Severus Snape watched as Malfoy tore from the tent- the tent that Harry recognized as the one they'd shared, the night before he'd disappeared. He drifted closer in the memory, ignoring his own hurt of previous revelations to watch what Harry presumed would be the last, if not one of the last, memories Snape had given him.

Malfoy was pacing in a panic, muttering under his breath and clutching his hair. 

"Draco."

Harry was pained to realize that, upon hearing his name, Malfoy's first thought was of their safety- not just his own. Malfoy's panic was quickly followed by the betrayal as he studied the ring on his finger. 

"What do you want, Severus?"

"Walk with me, Draco."

Harry watched Malfoy deny affiliation with Death Eaters and recoil as if the idea of returning to the manor was a sickening idea. 

"Draco, if you aren't the one to finish the cabinet, your parents will die. It will be your punishment. There is no stopping it, no heroics that your new... friends... can preform to save them. If you fail, they die."

Harry watched the fears that Malfoy had felt all along get confirmed. 

"I'm here to give you the needed ride to Hogwarts, if you so deem it fit. There's many lives riding on you not being a hero, Draco. Your parents, the Parkinson family... It is not your destiny to be here with them. Surely you can see that?"

Malfoy finally asked, after a little bit of conversation, "The cabinet... Many more lives will be lost if I finish it, won't they?"

"Do you have faith in Potter to correct the mistakes you must make, for the safety of the ones you love?"

Malfoy looked like he wanted to cry. "I do, but... What if he can't?"

The unspoken question hung in the air so thick Harry felt like he was going to choke. What if I end up killing somebody?

"There is no definitive answer as to how this war turns out, Draco." Snape turned away, his own expression one of pain. "I will give you time to think it over. Think well- I know this decision isn't easy."

Harry followed Malfoy this time, watched as he slipped into the tent back next to Harry, staring down at his sleeping form.

Grimacing, he grabbed parchment and ink and scrawled the note out, leaving it on Harry's chest.

"Forgive me," Malfoy whispered before backing out of the tent, straightening up as he faced Snape.

"Take me to Hogwarts. I won't let my family die because of me."

"You have faith in Potter to protect those you endanger," Snape spoke. It sounded like a question, but the way he said it made it clear it was a statement.

Malfoy stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground. "He's more capable than I even wanted to believe. If he dies..." Malfoy shook his head slightly. "He can't die. He won't die."

Snape sent his godson a somewhat pitying look, clearly knowing about what must happen for Voldemort to be defeated. "He'll protect everyone he can. He's annoying like that. Lets go, Draco."

Harry pulled his face from the pensieve, gasping. All this time... Snape's hatred, Dumbledore's guidance... Malfoy's unwillingness to actually leave.

His fingers gripped the edge of the basin, taking deep, harrowing breaths. 

"You know," a voice drawled from behind him, "it's surprising how vulnerable you leave yourself at times. It's a miracle you haven't been killed already."

Harry whirled around and, in a half second, had Malfoy's wand flying out of his hand. Harry didn't care that Malfoy hadn't even been wielding it- it was a necessary step. "Yeah? Want to be the one to do the honors?"

Malfoy was leaned up against the wall, arms crossed with a frown firmly seated on his face as he watched his wand go scattering down the stairs with the soft, echoing sound of a wand against stone. He made no move to grab it. "You know I don't."

"But you'd do it," Harry combated. "If it protected the people you love."

Malfoy twisted his expression into a sneer. "Don't make me out to be some compassionate villain, Potter."

They stared at each other for several long moments. "Snape told me to apologize to you. On his behalf."

Malfoy frowned. "He can do it himself when this bloody war is over."

Harry's expression mirrored the blond boy's own. "Malfoy..."

Malfoy swallowed, shaking his head. "No. Don't... Don't tell me that."

"He-"

"I said don't tell me!" Malfoy shouted, angry now. His eyes blazed. "I'm going to find him, after this is all over, right? He's okay?"

Harry is aware Malfoy wants him to lie to him. And for some reason, he does. "Yes."

Malfoy's posture relaxed and he nodded, calm all over again. "Good. Are those his memories he lent you?" Malfoy asked, motioning towards the pensieve.

Harry noticed the way he said 'lent' instead of 'gave'- another figment of denial. "Yes. I... I saw you leave."

Malfoy winced. "So you understand... about me, then?" 

"I understand why you left," Harry spoke, taking a step towards the blond. "There are some things... I don't understand."

"There are things I don't understand about myself either." Malfoy is stiff, and looks ready to run.

Harry eases of the obvious tension about the unspoken kiss from the alleyway in Hogsmeade. "Thanks. For Fred. I'm betting you'll be getting invitations from Molly for dinner any moment now." 

It's only partially a joke. 

Harry thinks Malfoy would make a nice placement at the Weasley table- a new placement, where Harry would have once sat.

Malfoy's face twisted slightly, frowning. "You... Sure. I didn't do it for him, anyway."

"So I've been told."

Malfoy cleared his throat. "Granger and Weasley. Are they..?"

"They're okay. They're in the Great Hall."

Malfoy seemed to relax a bit and nodded. Harry shot him a soft, somewhat sad smile. "I'm sorry things didn't turn out better for you, Draco."

Malfoy blinked, clearly startled by both the use of his first name and the heartfelt statement. "I... I'm sorry too. For not allowing things to turn out better. Professor Lupin, Tonks-" Harry turns away, and Malfoy cleared his throat. 

"I don't blame you. You're just as much a pawn as I was."

Malfoy opened his mouth and then paused. He clearly wants to ask Harry about it, but instead settled for a nod, saying, "the diadem was destroyed. In the fire. Another horcrux gone."

Harry nodded before he took a step closer to Malfoy, a lump in his throat. "Can you do me a favor?"

Harry doesn't miss the way Malfoy's eyes flicker to his lips. "Sure. What... What is it?"

"Give me a minute."

Harry turned, walking over to Dumbledore's desk as he conjured a piece of parchment, repaired an old quill he found on the ground and grabbed an inkwell from Dumbledore's desk drawers. 

He sat down and began to write, careful to keep the contents of his letter to himself, before folding it in half and charming it so that it can't be opened for at least an hour and walking back over to Malfoy. 

"Give this to Ron and Hermione for me. I have to go do something, and I might not see them for a bit."

It's a rather underwhelming way of phrasing 'I have to go die and I'm not going to see them until the afterlife, if there even is one', but he goes with it anyway. 

"I... Of course."

Harry gives him a smile that he tried to make genuine, but he knows it just looks sad and helpless. "It was good getting to know you, Draco."

"You too... Harry."

Harry walks past him, down the stairs, the snitch in his pocket faintly buzzing and the cloak shrunk carefully in his other pocket. 

He pulled out the cloak and re-enlarged it, swinging it over his shoulders and pulling the hood up over his head. No one could see him entering the forest.