A/N - I know some of you aren't massive fans of the spicy scenes, so endeavoured to get this one out quickly. Hope you enjoy it. Please read and review/comment.

Chapter 32 - No Ifs, All Butts

After the very busy day that they'd had, Harry and Daphne's much anticipated night of passion was reluctantly cut short after only one further session of lovemaking before they both fell asleep. Harry was the first to wake the next day and found himself roused by a faceful of Daphne's sweet-smelling golden hair, which was now a lot bushier and less sleek than when she'd dropped the cloak before him the night before. Grinning and fully aware of both his morning wood and the voluptuous naked blonde he was cuddling, he started trailing kisses around down her neck while pushing himself against her.

"Hmm, morning," Daphne murmured a few moments later.

"Morning," he said, giving her a more pronounced push and kissing down her neck again.

"You've got no chance. I'm so sore," she said softly.

"Awww," Harry said comically loudly flopping onto his back.

"Maybe later," Daphne laughed, "What time is it?"

"There's a great big clock right there."

There were five loud raps on the door.

"Daph? You still in there?" Tracey called.

Daphne reluctantly rose from the nice warm bed, grabbed Harry's dressing gown and donned it as she went to the door. Harry got up to make his daily attempt at peeing through morning wood.

"Hi," Tracey said brightly, clearly very happy to have her friend back in a bright blue jumper and a navy skirt, "Nice hair, have fun did we?"

Daphne blushed, fully aware that her completely naked fiance was about to walk back out of the bathroom any second so talked to Tracey in the doorway. "Yes, thanks."

"You know it's almost eleven? You've missed breakfast and we were gonna go to the lake to do homework. It's also not windy at all!"

"Oh no, I'm so hungry," Daphne replied.

"We can sort out a picnic and bring it with us," Harry replied, walking back into the bedroom, "I'll just call for Dobby."

The girls heard a pop from behind them and then a squeaky, high-pitched voice said, "Master Harry called sir? Oh! Master Harry is naked, you are standing strong and proudly sir. Would you like Dobby to be finding you some larger underpants?"

"We'll meet you in the Entrance Hall in half an hour," Daphne said once she'd finally managed to control her laughter.

Tracey made sure to wait until Harry and Daphne arrived before telling Neville about the 'Boxers' incident just so she could see Harry's face and then they all wandered down into the grounds, finding a large flat area with a tall boulder to shelter them from any stray remaining gusts of winds ready to play havoc with their paperwork.

The platter Dobby had prepared for them was so large, that they were all still munching on it by the time Daphne and Neville had finished the only essays they were planning to do that day. Harry and Tracey were well onto their second but it was taking some time.

"It's nice you're behind as well," Tracey said absentmindedly as she leafed to the next page in her copy of 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.'

"Oh yeah, it's wonderful," Harry said sarcastically, "I love writing my essays in a rush. Does anyone know any other way you can use 'Protego Totalum' other than for an area of effect shield?"

Neville shrugged, "You're the Defence prodigy, you tell us."

Harry harrumphed and grabbed a big textbook while the others looked on. Not long after they were finished and their books and scrolls went back into their bags.

"There's nothing else anyone needs to get done?" Daphne asked.

"Charms, but I'll do it later," said Tracey, "My hand's hurting."

"Can we have another training session at some point, Harry?" Neville asked, "The last session really helped my casting overall."

Harry chewed his lip, "I promised Daphne and her Dad I'd train her up a bit, Nev, that's gotta take priority. Although, I can't duel any of you all out, no offence but I could take on at least ten of you."

"None taken," said Neville.

"I could train you both, though. I'd like to have you duel to see what you're really like."

"Hey, what about me?"

Harry thought for a moment.

"I'll train you as well. If it's gonna be the four of us together a lot, it would be good if we were able to act as a unit. We've still got another couple of hours before we have to think about getting ready for the feast so we can go to the Chamber now if you want, and make it a Sunday afternoon thing."

"Wait, the Chamber? The actual Chamber of Secrets?" Tracey said excitedly, "I thought Neville was having me on."

"Yeah, I'll show you where it is. Come on."

Everyone packed their things away and made their way to Myrtle's bathroom. After Harry insisted they all took the slide, much to Daphne's dismay, they found themselves before the giant sculpture of Salazar.

"I can't believe you killed that Great Big Dirty snake, it would've been amazing to see," said Tracey, running her hand along its now fading dark green scales."

"We can watch it sometime on the Locus Memoriat if you like," Harry replied, "I should probably do a proper evaluation of my actions. I'll have to set up a recording but I can manage it. Actually, I'll be back in a mo."

Harry disappeared for a minute or so and came back later carrying the Locus Memoriat. He placed it down gently on the ground and tapped a few runes with his wand.

"Right then everyone," Harry called when he was finished, "Daphne, Neville, you're going to duel. Three matches, nothing too dangerous, that means no cutters, no fire, nothing that could cause a lot of bleeding. When you're done we'll watch the duels on the Locus, I've set it to record live and we can evaluate your performances together. Tracey, you're coming to the back with me, you two can start whenever you're ready."

By the time Harry had walked with Tracey further down the Chamber, Neville and Tracey's voices could be heard accompanying the sounds of spellfire and bursts of light that flashed in a variety of colours across the dark stone.

"So, where do you think you need work?" Harry asked, "You know you better than I do."

"Speed," Tracey replied immediately, "My reflexes are shocking."

"Fair enough," Harry replied and proceeded to teach her the concept of spell chaining, along with going over three different combinations of spells she could already cast and explaining how they could flow into each other. He had her practise the spells on him as he practised his dodging. She showed quite a bit of improvement initially after a bit of coaching, but when Harry started casting spells at her she completely fell apart.

"What happened?" Harry asked as Tracey rubbed her arm from the third stinging hex that had hit her way harder than she would've liked.

"It's just, that I can't go back when you interrupt my train of thought, I struggle to start again and focus on attack after focusing on defence."

"Hmm, and your spells are powerful and you cast a lot of them," he took a long look at her, she seemed like she would be able to go again right away, "Hang on, are you even tired?"

"Not really," Tracey shrugged.

Harry had a hunch, "Can you cast Aguamenti?"

"Sure, I did it to refill Daphne's pool in the summer when that freak storm came and it got all gross with leaves and lawn trimmings."

"Are you telling me you filled a pool with it all by yourself?" Harry asked, impressed.

"Yeah," Tracey replied, confused, not seeing why it was such a big deal.

"That shows a hell of a lot of magical endurance," Harry replied, "Okay, we're gonna do some tests, I have an idea. Hold your Protego in its active state for as long as you can."

Tracey cast Protego and Harry proceeded to hit it with a barrage of spells. It wasn't going down.

"Make it bigger! Make it cover four people. Imagine we've got no cover."

She increased the size, and Harry kept up his barrage. After five minutes, Tracey looked a bit tired, but it wasn't going down.

I'm going to give it one big hit," Harry shouted and cast a full-powered Bombarda at her with everything he could muster. It shattered instantly and Tracey fell on her bum.

"Damn, I thought I had it," muttered Tracey with a frown.

"Are you kidding?" Harry replied with an astounded smile, "I put everything I had into that I didn't think your shield would take it, I just had to see. Your control over your magic is incredible. Didn't you notice, that when you started to tire, your shield was becoming inactive until the moment before a spell would hit and then it deactivated again? That's instinctual, that is. It's like you only put the minimum amount of magic required and it meant you took so many spells before you even started to break a sweat. You are going to be our Shielder."

"I am?" Tracey asked, grinning.

"Yep," Harry said, waving his wand and transfiguring a lump of stone into a large trough, "Until those two are done I want you to cast Aguamenti into that, keep the channel going, but I want only a few drops at a time and try to vary the amount of time between each push. We need to have you channelling while consciously switching your intent on and off flawlessly."

It was only about eight more minutes until Daphne and Neville had finished duelling, but Harry was very pleased with Tracey's results.

Once Neville had begrudgingly admitted that Daphne beat him each time, they conjured seats and sat to watch the recording on the Locus.

"Okay," Harry said once the Locus had finished playing, "Neville, Where's your weakness?"

"Spell knowledge and recognition," Neville replied without hesitation, she was casting spells I had no answer to."

"Daphne?" Harry asked

"I wasn't fast enough at shielding or putting enough magic into them, he nearly caught me a few times and only won because I got out of the way."

"Exactly,' Harry replied, "It's why you were so closely matched and the bouts went on for so long. Neville did the right thing as well, dodging spells he didn't recognise. Yes, you need work on your spell recognition, Nev, but there's always going to be spells thrown at you you don't recognise. A massive issue was the spells you were casting. What was the advantage Daphne took advantage of? Don't tell them, Daph."

"Erm…" said Neville.

"I dunno," said Tracey.

"Daph?" asked Harry.

"He was only casting Charms and DADA spells we learned in class," Daphne said tucking her hair behind her ear "He never used the environment apart from that one time when he summoned a rock to intercept a curse and never used transfiguration. Charms is my best subject and transfiguration is my worst so I wasn't gonna give him an edge by trying to do what he hadn't thought of yet."

"Spot on. Nev, you've come on so far with Transfiguration ever since you got your new wand, why?" Harry asked.

"I, er, I guess I forgot I could do it now," Neville replied sheepishly.

"There you go then," Harry smiled, "You need to be working on your Transfiguration. Homework for next Sunday, Nev, you're going to learn three spells where you can morph wood, stone and glass and transfigure it into something you can use in battle, and we'll do this next week."

"Okay," Neville nodded seriously.

"Tracey, you're going to be repeating that exercise for ten minutes every day til next week."

"Got it," Tracey replied.

"And Daph, you're right, it was your speed that was your issue, but not in casting, you kept Neville on the back foot, it was your dodging."

"I know. I just got tired. I used to exercise so much more," Daphne replied sadly, "I used to run every morning."

"Ah, so now you've bagged your handsome lord you're just gonna let yourself go," Tracey teased.

Daphne stuck her tongue out at her.

"You both were rather slow, so we're going to start doing more exercise together if you're up for it. I need to do more as well, to be honest, so yeah, we're gonna start running. Entrance hall, every morning, six thirty. Running gear, even when I'm not here."

There was grumbling but everyone agreed.

"Why doesn't Daphne get homework?" Tracey asked.

"Oh she does," Harry replied, "I'm going to have her work on her endurance casting spells and if she's good maybe I'll even teach her a fancy spell or two."

"I'm always good," said Daphne with a grin.

"Your hair said so this morning," said Tracey. Both Harry and Daphne glared at her for that one.

Harry and Daphne were very lucky that their post-training tryst in the shower was over and they were dressed when someone knocked on the door to their room for the second time that day. Daphne welcomed her parents and Astoria into the room. After the much-expected comments about how lovely their room was, the main topic was that thankfully, Astoria had been cured. Being free of the curse had turned her previously mousy hair into a direct colour match for Daphne's, something that both sisters were ecstatic about.

Ellanore pulled out a big blue folder she'd brought from home, and after she'd divulged it was filled with wedding planning stuff, Daphne, Astoria and her mother moved to the seating area to look over some things while Cyrus took Harry aside.

"Harry, I just wanted to let you know that we're going to disclose your betrothal in the Prophet as per our customs, we've also divulged your curing of the curse you to thank you properly as well, publically."

Harry blanched. "You didn't need to do that Cyrus."

"I can have that part pulled if you're uncomfortable, and we thought you might say that, but we also know how keen you are to keep public morale high and I think declaring publically that you cured her after much research will increase public faith in you. Your propaganda will be all the more effective if you keep reminding the wizarding public of your power.'

Harry sighed, he hated the attention, but Cyrus was right.

"Okay, I agree. I should keep up appearances. Thank you. It's a good idea."

"It's not to do that for you though, remember that," Cyrus reached up and grasped Harry by his upper arms, "The world needs to know how grateful we are, for what you've done for our family, your family."

Harry smiled, slightly uncomfortable, "You're very welcome."

"Right, so as the girls know, we don't divulge information that is prepared for public release, so please keep it to yourself."

"The school already knows about our engagement, Cyrus, I'm sorry."

"I thought they might, I meant about the curse."

"Ah okay."

'Astoria has eaten and we will be re-glamouring her hair and she will be returning to her room until tomorrow. Ellanore, are you ready to go?"

"Almost," said Ellanore from the table.

'Don't worry, I'll go over the folder with Tracey and then send you an owl once Harry has okayed everything, or three."

"Sounds good."

Harry Potter was a star seeker, everyone knew that, with reflexes many were envious of. He could snatch a tiny gleaming ball flying at high speed at fifty feet while he flew past it with a broom between his legs with heavy metal bludgers being hurled at him left, right and centre. This little fact was exactly why Harry, who was tucking into his plate of gammon, egg, chips and peas was getting extremely frustrated because this one damn pea would just not stay on his fork. It had become a challenge, a battle of wits, one that Harry was quickly losing.

There, he got it! Spearing the blasted thing on one of the tines, he shoved the tiny green menace into his mouth before it had a chance to escape. Problem solved, he zoned back into the conversation at the Slytherin table.

'It's so unfair that you get to stay in Harry's room now," moaned Pansy, It''s not like Snape would ever let us get away with stopping the night with any of the other boys.

"It's just for her protection," Harry said, 'Her Dad and I just don't want anything else to happen, that's all. We know it's risky being with me in the first place, so it's just to be safe. That's why she's gonna be in all my classes apart from the electives as well."

"What, you mean you won't get to sit next to me in Charms anymore?" asked Millicent.

"Or me in Transfig?" said Blaise, "You're always my partner!"

"I'm afraid not," Daphne said tartly, "Apparently Professors Flitwick or McGonagall aren't enough to protect me."

Harry frowned.

'I think it's more about the going in between classes, Daph,' said Tracey with a kind smile.

"Well you lot could walk me, you wouldn't mind making sure I was with someone between classes, would you?" said Daphne, like she was orating to voters.

"No." came her audience's chorused reply.

"That's not the point-" Harry began to interject, but they were all interrupted by a stream of silver light that shot through the Great Hall door. It flew right over to Harry at the Slytherin table and when it stopped it coalesced into a gleaming silver owl, a Patronus.

"Weird way to get a delivery," Tracey said to sniggering, but then Poppy Pomfreys voice sounded in the hall:

"Harry, I need you in the Hospital Wing. Please attend as a matter of urgency."

The Patronus then promptly vanished.

Harry looked at Daphne to his right.

"Are you gonna be alright getting back?" Harry asked.

"After five years of walking to the dungeons with Tracey, I'll be fine. I'm not made of bloody glass," Daphne replied with a sneer.

Harry frowned again, she'd never used that tone with him before.

'You know I just worry," Harry replied, trying to placate her, "I've got to go."

He got to his feet, wondering the best way to get to the Hospital Wing, but then Fawkes appeared on his shoulder. Harry looked up at Dumbledore who smiled at him, they exchanged nods and Harry disappeared in a burst of phoenix fire.

Madam Pomfrey had scolded Dumbledore more than enough times that he might interrupt a sterile or stasis field by flaming directly into the Hospital wing, and so Harry was dropped off just outside the doors. He charged inside, wand at the ready, thinking it must really be an emergency if Madam Pomfrey needed another hand so quickly.

"It's me," he called.

"It's alright, Harry, you can relax, it's urgent not an emergency, come through," Poppy called from behind the curtain of a bed area that had been made much larger than for a typical student.

Harry made his way through the curtain, making sure to not leave a gap to keep the patient's dignity intact but gasped when he saw who it was.

"Hagrid!" Harry cried, "What happened?"

Rubeus Hagrid was completely naked and face down on an enlarged hospital bed. The initial shock that Harry had, that anyone would have when seeing the naked back, legs and buttocks of a half-giant was pushed even further when Harry saw that from the base of his ribs to the tops of his calves Hagrid was covered with some very nasty burns. His back and thighs were red and pink, but his buttocks, particularly his right, were waxy and white, peeling and blistering. A large portion was charred, black and leathery. Harry couldn't help but wince.

"Alright, Arry?' Hagrid said, "Got caught by surprise by one of my damn Skrewts closing them back in the new enclosure I built after the tournament. Dumbledore agreed they were interesting, see."

Harry sighed. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened to the gamekeeper.

"But how did you get back here?" Harry asked.

"One of the house elves.'

"Merlin," Harry said under his breath, "It doesn't look great."

"Like I said," said Poppy, who was standing at Hagrid's right and next to a large wheeled trolley covered by a white sheet, "It's urgent not an emergency, but this is an important part of your learning and Rubeus said he would be happy to help."

Harry smiled. "Thanks, Hagrid."

"Anytime."

"Today, Hagrid's your patient. "Talk me through your examination."

With his wand still in hand, Harry stepped to Poppy's side and cast several diagnostic charms. He didn't like what he saw.

"His observations…they're all off!" Harry said after a moment.

"They aren't," Poppy replied, "Apart from one of them, his pulse, slightly. Why?"

That threw Harry for a loop, if anything Hagrid's heart seemed to be beating too slow, but why would that be?

"Erm…he's a half-giant?" Harry offered.

"Exactly," Poppy replied with a satisfied nod. 'We always need to account for patients with ongoing diseases or patients who aren't fully human. Werewolves, Half-Goblins, Veela, and Half-Giants to name a few. We have all such people who live at Hogwarts from time to time and we have them come in for quarterly observations when healthy so we can keep track of what their 'normal' is. Here is Rubeus' most recent set, just last month's."

Harry took the offered clipboard that Poppy was holding and read through the chart fully before casting his diagnostic charm again.

"Okay," Harry nodded to himself, "The pulse is a bit high, that could be due to his heart working harder to get his blood to his limbs. Hagrid, any numbness or pins and needles to your legs, or your arms even."

"No, 'Arry."

Harry reached out and touched each of Hagrids lower legs, past where they were burned. They were a nice normal temperature, and they hadn't gone pale, blue or grey to suggest any circulatory issues.

"No vascular compromise. Hagrid did you feel dizzy when you walked in?"

"Nah, just in a lot of pain."

Harry looked over at Pomfrey, "So could the elevated pulse be due to adrenaline? His blood pressure is on the lower side of his normal so that could be how his system is compensating."

Poppy smiled and nodded. "Tell me about the burns."

"Mostly second-degree on the back and thighs, third-degree on all of the right buttock, about half of his left."

"Correct," Pomfrey nodded, smiling, "And treatment? A hint, they're Blast-Ended Skrewts."

Harry chewed his lip while he thought, staring at Hagrid's burned backside.

'What makes Blast-Ended Skrewts different?' Harry thought, 'Apart from the fact Hagrid created them…that's it!'

"Hagrid bred them himself, they're fire is magical but there will be little research as to in what way, if any, so we need to go with treating it as if the burns are from the most potent magical beast's fire, Dragonfire, and go from there."

"And how do we treat Dragonfire burns?"

"Well, pain relief to start with, but judging by the fact Hagrid's not howling in pain I'm guessing you've given him some, which means my obs are after analgesia. Did it make a difference to his obs?"

"Nothing," Poppy replied.

"So we use Ignis Burn Salve liberally on the first and second-degree burns."

"And the third?"

Harry winced, "Debridement to remove the char and then salve it at the same time as the rest.

"Very good," Poppy nodded, "Equipment?"

"A blade, in a hospital setting they use ones with Intent-based runic arrays, do we have one?"

Poppy pulled back the sheet a third of the way to reveal a gleaming silver blade, like a razor blade but twice as long with quite a few runes on it, in Ancient Norse.

"Very good Harry, if this were class I'd give points, but as a reward and as he's your patient, you can control and activate it. You make two taps with your wand a second apart to activate it, it will hover before you. Then your required number of double-taps to set the depth level, this is in half centimetres. Each double-tap must be a second apart, we're going to need level two, so two double taps. Then a triple tap to activate the tracing rune. Point your wand at the start of the perimeter of the area you want to debride and use your intent to trace the area for debridement, making sure to have the ends of the line join. When you're happy, make a last single tap to activate it and the blade will begin immediately. 'Finite' to reset it and turn it off."

Harry nodded.

"So, two single taps, two double taps, a triple tap, trace the area, then a last tap to activate it."

Exactly.

"Here goes, Hagrid," Harry said, "Sorry if I mutilate your butt, it might hurt a bit, even with the pain potion."

'That's something I thought I'd never say to Hagrid.' Harry thought.

"I'll be alrigh' 'Arry, I trust yer," Hagrid replied, before burying his face in his pillow.

Harry took a deep breath and gave the blade two single taps and he jumped as it bounced up to hover in front of him. He took another steady breath and gave it two double taps. The runes on the blade gleamed a bright blue in two strong pulses of light. He gave it a triple tap and his wand vibrated, so he stepped closer to Hagrid's side and aimed his wand tip at a starting point at the perimeter the moment he was happy a beam of the same blue light shot forth from his wand like a laser. Slowly he began to trace around the edge of the charred, blackened skin, finding the beam left a glowing outline wherever it hit. It was slow precise work.

"Get closer, Harry, it'll be easier if you aren't so far away," Poppy advised

Harry leaned further forward and indeed found it easier, but caught a strong whiff of charred half-giant backside that nearly made him baulk. Soon, though, he finished the perimeter and as Harry was happy with his work, the beam stopped.

"Happy?" Poppy asked. He looked at her and looked back at Hagrid.

"No, that bit on the other cheek."

"Get cracking then," Poppy replied and while Harry smirked at the hopefully unintentional pun, he completed a smaller perimeter on Hagrid's left cheek and looked back at Poppy.

"Good,' she said with a smile, "One more tap to activate it."

Harry tapped the once and watched with a mix of fascination and horror as the razor-sharp blade sliced through the charred skin with ease. Madam Pomfrey vanished each fragment of skin as it came free while Harry sat at Hagrid's bedside and took one of his huge, dustbin lid-sized hands while Hagrid groaned in pain.

"That's the big bit done now, Hagrid," Harry said several minutes later, trying to be comforting but glad he hadn't given Hagrid his wand hand with how almost bone-crunchingly tight the gamekeeper was squeezing his left, "Just the other cheek now and it's not even half the size."

A few more painful moments later Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, extricating his hand.

"Yeah, not gonna lie though, that 'urt a bit."

"The worst part is done now Rubeus, we just need to do the salve," Poppy said while she levitated the blade into a jar of clear disinfectant potion. She dipped a hand into her pocket and pulled out a large, white, tub. On its lid, moving fire flickered and in thick black lettering it was labelled 'Ignis Burn Healing Salve."

"What's wrong with it?" she asked as she handed the tub to Harry. Harry shrugged and unscrewed the lid. Inside was a thick, yellow paste that smelled strongly of some sort of spice.

"I dunno," Harry replied, "I don't know what it's supposed to be like."

"It looks fine," Poppy replied, "And it's in date. Think. What adjustments did we have to make before?"

"Adjustments…" Harry said under his breath as he scribbled on Hagrid's Obs chart, thinking, "Is Hagrid's skin different from ours as well?"

"It is," the matron replied, "Now have a look at this book. She reached down to the bottom shelf of her trolley and pulled out a thick, leather brown tome with the title, "Healing Adjustments for Half-breeds and Gene-Altering Magical Afflictions."

Harry took the book gratefully and placed it on a clear spot on the trolley. He absentmindedly, stuck out his tongue while he searched the index for 'Half-Giants, Skin' and then flicked to the right page. He ran his finger down the lines of very small black script until reading out loud:

"Burn repair. First and second-degree burns from mundane fire can be healed with cooling, inflammation reduction and skin-knitting charms in that order, however, due to the tighter packed epithelial layer, and reduced vascularity, cooling and inflammation charms must be underpowered while skin-knitting charms must be channelled for longer over a given surface area to ensure a complete repair. Third-degree burns do not occur in half-giants with mundane fire, except for the eyes, at which point the eye is likely irreparable."

"Keep going," Poppy encouraged.

"In the case of magical fire, repairs vary depending on the magical core of the being from which it originated and the temperature of the fire. Magical Fire from witch or wizard-cast spells can generally be treated as with mundane fire. Magical fire from beasts varies, see reference table 37a."

Harry remembered seeing a list of tables in the contents section, flicked back to it and then found the right page.

He found a row labelled Dragonfire/Fire of Unknown Magical Quantity. And read out the contents of the columns.

"First-degree, thin application of Ignis or Arderos Salve, mixed with Catalysing Tincture in a pestle and mortar until lime green. Add sparingly, the salve becomes useless if it becomes forest green. It's the same for second-degree and third-degree just says debride first."

Harry looked up at Madam Pomfrey, who simply removed the rest of the sheet from the trolley to reveal a pair of glossy leather gloves, a large bottle of another clear potion labelled 'Catalysing Tincture', a large granite pestle and mortar and a dessert spoon. Harry nodded to himself to psych himself up and started spooning large dollops of the Ignis Salve into the mortar until he thought he had enough. The cork in the vial of the catalysing tincture came off with a pop and the moment the liquid came into contact with the air it began bubbling violently. He looked up at Poppy in alarm.

"That's normal, just make sure you put the cork back in the bottle the moment you're done," she said.

Harry nodded and slowly started adding the potion into the Salve a bit at a time, giving the mix a good stir and grind. Slowly the mixture turned a lime green, but it hadn't at all changed its consistency, somehow.

"Perfect," said Poppy, "Gloves on, and you're spreading it thinly, it should look like his skin is shiny, not green."

"Sorry if this hurts, Hagrid," Harry said as his first magical friend budged up to let his healer sit on the edge of the bed.

"After that blade, it'll be nothing, don't worry."

Tentatively, Harry, dipped three gloved fingers into the salve and touched it to Hagrid's skin. The giant instantly jumped and Harry did too, accidentally kicking the trolley which slid across the room. Then, Hagrid started laughing.

"I know that didnt hurt, Rubeus so stop playing with him or I'll have another layer off you," said Poppy with a glare.

Hagrid snorted while Harry glared at him. "I was only kidding, I'll be good."

Harry gritted his teeth and held his breath for a moment as he started the application again in case Hagrid did it a second time, but he didn't. Five minutes later, he was finished and before his eyes, the blistering and swelling disappeared and only redness remained.

"Evaluation?" Poppy asked as her protege doffed his gloves.

"Well, he still has first-degree burns. But they won't prevent mobilisation or stop him from doing his daily activities," Harry replied, looking back at the book, "He'll need to not wash the skin until it's finished healing and rub the same salve into the affected skin for three more nights before he goes to bed, sleeping naked and on his front. The salve will also work as a disinfectant and prevent infection. He should be fully recovered by that point."

"That's good, Harry, but you've forgotten one thing. What do we do immediately after any intervention?"

Harry blushed, "Observations, right."

He cast his diagnostic spells for a final time and in comparison to Hagrid's chart, everything was returning to normal and he told Poppy so. He scribbled down the last set ofobservations while Poppy scooped up large dollops of the remaining mixture and deposited them into a clean tub.

"Rubeus, if you feel well you can go," Poppy said, "Drink plenty of water and for Merlin's sake, don't scratch it.'

"Thank you," Hagrid said, "Both of you, you did great Harry. Come and see me sometime, not just in classes."

"I will," Harry replied with a smile, "But I'm not visiting just to rub cream on your arse again."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Hagrid grinned as he got to his feet, "Best be off, Fang'll be wondering where his dinner is."

"Well done Harry," Poppy said after Hagrid had left, "So what did you learn?"

"Adjust all interventions for half-breeds," Harry replied.

"Why?"

"Observations and physiology for them is different."

"What do you think would you do, if you don't know the baseline obs?"

"Erm..."

"Use whatever knowledge you do have and cast diagnostics not just after every intervention but every fifteen minutes until you are certain of their stability. What else did you learn about dealing with patients like in the books title?"

"If available, always use reference."

"Exactly," Poppy nodded, "Take this book with you when you leave. I want three one-foot scrolls on the physiology of three types of people with half-breed physiology or physiology of those who have come into contact with a sort of gene-altering curse or affliction, like vampirism or lycanthropy."

Harry couldn't help but wince. OWL year homework was already piling up before the extra work.

"It's okay, you have two weeks," Poppy said, reading his mind, "But copy the pages you're going to use and bring the book back to me soon. Rubeus is in here with me far more often than he'll admit."

"I'll get it done," Harry replied with a serious nod, "That reminds me. Astoria is cured."

"Is she now?" Poppy smiled, removing the white sheet she always tied around her head and placing it in a pocket, "How is she?"

"She's blonde like Daphne."

"Fascinating," the matron said with a gleam in her eye, "Right, come on. Hagrid was your patient tonight, I'm going to teach you how to complete his paperwork."

It was a lot of paperwork and his hand was aching by the time when he'd finally finished. By the time he got back to his room and to Daphne, she was already sound asleep, under the covers in a very modest set of pyjamas. Sighing, and even though thinking about her reaction in the Great Hall earlier he really wanted to talk things out, he guessed he shouldn't disturb her. She would have her first classes back after returning from hospital tomorrow so she needed her sleep. As quietly as he could, he stripped down to his boxers and climbed under the covers, smiling faintly at how they hadn't talked about it but had unspokenly chosen sides of the bed. He gave a her a soft kiss on her hair and turned away from her. Sleep would keep easy for him, he knew, and he prayed he wasn't going to dream about Hagrid's burnt backside that night. Tomorrow would be a new day and his life was changing faster than he could think. His next task, the Wizengamot session, two days hence.