3rd Person POV:

Many tears had been shed, more than Draco would have expected. He was always one who found it hard to believe that people cared for him when they had not particularly been so fond of him. The public saw it as a sad story, and no one, they felt, should ever have to endure that. They called him "strong-willed" and "so motivated to live out life," but they didn't know him that well. His real friends knew how he was losing his grip, and how he had tried not to cry. The ones who knew him best of all, only two, shed more than tears for dear Draco. Their hearts, they told people, felt broken, as if a large part of life had been removed from them; as if their own limbs had been ripped off from their bodies and forced to bleed out all their love to him; as if their entire world had fallen apart. But most of all, they cried because people were watching.

Narcissa Malfoy had been interviewing with the Daily Prophet when she had shared her story. "The world has to know," she said, "about the story of my dear son, and stop such a thing from ever happening again."

And when Rita Skeeter handed her a tissue and thanked her for her time, Narcissa used the tissue to dab away the water falling in drops from her eyes. The moment Rita closed the door, she sighed and looked back over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were sitting on the other side of the room, trying with all their might to pass their tears of laughter off as tears of grief, the least successful being Ron.

"And when you said that he had sought to befriend everyone he met, I almost lost it." Ron doubled over in his laughter.

Hermione smacked Ron, but was trying to hide her own chuckles. "Ron! Draco's not that bad! I mean," she looked to Narcissa, who's eyes were very much dry now with a smile showing up as well, "you did go a little overboard with his will, and how everyone will miss him."

Narcissa shrugged. "Well, I had to make it believable."

"Is it really so hard to stay serious for my obituary?" said a voice from nowhere, "Honestly…I hope you all aren't this happy at my funeral. People may start to think you've lost your marbles."

Harry smiled and pulled the invisibility cloak off Draco. Draco immediately went to fix his hair, feeling that the cloak had messed it up.

"I can't lie, the funeral is going to be the hardest." Harry turned to Mrs. Malfoy. "You couldn't have said a story that doesn't sound so absurd when your son is in the room, alive?"

"No," she smiled. "My poor son Draco, may he rest in peace, needs only the best for his obituary."

Draco rolled his eyes with a grin. "Alright, alright. Quit speaking about me like I'm dead."

"Oh, but you are dead, Draco." Hermione smiled.

"Only to the public!"

They all shared in a laugh.

Within the coming days it shall occur… The prophecy went. On the anniversary of a secret only the two themselves know, a living force abandoned by the young heir rises… The orphaned one knows this force well as it returns to him at last…strength too large to deny envelops around an enmity. Upon their bodies they bare marks of separate paths…yet their future intertwined indefinitely…their bodies…marked by separate paths…

And it had come true. The force had risen, and spared Draco his life when the dreaded moment had come. As Dumbledore (or rather, his portrait) had explained to them, Harry had died for all of Hogwarts and his students over a year ago, Draco being one of them. And when Harry had realized that Draco had been the person he had fallen in love with, the magical force had doubled, and reflected back at its caster. While many tears were shed for Draco, the same cannot be said for Lucius.

The day went on as morning faded to day, and day to night, and the group found themselves tired.

"I'll see ya later, mate."

"Bye, Harry!"

"We have had a wonderful time. Come, Draco."

Harry bid them all farewell and sat quietly in his room, staring about until the sun had finished setting. His legs stood, and carried him out the door, out the hall, down the staircase, through the empty Great Hall, and across the entrance until he found himself looking at the edge of Hogwarts grounds. He stepped across the invisible border and turned on the spot with a crack and a whirl of colors.

His feet touched ground again, but finding soft grass instead of hard stone. A smile, natural as anything around him, came to his face as he heard a voice in the distance. He guessed where the voice was coming from, and followed his ears over to a giant hole in the ground covered a bit with grass. He climbed through it, and followed the now lighted path to the lake. As he came closer, he began to make out words.

"I don't know, Paisley. Usually I would try and touch it, but what if it really is glass? Then what do I do?"

Harry stepped out into the moonlight, past the edge of the forest, and sat next to a boy now with bright blue eyes and black hair. The boy looked at him and smiled, taking off his ring and changing back into his normal self, with grey eyes and pale hair.

"You didn't hear that, did you?"

Harry shrugged with a grin. "Well, I might have."

Draco nodded, a bit embarrassed. "Of course you did…" The voices of the doctors at St. Mungo's rang through his head. We've seen some serious things like this before with the Crustaceous Curse. He may be a bit mentally unstable from so much pain, but he isn't completely gone…completely gone…

As if reading his thoughts, Harry put an arm around Draco and said, "I don't care if you think you're crazy. I think you're perfect, and only I can have you."

They looked into each other's eyes, grey and green and red and grey again. The marbles didn't lie. And neither did prophecies.

In the moonlight, their lips met tenderly, thanking the world for the time they had, for many times there had been question as to if they would ever get to this point. The water beside them glittered, and the night was perfect. Together, they enjoyed that their new life would be free.

Their bare skin touched, and ecstasy filled the air with heat. Draco gasped for air and whispered into Harry's ear.

"Take me. I'm yours."

Back at the Burrow, Hermione was cleaning up around her room. She just hated sleeping in a dirty room at night, and Mrs. Weasley was thrilled that there was another girl in the house who hated messy rooms. She rummaged through all her papers, finding one folded up. She hardly ever folded up papers, and found it curious. She couldn't remember what it was, and so she opened it up.

Objective: Get Harry and Draco together

Plan:
convince the other
force them to date
disguise them and then have them date
love potion

What to use for disguises:
rings rings
socks
shoes

Ring 1 for Draco, ring 2 for Harry

She read the last part over. "Bloody hell…" she said under her breath.

She had given them the wrong rings. Ring 1 was made of wood, meant for Draco with gold and with a grey stone so they wouldn't match his other rings. It had said, "The one and the only," which was supposed to be a reference to his family, since he was a Malfoy and the only heir, and that was what he hated most about himself. Ring 2 was made of copper, meant for Harry, turning silver with a black and a green stone. Inscribed on it had been, "To be or not to be," to make Harry question if he really wanted to be famous or not, since he had been asking himself that question for years. She had gotten them mixed up, and now there was no lesson absorbed by the boys. In the shallow end, she had been successful, but with the deep stuff…she had failed.

"Well," she said to herself with a sigh, "what's done is done." She tossed the paper into the pile of trash she had started, and continued on with her cleaning, feeling no remorse for her mistake, as life had gone ahead and taught the boys their own lessons.

After a long week or two, the Minister sat behind his desk still, rubbing his forehead. His secretary was growing worried for him, since he was falling behind on work and not leaving until late into the night. She stepped into his office quietly.

"Minister, has something been bothering you?"

Kingsley looked up and nodded slowly. "I have reason to believe I am not as cut out for this job as once thought. I much prefer to be involved with whatever is going on, not just handling the paperwork for it."

"Minister, why not just hire an assistant to take care of that for you?"

"That is a good idea," he said, "but who would I hire? I can't even find a replacement for an Auror, and that was once a sought after position."

Sheepishly, she offered, "I would do your paperwork for you. I have loads of time on my hands, just sitting at my desk all day." She looked to the Minister. "And you could offer Harry Potter the Auror position. If you've noticed, he has a liking for combating dark magic."

"Of course," the Minister said. "Yes, Harry Potter would be a wonderful Auror. I'll offer him the job tomorrow morning," he said. "For now," he stood, "I believe it is time to rest." His secretary nodded and scurried away, happy to help. The Minister took one more look at the last paper on his desk, the last paper he would ever look at if his secretary was honest in her offer to become his assistant. He had read it a few times over, wondering to himself how he had ever let something like this happen, almost twice. He sighed, and decided he may need some lessons in character from Harry Potter himself, as he was not only famously known for defeating the Dark Lord, but also being able to resist the Imperious Curse. He waved his wand, and a large stamp appeared, to which he pressed hard against the paper right under the title to that read:

Azkaban sentence for Narcissa Malfoy
PARDONED

The Minister smiled, happy that in the end, everything worked out for the better. And all thanks to a brave and good-hearted, soon-to-be-Auror.

Basking in the moonlight, Harry and Draco were fast asleep, bare in each other's arms, feeling the happiest they had ever felt. They might have never known it before, or even now, but love had saved them, and love would continue every day to save them.

They slept on, unconsciously knowing this to be true.