The days of March disappeared one after another. For Draco Malfoy, March was a month of normalcy. His days were more or less the same, with some variation in between. Breakfast was always at 8:30. He rarely ate during breakfast, except on really good days. Astoria would join him for breakfast, her long hair usually pulled back and her eyes sleepy. After breakfast was when they read Les Miserables. If the common room was too crowded or noisy, they would go back to Draco's room to read. Some days Logan would be there.

"Come listen Logan," Astoria always said to him with a kind smile. He usually shook his head and kept to his side of the room, but Draco knew the boy listened when the story picked up.

They would usually read until lunchtime. Logan would walk with them to lunch. Astoria always made a point to ask him to sit with her and Draco. Draco usually never said much during lunchtime conversations and was content enough to listen to Astoria and Logan. Astoria adored the boy, and Logan had begun to feel more comfortable around them both.

After lunch was when they went their separate ways. Draco's sessions with Healer Wood were on Tuesdays. Astoria had sessions on Thursdays, and Logan had sessions on Sundays. When Draco wasn't in with a Healer, he would linger near the art table and watch Astoria draw. Other times, he would look at the books on the bookshelves. A lot of titles were foreign to him, and he soon figured out that almost all the books were written by Muggles. He found a few more interesting than others, and he made mental notes for which ones he wanted to read after he and Astoria were done with Les Miserables.

The afternoons stretched out, and sometimes he would go back to his room and try to sleep. He was less prone to dreams during the day than he was at night. Most days he would lie in his bed with his eyes open, his mind drowning in his thoughts. Once or twice, he had gone back to the common room and played a game of Exploding Snap with a wizard named Henry. Dinner was an easy meal for him to attend. He would eat, smile, talk, and later go to bed feeling hopeful. Those were his good days.

With every good day, there seemed to be a bad one not too far behind. Those were the days when he wouldn't get out of bed. Those were days he didn't eat or only picked at food. Those were days when he yelled at Healer Wood, or he would become nonresponsive. On bad days, he would hide in the hall closets with his legs pulled up to his chest. Logan was always scared of him on the bad days, and he was always angry with himself. The bad days were the days when he would rake his fingernails across his left arm and clench his teeth in pain and anger. Astoria always knew what to do when he had bad days. She sat by his bed when he refused to get out. She knew which closets he'd hidden himself away in and how to coax him out of them. She held his hand tightly on those days, and didn't say much to him. The bad days always seemed to drag on.

It was in early April that Draco Malfoy had a good and bad day, all within a twenty-four hour span.

When his nightmares woke him early in the morning, Draco could hear the rain pouring on the roof. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He had never been overly fond of rain. Logan was sleeping soundly in his bed. Quietly, Draco crossed their room and changed clothes for the day. He slipped out the door, the thoughts in his head cycling. For the past week, his nightmares had revolved around his seventh year at Hogwarts. He always woke up from those dreams petrified and shaking, his body covered in a cold sweat.

A large clock in the hallway informed him that it was about six o'clock in the morning. The hallway was quiet and abandoned, and he was able to relax his breathing as he found a closet off the corner of the adjacent hallway. He slipped in and curled up into the back. Here, everyone could be safe from him.

It was hours later when Astoria found him. A sliver of light shown on his legs as the door creaked open, and then she was seated next to him. In the dark, she reached for his hand and laced her fingers between his.

"Draco?"

He didn't respond. She squeezed his hand gently and leaned her head against the wall. They sat together in silence for a while, Astoria rubbing her thumb across his knuckles.

"Draco?" she asked again, after time had passed.

He squeezed her hand softly.

"Are you ready?"

He nodded even though she couldn't see him. Astoria led him out the small door and into the bright lights of the ward. He wanted to let go of her and bury himself back in the closet, but she was steady and kept moving forward. Draco allowed her to lead him into the dining hall. She spoke his name for him and a plate of roasted potatoes appeared. Her own named produced a small salad with crackers. Draco watched her as she took one bite of lettuce and tomato and promptly pushed her plate away. Astoria had her bad days, just like he did.

"Hey," he said softly. She looked at him, and he could see more closely how red her eyes were and how pale her skin was.

"Thank you."

She nodded. "You're welcome."

"We could've stayed in there."

"No," she answered shaking her head. "I... I can't. I can't stay in there."

He pushed his plate of potatoes away and reached for her hand.

"You need to eat," she said.

"I can't today."

"Draco. Just one bite. Just eat one bite and I won't say anything."

Her eyes held his gaze, and he relinquished. He lifted a forkful of the potatoes to his mouth and chewed it slowly.

"Thank you," she said gratefully as he swallowed.

She slouched in the bench.

"Something's wrong," he said.

"I'm fine Draco," Astoria answered. "I'm just tired."

He felt his throat constrict. "That's what I say. You've heard me say that every single day."

Her chest tightened, and her face paled. "I don't want to talk about it," she murmured. "Please, don't make me talk about it. I've already seen three healers today, and I'm so sick and tired of explaining and listening, and all anybody ever says is that I need to rest more and relax more. But I just can't, and I'm tired and angry and I just want it to stop raining. The damn rain is depressing me, and I'm trying not to be depressed because you're having a really bad day, and Logan told me you barely slept last night, and you were in that closet for hours, and I was so afraid you weren't going to come out. I'm so afraid that one day I'll find you in one of those closets and you'll be dead or comatose or so far gone that you can't come back."

"Hey," he said firmly, his hand encasing hers. "Hey. Don't... Don't worry about that."

"Are you saying it will never happen? Can you honestly say that won't happen?" she demanded.

"No," he answered quietly. "No I can't promise that. But I don't want you to make yourself sick because of me."

"Draco, I don't choose to worry about you. I just feel it. Whenever I see you hide yourself away or refuse to get out of bed, that fear and worry, it just happens."

Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes, and the guilt in his chest doubled. "Don't... Please don't."

His words failed him, and he couldn't think of anything to say to her. He felt so tired, and he knew she was tired. "Come on," he said.

She followed him from the dining hall back to his room. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was empty. His bed sheets were twisted and wrinkled, and he pushed them off the bed to the floor. Draco gestured towards the bed, and Astoria practically fell onto the sheets. Her body curled into the bed, and she closed her eyes as her head found his pillow. Her hand was still entwined with his. He moved to release her from him, but Astoria's fingers clung to him.

"Stay."

His throat felt dry, but he complied to her. Draco crawled to the other side of his bed and laid on his back, Astoria's hand on his chest.

"Draco?" she whispered, her eyes still closed.

"Yeah?"

"Can you read to me for a while?"

Les Miserables was on his bedside table. He reached for it and flipped the book open.

"D'you remember where we were?"

"Valjean is conflicted whether or not to save Champmathieu," Astoria whispered to him.

Draco found the page and began to read.

He read for hours that day. His voice was hoarse when he finally put the book down. Astoria had shifted her head to rest against his shoulder, and her steady breathing was the only sound in the room. The rain had ceased to a dull drizzle, and the moonlight poured in through the window. He smiled to himself, and the dread and horror he had felt in the morning had subsided for the time being.

He shifted onto his side, and Astoria stirred.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"It's only nine. Go back to sleep," Draco answered as he stretched one arm.

Astoria sat up and blinked the sleep from her eyes. "Where's Logan?"

Draco gestured toward Logan's bed; his small form was curled up and snoring slightly. "He's asleep."

"Already?"

"He has bad days too."

Astoria stood and leaned close to Draco's ear. "I'll be right back."

She slipped out of the room, and Draco remained on his bed, his legs hanging off the side. Astoria came back a few minutes later, dressed in baggy black shorts and a bright yellow t-shirt. She sat down on Draco's mattress and crossed her legs.

"Do you mind if I stay?"

He shook his head and tilted his head as he spotted the emblem of a badger on the leg of her shorts. "What house were you in?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "Would you believe I was a Hufflepuff?

"You're joking," he demanded. "You're joking right now."

"I'm not. Loyal to the core."

"I don't believe it."

"It was a bit of a shock to my family, but they came around. They could see it in me."

"You know, I don't even know how old you are," he remarked. "You've never told me."

"I'd say not. I'll be eighteen in the fall."

"You'd be a seventh year this year?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I guess I would be."

They sat in silence before he spoke again. "You know what's pathetic? I don't even know your last name."

Astoria snorted, which immediately turned into full-blown laughter. She had to thrust her fist into her mouth to stifle her laugh. "You-You're-You're serious?" she gasped.

He shrugged his shoulders, trying to hide his smile. "You never told me."

She fell back onto his pillow. "It's Greengrass."

His mouth dropped. "Are you kidding?"

"Not a chance," she said, her voice tinted with laughter.

"You're a Greengrass?"

"You can test my blood Draco. It's as green as it comes."

He stared at her incredulously. "So Daphne is..."

"My sister," she finished. "Yes. She's a bit dense, but I love her to death."

"And your parents..."

"Hyperion and Eileen Greengrass."

"You-you're."

She smiled. "I know. A lovely Greengrass. Born and bred in Ireland, relocated to England, and currently residing in a mental ward."

"Ireland?" he asked.

"Mum's Irish. Dad met her on a family vacation. Bit of a scandal actually, a well-bred Greengrass marrying a poor Irish girl, even if she was pureblood. But he liked her, and surprisingly, she liked him, though Grandmother always took the piss out of her. We lived in Ireland until I was eight, and then we moved to England."

"Why didn't you stay in Ireland?"

She shrugged. "Dad said it was because he wanted to be closer to Hogwarts. Daphne was in school by then. I never really understood."

"Do you miss it there?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, her smile reaching her eyes, "Yeah I do. It was so beautiful, where we lived. We lived near the coast in west Ireland, by this town called Tralee. Daph and I would run off and play outside for hours. We lived away from the Muggles, and the house was enchanted so that they could never spot us. When I was big enough, we raced along the cliffs on our brooms and out over the ocean. The water was more blue than anything I'd ever seen, and the land was so green. Everything was that perfect emerald green."

He couldn't imagine anything more green than her eyes, but he nodded. She rolled onto her side and propped her head on her arm.

"So what about you Draco?"

"What about me?"

"I just basically told you my life story. It's your turn."

He snorted. "Life story? You didn't tell me that much."

"Then just tell me things like I told you. Start with your House."

"I think you know what House I was in..."

"I still want you to tell me," she replied.

He knit his hands together and sighed. "I was in Slytherin, just like my mother and father. The Hat barely had to touch my head. It knew where I belonged."

"And did you like it?" Astoria asked him.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, mostly. I think the worst part was the pressure. My father... He wanted me to be the best. I tried, but it was never good enough for him. Always disappointed that I wasn't top of the class, furious that a Mudblood was doing better than I was, and always expecting me to do the same things he had done."

"That's a lot of expectation."

"Holidays were the worst. I always brought Crabbe and Goyle or Pansy home with me, just so I wouldn't have to be alone with him."

"Ah the lovely Miss Parkinson," Astoria remarked. "How's she doing?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. I haven't seen her in over a year. Wasn't she mates with Daphne though? Wouldn't she know?"

"I wouldn't necessary use the term 'mates.' Pansy liked Daphne, and Daphne thought Pansy was alright until third year. They were the type of friends who pretended to like each other but didn't really."

"Really?"

"Daph's preferred name for Pansy was 'catty little bitch.'"

Draco stifled a laugh. "Very fitting."

"How long did you date?"

"We started going out in third year. Then sixth year... That's when it got bad, and she dumped me a few weeks before the Death Eaters came. She wanted to give it another go when we came back for seventh year, but I couldn't do it. Not after everything that had happened. She dated Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott after that, and once she made sure I found her snogging some bloke from Hufflepuff. But I didn't care."

"Catty little bitch indeed," she remarked. "Did your parents like her?"

"Mother did not, and she made it a point to tell me so. 'Draco, are you sure you like this Pansy girl?' 'Draco maybe you ought to try going out with a different girl.' 'Draco, please never bring that repulsive hag back to our home for holidays.'"

"She did not!" Astoria gasped.

Draco chuckled. "She did. And she was right. She was right about a lot of things."

"I like your mum. She's solid."

"More so than father."

Astoria reached and took one of his hands in hers. She ran her fingers across the back of his knuckles. "Have they tried to visit you here?"

He shook his head. "No. Well... I don't know. Mother probably has, but I've told the Healers I don't want to see any visitors. Father... he's probably wanting some visitors of his own."

"Is he?" she began.

"Azkaban. Life sentence. Mother was pardoned because she was braver than he was and actually lied to the Dark Lord. She saved Potter's stupid life, so she only had to pay reparations."

"I'm so sorry Draco," she said as she squeezed his hand.

He squeezed back. "I hate him. I hate him so much for what he did to me and Mother. And I hate myself for feeling that way about him because he's my father. He was supposed to protect our family and keep us safe. He didn't lift a damn finger when it was me getting tortured, or when Mum had to dispose of bodies in our sitting room. He never loved me."

Astoria sat up and inched closer to him. She hesitated before her words began to flow. "My dad was not a Death Eater. He never took the Mark. He believed in blood purity though, mostly because he didn't like Muggles. Said they were dangerous to us. He'd read books on how Muggles used to take people who had magic and burn them alive or hang them. He didn't trust them. He and Mum gave a lot of money to families like ours, really old wizarding families that had been pureblood for centuries. People would stop by our house all the time and ask him for donations to the 'cause.' And he gave it to them willingly. His friends wanted him to take the Mark, but he said he wasn't going to ally himself with a man who believed killing was the answer to our problem. A lot of the Death Eaters didn't like him, even though he gave them galleons of his gold. The other side didn't like him either. Thought he was a traitor because he openly stated that he didn't like Muggles. Never said we should kill and oppress them, but he just didn't like them and said we didn't need to mix our blood with them."

"Is he in Azkaban?"

She shook her head. "I dunno where he is. He and Mum went into hiding before the war ended. They sent me a letter that said they'd come find me and Daphne when it was safe for them, but it's been over a year. They're probably dead."

She leaned against him and sighed. "I never met your dad Draco, but I don't think he never loved you. He just let fear overwhelm his love and duty to family. You're not a bad person for being angry with him. I just hope you're able to forgive him one day. Fathers aren't perfect. Mine certainly wasn't, but I loved him. He abandoned me and Daph when we needed him most, and I've always felt so angry him for that. But that anger, I had to let it go. I couldn't let it own me."

Draco didn't speak but squeezed her hand again. His words had run dry. The last image he had retained of Lucius Malfoy was of the day he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He could see that older man's face, hear his mother's quiet sob, and feel his own heart pound. He'd never be able to look at his father again.

"Why Hufflepuff?" he asked, his voice quiet.

"What?"

"Why did you get sorted into Huffle?"

"I asked. My dad was a Slytherin, Mum was in Slytherin, and Daphne was in Slytherin. But I didn't want to. The hat thought about putting me in Ravenclaw, which I know Mum and Da would have tolerated more, but I asked for Hufflepuff."

"Are you a know-it-all then?"

She smiled. "I used to be. Would you like me to revert back?"

He chuckled at the thought. "No way in hell."

Draco Malfoy had endured many late nights in his life. The night of April 3, 1999 was not his first all-nighter, and it certainly would not be his last. It was the night he truly learned invaluable information about Astoria Greengrass, and she learned more about him. It was the first night they stayed together. After that night, Draco had a hard time sleeping without Astoria nearby.