A Beautiful Beginning

~Chapter One~

The chapters written by me will have tildes before and after the chapter title and chapters written by Clarissa will have asterisks.
Tilde ~
Asterisk *
Asterisks will also signal a P.O.V. switch (if there happens to be one).

***
  Voldemort's dead.
The war is over.
  The castle is in ruins.
People are embracing those left.
Clean up has begun.
Grief sinks in, consuming those remaining.
Lots of grief.
  Almost too much grief.

  Harry Potter knows everything about grief. He's been internally grieving almost his whole life about the people he's lost, his inner turmoils, and his days from the cupboard under the stairs. Unfortunately, one can only handle so much grief before they give in to the darkness, the bad habits, the feeling of uselessness.

***

   Draco Malfoy also knows a few things about grief.  It leads people away from the light and makes them think the unthinkable; such as ending ones' life.  Grief has also managed to drive him to the astronomy tower that particular night.  Now you have to consider that Draco has thought about -even tried to-take his life away on multiple occasions, but Blaise and Pansy, and even sometimes the tiny little voice in his head telling him all the positive things he had to live for always stopped him from finally welcoming death.  So Draco felt no pity for himself, or anyone he'd be leaving behind in that matter, when he looked down from his spot on the astronomy tower for quite possibly his last, while the cool evening breeze brushed across his tired face. He mustered up any good memory he could find within the depths of his complex and scrabbled mind to give him the feeling of total peace, and to help encourage himself that all those people in his memories would be much better off without him in a world too pure for himself.  Just as Draco was about to step off the ledge that would ultimately lead to his end, an anxious, but determined voice sounded from his left that made him break out of his tranquility.
   "Draco, please don't go."

   ***

   Harry didn't know what to do with himself anymore.  Hermione was off comforting the Weasley family in the Great Hall, Merlin only knew where Neville, Dean, and Seamus had gone to, and most everyone else were either beginning to clean up the huge mess that came as a result of the war, or consoling people who'd lost family and friends in the midst of last nights chaos.

     For a Gryffindor, Harry didn't feel very brave at the moment. He couldn't go back to the Great Hall and deal with all the stares he'd receive, but finding another dead body, someone who'd most likely given their life for him, didn't sound like a good option either.  So he opted for the only one that didn't make him want to gouge his eyes out; the astronomy tower. It was very peaceful to just sit up there and look into the starry sky when his brain felt so overwhelmed he couldn't take anymore. 

     He however did not expect, to say the least, to find a very content looking Draco Malfoy. Harry knew that look Draco had on his face considering Ron had told him often, from about fourth year up, that Harry himself had possessed that face; the face of someone who just wants to forget every bad thing that's happened and end it all. So before Harry's brain could catch up to his mouth, he tentatively heard himself utter four words that he hoped could stall long enough so he could get them out of this predicament.
   "Draco, please don't go."
***