Soon after that, Ron started to yawn and complain like he usually did when he was very tired. Harry shooed him to bed, telling him he’ll be up as well in a bit.

Hermione watched their short interaction, lost in thought. She was thinking about the whole situation, debating whether she should have told them the other reason why she accepted the ‘Malfoy challenge’: Draco Malfoy himself. For some reason, she felt she couldn’t be fully honest with her friends, or could she?

Turning away from Ron, who was just leaving the room, Harry saw Hermione looking as if she was thinking hard about something. He frowned. He didn’t want to push Hermione into telling him what was wrong, but, in the same time, he wanted to know if it had anything to do with the whole Malfoy situation. Seeing her hesitate made him feel it was more to it than she let on.

Trusting their friendship of many years, Harry plucked up his courage and leaned closer to Hermione.

,,Hermione” he called her in a low voice, but still managing to startle her out of her thoughts. ,,Now that it’s just the two of us, please be honest with me. What is the other reason why you decided to accept Narcissa’s offer? I know you, or at least I think I do. Something must have happened to make you decide so quickly and to be so adamant about it.”

Hermione was looking at him intensely. She knew he had a better insight than he let on, especially when it came to her hiding things; that, and the fact that she wasn’t very good at hiding things from him. In a moment she realized it was useless to try and keep it from him. Harry Potter’s greatest weakness was his curiosity. He’ll end up pestering her to tell him until she would either give in or curse him into oblivion.

,,Alright” she said with a deep sigh, closing her eyes and leaning back. ,,I saw Draco a couple of weeks ago, before Narcissa came to visit you. He was brought to St. Mungo’s feeling really sick, apparently he took too much potion for dreamless sleep”.

,,Is he that big of an idiot?” Harry interrupted her, eyes wide in amazement.

,,Apparently yes” Hermione said, opening her eyes. ,,Everyone in the wizarding world knows that if you take too many doses, the potion that is supposed to help you sleep soundly without dreams, ends up becoming a poison.”

Hermione silently reached for her cup to sip a bit of coffee. It was cold, but still tasted good.

,,Ok, so the stupid git really wanted to sleep, and he ended up taking one too many potions. What of it?” Harry said briskly.

,,Well, his wish was far from being realized. He couldn’t sleep properly for days because of the treatment” Hermione said, starring inside her cup.

,,That’s unlucky” Harry said, faking concern.

,,More for the ones who had to deal with him” Hermione sighed.

,,It’s always unlucky for those who must deal with Malfoy. He’s not the best cupcake there is.” Harry said grudgingly.

,,Anyway,” Hermione continued, ignoring Harry’s last remark ,,I found out about all of this mostly by accident. The healer who was in charge of him, Philippa, is a friend of mine. She knew Draco and I had been colleagues at school and asked me for help.”

,,To kill him?” Harry interjected in a hopeful tone.

,,No, to contain him.” Hermione replied shooting Harry a scolding look. ,,Apparently Malfoy was making such a ruckus that it was impossible to treat him properly.”

,,Yeah, I can see him doing that. The bouncing ferret has a temper after all.” added Harry with a smirk.

Hermione took a moment to smile at Harry. She knew it wasn’t nice of her, but she couldn’t disagree with him on this point: Draco Malfoy has a temper for sure. Not even the man himself could have opposed the idea. She now felt better about talking to Harry about this.

,,Indeed”, she continued ,,Philippa told me he was keeping everyone at arm’s length, quite literally. He’d threatened half the hospital and anybody who dared to come close to him, except for his mother, of course. He smashed everything that was breakable in the room, not even the bed remained unharmed. Fearing he might do something stupid, the Chief Healer had everything that could be used like a weapon removed from his room."

,,How come he didn’t shoot a few curses?” Harry asked frowning. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been above using the Cruciatus on a poor healer or nurse."

,,Oh, but they had taken his wand the moment he was checked into the hospital. Philippa told me Narcissa was the one who suggested that measure. She either knew or suspected how he’ll react. He, therefore, had only the use of his arms and legs to bring upon destruction and he did a very good job. He’d give any muggle a hell of a challenge to best him.” Hermione ended half amused.

The image of Draco being involved with anything muggle was both funny and disturbing. She had always imagined him a pure blood to such a degree that, if having to deal with anything muggle related, he’d either faint or die instantly from shock.

,,As Ron would probably say, he’s gone mental.” Harry said, shaking his head.

,,And Ron wouldn’t be too far from the truth.” Hermione nodded in agreement. ,,That’s what I thought myself when I saw him. He was raging mad, yelling and asking… well, more like demanding, to be released from the hospital.”

,,So much Lucius in him”, said Harry, with a shudder.

,,I believe he would have given his own father a run for his money.” Hermione said, clasping the cup tighter in her hands. ,,The only person who had any chance of getting close or calming that crazy person was his mother, but Narcissa was nowhere to be found at that time. As I learned later, she stepped out to bring him some stuff to make his stay in the hospital more comfortable.”

,,What, she wanted to bring him the whole Manor, or Silk hospital gowns and sheets perhaps?” Harry asked mockingly.

Hermione stopped, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face. Again, she decided to ignore Harry’s comments. She knew he mostly said them for himself and to make it easier to accept the information, by either joking about it or being sarcastic.

,,Anyway”, she continued, waving a hand tiredly. ,,Philippa came running to me and told me everything. She asked me if I would go to his ward and calm him down so they could give him the necessary treatment.”

,,Calm him down?! Harry bursted again, eyes wide in shock and disbelief. ,,You calm Malfoy? Have you told her that you and Malfoy have been enemies since the first year of school, that he hates muggle-borns and you especially since you’d beat him at every class?”

,,Of course, I told her”, Hermione replied, frustration dripping from her voice. ,,But she thought I might be able to do something, anything. It was either that or they would have to curse him senseless.”

,,Then let them!” Harry exclaimed, clapping his hands together. ,,I’d have done that from the start, honestly.”

,,I know you would”, Hermione frowned at him, ,,but it doesn’t work that way. You can’t administer a proper treatment if you knock your patient out every time you have to go near him. Besides, Philippa knows me well enough. She was sure I could at least handle him without being frightened. Unfortunately, he’s not the only aggressive patient we’d had, and she saw me dealing with a few before.”

,,Oh, I bet they had to be taken to a different ward after meeting you: the ‘effects of a deadly beating’ perhaps.” Harry snorted in amusement.

Hermione smiled as well and went slightly pink in the cheeks. It wasn’t something she was always proud of, but her temper came in handy sometimes. She still remembered how she slapped Draco in their third year, so, presumably, she wouldn’t had felt that bad to repeat the move. At that moment she was brought out of her reverie by Harry’s voice.

,,Hermione, I’ll be honest and say this again: I don’t think it’s a good idea, this whole thing. You still have nightmares from all the hell you’ve gone through at the Manor and the war, dammit. How do you think you’ll be able to sleep knowing who’s in the other room?”

,,I’ve thought about it too, and I admit I have moments when I doubt it is the best choice, but if you think I will be a coward and run away from it, then you’re very much mistaken, Harry Potter.” She said, nostrils flaring slightly, fingers going white from clasping the cup too tightly.

,,I know you’re brave, Hermione.” Harry sighed. ,,You’re the bravest and smartest person I know. I’m just worried about you.”

,,I know.” Hermione replied, looking down at her feet, feeling the tension ease a little bit. ,,But”, she continued slowly, still looking down, ,,you haven’t seen what I saw. That day, when Bellatrix…”

Hermione stopped, choking on the words, feeling shivers down her spine and an ache in her forearm. She felt the urge to grab it, to hold it, as if to protect herself from some invisible harm.

Harry waited for her to resume, not pushing her to talk. He knew how difficult it still was for her to remember what happened that day. Their capture, her torture, the escape, Dobby… He stopped. It was hard for him as well to think about that.

After a few moments, Hermione seemed to recover slightly. She was still rather pale but felt strong enough to continue.

,,When Bellatrix was torturing me”, she said in a low voice, ,,I tried to focus on something else, to try and cope with the pain. So, I looked around. Draco was there.”, she took a deep breath before continuing. ,,And his appearance struck me, Harry. His body looked rigid, his hands were shaking slightly, but I’m sure he was putting an effort to control it. He looked as if he was in even more pain than I was. When he noticed me starring at him he averted his eyes but for a split second I saw them… terror and despair, that’s what I saw in them. He was being broken, Harry, in that very moment he was being tortured alongside me.”

Hermione finished with a loud sigh, looking up at Harry. She might have sounded a bit too dramatic, but she knew her best friend would understand the meaning behind her words. That day at the Malfoy Manor had changed her perspective on many things, one of them being the fact that Draco Malfoy didn’t have a stomach for torture and killing and she knew that now.

Harry starred at Hermione, letting out a deep breath, one he didn’t realize he was holding. Slowly, he closed his eyes in defeat. Hermione was smart and brave, like he told her earlier, and she could take care of herself. After all, she was the one who took care of him and Ron throughout school. Merlin knows where they would have ended up without her.

Even knowing all that it was still difficult for him to forget how much pain she was in, both mentally and physically, after Voldermort was gone. It had been difficult for all of them. Having to go back to living a normal life proved to be an even bigger challenge than the war itself. And now, Hermione seemed willing to throw herself back into that hell, and he couldn’t stop her. No one could.