Draco and Harry: Escorts Abandoned

Chapter Five

Harry's senses were screaming. Every nerve ending in his body felt like it was aflame. His breath rasped in his chest and each inhalation was agony. He knew immediately that he wasn't dead, unless he was in hell enduring the pain of eternal torment. Only one thought could penetrate the nightmare: Draco.

Mustering all his strength, he raised his head and sought for Malfoy. Draco was a mere handspan away, facedown and still.

Harry ignored the pain and pushed his way closer. He reached out and felt Malfoy's neck. It was cold--so cold... Harry could not feel a pulse.

Terror drove him up onto his knees and he rolled Draco over with trembling hands--he pressed both to Malfoy's neck, begging for a sign of life. A weak tremor met his searching fingers.

Oh God, he was alive, but only just. Harry immediately cast out for all the magic at his disposal. He had gotten better at it over the past few months, using the technique to dispel the rampant pockets of dark magic left over from Voldemort's reign. Carrying on without Malfoy--something he couldn't do again. Harry was weak, though, incredibly weak. He slowly drew the magic from everything around him--excluding Draco. Thank goodness he had learned that little trick or the drain would have killed Malfoy for certain.

Harry heard the grinding sound of stone on stone behind him, but he did not pause in his task. He siphoned as much power as he could contain, feeling it flood into him like water soaking a sponge. When he fairly crackled with it, he let it pour through his hands and into Draco in a healing stream, willing Malfoy to live.

When the power was spent, Harry collapsed onto Draco, uncertain if his efforts were successful. He was too exhausted to stave off the encroaching blackness.

ooOoo

Draco felt indescribably warm and peaceful. It was as if he floated in a tropical sea on a beautiful, sunny day. He sighed languorously and felt a weight on his chest, at odd with this indolent contentment.

He slid his eyes open and spied only darkness. Draco frowned. Where the hell was he? He reached up to explore the weight on his chest and encountered a mass of familiar hair.

"Harry?" he thought, pleased, and smiled softly.

His memory flooded back with explosive force and he gasped. Draco sat up, gently shifting Potter's inert form aside until he could touch his throat. Harry's head lolled against Draco's arm. The pulse was barely detectable.

"Damn you, Potter, what have you done?" he whispered. Somehow, the Gryffindor had saved him. Harry and his goddamned... what did Hermione call it? His "saving people thing." Even when people did not want to be saved, Potter couldn't fucking resist. "Sneaky bastard, I knew you should have been sorted into Slytherin." Malfoy rasped lightly, but he cast about frantically. Damn it, he did not even have his wand!

His eyes shot to a doorway that had opened in the wall. A crumpled body lay partially inside the room.

Draco set Harry down gently on the cold floor and hurried to the black-robed figure. He turned it over roughly. It was Mulciber. A wand lay on the floor where it had fallen from Mulciber's hand.

Malfoy looked at Harry and instantly deduced what had happened. Potter had pulled his special trick of tapping the magic from everything around him--including Mulciber. Harry had done it to Draco once and it was an unpleasant sensation that resulted in unconsciousness and lingering weakness when he finally woke up.

Draco snatched the wand and cast a Full Body Bind on Mulciber, just in case he managed to wake up. He hurried back to Harry and dropped to his knees. Draco wasn't quite sure what to cast--Potter was barely breathing. He decided to use every healing spell in his arsenal. Luckily, he had quite a number and when he was finished, Harry's breathing seemed to have eased a bit and his face wasn't nearly as pale.

He held Harry tightly and rested his chin on Potter's head.

"Please live, Harry," he whispered. "Please."

Draco stayed where he was, listening to the slow sound of Harry's respiration and feeling the beat of his heart for what seemed forever.

Potter finally stirred slightly and Draco pulled back. He caressed Harry's face gently and the green eyes slowly opened. They focused on Malfoy.

Draco smiled.

"If you weren't nearly dead I'd wring your neck for that stunt," Malfoy said.

"Good thing I'm nearly dead," Harry croaked.

"Now that you're awake, you can take that talent of yours and heal yourself this time," Draco ordered, but his voice was unsteady.

"Slave driver," Harry whispered and Draco kissed him.

"Do it," he murmured against Harry's cool lips. Harry made a soft sound of surrender and then Draco felt a crackle in the very air. He felt his hair stand on end and then something like a breeze flow past him and into Harry.

Immediately, Potter's breathing grew steadier and his skin flushed with a healthy glow, replacing the sickly pale look. Draco sighed in relief.

"Why aren't we dead?" Malfoy asked.

Harry's brow wrinkled in puzzlement. "Mulciber said the spell would be cancelled with the sacrifice of a single life. Perhaps because there were two of us, it took half a life from each."

"So we were only half dead."

"It felt more like three quarters."

"Seven eighths."

"Never trust an evil spell to measure properly."

Once he was certain Harry would be fine, Draco got to his feet and walked to Mulciber's still form. The urge to kick the bastard until he was a bloody rag was strong, but Draco restrained himself. Harry would disapprove.

He felt Harry's hand touch his back in a gentle caress. Draco smiled, feeling steadied, and knelt to examine Mulciber's robes. He came up with two additional wands--hawthorn and holly. His and Harry's.

Draco quickly bound Mulciber in magical ropes, even though he knew from experience that even when he awoke, Mulciber would take time to recover from Harry's magical drain. Harry levitated the unconscious Death Eater and Draco led the way out of the chamber. A single corridor led away from the room, lit by dim sconces.

"Does this look familiar?" Harry asked.

"No."

The passage continued, but an iron door in the left wall was ajar. Draco pushed it open and went in. He lit his wand brightly and was immediately assaulted by shadowed memories, partially recalled.

He stood in a cell. An iron cot sat in a corner and thick chains hung from the walls. Draco struggled through the memories, trying to force them through the block Mulciber had placed. A headache bloomed spectacularly behind his eyes and he had brief flashes: hanging in the chains while Mulciber cast Cruciatus Curses at him; lying on the cot, bleeding, while Pansy tended him; writing in drug-induced nightmares caused by the magical potions he'd been forced to drink; endless hours of darkness and mind-numbing boredom that he'd spent trying to extricate himself from his bonds...

Malfoy sank to his knees, overwhelmed. Harry was quickly beside him, holding him tightly.

"He kept you here?" Harry asked in horror. Draco unbuttoned a sleeve and forced back the cuff to look at his wrist--criss-crossed with permanent scars that Mulciber had not quite been able to heal. Why had he not noticed them before?

Harry looked at the scars and his face hardened into a mask that Draco nearly did not recognize.

"I'll kill him," Harry said hoarsely and began to rise. "I'll fucking kill him for what he did to you--for what he did to us!"

Draco grabbed Harry's shirt tightly and held him in place.

"No," he said quietly. "No, I won't let him turn you into a killer."

"I'm already a killer, Draco. I killed Voldemort, remember?"

"That was your destiny. This is... this is nothing."

"This is not nothing! That filth stole six months of your life and nearly killed us both for his twisted revenge!"

Draco's hands moved up to grip Harry's face and his silver eyes met Harry's.

"He did not succeed. I'm still here and so are you and he hasn't changed anything between us. Not really."

Potter's rage seemed to fold in on itself.

"I should never have given up on you. I should have kept searching," he whispered.

Draco leaned forward and kissed him gently. "You would not have found me. If you had, it would merely have hastened his revenge."

Harry held him tightly for a moment and then helped Draco to his feet.

"Let's get you out of here. The sooner Mulciber is in Azkaban, the happier I will be."