Chapter 174: 3
End
It felt as though life was spilling from my fingertips. In reality, it was probably bleeding from my stomach, my chest, and my head. And perhaps from my mouth and nose as well. Somehow, using wandless magic, I managed to take away just the pain and catch my breath. Healing was pointless. I knew that. I know that gentle sensation of death. I know what it feels like to be caressed by it. There is someone waiting for me at the white King's Cross station.
So I'm really dying, I thought. How terribly abrupt. To think this was the end of the man hailed as a hero. ...Well, it wasn't so bad. Or so it felt. I would end all alone.
"Harry, are you dying?"
—I was supposed to end all alone. Poor thing. Enter you. I had a feeling this would happen. You are, sometimes—incredibly unlucky.
His skin, naturally pale, was now ghastly white, looking even closer to death than I was in my dying state as he dropped to his knees beside me.
"It seems so."
When I answered, a single teardrop spilled from him. Good heavens—Draco Malfoy was weeping, mourning the death of Harry Potter!
What a comedy! Even Merlin would throw his wand away and flee at top speed on a broomstick at the sight of this. Ah, honestly—what a thing to show me on the brink of death. It's so absurd I can't even laugh.
"You can go, Draco. You should be able to get out of here on your own. You know your curses well. Though whether that's a good thing or a bad thing... I can't really tell."
"Harry."
"If you want, you can take my wand for protection. Even if they can't recover my body, at least it can serve as a memento for my family."
"Harry."
"Leave me behind—you should live."
"Harry."
—As I thought, I can't handle it when you cry. Even though your eyes are usually such a cold color. At times like this, it's as if the ice is melting.
Tears falling freely from ice-blue eyes strike my face. Somehow, they feel warm. It is the warmth of a living person.
Draco's wand rolls beside me. It is getting soaked in my blood.
"Are you really going to die in a place like this?"
"I am."
"Even though you're a hero."
"Even heroes die."
"Even though you're Harry Potter."
"Harry Potter is always on the brink of death."
"Is my hero going to leave me behind and die?"
"Was I your hero? If so... I'm sorry for showing you nothing but my pathetic side. Forgive me, since this is the end."
When I laughed, Draco scrunched up his pretentious, wrinkle-lined face like a child and groaned. He truly looked like a child. It felt as though the eleven-year-old Malfoy was right there.
"Malfoy."
"Potter."
"You're troubling me. Please don't make that face. You—you, of all people, must remain Harry Potter's rival."
"Potter, I—"
"Malfoy... don't."
"……You're the worst. Typical Potter."
"Well, I am Arrogant Potter, after all."
I managed to reach out with a hand that had long since lost all sensation. My blood left its stain on Malfoy's pale cheek, painting his pure white skin red.
"—If you could meet the dead... what would you do?"
"That's a hell of a question to ask at a time like this."
"Answer me."
Half-playfully, I wrapped my hand around his neck—he was looking at me with almost comical desperation. A ring of blood bloomed, completing a collar that bound Malfoy and me together.
"Well... I'd want to see them. I'd want to, but—that would mean my death."
"Exactly."
His skin dirtied with my blood, holding his hawthorn wand dripping with my blood from its tip, Malfoy stood up.
"Will you give your life—to me?"
"—Haha,"
The tip of the wand pointed at me. My own blood dripped down onto me.
"I cannot bear for you to die pointlessly in a place like this. I won't allow it. In that case, die for me. Use up your life for me, hero."
"Who do you want to see?"
"Astoria. By sacrificing you, I will bring her back."
"And leave Scorpius behind?"
"Scorpius is long since grown up. He is no longer a child who needs a parent's hand. Above all... he has Albus Potter."
"…………"
"He doesn't need me."
"Malfoy."
"Let me... kill you."
Ah—it seems I no longer have enough blood left to flow to my brain.
You look so bitter. You look so incredibly frustrated.
Your declaration of murder... sounds just like a confession of love.
"Fine. If even a fraction of affection for me was involved, I would have thought about killing you right here and now no matter what—but if you want me solely for yourself, solely for your own selfish desire, then I'll do it."
"Potter."
"I shall grant you the great sin and honor of killing the hero, a feat even Voldemort could not achieve. Draco Malfoy."
I wrap both arms around Malfoy's neck. We both roll onto the ground stained with my blood. Malfoy's wand ignites with a green light.
"Harry Potter, do you have any regrets?"
"Of course I do. I couldn't say goodbye to my family, and I know Ron and Hermione will be devastated—oh right, I did get to see Lily in her wedding dress, but I'm worried Albus shows no sign of marrying anytime soon. Honestly, at this rate, he might end up marrying your Scorpius."
"Don't be ridiculous. At a time like this."
"Precisely because it's a time like this. But... ah, it's fine. If I'm going to die anyway—"
Covered in blood, draining life by the second, I laughed with the man.
"Well... there is just one tiny regret I've carried all this time."
"Tell me."
"It's about Delphini. Seeing her, learning of her existence, foolish as I was, I couldn't help but think... if only I could have saved 'that child', perhaps things might have been just a little bit different."
"…………"
"I am the one who robbed her of her father."
He embraced me. The chest of the man I had feuded with for half my life beat in the exact same rhythm as mine. Draco Malfoy was alive. —And yet, despite being alive...
"There might have even been a version of me who didn't leave Tom Riddle behind at the station."
Malfoy's praying eyes peered from behind my glasses. They were feverish, the ice completely melted away, and perhaps, a quiet emotion that I mustn't understand was breathing within them.
Neither of us is allowed to have it. As long as I am Harry Potter. As long as you are Draco Malfoy.
"Shall we start over?"
"Together?"
"Together. —From the day I met you. From the day I couldn't shake your hand. Let's do over you and me. Using our mutual wishes and our mutual lives as the foundation, I will create a new world right here."
"That's outrageous."
I smile.
"That's a piece of grand magic that would surprise even Dumbledore. You could calmly go on living after this, yet you choose to die together with me all for a single wish?"
He scoffs.
"Splendid. What a foolish end. There's no death more fitting for a hero. —In that case, I suppose I don't need to say goodbye to you?"
"Save that for your best friends."
He is crying. It's so beautiful. So, I'll sneer at him. Before his words of death end up sounding like love.
A gentle curse claimed me. A green light, mirroring the exact color of my eyes, scorched me. I was being consumed by Draco Malfoy.
And then.
"—How about a story about the summer constellation, Scorpius?"
We met all over again.
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