-Trigger Warning for eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. This chapter holds a slight description of someone's weight and appearance. It also mentions situations involving the concepts of restriction and binging, and how binging can result in some people getting sick afterwards. It's not very detailed and definitely not graphic, but I feel a trigger warning is still necessary. Also, even though Draco's father cares about his son (or at least I hope he cares and it's not all about having an heir and "good" reputation), his behavior towards Draco may still be interpreted as borderline abusive. I'm sorry if it brings up any bad memories for some people, but some other people can do well with the knowledge that sometimes parents can care too much (especially if they're ignorant about what's going on). Anyway, I think that's all there is to this chapter, although I will say it gets a little intense. You've been warned.

Draco feels his father's tight grasp begin to bruise his wrist, as he's being pulled towards the hospital wing. He hadn't said anything after the mere comment of how disappointed he was that Draco wasn't even able to stand his own ground in a fight between friends. He wouldn't; there's too many people, but Draco doesn't understand how all these eyes on this forceful action would be any better than them hearing what had actually happened.

When they make it to the wing, Draco is surprised to see Harry there, even if only for the short time it had taken. "No. Really. I'm fine." Harry insists he doesn't need help, but after the chaos with the broom the healer apparently needed to make sure.

"It will only take but a moment. Stay still." She starts to ask him a number of questions like who the headmaster is, what nine plus eleven is, and how many fingers she had been holding up, but when she notices Harry's concerned glance at Draco she turns around and takes a step forward. "Ah. Mr. Malfoy. What can I do for you?"

"Yes." Lucius sneers a whisper at his son before pulling him further into the large room. "I need my son examined. You know, the usual things: weight, muscle mass, nutrients, and just the general basics."

She nods, "Come with me." before looking back at Harry. "You may go." Draco slowly walks forward, but with his father's harsh grip he's forced to be quicker. They move behind a pale blue curtain, and when it closes the healer asks, "Please strip down to your underwear."

Draco glances at his father for a moment, "Does he have to be in here?" He knows very well that the curtains usually contain silencing charms for patient confidentiality, but that wasn't the reason why he doesn't want his father there. The truth is I would just hate for him to see me.

The healer looks up at Lucius, "Could you wait outside, please?" and when he leaves the healer looks back down at Draco. "Is there anything I should know about him?"

Draco rubs his wrist, "No. He's just overly concerned and has a firm hold."

She nods cautiously as she sees the reddened skin around the boy's bony wrist. "Have you been examined before?" Draco nods. "Then you know that clothes can affect the reading." He nods again, before he slowly removes the black vest, green sweater, grey tank top, and his black slacks. He's not surprised by the healer's shock. No matter how much healers have tried to not seem surprised, it seems whenever he sees one there's always a shift in their expression. She hesitates, "You are aware that bones aren't supposed to stick out like that, aren't you?"

He nods once with a frown, before he looks down at his visible hip bones. This was one of those weeks where the bone would stick out farther than his skin, but it wasn't an issue. It happens sometimes, but it almost never lasts. His mind wanders to the year before, more specifically the day he got ready for the pureblood event which he had eventually fainted at. His outfit had been completely black, except for the bright green tie which wrapped around his neck. The outfit itself was loose-fitting, and as Draco remembers feeling the drastic outline of his hipbone that day, he does the same now. There was way less of it showing compared to that day, as he can feel the difference, but as of this week he's had a dip in his stomach each day. He gulps, picturing the difference and knowing that it was possible to go back there, but he's not sure he wants to. Not that it matters if he doesn't want it to; there's a chance it could go back, that he could go back to that point, and that he wouldn't be able to stop it from happening. He gulps again, and when he feels tears reach his eyelashes he pulls them off with his fingers.

The healer comments, "I will need your arms by your side for the examination." Draco nods, taking a half-steady breath, as he rests his arms to his sides. He stares blankly at the wall in front of him, as the healer moves her wand in front of each of his sides. He knows what will happen. He has failed somehow. Even if he's nutritionally well, which seems to never be the case—he's always doing something wrong—his weight is just a little lower than it had been when he started school here. That much he knows, and that's how he knows he's going to earn another lecture and possible punishment from his father, this time without his mother present.

The nurse finds a piece of parchment, and after pointing at it with full concentration words appear on the paper. Draco knows what it is; it's a silent incantation, and those require a lot of focus. As he puts his clothes back on, he wishes he knew the spell himself. It would at least help him be prepared for these things. "My dear," the nurse comments with shock.

"What is it?" asks Draco, as he tries to peer over the parchment but fails to see it.

She looks at him with great concern, "You're not just underweight." She looks back at the paper, "Here it says you're really low on potassium and calcium. There also seems to be a concern for B12."

"B12," Draco exclaims. "But I eat fruit and nuts nearly every day."

The healer looks at him sadly, "Whether or not you eat it may not be the issue. By the state of things I would guess you're either not eating enough or not often enough."

Draco looks to the ground, feeling just a bit guilty, although he's not sure why. It's not like he had been doing this on purpose. Not really, anyways. "And how much do I weigh?"

The nurse looks at the parchment again, "Given your age and height, you should probably be weighing at least five stone seven; however, you currently weigh at four stone five."

"Damn it." Draco shakes his head and moves a hand over his face. The nurse stays quiet, so he takes a deep breath, "You can let my father in now."

"About time," Lucius complains as the healer lets him in. "Where's the information?" The old woman holds it out in front of her, before the father snatches it from her hand. Ignoring her shocked look, he reads over the information quickly, quite used to it by now, and his face becomes more and more stern and disappointed the more he reads. His eyes look down upon his son, "You've lost more than half a stone just since you've been sent here."

Draco gulps, "I know. I'm sorry." as he holds his hands together.

His father lets out a stressed breath, "You've lost nine pounds. You know what that means."

Draco looks up in horror, "No. Please. Don't."

Lucius slightly smiles, "You're low in potassium, calcium, and B12. I'll alert the headmaster that I'll be taking you out to eat. I'm thinking nine bananas, nine glasses of milk, and nine rare steaks." He shifts his head, "Let's also add nine bowls of nuts and fruits."

The healer interrupts, "Do you have any idea what a shock that would cause his body?"

"Well, I'm afraid a shock is exactly what he needs." He clutches Draco's wrist, pulls the curtain back open, and steps behind it. "You've really been most helpful, but we must go."

"But he still hasn't signed in," complains the elderly woman.

Lucius smirks, "And he won't need to." He takes out his wand, "Obliviate." and quickly shuts the curtain before rushing Draco out of the hospital wing.

Draco finds himself loosing air as he's forced to keep up with his father down the hall, but through his hard breathing he lets out word by word, "I understand you want to see me eat, Father, but does it really have to be so much. I'll get sick again."

"Nonsense." Lucius tightens the grip on his son's wrist, "We'll sit at the table for five hours if we have to." A few more minutes of running after his father's fast walking continues, before they're met with a giant statue at the end of the second floor corridor. "Dumbledore always seems to know when he has visitors. This should only take a moment. How long I will be up there is harder to tell."

When the wall opens to reveal a circular staircase, Draco's wrist is finally released as his father enters it. Draco's hard breathing still hasn't stopped, and he leans against the cold stone wall as he tries to steady it. He finds it almost hopeless, though, and he can actually hear his heart beating in his ears as he feels himself becoming more unsteady. He knows what's happening; he's unable to think, but he still understands what's going on. With the exertion of running, he was now having a hard time getting oxygen, and this feeling is just the outcome of it all. He finds himself dizzy, and he's unsure if the wall can keep him steady as he tries to shake off the sudden black flickers of his sight. "Hey. Are you okay?"

Draco feels a hand over the back of his left shoulder, and when he looks to see who it is he sees Harry. Draco leans his head back on the wall and gazes at the floor. Was he okay? No. No, he wasn't, but how could he possibly admit that? He feels himself beginning to panic, as he feels his racing heartbeat and limited breathing continue, and his mind is still void of real thoughts. All he has right now is his instinctual thought. He shakes his head and says, "It should have stopped by now." slowly and in-between a few breaths.

"Maybe you should sit down," Harry suggests. Draco nods, turns around, and slides down to the floor, all too aware of how many people are occupying this dead-end hall. He sees at least five witnesses, before he turns his head down to the side. Sitting helps, as he feels his breathing become slower and steadier, but for some reason his heart is still having a hard time getting back to a normal pace. "What happened?"

Draco shakes his head as flashes of the experience enter his mind, "I had to keep up with Father." He takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, "He walks so fast, I had to run from the hospital wing."

Harry's jaw drops and his words fill with aggravated shock, "You had to run from all the way over there? That's on the fourth floor." Draco feels the need to make a jeer about how he already knows that, but unfortunately he doesn't have the breath or energy to do so. So, he just simply nods. "Where's your father now?"

Draco points to the gargoyle statue, "He's convincing Dumbledore to let me go out for the night to dinner." He looks even more away from Harry than he had been. "He didn't like my checkup report." He mumbles, "I'm always doing something wrong."

"Does Dumbledore know about… you, your condition?"

Draco huffs a laugh, "Doubt it. Father just obliviated the healer's memory. Too much risk at my reputation, I guess, for anyone to know I have a problem." His smile slips. He admitted it. He admitted that he has a problem.

"Do you need anything?" Harry asks. "Water, maybe?"

Draco shakes his head, "I'm doing a lot better now." He looks at him and finds his warm, green eyes even more relaxing and comforting, "I'm just glad you were here. I was really panicking. For a moment I didn't think it would stop, that something bad really would happen." He looks toward the floor. He knows he's revealing too much, but he can't help it.

"What, exactly, was happening? You had me worried there."

Draco swallows. His throat somehow feels both dry and wet, as his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth before he speaks, "I couldn't breathe, and my heart was racing. I got dizzy. Everything just all happened at once, and not only was my father seemingly oblivious to it but he left. He just left."

"Not to even mention it wouldn't have happened if you didn't need to run after him," Harry mumbles. He shakes his head, "Your father is a real piece of work, dragging you to the hospital wing for a checkup only to cause you all this…" He shakes his head again, this time with disapproval instead of disbelief, as many thoughts race through his mind.

It takes a moment for Draco to speak, "Don't expect me to be doing well tomorrow. I'll probably just be in bed all day."

"Why's that?"

Draco takes a stressed breath before looking back at Harry, "I lost nine pounds since I got to Hogwarts. My punishment is that I have to eat nine steaks, nine bananas, and nine bowls of fruit and nuts."

"That's your dinner?" Harry gives a worried look, "Even I wouldn't be able to finish half of that." Draco stays quiet. "I mean, it's a lot. An army could probably survive on that."

"Probably not an army," Draco slightly smiles. "But maybe a small troop."

Draco watches as Harry's eyes become bigger, as their lake color brightens with worry. "Will you be okay?"

At that moment a shadow lands over the two of them, and Lucius responds in distaste, "Draco. Why are you on the floor?"

"I—" Draco responds, but he finds himself unable to finish. It was a rule, it was an expectation, and there would be no exceptions.

"Get up from there. It's filthy. Just imagine if someone had seen you." Draco slowly stands, and when he does so the father looks at the son carefully. "You're a Malfoy, the only heir to the family name. You should be presenting yourself better."

"Yes, Father."

He hums his disapproval, "Dust yourself off and straighten your clothes. It's time to go out for dinner."

"You mean that one restaurant that costs twenty-five galleons an hour and keeps their customers in separate compartments?"

"Don't be smart with me." He places the silver head of his staff beneath Draco's chin. "It's private, exactly what we need." He sneers, "If you don't like it, then you can just stop this foolish behavior of yours."

Draco splutters, "You make it sound easy."

"That's enough out of you," Lucius seethes.

Harry watches in shock as Draco's father takes him by the ear and forces him down the hall. When they near the witnesses he switches to Draco's arm, but Draco steps away before he can. Harry watches as Draco mutters something inaudible, before he straightens his clothes and continues to walk, making sure to keep a space between him and his father as his does so. He'd be compliant, or else he'd be forced, and he'd rather have his freedom than be seen as weak. After all, if a scene would be made, he'd be to blame.