A/N: Ahh, I didn't think I would actually be able to update so soon since I'm back at college on Monday and I have to sort things out for that. But because I'm back at college on Monday, I wanted to at least get three chapters done for this fic this weekend, because I do have the inspiration for this and I do have it all planned it out in my head, so I know what I want to write.

It's just finding the time to write it that's the problem.

I might even be able to do a chapter a day, hopefully, because I have no other fics to do yet. Well, actually, I do. But I'm not going to start them until I've at least almost gotten this one finished! I don't know how many chapters there is going to be for this fic, but I do tend to write a lot and plan things out (then add more things on to that plan), so it could be pretty long.

I'm trying my best to get better at writing this characters, I feel like I'm doing okay. I mean, I'm not doing great, but I'm also not doing really, really bad. Having confidence in yourself (even a little bit) when you're writing is a good thing, and it's rare for me to have even a little bit of confidence in my writing.

But I'm always going to tell myself that practice makes perfect, because it's true. I won't get better at writing unless I practice a lot and work harder - which I do a lot!

I am sorry if this chapter isn't good, though. But because I'm going back to college on Monday, I'm staying up until 6 am most nights to actually get these chapters done before I go back. So if there is any errors or spelling mistakes - things like that - it's mostly because when I'm writing this, I'm usually on the verge of falling of asleep.

Anyway, enough of my rambling!

I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading!

It had been a few weeks since the start of term, and Draco no longer found it as bad as it had been when he first arrived back at the school.

Sure, there were still the students who would talk about him, the ones that would laugh at him and mutter things under their breath. There were also students who apparently had the urge to always stare at him, causing Draco to simply glare in return, even though he knew in the back of his mind that it wouldn't have any effect.

Some students had even came up to him one time and asked him for help - something to do with potions. Draco refused.

But they were stubborn. Incredibly stubborn, so a few days later, they asked again and Draco refused once more.

They didn't give up, they asked a few more times before Draco finally snapped at them and then stormed out of the Great Hall. He wasn't there to help people, he was there for himself. And also...because his mother wanted him to go.

Though, after that, the students were afraid to approach him. Which made him feel...slightly happy about that. There had already been a few students who were afraid of him, however he wasn't sure if that was because he was known for being a bully or if it was because he had once been a Death Eater. He hoped it was because he was known for being a bully and not the...other.

Draco had just simply made a bad choice that he thought was best for himself. Everyone made bad choices.

Maybe not as bad as Draco's, but they were still pretty bad.

Sometimes he would catch students looking at his left arm as if to see if the Dark Mark was still there, which actually made Draco very self-conscious and as he was walking by anyone, his right hand would instinctively go to his arm and rub the sleeve, letting out a soft sigh. The mark was no longer there, it faded after a while because Voldemort was gone.

But now that it was faded, it looked more like a...burn scar.

There would be times when he was studying in the Great Hall or if he was eating, he would forget about it and roll up his sleeves, but when he realized that some of the students at their table - including his friends - would be staring at it, he quickly rolled his sleeves back down and acted as if it wasn't even there. The first time he had done it was yet another time that had made him want to leave.

He had let his mother know of all the times he had wanted to leave, sending her letters every couple of days - she had asked him to before he had left, to which Draco reluctantly agreed to do.

Whenever he told her of the times he wanted to leave, his mother would send him a letter in return that would always make him forget about wanting to leave. It didn't matter what she said in the letter, by the end of it, Draco wanted to finish his year at Hogwarts. And, while he told his mother about wanting to leave, he didn't tell her about the stares, the whispering, the rumors - any of it.

She didn't need to know, and Draco certainly didn't want to worry her.

The blond spent a lot of his time in the eighth year common room. And if he couldn't be found there, he could either be found in the Owlery or the Astronomy Tower. Right now, he was in the Astronomy Tower. He didn't know why he would ever go up to the tower after what happened in his sixth year, but sometimes his feet would just take him there. If it didn't have so many bad memories for Draco, perhaps he would have enjoyed the relaxing silence in the tower, but he couldn't.

All that came back to him was that night and what had happened, how scared he had been, what Dumbledore had said to him. How he had been pressured, but yet, he still couldn't bring himself to kill the headmaster - especially not when he offered protection for himself and his mother. But then Snape was quickly walking up the steps and pushing past the Death Eaters, Draco included. And Draco watched as the headmaster was killed right in front of him, and he couldn't hold back his tears, even as he was grabbed and forced to follow the others as they all left.

Draco wouldn't lie, that had been one of the worst choices in his life.

It definitely topped the rest.

Ever since it had happened, he couldn't stop having nightmares about it, and being in the place where it happened didn't exactly help. He stood where Dumbledore had once stood, running his hand over the mark that had once been on his left arm, and too into his own thoughts that he didn't hear someone else walking up the steps. But he certainly heard them when they spoke.

"Oh." It was Potter, of course it was. And Draco could hear both the surprise and hatred in his voice. In just that little 'oh'. Well, it might not have been hatred, but that's what Draco took it as.

Draco swiftly turned around after rolling down his sleeves as he watched Weasley and Granger come up the steps after their friend. He didn't even bother saying anything as he glared at the Trio and roughly shoved past them, quickly making his way downstairs.

"...what do you suppose that was all about?" Hermione asked as she looked back to the other two.

"Beats me, but at least he's gone. Now all we need to do is get him out of the school-"

"Ron, don't be so mean."

"Oh, come on, Hermione." Ron looked at his girlfriend, face scrunching up slightly. "Do you really think he deserves to be here after what he done?"

Hermione didn't answer that, instead looking to Harry, who was now standing where Draco had been standing. He shrugged a little. "I don't know. When he was asked to identify me at the manor, he said he wasn't too sure."

"That doesn't make up for everything else he done, though." Ron muttered as he walked over and leaned against the railing. "But...if he stays, he'll get what's coming to him. What he deserves."

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look before looking out of the tower with Ron.

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Later that night at dinner, Draco was late to dinner, but he was soon being urged into the Great Hall by Pansy, who had a tight hold of his robes. He looked pretty disheveled and because of that, some of the students - mostly boys and also mostly Gryffindors - stared saying that he had been spending time alone with Parkinson. It was clear what they meant by that.

What was being said was ignored by Draco however as he sat down across from his friends with a grumble. "I told you to leave me alone, Pansy."

"And I told you that you have to eat some food." She huffed, sliding a plate of food over to him, which Draco reluctantly took.

He was not long awake, hence the reason why he looked so disheveled, and he wasn't really hungry right now. But despite that, he still ate some of the food that was on his plate before finally standing up again, immediately getting the attention of his friends, and some of the other students.

"Where are you going-"

"I'm tired, Pansy. Just let me go to sleep," he muttered as he stepped over the bench and then left the Great Hall, his friends watching him. However, not long after he left the Great Hall, he heard someone asking Pansy if she was "going to follow her boyfriend". And he recognized the voice, it was one of the Gryffindor's - the one that liked to blow things up. Draco couldn't remember his name, but he knew what he liked to do. He had been blowing things up since their first year.

Truth be told, Draco wasn't actually getting much sleep at all. When Pansy had went to the common room to look for him, he had been slumped over in one of the chairs, book on the floor. That was the first time he had went to sleep without...having any nightmares about the things that had happened, the things that he had done. No one had to know about that, though.

Even his own mother and father didn't know about his nightmares.

And whenever people thought he was sleeping, he would just be pretending. Though, there was the rare occasion that he would fall asleep for a while, only to be woken up maybe ten minutes later because of the nightmares. So, sometimes he would read a book or wander around the castle, but would make sure to return before everyone else woke up.

Sometimes it was when he sitting awake at night that would make him want to go back home. However, he knew that if he went back home, his nightmares would only get worse. Many things had happened at Hogwarts to cause anyone to have nightmares, but many things had also happened at Malfoy Manor to cause Draco to have even more nightmares.

He knew that he would just have to keep doing other things to take his mind off of it. He would have to try and be like his normal self, the Draco Malfoy that people were scared of bcause of bullying - not because he had once been a Death Eater. The Draco Malfoy who hated muggle borns and well...pretty much anyone else who wasn't in Slytherin house. That was who he wanted to be again.

To Draco, that was being normal. That was normal for him, and being normal was what he wanted.

Two days later during a potions class, Draco had realized that things wouldn't be normal for him.

Potions was their first class in the morning, not that he minded, he done well with potions. And he had actually gotten some sleep the night before, so he was feeling...a little refreshed. He was paired up with Crabbe, who was also quite good at potions - most people assumed he wasn't. He wasn't as good as Draco, but he was still...good.

Things were going fine most of the class, Draco was doing fine, no one was paying him much attention. Things were fine. At least they were up until they were sitting down and listening to professor Slughorn talk about something - Draco wasn't focusing after a while because all he was trying to do was keep his eyes open and stop himself from falling asleep.

He didn't understand, he had never been this tired before. And he was far too tired to think that one of the other students in the class could have done something - which they had.

During breakfast, two Ravenclaw students had gotten a first year Slytherin student to give Draco some breakfast that was laced with a Sleeping Draught - not that the first year student knew that. Draco hadn't known about it because the plate was already there when he sat down, so he had assumed Pansy had put the food on a plate for him, thanking her.

Pansy didn't say anything about it because she was just glad that Draco seemed a little better that morning, and she didn't know about the Sleeping Draught either.

Those two Raveclaw students were in the same class as Draco that morning, yet he hadn't been paying attention to what their names were, and when they were sure the potion would start working, they would occasionally glance over to him. Soon, they noticed how he was trying so hard to keep his eyes open, his chin resting on the palm of his hand. No one else had noticed the way Draco was acting, not even Crabbe who was sitting right next to him.

However, when Draco could no longer keep his eyes open and passed out on the floor with a thud, everyone had their attention on him. And of course everyone immediately started laughing - everyone except Draco's friends and...Hermione, who simply said that it wasn't a funny thing to see.

Draco woke up not long after it had happened, and when he saw professor Slughorn standing over him, he immediately scrambled to his feet, brushing off his robes and acting as if nothing had happened as he sat back down. However, he definitely showed his displeasure at losing 5 house points for "falling asleep during a lesson". Of course, that had angered Draco even though it was only 5 house points, but he didn't do anything about it.

He would just simply...find whoever had done it and make them pay.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it.

Their next class was Divination and things were fine up until the class was over and they were leaving. Draco was shoving his books into his bag when he heard a few students muttering his name, and he looked over to them with a glare, immediately shutting them up. However, as those students left, one of them took out their wand, pointed at Draco, and whispered 'Colloshoo'.

And they made sure to stay for a few minutes to watch as the Slytherin student tried to move forward, only to fall flat on his face. The students who had still been packing up immediately erupted into laughter, which again only angered Draco. Pansy knew this had angered her friend and when he finally got back to his feet again, she held him back from doing anything stupid.

He looked down at his friend and then roughly shoved past her and the other students, then left the classroom, glaring at anyone who even looked at him.

Draco didn't have a class after that. Unfortunately, neither did the students he had shared classes with.

So, an hour or two later when Draco heard the two Ravenclaw students calling for him in the courtyard, he just simply ignored them. But their shouting had also gotten the attention of the other students who were trying to relax or study there.

"Did you enjoy your trip, Malfoy?" One asked.

"And your nap?" The other said with a grin, and it was clear they wanted to rile the blond up because when they didn't get a reaction out of him, they only continued to shout things at him. "No one wants you here, you know! You've done nothing but cause trouble for everyone."

"Do you suppose it was his stupid mother that wanted him to come back?"

The second his mother was mentioned, Draco had saw red. He dropped his bag and made his way over to the two, grabbing one of them by their robes. "Don't you dare talk about my mother." He hissed.

The student just simply grinned, but it showed in his eyes how uneasy he was feeling now that Draco was so close to him. "What are you going to do about it, Malfoy? You can't do anything, you're weak. Just like your mother and father."

Draco quickly let go of the robes in order to take out his wand, and he had just been about to cast a spell when none other than Boy Wonder quickly walked over and stood between them. When he opened his mouth to talk to Draco, the Slytherin student just simply scoffed and grabbed his bag again before leaving.

Harry watched him leave, then turned to look at the other two students. "Are you trying to get expelled, Michael?"

"No, we're trying to get him expelled."

"The way you were doing it, all three of you would have gotten expelled."

"Whatever," Michael muttered as he straightend his robes and then left the courtyard, his friend following him.

Harry watched them, then looked around, noticing that some of the other students were looking at him - including Ron and Hermione. He then walked over to the two and sighed before giving them both a small smile, then started walking, the trio soon ending up at the Astronomy Tower yet again. They stood in silence for a while before it was finally Harry who broke it. "Do you really think he came back here willingly? Malfoy, I mean?"

Hermione slowly turned to look at him, eyebrows knitting together. "That's an odd question to ask." She muttered and went quiet for a while before shrugging. "Perhaps he did, maybe he really does want to make up for what he's done."

"Well," Ron started. "If he wants to make up for it, he's doing it the wrong way. In my opinion, he should just leave. I bet even the professors think so! All he's going to do is cause even more trouble."

"Right now it's those two Ravenclaw students who are causing trouble." Hermione muttered, and just as Ron was about to say something else, she noticed the time. She quickly stood up and brushed off her robes. "Come on, we better get going." She said as she grabbed her things, then quickly walked down the steps, Ron following after he while saying something about a new prank while Harry followed behind quietly.

He was curious about Malfoy, then again, he was sure everyone was. Actually, he knew everyone wanted to know why he came back after what he had done. And he was sure it was only a matter of time before someone else tried to get the answer out of him again. Harry had other things to worry about anyway, he didn't have to worry about Malfoy right now.

Or any other time, for that matter.

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Draco didn't show up to dinner that night, and both Michael and Anthony seemed proud of themselves, thinking it was because of what they had done.

In reality, it wasn't anything they had done. When asked by Pansy and Millicent to come with them for dinner, Draco simply refused and said he was going to go to sleep because he wasn't hungry. Millicent left, but Pansy had stayed to try and get Draco to come with her. "You need to eat, you know. Is it because of what happened today?"

"No! I'm just tired, I want to sleep."

"Can't you at least get some food-"

"Pansy. Let me add to that promise you made me when you arrived at my home." He muttered. "I want you to promise that you're going to stop trying to get me to do things."

Pansy let out an annoyed sigh and just stared at her friend, who simply stared back at her, before finally she agreed. "Fine, I promise."

"Good. Now you can go." Draco watched as she reluctantly left, going to the Great Hall with Millicent who had been waiting on her. Pansy was a good friend, she really was. She just tended to get overprotective of Draco, which wasn't something he needed. It happened while they had dated for a short while, but even after that, it hadn't gone away. The blond didn't mind it sometimes, but most days it was annoying. He was just glad that he had finally gotten her to leave.

He actually was planning on going to sleep, and he did manage to get to sleep. However, when the other students arrived after dinner, Draco was woken up then. And he couldn't get back to sleep no matter how hard he tried, so he just lay in bed for a few hours before he eventually had to get up to go to the bathroom.

And of course, as one usually thinks, Draco thought he was alone in the bathroom.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

In the bathroom with him was Moaning Myrtle, and she had just been about to go to a different bathroom when she had noticed Draco. She immediately went over to him. "Well, isn't a surprise to see you here?"

"What-!" Draco quickly finished his...'business' before fixing his pants and going over to the sink to wash his hands, ignoring Myrtle's giggling. "Did you have to do that?"

"Well, you surprised me, so I thought I would surprise you in return." She hummed, watching as Draco washed his hands. "So. Why are you back here anyway?"

"I wanted to come back," was all Draco had muttered, causing Myrtle to roll her eyes.

The two had formed a...weird sort of friendship when Draco was in his sixth year - when he had became a Death Eater. It had been taking its toll on him, and Myrtle had caught him one time in the bathroom and offered to listen. And she did, and she comforted him as much as she could. Draco was thankful for that. When she spoke again and asked if Draco would like to talk, he immediately said no.

But he then took that back and instead said that yes, he did want to talk. He didn't talk about the war or his parents, instead he just simply spoke about what had happened today, and Myrtle didn't interject unless Draco wanted her to. She was quiet for once as she listened to Draco and tried her absolute best to make him feel better about himself.

No one had ever found out about the two of them talking to each other, and he had planned to keep it that way.

Footnotes.

1) Anthony and Michael are both Ravenclaw students (at least that's what it says on the Wiki). Their full names are Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner.

2) On the Myrtle Warren page of the Wiki, it does say that Draco and Myrtle had formed a sort of friendship while Draco was in his sixth year. Draco had started talking to her because she listened to him and did her best to comfort him. As the result of this, Myrtle eventually got a crush on Draco. I thought I'd add that in because I do have something planned for it later on in this fic.

I think that's all the footnotes I have for this chapter, but thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!