Do You Still Believe?

We say our goodbyes
Let's bring it tonight
The story's building as we live on through this night
Representation to approve the words we bind
The city never pulls through once we all are doomed
-- A Skylit Drive - City on the Edge of Forever
-o0o-


It was nearly a full day later when Draco finally found a chance to tell Potter about the raid.

"She took veritaserum all on her own, and then lead us on a guided tour around her house," Draco said. Potter took this in stride, shooting him a sharp glance.

"You're sure she took actual veritaserum?"

"Absolutely," Draco nodded. "But here's the real kicker," he added. "She deals in rare daggers. That room of hers we saw? Just the start. She claims it's a hobby, but I found it interesting, especially with what you said about the knife in the murder."

Potter slumped down in his seat, exhaling upwards so that his fringe ruffled with his breath. "Did you get the names of people she's done deals with?"

Draco pulled out a roll of parchment. "It's about three miles long," he said mournfully, unrolling the first few inches of names. "There's got to be hundreds if not thousands of names. Apparently she wrote them down in order, all the way back to her very first tradesale. There's dates and a description of the knife beside each name, as well. This is going to take us years to get through."

It felt like he was walking across a thinly frozen lake, dealing with Potter today. The dark-haired man had come in to work that morning and pretended as though nothing had happened the night before, and it was weighing heavily on Draco's mind. Potter had made admirable progress, he thought, and then simply shoved it out of his mind as though it were a chore he were procrastinating over.

"Potter," he said, lowering the parchment. "About last night-"

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I refuse to discuss 'last night' here with you in the middle of the MLE when anyone could overhear us."

"Harry." Shacklebolt ducked into their cubicle, and handed over a file. "The Dark Mark was seen above a prominent shop in Hogsmeade." Potter was on his feet in an instant, pulling his Auror's robes over his muggle jeans.

"What? When?"

"First sighting was less than ten minutes ago. Get up there, both of you."

In the flurry of activity following his pronouncement, no one noticed the blue-haired woman slipping away down the corrdidor between cubicles.

-o0o-

They apparated into Hogsmeade together, the loud cracks blending into one deafening boom. The Dark Mark hung in the sky like poison, casting an eerie green light across the whole of the snow-covered town. The streets were completely deserted, the shuttered windows and gleaming snow giving the town a ghostly feel.

Harry put his hand out to keep Malfoy from moving, looking around carefully for the caster of the Dark Mark. The streets were so empty, they might as well have been alone in the small town. Harry shivered quietly; his sweater and robes were enough in London, but here in the Scottish winter the icy wind chilled him right to his core. He cast a simple heating charm, and heard Malfoy doing the same beside him.

"They'll be somewhere in the vicinity," he muttered to his partner. "Keep an eye-" He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence - instinct had him flinging himself to the side, out of the path of a stunner. It struck the snow behind him and fizzled out, and he sent a return spell in the direction it had come from.

Within moments the street was lit up like christmas as spells began flying back and forth.

-

Draco stood as if frozen, watching Potter come alive with the fight. Dodging, rolling, flinging spells as if they were snowballs, he looked positively vivacious. This, then, was where his reputation as the best Auror on the force had come from.

Suddenly, Draco found himself tackled to the ground. Bringing his wand up as fast as he could, he only barely managed to halt the spell that was working it's way off his lips as he realised it was Potter.

"Pay attention, Malfoy," he hissed, and was up again, moving with an agile, fluid grace that hardly looked like anything so simple as movement. Draco had time to see the burnt patch on the ground where he'd been standing, and then a second voice joined the fray, and he regained his feet only to witness the red light of a stunner flying towards Potter's unprotected back.

His instincts kicked in, and he flung out a shield before engaging the second Death Eater remnant in a battle of his own. Spells were flying past, missing him by mere inches, and instead of fear, he felt... a curious sense of exhileration. Everything slowed down to the point he barely felt as though he were moving at all, but neither was the renegade Death Eater before him, and he had ample time to see what the other man would do before he actually made the movement. His shield charm glittered into existence moments before the blasting curse rammed into it, and he lowered the protective charm to send an expelliarmus in return.

The Death Eater's wand sailed towards him, but a wandless summoning charm sent it careening back towards it's owner. Draco swore quietly to himself, and continued the duel.

-

One of Harry's spells struck home, sending the Death Eater crashing into the snow. He retrieved the man's wand, and set a Portkey down on his chest to send him into a holding cell at the Ministry. His emotions were still running high, and he turned to Malfoy with a triumphant grin on his face, only to see a third Death Eater remnant rise out of the snow and cast an unheard spell towards Malfoy's back.

It was green.

Harry acted without thought, the knowledge that there was nothing he could do and Malfoy was going to die just like Ron, right there on the snowy, deserted streets of Hogsmeade, and suddenly rage flared up inside him. Malfoy is not going to die! he thought, and suddenly his patronus was flying from his wand, racing for Malfoy.

The stag intercepted the light just as Malfoy finished his battle and turned to Harry. He caught the Avada Kedavra and the Patronus out of the corner of his eyes, and Harry could see the same thoughts going through his mind - he wasn't going to make it, he was going to die right there, there was no way a Patronus was going to do anything against the Killing Curse, and then the stag and the spell collided -

There was a massive explosion of light. The Death Eater Apparated away before Harry could do more than blink the spots out of his eyes, but when his vision cleared, he could see Malfoy lying motionless in the snow.

His heart jumped into his throat, and his stomach sank into his shoes, and he almost couldn't force himself to go collect his partner's body. I knew it wouldn't work, he berated himself. There was nothing else I could do.

The familiar hopelessness settled over him like a cloak, and he gingerly picked his way through the snow. There was a charred scorch mark in the snow where the Patronus had tried and failed to contain the Killing Curse; he passed it without more than a cursory glance, before dropping to the ground beside Malfoy's still form.

He took a deep breath, and then put two fingers against Malfoy's throat, expecting to find total stillness. For a second, he wasn't in the snow of winter-locked Hogsmeade, but the damp, cluttered field beside Stonehenge, bodies littering the ground as he stepped over and around them to reach Ron, but when he felt for a pulse, there was a heart-wrenching nothingness where his heart should have been beating but -

Like a captured bird, there was a fluttering against his fingertips. He froze, his entire body stiffening, and he might have stayed like that forever if Malfoy hadn't groaned, and lifted a hand to his head.

"Did any one get the license of that lorry?" he mumbled, and then his eyes opened and focused on Harry's face. "Potter?"

Harry found himself on his back in the snow, his arms full of trembling blond. He patted Malfoy on the back awkwardly - it had been years since anyone had hugged him, and for a moment he wasn't sure what to do with himself.

"I don't know what the fuck you just did, Potter, but I owe you my life. Again." Malfoy chuckled weakly against his shoulder, and then pulled back. "Does this make me The Man Who Lived?" he joked in a fair imitation of his usual humor, but Harry could see that Malfoy was almost as shaken by the events as he was. He checked once to ensure that Malfoy had placed the Portkey on the Death Eater he'd been fighting, and then side-along Apparated them both back to the Ministry.

-o0o-

Shacklebolt had sent him to St. Mungo's upon hearing the story, and he'd been lying in bed and telling scores and scores of Healers and Medi-Wizards that, Yes, he was fine, and No, he hadn't been struck by the Avada Kedavra or any pieces of it, No he had no idea how Potter had stalled the Killing Curse with a Patronus - the last thing he recalled was seeing it coming towards him, and then suddenly there was a large animal between him and the curse, and a large explosion that threw him off his feet and knocked the breath out of him for a moment.

The only thing that kept him from snapping at them was the fact that they'd made history that day. Potter himself was the only known survivor of a direct Killing Curse, but now Draco himself was going to join that rank - there had been no way to avoid the curse or dispell it, not when it was that close. A small bruise on his side showed that the curse had actually made it through the stag and touched him and he'd still survived it.

The press was crowded around the door, all clamouring for an interview with him, when they suddenly paused, and then parted, drawing away from the door in a fluid motion.

Potter strode into his room, and sat down, shooting the reporters a dark glare that sent them scrambling away from the room. "You're alive," he said simply, before casting a spell over the door to close and lock it.

"Thanks to you," Draco said softly. "That was incredible."

"You scared the fuck out of me," Potter hissed suddenly, looming close to him. "I thought you were dead."

"Well," Draco said, and gestured to his body. "Clearly I'm not." His heart gave a brief thrill at the thought that Potter had actually been afraid for him. It spoke volumes about how cracked that icy shield he presented to the world had become, and how much Draco himself had had to do with that crack.

Potter returned to his seat, and rubbed his eyes. They sat in companionable silence for a moment, and then Potter shot him a look that said business. "What did you want to talk about?"

Draco, expecting something a little more serious - How are you feeling, what's it like to have survived the Killing Curse, How's your mum? - was taken off guard for a moment. "Pardon?"

"Before Sinder interrupted us at the office." Potter explained, as if that covered everything. "You wanted to talk to me about something."

Draco wracked his brain, and finally recalled what he'd been intending to say. "Ah, the raid on Littlewood's." Potter's fierce green eyes lit up with some internal flame.

"How was that?"

"Absolutely nothing," he said despondently. "She was utterly clean. Had records of every trade she'd made going back to the fourties. They're still running them down and checking them out."

"Damn," Potter swore quietly. "The knife used in the murders," he said, lowering his voice and leaning forward. Draco found himself leaning in conspiratorially as well. "It's important. I saw it the night before I got sick. We've got to start tracking down shops and people like Littlewood who deal in magical weapons."

-o0o-

LMFAO!!! So I've been goofing off on facebook instead of writing (*smacks own wrist* bad kori, I know!) but I've been taking a bunch of quizzes and whatnot. The 'Which character are you?' quiz gave me Harry Potter (yeah, yeah, I'm a Gryffindor at heart. Sue me.) and I just took the "Which Hogwarts man would you have ended up with?" quiz and got... TADA~ Draco Malfoy! Too funny, eh? I'd be Harry and end up with Draco. I died laughing.


Mr Spears: You're welcome! That's totally cool, you're in South Africa? WOW. I've never met anyone from Africa (at least not knowing they were from Africa, at any rate.) I feel so uncool right now. XDD I'm just American. Well, technically Scottish, but I was born and mostly raised in America. So it's dull. I can't wait to get out of the country. Grass is always greener, as they say. You totally made my day, though, too~ I'm sooo glad you're enjoying it!

yaoiObsessed: LMFAO!! Thanks! And I might think that 'getting' to Harry is a bit of an understatement. He's completely flipped the lid off Harry's closed little box of a life.

Dragon: AHAHAHAH ♥ Best review ever~ I adore that movie. *hands over more cookies*

Enamoril: Oh please, speculate away. I love seeing all the theories you guys come up with. Thanks for reviewing!

Zelda: Thanks! I certainly will, if only so I can keep getting such awesome reviews for it.

thrnbrooke: Draco should have been a healer. XDD He's good at making people laugh - just not generally Gryffindors! 83

samanthadeann: Thanks! *blush* I'll certainly do my best to live up to your expectations!

jc: Definitely stubborn. But thanks so much! 83 You just made my day~