The Engagement

Draco’s heart stopped beating for a moment. Then Harry deflected the curse with the sword and Draco could breathe again. His relief was short lived, though, because the killing curse hurled the sword right out of Harry’s hands, leaving the boy defenseless.

Draco sprinted out of his hiding place as fast as he could but his way was blocked by his crazy aunt. He groaned.

“Dracoooo”, Bellatrix cooed. “That’s no way to greet your Auntie. Where are your manners? Maybe I should remind you.” She smiled at him sweetly and promptly cast Crucio.

The blonde boy managed to dodge the curse, but narrowly so. Scrambling to his feet again, he immediately sprung to the side to avoid the onslaught of hexes his aunt his send his way. Draco doged curse after curse, being slowly but surely backed up until Bellatrix had him cornered against the castle’s walls.

“Now, cutie patootie” – what was with up with his relatives from the Black-side and their fable to call him pet names? – “you can’t dance away anymore”, Bellatrix cackled.

She began to cast. “Cru–“

“Not my future son-in-law, you bitch!” Molly Weasly screamed and send Bellatrix reeling backwards.

With a cry of outrage, Bellatrix engaged Molly in a viscious fight. Momentarily occupied, Draco used his aunt’s distraction to slip away.

He scanned the area for a black mop of hair, and found it near the ground kneeling next to an unconscious Sirius. His cousin must have battled with Voldemort to protected Harry. But now he was down, his wand shattered into splinters.

Draco ran but knew he wouldn’t make it in time. He screamed at the top of his lungs, “HARRY, you bloody idiot!”

And when said idiot turned to look at Draco, giving him a frightened stare, he threw his wand into the air.

Harry caught the wand, glancing at it incredulously. Then he turned his frightful gaze at Draco, horror-stricken. The Gryffindor began to shout back what seemed like “You’re the idiot! You’re without a weapon, now!” but was interrupted by Voldemort advancing.

Draco was roughly pulled on his shoulder and dragged towards the castle. He glanced at the person manhandling him, finding his mother with a stern expression. “Draco Lucius Malfoy, you are grounded for the rest of your life”, she said icily, pinching his ear.

“But mother”, Draco whined and struggled to get free. “I have to help Harry!”

“And how do you plan on doing that, when you gave up your wand?” Narcissa’s hold on his ear tightened. “Let your father deal with this. I’m only tolerating one obsessive person in my family and this spot is already taken. So, you are going back to the castle, young man.”

“Not so fast, traitors”, a deep voice grumbled from their right. Then, a huge, savage looking man blocked their path.

Narcissa shoved Draco behind her protectively and stared down her nose at the werewolf. “Let us pass, Greyback.”

“Why should I do that when there two pretty birds to be plucked?” Greyback leered at them, showing his sharp teeth. Saliva trickled over his chin.

“Wotcher, Aunt Cissy. Need help?” Tonks grinned as she sauntered over.

“We manage just fine, thank you, Nymphadora,” Narcissa sniffed.

Hair turning an angry shade of red, Tonks snapped, “Don’t call me Nymphadora!”

“Sorry to interrupt your lovely and undoubtedly important conversation but could you please turn your attention to the mad werewolf that is slowly advancing on us, now?” Draco quipped from behind, slightly panicked when the growling meaty man lunged at them.

The women gave Draco an annoyed look before hexing the werewolf into oblivion.

Theodore was still cowering on the ground as the war raged on around him. A gut-wrenching scream pushed him out of his panicked state.

He looked up and found Draco struggling to get to Potter but he was cornered by a woman with wild black locks and a manic glint in her eyes.

Potter stood before the Dark Lord without a weapon. Another man came up and stood in front of Potter protectively. Theo could see the man struggling to keep up with the Dark Lord.

Theo exhaled shakily. They were all doomed. Dumbledore was down and he was the only one who stood even the slightest chance against Voldemort.

A hissing sound had Theo turning to see the Dark Lord’s big snake crawling leisurly towards Potter and the man who now lay motionless on the ground. Theo had to warn them. But how? He was frozen in place, too terrified to move.

Draco calling out to Potter a second time pulled Theo out of his paralysis. He had to do something. Potter had to win. Determined to tribute to the winning side of this battle, Theo hurled a curse at the snake.

The snake stilled and then changed its course, away from Potter. Theo breathed a sigh of relief, only to gasp in shock and panic as he realized that the snake was now targeting him.

Theo screamed and scrambled away. In his panic he did not see where he was going and tripped over a little rock. The snake was now right in front of him, rearing up to attack.

He closed his eyes, hoping his death wouldn’t be too painful. But his death never came. Instead, he heard a war-cry and a “slash”, followed by a sickening sound of “thump”.

Theo’s eyes fluttered open hesitantly. The sight that presented itself took his breath away. A boy, slightly on the chubby side but clearly well-muscled, stood before him, panting, with a sword held in both his hands that were covered in blood. His blonde hair was illuminated by the sun behind him. He looked like a saint.

Theo blinked. He had never seen such a beautiful boy before. No, not a boy. A man. A strong warrior, a knight in shining armor. Theo was sure he could hear a choir sing. Maybe he was dead, after all.

„Are you alright?“ the handsome knight peaked at Theo’s face with concern. The Slytherin sported a worrying shade of red, staring wide eyed at his saviour like a blind man suddenly coming to see. The knight reached out his hand to help Theo up to his feet.

“Longbottom, is that you?” the Slytherin breathed, finally recognizing who had saved him.

“Yes. You’re Theodore, right?” Longbottom asked and slung an arm around Theo’s waist to steady him.

Feeling very dizzy from the near-death experience and the sudden appearance of this gryffindorian angel Theo swooned into Longbottom’s arms. He clung to his saviour desperately, looking up at him in wonder, and blurted, “Marry me!”

Harry scrambled to his feet, backing away from the snake faced wizard.

“Is poor ickle Harry being scared?” Voldemort mocked as he magically threw a rock at Harry. The Gryffindor managed to block the attack but stumbled.

Voldemort stood above Harry, staring down at the boy hatefully. “I am the most powerful wizard now that Dumbledore is down. And I have the elderwand, the most powerful wand existant.” He snickered maliciously. “It’s time for us to fulfill the prophecy. You will die, boy, like you were meant to all those years ago. But I’m merciful, so I will hear you out. Any last words, boy-who-lived?”

“The elderwand does not listen to you. Dumbledore predicted it all, so he let me disarm him. I am the true master of the elderwand. You can’t kill me with it.” Harry said, his heart racing. He said all those words confidently but wasn’t sure he believed them himself.

Voldemort sneered at him. “Pathetic, just like your parents.”

For the second time this day, he cast the killing curse on Harry. “Avada Kedavra!”

At the same time Harry shouted the first spell that came to mind “Expelliarmus!”

Red and green light clashed together, sizzling at their meeting point. The world tuned down to just Harry and the wand he held in his hands. He could feel Draco’s magic pulsating trough it, caressing his fingers where he clutched the wood tightly.

He felt the love for the blonde expanding in his chest and throughout his body, combining with the love he felt for his friends and family. He closed his eyes for a moment, seeing the faces of all his loved ones passing by, lingering at Draco’s and his parents’ face. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Voldemort’s face scrunched up in effort. The red light between their wands had gained advantage and pushed the green light back towards its caster.

“No, it can’t be!” Voldemort screamed. “Why is the elderwand not listening to me!” Realisation dawning, he turned his eyes to Harry who returned the look evenly. Harry raised an eyebrow and mouthed “told you so”. Then, the red light hit the tip of the elderwand, deflecting the green to the wandholder. Voldemort’s eyes widened before he fell apart.

And just like that, it was all over. Harry collapsed to the ground, staring up at the sky. A moment later a pale face peered into his own from above.

„Really, Harry? Expelliarmus?” Draco sighed exasperated. “That’s a second-year spell. What have we even trained for? That was so unspectacular!”

Harry chuckled, “Not everyone can be as dramatic as you are.” Then he pulled his boyfriend down to lay beside him, ignoring his indignant shouts of getting dirty.

Harry closed his eyes, but his peaceful lounging was interrupted by groans and moans beside him. He felt another warm body shuffling onto his side. “I’m glad you survived, padfoot.” Then he opened one eye to glance at his godfather who was grinning widely.

“Well, dogs have nine lives, didn’t you hear?” Sirius winked.

“That’s cats, idiot cousin”, Draco grumbled from Harry’s other side.

As the two began to bicker, Harry sighed happily. It was great to be alive.

While all the adults dealt with the aftermath of the battle – bringing the injured into the hospital wing, dealing with the leftover Death Eaters–, Draco sent his Patronus to Pansy and Blaise to let them know, that it was safe to return to Hogwarts now.

“Harry!” There was a cry of outrage and then Harry found his arms full of Hermione, her bushy hair nudging its way into his mouth. Before he had time to complain, Hermione broke the embrace and began to hit him. Hard.

Draco, who stood next to him, snickered. Hermione had a mean right hook, he knew from experience. He took great pleasure in seeing his boyfriend being reprimanded for his stupidity and recklessness.

“How could you leave us like that?! We had a hell of a time coming here and then it was already over!” she practically screamed in Harry’s ear who winced. Then, she hugged him again.

Ron, too, joined the embrace, only to hit Harry over the head when they all broke away. “You gave us a right fright, mate. I thought, we came to an understanding that you running right into action without us is never a good idea!” He exclaimed.

Harry rubbed sheepishly his neck. “I just wanted to keep you all save. And all’s well that ends well, right?”

“Next time I’m going to use handcuffs, or a leash so you can’t sneak away.” Hermione said haughtily.

“Oi, I should hope there won’t ever be a next time!” Draco interjected. That was a mistake because he was now tackled by the bushy haired girl, too. He yelped when his knees buckled, and they both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

“I’m so glad you’re okay! But why are you even here?” Hermione asked when they finally managed to straighten up.

“I had to run after a bunch of idiotic Gryffindors, of course. I’m surprised Harry managed to get rid of his babysitters, though.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t almost sorted ‘Slytherin’ for nothing”, Harry tried to joke, but received only glares in return.

Hermione’s gaze then wandered off, coming to a halt when she saw the headmaster bending down, picking up a stick from the ground.

“Professor, are you alright?” she called out to him.

Dumbledore looked up and smiled. He made his way to the four students, walking very slowly and looking tired and old. The battle seemed to have robbed him of all his youthful cheer. But when he reached his students he eyed them critically, and the merry twinkling returned to his eyes.

“I can not say how proud I am of you all. Especially you, Harry. I had hoped we could have controlled the battle better, so you could safely do your part. But it seemes that magic let everything to its fateful way.” Dumbledore put a hand on Harry’s shoulder.

Draco barely suppressed rolling his eyes. Of course, Dumbledore is saying everything went like it’s supposed to, now that everything was over and well.

“Why don’t you run along and see if you could assist your guardians? I think I saw Mrs. Malfoy scolding her husband and looking for you, young Mr. Malfoy. And Mrs. Weasley fought Bellatrix Lestrange rather successfully, she must be exhausted as well.” The headmaster shooed them all away but held Harry secretly back.

“I believe this belongs to you.” Dumbledore held out his wand. “You’re still the master of the elderwand, Harry.”

Hesitantly, he took the wand. “I don’t want it, Professor. And if it’s as powerful as you say and word came out, I would be targeted because of it. Can’t I just return it back to you?” Harry asked.

“My dear boy, I’m in no condition to hold onto it. But you are free to do with it how you see fit. I personally believe that this wand did its service to wizardkind.” Dumbledore said kindly.

Harry shared a look with Dumbledore who gave him a slight nod, eyes twinkling secretly.

Then Harry snapped the elderwand.