Shatter

Your screams echo in the eerie silence of this broken world. You're everywhere. I can never forget you; I can never let this go. I meant to help you, and I failed.

You may wonder why I am here.

You may wonder why I have been standing here for an eternity in this meadow of granite and flower arrangements.

You may wonder why I came here just to visit you.

You…my most hated enemy.

Your screams echo in the eerie silence of this broken world. Your shadow snakes across the ground even as the sun is obscured by thick, dark clouds.

You're everywhere. You have always been everywhere.

I can never forget you; I can never let this go. I meant to help you, and I failed.

We all knew it right from the minute you sat on that stool and the Sorting Hat sorted you into Slytherin before it had even touched your head. We all knew what you would become.

Everyone sitting in the Great Hall that day knew that you would be one of the many familiar faces we would see in Azkaban one day.

You reached out for someone's…anyone's hand that day. No one would take it. No one would pull you out of the darkness you would soon be drowning in.

And I will always have to ask myself how so many people could just allow your fate to unfold like that. We all knew. We all knew. It was no surprise when you were discovered to be a Death Eater.

We had all been expecting it. Every student; every teacher.

So why did we all just sit back and watch as you fell further and further into the dark? All it takes for evil to succeed is for good to do nothing.

That's exactly what we did. Nothing.

Why did no one else try to stop you? Why did no one else try to save you?

You may wonder why we fought all the time. You may wonder why I hit you, why I insulted you.

Perhaps you could tell what I was trying to do. Is that why you merely poked fun at Harry and Ron…but injured me with hateful words and glares? Harry and Ron…they just wanted to stop you.

Could you tell I wanted to save you?

Every punch, every hex, every insult, every glare…they were supposed to save you.

Why didn't you understand? Why didn't you see what I was trying to tell you? I thought if I hated you enough, you might change. You might realize the mistakes you were making.

You never figured out what I was trying to say…at least you never changed. In fact, it got worse.

You went from petty arguments and insults to nearly cursing Harry with an Unforgivable Curse.

I wondered everyday why you would never stop going down the path to Voldemort. I wondered everyday if there was any way to make you stop.

But in the end, I finally realized that I could never have saved you.

On the battlefield, I saw you. You saw me. Our wands mirroring each other, both pointed at one another's heart, I told you that you didn't have to do this.

I told you that I could save you; I could hide you from the Death Eaters and you would no longer have to fight.

I begged you to let me save you.

For some strange reason, I had always been the only one to believe you were capable of good. I believed you were a good person inside; you had just buried it too deep underneath what you were expected to be.

But I know now; I saw what I had never been able to see.

I could've pretended as much as I wanted, but you were not a good person. You chose to be a Death Eater; you welcomed the chance to become one. You didn't kill Dumbledore because you were weak and afraid…not because you would feel remorse at taking a life.

If you were ever a good person, at any point in your life…you crushed it down until your heart no longer existed.

You never wanted to be saved.

Had you just accepted your fate?

Did you truly believe in the Death Eaters and their methods and their beliefs?

I will never know; all I know is that you would not have left the Death Eaters.

I watched your broken body fall to the ground that day.

I watched you slowly bleed to death because I knew I did not hate you enough to use the killing curse.

I never hated you, Draco Malfoy.

All I wanted was to save you.

A/N: This wasn't meant to be a Dramione fic, even though you could read it that way. It was really just meant to be an explanation for their fights and their hatred towards each other, while also toying with the idea that they never really hated each other at all.