Guys I am sooooo sorry I know I always nag you to post the next chapter quickly and I know this one has taken ages I am a hypocrite and I am therefore very sorry grovels at feet however I think you'll agree I have posted two quite long chapters and therefore expect to be forgiven. Hope you enjoy them. I'm not sure if I like them yet so some feed back would be good especially in the form of big juicy tantalising reviews (not so subtle hint). I miss everyone and hope you all remember me!

Review Please!

Disclaimer: Don't have a heart attack or anything but I have a bit of a shock, the characters, places ect are not mine, a revelation I know but the unexpected does happen…

Author: Still Scam the last time I checked….

Rating: God knows I really don't get the new system.

Point Of View: Harry and Draco

Chapter 7 - Lux Aeterna

I wish I could be the one,
the one who won't care at all
But being the one on the stand,
I know the way to go, no one's guiding me.
When time soaked with blood turns its back,
I know it's hard to fall.
Confined in me was your heart
I know it's hurting you, but it's killing me.

The world had darkened I was sure of that now, I could see it all around me. Meaningless shapes sifted through the lethargic thickening fog belying the turmoil beneath. The dank sticky desolate claustrophobia did nothing to improve my state as I walked through he main doors towards the lake for possible the last time.

I turned away from collage of ghosts and shadows and began to walk down the school drive.

I was alone. Again. Part of me tried to point out that this was what I'd wanted all along, to go on my vendetta, to reap my revenge on my own but even as the thought reared its head I silenced it with an almighty blow of self pity.

I always knew this would happen as great as my friends were I always knew at the end of the day it would just be me and my destiny. For a minute I felt guilty, surely there were others worse off than me? I'd known great friendship I knew what it was to be loved what else could I need?

It dawned on me that everyone must feel like this after all I had better friend than most, maybe it was just me maybe I was just weak and insecure and needed to be surrounded by people to feel like existed, that I wasn't just vapour and shadows. I picked up the pace as I walked between the wrought iron gates that marked the edge of Hogwarts. Without being able to help myself I glanced up at the well weathered limestone pillars and the wrought gates which had stood as they did now for time immemorial. I felt a wave of nausea as I remembered all the time I'd walked through the very same gates joking with Ron, laughing with Hermione rolling my eyes at Neville or shooting poisonous searing glares at Draco's back…Draco. Suddenly I started walking purposefully

The acidic and now familiar taste of helplessness and hatred burned fresh in my mind

as I strided towards Hogsmede Train station, towards Azkaban, towards Draco.

Draco's PoV

It was about this time that I saw Harry, I welcomed the dillusion as he unlocked the bars to my cell and stepped in front of me looking more than slightly miffed. I'd imagined the scene before, after all I'd had a lot of time on my hands but this was different to anything I could have expected. Harry seemed different he had an aura drawn around him like wasps around a cake shop. It was this aura that finally convinced me that I was not hallucinating, that this was in fact Harry standing, somehow, in front of me.

"Hello Harry, nice to see you, s'pose you're a bit pissed off about the whole being murdered malarkey."

He stood there as if trying to come to terms with my blatant understatement.

"What" I said sounding resigned "do you want?"

"To exact my revenge." He sounded somewhat doubtful despite the strength of the sentiment.

"That" I said with feeling "was a dire cliché which although heart warming implores me to point out the one pivotal flaw in your otherwise cunning plan, if you've travelled here to kill your murderer then, well I'm sorry but you've come to the wrong place. Hardly a plan so cunning you could brush your teeth with it."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I didn't kill you Harry."

"Why?" I was completely thrown, I had been expecting a "then who did?" or "really?" or even an "Oh yes you did you bastard!" On reflection however Harry's question really did make more sense. I looked up and knew, the weight of bearing the constant burden was finally too much. I sighed with the release of knowing what I was about to do, "because I love you Harry." I couldn't quite believe it was me that had said that the all consuming surrealism of the moment had betrayed the truth without me giving it too much thought.

"Oh"

"I have done for ages, I could never kill you."

Still holding his wand which was trained on me he slid slowly down the opposite wall and sat on the concrete opposite me.

"Why didn't you say before?"

"Sorry is that a poor attempt at a joke? I said disbelievingly.

"Good point" Harry even had the grace to look a little sheepish.

"Well I can't leave you here can I?"

"Pardon?"

"Well it isn't right to leave you here if you haven't done anything."

"Two minutes ago you wanted to kill me and now you want to help me escape?" Harry shrugged in response.

"Do you really believe me?"

"Yes, I don't know why but I do."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Well help you escape and then find whoever killed me I guess, I just hope I have time."

"I'll help, What do you mean you hope you have enough time?"

"Why would you help?"

"Well whoever killed you left me to face the music they're hardly first on the list to invite to my next Tupperware party."

"Tupperware Malfoy?"

"Yeah, but it's very evil Tupperware."

"Well that's OK then.l I'm only here on a loan of life by Tobius."

"Fascinating, did you meet him at the Leaky Cauldron coz I night know him myself, he was trying to sell me a chinchilla called Albert…."

"Enlightening. No I met him in the afterlife actually."

"Oh, how are we gonna escape then?"

"I can get out fine, I'm dead."

"Show off" I muttered

"Come on Draco you Slytherin's recon your so amazing at coming up with cunning plans…."

"Silly hats"

"Ya what now?"

"All the best plans" I stated with conviction "involve wearing silly hats."

"Wow" said Harry sounding more then slightly in awe "I knew people go mad in this place but I didn't realise it happened so quickly."

"Hmmph"

"Sorry, what was that?"

"That was a dignified hmmph, I considered revoking the accusation but decided that most mad people deny their condition and therefore settled for a hmmph.

"Odd really I didn't take you for a hmmph kind a person.."

"You didn't take me." I muttered suitably sulkily.

"Pardon?"

"Do you still hate me?"

"I…I don't really know."

"Come on Harry it's not exactly NEWT transfiguration."

"I don't know what I feel anymore."

"Another tragic side effect of death?"

"Teenage angst more likely."

"Shame really, death seems rather easier to cure…"

"Harry I really don't think we are going to be able to escape, this is Azkaban not Butlins, though come to think of it out of the two I think I would rather stay here, the décor is not so lurid and even the bare stone floor is more comfortable than the mattresses at Butlins."

"Have you quite finished?"

"Um…yes."

"Well breaking in wasn't particularly hard, the dementors cannot sense my emotions on account of my demise and I have the great advantage of magic which no one else here has, however smuggling you out will be damn near impossible…."

"Plan?...Really it doesn't have to be cunning even.."

"I could get us outside" Said Harry with more conviction than was present on his face felt "but that's no use if we can't get off the Island"

"Well lets just go with that then" I drawled suddenly bored by the length of the discussions.

"But….."

"Look I know it's a poor plan if it even merits the term, no really it brings a whole new meaning to the word 'shoddy' but I've been here quite a while now and it may surprise you to learn I'm rather keen on leaving." Through the swathes of sarcasm I could here truth in my own words and wondered if Harry could too. "Look, if the shit hit the fan I am the one in trouble on accounts of your 'kicking of the bucket'.

"OK, come on then" he offered a hand to help me up.

I looked up accepting the help and announced with a more than a slight sardonic grin "Tally-Ho then chaps."

Carefully swinging the door open we crept out into a dank, dimly lit corridor. We walked warily along the long passageway trying to stay out of sight of the ajoining cells. Any sounds we made were inaudible, the barewalls seemed to absorb the sound not even having the decency to create an echo. The silent stealthy vigil seemed to go on forever until finally I stopped. We had apparently reached the door after no resistance at all which was rather unnerving.

With a complicated charm using a lot of rather German sounding foreign words the door sprung eagerly open for Harry and I stepped through the doorway trying not to blink as I walked out into the fresh air for the first time in what felt like an age.

As we stepped into the dim watery light of the walled courtyard I felt a sudden twist of apprehension in his stomach "Harry…" I never got to finish that sentence as somewhere from in the ethereal haze and shadow dementors in numbers I'd never experienced before glided out towards us. There must have been at least 60 poured out around us in a cold seething mass creeping silently towards us, memories of things I thought I'd forgotten flooded into mind. These were things that even until now I'd managed to keep from myself, forgotten scars that had faded so much I thought they'd gone. The worst was the helplessness, I had no wand and so was utterly reliant upon Harry the very person that was going to kill me a mere matter of minutes ago. Screams echoed, my fathers rejections, my mothers indifference my own numbing emptiness spiralled as I saw Harry stop for a moment his face pressed by concentration as he summoned strength and cast a spell. I didn't hear it, it felt as if my own mind was imploding and then wind, in beats as if powered by fluttering wings swept over me pushing the confusion aside like chavs from a textbook. I looked up, I hadn't in fact realised I'd looked down. It was wings. The body of a huge beast was falling ever slowly down towards us apparently repelling the dementors as it completed its descent. "Is that your patronus?" I asked Harry through the silent chaos "I don't think so" said Harry sounding rather baffled "It usually disappears by now…"

It looked very real to me as it landed gently next to us and folded it's wings carefully turning to look at us with eyes of liquid fire.

"Well that's sorted then said Harry"

"Huh?" I said still looking at the animal which was the size of a large horse and was still staring at me.

"Transport, we can fly on it's back to England" said Harry looked at me expectantly as if expecting a round of applause.

"That" I said with conviction and feeling a morbid finality to my voice "Is a weak, jaded, pathetic, unwealdy, common and inexcusably poor attempt of a plan. It's too complicated. What ever happened to the good old days of push this and that goes boom? What we need is a solid dependable plan. The sort of thing you can lie back and rest your feet on."

"You could put your feet up on Gryphon" Harry pointed out helpfully.

"No you can't it's wings get in the way" I said my mind still whirling trying to think of any angle I could take that would make the insane plan look almost feasible.

"You sound like your speaking from experience…"

"I am." I said sounding more than a little smug.

"Fine well you do better then."

"You sulking?"

"No" Said Harry sulkily

I looked round and seeing no alternative so balancing on the creatures withers I swung myself up and onto the gryphon. Harry went to follow and I had time to see him fall perilously close to the other side of the animal grabbing onto the back of his cloak I kicked the sides of the animal with my heels and hoped to merlin that riding a gryphon is similar to riding a horse of which I'd had some experience.

Its wings unfolded brushing the dusty floor gracefully for a minute it felt like we weren't going to move but impossibly slowly we rose into the air, "England cheers"

I looked down to see the Dementors, the wall, the courtyard, the prison and eventually the island itself spiral down into impenetrable mists. As the island fell behind us like a piece of paper caught in a breeze I allowed myself to relax. I took the luxury of allowing myself a moments reflection on the irony that it had been a gryphon, the guardian of the sun the ruler of dark and light which had saved me.

Quo Lux Dulcit

I felt a tug on the back of my robes "Look its Scotland"

"Huh" I replied

"Azkaban must be on one of the Shetland islands it looks like we are back in the UK already"

"The Shetland Islands? That just says it all really." I wasn't really thinking which was probably best as if I was I would most probably have been thinking about plummeting to my death.

Clouds obscured our vision and made breathing heavy and slow, within minutes the cloud disappeared and below me masked in the dusk was London. I had to admit the muggle's tall buildings leant the place an elegant and exotic air but these passed as in a flash we were tumbling downwards into the grey impending night. The ground jumped up at an impossible speed and we jolted to a joint jarring standstill.

Harry leapt down and I slid off trying to force some grace and balance into unsteady legs. The Gryphon spun off into the gloom almost immediately, "So what are we going to do?"

"Well I don't know about you mate but I'm knackered, dying really takes it out of you."

I managed a small grin until I felt I really had to point something out to Harry

"Well where are we going to go, you can't be seen and neither can I?"

I was back within a few hundred metres from everything familiar to me, finally back after days, weeks of dreaming and yet I couldn't move any closer. It was on reflection like wanking off with a spiky glove.

"I think I have a plan….."

"Oh, please no."

On days like this it seems almost worth starting a diary.

Stonar; Hope you are all well and not too stressed about the imminent exams, bah evil! I miss you all, study leave wont be the same! Did anyone get those D of E photos from Robbo as I would rather like a copy. Kirsty or Kate get me my ticket! Love y'all!

To everyone else who I'm sure are by now both bored and feeling left out please can I have some reviews…Please!

P.S. Title translates as 'light eternal' from a Requiem by……well some dude, I sang it last Wednesday so there.

P.P.S. Now believe dude's name to be John Rutter.

P.P.P.S. It's a beautiful requiem by the way, I almost cried when I sang the Lux Aeterna movement.

Lyrics at beginning by Avenged Sevenfold.

Spiky Glove quote supplied by a certain guy in my physics class.

I tried to forget you,

But without you

I feel nothing,

Don't leave me here by myself I can't feel.