Would You Like A Hand?

19 | all

The structure turned out to be a strangely small barn, empty except for some scattered hay and useless tools.

Someone must have taken all the harmful tools and left, wanting them for self-defense.

The kid let go of Draco's hand after a silent moment of standing in the barn and went to claim a patch of hay.

Discreetly, Draco made a campfire just outside the barn doors using a spell.

He glanced at Kyle every now and then, making sure he was still alright. The kid was looking through his pockets and checking for his knife and other items, as if Maria was still here to remind him.

At one point, the kid had walked up to Draco, tears pouring out of his eyes, and Draco had wordlessly hugged him.

He cried until he fell asleep, at which point Draco laid him on a patch of hay by the doors where he sat, prepared to stay up all night to guard the area.

Exhausted from the day's events, the Slytherin boy found his eyes drooping, but he managed to stay awake enough to notice a silhouette walking toward the barn sometime in the night.

The fire that he'd made earlier was smoldering, mostly gone. But maybe that was what caught the silhouette's attention.

It limped closer and closer, and Draco was aware that he'd stood up, wand out.

Somehow, in the moonlight, Draco recognized Don's face.

Unsure whether the man was dead or alive, Draco stayed still.

But then the man croaked, "Draco?"

And the wizard knew he was still alive.

Rushing over, hiding his wand, Draco said hurriedly, "Yes, it's me."

There seemed to be a lot of blood on the man's clothes, and Draco hoped it wasn't his blood.

Almost dragging the man into the barn, Draco set the man down against the wall and asked if he had any injuries.

"Just a leg injury," Don wheezed, "and maybe something on my side or back, but I'm okay."

"What happened back there?" Draco asked as he attempted to look the man over, but Don waved his efforts away.

The man answered tiredly, "Maria practically threw me out of the house and then locked the door behind her so I couldn't get back in... she died fighting the undead."

Draco didn't say anything else. He thought of Narcissa, protecting him at all costs.

Maria shouldn't have died in a place like that.

If Draco had used his magic, maybe he could've done something - he didn't know what, with the mob of undead, but maybe Maria would still be here with them.

"Why did you let me come with you?" he asked Don, his thoughts a jumble of guilt and confusion.

"Oh, Draco..." the man smiled at him, "When I first saw you, you looked like a dying man. How could I leave you behind?"

Draco didn't answer, merely wallowing in his guilt even more. The man had wanted to help him, and he didn't even help Maria.

"I'll watch over tonight. You go to sleep," he told Don, helping him lay down.

It wasn't long before he was out, and Draco took the chance to lift the man's shirt up to examine his injuries.

It was worse than he'd thought.

Maybe Don had hoped to hide that fact from Draco. He would never know.

What's that healing spell again? He racked his brain. Episkey?

He tried it, but the gashes on Don's body didn't heal much.

He tried it multiple times, but nothing happened other than his voice getting louder in the barn in frustration.

Don was going to bleed out in the middle of the night, and there was nothing Draco could do about it.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, but only one thought ran through his mind.

What should I do?!

Before he could decide on anything, Don's arm suddenly whipped around and knocked Draco away. He cried out involuntarily.

What? Dizzy, Draco tried to look up, but his vision was blurry.

Worriedly, he remembered that Don was right beside Kyle. The blurriness faded away after a few seconds, and to his horror, Draco saw Kyle blink himself awake as Don rolled over and attacked the kid instead.

Don was already dead.

He must've died while Draco had debated with himself what to do.

And in the time that he'd spend thinking, he'd let the man become a monster.

Mind scrambled, Draco yelled, "Incendio!"

He'd meant to say immobulus, to stop the man from attacking his son.

Instead, he set the man on fire as Don's arm crashed down on Kyle, and a loud crack resounded at the same time that the kid wailed in pain.

"Kyle!" Draco yelled in horror, rushing forward and pushing the man away.

His arms burned where he collided with fire, but he paid no attention to it as the man stumbled away.

"D-dad?" Kyle muttered, dazed.

No, Draco looked down at the kid, knowing this was it.

Kyle was too small to withstand a hit like that, and Draco was watching the entire family die today.

Don wailed, a raw scream that chilled Draco's blood.

Snarling, Draco pointed his wand at the undead man.

"Reducto."

Don was blasted backward, into the wall of the barn.

Draco didn't hesitate as the man stood up again.

He's already dead, he told himself.

"Confringo!" The man, engulfed in flames, stopped wailing and fell over.

Turning around to look at Kyle, Draco knelt over the small body and called his name.

"Kyle? Hey, kid, answer me."

The kid only moaned, and Draco was sure he had broken ribs - probably punctured lungs, too.

"Dad," Kyle's eyes were shut tight.

"I'm here, kid," Draco uselessly let him know. He couldn't do anything. Why am I so useless?

"Draco," the kid coughed harshly, his body shaking with effort, and the Slytherin boy watched on as Kyle struggled in vain to breathe properly.

There was a spell that mended bones, he knew there was. But he couldn't heal the punctured lungs or internal bleeding - what use was magic if he didn't know anything?

Draco wasn't even sure when the kid stopped moving.

At some point, when the sky was starting to lighten up, Draco realized he was staring blankly at a still body.

In sudden shock, he recoiled and stood up too quickly.

His legs couldn't support him in time and he fell backwards again.

Scrapes formed on his hands, but he didn't care.

This wasn't supposed to happen, his brain brokenly put together.

None of this should've happened.

In his daze, he pointed his wand at Kyle's body.

I have to - he can't become a monster.

"Incendio."