Draco was petrified. He couldn't speak nor move.
"Hello, Draco." Macnair said with a devilish grin. "Doin' a bit of shopping, aren't ya? Well I hope I'm not interrupting.."
"W-what do you want?" Draco said nervously, holding onto his wand in his pocket.
Macnair let out a rather nasty laugh. "What could I possibly want from you? You're a failure, just like your father! All I want is for you and your family to be gone." He said aggressively.
Draco gulped, he still was petrified. Even tough he was holding onto his wand he was too scared to actually take it out and fire a spell at the former Death Eater. But Macnair raised his wand, Draco closed his eyes and-
"Protego!" A voice yelled and Macnair's spell was blocked. He turned around to face the person who just fired the shield charm.
"Help! Someone help me! There's a Death Eater!" The person started yelling.
Draco still had his eyes closed, but by the sound of a loud 'bang' he assumed Macnair disapparated. When he opened his eyes again he saw the person who saved him.
"You." He said breathlessly.
He stood face to face with Elara Plunkett, the silver blonde girl he just met at the bookstore.
She just smiled awkwardly, not sure what to say.
"What are you- why- how-?" Draco just stammered confused.
"Long story." She simply said.

They were quiet for a moment.
"I- I better go." Draco said eventually.
Elara nodded, looking slightly offended, he could have thanked her at least, she just saved his life after all.
"Sure."
Draco wrapped his cloak around him tightly again and disapparated with a bang.
When he was back in his bedroom he realised he had been gone for quite some time and his parents must have been wondering where he went. He threw his cloak and books he bought on his four poster and tried to make his way downstairs silently. When he was walking down the corridor he passed his father's study, and to Draco's horror he saw the door was open. He held his breath and walked as silently as he could pass the open door.
"Draco?" His father's voice sounded from the study.
"Merlin's beard." He murmured under his breath and walked into the study.
"Yes father?" He tried to sound as nonchalantly as he could.
"Where on earth have you been? Your mother and I were so worried!" Lucius said as he looked at his son with fire spitting eyes.
"Oh were you?" Draco spat back. "I can imagine mother was worried but you? Don't make me laugh!"
"What's the matter with you? What did I do to make you think I don't care about you?" Lucius said.
"Oh well, let me think," Draco said sarcastically. "Maybe never letting me do what I wanted to do, letting me live my own life, getting You Know Who into our house and making me a Death Eater, you didn't even try to stop him!"
"That's enough!" Lucius yelled back, getting rather furious and emotional at the same time. "I never wanted you to be in any danger whatsoever, nor your mother!"
"Oh please father, do you even believe that nonsense you're telling? Maybe that works on mother because she just refuses to think there's nothing good left in you. And you know what, that's exactly the difference between you and her: she actually tries to help me and shows me she loves me, but you... words but no deeds."

Father and son just stared at each other for a moment, trying to let in what just had been said. As soon as it hit Lucius he didn't take it well. His hand hit his sons cheek. It all happened within a split second.
"You are not my son." He whispered angrily through gritted teeth. Draco didn't face him, he was just staring blankly with tears in his eyes. He heard his father gulp and leaving. When the sound of the creaking wooden floorboards had faded Draco was sure his father was gone. His gaze went back to the study, he blinked with his eyes a couple of times as his eyes still started to fill with more tears and his chest heaved rapidly as his breathing quickened.

He decided not to talk about this with his mother or anyone else. He spend most of the time in his room and went for a walk in the garden, trying to clear his mind but even then all he could think of were those nightmares, his father, the unfortunate meeting with Walden Macnair, Astoria..

That evening as he was laying in bed under the emerald covers, leaning against some fluffed up pillows against his headboard, he decided to start reading one of the books he bought that day. Involuntary he thought about that girl from the bookstore again, not quite able to remember her name. After a while he felt sleepy and seized his wand from the nightstand, mumbled "nox" and laid down. He really liked the book he read and as much as he tried to keep that story on his mind when he was about to fall asleep, it didn't help at all. He was having nightmares again and they weren't getting any better. They were now filled with Voldemort who was attending his and Astoria's wedding, as Astoria took her veil away from her face it turned out to be his father, he was surrounded by Death Eaters again and they were all saying what a failure he was and started to fire Cruciates Curses at him. These terrors kept hunting him in his sleep for the next two weeks. Two weeks, that's when his mother decided this had to stop as soon as possible.
"You need to talk to someone!" She said desperately, a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Mother I'm-" Draco tried but he was cut off by his mother.
"Don't say you're fine, because you are not. You can't keep denying that Draco."
She was right about that. Eventually he gave in and his mom made an appointment with a professional psychologist at St Mungo's.

The next day he travelled to Muggle London (partly by Underground, how Muggles ever understood which trains to take was still a big mystery to him) and wearing more Muggle like clothes, such as a pair of dark jeans and a black hoodie. If his father would only see him like this, dressing up as Muggle.. he thought to himself. He arrived at the red-bricked, condemned department store called 'Purge and Dowse Ltd'.
"I have an appointment." He murmured to the ugly female dummy in the window. The dummy nodded and beckoned him in. Draco quickly looked around him once more before he stepped through the window. He then found himself in the reception area of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. He wasn't quite sure where to go so he decided to ask the Welcoming Witch instead. Even though he felt so embarrassed to be in a hospital and afraid that anyone would recognise him, he quickly came to the conclusion most people probably wouldn't. First of all he was dressed quite differently than he normally would and secondly he seemed to be the most 'normal' person to be here if he judged by things he saw around him. Some people seemed to have no idea who they were or where they were, some where injured (Quidditch accidents, he thought), one man was somehow glued to a bewitched toilet seat that seemed to be biting his behind and others were vomiting and turning rather unnatural colours.
"Hello.." he started awkwardly. "I am not sure where to go."
The witch looked at him, showing no sign of knowing who he was. "What's the matter? Any pain?" She asked.
"No, no I have an appointment with a psychologist."
"Second floor." The witch stated. "Next."
Draco walked over to the elevator and looked at the floor plan and read: second floor - magical bugs and diseases.

Draco frowned, was it a disease what he was having? He stepped into the elevator, along with a man who was wearing shoes that seemed to be eating his feet. When he arrived at the second floor he saw a little sign above a door saying 'Mental Diseases'.
"Well that's probably it then.." he mumbled to himself. As he opened to door he found a small waiting area with a desk. He was quite relieved to see the waiting room was empty, apart from the witch at the desk.
"What's your name dear?" She asked with a friendly smile.
"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He said.
The which nodded as she checked the list.
"Please take a seat, the other appoint is taking a bit longer than expected but the Healer will be here soon."
He nodded and took a seat. After about 10 minutes the door of the office opened. As Draco looked up he saw a rather familiar person walking out and the person seemed to have spotted him too.
"What are you doing here?" George Weasley asked shocked.
"Well I could ask you the same thing." Draco snarled back.
George just ignored him and walked over to the witch at the desk to make a new appointment.

"Mr Malfoy?" A woman's voice called.
"Yes." He said absently, tearing his gaze from George Weasley and looking at the woman who just called him. She held out her hand. "Elara Plunkett. But I think we've met before." She chuckled.
Draco's mouth fell open. 'Is this a joke?' He thought. But he tried to stay polite. "Yes, I think we have.." he said and shook her hand again. She then led him inside her office.
"Please sit down, would you like to drink anything?" She asked.
"No, thanks, I'm fine." Draco answered as he sat down.

The room was very white and empty but somehow cosy at the same time. This actually helped him to feel a little calmer, even though his mind was racing.
She smiled at him and sat down at her desk, looking at his file.
"So I see you're having night terrors." She said.
Draco nodded. "Correct."
"And I assume you would like to get rid of them."
"Correct again."
"Why don't you start with telling me a little bit about yourself?"
"I uhm.. okay." Draco agreed.
"It won't help if you make anything up, lie or conceal information, I will know the truth anyway." She said.

It turned out that Elara was very good at legilimency, which was very handy for this job. She would know what someone experienced, she would almost be able to experience it herself and she would indeed know if you were lying or not. After a long session of mainly talking about his life (they didn't start the legilimency yet) they called it a day.

"I think this is a very good start, thank you for being so open towards me." Elara said.
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" He answered.
Elara ignored this. "And again, please don't forget everything you tell me is between you and me. You can fully trust me." She said with a comforting smile at the end.
"I know." He said and stood up. "I think I'll see you next week then."
"Yes, next Tuesday, same place, same time. Oh and if you have these nightmares again or if there's anything else you want to get off your chest, owl me right away."
"That's very kind but I don't think I should bother you with my issues any time of the day." Draco said.
"Nonsense, I just want you to be able to talk to anyone, I can see that's what you need."
"Thanks." He answered simply. "See you next week."

When he was back in his room that evening he felt like it was time to try a little harder to get his mind off of things, it was time to think about his own wellbeing again and spoil himself a little. He asked a house elf to draw him a bath and get him some Fire Whiskey. As the water was pouring into the bathtub he realised he still hadn't thanked Elara for saving him that day. He seized a page of parchment and wrote to her. He still couldn't believe this was all really happening, was this all set up by his parents maybe? He sealed the letter, summoned his owl and gave him his letter. When he saw the owl flying away he almost immediately regretted his decision. He didn't want to be depending on someone, and it was a girl after all who saved him. How could a girl be better than him? He started to realise he started to think more like his old self again but if that was a good thing, he didn't know. But he had to admit that even during this little session today he was able to get some things off his chest and he slowly started to feel a bit more human again.

That evening he fell asleep rather relaxed, the nightmares weren't gone yet but they surely weren't as bad as they used to be.