~* I Drove All Night *~

by: Princess Cora

Part 2 – This fever for you is just burning me up inside

This time he had a mission. A goal. Though the chilly night wind took the edge off his anger, it was still simmering beneath the surface, like boiling water under a sheet of ice. Harry's thoughts were racing down his own mental highway, asking questions, throwing curses, and wondering, wondering, WONDERING what would happen when he finally got there.

He was still seeing the long, straight road ahead through a thin veil of scarlet, though the sun had been down for an hour. Other emotions had begun to seep in around the anger, and though he was trying not to think of the happy times, it was hard to think of Draco without thinking of the long nights spent fulfilling their boundless desires...

And the rain began to fall.

*~*~*~*

There was a fiery sort of blur as Draco opened his eyes, hours later. It sorted itself out into a few candles and a big empty blackness. No, not quite empty... As Draco turned his head to the right, there was an achingly familiar figure sitting by the bed. He was wearing all black, so his green eyes stood out like glowing emeralds. "Are you... real?" Draco whispered. In his sick delirium, visions of Harry Potter were frequent visitors.

Harry smiled. "Yes. I've finally found you. Will you come home with me?"

Draco frowned a little. "How can I believe you?"

The green-eyed man held out his hand. "Do you have faith in me?"

"Yes."

"Well, come on then. We've all been waiting for you." He dropped his hand before Draco could take it and walked over to the door. "Don't you love me?"

"Yes! Yes, I do." Draco followed him, still half in a daze. It must be him. The vision-Harry had never spoken in such a clear, normal tone, nor asked him to leave, nor been able to open the door.

The night was clear and dark, the stars were bright, and Harry was smiling. Draco noticed, as he walked along familiar streets, that while some things – Harry, the stars, the bricks on the wall next to them – stood out in crystal-clear detail; some other things were blurry, especially at the edges of his vision. The same phenomenon was happening with colors – some things were especially bright; others were in shades of gray. The two men walked along the street towards Draco's favorite bridge, Harry a few steps ahead of him. The night must have been cold, for the wind was ruffling Draco's blond hair, but everything seemed warm and comfortable. Everything will be fine, everything will be fine...

They reached the bridge, and Draco stopped for a second to look down at the river. He could hear Harry stop as well, a few feet away, though he could not see him anymore. As Draco watched, the rain began to fall on the river. He said a silent good-bye to the prettiest river in the world, and then turned back to Harry.

There was no one there.

Draco whipped around, looking out into the night, and for the first time noticed how cold it was, how bleak the night was, and how there were no stars, for the sky was clouded over as it had been all week.

It was just another hallucination. Another vision to taunt Draco in his sick delirium, making him believe that everything would be fine. It would never be fine again, not since that fateful decision Draco had made one year ago. Again Draco found himself pondering the questions that had always tortured him. Why? He knew the answer lay in his own cowardice, though he always deluded himself into thinking that he had done it to protect Harry. For all the illusions conjured by Draco's weakened state of being, he could never seem to believe that one. Perhaps that was the only thing he could still understand.

And the rain began to fall in earnest, mingling with the tears as Draco cried for the one he loved, and still did love, and would always love. The one who he would never see again.

*~*~*~*

Hermione didn't get home until after dark. She was exhausted. Her last class on Fridays was Defensive Magic, and three hours of being attacked left her kind of drained.

The house sounded quiet, even by usual standards. "Hello?" she called out, as she closed the door behind her. She came up to the sofa to find Ron asleep on it, papers covered in blue marker ink scattered everywhere. She kissed his forehead but made a point not to touch the papers. They had made an agreement – if Ron promised to clean his stuff up every now and then, she promised not to try and fix it herself.

Hermione dropped her bag and coat by the foot of the couch and stretched. She started searching for Harry, intending to talk to him before she went to sleep. "Harry? Harry...?" He wasn't in the garden, or in his room, or in the armchair to the right of the fireplace, or in any of his normal brooding places...

She finally went out into the garage. Just as she had thought – the car was gone, and Harry was out for another of his nighttime drives. She sighed and went back inside. Well, she thought, I'll just talk to him in the morning.

*~*~*~*

The inside of his car was thoroughly soaked by now, but Harry could care less. He was almost there. The red convertible was slowly turning brown as mud splashed up on the sides of the car, then was washed away, then splashed up, then was washed away, then splashed up again...

He drove over a beautiful bridge. He did not notice it, partly because of the rain and partly because he was angry. And cold. But mostly angry.

Draco's place was in a little dinky block of flats on the outskirts of the town. Harry passed by the main desk without being questioned – possibly because of their careless security, or possibly because Harry was smoldering quite beautifully and no one wanted to be at the other end of his anger. As he was about to leave the main hallway, it struck him that there would be a lot of dangerous spells on the flat itself. As he thought about it, he realized that there was a much simpler way to get inside.

He sauntered up to the desk, transforming enough of his anger into sex appeal to make the woman behind the desk swoon. While she was busy swooning, he nicked the key to number eleven (Draco's flat) and gave her a dashing smile before leaving.

Wow, that was easy, he thought. But then, not many Aurors were good-looking and gay enough to be interesting. He climbed the stairs, feeling a surge of nervousness momentarily overpower his anger. What was going to happen next? What was he going to say? Would Draco even be there?

Harry checked his watch. It was precisely 12:30 a.m. – if Draco wasn't in by now, he wouldn't be back until morning.

Harry unlocked the door and placed his hand on the knob, trying to muster the courage to open it. In the split second that he stopped actively thinking about it, his hand opened the door on it's own volition.

He was there.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To My Reviewers:

tina_leo18 ~Sorry about the typos, that was the un-beta'd version... Now I have the wonderful Manraviel beta-ing for me. About the plot changes – I guess you haven't read much slash... anyway the point is, all those changes occurred before this story begins, so it's up to the reader to make it up! Yay! That's the fun thing about little stories like this, they're so open-ended.

kt ~Yep! That's what I'd doing!

Touya Koori Tenshi ~I'm sorry, but I can't trust myself to plan for longer than a one-shot, I'd never get it finished! But if, once I'm done, you really do want to hear more, MAYBE I'll do more. You never know =^..^=

Shea Loner ~Yeah I dunno where I got that idea from o_O

kat ~Aw thanks! Believe me, I have been. Yeah, I'm supposed to be paying attention in class but I write slash fanfiction instead... o_O

Lulu ~I'm glad it was weird, I could never stand being normal!!

Sheree ~You'll see what happens! ~.^

Ecrivain296 ~Thanks for being my first reviewer!

Other than that... yeah. Big thankies to Manraviel, my beta! Love you lots! (not that way...)