Blackbird

17 | For This Moment

Affectionately dubbed "Curly" by the other guards, thanks to the tight brunet curls he inherited from his mother, George Richardson was relatively happy with his life. He had a good job at Azkaban now that the Dementors had been dispelled, he'd gotten married to his Hogwarts sweetheart last year, and now they had a child on the way.

Officer Travis Purling, his new partner and supervisor, was a respected, if taciturn, guard from the old days when guards and Dementors had worked in tandem to keep the place running. People say that made the old guards numb, despite the Patronuses they used to keep the Dementors from affecting them too much. Curly hadn't really believed that, at least, not until now.

Being assigned to guard Harry Potter had felt like an honor at first, after watching them subdue him as his magic shook the entire island, terrifying guards and prisoners alike. But then Curly had been forced to watch as he was given dose after dose of Wolfsbane. As he clutched his head and begged for his fiancé. And then the hallucinations set in, and Potter began imagining Malfoy was there, and that was worse, somehow.

"This feels wrong," Curly had told Purling after a few excruciating days of listening to Potter's suffering.

The other man had shrugged. "This is the job. The boss says give him Wolfsbane, give him Wolfsbane."

And Curly might have continued to do so, if not for the Medical Release that had forced them to allow Draco Malfoy to visit.

Curly had disliked Malfoy immediately. his superior attitude and the accusations he'd leveled at them had immediately had put him on the defensive. But then, Curly had been unable to look away as Potter clung to him, and despite his coldness toward them, which now seemed pretty understandable, Malfoy had been incredibly tender with his fiancé.

Curly had been unable to keep himself from imagining his Alicia at home, and how he would feel if she had been in that situation. Maybe Potter deserved to be locked up, if he really had murdered someone in cold blood like people were saying, but forcing him to ingest Wolfsbane with every meal was cruel. It might even be slowly killing him, as Malfoy had implied. Curly knew he couldn't live with himself if that was true.

Curly stopped putting Wolfsbane in Potter's food and drink.

•••••

Draco Apparated to Wolf's Hollow the morning after he visited Harry, and immediately wished he'd come sooner.

It was a bloody scene before he even reached the house. Mathias was sprawled on the lawn, eyes wide and unseeing while his brother sobbed over his body. Kasper was gasping for breath, crawling toward the porch despite the kitchen knife that protrudes from his abdomen, leaving a trail of blood.

"What happened?" Draco gasped, kneeling beside him.

"Coup," Kasper gritted out as Draco rolled him onto his back. "I knew—she wasn't happy with the challenge results—but I never thought she—she'd—"

"I need to pull this out to heal the wound. I'm not even sure I can do this, I'm not a Healer, but if I don't try you'll—"

"It's okay, son," Kasper choked. "Just do your best. I wouldn't even have a chance without your help."

Draco hesitated for only a second, then wrenched the knife from the wound and murmured the best Healing Spell he knew for open wounds. Kasper screamed in pain, but the torn flesh immediately began to knit together.

"Stay here," Draco commanded. "You won't bleed out now, but you still need a Healer. I'm sending a Patronus to get one, okay?"

Kasper nodded, breathing shakily, and closed his eyes, finally allowing himself to sleep.