Hello everyone,

next chapter already, even though I'm once again not entirely happy with it.

I also have to apologies, because I noticed that in the last chapter I switched from First Person POV, that I had been using the whole time before, to Third Person POV. Sorry, I had spent too much time away from the fic. It should be corrected by now.

Alright a few short warnings: first I have no medical knowledge whatsoever, I am just making up stuff and have no idea how the actual recovery works. Second, I have never seen horse therapy myself, so it's once again all my imagination. Third, my native language is german, not english so I don't know all of the riding-specific words and had to use what I thought might work.

Thanks for the reviews.

Now, on with the story.

Disclaimer: Don't own them.

Unfortunately that's Draco's only clear moment for the rest of the week. He spends most of the time in his childish haze. At least his panic attacks have eased a bit, even though only little. But every additional hour without one means more peace for Draco and some sleep for me.

Our luck holds until the next Thursday and the blonde is calm enough to go to horse therapy. Hermione has decided to accompany us this time just to be safe. Draco is more nervous than normal and tries to twitch away just before we apparate. At first he seems slow to calm down even with the smell of the stable surrounding him.

Andrea is still busy with her last patient so I guide the other boy to Shenan, who is already reaching her head out towards him. The moment he is within range, she pushes her nose against his cheek, whinnying lowly. One pale hand comes up and strokes the light fur. He turns his head to bury it into the animal's warm neck.

After a few moments of simply standing like that, Draco pushes himself away from and bends down to rummage through the box at his feet until he finds the horse's brush. He unlocks her door and slips in without any help. Shenan pulls her head back inside to nose at the blonde who strokes her head and leans against her with a relaxed sigh.

I leave him alone for a few minutes, only watching him while Hermione walks away down the hall. Eventually I notice him speaking to Shenan again. At first I dismiss it as his usual childish mumbling until I listen a bit more closely.

" - no idea how long it's been. What did I do wrong this time?" he seems to think for a moment then he shudders, hand gripping the pale fur tightly and Shenan whinnies comfortingly, "No, I remember. By Merlin, f-father sold them all during my fourth year. Said it was time to stop with the silly plays and that now the real adult life would begin," he snorts, "As if I was ever allowed to simply be a child. No, but taking away my last sanctuary was apparently supposed to harden me. Didn't work out. All it did was turn my life into an actual hell," he strokes her side, shivering again, "Is the war really over? Or am I dreaming again?"

Andrea startles me when she steps next to me. Just before she can open her mouth and call out to Draco, I put a hand on her arm and shake my head, telling her not to interrupt him. Instead I take up the tool to clean out Shenan's hooves and push it soundlessly towards Draco. Wandlessly I loosen the sling that is holding his left arm.

He sighs and sets the brush down once he is finished with it. Spotting the other tool, he bends down and picks it up. Only then does he seem to realise that his left arm is in a sling. He stares at it in confusion for a moment then sighs defeatedly.

"What did father do this time?" he prods and moves the arm carefully as if to test out how painful it is. A frown creases his forehead, "It doesn't hurt though. But why can't I remember it?" he shrugs, "Maybe he knocked me out again…"

His mumbled words cause Andrea's eyes to widen, a hand shooting to her mouth. I am shocked as well by the blankness he talks about this as if it's as normal as the weather. Meanwhile Draco is fiddling with the holdings of his sling. He manages to get it open enough to wriggle his left arm out of it. A short look at the thick scars peaking from under his sleeve garners a sigh then he transfers the tool into his left hand. The right one reaches down to Shenan's feet. She starts to lift the hoof he is aiming for on her own and he praises her softly for it. She snorts as he grabs the hoof and starts to clean it in slow, halting motions.

"He's using his left arm," Andrea whispers to me, "I thought you said he couldn't."

"Like I said, it's psychosomatic I think. He's been having clear moments in the last weeks. During those times he's mentally there enough to move his arm. Though never to this extent up until now," I answer, watching the other boy with fascination.

He cleans all four of Shenan's hooves with silent determination, slow and methodical. Afterwards he straightens up and strokes the mare's head, praising her. She snorts and rubs her nose all over his chest. I can't help but shake my head, the Draco I knew from school would have thrown a fit from having animal fur all over him. But instead he just smiles, rubbing between her eyes.

Suddenly the only other patient still here, a disabled girl down the hallway squeals loudly in happiness. Of course that startles Draco badly. He jumps, causing Shenan to throw her head up as well. He gives a short yell, before clear grey eyes fog over again. His head drops down as does his left arm, returning to unusable. I sigh and run a hand through my hair.

"Clear moment over," I say sadly as Andrea nods and walks off to fetch the gear.

I fetch the tools Draco dropped and he tries to get as close to the horse as he can when I pass him. I heave another sigh and readjust his arm in the sling. He can't move it anymore after all. He stares at me warily but his focus diverts to Andrea as she enters with a blanket. Draco keeps an arm around Shenan while she puts it on and returns with the other part of the mare's gear. I am a bit confused when she puts it on the horse's back.

"That's not the same as last time, is it?"

She smiles at me, "No, that is somewhere between the one we've been using before and a real saddle. He seems to have made progress since last time and since he expressed the wish to go faster before, I thought we might give it a try. The stirrups should give him the needed hold for that."

She nudges past Draco to get to Shenan's head. She pulls a leather bridle from outside the door and the mare dutifully lowers her head to let the woman pull it on her head. The bridle lacks the bit in the mouth though and the strap across the nose is thicker with three small rings attached to it.

"Are you coming, Draco?" she asks the blonde who stares at her distrustfully.

But he follows her nonetheless when she leads Shenan out of the door, though he is more likely following the horse not her. He keeps a proper distance to the mare's rear but he can't manage to catch up with her yet because his walking is still slow. Inside the riding hall, Andrea hands Draco the long rope she has attached to one of the bridle's rings. His hand reaches out to take it but looks ready to pull back the moment the woman so much as twitches the wrong way.

Eventually he grabs it and then nearly makes a run for it, as much as he is capable of that, away from us other humans. Shenan snorts but follows the boy happily, moving into a slow trot to catch up with him. Andrea shakes her head in amusement and we retreat to the door of the hall. We watch him lead the horse around the space at an even pace, his movements more stable than they were without her along. After about ten minutes he stops. I frown but this time it's Andrea who stops me. So I just watch him. He loops the rope loosely around his shoulder. Then with sure movements he starts to fiddle with the girth around the mare's stomach. Andrea stares with something close to astonishment how he carefully tightens both straps by two holes.

"How does he do that? Even I couldn't do it with just one hand."

I shake my head. My guess would be that he is using a bit of wandless magic, which is not something I can say aloud in front of a muggle. But that means that he has enough power, when he is able to control it, to push past the spell we put on him every time we come here. On the other hand, and that is the more chilling part, this can't be the first time he did this with just one hand because I don't think he could do that on unconscious magic alone. Or could he? I don't know enough about magical and especially pureblood children to judge that. Another question to ask Hermione when I find the time.

Andrea eventually goes to collect him after he has adjusted the stirrups on his own as well. I can't help but wonder how clear he is at the moment. Not completely, since his left arm seems still entirely unresponsive. I would guess most of what he is currently doing is muscle memory. He doesn't have the coordination to get onto the horse on his own yet though, so I bring the steps with me when I join them in the middle of the hall.

A short time later he is safely on her back, trying to get into the stirrups. Seeing him not really manage it, I do it for him, even if it earns me a dismayed glare from grey eyes. In response I simply grin up to him. His left hand grabs the rains loosely and Andrea starts walking again.

Draco apparently considers fifteen minutes appropriate warming up time. When they have passed though he starts urging Shenan on. Since his movements have gotten a good deal more precise since that first time, she recognises the signals immediately and happily falls into a slow trot. Andrea snorts but with a sigh starts jogging next to the horse. A look back to the boy shows that he is doing something I haven't seen him do very often. He is moving up and down in time with Shenan's steps. Up until now he preferred to sit back or just did this for a few moments before he lost strength.

"If he keeps that up for one round we could try moving towards the next step, since he obviously knows the basics of riding even in his subconscious," Andrea is breathing a bit harder because Draco keeps on urging Shenan faster and she has to keep up.

And the blonde manages the movement for the whole round, even gives an annoyed 'Hey' when she slows the palomino down after that.

"Calm down, I am letting you trot again in a second," she shakes her head and leads Shenan back to the middle of the hall.

There she takes the long rope from her arm to her hand and starts unrolling it slowly, motioning towards the mare. The horse starts walking again in circles around her, that become larger with every new bit of rope. Eventually the woman stops. To my surprise Draco is wearing a look somewhere between disdainful and annoyed.

"Lunging really?" his voice sounds as haughty as I have known it to be in our first school years, but his eyes aren't entirely clear, "I know how to ride."

"I know you know that," Andrea laughs, "But you don't have the balance to control a horse completely on your own yet. And with only one hand you can't properly hold the reins either."

He just shifts his hold, then tugs carefully at them and gives some signal that is invisible to a non-rider like me. Shenan stops immediately and shakes her head contentedly. The woman in the middle gets another haughty look. She laughs instead.

"Alright, I concede on the second point, but I am still not letting you off the lunge," she glares right back, even though her amusement is clear, "Shenan is a good horse but you aren't stable enough yet."

He snorts and turns away. Instead he just nudges the mare again and she starts to trot. Fiddling a bit he shortens the reins, bringing up her head without pulling it up too far. I shake my head, apparently reading the horse books with him all the time also imbued some facts about riding in me.

At the end of the therapy session he is as relaxed as always, even though he wasn't happy that Andrea wouldn't let him gallop at all. He cleans up Shenan completely on his own this time, except her hooves because a moment as clear as the one earlier doesn't come again.

Nonetheless I get the impression that his eyes look a tiny bit less fogged over when I put him in bed the same evening. Progress, I hope, as I stroke his hair a last time and leave the room to fall onto my own mattress and drop off before I even pull off my clothes.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

Hope you liked it, please review and see you next chapter.