Dumbledore's Army is still recruiting!
Draco Malfoy clutched at the torn piece of paper- the very seams of the brewing rebellion in the inside of the castle. Said piece of paper was old, stained with someone's blood and has become wispy and fragile from the sweat of his own palm. He kept it in his pocket and clutched on it like he would to his wand. The wand that Harry Potter stole.
The piece of paper was hope.
The piece of paper was choice.
The piece of paper was freedom.
He never had any of those. But now Harry Potter has returned and his parents are with the Dark Lord completely wandless. So it should be pretty clear where his loyalties should lie. Here he is in Hogwarts just trying to survive while his parents are there, waiting on bated breath if the next hex the Dark Lord casts will be their way. The tables have turned and Dark Lord's most favored will now be the first to be thrown under the wagon.
The very thought made Draco's skin crawl. Harry Potter must live to overthrow the Dark Lord.
"I say we cripple him with a few rounds of Crucio. He never really got a taste of an Unforgivable, did he?"
Crabbe's breath stinks of garlic and cheese and Draco wondered how someone set out to kill another-- to end a life-- could just perfectly wolf down garlic bread and parmesan like it's going to be the best day of his life. Anyone of them could snuff it today. To manage to say that The Golden Trio managed to stay alive for the whole year, out of the Dark Lord's eyes, out of anyone's reach, is to say that they have talent. It is Harry Potter's choice to come back even though it could mean death to him and his people.
Where does he get all that fire? All that courage? Or are Gryffindors just downright crazy?
"You're being stupid as per usual, Crabbe," Draco squinted his eyes at his minion as if contemplating a deeper insult, "This is the exact kind of thinking that gets a backhanded slap from the Dark Lord. Do you think he'd want Saint Potter half dead? He wants the glory of slaying the Boy Who Lived! Just give him any old prick that has glasses now, will you? He wants Harry Potter to fight him and lose."
He was trying his hardest to stir them his way but the power dynamics in the group has been tipping as of lately.
"As you would know, Malfoy. You must know how it felt to be backhandedly slapped by the Dark Lord. As were your father and your mother- you- you skinny prat!"
Draco stepped up to him but was stopped by Goyle.
"They're here."
He saw Harry Potter, Ron Weasley-- and holding his hand-- Hermione Granger. Draco bit the inside of his cheek. It took a long time coming. Everybody could have predicted that since the first chapter. It's either Weasley or Potter. She was skinnier but more determined, definitely stronger than how she was on the manor floor. The images crossed his mind without consent, he physically winced. Goyle looked at him with concern but he showed no signs of losing resolve. "We enter after them. I know how to call out the room. We wait for now."
First went Potter then Weasley and then Hermione. She looked around and Draco had to duck back behind the pillar. His gaze lingered too much on her back. It was igniting a small warm feeling on his chest. Relief. He's relieved that she survived.
But for how much longer after? Death is not through with his countdown. He still has a list of names that he needs to take.
The door closed and Draco stepped out from their hiding place. "And now we get the Boy Who Lived."
Goyle nodded but Crabbe wanted to be the alpha of the group now. His hard gaze fell on Draco's face, Draco tried to stare back with as much malice as he could but they simply don't have enough time. "You alright with working the door now, Crabbe?"
Crabbe gave up the staring contest and entered behind them without the word.
But it turns out that the silence meant that Crabbe had been forming a plan his head.
What a plot twist.
Draco Malfoy stood face to face with his childhood nemesis, Harry Potter. Both of their stances were sure and tense-- ready to pounce for whatever side they were on. But what side is he on? For a moment his thoughts wavered, what was he really here for? To bring Harry to the Dark Lord or to keep Crabbe from murdering The Golden Trio?
He tried his hardest to intimidate and keep Harry Potter from doing whatever it was that he's going to do. But it was starting to feel disconnected. He doesn't mean it. His hold on his wand quivered, the feel of the smooth wood a world away.
Why does he hate Harry Potter?
He was luckier, much well endowed with his good- - practically the best-- lineage that anyone that had ever been could ever wish to be born into. Potter's parents loved him enough to die for him and where are Draco's parents now? With the Dark Lord trying to uphold their name so that the world won't crash on the three of them. Both he and Potter are thrust into an adult battle already being fought long before they were born. Who could have known that after all this time they are actually just on the different sides of the same coin?
Potter, if you could have chosen would you have chosen this life? Because if I could...
If I could...
Merlin, if I could...
Hermione and Ron appeared from behind Harry Potter. They were disheveled in appearance, eyes wide with shock and terror at seeing Draco and his gang.
"Don't kill him! Don't kill Potter!"
If you did we're all done for! It has to be him!
Anyone listening could have heard the urgency and desperation in his voice. It cracked as he tried to stop Crabbe but he was faster and meaner-- definitely meaner and coarser. Bigger too. Draco never noticed that his minion was bigger when he was always at Draco's shadows. But he was gargantuan as he emerged, "I don't take orders from you now!"
Hellfire erupted all around them. It was sea and sea of ghastly fire fiends. Draco ran for his life as the centuries of hidden shame and failures kept under lock and key came falling down around them. What irony it would be to die in a room of secrets with the one person he harbored so many secrets about yet never get to tell? What sickeningly sweet irony.
Goyle closed in on him. He was neutral, Goyle has always been neutral. He was panting, heavy chest heaving as they reached a dead end. "I can't go on anymore, Draco. I don't want to die."
"No one does, mate."
All Draco Malfoy wanted was to survive.
He doesn't want to emerge out of this a hero-- he merely wants to emerge.
He tried to look up but there was no clearing up, there is only darkness and smoke. His eyes watered, from hopelessness or irritation-- he can't tell but water fell down his face yet again. The boy who kept him company for most his life lay dying beside him and he can't do a damn single sodding thing about it. What does the Dark Arts say about lack of oxygen in a burning room? That's right. Not a single passerby fuck. It only tells you how to start a fire but not how to stop it. Only to destroy but never to build.
Yet everyone with his mark worships it.
Merlin, help us.
"Help!" He shouted on his last breath as the thick cursed smoke strangled his throat, "Help us! We're over here!" The last words came up in hacks and sputters. His throat was itchy from the smoke.
There was a great swooping motion and he felt himself being dragged into a sitting position on a broom. When it all cleared he saw that Harry Potter had him up behind in a broomstick. Fresher air filled his lungs as they flew across the room as they were chased by the cursed fire.
Crabbe. Crabbe was lost. He was not with Ron, Hermione and Goyle. He's lost. Dead.
Draco found himself gripping tightly at his archenemy's clothes as they sped away past death fire and rubble.
All he could remember after that was his frustrated shouts and pleas and of how slowly Harry Potter reached the exit of the Room of Hidden Things. It was frustration and fear and the weird combination that's close to desperation.
But despite all that-- hope.
Strangely-- hope and reassurance that he was going to be saved. Both he and Goyle are going to be safe after all.
And as he fell on his arse after they were out of the room, he thought that maybe it wasn't too late. He looked at Hermione who was already running with Potter and Weasley. Know-it-all, teacher's pet, prissier than a mother goose, basic dressed, bushy haired, amber eyed and a whole lot of other things that he will never know.
It is true today that Draco Malfoy and the whole wizarding world will be saved from the Dark Lord. It had been foretold in a prophecy, years ago.
But it doesn't change the fact that the chance has gone forever for some things.
Namely the girl who could have been his soulmate if he was brave enough.
Could have.
Should have.
But never did.
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So, yeah. Guys, just remember that this book is still Dramione but just won't go at the same pace as the other Dramione books so please don't lose patience with us. I am really trying my hand at character development while trying to stay as cannon as possible.
Song up top is 'Keep Holding On' by Falling In Reverse. Yeah, I know this band and all the drama, but I only came for the music so there.
Dedicated to @dracobabyxoxoxo for her heartwarming words in the last chapter. I know that the tags literally said 'tears', 'heartbreak' and 'niggayoudneedakleenex' but when someone cries I want to cry too! >.<
Thank you so much for the 10+K reads and 830+ stars! You people are the best! XD