The Gralfoy Affair (or, The Oblivious Ones) - Dramione

Chapter Three

There hadn't been much water, just a small shaving basin's worth, but Hermione Granger was drenched, flat on her back on the floor of Draco Malfoy's hospital room.

"Get off me, Malfoy."

She shoved hard at his shoulders and he sat up quickly, eyeing the doorknob as it rattled and sparked. Hermione wiped her cheeks, clearing away tears that didn't feel like her own anymore and smoothing her skin, effacing the sense of the rough front of his hospital shirt. Her face had been pressed against it as they'd scuffled, tipped off balance, and fell from kneeling to lying on the wet floor.

The doorknob was now glowing green with the strained alohomora of someone breaking in from the outside. Nurse Whalen's voice came calling through the wood. "Jean? Are you in there? Don't tell me she's still in there. Jean dear, is everything all right?"

Hermione swatted Malfoy's arm. "Open it."

He was still feeling for his wand when Whalen let herself in. There was surprise, alarm, and then elation as she took in the scene. The wraith was breadless though rather raw-faced from a terrible shave, and the ghostliness in his eyes had been replaced by embarrassment. Innocentia an embarrassment cannot coexist. Whalen knew, and she spun in a circle and ran for Dr. Berlant.

As the room cleared, Hermione got to her feet. "Keep the shaving gear," she said, hurrying for the door as fast as she dared without slipping in the water again.

"Wait."

"For what, Malfoy? For me to cut your hair?"

He was indeed standing next to the open door fingering the ends of his hair, noticing, at last, that it had grown all the way to his shoulders since he had last been presented to the barber who would come through the forensics ward. He was still transfixed with it as Hermione darted past him, pulling the door closed behind her.

"My darling Hermione, if you weren't my patient I would hug you," Dr. Berlant told her later, in her office after Hermione had got clean and dry. "Excellent results with Mr. Malfoy today, excellent. Of course we'll hold him for at least another week, until he's stable and we can sort out a transition situation for him. The last photo I saw of Malfoy Manor it was boarded up, right after the trials. It will take time, but in every respect he now seems to be making a proper rehabilitation."

Hermione nodded and laughed along with Berlant--at least, she tried her best.

Dr. Berlant frowned. "Something's happened."

Hermione raised both her hands in front of herself, like a shield. "No, no, it's nothing."

The doctor sat up straight in her chair. "Did he meddle with you?"

"Who?"

"Mr. Malfoy," Dr. Berlant said, "did he--do anything to you? You seem different than when I saw you before you met with him this afternoon. As your doctor, I need to know why."

Hermione sighed. "It's just that I got to rambling about my parents. I planned it all out before I went to Malfoy's room and didn't think it would affect me, but it did. It led to all sorts of ideas I've never been able to string together before. And I said them all out loud in a great rush that I can't take back."

Dr. Berlant nodded. "Yes, well it's good to feel your feelings. Part of the wellness journey you're on."

"But I said it all in front of him," Hermione continued. "I wasn't working with you, like a healthy patient. I was yelling at him. It was humiliating and awful. I lost control. I made a mess."

Doctor Berlant scoffed, possibly at the term "healthy patient." She assured Hermione that a mess in the psychiatric ward was fine. "Muggles call that kind of outburst cathartic," the doctor mused. "It has no medical value but it doesn't hurt either."