You're kneeling in the dirt, sharp pebbles and branches digging into your skin through the thin fabric of your trousers. You had half a mind to recognise the pain it caused you, but the physical ache was secondary to the mental distress you were experiencing in this moment; Sebastian was now lying on the ground, unable to hold himself upright any longer. Chest heaving and breaths coming out short and laboured, he was clutching his side and letting out a pained groan whenever you tried to move him. One of the spells your attackers had fired at him had knocked him over, causing him to fall at such an angle he seemed to have bruised one of his ribs, badly.

"Sebastian" you say, trying to keep your voice from shaking. The last thing you wanted was cause him even more discomfort. "I need to check if your ribs are broken. But I don't know the spell to check or fix it so-" A pause. "I need to do it the old-fashioned way. And that's going to be painful."

That makes him scoff and immediately wince in pain. "Can't- Can't be any worse than it is right now" he grinds out between gritted teeth, trying to give you a reassuring smile. What a terribly him thing to do, always trying to play tough.

Weren't you almost out of your mind with worry you would have rolled your eyes at him, but alas, things had gone majorly downhill once again, as they seemed to do fairly regularly for you.

Shaking off the nagging thoughts in the back of your head you slowly, carefully move your hands to his injured side, feeling over the area just below his chest. There wasn't any helping it – his multiple layers of clothing were in the way, and you had to be sure.

Your fingers make quick work of the buttons on his shirt, nimbly unhooking each of the little fiends, leaving the boy in front of you shirtless and shivering within seconds.

"If you had wanted to see me naked, you only had to say so" he jokes, or at least tries to. You don't tell him that his voice sounded too pathetically high pitched through the agony and instead give him a stern look only. You stop short, however, when you see the hint of a blush on his face. Not so confident after all, it seemed. You take a second to study his face before moving back on to the task at hand. This situation had absolutely nothing laughable or suggestive to it for you. Your friend was wounded, suffering. Because of you. Once again.

Oh what a feast for the prickly little spiders in the dark depths of your heart and head this would be. More self-loathing and fear to cloud your mind and poison your thoughts with.

When your hands softly touch the warm skin of Sebastian's chest, he shudders again and immediately follows it up with another groan.

"I have barely touched you."

"Just get it over with" he grunts, but you take no offence at his sharp tone.

Slowly you let your hands move over to his side and downwards. There were no obvious injuries to observe, and no bruises had formed yet, but you could feel a slight bump, at the very bottom of his ribcage. Barely there, but as soon as you apply more pressure Sebastian hisses and almost let's out a cry. Damn it all. Maybe not broken, but definitely cracked.

You weren't well versed enough in healing magic to fix broken bones, nor were you a trained Healer. You knew enough about human anatomy from your time previous to enrolling at Hogwarts, but that in no way blessed you with enough knowledge to know how to heal this. The only thing you could do was try and make it better, for the time being. Ease the pain and discomfort, if only for a short period of time.

"Sebastian, the fall must have cracked one of your ribs. I have seen a few healing herbs just behind the cave – They won't fix you, but they can help with the pain. For now. I won't be long. If you see or hear anything or anyone approaching, yell for me, okay?"

The thought of leaving him here after already being ambushed does not sit well with you in the slightest, however you had no choice if you wanted to aid him in what little way you could.

"Your worry for me is touching, really, but I can still wield my wand with my other arm. I am not completely helpless."

Merlin's beard. Boys. "I didn't say you were. Ugh, just- Just be careful and call for me if anyone comes near you."

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry. I will be okay. But be quick. I don't want anyone to come find me lying in the dirt with my shirt undone like I've just been left in the middle of something exciting."

You gape at him. "What is wrong with you, joking in a situation like this? You're impossible." The last part you grumble quietly as you turn your back to him and stalk towards the cave. Unbelievable that boy.

"Doesn't he realise that he could have died?" you mutter absentmindedly to yourself as you crouch down, picking at different little flower buds and greens. Then again, it might be his way of coping. Wouldn't have been the first time for him to play off his anguish with jokes and playful teasing.

A wave of shame washes over you. Maybe you had been a bit too harsh, but your own emotions were all over the place. Questions swarming your head, attacking any rational or calm thought. Who were the wizards that attacked you? How did they know where you were? How did they know about Isidora's magic and its potential? And most pressing of all: what do they want with you?

You weren't prone to be afraid or fear for your own safety. It was your friends and loved ones that you were most concerned about. It should have been over after you sealed the last repository away and Isidora's magic with it. It should have been over. You were supposed to go about the remainder of your school life like every other student. Instead, Ominis vanishes, Anne is still suffering and Dark Wizards are still after you. Maybe you really were cursed.

If only Professor Fig were here.. The thought makes your throat constrict painfully and you squeeze your eyes shut to banish it as well as the emotions that came with it into some dark corner in your head, There were more pressing matters right now than to wallow in grief again.

When you return with the herbs in hand you find Sebastian right where you had left him. He was still conscious, thank Merlin, but he seemed to be struggling more with each passing minute. You resume your previous position of kneeling in the dirt next to him, observing the rise and fall of his chest for a few seconds before handing him some of the purple-coloured flowers you had brought with you. Their petals were barely the size of a button, but the smell they emitted was unpleasant to say the least.

As if sensing your thoughts, Sebastian scrunches up his nose as he takes them from you and gives you a pained look.

"Please don't tell me I have to-"

"..eat these" you finish the sentence for him. "I am afraid so. They don't taste as bad as they smell, you will be fine."

He eyes you and then the flowers suspiciously before having a sigh and shoving them into his mouth in one swift motion. His reaction is almost immediate, as he suppresses a gag and swallows them down with seemingly great difficulty.

"They help with the pain" you say quietly while grinding the remaining herbs and plants into a makeshift paste with the stones scattered around his body. It was similar to the healing paste you have showed the people back at the Hamlet how to make just a few days prior. Although not nearly as potent as magic, they sped up the natural healing process considerably as well as ease any ailments or afflictions caused by the injury.

"This will hurt a little, but I will be as quick as I can."

As your hands hover over his bare side, you can't help the nervous tremors making them unsteady and shaky. You weren't sure if this was going to help Sebastian, but it was the only thing you could think of and you prayed to whoever was listening out there that it would do something at least.

The green paste touches his skin and you can feel him supress a shiver. Carefully you rub it on the bruised area, making sure his skin would absorb as much of it as possible. When you brush over the spot where you believed to feel the slightest bump earlier he lets out a sharp hiss of pain and his hand flies up to your arm, squeezing it almost painfully tight.

"I'm sorry" you whisper as you keep pressing the paste into his skin as best as you could.

The whole ordeal took no longer than a couple of minutes, but Sebastian's face looked as white as a ghosts', and he seemed to be even more exhausted than before.

"Merlin, this sucks" comes his voice from beneath you, annoyance clearly evident. You look at him in question. "If we knew enough about healing spells, this could have been fixed in a heartbeat" he clarifies, and you frown.

"Sebastian, you should not depend on magic entirely, for everything. What if you're ever without your wand, without the knowledge of spells, or in a situation where you cannot wield magic, for whatever reason?"

He looks at you as if you had suddenly grown a second head.

"Why would I ever be without magic?"

You look at him, dumbfounded. "Well, take right now as an example. We don't have any experienced healers back at the hamlet, neither of us knows how to heal injuries like this and we can be glad to not be in the middle of nowhere, but relatively close to the others."

It baffled you, the wizarding world's sheer dependency on magic and utter lack of any basic knowledge on .. well, anything really. Then again, had you not spent at least a considerable amount of your youth in the Muggle world, you would probably be just as ignorant.

Something shifts in Sebastian's expression at your words, and you suddenly become wary.

"How do you know so much about non-magic healing?"

You stiffen immediately and avert your eyes, the question making you uncomfortable.

"Is that something they teach all kids in the Muggle world?"

Sebastian knew that the majority of your childhood was not, in fact, spent in the wizarding world, but you had never gone into specifics as to how or why you grew up around Muggles rather than Wizards. You weren't planning on doing so now.

"Something like that.." you say and trail off, still not meeting his eyes. Change of topic. Now. "Can you try and sit up?"

He regards you for a moment longer, seemingly not buying your brisk response but decides against pressing you for answers. Instead he nods and slowly pushes himself off the ground and into a sitting position. Not entirely without hiccups though, and a few times he stops and takes a sharp intake of air, but pushing through the discomfort well enough.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been lying in the dirt for an hour with bruised bones."

You roll your eyes. He chuckles.

"Well enough to keep making stupid jokes I see." You pause before fixing your gaze on him, more serious this time. "What do you want to do when we go back to the Hamlet? I don't know how to explain what happened here today, but we need to get you some proper medical attention."

"No" comes Sebastian's reply immediately.

"What do you mean 'No'?"

"If we tell them about the injury, they will send me to St. Mungos and I cannot bear being coped up and babied for days in a room all by myself. They will ask what happened, and if we told them about being attacked, even if by a random group of strangers, they would not let us out of their sight again. We'd practically be prisoners back at the Hamlet. Do you want to spend the next two weeks before school starts again coped up in the house all day?"

No you did not, but it seemed incredibly irresponsible to not let a professional have a look at the injury, even for Sebastian's standards. But how would you explain what had happened without it blowing up in both your faces or even jeopardising Mr. Ndiaye's stance on acting as your make-shift guardian for the time being?

You stand up and pace back and forth, trying to think, rationally, about the best course of action here.

"We can tell them that you were attacked by one of the Dugbogs."

"Neither do I have bite marks on me, nor do I have a rash, which would have shown on my skin by now, had their tongue touched me." Blast it, of course.

Minutes pass, but you come up empty. "Okay, but only under one condition – I will apply that paste twice a day, every day, for a week. If your injury has not started healing properly by then, we will come up with a story on how it happened so you can get checked out at a proper medical wing, alright?"

"Deal." He grins and you almost want to punch him.

"This depends entirely on your ability to act as if you're well. And the last time I checked you were a terrible at it."

His grins immediately vanishes and is replaced by an almost-pout. "I will have you know that I am perfectly capable of deception!"

"That is not something to be proud of, Sebastian.."

"All a matter of perspective."

"Whatever. Come, I will help you stand."

He grabs your outstretched hand and you pull him up with the last remainder of your strength. Once standing, he almost topples over right away, clearly caught off guard by the discomfort and pain of putting actual weight on his bones still being as strong as it was.

"Easy there.. Here, put your arm over my shoulders. You only have to walk the last bit back to the Hamlet on your own, but until then you can lean on me. It's my fault you're injured, after all."

Although the last of your sentence barely audible, Sebastian gives you an incredulous look, brows furrowed in something akin to anger.

"What are you saying? Did you hit your head or something?"

His reaction and the bite in his words takes you aback but you wordlessly grab his arm and swing it over your shoulders, supporting his lower back with your other free arm, pushing him to move forward with you, albeit slowly.

"I'm saying that you only got attacked because of me. Had I used the ancient magic earlier, or told you to run back to the Hamlet without me, then-"

He interrupts you, now positively upset. "And what, leave you there by yourself? Are you insane? Stop making yourself responsible for every bad thing that happens in this world. It's not like you asked these guys to come and give us a beating."

"Of course I didn't, but still, had I not-"

"No but! You didn't ask for any of this. It's not your fault. You stood by me when I lost myself in-" He stops and swallows. "When I almost lost myself in the Dark Arts. Now I stand with you, through whatever-" he waves his free hand in front of him "-this is. You're not alone in this, and you do not need to apologise to me."

His words make you feel warm, and you can't help but let a small smile spread on your lips. You never knew what it meant to have people around you that truly cared for you.

"Through thick and thin, ey?" you say, your tone much lighter than before, freed of the oppressive self-loathing that had become your ever-present companion.

"Need to get through your thick skull first."

"Hey!"

He laughs, and you can't help but join in. It felt inappropriate, somewhat, after what had happened, but Sebastian just seemed to have a way with making light of almost any situation, no matter how dire. It was one of your favourite qualities of his.

*

The two of you make it back to the Hamlet without any further disruptions, and while apologising to Mr. Ndiaye for not delivering the promised Dugbog tongues, you could see Sebastian hobble towards and into the house without attracting any unwanted attention. Well, that boy had always been good at sneaking around. The thought brings you back to the time he had taken you to the forbidden section of the library. A fond memory. One that felt so long ago now. At a time where things were simpler. Happier.

You sigh as you make your way back to the cabin and let your hand rest on the barren wood of the door for just a moment before taking a deep breath and entering the familiar space that had become your home over the last weeks. The first thing you notice are the clothes scattered around the floor, water everywhere, and an abandoned washcloth on the other side of the room.

"What-" you start, but then your eyes zero in on Sebastian sitting on his bed, a dejected and embarrassed look on his face. Cheeks red he turns away from you and it doesn't take you much to realise what must have happened.

From his appearance you deduce that he had cast a few cleaning charms on himself that got rid of most of the dirt and grime from your excursion, however nothing other than warm soapy water would actually clean him properly. Wanting to seem always the independent wizard, he probably tried to clean himself up the old-fashioned way but the pain from his injury preventing him from doing so. Hence the tipped over water bowl and thrown washcloth.

You observe him for a few seconds, but he refuses to meet your eyes. Wordlessly you pick up the bowl and cloth, dry the puddle off the floor with a quick swish of your wand and head over to the sink.

Once the temperature of the water is pleasantly warm, you rinse both utensils before filling the bowl up with some soap and water once more. Sebastian's gaze is boring into your back, and he stiffens when you sit down next to him on the bed, cloth in hand and moving it towards him.

"What are you doing?" he asks in an almost panicked voice and leans away from you out of reflex.

"Helping you" you reply in an even tone and look at him briefly before resuming your action.

"I don't need help cleaning myself."

"I know." You spare him the indignity of pointing out the obvious. Then, your voice soft, you say "Let me. Please."

He seems to consider you, but still too embarrassed to actually agree.

"Through thick and thin, remember?" This time you meet his eyes and give him a small smile. His breath catches in his throat and whatever retort he might have had ready dies on his tongue almost immediately. Instead he slumps his shoulders, defeated, and gives you a small nod as he resumes his normal sitting position.

You are silent while letting the wet cloth brush over his bruised skin, wiping away all that remained of your battle earlier. Wipe. Rinse. Repeat. Your eyes get caught on the freckles covering not only his face, but his neck, shoulders and back as well.

Wipe. Rinse. Repeat.

His back is stiff, and you soften your movements, almost tenderly cleaning the base if his neck. He shudders and your heart speeds up.

Wipe. Rinse. Repeat.

He's staring at you. You can feel it, the intensity of his gaze burning holes into your forehead, but you do not look at him.

Wipe. Rinse. Repeat.

Instead you follow one of the water droplets as it makes its way down his neck, over his shoulder blades, down his spine-

Wipe. Rinse. Repeat. Wipe. Rinse. Repeat. WipeRinseRepeat.

He says your name, almost whispers it, and it makes your hand twitch, accidently pressing down on the space where he had injured himself. Whatever was happening between the two of you, the spell was broken instantaneously as he lets out a hiss of pain, arms clamping over his side and turning away from you.

"I- I'm sorry!" you exclaim, instantly alert and focused on his wellbeing rather than .. well.

Sebastian shakes his head and waves his other hands at you. "It's fine. I'm fine. Don't worry."

"You're all cleaned up now as well, so the