When We Parted

-When We Two Parted-

He raised his head so as to meet the hurt gaze of Harry Potter.

"Harry, I'm sorry. It's just... We can't... Say something. Anything. Just don't let it end like this. Please. Don't do this."

"Do what?" came the quiet reply. "You're the one who made this decision. You. Not me."

Draco Malfoy lowered his head and turned away, and did not look up again until he heard the dull slam of the door and the accompanying footsteps that told him he was alone.

- In Silence and In Tears -

Harry paused outside of Gryffindor Tower. It was over. A wave of realization hit him and he had to sit down for fear that if he didn't he would faint. Draco had really done it. He had ended... them. He became aware of the tears that were sliding down his cheeks. Harry wiped them away as he stood up. Quietly he spoke the password and entered the Tower so that he could retreat to his dorm. He just needed to be alone.

* * *

Draco fell to his knees. He couldn't even bring himself to leave the room. He needed this. The silence. Draco needed to think. He knew that he did only what was necessary. The one person he had told about his and Harry's relationship agreed when he said that what he was doing was putting Harry in danger. He had done what was needed in order to protect the one that he lov... cared for.

"I did this for his own good."

He failed to notice the tear that rolled gently down his cheek as he stood up to leave the quiet haven of the unknown room.

" I did this for him," he repeated, as he sealed the door for the last time. "All for him."

- Half Brokenhearted To Sever For Years -

"Harry? Harry? Are you even listening to me?" came a voice from Harry's left.

"Sorry, 'Mione. Got distracted. What were you saying again?"

Hermione Weasley looked at her best friend. "Harry, is there something wrong? You've been unfocused all day."

"It's just... Today's his birthday," he sighed. "It's been a year since I last saw him, and he... it's like he haunts me sometimes."

She looked at him with compassion. Hermione couldn't sympathize with him on this subject but understood enough of what had happened to know that Harry was still recovering from Malfoy's betrayal. She didn't think that she wanted to know the answer, but she still had to ask the question.

"Harry, are you still in love with Mal... Draco?"

One look into Harry's eyes told her all she needed to know.

- Pale Grew Thy Cheek and Cold, Colder Thy Kiss -

"Congratulations, Potter. You made it to graduation."

Harry turned to face the pale body that had just spoken. "Hello, Draco," he replied quietly. "Congratulations to you as well." The uncomfortable silence that followed made the dark haired boy fidget.

"Hey, Harry!" came Ron's voice from the crowd. "Mum says we've got to take pictures!" He began waving Harry over. Harry signaled him to wait a moment.

"Well, I guess I'll..." Harry turned to face Draco again, but was cut off by the feeling of lips brushing against his cheek. He looked up and met a pair of cool, detached silver eyes.

"Goodbye, Harry."

Before he could reply, Draco turned away, and Harry was pulled in the opposite direction toward Mrs. Weasley and her camera.

- Truly That Hour Foretold Sorrow To This -

He stood in the hallway of his flat, staring at the pictures that hung on the wall. He stared at the photo of himself, Ron, and Hermione on graduation day and couldn't help but remember the interlude between him and Draco only moments before the picture was taken. That was the last time he had seen Draco Malfoy before the news of his treachery had leaked. It had been three years. Harry went to his bedroom and pulled another picture out of his nightstand, this one unmoving. It was of him and Draco standing in the snow on a little hill just outside of Hogsmeade. They stood close together, with arms wrapped around each other's waist. Harry stared at the image, hoping that it would somehow answer his futile questioning.

"Draco, why? Why did you have to go with him? He was your father, not your owner. You never even told me if you loved..." Harry didn't finish his sentence. He sunk to the floor and let the tears overtake him. It didn't matter now. It was over.

-The Chill of the Morning, Sunk Chill On My Brow;

It Felt Like A Warning of What I Feel Now-

Draco stood at the boundaries of the lake, contemplating the decisions he had made within the last day. His letter to his father was curt, yet revealed the path he had chosen. Draco Malfoy would join his father. He knew it was expected.

Draco's conversation with Professor Snape that morning had been... interesting. His mentor knew what he was planning to do and he had listened to Draco with rapt attention, interrupting only to ask a few questions. Draco had been so wrapped up in his confessions (as that is what they were) that he'd let slip the secret he had guarded so carefully in the past months. Upon Snape's questioning he had divulged all the details. Well, not all the details, but enough that the older man knew what had been going on, and, he had, if only for Draco's sake, accepted it. He was the one who had told him the dangers of this relationship and had warned him of the dangers should anyone else find out.

With this in mind, Draco had made his decision. He knew what he had to do, despite how much he begged for it not to be like this. He couldn't tell Harry anything. He would hate him for this.

He now stood on the banks of the water on the cold morning, shivering, though there was no breeze to be felt.

-Thy Vows Are All Broken and Light Is Thy Fame-

Harry picked up the gold envelope that sat on his pillow. He gently pried it open and pulled out a letter and a small silver ring. He immediately recognized the sharp script that was Draco's handwriting. Smiling, he began to read:

Harry,

I charmed this letter to come to you at Christmas. I wanted you to get your present, no matter what. This was given to me to give to a person whom I most want protected. Think of it as a little part of me. I need you to remember something for me: Though I can't always be by your side, I will never leave you. Never forget that.

Wear this always, think of me often.

Happy Christmas.

Draco.

P.S. This above all: to thine own self be true.

Harry slid the ring onto the third finger of his right hand.

"How could I ever forget you, Draco?"

-I Hear Thy Name Spoken, and Share In Its Shame-

"With MALFOY? But Harry, you like girls!"

Harry bowed his head. "Ron, listen. I... I know I should have told you sooner. It was during seventh year, but he ended it about a month before graduation. It's been a year. The last time I saw him was graduation night, before pictures..." He finished, hoping beyond all hope that Ron would drop the subject. He kept his head lowered, fearing to look into the eyes of his best friend. "He broke it off, saying that he had made a decision."

"But Harry, that was right before he.... Oh."

"I know, Ron."

"But, Malfoy? Couldn't you have picked someone else? I mean, really! He was a prat all those years..."

Ron continued to talk, but Harry had ceased listening. The idea of Draco following his father crowded his mind, and he bowed his head, trying ineffectively to block out the images seen during the war. And Harry knew he couldn't afford to care about a certain Malfoy any longer, but the heart and the mind seldom agree.

-They Name Thee Before Me, A Knell To Mine Ear-

"Draco Malfoy, you have been called to testify against one Lucius Malfoy. Do you agree to be questioned under Veritaserum?"

"I do."

Harry sat in the back of the courtroom, silent, listening to the testimony of his former lover.

"Mr. Malfoy, as stated in previous testimony, could you please verify that you were indeed a spy for the aforementioned Order of the Phoenix, headed under Albus Dumbledore."

"Soon after I joined Vol... You-Know-Who's ranks, I made the decision to become a spy. I refused to see people I... I cared about get hurt as a result of a mad man's schemes, father or no."

Harry sat, astonished. Draco had been a spy?

This changed everything.

-A Shudder Comes Over Me, Why Wert Thou So Dear?-

"I honestly don't know how it happened, but looking back on it, it seems like it would be the next logical step, that or we would have ended up killing each other. The immense dislike we shared for each other used to be expended in fighting or dueling. But, then, one day, something changed. I didn't hate him anymore. The anger became kindness. The fighting became compassion. It was like, all the sudden, we looked at each other and understood what the other was going through."

Draco finished his speech and looked over at the man who was once his professor. Remus Lupin sat across from him, looking astonished by what he had heard. He quickly shook himself out of it and asked, "So you and Harry... dated, in a fashion?"

"Yes."

Draco was surprised at himself for telling the older man so much, but he needed this, someone to talk to. He didn't have Harry to confide in anymore and Severus was often absent, making potions, or just plain irritable. Draco needed a new confidant and Remus exuded comfort. Besides, he had always liked the man when he was a professor.

"Did... do you... did you care about him?" Remus voiced quietly.

"I love h... loved him," came the quiet reply.

The quick revert into past tense did not escape Remus's notice.

-They Knew Not I Knew Thee, Who Knew Thee Too Well-

"Malfoy is such a git. I don't know what anyone could see in him, especially the girls. He's pointy. And too blonde. Ponce."

This was not the end of Ron's diatribe, but Harry had tuned him out. I wonder what Ron would say if he found out that I'm to meet that pointy blonde later tonight?

As Ron continued in his tirade, he failed to notice the pensive look on his best friend's face and the quick, wispy looks he kept sending to a certain 'ponce' sitting at the Slytherin table.

-Long, Long Shall I Rue Thee, Too Deeply To Tell-

"Harry, it would probably help to talk about it. I mean, it can't be healthy, bottling up your emotions like this," Hermione said, her voice full of caring. Upon entering his flat, she noticed the folded up week old Daily Prophet, citing the young Malfoy's name under suspected Death Eaters. The Prophet had been running stories like this for weeks, under the encouragement of the Ministry, to show that action, in some form or another, was being taken. Though no one had bothered to make a move against suspects, as there was no proof, and it was too hard to gain evidence on people rarely seen by the public.

"I don't know what to say. He did what I never expected him to do. At some point, I probably should have considered that it would happen. I guess I just thought..." He

sighed, and Hermione could hear the heartbreak that her best friend was feeling in that little noise.

"Not everyone is good, Harry. You should know that by now."

It hurt her to say it, but Harry needed to hear it.

"You don't understand. You never... He was... I just never really expected this."

With that final note, he rolled over, and Hermione knew the visit was over.

-In Secret We Met--In Silence I Grieve,

That Thy Heart Could Forget, Thy Spirit Deceive-

"Remus, did you know?" Harry asked quietly, his head bowed. They were sitting in the library at Grimmauld Place. No one else was there, as they were still awaiting a verdict in the trial. Draco had been the last witness, and the trial had ended shortly after he left the stand.

"Yes, Harry, I did. Dumbledore told me about Draco soon after the Prophet ran the article on him."

"Why did he tell you, though? No offense."

"None taken, Harry. I think he might have told me because Draco seemed to need someone to talk to, really."

"Did Draco tell you about... us?" Harry's head remained lowered, but Remus could hear the embarrassment and fear in his voice.

"Yes, Harry, he did. And don't think that I look at you any differently then I did before. I love you like a son, and I respect whatever choice you make."

Harry looked up with eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Thank you, Remus. I love him, you know. I never really got a chance to explain it to him. I mean, I told him, often, but I don't think he really understood it, I guess."

"Did he ever tell you how he felt about you?"

"No. I mean, I know he cared about me, but he never really told me that he did. He would always cut me off when I talked of our future, or just us in general. It was like he was too...scared, I guess, about what would happen if he ever told me how he felt. I wonder sometimes if it was all just... hormones, maybe, or experimentation. I don't think that he felt about me the same way I felt about him."

"Harry..." but he didn't know how to finish his sentence.

Harry stood up to leave.

"Thank you, Remus, for listening...for accepting, really. It was wonderful to see you again. Stop by my flat anytime."

With that, he Apparated out, leaving Remus sitting in the library.

Oh, Harry, he thought, if only you knew.

-If I Should Meet Thee, After Long Years,

How Should I Greet Thee?-

"Draco?"

Draco spun around, praying that it wasn't his voice. It was.

"Hello, Harry. Long time, no see."

"I was in the courtroom last week."

The wince wasn't visible, or at least he hoped it wasn't. "Really? Anything interesting happen? Was Fudge doing a silly dance?" Bad sarcasm was the lowest form of humor, he knew, but anything to divert to the conversation. He wasn't ready for this, not yet.

Flashback to the day of the trial

"Malfoy?" came a voice from Draco's past. He inwardly groaned. She couldn't want to talk now.

"Yes?" He turned around and met the steady gaze of an adult size Hermione Granger, or rather, Weasley.

"I need to ask you a question."

"I would really rather you didn't, as I can't lie."

"That's why I'm asking now," she took a deep breath. "Did you love Harry?"

He winced. "Yes."

"Is that the reason you changed sides?"

"Yes, among others."

"Do you love him now?"

"I never stopped."

End Flashback

"Draco?"

"What, oh, sorry. You were saying?"

"Just that I never knew you had changed sides."

"I couldn't tell you, Harry," the tenderness slowly creeping into his voice. "I wish I could've, but the risk of it leaking was too great. Not saying that you would have told, but Dumbledore thought it best that I didn't tell anyone. The only people that knew were the Headmaster, Severus, and Remus."

Harry nodded. "I understand."

If Draco had been willing to look closely at Harry, he would have seen both the unshed tears and the look of longing in his eyes. If Harry had been willing to do the same, he would have seen Draco's desire to touch him, to hold him. But neither was willing to risk rejection.

-With Silence and With Tears-

"Harry..." Draco began, but was cut off by Harry wrapping his arms around his neck. He hesitated, but soon found his arms winding their way around Harry's waist. He breathed in the scent of Harry's hair, as the green-eyed boy laid his head on Draco's shoulder, his head tilting into the crook of the blonde boy's neck. Draco soon felt his neck grow wet.

"Harry..." he began again, but this time, Harry looked up a him with a tearstained face.

"Not yet, no talking." Draco only nodded, wiping away his own tears. Words could wait.

The passion of their kiss engulfed both boys and sent them reeling with unspoken emotion. As they broke the kiss off to embrace again, Harry felt Draco leaning in to speak into his ear.

"I love you, Harry."

Fin