Disclaimer: Don't own, so please don't sue. Original character concepts belong to J.K. Rowling...etc, etc, etc.

Scarlet Pain

Chapter Two

Harry was shaking uncontrollably. He tried to bite back the fear that bubbled in his throat, failing as another wave of shudders passed through him. Red, all he could see was red, dripping from his hands. They were dying, and he would be punished. Harry gave a small whimper. Hermione rubbed his arms.

"Harry. Harry. Come back to us. It's okay." She pulled the shaking young man into her lap, rubbing his back until she felt his breath come regularly. Carefully laying her now sleeping friend onto his bed, she turned, grabbing Ron and pulling him swiftly from the room. It had been a month since the day they'd convinced Harry to stop pushing them away, but he still refused to talk to them about whatever had happened over the summer, or anything about his family at all.

"Those slimy bastards!" Hermione nearly shrieked. Ron looked at his girlfriend with a mix of awe and surprise. He'd never heard Hermione use such foul language before. "Ron, we've got to do something." In a matter of seconds the girl's voice had gone from simmering with rage to utter hopelessness. "This is the third time this week! It's getting worse." Ron wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back much like she had just been doing to Harry. "What do we do?"

"I don't know, love. I don't know." Suddenly Hermione stopped crying and straightened up.

"We have to tell Dumbledore."

"What?"

"We have to tell someone. Those bastards abused him, probably did unspeakable things to him. That's only explanation! He wasn't even this bad after being captured last year. We have to tell someone who can do something about this!"

Ron looked nervous. "But Harry never said one way or the other. Wait," he held up a hand to prevent Hermione from interrupting. "He's never told us what happen. We have no proof, and I'm familiar enough with the way things work that even if we had suspicions, there's not much we can do without evidence." Hermione looked at him hopelessly.

"What about that scar around his neck you saw two nights ago?"

"If we can't get Harry to admit he even has it, to us, we'll never be able to get help for him."

"But we have to do something."

"I know that." There was a long silence. "Your right Hermione. We need to tell an adult. But I don't think Dumbledore is the right one." Hermione gave him a startled look.

"Why?"

"Have you noticed how he only responds to you and Ginny, and not to me?" Her look of confusion grew. "Love, he's afraid of men. He even flinches when I touch him." He waited a while for his words to sink in, pushing away the hurt at knowing in this situation he couldn't help Harry himself. "Plus, he's just starting to trust Dumbledore again, I don't think the Headmaster is really the right person to go to."
Hermione was stunned. She never thought that Ron was dense, but this was the first time she had seen him be so perceptive. Hermione chewed on her bottom lip in thought.

"I think maybe Madam Pomfrey, or even Madam Hooch. Do you thing McGonagall might work?" Ron nodded.

"Let's go find Pomfrey. She's a nurse, so she'll probably be best suited for….this."

Harry awoke a few moments later to an empty room. Depressed that his friends had left him, he shook his head and looked outside. It was getting dark, and by the looks of it, only half an hour remained before dinner was over. He pulled his hand through his unruly hair and slipped out of his room, slowly making his way to the main hall.

Snape glared at the students with his usual scowl and continued eating his dinner while pointedly ignoring the rest of the staff. He stabbed at food when bits of Madam Hooch's conversation with McGonagall caught his attention.

"He's been so quiet lately, I'm not sure what to think anymore," Madame Hooch stated. "He normally loves flying, but it's almost as if nothing seems to interest him. Have you noticed anything different Minerva?"

"Other than that his grades have shot up?" She sighed. "A bit. I'm worried, to tell you the truth. I've never seen him so…despondent. Even after Black died he didn't seem so...so-"

"Broken?" asked a quiet voice. The two women looked over at Madame Pomfrey. She didn't normally eat meals with the rest of the staff, but recently she had been appearing more and more frequently.
"I've noticed it as well, along with some other rather disturbing things."

"Poppy?" Professor McGonagall looked at her sharply.

"He hasn't been eating much during mealtimes. And when he came in for his check up at the beginning of school, I noticed some suspicious scarring. Some in particular around Harry's neck and wrists."

"Why haven't you mentioned this before?" The head of the Gryffindor house snapped.

"I've been trying to get Harry to talk to me, Minerva, not to mention it could just be remnants of last Christmas," was the patient reply. "I'm not sure. But if suddenly everyone was worried about him, he would most likely fold back into himself. Without his word, we have nothing to work with."

"What about using a truth serum?" Hooch asked.

"That would be unethical," she held up her hand and continued. "As much as I want to, in doing so I would also lose Potter's trust, which could cause even more damage." The conversation died suddenly as Ginny and Ron walked timidly up to the table.

"Madam Pomfrey, could we speak with you for a moment?" Hermione asked.

"Of course dears. What is it you need." Ron shifted nervously.

"Could we speak to in private? It's…urgent." With a nod to the other professors, Pomfrey quickly left the main hall followed by the two students.

Snape let his mind drift away from the conversation and on to the boy in question. Harry Potter. The spoiled brat had been a thorn in his side for too long. Even so, the Potions Master had also noticed the rather disturbing change in his least favorite student. One incident in particular came to mind, the detention he'd had with the boy last night.

There was a loud explosion and then deathly silence. Snape looked over to see a very stunned looking Harry covered in the remains of his potion.

"Mr. Potter! 50 points from Gryffindor and a weeks worth of detention. Really Mr. Potter, can't you control your clumsiness even for a day?" Harry just looked at him in shock. He was still sitting on the ground, Hermione bending over him checking to see if he was okay, and a very angry Ron glaring at the smirking form of one Draco Malfoy. Snape realized what must have happened, and waited gleefully for Harry to argue with him. Instead the boy just looked down almost meekly and nodded his head.

"Sorry sir." He muttered quietly. Ron looked at him, shock clearly etched on his face. Snape looked at Harry, surprised as well, though hiding it behind a sneer.

"Are you planning on waiting till a litter comes to take you away, Mr. Potter? Or are you planning on getting up and continuing to grace us with your presence till the end of class?" Snape was being overly nasty and he knew it. He also realized that something was terribly wrong when Harry's eyes widened in fear as he scrambled shakily to his feet once again muttering a soft "Sorry, sir."

Later that day when Harry had come for his detention, the Potions Master had noticed how skittish the boy was. He would step back whenever the professor got too close, and flinched whenever Snape called his name. Finally, he had gotten so fed up and disturbed by Harry's behavior that he had stomped over to the boy and grabbed the large spoon the boy was using to stir the potion he had been instructed to make. Harry yelped and jumped back, noticeably shivering.

"I'm sorry, sir.." Snape sighed in exasperation. The boy hadn't even done anything other than what he'd been told, and still he was apologizing. This wasn't going well at all. When Snape gave Harry his full attention, looking him straight in the eye as if searching for something, the boy paled considerably and took a few more steps back. Snape did not miss the flick of his eyes to the doorway, the fearful look that told him Harry wanted to do nothing more than run for his life. When the Potions Master muttered a quiet "Dismissed," Harry did just that.

Snape snapped himself out of his reverie as Harry stumbled into the main hall looking as if he hadn't slept in over a week. The boy sat down in the far corner, ignoring the worried and somewhat fearful stares of the other students as he picked at his food. Fifteen minutes and three bites later, Harry was already stumbling out of the hall. Yes, something was definitely wrong, and Snape decided that he and Potter were going to be having a chat during the boy's detention tomorrow.

Harry wandered the halls with no clear intent on where he was going. When he ended up at Myrtle's bathroom, he figured now was as good a time as any to have a chat with one of, in his opinion, the most annoying ghosts at Hogwarts.

When Harry stepped quietly into the ghost's bathroom, he was brought up short by the most unexpected, and disturbing, scene.

Draco had already told that obnoxious girl ghost to piss off, and for once, she had. Moaning and crying loudly of course, but at least she had left him in peace. He looked down at his exposed wrist, smooth and unblemished as the day he was born, and brought the knife down hard. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes, tears he ignored and forbid to fall. The cuts were far from deep and weren't anywhere near life threatening, but they still hurt. But if he was going to be unable to escape his fate, he figured he better get used to pain. He brought the knife down again, tearing another cut into his wrist before switching hands and starting on his other arm. He froze when the door of the bathroom opened to show none other than the Potter brat.

Harry watched as Draco's eyes narrowed.

"Get out Potter," he hissed angrily. He made no move to cover his handiwork. Harry just stared at his wrists before looking back up into Draco's eyes.

"Why?" he asked. "Why are you doing that?"

"Why the fuck do you care, Potter. Just get out!" Harry could see that Draco was panicking, though he hid it so well that it was possible no one else would have ever noticed.

"No." Harry couldn't think of anything else to say. He was still so shocked and disheartened by the picture before him that he couldn't even bring himself to remember that he was supposed to hate the blond.

Draco raised an eyebrow in a stunning imitation of Snape. "No?" he sneered, once again looking surprisingly like his godfather, and raised the knife again. Harry's eyes widened and he took an involuntary step back. Draco just smirked and slammed the blade onto his own wrist.

"NO!" Harry yelled and without thinking lunged forward and grabbed the blonde's wrist to stop him, yanking the knife out of his grasp. Draco tried to pull his arms back, but realized that for being so small, the Potter boy was surprisingly strong. Instead of getting hysterical, the blonde decided for angry.

"Let go of me, Potter!"

"Don't do this Draco," Harry said quietly. "It's not worth it!"

"What the fuck do you care?"

"Too many people are hurting because of that slimy snake-faced git, too many people have already been hurt or killed because I can't fix this whole fucked up mess!" Harry was yelling now. "I'm not going to let you add yourself to the list, I don't care if you are a Malfoy." Draco stared at him in shock and a twinge of fear. He'd never seen Potter get like this, so angry and at the same time so…exhausted.

Snape heard the yelling as he was making his way to his dungeons from the Great Hall, and growled quietly. Would these mindless dunderheads ever get over themselves? He stormed into Moaning Myrtles bathroom expecting to see a couple in the middle of a breakup, or something of the sort. Instead he walked in on Potter, knife in hand, holding a bleeding and shocked looking Draco. Without thinking, he yanked Potter back by the collar of his shirt.

"What, in Merlin's name, is going on here," He hissed out coldly.

Harry stumbled and fell, and looked up into the cold and furious eyes of the Potions Master. He felt the blood drain from his face as he backed up slowly against the wall. Draco's face flickered with something akin to fear before his mask dropped down. With a touch of caution he bent down and picked up his knife.

"Nothing," he said smoothly. "We were just talking, Professor." Snape rounded on his godson, Harry momentarily forgotten. His eyes narrowed as he took in the state of Malfoy Jr.

"Why are you bleeding?" He asked icily, he wasn't quite sure what he had just walked in on, but he was not going to brush it off like Draco wanted him to. The blonde looked at him and quailed slightly, seeing something in the Professor's eyes that made him shiver.

"Potter walked in on me," he said carefully. Snape reached out and almost gently took Draco's slim wrists into his hands.

"Why?" he asked, not realizing that he was echoing Harry's earlier question.

Draco shook his head, his expression pained and suddenly very wary. "You aren't going to tell Him, are you?" The blonde mentally berated himself for sounding so like a frightened child. Snape looked him hard.

"I want you to go directly to see Madam Pomfrey. I will meet you there, then we are going to see the Headmaster." Draco wanted to argue, but knew it was futile. Oh, Merlin, he was in for it now. They both started when Harry raspy voice filled the silence.

"Red," he whispered in horror. He was staring at his hands, covered in drops of Draco's blood. Harry was trembling, already starting to fall into the panic. The sudden silence around him made him look up. His eyes widened as if he suddenly realized where he was and whom he was with, and the trembling got harder. "No," he whimpered when Snape took a step toward him. "I – I didn't. I didn't do it." He scrambled to his feet in a panic. "I'm sorry, I didn't, I won't –" Harry lunged for the door. He had to get out. The fear was taking control and a the last rational part of his brain was telling him that he did not want to have an attack while in front of his two most hated people besides Voldemort. Harry felt a hand grab his arm and shrieked, twisting his body until it let go, then ran.

Snape looked down at a stunned Malfoy.

"Draco," the blonde looked up. "Go to the Infirmary. Now." His tone brooked no argument, and Draco pulled his sleeves down before making his way towards the hospital wing of Hogwarts. Once he was gone, Snape went in search of Harry. With a sigh, he realized that he was nearly out of headache potion, and after tonight he had a feeling he was going to need a lot of it.

TBC