shinrielwilkenshire: Thank you kindly, m'dear. Unfortunately, this is the second-to-last chapter.
Elektra05: Always happy for a D/C-er. And more importantly, someone who takes the time to review. :)
fairy-lights1: I love you so much! -schnoogles- You've been a spiffin' Beta, and you get better with each chapter! Still can't believe there are people who do this for free. Thanks so much for your dedication. I am not worthy.
Honey Mocha Citrus: Yes, I sprung the war on you very suddenly, but this story wasn't centered on the battle between Voldie and Harry, so, erm, I left the details out.
LiL-Miz-Chief: -blush- You're much too kind. I can't believe there are people actually like this story. I personally think its fairly shoddy work. :) I love you more than you know. -huggles-
Light Angel: I am a sucker for death and destruction, what can I say? I write, and suddenly it's like, "Aw, crap, I've killed off another one of my characters!!" It's frustrating, yes, but I do try and cover it up with pretty words. -facepalm-
Sailor Star Keeper: Glad to have more readers!
Angel-G.-Malfoy: -dreamy voice- I love my reviewers. Makes me feel special, see.
SlytherinChick: I'm shockingly flattered to be compared to Eddie Munster, but also sad, because I want to be original.
Xiao-Mao: I'm familiar with tingly feelings. I get them every time I read a review. It gives me the illusion that I'm adored.
xox glitter xox: I love my pretty blond baby. He definitely has a heart.
Haa...: Thanks for the enthusiasm. Hope you like this chapter.
All: This is the second to last chapter. Well, actually, it can be considered as the LAST chapter, because the next one shall be an epilogue. Be sure to review at the end. :)
Chapter Eight
Resolution
Cho felt the blood drain from her face. "What?" Harry, Harry… All these weeks she had been spending her time happily reading books, touring Malfoy Manor, and she didn't even pause to really try and find Harry. She should've tried harder to persuade Draco to let her visit him – oh, God, Draco.
Her husband was held prisoner and possibly (probably) tortured while she went around snogging Draco Malfoy! How could she? How could – Cho was pulled out of her reverie by the sound of clanking cell doors. Draco had dashed out. Cho hurried to follow, throwing the bloody messenger one last look. It didn't feel quite right leaving him to die, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
Draco was moving at an alarming rate; fearing that she might lose sight of him and get lost, Cho put on a spurt of speed.
Sunlight hit her like a heavy saucepan. Cho took deep, greedy gulps of fresh air. It had been so long since she had been outside. She surveyed the mess of bodies strewn all around the dirty, grassy slopes that stretched lazily for quite some distance. Their tangled arms and legs and torsos, eerily white under the warm spring sun, were not quite something from a scene in a horror film – a pile of dummies to be picked up by prop men when the scene was done – but simply a real fact; stupendous and inexplicable and evil. Cho could smell the bland and slightly smoky odor of decomposition. It was horrible to see some of the dead still had their eyes open.
Cho whimpered a little, her legs aching from the short run. She was terribly out of shape; being locked up in a dungeon for a certain amount of time will do that to you.
There were so many people apparating and disapparating on the site. Medics were hauling limp bodies onto stretchers, and men and women shrieking at recognized fallen loved ones. Cho pushed through the clusters, eyes trained on the ground, desperately searching. Some of the warriors were lying with their face down in the dirt and filth, and Cho had to turn them around to get a look at their face.
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, she found him.
Harry.
Cho flung herself down onto the ground beside him and pulled him onto her lap. "Harry – Harry, please…" Smudges of mud and grime blemished his face, brown streaks of dried blood here and there.
Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she realized that the messenger had been wrong. Faint, indistinct, and uneven, yes, but it was still there: breaths of life. Harry was still alive! She called out to him, her own breath erratic and ragged. This was her last chance. He was still alive… Why isn't he responding? Unconsciously, she stroked his cheek gently with her fingers. His skin was cold, but she could feel the familiar warmth underneath; the warmth that had always been Harry's.
Harry's eyelids fluttered open with some difficulty.
"Cho?" Harry asked with some disbelief. His strength was waning, fast; his life was ebbing and oozing out of him, Cho could feel it. She craned her neck around, searching for a medic, yet not wanting to leave Harry's side.
"Help! Somebody, Help! Please!" Harry's shaking hand reached out to stop her.
"Don't," he whispered. "It's okay… I'm just glad…to see you…one last time." He seemed to have trouble stringing his words together.
Cho couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it. No, no, no, Harry was going to pull through. She was not going to lose him like this, in this clichéd ending of 'I love you's.
And just as she thought this, Harry murmured, "I love you" as a final good-bye. Somewhere in her brain, Cho was losing it, and giggling humorlessly. She wanted to scream, "How can you love me? I don't deserve a person like you!" She wanted to hurt herself very badly. What was wrong with her? Here, dying, in front of her, was this wonderful man who would never intentionally hurt her in any way, who loved her with all of his heart, and yet, and yet, she chose to fall in love with his enemy. Oh, the delicious ironies of it all…
Guilty, self-loathing tears found their way off her cheek. Harry was getting paler and paler. "I love you…" Harry repeated, his eyes already closing. "Do you…?" His voice faded into nothing.
"I –, I lov…oh, Harry, Harry, I can't lie to you. Not like this – I can't, for once…not like this. Forgive me, forgive me, please…" But Harry had already gone, and her gasping pleads went unheard.
-----
After Harry's death, Cho, of course, had many thoughts and emotions to sort out. It was clear that her marriage was not based on unrequited love, but rather desperation and denial. She shouldn't have strung Harry along like that, but on the other hand, Harry was very pleased to marry her; it was what Harry wanted for so long, so in a way, it was right.
But it was so wrong.
Did she love Draco? Her first impulse was to deny it, because she had issues of self-hate to deal with. Maybe she loved him all along, but she wouldn't bring herself to admit it, because she would not let herself be in love with such a character.
Cho knew that confrontation was necessary, yet she was so scared of talking to Draco again. So she procrastinated. She sat at home (Harry's house, but she tried not to think about that) for days on end, debating. Sometimes she would be so sure, and half-way to apparating to Draco, but then Harry would always come to mind, and wracks of guilt would consume her.
She took comfort where she could get it: hugging Harry's possessions to her chest, or breathing in Harry's scent from one of his shirts. However, she could not bring herself to allow visits from her worried friends and well-wishers. She couldn't stand their pitying faces, and rather felt that she deserved this pain...this turmoil.
Some nights she would sink into a frenzy of abomination, cursing the world, resorting to horrible shrieks of blasphemy. But in the end, trembling, she would always curl up in tight ball, her hands clawing at her hair roots, hating herself, feeling dirty and unworthy. She was sick a few times.
And she knew...she knew that it couldn't be put off any longer.
-----
She found him by Harry's tombstone, of all places. He was glaring at it like it held all the secrets in the world, but wouldn't reveal a thing. Cho didn't know why she was even looking for him…but that was a lie. She did have a reason. But that hardly changed anything.
Guilt still clung to her like a foul stench. What did she think she was doing, marrying Harry in the first place when her heart was still elsewhere, as much as she tried to deny it. If Harry's death caused anything other than grief, remorse, and guilt, it was revelation. Her lies to herself were, at last, unwound.
Harry was wonderful; Harry's was considerate. Harry was the paragon of all things sweet, epitome of chivalry. Harry was a hero, so easily adored. It was anyone's guess why Cho's heart insisted on vicious boys who were mean and nasty. Perhaps it was a chronic disease.
"Draco."
"Have you ever hated someone so much you felt like you'd sell your soul just to see him get what he deserved?"
"If you're talking about – "
"Everything that I deserved or wanted, he bested me at. Quidditch, house points…the war. You," he added as an afterthought. "I'd like nothing better than wringing his scrawny neck," Draco spat, a tad childishly. "But he's already dead. How convenient. Even in death, he continues to spite me. Bastard," he fumed, as if it was Harry's fault he was dead.
Cho stared at Draco, still staring distastefully at the tombstone. She was surprised he dared come here. Draco, of course, was on the run, evading authorities. The war was over, and the Death Eaters were being thrown in prison, and even exterminated.
"What are you doing here?"
"Isn't that my line?" Cho replied.
Draco finally tore his eyes from the polished rock to look at Cho. His eyes were darker than usual. "I expected you to run after what happened last time…or have you come here to slap me again? I find that tends to happen when we cross paths in cemeteries."
When Cho didn't respond, Draco took a few predatory steps forwards, looking a bit frightening with his disheveled and dirty robes and his usual immaculate hair standing up on edges. "I can only think of two reasons of why you're here." He looked amused. "One would be the obvious reason: you've come to yell at me some more about how your life is ruined and how it's somehow all my fault. I know you love to do that. But so far you haven't graced us with your dulcet tones, so I don't think that's it. So we come to reason number two…"
This was the Draco Cho remembered: lucid with sarcasm and venom. Draco took a few more menacing steps toward Cho. "You've thought about what I told you the last time we talked, and you've come to confront me. You've realized…what?" He gave Cho a satirical smile. "It's your cue to start pleading your undying love for me."
"Stop it. Don't make light of it. I do love you. I can't believe I do, but I do. I forgive you for what you did – I'm not saying you chose the smartest path to walk, but that's all over now. I'm ready to give us a second chance."
Draco smiled. "Really?"
Cho's heart was beating madly. She returned his smile, and closed the distance between them. She leaned forward into him, but suddenly, Draco's hands gripped her forearms, shoving her away from him. Cho looked into his face and realized with a sinking heart that Draco's whole demeanor was icy cold. He was no longer smiling, and his body was defensive.
"You're ready? Well, I'm not."
"Draco – "
"Really, Cho, what kind of a person do you think I am? I'm not one to sit around and wait for you to decide whether you love or hate me. Honestly, you forgive me. How very generous of you." Cho's cheeks burned. "I don't owe you a thing," Draco sneered.
"You said that you love me, or have you forgotten? You said it right before you kissed me," Cho countered defiantly.
"That changes nothing."
"Nothing? Nothing? I love you, Draco, and I know you love me, so what is your damage?"
"I will not be that kind of person to you!" Draco roared. Pink spots graced his accented cheeks. "You marry Potter, and suddenly he dies, and you love me again? What the hell is the matter with you? I don't deserve that!"
"But I never loved Harry the way I love – "
"You had a child with him!" Draco shouted, the utter revulsion apparent on his face making something deep within Cho shatter. "You can't come crawling back to me like this. I won't accept you."
"Can't you give this another chance?" Cho pleaded.
"I'm through with chances. Time after time, I've tried so hard to explain to you. I took you to the Manor after your parents died; I even went to their funeral! What I was thinking, I have no idea. I was a fool. You were in no position to listen."
"But now I understand! I know why you did what you did."
"It's too late."
"Too late? But – "
"It was too late when you married Potter, it was too late when you carried his offspring, and it's certainly too late now that my life is at its end."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm a Death Eater with the whole world after me. You do the math." His anger seemed to have evaporated. He made his way back to Harry's grave. "I'm on the run," he said conversationally, eyes trained on the engraved inscription of HARRY JAMES POTTER.
"I'm on the lam!" And he laughed, a touch hysterically, as if this was a wonderful joke, in danger of being caught. "I guess I have you to thank for that," he said, patting the tombstone, still in good humor.
Draco's swayed a little, threatening to collapse. His hair was rumpled, and on closer inspection, Draco's eyes were dilated. Was he drunk? Probably, Cho decided.
"It all comes back to you, doesn't it? Everything wrong in my life. If you had just died when the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby, life would be very different now."
And then, Draco sank to his knees. Whether it was intentional, or because his legs refused to support him anymore, Cho didn't know. Still talking to the block of stone, he gave it a dazzling smile. "See what I've become?" He asked cheerfully.
Draco hiccupped, a bizarre sight to which Cho would've laughed if situations were different. "I owe it all to you, mate." Draco leaned forward and planted a kiss right on the bold print of HARRY. After that, he sobered, and got abruptly to his feet.
"Draco…"
"I'm leaving," he said, all trace of amusement gone.
"Please, talk to me, Draco. I'm sure we can – "
"I'm leaving," he said again, with finality, and turned his back on Cho.
"Wait! Draco, please, think about it! That's all I'm asking. Think, and if you change your mind, you know where to find me."
Draco turned his head slightly, and Cho wondered if he still remembered the place they used to meet. "Our spot. Come to our spot. Do you still remember…?"
Draco didn't reply, but apparated away.
-----
Theirs was a love story, and like all love stories, there were romance, mystery, and plentiful thrills of passion and fevered excitement coursing through their veins.
She was in her seventh year, he, sixth, and they were young. She thought them invincible, and their love immortal. It was a time in her life when the edges of reality blurred and mixed with fantasy, to the point where they couldn't be told apart. She dreamed and dreamed, and so believed it would be forever. Looking back upon her earlier years, she thought herself a hopeless fool. But then, she was deluded, caught up in all there was to offer, drunk on the spinning emotions she was experiencing, relishing on her newfound happiness. Dizzy with so much love, she threw her doubts to the wind, and focused her everything on the beauty: infallible and flawless.
Maybe it was cheesy, maybe it was childish and a bit corny, but they had their secret spot. There was a secluded place at the edge of Hogsmeade. It was surrounded by trees and a corner of the lake.
Cho sat there now, a strong wind blowing back her long hair. It felt so good, dangling her feet in the water, staring out at the gently rippling lake. She couldn't help relaxing just a little bit. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the fresh air.
Even if Draco never showed up, she would sit here and wait. What else would she do, and besides, she felt peaceful sitting here.
If she focused just right, Cho could see a laughing, younger Draco sitting on the grass beside her. His hair was tousled by the breeze, and his silver eyes were alive. He was so beautiful; he still is so beautiful.
A rustle of shoes on grass brought Cho out of her reminiscing. She hurriedly twisted around to face her intruder, never once occurring to her that it might be Draco.
Yet it was. Something jolted through her. Shock? Relief? They stared at one another for some time, neither speaking.
"Hi," Draco offered after the prolonged silence.
"Hey," Cho said automatically, and gave Draco a tentative smile.
Draco came to sit beside her, replacing his imaginary self who sat there just moments before.
"Change your mind?"
Draco said nothing, not looking at Cho. He wordlessly stared out onto the lake, and laced his fingers through hers. Cho supposed this was a 'Yes' from him. She followed suit, and silently watched the dancing colors the setting sun was making on the water.
And for the umpteenth time in her life, tears rolled down her cheeks, but this time, she gladly welcomed them.
A/N: And lo! Behold, my spiffin' eighth chapter is done.
I want to tell you now, all ye suckers-for-happy-endings – the epilogue shall be sad. So if you are the kind of person who wants an ending bright with promises ahead, then stop reading at this chapter.
But for the realists out there, who say, "Bah! Draco is on the run, it cannot end well for this star-crossed couple!" I will tell you that this story is not yet over.
I have also written a one-shot, post-Hogwarts story in which Harry is the main character. It does not relate to Precious Moments at all, but can be found here:
Also, I have acquired a LJ: my username is winterbliss
Add me as your friend, for I am terribly lonely, and also look for more of my writing on my LJ.
Most importantly of all, REVIEW, because I am a dirty review whore.