Idk if someone ever wrote something like this, if youve seen a fic similar... PLEASE DO SHARE THE LINK, ILL GIVE YOU CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Also yes, an AU where I'm supposed to be asleep by now, this doesn't have much of a thought. Also, I forgot about the kids ages or names, and I'm too tired to bother looking them up.
So, post!canon AU, where Harry is assigned a rare dissapeance case, where the wizards and witches are being taken and only to found them trapped in a deep slumber due to an unkown curse and later dying.
Said curse is later linked to the Malfoy family, so, Harry goes to meet his old rival and enemy to cooperate with him.
It's difficult, but after persuading him with the promise of the Malfoy family being lifted, lsigly at least, of their bad reputation, Draco agrees, with the condition that they do it together.
So for the next following months they learn more of each other:
○ Draco divorced amicably with his ex-wife and takes care of their son part time.
○ Harry and Ginny are having some complications in their relationship, they still like each other but it's not enough.
○ Harry meets Draco's only son and its the cutest boy he ever met (besides his two sons, thank you very much)
○ Draco had some needed character growth, still behaves like an pompous asshole like always
○Much to Harry's dismay, his own kids enjoy seeing Draco after a a couple of weeks of seeing him (and bribing them with candy from who-knows-where.
○The reason why Draco joined the research to have a better reputation was to hopefully stop the bullying that his son is victim of.
○ Harry secretly enjoy glancing at Draco's hidden necklace, woth a shiny pearl hidden under his shirt
○Draco's kid is now considered adopted by Harry's own children... they call themselves brothers and this bring mixed feelings to Harry and Draco.
○Ginny leaves, however things become much better between the two of them.
At some point Harry does enjoy being accompanied and genuinely plans to help him... he is close to call him a friend... to his and Ron's horror.
They do find the answers in an old tome, hidden away in the oldest part of the Malfoy mansion yet being shown as used not too recently with a few pages ripped (I'm thinking of maybe something that came up from different families who studied curses as a hobby, but the perfected curse was completed by another family).
The witch/wizard who casted the spell for luck/power/a larger lizard idk, idc; puts people to sleep and Dream of memories of their own life, being drained of own magic and life force until they die or become an empty shell.
The only way to wake them up is with a potion so specific with limited materials, along with entering the people's mind and carefully wake them. They do manage to save most of the people without much trouble.
They defeat the evil witch/wizard but Harry being Harry, is cursed just when the potion to save him is so limited... Draco doesn't think twice and tries to use the magical necklace that was given by Harry and... switch places.
By the time Harry wakes up at the magic hospital, he hugged by every friend and family member. His children are crying and hugging him too hard, and just sobbing.
They are grateful that their Dad survived yet it comes at the dawning realization that Draco Malfoy sacrificed himself to save Harry, and leaving his child silently crying alone at an empty hospital room.
His mother holds him, but it does nothing much. Of course, the child wants his dad back, he begs Harry to bring him back but nothing can be done.
A funeral is held at the now Malfoy's garden, forever resting alongside his mother.
Harry keeps Draco's pearl necklace and somehow, feels empty. There is empty space at his side, in his heart, in his life; it was just another task with someone he used to hate so much.
Now he is alone.
Until he dreams of the past with Draco, as if they met for the first time... but the interaction is completely different than how Harry remembers.
He wakes up, not thinking much of it, until the next night he sleeps with the necklace, that he keeps dreaming of being 11 years old again and being with Draco, being friends with him and having more interactions and friendly chats.
Maybe wishful thinking of what could've been if things were... different. And Harry? He loves dreaming of those soft and innocent moments.
It becomes a routine, take his children to school, go to work, pick up the children ND Draco's son (who now is staying with the Potters until the foreseable future) from the Weasley's household or have dinner with them, go to bed, and dream, that empty spot besides him doesn't feel so cold and lonely.
Things take a turn when he dreams of a whole life at Hogwarts with Draco as one of his best friend... and later kissing said best friend. It wakes him up blushing like a teenager and holding himself in shame of having those kind of dreams with his deceased... friend? Partner in crime/investigation?
The dreams doesn't get calmer, quiet the contrary, it becomes a little steamy... and realistic.
And yet, the dream follows them both marrying and somehow having the same kids they have, all of them as a family... and dying in front of Draco by Voldemort's wand.
The wonderful dream turned in a horrific nightmare.
Then, it starts over again, a little different now, Draco and Harry become friends, but Draco behaves a little different than how Harry first dreamed of. The cycle of the dream life changes slightly, but ends in the same way.
And it repeats, and again, and again.
It's not until the fourth dream cycle that he focuses on Draco, his actions are different every time, his reactions and gestures too. The cycles ending sometimes a little shorter than others, when they were 19, 15,... 12. Harry always dying by Voldemort's lackeys of himself.
Tired and confused, Harry brings the necklace to Hermione, who after several days of keeping the necklace (and Harry having close to 0 dreams), that the truth is revealed.
The necklace is cursed, the first wearer of the jewel will be forced to go back in time however many times necessary until their most profiund wish comes true, ending with the death of the first wearer.
So, Draco Malfoy has been living up to 79 times his whole life: meeting Harry, befriending him and his friends, becoming lovers, marrying, having children, and... dying in a terrible way. Regardless the age, it always ended in death.
Until now.
Hermione, begrudgingly, manages to bring out Malfoy's thoughts in the necklace, so Harry listens to it, to the lives they had, or Draco had taken decisions put of despair of repeating the same time loop and changing things where maybe they meet at different.
It breaks him to the point of drinking himself stupid most of the nights, he is close to obsess himself of listening to Draco's memories, of the words he never get to hear in this damned timeline. How he is trying his best to make sure they all get to live together at the end.
It goes like that for a while, he tries to take care of his children, but now, with the necklace evidence, it's different, he cannot look at his children without shattering his heart into million pieces.
How could he? If his children never got to have Draco reading them wizard and witches stories of old, signing them lullabies when it was time to sleep, making fun of him and his lack of coordination in the kitchen, of his soft hugs and kisses at every scratched knee... of having multiple photos of all of them together laughing and smiling.
Just how?
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Until it comes the 79th timeline, the last:
By that time, Draco Malfoy already learned about the necklaces curse and it's origins, and already planned how to finish it.
Draco would become the type of person Harry despised more than anything. He wouldn't be his friend, his lover, his partner in this life... he would make fun of him for the most stupid stuff. He would mock the most loyal friend and his amazing family; mock the most intelligent woman he has ever known... all for one more chance where everyone would be happier.
And when, after every year Harry managed to survive, Draco would be feeling more stressed, where the battle with Who-shall-not-be-named, if he somehow survived again... Draco would lose it and jump straight first into battle again him.
... the battle ended in success for Harry and their his friends. He was ready to drop at his knees and cry out of happiness, but still, he needed to make sure their children, while one was definitely adopted by being Remus and Tonks (which they somehow they tragically ended up dying in 99% of the time), to be alive.
He married his friend and housemate, he tried to make it worth, but it was possible of it wasnt his dear Harry. He had his baby boy and Harry had his other son with Ginny, now wife and not surrogate. He thought that maybe... this is how things were supposed to be from the start.
Maybe they weren't meant to be.
Until, those strange deaths were happening and was recluted by Harry Potter, where he was falling again in love with him and enjoying to have his family together again after many years. It became a ray of hope, that the time loop would now end and they'll be together.
And of course he had to wish for the impossible.
When he saw Harry being hit by the curse and seeing how little was left of the antidote, he didn't think twice of jumping to save his partner. Every thought happened at a second: if he died and Harry survived, he was sure that their kids will be fine.
It was his main wish after all: the four of them living a fulfilled life, even if that meant not being there to see it.
■■■■■
Harry Potter was alive and with his 3 kids, living and safe, but know he was burden with the knowledge of the life he they were supposed to have. Where he would forever be with the emptiness in his heart.
Edit: ik teddy is Harry's godson, but please he adopted the kid ans became his official parent, leave me and my 2:00 am version of me out of mind here lol
