As they traverse the corridors, the nurse informs him that she'd advise his mother staying in the hospital for a few days – to restart her body, she says. They can force sleep and give her nutrient potions for a day or two, to jump start the process, but either gets dangerous if continued for much longer.

Draco simply nods in understanding.

The nurse's tone gets gentler as she explains that she's recommending a full-time aide upon release, to monitor intake and sleep. Draco merely waves a dismissive hand. He can handle it.

She purses her lips in disapproval, but doesn't comment.

Draco cannot help the almost imperceptible hesitation outside the door to his mother's hospital room, but he continues quickly despite it, and he doesn't think Harry notices.

The nurse stops just inside the door, and so does Harry. Draco doesn't stop until he reaches the side of her bed – the only bed in the room, he can't help but notice, knowing that's Harry's influence at work. He picks up her hand, and her eyes flutter open.

"Draco?"

"It's me, Mum."

Her blue eyes lock onto his grey ones. "I'm sorry," she says, her voice raspy.

"I don't understand, Mum," Draco says, so quiet that only his mother can hear him. "They said you haven't been eating. Or sleeping. Or drinking water." He sucks in a breath. "Why?"

She drops her gaze, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You said you were okay." Draco cannot keep a slight note of accusation out of his voice.

"I am okay."

"Mum, this––" he gestures to the room at large, dropping her hand "––is a lot of things, but okay is not one of them."

She still cannot meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, Draco."

"Stop apologizing!" His voice is still a whisper, but the whisper is snapped out harsher than he intends it to be. He calms himself. "I don't need an apology, Mum. I need you to tell me the truth."

He watches her hands, twisting together in her lap, as she remains silent. Her silence says as much as any words would.

"I don't want you to lie to me." He pauses for a moment. "I don't need you to lie for me."

Finally, finally, she lifts her head, her blue eyes meeting his. Still, she doesn't say anything. Draco sighs. "They want you to stay here for a few days, so that they can keep a close watch on your vitals," he tells her. "And then you can come home." He sucks in a deep breath. "I'm not going to brush this off anymore, Mum. I'm sorry that it took this for me to realize how… urgent, it became."

"I'm sorry, Draco," she whispers. And Draco just smiles sadly.

"I know you are. It's okay." He tucks a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear from where it's fallen in front of her face. "We can pick up the pieces." His voice is soft. "You and I, Mum, we can."

"Can we?" Her voice is pained.

"Yes."

They sit in silence for a moment, Draco's last word ringing around them, until a nurse – a different nurse – comes into the room and clears his throat.

"Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco's gaze snaps to him, but even as he focuses on the nurse, he notices that the room is otherwise empty – Harry has vanished.

"Yes?"

The man coughs nervously. "It's only that… Erm, well, visiting hours technically ended an hour ago. We, well… As this is a, er, special case, we… made an, um, exception, but, well-"

Draco interrupts him before he can stutter on for hours. "That's quite all right." He smiles charmingly. "I do appreciate it."

He stands, and he squeezes his mum's hand one more time.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he tells her firmly. She nods, reaching a hand up and touching his cheek.

"You're a good boy."

Draco allows the corner of his mouth to turn up in a small smile, letting that be his response, and then he turns and leaves the room.

He is momentarily surprised to find Pot- Harry sitting on a bench outside the door. "Harry? What are you doing?"

The man shrugs. "Waiting. I… Well, I figured you didn't really need me intruding."

Draco can feel his eyebrows narrowing. "You didn't have to wait."

Harry's eyes widen in surprise. "What else would I have done?"

"Gone home?" Draco says, allowing the obviousness of that statement to seep into his voice.

Harry looks as though this thought had never even occurred to him. "Why?"

"Well, why'd you stay?"

He blinks. "I… I wouldn't have felt right leaving, I suppose." Harry stands, gathering his black coat from beside him on the bench.

As they begin to walk out of the hospital, Draco casts a sidelong glance at Harry beside him. Draco had thought that he was reasonably good at reading people – far better than average, he'd have said – but Harry is a mystery to him. Every time Draco thinks he has him figured out, Harry goes and does something odd that almost makes is seems like he… cares. But that, obviously, is an utterly ridiculous idea.

After a long moment of silence, Draco bites his lip and mentally braces himself.

"Thank you, Potter," he spits out, the words blurring together in his hurry to get them out. He isn't accustomed to thanking people – he doesn't like it, on principle. It means he owes them something, and Draco doesn't like owing people. But Potter used the fame that he hates in order to get Draco's mum her own room, to extend visiting hours for him – because that's obviously what the man meant by "special case."

And emerald eyes look at him in utter surprise for a moment, scanning his face. Whatever he's looking for, he must find it, because Harry beams. "You're welcome, Draco."

When they reach the lobby, Harry surveys his face again. "We can wait until next week to start lessons," he offers. "Or this weekend."

But Draco is already shaking his head. "No point in delaying it, is there?"

And Harry is staring at him again, as though he can actually read Draco's face – which give Draco pause. He thinks about it, but no, he can tell he isn't that distracted. His face hasn't been betraying his emotions.

Still, Harry stares at him searchingly for a moment before nodding, as though he's found whatever he's looking for. Draco frowns – internally, of course – as he ponders this.

Harry wears his heart blatantly across his sleeve – or, rather, his face – which Draco had assumed meant that Harry wasn't particularly talented at reading faces either, as the two generally went hand in hand. Someone who knew enough about expressions to read minute changes was typically talented enough to mask the more overt changes in his own face.

But then, Harry isn't exactly typical, is he?

Draco is surprised to find that he doesn't hesitate at all to take the arm Harry offers for Apparation.

"Sorry, it's a bit of a walk," Harry says. "Normally I'd go straight to the front step, but you aren't keyed into the wards, so obviously that's out, and it's a Muggle neighborhood, mostly."

Draco merely nods in response, measuring his strides a half-step behind P- Harry so that he keeps up while letting Harry show him where they're going.

After a few minutes of silence, Harry says, "You truly care about her, don't you?" Draco flicks his gaze up to see Harry looking back at him as he walks.

"Of course I do," Draco responds, not bothering to keep the and-you're-an-idiot-for-needing-to-ask tone out of his voice.

Harry looks thoroughly chastised. "Sorry. I guess… I don't know. I was bit surprised," he says.

Draco feels like he really ought to be hurt by the fact that Potter doesn't think he loves his own mum, but he isn't. Harry seems to have a complete lack of understand of how Pureblood – proper Pureblood – families work. And he supposes that, for someone who only ever sees the surface, it could look like they don't genuinely care for each other.

"She's my mum, Potter," he says, as though that's explanation enough, and then he figures it probably isn't. "Look, you still care about your family, don't you? Even if you may not like them, even if they're nasty, you still care because they're family?"

Harry nods.

"Family is family. And unlike yours, mine doesn't happen to think that children are acceptable punching bags. Of course I care about them."

And then Draco wonders why he just said all of that. He cannot stand the way his tongue seems to lose complete control around Harry. It's downright dangerous.

"They didn't- He didn't-" Potter stutters at Draco's words, and Draco rolls his eyes.

"So you've mentioned, Potter."