A Letter To Live By

Chapter Three

Unexpected Guests and Unwanted Housemates

Draco was sure that Hedwig was leading him astray when they came to a normal looking neighborhood. The snowy owl flew through a broken window and Draco followed her into the dark room.

It was so dark here that he couldn't see anything. He heard a wheezing from his right and decided to use some magic. He had already flown more than a hundred miles that night. Why not use a bit more magic?

"Lumos!" he whispered. A warm light appeared at the end of his wand, allowing him to see around the room. He could make out a dresser near the far wall and a desk to his left with a large cage sitting on top of it. The room smelled stale, as though it had been shut up for a long period of time. He turned to the sound of the wheezing and saw someone lying on his or her back on a small bed. He approached the bed cautiously with his wand held out. He gasped at what he saw.

Covered in bruises and having difficulty breathing, Harry Potter was on the bed. He appeared to be unconscious. He wasn't wearing a shirt (not surprising considering the stuffiness of this room) and his ribs looked twisted and broken. Draco didn't think that Harry had even one rib that wasn't broken. His nose appeared to be broken as well, and there was dried blood on his face and around his lips.

Draco sat down on the bed. "Harry?" he whispered. He put his hand not holding his wand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry?" he asked again, giving the raven-haired boy a gentle shake. "Harry, wake up."

Harry wheezed more loudly; he didn't respond.

"Harry, please wake up!" Draco said urgently.

Harry began to cough harshly and blood splattered out of his mouth. Draco raised a shaky hand to his own face and wiped away a speck of blood that had landed there. Trying to comprehend what his brain was telling him, he stared at the blood on his hand for almost a whole minute.

"Oh, gods," Draco whispered. He began to shake Harry more roughly. "Harry, wake up! Now!"

Harry continued to wheeze and did not wake.

"Oh, gods, oh, gods," Draco said. "What do I do now?" He flicked his wand at the light switch on the far wall by the door. "Lumos!" he said, and all of the lights in the room lit up. Hoping to find something that might help, he looked around frantically. His eyes landed on Hedwig, seated on the windowsill, waiting for him to do something.

"I have to write to Dumbledore," Draco told the owl. He went to the desk and found that there was some old parchment sitting on it next to an inkpot and a quill.

"This must have happened right after he sent the letter to me," he drawled. He picked up the quill and scrawled a hasty note to Dumbledore.

Professor Dumbledore,

I'm at Harry's house and he's about to die. Please come and help me! I don't know how long he will last. Please hurry!

Draco Malfoy.

He tied the letter to Hedwig's leg. "Go and find Professor Dumbledore as fast as you can!" he said to her.

Hedwig flew out of the window without even hooting a reply.

"Hang on, Harry," Draco said. "Help's on the way."

Harry's ragged breathing began to slow down. He was about to stop breathing all together.

"Harry?" Draco asked. "Harry!" he shook Harry's shoulders. "Harry! Don't do that, Harry!"

Harry's breathing grew more shallow.

"Oh, gods. Harry! Breath! You have to keep breathing!"

Harry took a small breath, exhaled, and then laid still.

"Harry?" Draco asked. \ Oh no! What do I do now? // he thought frantically. He did the first thing that came to his mind. He bent down, put his lips over Harry's and blew air into Harry's lungs.

Harry took a great shuddering breath, and then began to cough violently, sending sprays of blood into the air. He began to gasp and make choking sounds.

\ He's going to drown on his own blood! // Draco thought, and turned Harry onto his side. A great pool of blood came from his mouth and collected on the bed next to him. His breathing became more normal.

Quite suddenly there was a loud sound in the hallway.

"So!" a man's voice bellowed on the other side of the door. "Didn't learn your lesson the first time?" Draco now heard keys rattling in locks. The door must have been bolted a dozen times from what he could hear. The door flew open. "I'll teach you to-"

A massive whale of a man was in the doorframe. He stopped his sentence midway when he saw Draco. Draco rose from the bed and held his wand in front of him.

"Who are you!?" the man demanded.

"A friend of this boy," Draco replied coolly. Since when was Harry Potter his friend? He decided to think about that later.

"How did you get in here?" the man asked, never taking his piggy little eyes off of Draco's wand.

\ How is Harry possibly related to this man? // Draco asked himself. \ Something else to think about later. // "I flew," he said, gesturing to the broom he had dropped on the floor.

"You are not welcome here!" the bulky man stated, rather bravely in Draco's opinion.

"And you do not deserve the life you have been given!" Draco spat. "How could you do this to a child? He's not even one-third your size!"

The man stood in the doorway silently, still staring at Draco's wand. "Get out of my house, freak," he said after a few moments of silence.

"Not until help arrives," Draco said. "You will not touch him again."

The man began to advance.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco yelled the first spell that popped into his head.

The man fell, landing on his face with a loud boom. More noises came from the hall and shortly thereafter a tall thin woman and a whale sized boy appeared in the door. The woman screamed and the boy simply stared at the man on the floor.

"Silentium!" Draco yelled, pointing his wand at the woman. Even though she was still making the motions of screaming, her voice was silent. \ Gods, I hope no one heard that. // Draco thought. The boy began to scream and Draco repeated the spell. "Get in here!" he commanded. "Both of you! Stand in the corner!"

The two didn't respond.

"I said move, or I'll hex you into next week!" He listened for Harry's wheezing. He decided Harry was still alive when he heard it and turned his attention back to the Muggles.

The two were now in the corner he had indicated. They were both staring at the man on the floor. "Don't worry," Draco said. "He's not dead, although he deserves to be."

Draco kept his wand on the Muggles, but also paid attention to Harry, making sure that he was still breathing. Twice more he had to do the trick with breathing into Harry's mouth to keep him alive.

He had been in the house for about two hours when the door downstairs banged open. He stood from the bed and stared at the open door of the bedroom. \ Oh, gods. Please don't be Death Eaters. //

"Draco?" Dumbledore's voice called up the stairs.

"I'm up here, Professor!" Draco yelled back, feeling relief flooding through him.

He heard someone rushing up the steps in the corridor and then Dumbledore appeared in the doorway. He gasped when he saw Harry and rushed over to the bed, not even glancing at the Muggles. Draco got out of his way so he could examine the crippled Gryffindor.

Dumbledore passed his hand over Harry's body and didn't say a word. He whispered a few healing charms and Draco watched as Harry's ribcage expanded into a normal shape. Harry's breaths came easier now. \ I've really gotta learn how to do that. // Dumbledore turned to Draco.

"What happened?" he asked, the ever-present glow gone from his eyes.

"I'm not really sure, Professor." Draco said truthfully. "I got a letter from him. He said- um, he was talking weird, like he thought he would die, so I decided to come and find out what was wrong with him. I found him like this." \ Christ! What's the matter with you? You almost let that one slip! //

Dumbledore shot a very angry look at the Dursleys. "Finis Carmen!" he said, pointing his wand at the massive man on the floor.

The man stirred slightly, and then sat up. He looked at Dumbledore with a mixture of fear and anger.

"Explain yourself!" Dumbledore spat at the man. "What is the meaning of this?"

"He was disrupting the peace of our house!" the man said.

"And this is what you do to him?" Dumbledore asked incredulously. "He was sent here to be protected! You are his blood relatives! How could you do this to him? When was the last time he had something to eat?"

The man began to make some kind of reply, but Dumbledore didn't allow him to continue.

"I am taking him out of your custody," he said.

\ About bloody time. // Draco thought.

The beefy man looked almost triumphant.

"Don't look so happy, Mr. Dursley," Dumbledore continued. His voice was low and calm, but it radiated anger. Draco had never seen Dumbledore so angry before. "The authorities will be called and you and Harry's aunt are going to prison for child abuse and neglect. Don't try to run. We'll find you. I'm going to make sure that you are punished for this." Dumbledore turned and lifted the still unconscious Harry off of the bed. "I'm going to go outside and apparate near Hogwarts," he said, turning his attention to Draco. "I want you to collect all of Harry's things and be waiting for me outside. I'll come back to collect you as soon as Harry is safe in the Hospital Wing. You have my full permission to use magic to defend yourself against these people. Let the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad take care of it. I shouldn't be gone for more than half an hour."

Draco nodded and watched as Dumbledore left the room.

"I want the three of you in the next room!" Draco barked at Harry's relatives. "Now!"

The three frightened Muggles walked out and went into the boy's room. Draco closed the door and magically locked them in. He began a search of the house and found Harry's school supplies locked in a cupboard under the stairs. For some reason there was an old worn out mattress under there as well, but Draco didn't give it much thought. He collected Harry's trunk and then went up to the room again. He found a hidden compartment under the bed and took out a few pieces of parchment and a couple of quills. He collected the inkpot and quill off of the desk and went downstairs to wait for Dumbledore.

He had been waiting for about five minutes when Dumbledore appeared in front of him with a faint 'Pop!'

Dumbledore cast a spell on the trunk and it disappeared. He then took Draco's hand and they both Apparated to Hogsmeade. Draco could see Hogwarts looming before him. Dumbledore levitated Harry's things, and then he and Draco began the long walk up to the castle, Draco's thoughts never once leaving Harry.