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PART ONE

It was a bloody stupid fight.

No, it wasn't a nagging voice in Draco's head stated.

Draco pushed the thought away. He couldn't dwell on it anymore, the fight haunted him, HE haunted him. Everyday for the past 2 years Draco thought of no one but him, Harry Potter, the salvation of the wizarding world, and the man he always had and always would love.

**2 years earlier-Hogwarts**

"Draco?"

"Hmmm?"

"What's going to happen after graduation?"

Draco looked down at the raven-haired boy lying in his arms. His worst enemy, and greatest love. Harry fucking Potter, the boy who lived.

Harry looked up at Draco. He was everything to him, but he often wondered exactly where he ranked on Draco's list of priorities. His doubts began to resurface as he saw the uncertainty flicker in the grey eyes that he loved so much. Draco had been avoiding the subject of what would happen after graduation for months now, and now here they were hidden away in the Astronomy Tower, sated, spent, and cuddled up in each other's arms and only 2 days away from graduation and 1 year into their relationship.

"I don't know what's going to happen Harry, I can't predict the future you know" annoyance tinged his voice.

"Dammit Draco, we've been together for a year, a fucking year! And you still can't tell me what the bloody hell you want to happen with us!"

Draco didn't know what possessed him, but the statement was out of his mouth before he knew it.

"Together?!?! Correction Potter we have been fucking for a year!! Since when does that constitute a relationship!?!? I mean BLOODY HELL my father doesn't even know about us! NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT US!!"

Draco immediately regretted his outburst, but it was too late and there was no going back.

"WHAT?!? Nobody knows!?!? Damn you Draco, you swore to me that your father knew about us!! You-you said you told him over the winter holidays...y-you lied to me..."

Harry's voice trailed off, his emerald green eyes shined with unshed tears and his voice shook.

"Harry..." Draco said softly, trying to think of something to repair the damage he had just done.

"NO! NO! No more of this Draco, I risked my friendship with Ron and Hermione, I stood up for us for YOU, and you lie to me!! You have made a mockery of me of US, of everything I thought we had. I thought...I thought that you loved me, I thought you LOVED me and wanted this to work, but I see now how wrong I was. Congratulations Malfoy, you are truly your father's son, a disgusting, dishonest, and lying pathetic excuse for a human being. "

"Well excuse the fuck out of me for not being a noble Gryffindor like yourself Potter!"

"I HATE YOU, any love I may have felt for you, you have just killed Malfoy. I'm sorry that I wasted a year of my life on a coward like you. You might think I am some weak little Gryffindor Malfoy, but you are the weak one. You will forever be under your father's thumb, you will live your life according to his word even if you are miserable. Even if it means becoming a Death Eater, even if it means receiving the Dark Mark and being sent to kill me..."

Harry's voice trailed off again. His head was spinning, his entire world had just been turned upside down. He felt empty, like he had just lost a vital part of himself. He had to get out of there, after everything, he would not let Malfoy see him cry.

"Goodbye, Malfoy. Enjoy your miserable existence. Just remember the final battle with Voldemort is not far away, and if you become a Death Eater, as I am sure you will, be prepared, because I will kill you"

With that Harry dressed and walked out of the Astronomy Tower, never looking back at Draco.

Draco didn't know how long he sat there, but eventually everything that had just transpired came crashing down on him. He yelled, he screamed, he punched the stone walls until his hands bled and his bones were broken. Draco was like a wild beast, blood and tears flowing from his body, but he didn't care. Harry was right he was a coward, a jerk, a pathetic excuse for a human being. He cursed himself for not standing up to his father, for not standing up for the love that he and Harry shared.

He didn't know how long his rampage lasted, all he could remember was everything going black and waking up in the hospital wing, his hands bandaged, and an empty space in his chest where his heart had been, Harry Potter had been his heart and now he was gone from his life forever.

**Present Day**

Draco never saw Harry again after he left him in the Astronomy Tower. It was Dumbledore who found him in the Astronomy Tower and taken him to the hospital wing. Draco knew that Dumbledore was no fool, that he was well aware of what had been going on between he and Harry, and that whatever had been going on had caused him to find the silver haired Slytherin bloodied and bruised, but he did not ask any questions.

Draco didn't participate in graduation, he simply couldn't bear the thought of having to see Harry after what had happened, he knew he was being a coward again, but he didn't care. Dumbledore respected his wishes and Draco was exempt from participating in the graduation festivities. While the remainder of the 7^th years celebrated Draco sat alone in his room staring blankly at the ceiling replaying his relationship with Harry and its horrible ending over and over again in his head. Harry's remarks haunted him, and sometimes when Draco replayed things in his head the ending would be different. He would imagine Harry and he sharing a flat, waking up together, cooking dinner together, and coming home to each other after a long day at work. He knew it would never happen but it was only in those fantasies that Draco ever felt whole again.

He never did become a Death Eater; instead he did the one brave thing in his life and refused to fulfill his father's request. His father had tortured him within an inch of his life, and Draco had again turned to Dumbledore for help. He worked behind the scenes in the war against Voldemort, and the only people that knew of his participation were Dumbledore and Snape.

The final battle came 6 months after graduation, it was long and hard, but Harry had won. Voldemort had been destroyed yes, but so many were gone...Ginny Weasley, Crabbe, Goyle, Dean Thomas, Justin Flinch-Fletchley, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Seamus Finnegan, they had all fallen fighting for their respective sides. Lucius Malfoy was administered the Dementor's Kiss along with other Death Eaters that had been caught and brought to justice.

After the final battle he left the wizarding world. He carved out an inconspicuous existence for himself in muggle London as a professor of literature. Draco erased all traces of his former life as a wizard from the life he led now. He had not picked up his wand since the day that the final battle ended and he had apparated to muggle London. He cleaned out his bank account at Gringotts and exchanged it all for muggle money, and burned all of his old school uniforms. Draco was haunted enough by his old life, by all that he had lost he did not need any more reminders.

As Draco walked back to his flat his thoughts drifted back to Harry, as they often did, and he wondered not for the first time what it would be like to come home after a day of teaching to the only man that he would ever love.

Oh Harry, I was such a fool...

Fool or not there was no going back now. He had lost Harry Potter forever; he would have to live with the emptiness for the rest of his life. He had been too stupid to realize the gift that he had been given and he had wasted it, and he deserved the miserable and empty existence that he was living.