Disclaimer: Oh yes, of course they're mine. Just as the sun is made of ice
and money grows on trees. Miss Rowling? If you wish to sue please find
someone else, I can't even afford a lawyer let alone a settlement.
Warnings: I'm so sorry it took so long. Most of this was written months and months ago before I had even finished writing Foolish Tears. I just had to fill in stuff and then make sure it all flowed okay. 1 more part and then the Epilogue! YAY!
Golden Daffodils
--------- I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Part 27
He only got one spell off when he realised that the dagger wasn't sitting on a table. He walked through the door, blasted Lucius off his feet and into a wall before he mind finally noticed the whirring noise. His eyes flicked to the door, to the wire on the door then tried to follow where it went. The dagger had been in mid-air since his attack on Lucius.
He brought his hand up to deflect it as it headed for his stomach but only succeeded in having it go straight through his palm and stick there, when the hilt couldn't make it through his skin. He hissed in displeasure as Lucius slowly stood back up.
"It took me months to build that mini catapult. Painstakingly built without magic so that your precious little spells wouldn't detect it. You never were very thorough with your scans."
Draco could feel the ache start up under his skin as the curse continued to flow through his bloodstream. /Well, I guess I'll just have to do this without magic. Well, without *all* of my magic anyway./ He looked to Harry. /I can do this. I can./ He didn't reassure himself very well but the sight of Harry's bleeding lip helped. He felt the anger start to rise and welcomed it, giving it a few more memories to consume itself on. He snapped his head to the side and looked directly at Lucius.
The fireplace and most of the wall around it, burst into flames catching Lucius' robes alight. Draco's head pounded, using the magic while cursed was dangerous and painful but he gritted his teeth. The flames rose higher as Lucius pulled his smoking garment off and threw it away.
"Admirable trick, Draco. But I can do better." He raised his wand. "Ava ..."
Draco remembered the look in Harry's eyes when he had to push him away. Most of the floor around his father went up in flames and he took Lucius' lapse of concentration to his advantage. He pulled the dagger out of his hand and threw it, just managing to give Lucius a scratch across the cheek. It would be enough. A howl of protest went up and Draco had to clutch his head from the conflicting magic running through him, spiking the pain higher.
The flames started to die down, as he didn't have the energy to keep them going at full swell. Once a pathway was mostly cleared, Draco charged at his father and tackled him to the ground. "You just never leave me alone, do you?" He hissed and then punched him. "Even with your pathetic little master gone, you still have to be such an arsehole!" Another punch and then he reached for the dagger in his boot. But before he could stab him, Lucius grabbed his hand and kept it away.
"Physical fight, Draco? Don't you ever learn?" Lucius clutched the back of his son's head and then head butted him and threw him to the side, rising to his feet quickly. "I can still beat you down, boy." He picked the Dagger of Cadamine up and held it defensively as Draco got to his own feet.
Draco summed up the situation carefully. /Both have no magic, both have knives. I'm so going to die ..... again./ A quick glance to his right where Harry was still sitting helped him to steady his nerves.
"You'd kill your own son?" The bound boy hollered in disbelief.
"In case you hadn't noticed, Potter." Lucius snarled, not taking his eyes off Draco. "We're slightly dysfunctional."
Just then there was a blinding flash, the wards were being disabled. Lucius hadn't been ready for it but it didn't startle Draco at all. He jumped forward and swung his weapon. His father just barely managed to counter it, so Draco punched him with his other hand, feeling Lucius' nose break under his knuckles. He received a kick to his stomach for his troubles and he staggered back slightly, gasping for air. He moved forward again but Lucius was definitely ready this time and Draco moved just in time to avoid losing an eye. He slashed his hand up, opening a gash along his father's chest and ducked as a hand grabbed for him.
He swung again, going for the heart but it was caught and held out to the side. He gasped, mostly from shock, as Lucius held his hand steady while swiftly bringing the dagger the entire way through his arm, about two inches up from his wrist. Draco hurriedly stumbled backwards, pushing his remaining hand over the stump that was spurting blood rather quickly. The dagger had made an almost perfect cut right through and nothing was blocking the main artery that usually ran down to his hand.
Lucius smirked and dropped the detached hand to the floor, not bothering to arm himself with two knives. "Does that hurt?" He asked maliciously.
"JESUS!" Harry's voice was loud even over the crackling of the fires that still burned. "You fucking arsehole!" Harry struggled with the rope, trying to loosen them a little.
/Stop the bleeding, stop the bleeding./ His mind chanted the one thing he needed to do right now. He lurched to his left, having identified the only thing he could use and plunged his wound into the fireplace, going for the red-hot log. His face crumpled slightly as he winced but that was all that happened.
Lucius was laughing. "I'm glad to see it's as sharp as always, I took special care with that." He patted the dagger on his palm and started to walk over where his son knelt, arm in the fire.
Draco looked up and swerved out of the way of the next blow feeling the knife pass down behind his head and neck. A shot of pain rose up from his foot as Lucius' powerful carry through caused the knife to dig into the back of his heel, severing his Achilles tendon almost instantly. Draco elbowed Lucius in the face and then used his newly damaged foot to kick him away, even though it was excruciating. He tried to rise but his foot would no longer hold him up properly. he rolled out of the way as Lucius came back.
"I don't know why you're bothering, you know you can't win a fight against me, not without your magic."
He looked over to Harry and saw that the boy had turned all his concentration to getting out of the chair and coming to help.
"Without magic, you're nothing." Lucius sneered. "Sometimes I truly detested calling you my son. I'm stronger than you. I'm smarter, more cunning and more ambitious than you'll ever be."
"Yeah? Well I'm prettier." Draco spat back as he sat himself up. He received a kick to the face that left him spitting out blood and three teeth.
"You won't be at all pretty when I've finished with you."
A kick to Draco's chest and he felt his ribs splinter just before the back of his head hit the floor. He looked around desperately and saw his hand, still holding the knife and rolled out of the way of the next kick. He made it to his knees and caught the next one, pinning it to his side and had to take a second to recover. He was finding it very hard to breath after the impact to his ribs. He steadied himself and smashed his blistered stump into Lucius' groin and gave a smirk as the older man howled. Pushing him away, Draco basically launched himself at his detached hand.
Another hand grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him back just as he was about to reach his target. Lucius rolled him on to his back, standing over and lifted his torso up off the ground. "You were never better than me, boy. You and your traitorous bitch mother. I could have done so well without the both of you." He smiled cruelly. "I should have done this to her when I found out she was expecting."
Draco let out a stunned sigh as he felt the dagger sink into his stomach. A small drop of blood fell on his cheek from his father's nose. /Broken nose, those hurt./ Trusting his instincts, Draco's hand flew up and smacked Lucius in the nose again making the older man howl and release the knife in favour of clutching his face.
Draco pulled the knife out of his stomach and drove into the easiest place to reach, Lucius' thigh, making another howl. He found he was getting to quite like that sound. /Could listen to that all day./ He spun over onto his stomach and headed back for his hand, desperately wanting to get to the bead Alaric had given him. He could see the lump under the skin and snatched the hand up as he finally got close enough. He could hear Lucius swearing and standing up. The bead wasn't moving out very quickly but Draco was desperate for it.
"You ignorant little fool!" Lucius had pulled the dagger out of his leg and was now limping quickly over to where Draco lay on the floor, clawing desperately at his severed hand. "Why can't you just accept that I've won? You're nothing, NOTHING compared to me!"
Draco could hear how close he was and gave up on the entire idea of using the bead. he closed his eyes and prayed for luck as he slipped his dagger into the hand that was still attached.
Lucius was enraged by this point and hadn't even noticed what Draco had been going for. He arrived, Draco still showing him his back. "I should have gutted you when you were born!"
"No!" Harry yelled as Lucius went to swing.
Draco moved quickly, kicking Lucius' legs out from under him and making the elder wizard fall to the ground, landing on his back hard enough to wind him. Using the last of his dwindling strength, Draco rolled, stretching his arm out and slammed the dagger into his father's chest, through his heart. There was a moment of complete confusion in Lucius' eyes before realisation came through.
Draco sneered. "I was *always* better than you." He rasped out before turning the dagger slightly and then yanking it out with a loud slurping noise. Lucius let out a shaky breath, his eyes still wide from shock, and then went still.
All he wanted to do was collapse and not move for a very long time but Draco lifted himself on to his elbows and did an awkward looking scramble to drag himself to the other side of the room, to the chair. He cut through the ropes around Harry's left hand and then placed the knife in the boy's lap. "Cut yourself free, could you? I'm kind of exhausted right now."
Harry cut his bonds and stood up unsteadily, stretching his legs. He looked down to where the blonde was lying, breathing oddly. "Um, are you okay?"
Even at the state he was in, Draco could still do a fairly ridiculing look. "Of course, I'm just fine. Hell, it's not like parts of me are still bleeding." He spat sarcastically.
"Sorry, um, can I do anything?"
Draco nodded. "Yeah, actually. You can bring me my hand."
Harry screwed his nose up and shot a quick look to where the severed hand was lying. "Um, no thanks."
"Harry, don't be a dick and get me my hand." Draco rasped out before coughing slightly. A small drop of blood formed at the corner of his mouth when he turned his head. "I need it to call Sev or you know, we could just stay here and you can watch me slowly bleed to death internally." He coughed again. "That could be fun."
Harry reluctantly walked over and picked up the cooling, slightly rigid hand and brought it back to drop into Draco's lap as the blonde had managed to sit up.
"Thanks." He stuck the third finger in his mouth and pulled the ring off as Harry blanched again. Draco put the hand down so he could safely put the ring into his pocket. Then he stuck the pinkie finger in his mouth and pulled off the ring that Sev had given him. The one with the Snape family crest on it.
He fumbled with the hand again, slowly working the bead along under the stiffening flesh and then out the end. He struggled to place it side the ring as he was not accustomed to only have one hand to work with. He finally managed it and then gripped the ring tightly in his fist. He took a deep breath and then had to cough harshly from the action but pushed on anyway. "SEVERUS!" His voice sounded inhumane, even to him. He sighed wetly when he felt the bead heat up, thankful that it had worked.
Harry sat down next to him and pushed the blonde fringe out of Draco's eyes. "Is there anything else I can do?"
"No. Now we just wait for Sev." Draco opened his hand and showed the bead inside of the ring band. It was glowing. "It's a storage container, sort of like a back up generator. It had enough magic in it for me to send Sev a guidance spell."
"Why didn't you just make a portkey?"
"Not enough magic. I did the best I could."
"Thank you, for coming that is. But why did you?" Harry rested his hand on Draco's forehead as a calming gesture when the blonde dissolved into a bloody coughing fit.
Draco smiled in pleasure at Harry's touch but then snapped his eyes open. "You . " He trailed off, trying to convince himself that he imagined it. "You love me?"
Harry pulled his hand back quickly in realisation and opened his mouth to say something, but had to close it again when he couldn't really think of how to reply.
/I'm hallucinating./ "But you hated me .... I felt it, you ...." His voice trailed off as an idea occurred to him. "The Fury potion." He breathed out.
Harry fidgeted slightly, not knowing what to say.
"Well?"
"Yes. I took it. It was easier when I hated you."
Draco had to give him that at least, though wasn't too sure why Harry couldn't hate him without the effects of a potion. "You stopped taking it?"
"It kept wearing off, quicker and quicker. I got to overdosing point before I gave up on it."
/Shit. He truly loves me./ He didn't get a chance to respond.
Sev walked into the room and surveyed the scene. "Holy fuck." He said blandly.
"Yeah that about summons it up." Draco muttered back.
"Poppy will not be happy to see you back so soon."
"Tell her I said that she can go fuck herself if she asks."
"*I'm* glad he came." Harry cut in before Sev started in on a reprimand.
"I'm sure you are."
Draco laughed slightly, before breaking into more coughing.
"Draco?" He turned his head slightly to look at Harry. "Why *did* you come?"
Draco just smiled weakly as he felt Sev pick him up. His eyes slipped closed and he never heard the next few words that Sev said to the Gryffindor.
To Be Continued.
Warnings: I'm so sorry it took so long. Most of this was written months and months ago before I had even finished writing Foolish Tears. I just had to fill in stuff and then make sure it all flowed okay. 1 more part and then the Epilogue! YAY!
Golden Daffodils
--------- I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Part 27
He only got one spell off when he realised that the dagger wasn't sitting on a table. He walked through the door, blasted Lucius off his feet and into a wall before he mind finally noticed the whirring noise. His eyes flicked to the door, to the wire on the door then tried to follow where it went. The dagger had been in mid-air since his attack on Lucius.
He brought his hand up to deflect it as it headed for his stomach but only succeeded in having it go straight through his palm and stick there, when the hilt couldn't make it through his skin. He hissed in displeasure as Lucius slowly stood back up.
"It took me months to build that mini catapult. Painstakingly built without magic so that your precious little spells wouldn't detect it. You never were very thorough with your scans."
Draco could feel the ache start up under his skin as the curse continued to flow through his bloodstream. /Well, I guess I'll just have to do this without magic. Well, without *all* of my magic anyway./ He looked to Harry. /I can do this. I can./ He didn't reassure himself very well but the sight of Harry's bleeding lip helped. He felt the anger start to rise and welcomed it, giving it a few more memories to consume itself on. He snapped his head to the side and looked directly at Lucius.
The fireplace and most of the wall around it, burst into flames catching Lucius' robes alight. Draco's head pounded, using the magic while cursed was dangerous and painful but he gritted his teeth. The flames rose higher as Lucius pulled his smoking garment off and threw it away.
"Admirable trick, Draco. But I can do better." He raised his wand. "Ava ..."
Draco remembered the look in Harry's eyes when he had to push him away. Most of the floor around his father went up in flames and he took Lucius' lapse of concentration to his advantage. He pulled the dagger out of his hand and threw it, just managing to give Lucius a scratch across the cheek. It would be enough. A howl of protest went up and Draco had to clutch his head from the conflicting magic running through him, spiking the pain higher.
The flames started to die down, as he didn't have the energy to keep them going at full swell. Once a pathway was mostly cleared, Draco charged at his father and tackled him to the ground. "You just never leave me alone, do you?" He hissed and then punched him. "Even with your pathetic little master gone, you still have to be such an arsehole!" Another punch and then he reached for the dagger in his boot. But before he could stab him, Lucius grabbed his hand and kept it away.
"Physical fight, Draco? Don't you ever learn?" Lucius clutched the back of his son's head and then head butted him and threw him to the side, rising to his feet quickly. "I can still beat you down, boy." He picked the Dagger of Cadamine up and held it defensively as Draco got to his own feet.
Draco summed up the situation carefully. /Both have no magic, both have knives. I'm so going to die ..... again./ A quick glance to his right where Harry was still sitting helped him to steady his nerves.
"You'd kill your own son?" The bound boy hollered in disbelief.
"In case you hadn't noticed, Potter." Lucius snarled, not taking his eyes off Draco. "We're slightly dysfunctional."
Just then there was a blinding flash, the wards were being disabled. Lucius hadn't been ready for it but it didn't startle Draco at all. He jumped forward and swung his weapon. His father just barely managed to counter it, so Draco punched him with his other hand, feeling Lucius' nose break under his knuckles. He received a kick to his stomach for his troubles and he staggered back slightly, gasping for air. He moved forward again but Lucius was definitely ready this time and Draco moved just in time to avoid losing an eye. He slashed his hand up, opening a gash along his father's chest and ducked as a hand grabbed for him.
He swung again, going for the heart but it was caught and held out to the side. He gasped, mostly from shock, as Lucius held his hand steady while swiftly bringing the dagger the entire way through his arm, about two inches up from his wrist. Draco hurriedly stumbled backwards, pushing his remaining hand over the stump that was spurting blood rather quickly. The dagger had made an almost perfect cut right through and nothing was blocking the main artery that usually ran down to his hand.
Lucius smirked and dropped the detached hand to the floor, not bothering to arm himself with two knives. "Does that hurt?" He asked maliciously.
"JESUS!" Harry's voice was loud even over the crackling of the fires that still burned. "You fucking arsehole!" Harry struggled with the rope, trying to loosen them a little.
/Stop the bleeding, stop the bleeding./ His mind chanted the one thing he needed to do right now. He lurched to his left, having identified the only thing he could use and plunged his wound into the fireplace, going for the red-hot log. His face crumpled slightly as he winced but that was all that happened.
Lucius was laughing. "I'm glad to see it's as sharp as always, I took special care with that." He patted the dagger on his palm and started to walk over where his son knelt, arm in the fire.
Draco looked up and swerved out of the way of the next blow feeling the knife pass down behind his head and neck. A shot of pain rose up from his foot as Lucius' powerful carry through caused the knife to dig into the back of his heel, severing his Achilles tendon almost instantly. Draco elbowed Lucius in the face and then used his newly damaged foot to kick him away, even though it was excruciating. He tried to rise but his foot would no longer hold him up properly. he rolled out of the way as Lucius came back.
"I don't know why you're bothering, you know you can't win a fight against me, not without your magic."
He looked over to Harry and saw that the boy had turned all his concentration to getting out of the chair and coming to help.
"Without magic, you're nothing." Lucius sneered. "Sometimes I truly detested calling you my son. I'm stronger than you. I'm smarter, more cunning and more ambitious than you'll ever be."
"Yeah? Well I'm prettier." Draco spat back as he sat himself up. He received a kick to the face that left him spitting out blood and three teeth.
"You won't be at all pretty when I've finished with you."
A kick to Draco's chest and he felt his ribs splinter just before the back of his head hit the floor. He looked around desperately and saw his hand, still holding the knife and rolled out of the way of the next kick. He made it to his knees and caught the next one, pinning it to his side and had to take a second to recover. He was finding it very hard to breath after the impact to his ribs. He steadied himself and smashed his blistered stump into Lucius' groin and gave a smirk as the older man howled. Pushing him away, Draco basically launched himself at his detached hand.
Another hand grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him back just as he was about to reach his target. Lucius rolled him on to his back, standing over and lifted his torso up off the ground. "You were never better than me, boy. You and your traitorous bitch mother. I could have done so well without the both of you." He smiled cruelly. "I should have done this to her when I found out she was expecting."
Draco let out a stunned sigh as he felt the dagger sink into his stomach. A small drop of blood fell on his cheek from his father's nose. /Broken nose, those hurt./ Trusting his instincts, Draco's hand flew up and smacked Lucius in the nose again making the older man howl and release the knife in favour of clutching his face.
Draco pulled the knife out of his stomach and drove into the easiest place to reach, Lucius' thigh, making another howl. He found he was getting to quite like that sound. /Could listen to that all day./ He spun over onto his stomach and headed back for his hand, desperately wanting to get to the bead Alaric had given him. He could see the lump under the skin and snatched the hand up as he finally got close enough. He could hear Lucius swearing and standing up. The bead wasn't moving out very quickly but Draco was desperate for it.
"You ignorant little fool!" Lucius had pulled the dagger out of his leg and was now limping quickly over to where Draco lay on the floor, clawing desperately at his severed hand. "Why can't you just accept that I've won? You're nothing, NOTHING compared to me!"
Draco could hear how close he was and gave up on the entire idea of using the bead. he closed his eyes and prayed for luck as he slipped his dagger into the hand that was still attached.
Lucius was enraged by this point and hadn't even noticed what Draco had been going for. He arrived, Draco still showing him his back. "I should have gutted you when you were born!"
"No!" Harry yelled as Lucius went to swing.
Draco moved quickly, kicking Lucius' legs out from under him and making the elder wizard fall to the ground, landing on his back hard enough to wind him. Using the last of his dwindling strength, Draco rolled, stretching his arm out and slammed the dagger into his father's chest, through his heart. There was a moment of complete confusion in Lucius' eyes before realisation came through.
Draco sneered. "I was *always* better than you." He rasped out before turning the dagger slightly and then yanking it out with a loud slurping noise. Lucius let out a shaky breath, his eyes still wide from shock, and then went still.
All he wanted to do was collapse and not move for a very long time but Draco lifted himself on to his elbows and did an awkward looking scramble to drag himself to the other side of the room, to the chair. He cut through the ropes around Harry's left hand and then placed the knife in the boy's lap. "Cut yourself free, could you? I'm kind of exhausted right now."
Harry cut his bonds and stood up unsteadily, stretching his legs. He looked down to where the blonde was lying, breathing oddly. "Um, are you okay?"
Even at the state he was in, Draco could still do a fairly ridiculing look. "Of course, I'm just fine. Hell, it's not like parts of me are still bleeding." He spat sarcastically.
"Sorry, um, can I do anything?"
Draco nodded. "Yeah, actually. You can bring me my hand."
Harry screwed his nose up and shot a quick look to where the severed hand was lying. "Um, no thanks."
"Harry, don't be a dick and get me my hand." Draco rasped out before coughing slightly. A small drop of blood formed at the corner of his mouth when he turned his head. "I need it to call Sev or you know, we could just stay here and you can watch me slowly bleed to death internally." He coughed again. "That could be fun."
Harry reluctantly walked over and picked up the cooling, slightly rigid hand and brought it back to drop into Draco's lap as the blonde had managed to sit up.
"Thanks." He stuck the third finger in his mouth and pulled the ring off as Harry blanched again. Draco put the hand down so he could safely put the ring into his pocket. Then he stuck the pinkie finger in his mouth and pulled off the ring that Sev had given him. The one with the Snape family crest on it.
He fumbled with the hand again, slowly working the bead along under the stiffening flesh and then out the end. He struggled to place it side the ring as he was not accustomed to only have one hand to work with. He finally managed it and then gripped the ring tightly in his fist. He took a deep breath and then had to cough harshly from the action but pushed on anyway. "SEVERUS!" His voice sounded inhumane, even to him. He sighed wetly when he felt the bead heat up, thankful that it had worked.
Harry sat down next to him and pushed the blonde fringe out of Draco's eyes. "Is there anything else I can do?"
"No. Now we just wait for Sev." Draco opened his hand and showed the bead inside of the ring band. It was glowing. "It's a storage container, sort of like a back up generator. It had enough magic in it for me to send Sev a guidance spell."
"Why didn't you just make a portkey?"
"Not enough magic. I did the best I could."
"Thank you, for coming that is. But why did you?" Harry rested his hand on Draco's forehead as a calming gesture when the blonde dissolved into a bloody coughing fit.
Draco smiled in pleasure at Harry's touch but then snapped his eyes open. "You . " He trailed off, trying to convince himself that he imagined it. "You love me?"
Harry pulled his hand back quickly in realisation and opened his mouth to say something, but had to close it again when he couldn't really think of how to reply.
/I'm hallucinating./ "But you hated me .... I felt it, you ...." His voice trailed off as an idea occurred to him. "The Fury potion." He breathed out.
Harry fidgeted slightly, not knowing what to say.
"Well?"
"Yes. I took it. It was easier when I hated you."
Draco had to give him that at least, though wasn't too sure why Harry couldn't hate him without the effects of a potion. "You stopped taking it?"
"It kept wearing off, quicker and quicker. I got to overdosing point before I gave up on it."
/Shit. He truly loves me./ He didn't get a chance to respond.
Sev walked into the room and surveyed the scene. "Holy fuck." He said blandly.
"Yeah that about summons it up." Draco muttered back.
"Poppy will not be happy to see you back so soon."
"Tell her I said that she can go fuck herself if she asks."
"*I'm* glad he came." Harry cut in before Sev started in on a reprimand.
"I'm sure you are."
Draco laughed slightly, before breaking into more coughing.
"Draco?" He turned his head slightly to look at Harry. "Why *did* you come?"
Draco just smiled weakly as he felt Sev pick him up. His eyes slipped closed and he never heard the next few words that Sev said to the Gryffindor.
To Be Continued.