A/N: Hello all! Some were a little confused and upset that I didn't update immediately, but I said I would if I got twenty reviews. Which sadly, I did not. But that's okay because I barely finished everything I had to without the extra weight of writing a new chapter.

Anywho… enough chit-chat. Let's get on with the chapter. Oh… and

Important A/N at the end

Disclaimer: If I were J.K. Rowling I would use my immense fortune to create a life-size workable version of Hogwarts. I would sit in Dumbledore's chair and try to get my eyes to "twinkle." And I would sit out by the lake and wait for Sirius Black to come and carry me off into the sunset. DON'T MAKE ME LEAVE MY WONDERFUL FANTASY! Alright, fine… I'm not J.K. Rowling… happy?

Recap: That one form held five letters that made her head pound harder than a thousand hangovers ever could…D…R…A…C…O.

She quickly scanned the parchment for any sign of his last name only to find that there was none. No information about his family or who submitted him. But how common was the name Draco? How many parents are psycho enough to name their kid Dragon? Come on… scales, claws, sharp teeth, FIRE… doesn't exactly invoke a picture of an adorable little kid.

Could this Draco... her patient… be the Draco Malfoy?

New Discoveries

SPG

Hermione was calm. She was calm, cool, collected, and completely under control.

Five minutes ago she may have been hysterical, crying, screaming, scaring Crookshanks half to death. But now… now she was okay.

In the aftermath of her… breakdown… for lack of a better word, she was left with hundreds of questions permeating her thoughts accompanied by a surge of panic in her chest.

She sat with her knees tucked up under her chin and her back leaning heavily on her living room couch. She looked oddly juvenile despite the twenty-one years of life that had led her to this moment.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and realized that throughout her tantrum, she had maintained a firm grasp on the paper that had managed to sober her up better than a Pepper-up Potion ever could.

"Draco Malfoy." She uttered aloud.

She hadn't even thought that name in years, let alone said it out loud.

She closed her eyes and buried memories that she'd been trying to forget for the past year came flooding back.

It's odd how the final battle that had occurred on the grounds of Hogwarts little more than a year ago had seemed to last for days, but when she thought of it now it passed in a quick haze of red and green lights.

The scenes seemed to slow as her mind reeled to the real final battle—the battle between Harry and Voldemort. She remembered the look of anger, surprise, and … fear on Tom Riddle's face when Harry had thrown the destroyed horcruxes at his feet. There was the diary from their second year, the ring that had once adorned Dumbledore's deadened hand, the locket that had been locked safely in Grimmauld Place all along, Hufflpuff's cup, Rowena Ravenclaw's timeturner, and the Head of Nagini.

There was only one left and he was standing in front the boy-who-lived with a gleam in his eye that none had yet witnessed. Uncertainty.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

She was snapped from her reverie as the alarm clock in her bedroom sounded.

Had she really been sitting here for that long?

She hauled herself up off the floor and did what was natural for Hermione Granger.

She began reading.

She gathered the file of 'her patient' as she had begun calling him in her mouth. She had exactly 10 hours before she had to go in for her shift, and she be damned if she wasn't going to be prepared.

So this is where he'd been all these years? She hadn't even heard a whisper of his whereabouts since the train ride home on her sixth year. She was confronted by a myriad of speculations. Was he really crazy? Did the war do it to him? Is he faking?

She growled at the last thought. It would be just like him to fake something like this to get out of being sent to Azkaban.

She sighed at her thoughts and determinedly told herself to stop brooding.

She opened the first folder and laid down on the couch as she began to read.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Three hours, five folders, and 7 cups of coffee later, Hermione had discovered several things that surprised her and a few that didn't.

He'd only been in the permanent ward for about a year. She frowned when she noticed that he'd been admitted about a week before the final battle. If this was all some ploy to stay out of Azkaban, wouldn't he have been admitted after the battle?

And Merlin knows where he'd been in the years between Dumbledore's murder and his admittance. Could he have been with Snape all this time? Surely not. After all, Snape didn't even make it to the final battle. He was killed in battle during what should have been our seventh year. He'd been killed by an Avada Kedavre from Voldemort, himself, an Avada that just happened to have been meant for Harry.

She diverged from the sorrowful path that her mind had already wandered twice tonight and concentrated again on the files.

In the twelve months that Malfoy had resided at St. Mungo's, he'd been through more than a dozen healers. THAT… didn't surprise her in the least. He always was a picky little bastard.

He also had a tendency to hurt himself and others.

'Great!' she thought, 'just what I need. If the fates are so determined that I waste more of my life on Draco Malfoy, why couldn't it be a Draco Malfoy that had suddenly decided that his life's ambition was water ballet… or… or underwater basket weaving. Why did fate have to be such a bitch and give me a violent, psychopathic Malfoy!'

She sighed and decided, 'Eh… violent and psychopathic? So maybe fate just gave me the same Malfoy I always knew and loathed, but it would have been so much more fun to tell Harry and Ron that Malfoy was an evil little git who happened to fancy spandex tights… or tiaras… or even fairy wings."

She groaned. Harry and Ron, what was she supposed to tell them? She could picture the scene now. Harry would clench his fists at his side and Ron's ears would twinge red. Harry would shout something along the lines of, "YOU MEAN MALFOY? AS IN I'M A BASTARD AND SHOULD BE IN AZKABAN MALFOY?"

She giggled at the fact that Harry's words were always in caps lock in her head. That was her best friend, Harry- I shout everything because I only have two levels, normal and pissed off- Potter.

Then there would be Ron's reaction.

He would sputter and say, "He—I—uh—you—git—ahh!" and then he would listen to Harry rant. He would huff and shake his head forcefully in agreement. Then he would get that quirky grin and far-off look and say something stupid like, "Can I come see him? I need another mental picture to file right alongside the Amazing Bouncing Ferret moment. I need a new memory for my Patronus."

They would all laugh, but then Harry would get serious again and say something like, "I don't want you around him, Mione. Ask them for a new patient."

But of course she couldn't do that, it was absolutely ridiculous. She was lucky to even be hired at St. Mungo's. They only hired the best and it didn't help that she had never actually finished Hogwarts. She had of course taken the NEWTS later and succeeded with almost perfect scores in everything, but it had been three years since she left Hogwarts when she took the test, and people were still reluctant to give her a chance.

No. She'd just have to deal with it, that's all. And if that meant not telling Ron and Harry until later, then so be it.

She glanced at the clock, and reluctantly realized that she needed to hurry and eat and get ready for work.

She ate a quick sandwich and then threw on her navy blue, standard issue, healer's robes. She ran a brush through her unruly hair and decided to give up trying to fix it before she even started.

She took a deep breath and walked over to the fireplace. She closed her eyes tight and whispered, "Here I come Malfoy," and then opened her eyes prepared to floo.

She was about to step forward when two heads appeared simultaneously in her fire with a burst of green flames.

"Harry! Ron!" she yelled, "I could have crushed your faces! What are you doing here?"

They both chuckled and Ron grinned sheepishly, "We came to wish you good luck. Uh… Good luck." He finished lamely.

Harry, however, had a peculiar look on his face, "Were you just saying something about Malfoy when we came?"

It was Hermione's turn to sputter, "I, I, well…" Then she looked to her right and was saved as a picture of Lucius Malfoy stared up at her from the latest daily prophet.

"I was just wondering when we were finally going to catch him. Lucius, that is. "she finished.

Harry, who had been made an auror without virtually any effort on his part, nodded grimly.

"I hope so. I can't say much… but we're working on something, something that will hopefully end in catching quite a few former death eaters."

Hermione gulped and answered, "Yes, Right well… I really must be going… you know. But really, thanks for coming by, it was really sweet guys." She smiled.

They both nodded and Harry said, "Well, Good luck and I L-We lo—uh… we'd love to hear about it when you get off."

"Alright…" Hermione said suspiciously. She almost thought that Harry was blushing, but it could have been the effect of his head being suspended in the middle of green flames. Ron gave Harry a peculiar look and with a short "bye," they both disappeared.

Hermione gathered a few folders that she thought she might need and followed their lead, dropping the powder and shouting, "St. Mungo's!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hermione had checked in with her supervisor and was ushered (a little quicker than she would have liked) to the door of her patient.

Her supervisor, Anna, had left with a smile and a whispered, "Good Luck!"

'Luck' Hermione snorted. She was going to need a lot more than that to get through this.

There were so many thoughts and emotions raging within her as she stood in front of this door. Each one battled for dominance as she scanned a label that read "Patient 1431"

Her stomach fluttered with anxiety. What if he remembered her? Would he shout at her? Call her mudblood?

What if he was just pretending to be crazy and he would be just as malicious as ever? What if he hurt her?

She tried to quell her worries. She didn't know if she could do this. How could she treat a patient who she had hated all her life… still hated in fact?

She summoned all the Gryffindor bravery that she held and placed her hand on the doorknob. She slowly turned it, and what she saw was unlike anything she had anticipated… it was worse.

She watched in horror, as the… the… thing in front of her tore at its clothes.

His hair was long and unkempt and his face looked unmistakably tired. He had deep circles beneath his eyes and his always pointed features seemed to protrude even more.

He tore at his flesh and she could see through his ripped attire that his characteristically pale skin was littered with scars. He hurled himself against the wall a few times and she noted that most of the scratches were concentrated on his forearm—a forearm that, to her surprise, held no dark mark.

That was what spurred her into action. She closed the door and fled towards him.

"Malfoy." She said quietly, nervous about getting to close to him.

When he didn't respond she stepped a little closer to him and repeated herself, "Malfoy."

She watched in horror as his actions progressively became more violent. He began to repeatedly bang his head on the wall behind him.

"Malfoy!" she tried yelling, but he still had yet to notice her presence.

She did the only thing she could think of to do, she placed her hand on his and said, "Draco?"

He immediately calmed and his eyes snapped up forcefully to meet hers. The eyes that she had once categorized as a deep molten silver that glinted maliciously, were now dull and… dead.

She took in the scars and scratches on his face and the unshed tears in his eyes and she felt something swell deep in her chest, something she never in a million years thought she would feel for Malfoy…

Pity.

A/N: Well… that's the end of this chapter. I was going to write that the final battle had occurred during 7th year, but then I realized that I had Voldemort present in the first chapter… so I decided to have to battle occur about a year ago.

IMPORTANT

So I was listening to Wonderwall by Oasis today while driving home and had this great idea for a story and I just had to tell you all. I'm thinking of doing it as a one-shot or maybe even a full-story if I have the time. Here's the summary:

Draco Malfoy is a seer. And when he sees a vision of his future… more importantly his brush with death, he suddenly finds that he doesn't despise the Gryffindors (one in particular) for their bravery, but is thankful for it.

So what do you guys think? I haven't decided whether I will make it HBP- compatible yet… or whether it will be at Hogwarts or Post-Hogwarts.

Let me know if you guys think it sounds good!

Toodles!

SPG