A/N: So here's the first official chapter. Hope you enjoy it. :]

Song inspiration: "Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin

[By the way, the prologue, and the whole story in general, was inspired by the song "Hysteria" by Muse.]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the HP characters. They all belong to J.K. Rowling. The situations I put her lovely characters in, however, are all mine.

The halls of the hospital were surprisingly calm. She paced through the rehabilitation ward, her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat. To have such a moment of peace in a normally chaotic atmosphere, was a blessing; A blessing that would be taken away with the rush of footsteps approaching her from around the corner.

The intern seemed frantic as she shuffled through the papers in her hands and almost bumped into Hermione. The girl looked up, startled as Hermione's hands came up to steady her. She sighed and her features relaxed somewhat. "There you are. Devon sent me to find you."

The intern, whose name was Allie, readjusted the stack of papers she was holding and looked up calmly.

Hermione put her hands back in her pockets but stood up straighter than before. "What happened? Is it an emergency? You look stressed."

Allie shook her head, "No, I'm fine. I just thought I was going to have to run all over the hospital to find you, and I have to file these papers…" she paused to take a relaxing breath. "Anyway, there's a new patient who came in last night. Devon wouldn't tell me much but it seems like his withdrawal symptoms are pretty bad. They had to tie him to the bed."

Hermione understood and began to walk briskly to where they kept the new arrivals. "Thank you Allie," she called over her shoulder as she turned down another corridor. Hermione knew Devon could handle it. After all, he had been working there longer than she had, but new arrivals were always difficult. She stopped at the end of a narrow hallway as two nurses were coming out of the room. They smiled at her as they passed and continued with their conversation.

"Such a handsome young man…" she heard Bonnie, the eldest of the two, saying to her companion, as the other nodded sadly. Hermione watched them walk away and only turned as she heard the click of the door shutting.

Devon walked towards her, clipboard in one hand at his side. A year ago when she had started working at the hospital, Hermione had easily developed a crush on the then 26 year old doctor. He was tall and lean with a very charming smile. His dark hair was cut short and he had dark, almost mischievous looking eyes. They got along well, but Hermione's crush faded quickly and they had comfortably settled into a close friendship. She looked up at him as he stopped before her.

"I heard we have a new arrival," she said clearly asking for more information.

Devon nodded as he looked down at the clipboard in his hands. "Yeah…male, looks to be about 20 years old," he said slowly as he skimmed through the information on the paper before looking back at her with a small frown, "Other than that, nothing. No name, no medical history…it's like the guy doesn't exist."

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed. How could someone not have a single trace of ever existing?

Devon raised his eyebrows as he remembered something. "He did have this on him though."

He reached into the pants pocket of his navy blue scrubs and pulled out a long piece of ornately carved wood. She reached for it as he handed it over for her to examine. Her eyes widened slightly and he took the expression for incredulity. "Strange, huh?"

She breathed in as she eyed the object. To anyone else, the object was just a piece of carved wood. But to Hermione it was so much more. From the knowledge she'd acquired from her readings, it was made of Hawthorn and looked to be about 10 inches in length. Far from being just a fancy stick, Hermione recognized it instantly; it was a wand. It was the mark of a wizard. She spoke distractedly before glancing back up at him. "What's he on?"

Devon leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms, "Seems like the last thing he took was marijuana, but he's been taking cocaine for some time."

He looked down at her with a small conspiratorial smile, "But you know, for having taken cocaine for, oh I'd say maybe two years, he's pretty good looking. Nice blonde hair, fair skin, and those grey eyes…" He trailed off as another smile graced his features.

Hermione looked up at her friend with a smile of her own. The main reason they never got past being friends; he was gay. But to Hermione, whose crush had long ago dissipated, friendship was perfect. Outside of the Wizarding world, Hermione really only had her family, so having this new companion in the muggle world was comforting. As she looked up at Devon, Hermione let the description of the patient sink in. He sounded too familiar.

Pocketing the wand, she began to walk towards the room. "I'm going to take a look at how he's doing."

"He may be asleep. I had to resort to giving him Valium since he was struggling so much."

Her eyes widened and she turned to him quickly. "You gave him Valium? Devon, you know that's not safe in his condition…"

"Yes, I know. But the last time he was on anything was about three days ago. Don't worry, I made sure to give him a very small dosage," he stressed as he pushed himself off the wall. "I'm going to get some coffee, do you want any?"

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "No thanks. I'll see you there in a few minutes though."

Devon nodded and walked down the hallway. Hermione turned her attention back to the room as she slowly opened the door. Whoever was in there belonged to her other world. She may even know them.

The details of Devon's description lingered in the back of her mind as she approached the curtain-encircled bed. Her hand pulled back the curtain and almost immediately came back up, fingers curled over her mouth.

The man looked peaceful in his drug-induced sleep. His almost shoulder length blonde hair lay messily against the pillow whose brightness almost matched his pale skin. He was very thin, accentuating his nearly pointy facial features. His left arm held small bruises where the blue veins were visible; signs of needle use. There were dark circles around the sunken eyes from lack of sleep. The thin lips were dry and set in a small frown, so much more different than the customary smirk she remembered him by.

As much hatred as there had been between them, Hermione couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "Malfoy…what have you done to yourself?" she whispered shakily.