𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 2008

Should the Sky Fall

Title: Should the Sky Fall
Author: brixxx
Team: Fanon
Prompt: Justice
Wordcount: 16,377
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Character death. Ignores DH completely.
Summary: Draco finds himself a rather unwilling hero when a spell gives him the chance to change the course of the war.

The world seemed to hold its breath; the future of the wizarding world suspended at the end of a wand. Draco's stomach felt tight as he waited for a sign that it was over, his hand clutching the windowsill of the tower tensely.

His eyes focused on the centre of the fray below him, knowing that inside the blackened burnt area of land someone had just died. There seemed to be nothing to signal an end, but Draco knew in an instant that it was over. The Light had lost.

He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. His own life was now forfeit. Agreeing to stay neutral may have satisfied the Light, but to Voldemort it was tantamount to a blood betrayal. Draco wouldn't last the day. A hand seemed to squeeze his chest. He didn't want to die, but he had always known that Potter's death would spell his own.

He opened his eyes and glanced at the sullen figure that stood next to him, watching the battle being lost with his usual sneer. Draco tried not to notice that his companion made no shadow under the late afternoon sun streaming through the window. Nor did he focus on the fact that he could still see a hideous painting, the only decoration in the tower room they both stood in, through his neck and shoulders.

It seemed utterly cruel to Draco that Snape was trapped in the place where he had spent his life, not through choice but in order to seek redemption, and would now remain there forever. Draco wondered, not for the first time, if there really was no rest for the wicked. He supposed that if that were the case, that he ought to settle himself for a long ethereal existence.

"Had I known that this was how it would end, I might have made a more informed decision," Draco said quietly into the silence. Snape arched a dark eyebrow, disbelief somehow clear on his face despite the fact that his 'face' was a somewhat grey blur.

"I see that you are still a master at self-deception. I had thought that that was something you would have discovered long ago," he commented before focusing his gaze down at the moving figures below them, one figure indecipherable from the next. "I confess myself a little surprised that you are taking the Dark Lord's success so well."

Draco laughed hoarsely, and leaned up against the wall, watching the fires start at the centre of the battle field; the place where Harry Potter must have finally fallen. "Well? Is that how it seems?" he smiled grimly, "I really must have learned from my father's lessons. No, Severus, I am not taking this well."

He knew it was only a matter of time before he was tracked down by the Death Eaters and branded as a traitor. Draco had known that it was a risk when he chosen to abandon his path with the Dark Lord. It was why he had been away from Britain for so many years. He still wasn't sure why he had come back. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he would die anywhere if the Dark won. Mostly it was because Draco had always had an insatiable curiosity, and to not have been here when the wizarding world's fate was to be decided would perhaps be the biggest regret of Draco's, now short, life.

They stood in silence for a long moment. Somewhere in the castle there was a scream and several large crashes. Draco's stomach rolled as he wondered how long it would be before they found him. "It seems so unfair," he finally whispered. He turned grey eyes onto his godfather and, for the first time since he was a little boy, had the urge to throw himself into someone else's arms and have them look after him.

Snape regarded him silently, nothing in his face betraying his thoughts. "Unfair," he muttered to himself in an almost confused tone.

Draco turned back to the window trying to control his unwanted impulses.