Prompt: Draco reacts to Hagrid carrying a dead Harry through the Battle of Hogwarts.
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Words: 1,056
Author's Note: This prompt was taken off the hpfanfictionprompts located on tumblr. I will probably have a lot of prompts taken from almost everywhere, but this is just to see how I handle taking on prompt challenges. Enjoy! Don't forget to review!
The battle at Hogwarts had ceased momentarily into a tense stalemate. Draco Malfoy found himself wandering the halls, avoiding his previous classmates as much as possible, and trying to find his parents. He briefly wondered if the dark lord would be angry at him for not being able to stop Harry from destroying the tiara/horcrux, but quickly pushed his nervousness away. He didn't want to think about that.
He reached the front of the school, wanting slip out through the door without being noticed, but there was a sort of commotion outside that made him freeze. He could hear rapidly approaching footsteps coming from behind him, but nobody even stopped or glanced his way in their haste to get out the door and see what was going on outside. Ginny Weasley all but shoved him out her way with her father hot on his heels.
Curious, Draco followed the crowd out to the main entrance of Hogwarts, standing near the back where he hoped he couldn't be seen. He could feel his skin crawl as the Dark lord walked towards the crowd of students and teachers, next to him, the big brute, Hagrid, was carrying somebody's limp form. His army was right behind him, he could see his mother, his father, and Bellatrix. He had no intention of walking over to them at the moment, so he stayed put.
"Who is that?" Ginny Weasley demanded and stepped forward, ahead of the others, "Hagrid's carrying it, who is that? Neville, who is it?"
Draco's breath caught in his throat as he recognized the tan jacket and the dark blue jeans. There was no way, it was impossible—
"Harry Potter, is dead!"
Draco's blood ran cold as Ginny screamed "No!" and rushed forward, like she was going to do anything helpful. Her father grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her back before she could get very far.
"SILENCE!"
Rage boiled in the pit of his stomach and his hands curled into fists. All this time, Draco had been pretending to be on the Dark Lord's side for the sake of his parents and himself, but Harry Bloody Potter had gotten himself killed. He even covered up the fact that it was Harry when the scarhead was captured and taken to his mansion by a few death eater's whose names escape him. Even when they were in the room of requirement a few hours ago, he couldn't bring himself to strike down Harry. Part of him always believed that Potter would bring this war to an end, that he would come out victorious in the end.
He wasn't even listening to Voldemort's speech, only when he heard his name being called did he raise his head.
"Draco!"
He caught the eyes of his father and raised his chin a bit, his stone colored eyes regarding him coolly.
"Oh, Draco…"
Draco looked away in discomfort; he couldn't bring himself to look at Hagrid, carrying the lifeless body of his old rival.
"Draco," his mother's gentle voice brought his eyes back upwards, and he let out a sigh, "…Come."
Not liking that he was being spoken to like he was a dog, Draco conceded and stepped out his spot near the back of the onlookers. He walked forward, passing Ginny Weasley and Neville and walking across the stretch of broken stone and cracked concrete. He was trying to brush past Voldemort without being noticed, but of course, he stopped him.
"Ah… Draco," he spread his arms wide and enveloped Draco in an awkward hug that made Draco want to retch in disgust, "Well done, my boy, well done."
Draco continued walking to his parents. He avoided his father's touch, but let his mother grab his wrist and draw him into the crowd of death eaters.
Draco tuned out what was happening in front of him as he found his eyes travelling over to Potter again. It was weird seeing Potter look so… Defeated. For as long as he knew the Gryffindork, the guy always had a fierce personality and would always snap or strike back if someone said something insulting to him or did anything wrong to him.
"…People die every day," Draco's attention was pulled back to the scene in front of him as a new voice spoke now, that one being Neville Longbottom's, "Sure, we lost Harry," he was giving some speech of some sort, and Draco found himself inclined to listen, "But he's still with us, in here…" he put a hand on his chest, "So is Fred, and Lupin. And everyone else that died today. But, they didn't die in vain!" he turned to Voldemort now, his eyes blazing with defiance that Draco hadn't seen on him before, he would be lying if he didn't say if he was mildly impressed, but Voldemort was merely chuckling, seeming to be quite amused with Neville's speech.
"But you will! Because you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us, for all of us!" he suddenly reached into the purple beaded pouch he was carrying and pulled out an impressive sword, the sword of Gryffindor, "This is not over!"
Suddenly, there was a low grunt and the sound of a body hitting the pavement. Draco's head swiveled to see none other than Harry potter scrambling to his feet and away from Hagrid. He spun heel and yelled a spell, pointing it at Nagini the snake. Predictable, the spell bounced off Nagini and hit a few of the stunned death eaters, knocking them over.
There were cries of relief and gasps of happiness as Harry turned heel and took off into the columns. Voldemort yelled in fury and waved his wand crazily at the boy, but he got away almost easily.
Draco didn't see what happened next; his mother had seized his arm again and was leading him away. He didn't fight her as he was lead through the crowd of death eaters and to the bridge. Where they were going, he didn't know or care. He was just happy to be away from the war, not wanting to stick around to see what was happening.
There was warmth in his chest as it sunk in that Potter was still alive. If he was going to still be by the end of this war, Draco was almost sure of it.