Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

For the Want of a Nail	By : thewickednix Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 4934 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. This is made for fun, not profit.

Chapter List
- 23
- 24
- 25
Chapter 24. The Boy Hero

I stumble out of the fire place into the drawing room at number twelve. To my surprise Dumbledore is already there waiting for him. I let out a loud breath of relief.
"Sir!" I breathe heavily, anxiety still in my throat. "The Dark Lord! He is at the Manor!"
Surprise spreads over the Headmaster's face, but he doesn't look quite as pleased as I had expected. "Voldemort is at Malfoy Manor?" he asks disbelievingly. His face turns very grave, and somehow he looks much older than the last time I saw him. For a moment he looks as if he is in another world, but finally his gaze focuses on me.
"Please, sit down, Draco. Tell me what you know." he gestures towards a chair, and takes a seat in another one himself. I take another deep breath before I begin my story.
"They have been hiding in the dungeons! I couldn't sense their presence because they were so far underground. But they found me, sir. My father and aunt did. They took me to Him."
Dumbledore's brows rise an inch. "You saw Voldemort?" he asks, looking puzzled. "How did you escape?"
I snort softly, my breathing slowly evening out. "I didn't, sir. I convinced the Dark Lord that I was on his side. He was very eager to have me, of course. Today I told him I had to feed, so of course he let me leave for that." I take in a deep breath before I finish. "I Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron before I Flooed here."
The Headmaster stares at me silently for a moment before he rises from his chair. "We must gather a meeting immediately. If you excuse me, I must contact a few people." Dumbledore strolls out of the room and disappears. I stare after him for a minute, silently wondering about the old wizard's peculiar behaviour. I've never seen him act quite so... off.
Then it suddenly strikes me that something else is wrong. Harry.
He is not here to greet me. In spite of myself, I feel worry gather within me.

He knew I would return today. At this hour. Where is he?

I exit the drawing room to begin my search for my lover, but find myself caught by Lupin and Mr Weasley.
"Draco!" Lupin exclaims as he sees me. "Albus told us about You-Know-Who. Is it really true?"
They both look at me with expectation and the air grows thick. As I nod curtly, their expression changes to a terrifying mixture of joy and horror. I can certainly relate to it.
"Merlin!" Mr Weasley exclaims, eyes growing wide. "I have to tell Molly!"
I am left standing with the werewolf in the hall as Mr Weasley runs off. Lupin looks after the red-head, sighing deeply. "It's starting, then."

_________________________________________________________________

"You-Know-Who is at Malfoy Manor?"
All eyes are on me, wide and horrified. The silence lays thick as a carpet as they wait for my response. I swallow once before answering.
"Yes."
The expected outrage begins. I look across the table to where Harry has taken a seat, but he refuses to look at me. He shudders slightly at the sound of the others arguing, but doesn't say a word. Even as the Weasel roars something inane to him, he only shrugs. An ill-boding feeling gathers in the pit of my stomach.
Dumbledore's voice carries over the mass. "Silence! Please."
Everyone takes their seats, casting concerned looks at each other. The Headmaster smiles. "This is an unexpected turn of events, yes. But it is a good thing; we now know where our enemy resides."
Many still look doubtful. Moody casts a vicious look my way before he turns to Dumbledore. "Are you quite positive He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is still there? What if this is just a trick? We might be set up for an ambush!"
"It's not a trick." I respond before Dumbledore has the time to. "The Dark Lord believes me to be on his side. He doesn't doubt me."
Moody narrows his eyes at me. "The 'Dark Lord', huh? What proof have we got that you are not on his side?"
With those words I rise from my seat. "You have no proof. Nothing beside what I have given you already!" I roar over the table at the ragged man. "Have I not done as much as all of you? Have I not sacrificed family and friends just as much as the next person?"
Moody swallows once and looks like he would like to retort, but remains silent. I take a calming breath and sit back down. "The Dark Lord suspects nothing. What reason would would he have to doubt me? I am a pure-blood, a Malfoy. A fucking vampire in his service!"
Dumbledore puts a hand on my shoulder. "Language, Draco." He turns to the others. "If we plan this carefully, we might very well be able to defeat Voldemort once and for all." The Headmaster smiles calmly, looking over the gathering. "Time is of the essence. We need to inform any trustworthy Auror, we will need all the help we can get." He looks over to me again. "Draco will be able to get us into the house unnoticed, won't you?"
I take a shaky breath as I nod. "Yes. They didn't notice me and Kingsley when we were there interrogating Mother, they won't detect us this time either." I pause before I continue. "The Dark Lord gave me four days time before I have to return. We have to come up with a strategy until then. About when the attack will take place, who will take part in it, and so on."
An ominous silence lands upon the dining room. Everyone looks at each other with trepidation. The final battle has begun. If we lose this, we lose the war.
Suddenly Dumbledore coughs softly, gaining everyone's attention. "I have a further annunciation regarding our situation." The Headmaster stands up from his seat. I am immediately alarmed by his grave expression, so uncharacteristic for the silly old wizard. It seems everyone else notices this too, for the room grows quiet within seconds.
Dumbledore breathes deeply before he begins. "We have found a solution as how to kill Voldemort."
"What?" Mr Weasley exclaims, and pretty much everyone echoes his opinion in shock. I look over to Harry, but am not met by my confusion mirrored in his face as I had expected. He sits quietly, staring down at his lap, still refusing to meet my gaze. As Dumbledore proceeds his explanation, I turn my attention towards the end of the table, trying not to think of Harry.
"In desperate times we become in need of desperate means, and that is exactly what this is." the Headmaster announces. I feel myself and everyone around me go rigid, my whole body tensing up in apprehension of what sounds like a very ominous declaration.
"I time we have had to dismiss countless ideas of how to defeat Voldemort. Now, as we know his whereabouts and have him in our hands, we are running out of time. Thus, we have to make use of such a solution that pains me to the core." Dumbledore takes a deep breath and clenches his jaw as he continues. "There is a spell, a spell that makes use of the unusual connection between Voldemort and Harry."
I feel my blood run cold. They cannot know. They can not. Forcing myself to remain calm, I watch as everyone's attention is turned towards Harry, who still does not raise his gaze from his lap. The Headmaster continues:
"The spell is a mutation of Priori Incantatem, and makes use of the twin-core wands Harry and Voldemort possess."
And thus, my world scatters. My vision crows dim and Dumbledore's words start echoing in my head, while my own subconsciousness repeats those dreaded words again and again.
"Contandem Recolo." I croak, and every head turns towards me. I ignore it, for it is in this moment that Harry finally lifts his head to meet my gaze. I confront him silently, and his answer is right there before me. His eyes are glazed, but his jaw is set determinedly. He stares back at me with a mixture of sadness and spite. And I realise that he knows that I knew about the spell.
In sheen terror I can vaguely separate Dumbledore's voice from somewhere far away, muffled beneath the dizzy throbbing in my brain.
"...between duelers with twin-core wands..."

This cannot be happening, I tell myself. How could they find it?

" ...whichever spell your opponent casts..."

This has to be some kind of practical joke, they can't be serious...

"...will blast back..."

They can't kill him.

"No!" I state, rising from my seat and growling. Not at Dumbledore, standing at the end of the table and looking rather as much surprised as everyone else. But at Harry, who is looking at me with a mournfully furrowed brow from across the table. "No." I tell him, positive that if I state my claim determined enough, he will obey me. That he will tell me he won't do it and I will laugh in relief and be mad at him for days for even considering this preposterous idea. But he doesn't, and I don't, and I am left standing here, staring at him in desperation.
"What's going on?" Lupin breaks the silence. I stare at him and the others in brief sympathy, for they have yet to become aware of the consequences of this horrible plot. Frantic, I turn to Dumbledore.
"You can't do this." I tell him, pleading for him to end this nightmare. But the Headmaster only shakes his head sadly.
"There is nothing else we can do, Draco. We're running out of time. If Harry is determined to do it, I cannot stop him. It was his idea."

What? I turn back towards Harry, who's eyes are now blazing more brilliantly green than ever, determination shining through his thick glasses. I shake my head slowly at him, silently pleading him to decline this farce. When he only keep staring at me silently, it hits me that this is real. He has decided.
"No!" I croak in disbelief, but as the word leaves my mouth I realise there is no other possibility. I look over at Harry, and to my desperation I see him lift a book onto the table from his lap.
Connections of the Wand.
I feel an icy hand wrap around my already dead heart, squeezing until I find it impossible to breathe. Struggling for breath, I suddenly become aware of all the confused and more or less horrified faces staring at my crumbling posture.
With tremor I look into Harry's eyes, and find him staring at me with disgust. Before I have time to utter a word, to offer an explanation, he has risen from his chair and made his way out though the door. In spite of the other confused Order members calling after us, I rush after Harry.
I catch him in the hall. Crushing into him I trap him between myself and the wall, arms on each side of his head.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" I roar at him. Harry returns my gaze with suppressed wrath.
"Let me go."
"No!" I scream, banging my hand into the wall so that I hear the wood creak. "Don't you understand that you won't survive it? You will not make one of your miraculous escapes this time!" I feel my voice break as I whisper:
"Harry, you will die."
I try to meet his gaze, but he looks away, a guilty look on his face. "I have to do this. There's no other way."
"I won't let you!" Another time I hit my fist into the wall, and Harry jumps at the loud crack. He turns to me, resentment in his blazing green eyes.
"Who are you to tell me what to do? Who are you to pass judgment on me?" He sneers at me with disgust. "You didn't even bother telling me about the fucking spell!" He screams, his lower lip trembling and his whole body shaking.
"I didn't want this." My voice breaks at the words, and I don't know what else to say. What else can I say?
Looking into Harry's eyes I realise that this is it. He has decided. He's remembered the halo on his head. It disgusts me. He is sick, holding onto that picture they have painted of him as their martyr. And still I know it's me who has been lying to myself, in my own way. Thinking I could save him from himself.
Young and hopeless, we're both lost.
"I didn't want this." I repeat desperately before crushing my lips to his. He startles for a second before lashing his arms around me, clawing at me with anguish. I feel tears, both mine and his, mingle in our kiss, and in this moment I just want to die. To disappear and never wake again into this reality.
"Harry?"
Reality calls too soon as Granger's voice carries through the room. I pull away from Harry and look behind me to see Granger standing in the doorway. Some part of my brain realises the horrifying situation, but somehow I fail to care. Somehow this becomes the last drop. In my dazed state I feel the vampire in my subconsciousness take over, and I gladly let myself slip under the power. Feeling my self-awareness sinking under a soft cloud, I realise as if I were only a spectator of this scene, that I am running. Where to I do not care, as long as I get away.

___________________________________________________________________

"Harry?"
From somewhere far away I hear a voice that does not belong to Draco. As he pulls away I open my eyes to find Hermione behind Draco, Hermione staring at us with a mixture of shock and horrification. I look over to Draco, expecting him to trow a fit or play indifferent once again.
But he does nothing. He stares at Hermione for a long minute, eyes wide and shiny with tears. I suddenly realise that I have never seen him cry.
Then suddenly his face turns to stone and his gaze becomes unfocused. He seems to find his feet and within a second he has disappeared into the West corridor.
I watch the vampire blend into the darkness like a shadow, taking a few deep breaths before I turn towards Hermione. As I do, I realise that more people have filled the hall. Ron, Remus, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Tonks, Kingsley, they all walk past the immobilized Hermione, and for a moment I think they all saw. But as Ron pulls me to him and starts crying, as everyone's voices blend together in a horrified mix of wails, I breathe out.

They do not know.

As it then dawns on me why they are all crying, I almost want to laugh. Here I am, worried about if they saw me with Draco or not, when-
When circumstances are what they are.
I have had two days to think about it. I have decided. I have made my peace with it. With dying for them.
It's nothing I haven't known for long I would have to do. Still, that knowledge was never concrete, never definite. Now that it is, I don't know what to do. Should I cry with them all? Should I paint on a noble face and sing the usual verse of a martyric hero?
Or should I tell them the truth? That I am scared. Terrified. Horrified. Absolutely disgusted to have to die voluntarily. And not only to have to die, but to have to cast the spell myself.
I will die. In three days. A week. A month. Whenever the Order decides it. Whenever it suits them.

I can't do this.

Pulling myself from the comforting arms of Mrs Weasley, I look up at them. Scared, worried, pitying faces, all staring at me as if a was an animal up for slaughter.

That joke is not funny anymore.

I try to tell them to stop. To not look at me like that. But my lips do not move, no words leave my mouth. A trembling breath later, I run. Ignoring the shouts and cries behind me, I run. I run after Draco, I run after my life.
In his room I find him, face drenched with tears and eyes still frighteningly abstract. His gaze focuses as I approach him. He tries to open his mouth and say something, but I hurry to kiss him before he does. Before he says anything to make the situation real. Before he says anything to make Dumbledore's words matter. To make Voldemort matter. To make the world matter.
I leave no room for objections. Clawing at Draco's clothes, I kiss him violently. "Make me forget." I whisper against his lips. He pulls away for a second, staring at me silently. Just as I am about to continue, he claims my lips again. Harshly, desperately this time. Within minutes we have ridden ourselves of our clothes, and I finally have him to myself again. Like moths before the fire we flutter together in our last moments. In my last moment.
His hands on my skin, his body against mine, his eyes meeting mine. In the violent rhythm he repeats my name, and I echo his desperation. Once again I am his. Once again he is mine. Like we were always meant to be. Like we will always be.
Forever.
- 23
- 24
- 25
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

For the Want of a Nail