`I trust my soul.

The bitter cold, Brienne would be in it if it weren't for her constant classes. However, one soul besides Elijah could scarce feel the frore, and that soul was following him to the Shrieking Shack. Hell, he thought this weather to be very bitter, but Dominic had ignored that. He wanted to follow Eli, to make sure he was alright. To make sure that he'd be okay. To make sure he wouldn't need help. He didn't tell Eli that he'd be following. Following and observing. He'd at some point make his presence known, but later. He needed to get up to the Shrieking Shack after all. He certainly couldn't if Eli were to impede somehow.

Softly, Dominic treaded ever so slowly up to the building, and got inside. He climbed up a floor or a few until he saw Eli. He didn't really take count of how far he climbed up, let alone without stairs. No stairs were no problem, as stairs weren't needed. They were but a convenience for him. A convenience which he mostly didn't need. Need or want. He quite frankly needed the exercise, and he needed it now, or else be as doughy as Brienne. He found Eli, and wanted to surprise him with a hug, though he didn't know of the dangers that were present such as the ice and the snow. Well, he knew they existed, but not their dangers. It was as if he were oblivious to any way he could harm the guy he oh so liked.

Slowly, he crept up behind Eli, taking heed not to make a sound. Not to make a single solitary sound, something that would be hard since he was usually so noisy. As soon as he got close, he pushed forward like a spring, and wrapped his arms around the other boy. Did he know if anything were to happen here? No, he did not. But he did know that Eli seemed a bit cold. Oh well, his warmth would make up for that, right? He hoped.

Elijah inhaled the arctic wind. His lungs appreciated the chill, not, but he couldn’t tell for now. His mouth fell open, his lips turning up slightly in an awkward but breathless smile. His eyes closed and he tipped his head back, letting the air caress his face with her delicate touch. Elijah exhaled, his voice mingling with the sigh and a self-satisfied sound left his mouth. He laughed then, almost manically. It was as if he was mocking the world. He was invincible, at least in his mind. He didn’t need Chase. He didn’t need anyone! “Ha-Ha!” He crowed again, grinning wildly.

The next events happened simultaneously and they provided the much needed wakeup call, one that would shock the Slytherin into submission of himself and his emotions.

Dominic’s entrance was the spark that lit the fuse. His arms going around the Slytherin was the air getting to the flame and as he did so, Elijah’s feet left the windowsill. His eyes widened and the top of the window frame left his grip. Quidditch had provided him with the reflexes to react but it was too late. He could only do but protect Dominic. He hated the boy but he didn’t want to see him hurt. So Elijah quickly wrapped his arms around Dominic and braced himself mentally for the fall. His muscles tightened but there was nothing he could have done to protect himself from impact.

The laughs of joy had gone; all traces had disappeared from his face. The snow had done nothing to protect the ground, nothing to soften the blow. Elijah slammed into the snow and hit the ground. The force of it shattered his ribs, electing a hoarse scream from the Slytherin. He was lucky to not have landed on debris from the house but his legs hadn’t been as lucky. His upper body was fine but one of his legs had been impaled, quite successfully, on a particularly large nail in a board. He also heard a distinctive snap in his arm, although which by now he was no sure. This sudden pain all mingled into that scream and Elijah clutched Dominic tighter, instinctively biting into his shoulder to curb the pain.

Elijah released Dominic’s shoulder and placed a kiss there, mumbling apologies. Soft whimpers began to leave his mouth and he dropped back into the snow. Elijah groaned. He wanted to curl in on himself but he couldn’t move. Dominic’s weight had nothing to do with it either. It was like hitting water without diving; so much pain. Elijah gasped, his voice rough. “Are you alright?” He asked Dominic hoarsely. He couldn’t care less about himself because he couldn’t feel himself bar the parts that hurt. Oh the irony. This was the wakeup call. Someone had just realised that he wasn’t invincible.

“You stupid twat!” Elijah hissed, wincing in pain, “If you had brains you’d be f*cking dangerous but it seems you are even without them! What are you doing here? Are you trying to kill me? I assure you, if I wanted to I wouldn't need your help!"

Dominic winced as Eli cushioned the fall below him. It was so noble of the older boy to do this, so noble yet so weird. He thought Eli hated him, and that was something that he always had drilled into him. However, this just proved to the contrary that Eli didn't really hate him. After all, why would he cushion his fall and protect someone he hated? That made absolutely no sense. That showed that he cared, not that he hated. Though, something did surprise him when a bite landed on his shoulder, then a kiss made it feel better. He heard Eli mumble a pretty standard question, which he answered with a quick nod, indeed he was okay.

Then, a sudden change in Eli's mood made him shed a couple tears. A few tears that froze upon his face. "I'm sorry Eli! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He got up off of Eli, and assessed the serious damage. It was indeed a very grim situation, he needed to get help quickly. He shouted for help. No one came, even after his own voice was hoarse with hopelessness. Hopelessness and a grim outlook. He saw part of the solution laying on the ground close to Eli; ropes and some boards. He'd make a makeshift gurney, to carry Eli to the nearest place where he could be helped. He carefully transferred Eli to the board, being careful not to twist him in any way shape or form. Then, he used some rope to secure the Slytherin to the board. Using more rope, he tied it to allow himself to drag him so he didn't have to carry him. The dragging would be safe as long as the velocity was constant.

Soon, after a couple hours of exhausted dragging, he passed out. The cold finally overtook him, but he wasn't quite dead. He hoped Eli was okay, and by some miracle that they'd get help. He hoped. Or, that's what he would do if he were still conscious.

Jack usually spent her Hogsmeade trips doing the things that the rest of her peers would not do so that she could have her self induced isolation she needed so much that was also slowly killing her. So she wandered alleys, went to shops no one else really visited, and eventually would head up to the Shrieking Shack. Sure, third years got their kicks out of the place, but by now everyone had realized it was not cool enough to visit that frequently, so this is where Jack escaped to when she was escaping the school.

She sighed and walked over to the fence that kept people from approaching the shack and she tensed, ready to slip under it as she always did, just to prove that the arbitrary border would not dictate where and where not she could go, but something caught her eye. Amidst the landscape of white, she saw a strange couple of masses towards the looming house. She squinted and saw what looked like a person and then another awkward shape she could not figure out.

This was weird. Who else was spiteful enough to near the house? She had thought only she had the courage- or perhaps the petty gall- to approach the house. She had to know who this was. She hopped over the fence and began walking towards the figures. She slipped a little on the slope, but she reached up to grab onto sproutlings of trees and onto any handholds she could find. She walked around and stopped in her tracks.

Elijah was strapped to some sort of board and she could see blood seeping through in his pants and his arm looked slightly bent... Jack had excellent control over her stomach, and though it clenched with pain, she managed to keep a clear mind. She saw another boy who she had never met before. "What the hell is going on here? What happened to you, Elijah?" Always the full name...

Exhaustion of failed nights of sleep was being combined with the pain in his ribs. Elijah couldn’t feel his legs, the cold having already numbed them through, but his ribs were moving and digging into things that ought not to be touched by such jagged edges. So, Elijah allowed himself to be pulled onto the makeshift sledge. He didn’t know how Dominic was managing it, though. He was stone cold and wasn’t the lightest person in the world. He’d be quick to tell you it was all muscle, which it was, but there was a lot of weight on him.

Then there was the dragging process where Elijah continuously found himself slipping from the ropes. But they only got so far. Dominic promptly collapsed into the snow not even half way up the hill. It must have felt like hours though for him. Elijah knew he was slipping in and out of consciousness from the snow that was gathering on the trees. It had dropped as soon as Dominic had collapsed, then it had suddenly gathered snow again. He had a feeling that unconsciousness wasn’t the best thing for him now. Dominic was going blue which was really beginning to worry Elijah.

“Dom?” He called, hoping to rouse the unconscious fifth year. There was no sound, only the rise and fall of his back providing Elijah with any information pertaining to his life status. “Dominic!” Elijah barked, wincing as a piece of rib dug painfully into something that ought not to be touched. He gasped; squeezing his eyes shut and banged his head against the boards. Elijah began to wriggle, then, in an attempt to get himself off of the boards. He knew he’d be useless but at present he didn’t care.

One of the ropes rubbed against his chest and a Bulgarian profanity left Elijah’s mouth, scaring a few crows that had gathered in the naked, snow-laden trees to watch the spectacle.

It was then that he heard a voice and he looked drowsily in the direction said voice had come from. “Jack?” Elijah mumbled. It was her. “Jack!” Elijah exclaimed, ignoring the searing pain on the left side of his chest. “Listen, you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you but you’ve,” a small groan muffled his words, cutting him off mid sentence, “got to cut these ropes, okay? And ...do you think you could pull me up? Dominic won’t hold out much longer.”

Jack could not believe what she had stumbled onto. A passed out kid and Elijah, tied to boards. She had heard a voice calling out as she had approached and now she was able to comprehend that it had been Elijah calling out a name. She looked at the other kid. Snow had begun to gather on him. She looked to Elijah, trying to catch herself up but knowing to fully do that it would probably result in the death of the unconscious boy.

Elijah asked if she could get him out of the ropes and she immediately sprung into action. She pulled out her wand and pointed at the edges of the ropes, saying clearly and loudly, “Diffindo!” The ropes snapped off, rebounding away and she pushed her wand into her pocket. She crouched next to Elijah and realized this would be more complicated than dragging an intoxicated Vito upstairs to the second floor of Satin's.

That said, she had some sort of experience in this. She stooped and wrapped her arm around his back and grabbed his other arm, careful not to jostle his injured arm. She reached out with her other hand to help pull. “Okay, this will probably hurt a bit. Just try to use your good leg to push up, okay? One. Two. Three!”

She slowly stood, her knees buckling slightly, but she was a strong girl despite her slight stature, and she managed to get him to stand. “I'm going to Apparate the two of you out of here,” she said. She carefully reached into her pocket, tightening the only grip on Eli she had around his shoulders and pointed it at the other boy. “[i]Wingardium Leviosa.[i]” His limp form raised in the air and she carefully directed him towards her, before letting him slump next to her.

She reached down and pulled him up slightly, so his head was lolling at her midsection and his arm was pulled up to her shoulder. She concentrated hard and said, “Hold on tight! We're going to St. Mungo's.” With all her being, she concentrated on the hospital and, closing her eyes and tightening her grips, she turned as best as she could and they were sent shooting off for St Mungos.