SEE THE SUN
By Nenya Entwhistle

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing them for a brief turn in words.

Warning: This is slash and this has not been beta'd. Read at your own risk and do not bother sending me flames about the homo-love-lines. I'll just assume you can't read.

And you probably don't want to hear tomorrow's another day
But I promise you you'll see the sun again
And you're asking me why pain's the only way to happiness
And I promise you you'll see the sun again
"See the Sun" (Dido)

One
Sunrise

People didn't understand our relationship. It had been a decade and still whenever we walked in Hogsmeade hand in hand, people still stopped and stared at us. I didn't understand what they didn't understand. But I could no longer bring myself to care what they thought or what the Daily Prophet gossiped about. It no longer matter. What mattered instead was the secret you had kept hiding from me until yesterday night.

I'm sick.

I didn't want to believe it. But I had no choice in the matter. Dumbledore and Snape had both confirmed it. You were sick as I was healthy. I wanted to deny the undeniable, even if it did not change the fact that you were very sick. If I kept saying it enough, maybe it would come true.

"I'm not going to die on you," you promised. "Poppy said that there's a good chance that I won't even have much downtime." You smiled that devastating smile that always brought me into a puddle of unresisting goo. "Stop being such a worrywart."

It was hard to take you serious though. I knew nothing about the disease that Pomfrey had diagnosed in you a year or so ago. All I knew was it was some sort of muggle sickness that affected the body in such a way that it made the body's defense fight against its own self.

I needed to know more about it and that was why I was going to Hermione for help. She was one of the few people that I trusted not to become an emotional disaster before being able to help me. But I knew that should I break this news to her, she was going to get a little emotional on me. This was going to crack down even her logical and no nonsense attitude.

When you were going to tell Weasley, Merlin I pitied you.

"Draco," she greeted me with a questioning look, "whatever brings you here?"

I made a point of never coming to the Granger-Weasley household unless it was something I couldn't avoid, like holidays dinners and celebrations of the sort that you insisted that I attend. I was here now, on my free will, and Hermione being the smart and clever witch that she was--- she knew that something was up.

"Good afternoon, Hermione," I remarked pleasantly enough. I liked her well enough for being a notorious Gryffindor. She, I believed had some Slytherin tendencies though her real redeeming qualities was her overwhelming Ravenclaw traits that sometimes inundated her Gryffindor ones. "May I come in and talk to you?"

"Why of course," she responded, moving aside so that I might enter. "Would you like some tea or coffee?"

I politely declined her hospitality. I didn't want to get trapped into a social visit when this wasn't one even remotely of the sort. What I wanted was to ask my questions and get the information and run back to Hogwarts. Hopefully by the time I could get away, you would be done teaching your Defense against the Dark Arts class and I could snog you silly.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked after we had both seated ourselves down on her couch.

"It's more like I need to ask you some questions that I hope you can answer," I began blandly. "Figuring how much you tend to know, I assume you'd know this."

She smiled. Still there was nothing that pleased Hermione than being able to use her book knowledge for something. It didn't matter if it was for her own benefit or not, she just liked using it. "If I can answer it, then I will," she promised.

"I was hoping you'd say that," I responded. Here went everything. I knew to ask this, would bring questions on why I wanted to know this kind of information. I was prepared to tell her because I had no choice. Of course, I would have to swear her to secrecy. You didn't want anyone to know about it just yet. "What do you know about leukemia?"

She blinked. She looked surprised. It was hard to really surprise Hermione. She had taken in the vigilance lessons that were taught to aurors very seriously, even if she hadn't gone on to become a field auror. Instead, she was a talented mission's specialist who coordinated efforts. It was an impressive job for one as young as she was. "Why do you want to know?" she phrased her question carefully.

There was no avoiding the issue, not even for a minute. Here went nothing. "Harry's sick."

"Harry's sick?"

Good Merlin, she was struck dumb if she was repeating words that were coming from my mouth. I almost wished you were here to see it. You would have joked about it later in our rooms about it, I'm sure. But you weren't here and it was a good thing you weren't. You'd probably yell at me for not having the sense I was born with for going behind your back like this and telling her.

"Yes."

"With leukemia?"

"Yes."

She bit her lip. Her forehead wrinkled. She was distressed. She was handling it a good deal better than I had when you told me. I had stared at you stunned before screaming my head off. You were a rite of patience as you let me get over my fit. I ought to have been comforting you, but you were the one comforting me. Sometimes, I almost understood why everyone thought it was weird you were with me but then I remembered that love is not sane. For it wasn't.

"I don't know much about leukemia," she finally stated after her expression had undergone a bizarre wrinkling before settling back down into pinched look. "What I do know is that it's a type of cancer that affects the bone marrow and that it usually takes a bone marrow transplant for someone afflicted with it to get better. Bone marrow match ups are very hard to get."

I nodded dumbly. That was already more information than I had gotten out of you. You told me that you didn't want to talk about it. You wanted instead to talk about my day in the Charms classroom or about your day with your students. You'd even prefer commenting about how Snape seemed to be getting mellower in his old age. You'd talk about anything but your illness. It was frustrating at best.

"If you want, I can research it and print out some stuff from my computer and owl it to you," she offered, her eyes reflecting her concern for me and you.

If she wanted to owl me, I definitely didn't want you to see it and you had a notoriously bad habit of going through my mail. "If you send me anything, can you make sure that your owl goes only to my office?"

She looked at me perceptively. "Harry doesn't know that you're here, does he?" She didn't miss anything.

"No, he doesn't."

"Let me guess," she murmured, "he doesn't want me or Ron to know until matters get serious, am I right?"

What could I do but nod? That was the exact reason you'd given me.

She sighed tiredly. "Promise to keep me posted?"

"I swear," I vowed.

She smiled sadly. "If you need anyone to talk to, you can come here." I stared at her hard. "I usually come back at lunch to make myself something to eat and Ron always eats with his squad so he's never here."

She was intentionally inviting me at a time I would find irresistible, when her husband wasn't there. "Maybe," I whispered, for that was all I could say. I didn't plan on taking her up on the offer, but there was no way of saying that it'd never happen. It might, especially if things got desperate and I needed someone to hear me out so I wouldn't shout at you. "I might do that." I smiled somewhat at her. "I should be going. I've got some papers to grade."

I turned to leave and I heard her say, "Draco?"

My head turned around. "Yes?"

"Take care of him."

"I will," I promised.

I heard her say, "I know," before I apparated out of the room.

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The office was purposely disorganized when you walked in. I didn't want you to think for even a minute that I hadn't been anywhere but in my office. Instead, I sat behind a pile of papers that made it looked like that was what I had been doing for the past few hours. What you didn't know wouldn't hurt you.

"Hey love," you said as you greeted me with a trademark kiss to the corner of my mouth. "Almost done with your papers for this evening?"

I wasn't done, but you didn't need to know that. I gave you that smile that you always said made your knees weak and leaned down to kiss you solidly on the lips. "Yeah, are you?"

"I am."

"What would you like to do after dinner tonight?" I asked softly, trying to makeup for the way that I had yelled at you yesterday. "See Weasley and Hermione?"

You sighed, but there was a note of interest in your eyes. "I still don't understand," you muttered, "why you can't call Ron by his first name when you do so for Hermione."

"Hermione has earned my respect," and my loyalty,"which is something that Weasley hasn't done."

"I don't think I want to see them tonight," you remarked. I raised an eyebrow at that. You usually didn't pass up a chance to see your favorite duo, especially since I was notoriously reluctant about visiting them with you. You must have not wanted to face them, especially when you were going to have to hide your secret from them. "Why don't we spend tonight together?"

I would like nothing better than to have you just to myself. To imagine what I could do to you while you let me have my wicked way with you was a delicious thought. I was brought from my reverie of how I'd make you beg me and scream my name when I heard you chuckling. When the dreams cleared from my eyes, I saw clearly that you knew what I was thinking.

What you said a second later only confirmed it: "Later."

It was a promise I was going to make you keep. "Later," I agreed.

You reached out and grabbed my hand. Our fingers threaded together. "I'm looking forward to tonight," you whispered into my ear. Whoever said pictures were more erotic than words didn't know what you could do with your tongue. "Are you going to ravish me or am I going to ravish you?"

A tingle went down my back; you were a very bad boy Harry.

"Hmmm?"

I growled.

You laughed musically. "Is that your answer, my dragon?"

I pinned you with a look of wanting. "I could give my answer now if you wanted."

"Dinner first," you admonished, "and then it will be understandable if we don't leave our quarters for a long, long time."

With an answer like that, how could I not let you drag me to the Great Hall? Which you did and I let you. After all, if I planned to make the most of tonight like I did nearly every night, I needed the food sustenance to do so. Food was an ally, and you--- you were dessert.

"Let's go," I snapped. The faster we ate, the faster we could scream and moan and make all those passionate sounds that always accompanied a good bout of love-making. You smiled, understandingly. I smirked, anticipating already what was to come.

-

Author's Note: I have never written a story like this before. If you are worried about Harry dying like in my other drastically different story, The Stockholm Syndrome, don't worry. Harry will stay alive in this one. This will be a comprehensive and short novella (probably the same length as the previous) about an enduring love that lasts through major or minor difficulties. Please tell me what you think of what has happened so far, feedback is always inspirational. And if it encourages me, I might just start the next chapter.

TBC soon.