@hppoppunkfest
ᴴᴾ ᴾᵒᵖ ᵖᵘⁿᵏ ᶠᵉˢᵗ ᴾʳᵒᵐᵖᵗ: "ᴰᵒ ʸᵒᵘ ᶠᵉᵉˡ" ᵇʸ ᵀʰᵉ ᴿᵒᶜᵏᵉᵗ ˢᵘᵐᵐᵉʳ
~
“Don’t you feel the weight of the world?”
“I do. It doesn’t mean I asked for it.”
“Harry, please,” Hermione pleads. But he won’t stay.
Ron stands at her side, both of them teary eyed. Harry would feel bad for leaving them, but the hand in his reminds him that he isn’t alone.
“Harry, mate. I get that it’s been utter shite with Umbridge recently, but you can’t just run away.”
“Do you think that’s all there is to it?” a voice growls from his side. Harry squeezes once, and the temper soothes.
“What do you expect me to do, Ron?” he asks. “Fight him again? Fix this world? I’m a bloody teenager, Ron! It shouldn’t be my job to fix problems I didn’t cause!”
“But that’s how it is, Harry! If you don’t fight him, then who will?”
“You, Hermione. You and Ron have been by my side for 5 years, you can surely handle him by now.”
“But Harry-”
“Harry has made up his mind,” Draco says coldly. Harry smiles at the hard gaze in those silver eyes and the warmth of the palm against his own. “He doesn't need your input.”
“You weren’t supposed to find us anyway.” It was the truth. Clad in all black with the invisibility coat and map in a pocket, Harry and Draco had planned to flee the castle in the night, had planned to fly on a thestral to Grimmauld Place, had planned to take a portkey to their secret house in America. But Ron had heard Harry cast the petrifying and memory charms on a too-curious Neville and followed.
“Harry”-an arm reaches out and grasps his other wrist- “Please listen to us. We can help! We can do this together, the three of us, it doesn’t have to be you alone!”
He shakes Hermione’s grip and leans further into Draco.
“But it does have to be me, Hermione. It’s always been me, and it’s just not fair. I have my own things. I don’t want to fight this war.”
“So you’re going to leave the rest of the Wizarding World to fall?”
“I’m sure you and Granger could figure it out, couldn’t you, Weasley?” Draco’s gaze has gone from neutral to simmering, and right now all of the heat is aimed at his friends.
Harry squeezes his hand, and Draco turns to meet his eyes. “It’s time.” They pull out their wants, casting an Immobulus at both of his friends. “Bye, guys.”
He turns and leads his lover away. He hears the sobs and shouts of his friends. It hurts, when his name is the one being screamed, being wrenched from their hearts.
But he has to let them go, has to let this world go.
Doors are opening, Lumos is being cast, people are flooding the corridors. No one seems to move. Neither of them had bothered to throw the cloak on, and he can feel hundreds of confused gazes at his and Draco’s back. He looks at the stone walls one more time, lets his eyes meet Hermione's anguished one's one last time.
He leaves the Wizarding World with a crack.
~