Ford didn't like the sound of that at all. What did he mean, if they were going to get through this? And that was before they even started to unpack that bit about making him help. The only silver lining was that Darrow didn't seem to have seen him, when he'd briefly stepped out into the open. So maybe he had the edge, if he was going to try and disarm the other man — except what was the fucking spell, he had learned this when he was eleven and it really shouldn't have been this hard to remember it — or it was possible that Darrow was smarter than he looked, and he just hadn't let on that he'd seen Ford and was waiting for him to reappear, wand already out and poised.

He hesitated, trying to weight the risk and rewards between engaging Darrow in a duel, trying to stay hidden, or making a run for the exit. Reasoning with him seemed to be a dead end; they'd reached an impasse if Darrow wasn't going to put his wand away and was going to keep making threats.

If he survived this, he was going to have to ask Noble what redeeming qualities Darrow had that made them friends, because at the moment it didn't make much sense to Ford.

"Expelliarmus," he cast as he dodged back into the open space again, but his spell went far wide of the mark. Which was probably what he deserved, trying to cast it before he'd really even had a chance to see where Darrow was after he'd jumped back out.