The Fallout by EveryThursday (reposted)

Twenty-One

He raised an eyebrow and turned, sauntering away with both girls glaring at his back.

Day: 1442; Hour: 15

They find the building in ashes, wood still smoldering with the crawl of fire and smoke still darkening the sky. Tree branches bow out to them, weighed heavy with ash and the buds of coming spring. They couldn't help but wonder if they had known they were coming.

Day: 1442; Hour: 21

"It doesn't bother you?" Draco asks this question out of nowhere, and she jumps because she didn't even know he was in the room. She had been too busy staring at the jug of orange juice and wondering why he had put it back. Gross.

"What?" Then again, she doubts that she has room to talk about his germs.

"That Potter will be raved about in history as if he did the whole damn thing singlehandedly."

"He deserves it."

"We don't?"

She finally turns from the fridge, questions about jealousy on her tongue but she swallows them. She will not go there, because she doesn't think he deserves for her to. "Harry has lived his whole life with this as his destiny. He sacrificed a lot--"

"Yes, living with Weasley in some comfortable housing, having every Ministry and Order high-up with their heads shoved up his ass and--"

"Don't you dare take away from what he's gone through and has done. If Harry hadn't been able to kill Voldemort, we would have lost no matter what we-"

"And if we hadn't fought for years before that, Potter would have been dead along with--"

"Harry didn't have the choice like we did! He--"

"No one had a choice! Everyone who ended up in this fucking war did it because they didn't have another choice! Whether it be because they knew the world would go to hell along with their own lives, or because they were trying to guarantee the survival of their friends, family, or their own selves, no one had the choice."

"That is a lie! Ev--"

"You're so bloody stupid! You are so unaware of the bullshit that comes out of your mouth, and I can't help but wonder if you're one of those liars who can't convince anyone but themselves about what they say!"

"What are you on about?" Hermione exclaimed, throwing up her hands.

"All that shit you fed to Brown. I know your mighty noble act, Granger, and--"

"That was the truth!"

"Bullshit! Bull. Shit. You've given up all you know of your former life to be in this war, and with a sacrifice like that, you want to be remembered for it. Everyone in the world wants to be remembered for something, and--"

"Don't pretend you know me! Don't. You. Dare. Because if you knew me at all, you would know that I don't want to be remembered for this! I don't want to be remembered for having killed people, and--"

"Oh, come off it, you--"

"--something that bettered society, and wasn't achieved through violent means but--"

"--fucking high horse, always taking the high road but ducking your head--"

"--not that I'm not proud of having done the best I could here, but I don't need some sort of--"

"--like it or not, that's what had to be done, and what has always had to be done. People know that when you--"

"--have a choice. You had a choice, and you chose to--"