Please read and review. Angst…oh the angst ahead - beware. I do not own them. I just toy with them except in this case when I mourn them.

Harry sighed as he stared into the darkness that was before him. He slept in a dark, windowless room – the light from outside bothersome to him. It was coming, the last battle with Voldemort and he would not survive. More to the point, he didn't want to. He had nothing to live for. Ron was happily dating Lavender Brown and Hermione was with Viktor Krum and blissful. Ginny and Seamus had come together in a way that made him smile when he thought about it.

He was the odd man out.

He had no love.

He had never told his love the truth.

Hate had turned into something so much more. When he had first discovered love, discovered desire for Draco Malfoy he had felt like swallowing arsenic, until he analyzed the feelings. Draco was brave – braver indeed than some Gryffindors, for fighting his father, for refusing to turn to the Dark, for being a spy like Snape. Draco was drop dead gorgeous, brilliant (smarter than Hermione herself) and the finest catch out there. He was also absolutely straight.

He had resolved to never tell Draco how he felt, content as it were to sit in the background and watch him court every eligible young pureblood witch in Hogwarts.

Until their graduation Draco had married an eligible and rich young pureblood witch.

He now had a child and a wife and was filthy rich, openly fighting his own father and Voldemort. Harry couldn't be prouder.

Hermione it seemed wanted to talk to him, knowing Harry as she did, she knew something was up, knew something was going through his head. He avoided her.

He heard Hedwig return to his room.

Morning had come. The last morning he would ever see. He didn't want to live, not without Draco.

There was a tentative tap on the stone behind the curtain that separated him from the others. "Yes?" his voice was emotionless. He thought when the time came he'd be afraid to die. He was wrong.

"The sun is coming up Harry." Colin's tense voice whispered. "It's almost that time."

"Perfect." Harry replied rising. Voldemort was many things, but a lover of natural light and sun was not one of them. Harry had devised a plan that would involve attacking in the rising sun of a new day, when the world was still pure and the Death Eaters were preparing for sleep. As long as the rest of the Order could create a diversion long enough for him to get to Voldemort, he'd seal himself in with the Dark Lord and the fight would begin. He would do what everyone expected the Golden Boy of Hogwarts to do.

Except Harry wasn't the Golden Boy.

He hated that title. He was just as dark as Voldemort – but people turned a blind eye to it.

"Potter!" a voice called as he drifted down the hallway, the crowd parting for one who was a walking dead man.

Harry paused and closed his eyes briefly, a lump in his throat before shaking it off and steeling himself. "Good morning Malfoy." He turned.

Draco drew abreast of him, the early morning light streaming in through the broken glass of a nearby window making him appear a divine creature. "This is the morning."

"It all ends today." Harry agreed. "For good or for evil – I will end it."

"Potter…" Draco paused. "I know we haven't been the closest of companions or the best of friends…but I want you to know that I do respect you for all you've done and all you've been forced to sacrifice for the populace."

"Thank you Malfoy." Harry gave a tiny ghost of a smile. He had to get away from him…he had to. The scent of Draco was overwhelming.

Draco held out his hand. "On behalf of Genevieve, Sal and I – good luck Potter."

Harry took it, relishing that this would be the only close contact with Draco that he might ever have. Throwing caution to the wind – he'd be dead by the time the sun set, he pulled Draco flush to him in a tight hug. After holding himself rigid for a moment, Draco chuckled and returned the embrace, perhaps sensing Harry's need for physical contact – one last time.

"Would you do me a favour Malfoy?" Harry asked as he drew back, miraculously keeping tears out of his eye.

"Name it."

Harry pressed a folded piece of parchment in his hand. "If I don't come back…read this to the Order will you?"

"You got it." Draco agreed stepping back. "You will do well Potter."

Harry smiled gently and turned, heading towards the door that had the rising sun steaming inside, blinding him. To all who had come out of their bunks at that time, their last image of Harry Potter was of a solitary, shadowy figure walking towards the dawn of a new day to rid the world of all evil on their behalf.

Hermione paced. She fretted. She worried. All those who had fought on the battlefield, all those who had fallen or survived were accounted for - save one.

"Where is he?" she asked desperately. "He said he'd come back."

"No," Draco's voice cut in. "He didn't."

"He has to live." She said shrilly. "He HAS to!"

The door creaked open – one of the only doors that had survived the Death Eater attack a few months ago and Lupin stepped in heavily. One look at his face told them all what they had suspected.

"No." Hermione shook her head, going white as a sheet.

"Voldemort has been destroyed." He said sadly. "Harry annihilated him."

"Harry…?" Hermione ventured.

"Was blown to pieces with the force of the spell he cast." Lupin shook his head. "Foolish boy, he knew that dealing in arcane magic was deadly."

Hermione let out a wail as her legs gave out and Ron let his head drop to his hands as word spread throughout that Harry Potter was indeed confirmed dead.

Draco cleared his throat. "Harry gave this to me this morning before he left." He pulled the parchment out of his pocket as his wife came to stand near him. "He told me to read it if he didn't come back."

Through the grief and tears, nods went around as Draco opened the parchment, one smaller letter falling out with Draco's name written on it, and a message to read it in private. Everyone who could fit gathered in the room to hear the final words of the Boy Who Lived.

Everyone, if you're reading this then I have not survived the last fight with Voldemort. Hopefully I brought him with me so he will trouble you all no more. If I know any of you, you are all crying and filled with grief and mourning and weeping my loss. I tell you as your leader – stop. It was not your fault I died; it had nothing to do with you. I knew the spell I cast would destroy me and chose to cast it anyway. My life is complete and I have only a private regret in my dying.

Ron – you were my first friend, my best friend. Though we have grown apart in recent years and have fought, I have always admired you and your strength. You have an ability to keep going even when the odds are against you. You are with Lavender now and happy. I wish you the best and will always miss you.

Hermione – what can I say to you? I love you Hermione – you were the sister I never had. You were the brains, the beauty and the wit. You have an unquenchable and unsurpassable spirit about you 'Mione, you have never let anyone bring you down. You are the greatest person I have ever known and it was an honour to know you. You will do well Hermione – I have foreseen it.

Lupin – after Sirius died you took over as my surrogate father, helping me grieve, giving me advice and strength to carry on. I owe you more than I can ever say and it pains me to know that I will never be able to repay you. I am with Sirius and my parents now Remus – do not grieve for me anymore.

To the rest of the members of the Order – I wish I could leave personal notes for all of you, but I can't. Know that this was my time and this was my chance. I lived every moment of this life and left nothing to chance. I had the choice to deny you all and live – for me there was one choice to make.

Live happy and free, for the eternal night has passed and sun shines in the world again.

Harry Potter.

Draco's voice finished his face expressionless as if even he felt something in those words. Hermione had buried her face in Ron's shoulder as they sobbed together. All through the building, people were supporting each other as they cried. Draco excused himself and went outside for a breath of air, the room suddenly very close.

Away from his wife, away from prying eyes, he opened the smaller letter left by Harry.

Draco,

In recent years we have developed a tolerance for each other, a respect if you will. I do however have to tell you one thing – my one regret in life. I never loved Draco, I have never had anyone love me back and I have never known the touch of a lover. You are wondering why I tell you this – well…you were the only one I ever truly wanted, the only one I never had. I mourned when you married Draco; I was drunk a week when Salazar was born and I have watched you from afar. I love you Draco Malfoy, but my secret would have destroyed you – and me. You have never been interested in me that way, never looked at me that way and I understand that.

It doesn't matter.

I love you still.

I am dead now and these words can no longer hurt you. I don't expect you to mourn for me; I don't expect you to shed a tear. Know that even in death; in the afterlife I love you still.

I will always love you.

I would rather be a ghost drifting at your side then never have known you at all – even if it was platonic.

All my worldly goods I leave to you Draco, my money, my wand and my broomstick. Anything that belongs to me is now yours – the Gringotts Goblins have the paper locked away. Go there and ask for it.

It's all I can give you since I can't give you my open love.

Be happy with your wife and son. Perhaps you might even name a son after me (lack of sleep has made me punchy). The sun is rising now and I go to face my destiny and do what I was born to do. I was born to die Draco.

I'll die loving you – just as I lived. I could tell you when or where it began but it doesn't matter.

The feeling is what is important.

I love you Draco. It feels good to finally let you know.

I will miss you in death – for I can never see you again. Take care of yourself Draco and perhaps we'll meet in the afterlife.

Love is fleeting in life, eternal in death. I have seen infinity Draco and I wait for you there.

Love,

Harry.

For the first time since he was a child, Draco Malfoy wept. He wept for his wife, he wept for his son, and he wept for Harry Potter – the man who loved him.

The man who he'd loved in return.

He couldn't have ever told him. He had never even suspected the truth – that Harry had loved him back.

Now Harry was dead.

And Draco left alive – with a wife he didn't really love and a son he wished was Harry's.

"Draco?" Genevieve called from the doorway. "Are you crying?"

Draco didn't answer; just stared in the direction he had last seen Harry walk. "Don't give up on me Harry. I'll meet you when my life is through – but I don't know how long that'll be. Between now and then until I see you again…I love you, just as you loved me." He said in a whisper. He wiped his eyes and turned to his wife.

"Let's go Genevieve."

--Between now and then until I see you again I'll be loving you.

Love,

 Me.--

The last verse is from 'Colin Raye's 'Love Me.''