Just this morning, they were all still here. All the lumbering idiots, all the intelligent wunderkinds, all the pratty smart-arses. All of them. And now, their unmoving bodies lay scattered among the ashen remains of the once-great castle of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Amidst it all, Draco Malfoy stood, arms folded about himself, shivering despite the flames that continued to lick at his feet.
Drawing in a startled breath, he stepped back, stumbling over a dead student and scrambling over a pile of smoldering books, trying to get away from the chaos that surrounded him.
He stared, wide-eyed with fear at a body that had been brutally ripped, limb-from-limb. He smacked his hands over his mouth to suppress the bile that rose in his throat, averting his eyes and stumbling away.
There was so much… death. Everywhere. All around him. He couldn't escape it. It was consuming him, becoming him.
"Malfoy! You're alive!"
Draco turned so sharply he became dizzy and had to sit down, hiding his face behind his hands, panting, fear pulsing through him.
"Are you hurt?" Hermione asked, kneeling in front of him.
"Don't touch me!" he cried, pushing her hands away.
Hermione's face hardened. "Now's not the time to be worried about blood, Malfoy."
"No! That's not it, it was never about blood! But now it is! Look at it, it's everywhere! Everywhere…" His eyes held a wild look that frightened Hermione.
"Just calm down." She murmured, keeping her eyes locked on the only soul that she could find that was still alive. Draco Malfoy. He was right now the only thing keeping her from going mad. She had spent the past five hours climbing through the rubble and despairing that the rest of the world had been killed, and she was the sole survivor. And though Malfoy's company was… undesirable at the best of times, at least now she was no longer alone.
Hermione watched in carefully concealed shock as Draco broke down, tears streaming down his cheeks as his eyes darted wildly about, his body rocking with sobs. Nowhere he looked was clean. There was filth and death everywhere. The floor was burnt and covered in blood, the walls were caved in and bodies lay strewn about like ragdolls and it sickened him to the very core.
How had this happened?
No. He wanted to suppress the memory. It was too horrifying.
"Come on, we need to get out of here before it collapses." Hermione murmured, gently pulling the fragile blonde to his feet. He allowed himself to be drawn out of the building, flinching every time he accidentally saw a pair of dead eyes, a face frozen in terror or a mouth hanging open in an endless scream.
Worse was all three on the same face.
He flinched when he heard stone crumble and fall, and Hermione grabbed his arm, making him run. They burst out of the building an instant before more of the ceiling collapsed, hiding its secrets inside forever as it blocked the entrance.
"Oh my god, you're alive!" A voice called, and Hermione squinted to see through the settling dust.
"Ron!"
Ron came into view, carrying his limp sister.
"Oh my god, Ginny…"
"She's fine, just got hit by a rock." Ron murmured, looking down at his sister with worry in his eyes. He glanced at Draco, who hung behind Hermione, his arms drawn to his chest, eyes still frantically darting about. "Is Malfoy… okay?"
Hermione glanced back at him. "I think he's just in shock." She replied quietly, moving to grab the boy's arm and pull him forward. He flinched away from her, saw the humanity behind her eyes, then relaxed and let her lead him on.
The small group of survivors made their way across the castle grounds, getting as far away as possible in case one of the towers fell.
By this time, Draco had regained his composure, and was doing his very best to keep to himself. He purposely walked behind the others, even though he caught himself edging closer to them from time-to-time, and always snapped a rude comment at Hermione when she turned to make sure he was still following them.
"Let's stop here." She murmured, picking a spot where there was still a little grass, and there was less rubble.
Ron set down his sister, gently pushing back a lock of her orange hair from her dirty face. Hermione instantly sat down next to her friend, examining her for injuries.
"Nasty blow to the head, I hope she'll be alright…" Hermione murmured, muttering a few spells to make sure Ginny wasn't in danger of dying. Truthfully, she didn't know any spells to fix internal wounds. If Ginny had a concussion, there was nothing she could do to fix it.
Ron glanced over at Draco, who had sat down as far away from the others as he could whilst still staying within the small clearing. He had his head in his hands and was so motionless one might be convinced he had suddenly become a statue.
Ron turned back to Hermione, who had fallen asleep next to Ginny, exhausted from all that had transpired over the last several months. Ron glanced back over at Draco, sucking in a sharp breath.
What if they were the only people who survived? What if the rest of the world… the wizarding world at the very least, had died? Would it be up to them to continue the magical population?
Taking a deep, calming breath, Ron stood and made his way over to Draco and sat down beside him. If Draco noticed, he didn't let it on.
"Malfoy," Ron murmured.
"What do you want, Weasley?" Draco replied, his voice groggy and thick. He sounded as though he barely had the strength to speak.
"Malfoy… we may be the only survivors. We don't know how widespread this was… I mean… he was so thorough, everything was destroyed. We may be the only ones left."
Draco raised his head, looking at Ron with bloodshot eyes. "Weasley, this isn't making me feel any better-"
"I'm not trying to make you feel better, Malfoy, I'm trying to tell you that we're the only ones left-"
"Yes, I think you have sufficiently made your point, so what?" Draco snapped.
"If we die… magical blood could become extinct."
Draco flinched, eyes widening as the idea sank in. "Muggles will continue to produce muggle-borns…" He murmured, but it was a pathetic attempt at denial.
"We don't know if even the muggles survived, besides, even if they did, there will be no one to teach the muggle-borns to tap into their magic, muggle-borns would produce magic accidentally with no way to learn to control it, muggles would see things we've been hiding from them for centuries, there would be mass chaos, don't you get it, Malfoy we have to keep the magical blood going!" Ron hissed.
Overwhelmed again, Draco held his head in his hands, shaking fingers running through his pale hair.
"I'll have to marry Hermione, and you'll… have to marry my sister." Ron muttered, not at all pleased that his sister would have to produce children with the ferret, but there was nothing else they could do.
"Considering the Weaslett's… how shall I put it, red-headedness there's not a doubt in my mind she'd sooner swallow her wand than get with me, besides, Granger has more brains, and mudblood or not, I've always valued that over blood purity."
"You and I both know that's not true, besides, Hermione would never go for you."
"And why not?" Draco raised his head wearily, not even attempting to argue that he had indeed cared more for brains than blood. Secretly, anyway.
"Because Malfoy, she's too good for you."
"In what way?"
"In every way, Malfoy! You can't marry Hermione!"
"Why not?"
"Because if you marry Hermione, all that's left for me is Ginny! Ginny's my sister!" Ron cried, then glanced at the girls and lowered his voice, not wanting to wake them. "I can't have kids with my bloody sister, Malfoy. If the magical world is to go on, you have to have kids with Ginny, and I have to have kids with Hermione, and they will have kids together and the magical population will continue gradually."
"Who said I wanted to have kids?"
"Malfoy! We're the last magical people, possibly even the last humans on Earth! We have to start the population over again!"
"Why not just let it die out? Don't you think the world would do better without humans? All humans have ever done is throw a spanner in the works. We're cock-ups, the lot of us. We should just… die out."
Ron was silent, staring at Draco for a moment. "Life must go on, Malfoy." He murmured.
"How do we know we're the only survivors, anyway?" Draco suddenly asked, looking up to meet Ron's hard blue gaze.
"Malfoy, everyone was killed-"
"We didn't check. Did you check? I didn't." Draco suddenly stood.
"I don't want to go back there." Ron told Draco's retreating back.
"Someone may have survived." Draco threw over his shoulder.
"Even if someone was still alive in there when we left, they'd be dead by now!" Ron called, but Draco didn't stop.
Ron turned nervously to look at Hermione and Ginny's sleeping forms before running to catch up with Draco. None of them could afford to go anywhere alone, no matter what. The girls would be fine together, but he couldn't let the stubborn blonde get himself killed in the smoldering mass of rubble that Hogwarts now was. If anyone had survived, Ron would give Malfoy a kiss for saving them. If not, he would merely punch him for putting them in danger for no reason.
"Malfoy, I'm not dying for you." Ron warned the blonde who remained several steps ahead of the ginger.
"Noted."
Since when had Slytherin become more valiant than Gryffindor? No way was Ron going to let Malfoy beat him with this bizarre bout of courage. He hurried to walk stride-for-stride with the fellow pureblood.
"What if someone horrible survived, like Bellatrix or-or Voldemort?"
"Voldemort is dead." Draco said with such conviction, Ron was inclined to believe him.
"So who are we looking for?"
"Honestly, Weasley, anyone who's alive." Draco snapped, rolling his eyes.
"Right."
Draco climbed over the rubble that used to be the entrance into the once-great castle, Ron following cautiously behind. Inside was mass chaos. Bodies and body-parts alike lay strewn everywhere, blood splattered every inch of every wall, floor and ceiling. The floor was caved in horribly, and it was hard to discern where a natural door was and where walls had been.
"Like I said… everyone's dead." Ron murmured, sub-consciously moving closer to the blonde, staring at the body of someone he had once known.
"There's less damage towards the back of the castle, let's go there." Draco murmured.
"Alright, but let's not stay long? I don't want to get crushed by falling cement."
The two continued on in silence, making sure to steer each other away from dangerous holes in the floor and equally dangerous debris hanging over head. The castle was eerily silent, with the occasional echo of rubble sliding and cracking. Every single body they passed was clearly dead.
"Please… can we go now?" Ron begged after seeing a particularly gruesome corpse.
"Hold on… do you hear that?"
"I can't hear anything over the blood pounding in my ears."
"Shh!"
Ron shut his mouth and listened. After a moment, he heard it too. It was oh-so faint, but it did sound like someone calling for help. Were their ears only playing tricks on them?
"Mind your head." Draco murmured as he slowly made his way towards the sound, the sobs getting louder as they grew closer, and soon, they found a small, shivering Neville Longbottom.
"Oh of all the useless lumps…" Draco's shoulders slumped and he turned away from the pathetic sight.
"Ron!" Neville cried, looking up. He had a bloody gash across his forehead.
"Neville! Do you know if anyone else is alive?" Ron asked, moving over to the boy and helping him to his feet. His arm was very clearly broken, snapped clean in half and hanging at a gross angle.
"I don't know." Neville replied with a sniff.
"Let's keep looking." Draco sighed, his earlier motivation slowly diminishing.
The two boys followed closely behind Draco as he wandered cautiously from room-to-room, eyes scanning for movement and ears straining to hear faint cries for help.
Eventually, even he had to admit that it was highly unlikely that anyone else had survived. Neville only seemed to have survived because he had been under a very sturdy beam which had saved him from falling debris. Still…
Draco froze, hearing another sound that faintly resembled a human voice.
"Do you think there could be others?" Draco murmured hopefully, moving towards the sound.
"Others?" Apparently it had never occurred to Neville that they weren't the only survivors.
"Hush."
The three purebloods moved cautiously forward, keeping an ear out for voices and an eye out for danger.
"Watch it, Longbottom!" Draco hissed, grabbing the boy before he could step in a gaping hole.
"Oh oh uh, th-thanks." Neville stuttered, eyes wide. During the battle, he had gained a lot of courage, but the trauma of all that had transpired since the end of the battle had seemed to revert him to his old ways.
"Do you hear that?" Ron piped up. "Sort of like a… wailing?"
"Frightening, isn't it?" Draco replied absently, listening to the eerie wail.
"Do you think it's a person?"
"Only one way to find out." Draco led the way, one cautious step after another. "Stop, is that… who I think it is?"
"Oh my god, Harry!" Ron cried, rushing towards the Boy-Who-Lived.
"Good God…" Draco muttered, moving over more slowly, eyes staring in horror at where Harry's left arm had been completely ripped off at the shoulder.
Neville retched, turning away and coughing up the last thing he had eaten, the sight of Harry's horrifying wound and the overwhelming scent of blood that clung to absolutely everything making him ill.
"Is he alive?" Ron whimpered. He too had turned away, unable to lay eyes on his decapitated friend.
"I wouldn't be surprised." Draco replied, putting a hand to Harry's neck and feeling for a pulse. "I'll be damned. He's still got a heartbeat."
"He's alive?" Ron cried, turning to look and immediately paling at the sight. He joined Neville in vomiting.
Draco cringed at the sight of Harry's bloody shoulder socket, drawing out his wand and muttering a few spells to clot the wound and keep Harry from losing any more blood. It was a miracle beyond words he wasn't already dead, but heaven forbid the world go without its precious Potter.
"We need to get him out of here." Draco murmured. "Weasley, see if you can find his arm, might be able to stick it back on."
"Are you bloody joking?" Ron cried, his voice echoing in the halls and making rubble fall from the ceilings.
"Mind your volume, Weasley." Draco muttered, holding his breath as a large piece of rubble moved slightly overhead then stopped, hanging dangerously close to falling.
"I don't see his arm, I don't see anyone else who's alive, and I don't hear anything but our impending deaths, let's get out of here." Ron muttered, tugging Draco's shirt impatiently as he stared around in fear.
"Agreed." Draco murmured, pulling Harry up into his arms, keeping the wound pressed against his chest to keep it from brushing against anything along the way, to hopefully keep dirt from it and to hopefully stop any more blood from escaping. "Good thing he's not heavy." Draco muttered unhappily. "Come on then."
It took the boys longer to get out than it did to get in, finding that one particularly narrow passage was inaccessible now that Draco was wider with Harry in his arms. They did, however eventually make their way back to where the girls were still sleeping.
Draco gently laid Harry down, cradling the boy's upper body. "Weasley, help me get his shirt off, have to see the extent of the damage."
"The extent? The extent is it's been cut clean off!" Ron cried.
"No, not a clean cut, I'd say more of a horribly jagged cut, this could become infected." Draco replied, carefully peeling away the material, vigilant to keep the wound on Harry's shoulder covered at all times. "Wake the walking dictionary; maybe she'll know what to do."
With a grumble, Ron moved over and shook Hermione awake, who blinked blearily a moment before she sat up, eyes widening when she saw Harry.
"Oh my god…" She moved over and took out her wand, casting several spells to make sure the wound didn't become infected. "I wish I had some dittany…" She murmured. "But this will have to do."
Draco felt Harry jerk slightly and tightened his hold on the injured boy. The brilliant green eyes flashed open and he tried to sit up.
"Easy Potter." Draco murmured, holding him firmly so he couldn't sit up.
"M-Malfoy?" Harry slurred, both lenses of his glasses broken, he had to squint to see the blonde's face, and even if the lenses weren't shattered, his vision would have been blurred from loss of blood.
"Oh Harry!" Hermione cried, relief making her weak.
"You're one hell of a survivor, Potter. This is your, what, third defiance of death?" Draco murmured uncomfortably, watching Ron heal Neville's broken arm, the two of them sitting next to Ginny, who was still out cold.
Harry was a tad out of it, considering his condition on the other hand he was doing unbelievably well. His eyes, however had grown rather glassy.
"He lost a lot of blood, he'll be needing more."
"We haven't any blood replenishing potion, and I doubt any of it survived all that." Hermione replied.
"We'll have to do it the muggle way then, what's everyone's blood type?"
Hermione looked surprised at the suggestion.
"What? I do know a bit about muggles, Granger, don't look so sodding surprised. Besides, I'm sure you know a spell that will draw blood." Draco snapped.
"Well, Harry is I believe O negative, which is unfortunately rare, and I'm O positive, so it wouldn't be safe for me to give him any of mine, Ron, do you know your blood type?"
"Um, O positive, so is Ginny."
"I uh… I think I'm AB positive." Neville murmured.
"Damn it." Hermione cursed. "None of those are compatible, if Harry was O positive, any of those would work…"
"No sodding chance." Draco slapped his forehead, leaving a bloody handprint on his pale face.
"What?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"I… think I'm O negative…."
"You 'think'?"
"I'm not sure." Draco admitted unhappily.
"Well… safer than any of us…"
"I don't want to!" Draco cried.
"He'll die!"
"I don't care!"
"Malfoy I swear if he dies, I'll kill you!" Ron threatened, coming towards the blonde.
Draco cringed, shaking his head slowly. "Damn it, Potter you owe me…" He muttered, pushing up his sleeve and shoving his thin arm towards Hermione, scowling as she pressed the tip of her wand against the pale flesh into the vein, murmuring a spell. Draco flinched slightly and looked away.
Ron sat back down, still glaring at Draco. After a while Hermione moved the wand to Harry's vein and began transferring the blood.
Draco felt faint, wondering just how dreadful Potter must be feeling.
"There… oh god Malfoy I hope you're right about your blood type."
Draco bit his lip, knowing he was right, he had just added the uncertainty in hopes that she would find the risk too great, considering Harry's body would reject it and he would die within seconds if Draco had the wrong blood type. But instead of dying, a little bit of color returned to his face and he seemed a bit more aware.
"Harry, how are you feeling?" Hermione murmured.
He merely stared at her.
"Harry, can you hear me?"
"Huh yeh…" He murmured, blinking and moving his head back and forth slowly, his eyelids looking heavy.
"Harry, you need to stay awake, okay? How many fingers am I holding?"
"Blimey, Granger, his glasses are broken, he can't see without them, can he?"
"Oh what do you know, Malfoy?" Ron spat.
"No, he's right." Hermione murmured, dropping her hand, feeling silly. "Harry, can you hear me?"
"Mm. Uh-huh." He slurred in reply, struggling to keep his eyes open for more than a half second at a time.
"If you feel as bad as you look, Potter, then it's like hell." Draco murmured and Harry's eyes flashed open again, locking on Malfoy a moment before his lids became heavy once more.
"Well, at least he's aware, he should start waking up a bit more here soon." Hermione murmured, moving back to check on Ginny. They had to keep an eye on her, make sure she didn't start acting strange. If she did, there was a chance she had a concussion.
"We need to find food." Ron murmured, feeling his stomach cramp up.
"We need to find shelter first." Hermione interjected. "A common misconception about living in the wild that often leads people to their deaths. They think they need to find food first, but they actually need to find water and shelter, and by shelter, I mean a place to sleep."
"What's wrong with here?" Ron cried.
"Honestly, Ron, this piece of rock? It's too exposed, we don't know what's out there, it's too dangerous to stay here."
"Can Potter be moved yet though?" Draco interrupted.
Hermione cast her friend a critical eye. "I don't know. Would you be able to carry him again?"
Grumbling, Draco nodded, glaring at Ron who had to carry his sister and Neville whose arm bone was still healing from that wicked snap. It was ridiculous to even consider Hermione. Which left him to have to carry Potter's sorry arse. Lucky him.
"We need to stay away from the castle, as far away as possible." Hermione was saying, packing up the few possessions they had with them.
"Why? Wouldn't it be safer to stay closer?" Neville murmured.
"No, she's right." Draco murmured, looking Hermione in the eye. "Scavengers?" He guessed quietly.
She stared at him, biting her lip, then nodded, looking away. Such a gruesome thought.
"Come on then." She murmured, leading the way.
Draco took up Harry, who was only half-awake, and Ron took his sister, who woke up briefly enough to slur that she was hungry before falling back to sleep.
Hermione led the way, Ron just behind her, Draco behind him and Neville taking up the rear.
"Where do you suppose we should shelter, then Hermione?" Ron asked in his mocking 'must you know everything' tone.
Hermione glanced back at them, biting her lip. "I don't know." She replied quietly.
"How about the shrieking shack?" Draco suggested, panting.
"Brilliant!" Hermione cried, eyes turning to the old building. Not ideally safe, but it would provide enough shelter for the night.
The teens altered their course slightly and fifteen minutes and a lot of complaining later, they had arrived at their destination.
"Here we are." Hermione murmured, carefully pushing open the door, which creaked loudly.
"Spooky." Ron murmured, entering first. "Oh shit, I forgot about him."
"Forgot about who-" Draco set Harry down and turned, stopped, eyes catching the dead form of Severus Snape, covered in blood and lying where the trio had left him. Draco's eyes misted up and he quickly turned away, fighting down new unknown emotions. He wasn't sure how to explain the odd relationship between him and the potions master… they'd always been friendly, but not exactly 'friends'. It wasn't until the sixth year that Draco had begun resenting the man for trying to help him.
He saved my life, more than once. Draco thought with a start, biting his knuckle as he glanced back over at his professor's bloody body.
"I'm sorry…" Hermione murmured, feeling she should say more but not knowing quite what.
So much death… Draco shook his head, moving over to the far side of the room to sit in the corner, drawing his knees to his chest and hiding his face.
Ron set down his sister beside Harry, who was going in and out of consciousness.
Hermione moved over to Harry. "Take deep breaths, Harry, deep breaths." She held Harry's face and kept his eyes locked on her. He seemed to have trouble focusing, but for the most part, kept eye contact.
Hermione sighed wearily. They had a rough road ahead of them.
AN: Whatya think? Please review, my friends. :)