Many thanks to Voldykins, Mittens and Chi for these wonderful prompts :)
nostalgia, broken, burnt, the same mistakes, wet eyes, strong, fighting, lake side, grasp, enveloped in darkness, intrigue, fresh
capturing sun beams
He's looking around the castle, looking at all the damage. Fallen statues are intermingled with the fallen bodies. The staircase has been blown completely to dust in some places and it looks like a crowd of giants has trampled through - which isn't too far from the truth.
The castle doesn't feel right. It's as if the magic of the place has been disturbed and twisted by the Death Eaters and the deaths of last night. Gryffindors are checking on the injured, counting and noting down the dead and Potter is walking along with McGonagall discussing funeral arrangements.
The Slytherins have mostly left, most of them no longer able to bear the dirty looks and whispered jibes from other houses. Draco had left hours ago with his parents, before the end of it all. But he remains, having taken off his green-and-silver tie, attempting to remain inconspicuous as he explores the castle, taking note of bodies and breakages.
He bumps into her on the fourth floor, sitting alone in an alcove behind a tapestry. He would have entirely missed her if he hadn't heard her crying and pushed aside the tapestry to join her.
"Zabini, what are you doing here?" she asks, looking up from the floor. "I thought all the Slytherins had gone!"
"I stayed to help clean up," he says. "Patil, if you're going to hex me get it over with."
"No, come in and sit down," she says, scooting over to make room for him. "You might want to hide before Ron comes past, he's in a foul mood." He lets the tapestry fall back into place and sits beside her. They're squashed together but neither really seems to mind.
"How did you know I was here?" she asks after several minutes of silence.
"I heard you crying," he answers. The unspoken question of You alright? hangs in the air, waiting for either of them to speak.
"My sister died in the battle," she whispers. "Greyback attacked her and Lavender. Lavender's being treated by Madam Pomfrey who says she will probably pull through, but Padma died before we could get to her." She pauses and wipes tears from her cheeks. "I'm sorry to cry."
"Crying makes you feel better," he tells her. "I heard that Crabbe died last night. He wasn't a friend or a sister, but he was someone to make us laugh and I am going to miss him."
"I didn't even think about the other side," she admits bashfully. "Aren't you worried about people persecuting you?"
"I might be in Slytherin, but I didn't fight," he snaps, his eyes hardening and she feels guilty about sounding that way. "I spent the entire night in the Hog's Head with Theo and Daphne and Tracey, looking after the Dumbledore man's goat and I crept back when news came through that You-Know-Who was dead."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped," he interrupts. He smiles at her and she can't help but smile back. "Where's the damage worst then?"
"Outside, nearly everything's been destroyed," she explains. "The bridges have been collapsed from us trying to stop people getting in, there are headless gargoyles everywhere, the courtyards are completely smashed up because of the giants and Hagrid's hut was set on fire."
"It makes me feel a little guilty, being in a cosy pub while you were fighting here," he admits. She places a hand over his as a comfort.
"Don't feel guilty, you did as much as we did," she murmurs. "You kept the Slytherins that might have wanted to join the other side in the Hog's Head, away from it."
"But Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle escaped," he says dolefully. "They got back here and, according to Theo, tried to kill Potter, Weasley and Granger and set the Room of Requirement on fire."
"You can't have everything," she says in comfort. "I was hoping the battle would be done in five minutes and no one would have to die, but I was wrong. My sister is dead and my best friend is fighting for her life and she's going to be a werewolf for the rest of her life and I escaped unscathed!"
"Not completely unscathed," he says, turning her hand over to examine the cut on the inside of her wrist and the bruise on her palm.
"Oh, that's nothing," she says, not snatching her hand away even so. "I've got cuts everywhere and bruises from falling and three broken toes because a stone gargoyle fell and landed on my foot, but people are dead. What I've had happen to me is nothing compared to dying or fighting for your life."
"Why didn't Madam Pomfrey fix you up?" he asks, looking and seeing similar cuts and bruises on her arms and the way she winces every time she puts her foot down.
"I came straight up here after Harry killed You-Know-Who," she explains. "I didn't want to bother Madam Pomfrey when she's got really serious injuries to mend."
"You're crazy," he says, shaking his head. "I know some healing magic, want me to help?"
"Oh, no, I couldn't ask that of you," she says, shaking her head frantically. "You've got other things to do."
"I really don't, I'm not powerful enough to fix the damage," he says ruefully. "Now, take off your shoe so I can fix your toes." She obeys this time, though she doesn't exactly look happy about it.
"Episkey!" he says loudly, pointing his wand at her broken toes. She squeals and there's a pop as the bones fixes itself. Now he's pointing the wand at her bruised and cut arms. "Mederi." Immediately, the bruises vanish and the cuts fade to thin white lines.
"How did you know that?" she asks incredulously, examining the scars up and down her arms.
"My mother used to be a Healer," he says with a shrug, putting his wand back in his pocket. "She taught me healing magic because she thought it might be useful one day. She was right." He smirks at her.
"You said something about the Room of Requirement being set on fire," she says thoughtfully. "Why don't we go and see what's happened to it and if it still works?"
"If people can't see me to jinx me, let's go," he says. She leads him out of the alcove and up to the seventh floor and orders him to wait while she paces back and forth in front of an innocent blank stretch of wall. A small door appears, the wood burnt and blackened in places.
"Oh, look at the poor place," she whispers when they get inside. "It's lost its magic." They are enveloped in darkness, the room being unable to provide any light. Simultaneously, they light their wands and look around. The walls, floor and ceiling are a dirty grey colour and have no substance, rather like mist. There are no hammocks or piles of junk or mannequins to practise spells on as there have been before. Just emptiness and misty walls.
"Do you think it can be mended?" she asks, tears shining in her eyes as she looks around.
"I'm sure McGonagall or Flitwick will know how to mend it," he reassures her, though inside he wants to cry too.
For a moment they stand and look at each other. He's never really taken notice of her before (Malfoy called her 'that Gryffindor girl') but now he's intrigued by her. She seems so strong, fighting in that war and helping her side win, but she's weak too, in crying because she's lost her sister and fears she may lose her best friend. She's crying because the war is won but lives are lost and the room they could have come to for sanctuary is destroyed. Theo always said she was 'good-looking for a Gryffindor' but with her vulnerable like this she is beautiful and it doesn't matter what her house is.
And then her doe eyes are slowly closing and her gentle lips are on his and her dark hair is sliding through his fingers. In his arms she's warm and soft and for the minutes and hours and days that they're kissing nothing else exists.
They part and find themselves bathed in sunlight that definitely wasn't there before. They look around and realise that their wands are no longer the only source of light and that the walls are no longer misty. They're standing at the lakeside, the sun beaming down from a clear blue sky.
"I wish life could be like this," she says. "Sitting by the lake in the sun with no troubles or fears or fighting. Everything is broken now."
"We fixed the room," he reminds her. "Maybe we can fix other things too." He grasps her hand in his and wishes on every drop of sunlight shimmering on the surface on the water that they can last outside the room.
"Why are we kissing?" she suddenly asks.
"War forces people to take chances," he says simply as they sit down together, their feet dangling in the cool water.
"The war is over," she mutters. "We'll just be making the same mistake as hundreds of people before us."
"The war isn't over yet," he whispers. "What do you say to taking a chance on me?"
"Taking chances with you is possibly the best thing I could do," she says with a smile. "Let's start afresh together."
He smirks in his Slytherin and their lips meet in a tangled of red-green-silver-gold and rivalries and lion claws and snake fangs that's perfect for the two of them. This love is a sense of drowning because they're both helpless and unable to breathe and their hearts are beating fast but it's almost welcome because they're in too deep to get back out.
"You can call me Parvati," she breathes as they break apart.
"Call me Blaise, Parvati," he murmurs, savouring the name like it's a mouthful of Firewhisky on a cold day.
They walk out with a suitable distance between them for two members of rival houses that don't know much about each other. On the way down the stairs he pauses a few steps below her. With their lips at the same level, temptation is too hard to resist. She kisses him in a place full of people who are feeling particularly anti-Slytherin at the moment. The jeers and the insults come flooding over them but they fly harmlessly over their heads. Love transcends houses and rivalries and name-caling, after all.
They sit by the real lake later, watching McGonagall and Flitwick mending the destroyed bridges. Plenty of people are around them, talking quietly and comforting each other. He admires the way her hair catches the sun beams and how she is a sun beam herself, free as the wind.
"Doesn't it seem peaceful out here?" she asks, lifting her feet out of the water and watching the water droplets fall, making rainbows as the sun shines through them. "You wouldn't imagine anything of what happened last night being real."
"Well, let's be hopeful that things will stay this way," he says, taking her hand. "Let's look forward to a happy future for us all." She smile and kisses him and he runs his hand through her hair to free the captured sun beams.
It's time to follow them and walk forward to a future with no dark wizard to break them apart.
Dedicated to Amy because it was her who made me love this couple in the first place :)