Again, like the last chapter, there will be discussion of addiction and mental illness.

10 weeks, 1 day after the final battle

Two weeks later, Harry appeared at Percy's place. He was showered, had freshly cut hair, and was wearing clean clothing that appeared new.

"I'm two weeks sober, now. There are...support groups for this, apparently, in Muggle London. They've been really welcoming, so far,"

"I'm glad,"

"And, I've been to see Ginny,"

"Have you?"

"Yes. And we've agreed that I need to do some work on myself. And my therapist agrees,"

"Good, I'm glad that you followed through with that,"

"So am I," A pause. Harry wrung his hands.

"Can I do something for you, Harry?" Percy asked. His irritation with Harry for being unruly the other night had already faded into empathy, especially now that he knew how much Harry had been struggling.

"One of the tenants of the program I'm in, is to make amends with the people that I've wronged. And so I'm here to apologize to you, for the way I behaved when Ginny brought me here. I was not myself, and I'm really ashamed and sorry for how I acted."

"I accept your apology. It sounds like you're moving in the right direction, Harry. I'm proud of you,"

Harry glowed with the complement.

"I'm job-hunting now, too. Ron and I talked, and we realized that both of us were planning to go into the Auror program...but neither of us actually want to be an auror," Harry chuckled, "Ron's fallen in love with architecture. Got a real knack for it, apparently. The company that's redoing Hogwarts has taken him on as an apprentice,"

"That's great! Good for him,"

"I still have a bit to decide what I want to do. But...I feel really good, right now, about where I'm going. It's been...well...these last few weeks feel like a million years,"

"I'm really glad to hear that you're doing well, Harry,"

"Could we go for a walk, maybe? I wanted to talk to you about...something," Harry asked.

"Sure."

They walked along the path down to the ocean. And Harry began to talk.

"My therapist...well, we've been talking a lot about my childhood in the last few sessions," Harry says, "And she said that I need to...say out loud to somebody, about my experiences. Cause I've never talked about them before, really," Percy nodded, "And she said to pick somebody I felt safe telling, somebody who would be able to listen to me without interrupting. And I got to thinking about it, and I realized that I…well, since Hermione's gone...and Ginny trusts you...and..." Harry trailed off.

"You can tell me what you need to tell me, Harry," Percy remembered his conversation with Ginny from the other night.

This, this was what sensible older brothers were for.

As they walked, Harry detailed story after story from his childhood. Living under the stairs in his aunt and uncle's home. Finding out about Hogwarts. Being punished again and again for things that were not his fault. He talked about not being trusted at school, even by Ron at times. He talked about asking Hermione to become his sister while they were on the run, and how he'd cried after she said yes.

As Harry wound down, Percy realized that he didn't necessarily need to know what to say to Harry. It was enough to just listen.

They'd arrived down at the ocean. Percy kicked off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pant legs and stepped into the waves. After a moment, Harry joined him.

"Thank you for sharing all of that with me, Harry, I'm sure it wasn't easy,"

"God, no, it wasn't," Harry ran his hand through his hair, "But I'm glad I told you,"

"So am I," Percy picked up a rock and tossed it, skipping it a couple of times. Harry did the same. They didn't need to speak.

Percy invited Harry to stay for dinner, and he accepted. As they cooked, they made comfortable small talk about Ron's recent forays into interior design and Hermione's latest letters.

Draco arrived home from work just as they were putting everything on the table.

"Dinner's on, in a moment," Percy offered.

"Thank you, I'll be there in a few minutes. I've got Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder on my clothing. Some junior auror thought he found a cursed box, but it was actually just a bunch of teenagers playing pranks using some of your brothers' products," Draco grumbled his way down the hall surrounded by a hazy grey cloud. He reappeared a few minutes later in clean, casual robes and sat across from Percy and Harry at the table. They didn't speak for a few minutes, focusing on their food.

"So...Malfoy…" Harry said, breaking the silence, "You said, the other night...that you knew muggle street drugs were dangerous?" Draco looked up sharply at that, "I was curious, I guess, about how you know that?"

"Merlin, could you ask me anything more personal and intrusive, Potter?" Draco rolled his eyes.

"Well, you seem to hate most muggle stuff, so…"

"Fair point,"

"You don't have to tell me. I've just been wondering," Harry said, "My therapist had to explain to me about addiction and how dangerous substance abuse is. I didn't know that there really was such a thing until...well...you saw how I was."

"If there's one thing that muggles do better than wizards, it is recreational drugs," Draco inclined his head, "At the end of last school year, when Professor Snape killed Headmaster Dumbledore and escaped Hogwarts with me, Professor Snape hid me in a muggle area and left me alone for a few days so he could report back to the Dark Lord. I was bored, I was scared, I had money, and so I went to a sketchy pub for drinks. I must have been pretty...desperate looking, because someone asked me if I wanted something stronger. I didn't know any better, so I said yes.

"That "something stronger" ended up being opioids: illegally procured muggle pain medications. Very, very addictive. Took me approximately 20 minutes to realize that taking them felt WAAAAY better than drinking firewhiskey. Took me a day and a half before I went back for more. I couldn't find the original person, so I looked for someone else to buy from. That person's stash was laced with something, and I took way more than I should have. I'm told that someone found me behind a dumpster, barely breathing,"

Percy was listening intently, trying to keep his expression calm and resisting the urge to ask questions. Harry was flat-out staring, open-mouthed, at Draco.

"They called the paramedics, brought me to a muggle A&E. Stuck all kinds of needles and tubes into me, had a machine breathing for me cause I couldn't breathe on my own. My heart stopped at least once, so I'm told."

"God, Malfoy,"

"They saved my life," Draco continued, "A few days later, Professor Snape finally tracked me down. He read me the riot act, absolutely screaming at me. Something along the lines of "you bloody idiot boy, I didn't save your life so you could waste it, life sucks, grow up and deal with it, get your act together or I will literally kill you…"

"That sounds familiar," Harry deadpanned.

"Professor Snape, after he'd finished yelling at me, got me discharged from the muggle hospital and refused to let me out of his or my mum's sight for the rest of the summer. I've been clean ever since,"

They were quiet for a few more moments, before Harry spoke again.

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Draco,"

"You can thank me by getting your act together, Harry," A long moment of silence; the two boys held eye contact. Percy sensed that this was more significant to the two of them than he would ever know.

"I am getting my act together. I'm in therapy now, like you said," Harry said, finally.

"Good. Job hunting?" Tension broken, all three continued eating.

"I'm trying. Seems that literally anyone will hire me just because of who I am, but I don't actually know what I want to do,"

"What do you like to do?"

"Quidditch,"

"Then go try out for a quidditch team."

"Is it really that easy?"

"Yeah, I was just telling Ginny a few nights ago. If you're any good at quidditch, and I know you are, you call up the manager of whatever team you want to be on and tell them you want to try out. They'll let you, because they know their current team is terrible. 20 minutes later, you've got yourself a contract,"

"Is that what you're going to do?" Harry asked in return.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you're plenty good. You'd probably be better as a keeper than a seeker, but you're a solid flyer,"

"Thank you," Percy watched Draco smirk, "But I prefer flying for fun. I enjoy my job at the ministry and have no plans to leave it at the moment,"

"For a while, Ron and I were planning to join the Aurors. I thought at one point that I might want to...but, now I'm not sure that I do,"

"Potter, you would be a terrible Auror. You're far too impulsive, you can't follow the rules and you never look before you leap,"

"Hey!"

"Am I wrong?" Draco drolled. He glanced at Percy, "Percy, am I wrong?"

"I'm not getting into this," Percy held his hands up.

"You're not wrong, Malfoy," Harry rolled his eyes, "The only things I really liked at Hogwarts was Quidditch and the DA,"

"That's right, your underground fight club thing,"

"Not fight club. We were teaching basic defense classes,"

"Hermione said you were a natural teacher, Harry," Percy chipped in.

"There you go, Potter. If quidditch doesn't work out, you can go tell McGonagall that you want to teach DADA at Hogwarts. Or you can start a business, put up an advertisement saying that you want to teach defense classes in Hogsmeade. Call it something stupid. 'The Boy Who Lived's lessons for how not to die' or something,"

Harry spat out a mouthful of water, laughing.

"How's the house hunting going, Draco?" Percy asked.

"Slow going. Bill's been helping me to get rid of the curses that the 'Most Noble and Ancient House of Malfoy' placed on the property," Draco's voice dripped with disdain, "I can't sell the house knowing that any non-Pureblood who accidentally steps too close to the wrong ward lines will turn to dust," Draco took a sip of water, "Where are you living these days, Potter?"

"With Ron, at the Weasley's place," Harry responded, "I've hired a team to clean out 12 Grimmauld Place,"

"Where?" Percy asked. Draco looked equally confused.

"Sirius Black, my godfather, had a family townhouse in London that he left to me when he died. I could live there, I suppose, but it's got a lot of bad memories, and it's...it's a terrifying place, to be honest. Disgustingly dirty, portraits that yell profanities at you, way too much taxidermy, probably a couple of similar 'turn to dust' wards," Harry and Draco shared matching looks of disdain, "It's a nice enough house, good structure, lots of space. But I hate it the way it is, and I hate being there, so I've hired a company to clean it up and renovate it, and then I can decide if I want to sell it. Or something,"

"That's a good idea," Draco mused.

Dear Percy,

Mum's had a bit of a setback; one of the healers discovered that her broken wrist wasn't set properly, so they had to vanish the bones and give Skele-Gro. It wasn't a comfortable night for her, but she's doing better now. Dad's doing well, he's been able to get back to the dental practice for a few hours each day. He's not seeing patients yet, but maybe soon, if he's feeling up to it.

I've completely forgotten to mention; my parents DO remember meeting you a few summers ago when you were over for dinner. They cannot wait to meet you again as my boyfriend, and I've told them that you'd be happy to host them for dinner at your new place when we return home. (I've conveniently neglected to mention that I live with you. Baby steps.)

Dad and I have been taking long walks in the evenings to help with his physical therapy. Australia is beautiful, but after all of the camping I did last year, I just wish I was home with you and could stop living out of a suitcase.

I'm so glad Harry is getting help. I wish I was there to see him. Please keep me updated.

Love you,

Hermione