𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 [𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞]

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧

HERMIONE was shocked.

She had known Malfoy ever since she was eleven years old. Ever since he had rudely insulted her husband and his family about their lack of money. Ever since he had called her names solely because of her Muggle parents. Ever since her best friend rejected his friendship on the first day at Hogwarts.

She saw him on a daily basis; she despised that. But out of all her years of knowing him, she had never seen him cry. She assumed he must've had a heart, but she imagined he was one of those people who would push away all their emotions with everything they had in them. 

But he had broken down and cried right in front of her twice in the last couple of days. She thought she would never see the day where she would see Draco Malfoy shedding even a single tear, let alone have a panic attack.

Her stomach was doing summersaults when he realized he was strapped to the chair, watching him fight for freedom with fear in his eyes and worry in his tone made her want to retch.  It reminded her of what happened to her when she was pinned down with no way out. The carvings on her arm took months to properly heal afterwards.

"Jean?" Avery's voice was faint to her thoughts, but ultimately it snapped her back to reality. "Are you alright?"

Hermione cleared her throat, her gaze still focused on the blonde man in the chair. "Mhm." She was caught off guard by a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly as she looked over at her friend.

"You don't look it. What's wrong 'Mione?" 

Hermione completely ignored the blonde witch and glanced over at Aaron. "What did you do to him?"

"We already went over this, Hermione," Aaron sighed, shaking his head boredly. "He saw his first memory the other day in his dream; from that we agreed he was ready for this. We need his memories to return frequently so he can figure out who he was and we can figure out what to do with him. This was what was supposed to happen."

"Did you see the look in his eyes when he thought we were sending back to his coma?" said Hermione, "He looked terrified."

Pedro nodded, "Indeed."

"And when he realized he was strapped to his chair? He looked almost betrayed." Hermione went on, her gaze focused on the unconscious blonde man in front of her.

"He has—what the Muggles call—post traumatic stress disorder. He obviously fears being tied down because of something that happened to him in his past." Avery spoke.

"Don't you see?" Hermione questioned; her head tilted to the side as she finally shifted her eyes onto the healers around her. "He has this condition because of his coma. That's why he feels trapped—because he was stuck in the same position for seven years. Almost as if someone had taken away his freedom."

The room went quiet for a brief moment, before Aaron turned to look at Hermione and asked her, "Since when do you care about Malfoy? Last I heard you hated him."

"I don't care about him." Hermione scowled, her arms folding over her chest as she tilted her chin into the air. "But knowing that he has post traumatic stress disorder and putting him in a situation that will petrify him is quiet a horrid thing to do to anybody. My concerns would be the same for everyone else; not specifically Malfoy."

Avery nodded, and Hermione added on one last detail.

"And I do hate him."

A long silence stretched between them all, and then Aaron sighed, causing the brunette to glance over her shoulder at her friend. He was shaking his lowered head, and she wondered why. Then he finally met her gaze and spoke.

"Malfoy is still only in the second stage of memory and physical recovery; fear. There are seven stages in total. First is cluelessness, then fear, then curiousness, then physical abilities, then eroticism—

"What?" Avery cut him off, her pupils dilated, just like Hermione's. 

Aaron nodded casually, and Hermione spoke next.

"Expand on 'eroticism' please."

"Well, as his physical abilities are the stage just beforehand, his body will slowly be adjusting to the way it is supposed to work, therefore eroticism comes into play" Hermione looked over at Avery, who shrugged out of confusion, and so Aaron went on. "His body will turn itself on and he will have strong sexual desires for a while. It differs from each patient so it could either come all at once, or it could be gradual. Either way it will happen." He smirked at the two women. "Good luck. That'll be fun."

Pedro joined Aaron in the laugher while Hermione and Avery only exchanged glances, in which Hermione then added—

"I certainly am not looking forward to that stage."

"Well you'll know that when he starts walking again." Aaron now wore a wide smile, and Hermione rolled her eyes, scoffing as she folded her arms over her chest. 

After a few minutes, the laughter died down and the room went quiet.

Suddenly, a low and struggled groan was the only thing that filled the otherwise silent room, causing the healers to turn in the direction in which it came from, the blonde man in the chair.

Hermione's breath had gotten caught in her throat, her hand subconsciously sliding up to wrap around it in an effort to calm herself down. She stared at him, his was still lowered yet swaying back and forth very slowly.

She let out a little gasp and took a step back when his head swung to rest on the top of the chair. His eyes were open, but she didn't see the grey she expected to. Instead, she saw white; pure white eyes.

It scared her. He had no iris or no pupil. Just white. Only white.

His lips were parted slightly, though no breath ever passed them, not even a little twitched. She felt dread coil in her stomach. She was unable to approach or back away from him, almost as if her feet were glued to the floor.

Luckily for her, Avery stepped forward and pressed her index and middle finger to his pulse point. It remained there for a few long moments, but then she pulled it back with a sharp gasp, her hand clasping over her mouth. She stumbled back from him and immediately glanced at Hermione.

Hermione didn't know what to think of this. The blonde witch was standing next to her, her gaze settled on her. She took a quick glance over at Malfoy, still as ever, possibly wondering if he might be—no, she doubted it very much. That was until Avery's shaky voice caught her attention once again.

"I think he's dead."

—

Author's note!

I cannot explain how much I hate this chapter.

There are a few relevant points but overall it is boring and dull. I'm sorry for giving you such a shitty chapter but the plot points I guess. I tried to rewrite it, and then put it off, and then tried to rewrite it again. But I still hate it.

I can assure you the chapters will get better.