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Draco knew it had to end, at some point. It never would have worked out, anyway. Not when he was at the mercy of the Boy Who Lived Twice. Not when Draco was the forgiven, but never forgotten ex-Death-Eater. How could it have worked?
At one point, it was like all the pieces of a very complicated, non-linear puzzle coming together at last. It felt like the universe aligned just right , causing them to be drawn to each other. They were both aching. They were both broken. And they decided to glue those pieces together in secret. In silence, behind closed doors, away from everyone. It was raw, it was pure, and it was painful. But it was everything. It was a conscious choice. It was silent pleas of saving, in any way possible. Physically, as well as mentally. It had helped them survive.
And Draco made a grave mistake then. He allowed Harry Potter into his heart. When he knew, he had to know that he could not have him. Ever.
But what he didn’t know, was that he had been allowed into someone’s heart too. Someone, who could also never have him.
11-year-old Draco Malfoy would never have believed you if you told him that he would fall in love forever with the wrong person. The person who refused his handshake all those years ago. Who has almost sliced him to pieces. Who has saved his life, when it all came down to it.
Maybe he would’ve believed you, after all.
So now it seemed pretty trivial to be lying beside the saviour himself, under the clear, dark sky, where they used to meet all those years ago.
Draco was in town to pick up an engagement ring, and he decided to visit the place they so often frequented, even if for the last time before- Right. Before his life became what it was destined to become from the start.
Draco never believed in destiny, but it felt like a sign from the universe that Harry Potter decided to visit their place the very same night.
To say goodbye.
So here they lay, a bottle of Fire-whiskey between them, not quite holding each other, but almost. Almost. It aches to not be able to touch whilst being so close, to not be able to feel whilst feeling too much.
“I should have shaken your hand.” - Harry says after a moment of piercing silence.
“What?”
“In our first year. I should’ve done it. Maybe it would’ve all been different.”
“But you didn’t. So we can’t wonder.”
“Yeah.”
They fell into silence again.
And before they noticed, the moment of goodbye came.
The moment they both knew they would dread before they even started - whatever it was. Harry had a wife, Ginny, and a child on the way. A home. Draco was about to propose to Astoria, the woman he was arranged to marry, a woman from the Sacred 28. It was just how it was supposed to be.
Did it matter that they were both truly unhappy?
Not in this world.
“Promise me you’ll take care of yourself, Harry.”
“I promise. You too, Draco.”
Harry started walking away, into the darkness, with a sinking feeling that they’ll never see each other again. He was going into a world where Harry and Draco no longer existed, not in this way. It was Potter and Malfoy again. Their beginning was their end.
So he had to do it. He had to make sure Draco knew. He should’ve said it years ago. Before the war, before the Astronomy Tower, before it all. He turned around.
“I love you. I think I always did, and always will. There’s no one like you. There probably never will be.”
Draco stayed silent, thinking how to reply to the words he’d been waiting to hear for all the years he’s known Harry Potter. From him.
And perhaps, there wasn’t a good response. There couldn’t be.
So he said nothing at all.
He watched Harry’s gaze soften as if he understood just why Draco couldn’t reply, and slowly turn again to walk away, forever.
And maybe in a different lifetime, Draco will get sorted into Gryffindor and they’ll immediately become friends and slowly fall in love. They’ll spend Christmas together first, and then move in together after Hogwarts. Maybe Voldemort won’t exist in that lifetime. Maybe they won’t be tormented by years of trauma projected onto them from two different sides of the war, maybe they will simply exist in peace, with each other. They will love each other so much, there. Maybe this is all that’s needed for them to have a happy ending.
But, Draco realises, the book always ends with the “happily ever after”.
So maybe their story ended a long time ago.
Maybe it never even began.