"Quit that." Theo didn't look over at Harry when he said it, he kept his eyes carefully trained on his book. He wasn't afraid of Harry, not really, but he was terrified of the giant serpent laying across Harry's lap.
"Make me," Harry said rudely as he continued to twirl the gun in his hands around and around, pointing it aimlessly at various objects in their bedroom. As if it weren't a deadly weapon.
"I mean it," Theo snapped, fed up with his closest friend. "Put it up or I'm getting Snape."
Theo wouldn't normally snap at Harry, but Harry didn't normally twirl a gun around a room either.
He did it with a knife, and a wand on occasion, but never a gun.
"Ooh, go get Snape," Harry sneered, his voice mocking. The same rude voice he's been talking to Theo with all week. Because Harry is a jealous prat who doesn't understand that Theo is not stealing Snape from him.
Theo watched as Harry intentionally spun the gun around with so much negligence that Theo wanted to cringe. He hadn't known much about guns before Harry's birthday, but Hermione and her Dad have given him a crash course on them since then and he knows you don't fucking twirl them around like a toy.
"You're being a prat." Theo slammed his book shut and got to his feet, keeping a close eye on all three deadly artifacts near him; the gun, the snake, and the pissed off Wizard with more power than common sense. He carefully tuned around, intending on leaving before he got in a fight with his friend. "I'm going to go downstairs."
"Run off and tattle to Snape then!" Harry yelled at Theo's retreating back. Theo turned around and rolled his eyes irritatingly at Harry, a move that would have gotten him a welt from his father.
but he never has to live there again.
never again.
because Harry freed him.
even if he's so damned annoying.
"Maybe I will," Theo huffed. "Since he's the only one who seems able to control you."
Theo had turned away from Harry's reddening face, eager to get away from him before Harry started throwing silent hexes at him, and he had nearly made it to the door when-
BANG!
"Oh fuck."
Theo felt a ripping sensation shoot through his left knee and his vision went red from the pain so searingly hot he thought he might die.
"YOU FUCKING SHOT ME!" he howled. Theo fell to the floor, his left leg twisting beneath him as the blood poured from the wound; red and endless as if the Merlin damned hole in Theo's knee were an open faucet for blood. Theo put his fist as far in his mouth as he could and bit down on his knuckles, a trick he'd used before to keep himself from screaming. Though even his worse punishments at his fathers hands couldn't compare to the intense, blinding, sharp pain now radiating through his whole body.
"No, no, no, fuck. Theo. Fuck. I'm so sorry, it was an accident!"
Harry tossed the gun down (tossed. the. gun.) and came running to Theo's side, skidding in the puddle of blood (Theo's blood. Endless blood.) and looking down in wide eyed shock at what he did.
If Theo could have removed his fist to speak he would have told Harry he hates him.
He doesn't.
Harry's his best friend. His brother.
But he's also an uncontrollable, idiotic, impulsive, selfish dick and Theo would say that if he could.
But if he removed his fist then he'd scream and screaming would trigger tears and he wasn't going to cry. So he just bit hard on his knuckles, stared down at the mangled mess his leg now is, and thought angry thoughts about Harry 'I do what I want' Potter.
Stupid asshole.
"Hey I can fix it," Harry offered quickly. "You have to be quiet though. Don't tell Snape. Please. It really was an accident."
Theo was so incredibly pissed off at that remark that he was able to push back the pain induced tears that threatened him to scream at Harry.
"I BLOODY WELL AM TELLING SNAPE! YOU SHOT ME YOU DAMN BUFFOON!"
"Damnit Theo shut up," Harry hissed. "I want the room to be silent. Are you trying to try my baby taken away? Jesus."
Theo sucked in a ragged breath, his chest throbbing in tandem to the shooting pains in his leg as Harry's silencing charm washed over him.
"YOUR BABY?! Have you lost the bloody plot?! You. Shot. Me."
Theo risked another glance at his knee and unintentionally let out a low whimper. He forced the tears building in his eyes to not fall as he inspected the damage. His trousers were soaked in blood now, the dark hardwood floor around him probably stained forever, and his knee... his knee...
"Is that bone?" he gasped at white bit he could see through the mangled skin. "I'm going to be sick."
Theo felt a freshly hot searing pain stagger through his body while he turned his head and heaved.
With a detached type of interest Theo calculated the odds of blacking out right there in the middle of their floor. Just giving in to the black spots in his vision and going unconscious.
They were about 80/20 in favor of exactly that.
He thought he knew pain. Really, he did. But this? This was hell. And whatever Harry just whispered to cause that fresh wave of pain was the deepest layer of hell.
"Ta da." Harry's hands were smeared with blood as he held up a tiny bit of metal and crinkled his nose.
Summoning. That's what he was doing to cause a new level of pain while Theo was vomiting. He was summoning the bullet from his knee.
"Hold still, yeah? I've never done this before."
Before Theo had a chance to ask what exactly Harry had never done before, or possibly throw up again, Harry put his hand directly on what used to be Theo's knee-
"AAAAH!" Theo screamed at the contact. Was Harry trying to kill him?!
He would never even look at Snape again if Harry would just leave him alone to die in peace.
-and murmured, "I want this healed."
Theo's entire body was still shaking with tremors as Harry removed his hand, sticky with blood, and inspected his knee.
"Hey, it worked! Look!"
Theo swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth and began breathing slowly through his nose as he risked a glance.
Harry fucking Potter at it again.
Theo's knee now bore a large, white, star shaped scar. Though it was thankfully healed up and no longer freely bleeding.
"I hate you," he moaned, his body still screaming in pain even now that the wound was healed. "You're a dick."
"I'll get you a pain reliever if you don't tell Snape," Harry said quickly. "Please, please, don't tell him. He'll be pissed."
"Piss off," Theo snarled. "You shot me. I told you to quit twirling the damn gun around! And now look what happened!" Theo gestured to his scarred knee and the blood that was staining the floor. "Idiot!"
"Okay, I'll keep the gun out up, and I'll get you a pain reliever if you don't tell Snape."
Theo looked up at Harry's pleading face while he decided.
"And you owe me a favor," he said stoutly. "Otherwise I'm telling Snape."
Harry sighed, ruffled his hair with his disgustingly bloody hand, and finally nodded.
"Fine. One favor, even though it was an accident," he conceded. "Bring me a pain reliever."
Harry lazily waved his hand, his magic opening the door for the pain reliever...
... and then gulped dramatically when Snape stepped through the doorway.
"What, precisely, has happened here?" Snape hissed, eyeing Theo's leg and the puddle of blood.
"Nothing," Harry said hastily. A mere twitch of his pinky cleared away the bloody evidence. "An accident." He snagged the potion that floated to his hand and quickly handed it to Theo with a pointed look. Theo glowered at Harry as he downed the potion before turning a blank face towards Snape.
"An accident," he repeated blandly. "It's fine now."
Snape looked from Theo to Harry multiple times, his brow raised in a blatantly disbelieving expression.
"Then the explosion Mavis told me he heard clear from the kitchen was part of this 'accident'?" he asked them.
"What explosion?" Harry asked. If Theo hadn't literally been the person that Harry shot, he would have believed the innocence in his voice.
Unfortunately Theo has the Merlin damned scar as evidence of the exploding noise from Harry's stupid gun.
"Mavis stated it was a loud explosion followed by a scream," Snape told Harry, though he kept his eyes on Theo even though Theo desperately was avoiding his gaze. He didn't want to lie straight to Snape's face, but a deal was a deal. And a favor from Harry was worth more than seeing Snape take away his gun.
Especially since Theo knew Harry would just take it back.
"Maybe Mavis misheard," Harry suggested brightly. "He is getting along in age, isn't he? Wait..." Harry blinked and Theo really couldn't tell if he was acting or genuinely just trailed off with a new thought. "How old is Mavis?" Harry asked. "Have we been skipping his birthday?! How long do elves live?! MAVIS!"
Thirty minutes later, in the middle of an excruciatingly in depth conversation about elf lifespans, birthdays, and how Mavis would like his to be celebrated in the future, Snape finally stalked out of the room and Harry smirked over at Theo.
"Thanks Mavis," Harry dismissed his house elf in a kind voice that he only saved for Mavis and Luna. "You're a life saver."
"You did that on purpose!" Theo cried as Mavis happily popped back up to his quarters in the attic. "You purposefully irritated Snape so he'd quit asking questions!"
Harry, looking scarily like Snape himself, raised a brow at Theo as he smirked.
"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "But a deals a deal and I owe you one favor. What do you want?"
Theo smiled sharply at his friend as he moved to his bed. "Oh no," he said lightly. "I'm saving that for a rainy day."
Theo could hear Harry grumbling as he inspected his knee. He didn't care though, Harry could grumble all he wanted as long as he kept up his end of the deal and quit twirling the damn gun around like a madman.
Although...
Theo squinted at the large, white, star shaped scar on his knee and idly wondered if Hermione was one of the girls who seemed to find scars sexy?