-title- Doomed to Fight It
-author- Elaria Garnet
-e-mail- elaria_garnet@hotmail.com
-rating- PG-13 (language, and slight sexual innuendo)
-summary- Draco Malfoy has a question. And after much banter and teasing, Harry Potter has the answer.
-disclaimer- Draco and Harry and their wonderful world belongs to other people – mostly J. K. Rowling. This basically means, "They're not mine. And I'm not getting any money off of them." Hope that clears up any confusion.
-author notes- The idea for this fic came to me while lurking on the S.S. Guns and Handcuffs (Harry/Draco) thread on Fiction Alley Park (the message board area of www.fictionalley.org). The shippers there have the most fascinating and insightful conversations analyzing the H/D relationship: one of their more recent discussions focused on whether or not said relationship is doomed to failure. Upon reading their words, a plot bunny formed in my head, and…well, it developed into the one-shot before you. ::grins:: Many, many thanks to the beta for this fic, Moondancer!! And to you, the audience, I hope you enjoy Doomed to Fight It as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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"Harry?"
"Hm?"
"Do you think we're doomed?"
"Excuse me?" laugh
slight annoyance "I'm being serious."
"I'm sorry, Draco, but I don't see how anyone could ask that question and then claim to be 'serious.'"
"Well, trust me, I'm being serious."
"Fine. I'll bite. How are we 'doomed?'"
"Just look at our situation."
"Ah."
"What?"
"Yes, well, it's the weekend, which means no classes…and we're lying here, outside on the ground, staring up at the blue sky…comparing the fluffy clouds to things like flying ships and bunny rabbits…slight breeze in the air…yes, this is the very picture of 'doomed' – I'm surprised I didn't see it before, myself."
jaw sets in annoyance "I thought you agreed you'd take me seriously."
"I'm sorry, that was just too good an opportunity to pass up. What situation, then?"
sigh "For starters, who are you?"
mock outrage "Fine thing for you to forget my name NOW, Draco Malfoy!" melodramatic sob "Did last night mean so little to you?? And after all the things we said, the things we did…!!"
"…"
back to normal voice "Oh, fine. Whatever. I'm Harry Potter."
"…otherwise known as The-Boy-Who…"
"Um."
"Fill in the blank, Potter."
"The-Boy-Who-Lived."
"And who am I?"
hopeful voice "…The-Boy-Who-Loves-Harry-Potter?"
sarcastic "Oh brilliant, just brilliant…why don't you give that another go, then? I'm sure you could come up with plenty more of those."
"…The-Boy-Who-Fuc--."
"All right, all right, come on. Time to go back to being serious."
"Oh, that's what we were doing before?"
"Yes, tragic as it is."
pause "Could you repeat the question?"
"Who. Am. I. Question mark."
"Ah! Draco Malfoy!"
"Correct."
"Do I get a prize?"
"Maybe later tonight."
"Smashing!"
"Now. Who is Draco Malfoy?"
"You?"
"Cute. I mean, describe me. What do you know about me?"
"Well…" bites lip in thought "I know that you don't exactly hate me -- anymore."
"Go on."
"I know that you really like to read, and you've even read some Muggle stuff, like that one about King Arthur…The Once and Future King…."
"Only because my mother gave me a copy of it, and I didn't know it was written by a Muggle at the time. And this is getting to be beside the point I was trying to make --."
"And I know that you make the most delicious noises when someone kisses you right…" proceeds to demonstrate "…there."
shiver "First of all, not 'someone' – you. Just you. Only you. Secondly, how about covering general knowledge about Draco Malfoy…the stuff everyone knows about me."
bites lip nervously "Oh. You mean, not everyone was supposed to know about the, uh, kissing thing?"
"Good thing for you that I know you're just joking."
"Well, isn't someone in a stormy mood…."
"I'm just looking ahead to the future, Harry." seductive voice "The future where, the
sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can get onto more important business. If you know what I mean…"
"Wow! Divination homework?"
"POTTER!"
"Fine! You're Draco Malfoy, only child of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. You're a Slytherin, and you know what they say about that house…and your father is…." heavy sigh
"Are you starting to see where this is supposed to be going?"
soft voice "I knew what you meant from the beginning. I just…wanted to see how long we could pretend."
"That's just it, Harry. Some people would say that that's what we've been doing this whole time. Pretending." sigh "That we knew from the start what is 'meant' for both of us, but we ignored it. And we're still ignoring it, even now."
bitterly "I like ignoring it. I like forgetting about all of that."
"I know."
hits fist on the ground "And I hate that if people knew, what they would say: 'Oh, those two boys, fooling around, as if it's all some game to them.' Because it's NOT some game, Draco! You know it and I know it. It's never been a game. From the moment you first called me, tenderly, 'Harry' instead of that scornful, smirking 'Potter' – it's just…it's not a game. Even if we fool around sometimes, and we laugh, and we look at each other in the classroom the way we…do…it's never a game! It's all so serious!"
"I know."
"Damnit! Stop saying 'I know' – say something else. You wanted me to be serious, well fine, that's what I'm doing. So fucking contribute to the conversation."
"What else is there to say, when you're saying it all for me? You're putting it all into words, when I can't. All I can say is…" takes a deep breath "...there are moments when I look at you. And I know two things. One of those things is that, what you said just now…it's anything but a game. Whatever this is, between us now, it's real. That's about the only word I can think to describe us, and it still doesn't come close to getting across my meaning."
"Don't worry. 'Real' is close enough. 'Real.' What's the second thing?"
"The second thing is…it's not really a thing, I suppose. It's more like a flash of something. If words could be embodied into feelings…then it would be a flash of difficult…a flash of terrible…a flash of pain."
"Pain is a feeling."
"Well, you get my general idea."
"Yeah." pause "I know those moments, where you feel split with two feelings. 'What I have with Draco is real,' I think when I see you, and instantly, at the same time, I also feel, 'But it all looks fated to fall about, as if we're doomed to pain…and to not be together.'"
in a tone of mixed relief and weariness "That's exactly it, Harry."
"But with that…second thing…there's another…feeling…that accompanies it."
"What is it?"
"It's the strongest of all. It encompasses the other two. It's this knowledge, this power, that even if we were to be 'doomed' that I would fight with everything I had, to make sure that it does not come to pass, and that you would fight too. This knowledge that we're strong enough to face 'doomed.'"
smile "I hope your feeling is right."
"I'll do you one better: I know my feeling is right."
"So the answer to my original question…?"
"Answer: hell yes, we're doomed – to fight it."
"Got to say, Harry, that answer was definitely worth waiting for." soft, loving voice "Inspiration at it's finest. Keep it up and we could start calling you The-Boy-Who-Inspired-Others."
"Funny. I thought they were already calling me that…"
"Prat."
"And you love me for it." sticks out tongue
"Hey, put that away unless you plan to put it to some good use."
"Oh, don't worry, I'll…what the --." looks up "Rain."
"Uh oh…" looks up "Taking into account that the once bright blue sky is now a very mean looking gray, and that the bunny and ship clouds have suddenly lost all their innocence and morphed into thunder-heads, I think it's safe to say that we're in for a rather nasty storm…"
"Shit. Even if we leave now, we're going to get caught in the rain."
"Maybe. But at least we know that the sun will come out afterwards."
small smile "Draco. How do you know that the thunderstorm isn't a really big one? One that could sweep both of us up…into a swirling cyclone…maybe take out Hogwarts, too." even tone of voice "How do you know we'll even still be alive to see the sun?"
"Just a feeling I have, Harry." grin "Besides, the bloody symbolism is too good to ignore."
stands up "I bet I beat you back to the castle."
"Not if I get there first!"
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-end notes- Whew! Still here? Good-o. If you want to let me know what you thought about this story – both your likes and dislikes – drop me an e-mail at elaria_garnet@hotmail.com, or review here on ff.net. Cheers!