Beautiful World ~ 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑹𝑹𝒀

Chapter 20

"The end never justifies the means, Draco."

"They bloody well do when the end is Harry's death!" Draco cried. "What does it matter how you stop it, as long as Harry doesn't die? What does it matter what book you find the answer in? A book can't be good or bad, it's only knowledge, and it's how that knowledge is used that makes it good or bad! How can saving Harry be bad?"

"You haven't yet learned the full nature of magic, Draco. In a few years, maybe you'll understand."

"I want to understand now."

Looking weary, Dumbledore said, "Each time magic is used, the energy of it travels through the mind and the body, leaving a mark, like a fingerprint. It cannot be erased. Most magic is ambivalent. It is neither good nor bad. Other magic is inherently bad, and it leaves a stain. It corrupts, multiplies and spreads like a disease. I will not condone the use of dark magic, there is far too much of it in the world already it."

"You would rather let Harry die?"

"I would give my life for Harry, but I will not make others suffer. If I were to use dark magic to save him, I do not know if I have the power to resist the spread of it inside me. I will not let myself use dark magic to save Harry if it means there is even a slight chance that it will overtake me."

It didn't make sense to Draco, there wasn't anything he wouldn't risk if it meant even a chance that Harry would be alright. "Never mind," he snapped. "I'll do it myself."

He turned to walk away and Dumbledore called his name quietly. Draco turned back, and Dumbledore said, "Good luck. And be careful with him, Draco. You're the one he wants to protect him through all of this. Sirius and I will do what we can, but it's you he wants."

Draco didn't know what to say to that, so he just nodded and walked away.

***

It took him a long moment to realize that the roof above him was not his own. Panic ensued, because the shadows weren't stretching the same way and the stone did not twist into the familiar cracks and bumps. Sitting up and sucking in a startled breath, he glanced around.

Draco's bed. Slytherin house. He'd... they'd kissed. Oh god, he'd told! Told Draco that he was going to die! That made it real.

"Oh god." Oh god. Before he could stop to think about it, Harry was up and out of the room. He ran through the common room, blinded by tears, secure only in the knowledge that he could only deny this if he never saw Draco again. Because now Draco knew, which meant that it was more than just a cruel trick being played on him by Dumbledore, which Sirius was going along with. That wasn't all that rational either, but easier to believe than that he was going to die.

He ran through the halls, empty now as first class was well under way. Into the Gryffindor common room, up the stairs, he flew into his room, and the door slamming against the wall with all the force of his panic.

He'd run in the opposite direction of Hogsmeade, like Draco had said. Run fast. Maybe fly. Flying was faster. No one could catch Harry on a broom.

Swallowing shakily, Harry nodded to himself and threw his trunk open. He didn't have much time. He had to leave, get out before Draco told anyone, before everyone knew. Before Draco came back and looked at him because Harry just knew that something in the way Draco saw him would have changed, and that change would be there, in his eyes, and Harry couldn't stand the idea of something in Draco's eyes changing.

He emptied his books out of his book bag and started cramming other things into it instead, things he couldn't see living without. Invisibility cloak, some clothes, a bit of money... After a short hesitation, he slipped the album of his parents into his bag as well, and then grabbed his broom, glancing around the room. What else?