Draco followed with Narcissa and Xerxes came last with a grinning, very self-satisfied Rodolphus, who was wiping blood off of his knuckles with a handkerchief.
They left the Parkinson's winter gala and Harry found himself back in Malfoy Manor where Lucius had already called for the house-elf to get the medical supplies.
Rabastan ushered Harry to sit down and he sat next to him looking very worried and concerned as he used his own handkerchief from the inside pocket of his robes to dab at the blood on Harry's fingers, taking over Lucius' task of holding Harry's bleeding arm up. Lucius took over again and used his wand to cut the sleeve from his robe and the shirt underneath before carefully removing it. Harry grimaced when he felt the pinch of a piece of glass being pulled out with the cloth.
His arm wasn't as bad as his hand, but Draco still went grey when he saw the state of him.
"It's alright, Draco. This is nothing."
"Nothing." Draco breathed incredulously.
Harry smiled as Lucius unstoppered a vial and dipped a clean cloth into it so that he could wash and cleanse Harry's arm and hand.
"Wormtail cut my arm open worse than this at Voldemort's rebirth. He cut through the main vein in my forearm, all the way down from my elbow to my wrist." He said mildly. "That bled so much that I needed a blood replenisher and I could have died if I hadn't gotten to Madam Pomfrey when I did." Lucius' movements stopped suddenly and everyone present flinched at Harry's use of Voldemort's name, but none of them said anything and it lasted only a moment before he carried on. Harry ignored the sting and the lingering burn of the potion as he instead watched with morbid fascination as someone actually cared enough about him to clean up his cuts.
Rabastan's arm slipped back around his waist and his hand gripped his hip in comfort as he pulled Harry to rest more firmly against him, worried still that he might collapse.
"This will be easy to heal." Lucius told him in the quiet of the room as everyone watched Harry's arm bleed. "They are simple, straight cuts."
"My chest hurts too." He admitted. He rather liked being taken care of in this way.
"Your chest?" "He shoved me into one of those stupid tables, I wasn't prepared for the attack, so I landed on the edge of it so it's probably just bruised."
"I'll take a look at it after I've sorted out your hand and your arm." Lucius told him and he sounded pleased too. As if he liked knowing that Harry wanted to be cared for.
Lucius took his wand to Harry's arm then, meticulously healing the cuts, leaving nothing, not even a scar behind.
Rabastan was the one who used another, clean handkerchief to gently swipe away the lingering blood after the cuts were healed. Harry could barely restrain himself from grinning happily as he sat there, Rabastan beside him, Lucius crouched in front of him, as they both tended to his arm.
"I'm going to kill that Rowle." Rabastan swore furiously, his voice tight with anger and a vicious promise. "Don't kill him." Harry said mildly as he watched Lucius heal the last cut.
"Don't tell me that you still like him after he did this to you?" Rodolphus hissed.
Harry looked up at that. "No! I didn't like him in the first place." Harry said tightly. "I just meant that it would be much more fun to…keep them alive, so to say."
Rodolphus' anger cleared and he grinned that wide, evil smile that allowed Harry to clearly see how a younger Rodolphus had easily tortured two people into insanity without losing any sleep over it.
"Yes, keep him alive so that his punishment lasts longer. I do like the way that you think, Harry."
"What about Flint?" Rabastan asked. "You seemed to be cosying right up to him!"
"Are you jealous?" Harry asked. "You told me to stand up and defend you, from your face I could see that you wanted me to fight for you. This is me fighting for you. If Flint lays his slimy lips on you again, I'll break him piece by piece!"
Harry grinned at Rabastan, he felt utterly elated and he rested his body against Rabastan.
"I don't like Marcus. No, that isn't quite right. I do like him, but not in that way. He's going to tutor me with my Runes! He said he's going to be very blunt and hard on me, but he'll get me to achieve higher than everyone else. It's going to be brilliant!"
"But you don't love him? You don't want a betrothal with him?"
Harry shook his head. "I didn't stop loving you! Of course, I don't love Marcus or want a betrothal with him." He insisted firmly. "You're a thick-headed idiot, but I still love you. I met Marcus for half an hour at the most, that's not long enough for anyone to fall in love, but I do think that he'll be a good friend. I just wanted to make you jealous so you'd damn well stop trying to push me towards other men all the time! I don't want anyone else, I wanted you to realise that for yourself. So I decided to let you see what me being with other men was going to be like."
"I'm definitely not going to do that again." Rabastan told him. "Listening to Rowle ask for you to be betrothed to him, seeing Flint holding you, carrying you, kissing you…I was so angry and I hated that he was doing those things to you when I wanted it to be me. I was on my way over to you to pull you into my own arms when Rowle came up behind you and hit you. Then my anger transferred easily to him."
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