a/n1

Hey guys! Finally that bug is removed! This is a re-upload so everyone gets notifications :)
Thanks to viv-heart for betaing as always ;)
I want to warn you, that this story is rated M for a reason that isn't called smut! This chapter contains mentioned torture, self-harm and the first part is quite dark.
Oh and I had a interesting idea, more information at the end

Have fun! ;)

Draco laid on his side on a big armchair in his aunt's living room. He was reading a book on healing curse scars that he had found while scouring the bookshelves. He had hoped that it might provide a way of getting rid of his Dark Mark.

Whenever he looked at it he heard the tortured screams of all the people on the revels and in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor. Even if they had been allowed to return, Draco wasn't any longer sure that he would. His last two years at home had been hell. The Dark Lord holding court in the dining room at every meal hadn't even been the worst. No, the screams of the prisoners, that had kept him awake at night, because he knew he would scream just like them, beg for mercy just like them if he ever failed the Dark Lord.

On some nights he had been tempted to go down and shut them all up. Thankfully Snape had taught him the Muffliato before he had to return for Christmas holidays in his sixth year. But the spell didn't hold indefinitely and sometimes Draco woke up in the middle of the night hearing the screams again. In the Slytherin dorm they had made fun of him because he was silencing his bed, but they didn't have to live with the constant threat of death by torture looming over them.

It was raining outside, matching Draco's currently quite gloomy mood. He was halfway through the book and still hadn't found anything useful. The fact that he wasn't allowed to go and buy books that had more information really didn't help. Maybe he could write Hermione and ask her to search the Black library but he wanted to do it himself. He hated being dependent on someone, especially someone who had hated him only weeks earlier. Draco was still quite baffled that she had actually defended him in front of the Wizengamot. He hadn't done anything to deserve her help. After all he deserted in the middle of the battle after more or less two years of being a Death Eater.

A wave of disgust hit Draco when he thought of his first weeks at school. He had been way too arrogant and proud of being a Death Eater, one of the youngest ever. Only when he was summoned after a month of school and asked how far he had come he understood. The Dark Lord only refrained from punishing him right there because he had to return to school and it was too obvious if he came back from a visit home and was twitching from the Cruciatus. But his mother and Snape had been punished for his inactivity. He had had to carry his professor back to school when they arrived at the gate. That was the moment Draco got nervous. His sleeping pattern hadn't been the best to begin with and now school work, the Dark Lord and the fear for his mother's safety made it nearly impossible for him to sleep.

The other Slytherins in his year didn't understand why he separated himself from them and especially Pansy sulked for quite some time before giving up. Draco suspected Theo had talked to her because he was one of the few people who knew about the true extent of his situation.

"Draco, won't you come for dinner?" his aunt called from the door.

"I am not hungry."

"At least sit with us, maybe have some tea?" Andromeda asked and Draco sighed. By the tone of her voice he knew she wouldn't give up. It seemed to be a typical Black trait as both his mother and aunt Bella had it as well.

"Alright, I will only finish this paragraph," he answered.

A rustle of cloths indicated that his aunt had left, but suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and was upright and with his wand in his hand immediately.

"I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" Andromeda said, shock evident in her wide eyes.

Draco pushed his hand through his hair and lowered his wand. "It's alright. What did you want?"

"You seem a bit crestfallen and I wanted to ask if I could be of any help."

"You are a healer, right?" Draco asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, at least I was before the war."

"Do you have another book about curse scars? I...When Granger was tortured my aunt cut her with a cursed blade and when I saw her at the hearing the scar still looked very fresh, like it didn't heal the way it should. I thought, maybe I could find something to help her…" Draco trailed of, suddenly sounding unsure. It wasn't a full blown lie, he had wanted to help Hermione. But he also still hoped to find something against the Dark Mark.

Andromeda looked at him for a second and then turned to the bookshelves.

"Here are the books about curse healing and breaking. I don't know Hermione's scar well enough, but if it doesn't heal properly I'd guess that the curse from the blade is still in the wound. If you need any further help I could ask Bill Weasley. He is a curse breaker and knows much more about that part of the healing than I do."

Draco stood up and went to the indicated shelf. There were fifteen books, some only a few pages from the looks and one big tome.

"Thank you," Draco said politely.

"Now, come on, your parents are already waiting for us."

After dinner Draco went back to his book. He hadn't eaten much, only a slice of bread at his mother's insistence. He was now very sure that this kind of stubbornness was a Black trait. He continued his with his book in the light from the fire and his wand. The chapter he was currently reading would most likely help Granger with her scar, but he doubted he was a good enough wizard to perform the spell. After all he had needed nearly all of his sixth year to repair the Vanishing Cabinet.

When he dragged himself up to his room it was nearing one in the morning but he was finally tired enough that he would sleep through the night. While undressing he avoided even looking in the direction of his left arm. He felt the dark magic pulsing there, even though the Dark Lord was dead. This residue magic made him ill and he wanted it gone, even if it meant blasting his arm of. Sudden anger filled him. He hated feeling so hopeless! He forced himself to stare at the Mark, an ugly stain on his arm, forced himself to listen to the screams of the muggles who were tortured at the revels. He remembered all the times he had belittled people because of their muggle parents, strutted through Hogwarts like he owned it because he was a Malfoy.

All the emotion suddenly became too much and he started scratching at the Mark until he drew blood. The pain cleared his mind and he stopped, looking down at his arm. Angry red lines criss-crossed his formerly white skin and the Mark. Draco sat down on his bed, still staring at his arm. The emotional upheaval from minutes ago was gone and had left a feeling of giddy hysteria and satisfaction. A few moments later he was fast asleep, curled around his left arm as if to protect it.

Hermione woke up with a gasp, twitching and lightheaded as if the torture by Bellatrix Lestrange only ended moments before. She reached for her wand and ignited the candles in the room. She took a gulp of water from the glass on her nightstand and laid back down, trying to calm her frantic heartbeat.

It had all seemed so real, but the worst hadn't been the torture. The worst were the cold eyes of Narcissa and Draco. For a moment she had forgotten that this was only a memory. Back then she hadn't been writing to Narcissa on a daily basis and Draco wasn't civil to her. Hermione shivered and pulled her blanket tighter around her shoulders.

"It was only a dream," she chanted under her breath hoping to convince herself that there truly was no danger close by.

After a few minutes she calmed down, the twitching and lightheadedness dissolved. Hermione really hoped that talking about what happened would help her. She needed her sleep and waking from nightmares every night wasn't healthy. A sudden feeling of hunger overcame her and she decided to go down to the kitchen for a late night snack.

Arriving downstairs Hermione saw light under the kitchen door. Expecting it to be Harry or Ron she was rather surprised to see Ginny sitting at the kitchen table with blotchy eyes and Kreacher patting her back.

"Ginny? What happened?" Hermione asked softly not wanting to startle the distraught girl.

The redheaded witch and the old house-elf looked up and Ginny jumped up running to Hermione and hugging her fiercely.

"Will Miss Granger want a hot chocolate as well?" Kreacher asked and Hermione nodded over Ginny's shoulder.

"And maybe a sandwich, I am a bit hungry."

The house-elf got to work and Hermione led the younger witch back to the table were they sat down. Ginny was crying in earnest now and Hermione conjured a tissue box and gave one to her.

A watery 'thank you' was the only answer while Ginny tried to compose herself. "I…Harry and I broke up. Well, you probably shouldn't even call it a break-up, we haven't been together since last year after all…" the girl trailed of and dried her face with the tissue. "We just made it clear that neither of us was ready for a relationship. Especially not with each other. He couldn't understand what my last year has been like and the other way around. We can't support each other the way a couple should."

"Oh, Ginny, I am so sorry!" Hermione exclaimed softly and hugged her friend tighter.

"It's actually quite alright. I just…cried a little. After all I still would have liked being in a relationship with him. But then everything else I hadn't cried about came breaking down on me and I just couldn't stop," the redhead sniffled a little and blew her nose.

"Well, now it is at least out of your system," Hermione stated drily and Ginny chuckled.

"Miss needed to cry, but now Miss needs to drink her hot chocolate and eat something!" Kreacher ordered and the young witches complied.

"Thank you for listening, 'Mione," Ginny said around a bite of her sandwich.

"That's what friends are for," Hermione assured her.

"Why were you up anyway? It's half past one."

"Woke up from a nightmare and got hungry. I hadn't eaten much at dinner."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ginny asked looking intently at the other witch.

Hermione hesitated for a moment, but then she decided that Ginny would understand or at least not reject her. "I dreamed of being tortured at Malfoy Manor again. But that wasn't the bad part. I didn't remember that it was only a memory, that I hadn't been pen friend with Narcissa and civil with Draco. I thought they truly hated me and that I never could be good enough to be friends with them because I am a lowly mudblood. It scared me senseless."

Ginny gasped and took her hand. "That sounds awful! I can only speak from what I saw at the hearing and what you told me about your letters from her. Nevertheless I think I can assure you that at least Mrs. Malfoy genuinely likes you! The ferret is at least making an effort to be civil, if not friendly to you and Mr. Malfoy didn't sneer at you. Maybe you can ask Andromeda what she thinks about the situation but I have a feeling that she will confirm my assessment."

Hermione smiled a bit crookedly at her oldest female friend. "Thank you, Ginny. I am sure you know how some dreams just linger and make you doubt everything."

"Oh, yes, absolutely! You could basically call me an expert," the other girl answered laughing.

They finished their chocolates in silence and thanked Kreacher for the late-night-snack. When they reached the landing Hermione hesitate before she turned around to Ginny.

"Want to sleep over?" she asked a bit shyly. Ginny stopped, tilted her head in thought and then nodded with a brilliant smile.

"Of course, I will get my blanket and pillow from my room!"

Smiling Hermione entered the room she had chosen when they came back to Grimmauld Place after the battle. The one she had shared with Ginny had seemed too silent without the other girl and she hadn't been able to sleep.

Harry stood in the door of Hermione's room and grinned wildly.

"Oi, what's got you grinning like mad this early in the morning?" Ron grumbled from behind him.

"Well, seems Ginny just broke up with me to switch sides," Harry chuckled looking at the two cuddling girls in Hermione's bed who now stirred feeling that someone was there.

Hermione was the first to wake up and blinked tiredly at the boys in her door while turning around in Ginny's arms to wake the younger girl. "Get your minds out of the gutter!" she exclaimed. "Boys, I swear they'll drive me crazy one day!"

"Ten more minutes, Mom," Ginny grumbled still half asleep until she noticed the body in her arms and jumped up. "Gods! What the hell did I do last night?!"

Harry and Ron guffawed ignoring the glare from Hermione.

"Seems you were right mate! Well, it could have been worse. Imagine finding her with the pug Parkinson!" Ron gasped, still laughing.

"Ronald Weasley, do I need to remind you of my Bat-Bogey-hex? I assure you that I have gotten better while you were away!" Ginny cried out. "If I wanted to sleep with Parkinson you would accept it without any big brother moves!"

The boys tried to contain their laughter at the two glaring girls and assured them that everything was just fine while vanishing downstairs.

"Boys!" Ginny exclaimed, unknowingly repeating Hermione's earlier sentiment. "Let's get up before they start fantasising again."

a/n2:

Alright, I hope you liked it, tell me in the reviews! :)
Here is the deal: if you create a piece of fanart for this story or the accompaning one-shot (Celebrating Easter), I will write a one-shot from the Potter-verse for you! Most pairings (save for Ronmione, sorry). I also have a pinterest board for this story: pinterest. de / nantai666 / arbitrary-jurisdiction / (remove the spaces! ;))
If anyone is wondering, Draco develops symptoms of PTSD. Those of you who study psychology or are psychologist and notice glaring mistakes in the chracterisation should feel free to pm me so I can fix it :)