Save Me

"Harry, come back!" Hermione's concerned voice rang out through the smoke. "Don't stray too far from the group."

"I'm not a child Hermione," Harry said irritably, "I can certainly do one building without a nanny."

Ignoring Hermione's protests, he continued on his path toward the ruins of an apothecary's shop, one of the last on Hogsmeade's high street, which now lay in shambles.

The last Death Eater attack on the village had ended in almost complete destruction, and the Ministry, unable to pull fully trained Aurors away from the battlefront, had sent in trainees to assess the damage and recover what they could.

"Stupid waste of time," muttered Harry as he stumbled over bits of broken glass and brick. "As if there's anything left to take back. 'Bring back anything that can help, anything at all'. Stupid Moody. Yeah, I'll just keep this rock in case I meet Voldemort, shall I, so I can sodding chuck it at his sodding head. I..."

Harry stopped, mid-tirade, at the sound of shifting rubble from within the dilapidated structure. It was probably just a rat, but hard-earned experience had taught him caution in the face of doubt.

Crouching behind a bit of wall, he peeked over into the inner room. A dark figure was hunched in a similar position, with his back to Harry. Harry took aim and was about to fire off a curse, when he caught a telltale glimpse of pale blonde hair flashing out from under the hood.

"Petrificus Totalus," Harry thought, pointing his wand; then waited till the frozen figure fell over sideways.

Harry walked over slowly, his mind a mess of images- the tower, Malfoy threatening Dumbledore, Malfoy faltering, Dumbledore offering amnesty, mercy, Snape- everything crashed behind his eyes, and he shook his head.

He prodded Malfoy with his shoe, and then bodily turned him over to look at him face to face. Malfoy's eyes darkened with surprise, then narrowed, his face frozen with lips slightly parted.

He brought his face within inches of Malfoy's, distracted for a second by the lack of signature smirk marring the other boy's features. Malfoy had grown thinner over the past months, Harry noticed, and one eye seemed to be surrounded by a healing bruise. His lips were cracked and bloody, and his eyes looked bloodshot.

Harry's brain searched for what to do next. He couldn't help remembering Dumbledore's offer of protection to Malfoy, but the bigger, aching part of him kept seeing Dumbledore's defeated body falling over the edge of the tower to the grass below.

He bound Malfoy's hands without magic as he had been taught, and searched him for his wand before straightening up and removing the spell. Malfoy immediately began to struggle violently and opened his mouth to scream. But Harry was faster and Silenced him before sounds made their way out.

"Don't be stupid Malfoy. If the rest of my team hears you, you'll have six very angry people taking turns to beat the bogeys out of you." Harry said with forced calm. He didn't know why he hadn't given in to instinct yet and beaten him senseless, but something at the back of his tired mind refused to stop niggling at him.

"Look, Malfoy," Harry continued, "I'm going to take the spell off if you agree to keep quiet. If you do what I tell you, I will consider not killing you. If you don't, I will silence you permanently. Got it?"

Malfoy nodded, clearly furious, and Harry removed the Silencing spell.

"What do you want, Potter?" he spat, his eyes scouting the room, looking for escape.

"I... I don't know," said Harry, scratching his head, his wand still aimed at Malfoy's chest, "I... err... I need to ask you some questions." They hadn't reached the interrogation lesson in their training yet, and Harry was rather out of his element. He almost wished he had some elf wine to loosen Malfoy's tongue.

Malfoy puffed out his chest and his trademark sneer returned, "I'm not telling you anything, you pillock. What, you thought tying me up to satisfy some perverse sexual fantasy was going to make me tell you all my secrets?"

"What?" Harry sputtered, blushing both from anger and embarrassment, "Sex-- are you mad?" Harry shook his head again, this time trying to get rid of some particularly unsettling images of an entirely different nature. He took another deep breath. "I just want to know where Snape is, Malfoy. My fight is not with you. Well, not as much."

"Bollocks, Potter," Malfoy sneered. "I know you were completely obsessed with me last year--following me around, trying to assault me in the bathroom..."

"I was not obsessed with you, you daft git!" Harry's voice rose with every word, "I knew you were up to something! No one believed me, but I was right, wasn't I? You... you ruined everything--Bill, Dumbledore; it's all your fault! I should just kill you right now."

Harry advanced on Malfoy, all thoughts of conversation gone. Sod trying to ask nicely, he was simply going to beat the information he wanted out of Malfoy, Dumbledore's mercy be damned.

He grabbed Malfoy by the collar of his robes and pulled the smaller boy upright, his face inches from that despicable sneer. "That's right Potter, I did it. The Dark Lord trusted me, and I made it happen. You couldn't touch me then, and you can't stop me now. You can't do anything to me, you don't have the bollocks."

Harry responded by punching Malfoy in the stomach as hard as he could. Malfoy sank to the ground with a grunt.

"Good, Potty. Hit me while I'm tied up." He grinned up at Harry, his face a twisted parody of a smile. "All part of your fantasy, is it?"

"Tell me where Snape is!" Harry growled, punctuating every word with kicks to Malfoy's gut, each one increasing in intensity. Malfoy groaned in pain and tried to curl in on himself.

"Sod... off... Potter," he gasped between kicks. He yelped as Harry got him in the shins, and resumed his struggle to free himself of his bonds.

"Tell me!" Harry picked him up again, and Malfoy spit, most un-aristocratically, in his face.

"Gross, Malfoy!" Harry almost dropped him in sheer surprise. He wiped the side of his cheek against his shoulder, and punched Malfoy once more for good measure.

Malfoy fell down again and lay there, whimpering, "I'm not going to tell you. I'm not, so you can bugger off."

Harry hauled him into a sitting position and crouched in front of him, blinking at him in the fading sunlight. His eyes narrowed till they were slits of green behind his glasses.

"Malfoy, I'm going to ask you one more time. I don't care about you. Live, die, it's all the same to me. I want Snape. I wasn't going to hurt you out of respect for Dumbledore, but you gave me no choice. Do you honestly think I can't kill you with my bare hands? I don't need a wand, trust me on that. You-"

Almost imperceptibly, Malfoy's eyes moved to the right of where they sat. Harry's eyes followed, to a corner of the room to a collection of what looked like dirty purple robes, a misshapen bundle and some odds and ends. His eyes moved back to Malfoy's face.

"You don't know anything!" Harry exclaimed quietly, suddenly understanding. Malfoy's tattered robes, his gaunt face, his weird collection of belongings, his very presence- alone in a deserted town, everything made sense. "You've been abandoned, haven't you?"

"Piss off, Potter," Malfoy shot back, but with a noticeable waver in his voice. "You don't know what you're talking about. I am a Death Eater, one of the Dark Lord's inner circle!"

"They threw you away, didn't they?" Harry was almost amused, "You weren't useful to him anymore, so Voldemort chucked you out on your sad, stupid arse! Look at you, you don't even have a bloody wand!"

"Fuck. Off. Potter." Harry could tell Malfoy was tired of repeating himself. He struggled weakly against his bonds again, this time his eyes refused to meet Harry's.

"Look at you," Harry couldn't resist rubbing it in, "you're nothing now, are you? Big Daddy Malfoy can't protect you now, can he? You weren't smart enough to take Dumbledore up on his offer, and now you're reduced to searching for table scraps in rubble!"

Malfoy's eyes burned vitriol. "Don't you fucking dare talk about my father, Potter. You know nothing about me or him-- don't you fucking dare."

"I will do what I want, Malfoy," Harry spat back at him. "You have no information, so you're useless to me. Tell me, you pathetic excuse for a wizard, how does it feel to be completely and thoroughly unwanted? Even by your enemy?"

Malfoy just looked down. Harry, expecting another response, was surprised. He was startled to see Malfoy start to tremble, whether it was the cold or something else, Harry didn't know, but a strange sinking feeling attacked his chest.

"Malfoy, I-" Harry started, but then stopped, unable to continue. 'What the hell?' he thought. 'Am I actually feeling sorry for this arsehole?'

"Harry!" Both pairs of eyes snapped toward the source of the sound. "Harry! Are you all right? Do you need help?" Hermione was moving closer to the building.

"No, Hermione," Harry yelled back with rather more urgency than he'd have liked. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm coming out right now!"

Harry looked back at Malfoy and tried to ignore the now dry streaks down his dirty face. That strange feeling settled back in his chest and he quickly tried to settle Malfoy into a more comfortable position. A plan was forming in his mind.

"What are you doing?" Malfoy's voice was cracked and higher than normal, "You're not going to leave me here, are you Potter?" He struggled again, and then winced in pain, "Potter!"

"Don't worry. I just have to go away for a bit, and then I'll come back. Err... just wait here, all right? Oh yeah- well, just wait for me."

Harry quickly cast a warming charm on Malfoy and, ignoring his protests, headed back outside.

"Harry, are you all right?" Hermione was almost at the entrance, a few feet more, Harry thought, and Malfoy'd be in plain view.

"I'm fine, Hermione, come on, let's get back to the others. There's nothing to see here and it's getting time to report." He hurried her away and they met the rest of their team at the Apparition point and left Hogsmeade.

Back at the training camp, the team headed to the lavatories to wash up. Harry hurried ahead of them, wanting to get it all done with, but he couldn't avoid any of the normal procedures for fear of raising suspicion. Harry didn't need to be reminded of how Moody noticed everything.

In the meeting room, a nondescript, square room with whitewashed walls and a blackboard on one side, the seven-member team waited for Moody's telltale step, tap, step, tap.

Their reports seemed to stretch forever, or so Harry felt, glancing as surreptitiously at the clock as he could. His mind kept wandering back to where he had left Malfoy, and the sinking feeling in his chest refused to go away. He had to make an effort to keep his face impassive for the entire two hours, and Hermione didn't help matters any by leaning over and sympathetically telling him that if he needed to use the loo, all he had to do was ask.

He practically raced out of the meeting room, an hour after he had anticipated, paying no heed to Hermione calling after him.

"I'll be back," he yelled back to her, "Gotta do something- meeting--" He hoped fervently that she'd accept his half-arsed excuse. After all, it wasn't the first time he'd been called away to special sessions with members of the Order.

He rushed back to the room he shared with three other trainees, Ron included, grabbed his rucksack with his Invisibility cloak, and rushed outside to Apparate.

He reached Hogsmeade and raced to the building, skidding to a halt outside.

"Malfoy?" he called hesitantly, "It's me, err, Harry. I'm sorry I'm late, but the meeting ran long..." He didn't quite know what he was going to do with Malfoy now, but he couldn't very well leave him tied up here.

"Malfoy, I-" he stopped short in the room where he had left Malfoy tied up almost three hours prior. Malfoy was gone.