What If? -Drarry

Part Four: Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

At half-past five, on the morning of the ninth of February, Draco rose out of his prison bed for the last time. He dressed fast, and then spent five minutes packing his possessions into the trunk he had been issued with for personal belongings. While some prisoners had many items sent to them during their stay, Draco's sum total of his seven months came to a pile of letters tied with a spare shoelace, several books, a cheap razor and shaving cream, and a pristine pair of Nikes in a red shoebox. He was planning to leave his toothbrush. He would have only the clothes on his back until he reached Harry's apartment, where his other legal possessions were waiting, neatly packed in boxes sent by the Prisoner Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Magic. He had just finished stripping the bed when a voice could be heard outside casting the spell to unlock the door, and he turned to see two guards - who clearly weren't ecstatic about how early in the morning it was - walk into the room. The taller man gave him a sharp nod.

"Ready to go, Patient?" He asked. He was a familiar face - one of the stricter guards, though not unkind. Draco nodded.

"Let's go."

He followed the guards through the bowels of the Institute, carrying his trunk under one arm until eventually, they reached administrations: an area of the prison which was fronted by a reception desk and which housed the offices of all senior employees behind it. They headed to the 'Interview Room', which was used for most employee/patient meetings, and Draco was sat down in front of a small pile of paperwork and a quill.

"We need you to fill these out before you can leave." The shorter guard said. "Remember that the parchment can detect any lies written on it, so don't bother trying to trick us, it'll just cause trouble for you. Once you fill in all the papers, you will have a brief meeting with your therapist. You should be out by half seven at the latest, as long as there are no complications. Got it?"

Draco nodded.

"Breakfast will be brought to you here." Added the taller guard. "What would you like?"

Draco shrugged. "I'm not really hungry." Then, he remembered something he'd heard from the other inmates about it being bad luck not to eat one's breakfast on one's last day, and that those who neglected the meal would one day return to eat it during another sentence. "I'll have a piece of toast, though, please," He added, hastily.

It took Draco a good half hour to work through the stack of parchment. Once he'd finished, the papers were taken away and replaced by Emma, who entered five minutes later. She smiled at him.

"It gives me great pleasure to see you out and into the real world, Draco," She said as she sat down across from him. As always, she looked perfectly arranged, from her sleek straight hair to each of her perfectly painted fingernails. "Not that I'm 'glad to be rid of you', as such, but it's high time you went back." She studied him. "How do you feel?"

"Nervous," Draco admitted. "I'm not sure why, though."

"It's only natural - you're about to go through a big change. Do you know how you're getting to Harry's apartment?"

"Well, Blaise is actually going to meet me and we're going to go get lunch in London somewhere. I think he's got some things planned to do to celebrate my freedom. Then we're going to meet Harry and he'll apparate us back to his."

"Sounds like fun - it'll be nice to eat something that isn't prison food, right? Well, I won't keep you too long, don't worry." She pulled a file out of her bag and placed it between them. "These are your patient notes. I can't give them to you because they are prison records, though you may request to see them anytime once you've left the prison, should the need arise. Today we're just going to look at a few pages." She opened the file and flicked through a few sheets of parchment before stopping. "This is your pre-treatment file, highlighting the problems you were facing before you started seeing me.