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Brevem Conspectum

lauren3210

Summary:

During a routine clearing of an old Death Eater house, Harry stumbles over an ancient spell that sends him somewhere completely different. He has to work out where he is and how to get back. Or if he even wants to.

“And I thought Grimmauld Place was bad,” Harry muttered, squinting through the gloom of the hallway stretching out in front of him.

“Be quiet, I’m trying to concentrate.”

Harry rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time in a week. Bloody Ron and Hermione, taking off and leaving him for two weeks to this bloody nightmare. He leaned against the grimy wall and sighed heavily, mentally sending a curse to his two best friends. Did they have to go off on holiday at the same time? What even was the point in a honeymoon anyway?

“Potter, I said be quiet,” Harry’s living nightmare whispered.

Harry gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to smack the blond git in the face. “I’m not doing anything.”

“You keep shuffling around and huffing and sighing.” Malfoy replied, his face still turned away from Harry as he ran his wand over the doorknob again and again. “It’s really very irritating.”

“What’s irritating is how long you’ve spent looking at that bloody doorknob,” Harry retorted, giving up on trying to be quiet.

“Well excuse me for wanting to be sure the thing doesn’t try to bite our hands off before we attempt to open it.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be good at curse-breaking?”

Malfoy drew himself up from his crouch and turned to face Harry. “I am,” he said imperiously. “I’m the best Curse-breaker the Ministry has on its payroll.”

“Then shouldn’t you be quicker at it?”

Malfoy sneered at him. “I’m the best, Potter, because I’m thorough. Just because you’re used to barging in with both left feet doesn’t mean that’s what you should do.” He turned back to the door in front of them. “Now, if you’ll kindly shut up for a minute so I can work out how to remove this curse.”

“Fine! Just hurry the fuck up. The quicker we get through that bloody door, the quicker we can wrap this case up and I can go somewhere you’re not.”

Malfoy snorted delicately but didn’t reply, just bent back down and began concentrating on the doorknob once more. Harry tried to keep his breathing calm as he forced himself to relax back against the wall. He knew Malfoy was good at his job; other Aurors that had worked with him in the past had said as much themselves. And Harry had seen it with his own eyes, on the few occasions that their cases had coincided. Malfoy was meticulous in his approach, and had put a stop to more than a handful of lethal curses before they’d been triggered. He’d even saved Harry from blowing off his own hand during one such memorable job. Plus it helped that Malfoy was fabulous at making tea just the way Harry liked it, strong and sweet, with just a touch of milk. Being greeted with a cup every day so far on this job had certainly made up for the early mornings. It was just that Harry was used to having his Auror 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 occasional 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.