Chapter 22

Late in the night, Draco woke himself with a cough and an odd feeling in his nose, like when you would get water in it when swimming. With another cough, he sat up, running his fingers along the warm liquid seeping from his nose. In the light of the moon, he could see the red color on his fingers. He was bleeding. Quickly hoping out of bed, he rushed into the bathroom and flicked the light on to see that his face was covered in his blood.

"What the hell?" he cursed as he wiped at the blood even more. Though his efforts were futile since the blood only smeared across his face.

Quickly he turned on the sink faucet to clean off the blood. Once he was clean of the blood, he managed to quit the bleeding from his nose. The only thing left of the accident as a blood stained towel and his memory. After tossing the towel into a pile with his dirty clothes, he climbed back into his bed, doing his best to fall back asleep.

0o0o0o0

Morning came too soon for the blond. If he had it his way, he would've stayed in bed and slept the entire day, but he couldn't. He had to attend therapies and do chores. Only being his first real day at the clinic, aside from the week of detox, he was not enjoying it. He would've preferred sleep and not doing cooking or cleaning or whatever the hell the people that ran the place wanted him to do. Reluctantly, he pulled himself from the bed and showered as slowly as he could. He couldn't put off the day any longer when he was finally dressed and had to go to breakfast. Everyone had to have three meals a day, which he didn't mind, but he had to have it as the same time as everyone else.

Hermione on the other had, was enjoying her stay. She liked being able to do the chores. They made her feel more independent and capable. Unlike when Ron wouldn't let her do anything to help around the house in fear she would break or screw something up. It also made her happy to reconnect with her muggle traditions. Cleaning by hand, with no magic. She just felt right at home this way, and could really keep it up for the rest of her life, but she was sure when she returned back home to Ron, it would be back to cleaning and even cooking some with magic. For now she would enjoy her times of muggle traditions. It also amused her a little to know Draco Malfoy had to go about with no magic and learn all of the muggle ways. Though she was sure if he had a chore that didn't involve anyone but himself, he would use magic. She would make a bet with anyone that was what he would do. Though there was the chance he had decided not to use magic, but she figured that was a slim chance.

Breakfast went by smoothly, the pair completely ignoring each other. Hermione had friends to worry about anyway. Draco sat alone. He figured this time was not for making friends who only cared about his past. It was time for him to think about himself. Besides, he had friends back at home he would be returning to in two months. Though he did have an occasional glance toward Hermione to see her having a good time with her newest friends.

Laundry. How in the hell was Draco supposed to do laundry? He had barely lifted a finger as a child and well into his adult life. One of the nurses led Draco to the laundry room since he had no idea where it was located. The room had a long line of washers and sitting on top of the washers were driers. She informed him to stay there and just wait for the others to bring the clothes they were collecting. Great. Now he was stuck in a room with machines he had no idea how they worked and for all he knew, they could've sprung to life and attacked him. It was a reasonable fear to him. He didn't know what those muggles put into their machines.

Not soon enough, people began to bring the clothes into the room and Draco panicked mentally. He had no idea where to start with this, but his savior walked into the room, calming his mind. Hermione was in charge of collecting clothes for him to clean. He could have her help him, if he wasn't too petty to ask for her help. Though fearing what the nurses would do with him if he didn't do what was asked, he had to.

"Hey, Granger?" he called before she could leave the room. Turning to face him, her face lit up in question and to show she was listening. "Could you stay for a minute?" he asked as the last of the people left.

Once everyone was cleared out, Hermione finally spoke up. "What's wrong?"

"How do I…you know, do this?" Draco hesitantly asked, looking at the pile to be laundered.

"It's easy," she assured as she held back at laugh.

"That doesn't answer my question," he interjected before she even had a chance to explain.

"Give me a minute," she said with an eye roll before beginning to separate the clothes and towels.

It took her a while, but eventually Draco was able to wash the clothes by himself. Because she had to teach him how to use driers as well, she decided to stay with him until then. Awkwardly, they sat in silence. They had really talked about everything in their last conversation, and neither were the best at starting a conversation.

After what seemed an eternity to the pair, Hermione finally spoke up. "Are you going to group therapy today?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. My hea-doctor says I should," he explained.

"Since it's your first one, don't feel like you have to open up a lot," she told him softly. "I've gone a few times and I haven't told them everything."

Draco only nodded in response. He had been debating on the fact of whether he should go or not. Considering he would have to deal with many people if he didn't stick to his 'plan', he'd decided to go. Now knowing that Hermione would be there, he wasn't too sure, but maybe he could get more out of her. From her statement he could guess she hadn't even told him everything. He wouldn't hold it against her since he hadn't told her every detail.

He had to go. There was no way he would be able to get out of it, really. If Hermione had shown up and didn't see him there, there was no way he would get out of the nagging that ensued.

"I'll keep that in mind," he muttered, not looking at her.

Hermione watched him for a moment before nodding and looking down at her hands and picking at her nails. Because of her excessive drinking, her nails had become very unhealthy. She truly was embarrassed by it. She was always healthy as an adolescent, but now she had realized that her body had taken a toll when it came to drinking. Her nails were not only brittle, but had a slight yellowing color. She would've painted them had owned a bottle of nail polish, or even thought of bringing some with her, but she didn't.

They sat in silence like that until the buzzers for the washing machines began to go off. Hermione quickly jumped up at the sound, but Draco looked slightly afraid by it. Why the hell had a machine made such a terrible noise? He was completely confused as to why Hermione had been so apt to quickly go to the machines. Were they broken? He slowly stood and followed Hermione skeptically toward the demonic machines.

"What now?" he asked, keeping behind Hermione as she opened the door to the machines.

"Now we dry the clothes and put more into the washing machine," she explained as she began to transfer clothes from the washer to the driers. Draco stood by, just watching her. "Wanna help?" she asked after putting more clothes into the washer.

"Er-I'm not sure I know how to work the other thing," he explained, hesitantly taking a few steps closer.

Hermione diligently taught him how to work the machines. Once clothes came out of the driers, she taught him to fold. She continued to help him with the chore until there was nothing left to wash or fold. Collecting the clothes that she was in charge of delivering, she began to leave, waving to him. Draco waved back, watching as she walked out of the room. He didn't really understand why she had helped him. He wasn't going to question it, because without her he would've been completely lost and the clothes would still be dirty.

Group therapy was less than an hour away, and Draco still wasn't entirely sure if he would attend. Hermione had said that he didn't have to speak about what was bothering him. Maybe he didn't have to speak at all. That would've been great. He would get the props for attending, but didn't have to say one word. He mentally thanked Hermione for telling him that. Maybe he could play it off well enough and never have to talk in the group.

When he arrived to the room, there was a large circle set up in chairs. A few people had arrived; of course Hermione was one of them. Silently he made his way to the circle, taking a seat away from most of the people. It was a useless effort, he was sure, since people would be sitting next to him anytime soon, but it would have been nice to sit alone for a while.

Hermione had been busy talking with the doctor when Draco came in. It wasn't anything to do with her health, just a normal conversation. It had been her goal to have a personal relationship with her doctors. She thought it would've been much better for her if she knew her doctors well, and so far it had proved well.

The room quickly filled with people from there, and of course Draco was no longer sitting secluded. And so it began. Everyone seemed so trusting in one another, while Draco was very timid about sharing anything to a room full of strangers. Hermione on the other hand was more than happy to talk about her experience and how she was now. One young girl, barely nineteen, seemed to have gone through one of the worse. At seventeen she had been introduced to drugs and alcohol and her life had become very dependent on those two things, but now after almost a month of rehabilitation, she claimed to have never felt better. The entire group felt sympathy for the girl for having to go through such a thing at such a young age. Draco felt a small twinge of something, though he stuck to his plan of sitting silently.

Draco could relate to the girl. He had just been handed the drugs and was never able to put them down. Maybe deep down, he reasoned, there was a twinge of empathy, but he would never admit to it.

The plan had worked, and an hour later Draco let the room. No one had asked him any questions and he didn't say a word. He supposed that it wouldn't work for much longer if he continued to go. He made a mental note to return to his doctor and talk about having these group therapies.

For the rest of the day, Draco stayed locked away in his room, only coming out for meal times. During lunch, he had noticed Hermione sitting alone and found it very odd. She had plenty of friends, yet was at an empty table. Ignoring the fact, he sat in a secluded corner to eat his lunch, wanting to avoid any contact with anyone. Quickly finishing his meal, he hurried back to his room for more isolation.

Hermione remained in her spot, even though Draco had ended up sitting as far as he possibly could have from her. She had decided to sit alone to give him the chance to approach her yet again. It had become a habit of his to interrupt her conversations to have one of his own. She figured giving him the chance to have one, without taking her away from others was the best shot, but he hadn't taken advantage of it. Of course he would want to take her away from what she wanted to do. Maybe after all these years, deep down, he still was a bully towards her.

At dinner, she tried the dame technique. Even if he decided to leave her alone, she didn't mind the silence. During her time there she had talked more than she ever had in her life it felt like. Everyone wanted to be her friend, and she wasn't sure how to react. It had never been that way for her. No one had wanted to be her friend. Not even Harry or Ron wanted to be her friend at first; not until she saved their asses in their first year.

This time when Draco saw Hermione sitting alone, he began to pity her. Had all of her new friends just left her? Out of sympathy, Draco sat with her, but didn't speak. Maybe this would be consoling enough.

Hermione looked up when he saw down and sighed in relief. Now he could tell her everything he needed to and not bother her later.

"Yes?" She asked, leaning back in her seat.

"Hm? Oh, nothing. Just thought you seemed a bit lonely." He shrugged. "Might need some company."

"No, I'm fine, thank you," she mumbled and let her eyes wonder around the room.

He clenched his jaw and let out a sigh. Of course she was going to be stubborn, or refuse to take anything from him. "Fine. I'll leave you alone, if you'd like."

"I know you want to talk to me," she began, looking at him once again. Her face showed no emotion. "I'm giving you the opportunity now because I hate when you take me away from the conversations I try to have."

"Who says I want to talk with you?"

"Well, every time I'm with someone you always want to have a word with me."

He frowned at her response, now realizing that he usually did take her away from people she was clearly having a good time with. He never meant it. Those were the only times he could see her and he needed to talk to her before.

"I see," he mumbled and looked at his hands as he fiddled with a napkin. "I suppose we should talk, you know? I can tell there are things you're hiding. You're not as good at hiding as you think you are."

Hermione looked at him confused. "And what makes you think I want to tell you my secrets?"

"Because you don't want to tell anyone else."

"Fine. We'll talk after dinner. It's not exactly dinner conversation," she spoke softly. She had a few more minutes left to decide if she would tell him everything. Though she doubted if she was even ready to say it out loud.

A/N Well? Did you guys like it? I hope so. Who thinks Hermione will tell Draco everything? Leave a review telling me what you thought.