It was quiet, flying above the grounds. Too quiet, perhaps. 

Harry wondered if he would die within the hour. 

He was the Master of Death; maybe that would save him. He wasn't carrying any of the Hallows with him; maybe he wasn't the Master of Death. He was an Aevumiter; maybe that magic would save him. He was an Aevumiter; maybe the shock of destruction of the horcrux within him would kill him. He was willing to sacrifice himself again; maybe he'd survive. He was willing to sacrifice himself again; maybe he'd still die because he knew there was a chance he'd survive.

Sirius had died, and George had been hurt. This time Tonks had died, and Draco had been bitten. Maybe there was a balance in what he changed. Maybe his death would mean the others' survival. 

He could live with that. Well, for the next few minutes. 

He regretted not being able to say goodbye to his family and friends. But it would have been impossible to say goodbye and still do what needed to be done. He regretted that he'd break his promise to Draco.

So Harry flew alone, ducking below the canopy of the forest, and searching for where the Death Eaters lurked. Finding them wasn't hard. Harry landed silently on the forest floor nearby. He tried to steady himself before he would shift back into his more noticeable human form. 

A fire burned in the middle of the clearing, and its flickering light fell over a crowd of completely silent, watchful Death Eaters. Some of them were still masked and hooded; others showed their faces. Harry saw Fenrir Greyback, skulking and chewing on his long nails. Rowle was dabbing at his own bleeding lip. He saw Lucius Malfoy, who looked somewhat terrified. Narcissa stood calmly, a mask of indifference worn like a queen wears her crown. 

Every one of them was looking at Voldemort, who stood with his head bowed. His white hands folded over a wand. He might've been praying, what to, Harry would rather not know. He might have been counting. Behind his head, swirling and coiling, the great snake Nagini floated in her glimmering, charmed cage. She made a monstrous halo. 

When Dolohov and Yaxley rejoined them, Voldemort looked up. 

"No sign of him yet, my Lord." Dolohov said. 

Voldemort's expression did not change. The red eyes seemed to burn in the firelight. His long fingers caressed the wand he held. 

"My Lord-" Bellatrix began, sat nearest to him, just as before. There was blood on her face, and Harry didn't want to know who it belonged to. Voldemort raised a hand to silence her, and she did not speak another word. Instead she watched him, in worshipful fascination.

"I thought he would come," Voldemort said in his high, clear voice, his eyes on the flames. "I expected him to come." 

Nobody spoke. Harry must have spent longer savoring his last flight than he thought. 

"I was, it seems... Mistaken." Voldemort said. 

Harry shifted to his human form. "You weren't." He said, and they snapped to look at him. He'd been peering around a tree in his falcon form, but now he was much more visible. He moved away from the tree, towards the Death Eaters. 

The Death Eaters rose from the ground, and there were gasps, words, some laughter. Voldemort was frozen where he stood. Between them was nothing but the fire. 

"Harry! No!" Hagrid yelled, and Harry's heart sunk even further. He hadn't meant for Hagrid to have to see this. "No! No! Harry, what're yeh-?"

"Quiet!" Rowle shouted. With a flick of his wand, Hagrid was silent. 

Silence fell over the clearing. The only sound was the soft crackling of the fire, reminding him distantly of the Gryffindor common room. The only thing that moved was the fire, and Nagini above Voldemort's head. 

"Harry Potter," He said, very softly. "The Boy Who Lived, come to die." 

None of the Death Eaters moved. Harry didn't move. They were waiting, everything was waiting. Harry could feel the magic of the forest, and it seemed to know what was going to happen. He could feel it mourn. 

Harry thought of Draco, smiling softly in the gentle morning light. How he looked like an angel, taking in that light and glowing with it.

Harry thought of Sirius, laughing hard enough that he brought tears to his eyes. How he was loud mischief and love.

Harry thought of Remus, smiling and proud of his family. How he was quiet mischief and love.

Voldemort raised his wand. His head was tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted this moment to be over. He didn't want to be tempted to leave, to fight. He didn't want to regret.

He saw the mouth move, and a flash of green light. 

~~~

Draco helped Madam Pomfrey treat injuries. They made an efficient team. Draco stood from tending to an Auror's arm, and began walking to the next injured person he saw. Suddenly he felt the breath stolen from his chest, and his body became entirely numb. His ears rang, and his vision fell dark. After a few terrifying seconds, his vision returned. 

Remus was over him, looking concerned. A second Remus was standing behind him, appearing just as terrified as the first. The closest Remus tried to speak to him, but Draco couldn't hear him beyond the ringing. 

"I can't hear you." Draco tried to say, feeling his mouth cooperate. "Ringing." 

Remus tried to sit him up, and Draco tried to move his fingers. They were tingling, and difficult to move. He was clear enough of mind to realize that his glamour hadn't failed. Feeling came back, and his body ached in a few places that told him he'd fallen. 

"-Not sure, Minnie." One Remus said. 

Draco looked over, and saw McGonagall had returned. Her bun was a bit loose, a couple strands hanging out of place.  "Harry. Something's happened to him." Draco said, realizing it only as he said it. Dread filled him. 

McGonagall and the Remuses stared at Draco. "Where is he?" McGonagall asked. 

Draco searched the hall for his friends. He awkwardly staggered to his feet, before spotting one. "Hermione!" 

She sharply turned to Draco. 

"Where's Harry?" 

"He had to look for Dumbledore." Hermione said. 

Draco froze. That... Didn't make sense. Harry didn't trust the man. And at this point in the past timeline, he had been long dead. Draco looked to McGonagall. 

"I haven't seen him." She said. "He never came looking for us." 

Draco shook his head, refusing to believe it. He refused to think about how Harry would have done what he thought he needed to. He would have gone, if Voldemort had asked... And he had. 

Both times. Harry was fine. He had to be fine. 

"Dumbledore?" Draco asked. 

"Dead." Shacklebolt said.

Harry had to be fine. He had promised.

~~~

The Death Eaters approached on foot, making a slow parade of it. Draco kept his gaze locked on Voldemort. The Death Eaters filled one end of the courtyard. 

Voldemort walked along the edge of his followers. Draco could see him pass his parents. Voldemort came to a stop, standing next to Hagrid. In the half-giant's arms, was a body. No, no no no... 

"Harry Potter is dead!" Voldemort cried. 

"No!" Draco didn't realize he'd lurched forward, until he was struggling to break free of Ron's arms, holding him back. "No!"

As he sobbed, because Harry was dead, and he'd felt it happen, he realized many things. 

Remus was holding onto Sirius much like Ron was doing for Draco. Sirius' polyjuice had gone, so the man was screaming in his own voice and face. Draco had lost his glamour.

They had lost Harry. Draco fell quiet and still, and Ron still didn't release him. 

Draco could see his parents, watching him now. Could they see the tears on his cheeks from this distance? 

"Draco." His father beckoned. Draco blinked. "Draco!" 

"You sure you want him, Lucius?" Fenrir taunted. 

"He's my son," Lucius hissed. 

"Even if the little mutt's like me?" Fenrir asked. 

"What?" Lucius asked. 

"Let me go." Draco said quietly, to Ron. 

"I can't," Ron said back, his voice shaking. "We'll both do something stupid." 

"Hermione. You've been reading that book. You know I don't have long without him." Draco said. "Let me go." 

"He's right, Ron." Hermione said through tears. 

"But-" 

"Remus, please, please, Remus-" Sirius sobbed. "Harry-"

Ron's hold on Draco faltered, and Draco took advantage of it. He took long strides forward, Elder Wand clenched tightly in hand. 

"Come to join us, Draco?" Voldemort asked. 

Draco raised his wand, and saw the moment Voldemort recognized it. He aimed directly at Voldemort, and whispered the spell. A beam of green light shot forth, and Voldemort stepped to the side just in time. A Death Eater that Draco couldn't be bothered to name fell, dead.

There was a moment where Draco and Voldemort's eyes met, and Draco could see that Voldemort knew what it meant, that Draco could wield the wand. And Draco had just tried to kill him. Draco quickly began to block and deflect the spells that were immediately being flung at him. 

The battle had begun again, and Draco was the most exposed. He heard Sirius' battlecry, and knew the man was fighting. Draco hoped he wasn't being reckless. 

Draco himself was skilled in warfare combat, he'd had to be, but even now he wasn't a match for the sheer number of enemies. He was overwhelmed, he wouldn't be making it-

A barrier shimmered around him, and Draco knew, instinctively, that it was Harry's. Voldemort's gaze was locked on a spot just over Draco's shoulder, and Draco knew, that it was Harry he was staring at. 

"Harry!" 

"He's alive!" 

"Harry's alive!" 

"I've got this." Harry said gently, from just behind him. "Our friends need some help." 

Draco took a few steps back from Voldemort, and saw Harry looking rather calm. He was alive. He was alive, he was alive... Draco needed to help their friends. 

He left Voldemort to Harry, and ran past Sirius and Remus dueling Pettigrew and another Death Eater. A quick assessment told Draco who would win that battle. 

Draco moved on, and found where Ginny, Luna, Blaise, and Pansy were barely holding off Fenrir. He stepped between them, and Fenrir's lip curled in a twisted grin. 

"Little mutt." Fenrir said. 

"Get somewhere safe." Draco said to his friends. "I'll take care of him."

"But he's a werewolf-" Pansy protested. 

"I haven't forgotten since he bit me," Draco replied, and Pansy leaned back in shock. "Go." 

The students took a few steps back, eager to leave Fenrir, but hesitant to abandon Draco. 

"How was your first full moon?" Fenrir asked, tauntingly. 

"Comfortable enough." Draco replied. 

"Oh?" Fenrir seemed surprised. "Taken to it well, then? I can teach you, little pup." 

"I have nothing to learn from you." Draco said. Knowing that his spells would be more ineffective against the werewolf, Draco shifted to his second form. The fight would be most unpleasant, but... It was unavoidable. 

Fenrir's eyes went wide in fear at Draco's form. He scrambled back, and started spouting spell after spell. Draco avoided a few, and some landed, but barely affected him. The taste and feel of flesh and blood between his jaws was one Draco desperately wanted to forget the second he experienced it. 

Once Draco was certain Fenrir wouldn't be rising again, he stepped back, and tried to find his friends' scents. They had made it down a hallway, further into the castle than the majority of the battle. They were facing off against two Death Eaters. One fell as Draco ran towards them, and the second was shortly before Draco reached the group. To his surprise, Narcissa Malfoy spun towards Draco with her wand raised, standing in front of Blaise and pushing Ginny behind her. 

"Wait!" Luna said, covering Narcissa's hand with her own.

"Lovegood," His mother said in her warning tone. 

"It's alright." Ginny said. 

"It's dangerous." Narcissa said, eyeing his snout. 

As much as Draco would prefer his mother never find out that he was changed, he didn't need her attacking him. He shifted back to his human form, feeling the aches of Fenrir's spells. "Of course I'm dangerous, Mother." 

"Draco." She whispered in shock. 

Draco walked closer to their group, and turned to Ginny. "Ronald and Hermione. Have you seen them?" 

"Not since they left the courtyard with Neville." 

Surely the three of them could manage. Surely... But they were so much younger, now, less experienced... His mother brushed two fingers by his lip, and Draco's eye caught a glimpse of red. 

Fenrir's blood was still on his face. Draco's eyes went wide, and his stomach churned violently. He turned to the side, and emptied the contents of his stomach. Whether by his own instinctive magic, or by his mother's, when he was done, his face was clean. 

Draco caught his breath, and turned back to the courtyard, to Harry.  

"Draco! Where are you going?" Narcissa asked, following him. 

"Harry," Draco said, his pace not slowing. "I have to- if they've gotten the horcrux, he'll be weak! And I left him with Voldemort!" 

"What do you mean, he'll be weak?" Ginny demanded, clearly chasing him as well. 

"He reacts poorly whenever we've destroyed a horcrux." Draco said, growing more worried by the second. 

"Shit!" Was Ginny's response, and Draco was familiar enough with Harry and his godfathers to understand that it was a muggle curse.

They came upon the courtyard in time to hear a bang like a cannon blast, and golden flames between Voldemort and Harry. Voldemort's wand flew into the air, spinning, as his body fell backward and hit the floor with a mundane finality. 

Harry stood over his defeated enemy, without a wand in his hands. Blood marred his face, otherwise he looked oddly serene. 

People cheered around him as surviving Death Eaters fled. Some people pursued. Others approached Harry to celebrate. 

Without warning, Harry dropped to his knees, his head hanging. Shouts of alarm rang out, and some raced to him. Draco reached him first, even though he'd been further away. Harry's magic had kept them away, most likely. Draco dropped to his own knees at Harry's side, and pulled Harry to him. Harry let his head rest on Draco's shoulder, while Draco buried a hand in his hair and used his other to hold him securely.