TitLe: New Orleans is Sinking
Archiving: just ask.
Rating: PG.
Date Written: September 4, 2005
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: So the last time I did something like this was on the first anniversary of 9/11. It's stupid but it's therapy, so. Yeah.
�New Orleans is gone,� Harry said listlessly.
Draco slid his hand through Harry�s. Harry gripped it as hard as he could.
�We saved the world,� said Harry. �For what?�
Draco looked at him in shock. �Harry, what are you talking about?�
�I mean�� Harry trailed off and looked around him helplessly. Draco picked up the remote and pointedly clicked off the BBC.
�No, leave it on,� said Harry morosely. �I want to know.�
�Know what?� said Draco sharply. �That people are dying and no one can do anything to stop it? That people die every day?�
�I want to know what I can do,� said Harry. �I want to know that I didn�t spend my whole life fighting Voldemort in order to watch people die by the thousands because of an inept government that I can�t fight. I want to know why any of it mattered.�
Draco stared at him for a long moment, and then sank lower into the couch. He still hadn�t let go of Harry�s hand.
�It matters,� he sighed, �because you cared. Because you did what you had to do. Because that�s all any of us can do.�
�Then why aren�t those people getting help?� Harry bit back. �Why are they dying out there, why isn�t anyone�� He made a strangled noise of frustration.
�I don�t know, Harry,� said Draco. He sounded suddenly very tired. �I don�t know, I�m not there, and it looks from here as if there�s only one person to blame��
�Right,� said Harry savagely, glaring at the television.
��But I don�t know.� Draco looked down and it took a few moments for Harry to see that he was studying his left forearm. �In a crisis, you either do what you have to do, or you don�t.�
�Why aren�t more people doing what they have to do?� said Harry in a choked voice. �Why aren�t they doing what they should do?�
Draco looked up, and their eyes met and held for a long moment.
�Because, Harry,� he said softly. �Not everyone is like you.�
Harry started to answer, started to respond that�s not good enough�because it wasn�t. They both knew it. But Draco was looking at him with sadness and admiration and respect, and Harry suddenly couldn�t talk through the lump in his throat.
�There is one thing, though,� Draco continued. Harry reached up and ran his fingers over Draco�s cheek, caressing smooth skin and the lines of fading scars from a war that now seemed ancient.
�What�s that,� he managed to get out.
Draco drew his arms around Harry, and whispered: �People change.�
Harry looked at Draco, and knew that it was true.