5 more minutes
The day had been so cruelly beautiful.
Clear blue skies without a cloud in sight, sunlight pouring through even the most tightly drawn curtains.
The light gave her a headache, so he cast it out. Visitors were too much stimulation so he’d banished them all, even the Healers.
Whatever she wanted, whatever he could have done to reduce the pain, to slow the passage into the next world he would do it.
Bone, fragile and thin, shifted under her skin as she turned towards the window. Her thumb stroked the back of his hand, the last vestiges of her energy wasted on him.
“You should go outside, Draco. Enjoy the day...go for a fly maybe…”
He shook his head refusing to move from his silent vigil by her bedside. The gods of old wouldn’t have been able to take him from the spot alive. He’d stay until Armageddon itself ripped apart the very earth under his feet.
The smile on her face still stole the breath from his lungs. She knew what was coming, they had both known for such a long time, and yet the day had arrived unbidden and unwelcome.
He wanted to panic, to run, to hide, to fight. There had to be something. Maybe if he didn’t move, maybe if he didn’t utter a single word he could delay it.
“I think...that it could be…”
“Don’t. Don’t say. Please Astoria. Please.”
Her thumb moved from his hand to his cheek, swiping away at tears he’d never admit to having. She’d absolved him of this as she had all his burdens, pulling him reluctantly from under the wreckage of his own life. “I’ll have no more of that now.”
“Anything. Anything you want, whatever keeps you here.” The money, as unending as it was had not been enough to find a cure that wasn’t there. The endless hours spent working at himself had not amounted to anything but methods to ease the cruel pain that haunted her waking hours.
“I can’t promise that, love.” Her hand dropped back on the bed. Draco covered it with his own as if he could pull her back. If he just kept holding on… “Tell me what we would do, if we had one more good day.”
He thought for a minute, not wanting to waste their precious time backtracking his words. “We would go outside, on a day like this. Spend the day warm, happy, and together.” She hummed a sound of contentment. “Drink that champagne we served at the wedding...make love like we did on the honeymoon.”
“All day?”
“All day.” He repeated, eyes glinting with old humor fleeting through them. “You asked what I wanted you, silly witch, what’d you think I was going to say?” She laughed quietly.
“I’d like that. To feel the sun on my face and the breeze in my hair. And to hold you again. To kiss you, properly. That sounds like a good day my love.”
Stillness fell between them again. Draco lightly squeezed at her hand between his, trying not to show the worry on his face from how cold it was. Unnatural pallor colored her features and her sky blue eyes were losing their light by the minute.
“And what would you do, if we had five more minutes?” for the first time there was a note of panic in her words, hoping that he wouldn’t be frightened off, that he wouldn’t spend them looking for a Healer or potion or something else to stop the inevitable.
“I’d kiss you, and then stay here until the end. Every one of those minutes would count for me Astoria.” He kissed her, as gently as he could, never letting go of her hand.
“Did I make you happy Draco?” she asked, voice cracking slightly on his name.
“You do, you still do.”
“Good. Promise me you’ll find the good days again.” He nodded unable to articulate the words of what she meant to him.
“Always.”