ng when they took ill.’ Draco said with a realisation. ‘Oh. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before!’ Draco said with a cry of frustration.

‘What is it?’ Harry asked him.

‘You called the patients victims. Which means you think this was a planned attack?’

‘Well yeah, people don’t just have their magical cores severed just because they caught amon cold or had a bad night’s sleep. They have to be tampered with in some way.’

‘So, what if each of these ‘victims’ were targeted through their connections to the clinic. They didn’t have to be patients. They just had to be friends or family of patients or a relative of someone who works there. If they were exposed to aconite and valerian in the same dose, in theory there could be a targeted memory loss which would make them et taking anything, but not et the ill effects.’ Draco explained. He glanced at Harry, excited to be finally cracking the case wide open.

‘Ok, but wouldn’t we have noticed valerian in their systems? It’s amon ingredient in potions and healing.’

‘Exactly, Harry! Each of them were sedated when they were admitted into St Mungo’s to slow the effects of the aconite. We wouldn’t have found anything unusual about seeing valerian in the samples because the healers had given them doses of it themselves!’

‘I need to get a team of aurors on surveillance at the clinic. Kingsley reduced the urgency levels on the case when he realised that there weren’t going to be any more victims soon. Whatever it is, we think it didn’t have the desired effect and they gave up for a while to change the formula. I don’t have clearance to go straight in there and we can’t afford to spook whoever’s involved until we have enough evidence to bring them in. Do you think it’s a potion or some sort of pill?’

‘I really couldn’t say. A potion is more conventional, as pills are far more muggle and not as easy epted among a lot of wizards. Having said that, private clinics often trial more experimental drugs and apothecaries have been trying to create pill style treatments for their longer shelf life.’

‘Oh god this is such a mess.’ Harry said with a frustrated groan. He rubbed his temples as if staving off a bad headache. Draco knew from experience that Harry was prone to migraines. He always said that it might be some residual magic left from the Horcrux. It would make sense it would umulate where Harry’s scar was, but Harry refused to see a healer.

Before Draco could even think about the inappropriate nature of the gesture. He pulled one of Harry’s hands away from his face and held it.

‘Harry, it’s ok.’ He said, his thumb stroking gently over the back of Harry’s knuckles. ‘We’ll figure it out. It’s not your responsibility to fix this on your own, we can figure this out together and no one else needs to get hurt, ok?’ Draco knew how overwrought Harry got when he felt like he wasn’t solving his cases quick enough. Draco had done a lot to help Harry’s saviourplex and Harry was able to control some of hispulsions a lot better than before. Still, it was a part of him and Draco couldn’t help but admire Harry’s selfless dedication.

‘You’re right. I’m sorry.’ Harry said as he relaxed a bit. That was when Draco realised he was treating Harry exactly as he had when they were married. Harry seemed to realise it too and he jerked his hand away from Draco. ‘I’m so sorry Draco. This isn’t your job anymore. I didn’t mean to make you feel like…I’m really sorry. I should get back to work.’ Harry jumped off Draco’s desk like he’d had a hot poker up the arse and all but ran out of Draco’s office.

Draco was incredibly confused. He wanted so much to leave here and get Harry out of his head but every time he saw him recently, it was like Harry really wanted him there. He didn’t understand what had changed. Yes, Draco alwaysplained that Harry was around everywhere he went, but he’d never tried to engage with Draco like this. In fact, Harry was often quite cold and shut off. Draco should’ve expected that though, Harry thought Draco stopped loving him.

Draco’s head fell heavily into his hands when he realised for the first time that maybe it was him who’d screwed up their marriage, not Harry.

He said as much to Hermione when they had lunch at the Ministry the next day. They’d been having lunch together once a week since Draco had started working there. Hermione said the familiarity would help him settle in much better and she wasn’t wrong.

‘I’m just so confused Hermione. At the time I felt like Harry was constantly pushing me into doing things and going places that I didn’t want to go. I thought he wanted me to be someone I wasn’t, but now I’m wondering if it was all me.’ He couldn’t get the new feeling of guilt out of his mind.

Hermione tucked a thick curl behind her ear as she thought about what Draco was saying. She looked particularly well today, purple robes really suited herplexion. Draco would know, he spent hours as a child listening to his mother tell him all about how different cuts and colours suited people in different ways.

‘Well, have you considered reviewing one of your memories?’ Draco had told Hermione about how his mind healer had suggested memory viewing as a coping mechanism and Hermione had been very enthusiastic about it. In fact, her belief it would work was one of the reasons Draco had persisted with it at first.

‘Why?’ He asked her, playing with his lasagne instead of eating it. He’s not sure why he got it, Harry always preferred lasagne to him, even though Draco perfected the recipe quite quickly.

‘Well, you know how everything felt to you, but maybe you could pick a time when you felt ufortable or upset and try to think about how Harry might have felt about it.’ She suggested. He could feel her watching him intently, even though his eyes were trained on his plate.

‘I never thought about doing that. I suppose I could try it.’ He admitted reluctantly. He hated to have to see things from Harry’s perspective. It wasn’t that he didn’t care how Harry felt, he just hated the amount of energy it took him to deal with all of the emotions it evoked. His potions got less and less effective the more he took them, and he was always scared if he doubled the dose he would have less time.

‘I’ll try it I suppose.’ He glanced up at her and was unsurprised to find her grinning at him.

‘That’s all I ask, Draco. I’m not here to make you do anything you don’t want to. I just want you to be happy. We all do.’

What was that supposed to mean? Were they talking about him behind his back? He hoped he wasn’t bing paranoid on top of everything else.

When he got home that night, he decided that’s exactly what he would do.

After dinner, he allowed himself a half hour to read another one of his muggle romance novels, the ones he absolutely refused to admit he read. Harry used to laugh something terrible when Draco transfigured the covers of his book whilst inpany. It was a habit he picked up as a teenager when he began to explore his own ideas and he knew his father wouldn’t approve. It was cowardly, but sometimes Draco wasn’t very good at asserting himself. Hard to believe when he’d been such a loud-mouthed kid.

He walked over to the pensieve and found himself staring down at it. He’d stopped putting it away after he’d used it since he’d started working at the Ministry, being in such close contact with Harry had made it difficult for him, and he’d needed his memory viewings more than ever. He’d mostly just viewed the nice ones, a couple of dates or the time Harry took him on a spontaneous trip to Cornwall one weekend.

He took a memory vial from the back of his cab. It was one he’d never reviewed at all, it was even collecting dust. There was a ring on the shelf where the vial had stood, and he was hit with a realisation that whilst he’d viewed his and Harry’s last fight a hundred times over, he’d never confronted some of the harder parts of their relationship.

He paused before tipping the memory into the pensieve. He had a gut wrenching feeling that if he viewed this memory now, so long after it happened, his entire view of his marriage would change. He wasn’t sure he was willing to admit the blame. He couldn’t deny any longer that he still loved Harry. Hell, he was as in love with him now as he had ever been, but that couldn’t change what had broken between them. Could he ever ive himself if it really was his own fault? Could he ever look at Harry again knowing what he did to him, to them?

Draco glanced over at a picture frame above the fireplace. It had been taken when Teddy was a small baby, before he and Harry had been married. Teddy was squirming in Harry’s arms and wiggling his chubby little fingers at Draco. Mrs. Weasley had managed to capture the exact moment Teddy’s hair had changed from his favourite turquoise shade, but he’d had less control over it when he was a baby, and it ended up half white-blond, half jet black. Draco realised that it wasn’t just about him and Harry. Teddy had been, and still was, as much part of their relationship as he or Harry ever were. Draco owed it to Teddy to own up to his mistakes. He’d taken yet another happy family away from a kind hearted little boy who deserved so much more. He shook his head as he made his choice. It was now or never.

‘Draco? You haven’t touched your food.’ Harry said. They were in a fancy Thai fusion restaurant in London. Harry had just heard he was being promoted to Head Auror and they’d gone out to celebrate.

‘Oh, sorry. I was distracted.’ Draco mumbled. He cursed himself internally; “Malfoys never mumble”, his father’s voice rang inside his head. His arm twitched, as if reminding him of his dark mark, and he tried his best to maintain calm.

‘Is everything ok?’ Harry asked him, reaching over and taking his hand. ‘You’ve been quiet all evening. If you didn’t feel like celebrating, you could’ve said. I just wanted to spend some quality time with you.’ His smile was endearing, and he’d never looked so beautiful. Draco could’ve stared at him all day and never gotten bored. There was something captivating about Harry, hemanded the attention of the whole room without even trying. Whenever Draco spent time with him, Harry made him feel like nothing else mattered.

‘Everything’s fine,’ he lied. ‘I was just thinking about work.’ Work. He hated his work. It was a pathetic excuse and it was the only one he could evere up with these days. He wasn’t fine. He’d run out of time to brew his potions because a big order hade in at work and they needed him to oversee the production process. His anxiety was at an all-time high and he was trying his best not to look at anyone else in the room.

‘I see.’ Harry said shortly. ‘Well, if work is more important…’

‘No! No, of course it isn’t. You’re my priority.’ His palms were sweating, and he was feeling a bit light-headed, but he couldn’t let Harry down. Draco was so proud of Harry, he’d worked so hard to be Head Auror and Draco want

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