Making a New World - Moment by Moment Book #7 (Harry Potter, Drarry)

Testing Offers

The pain was excruciating, but that wasn't why Harry was afraid. He could beat the false fire, he could beat Cruciatus, because he could feel Draco inside, their magic linked at a level no-one else could possibly understand. He screamed his agony, shook with the hurt that was trying to break him, but the fear in his belly was not for that. When he felt the pain in his chest, his fear personified: Voldemort was stood before him, bloody knife in hand and he smiled as Harry struggled. His body stopped working, breath by breath and beat by beat, and, tasting the blood in his throat, Harry knew he could not fight the fading of the world. The draw on his soul forced him away from everything, drawing him down from his senses, from his magic and from his love. Unable to make more than a gurgle in the real world, Harry screamed for all he was worth into death.

Harry sat up rapidly, the scream of terror ripping through the darkness around him, and he couldn't stop. The horror of dying when not even free to pass over made it out of his mind into the night, and he could not control the panic in his chest. Suddenly though, a light beside him came on, lighting the bedroom for what it was and Draco's arm came round his shoulder. Breathing hard and trying to grab on to reality, Harry relaxed against Draco, who pulled him in.

"That sounded bad," Draco observed, hugging his shivering form.

"I died," Harry answered, knowing the explanation was woefully inadequate for the intricate nightmare Voldemort had invented for him, but not knowing what else to say.

Draco hugged him tighter, enough to say he understood, and Harry slowly reached back. He had been in this man's arms all evening, as they had swung between playful celebration and deep emotion, but Harry needed Draco again more than ever as the chill of dying refused to let him go. He listened to his lover's heartbeat, needing it to know that life went on, and used it to push away his trembling.

Since their relationship had begun, the couple had discovered that there were nightmares which dissipated quickly allowing a return to sleep, and then there were other nightmares, ones that clung to the dreamer even after reality had returned, and neither young man needed words to know that this was one of the latter. There was no point addressing the terror and giving it more hold on the world, and so Draco was the one to try a diversion.

"I was saving this till tomorrow," Draco told Harry, relaxing his hold, but not letting go entirely, "but now is as good a time as any."

Harry's curiosity did the work of pushing away the nightmare so that he sat back and looked into his lover's face. Draco was smiling gently, but there was more to his disclosure than pleasure; Harry just waited for it.

"Albus spoke to me today: he offered me a job at Hogwarts."

"But you don't need a job," Harry said the first thing that occurred to him; as long as he had known Draco Malfoy, he had been either aimed at, or had been the wealthy playboy, money no object and a normal job not a consideration.

Draco chuckled lightly and continued, "But it doesn't mean I don't want one. Albus offered me Charms, and I think I want to take it."

"You haven't answered him yet?" Harry clarified, unable to stem his surprise at the revelation, which was doing a good job of dulling the nightmare.

"I wanted to talk to you about it first," Draco answered, rubbing a palm down Harry's arm.

"If it's what you want," Harry answered, his perspective on life changing as he thought about such a concrete future. "Ron and I'll just floo from here to work every day."

At that, Draco looked down at the bed sheets and roused Harry's suspicions.

"What is it?" he asked, in no mood to guess.