As Harry hurried down the hallway to his next class, he almost didn't notice the closet to his right. It was something you didn't look at until you had a reason to, and in reality he himself didn't even realize the reason. It was Ron who stopped him and Hermione to tell them it sounded like somebody was crying.

Harry and Hermione didn't hear it of course. It was something that you'd have to put your ear right up against the door to hear.

Now, Hermione didn't want to be late so they came to an agreement that Harry would be the one to check the closet out, while her and Ron could go to class.

Harry opened the door slowly, and he saw somebody he didn't even realize was missing from his last class until he saw him curled up in the closet.

"What the fuck do you want, Potter?"

Draco was hostile as always, and he still did a good job and holding his dickish attitude even when his eyes were red and half his face was hidden behind his knees.

Harry closed the door behind him, he had a feeling this was going to take a while.

Draco wasn't wearing his robe, it was folded over a few times and he was sitting on it.

Harry crouched down in front of draco, but made sure to keep at least s foot between them. He didn't want to elevate his risk of getting punched.

"Draco, why are you crying?"

"I'm not."

He muttered as another tear rolled down his cheek.

Harry sighed.

This was definitely going to take a while.

"I'm not going to judge you, you know?"

Draco was still very suspicious, why would Harry ever want to help him after all the bullshit he's put him through?

"Fuck off."

He wasn't the type to just give in and cry into a person's chest and tell a sob story. He hated anybody knowing about his emotions, other people weren't supposed to see him like this.

Harry put his hand on Draco's arm delicately, and he winced. Then he noticed tiny spots of red dotted along his sleeve.

Harry started to piece alot of things together, and he tried to pull Draco's arm away from his knees.

"Let go of my arm before you end up dead like your parents."

Normally when Draco would say something about his parents Harry would be beyond pissed, but right now that comment barely even scratched the surface.

He could be pissed about it later.

"Draco..."

Harry mumbled, then backed away a few feet and held out his hand.

It was a different approach, and with Draco's obvious issues with being pitied it might just work.

Maybe thirty seconds passed, and draco held out his arm and looked away.

Harry was relieved that it worked, but he didn't show any excitement on his face. Now wasn't the time for that.

He rolled up Draco's sleeve as gently as he could, he rolled up the sweater and the shirt separately.

"My fucking God, Malfoy..."

Harry mumbled as he stared at his arm. His entire forearm was covered with dried blood and cuts from something that weren't too deep thank God, but it was still pretty fucked up.

Draco finally looked up at Harry, and he pulled his arm away.

"What do you care anyways? I'm a cunt to you."

"That.. that doesn't mean that this doesn't matter, god- uh,"

Harry stood up slowly, and extended his arm to help Draco up as well.

Of course Draco stood up on his own and glared at Harry's extended hand.

He yanked his sleeve down roughly, and tried to storm out of the room.

Harry grabbed his hand and pulled him backward, he wasn't just going to let Draco leave like that.

"No, we have to get you cleaned up first."

Draco would have fought Harry on that, but really he was too exhausted to.

Harry didn't let go of his hand as they made their way down the halls, he was too afraid that he'd try to run or something.

He stopped by the class that he was apparently skipping, and waved Hermione and Ron over.

Hermione was a bit hesitant, but in the end they joined Harry and Draco in the hall while their teacher probably wondered where the hell they went.

"Draco?"

Ron questioned, and then he saw that Harry was holding Draco's hand and was even more confused.

"We don't have time to just stand around, come on, let's go!"

They hurriedly made their way to the girls bathroom with moaning myrtle in it, draco was obviously hesitant to go in but it was the only one where nobody would see them.

"Now, why are we here exactly?"

Ron asked, still confused as to why draco was there.

Harry sighed and grabbed Draco's arm, who was done with fighting about it. He just let Harry roll up his sleeve and show it to Ron and Hermione.

"Oh, god-"

Hermione said, starring at Draco in disbelief. He never seemed like the type to her.

Draco didn't really understand why Ron and Hermione needed to be here.

"Now, please explain to me why you brought the weasley and the mudblood to stare at my arm?"

Hermione went to punch him, but Ron grabbed her arms just in time.

"Just let it go, you can kick his ass later."

He said to her.

Ron stared at Draco's arm that was still extended, and he was a little bit slow on catching on that Draco hadnt gotten in a fight with anything, except maybe himself.

Rons eyes widened, and he couldn't think of anything else to do than to mutter 'holy shit' under his breath.

Draco really hated the feeling of being on display, he felt like some sort of animal.

Hermione quickly grabbed a cloth and dampened in in the sink with warm water, and she put a bit of soap on it.

She went back over to Draco, and lifted up his arm.

She made eye contact with him briefly and sighed.

"This is going to sting..."

Draco nodded and tried not to wince as Hermione wiped the cloth along his arm.

She was careful not to rub the cloth in any other direction than the cuts went, because that hurts way too much.

The cloth was practically entirely drained dark red by the time she was done, and she took his arm over to the sink to rinse it.

Normally Draco would just let the blood dry then have it crusted on his arms for days on end, sometimes it would even get infected. So this was an entirely new experience to him.

Myrtle was watching them the entire time, but for probably the first time in her life she didn't say anything.

Hermione was also the one to find medical tape within the bathroom, it was on a small first aid kit on the wall, which nobody ever used.

She wrapped it delicately around Draco's arm, from his wrist to his elbow, while Ron and Harry watched, waiting for either Draco to make a Rude comment or for Hermione to do something to purposely hurt him.

But neither of them did anything.

It was silent as Hermione finished with the medical tape and Draco could finally pull his sleeve down.

"Thanks..."

Draco mumbled, and that was probably the first time he had ever said that in his life.

"No problem.."

"Draco, please don't do that again. It's really not that safe- and you could get blood on something which isn't very sanitary- and.. just, come to one of us if you're ever feeling like hurting yourself. Okay?"

Hermione tried to pass it off as a sanitary issue, but in reality, they could all see that she really did care about Draco, and from the way he looked at her, he cared about her too.