A/N: This will probably be the last chapter that is uploaded quick because I started college yesterday and my only free days are Wednesday and Friday, so I'm most likely not going to be able to update as much as I want to. But as I've said before (I think), I'm going to try and update at least once a week and then a lot more during the weekend, which should hopefully work out well since I don't have any classes on a Friday. So I could probably start writing a chapter on Wednesday, finish it on Friday, then start working on the next.

Since I know what I'm going to write for this fic and how I want things to happen - I always have the motivation to write. It helps a lot because I've planned it all out, both in my head and I've actually written things down.

The only problem is trying to find time to write it. That's my main problem.

I need less ideas and more time because I think of far too many ideas - ESPECIALLY for this fic! ;w;

Also, once again, I'm sorry if some things in this chapter don't make sense or if there are spelling errors - things like that. Because I've started back at college, I'm trying my best to upload these chapters as quick, so my mind is all jumbled up since I'm staying up so late to write them.

Anyway, thank you for the reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The seventh year students - now known as eighth year students - didn't have any classes the next day, so a lot of them slept in late during the morning. Draco wasn't one of them, of course. He hadn't even went to sleep, which he was regretting when he went to the Great Hall that morning for breakfast. Normally, despite the nightmares and such, he would have still tried to get even an hour of sleep.

But he had spent most of the night just talking to Myrtle about had happened during the classes, so he had completely lost track of time and didn't get back to the common room until very, very late. And by the time he got back, he didn't see any point in going to sleep.

As he sat down at the Slytherin table that morning, he wasn't really all that surprised to see that Pansy and Millicent were already there, talking away. However, the second Draco sat down at the table, they immediately went quiet. He raised an eyebrow. "You can keep talking."

"We had finished anyway," Millicent murmured.

Draco didn't believe that at all, but he nodded despite that. "What were you talking about?" He decided to ask after a while.

"Potions."

"Potter."

Millicent and Pansy looked at each other when they realized they had said two completely different things, then looked at Draco, who clearly looked unamused with them. He raised his hands as he stood up "I understand. I'll leave so you can keep talking." He muttered, narrowing his eyes at them both before leaving without even eating anything.

Pansy immediately stood up and followed after him. "Draco, wait-"

"What's the matter, Parkinson? Upset your boyfriend?" Seamus teased as walked into the Great Hall, clearly not long awake. But Pansy just simply scoffed and pushed past him to follow Draco, who was not stopping at all. Somehow, Pansy was able to catch up to him, grabbing him by the sleeve of his shirt to stop him from walking any further. "You didn't have to leave." She immediately said.

Draco turned to face her, shrugging her hand off his sleeve. "Oh, I'm pretty sure I did, Pansy. It was clear you and Millicent didn't want me there because of whatever you had been talking about."

"...we're just worried about you, Draco. You don't seem to be eating much, or...sleeping for that matter. We've been here for a few weeks, almost a month, and every night Crabbe sees you leaving the common room. We just want to know where you've been going."

"Nowhere." Draco said immediately.

His friends didn't need to know that he had been going to Astronomy Tower, or that he had went up to the Owlery a few times to send letters to his mother. Or that he was beginning to talk to Moaning Myrtle again. It wasn't even just his friends who didn't need to know that - no one had to know that. No one could find out about it, because Draco didn't know what would happen if they did.

Things already hadn't been going well for him, he didn't want things to get worse.

However, what he didn't know was that hiding in one of the alcoves was none other than the Ginny Weasley - or as Draco liked to call her "Weaslette". She had just been about to make her way to the Great Hall when she had noticed Draco and Pansy coming her way, so instead of walking past them, she quickly hid in the alcove. And because of that, she heard everything that the two Slytherins had been talking about.

She stayed there until the two of them walked again - well, until Draco walked away with a groan and Pansy followed after him yet again. When she was sure they were gone, she made her way to the Great Hall and sat down with her fellow Gryffindors, deciding not to say anything. Though when Pansy soon walked back into the Great Hall alone, that was when Ginny finally spoke up.

"She's worried about Draco." She muttered, turning to face Seamus, Neville, Nigel - the only ones who were awake just now. The ones who were awake in her group of friends.

"Well we could have told you that." Seamus laughed, but stopped when Ginny gave him a look as if saying that she wasn't amused.

She shook her head. "No, I heard them talking. Apparently he hasn't been eating or sleeping much, and he's been wandering the castle during the night when everyone is sleeping."

"Did you hear where he's been going?"

"He didn't say. He just said 'nowhere'." Ginny shrugged, beginning to eat. "He's as mysterious as ever."

Now knowing that Draco had been wandering off during nights gave Seamus an idea, but he wouldn't share it with anyone. Well, anyone except Ron whenever he showed up. They all assumed that the trio were busy doing something else, or that they were in the library and studying under Hermione's orders.

.

.

.

Harry and Hermione were actually in the courtyard, Ron was still fast asleep. Harry had tried to wake him for breakfast, but he wouldn't wake up, so he just left him to get up in his own time. So, in the mean time, he had went to the courtyard with Hermione while she read some books. The two were sitting in their own little world, Harry lounging on the grass while Hermione sat on a bench.

They had been chatting here and there, but they had been quiet for a while, so Harry eventually decided to break the silence. "...do you think Ron's right?"

"About what?"

"Malfoy getting what he deserves."

Hermione sighed and watched as Harry finally sat up. "Do you think he's right, Harry?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "A large part of me believes that he does deserve it because of what he's done, not just when he became a Death Eater, but because of all the bullying he done too."

"But...?"

"But, there is a small part of me that believes that he doesn't deserve it. That night on the Astronomy Tower when Bellatrix was pressuring him into killing Dumbledore, he was hesitant. He didn't want to do it. And then when he had to recgonize me at Malfoy Manor, he said he couldn't tell. I think he realized he had made the wrong choices-"

"That's exactly what I was going to say." Hermione gave her friend a small smile before looking back to her book. "While it's not nice to watch, I do think he deserves the pranks that are being pulled on him. For all of the bullying he done. But if it goes any further, we should probably tell someone."

"Why do we have to tell someone?

"Because it's Draco Malfoy we're talking about. If he's having problems, he's not going to talk to anyone, is he?"

Harry nodded slowly, then relaxed on the grass again, enjoying the silence. However, when he heard a few whispers, he looked over to where Draco had walked over to and then glanced back to Hermione. "Speak of the Devil," he muttered.

Draco had just walked out to the courtyard and the second he had walked out, students were already whispering and quickly moving away from him. Normally Draco wouldn't have came to the courtyard, but he didn't know if Pansy was still going to follow him or not, and it was the only place he could think of going so she wouldn't find out about anything.

Like where he had been going most nights.

Or rather, every night.

Of course, he hadn't noticed Harry and Hermione as he walked over to sit on a bench, opening a book about potions. However, not long after he opened it, he had to close it again when a few students walked over to him. He lifted his head and looked at them with narrowed eyes.

First year Slytherins. Draco didn't really want to talk to them, but...he was also curious to know what they wanted.

"What?" He asked.

"W-we were wondering if we could...see the faded mark on your arm. Your left arm."

Draco immediately glared at them, standing up slowly and towering over the three students. "I don't think I heard correctly, could you repeat that?"

The student who seemed like the leader of the trio looked to the side, and Draco saw the look on his face, it was as if he was asking if this was really okay. But just as Draco was going to look at who the first year was staring at, the student turned back to him, swallowed thickly, and then asked the question again. "C-can we see your-"

Before the boy could even finish his sentence, Draco was grabbing him by the robes, and what only angered him more was that he had even tried to look at his arm then. His grip only tightened on the boy's robes. And then he remembered he could do much more damage with his wand, so he let go of him and quickly pointed his wand at the student.

But just as he had been about to do something, someone was standing between them. Draco grit his teeth when he saw who it was. "Stop getting in the way, Potter."

"He's just a first year, Malfoy, he doesn't know any better. He's probably fallen victim to one of the older students pranks." Harry watched the older student, then noticed how his grip tightened on his wand. "I'm not moving, so if you want to cause some trouble, go ahead."

"Move," he hissed.

"No."

The two of them stared at each other, Draco glaring sharply at the Gryffindor before then finally roughly shoving him out of the way to look at the three students, who were clearly scared to even look at Draco now. "Who told you to come over here?" He hadn't even finished asking the question when the boy quickly pointed over to the student he had been looking at.

It was another Slytherin, Draco didn't know his name however. He didn't pay much attention to names. He glared at them one more time before then walking over to the fifth year student, who quickly tried to get away, but he didn't get away far enough and soon Draco was pointing his wand at him. He was even too quick for Harry to stop him. "Ossis Effegro!"

The fifth year student immediately fell to the ground with a cry of pain, holding his leg that was now broken and looked to the older Slytherin as he walked over to him, the students gathering around them and watching as Draco towered over the fifth year student. He didn't even have to say anything for the younger boy to quickly look away from him, the fear clear in his eyes. The rest of the students watched as Draco then left, but he wasn't able to get far because soon he heard someone saying his name.

He tensed just slightly before slowly turning to face Headmistress McGonagall, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. "20 points from Slythern-"

"20 points?"

"10 points each. For the prank Mr. Miller pulled and what you just done - using a spell on another student. You're an eighth year student, Mr. Malfoy. Please act like one."

Draco stared at her, then down when he heard some of the students snickering. When he heard McGonagall ask Granger and Potter to take the injured boy to Madam Pomfrey, he turned to leave, but he was stopped again. "Don't think you can get away so fast, I'd like to see you in my office."

That was the last place Draco had wanted to go, not because he was scared of what was going to happen. But because it had belonged to Dumbledore - the man he had tried to kill. Yes, he could go to the Astronomy Tower where he was supposed to kill the Headmaster, but that was only because most of the time when he went there it was to blame himself for everything that had happened.

It was to...hate himself.

Dumbledore's office was a different place to go, but reluctantly, Draco went there.

He was hesitant as he walked inside, looking around. Not much had changed in the office, really. Draco still found it really uneasy to be standing in the middle of it, though. He turned slightly when he heard McGonagall walk in, watching as she made her way over to the desk and sat down, motioning for Draco to do the same. But he didn't, he just simply stared at the seat before then looking at the Headmistress.

"I have been meaning to talk to you-"

"Why did you send me a letter?"

The question had slipped out of Draco's mouth before he could even stop himself, and there was a very long awkward silence between the two of them before McGonagall finally sighed. "What made you think I wouldn't send you one?" She asked, despite already knowing the answer. When Draco didn't answer, she just spoke up again but changed the subject. "You know the rules, you can't use magic on other students. Especially one such as the bone-breaking curse-"

"He deserved it."

"Please tell me why he deserved it."

Draco knew that if he told her why it would mean he would have to talk about his arm, and that wasn't something he wanted to talk about. So, instead, he just didn't say anything, and when McGonagall finally realized that, she was the one to speak again. "If you're not going to talk, you can go-"

"Thank you," was Draco's immediate response as he left.

The Slytherin had just been planning on going back to the common room or even going to the library, but then he realized that the other Slytherin student whose leg he had broken wouldn't have been able to know about his arm unless someone had told him. He made his way to the hospital wing, waiting until it was relatively empty before walking inside and going over to the bed where he saw the student - Byron Miller was his name. The second he saw Draco, he tensed up and looked as if he was about to try and get away.

"Who told you about my arm?"

"What?"

Draco narrowed his eyes, leaning closer. "Who told you about my arm? Someone must have told you, I want to know who it was."

"I have no idea what y-you're talking about-"

"Don't make me break more of your bones," Draco hissed, getting his wand ready, and when he got the answer, he should have been satisfied. But he wasn't. He slowly lowered his arm to his side and then left the hospital wing, bumping into Madam Pomfrey on the way out. He went back to the common room, sitting down in a chair that was placed in the corner.

Apparently Byron had overheard Draco's friends talking about it to other students.

He wanted to know why his two friends had been talking about the mark, or even Draco for that matter, but he didn't want them to know that he knew - so he couldn't exactly go up and ask them. He'd just have to keep it to himself, or...even talk to Myrtle about it later tonight. It was weird, he felt as if he could trust her more than he could trust anyone else.

And that included his own friends.

But it made him wonder - was it his fault?

During dinner, Draco didn't talk to anyone.

It wasn't really that unusual, but soon Pansy started to get worried when Draco just ignored her. Both her and Blaise. The two weren't even aware they had done something wrong. So, after dinner and when the girls were in their dormitory and the boys were in theirs, Blaise decided to ask Draco what was wrong. The answer he got had annoyed him.

"Nothing, Blaise. Now let me go to sleep."

Blaise had stared at him for a while before sighing and then climbing into bed, Draco doing the same. However, Draco didn't go to sleep. He made sure that everyone else was asleep before getting out of bed and then going where he usually went late at night - to talk to Myrtle. What he didn't know was that Pansy had been waiting for him - she had wanted to find out where he had been going so late at night.

So, when she saw Draco leaving the Slytherin common room, she quickly - but quietly - followed him...to the bathrooms.

She knew she couldn't go into the male bathroom and she had just been about to leave when she heard the faint sound of Draco talking. Her curiousity got the better of her and she quietly walked into the bathroom and hid herself.

"You're beginning to come here a lot more." Myrtle pointed out as she watched Draco, who just shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I need someone to talk to about these things."

"And what about your friends?" She asked, then raised an eyebrow when she saw the face the student made at the mention of his friends. She didn't press on it, though, knowing Draco would talk about it when he was ready. Soon their silence was broken by Draco asking a question, "Did your friends ever talk about you behind your back? I mean, when you were-"

"Alive?"

Draco nodded.

"I didn't really have friends, but people did talk about me behind my back. And to my face." She moved away from Draco, but kept her eyes on him. "I was the victim of bullying, but I'm sure you already knew that."

"I'm sure everyone knew that," Draco muttered.

Myrtle narrowed her eyes just slightly before moving around the bathroom. "You'd know all about bullying, wouldn't you, Draco? You done it the entire time you were here. Do you know how many times first years came into this bathroom and cried and cried, cursing your name with everything they could think of?"

"..."

"I lost count after a while."

Well that didn't make Draco feel better at all. He had came here to talk to Myrtle, to get things off his chest...not for her to remind him of all the times he had been an ass. As if she knew what she had said wrong, Myrtle apologized before stopping in front of Draco, just simply watching his facial expressions. "Still sending letters to your mother?" She asked after a while, deciding to change the subject.

"Yes. I think she would get worried if I stopped sending them. More worried than she is right now, that is." He muttered. "She's happy that I came back here, you know. She insisted that it would be good for me. I've lost track of how many times I've wanted to leave already."

"If you want to leave, why don't you?"

Draco didn't answer that right away.

Normally, the first thing that would come to mind was his mother - that he was staying to stop her from worrying. But now he didn't know why he was staying, especially when he was being asked about the mark that had faded not long after Voldemort was gone. Not when other students were giving him Sleeping Draughts and making him trip up. Though, thankfully, things hadn't gotten any worse than that, and he hoped it stayed that way.

"I'm staying here for my mother," was what Draco had eventually said. "If I'm here, she's not worrying about me as much - she already worries enough about my father, she doesn't need to worry about me too."

Myrtle nodded, watching Draco once again, admiring him. She let out a sigh, which had caught Draco's attention and he rasied an eyebrow as he looked at her. "You should take care of yourself more, Draco." She said as she got closer to him, which made the Slytherin student slightly uncomfortable. "You don't look good at all, perhaps you should go to bed. I wouldn't want you to get ill."

Ah.

Draco had forgetten that Myrtle had a crush on him.

He had figured it out a while back with the way she would flirt with him and look at him, and sometimes even the way she would talk to him. Draco never mentioned anything about it though, he was just glad he had someone he could to about this sort of stuff because he definitely couldn't talk to any of the professors or his so-called friends. And he definitely wasn't going to talk to his mother about it.

"Alright fine, I'll go to bed. Thank you for-"

"Don't thank me, I always enjoy hearing you talk and being able to comfort you." She said with a smile, watching as Draco left the bathroom.

Moments before Draco had left, Pansy had quickly left so she wouldn't get caught. However, as she was making her way back to the common room, she had bumped into Harry, who had also decided to do some late night wandering. As she walked past him, she noticed that he was holding that stupid map of his - the one that tracked where Witches and Wizards were.

She didn't even think about why he had the map as she went back to bed as quickly as she could.

Draco, however, had thought about why he had the map - having bumped into him perhaps five minutes after Pansy had. He had glared at the bespectacled Gryffindor before then glaring at the map, not letting his slight panic show as he made his way back to the common room, muttering something about "the stupid Boy Wonder".

He climbed into bed after that, glad to see that the other male students were still sleeping. Of course, he had no idea that Pansy had been following him, or why Potter had even been out of bed. All he was thinking about was his mother now and what Myrtle had said to him. And then he was thankful that he actually had someone to talk to about this sort of stuff, knowing that it wouldn't be going any further.

At least that's what he thought.

What Draco didn't know was that confessing and opening up to Myrtle about everything would be yet another huge mistake he had made.

Footnotes.

1) Byron Miller is an actual Slytherin student at Hogwarts, but he was only shown in the Prisoner of Azkaban (the video game) and he could be seen walking outside in the courtyard.

2) I made it so that there are still certain things that get to Draco - certain things that make him angry, like people asking about him arm and that sort of stuff. I might have read that somewhere actually, or I might have just been imagining it, I don't exactly know I have a really bad memory.

3) Ossis Effergo is the bone-breaking curse, and I got it from the Harry Potter Fanon Wikia. It seems to be very popular, which is why I decided to use it.

I think...that's it for the footnotes just now, I'm not too sure.

Harry, Ron, Hermione - all of the Gryffindors will be brought into this fic more in the next chapter because I have something planned for the next chapter. I realized I didn't write much about any of those students, but I am going to in the next chapter, I definitely am because I need to bring them into it more. =w=;;

But um, yes! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'm sorry if it's bad at some parts or if there are spelling mistakes and whatnot - it WAS written at 2 AM, and I was very, very tired after a long day of college. When I get back from college, I'll make sure to go over this chapter and see if there is any errors and such - if there is, I'll make sure to fix them then!