A Sunrise Like No Other
AN: This oneshot was mainly to ease me back into my writing, but due to the loss of two of my dearest friends, I guess you could say that I haven't had the head for writing recently. I can only apologise for my prolonged absence and hopefully I will be able to get my creative juices flowing again with a few oneshot's so I can get back into the swing of things for my multi-chaptered stories. That said I hope you enjoy this oneshot, please be advised that it's a bit sad but I guess that was my mindset when I sat down and scribbled it out, and as the warning states in the summery this is a story that contains character death.
He could always smell when the dawn was near, a skill inherent to any Vampire be they newly raised or centuries old.
'I don't care what other people think; you're all I can think about...you're all I need.'
He missed his reflection sometimes, he wondered what he would see if he had one now. He knew that there wouldn't be any tears, the years since his change had seen him incapable of crying.
But by god he wished he could shed them freely now, just howl like the wounded animal he was and allow great rivers of sorrow to run down his cheeks. But they would not come, all he was left with was the echo of the burn that they had always caused when he was human and the memory of the salty kiss they had once bestowed upon his lips.
'Why won't you let me be like you?'
He lifted a hand and languidly traced his wrist, missing for the first time in such a long while the pulse that had beat there so many years ago. If he had fed recently he would have been able to channel the blood through his body to make his heart beat...he couldn't remember when he had last fed though.
'Don't be silly I know you won't hurt me, I trust you.'
He almost laughed at the memory of the words that often haunted him, when all was said and done he was a killer. His natural instinct was to hunt, to tear, to take, to feed on a high of bloodlust as his victim slowly slipped away from the mortal coil.
But he'd never expected the repercussions his instincts would cause him.
If he could take back the events that had led to this now then he would, but it was beyond his power to do so. He only wished that he could have made death for the parties involved with his lover's demise more painful, but then he'd learnt long ago that you never get what you wish for.
'Please, tell me why you're acting this way? What happened last night?'
He should have told him, should have warned him, but most of all he should have been able to keep him safe. So many things that he should have done but hadn't, had scoffed at the notion that they would be able to touch him, laughed at the thought of them trying to hurt someone like him.
His own arrogance had been his downfall.
'You know that I love you right? That I'll always love you no matter what you do.'
He sometimes wondered if he had enthralled his lover, but deep down he knew that like most mind controlling techniques that any enthrallment would have been easily thrown off. But a part of him wondered it would have been easier to have an enthralled victim than a willing lover.
He doubted it.
Perhaps a mindless concubine would have been much easier to get over than a willing partner. Given whom his lover was he doubted that as well, he had known the body of and loved exactly one person for what felt like all his life. Even if it had been a mindless love he knew that it would have cut him just as deep.
'Who'd have thought that we'd be here like this eh, who'd have thought that a Malfoy would have willingly loved a Potter.'
Draco smiled at the memory of those words, loving Harry had been the one good thing he had done to the extreme.
But the smile fell from his lips when he recalled the cost their love had brought them, he should have known that it would never have a happy ending. People like himself weren't entitled to one, too much blood on his hands to ever give him an entitlement to peace.
Harry had deserved it though, but through his involvement with Draco he had paid the ultimate price.
'Oh god Draco, do you know who she is? What the hell were you thinking feeding on her of all people?'
He had known of course, but the thrill of draining the blood of the minister of magic's daughter had been a high he had not been able to resist. He never usually fed so much that he killed his victim but he'd had an old score to settle with Kingsley, the image of his mothers burning figure and his father's mutilated corpse dancing behind his closed lids as he sunk his fangs into her pliant neck.
She'd tasted like the sweetest of wines, his whole body had sung with the sense of revenge fulfilled. But he had been oh so gentle with her, enchanting her so deeply that she never felt a thing. It had been a painless death.
The same could not be said of Harry's.
'Shhh please don't love, don't blame yourself...you didn't do this to me.'
There's been so much blood that Draco had had to fight his own animalistic instincts that wanted him to feed. He'd fallen to his knees next to the almost unrecognisable body of Harry Potter and almost howled his own anguish at the sight that met his eyes.
Limbs disjointed from the sockets, gaping wounds that bled like fountains of crimson onto the cream carpets below. Mangled lips that even now tried to smile in reassurance, broken fingers that covered a wand they could not grip.
He should have foreseen such a vengeance, but his own need for it had blinded him to the truth.
'I'm sorry love, I should have acted quicker, I'm so sorry.'
Draco snorted at the memory of that apology, if anyone had owed one it most certainly hadn't been Harry.
He'd been in such a state of feral anger afterwards that he'd apperated past the powerful wards to Kingsley's location. He'd found out much later that the minister had not been responsible for the attack on Harry, but Draco had already taken his revenge by that point.
The minister's eyes had still been blinking in shock when Draco had pulled his beating heart from his chest.
'I don't want to stay in the earth, when I die I want you to burn me...I want my ashes to ride the winds.'
Standing Draco strode with unhurried steps towards the French doors at the rear of the house, he stepped out in the lightening dark into the garden Harry had lovingly tended himself and turned his head towards the sky.
The sun was so close now; he could smell it more prominently than he had been able to before. A smile touched his lips and he shed his robes from his body, standing naked under what was left of the nights shimmering sky.
'Now as I lay me down to sleep I pray the lord my soul to keep.'
He closed his eyes as the first rays of the beautiful dawn touched his pale skin, pain suffused his shoulders but he was mindless to all of it. It would all be over soon anyway, a little pain was a small price to pay for what he would receive when it finally went away.
A whimper of pain left his lips as felt the flames burst over him, he opened his eyes and revelled in the beauty of the dawn...he could not recall the last sunrise he had seen, yet he knew that they would all pale in comparison to this one.
So very beautiful for his first and his last, he thought it poetic that it should be so.
Green eyes flashed across his vision and he lifted his arms towards where he fancied they had been. Charred fingertips as fragile as a spider's web exposed themselves to the wind and Draco watched with detached fascination as they slowly swept away.
'If I should die before I wake...'
Draco's last thought was that Harry had never finished his prayer that night, a smile spread across his lips and with a breathy sigh he rode the winds towards the unknown...he'd hear the ending soon enough.
I feel a little lighter after writing that, I always wanted to write a Vampire fic...guess I finally got round to it. I do plan on continuing with my multi-chaptered stories soon as I say I'm just easing myself back in, so expect to see a few more oneshots before an update. That said I hope that you enjoyed it if you want to leave a review please do so, if not thanks for stopping by and reading anyway.
Ciao - X-