Nathaniel dreamed.

There were lights flashing all around you, jets of them flying through the air. They were coming from people. From the little sticks they were pointing at each other.

Spells from wands.

It was night and you were fighting people wearing black cloaks and white masks.

Death Eaters.

The boy and the girl to your immediate right and left were also fighting the cloaked people.

But they were at least twenty feet away from you, and the boy's red hair was darker on one side with blood, and the girl bushy hair kept flying in her face as she whirled and twirled to and fro, shooting off those lights. One of her legs was heavily damaged. Her pant leg soaked through with blood from the thigh down.

Ron and Hermione.

There was a high pitched giggle across the battlefield, and a cloaked woman with crazy black hair and crazier black eyes called out to you. "Come and plaaaaay…."

Bellatrix.

You dropped the cloaked figure you were fighting and turned to follow her, checking every downed cloak for something, before a rush of relief would follow when it was absent, and steadily working your way closer to the crazy woman.

This drew you away from the red head boy and bushy haired girl, but you knew they could take care of themselves.

You reached the spot where the woman had stopped, and was singing to herself as she rocked back and forth waiting for you.

"I know a secret, yes I doooo, I know a secret about youuuu…"

You snapped, "Enough of this. Let's fight. "

She smiled slowly.

"Oh, I don't think so baby. "

She whirled around and cast a call. A body was pulled from the fight, though it wore the black cloak, the face wasn't hidden, and the boy inside of the cloak had been taking down others wearing it.

You saw the white blond hair hanging in a plait over one shoulder and turned to the woman with a snarl and a curse on your lips before the boy had even finished being summoned over to you.

"What are you doing you mad bitch? "

She giggled, long and high pitched, in reply to your anger.

"I'm confirming my suspicions, baby. That is what you were checking all those bodies for, isn't it? That pretty, pretty blond braid? "

You stiffened and uttered a cool denial. She giggled again as her spell finished summoning the boy and set him down gently at the edge of the clearing.

Dra….

"Darling nephew, did you happen to know that the Golden Savior here is in love with you?" She drawled conversationally.

The boy at the edge of the clearing straightened up and drawled right back, "As a matter of fact, dearest Aunt, I did. "

She turned to him in confusion, "And you didn't exploit that fact to gain an advantage over the enemy?!"

She shrieked in rage when the boy just smirked and didn't answer.

He pushed his hair back as best he could when the rest was plaited over his shoulder and only a few tendrils had escaped to fall around his face.

The boy then turned and addressed you. "Well, this has been fun, but I do have some former allies to drop while their backs are turned. Ta ta~!"

The boy then proceeded to turn and head back towards the main fight.

You laughed at the crazy bitch's gape mouthed expression, and launched a jet of light. She dodged and returned and then you were whirling around each other in a dance as deadly as there ever was.

You staggered when a light hit you from behind and you lost all feeling in your right leg. You whirled and would've dropped your new opponent, but the white blond hair beneath his hood automatically had you pulling your punch before it could land.

Lucius.

The new opponent, the blond boy's father, went to stand beside the crazy black haired bitch that was his sister-in-law. The man lazily turned and froze you with another light.

The blond man then proceeded to kiss the bitch's hand and complimented her on isolating the Chosen One. She simpered up at him and you felt bile rise in the back of your throat.

The blond man smirked.

"Let's kill him; what the Dark Lord doesn't know won't hurt him. We'll be doing him a favour. I saw that loathsome executioner's body over there, we'll pin it on him if the Dark Lord is angered."

Her answer was a happy clap and a small jig in place.

"Bloody?" He casually asked.

He could have been asking her if she wanted sugar in her tea for all the inflection in his voice.

Her agreement was a high pitched giggle and a chortled, "Bloody as can beeee~!"

He chuckled in return. "Let's do the one my son picked up from his Head of House. Shall we?"

She nodded her head, "He always was a viciously talented little snake, that one, wasn't he? To forever cut; what a beautiful intent."

And they turned to kill you together.

They raised their weapons and two identical streams of light left them, one aimed at your neck, the other at your thigh and the femoral artery running along it.

There was a wild cry and suddenly white blond hair was all you could see.

Drac…

You had a shocked refrain of impossibilities running through the back of your head even as the boy fell in front of you, cut down, his hair streaming free of its tie.

Anti-Apparition wards, he was all the way on the other side of the battlefield, he couldn't have broken them, could he?

And underneath that another frantic refrain.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

The boy crumpled as if someone had cut the strings holding him upright, and even as he fell, a scream with gale force intensity burst from you. Literally gale force. It blasted back the horrified blond man and his horrid sister-in-law; they hit a boulder and were rendered senseless.

The spell to immobilize you burned away with the force of your fury, you fell to your knees beside the blond boy and drew him into your lap.

You cast around for your stick and tried again and again to close the wounds, but to no avail. They would not close.

You drew the boy farther into your arms and thought rather nonsensically that he was going to be so upset with all the blood staining his hair.

The boy was trying to speak. You shushed him as you tried to wrack your brain for anything, anything at all, that could help.

The blond boy shushed you right back and said, "There's nothing you can do, Hero, no healing spell with help me now. The forever cut has a specific counter curse, and I don't know it."

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

"Why…?"

"Because, you idiot, in case it escaped your notice, I'm just as much in love with you, as you are with me. And I couldn't let you die. Not even…"

The boy had to stop there, to cough up blood, you wiped the blood from his mouth, even as more bubbled up and made it a futile effort. Still, you had to try.

"Not even? ..."

"Not even if it cost me my life, Hero, not even if it cost me my life. I don't have much time left…."

"No, don't say that."

"It's the truth. Stay with me? "

"Of course."

You sat in silence for a while. You noticed that your collar had become wet. You looked up to see if it was raining, then realized the wet was your tears. You had been crying, silently and without your own notice, for a while.

The boy reached up and wiped away your tears; his hand trembled and fell back.

The boy laughed weakly, coughed out,

"Damn."

"What? "

"I guess we'll never have that Seeker's game now."

"Seeker's game?"

"Yeah, was gonna challenge you to one after this silly war was over, guess I won't get the chance now. Knew I'd never beat you to the snitch, but I wanted to try anyway. Hope springs eternal and all that, right?"

"I would've liked that."

Inexplicably, the boy's eyes filled with tears for the first time. The boy smiled up at you. He spoke again, though this time, his voice was weaker.

"Just…. can you do something for me?"

"Anything."

"Kiss me? Just once before I…" the boy was interrupted by a cough.

You felt a sob build in your chest and leaned down.

You pressed your lips to the blond boy's, felt them curl up at the corners, felt too, the breath leave his body.

When you drew back, the boy's grey eyes were staring up at nothing, and the tears that had built in them had spilled out of the corners to run down to his temples.

You called the boy's name.

No response.

You shook him.

No response.

You called his name again, louder.

Nothing.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

You doubled over, clutching the lifeless body of the boy you had loved, and sobbed, once, hard.

You threw back your head and scream out a guttural cry.

A scream so terrible you felt your throat tear and start to bleed, felt something crack deep within you, in your very core.

Draco

Your magic surged.

Draco

Everything burned.

Draco

The blond man and the bitch woman were the first to go. They never regained consciousness, but were vaporized in flames hotter than any dragon fire.

Draco

The flames never touched any who were truly of the light. It simply passed over them.

Everything else burned.

Draco

All the world was gut wrenching anguish, all consuming pain, and a rage so deep it turned from fire to the coldest of ices.

Draco

In the midst of it, you lay twined together with him. You were breathing, he was not.

Draco

You opened your eyes and screamed out a challenge to the heavens.

Then you laughed; a broken, bitter sound.

DracoDracoDracoDracoDracoDracoDracoDracoDracoDraco DracoDracoDracoDracoDraco

You screamed out his name to the burning skies.

Nathaniel woke.