#sakjsajkk something got away from me here! pls don't feel the need to match!

[boggart]

There was something unbearably lonely about waiting to die.

It wasn't meant to happen like this. Someone who burnt like wildfire wasn't meant to flicker out so quietly, like a candle snuffed out in the gusty wind. But here, now Lily Potter was fading away in the catacombs of Malfoy Manor, and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it. Her entire body ached like a blistering fever, barely able to move. Through sheer willpower alone, Lily had managed to fashion a compress to stop the bleeding for now, but she knew that if she didn't receive medical attention soon — no. She wouldn't entertain the thought. If she was going to perish, it would be surrounded by her friends and family — with her loved ones — like it was always meant to be. She would not die like this. She refused.

And then, as if he had heard her somehow, in walked her savior — almost looking like an angel of darkness, cloaked in the very same black robes of the Death Eaters who had spent weeks tormenting her. She'd almost mistaken him for his cousin, assuming she had finally come to finish her off. Face abashed, Lily dropped the sharp rock she'd been clutching tightly in anticipation of that moment. ( So tightly, that there was blood that hadn't been there before — another shining mark of her foolishness. Would she ever learn? )

"Rahim..." His name spilt from her lips in spite of herself, her heart bounding in her chest. A feeling took root deep within her, one that she couldn't quite bring herself to name — a secret that would continue to burn bright and silently in her chest. A quiet fire. It was easier when she was merely his enemy, seething with blind hatred against him — against his family. There was a strange, purifying clarity that came with loathing, the way it reduced everything to stark black and white. She needed that simplicity — had come to rely on it, even — but now the lines had been blurred. Her world had been rebirthed in vivid color, and she was shining red, burning up and bleeding out — for him, for this. "You came." she breathed. "I — I didn't know if you would — won't this blow your cover?" If he died because of her, another life lost because of her, more blood on her hands — she'd never forgive herself.

The gentleness of his touch was almost too much to bear. What did you do with tenderness, when all that you had known for weeks was unrelenting cruelty? When the hands that were born to harm you, only wanted to heal you instead? Desperate for even a sliver of warmth in this cold, cold dungeon cell, she leaned into his touch for just a moment, burying her cheek in the palm of his hand. Then, catching herself, she shrank away from it, stepping backwards ever-so-slightly, her hazel eyes beseeching with contrite, a wordless apology. ( Would she be forgiven for this small moment of weakness? Would he still look at her the same after all this, the same reverence in his molten brown eyes? A holiness she'd never been worthy of in the first place. ) "Rahim, wait ... my family ... you have to help my family first. Please." Begging was not something Lily Potter would ever deign herself to do in most circumstances, but here she was, begging for mercy from someone who most likely couldn't grant it — a desperate plea. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm not important. I'm not."

Rahim had thought about doing this before, sneaking down to the cells where the prisoners were kept, but had never dared to risk until now, overhearing that one of his comrades had gotten a little too enthusiastic during an interrogation. It had pierced him cold. She couldn't be dead - the Dark Lord would certainly have a grander death planned for Lily Potter, a more visible death, a weapon against her father that wouldn't be wasted in a cell deep in Malfoy Manor. And more than that - she just couldn't. Not her, not Lily, who was more alive than anyone else he'd ever met. His hands shook as he approached the cell. Unusual that - it wasn't as if he ever enjoyed the sight of someone in pain - the opposite - but he'd always kept his hands steady, his mind clear, before. Healing was what he was born for, what he breathed for, the one thing that had kept him going since joining the Death Eaters - that sometimes, he saved a life, instead of ended one. But with her it was different, it had always been different. "Hey, Potter, it's me," he called out, voice low but not wanting her to think it was someone else, coming back for more. Although he was assuming he'd be a comfort to her - maybe that was Rahim's delusion. He came to the door to her cell, faced her, and then stopped. He'd seen his cousin's handiwork before, but this was something else. Rahim stopped breathing, stopped thinking, stopped anything, all was lost, anything that wasn't Lily. Maybe he knew too, that for a while now, it hadn't been healing that he breathed for, but her. He dropped to his knees, hands reaching through the bars to carress her face - his first mistake. That wasn't healing, that wasn't the usual calm control he forced himself to exert over every situation, every impulse, every feeling. That was love. "Lily." He'd never said her name before, always called her Potter to her face.. "Fuck. I'm going to heal you, I'm going to stop the pain, okay? You're alright now, I promise. All you have to do is hold on. I'm here." @boggart