Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I simply borrow the characters.
Harry walked down the aisle trying to get to his office, but kept getting stopped every time he made a three inch advance. It was like no one wanted him to get his paperwork done! Just like at school, no one ever wanted him to just get his homework done, they always had to give him something else to do. Like, say, defeat a certain dark wizard. It still baffled him that hundreds upon hundreds of grown witches and wizards made just a boy defeat the most powerful wizard their world had known-he had just been a kid for Merlin's sake!
Realizing that he wasn't going to get his paperwork done on his latest closed case anytime soon, he sighed and gave his attention to whatever the young boy wanted. He looked like he had just gotten out of some high end college the muggles had. High and mighty and way too cocky to be wise.
"So, anyways, here's a file on your next case and I need this to be copied and sent to the Unspeakables ASAP, you got that?" Harry nodded, clearly not pleased that the newbie's work came before his own, and more importantly, not paying attention. And then something sank in. The newbie, THE NEWBIE, of the department was telling him, HIM, HARRY FUCKING POTTER, what to do.
Oh. Hell. No. That wasn't going to fly.
Everyone knew that even though Harry wasn't the Department Head, they didn't order him around. They didn't give him their work just because they didn't want to do it. They didn't order him around. They didn't tell him what to do. It just wasn't the way things worked, and with Harry's defeat of Voldemort no one ever questioned the fact that he was more like the head while not having to be the guy to deal with discipline and hirings. Everyone knew that, so when the newbie decided to go against the unspoken rules, the entire floor went deadly silent. It was the kind of silence that created its own noise.
"What?" A dangerous growl left Harry's throat. "I. Don't. Take. Orders. And. I. Don't. Do. Other. People's. Jobs." Then the idiotic man had the nerve to defy him.
"I'll do whatever I please, thank you very much." Harry's eyes flashed with a madness that was rumored around the ministry. All of Harry's partners had switched to other departments or other partners because of that mad gleam he had when he was angry at someone. It rarely ever came out unless Harry was making an arrest or battling someone. No one but his partners ever saw that gleam and they never talked about it if they could help it. Until now.
Now everyone knew why Harry went partnerless. They were all honestly afraid of him. Even Mad-Eye Moody at the back of the room flinched at the look he was directing to the newbie. Everyone was thinking the same thing. That newbie must have a death wish, because people all over the Ministry knew about the status quo when it came to Harry Potter. He was the Savior of the Wizarding World, who didn't take kindly to being told what to do. But clearly this person didn't fully understand the repercussions of what he was doing by defying Harry Potter...or he was suicidal.
"No, you won't. You're going to go to your cubicle with your files. You're going to do this paperwork by yourself. You're going to do that, and then if you want to live, you're never going to come near me again. I don't work for lesser people. And I don't take orders from worthless pieces of scum like you. Dismissed."
"But-"
"I said DISMISSED!" he roared at the top of his lungs. The other employees had the sense to drag the git away to the atrium and to escape from the famed wrath of one certainly furious Harry Potter.
After that, he went back to his office. He managed to get ahead in all of his paperwork and sent it all to the appropriate people before it was time for him to leave, so he went to the head of the department.
"Kingsley." The man didn't look up from his quill.
"Yes?"
"My work is done, I'm leaving early." His tone was clipped and left no room for argument.
"Ah, You're still mad about the new kid?" He chuckled and didn't wait for a response. "Well, I can say I'm one hundred percent proud of you. You showed all the other people just why I let you work alone and don't let you get written up for anything. Hell, you scared the shit outta Moody."
"I did?" The fact that anything could scare Moody baffled him, even more so that Kingsley told him he was precisely the thing that could frighten him.
"You did. Just wait until the newsletter comes around next week, they'll have a picture of your face. It was rather impressionable, although I'm sorry to say I wasn't around to see it. Have a nice remainder of your weekend."
"You don't need me to come in?"
"No, we've got nothing but trials for either people to remain in Azkaban or execution. It's nothing that'll let them get away. I don't need you until Monday."
"Thank you sir." Harry walked out and into the Atrium where he almost ran into none other than Draco Malfoy. Harry stopped just in time but the same couldn't be said for the ever-blond Malfoy.
"Malfoy!" Harry hadn't expected that he would be plowed over the one time he managed to stop his forward momentum. He just passed it off as the world being bent on him forever running into people, no matter who's fault it turned out to be.
"Potter...Sorry. I'm just trying to get to my...POTTER! Move, I have a very important meeting to be attending." Harry sighed. Not only was he mad because of idiotic newbies, but he was also ticked he was getting yelled at for something he attempted to prevent. And it wasn't like Malfoy had been offended at first, only after he realized he had run into him specifically. Apparently he was destined to be hated my Malfoy forever no matter how many times they would save each other's livesl.
It just didn't make sense to Harry. Every time he seemed to be having a good day something always had to go wrong. Call it whatever you want, but Harry needed certain things to be run certain ways because of the war and nothing anyone did would change it. But it seemed that those ways can get in your way more often than not when the world decided to send people who didn't know what they were doing your way.
Right then and there he decided that he needed a stiff drink. He had promised Hermione that he wouldn't drink as much as he had been, but today had tried his nerves to their ending point.
Draco walked all the way to the Head of Aurors office and stood at the door poised to knock for almost five minutes, mentally trying to prepare himself for what he knew he needed to do. He then promptly gave into his fear and, defeated, he turned to walk away before anyone noticed him.
"Ah Mr. Malfoy. I've been awaiting your arrival in the atrium, I guess we just missed each other." Draco was caught. He had to go through with this now. And he wasn't sure he wanted to do it anymore. He could feel his heart beating fast and hard inside his ribcage and he wondered briefly if he'd pass out.
He had known Harry was working in the Ministry, but never did he imagine that he was in an auror. It just didn't make sense that he would want to keep fighting when he had to do that his entire life. Or maybe it was because he didn't know how to do anything else. Either way he hadn't planned on working with him every day...wasn't school bad enough? He swallowed his pride and decided to go with it. His family name was put to shame, and he needed to rebuild a name for himself since his father had ruined it for him. If that meant getting a job, then fine. He'd do it. Even if it meant working with Harry Potter.
The interview consisted of five questions: his testing scores, his current residence, what hours he was willing to work, if he wanted field or desk work, and if he was willing to put his life on the line. He answered all of them in a dull monotone and bounced his foot repetitively on the floor to get rid of his extra energy. In actuality he kept waiting for the questions about why he wanted a job or why he would need one. He had prepared for those, but he kept fearing he would be asked about his father and other things such as why would someone want to hire the child of a scumbag that betrayed the Ministry before. He didn't want to answer them but he had expected them; it was surprising to him that they didn't ask those questions
"Well you're in luck. I had someone resign today so you'll get their position. Come in on Monday morning at eight AM. You'll receive further instruction from my assistant who will find you." Draco nodded and left fairly quickly. He just wanted to go home and go to sleep for the next forty-eight hours.
Or maybe it would be easier to just fall asleep and never wake up.