"Malfoy" I sneer, he's standing in the way of me getting into the head dormitories. I hadn't been told who the head boy was, but I have a feeling they will be from Ravenclaw.

"what?" he snapped back, he looked tired as if he wasn't sleeping well. It threw me off a bit, but I shook the feeling of empathy out of my system.

"I need to get into my dorm." I huffed

"so, do I, but I haven't been given the password." He replied he sounded far away, upset, depressed almost.

"Oh, are you the head boy," I ask coldly

"No Granger, I'm just standing here outside the head dorm because I can- of course, I'm the fucking head boy. Don't ask me how or why Dumbledore left it as a request if I came back." Malfoy sighs.

I can't help but stare opened mouth at him, he had just called me Granger rather than mud-blood or beaver-mouth. He hadn't insulted me at all.

"it's Nargles…" I whisper

"what's that? Oh, never mind, Nargles"

We walk into the dormitories and I gasp, one side of the walls are covered in books, novels, textbooks and the sort. In the middle are one lounge and an armchair with matching footrest. On the other side of the books is a small kitchen. Straight ahead after you walk in is the way up to the rooms, one has an H.G on it the together has D.M, in between the two is a bathroom that I assume we will have to share.

"it's lovely…" I state in awe

"it is, isn't it? Well, I'm going to bed" Malfoy yawns

"what? Malfoy its only 6pm!" I ask surprised

"I suppose I can stay up a bit longer…" he trailed off as he made his way over to the kitchen. I watch him as he walks, he doesn't stand as tall as he used to, his shoulders hunched, and his platinum blond hair is a mess. He doesn't look well at all

He sits down on one of the stools in the kitchen and rubs his face as if trying to wake himself up. I can't help but stare as I notice his breaths become shallow and his hands starting to shake.

"Malfoy?" I question. He doesn't move

"Malfoy are you alright?" he's not responding and I'm getting worried, suddenly his body is shaking violently, and it looks as though he can't breathe…

Panic attack

I immediately know what to do. I run over to him and put a hand on his back to make sure he knows I'm there.

"Malfoy can you hear me? If you can, breathe in time with me okay?" he nods slightly, and I take deep breaths, the first ones shallower and then slowly getting them deeper and deeper.

After fifteen to twenty minutes of this he calms down completely, and I rush to the fridge and pull out a green apple.

"eat" I urge

He shakes his head

"Malfoy when was the last time you ate?"

"can't remember" he mumbles

I sigh and pull out a chopping board and cut the apple up into quarters, I was going to make him eat something. I hand him a piece and he shakes his head, I've had enough I grab his jaw, not too hard, and force his jaw open. His eyes widen in shock, but he doesn't pull away. I shove one of the pieces of apple into his mouth.

"chew" I demand. He might not be my favourite person, but as much as I don't like to admit it, he means something to me, I'm not sure what just yet but I know it's there and I must make sure he gets through… this.

He begrudgingly obliges and eats the apple, soon enough he's finished the whole apple and I run to the fridge for another one, he wolfs that one done without me having to cut it up. I sit and watch him as I slowly see a tad more colour in his cheeks and face.

After a minute of sitting down, I speak

"Would you like me to put the kettle on?"

He doesn't reply only sits there looking at the countertop. I put it on anyway and we sit in silence as the kettle whistles and then chimes. I run over and grab two mugs and some earl grey tea bags and place them in I fill up the mugs with water.

"are you one of those idiots that has milk with their tea?" I ask

"no! of course not, you can't put milk in tea! blech" he sounds offended and I giggle as I bring the mugs over. I stop myself as soon as I realised that I was giggling like a little girl at something Draco bloody Malfoy had said.

I place the mugs down he warms his hands up with the mug, after a couple of seconds he takes a sip. He rubs his forehead and sighs.

"Granger, why did you do that?" he asks cautiously almost as if I would run away if he talked.

"what do you mean?"

"help me, when I was having my..."

"Malfoy, your not my favourite person but you definitely do not deserve to go through that, no one does. I'm here to help and talk if you need it." I don't know what came over me but I put my hand on his arm. He stiffened at the touch and jerked away from me. But only for a second. I could tell he wasn't used to this sort of... affection before.

"but I was horrible to you! I don't... deserve anything from anyone!" he responds. I nod in understanding.

"Mal- Draco,"I tired and he smiled slightly when I said his name, I made a mental note to make him smile more... he looked almost angelic when he did that.

" I understand why you became one of them, I do, I would have done the same thing" I soothed and rubbed his arm up and down. He leaned into my touch and I sighed a little.

"Hermione... I've never shown this to anyone, but... can you help?" he askes shakily not meeting my gaze. I swallow a nod as he reaches for the cuff of his left sleeve.

"please understand that I don't want to... I just want it gone." he sobs and I notice the tears falling down his face. I wipe them away with my thumbs and hold his face, forcing him to look at me.

"I'll try to help Draco, I promise"I whisper

He nods and pulls up his sleeve. On top of his dark mark were rows and rows of small cuts, over and over again some slightly pink obviously being quite recent, others fading a little.

"Oh Draco,"I whimper.

"I just wanted it gone" he repeats.

We sit silently for a while.

"Draco, why don't you get it covered up?" he looks at me curiously

"Pardon?"

"like a tattoo? a muggle one, you could get something that reminds you of something... maybe narcissus flowers? like your mother, you got it to protect her right... maybe covering it up with something like that..." tears well up in my eyes at the mention of it and I chew my lip, nervous for his reaction.

"I like that idea, will you come with?" he asks sheepishly

"of course, let's get to bed though, it's getting a bit late and classes start tomorrow. I don't want to be late"

He laughs a bit and walks upstairs.

"Goodnight Granger"

"Night Malfoy"

The next morning I woke up to a feeling of pure bliss, I hadn't had a nightmare at all. It was odd but I shrugged it off just happy to finally get some proper sleep. I knock on the bathroom door, no one answered so I walk in and brush my hair and teeth, I get dressed into my robe and walk down to the common room, Draco is lying on the couch reading a book.

"What are you reading?" I ask

"Uh... Shakespear..." he responds shyly

"what? the Draco Malfoy is reading Shakespear I'm shocked! hell must be freezing over!" we both laugh and I smile.

"I remember seeing it in your bag, honestly though, the Romeo dude is a bit of a tosser."

"Yeah, I remember thinking that as well" I respond.

we sit and talk for a bit.

"OH GODRIC WERE GONNA BE LATE! WEVE ALREADY MISSED BREAKFAST!" I practically yell.

"Oh fuck, come on then."

We race off to class and get there just after everyone else had arrived, I was red from the run and Draco was laughing at me trying to keep up to him.

"Oh shut it Draco" I laugh

Everyone heads turn to us.

"I give it a month" some random Slytherin yelled.

"NO WAY! I give it a week." I'm confused but I sit down whilst muttering my apologies to the professor taking the class.

This year was going to be an interesting one...