More JKR quoting in this one so, for the record, I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to Ms. Rowling. Anything you recognize belongs to her. And aveugle is French for 'blind'. Oh, an tell me your fav moment in this fic and why! I'm deadly curious.

NOTE: I started a SEQUEL entitled These Dark Days Through Someone Else's Eyes, if you liked this I highly suggest reading it!

-Kit Kat

" 'Cause even the stars, they burn."

"Some even fall to earth."

"We've got a lot to learn."

"God knows we're worth it."

"No, I won't give up."

~Jason Mraz, I Won't Give Up

He was so close. He could taste success. A chirp broke his concentration and Draco looked down at the small black bird in his hands. It cocked it's head at him, as if asking him a question. Draco set it at the bottom of the cabinet. It fluttered and appeared as if it was about to take flight. He quickly shut the door.

"Harmonium Nictere Passus."

Sound was different this time. More like the wind hissing or ice skates on a frozen pond. Then quiet. He opened the door. The bird was gone.

"Harmonium Nictere Passus."

Draco feared he had failed. He didn't hear any sound from inside the cabinet. He opened it to see if Midnight, too, he had killed. He slowly opened the door. Something fluttered.

Suddenly, a something shot out of the cabinet like a small black bullet. It soared overhead and dove in-between the eaves. Freedom! Midnight seemed to say with each little cheep of glee. Draco felt like flying right along with it.

It works…he thought, barely containing his excitement…I'm going to live. Father will be free, too. I will be honored above all others. Draco threw back his head and laughed.

"Yes!" he shouted, hopeful no on could hear him, "YES! It works!" He jumped up and down and shouted obscenities. "

"It works! I've done it!"

Just then, the door to the Room opened. Draco turned around suddenly, hoping it was Astoria.

"Who's there?" asked a high, female voice, who apparently had not seen Draco over where he was standing. It wasn't, disappointingly, Astoria but Professor Trelawney. Draco acted on instinct, pointing his wand and thought, Aveuglarmus.

The Proffesor was thrown backwards out the door, blind, the sherry bottles she had been carrying clattering ahead of and next to her. Draco knew from her reaction that she didn't know who it was that had done it, but he her yelling angrily from the other side of the door,

"How…dare…you…aaagh!" Draco heard another crash and assume she had tried picking up her bottles and accidentally dropped one.

That was a little to close for comfort. He had nearly exposed his entire plan.

Later that day he was sitting in Transfiguration (his last class of the day), pretending to pay attention to the lecture. In reality he was writing a letter.

Auntie Bella,

I am pleased to inform you that my project is finished. I told you I wouldn't fail. Perhaps we could throw a party on account of my killer success? Tell mum to have some of my friends over. I wouldn't be surprised if the Headmaster dropped dead of surprise. Then again, I am his chosen Prefect.

Sincerely,

Draco

There, now anyone who decided to check the mail for 'security reasons' would only see a letter from an exited student on account of improved grades. When actually in was a another step in his mission. After all, he was his chosen assassin.

"Mister Malfoy?" McGonagall asked. Draco's head snapped up. The Professor held him in one of her iron glares.

"Yes, Professor," he answered. He sounded cocky enough, but the flush in his checks gave away any lack of bravado.

"Are you paying attention, Malfoy?"

"Of course?"

"Then may I see your notes? Ah, it seems you have them right there." She gestured at the letter.

"These are not notes, Professor," he replied, humiliated.

"Oh, really?" Draco figured he might as well come clean. Only because he couldn't think up an adequate lie.

"It's a letter Professor, to my Aunt." Draco couldn't help but let the anger seep through his words. So she thought she could embarrass him in front of the entire class. He could see Crabbe snickering across the room. Some Ravenclaw idiot was trying so hard to muffle his laughs he looked like he was about to fall out of his chair. He knew better than to give cheek to McGonagall. But could he really dig his hole any deeper?

"Per chance you'd care to read it to the class, Malfoy?"

"No, Proffesor." The Ravenclaw made a face.

"You're right, Malfoy, that won't be necessary. You have detention with me tomorrow night, eight o'clock. Would you care to join him Mister Boot?" The Ravenclaw (who had turned pink with unreleased laughter) now looked rather shocked.

"No, Ma'am."

"Then I suggest you keep your unneeded outbursts to yourself." Now it was it was Draco's turn to sicker.

"Now back to what I was saying about mammalian to reptilian transfiguration…"

Draco didn't sleep at all that night.

He thought maybe he could catch a few hours before midnight. Before he let them in. But every time he drifted off he was tortured by nightmares filled with guilt. He was still in contact with Rosmerta. She had reported that Dumbledore had left that night, but he would be back. Draco simply lie on top of his bed, fully dressed. All of his dorm mates had gone to bed before him. None of them noticed when the small silver clock by Draco's bed read twelve a.m.

None of them noticed when he quietly slipped out of bed and put his polished black shoes, when he left them room silent as the stirring wind. No one saw him leave the common room. Filch didn't catch him walking cautiously seven floors up. Doubtless, Ms. Norris heard his hurried footsteps up the ancient stone stairs. Why she didn't alert her master he didn't know. The Room was eerie without even a bird's call to disturb the restless peace. They should be here any second now. If only they knew every second was precious. Every second not with someone you loved was a second wasted.

Then there was a sound. It was expected, yet it broke the ghostly stillness in such a way that Draco nearly jumped. It was like a ice shattering or nails on a chalkboard. Not once, but nearly a dozen times. Draco's pale hand reached out to open it. I didn't matter. The door seemed to open on it's own. Black unearthly smoke poured out and filled the room. The smog materialized into beings in black hoods. People he knew. Then hand on the door handle on the inside had long fingers white as snow with nails painted a red so deep it was nearly black. At first he thought the hand didn't belong to anyone. That it was some sort of wrong magical apparition. But soon the rest of the attached body formed. It was Auntie Bella.

"Well done, Draco!" she cackled in a high, girlish voice, "Now, hurry!" Draco darted from the room as quickly as he could. The Death Eaters followed after him.

It turned out Ms. Norris really had tattled on him. The Filch stood, holding his grimy lantern in the dimness. He before grumpy face went slack with shock.

"Death Eaters!" he hollered, "Death Eaters in the castle!" Ms. Norris ran howling down the corridors, awaking students and teachers alike. The old caretaker ran for his life, screaming the same thing all the way along.

I was if hell had broken loose. Teachers broke out of their rooms in their night robes. Student ran around in panic. Some people starting screaming. The light from the dueling was blinding. Draco felt trapped in the ruckus.

"Master Malfoy," a voice behind him said calmly. It was Yaxley.

"Dolohov and I checked the Head's office. Nothin' there. " Draco had anticipated this.

"Set the Dark Mark above the highest point in the castle. That would be the Astronomy Tower. He'll think someone's died and come running." Yaxley smirked.

"But don't we have to kill someone first? Should I?" he gestured over toward a group of students.

"That's not necessary."

"I'll accompany you then. I doubt you know how." Yaxley smiled down at him condescendingly.

"I do, actually," Draco drawled. Even if I never did want to know, he thought. His father had told him, just before they hauled him off to prison. The event still haunted Draco. He remember it like it had happen just this morning. The thought pierced his heart like a dagger.

Draco sat stone-face on a wooden bench in the courtroom. The room was circular, with benches all around the sides except for the head where the Minister of Magic himself sat, the jury on either side. And in the middle of the cold, badly lit room was his father. Tied to a wooden chair. His hands and feet were shackled with cold iron cuffs.

"I told you, I'm not a Death Eater!" his father's pleading brown eyes searched Scrimgeour's blacks once. They appeared to beg each individual jury member. They all sat in quiet distaste.

"Those in favor of conviction?" Slowly, hands were raised. So many it was hard to find someone who didn't have theirs in the air, no matter how high.

"Those in favor of clearing the accused of all charges?" Four hands out of the maybe fifty went into the air. People father had paid off or blackmailed.

"No!" Lucius screeched, "I'll do anything! Money is no object! Ask for, it'll be yours! Don't…please…my family! Think of my boy!" Lucius gestured wildly over to Draco. It would have been endearing if Lucius actually cared about his son, and not his own welfare.

"Think of how many families you've torn apart!" yelled a young woman in the audience, "how many sons you've separated from their fathers! You deserve where you're going!" Angry shouts for justice rippled though the crowd. Narcissa sobbed into her silk handkerchief. Draco was like a statue. Emotionless, unable to take it all in. His father was being thrown into Azkaban. Their family was being publicly humiliated. His mother would never recover.

"Silence in the court!" bellowed Scrimgeour, "Take him away!" A pair of Aurors swept toward the elder Malfoy.

"Wait!" shrieked his wife, "let Draco say goodbye!" Unable to face goodbyes herself, and yet hoping to gain any leftover pity, she shoved Draco into a awkward situation.

Lucius gripped Draco's face with cuffed hands.

"Morsmordre," Lucius barely whispered into his son's ear, "remember it."

Then they took him away.

Draco remembered standing in front of dozens of flashing cameras. Reporters each trying to get a question in.

"Do you think you father was wrongly accused?"

"What did he tell you before they dragged him away?"

"Are you still in shock?"

Draco didn't answer any of them. He only stared into the glaring camera light with a an angry scowl dominating his features. The Daily Prophet headline the newt morning?

Lucius Malfoy Arrested as Death Eater-Malfoy Family Still Recovering.

Shame. There was no other reword to describe his feelings then. Shame.

That's why bringing back the family honor was so important, why making his father proud was imperative.

But what hurt Draco more than anything was his father's last words. Not pride. Not forgiveness. Certainly not love. Not a simple 'goodbye'. He didn't ask Draco to take care of Narcissa or to do keep moving forward. It was just another order. An order of a madman.

His father deserved why he got and Draco knew it. And yet he was following right in dear daddy's footsteps. Why? Because he had to battle the shame his father had brought. He was fighting fire with fire.

Snapping out of his little flashback, Draco led Yaxley up the Astronomy Tower's stairs.

Pointing his wand at the sky, hands shaking, Draco shouted with a cracked voice.

"Morsmordre!"

Wisps of green light spewed from his wand and collected in the sky to form the Mark.

"Well, it looks like you do know," Yaxley said, "good thing, too, because I don't."

Was that jealously he saw in the man's face? Because he held information-power-that this grown man didn't.

"I'm going to wait for him here. You go back and get the others." Yaxley nodded, obviously disturbed at the thought of taking orders from a sixteen-year-old. But he left all the same. As soon as he was sure Yaxley had gone, Draco burst out the door and ran downstairs. People were dueling left and right. Draco searched hallways, looking for her. Looking for Astoria. He stepped over what he thought was a dead body. He ran into her on the second floor, being cornered by no less than Fenrir Greyback. She seems to be putting up a fight, but he blocked all her jinxes. Soon he got so close the he knocked the wand out of her hand, looked as if he was ready to lunge…

"Oi! You!" Draco yelled. Fenrir spun around, a hungry look in his yellow eyes.

"She's on our side!" Fenrir backed away, still eyeing Astoria hungrily, who had picked up her wand and now had it pointed at the werewolf's forehead.

"I wasn't aware you were invited to the party?" Draco inquired coldly.

"I decided to tag along," said Greyback, and he chuckled, showing his gruesome rotting teeth. And with that he bounded away.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked her.

"Fine," she snapped, "I didn't need you help. And what did you mean 'on our side'? I'm most certainly not on your side! I suppose this is all your doing?" Draco ignored the last question.

"You didn't want me to save you? You wanted to be torn apart by that monster?" Astoria shrugged unconvincingly.

"As long as you love me," he said, "you're on my side."

"I never said I loved you." Draco didn't know what to say. He looked at her in hurt soundlessness.

"But I do," she said and smiled, "I love you. I can't believe myself. I hate myself for it. I go to sleep every night trying to make myself forget that I do, but I do. I love you." He gave her a sad smile.

"I'm might not make it tonight, Astoria. This morning was probably my last sunrise. Tonight is probably the last time I'll ever look into your eyes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I have to do this. I'm sorry have to leave you behind. I know…I know I promised….I promised I'd never leave you…but…I just…Astoria? Just never forget me. Live your own life. Stop trying to make yourself forget. Don't love someonne your only going to lose." For the first time in his life, Draco was being entirely selfless.

"No!" she begged, "You promised! You promised you'd never leave! We'll run away! I'll…I'll keep you safe." He laughed softly.

"Don't you get it, love? I'm going to die no matter what happens. I have no future. I only have you." He saw how hard she was fighting back tears. Refusing to cry. Being strong…for him. He didn't want her to have to be strong for him.

"I love you, Astoria," he said loudly, wanting to be heard over the madness surrounding them. He didn't care who knew anymore. He tilted her chin up towards his pale face and looked into her chocolate eyes, "I love you. I'd die for you, and for the last year, I've lived for you." And then he kissed her. He had never been happier. He was lost in a world where only they existed. Her lips were soft like pink roses or marble. But he had to pull away back to reality.

She looked into his eyes one more time. Begging him not to go. He turned away and walked back to the Astronomy Tower. He didn't want to look back. He had been taught to never look back. But he did. She was standing there with the world falling down around her, just looking at him him, watching him leave. Her red hair was draped around her shoulders. She was even paler in to moonlight. She mouthed the words 'I Love You'. He turned around again and kept walking. Then he broke into a run. He ran all the way to the Tower. He stood at the door. He could hear voices. He burst through the door. Albus Dumbledore stood alone near the railing. He did not look upset or afraid.

"Good Evening, Draco." Draco glanced at the ground. Two brooms lay there.

"Who else is here?"

"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"

"No, I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight." Draco smiled at his own accomplishment. Now maybe the old man had reason to fear.

"Well, well," the Headmaster said, not afraid at all. Amused even, "very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?" Draco was hyperventilating now, he was so exited. His white-blond hair stuck to his sweating forehead.

"Yeah, right under your nose and you never realized!"

"Ingenious. Yet…forgive me…where are they now? You seem unsupported."

They met some of you 're having a fight down below. They won'y be long…I came on ahead. I…I've got a job to do."

"Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy." The elder man didn't seem even upset. Was he mad? Did he know he was about to die? Draco shook as he slowly pointed his wand at Dumbledore's head. He couldn't, he had to, but he couldn't.

"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."

"How do you know?" Draco snapped at him, "You don't know what I'm capable of! You don't know what I've done!" But Draco did, and the guilt was killing him piece by piece.

"Oh yes, I do," the Headmaster said as Draco continued to point his wand at him, "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts…So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has really been in it."

"It has been in it," he insisted, thinking of what Astoria would say. How she would say he lost his heart along the way, "I've been working on it all year. And tonight-" He didn't finished his argument. He didn't tell Professor Dumbledore how he had cried, bleed, and deprived himself of sleep all this year. Because he head a strangled yell very close below stairs. It was female. He frantically wondered if it was Astoria.

"Sounds like someone's putting up a fight." Draco lowered his wand at the man's heart. He argued back and forth with him. Desperately trying to sound confident, as if he knew what he was doing. He should kill him already. But he fell into the age-old trap that all villains do. The unexplainable need to explain devious plans. So he told old Dumbledore show he had fixed the cabinet and unmercifully cursed Rosmerta. But he couldn't. The old man seemed weak, like he was struggling to stand.

"…I can help you Draco." His wand was shaking badly now. Draco face's was so pale it was nearly transparent.

"No you can't. No one can. Don't you understand? I've got to kill you. Or he's going to kill me!"

"Come over to the right side Draco…" Dumbledore offered. He said he would protect Draco, hide him. His mother, too. Lies, probably. They would most likely just give him a cell next to Lucius. But still, it was tempting. To be safe. For Astoria to be safe. Not that he knew about Astoria.

He didn't have time to refuse. Because then then the Death Eaters broke in.

"Well done, Draco, well done!" laughed Aunt Bella. She clapped like a little schoolgirl.

"Evening, Bellatrix." Dumbledore said softly.

"Crazy old man," Aunt Bella spat. Then she turned to Draco, her black robes twirling.

"Such a good boy! Mummy will be so proud! Now…do it!" He shook in fear. He knew the spell. Two words would be all it took. Two words and the willpower.

"Do it Draco!" she hissed. Just then, Snape entered.

"Severus…" Dumbledore pleaded.

"Draco!" Aunt Bella screamed.

"Severus…please…" Dumbledore said.

"Avada Kedavra."

It wasn't Draco's spell that sent Dumbledore over the railing. It was Snape's.

Snape, who had wanted all the glory. Snape, the only man the Dark Lord had trusted more than Lucius. He had killed Dumbledore.

But Draco didn't care. I'm going to live. I'm going to be able to wake up each morning knowing that my life doesn't depend on another man's death.

"Out of here…quickly," ordered Snape. Before he knew it Draco had been seized by the scruff of his neck and hauled out of the room. He followed Snape downstairs and watched the war raging around them. Spells were flying and people were screaming. Little kids in pajamas hid under gigantic suits of armor for protection. Older student were trying to help defend the school. Draco wanted to find Astoria, to make sue she was alright. But he faithfully followed Snape through the the twisted stone hallways. Then ran across the grounds towards the forest. Some other Death Eaters had set Hagrid's hut ablaze, and Draco felt no remorse.

"Stupefy!" shouted a voice behind them. It was Potter, his eyes filled with hate.

"Run, Draco!" Snape panted. Draco did as he was told. He was not concerned about Snape. He could take care of himself. Astoria was the only thing that mattered now. Draco ran for the dense forest.

The Forbidden Forest was dark and Halloween-ish at night. Owls hooted in the old creepy trees and he could here the battle raging in the distance. Draco ran into the Death Eaters who had ignited the Hut. Aunt Bella was among them.

"I killed Sirius Black!" she chanted over and over. She was taunting a person not present. Draco traveled with the group until they reached the edge of the forest nearest the lake. They were all mostly intent and solemn with an exception. Draco deserted them at the edge and made a run for the castle. He could smell smoke and the greenish light from the Dark Mark illuminated the lake.

"Astoria!" he shouted. She was over by a tree near the lake's shore. She was watching the fight from a distance.

"Your alive!" she exclaimed. She threw her arms around him and sobbed.

"It's…it's okay. I won't leave you again," he told her.

"I don't believe you."

"I know. I know I don't deserve to be believed," he admitted.

"Daph's in there. She…she told me…to run. She could be dead for all I know."

"She's safe. I saw her hiding with a group of Prefects in the south hall. They won't find her there." She looked up at him.

"Did you do it?"

"No," he said calmly, "I didn't kill him. But he's dead."

"He…he won't kill you?"

"Probably not. I care more about your safety, though." He took her hand, "I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. And if it comes down to it, I will die for you. But for right now you know the best thing for you safety is to stay as far way from me as possible."

"No!"

"I'll write Astoria. Every day. I'll try to stay alive, for you. But I'm afraid I've just started a full-scale war that goes beyond you and me."

"But…"

"You'll be okay. Look," he held up the necklace around her neck. The one he had given her for Christmas, "as long as this emerald doesn't turn black-I"m alive and still love you."

"Really?"

He nodded and took her hand in his, "I was broken. I will always be broken. But you didn't try to fix me. You healed me. You gave me something worth living for." Then they stood there and watched the world burn.

"I guess you really did it this time."

"Left yourself in your warpath."

"Lost your balance on a tightrope."

Lost your mind trying to get it back…"

"Who you are is not where you've been."

"You're still an innocent."

~ Taylor Swift, Innocent

Fin