AN: This is kind of a "meh," chapter. The next one will be more eventful.

Chapter 13

Draco woke up in a cold sweat, the flashes of blood still in his mind. His mind was whirling, and he was breathing heavily. Where am I? He just wanted his mother. "M-mother?" he called out, but his words came out choked. He was whimpering, panic growing in his stomach. He buried his face in his hands. I don't know….

"Draco?" He heard his mother's voice. "Did you… need something?" Draco nodded, uncovering his face. His vision was still a bit fuzzy, but he could see her standing in front of him. He beckoned for her to sit next to him, and she came and sat on what he now realized was his bed. He grabbed hold of her, and she responded by caressing his back the way she always did. "Shhhh…" she said, soothingly, as he sobbed. "It's okay now. I'm right here."

Draco woke up and walked downstairs, getting himself a glass of water.

"So, how did you sleep last night?" Lucius asked.

Draco grumbled, "Could've been better…" he shrugged, drinking his water.

"How are you doing, honey?" Narcissa asked, walking into the kitchen.

He shrugged again, "I could be better…" he sighed.

"I know, dear," Narcissa sighed and pulled him into a hug. When she let go of him, he grabbed some of those delicious blueberries and started eating them. When he was done eating, he grabbed himself a tea cup and made himself some chamomile tea. He had learned how to make it from Andromeda, so he now drank it every morning and evening to help soothe himself. "Is that a different kind of tea? Where did you learn how to make that?"

Draco shrugged, "No where… and from no one…."

Narcissa eyed him suspiciously, "Sure…."

Draco went outside to the peafowl and sprinkled food on the ground. All the peafowl raced to eat everything they could - except for one - the mean one. He just glared at Draco. Draco cocked his head to the side, "What?"

"Meeah!" The peacock screamed.

My ears! "You know, I haven't forgotten about yesterday. Why do you always act so mean, anyway?" Draco pondered the question for a moment, and he realized that it could just have easily been asked about him - at least, in the past. Now, he was mostly just a wreck - but still - why had he always been so mean? The peafowl need names… he realized. He glanced over at the mother. Hmmm… what should I call you? "How about… Gardenia?" The peahen gave him a squawk. I'm going to take that as a 'yes'. There were four other peahens and three peacocks, aside from the mean one. That's quite a lot of names. "Um - one of the boys can be - Cloud. A girl - Carnation. Another girl's name can be… Snowdrop. The other boys can be Azure and Pavo. And the other girls will be Pegasus and… Cream."

The mean peacock let out a loud squawk and flapped its wings viciously, without taking flight. "Don't worry… I didn't forget about you…" and a gleaming smile spread across Draco's face. "You… kind of remind me of the members of my family, so I'm going to call you - Malfoy." The peacock kept squawking. "Don't you like your name? I saved the best for last!"

Later that day, Draco's owl flew into his room, and Draco untied the parchment from his leg. Is this- he unrolled the letter.

Dear Draco,

Would you like to meet me at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop in Hogsmeade on Saturday at 4:30? It's still the break, so there shouldn't be too many people from Hogwarts there. Hopefully, it isn't too crowded in general. How do you feel about going there?

Astoria

Draco set the letter down. Wait - He realized. I'm supposed to meet Andromeda at 3:00 this Saturday, and we'll probably talk for about an hour. So that would give me thirty minutes to get over to Hogsmeade. I think I could make it…. He decided to go for it.

Astoria,

Yes, let's do that.

Draco

His owl took off, hooting, with the letter tied to his leg. Draco let out a sigh, falling back onto his bed, I hope everything goes okay….