Love Lasts

Chapter 7

The water felt icy in the November air, but he kept swimming. Just keep going. Don't breathe out. Keep going. Draco dove straight down, figuring that's where Harry went.

Why didn't you put a charm on yourself? That would have been the obvious choice, but no! You decided not to! You idiot.

Draco kept swimming deeper and deeper until he reached a place where the moonlight couldn't reach the water. Now I'm blind. That's just bloody marvelous.

He managed to light his wand and held it in between his teeth. His throat was closing up and he knew he wouldn't be able to last much longer. He swam back up and breathed in the air that felt icy against his wet skin.

Draco breathed in deeply, then cast the bubblehead charm on himself. It's better to look like an idiot than to be dead.

He quickly dove back down and resumed his search.

The reeds all around him seemed to morph into creatures that made him nervous. He saw one or two grindelows and fired spells at them, but the only thing that came from his wand was hot water. The grindelows didn't seem to like it though and they backed away with angry red patches on their skin.

Draco kept swimming deeper and deeper until he saw something strange sticking out of a clump of weeds.

He moved closer slowly, not wanting to get attacked if it was a creature, but when he saw what was there, his mouth dropped.

Harry was there, pale and ghostlike, but he was holding the arm of a boy. He must have been first or second year he was so small. Did he drown?

Harry's wand was out and was barley clutched in his fingers. Draco looked back up and noticed the distortions across the boy's face. He saved the boy. He saved the bloody first year and not himself!

Draco looked down and saw what had trapped the boy. Reeds were circling his feet and he had several scratches all over, so Draco assumed he had had a run-in with a grindelow.

Draco swam down and severed the reeds and the boy drifted up just a bit. Draco cast a bubblehead charm for Harry, but feared it was too late. He was so pale.

Draco grabbed the boy's arm and pulled Harry up by the waist. It was slow going and very hard on his legs, but soon they reached the surface.

The first breath of the cold air seemed to rejuvenate Draco and he managed to pull the two limp bodies to shore.

As soon as Draco had laid them both on the ground, the boy spluttered and coughed. Well. Isn't that just bloody marvelous. Even his thoughts sounded sarcastic.

He looked back at Harry and saw that he still wasn't moving.

What was that thing that Muggles do? Right. CPR. I saw someone doing it a while ago. Madam Pomfrey was explaining how to do it. Let's see if I paid attention.

Draco moved next to Harry and put his hands right over his heart. Is this right? I think so. You do thirty then breathe. Right? Let's hope that's right. Draco put pressure on Harry's chest.

He remembered Madam Pomfrey saying that you have to use a lot of pressure. That you're most likely going to break a few ribs. Great. I save him by hurting him? What kind of system is that? Okay...here we go.

Draco put all of his weight into the chest compressions. He thought he heard a crack or two, but just remembered that Madam Pomfrey said it was normal.

After fifteen compressions, he moved to Harry's head. Harry's head had moved limply from side to side at every breath. Great. This is just great.