Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Fifty Three

   The world churned around him, and he staggered as darkness fell. He refused to close his eyes though, and kept chanting Harry's name to himself, picturing his face and the tentative smiles he had gifted Draco with over the past few weeks. Harry was his friend, Harry loved him and he was going to find him.

The world around him stilled, and it seemed like he was in total darkness, except as he raised his hands in front of him he could see them perfectly well. "Hello?" he called out, his heartbeat rising as he stared into the never ending blackness.

He stamped his feet; the floor seemed solid enough, although he couldn't see that either. It gave him the sickening sensation that he could drop at any moment, and fall forever into oblivion.

"Hello!" he shouted with a little more desperation, wondering if he had made a terrible mistake. Had he been wrong to leave his dream version of Malfoy Manor, how exactly did the fourth level work?

He spun around, and a spec of light dotted the blackness, grabbing his attention and making his heart soar with hope.

"Harry?" he called out, his feet already moving towards the source of light. "Harry is that you?"

He received no answer, but he broke into a run all the same, the figure in the distance growing larger with each step. They were sitting down, and as he neared Draco could have cried as he made out a mop of black hair and the glint of a pair of glasses. Harry's adorable elf costume had gone, and was now replaced with a scruffy, moth-eaten t-shirt that hung from his shoulders and a baggy pair of jeans. He looked so dejected, and Draco's heart contracted.

Harry did not look up as Draco finally got within a dozen feet of him. The ground beneath him had texture, unlike what Draco was standing on, and seemed to resemble dust or sand that Harry was engrossed in drawing in.

As he approached, Draco slowed and caught his breath; Harry had still not looked up at him. Instead, he had written "Happy Birthday" in the dirt, with an oval drawn around it, and he was now adding lines across the top. Draco thought it resembled a birthday cake, but it was so pitiful he had trouble equating this deafening solitude with a celebration.

"Harry?" he said softly, not wishing to scare him.

Finally, he looked up at him, his green eyes empty behind the glass of his spectacles. "You're not supposed to be here," he said hollowly, then went back to his picture.

Draco shifted awkwardly on his feet, before throwing caution to the wind and sitting down beside him, angling his sword so it didn't get in either of their way. "Why not?" he asked.

Harry dragged his finger, creating another candle-likeness in the sand. "Because it's my birthday. No one else is supposed to be here." He sat back, the candles complete. "Birthdays are lonely."

Draco felt a lump rise in his throat. Why on Earth would, popular, well-loved Harry Potter say something like that? "No," Draco disagreed, and took his gritty hand in his own. "They're not. Harry, we need to leave this place, it isn't real."

That seemed to attract his attention, and Harry lifted his gaze to focus his emerald eyes on Draco. He swallowed, suddenly nervous. If he blew this, he didn't know what he would do. "You're the boy," said Harry slowly. "The boy from the dream."

Draco removed his pirate hat from his head, feeling it wasn't the time for it now, and cradled Harry's hand between both of his own. "I'm Draco, remember?"

"You...tricked me?" Harry said uncertainly, and Draco felt as if his heart cracked.

"No," he said as earnestly as he could without being overbearing. "No Harry, I know you're confused, but please listen to me. I only want to help, I promise, with all my heart."

He almost flinched at his own, sappy words, but the truth was Harry made him feel things nobody else had before, pulled emotions out from his very depths that he'd never known existed. Love was honestly exhausting, but Draco wasn't giving up on it.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know what to think," he said.

"Do you remember meeting in the square?" Draco asked, rubbing his thumb over Harry's knuckle. "Or waking up in Christmas Land?"

He waited patiently as Harry mulled this over, until thankfully he nodded. "Yes, but...you said that wasn't real?"

Draco thought maybe a change of tactic was required. He was painfully aware they had less than an hour now to get back home. "What's real is that you're in danger, we need to get out of the fourth level. It's too easy to get lost here." He looked out into the void, and squeezed Harry's hand tightly. "I need you to trust me."

"How can I?" Harry whispered, closing his eyes.

Draco pulled his lower lip between his teeth. He had no more time, he couldn't hesitate or second guess. "Did you really think you were searching for your true love?"

Harry's face contorted in pain, his eyes still closed. "Please," he begged. "Please, no more teasing."

Draco couldn't stand it. He'd been selfish all his life, and that had made him cruel far too many times. But he couldn't take the hurt he was putting Harry through, not any more. "Harry," he breathed, his voice barely audible as he leaned into him. "I'm pleading with you, trust me. Just this once."

And with that, he touched his lips to Harry's, bringing them together for their very first kiss.