Chapter Text
Part One: The Cursed Child
Prologue
"Please, someone help! Anybody, please!" The boy's screams echoed through the forest, desperate and pleading as he knelt in the clearing, cradling the one he had found.
His voice had become hoarse from what felt like hours of calling out, his shock turning to panic and then to a sorrow that threatened to consume him whole. Dirt, blood and sweat coated his face as he rocked the other gently, tears streaming down his face. He needed someone to hear him, to come to their rescue.
As if answering his silent plea, the other's eyes fluttered open, struggling against the dried blood that pooled near the crook of their nose. "You...you're here," a whisper through laboured breaths. The boy put a hand to the other's face, his voice trembling with emotion. "I told you I'd come, didn't I?"
"I'm..." the other began, but the boy interrupted. "Save your energy. I called for help. You just have to stay awake, can you stay awake for me?" The other nodded, years of unspoken thoughts and feelings and promises passing between them as they waited for uncertain salvation. They sat there for several minutes in silent communion.
"I don't think I'm going to-" the other began, but the boy cut them off, his panic rising. "No, you're going to be okay. Someone is coming. I sent a patronus. I know someone is coming. You're going to be okay. You're not going to-"
The other stopped him with a weak hand on his arm. "Please. Just tell me a story. The one you promised?"
The boy looked away for a moment, swallowing the sob in his throat before turning back to the other in his arms. The tears he tried to hold back stung his eyes as he nodded. "Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you a story,” a pained smile on his face as their eyes locked, “This is the story about a boy whose life was going to change forever..." The boy's voice broke as he began, the two of them clinging to each other as they waited for rescue in the clearing, both knowing that time was running out.