Boy - (A 'Blaire Zabini' sequel) || Draco Malfoy

6 - The Stranger

Draco blinked at the child before him, questions racing through his mind.

The first thing - the most prominent thing - to Draco, was that this child was terrified.

This was clearly evident by the wet patch that had rapidly appeared at the front of the boy's shorts.

And rather than be disgusted, revolted even, Draco had the strangest desire to scoop this child - this small scruffy child who wore a funny cardboard hat on top of his thick mass of hair - into his arms and protect him against the world and everything in it that was evil.

"That's mine," the child repeated in a tiny voice, his whole body trembling as he lifted a small shaky hand; finding courage through his fear.

Draco glanced back down at the Scottie dog in his own hand and swallowed. He realised his heart was racing - thud thud thud against his ribcage. But it wasn't from fear... it was from something else. But it couldn't put his finger upon what.

"I used to have a friend that had one just like this," he murmured in a gentle, unthreatening manner. He didn't want to scare the child. He just wanted to make him feel safe.

He took a moment to swallow down the lump in his throat from mentioning her. It hurt, it never stopped.

Yet despite the pain, he found that he wanted to talk to this child about her; that somehow this small boy who looked no older than four, maybe five, would listen to him in a way that even his mother couldn't.

The child was drawing shaky shallow breaths, his hand still raised defiantly as he waited for Draco to return the much longed for Scottie dog.

But he couldn't hand it over... not yet.

"It's not safe here," Draco found himself saying, stalling for time. "You shouldn't be wandering around on your own."

The boy said nothing.

Draco glanced up and down the long, seemingly never ending tunnel, wondering where he'd come from - there didn't seem to be any part along the wall where there was a gap or a turning. It was as though the child had appeared out of nowhere.

The flutterings of panic started up in his chest as he wondered what he should do. He couldn't just walk away and abandon this child; he'd been brought down here for a reason, and he knew that he was meant to somehow save the boy.

"What's your name?" Draco asked, remaining crouched down as he tried a different tact.

The boy whispered something but Draco couldn't catch what he said, so he leant in further, trying to meet his eyes, to show him he wasn't a threat and that he could trust him.

"What was that?" Draco encouraged gently. "What did you say your name was?"

"F-Fox the Explorer."

This time, the boy tilted his face up towards him as he whispered the words, and Draco had to steady himself as a sudden sensation akin to having the air being sucked out of his lungs whooshed through him.

It was as though he was looking at himself. Yet, that wasn't right because this child had thick dark wavy locks, and even in the green glow of his Patronus he could make out skin the colour of copper and mouth the shape of a rosebud.