Unusual ending 2/??

[herumtreiber]

Title: Unusual ending - chapter 2
Chapter: one
Author:herumtreiber 
Genre: Time travel, romance, adventure
Disclaimer:  I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. Nor do I make any money from the writing of these stories.
Rating: R
Warnings: Sexual content
Epilogue compliant? No way!
Chapter length: 1398 words
Beta: None.
Summary: Old meets new. Harry walks all over Draco's heart, and when he realizes his mistakes he does the unforgivable so Draco takes him back. Time travel. During HBP, disregards Deathly Hallows - that means everyone's alive, except Sirius, but...

Table of contents

First chapter

December 2nd, 1998

Six months. It had been six months since Harry's graduation, and all he could remember were the endless days, the empty nights. For him, it had been an uneventful period, notwithstanding the fact that Voldemort had been vanquished three months after he left school. It had been rather anticlimactic.

Harry thought that the fact that he defeated Voldemort once and for all would garner him more admirers, but it wasn't so. The Daily Prophet, and the public, had been enthralled by the tale of the two dashing Slytherin spies, Snape and Malfoy.

Harry had to concede that it was more dangerous to face the Dark Lord repeatedly, always fearing your double dealings would be discovered and you would be tortured, than simply standing in the Light and facing Voldemort openly, as he did.

It seemed that once he had fulfilled his purpose in life, he was as good as discarded. His once best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, hardly ever visited him, let alone talk with him. They had gone on to work in the Ministry, solely because of the fact that they were the best friends of the Boy-Who-Lived. Outwardly they unconditionally supported Harry, while in reality they despised him because he was gay. He felt bitterly used by them, and thus came to understand Draco, and the reasons he had left him.

He missed playing Wizard Chess with Ron. He always lost, but he missed the company, the camaraderie, the closeness of his former best friend. He pondered the nature of chess, the endless variety that exists at the beginning of each game, where the possibilities of different outcomes are infinite. If only he could start his life anew like a new chess game, he would not commit the same stupid mistakes that had brought him here.

He had several one-night stands; physically they were somewhat satisfying, but emotionally they left him drained. He knew they were only after his fame as the Saviour, and wanted to boast of having bedded the Boy-Who-Lived. As a matter of fact, three of them had sold the details of their intimacy to the Daily Prophet and made the front page news. Even though the Wizarding World was leery of the fact that their Saviour was gay, they still wanted to know all the details about his lovers.

He had made the mistake of beginning a relationship with Justin Finch-Fletchley. He thought the loyal Hufflepuff would be the ideal man to bottom for, and he was dreadfully wrong. After a rough weekend with an inconsiderate lover, he woke on Monday to read in the newspaper about the bloke who took the virginity of the Boy-Who-Lived.

It was surely one of the most embarrassing moments of his life, and he could only imagine how Ron and Hermione, and worse, Draco, would take the news. His friends would abhor him more. Draco would read about the man who so easily got what he had unsuccessfully asked for, time and again.

On Wednesday there would be a reception at Snape Manor to honor the veterans of the war against Voldemort. Harry was determined not to go, knowing that Draco would surely be there. It was only when Ginny Weasley pleaded with him to be her escort, that he reluctantly agreed to go. He didn't look his best, he was thinner, haggard and had dark circles under his eyes. However he donned his best dress robes and Apparated to the Manor.

After reluctantly chatting with the Gryffindors, who regarded him with a strange mixture of awe and contempt, he finally settled down with a glass of Firewhisky and calmly watched the guests.

Immediately he noticed the mop of blonde hair, and saw Draco talking with Terry Boot. Watching Draco's features, he saw the love shining from his eyes, the care with which he handled Boot, his genuine feelings. It was plain to see that Boot also cared deeply for Draco. His brown eyes hardly ever left him, and held him with fondness. Their intimacy was plain to see when their hands would casually brush each other.

Harry saw that Draco had fallen in love with Boot. He knew that Draco guarded his feelings jealously, when he felt something for a person, those feelings would remain the same, unless they were grossly violated.

Harry also knew that his infantile ploys to lure Draco back by making him jealous would undoubtedly fail, because Draco was weary of Harry's schemes, with good reason. If only Harry could forget what it felt like to make love to Draco, to have him writhing under him, to have him look at him with those storm-tempered eyes of his. Most of all he missed cuddling with him, holding his hand. Those seemingly fleeting touches denoting his passion burned in his memory.

"Lonely much?"- asked a questioning voice. Harry turned and saw Ginny.

"Not really, just enjoying the night," answered Harry. Ginny had turned out to be his one true friend. Despite the fact that her brother now despised Harry, and her family had shied away from him as if he carried the Black Death, Ginny had stayed faithful, and had tried to cheer Harry up whenever she could.

"Stop looking at him like that, Harry, it is painfully obvious," said Ginny, twirling a strand of her red hair around her fingers. She was worried about Harry - all the Weasleys were, after Charlie and the Twins had chastised them thoroughly for their treatment of Harry.

But by then it was too late - Harry had grown distant and he refused to deal with them.

"Am I that blatant?" replied Harry as he stopped a floating tray and grabbed forcefully a shot of Firewhiskey.

"Only for those who truly know you" - Ginny grabbed a goblet filled with Butterbeer from the tray carried by a waiter oddly dressed in beige robes and a russet-colored wig.

"It's funny that you only know what good a thing is when you lose it." Harry took hurried gulps of the Firewhiskey, welcoming its burning his throat - maybe he could get drunk and forget for a while.

"Harry, you and he were in a relationship?"

"Yes, and if I hadn't been such a bloody prat, I would not have lost him."

"Can't you get him back?"

"If I could, I would, but now it's plain to see that he's fallen for Boot, and I know that his feelings run true, and once given, they are not taken back lightly," replied Harry. He lifted his glasses with the hand that was not holding the drink.

"Well, then move on and find another person" - Ginny replied, wishing she could do more for the gallant boy that had saved her life in the Chamber of Secrets. She wished she could cast something more powerful than Bat-Bogey hexes on the louts who'd ruined Harry's life.

"I can't find another one like him, he completed me fully. All the others I end up meeting are like shadows compared to him. I wish I could just replace him, but I can't." Harry glanced longingly at Draco talking with Boot and then turned to look at Ginny. Then he lifted his glass and downed the rest of the drink.

"I reckon he's forgotten me, and that hurts a lot. But then, what I gave him was cheap and easy to replace," finished Harry, grabbing another shot of Firewhiskey, this time from a passing waiter.

He was getting a bit dipsy, but he didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered because he was without his Draco.

 

After the party, he returned to the flat he'd rented in London, and got ready for bed. The idea that had been haunting him entered his mind again. 'I've done what I was meant to do, and I feel so empty. All that for nothing. No one showed me real love, except Draco, and I turned him away. It really isn't worth it to go on.'

The next day he got a gun, and got ready to use it on himself.

That Thursday night, after changing into his pyjamas, he went to the laptop that Charlie'd given him as a graduation present and he typed an email, saying farewell to Ginny. When he was ready and was about to press the enter key, he heard a voice: "I would not do that just yet."

Chapter three