A/N: Terribly sorry for the minor accident that happened earlier on with this story. Oops. I got too immersed in Hermione's character and got split personality as well. The other me deleted this story and the real me got it up again. Again, sorry!

Late. She was late.

She bolted through the hallways of St. Caterina's Hospital after arriving via Floo, almost tripping on her own feet as she did. The conference went on longer than usual, and she had scheduled a meeting with a Mind Healer at noon, thinking that she would just pop in for a bit, tell her Mind Healer (a new one at a new hospital this time, because you know how the sessions at St. Mungo's went) that she was completely bonkers and wanted to fix herself.

This place was located just at the edge of Wizarding London – less popular than St. Mungo's of course, and located a little bit at the dodgier area.

And here she was, forty-five minutes late, and running so fast that she couldn't even take in the designs and decorations – except for the huge Christmas tree right in front of the Floo Network. She all but threw herself at the receptionist in front of the Mind Healing department, and a young attractive woman glanced at her waspishly.

"Miss Granger, I presume?" she sneered, handing her a form and magical quill was floating next to Hermione in an instant.

Hermione, panting, nodded and managed to squeeze in a snide look in response to the woman's saucy behaviour. She grabbed the quill forcefully.

"Your Mind Healer has left – her shift ends at half twelve and well," she paused, and looked at Hermione like she was the scum of the earth. "Considering how early you are and all …"

Narrowing her eyes at her, Hermione spoke, "Look, I am perfectly aware that I am late so can we please get on with it? Am I to reschedule or what?"

"Another Mind Healer will be taking over, so you may go in," she glanced at Hermione that was reminiscent of the way Snape used to glance at her back in Hogwarts and Hermione rolled her eyes before storming off.

She opened the door with the "Consultation Room" sign on it and had the impression that she'd just stepped into a hotel. It looked very comfortable, lavish and clean – lots of beiges, lots of safe colours … and she immediately felt at peace. She supposed it was some psychology thing, for Mind Healers to get their patients to get comfortable and open up about their problems. If only St. Mungo's had tried the same, they had bright orange and ruby red wallpapers and Hermione felt nowhere near calm. The only thing she managed to feel was agitation, anger and the need to punch someone in the throat.

There was a lazyboy opposite a sofa set and she decided to get herself comfortable on the sofa, try and calm her racing heartbeat at the idea of meeting a new Mind Healer. She had to explain things all over again and try to get to know this new person once more but she was desperate. She craved freedom so very deeply and she would like nothing more than to be her own person once more. And as much money as the other one brought in, it was still … hmmm … money … no, no, she needed to get rid of her.

She was getting really worried – it seems as if the other her was trying to take over as the dominant personality and that thought scared her. The thought of losing herself, even to something that she had created herself was out of the question and she'd this for as many times as possible, until there she was cured –

There were muffled voices outside the consultation room and the girl outside laughed giddily. More muffled voices, giggles and then a tone of question.

And then the door swung open.

"Ah, yes, please. That would be lovely," a masculine voice said, his (pink! ha) uniformed hand the only thing in view, and he pulled the door shut a little, "Maybe this time lessen the sugar. I quite like my tea to be bitter."

"Alright, if you say so," the saucy girl outside giggled again and the door opened fully.

And then Hermione dropped her jaw.

Well, fuck me. It was Draco fucking Malfoy.

She gawked at him and she swore her heart just fell out of her mouth. He hadn't seen her yet as he was still talking to the receptionist regarding his fucking tea. He took a step in and was about to shut the door with his foot as he peered down at a couple of files, and then turned back towards the receptionist.

"Ah, Hilda, I don't have his noon appointment form here, would you mind -" he said, and his head turned towards Hermione, and their eyes met.

He looked as surprised as she was. A fine eyebrow shot up and his face relaxed into an amused half-smile. "Granger."

"Malfoy," she said, and it didn't sound as regal as his greeting, but it sounded like she was in awe – or … like a mouse caught in a trap. Well, it was difficult to sound normal when your brain was doing the opera version of a song entitled 'Fuck'.

"Fancy seeing you here," he smirked and grabbed the form off Hilda-Snotty's hand before shutting the door with his foot.

"Yeah," was the only thing Hermione could get out, and she was absolutely sure that her eyes were as wide as a deer caught in headlights.

Malfoy seemed to have noticed that (psychologists, ugh) and then as he cleared his throat, he shut his eyes and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, that was very unprofessional of me. Believe me; I don't behave this way around patients. I'm just … surprised," he explained.

"No problem," Hermione said in that same, monotonous voice as she began to come up with a plan to escape this place. "So am I."

Malfoy walked towards her with his hand stretched out, "Hi, I'm Draco Malfoy, your Mind Healer."

Mildly surprised (well, compared to the shock before this), she stood up and captured Malfoy's hand.

"Please, take a seat," Malfoy gestured towards the sofa that she had claimed as her own moments ago, and took his own seat in the lazyboy opposite her.

Hermione moved slowly, folding her skirt and legs, trying to look prim and proper and she watched Malfoy gracefully place himself in the snug chair and cross his legs.

He gave her a charming smile then and Hermione felt really uncomfortable.

"What brings you here today?" Malfoy asked casually.

No way. No way.

There was no way she was going to go through with this. Draco Malfoy? Her Mind Healer? No way. Absolutely no way.

"Well, I just … I … what are you …" Hermione struggled to construct sentences, "Why are you a Mind Healer?"

"Why?" Malfoy raised his eyebrows and then answered nonchalantly, "Because I spent the last five years or so in Mind Healing university, so I am making full use of my professional degree by helping others who go through some sort of," he cleared his throat once more, "Mental problem. And try to find a solution for them."

"No, I mean, gosh," Hermione threw her face into her hands and groaned like a dying bear, "I don't know what I mean. Sorry, Malfoy."

"No problem, most of my patients ask the same thing," he said and scribbled something in the form, "Most of them say I'm rich enough to live off my family money. But it's alright, you may ask anything you want and say whatever you want. Whatever is said in this room is completely private and confidential. Mind-Healer and patient policy."

Patient. She was going to be Malfoy's patient? Malfoy was going to be the first apart from her friends to find out what a lunatic she truly was? She thought not.

"Um, you're going to be my Mind Healer until …"

"Until we find a treatment most suitable for you," he nodded, and captured her puzzled gaze once more, "But first we need to understand what ails you."

Hermione's heart raced once more.

Was she really going to tell him that she had a split personality disorder? That she turned into a different woman every night? Oh, dear. It wasn't that they had quite a volatile history but it was because … he knew who she was and that made it seem a thousand times worse. Surely he was not the same person back in Hogwarts but she really could not go through with this. Anyone but Malfoy.

Just as she was about to address her current discomfort with the hospital's choice of Mind Healer for her, she caught Malfoy stifling a yawn with his hand. His eyes watered and he blinked many times, and when he looked up, he smiled apologetically.

"So sorry about that. Again, this is not the way I usually behave around patients. It's just that I have a tough time sleeping these days."

"Why?" Hermione asked, almost feeling the need to laugh at the fact that their roles have been switched.

"Well, work for one," he stifled a yawn again and shook his head, "And when I finally do get some proper sleep, someone invades my home and agitates me so much that I cannot go back to sleep."

Hermione grinned, "Well, tell your girlfriend to lay off for a while then."

Malfoy scoffed and pursed his lips, "It's not a girlfriend, nor someone I've been seeing or planning to see. It's just some loony who comes over more often than I would like. Actually, I don't and would not ever like it at all."

Hermione raised her eyebrows, "So it's one of your patients, then?"

"Oh, Merlin, no. I don't know who she is. She just barges into my house, drinks my wine, snogs me and then professes her love for me."

"So …" Hermione frowned.

Malfoy shrugged. "It's no problem. I'm used to people like that."

"Crazy people, you mean," she looked at him pointedly.

"Well, if we're talking in non-PC terms here, then yes, I am used to crazy people. And she is one of them. But I'll figure her out as soon as possible, including who she is."

"Interesting. Have you considered changing your wards then?"

"I have, plenty of times. It's just that she's so brilliant in her spell work that she knocks them down very easily," he sighed.

Hermione nodded, clearly impressed.

"But let's not deviate – what brings you here Miss Granger?" he said, placing the form on a desk and folding his hands.

"I … am …" she started, "Uncomfortable."

"You may lie down if you like," Malfoy answered almost immediately.

"No, that's not what I meant."

Should she tell him?

No, she shouldn't. Something in her mind was clearly warning her against it. It was like sirens, and the more she felt like telling Malfoy, the louder it became.

But he could help her.

Still …

"Granger, are you uncomfortable with my being your Mind Healer?" Malfoy asked, face neutral and voice professional.

"No! Of course not!" she protested, anything to make Malfoy feel at ease. He needed to know that it had nothing to do with their history.

"So tell me, what troubles you?" He said in a calm, gentle voice.

Hermione admitted inwardly, that voice could get even a goat to sing. It was so persuasive, so … sensual? No. It was more like a best friend coaxing another friend to tell whatever is on his or her mind, so to speak. None of that bedroom voice tripe.

"I …"

I am a lunatic. I change into a different person every night. I also steal and give to the poor and keep half of it stashed in my flat.

"I am … depressed?"

Malfoy blinked. "Are you?"

"I don't – I think – yes, yes I am."

"Why do you think you're depressed?"

Because something else is trying to take over me and please help me.

"Because," she looked up into grey eyes. "Because …"

She gave up. She took a deep, deep breath and opened her mouth to say the words.

"Malfoy, this really isn't working," she blurted.

"I see," he smiled a little. "It's no problem, Granger. If you're truly uncomfortable with me, I can hand you back to Healer Williams."

"Would you?" she asked him, relief clearly showing on her face.

Malfoy nodded and stood up, "Of course."

She, too, stood up and grabbed Malfoy's elbow before he got the chance to walk towards the door. He looked back at her and again, surprise was on his face.

"I just … I just wanted to say that the reason why I'm uncomfortable with you is not because of what happened before," she said sincerely, "Nor has it anything to do with who you are."

Malfoy patiently waited for her to finish, eyes boring into hers.

"I would just prefer someone who doesn't know me at all," she smiled sheepishly.

He returned the smile and nodded.

"I understand, Granger. Don't worry."

"Thanks, Malfoy."

He walked her to the door and opened it for her, genuinely wishing her a good remainder of the day and reminded her to check in again in two days for her appointment with the other Mind Healer. Hermione said her thank you's.

Deep inside, she felt an odd sense of relief. And it had something or everything to do with Malfoy. Just that she wasn't sure why and how.

Funnily enough, before she left for her office, Malfoy asked if she would like to grab tea sometime. She said yes.

"Ba dum dee dum dum," she hummed as her boots went 'tap, tap, tap' on the marble stair leading towards grand entrance doors.

She reached out for the doorbell with a sly grin and pressed.

Ding Dong! Ding Dong! Dingdongdingdongdingdong!

She knew she was being irritating, and she loved it. She also knew that Malfoy was perfectly aware that she could Apparate straight into his house without a problem, but she loved the idea of flustering Malfoy and how he always opened the door with an irritated expression.

In a few seconds, she would see a completely flushed, irritated, pale face of Draco Malfoy and that would give her some sort of wicked pleasure.

As she expected, the door flew open to reveal a –

Half-naked Draco Malfoy.

She positively purred in delight as she ogled his body from top to toe.

He obviously just got out of the shower, a towel wrapped lowly around his waist and droplets of water ran down his bare chest. She wanted to lick them.

His hair was in a mess, still damp and water still clung to those fine, golden strands. She wanted to lick his hair too.

"Are you done? Cause if you are, you can leave," Malfoy said irritably.

Hermione laughed mirthfully and pushed herself into his house, hands "accidentally" brushing his crotch as she passed. Malfoy immediately moved away from her hands and slammed the door shut.

"How are you, baby?" she asked, turning around to plant a kiss on Malfoy's cheek – which, he avoided with a quick duck and a jog towards the stairs.

"Ah, that's not very nice," she pouted. "I got you a present."

"Didn't ask for one."

"Well, I got you one anyway. It's a little early, considering we're about four weeks away from Christmas, but I realized that you put your Christmas tree up way before advent."

Malfoy was quiet.

"And since we're doing things very early, let's open it now," she said excitedly as she placed her wand on a small table by the stairs and ripped open the present she got for Malfoy. She'd just robbed another affluent man in Wizarding London and distributed it to the poor before taking some of the leftovers to buy Malfoy a present.

"Look!" she put them up for Malfoy to see. "They're man thongs! One is see-through and one looks like a mini-kilt that barely covers your crotch!"

Saying nothing, Malfoy walked up the stairs – presumably to change. Hermione was still grinning excitedly as she gazed at the thongs, and very cheekily placed them on the branches of Malfoy's Christmas tree.

"If you've come for the wine, you know where it is," Malfoy called out from upstairs.

"I came for you, darling. I will always come for you."

"Ugh," Malfoy responded. "Also, I'm renovating the cellar again. Maybe you could tinker around a bit and get yourself killed by pieces of the falling ceiling. That would be nice."

"How sweet of you to warn me," Hermione sighed and then walked towards the cellar.

As promised by Malfoy, it was in a mess indeed, bricks and stone and dust everywhere. She immediately searched the area where Malfoy normally kept his wine, but it was no longer there.

Hmm. She moved around the cellar and found that the small alcove to which Malfoy had relocated the wine to protect it from being damaged was blocked by rubble.

Remembering that she had left her wand upstairs, she groaned. She was far too lazy to go up and fetch the damned thing. She inspected the rubble for long moments before deciding that they were small enough to move with her hands and strength.

Then she began digging. Rubble by rubble, bit by bit until parts of the wine bottles could be seen. Smiling gleefully, she continued her excavation enthusiastically, planning to butter Malfoy up with wine and then sweet-talk him into giving her a goodnight kiss or something more.

A particular part of the ruins was more stubborn than the rest and no matter how hard she pulled, it wouldn't budge. Steadying her feet, she pulled as hard as she could. Time wasted trying to sort this shit out means time wasted with Malfoy, and she hated that.

Sweat began to drip down her mask but she didn't bother, she pulled and pulled until her entire being shook.

Unfortunately for her though, the rubble also shook, and that particular part that she was pulling came free, and with the force and momentum with which she applied to pull it free came back towards her and it was far too late for her to avoid it.

SMACK! It her head.

She was stunned, disorientated for a bit and managed to feel warm blood trickle down the size of her temple before she fell down onto the floor with a pathetic "Ow", and lost consciousness.

"… ervate."

She heard bits of the familiar revival spell before she fell as if her soul was being forcefully pulled back into her body.

And someone was snapping their fingers.

"Hey. Hey."

She groaned.

"Hey, you. Are you dead?"

"No," she answered. "I don't think so."

"Ah, how disappointing," the person, male, answered.

Hermione snapped her eyes open and found something heavy on her face, and she could see black outlines around her eyes. Merlin knows what it was.

"How rude!" she retorted. "How could you say that?"

She tried to get up and clutched her head – around the right side, which felt quite ... wet. She pulled her right hand back to see that it was … hmm it was all so blurry. What was it? Blood?

"Ugh, what happened?" she blinked the blurriness out of her eyes and tried to focus on the being right in front of her. "Why am I bleeding?"

"Because I told you I was renovating and you didn't listen. Didn't take precautions, eh?" the same snotty voice answered.

Her vision began to clear, and she found Draco Malfoy's grey eyes staring back at her. He was tapping his foot impatiently and had his arms crossed.

"Malfoy?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing here?"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same question. You come in here night after night. What are you doing here?"

"Where am I?" Hermione looked around the ruined cellar.

Malfoy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Look, I've already entertained a thief and a lunatic, and you're both of them at once. I would not like to entertain an amnesiac as well."

Hermione eyes widened.

Suddenly, everything began to make sense. Her brain was piecing everything together –

"I am … in your house?" She asked tentatively.

"Yes."

"And … I come here every night?"

"Yes."

"And … you think I'm crazy?"

"Evidently," he sighed.

Hermione gasped out loud before she brought her hand towards her mouth. Malfoy's head snapped towards her and watched her intently.

"What?"

She was silent, as she began to compose thoughts in her head. Malfoy had mentioned that someone crazy always came by and … it was a she … and … and … that familiar cologne wafting off Malfoy's body … and –

Her eyes widened some more. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

She was the one Malfoy was talking about during her consultation. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

"What?" Malfoy pushed on.

"I, um …"

No. She must not make it obvious that she was indeed, Hermione Granger.

"I'm tired."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "I see. Yes, you do look a bit off."

"What do you mean?"

"You seem … changed. Did you hit your head that hard?"

Yes, yes she did.

Shit.

She seemed to recall Malfoy saying "But I'll figure her out as soon as possible, including who she is." And Merlin almighty if that didn't scare the bejesus out of her. Him finding out this way was far worse than Hermione admitting it to him straight in the consultation room.

If he found out now, it would be bad. It would be so bad. She was so many things to him right now in this form – a thief, an almost-rapist and Merlin knows what else.

And now she needed to find a way to get out of here.

Be calm, be cool. Pretend to be the other her.

She stood up immediately, ignoring her thundering chest as much as she could. Holding her head high, she straightened her back and stared at Malfoy straight on.

"I'm going to go."

"Really? Just like that?" Malfoy asked, face amused.

"Why, do you want us to do other things?" she attempted to smile cheekily and hopefully it didn't come out as a grimace.

"No, please, by all means. Leave."

"Fine, Malfoy," she responded.

Malfoy blinked once and then started watching her like an eagle, grey eyes following her every movement, even as she passed by him to jog up the stairs to the hallway.

Quick, quick. But not too quick. You don't want him to suspect that something is off.

She tried to walk as fast as she could without making it look like she was running, but Malfoy was tailing her. And it was so difficult to walk in these skin-tight jeans!

"Don't need to walk me out," she waved dismissively, but Malfoy was having none of it.

"You're bleeding. Want me to fix that?"

"No, no need, I'll do it later."

"Alright," he stood next to his Christmas tree and watched her walk towards the table where she had her wand. An apple flew past her and Malfoy had obviously caught it behind her.

Just a little bit more, just a little – a little bit more to your wand and you can Disapparate the shit out of this place.

"Hey, Granger?"

She paused in her step, face pale.

FUCK.

She then continued to walk towards her wand, hoping against hope that Malfoy didn't see that slight pause in her movement when he called out her last name.

Finally clutching her wand in her hand, she turned towards him.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" she asked coolly.

"I said, Granger," he said, biting into the apple.

She blinked a couple of times, her heart beating so fast that she could feel it in her head, "What's that?"

"Never mind," Malfoy grinned.

And then she Disapparated.

Dear Granger,

Tea today? Huck's Café at 4pm.

D. Malfoy.

…

It was a Saturday, and Hermione had woken up to an Owl from Malfoy, of all people. She was positively shaking all the way to her bones as she tore open the letter, only to find out that he had merely followed up on their tea arrangements.

It was fine, but still … well, not entirely fine. She was on tip-toe the entire time, especially when she had agreed and left the house to meet him. Hopefully tea arrangements meant that he still did not suspect anything.

He flashed her brilliant smile as she spotted him in front of Huck's Café, and she gave a watery smile in return. They exchanged greetings and walked into the café, sat down and ordered.

"So, Granger. Long night?" was the first thing Malfoy said when they got their tea and cakes.

Hermione's heart escaped from her ears apparently because she could hear it beat faster and faster at Malfoy's question.

"Yeah, was up all night watching my favourite television show, episode after episode," she answered glibly.

"Oh," he smiled knowingly from the top of his tea cup.

TBC!
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