Seven Minutes | dramione

Prolouge

Hi not my story lol
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They say after you die, your brain stays alive for seven minutes. And in those seven minutes, you relive your entire life. You don't realize this; it feels like you are going through everything for the very first time.

However, everything is already laid out. You wrote your life into a book when you lived it.

In those seven minutes, you read the book.

The book is everything you are: your memories, your experiences, and the moments that truly allowed you to live.

When Draco Malfoy's seven minutes came, he saw all those things. He saw himself hanging out with Crabbe and Goyle in the common room. He saw himself playing Quidditch on the pitch.

But, most importantly, he saw her.

He saw the moment when he knocked her books out of her hands. He saw her scowl as he mocked her friends. He saw the night stars as they sat on top of Astronomy tower, talking. He saw her smile when he decided not to do it. He saw her hatred when she realized it was a lie.

In those seven minutes, Draco Malfoy relived his life.

His short life of seventeen years.

His seven minutes came a little too soon for his liking. However, he would not have wanted to go at any other time, or for any other reason.

For when Draco Malfoy died, he died protecting the girl he loved.

Who could ask for a nobler exit?

And then again, who would want one?

For to die in the service of love, well, that is not a death at all.

That is an honour.

It was late March, 1998.

Draco was at his childhood home, Malfoy Manor. The Dark Lord had made the Manor his headquarters. After last year, Draco was officially a member of the Death Eaters, and now spent his days locked in the manor, watching the prisoners and occasionally torturing them.

Every time he raised his wand against another human being, her words from that fated night always rang through his head.

"There's always a choice! You're just too much of a coward to accept that!"

He was a coward, he knew that now. Only a coward would tie a man up in a cellar and proceed to torture him. Only a coward would kill to save his own life. Only a coward would fight for a cause he despised with every bone in his body.

Only a coward would leave her.

The regret filled his every waking moment, and his nightmares as well. He thought of that night at every moment. He could have done it differently. He could have made the right choice. He could have held her in his arms instead of turning his back on the only girl who had ever loved him.

He could've had her.

Instead, he had been a coward.

So then, nine months later, he was inside Malfoy Manor instead of at her side when the snatchers brought them in.

Draco was downstairs, bringing food to the few prisoners they had. Draco refused to look any of them in the eye. These were people he had shopped from, people he had sat in a classroom with for years.

These were people, not the scum of the earth. In fact, Draco felt more like scum than the prisoners of Malfoy Manor would ever be.

He was just laying a plate of stale bread in front of Dean Thomas when his name was called from upstairs.