Around 4:30pm, Hermione left her office and made her way to the room where Draco was. She was fully composed, ready to treat Draco the way she always had. She walked into the room and found Draco staring at the book she'd found.
"What do you think?" she asked him.
"I think this book is illegal and I'm shocked that you have it," Draco replied.
"I have a...source who lends me books like this from time to time," Hermione said vaguely. "I help my source with something so they help me."
"Interesting," Draco answered. "I think this is the most accurate description of what the Cruciatus curse does that I've ever read. That's exactly what it feels like."
Hermione looked surprised at his words. "You've had the curse used against you?"
"Did you forget which side I fought for?" Draco answered wryly. "30 seconds here and there as a quick punishment."
"Do you have any side effects?" Hermione asked, suddenly interested. "How often did it happen?"
"I'm sorry to say I don't have any lasting effects from the curse," Draco told her. "It was maybe six times throughout the war for, like I said, 30 seconds at most. The Dark Lord had other ways of punishing me." A shadow passed over his face.
"So the curse attacks the pain receptors in the body," Hermione said. "The after effects clearly do the same thing, even though they don't have an immediate source."
"So you need to block the pain receptors," Draco finished. "But I have a feeling you already knew that."
Hermione looked surprised. "Yes, I did, how did you know?"
"I had one of your hangover potions at Blaise's," he told her. "I recognized it right away. Modified pepper up potion with a pain potion?"
"Yes," Hermione said her eyes wide. "That's right."
"You need a way to make it last longer," Draco told her. "I have an idea for how you can do it."
"We can do it after," she told him. "Come on."
"Come where?" he asked, confused.
"It's time for my rounds," she answered.
"So?" he replied. "What does that have to do with your research? Or me?"
"You've been working here nearly three months, it's time," was all she said as she walked out the door.
Agitated with her response, he walked out of the room intending to make a snide remark about her research but he saw that she was already through the secure door and almost to the lifts. He walked quickly and made it to the lift. The door shut behind him and Hermione called out for the Frank and Alice Longbottom wing.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Draco snapped. "Who are Frank and Alice Longbottom? Do I have to see Longbottom? I'm not going to be surrounded by your side, am I?"
"You know people here too, Malfoy," she said quietly but didn't say anything further.
The lift announced their arrival and Malfoy moved to get out of the lift but Hermione called for it to hold.
"What's the problem?" Malfoy asked.
"Malfoy, do you remember rule 3?"
"Forgive me Granger if I can't remember the exact order of all of the rules you gave me, but-"
"Secrecy, Malfoy," she replied cutting him off. "You cannot talk about what you see here with anyone other than me. Not even the interns, they've never been here."
"Why bring me?" He asked suspiciously.
"Because we're supposed to work together and for the first time, I believe that you want to help with my work," she replied. "And because I think Luna knew I would bring you here and it would help your...recovery."
"I'm not ill," he snapped. "I don't need to recover."
"You are ill in a way," was her response. "And we survived a war, everyone needed to recover."
When Malfoy didn't reply, she continued. "But that's not important right now. Malfoy you're going to see people you know here, you CANNOT reveal who is in this wing. You cannot touch any of the patients. You shouldn't speak to them until I know what their reaction to you will be. For now you must just observe. Am I clear?"
"More bloody rules, I get it," he replied, annoyed again. "Let's just get on with it."
Hermione looked at him for a moment then nodded. "Follow me."
She called for the lift doors to open and they stepped in to a small waiting area. Hermione walked to the front desk and greeted the woman sitting there. They spoke quietly for a minute before Hermione moved toward a set of grey double glass doors. Malfoy followed and nearly ran into her when she stopped directly in front of the door.
"You have to go through doors for them to work properly," Draco drawled.
"Remember what I told you," Hermione snapped without turning around.
She then placed both hands on the doors and a moment later, they slid open. They walked into a narrow hallway lined with doors, 5 on each side. Draco stared down the hallway over Hermione's head and could see that where it ended, it continued both to the right and to the left. Hermione stopped in front of the first door on their right, glanced at the chart next to the door, and went in but Draco stayed in the hall. They worked their way down the hallway until they reached the fifth door on the left. Hermione took the chart that was floating next to the door and Draco decided to look over her shoulder to see the patient's name.
"Alvin Tigers?" Draco said with a laugh. "What kind of name is that?"
"You aren't here to laugh at his name," Hermione snapped. "You're here to observe."
"What's wrong with him?" Draco asked, trying to read the chart.
"All of the patients in this wing are, in some way, suffering from the long term effects of the repeated use of the Cruciatus curse or similar curses like it," Hermione explained. "We've found a direct correlation in the amount of times they were hit with the course and amount of time that it was performed with the severity of their symptoms."
"Fascinating," Draco said sounding bored. "What's this guy's deal?"
"He's a Muggleborn," Hermione told him, her voice taking on a clinical, detached tone. "Did some work with Arithmancy before the war. We found him with five others when we were searching the Lestrange house once the war was over. They're all here. He was the one in the best shape of the six, he was able to recount for us exactly how many times he and the others received the curse. He was hit twice a day for about 1 hour. He never screamed so she'd get bored with him quickly. But she kept him alive in hopes of breaking him before she killed him."
Draco opened his mouth to make a comment about his aunt but he could see Hermione had the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Remembering that his deal hinged on him not pissing her off, he opted for silence and a nod instead of speaking.
Hermione took a moment and steadied herself before opening the door and going in to the room. Curiosity finally getting the better of him, Draco followed. The room looked like a normal bedroom. There was a soft bed, a desk, a bookshelf that held several different size and color books, and an armchair in the corner. In the armchair sat a rail thin bald man, dressed in a hospital robe, reading a large, green book.
"Al?" Hermione said softly.
The man looked up from his book and smiled.
"Hermione, hello," Alvin replied.
"How are you today?" Hermione asked, her quill poised to take notes.
"I started this book," he answered, showing her the front. "It's about Malgorn's Algorithm. It's never been disproven."
"That's great," Hermione told him with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
"Today is a good day," he said, closing the book. "I've passed out twice and vomited once."
"That's a good day?" Draco said appalled.
Alvin looked up and noticed Draco for the first time and immediately tensed. "Who is this, Hermione?"
"Al, this is Draco," Hermione said, speaking slowly and soothingly. "He's going to be helping me with my research for the next few months. Is it okay if he comes with me to visits?"
Al relaxed and looked at Draco. "He looks familiar."
Hermione felt the color leave her face. It hadn't occurred to her that Draco could have been the person who tortured one of her patients.
"He fought during the war," Hermione replied. "That's probably why."
Alvin seemed satisfied with her response but Draco looked at her in surprise. She'd specifically avoided saying which side he fought for. She probably thought he was changing or some rubbish like that. The thought made him smile.
"Pleasure," Draco said, smoothly with a sneer.
Alvin's eyes widened in horror at his response. "No, no, please, no, no, no," Alvin said, his eyes wide. "Not again."
He then began to scream and cry. Hermione whirled around and looked at Draco.
"Get out, Malfoy, now," she shouted.
But Malfoy found himself rooted to the spot. Alvin kept screaming and crying and suddenly, he began to shake violently. The same way Granger had, Malfoy remembered. Hermione blocked out Draco and ran to a wall. She opened a panel, took a blue potion out and quickly returned to Alvin.
"Al? Al? I need you to drink this," she instructed him. "You know this will help, you need to drink it."
But he just continued to scream and cry and mutter under his breath over and over, "it's him, it was him, stop him, please, stop him, it's him."
"AL!" Hermione said, raising her voice. "AL, I NEED YOU TO LOOK AT ME. LOOK AT ME!"
Alvin lifted his head and looked at Hermione. She quickly tilted his head back and tipped the contents on the bottle in to his mouth. Immediately he began to calm as he curled into a ball in the chair and rocked back and forth.
"Al, I'm going to levitate you to your bed," Hermione told him. She quickly moved him from the chair to his bed.
"I'll be back to check on you later," she whispered. "Sleep now."
"It's almost him," Al slurred, as sleep took him over. "Looks just like him."
Hermione sank to the floor next to Al's bed and ran her hands over her face. She then stood and it was only then that she noticed Draco still standing in the room, a look of confusion and, if she wasn't mistaken, fear on his face.
"Come on," Hermione said and walked out of the room.
A/N: I just finished my homework and I have to wake up super early for class but since I couldn't upload a chapter yesterday, I figured I owed you one today. I'll try to upload two or three tomorrow to make up for this being just one. Review please, I love hearing what you think!