I'll Be There For You

IBTFY Four

Chapter Four: Split Second Decision

The quiet of the night was broken by glass and pottery shattering and statues and priceless antiques exploding. The house elves disappeared in fear of their master who was in a rage.

Blaise Zabini was furious. His errant husband has up and vanished, taking his heir with him. The first place he went was Malfoy Manor to see if he’d gone to his incarcerated mother. Narcissa professed her innocence when asked if she’d seen her son.

Blaise almost hexed the woman. But he didn’t want the Auror’s to intervene in family affairs.

Stalking through his home he tried to think of any place he might go other than the Manor.

The list was deplorably short. The only person he could think of was Goyle and that fat moron was out of the country at the present. It was times like this that he wished Nott was still alive. He was a great investigator, but the man had to go and get himself killed in the last battle.

He needed a reliable PI to track down Draco and Aiden. If he couldn’t have Nott then he knew of another possible candidate.

***

Harry stumbled through the floo late at night after a long day at his Auror training. His back ached and he could feel blood trickle down his leg where Sr. Auror Silverman grazed him with a cutting curse. Harry grimaced; the man loves his cutting curses.

He quietly made his way to the stairs keeping clear of the squeeks as best he could. He didn’t think that waking up his charges would be a great idea, considering half of them were children.

Harry was almost to his room when suddenly the door infront of him opens and out steps Draco Malfoy, clad in just his pajama bottoms. They stare at each other for a few seconds until Draco notices the blood seeping through his pant leg.

“Merlin Harry, your bleeding!”

Harry looks down at his leg and shrugs, “It’s nothing, I’ve had worse.”

“It’s not nothing, come on in and I’ll get it bandaged.” Draco opened his door wider to admit Harry waiting for the other to move.

Harry considered for a second to just turn around and head to his own room. He sighed and walked past Draco into the room.

As he looked around he realized that the room was Regulus Black’s old room. The same furniture was present along with a few slytherin banners.

Draco came in and shut the door heading to the bathroom. He came back out holding gauze and ointment. Harry stared at him.

“Bandages? Why the muggle way?”

Draco gave a sad laugh, “I’ve gotten used to doing things the muggle way. There were times when Blaise took away my wand and after… um… well, afterwards he left me to heal on my own. So I had to learn how to fix myself up.”

“What about wandless magic?”

Draco smiled, “I was never really good at wandless magic. Non verbal I can do, but I still need my wand.”

“Speaking of which, where is your wand? I haven’t seen your’s recently.”

Draco turned away sadly, “I couldn’t find it when I left. Blaise… he took it months ago. I haven’t seen it since.”

“You mean to say you haven’t used your magic in months?” At Draco’s nod Harry began to seethe.

“Harry, it’s OK. I’m away from him now right? Now let’s get you bandaged up. Strip off your pants.”

Harry tried to calm down, it was hard. Oh, he’d seen this kind of thing before, but it was never someone that he knew, someone he grew up with. Yes Draco was not his friend in school, but he’d never wish this kind of thing on another person, hence the reason why he started this operation.

He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out through his mouth. Sitting on the edge of the bed he stripped off his blood soaked jeans. The blood seeped from a long gash down his leg starting at his inner thigh crossing to the outside knee. He heard a gasp and jerked up to look at a slightly green Draco.

“Sweet Merlin, Harry, what were you hit with? You should have gone to St. Mungo’s for that.”

“That would be an invention of Silverman’s, my sadistic auror trainer. He love’s using it on all the trainee’s until we ‘learn how to dodge it’ he says.”

“Let’s move you into the bathroom. That blood needs to be washed off.”

Draco went back into the bathroom, Harry limping behind. Harry sat on the toilet seat as Draco ran the hot water over a clean cloth. Draco moved to Harry set to wash when it dawned on him where the cut was. His face flooded with color.

“Um, Harry…”

Harry glanced at him and suddenly realized what the problem was. “Hand me the towel, I’ll wash it.”

“No, I can do it.” He stepped forward and knelt at Harry’s feet. Very gently he began to wash the blood away, his face beet red the whole time. After all the blood was washed away Draco could see the wound better and deemed it not as bad as it seemed. He then set about appying the ointment and covering it with the gauze.

After he was done he stood up unconsciously brushing off this pants. Harry stood as well and Draco backed away, not wanting to crowd him.

“Thanks for your help.”

Draco blushed at this and Harry stared at the blond. He was not sure what brought this on.

“I… your welcome.”

Harry cleared his throat, “I should go.”

“Um, yeah…”

Harry turned and walked out the door unsure as to what just transpired.

TBC…