THE GOOD WIZARD ⠀━━━⠀⠀DRAMIONE

PROLOGUE

❝ the good witch (wizard) ❞

In the nearly 19 years since the Second Wizarding War, all Draco Malfoy ever wanted was a chance at redemption. He knew he would never be left alone, or enjoy a life in which he was free to do whatever he wanted without so much scrutiny. But maybe there was a small chance he could make up for all he had done. All he'd every been able to say was that he had been a misguided teenager, and no matter how true that was, people could never agree with it.

Draco Malfoy owed his life to Kingsley Shacklebolt. After The Boy-Who-Could-Not-Die and his friends testified on his behalf, Draco had nothing to do with his life. All he wanted to do was reverse what he had done, but that happened to be more than a little bit illegal. So he began wasting away in the empty Malfoy Manor, until Kingsley found him. Saved his life because another week in that empty manor filled with haunting memories would've killed Draco.

Instead of hatred, Shacklebolt offered him a job. At first, Draco was skeptical. The people in the department all hated him, and how would they possibly accept him? The war had divided the wizarding society, and resulted in so many people hating him for his involvement with the wrong side. If only they had known the truth.

The job was just perfect for Draco. He was given the title of Internal Analyst under the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and worked with teams on the raids of former death eaters' houses. Luckily, the department head made sure Draco never crossed paths with any of his former classmates, except Potter. That was unfortunate, but unavoidable considering Potter was one of the best Aurors in the department. Thankfully it wasn't horrendous, considering there were far worse people he could've had to work with, but it wasn't extremely comfortable either.

After almost 18 years of working on the house raids, the one year being before his trial, Draco was finally done. The teams had done all they could, and their goals had been accomplished. Hundreds of thousands of cursed artifacts, illegal properties, and other objects of dark magic were recovered, and they had gotten as far as they probably ever would. As the teams disbanded, Draco doubted he had a job, until Kingsley approached him with another opportunity.

The meeting was scheduled for 6pm, the day before the mission was set to end. Draco hurried up there to hear what Kingsley had to say. Money wasn't why he was doing it, so all Draco could hope for was that it was a good job. Preferably something time consuming and one that wouldn't involve much interaction with his former classmates. He didn't really have a reason to turn down any offer, so he walked in and took a seat, preparing to accept any offer placed ahead of him.

"Good evening. After discussing with the board and the heads of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, we would like to extend your contract," said Shacklebolt. Something in his tone made Draco reconsider his determination to take any job. Kingsley sounded hesitant, which would never be a good thing.

"Though you will be on probation for the rest of your life, your skills have been invaluable to our department. We want to extend a permanent position to you, and would like to invite to join us permanently as a Dark Arts Case Analyst. If you are prepared to accept, we have a case ready for you to start working on Monday," he continued, sounding even more hesitant as he finished his sentence. Kingsley Shacklebolt was a very hard person to read, but Draco was able to spy the hesitation in his tone. Yet for whatever reason, he wasn't worried enough to give up.

"I'll take the job," he asserted, confident that nothing could be worse than sitting and wasting away in the manor, all alone.

"Perfect," replied Kingsley. "Here is your case file with all known information, as well as your team and updated rules of probation. And these are all your new contracts. I believe salary won't be an issue?" he asked, handing Draco the several stacks of papers. When Draco agreed, Kingsley dismissed him and he headed out for the night.

A couple hours later, Draco sat down with his dinner and the papers. He signed the contracts, noting that the salary wasn't reduced even though the department head easily could've done so. After reading through the case file, Draco opened the small file with the rest of his team. Now he understood why Kingsley was hesitant. This was worse than staying at the manor, alone. The one person he had to work with was the one person he had hurt the most.