Harry wasn't sure what made him so tense so suddenly. He was perfectly at ease with his men, once the trash by the name of Mike had been disposed of.
"I never did like him much," Ron griped, reading the set of Harry's face.
Harry's smile was forced. "None of us did, remember? How many times did one of us request he be removed from our team? Each and every one of us works together with the ease of a well-oiled machine…"
"…except Mike," thirty voices finished as one.
Harry tried to smile along with his men through the mounting feeling of unease growing within him. He hadn't experienced such a strong feeling of wrongness in a long time, and was unsure of how to take it.
"Where is Mike, anyway?" Harry asked, his mind flipping and dipping in an effort to make sense of his feelings. He felt as though he should be seeking out the sense of Mike, but a strange name was attached to the feeling.
"We escorted him to the elevators," a voice informed him.
Aldanas.
Who the hell is Aldanas?
He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until Ron shrugged. "Dunno, mate, why do you ask?"
"Figure out," he commanded suddenly, and even through his unease he could hear the edge to his voice, and regretted it instantly. "I'm sorry. Please, run a search on that name. I'm…"
"Yes, sir," several men interrupted, their way of forgiving his behavior. In the days during which he had been fully their leader, they had become quite accustomed to following his spur-of-the-moment peculiarities, typically with surprisingly appropriate results. Two pairs of men left instantly to obey.
"And someone figure out where Mike went."
"Yes, sir." Four more of his men departed.
"Harry, mate? Is something wrong?"
Harry lowered his head, hoping to quell the seemingly irrational feeling. He had never been able to get a lock on his stupid intuitions, never been able to understand them. So why did it seem as though he should be in action already?
He pushed to his feet suddenly, and Ron followed suit, as well as the remaining men gathered. "All of you, find Mike, NOW!" Harry gasped suddenly, and his heart began to pound uncontrollably. He clutched at his chest and fell to one knee. Ron, who had been about to leave the room, spun around, torn between his orders and his desire to help his best mate, who was obviously in pain.
"GO! I'm fine!" Harry growled, and dropped his other leg. He knelt on the floor of the hospital, unable to breathe, unable to think. The feeling of desperation and fear overwhelmed him, unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He gave a violent shudder, and it seemed as though something within him broke. He screamed, a pained, panicked sound, and felt his name echoing within his skull.
Suddenly everything stilled, and Harry was able to breathe again. He gasped in a breath of air and planted one foot on the ground, his hunched shoulders straightening and his bowed head flying up to stare out the door.
"Draco," he breathed, and was on his feet in an instant.
"M… Master Aldanas," Draco whimpered, and hated himself for his weakness, both in voice and mind. He dared not call the intruder by anything but the term of servitude he had been commanded to use while in that home. He dared not disobey the powerful man before him.
"I know I'm a little early today," Aldanas smirked, and waved his elegant hand through the air as though it were a minor matter. "But circumstances are such that I must be on my way quickly. Fortunately for you."
Draco was finally able to gasp a tiny breath. He sucked in oxygen greedily, but realized he had yet to expel the previous breath. He forced his lungs to exhale, and started the process over.
"I'm sure you're a little surprised to see me," Aldanas murmured, and took a slow and easy step forward. "But your knight in shining armor gave me an idea that was simply too tempting to resist."
Another slow step brought him a few agonizing inches closer.
"Wh… what do you mean?" Draco couldn't help but ask.
Aldanas smiled indulgently and nodded. "Thank you for playing," he praised. "You're such a good bitch."
"What do you mean!" Draco insisted, and Aldanas laughed.
"Mister Potter himself informed me that many of your previous guests used magic in order enlarge themselves."
Draco shuddered, remembering the twins.
"Which led me to wonder, what would it be like to feel you tear even more than when I took your virgin ass for the first time? How much blood could I get to drip down your legs, down my cock? How much could I make you want to scream?
"Unfortunately, I can't allow you to scream. We are, after all, in a hospital. But I can make you want to scream. I can make you burn to scream."
Aldanas shuddered in excitement even as Draco shuddered in fear and revulsion. He knew that Aldanas spoke the truth, that the temptation to rip Draco in half was making him tremble.
"No," Draco protested, but his voice was no more than a moan.
"Oh, Merlin, yes!" Aldanas grinned, and took several shaky breaths. Draco noticed a faraway look in his tormentor's eyes, and, deciding now was his best chance to act, lunged for the call button which had been moved to the side of his bed.
Aldanas tisked and shook his finger as he watched Draco press the button frantically. "You should know I already silenced that, Draco, dear."
"Is there something I can help you with, Draco?" one of the healers asked sweetly. Draco screamed directly into the intercom but to no avail. "Draco, hun, is there something the matter?"
Aldanas slipped a silencing charm around Draco then released the one he'd placed on the intercom. "Sorry, love, there's not a problem here, I stumbled and fell onto your little button thingy. We're okay in here. I'm terribly sorry for the confusion."
Aldanas could hear the smile in the healer's voice. "It's alright, sir, don't you worry. It's not a problem at all."
Aldanas smiled as he saw tears of pain and hopelessness leaking from Draco's eyes.
Aldanas had always favored physical might. Draco thrashed against him as he attempted to hop atop the blond, and Draco's slight frame, even starved and abused, sent waves of pain emanating from everywhere he struck. Draco felt fear and panic washing through him, but also knew that he would never again submit to the beasts he'd had to cater to in that place. Fury and defiance welled within Draco, and Aldanas never stood a chance. Aldanas was surprised by his inability to dominate the fiery blond beneath him. It had always been so easy before. Why couldn't it be so simple now?
The door burst open and a storm of raven flew in. Aldanas was hurled bodily from his position atop Draco, and he felt shards of glass slice through him before he felt the most jarring impact he had ever felt. Then there was nothing.
Harry didn't pause to feel chagrin for having accidentally -- or maybe not so accidentally, Harry considered, looking at the slashes across Draco's face where Mike had attempted to pry his jaw open -- thrown one of his ex-Aurors to his death out a window. He made his way instead to Draco's side, frantically examining his charge in order to determine how seriously he may have been injured.
Draco was terribly disoriented. He had been fighting for his life one moment, and then the next moment there was stillness. His mind refused to wrap around the situation, just as it refused to recognize the sound of the thick glass of the hospital window shattering.
The only conclusion he could draw when suddenly Harry was hovering over him was that he'd died and gone to heaven.