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Harry lay on the ground, the world spinning in and out of focus. He'd gone out alone, it was stupid really, so so stupid. Draco hadn't finished his case yet and he knew he wasn't meant to go out until this man had been caught, he was after all overly enthusiastic about killing Harry which meant it wasn't safe for Hary to be wandering the streets of london where the deatheater was still free. So with Harry's luck he managed to run into him on his first time outside thinking "It'll be fine, I'll just go for a little walk to the shop and back it won't matter" but it did matter. It mattered an awful lot when Harry was blinded and brought down some dark alleyway. Luckily he managed to get hold of his wand and had successfully stunned the man but not before getting cursed himself. Of course Harry being Harry had to get hit with the one curse that he could not recognise for the life of him, it was one he had never seen before, this strand of magic was completely new to him. He shouldn't have gone out, it was stupid, so damn stupid.
He wheezed for breath, it was becoming harder and harder to do so, whatever this curse was it was tearing wounds into his body whilst pushing his ribs together making it almost impossible for him to breathe. He scrambled for his wand "come on" he mumbled under his breath frustrated when he couldn't find it on his person. He began to survey his surroundings before seeing that it had rolled away from him, with extraordinary effort he reached out grabbing it, unfortunately he hadn't thought this far into the plan as casting a patronus charm under these conditions was going to be incredibly hard. He began thinking, there was no way he had the energy to cut that however he did still have the option of his phone, praying that it wasn't dead he turned it on (successfully thank fuck) and dialled Draco's number thanking his lucky stars that he'd convinced Draco to get one for situations like this.
"Harry?" There was a pause for a moment, Harry was unfortunately to weak to reply as he felt another cut going into his leg, this curse was like an advanced sectumsempra- and oh God if he had put Draco through anything close to this he was going to be sick "Harry, are you there?! Answer me!"
That jumped Harry up and he started to speak "Dr-Draco, help, please, I got hit on the way to the shop," He took a deep breath, he was talking too much and it hurt a ridiculous amount "I got dragged in an alleyway, it was an unknown curse, the guy is stunned, hurry"
"Shit, fuck fuck merlin okay I'm on my way now, fuck this fucking shoe, okay I've sent out a patronus to Kingsley, he'll be with us soon. Can you hear me Harry?!"
"Yes, oh Merlin it hurts Draco, plea-" The line broke and an awful beep came after signalling his battery had finally given in on him.
The phone fell out of Harry's hand as he went limp, there was no longer enough blood travelling around to keep his grip on it. He tried to stay awake, he really did try, but he soon found consciousness leaving him.
Draco cursed under his breath, Harry can't do this to him, please no, they'd just sorted their shit out, they'd finally worked himself and now, now Harry was- Harry's leaving him, Oh god no. He arrived quickly, the run to the shop luckily wasn't that far and there was only one alley in-between the streets. He saw Harry lying there straight away and ran as quick as he could.
He put his fingers to Harry's neck checking for a pulse, He paused, No, no no no. He checked again more frantically this time. Nothing. No pulse. Harry wasn't breathing. He cast a charm to see the damage his body had taken, there was so much (too much), he cast a healing charm, and another, and another, he kept on casting them until his body was too weak to cast any more.
It wasn't fair.
It had only been a few hours prior he'd spoken to him, and now, now Harry was gone, he couldn't save him. He wasn't there in time. He'd promised he'd always be there for him and he'd failed.
Draco sobbed, clinging onto his lovers body. He was the one meant to die first, not the other way around. Damn it how had this happened, how? How had the man who had defeated the greatest dark lord of all time when he was a baby and then done it again and again until he finally killed him at 17 gone because of a lone deatheater. How has the wizarding saviour, their golden boy gone before himself, a deatheater, he felt sickened, he should have died first, he was meant to die first damn it.
Slowly he shut Harry's eyelids, cradling his head. Harry deserved to have piece in his death, God knows he didn't get it when he was alive.
Kingsley turned up soon after, he left the second Dracos patronus had reached him, but watching Draco mourn over Harry, watching the agony etched all over his face was chilling, he hadn't even realised he was crying until someone pointed it out. He prevented the team from going over, even Ron and Hermonie stayed behind for a bit with them, not long and admittedly it was mainly due to Hermione holding Ron back, but still, they stayed for a few minutes, everyone was in agreement, Draco needed his space, he needed time to calm down, he wouldn't want everyone seeing him like this, Draco wouldn't want people to see his emotions, his tears.
Ginny stood there, Kingsley had contacted all of the Weasleys before he'd left, they needed to know after all and she was glad that he did of course but watching this? Watching Draco grieve over her ex-fiance? It was too much, it felt like her world was crashing in on her. Yes she was happy, she was with Luna now and she held no attraction for Harry at all but the point was she had once, and a little part of her still loved him and watching this was torture.
Draco woke up in his room, he wondered how he got there for a split second before the events of last night came flooding back to him and he remembered how Ron and George had practically carried him back to bed (and wasn't that embarrassing) and then he remembered. He remembered Harry's bloody corpse, he remembered the coldness of his hand and he remembered the grief. He let out a choked sob before getting himself up. He wouldn't allow himself to wallow in self pity, he had things to do and he was determined to do them. At least he was determined to do them until he tripped over a pair of Harry's jeans that had been abandoned on the floor and broke down in the middle of the room, not moving for several hours.
Draco had vivid nightmare from that night all throughout the month, the images would twist in his head, he'd turn and twist, waking up in a pool of sweat. Draco saw Harry dead every single night, the images were different though, sometimes he would be drowning in blood, in some Harry was mad at Draco, so terribly mad, but in all of them Draco was to blame (In some of them Draco was the one who killed him). It was so dreadfully painful, he hated it, hated the drams for doing that to him, but most of all he hated his self for not getting their in time. He would have drank some dreamless sleep but after the war he had gone through so much to keep those nightmares at bay that he had become immune to the stuff, it was funny looking back, that he thought that was the worst thing he'd ever have to face. He sobbed into his pillow.
He tried to keep going on like normal, like nothing had happened. It didn't work out of course. When he arrived to the ministry to go to his job his boss called him in and told him to take some time off, to allow himself time to grieve. Draco almost punched the man. He was grieving but why couldn't he do that at work, why did he have to go back to his apartment surrounded by the ache of emptiness. Why couldn't he stay here (at least if he died he could say it was an accident.)
He was meant to return to work, well he wasn't sure when he was meant to return to work but the point was he didn't. They sent some people around of course, they tried to get some of his friends to visit him. Pansy and Blaise both refused to have anything to do with him and the ones he had acquired through Harry eventually gave up. He was alone again, he always ended up alone.
Of course Hermione managed to get into the apartment, she was the brightest witch he ever knew, if anyone could get around her wards it was her. She made sure he had food and put him to bed at night. He didn't even have the energy to feel humiliated. She gave up on him too eventually which was alright with him, he didn't need to burden anyone else. His mother and father were dead and he had no friends. Maybe thats why he didn't worry when he had too many pills and too much alcohol at once, or maybe it was simply the thought of joining Harry that allowed him to be happy with what he had done.
It was months before the body was found.