A Study of the Mind

Chapter 2- Psychological Analysis

Ginny woke up that morning to discover that yet again she had fallen asleep at her office at St. Mungo's.

"Crap," she muttered under her breath when she saw the pile of paperwork and files on her desk, all pertaining to one patient. In fact, she had an entire file cabinet devoted to that damn patient of hers. He was interesting to study though, Ginny would give him that. I never thought that anyone would be more challenging than Ron, but then again, I could be wrong, Ginny thought as she looked for that accursed folder; the folder that started it all.

"A-ha!" she shouted when she found the slightly bulging folder.

She glanced at the name on the file and still couldn't believe it was actually him. It was only a year, and she still couldn't figure him out. It was annoying as all hell too. But what Ginny found sad about it was that he knew it as well.

"Fucking Draco Malfoy. I just had to listen to Professor Upland! 'Oh, it'll be a great challenge for someone of your brilliance!' Hmph. Yeah, he's a 'challenge' alright. Let's see you try to get any information out of that man. He was damn lucky that request his mother made was approved by the Ministry."

It wasn't that Ginny didn't mind studying him, because he DID in fact have a rather fascinating mind, but he was just too damn annoying for his own good.

She opened the folder to see his Azkaban mug shot glaring back at her with the fierceness that the real Draco Malfoy showed her each day. His psychological analysis was partially hand-written in Ginny's now messy handwriting and was only a quarter done. She knew it would take years to unravel the enigma that was his mind, but she would never give up on a patient, even someone like Malfoy. She unclipped the photo and placed it on the other side with her left hand and grabbed his file parchment with the right.

It was going to be another long day.

* * * * * * * * * *

Psychological Analysis

Name: Draco Thomas Malfoy

Date of Birth: 5 June 1980

Sex: Male

Age: 24

Height: 6' 3"

Weight: 165 lbs.

Birthplace: Malfoy Manor, just outside of Wiltshire in South-western England

Ancestry: Pureblood

General Family History

Father: Lucius Gabriel Malfoy

Date of Birth: 16 November 1954

Age: 50

Status: Deceased

Mother: Narcissa Eleanor Black Malfoy

Date of Birth: 10 January 1963

Age: 41

Status: Alive; has yet to remarry

Other Living Relatives

The Tonks Family

Andromeda (Black) Tonks (aunt)

Ted Tonks (uncle)

Nymphadora Tonks (cousin)

The Lestrange Family

Bellatrix (Black) Lestrange (aunt)

Rodolphus Lestrange (uncle)

The Weasley Family

Molly (Prewett) Weasley

Illnesses/Conditions: large concentration of Dark magic, family history of insanity

Other Personal Information

Incapacities: None that are known of.

Criminal History: Association with Voldemort and the Death Eaters, performing the Cruciatus Curse on Ronald Weasley, responsible for the deaths of Lucius Malfoy, Percival Weasley, Angelina Johnson and Cho Chang

Wand: 13" Willow with Unicorn hair

Notes

* * * * * * * * * *

Ginny didn't need to look over the rest of his file. It was too extensive for her liking. Besides, she knew Draco like a brother. An evil and highly disliked brother, but like a brother nonetheless.

Today was one of her visits. She usually did them about every other day during the working week, leaving the remaining days (and if needed, the weekend) to study her other numerous patients. It bothered her to have to spend most of her time hearing Draco babble on about useless nonsense. Then again, Narcissa was paying Ginny extremely well, allowing her to live quite comfortably in a spacious flat in London. Thank the Gods for women like Narcissa Black, Ginny thought with a grin. After Lucius died in the war, Ginny learned (from Draco of course), that his mother immediately got rid of her taken last name and started using her maiden name, denouncing her husband as a lunatic in the process. Ginny remembered that this was around the time when she first got Draco as a patient. She thought that he would care about his mother's actions, but he was so far gone that he barely even registered it. Ginny found that visit to be very unsettling. It wasn't until she got Draco to talk about it that she learned that he was the one who killed his father.

She walked down the halls of St. Mungo's in her black pinstripe pantsuit and red dress shirt. Ginny hated to wear just black and white. Black was fine by her, but white was just too boring for her; she liked colour in her life. Her black stilettos clicked on the white linoleum floor as she held the handle of her briefcase in her teeth, freeing her hands to fix her hair into a very chic but business-like chignon. Once she secured her hair in place, she took the briefcase out of her mouth, pulled out her wand and cleaned the handle with a quick spell. She deftly placed her wand inside her jacket and stepped over the threshold into the Criminal Ward at St. Mungo's. She took a deep breath as she walked forward, allowing the door to swing shut behind her.

She went through the usual procedure that visiting Draco entailed. This meant testing her wand for suspicious curses, a search of her person for contraband, and of course testing and checking her briefcase for some more spells and/or contraband. When Ginny first started her visits, she was annoyed at the lunacy of testing her. The Aurors claimed it was protocol, but it still annoyed her. As the weeks passed, Ginny just ignored the procedure and tried to focus on the task at hand.

She made her way through the corridor, ignoring the stares and cries for help. Luckily, Draco was the only one in the criminal ward that she knew. Ginny walked straight to the back; Draco's cell was at the very end of the corridor. Every time Ginny got closer to his cell, she felt herself become a bit scared and cautious. His cell was completely different to that of the other patients. The Aurors and Healers in the ward called him the 'Special One' as a little joke.

"Oh, yeah, he's special, alright," Ginny mumbled underneath her breath.

As she got closer to the cell, she paused. It occurred to her how different Draco's cell truly was. While most patients either had bars with wards on them or the padded room with a slit called a window in the door, Draco's was completely different. One wall was completely made of glass; an easier way for the Aurors to keep an eye on him. The rest of the walls were padded so he couldn'tdream of doing anything stupid, and every wall had at least seven wards on it. Even his robes were different. While most were decked out in white robes with a straight jacket underneath, he got to wear dark green robes with no straight jacket what-so-ever! Ginny personally felt that this was yet again all of Narcissa's doing, but Draco never hinted as such.

Ginny gathered her breath once again and strode over to Draco's cell.

She patiently waited for the wards to be taken down when she spotted Draco. Normally when she saw him, he just sat on his bed fiddling with his nails or laying back waiting for Ginny to enter. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized what he was doing. Instead of sitting down, he walked over to the glass wall, walking along with Ginny, smiling all the while. Strange, she thought. He never smiles, never. I thought it was physically impossible. Then she took a few deep breaths, willing herself to believe that her all-nighter was making her feel a bit disillusioned. Once she calmed down, she thanked the guard on duty and entered the cell. She wanted to regret it immediately.

Draco met her at the door, shouting out "Ginevra!" while enveloping her in a big hug. She looked behind her, hoping that the door was still open. Her gaze was met with a closed door and a sniggering guard. She quickly patted Draco on the back and pulled away.

"Umm...nice to see you, too, Draco. So how have been for the past few weeks? Did you have a good Christmas?" Ginny asked, conjuring up a red velvet cushioned chair in the process.

Draco settled down on his bed before answering. "Oh well, it was ok, I guess."

Ginny went through their strangely normal friendly formalities with a slight child-like air. She had already picked up that he wanted to act like an eight-year-old today. If he decided to act like one, then she'd have to think like one.

"What do you mean 'ok'? You didn't enjoy yourself at the hospital?" Ginny asked.

"No, I did enjoy myself. The Healers even brought in some entertainment, and Mother did visit, but it was just...I don't know...weird to not be at the Manor. Ginny, why didn't you visit me?"

Ginny didn't know what to say. He had never behaved like this in the year that she studied him. Sure, he could be a pain, just like today was proving, but he never called her by her real name or "Ginny". It was always "Weasley" and he NEVER displayed any emotion short of loathing whenever she came in. Ginny didn't know if she liked this new development very much.

"Draco, you know that I would have visited you, but I was with my family."

"Oh, I understand. Too busy socialising with your family and Potter to visit your favourite patient," Draco replied with a sneer, putting a spitting emphasis on Harry's last name.

Ginny almost did a little jump for joy when he went back to his normal snarky self. This was familiar territory. She could deal with this Draco, not eight-year-old-pain-in-the-ass-spoiled-brat Draco. "Oh gods, Draco, not that again! You know that I haven't gone out with Harry for over a year! And besides, I'm here to talk about you, not about my love or social life."

"Fine then. So, Dr. Weasley, what's on today's scheduled session?" he replied with emphasis on 'Dr. Weasley'.

"Well...let's see..." Ginny trailed off, taking his file out of her briefcase. "Hmm...we already discussed your childhood, what about your years at Hogwarts?"

"Oh, please, Weasley. That's just a waste of a question, and a waste of our hour long session, if you ask me."

"Draco, who's the doctor here?"

"You are."

"And what is my job?"

"To discuss your personal life with me?"

"Nice try, but no. Please, Draco, don't be stubborn and answer my questions."

"Alright, as you wish. What's the first question?"

"How about we start off with some of the more obvious questions?"

"Whatever, Weasley. Just get on with it already."

"Fine. How did your years at Hogwarts make you feel?"

"Horrible."

"Really? How so?"

Draco snorted at this. "What kind of question is that? You were there, you should know."

"Draco, I know, but it just helps me to better understand what's going on inside your mind."

"Ok. I'll bite. It was horrible in many ways. It was horrid from the moment I met Potter. It was miserable the moment he didn't shake my hand first year. In that one inconsequential moment, I had unwittingly decided the fate of my seven years at Hogwarts. The thing, Weasley, is that I really and truly wanted to befriend Potter, and the fact that he didn't accept my friendship irked me in more ways than one. I guess that's why I focused all of my hatred and personal anguish towards what you so lovingly called the 'Dream Team'. It may seem childish and pathetic now, but at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do."

He paused here, watching Ginny scribble down some notes on a roll of parchment.

"After my first year, things just got worse for me. In my second year, nothing pleased me more than seeing you involved with the Dark Lord's old diary. When my father informed me of his work, I wanted to hop around with a mad sense of joy. I thought it was a just punishment for speaking out against me. Nothing else eventful happened in years three through five. Then year six came along. My sixth year was the year that I could prove my use to the Dark Lord. Everything was perfect. I had every detail of the plan taken care of. Potter followed me," Ginny gasped here. "Oh, don't look so surprised. I knew, but do you think he had any concrete evidence against me? No? I thought so. Plus, he was too preoccupied with trying to make googly eyes with you while you were off snogging Dean Thomas. Anyways, Potter followed me, but that wasn't too much of a big deal. All I had to do was kill that old fool Dumbledore and my sixth year would have been perfect. It would have been, but at my big moment, I got scared, and I ran off like a dog with its tail between its hind legs. I was in a deep depression for weeks. I was irritable, insufferable; an overall bastard. Isn't it funny?" Draco paused again, flashing Ginny a shark-like smile. "So much shit happened in my life and all before I was sixteen."

Draco left his tale at that, patiently waiting for Ginny to say something profound or thoughtful. She didn't say anything right away, writing down notes instead. After about five minutes, she looked up and spoke.

"Well, Draco, thank you for that lovely statement, but you didn't answer my question," Ginny said with a slight smile.

"What?! I just poured my heart out with mediocre thoughts about a school I abhor, and all I get is 'Sorry, Malfoy, but that wasn't what I was looking for'."

Ginny had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing. Once she composed herself, she proceeded to speak.

"Truthfully, you started to answer it, but then you kind of digressed from the point. Here, let me ask you again. In what ways were you years at Hogwarts horrible?"

Draco was silent for about five minutes , trying to figure out what he wanted to say. Finally, he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Weasley, but I can't answer that question."