Everything Else Could Wait

"Stay with me," came the anguished plea.

"I can't. I have to go," was the whispered reply.

A light kiss and then silence. He was gone.

He fell to his knees in despair. He wasn't going to come back. If he walked out that door he was going to die tonight.

Draco did not know this for sure, of course. But the dead feeling around his heart knew that this was the last moments he had with the one person who meant everything in his world.

His life, his reason for breathing, his light.

And he had just let him walk away. Oh, he knew that he couldn't stop him but still one more protest wasn't going to be enough to keep him there. Draco had tried but he knew that more would have been futile. Harry would not stay.

He would go no matter what he had said. He would go alone to face his death and his lover would wait till he came back.

If he came back.

Harry had lost a lot for Draco. His best friend had abandoned him, his peers had shunned him, and still he went to fight alone for them. For the ones that had left him, had hurt him. He was going to die for them, he thought bitterly.

No amount of tears and the angry words he had yelled had made his lover change his mind. 'It is my job' he had told him softly and then kissed away his tears and his anger. He knew that he might not come back and tonight had been the sweetest and most love filled night of their entire relationship.

It was like, in his own way, Harry was saying goodbye.

NO!

Draco's mind screamed out its anguish. I WILL NOT LOSE HIM!

Standing up he strengthened his resolve. He glanced at the kind old eyes of the Headmaster and saw him nod in acceptance of his decision. Harry had left him here to make sure that he didn't follow. With a quirk of his eyebrow, Dumbledore motioned towards the door.

All the fighting and the tears hadn't made Harry stay, but Draco had never said that he wouldn't follow him. He had told him that he would follow him into death but Harry's pleas had made him stay. Harry's tears had made him stay.

"If he dies tonight then so do I," was his final vow to the man would had helped him be who he was now. Dumbledore, who had given him his first chance, had believed in him, and had led him to Harry. He owed the old coot for everything that his life was now.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled for the first time in weeks as he watched the blond Slytherin follow the dark haired Gryffindor to their destiny. Dumbledore smiled softly as the two young men faced thier destiny the way it was always meant for them to do, together.

Draco left the room to follow Harry.

His world, his life, his light.

Because that is all that mattered.

Everything else could wait.