Chapter 23 – End of a Hero

Harry looks at me uneasily and I know he's scared. I try to look braver then how I actually feel for his sake, which is pretty cowardly at the moment. I mean, Goyle can just be a few yards away, hiding somewhere ready to stab me in the back because he's too afraid to face me one on one. Quite frankly, I'm scared to face him too. But at least I admit to myself that I'm a coward.

Harry sighs softly and looks down. I can see him shaking. "Harry…" I say softly, like Goyle might be listening in from nearby. I wrap my arms around his shivering body and immediately feel him hug me tightly. I know this is probably hard, especially for him. Just last year he was going off to face Voldemort to die… now he's doing it again. He knows what dying feels like when it's being casted by a spell, but this isn't the wizarding world. Getting stabbed to death would most likely hurt – I would know… I wasn't just imagining Pansy screaming when her heart got torn out. The thought makes my own heart feel like it's being ripped out of my chest.

"Remember the plan…" I say near his ear. "If we're the last two-"

"We go down together. I still have some leaves left."

We pull back and I nod, swallowing hard when I think of how intense Marcus' death was when he ate those leaves.

"Right." I say hoarsely, "We go together…" I lean in close to his face and grab his hands into mine. "I love you. I really do."

His eyes get glassy and he releases my hands quickly to wrap his arms around me. "I love you too." His voice is breaking and I can tell he's either crying or trying to hold back.

I sallow hard, trying to stay strong for him, but it's not as easy as it sounds… "We'll be okay…" I say. "I promise, Harry, in the end, everything will be okay."

I feel him nod along with the slight quiver of his shoulders.

"We need to go…" My voice is hardly audible, even for me. But Harry seems to have heard since he pulls back with a curt nod.

His breathing is silent but I can tell by the heavy rise of his chest that he's bracing himself for what will happen in the next few minutes. I bite the inside of my lip and tighten my hand around my axe. I almost forgot I was holding it this entire time – even during the whole dragon episode. Not that I would need this thing or anything, since I'd probably be too afraid to hit Goyle with it after my incident with Blaise. His half sliced face throws a gory image in my head and I shut my eyes to try and forget it; fighting back the nausea. Blaise, Pansy… I need you both right now. Please, someone help me, I can't do this. Goyle he's – okay calm down just calm down… However this ends, at least it'll be over with. Whatever pain I feel or whatever Goyle decides to put me through can never compare to what I've seen these past few weeks.

"Where do you think Goyle is?" Harry asks as we start walking in any direction.

I take a second to think. "The Cornucopia, maybe? He'll be hiding somewhere where he can get a view of everything, but now that the arena is completely open and burnt down by the fire, he can be anywhere. Although, it won't be easy to see much in the dark." My voice is so quivery right now, but I can't help it. It's not because I'm about to cry, because quite frankly, I'm far too scared to even manage a tear.

"I feel like he'd be hiding in a more concealed area. Because, think about it, he's going to want and sneak up on us right? He won't be able to do that here where there are hardly any living trees to hide behind. There must be a place where the fire hasn't hit."

"But… If we're concealed by trees then… he'd just kill us from behind…"

Harry looks at me uneasily, his green eyes shining with worry. "We can't run from him forever, Draco." He has a point, but I'm so afraid of Goyle. Throughout this whole thing he made it seem like his main objective was to torture me to death in the Games. Something tells me he's not just out to stab me and be done with it. Knowing Goyle's sick mind, he'd do the worst. Thinking about all the possibilities makes me feel a bit queasy.

"Okay," I say. "Let's just keep walking until we find trees. Maybe we can use them to our advantage anyway."

Harry nods and we walk in silence for the most part – probably because we're mainly relying on our hearing then our eyes. Considering it's dark and we can't see much anyway, but it's also because we're far too scared to speak to each other. I know every thought that's going on in my head is going on in Harry's as well. We're both wondering how we'd die if we don't end up killing ourselves in the end. Most importantly, we're both wondering if we'd even see the other die. I know Goyle would want that – he would get a lot of pleasure out of watching me witness Harry's death or vies versa. But I'm still intended on making Harry win… If I do die – which I probably will – he needs to be the victor… and I know he will, because he knows that's what I would want, despite how much he argued against it over the past few days. But it still makes me feel selfish, like I want him to win just for my benefit. That's not even remotely true. I want him to win, because he needs to finish this. If I'm not here, I wouldn't be able to do it, and Harry knows just as well as I do that this whole thing needs to end before it continues on any father in the future. I never mentioned this to him in detail, but Harry knows – I know he's aware of it.

It feels like we've been walking for hours when we finally stop to see a side to the arena that's full of trees. But it's across the center arena – where the Cornucopia is. Walking around will literally take hours, but running across can take minutes. Harry and I share looks and I know we're both debating with our eyes – whether we run across or walk around.

"If we run, we'll get there faster." He whispers.

I hesitate but eventually agree with him. "We'll run together on three."

He nods and we both look straight ahead. "One…"

"Two."

We look back at each other nervously. "Three." We're about to dash out in the field when we hear growling in the woods behind us – or what use to be the woods. The sound is so loud it feels like the whole arena is vibrating under my feet. Harry and I freeze and cautiously turn around to face the sound, both of us afraid to move any farther. "What was that?" Harry breathes quietly, eyes wide, searching the arena for the smallest sight of movement.

I swallow hard and fix my eyes in the distance where a thick, but burnt tree is still standing; it looks like it's about to fall into a shower of ash any second. Some bushes are still partly full around it. Clearly the fire didn't hit the place as much.

Slowly, I take a step forward, allowing a thin stick beneath my feet to crack softly against the ground.

"Draco!" Harry whispers quietly, trying to call me back.

I ignore him and walk up closer. Now it sounds like something is moving around that area, but suddenly stops. I swallow hard and turn back to Harry with a shrug. Maybe it was nothing…

Suddenly, his face changes to horror and before he can warn me, I shoot my head back to the tree and out of nowhere a mutt leaps out from behind it. It's like the Game Keepers just made it bolt out of the ground, because the mutts are far too tall and enormous to hide behind a bush or a tree.

Harry grabs my arm and we make a run for it – out into the center of the arena – out in the open.

The mutt – no… mutts are behind us. There's more than one, about five when I turn my head. This… is bad…

Still, I don't slow down and only make my legs move faster. It feels like the whole planet is shaking as these things run after us. Their loud, rumbled roars make the blood in my ears pound.

Panting, but not slowing down, I hear a distant yell and turn my head. My heart almost stops and I almost skid to a halt. It's Goyle, and like us, he's being chased by bears, but he has fewer at his tail – It's dark but I can only see two mutts behind him. He meets my gaze, the evil shine of his cold eyes reflecting in the darkness. As scared as he may be, he still manages his evil look – like he's ready to go in for the kill.

"Goyle…" I say under my breath, making Harry turn his head. I can see his face turn white with horror. He doesn't answer, but he doesn't need to. His face tells me every one of his emotions right now.

Keep going, the faster you get to the woods the better off you'll be!

Yeah right. I can't hide anywhere, especially from these mutts. Almost to the woods, think – do something!

Trees. I can climb a tree. No, but wait, bears can climb trees, and since these mutts are so tall they probably don't need to.

Think, you're getting closer!

I can't… I can't do anything to get away… nothing… I can keep running, but how long can I run for until I'm out of energy? I'm already out of breath. No… I need to face this, no matter how bad it is. Maybe I can get the mutts on my side… Maybe —

Finally we're surrounded by full, untouched, unburnt trees, but we're still being chased. I don't know where Goyle went off to, but Harry's not stopping and neither am I.

"Harry…" I say breathlessly.

"I got an idea. Keep running." He says. So I follow him. It looks like he's using the darkness as a guide because he keeps ducking under the shadow of the trees and out of the light from the stars. I've heard that bears have poor eyesight… but I don't know if that includes these bears. They were made by the Game Keepers so they were probably enhanced so they could see through the dark. Oh well… one plan is better than no plan at all.

Finally it sounds as if the mutts are lagging back and suddenly Harry is grabbing onto my jacket and roughly pulling me behind the thickest and fullest tree around. He pushes me to the ground, on my stomach, and gets down next to me. I start to move, but he pushed his hand on my back. "Stay down." He whispers. I can hear my heart hammering against the ground, like it's about to lung from my chest any second.

We're both trying to keep our breathing silent as we hear the heavy paw steps of the mutts. They're snarling at each other, as if talking in a different language. One of them stops right in front of us, its big, fluffy hind paw just inches from my face. I clamp a hand over my mouth so I don't breathe on its fur, and also so my heavy breathing is not heard.

The mutt sniffs the air and snarls to the others. Finally, they walk away, thumping the ground with their feet as they go. Once they're out of sight and disappear into the woods, Harry and I both exhale and slowly stand up.

"You hurt?" He asks me, pulling a leaf out of the collar of my jacket and tossing it to the ground.

"More or less. You?"

He shrugs, "I'll feel better once this is all over."

I nod, "Now we need to find Goyle." I turn to start our search, only to jump backwards with a gigantic leap of my heart. Goyle's standing face to face with me, leaning against the tree with a smirk on his still bloody face. How long has he been standing there?! I suddenly feel a shock of terror hit me to the point where my knees almost buckle from under me. Looking at the red blotches on his skin shoots images of Pansy's blood showering his face as he stabs her heart out. I back up into Harry, feeling his heavy breathing down my neck and the rapid thumping of his heart against my back.

"Well, well, pretty boy." Goyle reaches a hand out to me and I completely freeze in panic hearing my breathing coming out in shaky spurts as he strokes my cheek with the back of his hand, "Miss me?"

Harry pushes away from me and shoves him into the tree with his arm pressed hard into Goyle's throat, making me jump out of his way, "I told you not to touch him again!"

Goyle smirks and grabs Harry by the hair and tosses him to the ground like a rag doll. I jolt back. Harry lands on his side, yelling loudly in agony as the force of the throw crushes his arm between his body and the ground. He grunts in pain, trying to get back up, but he's hurt, and can't lift himself to his feet. "Fine." Goyle says, inching closer to Harry until he's leaning over him, pinning him to the ground, causing Harry to whine in fear, "I'll kill you first."

I grip my axe tightly before releasing it from my hand, letting it hit the ground with a soft thump. I won't make the mistake in killing him like I killed Blaise. I wrap my arm around Goyle's fat throat from behind, instantly pulling him off of Harry. The two of us are on the ground and he uses his sword to cut the top of my arm. I let him go with a grunt of pain which means letting my guard down. I feel his hand in my hair, and now everything is flashing by. All I can feel is my back being thrashed against the ground – I'm too winded to move.

Looking up, I see Goyle standing over me, his sword raised so it's pointing at the center of my chest. I swallow hard and shut my eyes.

…Nothing happens. But suddenly I feel something wet on my cheek that smells of iron and a faint gagging sound above me all combined with the sound of a blade piercing through flesh.

I open my eyes. My hearts feels like it stopped beating, and my blood goes cold. Harry is leaning over me, blood running from his mouth. I feel like I can't breathe. My eyes are so wide, and my limps quivering to the bone. No… NO!

"H-Harry…?"

I trail my eyes down to his chest where Goyle's sword is pierced through the middle. My mouth hangs open, letting a little squeaking sound of shock and disbelief escape me. The crimson stain on his white T-shirt is stretching quickly until all I see is scarlet. I bring my watery eyes back up to him only to see more blood oozing from the sides of his mouth. He manages a weak smile and inhales hesitantly, causing his breath to hitch painfully. Small tears run from his still beautiful green eyes, despite the sad and terrified look within them. "Draco…" He says hoarsely. "Forget the plan…"

Goyle slides his sword out from his back, making Harry grip the ground besides me hard, so that his fingers are digging into the dirt. His shirt is completely soaked with blood, allowing a bit to drip onto me.

"You have to win." He says and shuts his eyes, landing limp beside me.

"No… Harry…" Tears take over my eyes until everything is blurry. I suddenly hear the cannon and my heart starts hammering even more. I grip onto Harry's jacket and shake him roughly, "NO, HARRY. WAKE UP! YOU CAN'T DIE – YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME!" But he doesn't answer me. I shake my head, unable to believe this is really happening.

I've never seen him covered in this much blood and I… I don't know… I don't know what to do… he's not dead – he can't be dead – he didn't just give his own life for me. "HARRY WAKE UP." I look at his lifeless face for a moment. Even at the start of the Games he managed to keep that perfect attitude – even though everything was going to Hell, he still help that smile on his face like that day might have been his last. He was always so… he was just so amazing, like this was just an everyday thing and he didn't care. And even when we met his hopes and positive attitude only seemed to feel more alive. Even I felt more alive when I was with him. Now… I'm just not use to seeing him this pale or feeling this cold. Those green eyes… they'll never open again… I'll never see him again…

I shake my head and press my forehead to his shoulder, "Please… wake up, Harry…"

"How dramatic…" Goyle says dully, "Who knew killing this little runt would be this easy?"

I grip onto Harry's jacket tightly, leaning in closer to his ear, gently running my fingers through his jet black hair, "I'm doing the rest of this for you…" I whisper and kiss his temple gently finally, letting him go and standing to my shaky feet to face this monster.

"Ohh…" He says. "Look at you. I just killed the love of your life and you still manage to look at me with death in those stormy eyes of yours. Kinda like the angry look."

I say nothing and just ball up my fists. "So now what?" He says, "Are you gonna go down easily now?"

I remember what Snape said before I went to the hovercraft: "You don't have to fight him… Run… You're a good runner – you're fast. Goyle isn't – you're smarter and stronger than he is. Trick him."

I try to look at him boldly, even though tears are staining my cheeks, "I'll go down easily," I say weakly, dropping my shocked eyes down at Harry once more. I shut them tight, letting some tears run down my pale cheeks. Finally, I look up at the Devil. "But you have to catch me first."

AN: Don't worry, it's not over yet. Juuuuust keep reading ;D Now, I'm gonna go continue listening to my friend on the radio :D (*waves* HI JAMIE)