Chapter Text
Terence wakes up to screaming in the hallway. Someone was calling his name, in a way that made Terence skin crawl. Something was wrong. Had there been another attack? Was it a Slytherin that had gotten petrified this time around? Was it someone he knew? Was it Penelope? Was that why Miles was now barging into the 7th year dormitory?
“Terence, wake up. We need your help. Now. It’s Potter.” Miles said while shaking Terence’s shoulder.
“Potter?” Terence asked in confusion. “What’s wrong with Potter that you need me?”
“He…” Miles had to swallow away a lump in his throat. It was only then that Terence saw that Miles was trembling. His eyes looked big and scared, and not like how they would widen just before a Quidditch match and Miles his nerves would take over; no it was clear that Miles was really terrified right now.
Terence got out of bed, not waiting for Miles to find the words to describe what was going on. If Miles was this scared it must be bad. Terence didn’t take the time to pull some trousers over his pants or think of grabbing a rope to hide his ‘dare to be proud’ nightshirt. He walked towards the door and just asked ‘where?’
“Bathroom. The younger year’s bathroom.”
He stepped out of the door, just when Marcus rough voice started complaining about the noise. Terence didn’t care for once what Marcus thought, or how he would feel. No, right now he was running through the hall, towards the bathroom where something horrible was happening to the Potter kid. It seemed only yesterday that Terence had helped Professor Snape look for him when he had gone missing one evening, only to find him on the edge of deaths doorstep after a beating. Marcus had thought it had been funny. The idiot. Terence wished Marcus would stop believing in all the bullshit his parents told him. There was no joy in harming others, especially defenceless ones like the young Potter.
Terence opened the bathroom door. He had not been ready for the scene playing out before him. Adrian was sitting on his knees, his arms around a shaking and crying Draco, who was trying to crawl closer to Potter. His arms stretch out to the pale boy lying on the floor. The dark stones were covered in blood and broken pieces of a mirror. Terence had to balance himself in the doorway. It felt like his legs were knocked out from under him. He struggled to get his breathing under control. This was worse than last time he had found Potter like this. This was not someone else work. This was a young boy trying to end his own life because they had all made it unbearable for him.
In seconds Terence was moving, kneeling down next to the boy, pulling his bleeding arm up to stop some of the blood flow. The cut was down his arm, not across it. This had not been a cry for help; this was a real death wish. Not even Jonathan had cut his wrists like this in one of his many attempts to end his life. He had always made sure there would be time for people to find him. But this, this was a sure way to lose blood quickly, to give people only minutes to save you. If you were lucky enough to be discovered in time.
Miles had run back into the bathroom, with some other students on his heel. One of the girls screamed and Terence blocked them out. He had to think. And quick, before it was too late. He looked up at Miles and made eye contact.
“Get Snape, now. Blow up his door if you have to, you understand.”
Miles nodded and turned around in a hurry, already running before he even left the room.
“I need a rope, something to tie his arm off. Judith, give me the belt of your dressing gown.”
Judith didn’t seem to register what Terence had just asked of her. She looked around the room with her hands on the knot in the belt around her dressing grown.
“NOW, Judith,” Terence screamed at her and she suddenly sprinted into action, undoing the knot and pulling her belt from the dressing grown. She knelt down next to Terence and gave him the belt while taking over from holding up Potter’s arm. Terence tied the belt around the arm, pulling it as tight as he could, hoping it would be enough to keep the boy alive until real help arrived.
Terence looked around and his eyes fell on Draco. His eyes were feverish, his gaze fixed on Potter’s pale and lifeless face, his shaking arms still reaching for the boy, tears streaming down his cheeks, his head shaking in denial.
“Get him out of here, Adrian,” Terence commanded, only to be overshadowed by the loud screams coming from Draco.
“NO, NO, I WON’T LEAVE HIM!”
Draco hit around with his arms, trying to stop Adrian from pulling him away from Potter. Until he just went limp in Adrian’s arms.
“Please,” he uttered in a small broken voice.
Nobody in the bathroom moved or said a word. The brokenness in Draco’s voice made them fight tears from forming in their eyes. Terence remembered to well how he had felt when he had found Jonathan once like this. He had been just as broken and scared.
“Patrick, come help,” Terence commanded. He needed to get to Draco, help him through this. Make him understand he was not alone in his pain.
Patrick rushed forward and took over pulling the belt tight around the arm so Terence could move. He moved over to Draco and Adrian and he pulled the young boy in his arms. Draco’s hands grabbed his nightshirt and pulled him even closer.
“Safe him, please save him,” Draco begged.
Terence didn’t know what to say or do other than what they had done so far. He sighed in relieve when Professor Snape ran into the bathroom and started to shout commands at the students around them. Snape had pulled out his wand and was singing some incantation while following the deep gash on Potter’s arm with his want. The wound was closing and as soon as it had stopped bleeding, Snape took Potter in his arms and walked out of the bathroom. He took one look at Draco in Terence's arms and told Terence to keep him there, away from the hospital wing.
It was hard to hold the crying boy in his arms. The memories of the first time that Jonathan had tried, now over two years ago, came all flooding back, the desperation, the fear, the self-blame, all of it. And how was it that Terence had missed the signs now? How could he have missed it? Hadn’t he sworn to make sure something like this would never happen again? Not after Jonathan had finally found a way to end it all. When he had left Terence alone after a year of fighting with him to stay, to get him to try to see the light at the end of the tunnel they had to go through for their love for each other?
After a while of just sitting there, holding Draco close to his chest, someone laid a hand on Terence’s shoulder. He looked up to see the warm smile of Penelope.
“Let’s get him to the other bathroom so we can clean him up,” she said in a matter of fact way. And together they managed to get Draco on his feet. He clung on Terence’s arm all the way down the hall. It took some time to get Draco out of his pyjamas that were stained with Potter’s drying blood. Penelope pulled Draco under the hot stream of a shower and then turned back to Terence.
“Go get cleaned up and only come back if you can handle it.”
Terence nodded in conformation and turned out of the bathroom. In his own dormitory, he pulled his nightshirt off and just stood there for a while, looking at the colourful letters on it, now stained with the blood of a boy that might die tonight.
“He’s not Jonathan, Terence,” a rough voice spit out. “Stop blaming yourself for once.”
“No, he’s not. Potter didn’t try so we would notice him. He cut his arm in a way that only people that looked up what the best way to do it is. Like someone who really wants to not wake up afterwards.”
“Shit,” Marcus responded.
Silence stretched between them.
“I had hoped never to go through something like this again.”
“My neither, Marcus.”
Terence pulled a clean shirt out of his trunk and pulled it over his head. There was no way he would go back to sleep after this, not until he knew for sure that Potter would pull through. And there was Draco, the young kid that is an amazing chaser but seemed to have been carrying around a big secret all year. A love that was forbidden by his family. Terence was sure of that, knowing his own struggles with his parents. The troubles Jonathan had to go through. And the Malfoy’s are even bigger on appearances and statue.
“I need to get back to Draco,” Terence said.
“The rumours are true then? He’s like you?”
Terence didn’t miss the small traces of disgust in Marcus his voice. It hurt to know that his former best friend still didn’t understand.
“It looks like it.”
“That will sure piss his father off.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it will. Not that he cares about that right now, since the boy he apparently loves just tried to kill himself.”
“I’m sorry,” Marcus said while Terence was already walking out of the room. It sounded sincere for once. Sometimes it was hard to remember they had all been good friends once. Before Terence and Jonathan had fallen in love; before Jonathan had become depressed; before he had killed himself.
There were more people in the common room by now, discussing in whispering voices what had transpired tonight. Theo Nott and Vincent Crabbe were already making fun about it. They didn’t seem to remember that Gregory, who was sitting with his legs pulled up to his chest, had lost his brother only a year and a half ago. Or maybe they didn’t know. It’s not like the Goyles wanted people to know that their eldest son had killed himself because his parents had disowned him because he was bent. Did Gregory even know why his brother had ended his life? Terence should talk to him one of these days, make sure he knew that Jonathan did had people who cared about him, who had tried to convince him to stay.
Penelope was already drying of Draco when Terence got back to the bathroom. She had thrown a big fluffy towel around the boy. With a smaller towel, she was gently drying his hair, making sure the blond locks didn’t tangle. Draco just looked at his hands, now cleaned from the blood that had stained them only moments ago. Someone had brought some of his clothes to the bathroom and Terence helped him dress.
“Is Snape back jet?” Penelope asked.
“No, I haven’t seen him.”
“Can you,” Penelope started. She turned her face away from Terence and swallowed. “I need a minute, Ter.”
“Go, I’ll look after him.”
Penelope left the room, tears already falling from her eyes. All the seventh years will be crying sometime tonight. This was too similar to the events of their fifth year. And Potter was even younger, only twelve years young. And they had all let him down. They had all believed he had something to do with the attacks. He was the one that had been at all the crime scenes; he was the one that could talk in Parseltongue. He was the weird one, always hanging out with that Gryffindor girl. The one with no friends in Slytherin. What had happened to ‘Slytherins stick together and take care of their own’? They had all failed him. He was one of them and they had let others treat him like he was not. They had treated him like he didn’t belong.
Terence took Draco back to his own dormitory. Marcus left as soon as they came in, leaving them be. Terence was sure it was Marcus doing they were left alone for the rest of the morning. It had been hard, holding the crying boy, hearing him blame himself for what had happened. Terence wished he knew what to say to take the blame away, but no-one had ever managed the same for him, so he just let the boy cry and scream.
Around lunchtime, Draco had calmed down a bit. He didn’t want to go down to the Great Hall to get something to eat and Terence let him go to his own dormitory, hoping Snape would come back soon to tell them Harry was okay.
It was just before dinner when Snape finally made an appearance, telling everyone that Potter would pull through. He said we should all look closely at how we had treated him this last couple of months. Snape hoped he could be proud of his house again soon. Terence promised himself that he would take them under his wing, Draco and Potter. If Potter felt the same as Draco, then they were going to face a lot of hate in their own house from the likes as Flint, Nott and Crabbe. But it would be worth helping them if it meant that there will not be another Jonathan in this house.