Legends of Blood and Unicorns

Chapter One: I'll Be Missing You

Hermione rolled over onto her stomach reaching for her quill to take still more notes. She smoothed the rumpled red and white silk coverlet and put down her book with a sigh.

"How's it going, love?"

"Not too good, Harry; I thought you'd fallen asleep an hour ago."

"Nope, although this chair is certainly comfy enough." Harry was curled up in a well-worn and slightly abused red velvet armchair. With his legs slung over one arm and his back against the other one he had most definitely not been working. His cloak hung over the back of the chair and his books were nowhere to be seen. Behind him, the door swung open and Hermione flashed him a quick smile as he jumped slightly in surprise. Several heads popped in followed moments later by their bodies.

"Whew, it's chucking it down out there."

"Sure is, how's about a fire?" A red headed girl waved her wand and was rewarded momentarily with a crackling fire. She stripped down to her jeans and sweatshirt, followed closely by the others. Hermione glanced up from her pages of notes on the magical powers of mermaids.

"Hi Ginny, Draco, Ron, Pat."

"Hey what's up, Hermione? Move your butt over some so I can steal your notes."

"I think not, Pat." Pat, who was much bigger than the petite Hermione and therefore posed a much bigger threat, just smiled and tossed her long, bluish-black hair.

"Fine then, move your butt over anyways." She plopped onto the bed alongside Hermione, who had just barely escaped being smooshed; the same could not be said for the notes she had been working on.

"Ow. Here take your notes! Although for the life of me I cannot see why you put a defence charm on them."

"To stop big, muscular girls like you from sitting on them of course," quipped Ginny from the floor where she was in the process of making Draco into a very comfy person to lean against.

"Oh honestly, Ginny, come here, your lips are white."

"Mmmmerghhhh!" Ginny's words were drowned out as Draco pulled her down on top of him and proceeded to 'warm' her lips.

"Guys! Could you get a room please? I do not need to see that?" Harry teased them and he tried to extricate himself from the armchair to join Ron on the floor.

"We have a room, Harry. Is it honestly our fault if it just so happens to be yours?" Draco smirked at the obviously bewildered Harry and pulled Ginny still closer to him.

"Yeesss... And hey! Off my Hufflepuff banner! I just got it cleaned!"

"Oops, sorry, Harry. If Draco could manage to remove himself, I would get off of it."

"But darling, you belong in my arms!"

"Do not! Hey! Harry's out of the chair now."

"Awesome!" Draco jumped to his feet and sweeping Ginny up, carried her to the chair so recently vacated by the younger boy. Harry threw them a semi-hate-filled glance and began to rehang his Hufflepuff banner. After finally convincing Dumbledore that he would be fine with a room outside the Gryffindor tower, Harry had proceeded to decorate his room so it was a tribute to all of the houses. Needless to say, this amused his friends very much although not so much after he had kicked their butts all over the Quidditch field time after time. Actually, he thought, it was interesting to watch all the house rivalries fall apart between the seventh years. Now that everyone was scrabbling to find a job and prepare for any major last minute testing, hatred had dissolved into disgruntled tolerance, well for the most part anyway. Last year, everyone had considered him and Draco voluntarily working together rather odd. Snape had hated it, he had been unable to take points off Gryffindor for no reason without getting dirty looks from Draco. And of course, there was the memorable occasion when Snape had temporarily taken the Defense Against the Dark Arts job and decided it simply wasn't as much fun as threatening to poison the students if the potion went wrong. Dumbledore had ordered him not to test the curses on the advanced students before teaching it to lower years, which was often amusing as that meant he had to test it on himself.

"What are you thinking about, darling?"

"Sorry, Hermione, I was a million miles away."

"Obviously, but what were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about everything that's changed since we first started here."

"Oh?"

"Yea."

"Enjoyed the ride?"

"Course. You?"

"For the most part, there's still one thing, though."

"Well."

"This." Hermione steeped down onto the floor beside him. "Stand up, Harry."

"Okay..." Harry scrambled to his feet and stood looking down at her.

"Oi! Sod off you lot!" Draco snapped his head up from his arms where he'd been laying next to Ginny.

"Why?"

"Because I told you to!" snapped Harry, "Because it's my damn room! Treat it as such for once!"

"Okay. Okay. We're going. When can we come back?" Ron looked utterly bewildered; this was obviously a first for him.

"When I say so."

The group quickly gathered together their cloaks and wands and dispersed into the many hallways.

"Okay, Hermione, shoot."

"Well umm... I think you'd better sit down, we both probably should."

"Is it that bad?"

"It very well could be. Depends."

"All right," Harry sat down on the bed and pulled Hermione into his arms. She didn't resist but, instead of sinking into his embrace, she held herself stiffly as far away from him as possible. "Darling whatever it is I'll be fine. Promise."

"Umm... Well you see Harry... I'm bi or gay. I'm don't know. I like girls."

"Hermione, that's fine with me. Honestly. It doesn't change anything between us, does it?"

"I'm sorry Harry, but I'm afraid it does."

"Why? It shouldn't."

"I'm leaving you, Harry, I can't live like this anymore. Don't ask me why but I can't live a lie, you understand?"

"No I don't." Hermione leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek.

"Goodbye, Harry, I love you."

"Then why are you doing this to me?"

"Bye Harry, I'll see you in a few days." Hermione tied her cloak and strode across the room and out of the door.

"No..." A tear slid down Harry's cheek and landed with a soft splash on the stone floor. Everything had been so perfect between them. They'd been seeing each other for almost a year and they'd been best friends since their first week here. Granted there had been fights and harsh words between them along the way. He remembered visiting her in the hospital wing during second year. He'd sat there for hours on end singing softly to her; he remembered taking a curse designed for her in fifth year and his side still bore Lucius Malfoy's mark. Both his and Draco's noses had been broken multiple times in fights over her.

How could she leave him like that?

How?

His door creaked open without him even noticing.

"Hey, Potter. I brought you something to eat, you missed dinner. Have you seen Ginny? Oh... fuck... What happened in here?"

"Leave me alone Draco."

"I most certainly will not. What happened?" Draco put the tray down on the floor and rather ungracefully clambered onto the bed. Harry noticed the unusually tight leather pants he was wearing.

"Go Draco."

"Not until you talk to me." Draco rolled Harry over so he was facing him and lay down beside him. "What happened?"

"She left me. She's bi or gay. She doesn't know. She likes girls at any rate."

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. She said she'd see me in a couple of days."

"Well then where's Ginny?"

"I don't know that, either. I haven't seen her since you two left here hours ago."

"Oh Harry. Come here, its okay." Draco drew Harry into his embrace and surprisingly Harry responded to the warmth of his body. "Hush, it's going to be okay."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'll sing if you want."

"Okay..." Harry pressed his face into Draco's shirt and moved closer to the blonde haired boy.

"Stilleliebling

Weil ich liebe dich

Ich liebe dich

Mein Körper, mein Herz

Mein Seele und mein Sanity

Halten Sie mich sicher

Halten Sich mich nahe

Versangen Sie sich mich wenn ich falle

Stoppen Sie sich Schmerz

Lassen Sie mich es aller beenden

Aber wissen Sie daB ich Sie noch liebe

Ich liebe dich

Ich liebe dich mein Herz

Mein Seele."*

Draco gave Harry a quick hug and let go. The younger boy had stopped crying about halfway through the lullaby, his breathing was deep and steady and his eyes were closed. The tears had dried on his cheeks and he looked extremely vulnerable lying there alone. Oh fuck it, thought Draco, I love him, Ginny's gone to Merlin only knows where, and I can't just leave him like this.

"Mmmm." Harry rolled onto his back and a single, crystal tear shone below his long eyelashes. Well that settles that, Draco lay back down and gathered Harry back into his arms. A tear fell from his closed silver eyes and landed on a silk pillow.

"I'll never let go, I'll never let go love." He whispered to the boy in his arms before drifting off alongside him.

*Translation on Draco's lullaby:

Hush darling

Because I love you

I love you

My body, my heart

My soul and my sanity

Keep me safe

Keep me close

Catch me if I should fall

Stop the pain

Let me end it all

But know that I still love you

I love you

I love you my heart

My soul.