Beater 2: Write about someone cutting someone else out of their life.

Optional Prompts:

#1: (emotion) regret

#9: (action) arguing

"I Hope That You Burn"

"Hermione," Harry begged, hands pressed together as he looked at her with his best attempt at puppy dog eyes. "Please, I promise to tell you later. Right now, I'm going to be late!"

Defeated, Hermione stepped aside. She handed him his Invisibility Cloak, which she had previously snatched out of his grasp. His path to the common room exit was now clear, much to Harry's relief. "Thank you, Hermione. Thank you."

Hermione gave Harry a small smile, and he took that as his signal to leave. Throwing the cloak over his shoulders, Harry ran out of the common room and into the dark halls of Hogwarts. He smiled briefly as he considered what a good friend Hermione had been over their first five years. Her protective nature had always annoyed him in the past but now it seemed almost endearing as it reminded him of how much she cared.

Months of sneaking out had been worth it in Harry's mind. If the amazing, beautiful feeling of love that kept Harry alive was the cost, then sneaking out and keeping secrets was worth it. He had never felt anything of love before until now, and he found it very sad that it had been kept from him this whole time. His brief relationship with Cho Chang hadn't come anywhere near this level of emotion.

Even thinking about it made him want to giggle like a school girl. If someone had told Harry two years ago that he would be in love with Malfoy, he would have questioned their sanity and probably hexed them.

Harry walked briskly to the Astronomy Tower. He knew from experience that he would be sweaty and out of breath if he ran. Even if he wanted to show he was eager, he definitely didn't want to seem desperate.

Finally reaching the top of the steps, Harry took a second to catch his breath. He froze on the spot when he heard voices. There's never anybody up here at this time, he thought to himself.

Listening in, Harry could only hear small snippets of what was being said. Whoever they were, they were speaking in short whispers. Their efforts to be quiet didn't matter because aside from them, the area was completely silent.

"You have to!"

"I don't have to — anything."

"You can't - going like this!"

"Harry doesn't — to know."

"Then I'm done."

"No! Wait!"

Before Harry could move from his position by the door leading to the Astronomy Tower, Blaise Zabini stormed through the doorway. Harry barely knew him, but he knew that he was in the same house as Draco, and that he was quite handsome.

Blaise stopped in his tracks and looked right at Harry. Harry didn't even flinch, merely asking a question with his eyes. Blaise shook his head as though the whole situation was ridiculous. He gestured to the door behind him. "Go ahead. Your boyfriend awaits."

Harry took a step back, feeling like a bucket of ice water had just been dumped over his head, chilling him to the bones. His previous rush of excitement disappeared as he watched Blaise walk away

After collecting himself, Harry finally stepped through the door. The walk up the stairs to the top of the Astronomy Tower felt longer than it ever had before, every step feeling like an even greater weight was being placed on his shoulders. When he finally reached the top, he saw nothing other than Draco's head of platinum blond hair, looking over the grounds of Hogwarts.

Harry stood still, watching as Draco turned to greet him. "Finally," he said with a small, affectionate smile, "I was beginning to think you were never going to show up."

Draco walked over to Harry with the effortless strut that screamed confidence. Harry used to love the way that Draco held himself. Right now, it just showed Harry how good of a liar he really was. He didn't even seem upset after the argument he had just had. His unruffled state made Harry uncomfortable.

Draco reached out towards Harry's cheek, and Harry knew, like always, he would let it rest there for a moment before pulling him in for a kiss. Those little habits used to fill Harry's heart with a feeling that he had never felt before he had met Draco; love. Now, it was empty and confusing.

Right before Draco could make contact, Harry stepped back. "What was that?"

Draco's endearing expression morphed into a mixture of hurt, shock, and confusion. It was almost convincing. "What do you mean?"

"Why was Zabini so angry?" Harry asked, taking in every single detail about Draco's face as he watched his confidence crumble. "What were you talking about? I heard my name."

Blinking his wide, beautiful, grey eyes, Draco's well-crafted facade disintegrated. No longer poised and sure of himself, Draco looked distraught. For once, the Slytherin who had a way with words had none.

Harry took Draco's continued silence as an opportunity to speak. The empty feeling that had filled Harry's soul turned into pure, unadulterated anger. "You cheated on me, didn't you?"

Draco knew now that nothing good could be coming. "I— no! Harry, I would never!"

"Then explain what I just saw!" Harry blinked back the tears that welled in his eyes and swallowed to clear his throat. "If that's not what was happening — then what is?"

Again, Draco had no excuse. "I— I was going to — I was going to tell you."

Harry, with anger coursing through his veins like molten lava, took a step towards Draco. They were too close for comfort, given the tension between them.

Draco could feel Harry's uneven breath against his cheek as he stared straight ahead at the slight curls in Harry's hair that he loved so much.

Before he could even register what Harry had done, Draco was stumbling backwards. Managing to stay standing, Harry approached again. Not once had the blond ever seen such an angry look on his lover's face.

"Why can't you just fall?" Harry bellowed. Draco stepped back, unlike before. Harry was scaring him. "Why can't you just lose your perfect composure for one second? Why can't you let yourself show regret for once in your goddamn life?"

He continued on his rant, stabbing his finger into Draco's chest accusingly as he spoke. "Perfect little Draco Malfoy, with your perfect blond hair and your perfect face! Perfect little Draco Malfoy, who chose someone as damaged and flawed as Harry bloody Potter. Was this pity? Did you put up with me out of pity?"

"No!" Draco shouted. "I love you, Harry!"

Tears were running down both of their faces now. Harry's anger faded into devastating sadness as Draco said the words that had once filled him with love and affection that he had never felt for anyone before.

Harry whispered under his breath, his voice thick through the tears, "Then why did you cheat?"

Draco fell to his knees, sobbing into his hands now. Harry had never seen him such a mess, and he couldn't help but enjoy it a little bit.

Harry walked to the top of the stairs, but before he began his descent, he turned back to the crying, pleading heap that was his ex-boyfriend.

"You know what, Draco?" Harry asked, watching as the blond looked up at him hopefully with red-rimmed eyes. "I regret ever dating you."

As Harry ran down the stairs, he tried to ignore the sound of Draco sobbing.

That night and many nights after it, Harry found the meaning of true loyalty and friendship. When he returned to the common room, Hermione was waiting for him patiently and held him as he collapsed, sobbing, onto the sofa in front of the fireplace.

Harry hardly had the ability to get up the next morning, but somehow he did. But he was just a ghost of himself, his eyes empty. His friends worried endlessly about what had happened to Harry up on the Astronomy Tower.

That morning was the first apology letter that Harry received. Draco was very eloquent and could build palaces out of paragraphs, but instead of falling for his fancy words, Harry took the letter and burnt it.

Ron and Hermione were shocked. Harry rarely received letters and when he did, he was typically excited. Instead, he recognized the precise handwriting and pulled out his wand. With a quick Incendio, it was a pile of ash on the table.

Hermione was the only one who spotted Draco Malfoy's expression. She had always had her suspicions about him being the one Harry had been so in love with. After all, Harry and Draco had been much less venomous towards each other over the past year and Harry had started glancing towards the Slytherin table much more often.. Now, it was much more obvious than a few off-key glances.

Draco looked even more devastated than Harry did. Harry had stopped crying when he had fallen asleep, and when he woke up in the morning, he was simply numb. Draco, however, looked as though he had never stopped. He hid it very well, but in that moment when the letter was incinerated, it was as clear as day.

This became a daily occurrence. Harry would receive a letter and burn it on sight, while Draco progressively became better and better at hiding the heavy weight of regret on his shoulders.

In addition to the letters, Draco was constantly trying to talk to Harry in the hallways.

"Harry," he would mutter breathlessly, begging the one he loved to listen and hear him out. The look of pleading in his eyes would pull at Harry's heartstrings, but he knew better, and he would not get hurt again.

Harry would push past him, brushing him aside with his shoulder, never saying any more words than a simple, "Shove off, Malfoy."

This made it so much harder for Harry to move on. Forgiveness wasn't an option. For most of his life, Harry had experienced nothing but hurt from everyone around him. His relatives had raised him in an unloving environment. Dumbledore toyed with his emotions like they were a game of chess. Even his best friend couldn't be trusted — after all, hadn't Ron abandoned him when his name came out of the Goblet of Fire? Harry should've known that his first love wouldn't have been any different. Pain was one of the only constant, stable things in Harry's life.

Harry's paranoia increased as the days went by, his trust in others evaporating until it was essentially nonexistent. It was then that he realized what needed to be done.

Two weeks after that night on the Astronomy Tower, Draco's fourteenth letter arrived. As if on instinct, Harry burned it to a crisp without blinking twice. This time, however, his spell was a tad overpowered. Harry ignored Seamus' yelp as he grasped at the remains of his eyebrows, instead standing up.

Even though there were dozens of eyes on him (there were every day — the letter burning had almost become a scheduled spectator event), Harry could only feel Draco's gaze.

Harry walked over to the Slytherin table and ignored the jeers that came at him. He walked straight towards Draco and asked, "Can I speak to you?"

Instead of waiting for an answer, Harry turned on his heel and left the Great Hall. He walked through a few corridors, knowing Draco would be right behind him no matter what.

When he finally stopped, he turned to Draco. It had been the first time that Harry had really focused on him since the night on the Astronomy Tower. It seemed as if nothing had changed. Draco still looked broken. A small part of Harry wanted him to forgive Draco and fall back into the waves of reverence and love that had filled him two weeks ago. But he knew he couldn't, no matter how much he wanted him to.

Draco misunderstood what Harry wanted to talk to him about. He wanted to take it as an opportunity to finally get his apology across. "Harry, I—"

"No."

Silence ensued. It pleased Harry.

"I'm not here to let you apologize, nor am I here to forgive you."

The bluntness of Harry's statement left Draco looking even weaker than before.

"I'm here to tell you that I'm done with you. I never want to see you again. I never want to hear your voice. I never want to be in the same room as you. Of course, that can't be done, but when we leave Hogwarts, it will happen. Until then, I want to hear from you as little as possible, and only if absolutely necessary. Do you hear me?" Harry was emotionless, something that Draco didn't associate the love of his life with at all.

Draco just stared, not wanting to agree.

"Do you understand?"

One hesitant nod signalled Harry to continue. "Good. Now I want you to learn your lesson. Cheating is unforgivable. It's not something that a relationship can recover from. In any relationship in the future, think twice before breaking your partner's love as well as their trust. Understand?"

This nod came much more easily to Draco. He would never cheat again, not if his life depended on it.

Harry sighed, revealing his exhaustion. Draco wanted to do nothing more than to bring him close and hold him, but he could only imagine how terribly that would go.

Harry reached into one of the pockets of his robes and pulled out a bunch of envelopes and papers, kept together with an elastic band. "This is it. This is everything."

Draco's breathing quickened. Everything?

"Every single letter, every single word that you ever wrote me. I loved you, Draco. And you ruined that. You are the first person I ever truly loved, but now you've forfeited your right to my heart. I am done with you."

Throughout the first few months of their fling, Draco and Harry had written love letters back and forth. Draco's words had bloomed and twisted their way into Harry's heart, and he had believed that he would never be able to let them go. Now, he was going to.

Placing the letters on the ground directly in front of him, Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at the letters and muttered the spell that Draco now hated most. "Incendio."

Over the small fire that burnt up the very thing that started their love, Harry looked straight into Draco's pained and tearful eyes.

Harry spoke his final words to his first love: "I hope that you burn, Draco Malfoy."

As the letters left behind a pile of ash, Harry left behind Draco and the shattered pieces of his heart.