Cicatrices- Marks That Remain

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Happy Sunday, Dear Readers!!! Here is today's chapter!

Please, let me know what you all think, and, as always...Enjoy!

Saying goodbye to Draco as he began the inpatient process was exceedingly more difficult than Harry thought it would be. They filled out paper after paper (which prompted them to remember Draco never decided on a medical proxy. Harry told him to pen Hermione's name down and hoped it wasn't a mistake). Then, Draco was given the run-down of how days tend to go.

"You'll have a schedule to follow, which includes meals, snacks, free time, and the various therapies you'll be receiving. Breakfast is at seven-thirty every morning..."

They also inspected Draco's bag and asked him to surrender his wand.

Harry and Draco were given a few minutes to say goodbye, though it was awkward because they were being supervised while it happened, which Harry tried not to let bother him. Then, Draco was taken one way, and H arry was ushered out the other way.

The flat felt quiet- oppressively so.

The space was abnormally empty again, and far too clean to make any sense. Off to the side, Penzel's book lay bookmarked on the kitchen island. Harry wondered how far Draco'd gotten. Harry himself was embarrassed to admit he never finished reading it. He wondered if anything in there would have warned them more thoroughly about what might happen in the hospital.

God, he didn't like the silence. His brain was so full that it was buzzing, and no thought was coherent. He felt numb in the head.

There had been silent days with Draco, of course, but those were... different.

Harry wasn't sure how or when, but eventually he found himself half asleep on the sofa, still in the clothes he'd worn when he took Draco to the hospital. The sun was nearly set, and the floo was glowing bright green across the space.

"-hear me? Mate?"

Harry blinked his eyes open, his brain foggy and his eyes adjusting to the odd lighting.

"I heard you move, Hey! Come on through for dinner!"

Harry sat up, his head swaying.

"...Ron?"

"Yeah. If you're not through in ten minutes, 'Mione might try to drag you here, so... I'll see you in five."

Without another word, the floo call disconnected. Harry rubbed at his eyes, groaning. Couldn't they have told him in advance? Had they, and he'd forgotten?

Just as quickly as he fully awoke, the oppressive silence began to press down on him. Racing against the silence as if it were a tsunami threatening to drag him to the ocean's floor, Harry rushed to take a piss and splash his face with water to chase the clinging remains of sleep out of his eyes. Then he dove into the fireplace almost before the pinch of floo powder he tossed into the embers on the hearth could activate.

Stepping into Ron and Hermione's living room, he was greeted with a butterbeer pressed into his hand by Ron and a lazy hello from Ginny, who was lying across their sofa and flipping through Seeker Weekly. This in itself wasn't surprising. What was, however, was the sight of a woman he'd never met before with short-cut brown hair shot through with bright blue streaks sitting beside her. In fact, Ginny's legs were propped across the woman's lap. The woman, to her credit, looked like it was the most normal thing in the world as she waved at Harry.

"Hi!"

"Er- Hi." Harry wasn't sure what to say. "Hey, Gin. Who's this?"

Ginny looked up fully from her magazine then. "Oh!" She stood abruptly, grasping the woman's hand and guiding her to stand up. "I forgot you two haven't properly met. This is Veronica, my girlfriend. She's the flying instructor at Hogwarts."