The battlefield appeared dark and desolate under the dark light of a blood moon. Harry stumbled between the bodies that laid on the bloody ground, looking for a light point not coming from his wand in the dark. He needed to get his bearings, but it was too dangerous to use Lumos while Voldemort was still alive and in possession of a wand. He couldn't afford being captured, now that he was so close.
Around him, blinding green rays kept missing him, while he walked arduously between corpses. He refused to watch their faces, fearing that one of his friends' faces would assault his memory, making him shake. He tried to close his mind to the memories when he finally saw him, great and terrible, but Harry failed.
"Don't you dare turn your back to me!" Malfoy screamed taking hold of his shirt, "Don't turn your back on me, Potter!"
"And what are you going to do to prevent me from doing so, Malfoy?", he had mumbled his name with rage, trying to ignore the wave of sensations transmitted through his body by the simple contact of Malfoy's hand, "You are going to attack me? I am no longer scared of you."
"Which means that you were", Malfoy whispered almost on his lips, they were so close.
Harry couldn't believe it, he was feeling the warm and smooth breath of his greater enemy in his skin, causing him to chill. Hogwarts' corridors were empty on a shining Saturday of spring. It was their last year, and everyone but them were outside celebrating the good time.
After discovering that Dumbledore had begged Snape to kill him, after admitting to Malfoy in the rows of the Order simply because the old Headmaster had asked for it, Harry kept on not getting along with him. And nevertheless, some time ago, the reactions of his body when Malfoy was near were unexpected. Chills, nerves and a sensation to be at home.
Now, months later, he had Malfoy literally above him. The silver eyes that observed him with wrath in first year were now lost in the immensity of a sea of jade.
"But I haven't feared you for ages, Draco", Harry said, speaking his given name for the first time.
"There's nothing to fear...", Draco, never again Malfoy, continued whispering while leaning towards Harry until he was touching with his lips Harry's red ones.
Even in that first kiss, Harry Potter knew that the home he was looking for since he could remember was exactly to be found in the arms of Draco Malfoy.
He shook his head, trying to forget that memory, so clear now as it was when that kiss had changed their life. Harry was in the heat of battle, fighting for his life, he didn't need anything distracting him. The existence of the magical world depended entirely on his force. And he had only a little left.
Everyone had fallen, either way or another. Now he could see Ron trying to defeat a masked Death eater, Hermione screaming spells, Neville defending himself from Lucius Malfoy. The others were lost in the din of the battle or they were never there. The Weasley couple, Fred, Luna, Seamus and Dean had died in a coordinated attack in several places at a time. The rest hadn't managed to get there. Beginning by Cedric, Harry's nightmare was becoming more and more vivid. And now he couldn't find Draco.
Hedwig arrived with a note from the Ministry, where Hermione made espionage tasks, since the Prime Minister was still refusing to collaborate with the cause. Apparently Voldemort had been seen near Hogwarts. It was his opportunity to kill him, four and a half years after his return.
Grimmauld Place shook under Harry's strong steps, trying to organize everything in order to leave the sooner he could towards the castle. Draco found him in the room they shared, polishing his wand, fire in his eyes.
"I want to go with you", he said with calm voice.
"Draco, we have already talked about this, your condition makes it very dangerous..."
"I am going, Harry. You will not be able to stop me this time. I'm done hiding, I've had enough of fleeing. I chose my way years ago and I want to prove that I am worthy of the trust you gave me."
"Draco, please, don't make this even more difficult", Harry said clenching his teeth, "If Voldemort sees you, and he will, he'll kill you with his own hands. He won't bother to use magic. I can't let you."
"Harry..."
Harry's green eyes were full of tears, and Draco knew perfectly why. He had lost too many important people in his life, he didn't want to lose Draco too. But that battle was something personal for Draco. He had to live it through to fight his own ghosts.
"I love you", he heard Harry talking in low voice. Draco's heart skipped a beat or two.
"I... love you too, Harry."
That was the first time they had said it aloud, conscious of the danger they were exposed to, ready to die for a cause, but without resigning to what was their greater strength. Love.
Harry managed to hide behind a tree, nearly one hundred meters near Voldemort. He aimed with his at a point Harry couldn't see, and seemed to be delighted making whoever was his objective suffer.
"Crucio!", the Dark Lord screamed, "Crucio! Crucio!"
Harry could see his serpent red eyes shining and turning in the dark. He felt the raise of a strange force, something he hadn't felt since Ginny, his Ginny, had told him during Dumbledore's funeral that he had been born to save the world.
Some needed courage to undertake the greatest madness.
He searched inside of himself until he found the force to cry the spell that would end Voldemort's reign for always, but then he heard the weak voice of the person receiving the Cruciatus Curse and lost the concentration.
"... You will not obtain anything... torturing me", Draco arduously breathed, "The hardest... you try.. I am not like him. I am... his worse... enemy."
"But he will come to save you", Voldemort hissed, "It's in his nature."
Voldemort had Draco, and hoped Harry would come to the rescue. Harry had to agree with Voldemort on that particular statement. He had to save Draco, even if he hadn't been his lover, as if he didn't care for him, because that force was inside of him. He had been born with the capacity to love others to the point of giving away his life for them. He took a step forward and left the security given by the tree shade.
"Free him, Tom", he said with clear voice, "I am here, it's me you want to chase. Let him go"
"My, my, my, who do we have here? Harry Potter himself!", hummed the wizard, "Harry has come to save his enemy."
"You know as well as I do why I have come."
Voldemort sent a last "Crucio" against Draco, leaving him to fall to the ground with a hard noise. Soon he had turned towards Harry, and smiled with that narrow crack he called mouth.
"Ready to die for one lost cause, aren't we, Harry?", Voldemort looked lethargically around him, "Look, Harry, look around and tell me what you see. Do you see green fields and cheers? No! What you see is destruction and fear. It is my reign, Harry, my new mandate. And this time there is no boy snatching it from me."
Harry felt more than he saw the movement of the wand of his enemy while Voldemort turned his wrist to give greater power to the spell. A quarter of second later Harry realized what Voldemort intended.
He was not aiming at him, he aimed at Draco. When the spurt of green light left the end of the wand, Harry didn't stop to think. He left his heart win over his body and he threw himself on Draco, who lied exhausted on the ground. He didn't think about the consequences of his acts, but about the empty endlessness that his existence without Draco to fill it would be.
"I love you...", he said mentally to his lover, before covering his body with his own.
Everything seemed to stop suddenly. He heard the high shouts of Hermione while a red ray reached her chest. He could feel Ron's scared glance and the tremor in Neville's voice when shouting "Avada Kedavra!" to Lucius Malfoy. He closed his eyes and ears to every sensation, he released his mind of all thought and his heart of all feeling not being his immense love for Draco. Who had given life to him when everything else was crumbling, who had kept him sane in that world of craziness.
The beam of green light shot him completely, and everything became dark for eternity it seemed. Soon, an explosion deafened his ears. After that, silence again.
Harry opened his eyes slowly. If death was like that, it looked so like his life. He was still embraced to Draco, the small body of the blonde shaking in his arms. The environs of Hogwarts continued surrounding them. He turned his head towards the figure that had conjured the Avada Kedavra. He didn't find it there.
Voldermort was lying on the ground, legs and arms wide spread, open eyes and lost glance. Harry tried to stand up by himself but he slipped in the blood and water of the ground. It had begun to rain. A friendly hand took hold of his arm and helped him to stand still.
Ron and Neville held him while Hermione was crouched to verify that Draco was not seriously wounded. Death Eaters were nowhere to be seen. The only vestige of the war that had just ended was the Drak Lord corpse before them.
He approached Voldemort with the aid of his friends and observed the wizard who had tried to kill him during his twenty years of life. In his face, nothing abnormal was appraised, he even seemed to be asleep, had it not been for lost glance that assured he was dead. When watching him closer, Harry could see a scar, a ray, crossing smoothly the forehead. Harry touched his own forehead right away, noticing his own scar.
"What happened?", he asked weakly.
"I don't know, mate," Ron answered, holding him with more force, "But you are bleeding, you should be sent to a hospital"
"No!", Harry exclaimed, "Let me see Draco... Let me..."
He knelt down next to Hermione and caressed the smooth hair of his lover. When he felt the rubbing, Draco opened his eyes and looked up straight into Harry's eyes. If Harry still doubted whether he was alive or dead, that simple glance gave him the conscience to state that he was still alive.
"I love you", Draco whispered in a broken voice, "I love you, Harry James Potter"
"I love you, too, Draco Lucius Malfoy"
Hermione understood almost right away, when Ron tended a hand to help her to get up.
Many years ago, when the legend of Harry Potter began to spread, she had heard a very powerful magician saying that the force residing in true love was so powerful that it could change world's fate. When she looked to both lovers, interlacing their fingers completely forgetting the rest of them staring, Hermione knew the secret that had turned Harry into a wizard capable to return an Avada Kedavra. It had been love what had saved Harry the very first time. And it had been love what had saved them all then.
In some place of Hogwarts, hidden in the shades but looking towards the battlefield, Albus Dumbledore's portrait was smiling with mirth and winking to the survivors of the war.