The sun didn't rise today.

A wall of September storm clouds shrouded Hohenheim Hospital in darkness. How perfect, I thought, a dark sky for a dark day.

Now that he could travel internationally again, Draco, the children and I had temporarily relocated to New York for the Dark Mark removal operation. I requested that the surgery be done at Hohenheim Medical Center for Magical Illness and Afflictions because I had a feeling I would be most at ease if I was somewhere familiar. It also meant the children could stay with my parents until the surgery was complete. And they would continue to stay with them in case Draco and I didn't make it out.

I knew it was grim to think like that, but Draco and I had to face reality. No one else who had attempted this had ever made it out alive before.

But none of them had ever been me.

I wasn't going to lie- I was nervous. Draco had updated his will to include Artemis, and then helped me with writing mine. That wasn't typically something a 29 year old had to do. But I scrubbed my hands and told myself everything would be fine. It would be fine no matter what.

I entered the operating room that was already prepped with multiple protection spells to contain Dark Magic. I told Draco he didn't have to wait on the operating bed until I was ready to start, but he had gone ahead and laid down on it the second we arrived. He wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, he said. He had made it very clear ever since I obtained Malachi's journal that I had his complete trust. And I saw that same trust in his eyes even now, as he was hooked up to an IV drip.

As I looked at him, I found that it was surprisingly easy to smile. He gave me a subdued smile of his own.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi."

"Are you ready?"

Draco scoffed. "I should be asking you that. All I have to do is lie here."

"It's going to be painful. So it's easier if you aren't awake. Especially because you have such a low pain tolerance," I added teasingly. I expected Draco to get offended like he always did, but instead, he just smiled.

"If I'm lucky, this will be the last time you have to heal me," he said.

The thought of that made my throat tighten. "I don't know why, but that makes me sad."

"Really?" He raised his eyebrows. "I always thought you hated it."

I shook my head. "No. Healing you made me happy." I thought back to all the times I healed Draco at Hogwarts, and how that grew into a career of professional Dark Magic healing. "I think… I think I just wanted to feel needed by someone. And you were the first person to need me."

Draco held my gaze. "I have always needed you."

I could feel a tear fall down my cheek as I laughed. "Stop talking like this is the last time we're going to see each other."

"Erica," he said in a low voice. "It's important to me that you know how much I love you."

I wiped another tear away. "I should just put you under already."

"Go ahead."

Draco was much braver than I was. He was able to face the possibility of his death without fear. But I couldn't. The thought of saying goodbye to him was too sad; so I readied the syringe of potent Draught of Living Death and prepared to inject it into his arm.

He watched as I flicked the syringe. "So this is it, then?" He asked.

"We're just getting started," I deflected.

"Erica."

I looked at him, the man I loved, ready to be cut open by me. His expression was firm and unafraid. "I want you to promise me that if you have to make the choice between saving me or yourself that you're going to let me go."

I sighed and put down the syringe. "I was afraid you would say that."

"Promise me."

"I promise," I said, my voice wavering, "I promise to not let either of us die today. Because we have two children that depend on us. And… and we haven't gotten married yet. So I'm not going to say a sappy goodbye to you because neither of us are going to die. And that's final."

A slow smile spread across Draco's face. "I knew there was a reason why I loved you."

I lowered my mouth to meet Draco's lips. "I love you, too."

There was more that I could have said before I pressed the syringe into Draco's vein. I should have told him that he was the love of my life, and that the thought of living without him was like thinking of a world without color. There was a lot I wished I could change about the last 13 years. But what was important was that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, and I was going to do everything in my power to make that happen.

Draco's grey eyes closed, and I began to work.

Nine spells and a poultice to counteract the toxins.

Two spells to remove the Dark Mark's tracking and summoning components.

Eight spells to protect the rest of Draco's body from the Dark Magic.

Two spells and sixteen potions to kill the parasitic properties.

After nearly five hours of spellcasting and potion administration the Mark was stabilized and ready for removal. This part of the operation was expected to be the shortest and most dangerous. The plan was to cut away the infected tissue around the Mark and use flesh rejuvenation potions to regrow the missing parts of Draco's arm.

My wand was more precise than a scalpel. So I picked up my wand again, took a breath, and began to cut.

The Mark had been suspiciously tame up until then. As if it knew it was being threatened, the flesh on Draco's forearm began to bubble.

"Glacius," I uttered the freezing spell to tame the burning flesh. I continued tracing around the Mark with small, precise cutting spells, discovering more and more of his flesh was blackened underneath. I would have to remove more than I expected.

As I cut deeper, I had to continuously cycle through coolant spells, blood clotting spells, and cutting spells. It was the most tense and focused I had ever been. Avoiding major arteries and nerves was important, I knew that, but if it was even slightly affected by the Mark's deep-rooted ink, it had to get cut. I prayed that the flesh rejuvenation potion would be able to repair everything that I was going to remove.

I had nearly traced around the whole Mark when I got a strange feeling of dread. The amount of rotten flesh that I was going to take out would be immense. When I finished, Draco would be lucky to be left with less than half of his original forearm.

I wanted Draco to wake up. I wanted to talk to him and ask him if this is still what he wanted. Draco had told me that it was alright by him to do whatever it took to remove the Dark Mark; but I still didn't want to have to make this decision on my own.

I was in too deep to turn back. Slowly, I began to separate flesh from bone.

"You're intruding where you're not meant to be."

My hands froze. Whose voice was I hearing? It was just Draco and I in this operating room, and no one else could pass through the wards I placed.

"Stop. Stop now, or I'll make sure he dies."

The voice sounded like it was coming from inside my head- under my skull, whispering and hissing in my ear.

I could feel every part of my body chill. The voice was coming from the Mark.

"I can't stop," I muttered. "I have to do this."

The voice hissed in protest as I removed a chunk of inky flesh that used to be the head of a snake and placed it on a tray. The only sterile way of disposing of the Mark was to set it on fire. "Incendio!"

As a fire roared to life beside me, the voice grew angrier.

"No!" The voice caterwauled as I sliced piece after piece of Draco's forearm and threw it to the fire. I felt something wet trickling down my chin and saw ruby red droplets fall into the lap of my white robes. Whatever power the Mark held was beginning to affect me, too.

The Mark's hissing screech was making my head pound like a drum. I knew I should stop slicing Draco's flesh- my vision was beginning to blur. My whole body shuddered as I held down a retch.

Oh, god. It feels like my insides are twisting around each other.

I watched in appall as the blackness of the Mark spread through the rest of Draco's forearm like ink on a paper towel. The Mark was trying to protect itself.

"Fuck," I cursed, not knowing what else to do. Malachi's journal warned that this could happen, and when it did, the best thing to do was run. "Fuck, fuck!"

A pounding head. Crawling black veins. The Mark was threatening to end both of our lives.

I wouldn't let any of it stop me.

I wanted a future with Draco. I wanted to marry him and never leave his side. I wanted to stand on Platform 9 ¾ as we saw Artemis board the train for her first year at Hogwarts. Scorpius would be sitting next to her, excited to put on his Slytherin robes. I knew Draco's eyes would gleam with pride. And then he'd kiss my cheek, the way he always did, to tell me he loved me without words. I would do whatever it took to have that future.

In an act of desperation, I shouted the only spell I could think of.

"Expecto patronum!"

A glowing moth erupted into the room flapping wings the size of kites. The Mark hissed in contempt. Hindered by the presence of my patronus, the Mark stopped spreading its ink just as it reached from Draco's fingertips to the crook of his elbow. The entire forearm was ruined.

I didn't have much time before my patronus faded; I knew what I had to do.

I would have to amputate my fiancé.

I pointed my wand at Draco's elbow, and began to slice.

I woke up to darkness. My first thought was, am I still alive? No. Dead people don't have headaches.

I felt the tender touch of someone taking my hand. All at once, my eyes shot open, and I inhaled cool hospital air into my lungs. I was in a hospital bed at Hohenheim surrounded by machines and an IV drip of blood replenishing potion.

My eyes followed the hand up to the person who was beside me. "Dad?"

Xavier's concerned expression melted into relief. "Hey kiddo."

"Wh-" I started to rip the hospital sheets off of me, but my father put a stop to it immediately.

"Easy, easy. You lost a lot of blood." My father pushed a cup of water into my hands.

"Where's Draco?" I demanded, but my father wouldn't tell me anything until he saw me take a drink. After finishing the cup in one gulp, I waited for what felt like an eternity for my father to tell me if Draco was alive or not.

"He's recovering one room over." My father said with a small smile. "The Mark is gone."

I wanted to lay back down and sob. "His-his arm," I cried. "I had to cut it off."

My father replied, "A small price to pay for his life. Besides, being an amputee isn't so bad. I'll help him out."

I was restless. "I need to see him." My father didn't try to stop me as I removed the IV from my arm, and steadied me as I stumbled getting out of bed.

"He's been asking for you, too," my father said. "But he's still recovering. So be gentle when you see him."

Draco's room was secured by multiple locks and protection spells. When I asked what all the barriers were for, my father said it was because Draco had already tried breaking out to see me.

My father waited outside while I entered Draco's room. He was surrounded by twice as many machines as I was, wires running from his bare chest, with straps around his ankles tethering him to the bed. I observed sadly that his left arm was only half there, the limb bandaged all the way from his elbow to his shoulder. I had to contain a sob. It didn't feel right to see him so incomplete.

As soon as he saw me he fought to get up. I rushed to his side and gently pushed him back down. "Don't move," I ordered.

He gripped my arm like he wanted to make sure I was really there. "Are you alright?" he breathed, scanning my face and body for any sign of injury.

I laid my head across his chest and let tears fall free. "I'm sorry," I sobbed. "I'm so sorry."

Draco's hand stroked my head. "Don't apologize. You did as I asked. And now the Mark is gone."

I lifted my head, unable to take my eyes off of his incomplete arm. "I maimed you."

"You saved my life."

I looked at Draco's face. For a man who had just undergone an incredibly painful surgery, he looked surprisingly fine. "With my exile lifted, and my Dark Mark gone, I am finally free," Draco said with elation. "We can live the rest of our days together."

He accepted my passionate kiss, his good hand holding my cheek with enough tenderness it didn't matter that he only had one. "I want to begin my life with you," I said to him. "But… I can't. Not when your father and so many others are still suffering."

Draco's eyes clouded when he remembered his father was still dying from the Mark. "Do you really think you can perform this procedure again?" He asked with concern. When I nodded without hesitation, Draco's eyes became distant, like he was weighing his loyalties with his desires.

"We'll go to Austria then," Draco declared.

"Draco," I said in an authoritative voice. "You are still my patient. Which means you're not going anywhere until that arm heals."

Draco's eyes widened. "You really expect to meet my father for the first time on your own?"

I eased him. "I'll be fine. I'll heal your father, then I'll go to Azkaban and heal any ex Death Eaters that need me there. I'll travel all around the world if they need me to."

I expected Draco to protest, but something in the way I said it made him seem almost… proud. He caressed my cheek with his thumb. "Alright, my love."

"Are you fine with that plan? It may take a while."

"As long as you promise to come home and marry me."

I placed my hand over his and said with wholehearted earnesty, "That's all I'll be thinking about."