Work Text:
It had always been there, on the inside of his thigh. Hidden from the world. His mother said it made him special. His father said it was a scar better forgotten. And for a long time, Draco managed to not think about the implications of his mark. Until a young boy stepped into Madam Malkin’s Robes’ shop. He looked out of place in his baggy clothes and it was clear the boy didn’t know a single thing about magic. But none of that mattered. All Draco saw was the scar on his forehead, the lighting bold spreading out over the boys left eyebrow. The shape the same as the mark on Draco’s thigh.
Draco tried to impress the boy, but somehow it backfired and for years he and Potter couldn’t get along. Blaise blamed it on the fact that they both hadn’t found their partner yet. Most students had found them at Hogwarts, or even on the train that first day. The person with the same mark as them, the person they would fall in love with and spend the rest of their lives with. It made Draco want to scream it was all nonsense. His father had been right to call his mark a scar, something to forget and keep hidden for the rest of his life. How could Potter ever be the right person for him?
And then the Dark Lord came back and the war started. Draco was forced to bare another mark, in plain sight for everyone to see. A mark that ensured that he and Potter would never be what the world said they should be.
Draco had only one task now. Kill Dumbledore. He tried to put the stupid mark out of his head. Not that Potter made it easy, always following Draco down the halls, always looking at him. Sometimes Draco wondered if the boy wonder knew about the mark. But how could he? Nobody but his parents had ever seen the lighting bold on his thigh, nobody knew what Draco’s mark looked like. Pansy even wondered once if Draco maybe was born without one. If he was destined to spend his life alone.
If only that had been the case. It would have made his life so much simpler. Because the stalking changed everything. Every time Draco looked at Potter he noticed the sadness in his eyes. He saw the pain written on his face. The same loneliness that brought Draco down on most days. He started dreaming about Potter, about how it could have been if Draco hadn’t hidden his mark for the entire world. Potter would have given him another chance and Draco wouldn’t be stuck on the side of a war he didn’t want to be.
Maybe his father had been wrong. He had been wrong about the Dark Lord. He’d messed up everything and was now locked up in Azkaban. And Draco’s parents had been happy and in love, with their matching marks on their hands. Pansy was better with Nott around. Blaise loved his little Griffindor redhead and Greg adored Daphne. It couldn’t all be a lie, could it?
The dreams didn’t start much later. The once in which Draco had ended up on Potter’s side. The once in which he remembers how to smile and be happy. But they were only dreams. Awake Draco was slowly breaking apart. He would spend his entire life alone, knowing he missed his chance of eternal love. The only comfort he had was that it would be a short life. Because he’d learnt something else this last few months. He didn’t want to kill. He didn’t want to hurt and torture others. And that would cost him his life before this war would be over.
When the spell hit him he thought it was ironic. Killed by the one that was supposed to be the love of his life.
Only Draco didn’t die. He woke up in the hospital wing. Professor Snape was there, arguing with Madam Pomfrey, begging her to keep it a secret. That Draco’s life might depend on it. Draco knew what they were talking about. His clothes had been removed and they couldn’t have missed the mark on his thigh. The same lighting bold that decorated Potter’s face.
It wasn’t until Potter showed up that Draco realised that he’d fallen in love, even when he’d tried so hard not to. Potter’s stumbled apology made his heart swell. His watery eyes made Draco want to hug him and tell him all will would be okay. For the first time in his life, Draco believed in the marks. Even though it was still his undoing.
Months passed. Draco failed the Dark Lord. He couldn’t kill Dumbledore when he had the chance. Snape saved him, told him he deserved a chance on happiness. A chance Snape never had, being born without a mark. Draco wondered what that would be like, knowing there will never be a perfect person for you. Later, Draco would learn that you could still fall in love and dedicate your life to someone else, even without the mark. He would learn that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t want the Dark Lord to win this war.
But before he got there he was tested again. Potter was captured and brought to the Manor. His parents looked at Draco to identify him, to tell them this was the boy that would destroy their good name if the Dark Lord would ever find out that Draco was the carrier of a similar mark as Potter. Only Draco couldn’t. He loved Potter, loved how he wouldn’t stop fighting even though it was clear he’d given up on ever finding the right person for him. Potter would keep fighting to ensure his friends would get a happily ever after, even when he would never. Draco wished he could be that brave. Wished he’d been that brave when Potter had turned up at his hospital bed and apologised for his actions. Wished he’d had shown him his secret, the one thing that would link them forever.
In the end, it was easy to be brave. When he thought Potter was dead. Nothing mattered anymore. His mother begged him to join them, only Draco couldn’t. How could he support the person that had killed the love of his life? He still can’t believe he attacked the Dark Lord. It had been chaos. Longbottom killed the snake, Blaise and Ginny destroyed aunt Bella and somehow Potter joined Draco in his duel against the Dark Lord. They smiled at each other before Potter destroyed the enemy once and for all.
Draco hugged Potter when it was all over. And Potter told him he was sorry. Draco cried in his arms when he learnt that Snape had told Potter about the mark on Draco’s thigh. When Potter told him he was glad it was him. Draco told him he was sorry too, for hiding it for all those years, for believing it was all a lie, a curse.
And now Draco knows his mother was right all along. The mark was a blessing, a certainty that he would forever love his Harry.