Of Burns and Scalpels

A ScorRose tale

Rose pulled her gloves on, carefully tightening the straps and making sure they were tucked into her fire resistant cloak. Her hair was pulled tight and hidden beneath a Dragon Hide cap, her boots heavy on her feet. She smiled serenely and cracked her knuckles.

"Bring it on Cadswell."

Rose Weasley was a Hogwarts student Four years prior, and now she was a certified dragon veterinarian. This was her life, her job. Currently she worked for the reserve, but this was her last stint for them. After this, she could easily take up her own mantle.

Contrary to belief, the job of being a vet to magical creatures was extremely dangerous, and incredibly difficult. Dragons were naturally temperamental creatures, especially the females, who when in heat were more than just a bit more fiery, and hated being within a few meters of a human being. Well, most of them. Some were more docile, having grown up around human settlements or in an environment less hostile than a dragon den, but a good majority were moody, violent, and more dangerous than they should be.

Rose always spent a lot of time at the dragon reserve, which made it almost impossible for her to have a relationship. Most men wanted her to be around a lot, come home to a warm bed, a glass of wine and a kiss. Maybe even more. But not Rose. No, Rose, she loved her job. So much in fact that she rarely went home. At all.

Her fellow vets teased her endlessly that she should be a dragon expert the way she studied the creatures. All day, all night. She was obsessed! But never once did she get upset or get offended. No! She was proud to be obsessed.

You see, it all started her third year of school. Rose had signed up, like the Ravenclaw she was, for as many classes as she could cram into her schedule without exceeding the maximum allowed. Her first day third year consisted of potions, charms, divination and care of magical creatures. Potions had been mostly a review, charms highly uneventful, and divination a right out bore. But upon stepping out onto the grounds that day and beginning her new class of care of magical creatures, Rose found that she already knew just what it was that she wanted from her life. At thirteen!

Excitedly, she had been the first to volunteer when Hagrid, still ever spry for an older man, asked for two volunteers to help him pull some crates of nifflers for their first lesson. The spade like dog creatures immediately intrigued Rose and she was tempted to pick one up and cuddle it. However she remembered the warnings her father had always given her, and avoided doing so, even though the temptation was something great. Alongside her was Scorpius Malfoy, her fellow Ravenclaw and third part of the new aged golden trio, made up of herself, Albus Potter and Scorpius.

Through the following years she and the two boys had gone through teasing, skepticism and an abundance of ignorant remarks. But none of them cared. They were friends, and so what? Rose was the smart, very clumsy and slightly accident prone of the group. Her wild hair and electric eyes made her seem more intimidating than she was and gave her appearance a life of its own. Albus was shy. He hadn't wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father completely, having a little inkling in him that sometimes, it's better to be an individual. He had told Rose and Scorpius one time, in total confidence, that when the sorting hat had been choosing his house, it was stuck between three houses! But Albus remembered telling the hat that he wanted something more from Hogwarts than a reputation that followed just the family and not the traits of his mind. With that, the hat had bestowed Ravenclaw with its first Potter.

Scorpius Malfoy. No one had seen his sorting coming either. He was already assumed to have been destined for Slytherin, and with each passing moment that the hat didn't spout out such, the Great Hall had become even quieter, until suddenly it had cried, "Ravenclaw!" Rose remembered smiling at the boy who, for a moment, looked utterly lost and almost afraid. But he'd caught her smile and he nodded, heading to the home of his new family. Rose found that Scorpius was actually a very quiet child, had very high patience and what's more, was extremely clever. However she also remembered how smooth he could be when he wanted to be. He could easily speak circles around anyone, sometimes even Rose, and it was hard for a lot of people to say anything rude to him, as he always turned it around on them. Albus had always laughed and told them that he couldn't have ever picked better friends.

Rose sighed and opened the door that would lead her to the mass reserve where Cadswell, her Hungarian Horntail awaited her. He was by far one of her favorite dragons, just to observe. He was rather brutish to the trainers and handlers, but for her, he seemed to almost calm down. Almost.

She had yet to go a full week without getting a burn, bite or bruise from any dragon that she was trying to treat. The handlers always offered to sedate the large creatures, but Rose refused most of the time, observing that the dragons tended to split their wounds back more frequently if they just woke up having them. If they could see she was helping, they, or at least she felt, would take more care not to rampage until the natural healing process was complete. This would be her first complete week without an incident. She was rather excited.

Today Cadswell was just getting a basic checkup. Rose had done this job many times, but it never became boring to her, and she never got tired of visiting the dragons. Each dragon had a personality that made them that much more interesting and that much more beautiful in her eyes. Albus had called her stark raving mad on more than one occasion. She always laughed and brushed it off.

"Cadswell!" She crooned, taking great care to walk up slowly to the lazing Horntail. "I'm here to do a quick checkup, don't be naughty now!" Cadswell merely watched her warily as she slowly made her way around to his mouth. His head was easily three or four times her size, and she would be lying if she didn't admit it did intimidate her a little. The Horntail snorted as she tentatively reached a hand out to pat his nose, and the dragon groaned approvingly. Rose took that as her cue to begin her checkup before his good mood disappeared. It only took moments for a dragon to start freaking out. Usually it was the scent of an unfamiliar dragon making its way into their territory uninvited, or if one stumbles too close to a nest.

Rose's check went completely uninhibited and she smiled, petting the horntail softly.

"There, there old boy." She said walking away as slowly as possible. "I'll be back to check on you again soon." The key to not getting attacked by a dragon you were healing was to never look away from its eyes as you backed away. Rose was at first a little frightened of this, but she realized it is seen as a sign of respect. If you broke your eye contact too soon, the dragon would attack, feeling that you were, in essense, being a rude little toe rag. Rose had yet to ever break contact with a dragon, but there was always a first for everything.

She had just made it past the point for eye contact to be broken when a very foreign cry rang out over her head. She whipped her head around quickly, looking to see what made the noise when suddenly a not so foreign snarl came from the direction of the Horntail, who was now very furious that another dragon had dared enter its territory. Rose's eyes widened in horror as Cadswell's wings spread and he took flight, his tail swishing violently and crashing right into her right arm. She was lifted up a good ten feet before a harsh twist of the dragons tail dislodged its spikes from her arm, and dropped her to the ground. The last thing Rose heard was the screaming of a dragon handler and the furious cries of the two tempered dragons before she slipped into a cloak of blackness.

..::..::..::..::..::..::..::..::..::...

Scorpius Malfoy ran his hand through his ruffled hair tiredly. Would this day never end? Three cases of some horrid rash that swarmed anyone who touched the skin of someone infected by it. (Two of the nurses broke out in it shortly after coming into contact with the man who came in almost festering.) Two potion explosions that resulted in very painful looking boils in places he'd rather have never seen, and a case of a backfired spell that caused the woman to sprout tentacles and turn a very ripe looking purple color. All in just the first few hours he was on shift. And he still had six hours to go.

Sometimes, Scorpius hated having decided to be a healer.

At least for the moment he hadn't had to deal with anyone familiar. In his experience of his first year as an actual healer and not an intern or student, he'd run into more than his fair share of Weasleys and Potters, as well as his own family and friends from Hogwarts, who it seemed just couldn't stay out of trouble even after becoming an adult. So far, he'd recognized not one person that he knew. He felt a swell of pride. Perhaps he'd actually make it the whole week without having to reprimand a family member on their carelessness or sew up a wound on a friend. He sighed. Fat chance.

"Alright there, Scorp?" A voice said. He turned to look and saw Lucy Weasley, a new Healer intern.

"Very much so Luce, happy I haven't seen anyone familiar, until you of course." He joked. Lucy laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me you don't love it when Albus comes running through here with his lips clamped shut and his eyes forced open begging you to fix it." She said giggling. Scorpius groaned. Albus was his second most frequent patient. The man couldn't seem to just get his stuff right. He worked as a curse breaker for Gringotts, but in addition to most of his successes, came also a little curse. Usually something rather comical, like an everlasting tickle spell, or a tap dancing malady, but there was the occasional hallucinations or deep gouging wounds that mysteriously appeared all over his body. Those were the days Scorpius hated being a healer. Albus refused to be seen by anyone else. Not unlike his cousin, who had a habit of dropping in even more than Albus did.

"Oh, I just love to see my best mate come trudging in here with a new curse every week." He said sarcastically. "It makes my day everytime." Lucy laughed and slapped his shoulder playfully.

"Oh don't be a cad." She said. "You know it's part of his job."

"Yeah, yeah." He acquiesced. "I just sometimes wonder why he didn't just become an auror or something. He comes in more often than they do." Lucy laughed.

"Well that's Al." She replied. "I have to go make rounds, catch up later?" She asked. Scorpius nodded and headed back towards the break room when he heard a congregation of voices and the familiar sound of squealing gurney wheels.

"Wouldn't it be amazing if that happened to be my most frequent visitor." Scorpius said under his breath before he made himself turn around. Shaking his head he sighed as he saw a shock of red hair.

Well, speak of the devil.

Well hello there! I've been itching to write a little ScorRose romance and finally an idea popped into my head! I know! Finally right! Goodness it's been so long. I'm constantly reading other interpretations of Scorpius and Rose's escapades but have yet to complete my own. So! Here is my first chapter! I hope it is to your liking and I hope that you will continue to read on as I continue this story!

Ciao!