Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Sixty Two

   Most of the skeletons had been under the tonne of snow that had smashed into the ground, so Harry and Draco's comrades had little trouble rounding up the rest and subduing them. However, there was a disturbance at the centre of the snow mound, and it didn't take long for something to emerge.

"Come on," Harry mumbled to Draco, and the two of them, along with the animals loitering on Draco's broom, finally drifted to the ground again. Several people bounded over to see if they were okay, but Harry was just watching as cracks appeared in the hill in front of them, lumps tumbling down as the top began to break open.

"No!" howled Mayor Abattoir as he erupted from the snow. "No you fools, they cannot be allowed to leave!" He heaved his body out as people turned and looked up at him. "Stop them!" he yelled, pointing at Harry and Draco and he scrambled down the side. "Stop them! Stop them!"

"Enough!" Bones bellowed as the queen of Halloween town once again stepped in front of him and halted him with the tip of her dagger. This time though, the mayor was defenceless; he must have lost his cleaver in the snow.

"You can't do this!" he howled, pulling at his dripping wet hair.

Bones shook his head. "You're so full of hate," he told him sadly. "It doesn't have to be like this."

"Oh don't you start with all that namby-pamby Christmas tripe," Abattoir sneered. "Why can't you just leave well enough alone?"

Bones shrugged. "I used to," he admitted. "Helped the odd Living soul out when I spotted them, mostly just minded my own business. But causing you trouble seems to be the only way you'll talk to me anymore."

Abattoir let out a hoot. "Why does that matter?" he demanded, placing his hands on his narrow hips.

"I guess it don't," sighed Bones. "But the thing is, your bloody miserable attitude – not to mention your homicidal inclinations – are starting to infect the rest of us, and you know what? I'm not okay with that."

"Me either," said Harry, pressing his arm against Draco's as his heart finally began to slow down again. He hoped they were out of danger now, and tried not to dwell on what had almost happened. It wasn't over yet, but with so much support for their cause, he couldn't help but be hopeful.

"The animosity between lands is getting worse," Bones carried on. "I've seen it over and over today. And I say"- his voice rising -"BOLLOCKS to that!"

The crowd cheered, and Abattoir looked around in disbelief. The snow was starting to melt behind him, and the Irish dancers and warrior women were pulling out skeletons one by one to restrain them.

"It doesn't matter who's more widely recognised," Bones continued. "Who's a 'proper' holiday and who's not. It doesn't matter who makes the best fireworks, or if your origin is spiritual or purely trivial. We're all in this together!"

"Moronic simpletons," Abattoir spat, flashing his teeth as the horde cheered again. The snow was making the blood drip sickeningly from his apron as he spun around. "The lot of you! We are all in this together; and I'm telling you now, if you let these boys go, you'll be upsetting the status quo. Holidays are built on tradition. If we allow that to fall, who knows what will happen!"

Bones barked at him, and Harry couldn't help but smirk at how he cringed away. "Holidays may be built on traditions," he shouted back. "But we've forgotten that every tradition, no matter how big or small, came from a celebration of love."

"Love of family!" Fan cried.

"Love of giving," agreed Bobby, Joe nodding by his side.

"Love of equality," announced the warrior leader sombrely.

"Love of ale!" shouted the big guy in the flat cap, which he tilted reverently at Draco and Harry.

"Hear hear!" agreed what Harry assumed to be the pirate captain with the big, black beard.

"Don't you remember love, Abe?" Bones asked, and Harry realised he was talking to Mayor Abattoir.

For a second, the mayor blinked, then he shook his head in disgust. "Love has no place in Halloween Land," he snarled, pointing his long finger down at Bones. "Halloween is about horror, and I intend to remind everyone of that fact!"

"What about love of candy?" asked Joe, wide-eyed.

"Or the love of the beautiful and the macabre?" the queen pointed out, holding her hand over her heart.

"Or love of costumes?" suggested one of the star-spangled girls from American Independence Day.

BB8 bleeped, and Rocky, who perched on his head nodded. "Or love of games."

"You had love in your heart once," Bones told the mayor defiantly. "You may not remember, but I do, and I won't stop trying to help you."

Draco stepped forward, and Harry let his hand go as he crouched down to stroke the dog's head. "You knew him," he said sadly. "In the Living Land?"

Harry had always thought of Draco as being unfeeling, of not having friends so much as hanging around people who he deemed useful to him. But it appeared he had formed quite a close relationship with Bones over just the one day, and he had to admit it made him feel hopeful. If he and Draco were going to try and be together, to have a relationship, it was very comforting to see he had some compassion in him, that he was in fact capable of caring for others.

Abattoir grimaced, as if abhorred by the idea, but Bones looked up at Draco with his big eyes and a small smile. "We were best friends," he confessed. "Once upon a time, when he was just a regular butcher, before he allowed himself to be twisted."

"Lies!" Abattoir shrieked, looking wildly around at the crowd. "You'll not spread them anymore mutt!"

"The only thing that's spreading is hope," Bones shot back with a laugh that sounded almost like a sob, and Harry's heart ached for him. "Look at these boys. You tried to pull them apart. And yet thanks to their love, they trekked across the lands to find one another. You can't defeat that, you never would have won."

"Yeah!" the tiny leprechaun Brandon cried, sloshing his tankard, and a deafening cheer rang around the stadium as people clapped and whooped and pumped their fists in the air.

"Their love is going to grow in this world long after they're gone," Bones informed Abattoir with determination. "But now, it's really time they left."