Title: Salamander Scales Chapter Two: Draco Screams Like a Girl Author: Yama Strife Rating: Still G Disclaimer: My name isn't J.K. Rowling, therefore, they aren't mine Summary: Harry's in the hospital wing, Draco learns not to leave his hand lying around. Notes: This is Chapter Two. Thanks to all the people who have reviewed so far, and so quickly. I'm flattered: Lady.of.the.Stars, Ice Lupus, Redmeadow, chlorine, Miss CJ, Silver Dragonrider (your comment made me laugh, thanks), Princess of Mirrors, LadyLyra, Maira and nekO; your comments are so kind. Thank you so much. And.it's a little Au it seems. Just in the fact that I haven't included the death of the character from the fifth book. Though it does mention the death from book four.so.it is a bit of a spoiler if you haven't read it. This is Slash. Eventual Harry/Draco. Don't like? Don't read. Flames are welcome, gives me a chance to laugh at your stupidity. You have been warned. It's also a bit Hermione/Ron, because they're cute.

On with the Fic!

Salamander Scales

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Harry rolled onto his back and awoke with a loud groan. He opened his eyes and yellow light flooded his senses. He blinked to adjust to this new brightness when he noticed the dark blobs floating above him. He blinked again, this time in shock and reached for his glasses. When Harry noticed the bedside table was on the wrong side, he realized where he was.

"Hospital wing?" he said groggily.

Someone placed black wire frames on Harry's nose and he realized what those three blobs were. Hermione, Ron and Professor Snape were standing above him, two wearing faces of concern, the latter not one of them. Snape looked thoroughly annoyed and Harry didn't see why he should be. After all, Harry didn't ask Snape to be there, and most certainly wasn't the first face Harry wanted to see when he woke up.

Harry sat up and was about to ask what happened when he felt a sharp pain pierce his chest. It hurt Harry to breathe; the pain came in short stabs when he did. He furrowed his brows and tried to ignore the ache that was steadily getting worse. What was going on?

To the casual observer, Harry may have just looked confused, but Hermione Granger was not a casual observer. She could tell Harry was in pain, and didn't know how to help, so she settled with asking, "Harry, what's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

Harry wasn't one to complain needlessly, so he just straightened his face the best he could, smiled, and said, "Oh, nothing 'Mione. Just got a cramp. Think I must've slept funny."

This would've been a convincing lie, had it not been for Harry taking little gasps after every few words and then screwing up his face in agony.

Ron didn't say anything; he just sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Harry, concern causing a slight frown between his brows.

Snape didn't look worried at all. In fact, he looked down right peeved. "Your friends may appreciate these humble acts of modesty, Potter, but I do not," he said in a low whisper. "Tell us what is wrong, otherwise help cannot be provided."

With that said, he swept away. His robes fluttering violently behind him. It seemed they existed only to provide the Potions Master with a dramatic exit.

Harry noticed a form pass by the door to the hospital wing, chin in the air arrogantly, and for a fleeting moment Harry felt the pain in his chest residing. But every moment after that brief interlude, it seemed to get worse. Finally, it became excruciating and Harry felt tears prick at the corner of his eyes.

Ron leaned forward onto his knees ferociously; (knocking Hermione into a nearby chair in the process) grabbed Harry's shoulders, clearly not thinking properly, and shook him rather rapidly. "Hey, Mate? Are you alright? What's wrong?"

Harry decided then that the last thing he wanted was Ron shaking him into a wall and causing him a head injury on top of his chest pains, those being more than enough for any normal person to handle. Instead, he placed his hands over top of Ron's to calm him down and said, "it's alright Ron," taking short breaths in-between, "just a pain in my chest, it'll go away soon enough."

Hermione stood up and walked over to Harry's side. "What kind of pain, Harry? Maybe describing it will help us to figure out the cause," she reasoned.

"Well, I'm sure it's just from the fever I had earlier," but looking at Hermione's withering glance he sighed and continued. "It's just a stabbing pain right near my heart, and it sort of burns in my chest. But it could be heartburn, right?" Harry asked hopefully before doubling over in pain.

Hermione panicked when she saw Harry in such a state. She yelled to Ron, "Go get Madam Pomfrey! Hurry!" and sat on the bed beside Harry, an arm around his shoulders her other hand rubbing his back to help with the pain. Hermione had something of a motherly instinct, especially when it concerned her friends.

Ron practically rocketed back into the room to see how Harry was faring. He tripped on one of the legs to a nearby bed and sprawled face first on the floor. Madam Pomfrey bustled in behind, stepping over him waving her arms and shouting, "shoo, shoo, you're only getting in the way!"

She checked Harry's temperature to see if he still had a fever, but none seemed to be present. In fact, in the Matron's opinion, Harry should've been fine. The medicine had rid him of the fever and the stomachache, so what was causing the boy this much pain?

After musing over this for a few more seconds, she noticed Harry's companions were still in the room. Madam Pomfrey gave them her best "go away, visiting time is over" look, but they would have none of it. In fact, Hermione, the cleverest witch of her age, conjured up two relatively comfortable chairs and placed them beside Harry's bed. The chairs in the hospital wings were not very comfortable. Hermione supposed it was to discourage people from staying very long. After all, who really wants to sit in a splintery chair with all the stuffing sticking out?

Madam Pomfrey made Harry a Sleep-E-Z draught and told him to rest up. As he fell into the ever welcome darkness, he heard Hermione and Ron having a whispered Brain Storming session about what could have possibly happened, while Madam Pomfrey clucked her tongue at "people overstaying their welcome".

Harry awoke a little before five o'clock that evening. The pain just wouldn't cease, and it kept growing worse with each moment. It had moved from just physical pain to something resembling emotional anguish as well. He felt as though he was missing something, and he would never get it back. In fact it was quite like a feeling of mourning. Like the pain he felt after Cedric died, only worse. He looked to the night table and saw someone had removed his glasses after he fell asleep. He put them on and glanced toward Ron and Hermione. Hermione had nodded off and her head was resting against Ron's shoulder. Ron looked as if he was caught between being happy and terrified and his body was held stiffly at an odd and most likely uncomfortable angle. Harry thought they made a wonderful couple. He had never fancied Hermione that way. She was more of a sister to him, like Ron was a brother. So what better to have happen than them getting together?

Harry shook his head and realized he had zoned out. Ron was looking at him with an expression that said, "help me!" so Harry coughed loudly and Hermione bolted upward and looked around in a panicked manner. "Wha- what happened? What did I miss?" She flushed slightly, realizing she had fallen asleep.

"Hey you two," Harry interrupted the awkward moment, "it'll be dinner soon. Get yourselves down to the Great Hall. I'll be fine."

Hermione protested, but Harry was so adamant that she finally agreed, if she could bring something up to eat for him later. That, and the fact that Harry reminded her she had missed all of her classes that day to sit with him in the Hospital wing. Hermione shouted, "Oh no! I'll need to get all the assignments plus extra credit to make up for it!" And with a quick hug she ran out of the room. Ron patted Harry on the back, said, "don't worry, you can copy my homework," and followed Hermione out the door.

Madam Pomfrey was not, however, gone. She hurried into the room, muttering about visitors and clucking her tongue again. She had what resembled a large boulder in her arms, and a small hammer. She smashed the boulder, handed a piece to another patient on the opposite side of the room as Harry, and then turned her attention to The-Boy-Who-Was-Sick.

She touched Harry's forehead with her "magic fever reader meter" and found his temperature was still normal. She smiled a bit and said, "well we know it isn't a fever, but what is causing it is still a mystery."

She looked at Harry's face and saw his downcast expression. "Why Harry dear, whatever is the matter?" the motherly matron asked.

"I dunno," replied Harry, "I'm just feeling a little depressed I guess."

Madam Pomfrey went across the room to retrieve the boulder of chocolate and smashed off a rather large piece. "This should pick you up in no time at all," she said, as she hurried away adding 'emotional distress' to Harry's list of symptoms.

Harry sat alone for about twenty minutes, just trying to deal with the intense pain. He wondered if Madam Pomfrey had a Breathe-E-Z potion around somewhere. Harry didn't even know if those existed. He was thinking about this when he realized the pain in his chest was subsiding. Maybe it was the chocolate. But that was for energy revitalization, not chest pains, right? He wondered what could've caused this merciful break from the undaunting pain. It was reduced to a dull throb in his chest and his breathing was less laboured and getting stronger by the minute, when-

SLAM!

Harry almost jumped out of his skin. A very pale someone flanked by two tall beast-like someones (somethings?) ran into the hospital wing. It was Draco Malfoy. He was cradling his hand like a precious infant (or in his case, a valuable jewel) and Crabbe and Goyle behind him were just standing there.like.Crabbe and Goyle. "Madam Pomfrey! Help! Help!" Shouted Malfoy. Anyone would've thought it was a life a death situation. Draco always was one for dramatics.

Madam Pomfrey Bustled out as quickly as she could in her overly puffy dress. "What? What is it?" she asked, with a horrified expression on her face.

Malfoy held out his injured hand and whimpered a bit. He was milking it, just like when he got slashed by Buckbeak the hippogriff. "Crabbe sat on my hand, I believe it is now broken in several places," he said pulling a face that looked as if Malfoy thought this was an injustice that should be punishable by death.

Madam Pomfrey took the delicate, pale hand in her own and pushed down in a few places. Malfoy let out a rather undiginfied yelp, snatched his hand away and held it to his chest. "Are you mad, woman? That hurts!" He shouted, and Harry sniggered at this.

"Think it's funny Potter? My hand is broken in twenty places-"

"Actually more like two dear," said the Matron.

Malfoy waved this away with his good wrist. "Whatever. The point is, Potter," he said the name as if it tasted foul in his mouth, "at least I didn't pass out when my hand got a little burnt." He then smirked that superior smirk.

Harry looked at him in disbelief. "You weren't there, how would you know if I had passed out?" Then, "Wait, I didn't pass out because of the fire, I passed out because of-" He stopped suddenly realizing the pain he was about to speak of was completely gone. He looked around in disbelief, wondering what had caused it to go away.

"Well," drawled Malfoy, "I hate to interrupt your interesting story, and the dramatic pause there, genius really, but I need to fix my hand." His voice dripped with sarcasm, not unlike Malfoy.

Harry ignored Draco, nothing he said was worth hearing anyway, in Harry's opinion, and he yelled out, "I feel completely better! What happened? Madam Pomfrey, was it the chocolate?"

Draco pouted and said, "Me first, he's feeling better and I'm still in pain. Plus I'm so much more important, and good looking."

"Yes, yes Mr. Malfoy." Madam Pomfrey waved her wand at Draco's wrist and said, 'Bracchium Redintegro'. Draco let out another one of those charming aristocratic yelps as the bones repaired themselves. His face relaxed, and the matron turned her attention to Harry and said, "Now, Mr. Potter, you were saying?"

"Yes!" he shouted a little too loudly, and an occupant in a nearby bed groaned at the noise. "Oops, sorry." He apologized. "Anyway, like I was saying, I feel completely better. Was it the chocolate that fixed it?"

"No, no.it wasn't the chocolate. I want you to stay awhile longer regardless, Harry." She looked at Malfoy, "you can go now dear, your wrist will be fine."

Draco looked at Potter, smirked and said, "don't get too comfortable scarhead, these strange diseases always come back." With that, he turned on his heel and walked out the door with a grace only possible for a Malfoy. But then again, anyone could look elegant beside Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry leaned back against his pillow, arms behind his head, basking in his good health. But it was gone all too soon. Harry noticed a dull throb begin to beat in his chest. 'Oh gawd,' he thought, 'not again'. With every passing moment it got worse. He decided to tell the witch in charge. He looked to the bed across from him, but the occupant was asleep. He didn't want word getting out that he complained about the pains incessantly. He couldn't stand it if Malfoy found out, he'd mock him forever.

When he called Madam Pomfrey over and told her what was happening with his predicament, she looked puzzled a moment and asked, "Potter, when did you start to feel sick?"

"Well," he started, "this morning when I woke-"

"No, no I mean, when did you get these symptoms?"

"Oh, heh, right. Well, in potions class I was testing my 'Sansus Pyro' and I started to get a pain after I tested it with the fire," he explained.

"Mmm-hmm.and you say you felt better just in the last few minutes? But then it started to hurt again." She stopped to think a moment. "How far into class did you test this potion?"

"After the bell.why?" Harry asked, thoroughly confused.

If Harry had lived in a cartoon, a little lightbulb would've gone off over the Matron's head. "Call Professor Snape and the Headmaster!" she said.

End Ch. 2 ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Well, that's that. Next chapter will hopefully be posted on Friday or Monday. I'll see what I can do. Has anyone figured out what's wrong with Harry? I've left lots of hints ^_^

Thanks for reading!

(Btw.I used a Latin dictionary, and 'Bracchium Redintegro' just means Wrist Repair, or repair wrist..whichever.)