Ron slowly blinked, his eyes feeling like lead. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain in his head but nothing after that. Now his head just felt fuzzy, like he had woken up from a long sleep. For all he knew, he could have.

Slowly, he forced his eyes all the way open, feeling like someone had attached weights onto them. It was way harder than it should have been. He could make out the blurry figures of who he presumed to be his friends gathered around his bed, talking in hushed tones. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying but he had a feeling it was about him.

He groaned loudly, purposely announcing the fact he was awake to his onlookers. Their heads all swivelled to face him and he could barely make out their concerned expressions.

"Ron! What happened? You just fainted!" He was pretty sure that was Lavender with Parvati next to her. That would mean that Dean and Seamus were on his other side.

Parvati must have noticed his search as she said quietly, "Harry's not here."

Ron furrowed his brows in an unspoken question and she shrugged slightly. He sighed. She didn't know where Harry was.

Before Ron had a chance to try and answer Lavender's question, Madam Pomfrey came bustling into the room. "He's awake is he? Off you go, Mr Weasley needs his rest."

Ron's friends tried to argue but eventually left the Hospital Wing. He had to give it to the nurse, few could rival her arguing skills, honed from years of experience.

"Okay mister, now tell me, what happened? And no lying to this old nurse, I can tell." She said warningly.

"I'm not really sure…" Ron trailed off thinking. "It could be because I haven't been sleeping well…?" He trailed off, frustrated. That wasn't the cause, he was sure of it and she didn't need to know his insignificant issues like insomnia. There were most likely other students needing far more urgent help but instead she was wasting her time on him. It had just slipped out, and now he was regretting it.

He ended up explaining what had happened prior to his fainting episode and she asked him a few questions regarding his sleep schedule that he ended up answering honestly. She already knew and he didn't really want to find out if she could really tell when he was lying.

Nodding her head thoughtfully, she moved over to the medicine cabinet and began ruffling in the drawers. She held up a small bottle with a peculiar looking dark blue potion inside. "Dreamless sleep potion, take it for 3 nights and then come back and I'll give you a milder sleeping draught. This one's just to get you back on track."

Ron nodded, his eyes glued to the vial. He wanted it, no, he needed it. He was looking at it like it was a lifeline, which it almost was. He couldn't go on with his present sleep schedule. Humans need sleep, even wizards do, it was a fact of life. Not even stubborn, nightmare-plagued wizards could fight against it, even with Ron trying so hard.

He took the potion and thanked Madam Pomfrey then made his way out of the Hospital Wing. He headed straight back to the dormitory to avoid talking to any of the others.. He knew in his heart that he would have to tell them eventually but he knew he would keep fooling himself until that time came.

Slowly, he climbed into bed and swallowed a big mouthful of the potion. Almost immediately, he could feel it's effects.

0o0o0o0o0o

The next day, he headed down to breakfast before any of the others were awake. Harry's bed was empty when he left but he might not be at breakfast. He was an early riser but rarely came down to breakfast before the others. Ron wasn't sure what he did in between but that wasn't any of his business. His only goal was to avoid the others.

As he walked into the Great Hall, he did a quick scan of the table just to see if any of the girls were there. They weren't but surprisingly enough, Harry was.

Ron walked over to where Harry was sitting and sat down, serving himself some breakfast.

"Hey," Harry muttered, urgently scratching something onto a piece of parchment.

Ron leaned over to see what he was doing. It seemed like he was creating a sort of mind map. In the middle was the words 'Muggle Psychologist' and then there were lots of lines branching out.

He furrowed his brow, what was a muggle psychologist? He's heard it before, most likely from his father but he didn't actually know what it meant. Sometimes it felt like the Muggles had a whole new language, some of their words were so foreign. It was really quite strange.

Harry looked up and noticed his furrowed brow. "A psychologist is a job. They're employed to talk to people with mental health issues or that have been through something traumatic or stressful."

Ron adopted a thinking expression. "Why don't we have them here? Like with the war it would be a really good thing to implement right?"

The other boy nodded. "That's what I'm trying to do. I'm thinking that if I have enough of an outline and have covered any arguments the teachers might think of, something might actually happen."

"That's really cool. Can I help?"

Harry nodded pushed the parchment over so it sat between them.

0o0o0o0o0

At the end of the week, the two boys had done as much as they could and trekked up to Professor McGonagall's office. Stomach's knotted with anxiety, they tentatively spoke the password to the statue out the front and made their way up the revolving staircase. Knocking on the door, they heard a call for the to enter and slowly walked into the office.

"Good morning boys, what prompted this visit?" She asked, cutting straight to the chase. The boys appreciated it. Proposing this idea was nerve-racking as it was without having to sit through meaningless pleasantries.

They started by explaining their proposal and then by backing it up with descriptions of how the older years who had fought in the war were coping, that is, not at all. After they had finished explaining their initial plan, the boys stopped talking and waited for McGonagall's reaction. They had no idea how she would take it and because of this, griped their bodies as they waited for her to speak.

She leaned forwards, her hands clasped together on her desk as she pondered the idea. "I have noticed that the students who fought haven't been coping as well as I had hoped they would. The psychologist sounds like a good idea."

Ron's eyes brightened at her approval but Harry had a gut feeling. "Is there a catch?"

McGonagall grimaced but nodded. "The Board of Governors are still extremely prejudiced against anything Muggle. They believed them to be inferior and beneath us-" She paused as Harry opened his mouth to protest, "I know that's not the case, that's just what they think. I believe that they will try to prevent this from going ahead." The Professor stopped speaking for a moment and sat back in her chair. "Classes are about to start. Go and I will think over this and get back to you."

Harry and Ron opened their mouths to protest but McGonagall gave them a stern look. There was nothing more they could do but leave it with the Professor.