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Brynn

Chapter 4: Give me your hand

Harry carefully walked up the narrow corridor. The room with the child, as Draco called the only inhabitant of the house, was easy to find. While all other doors were thrown open, the one he was looking for remained shut.

He bit his lip, trying to suppress the wave of despair that threatened to overflow him. There was no one in this strange place he could count on. The first emotion he felt when he learnt that Draco was still alive had been relief, but right now he started to realise that maybe if he had died it would have been easier. Dealing with Voldemort was going to be hard, bordering on suicidal, even without his lackeys there to support him… but dealing with Voldemort when he had to take care of an insane companion was impossible.

He would have to abandon him… and that was worse than if either of them had died.

He pressed the handle and entered the room.

At the first sight the only difference between it and the sewers was the presence of a metal, hospital bed. He gulped and stepped in… No wonder Draco had subconsciously closed the door. The stink inside was nauseating.

Nevertheless, he ignored the consant protests of his over-strained stomach and approached the bed. The shape lying in it was utterly pitiful… By the state of the body and the cloth he would have guessed it was there for about a week – almost since they had been thrown into their confinement.

'Yeah, he is a Muggle… but something's different about him. Something's not right.'

He gently showed the stream of golden hair out of the face of the sleeping person. It didn't seem all that child-like to him… there was something about it… he just couldn't put his finger on what it was. He didn't think the address was at all appropriate. However, he couldn't be sure until they spoke to this person…

Following his half-suppressed Muggle insincts he searched for a switch. He found it – logically – next to the door. Sharp, electric light filled the room and he blinked a few times to adjust to it. It had been a long time since he was in a building where electricity was used – about a year. Funny, how he had almost forgotten…

'Scourgify.'

The mess around the person vanished, leaving only the pile of metal pieces. Harry himself had never seen anything like it, which lead him to another suspicion – this was not a Muggle colony. Wherever the uncontrolled Apparition had landed them, it was not within the reach of Brittish Ministry of Magic. They were safe from the Aurors…

…but so was Voldemort.

'Evanesco.'

The missing cover revealed the image he had already fleetly glimpsed in Draco's head. The boy – there was no doubt it was a boy now – lay half-curled, with two remaining limbs pulled close to his body. According to a series of quick check-up spells the boy was neither injured nor ill; his current state was due to the strange spasm that prevented him from moving and consequent dehydratation and starvation. He could deal with that. Even without a wand, but not too responsibly…

'Wait for a while longer, whoever you are… I'll be back.'

He wasn't sure whether his thought reached the sleeping mind, but if it did, he hoped it brought relief. The crease in the pale forehead slightly smoothed.

o

Draco was perfectly baffled. He understood none of the appliances in the kitchen, nor did he know most of the food I there. He could tell some of it was bad, because it stank incredibly foul. With some he wasn't sure… But in the cool box there was a bottle of milk that seemed pretty normal, and the fruit on the windowsill looked a bit like wrinkled apples… not that there ever were any wrinkled apples in the Malfoy Manor, but he got used to them going on missions with Potter. The irritating boy would never use charms to keep food fresh; he would claim that it was a purposeless waste of energy, or that using magic would get them noticed or… whatever. The point was, this was how wrinkled apples were supposed to look like.

Then Potter stood in the doorway, looked around, and set out about the kitchen, closing all the doors of the cases. He stopped by the second last and brought out a paper bag.

He glanced over Draco's shoulder and with a disinterested wave of his hand something slammed and there was light.

o

Harry shut the last case and turned on the light. He filled a jar with water, poured a glass-ful of sugar into it, and sat on the chair next to the oven, stirring the liquid with a spoon he had found – predictably – in the uppest drawer. He was aware of Draco's unwavering gaze all the time, but he was still in the process of gathering courage to look into his lover's eyes.

'Draco, bring me the wands.'

There must have been some left from those they had gathered. One, at least… although two would be preferrable. He wasn't sure about leaving such a weapon free for Draco to use; he would need a few days of observation to ascertain how much damage was done to the boy's mind – to estimate whether he presented a danger, or was rather harmless…

The blonde blinked and went to the door. He was almost out of the room when leant back in and with a sincere expression said:

"This is how wrinkled apples are supposed to look like."

And he was gone. Harry waited still… and when the front door slammed, silent tears ran down his face.

o

"I'm sure… they've gotta be here somewhere. He was lying a bit further down the road – yeah, here. Because we landed here, so he remained lying here. I thought he was dead, so I was lying there too, so that is probably where I had lost the wands, yes, that must be it." Draco bent down and picked up a wooden stick that seemed familiar.

"Yee… this one was mother's! So it was her who tried to slit Harry's throat! I knew she looked familiar… pity I had only stunned her… or no… though I suppose she didn't enjoy the melting too much. It looked like she wasn't happy about that. Anyway, mother's wand is good, cause it's lot like mine had been and it will work well with my magic… It already did when I levitated Harry…"

A cat with curious amethyst eyes walked past him, giving him a blatant gape.

"Hey, what's a kitty like you doing out at this time? You should be sleeping… ah, Dormiens."

The body fell on the road and Draco lowered the wand. Then he looked around and scratched his chin with its top. It let out a few sparkles that tickled. He laughed.

"So-o… Yeah, there it was, not here. Yes, there's still the pool of blood… gee… that's nasty. We're a civilised society! This is a town! You should do some cleaning here!"

Nevertheless, he managed to collect two more stolen wands before he guessed that it was all they had managed to Apparate with themselves.

"… but I must have lost it along the way. Still, I can do a lot of magic without wand now, so I didn't need it to bring him upstairs. I didn't need it to make the kid sleep, just as I made the kitty sleep… I can make a lots of things sleep…"

o

Edward woke up without the obligatory jerk – he became used to not moving during the time he had spent in the bed. Somehow it was a bit easier on him to do so when he knew – well, not certainly, but at least he had a hope – that he wasn't going to die.

His eyes widened instantly – there was light in the bedroom even though it was still dark outside. The beautiful yellow light fell on a scary apparition that must have been provided by his delirious mind.

There, above his bed, stood a naked man. He seemed to have been injured recently yet his wounds were already healing. Despite them, despie the pain he must have felt, he leant over and, pushing stubborn dark locks out of his eyes, stretched out a hand with a glass.

Edward closed his eyes and in the last instant convinced himself not to sigh. Even sighing hurt. Like… hurt worse than just being conscious. He wondered if the dressed blonde he had seen before and the promise of help had also been merely his imagination.

He opened his eyes again, but the vision hadn't disappeared. It hadn't even changed. The man put the glass away and with an expression of concern put a hand on Ed's face.

Ed wanted to struggle, afraid he was going to be choked to death, but he was still paralysed…

Suddenly the pain disappeared and the man removed his hand. He smiled. Sadly.

And Edward knew he was dead, and the man was an angel that had come to take him to the trial. He had beautiful haunting green eyes that contained infinity…