Rating: G
Characters: Harry and Draco

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"You've got it?" The pale-haired man cast an anxious glance over his shoulder, certain there were Aurors lurking around every corner, waiting to spring upon him and the companion who had just joined him.

"Of course I've got it. I said I would, didn't I?"

"Well, the old man claimed it would be well-nigh impossible. I imagine he knows his business, he's been at it longer than most folks have been alive..." The first speaker turned and led the way into the blacker recesses of Knockturn Alley, making for a location known to few alive, and fewer still who walked the wizarding world as free men.

The second followed, ill-at-ease in these dank, gloomy surroundings. No longer brimming over with the scum of the wizarding world--the war had done that much good, at least--it was still a treacherous place; Darwinian logic applied even among wizards. But any eyes that happened to fall upon the unlikely pair quickly turned away, as both men were recognizable to even the most determined recluse.

"You really think we can pull this off?"

"Why should I think otherwise?"

"Well, for starters, no one ever has before."

"Come now, Potter. Where's that vaunted Gryffindor courage?" Malfoy stopped next to what appeared, to Harry's eyes, to be an expanse of empty wall. "You have heard that they sacked all the Dementors, yes?"

"I heard," Harry said, his voice dripping with acid. "If you'll recall, all those unemployed Dementors found positions working for your father's boss. I recall destroying quite a few of them."

"Don't know what you're on about, then. If demons and Death Eaters don't frighten you, what've you got to fear from a few Aurors?" Draco glanced up and down the dark alley, then rapped his wand upon the wall in a rapid, complicated sequence; the brickwork evaporated, leaving a gaping hole. He gestured Harry to precede him into it.

"Killing Death Eaters who were trying to kill me is a bit different from killing Aurors who're just doing their jobs." Harry hesitated, eyeing the opening, and then his old nemesis dubiously. "You know, before we go any further with this, I think I ought to state for the record that I absolutely do not trust you."

"Happy to hear it, Potter, and likewise. If you'd contacted me for any other reason than the one you did, I'd have hexed you on sight."

"Well, if anyone other than a certain lady had asked me to do this, I'd have refused."

"I guess that leaves us on equal ground then. Go on, get in before someone spots us."

Harry scrambled through the hole in the wall, peering into the velvety blackness with a scowl. "Oh, surely not. After all, you're the mighty Malfoy Heir and I'm the Man-Who-Lived-Again. Nobody in their right mind would attack the two of us."

"We're in Knockturn Alley, Potter. Right minds don't necessarily apply." Draco closed up the entrance with a wave of his wand, and the tiny amount of ambient light in the room vanished.

"What now?"

"Now we wait."

And wait they did, for some time.

"So," Harry eventually broke the silence, "how are things for a reformed almost-Death Eater these days? Job market opened up at all?"

"Mind your own business, Potter."

"I was only asking."

"Don't know why you bother. But if you really want to know, they're just as abysmal as they were ten years ago."

"Sorry to hear it."

"If you cared, you'd put in a good word for me with someone who pays more than rock-bottom minimum."

"I did. With several people." Harry sighed. "Funny how everyone wants to see the heroes, get our autographs, put our pictures on the fronts of their papers and reap the sales...but none of them listen to a word we say..."

"Sob, sob, loud blowing of nose and all that rot. Try being the antihero some time. At least you get to be well-fed and ignored--"

IT IS TIME

Dead silence.

"Malfoy, is that--"

"--the one we're waiting for. Yeah. Last chance to back out, Potter. You ready?"

Harry drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Ready and prepared. Let's do it."

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Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated characters and concepts are the property of J.K. Rowling. These stories are fan tributes to her works, and generate no profit of any kind. No challenge to the intellectual property rights of Ms. Rowling, or any other author or artist whose works may be mentioned herein, is intended or implied. Story archived by permission of the author.