It was a harrowing time in a young Harry Potter's life. He learned the truth about himself before he should have. He put the pieces together and he was now drinking his sorrows away on the Astronomy Tower.
"I should have just died." He said finally. He took another sip of firewhiskey. It was supposed to be used for a happy occasion but it seemed like he was out of happy occasions. "Stupid bloody parasitic monster!" He almost threw his half full bottle down off the tower and instead took another swig of it.
"Potter?" Draco Malfoy had heard the mutterings of someone up here and as prefect, he was supposed to report them and take points, hearing that it sounded like Potter he became almost gleeful at catching and taking points away from his enemy.
"Oh lovely! Perfect!" Potter had never sounded so happy to see him before it was nerve wracking. That confusion got even worse when the boy held out his hands in sincerity and said. "You can do it. Kill me."
"Uh what? Potter are you drunk?" Draco said with actually some concern.
"Yep. Drunk as a skunk! Look I need you to avada me. Right now. Maybe I'll survive it this time." Potter was just sitting back on the railing, perfectly at ease. Something was not right.
"Well, maybe later. How about you uh, come away from the railing. I'll have a drink with you I guess." Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prefect was not going to let the Gryffindor Golden Boy fall off an Astronomy Tower and die from a drunken accident. That was for certain.
Harry laughed. "I never thought I'd sit and have a drink with Draco Malfoy but okay!" The raven haired boy just walked away from the railing and slouched down to the floor. Draco followed after him.
"Potter, what the hell are you doing?"
"Well, I am drinking. I thought we knew that?" He took a sip and handed the bottle to Malfoy.
Draco took a small sip and let the alcohol burn down his throat. "Yes, I get that but why?"
"Oh well, I'm supposed to kill Voldemort" Malfoy cringed at that. "And if that's not enough, I have to die to make that happen…somehow."
"You have to die? Like really die?" Malfoy was confused and worried. "What a minute, there is truly a prophecy about you?"
"Yep! And I may not even beat him. You may get your perfect pureblood world after all." Harry said sarcastically. Draco's eyes widened.
"You shouldn't be telling me this, Potter." He tried to warn him.
"You are a Death Eater, whatever. I am sick of fighting our schoolboy fights anyway. As you can see I have bigger problems." Harry said sarcastically.
"I never knew you were this pessimistic or sarcastic Potter. Its not very Gryffindor of you is it?" Draco said trying to change the subject as best he could. Draco watched as the boy laughed and drank some more.
"I could have gone into Slytherin." Harry said quietly. Draco did a double take.
"What did you just say?"
"The Sorting Hat… I could have been in Gryffindor or Slytherin. I chose Gryffindor." Harry said simply. Draco Malfoy couldn't believe his ears. Golden Boy could have been a Slytherin, no one would have guessed.
"Said I could have been great… powerful… All I really wanted was good friends. My family wasn't very kind to me you see. I didn't have a real room until I was 11 anyway. Wow, that feels good to say. Not even Ron or Hermione know that one. I slept in a cupboard under the stairs. I had no friends because my cousin beat them up if they tried. I did all the chores and I never knew I was a wizard because my aunt wanted to 'make me normal.' I am going to die whether I like it or not and it will be soon and it will be done in the name of people that have turned their back on me more times than I can count. Oh Merlin!" Harry said this with more and more relief. "Wow, just to say that all. Don't know how long I have been keeping that in." Harry drank more.
Draco Malfoy could not believe what he was hearing. He thought Harry was brought up knowing who he was, what he was, that he was better than everyone. But he learned the exact opposite. He was a house elf. This could be used as great blackmail material but for some reason, he didn't really want to. "Why haven't you told your friends?" Draco asked honestly.
"They could get in danger and they wouldn't take it all very well. They would try and find another way. Hell, I am pretty sure that once I told them what I was learning with Dumbledore, Hermione figured it out right away. It wasn't until… it wasn't until I saw Him dreaming did I figure it all out."
"Can you explain that better?" Draco was actually being patient. He couldn't understand.
"Hermione figured out that I was an accidental tether to Riddle's immortality. He cant die unless I die first. He has to be the one to kill me too sadly, although I wish it weren't so. I figured it out because I have a link with the dark slimy git himself. Its why I can speak snake, as we saw second year. I am a goner. He dreamed. I saw."
Draco finally connected the dots. Potter could see into the Dark Lord's mind. Potter had to die by his hand so that Voldemort could finally die. Potter was raised to be a lamb for slaughter.
"You know I am a Death Eater right?" The words came out of his mouth quicker than he could stop them. He watched as Potter just nodded gravely. "When you took out my father and he was sent to prison, I had to fill his shoes with an impossible task, a task that I don't really want to complete."
"Do you mind if I ask?" Harry said nervously.
"I have to kill Dumbledore. You've been watching, spying on me trying to figure it out. Well here I am telling you, I have to kill Dumbledore to save my mother and father and pray to Merlin that I don't die from either ends."
"I don't know what to say." Draco looked back at his supposed enemy and he saw that he was truly surprised.
"I don't even want to kill him, especially now that you've told me you are going to die too. That's not even the worst part." Harry just handed him the bottle of firewhiskey.
Draco drank. "I think Dumbledore is already dying." He saw Harry's look and he elaborated. "Its his hand. Snape was my godfather and he taught me loads… that's not a curse someone can come back from."
"He never told me why… he keeps putting it off… we are so screwed."
"Cheers to the understatement of the century." Draco drawled. He tipped the bottle in a mid-salute and then smirked and sipped. He passed the bottle to Harry.
"To the understatement of the century!" Harry added. He drank more. "What if we saved your parents? I hate your father but we could place them in a safe house. It might give you better options?"
Draco thought about it. Would his parents want that to happen? Would they accept? His mother probably. His father was too set in his ways. "Maybe my mother. Not my father."
"Ah. I am sorry then. The offer is still open though." Harry finished the bottle and maybe thirty minutes later he was ready to move.
"You aren't so awful, Potter. Good luck not dying. I wouldn't worry about it. It seems that either Dumbledore will always have a plan or you will find enough luck somewhere to save you and your friends."
"You aren't so bad yourself. I would tell you good luck in yours but well that would be inconvenient to me. How about: I hope you stay safe. Living with Moldyshorts isn't the most comfortable." Draco almost laughed.
"Are you going to tell anyone and use this against me tomorrow?" Harry asked slightly frightened. Draco shook his head.
"Too many times have drunken teens ramblings made little to no sense whatsoever, Potter. Two points for breaking curfew though."
Potter smirked, got up unsteadily and pulled an Invisibility cloak around his shoulders amidst Malfoy's stares. He had only heard rumors that Potter had an Invisibility Cloak. "I'll see you in classes tomorrow… hopefully. Who knows, I might just stay in bed all day."
"Potter, do whatever you want." Malfoy said shaking his head. His enemy was in a bad place. "Just don't, die by falling off the Astronomy Tower though… or Gryffindor Tower… or hell, really any tower. It just makes it easier for You-Know-Who."
Malfoy watched as Potter just disappeared before his very eyes. He sighed. He would have to occlude that memory completely. He had been up here long enough. He got up, dusted himself off and left.
In a corner, highly disillusioned was Severus Snape. He too knew the Potter boy's fate but he was surprised to learn that Potter knew it too. It was this decision to keep on living, to have someone there for him, that would allow the Light side to win. Even more surprising was his godson's predicament. Maybe there was something that could be done. That would not solve the issue of Dumbledore's death yet, it would save the boy from an awful fate.