A/N: Warning: There is graphic violence in this chapter and a huge battle.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Harry had been running for hours, was running. He ran through darkness. He couldn't see anything, but he could feel his legs pumping and his feet slapping the ground. Great big things were snapping at his heels, hungry jaws gaping and ready to tear him to shreds if he slowed or fell. He didn't know where he was or what was going on, but he knew the monsters were there. They were things of pain. He was frantic to escape, but was completely lost. This endless race was wearing him thin. He was close to the breaking point.
Suddenly a ribbon of light appeared in the dark. A thin beam of sunlight rippled through the darkness, creating a straight line about waist high. Harry almost cried, his relief was so great. Gently, emotions coated him like snow. He could feel love, expectation, a deep anger, and fear, but the love was strongest and directed right at him. Someone was calling him. Someone was waiting for him. Love and acceptance waited for him, but the monsters would pounce if he stopped to take that invitation. He'd have to beat them first.
Lowering his chin and balling up his fists, Harry stopped. He stood still and reached out with his will. He would face the blood thirsty monsters, but on his own terms. He wrapped the light around him in a circle, a small sanctuary. He'd be able to come back within its safety if the monsters became too much. Crying, he was literally shaking with fear. He huddled in his circle of light and love and listened to the hungry howls and the clicks of sharp claws as the monsters circled and waited. Gathering his courage and the knowledge that someone loved him close, Harry bunched his muscles and leapt out of the circle and into the jaws of the monsters.
He fought them. He faced what the monster held and accepted the painful memories they tore at him with. He fought until he was beaten down and teetered on the brink of insanity. Then he'd crawl, shaking and weak, into the circle to regroup and rebuild his strength. When he could stand without wavering, he would step out and face the demons within him once again. He wrestled with the fears and weaknesses that haunted him, and they lost some of their power as he examined them unflinchingly. He wept, screamed, raged at all of it, but it was no longer locked away and avoided.
Over and over he did this. He accepted the love of his new family: Severus, Remus, and Draco. He accepted that he deserved it. He acknowledged that the Dursleys were incapable of loving him no matter what he did. He accepted the guilt of the deaths of Cedric and Sirius. He realized he had to move on and learn so he could save others who might also die, but who were still alive. Finally, he accepted every blow he had invited last summer in his depression. He realized that he didn't deserve the pain, but he could survive it. He accepted that he had weaknesses just like everyone else and saw how low he was capable of falling. Then the worst came.
Harry thought he was getting a handle on this. He was sitting, panting in the circle, recovering from his last battle. Wounds on his body slowly healed and he found peace after all the pain facing the horrible memories caused him. He ran his hand over the light and shivered as love washed down through him. For you, it told him. Always for you. I am here.
Harry cried tiredly, but he was ready. He was tired of this place. He felt so tired, but he felt strong. He wanted to return to a world made of light. To the world that had Draco and his father and Moony. He wanted to go home. He sighed and stood up. There was one last monster and he was finished.
The monster was huge. Bigger than all the rest. Harry stepped out and faced it bravely; wavering on his feet, but standing strong. And it hit him. It punched him and pounded him with the truth. He saw the poisoned dinner, felt his helplessness. He found a new depth to terror as his uncle stripped him… Harry staggered back into the circle, unable to see anymore. He gasped and shook and huddled in the center. Rocking himself as he wept, he realized what would come. He knew what was coming with a bone deep horror. Severus had told him, but he hadn't known.
He was about to be raped. Harry gasped, curling up tighter. And he had to let himself relive the raped or he couldn't live again. He couldn't return to Draco and his family without destroying that monster lurking in the darkness. He'd be here, trapped in this darkness forever until he faced it.
"I can't do it," Harry choked. "I'm sorry. I can't. I can't."
Silence answered him. The ring of light remained steady, protecting him. Harry shut his eyes. He didn't want to see it. He couldn't bear to look at what he was giving up.
"No. Don't make me. I'm sorry, I can't. I can't do it," he begged of the light.
Flashes of Draco. Smiling. Fighting. Standing strong and confident. Smirking, sneering. Long soft hair like silk, falling through his fingers, falling around them like wings. Silver eyes burning with love and lust and joy. Kissing, touching. Harry could feel Draco there, pressed against him. He could taste Draco's taste, smell him. And Harry loved him. More than anything, Harry loved that bright and beautiful Slytherin. Harry clenched his hands into fists and punched the ground as hard as he could.
"Why! Why can't you just leave me alone! Where were you? Huh? Where were you when I needed you?" he screamed at the light, dared it to answer or make excuses. "Where are you now? Tell me that, Draco! Where Are You Now!"
There was no answer and Harry felt a well of bitter triumph open in his heart. Draco wasn't here. In the end, he was alone. The love was worthless really. It never did anything for him.
"No," he whispered, shaking his head. "That's not true. It isn't worthless. And it has done something for me."
Harry looked up tearfully at the circle of Draco's love. It was here with him. He wasn't alone. Draco's heart was still here. He could feel everything that was Draco; he just chose to focus on the love. He could feel Draco's frustration. He could feel his fear and worry. He could feel his amusement and pride. It all wavered, ever-changing as Draco lived and waited for him.
Harry wondered what was happening that was making Draco feel that way. Was he training with the DA? Having dinner with Dad and Moony and Narcissa? Was Pansy giving him problems again? Harry bit his lip. The only way he'd find out was if… He shuddered. He couldn't. He really couldn't.
He didn't know how long he sat there, beating himself up for his cowardice, but unable to move. He alternately closed his eyes to the light connecting him to Draco and bathed in it. He tried to sleep, but it was impossible here. Wherever here was. Maybe he was already sleeping. He didn't feel rested, but he didn't feel like he was tiring either. He just huddled with his fear and disappointment and regret and longing. He resigned himself to this place for forever, but then… Something changed.
Harry's head snapped up and his voice cut off. He often talked to himself now. Just to hear a voice, any voice, to mute the loneliness. He snarled and forced himself more aware. He had to focus. The light was brighter. He reached and brushed his fingers across it, and gasped. Pain and adrenaline and determination, triumph and fear. Draco was… he was… fighting. And he had taken injury.
"He's just training." Harry tried to convince himself. He shook his head hard. "No. I know he's not. I know it. This feels different. This is the battle. Voldemort has finally made his move, and Draco is fighting him. The DA is too probably. Even though they know they won't win. Only I can kill him. It's in the prophecy."
The love was still there. Even now, there was love for Harry in Draco. It was pushed to the background, but it was still there. Harry bit his lip so hard it bled. The monster, his rape, was still waiting. Draco was still waiting. Both were waiting for him. He had to be the one to move. He had to take the next step. He couldn't hide forever. Not unless he was willing to let his light go out. To let Draco die fighting the battle meant for Harry. Could he let all that he loved fall because he couldn't stand up to what Vernon Dursley, of all people, had done. His uncle was an ugly man. A Muggle who didn't deserve an hour of Harry's time, let alone Draco's life.
"I'll do it." Harry stood. He was shaking, but he was on his feet. He flashed his teeth and it wasn't even close to a smile. "I won't let this kill me or Draco. Do you hear me, Vernon! I won't let you kill me!"
Harry leapt out of the circle and into his worst memory, into Hell.
…
The night was painfully clear. No clouds and a bitingly cold half-moon made the snow practically glow. The shadows cast by the Forbidden Forest were so dark you could fall into them. Footsteps crunched loudly and they would have sunk up to their knees if it weren't for the snow-shoe spell. Nothing could quite mask the sound they made as they streaked across the ground, however. But that meant that the enemy would be equally hindered.
The sun had set two hours ago and with it came the attack against Hogwarts' wards. They would buckle soon and Draco had finished securing Goldstein's team in the school and Higgs' team on the pitch. Now he was racing to the forest and Hooper's team to meet the first Death Eater wave. He gracefully dodged traps and hiding Aurors. He literally heard the wards fall as a high pitch alarm tore through the air. Suddenly, the world seemed too big and every shadow more sinister.
… "Excrucio dolor morsus!" …
Crackling spells stung the air and exploded against trees, leaving scorch marks or felling it with snap. Aurors were moving silently among the Death Eaters. And the dark-robed killers fell one after another. But there were hundreds of them and when one fell, two rose snarling in their wake. The noise was horrendous and Draco laughed, remembering he had been concerned about the snow giving them away as they moved.
Draco dove to the side and spat out a curse. The Death Eater fell with a shriek of agony as both legs snapped at the knee. The blonde bared his teeth viciously and set another on fire. His third spell was bounced off a shield and struck the ground, making the snow explode around them.
… "Contego!" …
Someone slammed into him from behind and Draco felt a blade scrape along his ribs. Howling in rage and pain, he flipped them and turned the knife against the Death Eater, plunging it into her chest. The woman arched with a silent scream as she convulsed. Draco sprang up and away, clutching his side as waves of pain wracked through him.
"Must've been spelled," he mumbled. He ignored the pain as best he could and stalked stiffly through the wounds, aiming at any black figure moving. A cutting hex sliced through an enemy's shielding and Draco watched as blood sprayed the air as the man's left arm fell from his shoulder. The smell was hot and coppery and dark. Was it his imagination or did the shadows converge on the blood as if feeding?
… "Exuro igneus dolens!" …
"Draco!" Neville's voice called to him, invoking him desperately. He spun and ran. The Weasley girl was unconscious, her face pale and half her scalp gone revealing a bloody skull. Longbottom looked up at him with sheer panic and horror as he knelt helplessly at his love's side, his hands bloody and moaning in the back of his throat.
Draco stuck him and the Gryffindor blinked at him stupidly. "Carry her to the Infirmary! You have the weightless blanket, don't you?"
"Y-y-yes-s-s." The poor teen stuttered.
… "Repello extundo!" …
"Go!" Draco slapped him again and Longbottom scrambled through his pack. He pulled out the blanket and wrapped Weasley in it before taking off for the school. Draco covered his back, but as soon as he left the forest he turned and went back to the fight.
Draco felt strangely numb and painfully aware. Every sense was razor sharp, his mind racing with painful clarity as he planned and judged each spell and move. But the horror wasn't touching him. Flesh was merely meat, blood a pretty liquid. His friends weren't friends. They were allies and comrades. There was no emotional attachment, only cold calculations.
... "Adflicto affligo!" …
Three Death Eaters leapt out at him and they danced. One was snapped up in a trap, swallowed by the tree. He'd be held there until Aurors came to release him. The other two closed in. Draco snarled and fought, but couldn't dodge fast enough. It was a spell wasn't holding a shield against and fire engulfed his left leg. The Death Eater who hit him collapsed as their lungs inverted. Pain blinded him as his flesh burned and muscle constricted. He toppled over and, even through the pain, he was aware that the last Death Eater would now kill him.
… "Forca comprehendo!" …
Then the pain began to recede and he stared, panting and sobbing, at Michael Corner. The Ravenclaw knelt and poured potions in his throat and the pain became merely searing. Draco fought his hitching breaths even and his tears to stop. He was suddenly very glad Harry was still in his dreaming coma. It had been nineteen days since the de-aging spell ended and Harry had fallen into a coma. Draco and the DA had trained hard in that time, but they were still being overrun.
"Can you fight? Or should I get you to the Infirmary?" Corner asked, hoarsely. Draco noticed that he had thick bandages wrapped around his neck.
… "Sanitas resarcio!" …
"I can fight." Draco pulled himself to his feet. He couldn't feel his leg, except that it hurt. He would just have to trust his body to make it move for him.
… "Eradico manus manus!" …
He limped toward the nearest cluster of shouts and flashing spells. Vince and Finch-Fletchley were fighting back to back. Draco shouted blinding curses at their circling enemies and the battle shifted. Draco stumbled as he stepped on something and went down. The Death Eaters howled and leapt forward.
… "Pessum ire oculus!" …
Auror Taylor stared back at him with her blue eyes missing. He had tripped on her corpse. He reached for her chest and pulled out three potions. He shattered them in his hands, the glass cutting into him. A toxic cloud boiled up and around them. He held his breath and closed his eyes. The Death Eaters screamed. He felt one go down not three inches away from him.
Hands grabbed him, the fingers pressing in a code. They were allies and he worked with them. Vince shouted something. They were standing together away from the pile of bodies, sheltered momentarily from the battle. The Hufflepuff was nowhere to be seen. Draco shook his head, he couldn't hear his friend. He couldn't hear anything! Vince was right in his face now, lips moving.
"Alright!" Draco yelled, understanding. The Aurors had called a retreat; they were falling back to the Quidditch Pitch.
The two Slytherins taunted the Death Eaters, walking them into traps and guiding them to the next set of defenses. At the forest edge, they dropped to their stomachs and four Aurors sprang up and shot curses over their heads and felling the ten Death Eaters chasing them. The Aurors fell back, sweeping Draco and Vince with them.
They dropped into the first trench and both submitted to the quick and efficient medical care of the Aurors. Then they were up and fighting again. The Death Eaters fell in the dozens as they tried to cross the pitch. All other ways to the school had been blocked off, but they had dug trenches and were safe as they cast from the sheltering earth.
… "Negotium somnium!" …
Draco's hearing returned and he wished it hadn't. The screaming was horrible and annoying. There were those wounded in the trench with him sobbing over wounds. No one could afford to leave the shelter and take them to the school yet. They'd have to wait until they signaled the fireworks to give them cover and they all retreated.
… "Eructo!" …
Suddenly, the Death Eaters fell back and the black crowd shifted. Voldemort stalked through his ranks. He was dressed in blood red robes and his face was as pale as the moon. Hysterical cries sounded through the Auror ranks at his horrific image, but none of them broke and ran for the school. The Monster raised his arms as he walked and Dementors flowed out of the shadows of the forest and, like an evil wave, came crashing against the trenches.
"Expecto Patronum!" they screamed as a chorus and the field was lit up as the silver thoughts of happiness clashed with the evil creatures. There was hissing shrieks as some collapsed under the weight of the Patronus Charm. They cast it again and again.
The Dementors were diminishing, but Death Eaters had used the distraction to slip into their trenches with them. Draco snarled and was again fighting hand-to-hand as a Death Eater literally dropped down on him. The man's boot scrapped against his leg and he screamed and clawed at the man's face. He felt something pulpy under his finger give way and the Death Eater shrieked.
… "Inreto ligatio!" …
Draco smiled as hot blood splashed his face. He shoved hard and the Death Eater fell back, blood streaming down his face, one eye missing. He cast a spell and the other exploded. Helpless against the pain, Draco easily bound and left him as he retreated. Fireworks flashed above them and burned the eyes even when they were tightly shut. But he didn't need to see. He had practiced this many times and raced for the castle.
He heard a scream and stopped. That had been Pansy and Hermione! He turned and ran for the sound. He cracked his eyes open and they watered furiously. But he could make out the outline of a body, the arm being twisted slowly backward and toward the body. A slow bone inverting curse. The Death Eater who cast it was long gone. A second figure was dragging the screaming and writhing figure toward the castle, but was moving funny. He gasped when he realized the second figure was missing their right foot and was screaming as well.
… "Effloresco fragmen!" …
He closed his eyes and raced up to them. He stunned them both and quickly made a sled from their three blankets and dragged them. A spell hit his back and he fell, with a panicked scream as he lost feeling from mid-chest down. The fireworks were dieing and he threw open his eyes. Seven Death Eaters were running at them, wands raised and spitting curses. The girls were hit, with what Draco didn't know. Then he was convulsing as pain swamped his brain as a spell slipped through his defenses.
…
Harry's eyes snapped open. His body shuddered and the walls trembled with him. He was in his bed, in Dudley's second room, in the dungeons of Hogwarts. Even through the stone he could hear the sounds of his muted screams, bellowed spells. He could taste the magic boiling and lashing through the air, vomit burning his throat and mouth as he was violated. But most importantly he was aware of the naked agony coming through the bond.
"Draco!" Harry yelled half in pain, half enraged. "DRACO!"
He gasped as he felt hands on him, tearing his clothes from his body. Again. But he didn't stop moving. Not even when he reached the first floor and saw the wounded, crying, and screaming. He couldn't spare any attention to either horror. Draco needed him and Harry needed him just as badly. The world was spinning around and around and he couldn't make sense of it. One minute he was in Hogwarts, a battle raging, the next he was in his room at the Dursleys with his uncle touching, raping.
Insanity clawing at him, he made for the only solid ground he could find: Draco.
…
Voldemort stood on the flayed and destroyed field. Bodies lay like fallen leaves. Some twitched and shuddered, some were sill with death. Draco was held suspended before the Monster between two masked Death Eaters. His legs dangled useless and his wand broken, the pieces left with Pansy and Hermione, both still stunned and wounded. Voldemort's tongue snaked out. His blood red eyes glowed like sinister embers and his voice was slick and cold like a melting corpse.
"Ssso little lord," Voldemort smiled and it was the smile of a hyena. "Where isss your Sssavior? Where isss the glory you betrayed me for?" Draco stared at him with pained and defiant bright gray eyes. The Dark Lord threw back his head and laughed. The dieing littering the field shrieked at the sound, like tea pots at a boil. "Ssso defiant ssstill? Ssshall I take your armsss, too, Faithlessssss Dragon?"
The Monster raised his clawed hands and Draco refused to look away. All he felt was guilt and regret. He wanted to protect his love. He wanted to give Harry the time to heal, but had failed. He had fallen. Voldemort would destroy him and then go on to attack his beloved while he lay vulnerable and unconscious. It wasn't fair! He drew back his head and snarled, tears stinging his eyes.
Voldemort paused, his eyes drifting beyond Draco to stare at Hogwart's entrance. A silence had come over the battle there and Death Eaters and Aurors alike stood frozen as they stared in rapt wonder. Harry Potter stood naked, burning with bright white flames that left his skin unharmed. His eyes were smoldering, green as the greenest leaf. His hair lashed around his head like angry waves and his mouth hung open like a wound, a humming moan resonating from his lithe chest. A Death Eater let fly a spell, but it burned in the flames, making them flare more brightly for a second. Those green eyes never moved or registered the attack. They bore forward, reached across the grounds, and pinned themselves to the broken blonde.
"And the hero arrivessssss. Tell me, Draco Malfoy." Voldemort stepped forward and caressed the blonde's cheek. "From the way he ssstaresss, I sssussspect you matter very much to him. More than any other I have killed in front of him."
Draco felt hope and panic surge through his chest. Harry? He tried to turn his head to see, not trusting Voldemort, but the Death Eaters wouldn't allow even that much movement.
"Are you the boy-hero'sss little lover? Are you, Draco, a catamite?" Voldemort's tongue flicked out and slid along the blonde's lower lip.
"Do that again," Draco dared, his eyes burning with hatred and disgust.
Voldemort laughed, but snapped into silence as he became aware of the slight tremors beneath his feet. His eyes returned to Harry and he watched the boy walk robotically forward, the ground gently shaking with every step. He was already a quarter of the way across the field and the power and heat radiating from him made Voldemort's eyes narrow and a hiss rattle up from his throat. He lashed out and Draco screamed, slamming backward out of the Death Eaters' grasp and crumbling to the ground with broken ribs. He whined in pain as his vision tunneled in and he blacked out.
…
Harry froze. His eyes saw nothing other than Draco. His beloved stood in a strange position, his braid battered and singed, but still hanging down and down and down. Moving steadily, Harry got closer and closer to his love, to relief, to sanity, but then pain ripped through his chest and he watched as his Draco fell to the ground in a mangled heap of limbs. Even from so far away he heard the pitiful little tortured whine and it cut him, lashed him deep in the quick of his heart.
The flames began to flicker green as his eyes slowly raised and met burning red. Voldemort's hand still throbbed with spell residue and Harry began to fill with rage. Emerald green licked down his arms, haloed his head. He lifted into the air, his arms rising out from his sides like wings and his mouth flattened into a snarl.
Voldemort had enough time to panic as Harry shot toward him like a wrathful demon. He gathered all his magic and shoved half down the link he shared with the boy, hoping to slow him, and flung the rest out as an offensive wave. Harry rode it, slid around it, and he was there in the Monster's face. Voldemort screamed as he reached through the flames to grasp the boy's clawed hands by the wrist. The fire burned! It burned down to his soul and he howled, his magic lashing out wildly. Earth sprayed up, Death Eaters were flung away, the ground began to shake more violently, and the castle groaned.
"You will not hut Draco! Do you hear me!" Harry shrieked insanely. He arched as green flame exploded from his body, enveloping Voldemort.
The Dark Lord staggered and screamed as his body began to crumble. He thrashed, trying to fling Harry away, but the teen clawed at him, clung to him. The killing fire burned and burned and slowly ate away at him. "I'll kill him!" the Monster shrieked. "I'll kill him!"
Harry roared in fury and emerald lightning streaked down and slammed into the Dark Lord. The world exploded.
Chapter end.
A/N: Climatic, huh? Sorry for the cliffy, but I just had to end it there. The next chapter will come faster though. And I promise Draco isn't dead and the ending will be encouraging/uplifting!
