Make Me Fall

42. The Beginning of The End

"My head is killing me," I complain as Draco and I walk through the corridors. We're meant to be patrolling for students out of bed, but really, we're just walking. Draco looks over at me with concern.

"You haven't looked well since before Easter," he says, "maybe you need to see the nurse."

"I think I'm just tired," I say, rubbing my eyes, "I keep having nightmares."

"What are they about?"

We round a corner and pause for a moment in a pool of moonlight.

"There's just one, really," I answer, frowning slightly, "it's me, here, but the castle has been torn down. Dumbledore appears and tells me I have to pick a path, either down to the lake or down to the Forest. He says that the fate of the world rests on me. Then he disappears and everything starts to burn. The only way I can escape is to go down one of the paths, but I can't choose and the fire overwhelms me."

Draco pulls me into his arms, holding me tightly.

"It's just stress," he says, "it's this war, there's so much tension. You need to relax. I'm worried about you."

I sigh and lean into him heavily.

"Why don't you sleep with me tonight?" he suggests.

"Snape would kill us if he found out," I say.

"We'll have the house elves put a bed in our office," Draco says, "no one will know, we're always the first to leave our houses and the last in at night."

I look up at him hopefully.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll get on it right away," he says, "you finish the patrol, then come up to the office, okay?"

I lean up and kiss him softly.

"Thank you," I say.

We part ways and I finish my patrol. None of the DA are out and about, which is good. I've told them to keep out of the way as much as possible. I climb the stairs slowly up to the office, feeling out of my mind with exhaustion. I unlock the door and walk in to find that Draco has not only put a bed in, but he's brought all our things in as well. I climb into my pajamas and snuggle down next to him. He wraps his arms around me and brushes his fingers through my hair. For the first time in weeks I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

                                                                         *                      *                      *

I wake and stretch, then roll over and kiss Draco on the back of his neck.

"Time to get up," I say. He sighs loudly and rolls onto his back.

"It gets less tempting to get up every day," he says, rubbing his eyes. I kiss him on the cheek and get out of bed. I look at the calendar and sigh. It's the first of May today. This year seems to be dragging on forever. Maybe it's just the tension of never knowing when this war is going to break into a full scale battle. Draco comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me. I lean my head back against his shoulder and close my eyes.

"You had a nightmare last night," he says, "you were crying in your sleep."

"I don't remember it," I say, frowning. Draco shrugs and lets me go, turning to get dressed. I follow suit, trying to remember the dream.

We walk down to breakfast in silence. The castle is nearly always silent these days, apart from the occasional outburst from the DA. I glance at the Gryffindor table as we walk into the Great Hall. It's nearly empty now, most of the students that were able to return this year are in permanent hiding in the Room of Requirement.