Draco Malfoy Must Die

Chapter 50 - The Pack

Harry carried Hermione downstairs that morning because she was still weak and could barely stand let alone walk. He sat down on the sofa and she settled in next to him, her head leaning against his chest as she cradled a bowl of cereal and attempted to eat some of it to stop her stomach rumbling. Harry on the other hand was nursing a cup of coffee with the arm that Hermione wasn't crushing. It was very earlier, the sky was still a bloody orange as the sun rose and the dew settled on the grass outside.

"Hasn't she got a boyfriend?" An amused, but tired voice asked from the doorway.

Harry and Hermione both turned to the backdoor which was now ajar. Neville was standing, or rather leaning, in the doorway looking rather like a young Remus Lupin with bags beneath his eyes.

"Yeah I know, I've been filling in while he was being all wolfy," Harry said offhandedly, "And trust me, it's an over protective big brother thing, not anything else. You look like shit by the way."

Neville was covered in cuts and scratches, there were a couple of pretty bad gashes on his arms and legs too, and he had a black eye, "Thanks, it was such a fun experience, I really care about how I look Harry," he said sarcastically.

"How's Draco?" Hermione asked warily, "His yowling has kept both of us awake since 4am."

"I'm fine," Draco's strained voice said from outside.

Neville turned around and grimaced, "Draco, I am so sorry."

"It's alright," Draco's voice said, "It's worse than it looks, honestly."

"Come in then," Harry said, "So we can see how bad it looks."

Hermione gasped and her hand flew to her mouth as Draco limped into the kitchen trailing blood behind him. There was barely an inch of skin that wasn't covered in some sort of cut or bruise. There was a pretty big bite mark on one of his legs which was the cause of his limp and the blood he was trailing. He had a gash on his left shoulder which was still oozing blood and a huge bump on the top of his head.

"So, do I need to ask who lost the fight for dominance?" Harry asked, looking between his friends.

"No," Draco said, grimacing as he sat down very gingerly on the white sofa, Susan was going to kill him, "I lost, I definitely lost. I mean I thought I was in with a good chance until he threw me in the fountain, tried to drown me, pulled me out of the fountain and threw me onto the roof of the outhouse. I gave up and slept there then fell off into a haystack this morning looking like this."

He had a thin towel wrapped around the parts that needed covering, but other than that he was pretty bare. Neville had obviously grabbed some of Remus's old clothes from the outhouse because he looked fairly normal.

"I'm so sorry," Neville said, "Merlin Draco, I really am so sorry. Can I get you anything? Anything at all?"

"Dittany," Draco mumbled, "Lots of it."

Neville nodded and began to rummage in the potions cupboard by the door. Hermione looked at Draco sheepishly, "Are you really all right?"

"I'm fine," Draco said through gritted teeth, "How are you? You were still out of it when I had to head out to transform last night."

"She's good," Harry yawned, "But she can't walk yet so I'm her personal wheelchair. Do you feel up to a cup of tea yet?"

Hermione shook her head, "No the cereal is making me feel like I'm going to throw up, I definitely don't want any tea."

"Is she poisoned or pregnant?" Lilly asked, smiling slightly as she walked into the kitchen in her pyjamas.

"Definitely the former," Hermione said.

"Just as well," Draco joked, "That's the last thing I need right now, I can barely look after myself, look at the state of me."

"You lost then," Lilly said as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot Harry had brewed earlier.

"Do you really have to ask that?" Draco asked sarcastically, "I'm still not happy about it either, I mean I've been a werewolf for longer and I'm still shit at it! Why do I suck at everything?"

Harry snorted, "Sorry, I didn't realise Ron was in the room. Did you Hermione?"

"No," Hermione chuckled.

Draco rolled his eyes, and Hermione added, "And I can think of at least one thing you don't suck at Draco," she added in an undertone.

"Too much information," Neville said, thrusting a bottle of dittany in Draco's face.

Draco sighed and accepted it, "Cheers Nev," he said as he literally poured it onto every gash or bite on his body.

"The entire bottle?" Lilly asked in disbelief, "That was our last one!"

"Dora got more before her trip to the Burrow," Remus said as he walked into the kitchen fully clothed without a scratch on him, "She'll be back around lunchtime with it so don't worry. But I do think we should try and clean ourselves and this place up before she gets back. Trust me, you don't want to get on her bad side at the moment."

"Uh Remus, how are you not at all hurt?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They were smart enough to realise I would hurt them very badly if they tried to challenge me," Remus said matter of factly, "So they left me alone and I tried to break up most of their fights but in the end I had to let things play out so that the order of things could be decided. How are you feeling Draco?"

"Fine," Draco said, "It looks worse than it feels, honestly."

Remus looked at him sceptically, "Well then I suppose you won't mind getting that sofa cleaned up before my wife gets home and has a hissy fit."

"A hissy fit?" Tonks asked as she stepped into the kitchen, she was around 6 and a half months pregnant now and had a fairly sizeable bump, "Why would I have a - what the hell happened here?"

Harry grimaced and extracted himself from underneath Hermione. He walked over to Tonks and steered her into an armchair, "It's a long and dramatic story, do you want a cup of tea?"

"A cup of tea?" Tonks asked with a raised eyebrow, "I may be pregnant but I'm not an old woman. Why is everyone covered in blood?"

"It's just me and Neville that are covered in blood," Draco pointed out, "Harry is actually fairly blood-free, for once."

"Draco" Tonks said, "What is going on?"

"Well," Draco said, biting his lip, "Neville's a werewolf, for a start."

"How much of a werewolf are you, by the way?" Harry cut in curiously, "Because Draco can control how much he transforms and Remus has no choice at all."

"I'm more like Remus," Neville admitted, "But I do seem able to control to what extent I transform. It was hard last night because I was so angry but I think with wolfsbane I might be able to control it..."

Harry nodded slowly, and Neville sighed, "So Susan fled then? Since she's the only one who isn't here?"

"She had to go back to Hogwarts," Lilly admitted, "She said something about Daphne's sister going missing on a raid with Ginny."

"Maybe I should go back too," Neville said, "I'm not going to be any good to you anymore, am I?"

"You're staying with us, end of story," Harry said firmly.

Tonks surveyed them all, "Is anyone planning on telling me how Neville became a werewolf?"

"Lilly, Hermione and Draco got kidnapped," Harry admitted, "So Neville and I broke into Malfoy Manor to save them."

"Did you know about this Remus?" Tonks asked calmly, but it was a dangerous kind of calm.

Remus looked sheepish, "Yes, but I thought it best not to tell you. I didn't want the baby to-"

"The bloody baby!" Tonks exclaimed, "I have been an Auror for years! Telling me something is not going to make me panic or hurt the baby! Not telling me just pisses me off! I can't believe you let them storm Malfoy Manor on their own Remus! If you had told me I could have helped you plan this better so that Neville hadn't gotten bitten!"

"Well I wasn't going to let them do it on their own!" Remus snapped.

20 HOURS EARLIER

"I'm coming with you."

"Remus, don't be stupid!" Harry snapped.

"You've got a baby to look out for," Neville said calmly.

"Yeah, and I have you guys to look out for too!" Remus said, "You said it yourself, we're a family and family look out for each other."

"Yes, they do," Harry said, "So look out for Tonks and that baby of yours inside her not us, not this time."

Remus opened his mouth to argue further, but Harry gave Neville a brief nod and they both shot stunners at the older man.

"They left me on the floor Dora! They didn't even have the curtsey to put me in a chair!" Remus finished.

Tonks smiled slightly and shook her head, "Well I admire you efforts, Remus," she said honestly, "But I wish you had told me."

"We didn't want to hurt you or the baby," Neville said honestly, "We weren't lying when we said you were the closest thing to a Mum some of us have ever had, we were just looking out for you."

"And I appreciate that," Tonks said tearfully, "Goddamn these bloody emotions! But are you all alright? Do you need anything healed?"

"Hermione is still recovering so we're going to have to stay here for a while," Harry said, "Susan thinks it will take the best part of a month for her to get back to full health. She was poisoned at Malfoy Manor and..." he couldn't finish as his eyes went to Hermione's bandaged arm.

"And Bellatrix Lestrange wrote this," Hermione said, pulling the bandage off so that the others could see the word on her arm.

"Well we match at least," Draco said darkly, he held out his own left arm and said, "It's hard to make out underneath the damage Neville did, but you can read it anyway. My Father carved it out using Sectumsempra."

Hermione's eyes filled with tears at the words on his arm, "Half breed."

"I am going to kill Bellatrix Lestrange!" Tonks raged, "That is disgusting!"

"Good luck with that," Neville said, his eyes flickering towards Harry, "Because she's already dead, so is Lucius Malfoy."

"What?" Remus asked sharply, "You didn't tell me that last night."

"It didn't seem relevant with everything else going on," Harry said honestly.

"Which one of you killed her?" Tonks asked carefully.

"I did," Harry admitted.

"And Lucius Malfoy?" Remus asked, his eyes instinctively going towards Draco.

The blonde boy nodded and made sure he kept his eyes away from Hermione's, "Me."

"It was an accident though," Hermione piped up, "Lucius riled him up and his claws came out, you know he can't control them yet Remus."

Draco looked up at her in surprise, and Hermione gave him a small, comforting smile, "It was an accident," she said again, for his benefit this time as she stared into his eyes.

Draco nodded again and tore his eyes away from Hermione's, "It was an accident," he agreed.

"I wish I could say I accidentally severed the chandelier that crushed Bellatrix to death," Harry said somewhat bitterly, "But I can't because it was entirely intentional."

Remus cleared his throat, "Alright, this mess needs cleaning up but for now I think everyone needs to sleep off the events of yesterday. Neville, get yourself to bed and make sure Hermione gets back upstairs alright. Lilly, you need your sleep too, you look exhausted...Harry, Draco, you two stay here with Tonks and I. We need to have a word with you."

Harry and Draco nodded as the others drifted away. Lilly left, kissing Harry on the cheek before she did so. Neville lifted Hermione up and carried her back upstairs to her bed. It left Harry and Draco alone with Remus and Tonks. Remus quickly put up silencing charms and then said, "Muffliato!"

Draco groaned in agony the second the word had been muttered, "Please tell me there is more dittany or anything, seriously anything, please. I am in agony!"

Harry looked at Draco with respect, "Nice job pretending you were fine for Neville's sake."

"He half killed me last night but he doesn't need to live with that," Draco said, his face scrunched up in pain, "Dora please, do you have anything?"

The childhood nickname that Draco barely used for Tonks anymore was what told the others how bad it really was.

"Lie down on the sofa," Tonks said as she opened up her travel bag and pulled out a box from the apothecary she had visited on Diagon Alley. She pulled out a tin from the box and said, "You happen to be in luck because when I told the guy that I was 6 months pregnant and lived with two werewolves he gave me two extra tins of this stuff. It's a mixture of dittany and powdered silver, it heals any open wounds twice as fast and gives your body the boost it needs to heal after a tough moon."

"You are an absoloute goddess Dora," Draco said, breathing a sigh of relief as she began to dab the mixture onto the worst of his cuts and bites, "Did I ever mention you're my favourite cousin?"

Tonks smiled fondly, "I'm your only cousin, Draco."

"Semantics," Draco mumbled, shutting his eyes as the pain began to ease.

Harry shook his head in amusement, "So, you want to talk to us?"

"You can't pretend your fine," Remus said simply, "You killed people yesterday and no we are not judging you, before you fly off the handle, Harry."

"We've all done it in a war, Harry," Tonks said, and Draco had opened his eyes to be a part of the conversation, "It's a horrible part, but it's part of the fight. We all remember our first because sometimes it's the only one. I know I do."

"I do too," Remus said darkly, "And it really doesn't matter if the person is a horrible person. I was 20...my girlfriend had just been murdered by You-Know-Who himself. Against my better judgement and the advice of your Father Harry, I hunted down the person who betrayed her and I killed him."

"How?" Harry asked quietly.

Remus looked down, guilt flooding his eyes, "A piercing charm in the heart...at the time I thought it was poetic because he had taken the woman I loved from me. But I didn't feel better for it, and it didn't bring Dorcas back either. It was just another regret added to the long list I had already accumulated."

"Sounds familiar," Harry said miserably, "Killing Bellatrix didn't bring Sirius back and it didn't make me feel any better either."

"I was 19, and I was in my final year of Auror training. It had been 12 years since You-Know-Who disappeared and on a training mission we finally tracked down the Auror who had betrayed Frank and Alice Longbottoms location to You-Know-Who," Tonks began, "There was a fight and my partner was knocked out, I was aiming for the guys arm with my cutting curse but I stumbled and slit his throat. I came close to quitting because I felt so bad but Moody gave me a good talking to and I came to my senses."

"So it was an accident," Draco said quietly.

Tonks nodded, "It was an accident but it took me a few years to come to terms with that."

"He was just a bad guy though," Draco said, "He wasn't your Father."

"I hate to say it Draco, but if you want the truth...your Father was probably the worst Death Eater after Bellatrix," Tonks said honestly, "I've read the case files, I've been after him for years. Bellatrix was insane, but your Father was cold and ruthless and some of the things he did to Muggles...their bodies were butchered...he wasn't a good person."

"I know!" Draco snapped, "But you don't get it! I killed my own Father! What if I hurt someone else? What if I hurt Hermione?"

"You won't," Remus said loudly, or at least loud enough to get Draco's attention, "You were in werewolf form last night and you still stood there and took it while Neville attacked you. Whether you meant to or not you let him become the second in command, you took the pain so you wouldn't have to hurt your best friend and as much as you hate the comparison that's exactly the kind of thing James would have done for me."

"James Potter?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How many others James's do you know?" Harry snorted.

"A lot actually, it's a fairly common name," Draco bit back.

"You just sound like a smug little brat now Draco," Harry said in amusement.

Tonks shook her head in amusement, "Boys, listen to me for a minute. You can joke all you want, but it's obvious that what happened yesterday is upsetting you. Just don't be stupid and hold it all in, you have each other, you have Neville, you both have supportive girlfriends and you have Remus and I. You don't have to keep everything to yourselves, and if you do...you'll only hurt yourselves more."

Harry nodded, and Draco said, "I know."

"Alright," Remus said with a slight smile, "Lecture over then."

"Good, because I have news," Harry said, leaning forward eagerly, "The good news is I figured out where the cup is, Helga Hufflepuff's cup that is."

"Where is it?" Remus asked immediately.

"Well that's the bad news," Harry admitted, "I'm pretty sure the Lestrange's have it. You-Know-Who gave Lucius his diary which was a horcrux, so it would make sense that he gave his other most loyal follower another horcrux."

"If you're right, and I think you might well be," Remus admitted, "That would mean that the cup is in the Lestrange's vault in Gringotts."

"Yeah, I know," Harry said sheepishly.

"In the darkest, deepest, most secure part of the bank," Draco added with a raised eyebrow.

"You'll never be able to break into Gringotts, let alone get that far down," Tonks said, and she actually looked afraid, "Not without getting yourselves killed and I won't let that happen."

"You won't have to, Dora," Remus said, he caught Harry's eye, "Because we happen to have a very good mutual friend who works in Gringotts."

"Bill," Harry breathed as the brainwave hit him.

"By all means speak to him to make sure he is on board," Remus said, "But I think we should keep this between the four of us for the moment. Neville has enough on his mind, and Hermione and Lilly both need to heal, physically and mentally."

Harry nodded, he agreed wholeheartedly and from the look in Draco's eyes he knew he felt the same.


"So you're clearly annoyed with me for not going to Nurmengard to find Grindelwald because I'm pretty sure you just asked me to break into Gringotts."

"I did," Harry admitted sheepishly.

"You want me to risk my job and my livelihood on some hunch of yours?" Bill asked in disbelief.

"What if your job wasn't at risk?" Harry asked.

"I'll get caught Harry, it's impossible not to," Bill said simply.

"What if it wasn't though?" Harry asked cryptically.

"It is," Bill said firmly.

"Yeah but what if I had certain objects that would make it possible?" Harry asked, "What if I had an invisibility cloak for example?"

"The thief's downfall would ruin it," Bill replied, "It sees through all disguises, including invisibility cloaks."

"This isn't just any invisibility cloak though Bill," Harry said, "It's the cloak of invisibility, from "The Tale of the Three Brothers"."

Bill looked at Harry as if he was mad, "Elder Wands and now cloaks of invisibility? Are you going mad? What next, do you have the resurrection stone too?"

"Not yet," Harry lied, "But I'm serious Bill. How long do invisibility cloaks last for?"

"20 years is normally a good lifespan," Bill replied.

"Well mine was my Father's and his Fathers before that," Harry said honestly, "And it still looks brand new."

"Does it stain?" Bill asked with a frown.

"Yeah, but the stains disappear on their own after a couple of weeks," Harry replied.

Bill was silent for a moment until he shook his head and said, "Holy shit. What else do you have?"

"Well I happen to be staying with the man who invented the Marauders Map. You know what that is right?" Harry asked.

"Of course I do, Fred and George were terrible at keeping secrets," Bill said offhandedly.

"The thing is, if you can give us a map of Gringotts or at least of the area you aren't supposed to be in, Remus can animate it so you know exactly where everyone is," Harry told the Weasley.

"Alright," Bill said slowly, "That might just work. Any other secret weapons?"

"Yeah," Harry said honestly, "The sword of Gryffindor. The thing is, there's something in the vault that has to be...killed with the sword."

"What is it?" Bill asked, "And don't say you can't tell me because if you don't tell me I won't even think about it doing this."

"It's a horcrux," Harry said.

"A horcrux?" Bill asked in horror, "He has a horcrux?"

"He has several," Harry said darkly, "That's what we've been doing out on the run. We've been finding them and destroying them. There are only two left, and that's one of them. If you have the sword you can take it into the vault and kill the horcrux without having to steal anything."

"How will I know what it looks like?" Bill asked.

"It's a cup, and it will look or feel evil. It might even hop away from you or try to defend itself," Harry replied, "And it will have the crest of Helga Hufflepuff on it."

"So let me get this straight," Bill said matter of factly, "You want me to break into the high security vaults of Gringotts?"

"Yeah."

"Sneak into a high security vault full of dark magic objects and shut myself in?"

"Yep."

"And attempt to destroy a dark magic object without all of the other dark magic objects attacking me to defend it?"

"Yes."

"Then escape without being caught and gutted by the goblins or sensed and incinerated by the dragon?"

"Yeah" Harry said sheepishly. He watched Bill anxiously, half expecting the redhead to tell him to fuck off. He didn't expect Bill to smirk however.

"Now this is a proper job. I like challenges, and I like puzzles. Breaking into a prison is not my style, that's a job for a brute like Charlie. But the high security vault of a bank, now that's a good job," Bill said almost cheerfully.

"This isn't a contest between you and your brother Bill," Harry said in exasperation, "It's dangerous, if you are caught you'll be killed and I hate that I have to ask you to do this. I hate that I had to ask Charlie to talk to Grindelwald. I wish I could do my own dirty work, but I can't break into Gringotts, you on the other hand work there every day. You won't have to go through the security scanners or encounter all the other security measures that You-Know-Who has installed."

"I know, and I accept the job Harry," Bill said, "If anything happens to me it's on my own head, not yours."

"It doesn't feel like that," Harry muttered darkly.

"Well it is like that," Bill said firmly, "I'll scout out the security measures and I'll get you that map as soon as I can, alright?"

"Alright," Harry said, "Good luck Bill," he added before he ended the communication and tucked his mirror back into his pocket. He pulled himself to his feet and let himself out of the cellar. Draco had gone to spend time with Hermione and make sure she was alright, and Harry had been intending to go and have a talk with Lilly about what had happened to her back at the Manor.

He made his way upstairs and paused on the landing that led to both the room he shared with Lilly, and also to Neville's room. He swithered for a moment on which room he should enter, he wondered which person needed him most. The answer to his question came in the sound of a sob from the door to the left. He sighed, a silent apology to Lilly who would be waiting for him in the room to the right, and he knocked on Neville's door.

There was a muffled call of "Come in", so Harry slipped inside and shut the door after him, murmuring "Muffliato" for the sake of Neville's privacy. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, bent over as if he was going to be sick. Harry sat down next to him and tried to think of the right thing to say but he was useless at giving advice at the best of times.

"How are you?" He asked stupidly.

"I can almost cope with it," Neville said quietly, his voice thick with emotion, "I can handle the transformation and the social stigma. But I know Susan can't, I mean look at this place, look at how she was brought up."

"Look at the way Draco was brought up," Harry said as he looked out of the window thoughtfully, "Look at the way he treated people like Hermione. Part of me still wonders how that relationship works, or if it will last because of how much bad blood there was back then. He had the most pure-blood upbringing possible and now he's dating a muggle-born and he's part werewolf. You can't always judge how someone is going to react to something Nev."

"No, but I do know Susan," Neville said, "And she's fun and carefree. She struggles with commitment at the best of times, committing to a werewolf? I don't see it happening."

"That's bothering you more than being a werewolf isn't it?" Harry asked, he knew his friend very well after all.

"That and my parents," Neville said glumly as he rubbed at his eyes and groaned in frustration, "I finally thought I was someone they would be proud of! I thought if they woke up to a son who had fought in a war, they'd be proud of him. But a werewolf for a son..."

"Well your Dad and Remus were great friends," Harry said honestly, "He never gave away Remus's secret or resented him for it."

"Having a werewolf for a friend and for a son are very different things," Neville said bitterly.

Harry glanced down and chewed his lip as he debated dealing Neville with a blow of the truth, "Neville...your parents-"

"I know," Neville said without looking up, "They probably won't wake up anyway."

"It has been 17 years," Harry said, "If they did they...they probably wouldn't be the same as they were before."

"I know, but sometimes it's nice to believe in a foolish dream," Neville said quietly.

"Yeah, I know," Harry said, thinking of his own wish that Sirius wasn't really dead, just trapped behind that veil in the Department of Mysteries...


"Hey," Draco said softly when Hermione opened her eyes.

She frowned slightly, "How long was I asleep for?"

"A few hours," Draco said, straightening up in the armchair he was sitting in by her bed, "It's getting towards midday."

Hermione pushed herself up into a sitting position and blinked a couple of times to get the sleep from her eyes, "What did Remus and Tonks want to talk to you about?"

"What we did," Draco said, forcing his eyes downward because he couldn't bear to look at her.

"I wanted to talk to you about that too, actually," Hermione said, and there was a steeliness in her voice that made his blood run cold.

Draco forced himself to look at her and his fears were confirmed when he saw uncertainty swimming in her eyes, "I know it wasn't an accident, but...I...well with everything recently, I mean your temper around the full moon and...I just..."

"You're afraid of me," Draco said, reading her expression easily.

Her eyes flooded with guilt and tears, "No, I just-"

"Don't lie to me, Hermione," Draco said quietly, a note of desperation in his voice.

"A little," Hermione admitted tearfully, "I'm trying to come to terms with it all Draco but I just need time."

"I'll give you all the time you need," Draco said, not because he wanted to, because he was terrified of losing her. He couldn't imagine his life without her in it anymore, she made everything brighter and better. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

"Not here," Hermione said, blinking a few more times, tears cascading down her face, "Susan wants to keep a closer eye on me and with all of the injuries there's a new room in the Room of Requirement now. It's a little hospital wing of sorts, and I think it would be good for both of us if I go there until I feel a bit better."

"You've clearly put a lot of thought into this," Draco said, surprising himself with the iciness in his voice.

"Everything has happened so fast," Hermione said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve, "And everything has changed...I just need time, Draco."

"Are you breaking up with me?" The Slytherin asked, ashamed of the break in his voice and the tears threatening to fall from his own eyes.

"No," Hermione replied with a weak shake of her head, "I just think we need a break, from each other."

Draco nodded and swallowed hard. He pushed himself to his feet and said coolly, "I understand."

"Draco-"

"I'll talk to Harry about moving you to Hogwarts later today," Draco continued in that same icy tone, "I imagine you'll want to be out of here as soon as possible after all."

"No Draco, that's not..." Hermione began to say, but Draco was already walking towards the door and he didn't stop to let her explain. He understood what "I just need time" meant, it meant "I need time to think about whether I still want to be with you or not, and in that time you have to stay here, helpless to influence my decision". He left the room, their room and shut the door behind him with a snap. He paused in the doorway and let out a shaky breath. He blinked and wiped away the tears that fell angrily.


Harry slipped into the room that he shared with Lilly very carefully after his brief chat with Neville. He couldn't have been gone for longer than half an hour but when he got in, the room was empty. The bed was made, and Lilly's small bag was gone too. He immediately panicked, she had come up here to go back to sleep, not to pack her bags and leave. Harry darted from the room and found her in the drawing room, sitting on the sofa with her bag at her feet.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, sounding angrier than he felt because really he was feeling worried more than anything else.

"I'm going to Hogwarts with Hermione," Lilly replied calmly, looking ahead at the wall and not at Harry.

"Since when is Hermione leaving?" Harry asked, stepping in front of his girlfriend so she couldn't avoid his gaze anymore.

"Since she found out her boyfriend was a murderer and needed a little time to come to terms with that," Lilly said matter of factly, and Harry struggled to read her facial expression or her tone of voice.

He felt sick and swallowed hard, "And is that why you're leaving too? Because of what I did?"

"I understand what you did," Lilly said, "I'm even grateful for it after what she did to me. So no, it's not why I'm leaving."

"Then why?" Harry asked angrily, "Why would you leave when you promised that you never would?"

Lilly met his gaze then, and her eyes shone with anger and pain, "Because I was the last thing on your mind again yesterday! I am always the last thing on your mind! You spent the entire evening sleeping in the same bed as Hermione and then you checked on Neville before coming anywhere near me! I was tortured too, I was tortured for information about you!"

"I know!" Harry shouted, "And do you really think I don't care about that? It kills me, it makes me feel sick! But everyone was hurt and everyone needed me because I seemed to be the only person who was okay! I wasn't neglecting you Lilly, you were just the least injured here."

"Physically at least," Lilly muttered.

"Draco killed his Father last night, Hermione nearly died and Neville is a werewolf!" Harry snapped, "I think you're being pretty selfish!"

"Maybe to you it seems like she only used the cruciatus curse on me," Lilly said hotly, "But to me that's not a small thing! I spent my entire life being beaten up and nothing has ever hurt like that did so yes Harry, I want to leave! I'm not a Gryffindor like the rest of you, and I'm not a selfless idiot like Draco! I don't belong here."

"I thought you belonged with me," Harry said, his anger dissipating and turning to hurt instead.

"So did I," Lilly said, tears brimming her eyes, "But I don't think I can keep doing this to myself. I have so much faith that you are going to find a way to live, and you have none. I can't keep being the last thing you think about, I don't want to be the least important person in your life."

"Lilly," Harry said, his voice breaking slightly as he knelt down in front of her, "You are the most important thing in my life. Hermione, Draco and Neville, they're my friends. But you...you're the only reason I have for living."

"Except you don't think you'll be doing that for much longer," Lilly said, she was angry but she was crying too.

"I have a horcrux inside me," Harry said desperately, "If I could think of any way to get rid of it I would but you know that the only way to kill it is to kill the thing its living off. Please don't go, please."

Lilly shook her head and wiped her tears, "No, Harry because I made a promise to myself when we figured out that you were a horcrux. I promised myself I wouldn't stay because I felt sorry for you, I never wanted this to be about sympathy, I wanted it to be about love and respect."

"So you don't love me, that's what you're saying?" Harry asked her, feeling pathetic as he felt tears stinging his eyes.

"No," Lilly said honestly and tearfully, "I love you, I do. But I can't stay here trying..." her voice broke and she swallowed hard, "I can't pretend that things are okay when I know that soon I'm going to have to..."

"Live without me," Harry whispered so quietly that she barely heard him.

Lilly nodded and leant forward, pressing her forehead against his, "I'm sorry, but it hurts so much, every day."

"I know," Harry said, shutting his eyes tightly, "I know."

She gently kissed his lips, and Harry savoured every second of it because he truly thought it would be the last time she ever kissed him. When she pulled away they were both crying, and Harry didn't know what to say anymore because everything had been said and there was nothing more he could do or say to make her stay.

The door to the drawing room opened loudly, so Harry pulled himself to his feet and rubbed his eyes. He swallowed the lump that had arisen in his throat and looked to the doorway where Draco was levitating Hermione behind him on a stretcher. His eyes were dark and stormy, and Hermione had clearly been crying.

Lilly cleared her throat and got to her feet. She wiped her own eyes hastily and activated the large mirror on the wall. The room was silent and filled with tension and awkwardness. She took the stretcher from Draco and sent Hermione through the mirror wordlessly. Before she walked through herself she turned around and caught Harry's eye, "Take care of yourself," she said softly.

"You too," Harry said.

She stepped through the mirror, it de-activated, and just like that she was gone.

TBC :(