Harry folded up the Daily Prophet and rose to answer the door. He grinned when he saw Draco on the other side. "Whatcha got there Malfoy?"

"A boat Potter. What else?"

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious Potter."

"A real boat?"

"No. A raft."

Harry grinned again. "Where's this boat?"

"It's in Naas. We're gonna hook it up to a truck, drive it out to the sea and do some Muggle style boating. You up for this Potter?"

"You bet."

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Draco looked over his shoulder at Harry and smiled. The waves were tossing the boat about and it was all they could do to keep from capsizing. This was the life. The afternoon wore away quickly and they came back to harbour, mooring their boat and Apparating back to Edil.

"So how'd you like that Harry?" Draco asked when they arrived at the pub.

"That was amazing!" Harry said, sounding every bit the novice sailor that he was. "You've got no room to think about anything else when you're out there."

"Well why else would I go out there all the time? You don't honestly think I go out there to fish do you?"

"So why did you show me this Draco?"

"Someone needs to look after my boat."

"What do you mean?"

Draco leaned forward, steepling his fingers and leaning his head against them, as though it weighed to much for him to continue holding it up. "I'm dying Harry."

Harry waited for him to go on, but he didn't. "No." he whispered. "No, you can't be dying. No."

"Cancer. They can't do much for it. Too far along. It's in my bones, my blood, my brain." He spoke like he was talking about the weather and Harry leaned forward to look at his eyes, to see whether he was joking or not.

"What about Alicia? What about work? What about everything you have to do? You can't die."

"I have nothing left Harry. Even if I did, I'm dying. I can't stop it."

Harry ignored him. "You're starting life over, with someone new, a good life."

Draco said nothing, only looked at Harry, who was frantically trying to tell Draco why he needed to survive. Finally Harry exhausted himself and looked at Draco wearily. "Please don't die. There's so much left."

"I'm old Harry. I'm so old. I'm old in my body, I'm old in my mind, I'm old in my heart. I outlived my daughter Harry. I just want to rest."

"No. You can't die! You can not die, I won't her another word from you on the subject."

Draco smiled. "Twenty years ago you wouldn't have said the same thing."

"I didn't know you twenty years ago."

"Neither did I." Draco said. "But I do now. And I know I need to rest."

"So rest then! You can come to my house and you can sleep and you'll never have to lift a finger until you're ready."

"Harry. Even if I wanted to keep going, I couldn't. I'm sick Harry. I'm dying."

"Please?"

"Take care of my boat." Draco said, rising to leave.

"Draco wait! Please!"

"Take care of my boat. Don't let her sink. She means the world to me." And Draco Malfoy left. Although he went to his house every day Harry didn't see him again until his death less than two months later. Draco's body was sent back to Edil from where he had been vacationing in Greece.

"I feel so awful," Hermione said, her eyes red-rimmed. "He died alone without knowing that we loved him."

"No," Harry said. "He knew. He knew he was something special to us. Draco never had the best marks in school, but he was wise, he was really wise."

"If he was wise he would have died in Ireland instead of Greece." Seamus said, coming up behind him. "Best place in the world to be born, to live and to die in. Cheaper than Greece by a long shot too."

Harry smiled. "Where's Ron?"

"Probably stealing rings off Draco's dead, frozen hands."

"Seamus! That was completely untactful." Hermione said, astonished.

"Aye, but it's true. What do you think he's doing over there? Reknotting Draco's tie?"

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"One down, four to go." Jared Macmillan said one day, shortly after Draco's death.

"What are you talking about?" Caroline asked him.

"Oh, I was just calculating out loud. With Draco gone, there's only Harry, Ron, Neville and Seamus left out of the five original Demented Dad's. I was just wondering which would snap next."

Will lunged at him, but Daniel grabbed his robes and held him back. "Speaking of Demented Dads," Daniel said coldly. "Let's have a chat about your dad, shall we MacMillan? He's being payed by the Ministry, isn't he Jarod? Because Daddy can't hold a job. Because he's been declared mentally, what was the word now? Oh yeah. Incompetent. Your father has been legally declared mentally incompetent. How's that for demented, huh Jarod?"

Jarod falred with temper but said nothing, turning away sullenly. "It's true though, isn't it?" Caroline said, looking at her hands.

"What? About his dad?"

"No, About ours. About them being demented. Not quite sane. It's true."

"No it's not. They're fine. They've raised us just fine."

"So why do people look out for us more? If our parents are so good, so strong, then why do we need other people around us?"

"Why do peole keep worrying about my dad drinking himself to death?" Caroline said. "If they're all so alright why do people worry like that?"

Anna laughed bitterly. "Why do people keep coming by to make sure that my dad hasn't killed himself?"

Will turned fiercely to Anna. "If you say another word against dad Anna, I swear, I will throttle you. If I could be half the man dad is I would be happy. If I could be half the hero dad is, I could save twice as many lives as I will being only me."

For the first time Lily spoke. "If I could be half the man my father was, I would be half of a man, not remotely attractive. Same goes for you Will, and you Daniel. If you were half the men your fathers are, you would be half men, because the fact remains that your fathers are only men, and no man is greater or lesser than any other. And as for being half a hero, either you are a hero or you are not. Do you have what it takes to be a hero?"

"That's the thing. What if I don't have what it takes to be a hero?"

"Then you don't have what it takes to be human. Everyone is a hero, Daniel. Whether you are a great hero, or a lesser hero hasn't yet been determined."

"How can I be a hero?" Daniel ased.

"You've learned how to survive. Saving yourself is every bit as important as saving another."

"But when it comes down to it, who has the guts to save someone else besides themsleves?"

"I guess that's when we find out who's a great hero, and who isn't."

"I'm not a great hero, or whatever you want to call it." Caroline said.

"Why?"

"Because I wouldn't risk my life for someone else."

Anna shrugged. "It depends who they are, I guess."

"Not for me, no. I want to live." Caroline said.

"Maybe. Sometimes death is a relief, like for Draco, and sometimes you're already dead. Like my dad."

"Your dad's not dead." Anna said, not understanding as the others did.

"Maybe dead isn't what it used to be." Will said. Lily nodded.

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"I'm going for a walk."

"Hannah! It's ten o'clock. It's cold out there."

Hannah ignored Hermione and walked out of the school and down to the lake. Going to the lake at night was practically a garauntee that someone would come to offer some wisdom.

As predicted someone came up behind her shortly after she sat down. "It's fucking freezing out here. Bleedin' christ, what the hell am I doing here?"

"I was just going to ask you that myself Seamus." Hannah said grinning.

"Came because I was bored. When you have a lot of time on your hands, you have a lot of time to think about what could have been."

"We did pretty good though Seamus, don't you think?"

"I suppose. We could have done better though. Could have done better for ourselves."

"I don't know Seamus, I mean we did the best we could."

"I should have killed Dean when I had the chance Hannah. I should have, but I couldn't do it."

"You saved his life, he's in debt to you."

"No, he's in debt to my cowardliness. If I hadn't saved his life, Caroline would still be alive."

"If you hadn't spared his life, you would feel guilty every day."

"Do you think I don't already? I let him live and now my daughter has no mother. I let him live and now he's walking free and my wife is under ground. If you think that I'm not eaten alive by guilt everyday, you're mistaken."

Hannah looked out over the water. "Do you think it didn't kill me inside too? I knew Seamus, I knew that he was going out there, I knew what he was doing, but I convinced myself he was a spy, that my Dean could never be a death-eater. And then he killed my son. But that's not the problem, is it? No, the trouble is, I was lost without Kent, but I would have died without Dean. Even though I knew what he was doing. I still love him Seamus! How sick is that?"

Seamus put his arm around Hannah and drew her close. "We can't choose who we love Hannah, only how we love them."

Hannah turned her face up to look at Seamus, and she found herself seeing not the skinny, sandy-haired boy of her childhood, her boyfriends best friend, but instead a tall, broad-shouldered man.

"How do you know if you're in love?" She asked him.

"When you start to want to live again."

"I don't want to die anymore." Hannah said firmly.

"That's good. You're too mean to die." Seamus grinned and kissed her firmly, quickly, before she could say a thing.