The waves lapped silently on the shore of the Loch, drawing in and spreading out across the coarse gravel beneath their feet. The moon was still, high and bright, but the night seemed to have grown darker and colder as they pushed themselves closer to each other, heartbeats syncing.
Somewhere in the distance a howl shattered the silence and caused both boys to glance up from their wordless slumber, tangled in each others arms.
"Was that a werewolf?" Draco stammered from his place nestled into Harry's warm chest.
Harry snorted. They were the first words he had spoken since he'd crumbled before him. "I wouldn't be surprised. But don't worry, I'll protect you, little boy."
His attempt to lighten the mood succeeded momentarily as Draco's eyes lit up and a sarcastic smirk graced his pale lips. But it was soon gone and replaced with the pure terror and regret that seemed to be etched into his irises.
The silence fell again, but this time it was lighter, and less deafening that the heavy silence that drowned them before. It was almost comfortable, but not quite.
Draco had pushed his father's voice out of his mind for the time being, as well as the pending task he was set. Harry's arms were all he could think about now, and although he was encased by them, he enjoyed the sense of freedom and grounding that it gave him.
"So, are we going to talk about what happened?" Harry piped up, ruining Draco's daze of distraction from reality.
"Do we have to?" He croaked, nuzzling further into him, attempting to hide from the world and his duties.
Harry sighed, "Yes, Draco, I want to help you. I can't help you if you don't tell me." His voice was verging on the cold side. Perhaps he was a little angry that his lover had tried to kill him. Who wouldn't be?
"You can't help me." Draco replied, feeling himself sink back into the horrible emptiness of the past few days without Harry.
"So you have to kill me and I just have to let you?" He was evidently slightly annoyed at Draco's inability to share his thoughts.
"I don't want you to be angry." The blonde cowered, gripping Harry's hoodie tightly between his slender fingers, feeling the tears fill his eyes once again.
"How can I not be angry? You want to kill me!" He raised his voice but immediately regretted it whispering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"I don't want to kill you." Draco shut his eyes tight unable to look upon any part of his lover right now, guilt running smoothly through every vein in his body and poisoning him slowly.
"But you said you have to." Harry stated, his voice calmer and more thoughtful now.
"Yes." Draco replied simply.
"Why?" Harry knew he was pushing his luck but he couldn't just leave it alone, as much as he knew that the Slytherin wanted that.
Draco swallowed, a lump forming in this throat, barring him from speaking the truth out loud. It was as if his father had cast a spell on him to stop him blabbing. And he wouldn't have put it past him to do so.
"Your father?" Harry prompted.
"My father." Draco repeated, his body seizing up at the words.
"What did he say to you when you went to see him?" The ravenette asked softly, his hand stroking the boys back in a calming way.
"He knows." Draco's words were limited and continuously kept Harry guessing.
"Knows what?" He asked, still slightly oblivious to the situation. Definitely not in Ravenclaw.
"About us." Draco trembled. The word 'us' finally solidifying their relationship in his mind.
"Oh." Harry's voice trailed off, he was clearly thinking hard.
"So he wants you to kill me because we're seeing each other?"
It was a simple way of describing it but it just about summed it up. His father objected that he was not in love with a pureblood for starters. And then there was the fact that he was a male and Harry Potter.
"Because its me." Harry continued, suddenly finding an interest in watching the giant squid in the shallows of the Loch, avoiding the sad grey eyes.
"I shouldn't have tried to be someone I'm not." Draco spoke quietly, perhaps it was to himself.
"What do you mean?" The boy above him asked, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked back down as the soft pale face of the blonde boy.
"I'm a Malfoy. I shouldn't have tried to be anything but your enemy. It can't work, it's not my destiny and now it's just going to end up with me becoming a murderer either way." His voice was hoarse but with gained confidence.
Harry's heart broke a little at those words. He didn't want to believe that they weren't meant to be together after all they'd been through. He wanted to believe that despite their past, they could move forward together and that was how it was meant to be. Both boys had never felt so happy and on top of the world since they had become close. Surely that meant something?
With a pause, Harry spoke again. "People don't always have to follow their destiny, Draco. How can you even define your destiny? Was it spoken as a prophecy by Trelawny and is it inside the Department of Mysteries with your name of it right now?"
Draco glanced up at him with a confused expression but Harry simply chuckled. In the low light he could only make out his green eyes staring back at him, the only emotions filling them now was desperation and love. He shook his head. "I don't know."
"You don't have to do what your father tells you." Harry stated firmly.
Draco immediately shook his head. "This time I can't fail." He cried. "Snape isn't here to carry it out for me. It seems Voldemort had more mercy than my father does."
Harry thought for a moment. "What is Lucius threatening you with?"
He watched the blonde boy turn away and avoid his eyes, shaking his head defiantly.
"Draco. I can help. Please let me in."
"No." The blonde sat up rigidly, and backed away from Harry.
"Draco..."
"You always think you can help, Potter, you and your hero complex. You always think you can save everyone. You even thought you could save me from that fire and save my family from Azkaban. Maybe you should stop trying to save people who don't deserve to be saved."
Draco was beginning to gain his confidence back now, raising his voice and letting all that he'd been mulling over in his mind for past few sleepless days out for Harry to hear.
"It seems saving people is your only personality trait. Do you actually know how to do anything else? Anything other than being Harry Potter the hero?"
He didn't look at Harry, he didn't want to see the hurt fill his green eyes and the tears trickle down his smooth tanned skin.
"Draco. I-" Harry started by he was cut off again.
"Not everyone wants be saved. Not everyone deserves it."
Draco made that his final words, and stood up abruptly, trying to ignore his head swaying and his eyes blurring from the tears.
"You do deserve to be saved." Harry spoke desperately behind the blonde, pleading with him.
"Please, you do. I wouldn't try if I didn't think you were a good person underneath. It's just your family name that forces you to seem undesirable."
Draco began to walk away, his anger and hatred for himself bubbling in his stomach.
"What happened to forget the past and find normal? I'd found normal with you! Your past doesn't make you who you are. Your family name doesn't make you automatically a bad person. You are a good person, Dray..." Harry was crying, although Draco wasn't looking, it was clear in the way his voice broke as he said his name.
He sighed deeply, "Please stop lying to yourself, Harry. I was never a good person. A death eater can never be a good person. I have to leave before you get hurt."
"Don't go, please!"
"Why shouldn't I?" He demanded, swivelling round to find himself looking into Harry's desperate, tear filled green eyes, which drew him back in every second.
"Because I love you, Draco." His voice was shaky and cracked. "I love you with all my heart. And I honestly could give a damn if you murdered me on this spot right now, my heart would be yours till the end..."