Abdication

I was born to be as a prince among men, the only son of a man who would see himself as a king. He lorded over his manor like a mighty kingdom, and I as his only heir was to one day accede to the thrown and also rule with total power.

My father taught me to be vigilant and strong, to have control over my surroundings and myself. He welded power like a weapon, he had only a few requirements, but they were ironclad in their importance. He demanded total adoration and devotion from his servants, my mother and I. If we accepted his authority as total and his power as supreme, the kingdom ran smoothly and we remained unscathed.

My mother was beautiful and elegant, regal in her bearing and pliant in her manner. She only had one duty, and that was to please her husband. Whether this was in keeping a grand home, entertaining his associates in a royal manner, or opening her soft ivory thighs to take in his seed in order to produce an appropriate heir; she was expected to comply without question.

The one and only time she opposed my father, he threw her from the top of a tower, to die broken on the hard ground below. A lesson from Lucius need only be taught once.

The only time I opposed my father; he was not as final in his punishment of me but none the less devious. My crime was that I fell in love, and in my father's eyes it was an unpardonable offense. I don't know whether it was just the fact that I loved someone other than him and his power or if it was that I loved the enemy, his enemy, my Harry, my mate.

My father locked me in a prison of his making and beat me, starved me and tortured me with threats of what he would do to my love and I as punishment for what was in our hearts. Never having loved, he could not understand love as a tangible thing, an overwhelming passion that consumed everything that existed in a person and replaced it with, tenderness, compassion but also strength. Pure strength born of a determination to put someone else before your own feelings and well-being. It was a humbling experience, but a blessed freedom also.

In his insanity, my father would see me dead rather than surrender to love - to what he deemed a weakness; to what he could not accept, for himself or for me.

The only person that my father ever loved, and ultimately rejected because of that love saved me from the wrath of my father. A man named Snape, a man that grew from that rejection into a bitter and foul soul. A man that was my professor at my school and because of his love for my father had watched over me and had found where my father was keeping me. In the end his love was not enough to save my father, but it was enough to lift me up and release me from the prison that in the depths of his insanity, my tormented, power drunk, father had condemned me.

Now my father lay dead by my hand and as Professor Snape helped me from the home of my youth I knew that my life would never be the same.

Later that evening as I lay in bed at St Mungo's I waited; I waited for my life to start, for my love to claim me, for the healing to begin.

"Mr. Malfoy."

I looked up at the sound of a voice from the doorway. It was Headmaster Dumbledore; he stood looking at me with a pensive look on his face before coming and sitting on the edge of my bed.

"The healers tell me that you will be fine in short time. Of course there will be some lingering scars and weaknesses," he said quietly.

I lifted my good arm and touched the ridge of the gash that ran down my cheek where Lucius had swung his cane in anger at me, before answering Professor Dumbledore, "Yes, well, I guess Harry and I will match in more ways than both being orphans, won't we?"

"I suppose so, Mr. Malfoy, I suppose so."

"Where is he, where is Harry?"

"We have sent someone to bring him here. He has been waiting for you. He never gave up that you would be found alive. Even after all of these months, he has waited."

I shifted slightly on the bed before speaking, "How could he know I was still alive?"

"He said that he felt you. That he was bound to you and he still felt you here." With that he pointed to his chest with one gnarled finger before continuing, "He said he heard your heart beat along side of his and that above all else told him that you were still alive. He will be here soon, but I wanted a few moments with you first."

I waited for him to finish the thoughts that I could see in his face.

He cleared his throat and said, "Draco, you have taken on an incredible responsibility. You and dear Harry have given each other your hearts and your lives. This is an ownership that cannot be taken lightly. As you know, the wizarding world takes the bonds of love very seriously. It matters not to us who you love, or what you love, as proven by my brother, but that is a story best left for another day."

With that he issued a small cough and blushed slightly before continuing, "Draco, like our wands, we do not choose love, it chooses us, and it can be a wondrous adventure, but it takes sacrifice and it must be given into fully, with all of your heart, body and soul. Are you prepared to give yourself to another person? Have you thought about what it means? I mean no offense, Draco, but you have been raised to be - shall we say, somewhat self-involved? You have been taught from infancy that power and force were the only admirable qualities that a man can possess. Can you put all of that aside, can you give yourself freely to another?"

The seconds spun out between us like an eternity. The one word that hung on my lips felt weighted as if it were made of lead instead of a puff of breath. I knew that I stood on the edge of a cliff and all was needed was one small step to throw myself forward and fly, or crash to the ground. With more courage than I imagined that I could possess I looked into his eyes and said, "Yes".

We both turned as we heard a commotion from the hallway. I heard my name called and then the door swung open and there stood Harry.

He stopped and looked at me, anger clouded his features suddenly and he flew toward the bed. I cringed back against the pillow, afraid that everything that I had believed about us was a lie, afraid that he was here to harm me, or worse, to reject me. He looked possessed as he reached toward me; Dumbledore leapt from the bed and stared at us.

When Harry got to me he grabbed the blanket that covered me and swept it from me, looking at me from head to toe before he crumpled to his knees next to the bed and buried his face in my neck running his hands across my chest and into my hair. I burst into tears and grabbed for him and I felt sobs that mirrored my own wrack his thin frame.

"You came back. You're really here," he stuttered out against my skin. I felt his breath warm and moist on my skin and I held him tighter against me.

"I'll let you two have some time alone then," I heard the Headmaster say as if from a great distance and he left the room quietly.

Harry raised his face and looked into my eyes. He put a hand to my face and traced the cut on my cheek before speaking. "I will never let anyone hurt you again, if I could have stopped it this time I would, you know that don't you?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice to speak. I ran my fingers through his dark hair and pulled him toward me. As our lips met I felt the band of fear and worry that had been tight around my chest loosen.

"I waited for you," he said. "I never gave up."

"How did you know? How could you know?"

"Everyone and everything that I have ever loved has been taken from me. I am owed one damn thing, just one, and I chose you."

"Why?" I asked, needing to know. I still had a hard time understanding how we got to this point. After five and a half years of hostility, rivalry and hatred Harry had reached out and made an offer of peace. It didn't happen over night, but over the course of the next year we learned to tolerate each other and then became friends, tentatively. With Harry's friendship and acceptance I began to question my allegiance, and my father's motives. It was a painful decision when I chose to join the fight against Voldemort, and my father. As the war drew closer, so did Harry and I. We barely had time before the battles began to investigate our feeling for each other, but we both knew we wanted something more than friendship, more than a casual relationship.

Laying in the bed, looking into his eyes, I waited for his answer.

"You are my other half. That's the only explanation that I know. You make me happy, and that's good enough for me." He smiled and leaned forward placing a warm soft kiss at the corner of the gash on my cheek.

He ran his hands across my chest once more and slowly leaned back. He took my arm in his hands, tenderly touched the damaged elbow that my father had twisted and broken and placed another soft kiss there. Reaching down he traced the horrible twisting cut that ran down my leg under my dressing gown. He pulled the material back and placed hesitant kisses down the length of the cut. Harry picked up the blanket from where he had thrown it on the floor and tucked it around my legs.

"I hate him for hurting you, marking your beautiful skin. I am so sorry." Harry leaned forward again and kissed my cheek.

"He's dead. I killed him. He executed my mother; he threw her away like she was trash. He was evil and I never knew, never saw." The words stuck in my mouth and I begin to cry, my voice rising to a scream.

"Shh, please, don't. He can't hurt you ever again, no one will," he wrapped his arms around me and rocked me, rubbing slow circle against my back and holding me close to his chest.

"I never gave up, Harry. No matter what he did to me, I held on to you, to us. I wouldn't allow him to break me, to take my love for you from me, but I have no idea where we go from here."

"It's over. The war, the fighting, everything. From here we do what ever we want, we just learn how to live."

I leaned back and looked at the smile that spread across his face, wondrous adventure, indeed, and with that thought I met his smile with one of my own.

"I think we are going to be okay, Harry, I never wanted to be king anyway."

He looked at me in puzzlement before breaking into laughter and saying, "Me either, Draco, me either."