Tremble
(The Train to Nowhere)
This drabble contains possible spoilers.
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“You’ve been a good friend,” Harry says, holding the trembling body of Truls, who’s gasping for air. “Far better than I have been for you.”
“Don’t,” Truls tells him, before the magic tearing at his body forces a pained whimper out of him. He’s pale and sweating and in pain, but there’s nothing Harry could do to make him feel better. This – all this agony – is part of the healing process.
“Even if you will not stand the sight of me after this,” Harry continues quietly, “you will always find a friend in me.”
“Won’t ever… hate you,” Truls hisses through clenched teeth. “I could not.”
Oh, how Harry wished for those words to be the truth and nothing but. He knows better, though. Knows that magic as it unwinds from the mind could nudge things on its way out. Knows that the sudden absence of the magic of a life debt that has been there for years will change things. He cannot let himself count on Truls’s heart to remain unchanged.
He hopes, though, that Truls’s affections will not disappear with the web of the life debt.
Truls trembles in pain, and Harry holds him tighter.
marlowfication 