Draco Malfoy watched the dark-haired youth before him as he slept. Neville had come running to find him, ranting and raving about Harry Potter collapsing in the Gryffindor Common Rooms. Draco had indulged the boy -- he always did, when Neville would take into his brain to create another imaginary friend or fantasy. He certaintly hadn't expected to find The Boy Who Lived unconscious on the Gryffindor Common Room floor.
It was rare that Draco was capable of sane thought lately. Of course, he was a far sight better than any of the other survivors of that dreadful nig ht -- but that didn't mean that he was by any means sane.
Neville was the worst. He could appear lucid at times, so sane, and capable of rational thought. and then he'd suddenly go into one of his fits of rage, attacking everything and anything in sight, in a desperate attempt to erase his mind of the memories that flashes before hi eyes.
There were others in the castle, of course. Ginny Weasley had holed herself up in the Astronomy Tower. She liked to watch the night sky, to screa at it for the reason why all of this had happened -- the reason she had been left alone.
Professor Snape refused to leave his own quarters, spending his days brewing potions and his nights screaming from the nightmares that plagued his every sleeping moment. He spoke only when spoken to, an fell into a rage when he was touched.
He, Draco, had taken to wandering the halls in his more lucid moments. He never remembered what he was like, what he did when he lost control, and gave in to the madness. He tried to visit Snape as often as he could, tried to give the man whatever comfort he could -- it did't matter if Snape understood what he was doing anymore -- he was Draco's only reminder of happier days, the only one left who had ever showed any kind of caring toward him.
And now, here was Harry Potter himself, the supposed savior of the wizarding world. And world that lay in shambles, crumbling to dust as magic continued to go haywire and malfunction in ways Draco hadn't even thought possible.
Something had ripped a tear in the very fabric of reality, ripping magic apart as it's seams, and causing most spells to simply not work, while others worked in odd, amazing ways. Healing spells sometimes inflicted minor, skin-deep wounds, while casting one of the Unforgivables upon a person would sometimes have the same effect as a healing spell. One time, casting SERPENTSENSORTIA had even caused a small garden to appear on the stone beneath his feet.
Draco shook his head, forcing his thoughts back to the matter at hand. Potter was here, obviously unharmed, yet unconscious. For appearances, he seemed to have fainted. so Draco, being the kind gentleman that he was, had moved the raven-haired Gryffindor here, to his own rooms in the Great Hall.
It was one of the few rooms that wasn't filled with the bodies of the dead. Gryffindor Tower was another, since all of the Mighty, Brave Gryffindors had been out of in front of the school when the attack came. The Slytherin comon rooms and dorms, however, ha dbeen an entirely different story.
Draco once again found his eyes being drawn back down to Harry Potter as the boy moaned softly, shifting slightly before his eyes finially fluttered open.
Draco had to smile at the look of surprise and confusion that crossed over Potter's face as their eyes met -- it was so familiar, so innocent ........ almost as if nothing had changed and they were back in their fourth or fifth year at Hogwarts.
"Malfoy? What the HELL just happened?" Harry hissed angrily, quickly pulling himself up into a sitting position only to wince at the pain that that one simple movement had invoked.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Draco instantly reached forward, placing a ggentle hand on Harry's arm, only to blush hotly as he realised just what he'd said ........ and how it had sounded.
"Malfoy, what's going on? Why are you acting so ........ nice? And where is everybody?" Harry sounded irritated now, and Draco couldn't help the small smile that flitted across his features, before a look of sharp pain replaced in.
"They're dead, Potter. Everybody's dead. Or insane. Which is even worse than being dead, I suppose. To live with your mind being torn away from yo, unable to feel, to decide upon your own actions ........ wonderul, don't you think?" The last was said sarcastically, as Draco stood and started to walk out of the room
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emikae - next chapter up for ya :D and no, it wasn't too much trouble at all :D
songbreeze - i contacted you about the beta thing, but you never got back to me ........ if your still interested, e-mail me tlcsuckerhotmail.com
goldengirl - thankee! i'm hoping that most things that happen won't be expected.
dragonnet - please, give me more credit than that. this isn't a timewrap fiction. it's ........ well, i can't exactly tell you what it is, but he is not in his own future, i can tell you that much :D
jounin-elite - thanks for the info -- er, could you just pretend it was otherwise for this story? i really don't feel like going back and changing all that because it's kind of vital to the story :D hope you still want to read it!