Title: Blood and Water
Rating: PG
Pairing: slight Snape/Draco
Word Count: 352
Summary: The mending of broken things.
Snape stormed into the room at the commotion in a flurry of robes, whirling to glare at Potter in a combination of anger and stunned silence after seeing what the boy had wrought. Draco lay sprawled on the floor between them, groaning as blood seeped from his wounds, leeching into the water that pooled around Snape's feet. The telltale slashes on the blonde's body told Severus that it had been a hex of his own making that had done this, making him all the more incensed.
But there was no more time for anger as Harry fled from the room, a flash of fear and guilt in green eyes before Snape's gaze was boring into his retreating back. No time for much else as Draco lay bleeding on the cold wet floor. Protecting him came before the impulse to take what burned in the pit of his gut out of the Gryffindor's hide. He'd made a vow after all. He'd see Draco through this and other things.
Snape wished it was only this that made him kneel to loom over the boy, his wand winding serpentine over each gaping rent in Draco's flesh as he murmured a healing charm. Snape wished it was only this when he felt apprehension and worry slip from him like a cloak at Draco's labored breathing evening, moans of pain fading. Grey eyes cracked open to gaze up into dark, and each recognized something similar in the other for the briefest of moments, something haunted and fearful yet resigned. Snape's expression shuttered once more after the momentary lapse, but it didn't change what Draco had seen. He swallowed thickly as he watched Snape stand, black trousers soaked to the knee appearing all the more dark. He stared dumbfounded at the hand that suddenly stretched downward to him for a moment before he clasped it. Draco found its pale skin cool, but its grip was sure as Snape helped him gain his footing. Their hands remained joined for a few seconds too long before they slid apart, awkward silence left between them amid the sound of running water.
