When You're Beside Me...

Additions to Disclaimer: The words in italics within ~ ~ throughout the chapter are lyrics from 'Time of Dying' by Three Days Grace

Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to the lovely members of a certain facebook group who should be blamed for this story seeing the light of day :D And many more thanks to the sweet readers who left me nice reviews! *hugs*

Paragraphs within ***** ***** are a flashback.

Chapter 3

Voldemort's snake-like face contorted in agony and rage as he slowly crumbled before Harry Potter.

Harry wanted to feel triumphant. After all the deaths on his conscience finally avenged, he wanted to feel at peace with himself. He wanted to feel... something. Anything. Instead, his feelings felt leached into the cursed battlegrounds along with the blood sluggishly flowing from Draco Malfoy's slender, broken form.

~On the ground I lay,
Motionless in pain~

*****

The battlefield was a seething, roiling mass of black robes and whisper-soft flashes of agony and death.

~I can see my life
Flashing before my eyes~

Harry was caught in a nightmare of skulls and scarlet, tainted eyes. He had to get to Voldemort, but where was he? The spells flying around him didn't stop long enough for him to glance at his surroundings.

"Potter!"

~Did I fall asleep,
Is this all a dream~

The cry of warning echoed in Harry's ears through the sound of the battle around him. He snapped around to see Draco racing toward him. Behind him, like a black, billowing wave, ranks of Death Eaters coalesced around Lord Voldemort.

The battle had begun.

~Wake me up,
I'm living a nightmare~

Harry felt broken. How long had Voldemort been toying with him? How long was this going to go on?

"Harry! Behind you!"

~Was it all too much
Or just not enough~

Harry listlessly turned around. The edges of his sight seemed waveringly dark and blurred. Lucius Malfoy's gloating face floated in and out of focus, awash in a flickering blue light. Harry blinked. The blue light did not disappear. In fact, it appeared to be getting closer.

Suddenly, Draco was in front of him. His face twisted in agony as the burning, electric-blue light slammed into his back. For one earth-shattering moment, the oncoming spell clearly illuminated Draco. His body rigid with white-hot whips of pain, his gray eyes clenched shut, his lip curled into a snarl, his white teeth biting down over his lower lip, his proud head snapping back over the taut line of his neck...

Then the blinding light silhouetted him from behind so that Harry could no longer see him.

I love you.

Harry closed his eyes.

~Wake me up,
I'm living a nightmare~

Draco was on the ground. Pale and still slightly glowing from the oily taint of the dark magic, Draco's blank, icy gaze bored through him. Harry would never again close his eyes and imagine what could have been. Because there was nothing left. Harry's eyes darkened.

*****

~I will not die,
I'll wait here for you~

Harry clenched his burning eyes closed and dropped wearily to his knees beside Draco's prone body.

They hadn't had time for... anything. The last few days before the battle had been full of stolen moments filled with talks of dreams and hesitant touches and kisses. They hadn't lived in the present. How could they? It was a nightmare. Only their dreams and plans had made it worth living. Now there was nothing.

There was no one left for him. Why had he clung to his stubbornness for so long? In the meager time they had, they could have... But that didn't change anything. Eyelash wishes never did.

No! Harry couldn't give up just yet. Eyelash wishes were insubstantial, but maybe... Maybe Harry's love wasn't. Maybe Draco's love wasn't. Maybe together they could create something tangible and strong that would lift them out of the filth and cloying expectations of a world that had never given them a chance.

Gritting his teeth and hoping against hope that he wouldn't pass out, Harry leaned over Draco and reached for his wrist. It was then that he felt it. Lying there, with his chest against Draco's, Harry felt the slight rise and fall of pained breaths.

"... Harry?"

Harry's heart stopped at that slight, thready voice. Then it resumed with each of those weak breaths. One after the other. Until Harry felt that Draco breathed for both of them, and Harry's heart beat for both of them.

Until Harry couldn't breathe by himself and Draco couldn't live by himself.

~I feel alive,
When you're beside me~

Harry couldn't move. He had neither the strength nor the magic left to call for help or send up a shower of sparks. He had no idea how long they had been waiting on the dark, silent battlegrounds.

Suddenly, Draco rasped, "... Harry... I always-" he was interrupted by a cough that racked his body and bubbled blood into his mouth. "... I wished... so many things. You could never imagine... I wanted you so much. For so long. Now..." Draco's eyes were beyond seeing. "Bloody Potter... Always... ruining my plans. I want... to have a cozy home... maybe only five or six bedrooms..."

Harry almost sobbed aloud. It was a game they had taken to playing in the little time they had been allotted. "Only five or six bedrooms?" he croaked. "Do you think you'll survive? Ponce. I want a garden."

"So you can... come home grimy and track... dirt all over the floors? I think not, Potter."

Inexplicably, a tiny smile graced his mouth as he stared blankly at the sky, awash with crimson and scarlet. As though the blood they had spilled on the ground had leeched into the clouds.

Harry laughed. He laughed until the taste of blood disappeared from the back of his throat and the smell of death released its cloying hold.

If they were one breath and one heart and one body, were they also one soul? If death came for one of them, would he kill both of them with one lash of his scythe?

I love you.

Yes, Harry thought dizzily. I would follow you to the ends of the earth, Draco Malfoy, before I let you leave me. Before I let you go without living the dreams we had. Even then... Even then, my heart would beat for you, and my breath would scream for you.

Harry pressed his face into Draco's shoulder and prayed for darkness as hot tears snaked through the crimson blood and filth that covered his face. He closed his eyes...

~I will not die,
I'll wait here for you~

... And opened them again, unable to see through the burning rush of tears for what could have been.

A sharp, quicksilver ache sliced through him, leaving him gasping for breath, only to find that the pain did not ebb, but continued to surge through him with every panicked flutter of his heart. Harry dully realized that if Draco died, he would never have to cause himself pain to ground himself from thoughts of Draco. Because the pain would swell and crash in his every breath, every heartbeat, every second of his life. Every time he closed his eyes and imagined Draco beside him. Because he couldn't live his life any other way.

~In my time of dying~

Author's Notes: Well, there's one more chapter left because I got carried away. Don't worry, the next chapter is definitely the epilogue, so stick around for it! This is my first fic and I do not have a beta reader, so please keep that in mind and leave a review. Comments and (constructive) criticism are welcome!