It all ends here...
~~~
Time stood still. You half-wondered if it would start raining, judging by the colors of the clouds in the sky. Your arms were still outstretched, your face still turned towards the grey canopy above you.
You were waiting for Voldemort to kill you.
Everyone in the crowd that was watching everything seemed to collectively hold their breath, waiting for the dark wizard to follow through on the threat he'd made only moments before. The one you had dared him to follow through on. You'd exposed your entire torso so he could kill you. And now, either time had slowed down so much it had actually stopped, or the Dark Lord himself was chickening out.
You almost couldn't decide which one was more likely, but the commotion you heard caused you to finally look away from the sky and stop thinking about Lord Voldemort being a chickenshit.
Your heart skipped approximately fourteen beats when you saw Harry Potter's dead body on the ground. Your first thought was that Hagrid had dropped the poor Gryffindor's body—because how the fuck do you do that—but your heart stilled completely when you saw the boy move.
The crowd gasped all at once all over again when Harry twitched again—before he stood up. Your heart was out of your chest. You couldn't believe he was alive. You were so relieved that he wasn't dead, it took all of your willpower to not immediately run to him and sling your arms around his neck.
Voldemort, however, was not as happy as you were about Harry being alive. But his attention had been diverted by Harry jumping back into the land of the living, and you had begun slowly walking backwards into the sea of people you'd come out of.
Your elbow was grabbed roughly by someone you had your back turned towards—and before you could react, you'd been pulled into their arms.
"You're fucking insane," snarled a voice into your ear, one you immediately recognized as Draco's. You didn't have time to respond before he'd pulled you as far back in the crowd of people as he could. You didn't want to go inside the castle. Juniper's body was still in there, and you wanted to make sure Harry would be okay. You knew deep down that if Voldemort had failed to kill him twice now, he'd probably be fine—but you didn't want to forget about him again. the last time you'd gotten wrapped up in yourself, you'd found out he was dead.
"What are you talking about?" you whispered back. Nobody in front of you even spared either of you a glance, they were too enthralled in what was taking place in front of the crowd.
"I know you aren't asking me what the fuck I'm talking about," Draco growled in response. "Challenging fucking Voldemort, y/n. That was the dumbest fucking thing you could've done."
You rolled your eyes. The adrenaline was still pumping through your body. Was he acting like waiting for your own death wasn't a big deal in and of itself?
"I didn't have another choice, Draco," you responded. "My parents are in hiding, who the fuck knows where. You trying to protect me would've just ended up in your death too. I figured if I was going to die, I'd at least get some fucking good last words in."
Draco's eyes were wild. You could tell he was livid. But the yelling up front had gotten too loud by then, it drew the attention of both of you away from each other.
Harry had his wand out, and he was in about the same spot that you'd been in just a few minutes before. You tuned into the words that were being shouted, hoping to figure out what was about to happen.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry cried, and you watched as the Elder Wand was briefly flung from Voldemort's hands. The dark wizard quickly caught it, of course, his malicious laugh filling the air soon after.
"You stupid boy," he jeered, immediately pointing his wand at Harry. "You honestly thought that spell would be able to do anything but briefly delay your own demise? Are you daft?"
Harry didn't respond. He simply continued to stare Voldemort down.
You wondered why he'd done that. It wasn't like it had changed anything going on.
Then it hit you. Harry had forced the wand out of Voldemort's hands, essentially stealing it.
The allegiance of the Elder Wand now belonged to Harry Potter.
You turned to Draco to tell him this, but the look he met your eyes with told you he'd met the same realization.
Harry and Voldemort stared at each other, the tension growing thicker in the air with each second passing by. The tension was icing on the cake of malice, hatred, and pure, unadulterated evil, and you wondered who would break it first: the boy who lived, or the Dark Lord that had failed to kill him.
It ended up being Voldemort who cast a spell first, a bright green ray that you were certain was another Killing Curse erupting from the tip of his wand. Harry was quick to meet it with one of his own, a neon red spell erupting from his own, colliding directly with the green magic pouring from the Elder Wand.
The sound that it made was explosive, two strains of magic meeting in the middle. The light that came from the colliding spells was blinding, and you and the rest of the crowd nearly had to shield your eyes from the brightness.
"Bloody hell," Draco mumbled from beside you, though you could barely hear his voice. "Potter's done it."
You knew Draco was right, but there was nothing that needed to be said to acknowledge it. He knew the same thing you did: that Harry was about to win the war, once and for all.
The green light from Voldemort's wand started to encroach on Harry's ever so slightly, and you held your breath in anticipation. You heard a crack seconds later, and almost immediately Harry's red magic began to dwarf the spell that Voldemort had cast. Seconds ticked by and the red light grew closer to Voldemort, and the dark wizard was beginning to yell; whether in panic or anger, you couldn't quite tell.
Just when it seemed to be over, you saw Voldemort's snake slithering through the crowd, headed directly for Harry. You gasped in horror, unable to do anything but watch. You'd heard that the snake never left Voldemort's side, but you'd only seen Nagini in person once, during one of the many meetings you'd had with him and Draco. You knew Voldemort was fiercely protective of his snake, and the snake would do anything for her master. And now you watched, completely aghast, as the scene unfolded. You couldn't do anything about it, and you were sure Harry was too distracted to notice the snake coming straight for him.
But at the very last moment, you watched Neville Longbottom, a Gryffindor you only vaguely knew from Herbology classes and occasionally seeing him with Harry, burst through the crowd. A noise you could only describe as a war cry came from the Gryffindor boy's mouth as he sliced the sword of Godric Gryffindor cleanly through the air, taking off Nagini's head in one perfect cut. Your knees nearly buckled in relief, especially as the snake screamed as it died. You couldn't believe you'd forgotten about her, she'd almost certainly been a Horcrux herself. But you were immensely grateful to Neville, more than you could fathom, because now you knew everything was finally almost over.
And you were right, as the battle between the Dark Lord and the Boy Who Lived didn't last much longer. The red spell finally splintered through the Elder Wand and into Voldemort, and the shout that sounded from the Dark Lord became one of obvious, intense pain. You finally released the breath you'd been holding when you watched the Elder Wand clatter to the stone ground beneath it, Voldemort following its path and crumbling merely seconds later.
Harry let up on his spell finally, the red strain of powerful magic dissipating as quickly as it had shot out. He didn't move from his spot, however, he stayed where he was and continued to observe Voldemort, lying crumpled on the ground just a few feet away from him.
Voldemort let out a weak cough, and you realized this was it. Voldemort was going to die.
You couldn't tear your eyes away, and you could believe what you were seeing even less. A few weak coughs later, and the Dark Wizard began to turn to dust before your eyes, disintegrating into the morning air and blowing away in the breeze.
He was gone.
The silence that enveloped the crowd was complete, nearly suffocating. Harry turned around slowly, facing the rest of the crowd and collapsing into a heap on the ground. You immediately rushed to him, flanked closely by Neville, Ron, and Hermione. You were grabbed back quickly though, and you whirled around to see your friends, Silver, Marin, and Draco.
"You're alive," Silver breathed, wrapping you into a hug so tight you couldn't help the tears that began to stream from your eyes. You sobbed into your friend's arms, and you felt Marin's arms envelop the two of you moments later. "I can't believe it, you're alive," Silver repeated.
The Death Eaters had disappeared one by one, each evidently desperate to escape the aftermath of the war they had just lost. When you pulled away from Silver and Marin's embrace, all you could see was your classmates, your Hogwarts family. Your home.
The castle was in ruins, that much you expected. You wondered if it would ever be restored to its former glory, and your heart ached at the knowledge that there was a possibility it wouldn't be.
A breathless boy ran up to your little group, one you immediately recognized as Arlie. Your heart cracked again as you realized what you would have to tell the poor boy, knowing it would hurt him just as much as, if not more than it had hurt you.
"Y/N," he breathed. "I'm so glad you're okay. Juniper was so upset over your death. I'm glad you're not actually gone."
Your breath caught in your throat as Arlie's eyes began to scan the crowd for his girlfriend. "Where...where is Juniper?" he asked, his eyes filling with fear as he locked eyes with you again.
"I'm sorry, Arlie," you choked out, tears streaming down your face all over again. "She—she was killed protecting me."
Arlie's face went redder than you ever remembered it being, and tears filled his own eyes, pouring down his face as he struggled to wipe them away with his sleeve. "I had hoped so much that that wasn't the case," he cried, his voice becoming thicker with each word he spoke. "Gods, that woman. I knew she would've done that for you, at the drop of a wand...but I had hoped so much she wouldn't have had to."
You pulled your former Quidditch captain into a hug, something you'd never done for the Slytherin boy before. He didn't pause for even a moment, his arms wrapping around you in response as he cried into your shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Arlie," you mumbled, over and over again. It was the only thing you could think to say.
Silver and Marin wrapped themselves around you again, holding you and Arlie close to each other and to themselves. Your body wracked with sobs. You were so, so tired—and so, so sad.
Finally, you managed to bring yourself to enter the Great Hall once again—or at least, what was left of it. You knew Draco was still right behind you, though he hadn't touched you since you'd been enveloped by your friends. Your eyes glossed over the multiple stretchers of bodies covered with sheets—you knew one of them was Juniper, and you couldn't bring yourself to look for her.
You saw the Weasley family in one corner of the room, sobbing over the body of one of the Weasley siblings. You recognized it as one of the twins, and you had never been good at telling them apart, even though you'd hardly spoken to them outside of yelling at them for one prank or another.
You jolted as you saw your parents at the other corner, evidently grieving with people they knew—you didn't know them. But you knew your parents.
"Mom? Dad?" you called out tentatively, and your mother paled as she saw you, her body immediately swiveling towards you.
"Y/N?" she cried, running towards you. "Y/N!" she shouted when she realized it was you, throwing her arms around you in a tight embrace.
"Gods, y/n, we thought you'd been killed!" she cried. "Then we heard you were alive and on the run, and we didn't know if you were here or not—oh, Merlin, y/n, I'm so glad you're okay."
Your dad came up to hug you next, and his eyes were red, his face solemn. "They killed Oliver, y/n," was all he said. "I'm sorry."
Your chest hurt, you couldn't bear it anymore. You'd lost so much, and now your brother too. All because he couldn't use magic.
You turned to Draco, a sob erupting from your throat anew, and your eyes stung as fresh tears began to pour from your eyes as he wrapped you in his embrace.
He didn't know what to say. But you didn't need him to say anything.
He was there, and that was what you needed.
~~~
Hours passed. The sun was beginning to set again, and you were getting ready to leave. What little belongings you had left were shoved into one suitcase, and you were preparing to leave to go home with your parents. You hadn't seen them in months, and you knew you had a lot of explaining to do.
But you knew you couldn't leave without saying goodbye to Draco.
The boy who had held your heart for so long, now looked withered as he brought you in for one final embrace.
"I love you, Draco," you mumbled into his chest. You had no tears left to cry, or you knew they would have been welled up in your eyes already.
"I love you, y/n," he responded, and you hugged him tighter as the ache in your chest deepened.
This was not a "see-you-later". This was a goodbye.
"I know you realize I won't be returning to Hogwarts," he said quietly, looking down at you and reaching up to brush a tangled strand of hair from your face. "Not for a while, at least."
You nodded. You couldn't say anything. Your throat was too constricted to speak.
He sighed. "Be safe. If you get called for trial, be strong. I'll try to write, but I can't promise anything. Just remember I love you."
You could count on one hand the number of times your Slytherin Prince had told you that. And now you knew you'd probably never hear it again.
"I love you, Draco."
And he kissed you, one final time. A kiss of pure love, of feverish intimacy, and of a goodbye full of longing.
When he finally let you go, you grabbed your father's outstretched arm, ready to cross the bridge off of Hogwarts property and apparate home.
Draco's eyes didn't leave your departing form until you heard the crack of apparation and stood in front of your old house. That much you knew.
And when you crawled into your own bed, emptied by what you had just put yourself through, you were unaware that you would sleep for almost two days.
But you weren't surprised by the Slytherin Prince who found his way into each and every one of your dreams.