Would You Like A Hand?

16 | and

"You've never seen a movie before?"

The kid was clutching a flat box in his hand, trying to show Draco what it was.

Draco stammered, "Er... n-no?"

He'd never heard of such things and figured it was a muggle invention. The kid made it sound like a wizard photograph.

"That's too bad... we can't watch anymore because the monsters will hear us."

The little boy looked up at Draco, his innocence clearly still intact. The wizard had been afraid to go near the boy - afraid he would accidentally taint him with blood.

And death.

But that was for the end of the story.

Now, Draco was entertaining a little boy while undead monsters roamed the world.

Kyle was an obedient child. Maybe it was because of the real-life monsters out there, but he seemed to listen to everything his parents said and had a good relationship with both of them. He also seemed content with everything as long as his parents were with him, which struck Draco as odd, since the so-called monsters were destroying the world and everyone's lives, and yet Kyle was mostly unfazed.

At least he isn't annoying, Draco had thought.

Maria, on the other hand, seemed not to like Draco at first. She didn't say much to him, although she was polite when she did. Of course, as mentioned before, he soon learned that she was just a quiet person. Even her conversations with her husband were a quick affair. She wasted no time in getting a point across.

She talked to her son a fair amount, though, and even then her words were not wasted on meaningless lies or chatter.

She taught him something with every breath she took.

"Remember, we must be quiet or the monsters will hear us."

"Don't forget to check your pockets every morning."

"Do you have your backup knife?"

Kyle didn't usually need the reminders, but Maria would catch every time that he forgot to do something and tell him kindly but sternly to do it.

He would've grown up with these survival instincts ingrained in him.

The family of three traveled without a certain goal in mind, merely trying to take each day step by step. They seemed patient enough to wait this disaster out and hope it ended someday (although Draco didn't know how much willpower that took, since it would seem impossible that this could end from a muggle's point of view). They protected each other and although it was tiring, they were inherently happy to be with each other.

It showed through their actions; Draco wondered if it ever looked like that between him and his own dead parents.

He felt out of place with these three survivors; his signature hair was far too light and so was his skin, even though Don had fairly light skin colour.

Not to mention he was a wizard and these three were obviously muggles.

On the fourth day, he starting using charms here and there to help out. As he traveled with them, he began to sneak in more spells and charms when he could to make their lives easier as well as his own.

And he practiced wordless magic as much as he could because he couldn't afford having the undead hear him (let alone this muggle family).

On the fifth night, when everyone was settling in to sleep, Kyle asked his father to let him see his card tricks again.

"Have you seen any card tricks before, Draco?" Don asked as he pulled out a deck of cards from his backpack.

Draco figured this was another muggle thing, so he shook his head.

Don chuckled and said, "You've been missing out; first movies and now card tricks?"

He explained that each card in the deck was different and let Draco see the cards.

For his first trick, he let Draco pull a random card from the deck.

"Look at it and remember what it is, alright? And then give it back to me." Don held out his free hand for Draco's card.

Not knowing how this worked, Draco showed the card to the kid as well before giving it back to Don.

Don put it back in the middle of the deck (asking them, "This is the middle, right? You see this?") when they nodded their agreement.

But then he put a hand over the top of the deck, slid the first card back and forth, and when he lifted the top card, it was -

"The four of clubs!" Kyle exclaimed, all smiles and happiness, "That's the one!"

Draco stared in disbelief, too shocked to say anything.

"So, what do you think? Pretty cool, eh?" Don asked him, smiling his kind smile.

"But... how did you do that?" Draco couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"It's magic!" Kyle answered for his father.

But that didn't make sense to Draco - muggles doing magic?

"Are you a wizard?" he asked incredulously.

Don only laughed and said, "Well, a wizard sounds powerful doesn't it? This is merely an illusion, of sorts."

Ah, he didn't understand my question - he's not a real wizard, Draco didn't realize until he felt his heart sinking that he wanted to be around familiar people and places again.

But still, how did he do that card trick?

Don showed a few other different tricks, each one making less sense to Draco than the previous.

"But there must be some way you're doing that," Draco remembered thinking aloud.

Don had replied, "But if I tell you, it wouldn't be magical anymore."

Draco had pondered over those words. Did he mean to say it wasn't actual magic? But of course it wasn't magic, right? Don was a muggle, through and through... right?

So then how did he pull off that card trick?

That was the last question his brain came up with as he fell asleep that night.