All who wander

If Draco tried very hard, he could remember a time when he had been as scared as he was right now.

He was doing the best that he could. He'd set Potter up against a tree, but he hadn't had anything to cover him up or protect him with, and his inner polite aristocrat was revolted.

Ok, so he'd been a little reluctant to leave Potter lying about in the woods, but he wouldn't want to leave anyone like that—let alone his only company on this stupid island. Anyway he would only be gone a few hours, and he had walked due North, there was no way (he told himself) that he could lose Potter if he walked in a straight line. No way at all.

Though walking in a straight line was bound to be unprofitable to his goal. That stupid hut could be anywhere, and Draco had a suspicion that this island changed its size any time it pleased. After all, they had walked halfway around it in less than an hour, and the way to the waterfall had been less than two, but the walk back had taken them four hours at least. True, they had taken that er…time out, but it still should not have taken so long. Besides, he had been walking for at least an hour now in a steady direction and he had yet to leave the woods.

He decided he would never walk through the woods at night by himself anymore as well. He was petrified on so many levels by noises and glimpses of animals, and the fact that Potter was going to probably die before he could find some first aid or help that he was barely functioning as a human—much less to the levels he was accustomed to expecting from himself.

Draco was leaning against a tree taking a small break, peering back into the woods in the direction he had come from as if he might see Potter propped against the tree where he had left him. He'd been trying to shake this urge, the inane wish to go back and check on Potter before he searched any further, all night. It'd be pointless to turn back every few steps. The tree felt strange behind him, spongy and cold to the touch. Every now and then it made a strange rustling noise and he wondered idly what sort of tree it was. He glanced up into the branches to try and identify it and gasped at what he saw. What a flipping enormous fairy!

Sure, he knew all about the fairy folk, he was a wizard after all…and he was used to all manner of magical creatures hanging about everywhere, but this was clearly something out of the headmaster's mind alone. She was huge, the branch bending beneath her weight as she peered down at him. Her nose came to a point and she resembled nothing more than a giant cat with wings. For a moment Draco felt ferret-like terror at the sight of her.

Opening his mouth he tried very desperately to get some sort of sound to come out of it, in any of the four languages he spoke, but nothing came. All his years of breeding and training and sneering and teasing and veritable verbal diarrhea had come to this—he had nothing to say to an enormous fairy.

She smiled then, and her teeth were as purple as her hair. What was it with the headmaster and the color purple? When she spoke, her voice was more like water running over a beaver's dam than any voice he had ever heard. It was broken and gushed in places, but it had a constant flow.

"What would I have to say to an enormous fairy?" she asked, and giggled.

Draco scowled. "I'm not a fairy."

"Aren't you?"

His frown deepened. "Could you help me?" he asked contemptuously. "My friend is injured and we've lost our hut."

"Why would I help a rude little fairy?"

"Because he asked."

"Did he ask nicely, as though he thought she could really help?"

Draco sighed. What was she? The question fairy?

She smiled again and ruffled her blue wings. "Yes!" she laughed.

"But that wasn't a question."

She shrugged. "What would she do if she could only have one word that wasn't a question?"

"Ahh," he said, and rubbed his eyes. "A mind-reading question fairy was just what I needed right now."

"Would you call her Alicia?"

Draco sighed. He bowed slightly and did a flourish with his right hand. "Draco Malfoy is pleased to meet you, Alicia. Now, could you possibly help me and my friend? He was gored by that blue deer, and I think he's probably bleeding to death in a clearing back there."

"Did she already know his friend needed help? Has she already been watching you since you came in the forest? Has she already carried your friend to the cave behind the waterfall for you?" She smiled.

"Wait, can't you just tell me where the hut is?"

"Is it still on the island? Has it left her realm of vision?"

"You can't leave the woods?"

"Yes!" she laughed. "Is Draco Malfoy always this clever?"

Draco smiled slightly. "Of course he is!"

Alicia raised her eyebrows and let out a delicate snort. "What is in his pockets for 'like laaater'?"

He flushed and looked down at the ground. "That was entirely Potter's fault."

"Yes!" she agreed.

Draco thought he might truly like this fairy, enormous or not.

Alicia snorted. She fluttered her wings and descended from the tree with surprising grace, given her size. "Would he like her if she wasn't helping him?"

Draco frowned. "Possibly."

Alicia smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. Draco felt some of the tiredness seep out of his bones, but not nearly enough.

"Thank you," he moaned.

She nodded, but looked at him seriously. "Is it possible that there are two men in these woods who are looking for you and your friend?"

Draco brightened. "Is one of them your creator?"

Alicia's nose seemed to bend down slightly and her eyes shown with anger. "Was she created by the Dumbledore, or did he just give her a new home?"

"A new home, of course, I'm sorry." Draco almost felt sincere. It seemed to be enough.

"Will you ask her the question again?"

"Is one of the men Dumbledore?"

"Does Dumbledore wear a black hood, a mask like dry bone? Does Dumbledore have hair of raven black, or gold spun?"

Draco gasped. "Where are these men?"