The Wrong Time
A/N: Written for Dear. Dark. Destiny's 2nd Annual Romance Challenge over at the HPFC forum. Word to use three times: Rough. Pairing: Should be fairly obvious at the end.
(It's slash, by the way, in case you're scared of slash or something.)
DISCLAIMER: I don't have time to write fanfiction, do I have enough time to write Harry Potter? No.
He's the person who knows you best. The one who talks to you after a hard day, the one who comforts you when you're down. The person you got that Time Turner to go back and see, the reason you cried so much during your Sixth Year. He's the person you'd die for, which is weird seeing as you're a coward and could never face your own death.
He's here, now. Well, you're there, you're the one who doesn't belong in this time. But it hardly matters, when his face lights up on seeing you, his eyes shine, and he smiles, stepping towards you and raising a hand to brush your cheek. "I knew you'd come. You always act like it's the last time."
"It might be." Any moment now, it might be the last second together, the last time you can see him, the last time you can use the Time Turner to go and see the boy you've fallen for so deeply.
"Maybe." The light's dimmed slightly in his eyes at the idea, but he shrugs it off, and strokes your cheek, stepping closer again. "But tonight is about us, Lumen."
Star, in Latin. You're his star, his only bright light, as he always reminds you with that name.
You nod, and swallow slightly, staring into his sapphire eyes. He doesn't like you using the word sapphire to describe him; He thinks it's too feminine. But it describes his eyes perfectly. He is feminine, anyway, strangely. He's your mystery.
"We... So, we're doing this?" You ask, breath catching slightly as he runs his thumb along your bottom lip.
He laughs lightly. "Why, Lumen, do you not want to?"
You shake your head, spellbound. "No, I – I do want to."
He smiles, and then steps up to you, closing the distance between your lips, kissing you gently, then turning rough, pushing you against the wall, and you close your eyes and everything is him, your love, the one you turned back time for, and will continue to do so as long as you live.
For now, you can forget that eventually he will leave school and become the person you know today. You can forget that this can't last forever, that soon enough you'll both be torn apart, but that is the way of this world. It's a rough journey, and love doesn't last, but for now, in this moment, it lasts forever, it's eternal, you and him, your mystery and his star.
Sometimes, when people back in your time speak of him, in hushed whispers, you want to scream at them. To tell them he wasn't always like this, he used to be gentle (apart from when he's so rough), and loving (apart from when he's snarling at you for leaving him, again), and so sweet (apart from when he turns sour and hisses at you, tells you that you may as well not come back if you're always going to go again). He's yours, he's not the person everyone thinks they know.
You lay in each other's arms, later, and the world is in harmony around you. He doesn't ask you to stay, for once, and you know it's because you both want one perfect memory together, one that doesn't end in arguing and fighting. One that doesn't end with the words "I can't stay, because I don't belong here." His counter-argument to that always kills you. "You belong with me." It's like a stab in the heart, because you do belong with him, and what cruel Fate decided that the two of you should be born so many years apart? Who wrote your destinies and why did they write them separately?
He says there's always hope, and you can see it in his eyes. You can't help wondering if maybe the fact that you don't stay with him is the reason he turns into the person he does, and this thinking causes you to blame yourself, every day, every day something happens because of the choices he makes. Yes, his choices, not yours, right?
No. Because he wouldn't make those choices if you were there with him all his life. If the two of you went through school together, grew old together – and why can't you just go back to Third Year and tell yourself to stay in his time when you get the Time Turner? You could just smash it once you get to his world.
But you know what happens to him, how he turns out, and what he does. You know that you belong in your time, not back then, not so long ago when nothing was the same and no-one recognises you or knows your name.
Back in your own time, people ask if you're okay, and your two best friends, who don't even know you at all, watch you with concern, and lean across the table you always feel so alien at to ask if you've heard some news they haven't. You shake your head, because it's true, and you know never to lie.
You've seen the way he looks at you now, in these days. The heat in the glares he gives you, and everything that's happened, is he punishing you? Is this all revenge because you wouldn't and won't stay with him?
You much prefer his time, because he's there, and the way this world is so messed up isn't there, and the two best friends you have and do love, really, aren't there to ask stupid questions, and you don't have to watch them falling in love and getting their own happy love story despite the fact that yours is falling to pieces.
"I – I don't think I can do this. I can't keep coming back. I have a life, a future, at home, and I'm so tired... People are noticing."
"You get sleep here!" He's flushed, angry, biting on his lip as he stares accusingly at you. And, yes, it's all your fault.
"Yes, but – I'm older than everyone thinks I am! With all the time I spend here, I must be at least 20 by now, and I'm only in Sixth Year!" 16, but you're really twenty.
He clenches his jaw.
"I'll come back one more time." Just one more. Just once, you promise yourself, to have one perfect, magical memory with your lover, your love, your life.
He looks at you, and tilts his head. "What is it I do so wrong, my star? What do I do in the future to make you so sure we can't be together?"
He seems genuinely puzzled.
You sigh. He knows what kind of person he is, surely? "My love, I'd like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. I just... Can't."
He snarls, and turns his head away. "Go away, then. Go. Like you always do."
You leave, because there's nothing really left to say.
Your last day together is truly perfect, somehow. One last time together, beneath the stars, the two of you as one.
You tell him it's the last day, and he nods, and cuddles you, even though he hates cuddling. You hold hands, walk through the Forest and down by the Lake, make use of the Room of Requirement, and run through the corridors laughing. Then you kiss him goodbye, and turn the Time Turner for the final time.
Once back, you stand there, torn, holding onto the magical, marvellous device, wanting to go back and stay, stay with him.
But you can't. Because after all, he's Tom Riddle, and you're Draco Malfoy.
And your lives were never meant to collide in that way.
Review! Please?