"I don't need you to save me. Especially not you." Draco spat on the dusty ground in front of Percy, who took a step back and just glared back his captive's insolent face.
"Have it all worked out? Your plan has always been to be the 'Death Eater cornered after your leader was slain?'" Percy cackled and reclaimed his spot, standing boldly on Draco's rebellious spittle. "You need me, Malfoy. I have connections in the Ministry."
"Sure, you have loads of connections, in the Ministry... in the Centaur Liaison Office?" Draco was wand-less, his robe in tatters, dusty and haggard and all he could really think of was that he wanted a bubble bath. Sometimes when things were really hopeless, the silliest things occurred to him. It brought a grim smile to his face.
Percy took the grin for mirth at his expense. "I'm a war hero now, Malfoy."
Draco snorted. "You and half of the Wizarding world..."
Closing the gap between he and the younger man, Percy jabbed his wand into Draco's sternum, forcing him flat against the rock. Weasley's breath reeked with the stench of blood and death, just like everything on this earth that the heavens had turned its back on.
"I can tell them you were a spy for the Ministry. I am connected with higher ups in Ministry. No one's alive or to be trusted to say otherwise, Malfoy. Most of the Aurors are dead now, and the Order members wouldn't be in the loop on something like that. We can say you were working with Shacklebolt." The man lay just a few feet from them, gasping for his last breath. Percy pulled his wand from Malfoy to point it at the man. After a mumbled hex, Kingsley shuddered out a final breath and stilled. "You and I both know I can do this."
"What I don't know is why." Draco glowered back, trying to be defiant, but how? Weasley had just killed a comrade, right in front of him. Malfoy tried to appear composed, despite his trembling.
"I'm gaining power. What I don't have, Malfoy, is money. I don't have a Manor to live in, or a name that commands respect. As you say, half of the Wizarding world can claim heroism now. I need money to execute my plans. You need respectability. I can get you out of this sordid mess. You actually haven't killed anyone, after all."
Draco's facade of malice crumbled at having his cowardice called out. "I was..."
Percy's expression mocked him with its placid expectancy. "Waiting for the right time?" Percy's free hand cast behind him at the last of the wounded either dead, dying or dragging themselves to safety. He gestured to where he'd thrown Draco's wand after he'd snapped it. "Seems unlikely to happen now. So, do we have an agreement?"
"You just want my money, right?" He tried not to sound hopeful. Money could be easily shifted.
Draco's anxious tone fed Percy's victorious grin. "At first."