Life... to Be Sure...

Life, to be sure

Is not much to loose.

But young men think it is

And we were young

Professor Albus Dumbledore was a man of calm nature. He heard them; stumbling and gasping up the stairs, he saw the four teens come crashing in and the looks on their blood streaked faces sent him and his beautiful school spiralling into utter chaos. Hermione granger fell forward, sobbing.

"I love h-him, P-professor, h-he's dead..."

***

Sitting in the dark, rank dungeon, are Slytherin's finest, most of them barely over sixteen. Among them is a sculpture of aristocratic arrogance, Draco Malfoy. Carved from white marble and hair sewn from the finest of silk, he is the one labelled to lead the Dark Lord to victory. The War is drawing nearer and when it arrives, it is a known fact that the risen lord will conquer; the forces of Those Who Are Pure are lead by the Harry Potter, The Warrior of Faith, and He Who Will Destroy Evil, He who is Draco's one real threat.

But Draco has a weakness, one that no one shall ever know, one that, if it was found would send the evil ones into a never ending spiral of confusion, love, Draco's love, for a common mudblood girl.

Her skin is soft and light, eyes dark brown, with tiny flecks of black, eyes that one could loose oneself in forever, they are so deep. She has a soft, intelligent voice that runs off a tongue of satin hiding a blade of pure ice. She could cut steel with her words and then a second later melt the coldest of hearts.

That's what happened to Draco, except instead of melting his ice, she cut through the steel casing around his heart, and wounded him. She told him that he was a heartless beast, that he was something that should be put on an iron chain and never let to run free, never let to hurt people so badly, so readily.

Normally, if some little slug had called him that he would have turned the other cheek and spat his own fire back at them, but this was different.

He never knew he loved her, he never knew that she mattered to him one bit.

But Harry Potter had changed that.

***

Potter and Hermione had been dating since fifth year and were seen as a nice wholesome and untainted couple.

But it wasn't true.

Harry's last encounter with the Dark Lord left him physically and mentally scarred. Voldemort had cursed away the love of his family that had protected him for so long. He made Harry watch his parents die over and over. He cut him with a dagger and spilled his blood, using dark magic to bring an echo of his parents to life, cursing them to tell Harry he was hated he was never loved, they had abandoned him, no one loves you no one loves you at all.

And he had believed him, every word.

And though he had banished the Dark Lord with all the power he had to left in his teenage body, he would never be the same.

***

So he was dating Hermione. They were happy, and the bruise on her cheek was from when she fell down the stairs.

The cuts on her arms are from Crookshanks.

She broke her arm trying to apparate and hit the bed side table,

Excuses, and so many more excuses.

But Harry was hitting her. Draco could see it. He could see it in the way she stabbed at herself with the little dagger she carried, every time she did something wrong. He could see it in the way she flinched every time someone went to touch her. He could see it in the way she was so obsessed with what she ate and how she looked, as if she wasn't perfect all ready, as if doing so would make him stop.

But he would never stop.

Every little thing that she did irritated him. It wasn't as if Harry was a bad person, and it wasn't as if he did love her, it was just that he was so utterly unhappy, so terribly forlorn, that he had to make her love him, make sure she was his.

She did love him. Love him with all her heart, and it hurt Draco, to see that girl he loved so much be so caring for someone else, someone who didn't treat her like she deserved.

Treat her like he would.

But he didn't want to accept it; he didn't want to believe that he loved her.

But then it all came out.

***

He had just exited the dungeon where Snape had been holding the meeting, telling the select ones, that the Dark Lord was coming and that they would help bring him to power, to defeat the pure.

He was walking to the kitchens to make those filthy house elves get him something to eat, when he heard Potters enraged voice.

"You are nothing to me. I thought I loved you, but you obviously have no feelings of the same to me, flashing your shit around like you're something special!"

"I-I wasn't Harry! I swear! It's not the truth, please I do love you!"

Oh god that was Hermione's voice, pleading and begging.

He wanted to help but he was frozen, there was nothing he could do

"It is, you little slut, I know what I heard and I don't doubt that you did..."he paused, unable to go on, but then a resounding crack hit Draco's ears, Harry had stuck Hermione.

He ran in, just in time to see the beautiful girl slide against the wall and smash her head on the floor with a sickening crack.

He ran to her, kneeling down and holding her in his lap,

"No, please don't be dead, please I love you."

"What did you just say you filthy scummy bastard?"

Draco stood and walked over to him

"You heard me you self-righteous prick, I love her and you are damn lucky that she's ok, or there would be more than one death here."

A faint voice from the corner moaned incomprehensibly, then with a shriek cried out.

Draco ran to her and cradled her head once more

"What? What are you tying to say?"

"He's coming, Dark Lord, Draco please don't go, he's not to be trusted, jealous of your, powers, he will kill you, Harry, no way to defeat him, only the light of the brightest..." she trailed off

"Herm? Please, the brightest what?"

She mumbled something that sounded vaguely like "Auror" and passed out.

Suddenly, Draco's face contorted into one of painful realisation. He remembered something his father had said before Voldemort struck him down

Its you! It will always be you! He killed to make you more powerful. Do you know what you must do? Don't die! If you die, it will be taken...

"Harry, look you need to hold her, don't forget that you do love her and that she cannot die, and you cannot die. Tell Ron and everyone that I'm sorry, and I'm sorry to you Harry."

This was a side of Draco that he had never seen before, not even when the Dark Lord killed his parents because his father would not hand over his wife for Voldemort.

***

And he ran.

Ran not only for his life, but for the lives of those people he loved, even for Harry, even for Ron, his eyes were open now, and he could see what he had chosen to be blind to see all this time. Voldemort was out to kill Harry, and then he would kill Draco. Draco's powers were different from Harry's not more or less powerful in any way, but different, it was just that no one really knew how much Draco could do.

They were soon to find out.

***

Ah the Malfoy child was coming. The powerful one they called him. He would destroy him with just one curse. The Potter boy won't come, no one will save him.

Voldemort knew, and this time he would win. He would not be defeated this time.

***

"I know Voldemort; I know why you killed those people, why you hate muggles, why you hate Potter and I know why you want to kill me."

"Oh aren't you a clever little thing, well do tell me I'm dieing to know" that ice frosted voice rang in his ears and chilled him to his core, but he would be strong, he wouldn't forget those he was fighting for.

"The Aurora Light, you want it. And I've got it. All those people you killed had it too, and I have the seed. For every person you killed, their Lights went into mine, and now mine is the most powerful. You've killed every person who had it, except me. Potter is the only one who can keep you at bay, but he can never kill you, can he? The Aurora Light is the only thing left that can kill you, and I have it, but you want it don't you? Because it's also the last thing that will make you immortal, once and for all isn't it?"

Draco was panting as he finished these words.

Voldemort looked a little taken aback, but replied in the same icy tones

"Well you have been doing you're research haven't you? There's nothing you can do, I will kill you, and it will be easy, just like I killed your parents, just like I'm going to love killing Potter, Weasley and toying with that little muggle-born bitch." And he laughed. That awful high-pitched laugh, taking screeching breaths that were the screams of those he had killed, laughing like it was funny that he had destroyed so much, laughing like he thought he was going to win.

***

And suddenly there they were, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione, standing in the archway.

Harry raised his wand, but Draco knew that it wouldn't work and screamed, screamed for everyone that was ever lost, screamed thinking that this was it, that they could never win, he screamed, wishing that he had lived differently. Harry heard him and let out a strangled cry, wishing that there was a way they could kill this evil thing, this thing that had killed so many he loved.

And then it happened, and then the Sky fell in. Light was exploding from Draco's body. Silver was spewing from Harry's wand, Gold from Hermione's, Green from Ron's, and Fire Red from Ginny's.

The colours were swirling together, and then hit the light from Draco and combined, sending it pure, blinding white. A horrible scream, a scream of thousands of tortured souls, a cry of years of reign, Voldemort, shrieking, crying out for help, and even in his death, his evil mind made the effort, to strike one last blow, one that will never be forgotten,

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The green light pierced the white and hit the boy in the chest. His deep eyes wide and staring at the sky as he fell, looking to the clouds, face screaming for help. And then he was free. Free from his demanding life, where so much was expected of him, his soul already up with the birds.

Who he was aiming for is a mystery, but it is a mystery that will haunt the survivors, knowing it could have been them, and it didn't have to be him, but he was the one to die.

So he was the one missing when the four students staggered up to the office of their headmaster to tell him they had just stopped the greatest war in history, but one of the heroes was dead.

He was the Greatest Hero,

He was greater than all those who had preceded him and all those that would proceed him, loved and lover, protector, but not protected.

They wanted the headmaster and the whole school to know that it was him that saved them and that they could never forget Draco, not as long as they lived.

***

end?