We are coming towards the end, gang. You all have been lovely, and I love your feed back. Only two more chapters!

Chapter 25

Video Games by Lana Del Rey

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

That last line of 'The Dead' Leia read aloud for no particular reason. She didn't think anyone else heard it, because the hospital wing was still empty and Draco was asleep. Her own voice felt odd to her ears that were by now well-adjusted to the dead silence of the hospital wing. The only small sounds were of the two breathing, and the occasional snore from Draco. She sighed a little after she finished reading it. She let the beautiful words sink in.

"That was pretty." Draco said, breaking Leia out of her literary reflection and causing her to jump.

"Y-you're awake?"

"Your voice woke me up." Draco didn't sound bitter from being awoken from a deep sleep.

"Oh, sorry, I just feel like that line is best read aloud."

"It's fantastic. Can you read it again?"

"Sure…" She said opening the book again. "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

"What is it from?"

"It's the last line from a story in the book Dubliner's by James Joyce."

"It's good."

Leia then remembered that they were in the Hospital Wing and that she was his nurse.

"How do you feel?"

"Marginally better. The scars still feel the same, though."

"Hmm… We'll wait until morning to give you anything more."

"Where is Madam Pomfrey?" Draco asked looking around.

"She's 'had some business to do' whatever that means. She's been gone for the last few hours. So, I am in charge."

Draco raised his eyebrows, slightly impressed.

"I'm glad she thinks you're qualified enough to watch me sleep."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"She had expected you to have night terrors, and wanted me to hold down the fort in case some other student needed medical attention."

"Ah."

They were both silent for a long moment.

"What time is it?" Draco asked lightly.

Leia checked her watch.

"About eleven, gotta date?"

Draco smiled and then frowned.

"Not until later…"

"Oh."

Leia got the feeling he wasn't joking. They were both silent for a moment.

"So will you be in here all night?" Draco asked.

"Pomfrey said she'd excuse me from curfew, but I didn't get the impression that I'd be pulling an all-nighter."

"You should stay. I mean, you probably couldn't sleep without me, anyway."

He was annoyingly right. Leia had mentally avoided the issue, that once school was over she'd be away from Draco. How would she sleep then? Leia rolled her eyes at his cockiness anyway.

"You were snoring earlier. That's never happened before."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but that's not super uncommon. The sleeping potion she gave you is strong, but she didn't give you very much."

Draco nodded. There was a pause in the conversation again.

"I'll miss you." Draco said with a sad expression.

"You say that like you'll never see me again."

"You'll never want to see me again... you'll hate me."

After he finishes his task.

"How do you know that?"

"I already hate myself. Once things happen, you'll hate me too. You'll be morally obligated to hate me." She could feel the pain in his voice. It killed her.

"I thought we had already established that I have pretty awful morals."

Draco almost smiled.

"You have better morals than I do. But you'll hate me, for sure."

"Okay… I'll hate you only if you hate me back."

"I could never hate you."

"Right, so the day that you hate me will be the day I hate you too."

Draco kind of smiled again, and shook his head a little.

"I'll try to hate you, but I probably won't try very hard."

Leia now shared the same kind of smile that Draco wore.

"I have a hard time imagining me hating you, anyway." Leia said, knowing she had said too much.

"I thought we weren't supposed to tell each other how we feel."

"I've never been one for rules, Draco. You should know that by now."

Nope, you shouldn't have said that.

Draco didn't reply verbally for a moment, but instead looked into her eyes with a lazy gaze. Leia was almost worried he was inside her head, but he seemed too tired to try. He didn't have the intense glare that he wore when he was seeing her thoughts.

"Leia come here." He said, urging her over with his hand motion. She sat on the edge of his bed and held his hands. With some help from Leia, he sat up and now looked at her directly in the eyes.

"I love you." He said clearly. She knew this was coming. She knew it had been a bad idea for her to say the 'fuck the rules' line. She knew he loved her. She had always known. Leia knew that Draco loved her in the most painful sense of the word. His passion would kill him, she knew that.

"I love you, too." She wasn't sure if she was lying or not. She felt as if she had just spoken a language she didn't speak fluently. She had a rough idea of what the words meant, but no clue of the exact translation. Worst of all, she knew this would kill him the most, even if it was the truth.

He kissed her lightly, his lips hesitant. He didn't touch her other than the hands that Leia was lightly holding on to. He was scared, a mood of Draco that Leia wasn't used to. Draco doubted himself, she could feel it, which shouldn't surprising considering that he had just admitted to hating himself. They broke apart, moments later, and Leia rested her head in the crook of Draco's neck.

She sighed.

"Please don't make me sad…"

"I will always love you. That's the only promise I can make."

Leia closed her eyes and urged the rest of the world to disappear. She opened her eyes and saw that it didn't happen. She sighed again and leaned back. She stood up and moved her chair closer to Draco's bed. She knew she couldn't be on his bed in case Madam Pomfrey came back, so she set the chair next to his head and held his hand.

Wordlessly, she wished Draco goodnight, and closed her eyes. She felt him fall asleep just moments before she did.