A/N: I've been neglecting this, I know, but I was inspired while re-reading Deathly Hallows and revisited it. This is a few months before JoM begins. Quick note: Harry broke it off before going after the Hallows so Draco's spying could be more effective. He tried once or twice to start it back up right after the war but it wasn't until they moved in together that they were able to reconcile their feelings for each other.
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"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you?"
Harry's voice rang out across the Great Hall. The words did not seem to permeate Draco's brain, but instead hung in the air around his head, meaning nothing to him. His parents stood behind him, his mother's hand on his shoulder, holding him rigid.
"Possessing the wand isn't enough to make it yours! Holding it, handling it, using it -- you tortured Ollivander for information and missed the most important bit. The wand chooses the wizard."
Draco looked up at the ceiling and drew in a breath. The ceiling, reflecting the sky above it, was dark with smoke. Harry's voice carried to him, continuing to lay information out for Voldemort. Everything he had missed for lack of wanting to see. Everything he had been ignorant to.
"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."
Harry's voice broke on his name, and Draco wondered who else heard it. His mother's grip tightened.
Voldemort's high cold voice stretched across the hall. "You no longer have the phoenix wand. We will duel on skill alone... and after I have killed you, I can turn my attention to Draco Malfoy."
Narcissa gasped and began to tremble. Her grip slackened. Draco moved away from her, toward the center of the Hall, and she cried out, but he kept moving forward.
"You're too late," said Harry, as Draco pushed a Gryffindor aside, stepping into the circle surrounding the pair of them. Harry's eyes lit on Draco and his face changed for a fleeting instant -- something dark in his eyes lifted slightly. "I took this wand from... Draco weeks ago. You missed your chance."
Voldemort drew up slightly and hissed, "So here we have it, Potter, the moment of truth."
Harry stared back at him stonily, fingers tightening around Draco's hawthorn wand.
They both moved at the same second, Harry shouting, "EXPELLIARMUS!" and Voldemort shrieking, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Draco cried out, but it was lost in the haze and echo of the Great Hall.
The spells rocketed toward each other and hit, with unparalleled force, striking each other, green on red. The green bounced back and hit Voldemort squarely, and he crumpled.
The Dark Mark on Draco's wrist burned gently, gently, and petered out, like a smoldering candle starved of oxygen. Draco stared, aghast, at the figure splayed ridiculously on the floor. He felt sick.
A defeaning silence filled the room, and then there was an outburst of shouting, jubilation, and everyone raced for Harry. Harry looked up from where his gaze was fixed on the dead Tom Riddle, and he met Draco's eyes.
Draco looked away. He was shaking all over, and clammy. He felt like he had been drained of blood
He moved away from the crowd, but not toward his parents. Draco moved through the crowd like a ghost, out the door of the Great Hall, and out of the front doors. He wandered over to a grassy knoll and sat down. The raucous celebrating from inside was still audible through the castle walls, though just barely.
He didn't know how long he sat, staring, until he heard rustling behind him. Draco turned and saw Harry pull the invisibility cloak off, draping it around his shoulders so that only his head, legs, and a strip of torso were visible.
"Mind if I join you, Malfoy?"
"No," Draco said weakly.
Harry sat down next to him. Neither of them said anything for a moment.
"I had to get out of there," Harry said. "Too many people, y'know?"
Draco remained quiet.
"I'm sorry," Harry said.
"For what?" Draco snapped.
Harry shrugged off the cloak and turned to face Draco, who found himself looking into those green eyes. The green eyes he had risked his life for, gone up against the dead, crumpled shell of a man lying in the Great Hall for, the way Severus Snape had before him.
"Snape," Draco said.
"He's dead."
It was a soft blow, comparatively.
Harry hesitated, choosing his words, and then settled on: "Your mother saved my life."
"You saved mine, Potter."
"I put your life in danger in the first place."
"No, it would've been," Draco said, talking over him. "I was set up for this one way or another. Now at least I can come out standing on the right side." He rubbed the Dark Mark like like it was a stubborn bit of dirt that would come off in time.
"I've missed you," Harry said. "A lot. I don't know why. But that night at the Manor..."
Draco looked down. "It was nothing, Potter."
"You slipped incredibly valuable information to us, Malfoy, it wasn't nothing."
Draco opened his mouth to argue but Harry waved to silence him. "Accio cloak," he whispered, raising his wand, and it flew into his outstretched hand. Harry draped it over both of them, just as a group of people came rounding the corner, carrying two of the dead into the castle, all of them somber-faced.
"We don't have to talk about that now," Harry whispered. "We won. It's over. We have all the time in the world."
"I thought you were dead," Draco replied, and his shoulders began to shake. He willed himself not to cry. "I thought you were dead, Potter, and --"
"Shh," Harry said, pulling the cloak over his foot.
"Crabbe is dead," Draco murmured.
"You're in shock. It'll be okay, Malfoy."
"Everyone's dead. Fuck, Potter, stop sitting here and telling me it's going to be okay." Draco stood up and the cloak slid to the ground, revealing him and Harry. "It won't be."
"It will. Eventually. He's gone."
"He's never going to be gone! He's here right now!" Draco gestured at the air.
Harry glared at him, his glasses slipping down his nose. "Do you honestly think I don't feel the same way? I haven't seen you in months, Malfoy, and the first chance I get --"
Draco stormed off. Harry sighed, waited a moment, and followed him.
"Harry!"
"Hey, Harry!"
He waved off the calls coming from everyone he'd left behind. He'd go back up in a minute and face everyone again. But not now.
Draco finally stopped right before the Forbidden Forest, as if there were an invisible barrier there. He turned to Harry.
Harry stepped forward and kissed him.
Draco jerked away, but then softened at his touch and kissed him back. Harry's glasses fogged and he took them off, sliding them into his pocket. His hands moved across Draco gently, questioningly.
"Harry," came another faraway call.
They separated.
"I should go back up," Harry said.
"Fine," said Draco. "You left your cloak, Potter."
"I know."
They looked at each other a moment.
Harry turned to go, then wheeled around and said, "Before I died, I thought of you."
Draco stood, stony.
"Thought you might like to know," Harry said, and left.
Someone was moving near them. Draco looked up, eyes blurred with tears, and saw two tall Ravenclaws carrying a body away from the forest.
"He's dead," Draco said to himself, and left to find his parents.
