Of Doves and Dragons

Chapter Forty-nine: The Final Stand

"I'm only human, I make mistakes. I'm only human, that's all it takes, to put the blame on me. Don't put the blame on me."

-Rag'n'Bone Man, Human

For how much Voldemort claimed his total superiority and that he himself did not in truth need protecting, killing Harry Potter had knocked him off his feet and thrown him backward. In fact, he had even gone unconscious for a moment before Bellatrix screamed for Ember.

Ember scurried over, falling down next to the vile creature who she secretly hoped had miraculous killed himself with the exertion. She hadn't brought herself to look over on the other side of the field to see if the Chosen One, the only savior they had, was dead. Before she could get her hands on Voldemort, he was already throwing off Bellatrix's hands; pushing her to the ground in the process. That seemed to make all the Death Eaters who had begun to crowd around their master back away in one swoop. Voldemort ignored the healer next to him entirely.

He got back up onto his feet feeling terribly off balanced- and he couldn't figure out why. He looked across the way to where the lump of the boy still lay face down against the grass. "Is the boy dead?" He asked, of no one in particular.

Ember rose slowly back to her height, only now noticing that the cage Nagini was kept in was hovering right behind her shoulder.

"You," Voldemort commanded, pointing his wand at Narcissa Malfoy who had barely moved from her spot standing next to the fallen tree. "Examine him."

Narcissa bowed her head and paced towards Harry. The boy she had heard much about over the years from her son and in recent years the boy her entire life vibrated around, laid face down in the wet grass, still. She had never personally met him, other than that brief introduction at the manor, but she had always felt for the boy. To be orphaned so young that you couldn't even remember your parents and even worse; to be thrust into the muggle world because of it- sometimes it haunted her at night. And more than once in the past few years she had wondered if Draco would soon share part of his origin story.

She kneeled down at his body, her eyes scanning carefully for any sign of life. Narcissa lowered her head towards his, her hand creeping beneath his shirt to feel for any sign of life. When she felt the steady thumping underneath her hand she realized that she was on a precipice of her own. Her nightmare of a year, much like Draco's and Ember's, could be over and not become her future if she put her hope into this boy before her. But any future in which her son was not alive and well, was not one she wanted to be a part of.

It is now that it is important to note that Narcissa Malfoy was on the nonbeliever side when it came to dark marriages. She did not believe that Ember and Draco's souls were so tightly intertwined so that if one died, so would the other. The only pair of wizards married under a dark marriage that she had known of were Gertrude and Leopold. And when Gertrude had died in the midst of a duel gone wrong, it was not her death that had killed Leopold. It had been days later that he had died of nothing more than a broken heart. Therefore, in her opinion, her baby boy could be dead out there amongst the rest of the causalities. Voldemort could have even killed him himself and kept the truth from them all.

Her lips brushed the boy's ears and in a whisper so quiet she wasn't even sure if it had left her lips, "Is Draco alive? Is he in the castle?"

The next time Harry exhaled, the affirmation, yes, breathed out with him.

Narcissa rose to her feet, turning gracefully back to the Dark Lord. Keeping her face masked, she announced, "He is dead!"

~

It was strange, the light of a new day breaking over the horizon as if nothing had happened the night before. No one had slept the night, except for the dead, and that could not much be helped. The hour had long been over and all had gathered near the entrance, unsure of what would occur. Not many had even known that Harry Potter had escaped to the Forbidden Forest. Those who did, only assumed so because he was not with Hermione and Ron.