A/N: Thanks for the review again, hermyandron4evr! I hope someone does decide to read my stories... oh, well, at least you like them. Thank you!

Draco was led to a bathroom. It was dark, just like the rest of the house, but cleaner. Dumbledore stopped him before he closed the door.

"Draco, I will leave you to clean up, but afterwards we need to talk. I need you to tell me as much as you can about what happened during the last few days. I know it will be hard, but I think you may have some important information." Draco nodded and shut the door.

He quickly stripped out of his cloak and kicked his shoes off. His socks, he noticed, were filthier than his shoes. Disgusted, he quickly discarded the rest of his clothes. As he was about to get in the shower, he caught his reflection in the mirror. A stranger's face stared back at him. This man had straggly brown hair instead of sleek, smooth blond. His eyes were a cloudy gray instead of shining silver. His face was streaked with dirt and mud, and he had open wounds still dripping blood gently. He blinked, thinking it was a ghost looking out of the mirror, inspecting this new arrival to the house. But it wasn't. This reflection was also rubbing its eyes. He realized it was himself.

Downstairs, Hermione and Dumbledore were in conversation with Lupin and Tonks. They had been in the kitchen, hidden because of the spell Dumbledore had cast when Draco asked if there were other people in the house. As Secret Keeper, he still had control over what people saw when they entered the house. Since he hadn't told Draco this was the headquarters, Draco only saw what Dumbledore allowed. (A/N: Since Draco wasn't Secret Keeper, he couldn't tell this part to Pansy. More at end of chapter.)

"Well, what do you think?" Lupin asked Dumbledore.

"I don't know yet. I think he has seen an awful lot of things, and from his perspective, we are still the enemy."

"How could he think that?" Tonks asked. "Didn't he see the horrible things Vol-he did to his family? His friends? How could he-"

"These are things I will find out. First, I want to give him a little time to calm down. I also want him to understand he will not be harmed by us while he is here."

"But, Professor-"

"Hermione, will you please dispense with the formality? I am Albus," Dumbledore said.

"Yes, well, it's hard to get used to." Hermione looked at the floor. "You just, well, you were my mentor for so long, it's hard to refer to you as an equal."

"You have taught me many things, too, Hermione." Hermione looked up, about to contradict him. It was in her nature, after all.

"Please, I ask you. Now," he said, addressing the other two again, "You know what needs to be done. Please see that it is taken care of." Tonks and Lupin nodded, then Disapparated.

An hour later, Draco finally stepped out of the shower, the water having turned cold. He still felt dirty, even though his skin had turned red from the scrubbing he had given it. The water had run black for half an hour, then turned a murky brown. He still had dirt under his fingernails. He still felt the mud that had covered his body, gotten in between his toes, had seeped into his soul. He shook his head, water spraying the mirror. He wished he could open up his skull, scrub his brain of the images still there; dig out his heart and scrub the fear away. He felt so cold inside.

He looked for his clothes and noticed they were still in a pile on the floor, stained with the reminders of the horrors he had witnessed. He just stood there for a few minutes until someone knocked on the door. He opened it and wasn't surprised to see it was Hermione.

"Well, what do you want, Mudblood?"

"I wanted to offer you some clothes and a bite to eat, but I just changed my mind." She turned around and started to walk back downstairs.

"Wait... wait. Please." Draco sounded frantic.

"What?"

"I'm... I'm... s-s-s-sor... uh, sorry."

Hermione's jaw hit the floor. "What?"

"You heard me. Get me those clothes."

Hermione started to walk away again. "No."

"Please?" Draco swallowed his pride for a minute. Yeah, she was a Mudblood, but his only other options were to put the filthy clothes on again, or walk around naked. He wouldn't mind being naked, but somehow he thought others might object.

"Ok." Hermione tried not to feel the satisfaction of having gotten an apology out of him, but couldn't help it. She thought she would be over this by now.

Draco waited for a few minutes, finally remembering to wrap a towel around himself so she wouldn't see him naked again. When she reappeared, she had a pair of black jeans and a black hoodie in her arms. She walked over to him and dumped the clothes into his arms unceremoniously. She turned around and started walking down the stairs again.

"What about my food?" he called.

"What? Oh, here." A large plate of Chicken Parmesan appeared with buttered noodles and garlic toast. She floated it into a room across the hall from the bathroom. "There's coffee in there, too. Dumbledore will be up shortly."

XXXXX

Pansy looked disgusted and impressed at the same time. "You apologized? To a Mud- uh – Muggleborn? I can't believe it." She'd never heard Draco apologize for anything before, ever. The fact that a nasty Mudblood (I can still say it in my head, dammit) got him to do it was what impressed her. She involuntarily felt... what was the word? Respect? No, that can't be it. NEVER feel anything like that for a Mudblood. Something similar to that, though.

"Yep."

"Well. Hmm. Alright. Well."

"Got anything else to say?" Draco sneered.

"Yeah. Can I have another smoke?"

A/N: Hmmm. I hope putting some of Hermione's thoughts and feelings in here when it's told from Draco's pov isn't too confusing. If it is, let me know and I'll try and fix it. Also, in reference to the stuff he can't tell Pansy, it's simply for reference, kind of like Hermione's pov. Well, that's all for now.

Later

-Kat