I am sorry for cliff-hanging because I hate it myself, but I find about 1700 words is good for in one go so where it stops, it stops. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially xxxthisisme15xxx and Quiet Lion, who I love (by the way, I agree practise makes perfect). Hope this one's ok.

Chapter 13

Liam caught his brother the second Caleb sagged, unable to hold himself up. Tears flowed freely from Caleb's eyes and Liam bit his lip to hold back his own. George was ok, the cursed paper said 'brother' not 'brothers'. But Caleb's grief was so overwhelming it was hard for Liam to keep his eyes clear.

"Caleb?" Liam asked softly, his own voice breaking when Caleb looked up at him.

"Let's go to the hospital. Are you ok to go?"

Caleb only nodded, and Liam felt useless, unable to do anything to relieve his brother's agony. Or George's. Oh, God, I can't do this.

Liam shook his head to clear it, then he grabbed his brother's arm tightly, pulling him over towards the table.

"Sit there," he mumbled, pushing Caleb into a chair.

Liam sped down the hall, into his bedroom, grabbing two jackets and his wallet before running into Caleb's. After only a few seconds, he gave up and accioed his brother's wand, catching it as he headed back out to the living room. Picking up his own wand from where he had flung it onto the floor, Liam stuffed both his and his brother's into his back pocket.

When he saw Caleb again, his heart broke. He was sitting, expressionless and motionless, where Liam had left him, not having moved a single millimetre. Liam grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him up and supporting his weight.

"Hold on, Caleb," he muttered, waiting a second for Caleb's fingers to gingerly grasp his arm before he apparated.

As always, the waiting room of St. Mungo's was chaotic, but the news Harry Potter could be there had multiplied the problem by a million. Reporters and camerawizards were everywhere, and to Liam's amazement he saw what he thought were fangirls. The numbers of these mostly young witches appeared to be doubling almost every second and while about half were shouting for Harry Potter, the other half were in a corner, doing some kind of chant around a photograph of the Protector brothers they had gotten from a paper. That couldn't be good.

Pushing a still incoherent Caleb down into one of only two free chairs, Liam went to the desk, pushing his way to the front.

"Which room is Fre-Jasper Protector in, please?."

The wizard behind the counter gave him an exasperated look, and it was only then Liam realised how unlikely it was that he'd actually be told.

"You won't tell me, will you?" he asked quietly.

"Not even if you were the Minister of Magic, mate. Sorry, but you'll have to stay over there with your friend or come back later. Come back later would be preferred, you guys are clogging up actually injured people."

Liam scowled. It hadn't occurred to him in the rush how he'd get in, but now he saw it was almost hopeless.

"Liam? Liam Lark?"

Liam turned towards the voice and was surprised to see a shortish, average-looking man he didn't know looking straight at him with a serious expression. The man was on the other side of the barrier, erected to keep out reporters, but Liam had honestly never seen him before in his life.

Still, Liam nodded, confused, but not willing to say he didn't know the other man and possibly give up the chance of joining him on the other side.

The man nodded swiftly back at him before turning to the Mediwizard behind the counter.

"Let him in, please. And his brother, if he's here."

The wizard looked alarmed, "Err… I can't just let him in… it doesn't work like that."

The stranger walked out, through the barrier to this side, and placed his hands on top of the counter, right in front of the Mediwizard. A black signet ring shone on his finger, and upon seeing it, the Mediwizard gulped. Liam's eyes strained, but he couldn't see it from this distance.

He looked back at Liam, "In you go, Sir."

Liam was more confused than ever, but he nodded, racing to grab his brother. Supporting Caleb's weight almost completely, Liam shuffled through the barrier, moving as quickly as he could to escape the surge of young witches who tried to follow, only to run into the barrier and bounce back into a heap.

"Your brother… Did he start screaming a little while ago?"

Liam turned his head to look sharply at the stranger. "How did you know that?"

The stranger scowled, "Because I charmed that band. It never occurred to us that something like this might happen, at least not so soon. The spellwork will mellow, sink in, kind of, and not be so drastic after the first few days… we didn't think that the risk was great enough to not give it to him straight away and I didn't think..." the stranger shook his head, looking down. "I'm sorry, Liam. Also, before I say anything else, Jasper will be alright. They got him quick enough and they're sure of that… they just don't know how long it will take."

Liam stopped walking and sighed. "Oh, thank Merlin. And sorry to be rude, and thank you for getting us in, but who are you?"

The stranger sighed and held his hand out, showing Liam the crest clearly emblazoned on his finger. Every wizard in the developed world knew that crest.

He lowered his voice. "Potter… No? Why are you wearing the Potter family crest? Wait, Harry? Is that you?"

The stranger shook his head. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he pulled out two other rings, slipping them onto his middle and third finger on the other hand.

"These are the other rings to which I am entitled, by either birth or marriage."

Liam looked closely. One he wasn't sure about, but one every wizard over twenty would know from the War.

"Malfoy?"

The stranger nodded.

"I've heard enough about you two to guess you and your brother might come, either when you discovered what had happened, or because I thought your brother might have his own serious medical issues."

Liam's expression grew more morose as he looked at the brother who was walking along with him dumbly, only partially able to hold himself up.

"He screamed so terribly… for so long," Liam shook his head. "He was unsteady, but OK, until he saw the Prophet's headline. Then he went kind of comatose and he's been this way ever since."

The stranger- Draco- scowled.

"I'm trained, so I'll look at him when we're in private. George is a little the same. Harry too. Sometimes I think they're triplets, not the twins plus Harry. George is going to need you."

They walked for another minute or so in silence before Draco stopped outside a closed door. He looked Liam, then at Caleb, stepping over and looking up with a pained expression. He lay his hand on Caleb's arm.

"Caleb… he doesn't look good. I know you can hear me and I'm warning you. He needs you, so pull yourself together. Now."

For the first time since hearing of his lover's injuries, Caleb's eyes seemed to uncloud, and he lifted his head.

He looked at Draco and then around at Liam. He stared hard at his brother, before taking a deep breath and nodding, more to himself than to his companions.

Draco looked pleased enough with that, if pleased you could call someone whose expression was nothing but serious and sad.

Draco pulled his wand out of nowhere and cast a quickly spell, and straight away the door swung softly inwards. Signalling the twins in before him, Draco followed and shut the door behind them, immediately dropping his glamour and running a hand through his soft, blonde hair as he headed over to a distraught Harry on the other side of the room.

A large double bed dominated the room and Liam unreasonably had a sudden thought that this was a VIP care room. The bed dwarfed the figure who lay in it. Fred was shirtless, and one side of his body was a horrid colour, red and raw-looking. A jagged scar cut across his chest, disappearing into the burns on one side and one arm was already in a cast.

Then Liam saw George.

Sitting on the floor against the wall right across from the bed, George sat with his knees pulled up and his arms wrapped around them. His eyes were closed and his face was a map of sorrow.

Liam suddenly saw no one else and went straight to him, but then Draco noticed George as well and hurried over.

"George!" he hissed urgently, "Sit up straight with your legs out or you'll ruin what I did."

Draco sighed when George ignored him, and turned to go back to Harry, but on his way past Liam he stopped to mutter, "Fred almost lost in this fight, but it was close with George too. I can't repair those scars."

Liam looked back at George, who hadn't moved from his knees-up, head down position. Bending down, Liam kissed him softly on the cheek, causing George to look up sharply.

"Liam," he sobbed, reaching his arms out. Liam filled the space immediately, creating an awkward embrace that was just so needed.

"George," Liam said softly, caressing his lover's cheek. "Do what Draco says. Please."

George released Liam and pushed his legs straight with aching slowness. Liam gasped out loud when he saw why.

Across George's lower abdomen were three new gashes, red and deep. They wrapped around his right side and continued three-quarters of the way across his stomach, a horrid reminder of the kind of pain Liam could only imagine. George didn't even appear to notice it.

A tear fell from Liam's eye, but he looked straight at George. Suddenly, he had an urge to admit something he'd thought many times, but had never said out loud.

He sat next to George, leaning on the wall, and ran his hand over the scars on George's tummy, not touching, but just hovering. Then he looked back up, deep to George's eyes.

"We will survive this. All of us. I love you, George."

Liam watched as strange expressions crossed George's face, a contorted mixture of terrible sadness, but then determination.

Then he leant down sideways, with extreme care and excruciatingly timid movements, laying his head on Liam's lap, settling in to where he could see his brother, but feel his lover.

Liam leant his head back against the wall, seeing Harry and Draco by Fred's bed with their arms wrapped tightly around each other.

And then-

"I love you too, Liam."