#idk if you pictured brayden more awake or anything

[songwithoutareason]

@egofreaks-dramaqueens tw: attempted suicide, cutting

“B-Brayd-den?” Maddie calls out as he steps into their shared dorm. He hasn't seen the other boy in a few hours, not since classes let out, and no one else seems to have, either.

When he sees the curtains drawn around the other boy’s bed, he smiles to himself. Perhaps he'd just decided to call it a very early night. Maddie can't really blame him, though; studying for the OWLs has been exhausting. He's about to step back into the hall when he hears a low whine and hesitates.

If Brayden’s having a nightmare, the right thing to do is wake him up, right? He knows he prefers that himself, and that Micah does, too. He suspects most people would. He calls his roommate’s name again, just to make sure he's asleep and not actually just crying and looking to be left alone, but he gets no answer aside from a few more pained whimpers.

That settles it, really, and Maddie pulls the bed curtains back so that he can shake Brayden awake, except what he sees isn't what he expected to. Brayden’s not asleep - passed out, maybe, but not asleep - but that isn't the startling part. No, the part that shocks Maddie to his core is the blood, dark and wet and seeping into the material of Brayden’s clothes and blankets. There's so much of it.

It doesn't take long to pinpoint the source, and Maddie makes a choked little noise in the back of his throat when he realizes that Brayden’s wrists are bleeding and what that means.

“H-help!” He calls out as he climbs onto the bed next to Brayden, not caring that he's kneeling in blood, “HELP-P! S-SOMEB-BODY HELP!”

He tries to shake the other boy awake as he shouts for help again, but Brayden barely stirs. Maddie thinks he sees his eyelids flutter, but that could mean anything. He wonders how long Brayden’s been lying here, if he'd done it right after class ended, or if he'd put it off a little longer.

“Br-rayde-n, wake u-u-p,” he says, even as he reaches out to test the strength of the pulse on his roommate’s neck, “Y-y-you gotta w-wake up, B.”

He doesn't hear the feet thundering up the staircase, but suddenly there are a handful of people in the room, and Maddie only really notices when he hears one of them scream.

Maddie stops talking, then, and tries to ignore everyone else in the room. He thinks he sees someone run out the door, though, and he hopes they're getting a professor, or the nurse. He forces himself to focus on the open wounds marring Brayden’s skin, draws on all of the practice he's been doing on advanced nonverbal magic with his Head of House, because he can't mess this up. It's too important, and he knows that his emotional state will only make reciting incantations even harder than it usually is.

He waves his wand above Brayden’s right arm, focusing on his magic until the older blood has washed away to give him a clear view of the wounds. Even in his unconscious state, Brayden tries to twist away from him, and Maddie whines, low and wounded, and brings the tip of his wand down to the worst cut. The blood that had started to spill over again suddenly clots, and Maddie lets out a breath to steady himself before moving onto the next. He does this three more times, on the deepest of the cuts, before repeating the entire process on Brayden’s left arm. There are still a few more shallow cuts bleeding sluggishly, but they can wait.

Why hasn't anyone brought back a professor yet? It's been ages, hasn't it? It feels like it has. Every second is dragging on and on, and Maddie is scared. What if he messes up? He's only a dumb fifth year, not a real healer. He shouldn't even know some of these spells yet. What if he's done something wrong? What if simply stopping the blood wasn't enough? These few minutes could be crucial.

Suddenly, a thought strikes him, and Maddie scrambles across the room to his trunk, flinging it open and finding his first aide kit. It's nearly the summer, and that means he's been working on brewing a new stock of potions to take home.

“C-c’m-mon,” he mutters to himself as he looks through the bottles and vials, “W-where are y-y-you?” He spots the bottle of bright red liquid that he was searching for a few seconds later, and grabs it before rushing back to Brayden’s side. The few people lingering around them are too caught up in their concern to wonder why he has a bag full of potions like this one on hand.

With shaking hands, Maddie uncorks the bottle of Blood Replenishing Potion and someone, Maddie thinks they might be a Prefect, kneels by Brayden’s head and helps pry his mouth open so Maddie can tip the contents of the bottle in. Their housemate closes Brayden’s mouth and pinches his nose, and Maddie strokes his fingers over his throat until he swallows.

After that, he sits back on his heels and just watches, waiting for some kind of sign. It's not like he was expecting Brayden to sit up all of a sudden, but he's still not really moving at all. He lets out another whine, though, and it sounds suspiciously like “no, please.” The boy by Brayden’s head gets up, and then their Head of House is there, and Maddie grabs onto Brayden’s hand. He doesn't really want to let him go, and he thinks he might say something like that, because the Prefect is back, and trying to coax him into letting go and, finally, he does. He becomes aware of the tears streaming down his face, and the blood on his hands and clothes, but he ignores all of it in favour of watching as Brayden is picked up and carried out of the room. Out of the tower, presumably, and Maddie isn't sure if he's grateful to not have a shift in the Hospital Wing that evening or not. He'll probably try to go anyway, and hopefully he'll be allowed to stay with his friend.

But, for now, he sits, shaking, on blood-stained blankets as the adrenaline starts to leave him. Someone wraps him up into their arms, and Maddie is grateful as he starts sobbing into their shoulder. He's pretty sure someone is talking, but he can't focus on what they're saying. He catches a few words, like “okay” and “did good” and “shock”, but, mostly, everything just floats right over him.

Someone drapes a blanket over his shoulders eventually - a clean one, from his own bed - and then he's being made to stand up, and Maddie just lets it happen. He hears that word again, shock, and then something about the Hospital Wing, and he lets himself be lead out of the room.

It seems that he'll get to check on Brayden after all.