The Third War by dumbledorefluertwins
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Harry walked through the graveyard. Even though it was pitch black, he knew exactly where to go. He finally stopped and knelt down at a black marble slab, with some gold writing.
One day we’ll understand
what made you see
the goodness
inside you.
Thank you, Draco Malfoy.
Harry didn’t bother reading the dates. He knew them off by heart. He could never forget that day.
“Please do not kill him my Lord!” Voldemort stared at Draco with disbelieving eyes. Draco was standing in between Voldemort and Harry, who was also disbelieving.
“You foolish boy! You dare betray me when I’m about to become all powerful? You shall pay for it later…” And with that, Voldemort flicked his wand. Draco soared ten meters into the air and slammed into a tree, where ropes magically tied him to the tree, like snakes. He fought against them in vain, before giving up and watching Harry and Voldemort begin their duel.
“Hello, Draco,” Harry said, weakly. He traced the golden letters with his finger, reading and re-reading the inscription by the faint light his wand produced. An owl hooted somewhere. The wind rustled the tree leaves. A dog was howling in the village nearby. All these sounds didn’t matter to Harry. He could hear them, but only distantly, as if heard through a closed door. He could hear the screams from his past much louder.
Bellatrix laughed as she watched Snape torture Draco. She laughed even harder as Greyback levitated Harry several meters into the air and dropped him. Greyback gave a cackle as he heard Harry’s leg break.
“Stop, Greyback!” She said, grinning. “I want my fun! Crucio!” She lifted the curse several minutes after casting it. Harry looked at her, a defiant look in his eyes.
“What do you want?” He asked, his voice hoarse, blood trickling down from his head into his eyes. Bellatrix laughed again.
“I want revenge for killing my master…and I intend to get it…Sectumsempra!”
“Funny isn’t it?” Harry said to the grave. “How something that happened so long ago can affect you so much…I still get nightmares. When the children found out they got even worse… I wonder if it had been different… if you’d have managed to hang on a little while longer… what the world would have thought of you… would it have mattered that you were a Death Eater? Probably. Some Ministry prat would have tried to have you arrested. Someone like Umbridge. Or Percy.
But it seems that because you died that day, you were innocent “ they’ve even put up a memorial for you, in Hogwarts. Well, in the grounds anyway.” Harry’s fingers were still tracing the words in the stone.
Harry could no longer fight them off. He had broken most of his ribs, a large gash across his chest meant that he had lost a lot of blood and every time he tried to breathe in, a searing pain erupted in the right side of his chest. He managed to catch Draco’s eye in one of those rare moments that neither of them were being tortured. ‘Pretend to be dead.’ He used his occlumency skills to send the message over and over again until he heard Draco’s voice in his head.
‘Will do, Harry.’ Harry watched Draco fall to the earth with a thunk. He saw Snape kick Draco over and stare at his unblinking grey eyes.
“Dead.” All the Death Eaters laughed and continued to hurt Harry for another few minutes before he too, faked dead.
“Do you remember when we faked dead? We kept sending messages to each other with occlumency to make sure that we were both alive,” Harry said with a small, sad smile. “And I was desperately trying not to breathe too loudly “ because, whenever I did, I sort of… gasped. I needn’t have bothered. They were all too drunk and laughing too loud to notice.
They didn’t go away for ages… and all that kept me alive was thinking of the people that loved me and being with them, without Voldemort hanging over our heads like a naked sword.
“But you, you didn’t have anybody to picture. Your parents were dead and never really cared for you anyway. All of your friends had turned against you when they found out you were the reason Dumbledore died. You had no one.”
Finally, the Death Eaters left. Harry listened, to make sure they were all gone.
CRACK, one, CRACK, two, CRACK, three, CRACK, four, CRACK, five. They were gone. Harry dragged himself over to Draco, leaving a trail of what precious blood he had left.
“What…made you…change sides?” Harry gasped - the pain in his chest unbearable. Draco looked at him and shrugged.
“It was the decent thing to do. I’ve seen a lot of people die. I wouldn’t have joined the Death Eaters in the first place if it weren’t for my father. But he’s dead now. Where’s your wand? Mine’s useless “ it snapped. Unless, of course, you have enough magical power to Apparate us both to St. Mungo’s? I bloody haven’t.” Draco seemed uninjured, there was no blood, he could talk easily…but Harry could see in his eyes that there were many internal injuries.
“I…I think I drop…dropped it…over there.” Harry dragged himself over to the wand and summoned up the last drops of his magic to produce a silvery stag, which galloped off into the distance. Draco crawled over and flopped down next to him, his energy too, all but lost.
“What was that?”
“It’s the Orders… way of… com…communicating “ I…I sent it to Ron…”
“How quick is it?”
Harry shrugged. They lay there for a while, neither having the energy to speak. Soon, darkness consumed Harry.
The sky was now casting a warm orange glow over the graveyard and birds were beginning to sing their first song of the day.
“I thought that you would survive. Your injuries seemed…well… non-existent. I was told later that, because they took pleasure in seeing me bleed, in seeing several of bones my bones break, that they didn’t use the cruciatus curse on me as much as they did you. I had a punctured lung, five broken ribs and several other injures but you…
“You were just tortured. They told me that even if you had managed to survive, you would have been like the Longbottom’s. Maybe even worse. Apparently you would’ve fallen into insanity slowly, that’s why you could talk to me.”
“Harry, Harry…”a gentle voice said soothingly in his ear. Harry opened his eyes. He was lying in a forest, with tall, silver trees and the peaceful sounds of birds and rushing water. He was on a soft carpet of thick, green grass and fallen tree leaves of more shades of golden brown than he could name. Droplets of water hung in the srubs, bushes and grass like glistening diamonds. He sat up and, looking down, saw that he was wearing white robes.
“Harry.” He looked straight ahead and saw his mother and father smiling at him. Just behind them were Sirius, Dumbledore, Cedric, Neville, Luna and Charlie Weasley. His mother stretched out her hand to him. He gaped at his loved ones, but before he could react-
“HARRY!” His eyes snapped open and he found himself staring into Ron’s face.
“Stay awake, Harry “ I’m taking you to St. Mungo’s.”
“No…wait.” He turned his head slowly; the pain was unbearable, but he didn’t know where it was coming from. He could see Draco’s pale form lying next to him, his eyes closed, his face showing no emotion.
Harry lifted an aching arm with difficulty and shook Draco’s shoulder. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Ron’s voice was very distant, and Harry could hear his own raspy breaths loud and clear.
Draco’s shoulder was very cold.
“Wake up,” he whispered hoarsely. It was the loudest that he could manage with his throat parched of water.
“Wake…up! Ron’s here! It’s… okay now… wake up…”
“Leave him, Harry! You’re dying! I need to get you to hospital!” Ron’s words seemed so trivial “ so unimportant. If they were important they’d be louder, wouldn’t they? Wait. What was he thinking!? He couldn’t leave Ron! Or Ginny or Hermione or Lupin! He had to fight. But he was so tired…
He could hear the rushing water again… he felt a very strange sensation, as though he was being squeezed down a rubber tube. He didn’t like it…he could hear his mother’s voice…and lots of shouting…he was on a bed being pushed down a corridor…the lights overhead were very bright…they hurt his eyes…
“Stay with me, Harry!” That was an unfamiliar voice “ what if it was a Death Eater? Panic swept through him and everything went black.
“Goodbye, Draco.”