Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Fifty

   The woman Draco had spotted earlier with the horn, the one that looked like the leader, broke through the crowd and addressed the gaggle by the portal. She was flanked by two more warriors, each wearing sturdy armour, flowing capes and golden hair of varying lengths. She took the horn from her back, and offered it to Draco.

"Here, Your Highness, I beg you drink after your toil."

Draco took the thing out of politeness, only wincing slightly at the potency of the mead he swallowed. "Thank you...?"

"Herja," said the warrior accepting the horn back off him and drinking herself before passing it back to her fellow warriors. "Chief Cup Bearer. Your companion tells us you are in dire need of help."

"Now just a minute," Rocky the robin bristled. "He's a wanted criminal!"

"But," said the Chinese girl. "Didn't you say anything that annoyed the Halloween Secret Police was a good thing?"

"Hmph," grumbled Rocky. "That was before he broke Harry's heart."

Draco's insides flipped. There it was again, this implication that Harry had, what? Feelings for him?

"Your friend is correct," Herja told Rocky, placing her hands on her wide hips. "The HSP are a law unto themselves and do not have authority here. The Seer Bones explained the situation to some of my Valkyrie, and we were inclined to believe him."

"Really?" asked Draco.

Bones snorted. "Why else do you think they were holding the skeletons back?"

Herja bent down and stroked Bones' head. "Bones is a long friend to the women of the sky, and we know he does not see victims of the Living Land all that often. Darkling Prince Draco, is it true you wish to return home to your world?"

Draco glanced at Bones, who nodded back at him. "Yes Ma'am," he said as he looked up at her from the ground. "But I can't – I won't leave without Harry. He's gone down-"

"I understand," interrupted Herja.

"I still say it would be better if Rocky and I went," insisted the girl, her eyes imploring at Herja. "We're his friends."

Herja crouched down, making her armour clink and squeal, and cupped the girl's cheek. "What is your name, Spring Child?"

"Fan," the girl replied.

Herja smiled sadly, and nodded. "Daughter Fan, you do your friend a great honour. But the Darkling Prince must make this journey beyond the third alone. He is not of this world, and he will be able to use that power of mind to do what is necessary and return them both home. It would take an army of minds from the holiday worlds to combat the unnatural realm he will face." She shook her head, and closed her eyes for a heartbeat. "I wish there were another way."

"I can do it," Draco said quickly, thoroughly sick of letting people down. "I'm not leaving without him."

"Then you've got no time to waste," insisted Bones, nudging his side. "Go, we'll handle things here."

"Okay," Draco said carefully, looking around at the group surrounding the manhole. He was struck with how many people were willing to go the distance for Harry. He was so loved, so important. Was Draco really worthy of being the one they all trusted to save him?

But like Herja said, he might be the only one actually able to do what was necessary. He was surprised Bones wasn't, what will his other special powers, but he knew him well enough by now to know he would have spoken up if he was in a position to come. So that meant it was down to Draco, and he couldn't back down now.

"Okay, he said again. "No, wait," he spluttered as he went to move, but had a sudden thought. "How do we get back, once I've found him?"

Bones smiled at him, and Draco abruptly felt very humbled to have met such a loyal friend. "Same as always," he said. "You go up, and don't look back."

Draco inhaled, nodded once, then swung his legs into the blackness. He rose his gaze to Fan and Rocky, and decided he had nothing left to lose. "What Harry said, about...about looking for true love, did he mean it?"

The two looked dubiously at each other, but they must have realised that they, and Harry, had nothing left to lose either. "He thought," said Rocky heavily. "That his dream meant that he loved you, even though he didn't know you."

"It was like something out of a fairytale," added Fan sadly.

Draco felt as if his whole world shattered into infinite shards of blinding, beautiful light. Harry loved him. He really loved him. His whole body trembled, but then determination seized him and he threw his shoulders back and his chin up. "Well," he said, nodding at Bones, who gave him a salute of confidence. "What good is a prince in a fairytale, if he can't rescue his true love?" He shifted closer to the edge, and prepared to drop. "I'll see you on the other side," he told them.

"You better," growled Bones, and with that, he pushed himself over and into the nothingness.