Title: Blood and Confusion
Author: Unscathed
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I just knock them over and play with them, and dress them up in funny clothing and make them talk in high-pitched accents. They belong to J.K. Rowling and her gang of heartless publishers. (and lawyers…)
Summary: The war. Draco/Severus/Harry.
*.*.*
There was no simplicity to it. Simplicity had been one of the first casualties, lying there bleeding alongside Cho Chang's shattered body. There was no more black, there was no more white. Even gray had faded somewhere along the line into the sluggish currants of blood and death and vengeance.
It was hateful. Sometimes Harry wondered if there was anyone who could like the mess, if even Voldemort liked the chaos that was indistinguishable from truth. Spies? A few students had flocked to Snape's side, desperate for his particular brand of specific evil, but even that had faded. Harry had watched the evil dissipate into confusion as the war dragged on. A few had died. Too many. Never enough.
It wasn't a storybook romance, it wasn't a story book war, with a hero and a heroine and the evil wizard without anyone. Voldemort had Pettigrew, and Malfoy, and the rest of his Death Eaters. Harry had Severus Snape, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Albus's death had almost been expected for its horror. The end of ends. The end of the world. But they had lived, and somehow Hogwarts still stood without the old man. Somehow McGonnagal worked as headmaster, though she was sterner than Albus had ever been. She didn't have his compassion.
Snape had, of course, been discovered, crawled back shattered and Ron had said 'I told you so' even as they hovered over the man's hospital bed. There had been the usual curses, and Harry had been bruised and broken by the time all the spells had been removed from Snape's body. Hermione had said 'I knew it,' with tears in her eyes, and everyone wondered if the two heroes—the dark and the light—would survive the night. They did, of course.
Nothing was so simple as death. Cho still haunted the Great Hall, all pulled together with only a faint shadow of what had killed her. The mangling had come after death, and she was perfect and pretty and untouchable as she hovered, weeping, over Minerva's shoulder. Somebody had said they had even seen old Cedric haunting the field.
So, bit by bit, Harry and Severus recovered under Madame Pomfrey's care. The healers always survive. Harry sometimes thought that they would lose if Poppy died, but he had thought that about Albus, too. Severus remained silent on the subject.
There were witch-burnings in Surrey.
McGonnagal was stern about the news, Harry unsurprised. Severus found the young hero crying, however, on a cold stairwell. The Dursleys had been among the first victims, because of the ruckus their nephew had caused as a child. Severus didn't know what to say for comfort, and the two heroes, young and old, found themselves brewing potions in the dungeons. Poppy never asked about the sudden flux in healing potions presented to her. Sometimes brewing potions was comforting. Sometimes enmity was more comforting than love.
Ron and Hermione were expected, and no one frowned when they found out that Severus Snape and Harry Potter sometimes stayed up all night talking together. Sometimes they didn't talk at all.
Harry grew potion stains on his fingers, but made potions to clean them off. His hair was clean, but still messy, and occasionally Severus Snape's hair was messy as well, but never quite perfectly clean.
It was confusing when a Death Eater appeared on the doorstep, but everyone accepted confusion. They set him up in the Infirmary, and gave him solace. It was quite expected when Harry was cursed, and they fought it well, and even Severus, for his past, forgave. The three of them lay in beds next to each other for quite awhile, and Ron came in and out sporting little damage. Finally the last curse was exorcised, and Draco Malfoy joined the skeletal staff that took care of the drafty castle and the few skittish students that were left.
Draco wasn't the boy he had been. His hair wasn't tidy, and his eyes were broken inside. Everyone had expected that, and few commented. Poppy sometimes told him to eat more, Harry sometimes forced him to do so. Severus was quiet on the subject.
Lucius Malfoy was reported dead, and a week later he was reported alive again. The contradictory news tore at Draco, and everyone could see it. Narcissa Malfoy had died at the beginning, and Harry knew that Draco thought about her a lot. Ron stopped calling the blonde a 'git' in sharp tones, perhaps due to sympathy about the loss of parents. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been taken out in a nasty battle, and Hermione said that Ron still woke trembling some nights, remembering it.
Hermione lived in the library some days, and Ron brought her food with his own two hands. Harry and Severus didn't come out of the dungeons but to fight, and sometimes Draco Malfoy visited them there. Someone heard McGonnagal complaining about the lack of female heroine, but she denied saying it since it made Hermione go into hysterics.
Draco developed potion stains on his fingers, and wouldn't allow Harry to clean them, as Severus had. It took a royal battle to get him to clean his hair, much less straighten it. The Bloody Baron reported, one night, that he had seen the three of them in a fight in the bathroom. It might have been true, because all three were clean, if mussed, the next day.
Draco was better at comforting than Severus, so it was he who dealt with Harry when the news came in that Remus Lupin had died. The news about Sirius Black had Severus careening about the castle in dark moods for weeks, and neither Harry nor Draco were to be seen during that time. Ron set up bunks in the library, because Hermione refused to leave.
Christmas dragged everyone out of the holes they had dug themselves in, but it was a dreary affair with few smiles and no laughter, and it ended with a horrific attack that put nearly all the staff in the Infirmary until the next year. They'd taken out a fair share of the other side, though, and Lucius Malfoy was absolutely positively dead.
Draco cried into his pillow and everyone pretended not to notice, except Ron, who tried to comfort the boy, and ended up in the Infirmary for three days longer than everybody else. Draco would have retreated to the dungeons again, but neither Harry or Severus would let him go, so the three of them brewed potions in the Great Hall for a full month. All the food started to taste like dragon's blood and witchhazel, but no one said anything about it.
There was a battle, no bigger than any other, no less traumatic than any other. Too many of the kids died, as per usual, and the ground was thick with blood. The squid drew himself up onto the grass, and suffocated, but he killed a great many Death Eaters before he expired on top of a good dozen more. Harry preformed the Killing Curse like it had been born to his lips, and his eyes glowed green.
Voldemort stood, cackling, and died.
The three heroes ended up in the Infirmary, and no one was sure if Severus would make it. Harry cried into his pillow and couldn't talk, and everyone wondered that he wold die of a broken heart. Draco took baths regularly and bathed Severus's and Harry's foreheads as if he actually knew how to either comfort or clean. Poppy wandered about, administering potions as if they would disappear if she couldn't get them used, and Hermione refused to go back into the Library. Ron brought her books and she studied in the Infirmary, in a seat next to the window.
Severus came around eventually, but Harry stared up at the ceiling with eyes that no longer glowed Avada Kedavra green. He stopped eating. Severus, from his bed, made potions that didn't work, but occasionally turned Harry pink or made water that touched his head roll off like oil.
Poppy said that Severus could probably turn lead into gold, but he was too worried about Harry.
The war was over.
Hermione slept too much, and Ron lay with her curled in his arms, staring across the room at Harry's unmoving form. Ron ate but a little, and got thinner than Harry, so Poppy gave him the extra potions that Severus made. Ron turned as red as his hair and the colour refused to fade. He started eating again, but he stayed red.
Severus moved into Harry's bed, and so did Draco. The three of them lay there for ages and ages, and sometimes Poppy heard Draco or Severus murmuring things she couldn't hear.
After a long time Severus left to work with his special potions equipment down in the dungeons, trying to find cures, and Draco took to haunting the castle like Cho Chang, looking as if he'd been punched in both eyes. Hermione moved to the Library again, and she and Ron did nothing but research. They barely slept, ate only when Draco remembered to bring them something.
Harry woke just as spring appeared, sallow and broken. He spoke little, and quietly. Draco clung to him as if he were the savior of the world, Severus hung back and watched the listless green eyes as if he expected to see something there. Hermione and Ron were nearly collapsed from sleep deprivation and hunger, and were moved into the Infirmary. Harry stayed with them, seated between their cots as if it were his duty, and Draco was always with him.
Ron faded to maroon, and got healthy again. Hermione ate as well, but couldn't look at a book without becoming lightheaded. They moved out of the Infirmary, but it took all of Poppy's skills to get Harry to leave.
Harry sat in the sunshine with Draco until they were both crisp and burned, and Severus made potions that kept it from happening again. Harry started brewing potions again, but Draco couldn't or wouldn't and merely handed him ingredients. All Harry made was the Draught of Living Death, over and over, until there was an entire storage closet full of it.
Severus turned lead into gold, and made a potion that was supposed to make Ron the right colour, but turned him red again. Ron got mad and yelled, pouted for the next day. Harry started laughing.
Even Draco moved back when Harry laughed, low and broken and hysterical. Severus moved forward, but didn't touch him. It was as if he was contagious. It was as if he was dead.
McGonnagal started crying when she heard him, and ran back to her office and wouldn't come out, and no one could figure out the password. Poppy wanted to put him under, but Severus wouldn't let her near, and Draco got violent whenever he heard the idea.
Harry stopped laughing and was silent for a while. Word spread quickly, and everyone came to watch him, except McGonnagal. Hermione went to him and held his hand. Ron was still red.
Harry made a soft choking noise, like he was crying. "Hey," he said in a scratchy voice, sounding like he hadn't spoken in weeks, which he hadn't. "The war's over."