Disclaimer: Harry Potter not mine, Nickle Creek's A Lighthouse's Tale not mine.
Quick note: I know very little about lighthouse's and their functions, so sorry if I messed up. I live in the midwest.. and so not much coast here. The only lighthouse I've really seen was one in Spain, so please forgive me.
Title: The Lighthouse's Tale
I am a lighthouse worn by the weather and the waves
I keep my lamp lit to warn the sailors on their way
I'll tell a story, paint you a picture from my past
I was so happy but joy in this life seldom lasts
I had not been alone very long, which is in itself not surprising. I provide an important service. Without me the sailors would meet their end on the rocks below, unaware that they were there, or aware but unable to see them. My last keeper had died, of old age of all things, and they wasted no time in finding his replacement. Usually these things are done through generations, but he had been alone, he told me, his wife run off with some business man from down south.
I suppose you could say we were close, he would talk to me, and like any good friend I would listen, although I never replied. I fear he might have gone a bit mad after a while from my silence.
I remember the day my new keeper came. He was young, very young, with pale hair and silver eyes. He had this aura of betrayal around him, not so much of sadness, but of bitterness instead.
I didn't learn of the why of it until later, when he became more comfortable speaking to me as he went about cleaning my lenses and windows, among other tasks. He told me of how he came from a wealthy family, but a rather corrupt one. They had been involved in some dodgy business that would have found them behind bars if they had been caught at it. I wasn't so much interested in his family as I was in him.
He talked about the day he had decided to leave 'the family business.' This was after several months, as if even speaking of it aloud to himself made it more real. My keeper, Draco he was called, raged still both inwardly and outwardly, and he cursed just as well as any sailor I had ever heard.
"The bastards disowned me!" he would cry, his voice reverberating against walls. I don't think it was so much the loss of the money he would have been entitled too, but the loss of his family, not that he would admit that. Although I am often a good listener, I am not a good conversationalist, and I could tell he was becoming lonely. And it was for this I was glad that a visitor came up the beach one day.
He was a young artist and I had seen him before my new keeper had come to stay. When the weather was nice he would sail out from the other side of the bay. He did not come often, but he shone when he did, with freedom and an inner light. I knew my keeper would be attracted, and I was right.
They met in the tall grasses on the short cliff upon which I and the house was perched. He was sitting, the tools of his hobby spread around him and I stood proudly as he sketched me and not the waters that I stood watch over. My keeper, had at first not been happy with his company. In fact that is much of an understatement, he railed against him, but the boy across the bay held his own, green eyes bright.
He would pack his things and tell my keeper he would be back again, when he was able. He came a lot more often after that. I think he was attracted too. Draco would complain to me into the hours as he sat and watched the dark waters.
"Who does he think he is?" he would ask, scowling. "He won't leave me alone." I, personally, thought this was a good thing, and he denied it. The boy would show up every Sunday morning, with paper and pencil. Draco had started to ignore him, would not come out, although I caught him often standing in the same place that the boy had vacated hours before. I think the other knew too, because he began to leave some of his drawings, and one by one they ended up along the walls of the spiral staircases.
Then there was one of me and him, and this one was not taped up. In fact I have it on good authority from the house that it sat taped up next to his bed. And then a few weeks later was replaced with one of the two of them, myself still present, but in the background, which was fine with me.
They had one terrible row before they began to see in each other, the things I saw in them. My keeper had yelled at him to pack his things and go, and that he was in no means welcomed here. The wind blew away what the green eyed boy had said, but I saw the anger and the pain there, and the shock that straightened my keeper's back. And then he threw his arms around him, pulling him close, and the green eyed boy gripped just as tight, until it seemed as if they were only one person.
They stopped fighting after that. Well, they still bickered, it was to be expected with two stubborn people. My keeper kept trying to get Harry to leave his family, his aunt and uncle, I believe, and come stay with us. Well more him, than me, but I felt as if I should be included.
I learned that Harry only came on Sundays because that was when his family was in church and in town, and would not miss their boat. Then one day Harry did not leave, and instead after watching the sunset into the night, fell asleep against my Keeper. Draco did not wake him up. He kept watch over him, just as I kept watch over the dark sea. And in the morning when Harry awoke, panicked, Draco took his face in his hands and kissed him soundly, putting a halt to any of his arguments.
Harry had grinned tremulously, nodded, and said that he would be back later that day with his things. It was his leaving his art supplies behind that told that he would keep his promise. So Draco walked him down to his small boat, wished him a safe return, and kissed him once more.
We waited all that day, for him I'm sure the day lasted a year, while I did not keep track of time. There was night and there was day, and hours and minutes had no meaning to me. As the day progressed further he began to worry, pacing, and pulling at pale hair that had by now grown to his shoulders. A storm was coming in, the water growing choppy, and the wind strong.
Lightning streaked across the sky, lighting up the sky that had just turned to night, as a ship appeared on the horizon. The storm raged on, uncaring, and my keeper and I were of no help. He stood, hands clenching the railing as he watched, and he fell to his knees a scream of emotional pain, of which I had never heard before, wrenched from him as the ship broke among the rocks.
He raged that night just as surely as the storm did around us, knowing how futile his actions would be. The next morning as dawn and the storm broke he ran down to the water and found him washed up on the store. Perhaps he had still been in denial, perhaps he had held some sort of hope, whatever it was he went a touch mad at the reality that his love was dead. He wept over his body, warm salty tears mixing with the cold salt sea on his lover's face. My keeper kissed the green eyed boys face and swore that they would be together again, whispers I heard all too clearly. He buried him in the sand, and something broke within him. I am only a lighthouse, I have no way of saving others besides to warn them. He needed no warning, nor would he have heeded it, he knew what he was doing.
Step by step he climbed my tower. Step by step, as he past taped up drawings, he swore to himself that he would not be parted from whom he loved again. Step by step by step his heart broke a little more as did his mind. And then quicker now stepbystepbystepbystep off the edge of me he ran.
I am a lighthouse worn by the weather and the waves
And though I'm empty I still warn the sailors on their way
Hope you liked it. I call this one of my musically inspired fics. I have listened to Nickle creek's The Lighthouse's Tale about a million times while at my cubicle at work. I kept thinking how I could write it into a story. Did I want to put it from the lighthouse's view? Or Harry and Draco's? I hope that this was satisfactory. :) If you want to hear the song it can easily be found on youtube. If I get a good enough response I might write another such musical inspired story. Please review!