A Hero for a Night

A Hero for a Night

Hold your head high

Don´t look down

I´m by your side

I won´t back down

You wanted a hero tonight

Well I´m not made of steel

But your secret´s safe with me

-"Made of Steel" Our Lady Peace

One just doesn´t end up alone in the middle of a Quidditch pitch at three am by accident. There is always a reason.

I hadn´t slept in three days, but I wasn´t about to lie down anytime soon. Then again no one else had slept in that amount of time or longer, and not a soul slept in the castle before me. You could see the bright lights of the Great Hall twinkling merrily, the sounds of carefree laughter filling the night. Stress had been high this past week; preparations for war can do that to people.

We had won.

That´s why everyone was celebrating, but not I. I couldn´t bring myself to take part in celebrating the deaths of so many of the people I had grown up with. My friends, family, and friends of the family, all dead, it is common opinion that they deserved it. My mind agrees but my heart, it bleeds sluggish tears for all those I lost.

So that leaves me a hundred feet above the ground, silently circling the pitch, outside the celebrations for our freedom. Dumbledore was kind enough not to mention my efforts; I could not have handled the recognition.

I´m not proud of what I´ve done, but looking into the eyes of the tired yet triumphant eyes of those who survived, I couldn´t help but be a little bit glad that my actions helped those who deserved it.

Defecting to the `light´ side had not been an easy decision. I was brought up to believe that family was everything, that you owed your loyalty to family first and everyone else second. I was also brought up not to question my father´s decisions.

My father. Gone. Forever. Mother too, and the Crabbes, the Goyles, the Parkinsons, and over half of the Zabinis. Over half of Britain´s pureblooded wizarding families wiped out in less then two days. Now more family Yule celebrations, no more-

A choked sob escaped me, and tears started to prickle at the back of my eyes. I flew towards the ground before the impending tears could spill. Upon landing my thoughts dissolved in grief, and the tears fell.

An excruciatingly long amount of time passed before my sobs died down. By the time I could wipe my face dry, I could sense a presence behind me. I jumped to my feet and turned around to see whom it was, and was caught by strong arms when I nearly fell. The world came back to focus and I stared into the green eyes of my rescuer.

"Potter, what are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same." Damn those green eyes, which were no longer overshadowed by a scar. That had disappeared at the moment of the Dark Lord´s true defeat.

"I´m not the wizarding world´s savior, I don´t need to be there." Even I could hear the raw pain in my voice. It just wasn´t fair that he had to come and ruin everything, my mourning, and my life.

"In a way you are." He saw too deeply that boy, no blooded and victorious man.

"What are you talking about?" Damn Dumbledore and his well-meaning slips of tongue. The man before me is the last person on earth I need harping on me about duties and loyalty. What would it be, damned for being a spy, or damned for playing the bastard for so long?

"Draco, you know what I´m talking about, don´t play dumb. You deserve just as much of a hero´s congratulations as I do. You saved us, giving us the locations of the headquarters, the knowledge of when the attacks would occur, Draco, all I did was say two words, and you saved thousands of lives with the information you gave us." He called me Draco. Twice.

"Potter, I killed my family. That´s all people need to understand, and they do. I´m a traitor and a spy, it doesn´t matter that I´m on their side." He smiled sadly, with a look in his eye just for me.

It was at that point I realized that he hadn´t let go after he steadied me, instead he had pulled me close and now his arms were wrapped around me, cradling me.

"Potter-"

"Shhh," He placed a gentle finger on my lips and shook his head. "Draco, we know how much this has cost you, and we know that nothing can fill the void that losing your life has caused you. But we´ll try," He paused a small smile on his face. "I´ll try"

To my horror I started to cry again, great sobs, the caring that the boy I had envied and hated for so many years was showing me was too much. He didn´t say anything, just pulled me closer in his arms and placed my head on his shoulder. I clung back.

After a moment I realized that I was not alone in my tears that the Boy who saved the World had been out here tonight to grieve also. To grieve for the lives lost, the innocence lost, and the weight that had left his shoulders after six long years. He cried my loss, he cried for everyone´s losses.

We stood in each other´s arms for an immeasurable amount of time, both offering and taking solace. My tears dried first, and I freed a hand from his back and lifted up his chin with a finger. I smiled at his messy hair framing his tearstained face, he was looking even more disheveled than usual with his ruffled hair and tear-stained face.

"The pitch is a good place for crying, but we´d better go inside before you are missed. I´d like this moment to be just between the two of us."

He smiled back, and let me go. Then grabbed one of my hands before heading towards the castle.

I stopped us before we went through the door. "Harry, thank you, I-"

He shushed me again with a finger against my lips, and looked deep in my eyes, his own green ones turbulent with emotion.

"Thank you Draco for being who you are."

He smiled, and kissed me.

The celebrations that night were bearable because of the sable haired hero by my side.