"Why do you take those?" he gestured to the pills in her hand with the tilt of his head.

"I'm anemic." His confused look made her smile; she liked knowing things he didn't. "My body does not get enough iron."

"How'd you get it?" Hermione gulped down the pill, taking her time partly because she hated talking about this. Remnants from the war: the faded Mudblood scar, the nightmares, her anemia.

"When we were camping food wasn't always easy to come by. Meat especially. It's not entirely uncommon in women; you see we lose iron on a monthly basis. I'm just still recovering." She was glad when he only nodded. That's what she liked, he never tried to comfort her, it made her strong.

It was the same the other way around. The first time she walked in on him had been scary. It was something she would never forget.

"Draco, what do you–what are you doing?" Hermione panicked when she saw that his left arm was bleeding, his wand pointed straight at it.

"Stay back," he warned, his tone stopping Hermione in her tracks. She stared as the color left his face momentarily but he recovered soon enough, wiping his wand free of blood. The mark on his arm looked like a bad bruise.

"Why do you do that?"

"I've been coming up with a procedure to remove it, it's painful, but it's effective."

"You came up–?"

"Don't act so surprised. It was a hell of a curse, the counter-curse has to be just so," Draco smirked as he rolled down his sleeve over his arm.

"You know that's not what I meant. Why don't you just leave it?" Hermione asked, concern in her voice.

"Don't tell me what to do Granger. I want it gone, I have enough reminder as it is."

"I just…"

"We cope in our own ways, leave me at my own and I'll leave you to yours."


Please review! It might be incorporated into another multi-chapter fic that I'm working on.