Ink and Parchment ~ blood and bone

32

Eliza didn’t even register landing in the foyer of Malfoy manor. The only thing she could think about was Tom. Tom’s barely there breathing, Tom’s blood on her hands, Tom dying beneath her. Everything else had faded away, she felt like she was underwater.

Even through the portkey travel she hadn’t moved her hands from him. Tom looked paler – how long had he been bleeding for now? How much blood had he lost? How much longer did he have?

‘Narcissa’ someone screamed and she belatedly realised it was her – her throat felt torn over the shout that ripped through it.

“Narcissa” she screamed again, her mind slowly coming back into focus and not a moment too soon. Both Narcissa and Lucius barrelled down the staircase, panic stricken.

“You have to heal him” Eliza pleaded “you have to heal him please, please”

Because Narcissa was the only healer she knew, the only family she had who she could trust with this, trust with him.

A moment passed and it felt like eternity. Tom’s heartbeat stuttered beneath her bloodied palms.

“Lucius get the blood replenishing potions and my healing kit immediately. Bring them to the guest bedroom” Narcissa demanded and strode forwards towards Eliza and Tom who were staining the white marble floors red.

“Eliza I’m going to have to lift Mr Gaunt up now, you’ll have to let him go. Okay?” Narcissa ordered her tone comforting but unyielding. Eliza wanted to argue but instead she reluctantly moved her hands away from Tom.

Narcissa swooped down and she must have cast a lightening charm because she scooped Tom up into her arms far too easy for it to be natural. Eliza trotted behind her in a daze, following her through the twisting corridors of Malfoy Manor until they entered the guest bedroom.

Narcissa vanished Tom’s dirty and torn shirt the second she lay him flat down on the bed. The puncture wound looked even more gruesome against Tom’s pale alabaster skin.

Eliza watched on as Narcissa cleaned the wound and staunched the bleeding. She watched as Lucius stumbled in ladened with potions and a heavy medic bag that Narcissa immediately dug through with well-practiced ease. She watched as Narcissa slowly and methodically healed him, patient and unwavering.

Eliza watched as Narcissa slowly knitted Tom back together, watched as she pulled him away from the brink of death.

“He will be fine” Narcissa said eventually breaking the stifling tense silence that had settled over the room while she worked. Eliza nearly went boneless with relief.

“Now Eliza” Narcissa said coming to sit across from her, pulling one of her bloodied hands into her own “Tell us what happened”

It was not a question, it was a demand and for the first time in a long time Eliza found herself caught between the ardent need to tell the truth and the unwavering conviction that she had to lie.

“We can help you if you tell us Eliza” Lucius said from beside Narcissa, his sleeves were rolled up and the dark mark was stark against his skin, blacker than the night and writhing grotesquely. She thought they had both forgotten she could see it in the chaos.

They deserved the truth.

But Eliza didn’t have time to tell them the truth.

“I have to go” she said instead – not a lie, not quite truth “I have to – to sort everything out. We’ve been gone for too long”

“Eliza just tell us what happened” came Narcissa’s soothing voice and Eliza felt something snap inside her

“I can’t” Eliza shouted brushing a bloodied hand over her matted hair.