How to be a Hero

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Title: How to be a Hero
Author/Artist: essie007
Pairing/Threesome: H/D
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Swearing, fully DH-compliant (set long before the epilogue would start affecting anything)
Word count: 2,285
Summary: Draco goes to visit the terribly wounded but not yet dead Snape in the hospital wing the evening after The Battle of Hogwarts and runs into everyone's favorite Chosen One.

The murky blues and grays of twilight filtered through the tarps that had been hung over the high, shattered windows of the hospital wing. Candles lined the walls, and the artificial light cast irregular shadows over the ragged faces of the wounded soldiers. It was strange to think of them that way. Most of these people were no older than Draco, and in sleep, their bodies broken but their faces relaxed, they looked younger still. Draco did not want to think about how there might have been something he could have done to prevent some of this. He certainly did not want to think about how, with one small tip of luck, his could have been one of these unlucky bodies. Or one of those unluckier still.

Draco shied away from his morbid thoughts and turned his attention to the man he had come to see.

Severus Snape.

His favorite Professor, trusted mentor, The Dark Lord's right hand man.

And, according to Potter, spy for the Order of the Phoenix. Not that Draco had the energy to care today. The man was alive. And that alone was enough for Draco to forgive Professor Snape the world a thousand betrayals over. Alive despite the suffocation, exsanguination, and crushed midsection. If Draco hadn't known the stubborn bastard, he might have left him for dead too.

Draco's eyes raked over the mostly slumbering room, before coming to rest on the Professor's sickbed. He wasn't alone. A familiar thin figure was slouched in a chair at Snape's side. Speak of the Devil.

Draco made a half-hearted attempted to summon up the comforting distaste and burning hatred Potter used to evoke in him, but it just wasn't working. Draco hadn't really expected it to. He was too tired, he told himself. But he was even too tired to pretend that was all there was to it.

"How is he?" Draco croaked.

Potter glanced up, his green eyes exhausted –but still so bright– set against the dark lines of his face. His glasses were askew, and he had at least a day's worth of stubble. Streaks of dirt clung to the creases of his skin and caked his clothes. His hair was a disaster. Draco suspected he hadn't showered since before The Battle.

Draco couldn't tear his eyes away.

"Madam Pomfrey says he's going to live. He's not awake yet."

"Oh." It was a stupid thing to say, but Draco chalked it up to shock. Not that it mattered. Potter appeared to have lost interest in him already.

Feeling awkward, suddenly very aware that he was in a room with not only a war hero, but the man who had saved his life, Draco's movements as he pulled up a chair on Professor Snape's other side and sat down were clumsy and unsteady.

They sat in silence for several moments, and Draco had no idea what he was supposed to do now. Hold the Professor's hand? Talk to Potter? Why had he come? He was useless here. It seemed he was useless everywhere.

"I was never fair to him." Draco startled at the sound of Potter's voice, which sounded deceptively calm for someone who had died and defeated The Dark Lord only a few hours earlier. It took Draco another moment to process what Potter had said, and by that time Potter hadn't said anything else, and the silence was becoming uncomfortable for Draco. Was Potter expecting an answer?

"Life's not fair," he managed. It was something his parents used to say to him when he was little. One of those clichés of infinite wisdom constructed to make small children do as they're told.

𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐇/𝐃/𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐄 2008Where stories live. Discover now