They'd been traveling for days. It turned out that there were people scattered across the isles that owed Severus Snape a favor, but not many of them were able to give the man a suitable lead to follow about an old fishing cabin owned by Owen Malfoy, Draco's grandfather. They slept for only a few hours a night, in whatever dingy Muggle motel they could find, before setting off again. Harry hadn't been given the chance to say so, but he was just as worried as Snape was that Draco might still be terribly injured. Harry hadn't been lying when he'd told the man that he left ten times worse than Harry.

In their constant journeying, Harry was both blessed and cursed to see a side of Severus Snape he never knew existed. Snape cared so much for Draco that he called in favors from the lowest, and sometimes most deranged of people. He wandered across Britain and back, towing a zombie like teenager behind him every step of the way. He had yet to stop and tend to Harry's injuries, and seemed to care little if Harry had gotten enough to eat or enough sleep. He seemed in fact, to have one sole purpose now, and that was finding Draco.

Harry liked to think it was a blessing, to see good in a person he had previously thought completely contemptible, but it was a curse also. Everyone had someone to care for them, except Harry. The Dursleys had done the bare minimum to keep him alive, Sirius had betrayed him, and the Weasleys had declined to let Harry move in full time with them despite Ron's protests at how Harry was treated with the Dursleys. He'd even heard Hermione talking to Ron once about how she'd asked her parents to let Harry stay with them, but they'd said no as well. And then there was Dumbledore, who politely told Harry no each and every time he asked to stay at the castle. This year, the one year he'd not asked, Sirius had fought in his place to have him not return to the Dursleys, but it had turned out all the worse.

Of all the prayers Harry had ever prayed, this was the one that had been answered, he thought as he looked up at Snape, who was standing in a field staring off into the distance as the sun was setting on their third day away from Grimmuald Place. Harry had asked to escape the torment of a Godfather who claimed to love him... who'd gotten his hopes up, only to crush them into the ground. And God had sent him Snape. Who was Harry to complain then? He'd gotten what he'd wanted. Harry had learned long ago to live on what was sent to him. It was with this mindset that he walked up to stand next to Snape, a gentle breeze blowing through the golden field before them.

"We'll find him sir."

"What makes you so sure?"

Harry raised his wand. "I have an idea. Accio Harry Potter's Broom." He dropped his wand arm then and turned to Snape. "Keep track of how long it takes to get here, and from what direction."

Snape looked at Harry and shook his head, looking disgusted. "Get some sleep Potter," he said, indicating that this was where they were spending the night as the sun disappeared completely from the sky. Harry sat down on the ground, body tired and hurting, but he wouldn't be able to sleep this night. He knew Snape would leave him if he did. Harry hadn't slept in so long.

* * *

"Get up."

Harry startled at a gentle kick from his Professor, and sat up in the dark. He hadn't intended to fall asleep, but couldn't help it. He looked up into his Professor's wand light and saw his broom.

"One hour Potter, from the North." Harry struggled to stand up, and when he managed, Snape indicated he should climb onto the broom.

"If we apparated we will miss him. If we fly, we may just see the cabin."

"Shouldn't we wait until daylight?"

"No."

Harry climbed onto the broom and was surprised when Snape climbed on behind him, feeling suddenly uncomfortable being that close to him. He wasn't even sure the broom could lift them both, but it did rise slowly, and they headed off, Harry trying to allow the chill wind to keep him awake as they flew into the night.

After forty minutes Snape said, "There. We are over a lake, and there is a light in the distance." Harry squinted, his glasses not being quite what they should be, and was able to see a dim light on the edge of a black, glassy surface. They urged the broom faster, and were soon on the grass outside a tiny wooden cabin.

Snape withdrew his wand and crept up to the only window to peer inside. Without thought to Harry, he moved to the door and unlocked it, letting himself in and startling the single occupant.

"Uncle," Draco said from his spot on the floor on top of a ratty old blanket. "I knew you'd come for me."

Harry came and stood on the threshold, watching as Snape knelt to assess the damage to Draco's body, and set to work immediately healing him. Harry gave a little laugh to himself, drawing Draco's grateful gaze, and then went back outside into the cool night air. He had some things to think about, such as where he'd go from here. Now that he'd lived out his purpose to Snape, he was sure the man would leave him behind. Harry settled himself in some tall grass and lay back to look at the stars, broom cradled protectively to his chest. As crazy as it sounded, even in Harry's own ears, he thought to himself, ‘What I wouldn't give to be Draco right now," and then he fell into an uneasy sleep, feeling unguarded and uncertain. He dreamt that Sirius had found him, and was hauling him back to a depressing fate.

* * *

"No, NO!" Harry grappled with someone for a few moments, eyes closed, before he woke from his dream to find himself being held about the wrists by Draco, next to the cabin. Harry turned red and Draco let go of his wrists.

"You're still here," Harry said, throat sore and dry. He felt chilled too, having slept outside on the ground without a blanket, and his body ached worse for it.

"I didn't know where you'd gone," Draco said. "Uncle is inside fixing breakfast."

"Oh. Ok." Harry tried to get up off the ground but after falling twice, Draco helped him to his feet.

"What's wrong with you?" the blond asked, seeing Harry's black eye.

Harry weakly lifted his shirt and Draco looked away from the bruises.

"Uncle Snape didn't fix you up?"

Biting his lip Harry said, "He was fairly intent on finding you."

"Come on then." He helped Harry inside and to the table where there were two chairs, the only furniture in the cabin, which explained why Draco had been sleeping on the floor.

"Harry's hurt," Draco said, drawing a look from Snape who was at the counter frying three fish he'd summoned up out of the lake by wand.

"Then see to him," Snape said. Draco looked chagrined, but pulled his wand out and lifted the front of Harry's shirt up to no protest from Harry. He was weak and still very tired. "Integro. Integro. Integro," Draco said, touching the tip of his wand to different parts of what had become one large bruise. Harry glanced at Snape, who was not looking at them as Draco did his best to heal him with his limited healing spells.

"I heard this one enough last night to know how it works," Draco said with a smile. Harry put his head down on the table and allowed Draco to move on to the bruises on his back, which included a large boot print."

"He really went at you after I left, didn't he?"

Harry shuddered then in response, not liking to think about it, and Draco didn't bring it up again.

"Some of them are too bad for me to take care of," Draco said after a few more minutes, and Snape gave a nod.

"We will take care of them after breakfast." He conjured a third chair and then set down the three plates of fish. Feeling famished but too weak to lift is head off the table after such a journey in his state of mind and injury, Harry ignored the food, and mumbled something incoherent when Draco asked if he was ok. Mind feeling foggy, Harry was only vaguely aware that he was being lifted off the chair and laid on a cot that Snape had conjured for Draco in the night.

"He's burning up," Harry heard Draco say, voice tinged with worry, and then he fell unconscious, wonder in his thoughts that he had been sent someone who cared at least a little, despite being a foe in the past.