Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
A/N: I'm rating this an M for content – so please, beware. Thanks to my readers and please review!
September 5, 2001
He leaned against the nearest tree he could find. Desperately, he wanted to wipe his face off but his hands were sticky with blood and – he supposed – brain matter.
It was disgusting; the sight in front of him, but Blaise looked anyway. Lucius Malfoy's corpse laid there, his skull almost completely destroyed. Blaise had been in the jungle on Luzon in the Philippines, near the Mayon Volcano in Albay Province, trekking through to find a city and stay off the radar when Malfoy had surprised him.
In the struggle, they'd rolled on the ground for a bit, trading punches and kicks and, sometimes, bites. And then Blaise got the advantage and Lucius's head was so promisingly above a rock that jutted out of the earth. He'd hesitated and Lucius had spat a comment at him, saying how once he was gone, his family was next and oh, oh, how they would suffer.
Later he would think back on it and shudder, remembering the blind rage that had encapsulated him. He couldn't see, couldn't think, and couldn't hear Lucius's screams as he slammed his head against the rock, again and again, until he stopped moving.
He looked around. There was blood everywhere. It was on him, on his clothing, on the trees and soaking into the ground. He examined himself and found that there were long, deep scratches on his back that were oozing blood, slowly though, since they had begun to clot. He winced as he pulled away from the tree and more cuts began to bleed afresh.
Falling to his hands and knees he searched through the underbrush to find his wand and cast some healing charms. The effort alone made him pass out. The pain of skin knitting itself back together and bone marrow hyper-producing blood and introducing it into his system was agonizing.
The next morning he woke up facedown in blood-soaked dirt and halfway in a pile of smashed brains. Half a second later, his brain registered the sounds of someone coming through the jungle towards him
His first thought was, "Oh, this is not going to be a good day."