The butcher laughed again, amused by Harry's terror, and he flicked the tip of the blade in Draco's direction. "Here's your choice. We stay like this, your elf at the end of my knife, as we say goodbye to your old lives at the stroke of twelve, then you can go live your life as a prince, the way you would have if you had never meddled in my affairs. Or," he hissed in pleasure, and Harry dreaded what was coming. "I release him. You can go to your fate knowing you had the chance to embrace for your final minutes, comfort each other one last time. But then, your flesh is mine."

Draco's hands were trembling, and his jaw clenched, but Harry could see the decision in his tear-filled eyes as he came to it. "NO!" he screamed, flailing to get free again, no matter how useless it was. The butcher's grip was inhumanly strong and he had the knife back at his throat again. "No Draco, it's not worth it-!"

"Let him go," he said clearly, looking at the butcher. "And then you can do whatever you want with me after."

Harry was pushed forwards and he stumbled right into Draco's arms. "No, Draco, no," he begged, trying to pull away, to go back to the butcher. "You won't even remember why he's torturing you, he's going to make you a mindless skeleton. Let me go!"

Draco held him fast though. "Harry," he said, his voice breaking. "I'll never get the chance to kiss you again. That's all I've wanted, for so long. I messed up so much of our time together. The least I can do is end it right."

Harry could feel the tears streaming down his face as he seized Draco and kissed him with everything he had. Fine, he thought stubbornly. But now he was free, he was going to find something to fight back with, to escape, he wasn't going to give up, not until the very last tick of the damnable clock hands took him and Draco away from each other again.

He pulled Draco back towards the dark entrance to the dorms, holding his hand defensively. "You can take him if you can get through me," he spat, not flinching from the butcher's flinty gaze. He wasn't losing now, not when they had been so close to escape. There was still time, the clock had only just stuck half past.

The butcher laughed at him though, setting Harry's teeth on edge. "I won't have to take him, you pathetic elf," he gloated. "Once you've lost your memory, he won't mean anything to you, and you'll just let me walk out of here with him without so much as a peep." He grinned in triumph, but Harry shook his head.

"I've been obsessed with Draco Malfoy for seven years," he growled, raising an eyebrow in defiance. "It's going to take a lot more magic than you think you've got to make me give up on him now, you skinny bastard."

He felt Draco squeeze his hand, but it was a gesture filled with futility. He looked around to see Draco's eyes shining with unshed tears, his lips pulled in a small, bleak smile. "Thank you," he said.

"I'm not letting them take you," Harry uttered. He'd never allow himself to just forget and go on to a carefree life when he knew Draco would suffer unimaginable pain. "Not whilst I'm still breathing," he promised, then turned around to face the butcher and his skeleton legion with grim determination. "It's not like I haven't died before."

"Well," a voice came from their feet. "That makes two of us then."

Harry and Draco's heads jerked downwards in shock to see the black dog standing there. "Bones!" Draco shouted, dropping to his knees and scooping up the dog in his arms in a fierce hug. His pretty bonnet was gone now, and in its place was a bowtie around his neck, striped with Gryffindor red and Slytherin green.

"Ooh," the butcher said, shaking his head, his skeletons firming up their ranks behind him to block the exit. They had formed a semi-circle around the common room, and seemed to have believed, like Harry had, that there was no way out through the dormitories. But if that was the case, where had Bones come from? "I'm surprised you had the guts to come all the way down here by yourself mutt. It's a little out of your league isn't it?"

"Who says he is by himself, Abattoir?" A woman dressed entirely in black emerged from the shadows. Harry could just about make out her features from underneath the black mesh veil she wore, and felt Draco straighten in recognition beside him.

"Mother?" he said, before shaking his head as if to clear it. "I mean, Your Highness, I-"

She reached forward and touched Draco's shoulder. "It is alright Draco," she said. "I understand I am not really your mother." She sidestepped him, and came and stood in front of Harry. "That being said," she addressed the butcher. "I will still not allow any harm to come to him or his friend, is that understood Mayor Abattoir?"