

"R-Right," Kalya said nervously, "Sorry, um, sir?"

"It's a preference, and I expect you to respect it. You respect me, I respect you," Shunter said.

Kalya and Jeremy nodded.

"What about a broom?" Harry asked. "To get the dog down."

"We don't have time to locate-" Shunter started.

Harry turned to Asbestos, "Can you get a broom?"

"Get one of mine," Malfoy said.

Asbestos snapped her fingers, apparating away and returning about thirty seconds later with a sleek racing broom.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Showy much?"

"I didn't pick the broom," Malfoy said.

"You bought it," Harry said.

"A house elf..." Shunter said thoughtfully, "why hadn't I ever thought of that before? How useful..."

Asbestos narrowed her eyes, "Wizards only care about elves when they can use them. Otherwise filthy stupid creatures, annoying creatures, always in the way. That being why you've never thought of it before."

"Let's get this job done then!" Harry said loudly and took the broom.

Malfoy snorted in amusement behind what was left of his ice cream.

Harry threw his leg over the broom and pushed his toe on the ground, instantly sending the broom flying up into the tree. He pulled it to a stop, overcorrected, re-corrected, a tree branch slapped over his face and then finally managed to get it to hover. It figured Malfoy would have one of those overly sensitive, annoying 'high performance' brooms.

Harry scanned through the canopy and spotted a little fluff of white high up in the canopy. He used the branches to guide himself up to a Y-junction near the top where something that mostly looked like a fluffy white cat was clinging to the bark for dear life. It had the look of an animal who had panicked and used instinct to run away before realising too late that those new instincts belonged to an animal that climbed trees, while the dog mind inside it was usually at ankle height and had anxiety.

"It's okay, it's okay," Harry said gently.

The low growl that grew as Harry reached towards it assured Harry that it was in fact not okay.

Harry stopped and considered his options. He could reverse the transfiguration here, but the dog might fall out of the tree. Or he could put the animal in a body bind but again, risked it falling out of the tree. The smart thing would be to levitated it down to the ground and let the others reverse the transfiguration, but he was rather shit at controlled levitation when it came to light things. Heavy things he was brilliant at, he could levitate a person no problem, but something as little as the cat-dog-squirrel might end up on a rather erratic rollercoaster ride at best.

Deciding he had to do something, Harry drew his wand. The growling raised an octave at the sight of his wand which the small, terrified deranged animal recognised as being vaguely connected to its current situation. Harry took a deep breath and then cast Immobulus, a mild body freezing charm as he reached for the dog with his other hand, hoping to grab it just as the spell hit. Unfortunately, just before that moment, the dog lunged forward, snapping its tiny sharp teeth into the meat of Harry's hand, then it froze.

It took every ounce of will in Harry's body not to fling the small animal off his hand. He breathed through his nose, holding very, very still except to shift his weight back and send the broom slowly descending towards the ground.

Shunter sighed at the sight of him.

Jeremy's eyes went wide.

And Malfoy bit his lip, practically vibrating in silent laughter.

"You have an uncanny ability to injure yourself in the most unlikely of circumstances," Shunter said.

Harry grimaced as he touched down, holding his arm out with a dog-cat hanging from it. Its expression was remarkably placid, as if it had found peace in the certainty that it had seen enemy, bit the enemy and defeated it, a rare novelty in its often frenetic confusing life.

Malfoy's laughter was starting to escape in gasps as he clutched his stomach, his face slowly turning bright red.

"Will someone do something? This hurts, you know," Harry said acidly.

Shunter waved at Jeremy, "You hold the dog." She told Kalya, "You dispel the charm."

The Juniors stiffly followed her orders, Jeremy looking like he had never held an animal in his life, clutching the dog under the armpits as far away from himself as humanly possible. As soon as Kalya released the spell, the dog-cat began squirming and wriggling trying to escape. Before it could, Shunter deftly reversed the awkward transfiguration so that it was a dog once more.

Kalya made a face, "Are you sure you did it right, sir?"

"This isn't my first transfiguration reversal, Junior. You see a lot of them in this job," Shunter said.

"But... it was cuter before," Kalya said.

Jeremy nodded, "Its face is flat. Was it dropped on its head?"

The dog wasn't happy with how Jeremy was holding and started whining.

"Haven't you held a dog before?" Malfoy said, rolling his eyes. He pushed his ice cream cone into Harry's hand and took the dog from Jeremy, holding it close to his chest. "It's a Pekingese, they're meant to look like that." Malfoy's voice dropped to a murmur as he told the little white mop, "I think you're cute just as you are."

The dog looked up at Malfoy, wagging its tail faintly and giving Malfoy a lick on the chin.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Harry asked. The pale purple ice cream was all gone, and only half the pink remained.

"Eat it," Malfoy said, "It will soothe your bruised ego."

"I'm not a kid," Harry said.

Malfoy huffed in amusement, "We're all children Auror Potter. We just pretend to be adults. The longer we do it, the better we get at it, but it doesn't change the fact that we're all whiny sticky little monsters underneath it all."

"Sure you're not projecting there?" Harry asked.

"Oh, shut up," Malfoy said.

Harry grinned at him.

"Asbestos will return this now," Asbestos said, grabbing the broom and disappearing with a pop.

"Listen up, Juniors," Shunter said in her 'time for a lesson' voice.

Kayla and Jeremy straightened to attention.

Harry didn't listen, he had heard Shunter's various lectures on proper dispelling procedure to have had dreams of them, and they were just as boring the second time around.

Ice cream dripped over the edge of the cone and onto his fingers. Harry looked at the pale pink mess and hesitantly lifted it to his mouth. Tasting it felt strangely illicit, his mind drawn over and over again the image of Malfoy's tongue swiping over the cold treat. But the flavour pulled him right back out of his thoughts.

"What is this?" Harry asked, "It tastes weird."

"Rose and guava," Malfoy said.

"So that's why you gave it to me," Harry said, vanishing what was left and aiming a cleaning spell at his hand, "Wait, what was the purple flavour?"

"Lavender. And the flavour wasn't bad, I just don't like melted ice-cream," Malfoy said.

"Lavender?" Harry repeated, "Why are we- they- eating flowers?"

"Some flowers are edible and quite good, if you happen to have taste," Malfoy said.

"If you're the type to wander around the garden sticking random plants in your mouth," Harry said.

Malfoy ignored him and leaned close to the dog. His voice was a soft murmur that made the dog wag its tail in a gentle sweep back and forth, its flat face and bulgy goldfish eyes watching Malfoy's face with rapt attention.

"You like dogs?" Harry asked.

"Who doesn't?" Malfoy said, petting the dog.

"You dropped Care for Magical Creatures."

Malfoy gave him a look, "Shockingly enough, I prefer animals that can't murder me."

"They weren't all deadly," Harry said weakly, knowing any defence of Hagrid's classes in that direction was pretty hopeless.

"Pansy's family always had crups, and Theo's mum had half a dozen little dogs at any time." Malfoy said absently, "I wanted one, but Father wouldn't allow it. He hated mess."

"You could get one now," Harry said, "You're master of the house, right? He can't say no."

Malfoy's studied the happy little dog with a sombre expression, "I can't watch it all the time."

"You don't need to watch it all the time. It's a dog," Harry said.

Malfoy sighed, "You don't understand. If my father thought he could hurt me by hurting my dog, he would."

"But- your father wouldn't hurt you?" Harry said in confusion.

Malfoy snorted derisively which made the dog tilt its head in confusion, "He wouldn't lay a hand on me if that's what you mean. He's always preferred a cutting word to the lash, but words don't work as well anymore so he'll look for anything he can use to leverage power over me. It's all about power..."

Harry frowned.

Malfoy glanced at him and then back down at the dog who whined, and Malfoy gave it a smile, scratched it behind the ears.

"Alright, you two. We've done our part," Shunter said loudly, "Now it's your turn to do- whatever it is you do."

"Did the owner of the dog see the transfiguration?" Malfoy asked.

"When we arrived he was in his garden calling for the dog," Shunter said, "We don't know how much he saw, but protocol dictates that a muggle on the scene is to be treated as if they had witnessed all magic that occurred."

"Where is he?" Malfoy asked.

"Stunned and placed on his sofa," Shunter said, nodding to the muggle's house.

Malfoy nodded thoughtfully.

"The most efficient solution is to apply a mild obliviate to erase the last couple hours from his mind, leave the dog and everything as it was before the transfiguration and leave," Shunter said.

"Yes, well, we're not the obliviators," Malfoy said.

Shunter and Malfoy stared at one another.

Shunter broke first, "Do you need us from anything?"

"Just be ready to dispel all magic when I say," Malfoy said

"Very well," Shunter said and motioned for the Juniors to fall back to the road with her.

Harry followed Malfoy to the closed door of the house, "So what's the plan?"

Malfoy turned around, stepping close and pressing the little dog between them, "Put your arms where mine are."

Harry lifted his arms, his hands brushing over Malfoy's and sending shivers down his spine.

"Don't drop the poor thing," Malfoy said.

"I won't. I've held Hermione's cat before," Harry said, staring down. The dog was looking between them in confusion, but all Harry could see was where he and Malfoy were touching and the warmth of him against his skin.

"A dog is not a cat," Malfoy said.

"And you've never held Crookshanks before." Harry looked up. This close he could see flecks of blue in the centre of Malfoy's iris'. His eyes followed down Malfoy's narrow nose to his lips. And Malfoy smiled that little half-confused smile that made Harry's heart race and made him very much want to kiss him.

oh.

He- he wanted to kiss Malfoy.

He quite probably might even like him.

Malfoy's mouth was moving, and Harry very belatedly tried to pay attention.

"Are you listening, Auror Potter?"

"No," Harry said faintly.

Malfoy's smile grew, "You're cute when you're stupid."

Harry blinked at him, all the concentration he had been desperately trying to gather was smacked away from him once more.

"Try to listen for a second, would you?" Malfoy said. He slowly let go of the dog, so all the weight rested in Harry's arms. Once he was certain Harry wasn't going to drop it, he took a step back which was actually somewhat effective in restoring Harry's ability to pay attention.

"What's-" Harry cleared his throat, "What's the plan?"

Malfoy pointed at him, "You are going to return the dog."

"Me?" Harry wanted to point at himself, but the dog whined when he shifted his arms, and he thought better of it, "Why me?"

"You're very personable," Malfoy said.

"Personable?" Harry repeated.

Malfoy sighed and rolled his eyes, "You're likeable. People like you, they trust you. It's infuriating, but at least it's useful for this sort of thing. ...And your outfit is more approachable."

"What?" Harry teased, "People don't wander around in flashy white suits everywhere?"

"They lack taste is all," Malfoy said.

"So what am I going to do?"

"Just return the dog," Malfoy said.

"Just-"

"Just return the dog," Malfoy repeated slowly. "Our poor muggle is going to wake up on his settee, having had a terrible nightmare about his dog running away. It was strange but dreams rarely make sense."

"Just a dream? You think he'll believe it was just a dream?" Harry asked.

"Of course, it makes far more sense than his neighbour actually being a wizard and turning his dog into a squirrel, doesn't it?" Malfoy grinned, "That sounds like utter nonsense to me."

Harry laughed.

"So you just knock on the door, say you found the dog running about and give it back."

"And that's it? That's the whole plan?" Harry asked.

Malfoy shrugged, "Sometimes it's best not to complicate things."

Harry looked down at the dog who looked at him with beatific ignorance and licked Harry's chin. He supposed Malfoy was right. It was the easiest solution. But, if the neighbour was always letting their dog run loose, something like this was bound to happen again. "Alright," he said reluctantly.

Harry headed to the front step of the house. Malfoy joined the aurors on the edge of the road, and a moment later, all the wards and magic in the area was dispelled, the aurors apparating away a second later leaving only Malfoy standing on the pavement.

Harry didn't want to knock on the door and drop the dog, Malfoy would never forgive him, so he settled on kicking the door in the most knock-like way he could manage.

After a minute, and about give the door another kick, Harry heard someone shuffling inside.

"Coming, coming," a voice called, soon to be followed by an old man opening the door. He was pleasantly round and seemed to carry a permanent smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes.

"Ah! Princess! There you are my Princess!" the man crooned and scooped the dog, Princess, out of Harry's hands before he could react.

Princess happily covered the man's face with slobbery kisses.

"Was she out causing trouble?" the man said, then his voice went all high pitched and syrupy sweet as he asked Princess, "Were you causing trouble?"

Princess responded with an almost explosive amount of excited tail wagging and further slobbery kisses.

"George Hickenbottom. Bottom as in bottom," George introduced himself with a chuckle and conspiratorial wink, "Go on 'an have a laugh, I know I do. Hated the name as a tyke but it gives me quite a chuckle now. My Edith never found it all that funny, but now she's not here to chide me about it."

"Oh, I'm sorry for your lo-" Harry started to say.

"She's at her bridge club until tea," George said with a bright smile. "Funny thing about names, my neighbour's named Hickenbotham, if you can believe it. Hickenbottom and Hickenbotham living side by side, getting mail mixed up and people coming around to the wrong door. Funny old world isn't it?"

"Yes, I suppose so," Harry sighed.

"Well, thank you ever so much for bringing Princess back," George said, starting to close the door, "She'll be on her best behaviour after this!"

Harry put a hand up, stopping the door and pushing it back open.

"Oh? Yes?" George said.

Harry thought frantically, saying the first thing to come to mind, "I'm with the Council."

"Oh, oh! Well, um, can I help you with something, sir?" George asked, his smile catching the first edges of worry.

"We've received multiple complaints about a dog loose in the neighbourhood as well as direct complaints from your neighbours about your dog being allowed to roam freely outside the home without a leash or supervision," Harry said channelling his official auror voice.

"It's- Princess just goes out for a tinkle. She comes right back in. She's a good girl," George said.

It was easier reprimanding crup owners for not watching their dogs since the breed was prone to aggression towards muggles if they weren't properly trained, but Harry figured he could use some of the same arguments.

"If a dog isn't in an enclosed yard they must be on a leash or on an appropriate tether," Harry said.

"Princess is a good girl. She'd never hurt a fly," George said, "In fact, she's terrified of flies. All insects, really. Most things even. Princess has a tender heart."

Harry wanted to shake the man, "And what if a stray dog comes through and attacks her? A small white dog like her, she looks more like a toy than another dog."

"Oh, well-"

Harry cut him off, "And someone speeding down the street might hit her in the road, might be cruel enough to hit her on purpose."

"Never! I can't imagine-"

"And quite frankly I am surprised she hasn't been stolen. She's wandering free, a cute little dog with no owner around."

George clutched Princess tighter to his chest, and she gave little whine of concern, "Nobody would be so cruel!"

"You don't know that, sir. Even if everyone living in this area were practically saints, other people drive through, get lost, wander in," Harry said. And for the coup de grâce, although to be honest he was bluffing since he only knew wizarding laws, "Regardless, Mr Hickenbottom, it is the council's duty to enforce the laws, and those include the Animal Welfare Reform Act. So I am here to tell you, if you continue to let your dog out unleashed and unwatched, we will report you to the Dog Wardens for animal negligence and have the dog removed from your custody and adopted out to someone who will care for her properly."

Mr Hickenbottom's moustache was wobbling. He looked very much like he might start to cry.

Harry relented, but only slightly, "Do you understand, Mr Hickenbottom?"

"I, well, y-yes," George said shakily, drawing himself up, "I- I can't imagine us losing our Princess. Oh, it would break Edith's heart. I wouldn't risk it."

"Then, from now on, you should only let your dog out on a leash or on a tether. Or invest in a bit of fencing," Harry said.

Mr Hickenbottom nodded, "Yes, yes, I will- I will do that right away."

Harry nodded and went to touch the brim of his police hat before remembering it wasn't there. "Good. Well... I hope to never have to see you again, Mr Hickenbottom."

"Good day to you," George said quietly and shut the door.

Harry took a deep breath, his heart beating a little too hard in his chest from the surge of adrenaline.

Malfoy met him outside the house, and pulled him along, walking down the street and way from the twin houses of horror, "You did not just give the dog back, I take it? The man looked properly terrified by the end."

"He wasn't terrified," Harry said, "Upset, maybe, but not terrified."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

"I told him I was from the council and if he kept letting his dog roam free I would call the dog warden on him," Harry said.

"Dog Warden? There are dog wardens?" Malfoy asked.

"Yeah, they only catch loose animals, dogs and cats and that sort of thing," Harry said.

"And what is 'The Council'? Sounds ominous," Malfoy said.

Harry had to shrug at that, "I think some cities have them and sometimes churches? My aunt was always nervous about 'the council'. I was just bluffing. Lucky it worked out, really."

Malfoy grinned, half in delight and half in disbelief, "Bluffing. That's- astonishing. Brilliant even."

"Brilliant is a bit much," Harry protested weakly, embarrassed to be pleased about it.

"And here I thought the auroring had managed to bore all the audacity out of you," Malfoy said.

"Bore all the- what? What are you on about?" Harry said.

Malfoy shrugged, "You seemed like such a stiff when we first met again. All rules and protocols and ugly uniforms."

"It's not that ugly," Harry said, "The hat, yes, but the rest is fine enough."

Malfoy went on, not listening, "I thought perhaps they had trained all the reckless pigheaded-"

"Hey!"

"-foolish, idiotic-"

"Hey!" Harry said more sharply, putting an end to the list, "I wasn't that bad."

Malfoy gave him a look.

"Most of the time," Harry said.

"Most of the time," Malfoy repeated sarcastically.

"And it was usually because someone was trying to kill me, that's hardly my fault!"

"Oh, there were plenty of times you were a complete and utter pillock all on your own," Malfoy said, "You can't blame Voldemort for everything."

"I'm not," Harry said shortly, "Sometimes it was werewolves."

That surprised a laugh out of Malfoy, and he jostled Harry's shoulder with a grin, "You are utterly ridiculous."

"Now that's the cauldron calling the kettle black," Harry said.

"Perhaps," Malfoy said with a smirky grin, "Now. We have a few things to get done before the end of the day."

"The paperwork," Harry said with a sigh.

Malfoy waved him off, "Pish, you can do that-"

"Wha-?"

"-I was talking about this," Malfoy stopped abruptly and grabbed Harry's hand. He held it up, pulling Harry's fingers open and exposing the teeth marks on his palm right between this thumb and forefinger. It would have been mostly superficial if it had been a quick bite, but with all of Princess' weight hanging from her tiny sharp teeth, she had ended up breaking the skin.

"It- It'll scab over," Harry said dismissively, once again having trouble forming a coherent thought.

Malfoy tracing a finger over the reddened skin, "It might scar."

"I have lots of scars," Harry said. Malfoy's finger tickled across his skin.

"Some scars can be attractive, but this-?" Malfoy gave him a look, "You really want to explain to someone where this scar came from?"

"I can't focus," Harry pulled his hand free, shaking his head to try and clear it of Malfoy's distracting influence, not really noticing the flicker of hurt on Malfoy's face.

"It's your hand, do what you like," Malfoy said flatly.

Harry sighed, looking at his hand, "You're right, I guess. But my healing charms leave scars half the time anyway."

"You need a healing salve with dittany," Malfoy said.

Harry looked around the empty and unnervingly quiet neighbourhood, "Where's Asbestos? Can't she just sort it out?"

"Asbestos?" Malfoy said, then after a few moments shrugged, "She must be on her break."

"Her break?"

"Or lunch," Malfoy said.

"You don't know?" Harry asked.

Malfoy smiled faintly, "Where would be the fun in that?"

Harry laughed.

"Quite frankly, I would be disappointed in Asbestos if she started behaving like a proper employee."

"Would she hear you call for her?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Malfoy said.

"I always wondered how house elves could do that," Harry said.

Malfoy shrugged, "A house elf version of a tracking charm, I suppose. Shall we drop by St. Mungos?"

Harry blinked, confused for a second before realising what Malfoy was talking about, "Just for my hand? I can just go to the mediwitch in the Ministry, they'll have something."

"Better than nothing," Malfoy muttered under his breath. Looking around, Malfoy pointed out a narrow alley behind two rows of houses, "We can apparate from there."

Harry nodded and followed Malfoy's lead.

Back at the Ministry, Harry had to ask the front desk where to go. He had always been either injured enough to have to go to Mungo's or just slap a plaster on and call it good.

The Mediwitch's office was located on level one with the Minister of Magic's Office and all the various staff and researchers that worked for him. It took a few minutes of searching to find the right office, an unassuming door off to the side only marked by a plaque that read Heath and Healing. It looked like there had been a few names underneath the plaque, but now there was only one.

Harry knocked, "Excuse me? Mediwitch Bedlum?"

There was silence from the other side.

Harry tried the door, and it swung open easily. The office inside was about as small as Malfoy's newer office. There was a bookshelf stuffed full of medical books, and some shelves, empty except for a few rolls of bandages. The biggest pieces of furniture in the room was a massive, mostly empty, locked cabinet holding a few shelves of potions and a narrow bed for people to rest on. For someone in green robes to sleep on now, apparently.

"Mediwitch Bedlum?" Harry said again.

The figure on the bed let out a panicked snort and sat bolt upright like some sort of inferius.

Behind him, Harry felt Malfoy jump and grinned at him, Malfoy glared back.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Bedlum said in a loud, slightly sleep fogged, voice, getting up and patting her robes down like she was trying to slap the dust out a rug. "Always get a bit sleepy after lunch."

"Uh-" Harry started.

"Most of the time these days, they just send you lads to the hospital, especially since they let the healer go. Budget cuts, budget cuts, they'll be the death of me, well someday," Bedlum said, giving her robes one last enthusiastic smack and put her hands on her hips. "What can I do you for?"

Harry blinked and held out his hand, "I got bitten by a dog."

"A small dog," Malfoy teased over his shoulder.

Harry flipped his hand up to wave Malfoy off but ended up hitting his face.

"Watch it!" Malfoy snapped.

Harry gave him an incredulous look, "Don't hover so close, then."

Mediwitch Bedlum cocked her head, a growing smile on her face, "A healing charm would do well enough on such an injury."

Malfoy rolled his eyes, "Do you have healing salve with dittany? The whole point of coming here was to avoid scaring."

"Should do, should do," Bedlum said, pressing her wand against the cabinet lock and unlocking it with a faint click. Even though the shelves were mostly empty, she took her time checking every single bottle and jar.

Harry turned back to Malfoy, who was rubbing his nose with a sulky expression. He sighed and said, "Sorry. About your face."

"You should be. It's my best feature," Malfoy said.

"I would think your mind is," Harry said.

"Blokes aren't going to fuck me for my mind," Malfoy said.

"I-" Harry's mind shorted out, because one, he would, and two, who was Malfoy fucking?! He pressed his palm over the clenching twisting pain in his chest. This wasn't a good time for this, he had hardly- he hadn't come to terms with maybe sort of kind of liking Malfoy, and now he was being jealous of hypothetical blokes?

"Jesus-fucking-christ," Harry muttered.

Malfoy smirked, misreading Harry's reaction entirely- thank fuck- "Even I like to go out sometimes, Auror Potter. Have a bit of fun once and a while. Don't be so prudish."

"I can go back to my nap, if you'd rather," Bedlum interrupted.

"No, sorry. Did you have it?" Harry asked, looking back at her.

Bedlum raised a little jar, "Indeed I do. A bit old, but it should work just fine."

Malfoy scoffed, Harry could practically hear him rolling his eyes, and said, "Well, it's been a delightful day, but I'm done."

Harry spun around, "You're leaving?"

"Clocking out. I've been here...well, long enough," Malfoy said.

"I- Wait, Malfoy," Harry called after him.

Malfoy raised a hand, "Done working, Auror Potter."

"Draco, wait, there's something I need to tell you."

Malfoy or, maybe, yeah, Draco really was better, stopped abruptly. He took a breath, composing himself before looking back, "Yes?"

"Uh, this morning, Hermione told me that- that the one week transfer is just five days, I still have to take two off..." Harry hesitated, he couldn't read Draco's expression. "So I only have two more work days."

"Ah." Draco said flatly, "And you just decided to tell me now?"

"I forgot?" Harry said.

Draco shook his head with a frown, "Do you know the absolutely most frustrating thing about you?"

"...My hair?" Harry guessed.

"Obviously not," Draco said gesturing to Harry's head, which was currently styled to look intentionally messy.

Harry wasn't sure that counted.

Draco went on, "The most frustrating thing about you, Auror Potter, is that as soon as I think I've figured you out, you do something that utterly baffles me. One human being shouldn't be allowed to be so confusing."

Harry's brow furrowed, "...I just told you my work schedule?"

Draco waved at him dismissively, "Let me think."

"What is there to think about?"

"Optimization of time," Draco said, "Does Granger work on the weekends?"

"No?" Harry said, then catching on said, "You want to work on the weekend."

"I don't want to work on the weekend. I want to work without supervision," Draco said.

"I wouldn't say we were terribly supervised before."

Draco gave him a look, "That was before Granger was in charge. I can't imagine her not taking an interest."

"I guess I could work Saturday, but Sunday I always go to the Weasley's, it's a thing," Harry said.

"A thing."

"Like a regular thing. They're practically family, I always go," Harry said.

"I'll settle for Saturday and Monday," Draco said.

"I'm ever so glad you could find it in your heart to allow me Sunday off," Harry said sarcastically.

Draco made a face that was better suited to his eleven-year-old self pulling faces across the great hall and Harry couldn't help returning it with one of his own.

Draco laughed, "Fine. Fine. See you tomorrow, Auror Potter."

"It's Harry!" Harry called after him with a smile.

He turned around to Mediwitch Bedlum staring at him and jumped in surprise.

"Too bad your beau didn't see you jump, I imagine he would have enjoyed it," Bedlum said, grabbing Harry's forgotten hand and pulling it up, "Hold still."

"My... beau?" Harry asked.

Bedlum huffed with a smile, "Young people these days- I meant your sweetheart there."

Harry immediately felt his face flush red hot, "My- My sweetheart?"

Bedlum smeared the greenish paste on his palm and flipped his hand to do the back, "Isn't he? You make a good pair. Having a similar sense of humour is important. If you can't laugh together, how will you cry together, hm?"

"We're- We're not-" Harry quickly shook his head, "We're definitely not."

Bedlum looked up in surprise, "Really? I would've bet anything, the way you two get on."

"I just realised I liked him a half-hour ago!" Harry blurted out in dismay.

Bedlum stopped, and burst out laughing, in great huge booming laughs. She screwed the lid back onto the jar and put it back in the cabinet her laughing dying down only marginally.

Harry frowned, feeling defensive.

"Your face!" Bedlum slapped his arm exuberantly, it was like being slapped with a frying pan.

Harry rubbed his arm, "Yeah, well, I better get going, got paperwork to do."

"Not just yet," Bedlum pulled him back before he could get away. She cast a little charm that wrapped some gauze around his hand and held it in place with a mild sticking charm, "Salves take longer to work. Keep it clean and dry, you can take it off in the morning, alright?" Harry nodded, "Okay... thanks for sorting out my hand."

"Just doing my job," Bedlam said, "And you ought to ask that boy out before someone else does."

Harry muttered something vague and hurried to the lifts. He was almost glad to be able to sit down and finish up the paperwork. Harry didn't bother looking for Ron and Hermione after he finished, he had a lot of thinking to do.