"My greatest moment of intimacy, was not the evening we took all of our clothes off. But it was when you saw me at my most difficult state. Like how you witnessed the most unloveable parts of me. As I slowly unraveled each imperfection in front of you like a scar. And despite all of this, you loved me harder anyway."
-Conee Berdera
They had fallen in love fast and hard yet it was the easiest thing they had ever done.
Draco had fallen for the green-eyed boy years ago in a small robe shop, still full of dreams of the future.
Harry doesn't know when his dislike of blonde Slytherin changed into a fond soft warmth, but his obsession was hard to mask as hatred.
It seemed as they got older there were more and more obstacles in the way of them calling off their rivalry. Family, friends, war. How could they set their barbed words aside when to do so would cause pain and anger and confusion when they needed to be a united front to survive.
But their attraction and fascination with each other was like a magnetizing force pulling them together repeatedly until one day what should have ended in violence and bloodshed between them, instead ended in soft kisses and whispered confessions and apologies.
Two broken boys falling apart at each other's feet and praying the other would put them back together again for the world was too heavy for both of their shoulders.
"In this space right here that we have made for each other, you can say anything and I will not abandon you. Unwrap the worst things you have done. Watch me hold them up to the light and not even flinch"
-Unknown
They met in secret, hiding away in abandoned classrooms and dusty alcoves, just to bask in each other's presence for a moment more. Whispering confessions to the other about their dreams, hopes, sins, and heartbreaks.
Draco revealed his tattooed arm and his deepest fears of becoming like his father. Confessed to Harry how much he worried for his mother's safety and how scared he was of dying in this war. Draco spoke with trembling hands and fumbling words about his love for Harry, how he hated their fights but he could not stand to be away from him even if that meant fighting. His greatest fear of not being able to love Harry or Harry not loving him, for that would be his end.
"The fire can't touch me, for I have burned one too many times
& the sea can't harm me, for I've been drowning all my life.
Oh but you could rip my heart open, darling,
for I have never known love before."
- R. / asthreria
Harry spoke of how much he hated their fights too. How even before he had fallen in love with Draco he hated to throw insults and didn't enjoy hurting others because he had been hurt like that before. Harry spoke of his role in the war and his fear of getting everyone else killed. He even confessed quietly his treatment at the hands of the Dursleys and how that impacted their first meeting all those years ago in the robe shop. How even now the power his relatives held over him. The flinches at casual touches, the fear of doing well in his classes, the forgotten childish wonder so many others had. Harry never got to be a child and that made Draco weep all the more for this war that would tear both of the childhoods apart.
"I've been dead for a while
I died in that house
No one ever noticed
Because I am physically moving through life
But the rest of me is still in that house
The death of my childhood"
-darkoceans
With their souls laid bare to each other, it was little wonder how tightly they would wind around the other, a suffocating codependency to keep from falling apart. It got to the point they had to tell others about their truce and their love because they could not stand to be apart as the war grew. There were lots of arguments. Harsh words of disbelief that they could truly be in love with each other, that the other wasn't just waiting to hurt them more. They stood strong though, took all the harsh words and soften them with their love for their family, friends, and each other.
"I'm not mad at myself for giving m love to the wrong people;
they probably needed it the most."
-faraway
But even love couldn't stop the war from reaching into their lives and tearing everything apart.
Draco was still a death eater with a mark on his arm connecting him to his master that could and would torture him through that mark if he suspected betrayal.
Harry was still everyone's hope for salvation, the chosen one, leading the light side in the absence of Albus Dumbledore.
Sacrifices had to be made but they still loved even when torn apart.
"But the Moon and the Sun loved each other so much, they were by each other's side everyday. This confused people greatly, for no one could tell whether it was day or night.
To correct this, the Gods separated them, cursing them to chase each other in the sky forever, always apart."
-Unknown
When they were captured Harry knew Draco should admit to who he was to save himself and his family, but he didn't.
Draco knew he needed to get Harry out of Malfoy Manor before Voldemort arrived, even if it meant his own death. He mourned silently that he could be signing the death warrant for his parents as well, but Harry needed to live. More than Draco's love for Harry was his faith that Harry would end this pointless war. That the next time two little boys met up in a robe shop to go to Hogwarts, they could fall in love and there would be no obstacles to keep them apart.
"Some days I'm Van Gogh's Starry Night,
other days I'm his suicide letter."
-Via -souu-h
Harry cried and screamed as they left Malfoy Manor, not knowing if he would see Draco again.
But the war continued so must he.
Harry cried again as he saw the platinum blonde hair of Draco when they made it back to Hogwarts. There was no time for soft words and reassurances, but the love in Draco's eyes filled Harry's veins. And Draco found time for one more stolen kiss behind a tapestry as the war waged around them. Harsh breaths and soft words of love before having to go back out and try to survive.
And then Harry watched Snape's memories after seeing the man murdered.
Harry had to die. Harry had to leave his family, friends, and Draco behind to walk to his death.
"And God,
please let the deer
on the highway
get some kind of heaven.
Something with tall soft grass
and sweet reunion.
Let the moths in porch lights
go some place
with a thousand suns,
that taste like sugar
and get swallowed whole.
May the mice
in oil and glue
have forever dry, warm fur
and full bellies.
If I am killed
for simply living,
let death be kinder
than man."
-Unknown
Draco felt his body go numb and then his mind. Tears were rushing down his face before he could even think to hold them back and a scream clawed its way out of his throat.
There lay Harry dead in Hagrid's arms.
His love, his light, his sun.
He felt power burn within him and without thinking about the consequences or probabilities of his survival he attack Voldemort.
It was a vicious surprise attack that the Dark Lord had no idea was coming and was unprepared to be fending off spell fire coming from his own side.
Less than an hour after Harry Potter died, the Dark Lord Voldemort was killed by Draco Malfoy.
In less fanfare Harry's friends also killed Nagini.
It was done, Voldemort was gone.
But at the price of Harry Potter's life and Draco's love.
After the final battle some unimportant ministry lackey tried to be inspirational to the downtrodden fighters.
"Survivors have scars
Victims have graves."
-Unknown
Such a bullshit line made Draco stand up, drawing everyone's attention to the grieving man.
"Survivors have scars but Harry Potter was no victim! He was a survivor who set his life aside so we could all live! Live with our scars and grief. For 'what is grief if not love persevering.' And Harry did nothing but love. We owe him that."
Draco's voice was cracked with grief and love for Harry. He wanted to join him in the afterlife, but he knew he had to stay.
"Eternity with you will never be enough.
No matter how hard it gets,
I will never have enough of you."
-Johnson
Draco never did find another love like Harry.
He accepted an arranged marriage from his mother because he would take quiet companionship even in the absence of his true love.
He had a son who he taught things he had learned from an abused green-eyed little boy that had grown up in a broom cupboard and dreamed of sunlight, flying, and falling in love and being loved one day.
"'Why are you so nice
even to people
who are rude to you?'
'Because I, too, have been rude
to nice people,
& I know that rudeness
comes from a place of roaring pain.
& Only kindness soothes it.'"
-By The Word
When Draco finally passed in his sleep in his old age, he woke up on a bright white train platform,
And in front of him still looking 17 was his love holding out his hand to him, a peaceful smile on his face.
"I think we deserve
a soft epilogue, my love.
We are good people
and we've suffered enough."
-Seventy Years of Sleep #4
The End