This Is War

Things Found in War

To say the Great Hall was destroyed was an understatement: it was a bloody carnage. Everything was torn down, windows shattered, rubble, plaster of marble, and bricks piled like mountains in the small, open space. Yet, what Draco found most haunting, what plagued him more than the stench of dirt and blood when he walked into the grand room, were the bodies. They rested where the House tables should be, most of them no longer living while a petrifying few received medical care. 

Draco slowed his march further into the Great Hall when he saw a huddled group of familiar redheads sobbing over the body of one of the Weasley twins. He watched Granger walk over to them, her crying soon mixing in with the family's, and he felt his chest ache. He hardly was friendly with the fallen twin, but he knew how brave he had been — how brave they all had been. 

Then he saw the bodies of Nymphadora and her husband pressed together, eyes no longer seeing.

Draco could not identify what it was that crash and broke in his chest, just that it hurt. It hurt so bloody much he could hardly breathe. There was Nymphadora, Tonks, Dora, his cousin, with her face sliced, skin purple and green and pale, wounds of battle, wounds of a fighter, and her pink hair faded into a mousy brown. He didn't know much about her, only what he had gathered in his Body Swamp with Granger, but he knew her death was a loss to the world. She had been bubbly and fierce, loyal and caring....She had been his family.

When he realized this, that this dead woman was his blood, Draco stumbled back only to be caught by a friend. Blaise had been sitting with his girlfriend, trying to go undetected by all the Death Eater Haters in the vicinity while he comforted Parvati for her loss. Her gaze had been lost on the sea of bodies littered across the floor, pain and grief heavy on her tan features. 

The two friends sat together, not bothered by the wounds they had collected during the battle (well, the damage Granger had allowed his body to gain after she ran rampant with it), and they contemplated how wrong they had been. The aftermath of this ghastly war, all the fallen people around them, were the consequences of those Draco and Blaise had once believed in, those they once supported and now detested. 

Then they left the crumbled Great Hall for the courtyards. The Dark Lord led his Death Eaters and Hagrid carried a body in his meaty arms.

'Harry Potter is dead!'

Screams pierced the grey skies and his blood ran cold as he recognized Granger's sobs. In that moment, as every loyal supporter of Boy Wonder shrieked their denial, Draco felt hope inside of him die. He felt like all of his chances of redeeming himself died along with Potter.

What the hell was he supposed to do now? How was he supposed to be with Granger? How was he supposed to fight beside her if the battle had already ceased? What would become of them now, of her?

'Draco.'

He had been startled out of his pondering mind. He had looked up to find the piercing blue eyes of his mother looking at him, her voice calling him to join her. He knew he'd always been a proper git to the world, but he did have a heart and he'd used most of it to love his mother. Seeing her, he couldn't have helped the feeling of absolute longing for her, of nostalgia. He had missed her.

Without taking a minute to contemplate on what to do next, Draco let his feet move and drag him over back to the Dark Side. He heard a choked sob coming from Potter's loyal admirers, and he'd known who it had belonged to, but he didn't take the liberty to look back. He just wanted his mother.

His mother held onto his hand, squeezing his fingers with so much might he wondered where the hell she had gotten all that strength from. He squeezed back,too, when the voice of Longbottom entered his eardrums and things once again became hectic.