Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warnings: violence.

The next day, before Harry could come up with a way to make his obliviousness look a little less like he was just wandering around with his head in the clouds, everything got a little weird. Malfoy had been gone ten days, and Ron had taken to pacing, mumbling threats while Harry, Dean, Seamus or Neville babysat him. Seamus and Harry were sitting on some stairs, to some kind of dungeon (of course Malfoy would have extensive dungeons in his house, probably so he could practice lurking), watching Ron, who was glaring at a suit of armor, muttering about how his mum would take Ginny's imminent death.

Further down the dungeon there was a scream, echoing suddenly sharp, and Seamus and Harry leapt to their feet. Alarmingly though, Seamus grabbed Harry's arm, and Ron's and tried to drag them up the stairs, away from the racket. Harry wrenched out of Seamus' grasp, bolting down the hallway. He rounded a corner, but before he could progress any further, the younger Slytherin that had gone with Malfoy and Ginny nearly ran him down. He had Ginny hoisted over her shoulder, her face pale, but eyes open. The Slytherin glared at Harry, but Ginny looked relieved, and flailed an arm down towards an open door, but when she opened her mouth to talk, she started to cough instead. The Slytherin held on to her more firmly, and shooting Harry one last glare kept plowing down the hall, hopefully towards some kind of medical attention.

Harry sprinted into the room, and skidded to a halt by the crumpled body in the middle. Malfoy was laying still, gasping for breath, the shaft of an arrow hanging out of his chest. His lips were red with blood, and his shirt was a tattered mess, his back leaking blood all over the dusty floor. Before Harry had time to react, someone shoved him out of the way, scooping Malfoy up.

"Where's help?" The high, elegant voice came from a thin, palomino centaur, who had lifted Malfoy up easily, as if he was a rag doll. Her high cheekbones and narrowed features looked angelic with her white blond hair, and Harry just turned, moving out the door, everything sort of blurry. He could hear a weird sound as she followed, and when he ran up the stairs, she set her jaw, and scrambled up them, slipping and jumping her way up the human sized stairs sort of awkwardly, still holding Malfoy like a dead toddler in her arms. Harry led her to the make shift infirmary, where Ginny lay, deposited on one of the mattresses. She was propped up on an elbow, and looked a little nauseated, but much better off than Malfoy, though she paled visibly as soon as she saw Malfoy.

The centaur laid Malfoy down next to Ginny, gently, and Ginny mumbled thanks. The centaur nodded, and said, her voice still foreign, exotic, and hypnotic, "I'll fetch the other two."

Ginny nodded again, but before the centaur had been gone more than a moment, before Harry had a chance to ask what had happened, the Slytherin boy came in, Mandy and two younger girls that helped her sometimes hot on his heels, and behind them, Dean, and Ron.

There was some mumbling, but Ginny was moved to another bed, and a small Ravenclaw that Harry vaguely recognized began shoving potions down her throat, while Ron and Dean watched in concern. Harry knew he should be by that bedside, but instead, he was drawn to Malfoy's, where Mandy had ripped his shirt off, and barked at the other girl, a Hufflepuff, Harry thought, who ran out, face looking a bit grim. Mandy gritted her teeth, and pulled out the arrow shaft from low on Malfoy's chest. She pressed a wad of cloth to it, looking around wildly, her eyes settling on Harry.

"Come here, push this, hard against his chest, we can't let him lose anymore blood."

Harry nodded, mutely, moving forwards, pressing the cloth against Malfoy's ribs, hard as he could. Up close, Malfoy looked even more pale than Harry remembered, his lips ashen and grey where they weren't stained by blood. He looked like a thin, grungy shadow of Harry's old school rival, and the weird shuddering sounds as he tried to breath made Harry feel sick to his stomach.

Mandy rushed back, unstopping a tiny vial, moving Harry to the side, pulling off the compress, and dumping the clear liquid into the sickening puncture wound before too much blood could bubble out. She covered it again, and struggled to flip Malfoy over, "Here, Harry, hold him upright, so I can see his back, but hold this over his chest ok?"

Harry eased the unconscious boy up, stifling whatever twisted deep in his chest when Malfoy's head lolled to the side, like a pathetic, broken doll of some kind. His back was covered in proud flesh, risen, angry, raw, covered in sticky blood and grime from the cellar floor and wherever they'd come from. Mandy cursed, and got up, running out of the room, returning moments later with a thick orange paste and a bucket. She grabbed another cloth, wringing water on Malfoy's mangled back over and over again, and Malfoy groaned softly, still unconscious, his body stiffening instinctively from pain. Mandy ignored him, and kept industriously cleaning until she was pleased, and then slathered the orange paste over his whole back, liberally.

"Lay him on his stomach, give his back a chance to rest, hold on a moment and I'll get a bandage for his chest."

Once she'd wrapped his chest up in what felt like miles of gauze , she nodded, looking a bit tired, and Harry laid Malfoy down, stomach down on the dry bit of the bed. When he looked up, he realized Ginny was sitting up, and Mandy had moved off, and was helping the Palomino centaur with what looked like a small, gangly centaur with a disproportionate body to leg ratio, as another centaur with a bandaged arm looked on.

Harry hesitated for a moment, but sat on the edge of Malfoy's bed, facing Ginny. "What happened?" He asked quietly, trying not to look at the blood splattered on the hem of his shirt.

"We met two herds, but some death eaters caught up with us, took us to a- dark room, I don't know it was some place, and we were blindfolded, but they only had me and dad, and then he transformed, went berserk, so I could climb out a window, but it was pretty high up, and we were surrounded by rocks, but Hec came with the centaurs eventually, I don't know what they did to him up there while I was down on the ground, it felt like forever. We got 'em though, we started sending centaurs over a couple of days ago I think, before we were caught, mostly the really little ones, the rest that will come will get here on their own. They aren't happy about it, Harry, they don't really trust us, just trust us more than they trust You Know Who. It was Willow that really save Da though, without her, he'd still be back there."

Harry spent the rest of the day sitting between Malfoy and Ginny's beds, leaning against the cool stone wall, thinking over everything. He didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but Malfoy had saved Ginny. Someone he wouldn't have touched a year ago. He might be a confusing, terrifying arse, but maybe he was exactly the enemy.

Surprisingly, Ron sat next to Harry, maintaining the same vigil over the two, quietly watching as assorted Family members came and talked to Ginny and hushed-ly stood around Malfoy. They watched as the centaur colt rose on his shaky legs, taking the blonde centaur, Willow's hand. Ron was permanently a deep purple color around her, as it would appear female centaurs didn't wear clothing either, and Harry felt distantly as though he should be more alarmed, but he couldn't be bothered with anything that wasn't concern for Ginny (oh alright, and a bit for Malfoy) right now.

Finally, Ginny drifted off to sleep, and Willow led the colt away, the bandaged, surly looking young male centaur following, giving Ginny and Malfoy soft looks, and then Harry a dirty look for seeing him do it.

Eventually, the light started to fade from the windows, and Malfoy opened an eye, coughing, and croaking, "Water."

Harry and Ron both froze for a moment, before Ron hesitantly got up to go get Malfoy a glass of water. When he returned, Malfoy pushed himself up a bit, wincing, and took a slurp of the water gratefully, licking his lips, before he lay back down.

"Is she alright?" He asked quietly, tipping his head in Ginny's direction. Ron nodded, and mumbled something, then rose and fled.

"Err, he's sort of, put off, because you aren't evil and all. He'll be alright," Harry said, feeling jittery the moment Ron fled. Maybe he should follow his friend…

"Sorry to disappoint," said Malfoy, a tired smile curling on the edge of his lips. He shut his glassy grey eyes, and for a moment looked like he had peacefully returned to sleep.

"What's wrong with me?" Malfoy asked, his voice still hoarse, eyes still closed.

"Err someone shot you, and someone errr, sort of stabbed you a bunch or maybe burned you? I don't know, no one actually told me," He said, realizing with every word that escaped his mouth how much of a clueless git he sounded like.

"I know where the arrow came from. Why do you always sound like an idiot when you talk?" Malfoy's voice was thick with sleep, sounding lazy and almost amiable, despite his word choice.

"Not all of us lived in Manor's growing up, some of us peasants were raised in huts." Harry was suppressing a smile, shrugging off Malfoy's jibe easily. Malfoy was so weird, he was mortally wounded but he still had energy to insult Harry.

"I can't believe they're letting a Gryffindor look after me…" mumbled Malfoy, his voice drifting off into sleep, and Harry's smile widened, and he rolled his eyes, but leaned forwards, reaching out, and pulling the blanket up around Malfoy a little more securely.