A.N.
Hello everyone! This is my first ever oneshot and my first ever songfic, so please review me! I have ideas for possible future chapters if anyone wants me to keep the story going, but updates will be rare. I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, my house would have its very own personal pop machine, swimmingpool, fitness room, and horses! Lots of horses! The song is one by Evanescence, but I don't know the title. Enjoy!
He could see himself there, reflected in the blemishless surface of the lake. Sounds of death and flying hexes rent the air as the dark starless sky seemed to press on the earth like a giant hand attempting vainly to staunch the blood of some unseen wound. Draco looked down at his own wound in faint bemusement. The hex had made a ragged gash across his stomach so deep he had to hold it closed with one hand to keep his insides from falling outside and away. Blood flowed between his fingers, crimson against the pale skin. Where was she?
He knew he must die, but Draco wished fervently for a glimpse, a touch, a chance to tell her. He forgave her now where he stood at the lake, just as he had forgiven her then, staggering back as the hex meant for Pansy Parkinson flew astray and hit him, her lover. She had screamed, running blindly through the carnage of battle-locked figures and broken bodies, and, falteringly, he had chased her. Had she heard his footsteps following behind, seen his hand reaching for her, reaching but never touching? Draco didn't know. It hurt to run, and after a short eternity, Draco stopped, and Hermione ran on, vanishing from his sight like a beautiful and terrible dream.
Even in the midst of his pain, Draco longed to hold her, longed to comfort her with the forgiveness only he could provide. He sighed. His love, his angel, demon, innocent murderess was all he wanted now, …
And then she was there, running, sobbing his name as though it were a magic incantation that could free them both from this senseless tragedy. "Draco! Draco, … my god… I'm so sorry!"
((Hold on to me, love,
You know I can't stay long,
All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm not afraid.))
His legs gave way beneath him, and Draco could feel himself falling. Hermione caught him, falling to the ground under his weight. With an effort, he turned to her, cupping her face with a blood streaked hand.
"I'm not afraid, you know," he said hoarsely "not of death."
((Can you hear me?
Can you feel me in your arms?
Holding my last breath,
Safe inside myself,
Are all my thoughts of you,
Sweet raptured life, it ends here tonight.))
"How could I have been so stupid?!" she sobbed, holding tightly to him as he quickly faded. "Oh Draco, I wish I could take your place!"
"Don't—" he stopped as wracking coughs took him and he sprayed a fountain of blood. "Don't talk like that." He gently stroked her stomach, now rounded with new and innocent life. The little unborn creature kicked against his hand, and he smiled. "And Granger? You're far from stupid. You're an insufferable know-it-all, remember?"
"And yet," she said bitterly "not smart enough to perform a simple hex and make it hit its mark." Hermione buried her tearstained face in his hair.
((I'll miss the winter,
A world of fragile things,
Look for me in the wide forest hiding in a hollow tree.)"
"It wasn't your fault," Draco whispered tenderly, closing her lips with a gentle kiss before she could protest. "With all the flying curses, yours probably bounced off someone else's and—and rebounded. Don't—don't blame yourself," he implored her, his voice now but a whisper. "Hermione, please…"
As if on cue, a light snow began to fall, bright gems on her chestnut hair, cold whiteness against the warm redness that was Draco's life pouring, falling, fleeing from him. He smiled, remembering last winter when he and Hermione had finally set aside their differences and come together. They had been sixth-years then, back when the final battle with V-V-The Dark Lord was only a gloomy future reality to which each Hogwarts student save Potter thought he or she would somehow be exempt.
"I love you," she whispered, trying valiantly to keep back the wrenching sobs that threatened to break her.
"I love you too," he whispered, losing himself in the dark pools of her eyes. Dying deep in her arms and still deeper in her eyes was all he needed now. To drown in her, flow through her, would be his heaven. She was eternity, and eternity was this single moment alone by the glassy, snow-flecked lake.
((I know you hear me,
I can taste it in your tears.
Holding my last breath,
Safe inside myself,
Are all my thoughts of you,
Sweet raptured life, it ends here tonight.))
"Hermione," he whispered, more faintly now, "will you promise me something?"
"Anything!" she sobbed. "Just name it! Draco, I'll do anything!"
"Be strong for the baby," he whispered, eyes softening. "He or she needs you. The world goes on. Winters, springs, life moves ever forward, and, dearest, you must move with it. Raise the child of our love, and someday, when you're ready, I want you to love again."
((Closing your eyes to disappear,
You pray your dreams will leave you hear,
But still you wake and know the truth,
No one's there.
Say goodnight,
Don't be afraid,
Calling me, calling me as you fade.))
"I promise," she said brokenly. "Oh Draco, I'll give the baby all I can, but you are the love of my life! I can't move on, not from you."
"Oh, you say that now," his arms about her waist squeezed reassuringly "but if someday you fall in love, know that I don't blame you."
"I'll miss you." Her voice was coming from far away now, echoing and distant.
"I'll miss you too," he whispered into the void of life and death separating them. Hermione pressed her lips to his, and Draco fell into the kiss, giving it all his remaining strength. "I'll always be with you," he said at last and spoke no more.
Across the grounds of Hogwarts, the wind was full of the cries of death and unquenchable grief. More screams were added to the collective orchestra of despair. The screams were Hermione's.
((Holding my last breath,
Safe inside myself,
Are all my thoughts of you,
Sweet raptured life, it ends here tonight.
Sweet raptured life, it ends here tonight.))
FIN