We Are Supermen

We Are Supermen

I.

"And life itself confided this secret to me...I must be a struggle and a becoming and an end and an opposition to ends...Whatever I create and however much I love it--soon I must oppose it and my love; thus my will wills it." - Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Destruction.

He knew it well. He had known it was coming, but even its inevitability had not prepared him for what he had to do. He had built himself up against both sides, making himself untouchable, but still he had been touched. Crushed. Destroyed.

His weakness? The cause of his destruction? Love, though that was perhaps not the word he would have chosen himself. He, who had always loved himself above all else, had allowed himself some measure of familiar feeling with two people, and they had been enough to destroy him. The infuriating old man and the beautiful young woman.

He loved the old man enough to make a promise, and he loved the woman enough to make another. He loved himself enough to keep the promise that was best for him. He had not meant to sacrifice one for the other, but he had to save himself. He had to save himself, and now he had to save the boy. The boy had his mother's hair and his father's sneer, but his face mirrored Snape's own fear.

They spent the first night in a cave somewhere in the Swiss Alps. The boy sniveled and was entirely ungrateful for his mother's resolution and Snape's loyalty. He was still not a killer and he hadn't been killed by his fellow Death Eater's for the failed mission. After all, time bought was time bought, even if one was on the run from both sides now.

"You have to take me to Harry Potter."

Snape looked up from the rock he had been staring at for the past hour. "What was that, you daft boy?"

"Potter. There were two brooms on the tower; I recognized Potter's. He was there. You have to take me to him." Draco's face was drawn and his eyes were red. At least he was out of his snit; Snape was sure his howls had echoed through the mountains.

"So he may murder us both? I will not have more deaths on my head."

Draco snorted. Draco knew how many deaths Snape had caused over the years, or at least he suspected. "You will. You have to. He's the only one who can protect me."

"I'm the one who has to protect you, or have you forgotten what I told you earlier? That's why I had to complete your mission for you." He was far too tired to explain this all again. He hadn't yet digested the idea that Dumbledore was dead.

Draco's eyes glinted. "But don't you see, you have to. If the only one who knows I'm not a killer is Potter, Potter is the only one who can protect me. If the only way I'll be safe is to go to Potter, then you have to take me to him or you'll die. You'll die and I'll die and you'll have failed everyone who ever trusted you."

Goddamn it.

II.

"What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness...What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all the failures and all the weak." -The Antichrist

Harry had not planned on ever returning to Grimmauld Place again, but after Bill and Fleur's wedding he needed someplace to go and plan. Besides, the quest for the Horcruxes would likely be made easier by the large collection of Dark Arts books in the library there. Ron and Hermione were to meet him the next day, after he figured out if Dumbledore's protection remained on the old house. He stumbled through the kitchen floo and found two bedraggled figures staring back at him.

That was a no, then.

His wand was drawn and pointed at the tallest of them before his mind even had a chance to process their identities. Somehow he knew anyway. He knew that his rival and the killer of his mentor, both Death Eaters, were sitting in his kitchen waiting for him to return home. He did not know how long they had been waiting, and he did not care.

"Why are you here Snape? I'm sure you know you are not welcome," Harry snarled. He could have sworn that he heard his former professor sigh as he stepped in front of Draco Malfoy, effectively blocking the smaller wizard from view.

"I am here to seek the protection of my charge, Potter. I want nothing from you but your Gryffindor honesty."

"Why should I protect him? He's a Death Eater; if he wants protection he should turn himself into the Ministry." Harry surprised himself by sounding so calm.

A short bark of laughter came from Snape. "To Scrimegour? And you honestly believe they will deal with him fairly? You saw me kill Dumbledore, you know Draco could not do it. The Dark Lord also knows he failed, and he wants his head. Will you at least offer him the same protection Dumbledore once did?" Snape knew he was laying it on thick, but this had to work, for both of their sakes.

Harry shook his head as if to clear it. Snape had to know that Harry would kill him as soon as look at him, but he still brought Draco here for protection. There had to be something else to it.

"And why are you risking your life to bring him here for protection? Surely you realise that if Draco could get in then anyone could. He's no safer here than in the woods somewhere." He focused all of his attention on holding his wand steady. He did not want to betray his conflicted feelings in the same way Draco had not long before.

Snape swallowed hard, a bead of sweat dripping down his temple. He would have to divulge his secret. "I made the Unbreakable Vow." He drew himself up. "I have to do everything in my power to protect Draco. That is why I killed Dumble..."

"I don't want to hear your excuses!" Harry spat, brandishing his wand in Snape's face. "I don't care why you did it, it's done." He paused to regain his composure. The thought occurred to him..."If you have vowed to protect Draco, then I suppose you won't mind making a little deal?"

Steeling himself, Snape replied, "What sort of deal do you have in mind, Potter?"

It was Potter's turn to smirk. "Your life. Your life for Malfoy's protection. You need to protect Malfoy, and I want you dead. The way I hear it, if you don't do it you'll die anyway."

Goddamn it.

Snape's body fell to Harry Potter's curse, revealing a grinning Draco Malfoy standing by the table.

III.

"Once cannot erase from the soul of a human being what his ancestors liked most to do and did most constantly...It is simply not possible that a human being should not have the qualities and preferences of his parents and ancestors in his body, whatever appearances suggest to the contrary. This is the problem of race." -Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Much like Snape, he loved himself above all else. His mother had protected him once, and so she had earned his protection. Still, Potter was his protector now and therefore held his primary loyalties. He would covertly strike down aurors if they aimed curses at his mother, but when her wand pointed at Potter he did not hesitate to kill her. The glow on Potter's face the night after Draco saved his life was almost worth suffering his first pangs of guilt. A hard won ally was still an ally, and Potter did not have to know that he only loved himself.

***

Their first kisses were hesitant, not because they didn't know what they were doing, but because neither was sure he wanted to owe more to the other than he already did. Draco allowed Potter to seduce him with promises of no commitments and an Order of Merlin after the war. An Order of Merlin for killing his own mother. It was just twisted enough to appeal to him.

***

And so he appeared a reformed man. All that Potter had promised him came true, and more. Potter kept his promises, Potter earned his loyalty. He had made a wise decision in the cave that day he knew, because Snape had taken him as far as he could. Much like his father before him, Draco worked for the Ministry. He made charitable donations. He built up the Malfoy name.

There was just one small difference: Draco Malfoy had chosen the right side all along. His own.