author's notes: hey, guys. sorry the last chapter wasn't in very good format. (thank you so much for that helpful hint, naavi.) from now on, i'm putting BIGGER SPACES between the paragraphs, so when it changes to a different "scene", you'll see five stars. (*****) or are they called asterics? or something like that... i was gonna do star69, but i think someone took that for something else. as for princess of mordor, semmel, venus black, von person(sorry, i just didn't wanna type the whole thingie), akisis akisis, naavi, and msv2u: thank you for your laughter. i'm glad you enjoyed it. enough of this stuff from my head. you want this other stuff from my head. here's chapter two. read on and pray i did a good job. ^_^ v
*****
After Harry and Malfoy had snapped out of their little trances, they each decided they were starving. Two plates sat on the desk, and Malfoy immediatly noticed they were locked in, when he noticed he was in the same room as Harry Potter and jumped up to rip open the door. It didn't work. He cursed under his breath as he remembered... 'And no magic during the summer!!' what Dumbledore had said. He suddenly felt like crying. An entire summer with Potter? Then a smile... Had he truly forgotten what his father was? Who his father's master was? Had he truly not noticed that the anger Lucius had displayed was all an act for Harry? Harry Potter would die at He-Knew-Who's hands before this half of the summer had ended. He wouldn't even have a chance to go to the Durspoons'!! "MhmmBaummmauhmmehmem?" Draco turned to see Harry stuffing his face full of food (from Harry's own plate and Draco's) using his fingers and wiping some food he got on his elbow on his leg. "What did you say, pig?" "MHEEM GUMMMMMMMMHHMMMM!!!" Harry began hitting his fist against his chest, his face turning a dark red as he made small gagging sounds.

Draco began to laugh. Harry was choking!! It was too perfect. His torture only lasted... a few hours!! He thought. How long was he in shock, anyway? Bringing himself back to the present after a second or two of thought, he pointed his finger at Harry and began to laugh maniacly. "HAHAHAHAHAAAA!! YOU'RE CHOKING, YOU GLUTTON! MY SALVATION CAME IN THE FORM OF... of..." He looked to what Harry had been eating. "Chicken? My salvation came in the form of chicken." He thought for another second about how funny that sounded. He'd thought, for the longest time, that Voldemort would be the one to finish off Harry, but now he was going to die because of some chicken?

He gave the chicken another glance. It *did* look pretty good... Tender and juicy, but not mushy or undercooked... stuffed in between two pieces of bread, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and all that other good stuff he absolutely *loved* on a sandwhich... especially a chicken sandwhich. He could resist it no longer. No one makes chicken sandwhichs and does not feed one to Draco Malfoy. He grabbed his, ignoring the bites already taken out of one side, and chomped down on it. Harry's face was turning blue.... now purple... and Draco's was turning red!! He took his attention off the other boy in the room and suddenly noticed he wasn't the only one choking on his chicken. Draco began pounding on himself as well; so that they both looked like gorillas gone mad. Then he was struck with a wonderful idea. Beat Potter into a pulp before he died, and everyone will be able to say Malfoy died happy.

Draco sent his fist into Harry's gut. Harry's face's color went from a lovely violet color (which would have reminded Draco of Harry's Uncle Vernon if he'd only seen him before this) to blue, to red, to a pale white. Draco was disappointed, to say the least. He'd wanted to kill Harry, and die doing so, but no. He never ever seemed to get what he wanted. Harry noticed Malfoy was gagging as he had once been and began to beat him. 'Great, now I'M THE ONE GETTING POUNDED?!' Where was the fair in that? After fifteen seconds of being beat upon by the oh-so-famous Harry Potter, a small piece of chicken and a toothpick came flying out of Malfoy's mouth. After both of them had caught their breath again, taking their seats back, (Harry in the chair, Malfoy on the bed.) Harry was able to stutter out a sentence or two. "Y... you saved m... me...." He coughed a few times, feeling as though his throat was still a bit scratchy. Coughing didn't help, but he hadn't done it voluntarily.

For some odd reason, Draco found it too cruel to say, "I meant to kill you, instead." So he didn't. Any normal day he would, but today he'd come a bit too close to death to actually consider wanting to put another person through pain. What had really scared him, was that he'd planned on dying with a piece of chicken (and a toothpick) in his throat, and taking Harry with him, but Harry had returned the favor and saved him back. "Yeah, well.... I couldn't just let you die. How would you finish your sandwhich?!" "You do have a point there, but I always thought you hated me. That's the whole reason I'm stuck here." "I do hate you!! And there's nothing wrong with being *stuck* in my house... the only problem is you're my room and you're comparing it to your own. You're probably thinking 'I wish I had a life like Malfoy's, it seems so wonderful', right? You envy me."

"Envy? You? What's wrong with your head? You've gone mad, I don't envy you or anyone else." Harry stood up, angry with the way this conversation was going. First they were talking about the fact that if he was dead he wouldn't be able to eat, and now they were talking about jealously, which had nothing to do with their near-death expieriance. He'd stood up as he spoke, his hands curling into fists and his temper about to flare out of control. "Oh? Well, what about that Creevey boy who has one of the Weasle's attention?" Harry promptly sat back down. "How did you..." "You forget: I know everything, Potter." "You lunk-head! You don't know a thing! Ginny still loves me and she always will!!" "Don't make me laugh, my throat still hurts." "Shut up, Malfoy!!" "You shut up!!" "It's not my fault we're here!!" "Yes, it is, you started the fight!!" "You did!!" "I did not!" "Yes you did, you lying git!!"

The fists were flying for the third time that month, without either of them knowing who really threw the first punch. It must have gone on for half an hour until Dumbledore and Lucius tore them apart. The two were still kicking and screaming, shouting insults to the other and tearing away momentarilly to beat upon the other before they were caught again. Finally Dumbledore grew tired of the 'game' and petrified them both. "You may take them out of the spell when you believe they are ready, Lucius. They need to do a little thinking, anyway." Lucius grinned wickedly, thinking of all the torture he could do to Harry while he was in this state before handing him over to the Dark Lord. "Oh, and Lucius?" Before the Headmaster walked out of the door, he stopped with his back to the other man, but a look of absolute terror on his face. "Please... don't harm either of them in any way." And with that, Dumbledore left, leaving only prayers for Harry and Draco behind.
******
Oh yes, they each had plenty of time for thought. Lucius Malfoy, as cruel as he was, left them in that state on the floor for 48 hours. It was, to say the least, not fun. In the time they had, Harry and Draco had reconsidered their positions. Harry decided he might as well make the best of it, and Draco made it clear to himself that he was not going to survive this. Might as well make out his will and get the funeral arrangements in order, right? When Lucius finally let them free, he announced that he didn't want to hear a word out of either of them unless it was an appology for acting in such a way in front of the Headmaster of their school. "If that is how you act during the school terms," He'd said, "I don't know what I'll do with you now, so just shut up!!" He left them, without giving them food and ignoring the fact that they'd been without a meal since Harry and Draco choked on the sandwhichs 48 hours ago...

"Oh, my joints are stiff..." Harry hated the way he sounded like he was whining, but it was already said and he knew Malfoy was going to comment on it. "Shut up, you baby." "I'm not a baby!" "Didn't I tell you to shut up?!" Draco was mentally preparing himself for another onslaught by Potter, but it never came. Harry stood, dusted himself off, and looked around the room, taking it all in. He would, after all, have to spend half the summer here... He realized with sudden clarity that he was trading one spot of torture for another, but Draco was probably the worst off. He would have to go to a totally different lifestyle: A Muggle home. 'Try to get your act together Harry...' He told himself. 'You can be nice to Malfoy if you tried...' "So... where am I supposed to sleep?" "You can have the floor, but I don't really care that much." 'Keep calm Harry... Keep calm... Count to 10....' "Or you could sleep under the desk, or in that corner..." '1.... 2.... 3.... 4....' "There's plenty of room under my bed, so long as you don't wake me...." '5.... 6.... 7....' "Or maybe you'd prefer the rug. That is, after all, where the dog sleeps...." '8.... 9....' Harry was getting dangerously close to ten, but not feeling any better. 'Go on, Malfoy. Just one more insult, and I'll blow your head off.'

"Or I can get one of the servants to make up a guest bed for you. Those things are not as comfortable as mine, however." All anger seemed to drain out of Harry. Had Malfoy just done something... kind? Well, it wasn't kind yet, but maybe if Harry worked with him... Draco Malfoy could be.... a better person. 'First thing's first: be a good example and don't let your temper get in the way, but don't enlarge Malfoy's ego further.' "It may be comfortable, but I bet it's dirty." "Dirty?! My bed is clean!" "How do you know? All you've done is sat on it since you got home." "I ordered it to be clean while you were locked away." The two of them humphed simeultaneously and crossed their arms in defiance, looking away from one another. This would be a long morning... and an even longer summer.

Author's Ending Notes: So how'd ya like it? I don't care if you review or not. Don't feel obligated; I'll tell myself how wonderful it was. If you do choose to review, I accept "constructive criticism" as long as the criticism is constructive. ^_^ The chicken idea actually came from a friend, so if you don't like it, don't hate me, hate him! In the next chapter, there WILL be a bit more.... violence?.... okay? It'll be more from Harry's eyes than Draco's, 'cause... just 'cause. Third chapter should be out sooner than you expected, and I planned to have this one up earlier, but... sigh. And I want a pony too, but we don't always get what we want, do we?