A Throne of Blood and Stars

Chapter Fifty-Eight

"Uh, yeah, it will? It's called torture?"

Blaise smacks him upside the head. "Let him go, you buffoon."

The redhead huffs, but his hold softens on Xabros' shirt, and he steps back but doesn't leave much room for the boy to go anywhere. Just enough room for him to sag against the wall.

"Come on," Blaise purses his lips and takes Xabros' arm, begins leading him back down the hall. "We need to talk."

"You're taking him back to the room," Ron asks incredulously. "Seriously?"

"He can't reverse the hex I threw at him by himself. He needs me. And unless you want to face the wrath of Poppy Pomfrey at this ungodly hour of the night, I suggest you run ahead and warm a bowl of water for me."

Ron's angry stomps are the only answer he receives in the empty corridor, and Xabros lets out a weak chuckle. "Do all Slytherins have a Gryffindor wrapped around their finger?"

"You know I have to tell Harry about this, right?"

"Unfortunately," Xabros grimaces.

"That can wait, though. I need to talk to you first."

The twin looks over his shoulder carefully, and for a few steps he stays like that until he moves forward again. "Whatever I tell you tonight, if I tell you anything," he whispers, but it's so soft that Blaise can barely hear it. "No one else can know about."

"Why not?"

"Let's just say the world has different views."

Ron is sitting stiffly on the armchair next to the window when the Slytherins walk in, and as soon as he sees them he stands, his big arms crossing over his chest. "Start talking."

"Hold on, tough guy," Blaise grunts as he sits Xabros down on the futon. "He needs to heal first."

"I can't feel my chest," Xabros says weakly.

"Part of the hex," Blaise chuckles nervously. He runs off to the bathroom and comes back with the bowl of water that Ron refused to warm, the git. "I created the hex in fourth year, since the ones we were taught in Defense were prohibited. But since I needed extra protection, I made it so that the effects weren't reversible by the victim if they were a wizard."

"Clever," the twin mumbles, his eyes drooping. "My whole upper body is numb."

"Working on it."

Ron watches as Blaise undoes the buttons of the twin's shirt, pulling his hand away and mumbling a spell over his shoulder. "Thought you said you couldn't use magic."

"The victim can't use magic to reverse it. But I can, as the caster. Well, at least to stop the spell from spreading anywhere else. I couldn't exactly figure out a counter-hex."

The Gryffindor gives him a look, Blaise stops what he's doing to roll his eyes.

"I'm not an expert in making spells, okay? Come, come here."

The spell looks like a bloody spider web on the boy's shoulder, like a connection of angry veins that starts at the shoulder and moves down his torso. It looks painful.

Blaise holds out his hand after mumbling Accio until a small vial comes flying into it, and he uncorks it to hand it to Ron. "Take this," he holds a dropper filled with the fluid in the vial in front of Ron's face. "And put a single drop over every mouth of each line. Quickly."

Ron nods and immediately gets working on it, watching in amazement as the angry lines reverse back into the complicated array of raised skin on Xabros' shoulder. The twin's body visibly relaxes when he gets the feeling back in it, and he rolls his head away from his hurt shoulder.