Harry looked at me, his green eyes flashing from behind his broken glasses.

"How long have you known?"

"About us being Horcruxes? Since Christmas. About my uncle and your mum? Around five seconds."

Harry's face flickered in anger. "You've known this whole time we've been hunting Horcruxes and you didn't think to say?!"

Draco stepped forward, placing a warning hand on Harry's chest. "Did you not just see what we saw, Potter?" He spat. "It was Dumbledore's request that you shouldn't know until now. Blame him!"

"I CAN'T BECAUSE HE'S DEAD, AND SO AM I NOW!" Harry yelled, tears of frustration filling his eyes.

"AND HOW DO YOU THINK I BLOODY WELL FEEL?!" I shouted back, panic and anger making my chest tighten dangerously. "I've known it had to end this way all this time, and yet I still chose to fight the fight! I could have spent the last four months making the most of my time left with the man I love but instead I chose to spend it with you! All because I knew that saving the world from my father was more important than my happiness!"

Harry looked at me, his mouth hanging open stupidly. Slowly, he sat down on the chair beside the headteacher's desk - no longer Dumbledore's, no longer Snape's.

"I give up," he breathed, shaking his head. "I give up on this whole stupid life. I wish I had never been born."

Draco and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

"Um, Harry, so what's the plan?" I asked, a little dumbfounded at his sudden emo turn.

Harry blinked up at me as though only just realising I was stood there. "Plan? I'll tell you what the plan is," he said standing up again, as anger seemed to hit him now, "you go kill the snake, you go kill your stupid father and while you're at it make sure you go kill yourself too. I'm outta here."

"What the fuck, Potter?" Draco spat as Harry stormed out of the office.

I immediately ran straight for the door as it slammed behind him, yanking it straight back open.

"Where are you going?!" I yelled down, just as he reached the bottom of the spiral staircase. "You can't leave me to do this on my own!"

"Why not?" He spat back up at me. "You seem to know more about this than me, and besides, you've got loverboy there to hold your hand!"

"But where are you going?" I implored, because honestly, if he wasn't going to go kill himself then what was the point of me finishing the job?

"To your father, remember? He wants to rendezvous in the Forbidden Forest."

"Oh. Do you think he'll-"

"Kill me? Yeah, probably. But apparently that's what I was raised for. Like a pig to the fucking slaughter. Cheers Dumbledore and Snape. It's just a shame I won't ever have children to name after them."

"It's lamb, Potter." Draco drawled derisively, as he stepped up by my shoulder, "A lamb to the slaughter."

"Fuck you, Malfoy!"

And with that, Harry disappeared, leaving Draco and I stood alone.

"What do we do now?" I shivered, looking up into Draco's piercing silver grey eyes.

He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me to him. I could feel the pounding of his heart and it somehow calmed me.

"What I want to do is take you away from all of this," he murmured sadly, placing a hand on the back of my head and kissing my hair, "I want us to live the future we used to dream about."

I felt him shudder, and heard him choke back the unmistakable sound of a sob. I felt my heart break all over again as I held him tight to me, never wanting to let him go.

"I need to follow him," I mumbled into Draco's shirt, inhaling his beautiful scent, "I need to make sure he's dead before I- before I..."

"I'm coming with you," Draco said immediately, stiffening at my words. "I'm not leaving your side. Where you go, I go."

He said this last part with such conviction that it wasn't hard to miss the meaning behind it.

I broke away from his embrace, taking a step back to look up at him in horror. "Draco, please don't tell me that you're going to k-"

"Where you go, I go!" He hissed vehemently, his face screwing up in a mixture of pain and determination. "I can't live in a world without you, Astrid! You die - I die with you!"

I felt as if the ground had shifted beneath me, the air suddenly felt solid and I found I was unable to take a breath.

"You can't, Draco! You can't die for me. What about your mother? What about your future?!"

"I don't want a future without you in it," he sobbed, tears now spilling from his eyes.

I quickly pulled him back into my embrace, as he wept onto my shoulder, his fatigued and thin frame shuddering through his sobs.

"Please try, for me, Draco," I cried, holding him tight, "please try and live for me."

He didn't answer, but carried on crying into my shoulder as we held onto one another, both terrified to let go and face what was ahead of us.

After a while I realised I couldn't stall any longer. I needed to go and see if Harry had really gone to his death.

"Come on," I murmured, shakily taking Draco's hand, "let's go."

Together we walked through the ruined castle and out across the grounds towards the forest. Neither of us saying anything, just clasping one another's hands tightly together.

There was smoke billowing up through the trees, which we followed, guessing that was the sign to where my father waited for Harry.

We were correct.

My father was stood gleefully in the middle of a clearing, facing a fed up looking Harry. Surrounding them, in a semi-circle were a whole hoard of Death Eaters and giants.

Everyone silently looked up as Draco and I emerged through the trees. We halted, and I felt Draco's fingers clasp tightly around mine as he took a protective step in front of me.

My father looked towards me, smiling.

"Ah, daughter, so glad you deemed to join us! And I see you've brought along your fiancé. How nice. Now, why don't you go and stand with your future in-laws whilst you watch me deal with this nimcompoop."

Without saying a word, Draco led us over to Lucius and Narcissa. I couldn't help but notice the flood of relief sweep across their faces upon seeing their son alive and well. I watched as they both enveloped him in a hug, and I felt my heart give a great unexpected wrench, making me nearly sob out loud.

Out of nowhere, I desperately wanted my mother.

A hand touched my elbow and I looked up to see Narcissa smiling sadly at me. It was a sweet gesture, and in that moment, I loved her for it. Guilt gnawed at me that her son wanted to sacrifice his life for me. I couldn't let him do that to her. To himself.

"Harry Potter," my father said, making everyone's attention shift back to him. "The boy who lived."

No one moved. I watched as Harry stared defiantly into my father's eyes. I had to give it to him - there was no fear on him at all. He didn't even bother holding a wand. Just stood there, and waited.

"Go on then," he scoffed as Voldemort raised his own wand. "Do it."

"Avada Kedavra!"

A flash of green light and Harry was dead.