Bittersweet
by MagickBeing

Challenge:

1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.

2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.

3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble. You start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!

4. Do ten of these, then post them.

Author's note/warning: Swiped this challenge from Wings of Corrugated Irony because I thought it sounded like a fun idea. I figured it would help me deal with my writer's block, and in a way, it did. Like her, I broke rule three shamelessly, and ended up playing each song five times or so, until my inspiration left and I was content with the ending. Because each drabble is a story in its own, I've splitted it up into chapters. Some of the drabbles are sad, angry—some are sweet and some are bittersweet. Hence the title. Some deal with cheating or abuse and others deal with comfort and love. Some are post-Hogwarts and some are in Hogwarts, but none of them follow J.K. Rowling's books in their entirety, but all of them have one thing in common; slash. That's right folks, slash. Namely Harry and Draco.

You've been warned.

Rating: M. In other words, mature.

Disclaimer: Each chapter is a drabble to a different song—therefore unrelated to the previous chapter—and each song belongs to their respective artists. Like the Harry Potter fandom belongs to J.K. Rowling. In both cases, no copyright infringement was intended. The song for this chapter was Message to the World by Story of the Year


Message to the World – Story of the Year

Another world collides, will we open the door?

A message to the world, it seems like

everyone has a God standing up for what we think we know.

Do we know?

It was really all quite predictable.

The battlefield was an image right out of a movie—an old Hollywood one, maybe, made by the Americans.

A storm was moving in and thick clouds blanketed the sky, promising rain but never fulfilling, and the sun just had to make its presence known as well, turning the sky into a haunting shade of silver. Sweat dripped down his face and burned his eyes but he couldn't brush it away—he was running, trying to make his way through the battlefield and to his mark, narrowly missing several curses on the way. A flash of green nearly nicked his shoulder, followed by another one, and he escaped to the ground, falling down on his knees and sending his own curse through the air and toward his attacker. The flash of green hit the cloaked figure squarely in the chest and then he was on the ground as well, perfectly still.

Adrenaline coursed through Harry's veins and his heart pounded in his chest—unlike the war depicted in the American movies, this battlefield held no glory. It only held pain and suffering as more people wilted around him, falling to the ground as their life was cut short. These were someone's children—someone's daughters and sons and sisters and brothers. Every person that fell to the ground was someone's friend or lover and they were dying in vain, all because some mad man had taken it upon himself to try changing the world to fit his ideals, and those in it.

Harry moved to push himself from the ground, only to be paralyzed in mid movement. He set his jaw, pain shooting through his body as a shadow moved across his body. His wand was removed from his hand and then the pain stopped, and someone tried saving him, a spell narrowly missing his attacker but it was too late and then the cloaked figure was turning away, yelling something and killing them dead.

Before Harry had time to act, their wand was against his throat.

He swallowed hard, staring up at the masked figure through broken glass.

It was too late, then.

He wouldn't get to Voldemort in time.

He wouldn't save his friends and loved ones.

He wouldn't end this war.

He would die here, a marauder to a cause long lost.

The Death Eater hesitated, though, his breathing hard and ragged—and then he did something most surprising. He reached up with his other hand and removed his mask.

Harry's heart skipped a beat and green eyes met silver, the same haunting shade as the sky.

His brow furrowed and Draco tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes cold but questioning, and Harry nodded, a snap decision that he wouldn't live to regret. Moments later, his wand was back in his hand, but this time, the wood was hardly reassuring. Nodding again, Harry stared up at Draco with bright eyes, silently counting.

One.

Another shot of light, shooting just over Draco's head, but he hardly even flinched. Just millimeters away, a red-headed friend fell to the ground, eyes open and empty.

Two.

Harry's heartbeat echoed in his head and then Draco's mouth twitched into the slightest of smiles, breath taking and rare. Both men raised their wands.

Three.

And Harry smiled back before the green light overtook them both.