I just left Bobby's house
The service was today.
Got me thinkin' about how fragile life is,
As I drove away.
You know Amy was his only love,
In a moment she was gone, long gone
It could have been me or you.
Oh, baby, there's no time to lose.

I opened the front door and turned to give Ron another hug. I wish that I could have told him that everything would be alright, but it wouldn’t. That just wasn’t how life was. So I settled for what I hoped was a cheerful smile, but it ended up being a lopsided frown. “I’ll call-in later this week,” I said, trying to give him something to look forward to. God knows he didn’t without Hermione. Clapping him on the back half-heartedly, I turned to leave.

I walked down the darkened path that led to the sidewalk, thinking about all that had happened. So many things in life could go so differently if you did or did not do one small thing. If Hermione had only waited for the rest of us to arrive she still might be alive. Or what if Draco or I had been the first to arrive and jumped into the battle without thinking before anyone else had gotten there. I turned and looked back at Ron, who was still standing in the doorway watching my departure. I wondered what he was thinking before giving him a final wave and disapparting.

I reappeared in the Apparation Centre in Diagon Alley. Nodding to the guard, I walked past and began my way down the crowded, cobbled streets. I flinched whenever I saw people look my way and bow deeply while addressing me formally as though I was royalty. I didn’t deserve that; I hadn’t done everything I should have and that included keeping the people closest to me away from danger and getting killed. I stopped in the middle of the street, people parted around me and continued going about their business.

A tear ran down my cheek as I again thought of what I would do if it had been Draco who had been killed. I shook my head and rubbed the back of my hand against my cheek, wiping away the tear before I began to walk once more. Ron had seemed so strong while we watched them lower her into the ground. I knew that I wouldn’t have been able to stand so still and silent like he had.

So I'm gonna bring home a dozen roses,
And pour us a glass of wine.
And I'm gonna put on a little music,
And turn down the lights.
And I'm gonna wrap my arms around you,
And rock you all through the night,
And I'm gonna love you,
Like it's the last day of my life.

It took me only a few minutes to reach the entrance of Mrs. Poppy’s Floristry. I took a deep breath before walking in; the last I had been here was a few weeks ago when I picked up some flowers that Ron had ordered for Hermione. The shop was extravagantly decorated with flowers of every kind, both Muggle and magical. Behind a wooden table that held several pots of Venus Flytraps stood a small, plump woman who always reminded me of Mrs. Weasley. At the sound of a small chime as the door closed behind me, she looked up and smiled, “Welcome back, Mr. Potter. What can I do for you today?”

I forced a grin onto my face, “Just a dozen red roses, Mrs. Poppy.”

She grinned back with a knowing smile as she moved around the table and went to the refrigerated area where the roses were kept. She began to clip away at some stems, “Not trying to flatter the young Mr. Malfoy, are we? It’d be a nice relief from all of the stress that you’ve surely been having.”

I couldn’t help but give her a smile. No matter how few and far between my visits were, she always seemed to know exactly what has happening in my life whether it had been in the Prophet, Witch Weekly, or some other tabloid or not. I had tried to question her about it before, but she wouldn’t say.

“It’ll all work out, Mr. Potter, you’ll see,” she said as she walked over to me with the roses in hand. Her grin faded into a sympathetic smile as she handed me the bundle and I gave her a small handful of silver coins in return.

“I’m not sure this time. You never know what’ll happen tomorrow,” I said, looking down at her, my smile completely gone, “Thanks for the roses. They’re beautiful as always.”

I walked back out onto the street a few moments later and began making my way back to the Apparation Centre. I noticed that I was attracting more looks than ever now. These people never gave me a break; tomorrow I could expect an article in Witch Weekly and about half a dozen photos. Frowning, I hurried to the Centre and disapparated once more.

This time I appeared in front of the flat that I shared with Draco. Based on the small sliver of light underneath the door, he was still up. My free hand moved to the door knob, but I froze centimeters from it, a small smile once more moving onto my face. Instead of turning the knob, I lifted my hand and rapped on the door with my knuckles. Behind the door I could hear Draco moving about and coming to the door. He opened it partially to look out. “Harry? Why didn’t you ju-” His mouth dropped a bit when he saw the flowers. His grey eyes went from the roses to mine, his mouth slowly closing as he opened the door the rest of the way and reaching out to take the roses. “May I ask of the occasion?”

“There isn’t one really. Can I not get flowers and spend the night with the man I love with no questions asked?” I asked simply, stepping forward and giving him peck on the cheek. Moving past him, I could just imagine his face relaxing and the smile that only I saw creep onto his lips. I shrugged off my cloak as I passed the main room and tossed it across the back of the sofa. In the small kitchen, I opened the refrigerator and grabbed the bottle of wine that we had been keeping for a special occasion.

I was busy lighting some candles in our bedroom when Draco walked in with the roses in a vase. “They’re beautiful, Harry,” he said softly as he set them on the top of the dresser.

“As are you,” I cooed, stepping up behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist. I placed my chin in the curve of his neck and looked at the roses, the candlelight setting a golden splash on their petals. He leaned back into me, but I could feel his hesitance and knew what he was going to say.

“How was tod-”

“Shhhhh, I'll tell you tomorrow, alright?” I said softly, lifting my chin up so my breath brushed past his ear. I pressed my lips to the skin behind his ear and began sucking softly. Draco leaned back against me, and I heard a moan growing in his chest as I made a trail of kisses down his neck. I began to step back slowly, pulling him with me, my fingers working at the buttons of his silken shirt. With all of the buttons undone, he shrugged the shirt off and I let my palms glide over his chest and abs. I could feel the bottom of our bed against the back of my heels when he turned around and pulled my shirt over my head, ruffling my hair.

It was then that our lips met for the first time in our little encounter, crushing against each other with an almost hurtful force. I felt the tip of his tongue prod against my closed lips and I willingly parted them. I could feel his long, lean fingers run up and down my back, causing me to shiver in anticipation before they came to a rest around my neck, pulling me closer and deepening our kiss. I wrapped my arms around his waist once more and pulled him towards me so we tipped backwards onto the bed, falling into a night of ecstasy.

I drive off when the sun comes up
I get back when it's gone down.
There's so much I wanna do with you,
But I can't be around.
Whoa, time has been just like a thief,
It's stolen too much from us,
So once it's gone we can't make it up.
So tonight, let's get back in touch.

I woke up to the sound of a quiet buzzing next to my ear. First thinking it was a fly, I swatted at it, mumbling for it to go away. But when it didn’t go away, I realized that it was my wand. Groggily, I opened my eyes and saw my wand, glowing a pale yellow and hovering over my head. I groaned and maneuvered my arm out of the heavy covers so I could grab it and stop the insistent buzzing. Glancing over at the digital clock that stood on the nightstand next to the bed, I could make out the blurry numbers to be 5:07 a.m. With the events of yesterday still planted in my mind, I did not want to get up and go to work. I settled my head back down on the pillow and put my arm back under the covers, but this time I lay it across the warm body that was lying in front of me. I let my cold fingertips lightly trail over his stomach while I placed several kisses on his shoulder.

Slowly he began to stir under my touch. His voice was gravelly when he spoke, “What time is it?”

“Almost a quarter after five,” I grinned when I heard him groan, “They’ve called me into work. I might be home late so don’t wait up for me if I am.”

“I will anyway.”

“I know.” I gave him a quick peck on the cheek as I threw back the covers and sat up. Yawning, I swung my legs over the edge and stood, accioing my glasses and placing them on my nose. Walking over to the dresser, I could feel the goose pimples rising on my bare skin, causing me to hurry about picking out my clothes and putting them on. Before I dashed out the door, I glanced back at Draco, who, in my absence, had snuggled even further down into the heavy covers and had them all bunched up around him. I smiled as I continued on my way out, hearing a muffled voice say something along the lines of “luff o, arry” as I closed the door behind me. I didn’t move once the door was closed, I merely looked fondly at it, placed my palm against it, and said, “Love you too, Draco.” As the door was closed, I couldn’t see the warm smile that appeared on the sleeping man’s lips.

Later at work, I imagine that I seemed quite irritable to anyone who sought my assistance. I spent most of the day brooding over the past week and all that had happened, as well as the fact that life was too short. Hermione, as a prime example, had been murdered just after Ron had proposed to her; she certainly had not had the time to bear witness to the happiness that marriage could create. My thoughts immediately went to Draco and myself. We had only been together for a year and on most of those days, I had been at work on the other side of the country. Absent-mindedly, I shook my head, thinking that if something happened to Draco tomorrow, we wouldn’t have had time to do half the things we wished to do together. I glanced at the clock for what seemed to be the millionth time and saw, in dismay, that it was only three o’clock. I shuffled the papers that I had been supposed to be reading for the past three hours, and started reading them for the first time. Unconsciously, I was making plans for that evening when I got home.

I'm gonna bring home a dozen roses,
And pour us a glass of wine.
And I'm gonna put on a little music,
And turn down the lights.
And I'm gonna wrap my arms around you,
And rock you all through the night,
And I'm gonna love you,
Like it's the last day of my...

I apparated into the flat a bit before seven o’clock that evening and could tell, with a quick glance around, that Draco wasn’t there. I ventured into the kitchen and found a note on the table that read “Gone to the shop. Won’t be long. Love, Draco”. I shook my head slightly as I picked up the paper and tossed it in the bin. Draco had always preferred to go out at night when there weren’t as many people out and about. I had once jokingly asked him if he was a vampire, but I only received a withering glare as an answer. But no matter, it gave me some time to get ready.

Only minutes later, I was in the living room, standing stooped over as I lit candles for the second night in a row. I shook my wand slightly to put out the small flame at the end as I stood straight, looking into the warm, yellow flames as though I was mesmerized. I took several steps back until I could flop down on the sofa and watch them from afar.

I don’t know how long I sat there with the flames being reflected in my eyes as I stared into the unknown depths of thought. So caught up in my swirling thoughts, I didn’t even notice the door creak open nor when there was a dull thump as something was set heavily on the table. I only came out of my reverie when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Jumping slightly, I turned to find a worried face looking down at me.

“Harry? Are you alright?” Draco asked. His voice was filled with worry and his blonde eyebrows were furrowed, accenting the feeling in his voice.

I looked at him blankly for a moment before my mind shifted into gear and I rose, wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug. I could tell that he was startled by my reaction, but he quickly realized that I needed to feel him and he squeezed me back, murmuring kind, reassuring words into my ear until I took a step back. I sat heavily back onto the sofa and pulled him down beside me. I didn’t know exactly what to say first, but I needn’t have worried.

“Alright, Harry. This is the second night that you’ve acted like this. What’s wrong? Does it have to do with the funeral yesterday?” Draco’s voice was gentle and calm, but I could hear the urgency to know what was wrong behind it.

At first I merely shook my head, not quite sure how to voice how I felt, but I finally got it sorted out after a few moments. “It just got me thinking…what happened to Hermione,” I paused and looked to him with an almost pained look on my face, “I mean, I work from dawn ‘til dusk at the Ministry. We don’t get to spend any time together. What if something happened to you or me tomorrow and we could never make up for all the time we have lost?”

“The time we don’t spend together shouldn’t matter, Harry. Only how we spend the time we do have together,” Draco reached over and grasped my hand, staring into my eyes with such intensity that I knew he meant every word he said, “If you’re worried about what tomorrow may bring, then let’s spend the night in a way that we won’t have any ‘want-tos’ tomorrow.”

And so we did. First we cleared the middle of the living room floor and played several games of Exploding Snap, despite the earlier somber mood, so loud that I was surprised that other tenants weren’t knocking on our door. We even played a few rounds of wizard chess, all of which I smugly won despite Draco’s attempts to cheat. As the clock struck eleven, we began to dance slowly in each other’s arms to the music of our hearts before falling in exhaustion onto the sofa.

I sat up on the sofa while Draco leaned against my chest with his eyes close in content. I ran my fingers through his soft hair as I watched the flames from the candles fade. I stopped my movements for a moment and looked down at him. “Draco?”
“Hm?” I could feel the reverberations through my hand that lay on his chest.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too, Harry.” I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his forehead before leaning back and settling into a position to go to sleep.

Maybe there won’t be a tomorrow, I contemplated while I looked fondly at the man asleep in my arms, but I think I’d be alright with that. A smile grew on my face as the candles flickered out and I closed my eyes.

Life is a rainbow, it's a spring snow,
It's the mornin' dew.
And I don't wanna waste another minute, without you.