Magic and Mystery Coil by Allegory_for_Hatred

Loyalty Club

"Dazai!"

Blaise's eyes were flying open and he was shooting across the distance before the basilisk was even fully collapsed. He saw, in dragging slow-motion, as Dazai's body went limp. The knife slipped from his fingers and fell by his feet. A second later, Dazai followed. Knees first, then the rest of him followed in limp collapse. Blaise was just a second too late to catch him, and Dazai dropped to the ground with a splash! His head bounced against the stone.

Blaise kneeled to roll Dazai over so his face wasn't in the water, and let out a relieved breath when his best friend coughed out blood and water. Still breathing. Still alive. It shouldn't have been a concern but it was, starkly beating against Blaise's rib cage. A pit of horror and worry made it hard for him to breath. But he needed to keep his own head above water, if he wanted to get a grip on the situation.

Just like last year, with the mountain troll and with incendio, blood was pouring sickly out of Dazai's nose. The water floor hadn't cleaned it away, just smeared it, and a second later more blood gushed out in its place. The entire bottom-half of Dazai's face was just red, red, red.

It was something out of a nightmare.

(Actually, Blaise was certain he'd had several nightmares like this. Walking in on Dazai to find him covered in his own blood. Dying.)

"Is the basilisk..?" Pansy asked somewhere behind him. Blaise didn't look up to find her.

"Dead," he said, eyes snapping up to the basilisk for only a split second. Then, he was back to watching Dazai. "You can open your eyes."

Dazai was limp when Blaise pulled him into his chest. His head lolled away, but Blaise moved him back so his face was pressed right against his beat-beat-beating heart. The closeness had Dazai's blood staining his robes a muddy red. Blaise didn't care. Like this, he could hear Dazai's breathing, and feel the pulse in his neck, and that was enough.

"That's what we were running from?!" Pansy shrilled. "It's huge!"

The basilisk's corpse was coiled around all of them, a massive wall of scales. It's head was at least ten-times the size of Egg's. Even dead, the way its mouth hung open—teeth primed to bite—was terrifying. The gaping maw was only a foot from where Blaise and Dazai now sat. Blaise could scarcely comprehend how they'd managed to run from it's strikes. They were going to have to scale its body if they wanted to escape the coil it had fallen around them in death.

"But he killed it," Draco breathed. "Dazai killed it. The petrifications are done."

"For good," Pansy said. Hesitantly, she put a hand on the basilisk's side. She winced back immediately. "It's cold."

Draco grunted. A second later, Blaise heard his splashing steps and then Draco was crouching down beside him, brows furrowed as he looked over Dazai's unconscious form. At the blood still spilling from his nose. "Is he okay?"

"You remember when he killed the mountain troll."

Draco nodded. If anyone had imprinted that day into their memories, it would be Draco. "He just needs to sleep it off," he agreed. "We all do. Then—oh Merlin!"

Draco dove forward, hands clamping over Dazai's arm—the one that had been hidden by Blaise's robes before.

Blaise startled.

Cold dread washed over him when he realized Draco's hands were quickly turning red with blood. It was welling up between the gaps in his fingers. He shifted to free Dazai's arm more, but couldn't inspect the wound himself. If he moved, Dazai would fall back into the water.

Draco's voice was fast and hard. "His arm is cut. When did he get hurt?!"

What? Blaise stared.

There was blood.