A/N: Putting my author's note up here because I wanted to do a recap. It's been a while since I posted the chapter 16 and I fear some people (and me) may have forgotten what's going on in the story. Skip if you have an awesome memory. :)

Recap: Draco is in a psychiatric ward, Hermione's there and she says she's a helper but spends most of her time reading Muggle books. At the start, they're both nasty to each other but that changes when Hermione decides to throw herself off the top of the building to prove that Draco doesn't really wants her dead. After, she leaves him and he spends the night with Crookshanks. Then comes Astoria, a fire and Draco's desperate proposal so that they won't all burn alive.

Complications arise when Narcissa comes knocking and blood-purist views sends Hermione into an emotional fit. Draco follows her and finds out that she's emotionally unstable as a side-effect of Bellatrix's curse and she's a patient here. He realises just how much his old beliefs have affected her and that he hasn't changed at all. Pansy visits. Draco and Crookshanks goes public. Blaise and Draco get into a fist-fight and Draco realises he's kind of a dick. Hermione and Draco kiss, but there's no spark. He gets released, with Luna saying he needs to try make amends in the real world.

Back at his company, pirates have stole his stock. Adrian and him trick the pirate to give everything back and body-binded him (oh! the shame!). Adrian challenges Draco to a drinking game; the loser has to wear leather pants for a week. Draco loses and he wakes to find himself in front of the ward and Hermione is there. Draco visits Crookshanks and it becomes a daily habit. While debating on whether to place the legendary spork into the Malfoy family collection, there is a sound and Crookshanks jumps into the bushes...

Draco Malfoy and His Quest to Sensibility

by cleury

Chapter XVIII

"Well, well. What do we have here?"

"You told me to find his weak point. This is it."

"Are you sure?"

"I've been following him for the last four days. I am sure. He's been wearing the same pair of leather pants for the whole week. Reuses the same spork and carries it with him wherever he goes. I'm not to question where his affection lies."

"Perhaps I should take his spork instead then."

"I'm sure the main character in the photograph would be easier to grab. Draco Malfoy's been visiting every morning at eight on the dot and spends exactly an hour there before apparating to work."

"You seem to be well-informed."

"I'm paid to be."

"Now, now,no one is blaming you for falling for Draco Malfoy. He is quite the character."

Draco was a practical man, and he liked routine, and regularity. It told him what to expect, and how to plan for the future. If someone had told him during Hogwarts that he would be visiting a psychiatric ward every day to visit a cat for an hour out of his own free will, he would have called them a cretin, told them that 'his father would hear about this', before setting Crabbe and Goyle on them for the rest of the term.

Yet, here he was.

Having little in common, and their past being much too sensitive to delve into, the conversation between Hermione and Draco soon died down quickly. They weren't friends,but they'd seen more bad sides of each other than their closest companions Silver Duo's relationship was very strange. It could be compared with one where the wife (Hermione) had sorted out an amiable co-existence with her husband's (Crookshanks) infidelity with his mistress (Draco). She read on her bed, sometimes absorbed in the material, sometimes peering over the top of her pages to see her husband and his mistress fall more and more in love as each day passed.

It became apparent to Hermione that something was different in Draco's demeanor, and she could only believe that his ever-growing affections for her cat was the source of the he spoke to her, on most accounts, he was a perfect gentleman, and dare she say charming. Sometimes he would scowl, reverting back to his old self but on the whole, she could say that she found his daily company pleasant to be around. She tried not to remind herself that the only person who had visited her in the past week was the man presently occupied with was shooting a laser pointer at the floor and was smiling, amused, as Crookshanks tried to chase the red dot.

Their routine continued for a few more days, before Draco realized Hermione was watching him intently. He had been so preoccupied with waving catnip and watching Crookshanks pounce for it, that he had completely forgotten the presence of the woman in the room. He cleared his throat to signal that he had noticed her staring. "What is it?"

Draco watched Hermione bite her lips, and frowned. She's hesitating. Obviously she wants to ask me something quite personal.

"Sorry if I sound rude, but," she said, gripping the edges of the book in her hand, "you've changed."

Draco raised his eyebrows—he found a potion to grow them back 'd rather swallow slugs than draw them on everyday like his mother did, and he did not want to look like a delinquent!—Draco didn't think he'd changed much. He had merely tried to stop looking for bad things in people and when he did, he refrained from voicing his thoughts aloud. He didn't think people would notice the change, but then again, this was Hermione Granger who, if it could be considered a fault, was overly sensitive and analyzed everything with depth. It was a wonder she didn't collapse from the sheer exhaustion of over-thinking so often.

"Yes," he said cryptically, not wanting to say much more. If he voiced out what incited him to change, her overly-active brain might take things too far, read between lines that had nothing, and be misled. He didn't know how to react if she thought he held romantic inclination for her. The kiss from a few days ago had cleared up that mystery, and he didn't want her to misunderstand anything.

"Is it love?" she asked shyly, blushing crimson at her suggestion in fear she might sound stupid. "With Crooks, I mean."

He smiled, bemused at her hypothesis. "No, not really." He watched her shift uncomfortably and could literally see the gears in her brain shifting to next possible conclusion… "I don't believe love for something, or someone, living can possibly change a person, not unless they themselves make a substantial effort themselves."Draco smiled at Hermione's confused expression.

"What?" she said. Draco saw her lips stretch, a look he recognized as what Hermione did when she was thinking very hard.

"Change," he said finally, planning his words precisely so there would be no misdirection, "is not organic, but full of hard work and elbow grease."

"Huh," said Hermione contemplatively. "People would appreciate it, you know. You being more civil towards them."

Draco gave a small smile. "I aim to please." He stood up and dusted himself off, cringing at the sight of the leather pants. True to his word, and despite Adrian's giggles and his clients' astonished expressions, Draco had worn the leather pants for a whole week. After tonight, he could take them off and he would set them alight, put Adrian in the fire, and dance around his masterpiece. Maybe he should invite Crookshanks to participate too. He checked his watch and knelt down again to address the ginger cat. "Hey, I have to leave fifteen minutes earlier today. Got a session with Lovegood. I'll make it up to you by bringing you some raw fish, I know how much you hate that jelly-meat crap the First Wife gives you."

"Hey!" objected Hermione. "Is that why he loves you so much?Because you've been bribing him with food? Mistress Draco!"

Draco snorted and gave Crookshanks a loud kiss. He had long caught on to how Hermione felt about his relationship with Crookshanks, and had accepted it with little resistance. "No, it's because he loves me more. Deal with it, Mrs. Crookshanks." He then paused, dreadfully confused. "Wait, is Crookshanks his given or last name?"

Hermione put her hands on her hips in mock indignation. "How can you not know that about your lover?You suck as a concubine."

Huh, he had been upgraded to a legitimate position in the family, and gotten married to Crookshanks within two sentences. How did he miss his own wedding? He shook his head again. "I'll miss you!" he said, sending a kiss off to the cat.

"I'd miss him more!" yelled Hermione as the door shut after him.

It occurred to Draco that Luna would have ideas on the purpose of his daily visits to the psychiatric ward, and would question his behavior. He wondered if he could possibly explain that his motive for being there wasn't for Hermione, but for Crookshanks. In the monotony of his everyday business life, the cat was his one true solace, his emotional oasis. It made him look forward to getting out of bed. To meet Crookshanks, Draco got out of bed at seven, for Merlin's sake.

So when Draco was asked why he came every day, he told Luna the truth.

"Huh," said Luna.

Draco looked up, surprised. He hadn't thought Luna would accept his explanation so quickly. He thought Luna would seek out some Freudian excuse to rationalize his behavior. But then again, she was most definitely queerer than he could ever imagine being.

"When I was in Hogwarts, I visited the Threstrals every day too. They make awful conversation partners, but they're quite the specimen to look at."

"Threstrals?"

"Yes, the winged, horse-like animals that pull our carriages into Hogwarts."

Draco bit his lip and refrained from screaming. Luna was crazy, period. Nothing pulled the carts to Hogwarts.

"So, I see you've made a solid effort in changing," said Luna, her quill dictating as she spoke. "You're making good progress."

"I am making progress," admitted Draco. Then he gulped guiltily, recalling how he had reduced his secretary to tears the day before. She had it coming to her, who told her to snigger when she saw me wearing leather pants? "It's hard work."

Luna nodded. "I think you've mastered the first step quite well. You're ready for the next step. Do you know what it is?"

Draco thought for a moment before he shook his head. Wasn't what he was doing enough?

"I realize the way you're thinking might be a bit reversed. Instead of keeping the negative in, how about concentrating on letting the positive out?"

Draco raised both his eyebrows, his brain conjuring strange images of unicorns and him hurling rainbows at people. Wonder if Hermione would say 'yuck' to that, he thought, the corners of his lips creeping upwards. "What do you suggest?"

"How about doing something for the greater good of society?"

Draco sunk back in the sofa; he did not like the sound of that. Acts of greater good always entailed something horribly boring and troublesome. It was something Hermione would do—like freeing house elves. Draco frowned slightly and bit his lip, hesitating. "You mean, something like liberating house-elves?" He put up his hand, rambling. "I find that a highly controversial thing to do. Is it just me, or does it scream 'The White-man's Burden?' I mean, if you actually ask the house elves if they want to be freed, they'd instantly burst into tears and torture themselves because they think you're hinting that they're not good enough to serve their masters. While it might look cruel and backwards in this modern era of free will and democracy, it's elven culture and something I think other species shouldn't meddle with. Universalism or cultural relativism: that is the question."

Over the last few days, Draco had given a great deal of thought to questions on where he stood with certain issues. Making those decisions would help define how he should act and live his life for the remainder of his days. It was hard work, especially since he never really thought about it, and put the matters on a back burner. But in the end, it was worth the effort, as he had a clearer idea of where he stood in the world, and it provided him a guideline to what kind of legacy he would leave behind for the Malfoy family.

Luna opened her mouth, and closed it shut without saying a single word. She leaned over and sniffed him. Draco, startled and alarmed at the woman's closed proximity and clearly insane actions recoiled,sprawling onto the sofa. "What are you doing?" he hissed, trying to put as much distance between him and the woman as possible.

"Sniffing for polyjuice. It is your first session, and honestly, I didn't think you'd show up so willingly. I thought there might be some foul play going on. Or some funny prank you and Hermione thought up where she pretended to be you."

Draco opened his mouth, aghast. "Why the heck would Hermione want to transform into me—"

Luna cut him off and went back to her seat. "It's strange, I was so certain it was Hermione. You even had the same mannerisms as her."

Draco shook his head confused; he had been talking about keeping the house elves as servants and not liberating them. In what universe would Hermione Granger agree to such a thing, even if she was pretending to be him? If anything, she would have taken his body and used it to pronounce to the higher societies that using house elves were no longer fashionable and throw the whole upper-classes in a riot. Now that was something to remember if the occasion ever rose for him to lend his appearance out to Hermione. "I don't understand," he said.

"You bit your lip and hesitated. Then you rambled. A lot," said Luna, looking at him strangely. "If that isn't a 'Hermione-thing to do', then I don't know what is."

"Huh," he said, crossing his arms and biting his lip unconsciously. He caught himself doing it and he made a quizzical expression, confused at himself. "Huh," he said again.

"Back to our topic of conversation," said Luna, referring to her notes to steer the conversation back to the main point again. "As I was saying, helping out the greater good of society doesn't mean you have to go and save a population or something. You can start off simple, like helping one person."

Draco sank back into the back of the sofa. "One person." That did seem simpler than what he had he could do it after all. Problem was, he couldn't think of anyone who could possibly let him help them, not without thinking there was something suspicious or shady going on. After all, Malfoys never helped people without proper motive. Perhaps it was time to change that."Who?"

Luna gave a small smile and Draco caught the glint in her eye. "No way."

Luna cocked her head to the side and watched the man on the couch. "Why not? If anything, you can count it as a way to pay her back. She's the reason why you decided to change, right?"

"I don't like her that way."

"No one said you liked her that way. But if I'm not mistaken, she is the reason for your change."

Draco crazy as Luna was, she had an impeccable eye for finer detail, and it seemed as though she could read Draco's mind sometimes. His eyes widened at this thought, and he watched as Luna sucked a sherbet lemon. Could it be possible that she's a Legilimens? He shook his Legilmency was banned in the courtroom because it was considered too intrusive, then they wouldn't use it in a psychiatric ward, right? Draco wasn't completely assured.

"I'm saying this as a concerned friend," said Luna. She looked over to her quill and commanded. "This is off the record."

The quill stopped scratching and floated softly onto the table onto the parchment. Draco looked up at Luna curiously, wondering what she was going to say next and slightly afraid, if it had to be off the records, then it couldn't possibly be a proper thing. "She seems fine to me," said Draco, shrugging.

"She seems fine. But she needs help."

Draco frowned. Hermione acted like what mainstream society deemed as 'normal' around him, save the few times he had aggravated her to such an extent she couldn't control her temper properly. But he had conversations with her everyday and she acted reasonably, so much so that he doubted the need for her to be in the institution at all— "Oh," said Draco with suddenly realization.

"I'm going to tell you a bit about Hermione," said Luna, taking another lemon sherbet out of the glass bowl. "I'm not supposed to divulge patient information, but she's technically not a patient here… the line's not quite defined, so I'm speaking off record. I know you've discovered that Hermione is showing symptoms of long-term effects from the Cruciatus curse, which makes it hard to control her emotions and the muscles on her face when she's distressed."

Draco nodded had long realized that if they had anti-jumping wards on the rooftops, they must definitely had some form of surveillance there. He felt immensely sorry for Hermione; she had so much potential, and was the Brightest Witch of their Generation. And tragically, her everyday life, her aspirations and dreams, had been dashed by his aunt's sadism. But what Luna said next completely surprised left his jaw slack and hanging, and it felt as though someone had casted a Confundus charm on him.

"You should know one thing," said Luna looking directly at him, in utter seriousness. "She's completely cured from it."

TBC. Review please!