Title: Tomorrow
Author: Batsutousai
Beta: Magickmaker17
Pairings: Harry/Severus &
Draco/Hermione(Which I’m not fond of, but I needed Draco to have someone at the
school…)
Warnings: Mentions of slash(you know,
guys with guys? Ring any bells?), light cursing, major character death
Disclaim
Her: [pulls
lint from her pockets] Not yet…. [sighes] I don’t own “Waste Away”, either.
It’s used with permission from Yih.
A/N: This will be a 3 “chapter”
fic. I should know, I’ve already written it all out.
This
originated from a song written by Yih that she put in one of her own fics. It
inspired. I wrote.
Please
R&R!!
~/Chapter 3 - Halloween\~
“Harry, you cannot hide in there! We need you at the Feast and the Ball!” Hermione Granger, Professor of Transfiguration, shouted through the Deputy Headmaster and Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor’s door.
“I
said I’m not coming.” The quiet reply barely made it through the thick door.
“Harry,
you have a job to do!”
“Go
away, Herm.”
“Don’t
you dare make me come in there, Harry James Potter!”
“You’ll
end up in the Hospital Wing before you can even get the door open. Go to the
Feast, Herm.”
“I’m
not leaving you to your self-pity!”
Harry
didn’t respond to that.
Hermione
glared at the door for a long moment before turning and storming off through
the stone corridors. Severus Snape and Harry Potter had spent a month warding
their private room’s door. If Harry didn’t want to let her in, there wasn’t
much of a chance that she’d get in conscious, no matter how smart she was.
“Dray?”
Hermione gasped at her boyfriend of three years when he caught her after she’d,
literally, ran into him in the Entrance Hall.
“Mi!
What’s wrong?” Draco gazed into the tear-stained face with worry.
“Haven’t
you heard?” Hermione whispered.
“I
haven’t heard anything since we started for Hogwarts on Wednesday. I’m playing
at tonight’s Ball as the surprise guest. Why?”
“There
was… an… accident…” Hermione gasped as tears started down her face again.
“An
accident, Mi?” Draco gave her a perplexed look.
“In
the Potions classroom…” The woman nodded, not sure she could tell her boyfriend
what had happened.
Draco
froze, silver eyes widening. “Sev?” He managed in a choked voice, fearing he
already knew the answer.
“D-d-de-“
Hermione stuttered before bursting into violent sobs. This reminded her too
much of Voldemort’s last reign.
Draco’s
normally pale skin whitened impossibly. “No… Not Sev…” ‘Not my only family
left.’
Hermione
could do no more than nod.
Draco
shook himself from his daze and took his girlfriend in his arms, rubbing her
back as he pushed his emotions away like a “Good Malfoy”.
By
the time Hermione had calmed down, Draco had realized that Potter hadn’t met
him in the Entrance Hall like he’d said he would. “Mi, where’s Potter?”
Hermione
looked up at him with sorrow-filled eyes that he’d never wanted to see again
after the end of the war. “He’s locked himself in his room…”
“That
prat!” Draco growled. “I’ll go talk to him, Mi. Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh,
thank you, Dray! He hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday! I’m so
worried about him!”
Draco
understood immediately. Hermione and Severus had, constantly, complained about
Potter’s generally poor eating habits. The Man-Who-Lived had a tendency to
near-starve himself, even when not stressed out in the slightest. If he hadn’t
been eating properly before Severus’ death, and then hadn’t eaten since…. The
blonde rock star nibbled on his lip as he easily made he way down to the
dungeon room Severus and Potter shared.
The
ex-Death Eater spy stopped outside the closed door and glared at it darkly.
“Potter! You didn’t meet me in the Entrance Hall!”
“I’m
not in the mood, Malfoy. Go find a little Hufflepuff to bother and leave me in
peace.” Came the flat reply.
Draco
stared at the door in shock. This was nothing like the Harry Potter he knew!
“You’ll have to come out sooner or later, Potter. I’d make it sooner, if I were
you.”
“Why?”
Potter inquired quietly.
The
blonde rolled his eyes. “Your job? Your friends? The fact that Mi’s going to
murder you if you make her worry much more? Pick one.”
“I’d
rather die.”
Draco
startled. “What?! Why?”
“I
have nothing to live for.”
“So
help me Merlin, Potter. If you don’t get your scrawny arse out here this
instant I’ll-“
“You’ll
what, Malfoy? Hex the door until it starts hexing you back?” Potter gave a
painful laugh. “Go back to Herm. Leave me in peace.”
“Are
you really in peace, Harry Potter? Are you?” Draco shot back coldly before
storming off. ‘Let the prat rot with his damned misery! Let him rot!’
Harry
slipped up the dungeon stairs and over to the doors of the Great Hall, where he
knew the Halloween Ball would be in full swing. As he poked his head in, he
heard the last note from one of Malfoy’s songs end. He glanced around the room,
not coming any further in, yet not pulling any further out.
‘So
far so good.’
No one knew he was there.
Draco
smirked to himself when he caught sight of Potter poking his head in the door. ‘Perfect.
I only hope this works.’
“Fine
Hogwarts students and staff.” Draco addressed the room. Everyone fell silent
and looked up to him. The blonde noted, with satisfaction, that the
raven-haired professor at the door had slipped into the room and into a shadow
by the door, making him near invisible in midnight robes.
“A
fine man died here yesterday.” The blonde noted the looks on some of the
students’ faces, the one that said, quite plainly ‘you must be joking’,
and grinned. “Although he was a git and a bastard most of the time.” This got
some laughter and Draco let the joy swell and fill the room for a long moment
before curbing it with a grim gaze that he passed over the group before him.
“Severus
Snape may very well have been a bastard, but he’s left his mark on all of those
who’ve ever known him. I promise that, no matter what age you may be, you’ll
never forget that man that glared at you until you either messed up the potion
you were working on or managed to finally get it right. You’ll always remember
how he’d take points for no obvious reason and then give you a detention when
you tried to reason with him!
“Those
that knew him as a spy in the war with the Dark Lord will recall his selfless
sacrifices at every turn. He was reliable and smart. He saw things from a
different point of view that gave him ideas when even the smartest the Light
had to offer drew blanks. His cunning saved his life, and many others. I,
myself, remember a time when he took a Crucio for me, or covered my arse
when I was almost caught.
“Those
who have known him on a more personal level can recall his wry humour, dark
jokes, and constant death threats when something wasn’t going his way. I seem
to recall a rather dirty chess set that he had, and he loved to challenge
people on it, watch as they would blush instead of move. He had his deep love
for his potions and that fierce protective streak for those he cared for that
made you wonder if he should have been a Gryffindor.”
Draco
glanced around the room as he paused. He noted that, not only were all the
teachers crying openly or fighting tears, but most of the students were the
same. A few pained smiles slid through the crowd at his own light jokes. He
spared a quick look at the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor hiding in
the shadows and noticed the unchecked tears sliding down his pale cheeks as he
hugged himself tightly.
“Now,
I hope you’ll all indulge me as I sing this last-minute song that I wrote not but
a few hours ago after arriving here at your school.”
And
the Malfoy Heir closed his eyes and sung a cappella. The room was filled with
his voice and not a sound interrupted him.
But
it is another day
And
whether you make it a new beginning or not
It
will come like any other day
“The
sun will rise, the darkness will fade
And
you have the choice to decide
If
you’ll stay and mourn inside
Or
come out and live once again
“You
know I want to see you live again
You
know I can’t stand to see you sad
It
breaks my heart, it makes me cry
You
know I want to see you live again
But
it is another day
And
whether you make it a new beginning or not
It
will come like any other day
“You
know he wouldn’t want you to waste away
Not
alone, not here, not now, not when
He
loved you as much as you loved him
You
know he wouldn’t want you to waste away
But
it is another day
And
whether you make it a new beginning or not
It
will come like any other day
“You
know he wouldn’t want you to waste away
Not
alone, not here, not now, not when
He
loved you as much as you loved him
You
know he wouldn’t want you to waste away
But
it is another day
And
whether you make it a new beginning or not
It
will come like any other day”
As Draco sang the last word, he opened his eyes and locked silver with emerald. He nodded his head to the Man-Who-Lived and let his voice cut through the deafening silence. “Potter.”
The
Hall turned to face the shadowy corner where Harry Potter stood. Hermione let
out a gasp of surprise. ‘How long has Harry been standing there?!’
Harry
stared back at Malfoy for a long, tense moment before nodding his head in
response. “Malfoy.” The room visibly relaxed, until a devious smile that
everyone, teacher and student alike, knew well and had learned to fear, stole
across the raven-haired man’s lips. “Malfoy, please stick to singing with
instrumental back-up. That sounded horrible.” He commented, seeming to forget
that their were still fresh tears on his face. It was this ability, to ignore
things that others might find overly embarrassing, that had gained him the
respect he had among his students.
The
blonde singer merely laughed at the insult, shaking his head. “At least I’m not
tone-deaf, Potter.”
“One
doesn’t need to be able to carry a tune to enjoy good music.” The professor
replied in an off-handed manner.
Draco
smirked. “You just admitted you’re tone-deaf, Potter. In front of most of
Hogwarts, in fact.”
“Oh,
it’s just been too long since I made the front page of the Daily Prophet.”
The
room filled with easy laughter at that. Draco signaled to the band behind him to
start up an instrumental piece and motioned for the Man-Who-Lived to join him
out in the gardens. Potter nodded and slipped through the crowd with ease.
The
two men walked over to a quiet corner in companionable silence. Once there,
they turned to gaze at one another.
Harry
finally broke the silence. “Thank you.”
“For
what?”
“For
saying all the right things. For finding the right song. For helping to keep
Sev and me together, no matter what.”
“Of
course.”
Harry
smiled sadly. “He’d want us to be friends. That’s what he’s always wanted, I
think.”
Draco
cocked an eyebrow at the darker man. “I was under the impression that we were.”
Harry
pondered that for a long moment before nodding. “We are, aren’t we. In some
very strange, very twisted way, we are truly friends. Have been, for years.”
“Then
we can stop with the surname shit.”
Harry
laughed. “Of course. I can’t be calling my own godson Malfoy!”
Draco
froze and gave the smirking man before him a rather un-Malfoy-like gape.
“You’re joking.”
“No.
The reason Sev wouldn’t talk to me was, apparently, because he was nervous as
hell about asking me to marry him, which I still find quite endearing.” The
raven-haired man twisted a small silver ring on his finger that Draco had often
seen Severus wearing. The man had said he’d give it only to his true love, if
there was such a thing for a man like him. “The ceremony was to be this
weekend, since I knew you’d be here. We’d already legalized it, but Minerva was
the only other person who knew. It was supposed to be a big surprise…” Harry’s
voice broke as yet more tears leaked from his eyes.
Draco’s
heart broke, seeing the other man like this, and he wrapped the professor in a
tight hug. Harry gladly took the offered shoulder to cry upon.
Draco
set his mouth near Harry’s ear and sang, again, the last lines of his song.
“You
know he wouldn’t want you to waste away
Not
alone, not here, not now, not when
He
loved you as much as you loved him
You
know he wouldn’t want you to waste away
But
it is another day
And
whether you make it a new beginning or not
It
will come like any other day”
End.
Finish. It was fun while it lasted. See that lil box down there in the left
corner? [frowns] No, no, your other left. [nods] Yes, that one. Click it and
give me your thoughts. Was this story any good? I have a problem with happy
endings. I need encouragement!! [winks] Give me a shout!
Ryo: No, no. The other people
weren’t actually from the series. It was just a bunch of names I put together.
The general feel was that it was supposed to be like a clipping from a
newspaper of something. Sorry if I didn’t get that across well enough.
[sweatdrop]
~Batsutousai
^.^x