"Right."
                              
"It's been a hindrance to helping him."
                              
Draco nodded. "Healing charms?"
                              
"He freaks out when he sees wands, and he's worse when anyone touches him."
                              
"Yes, he said that was why he attacked... Ron. Are you alright?" he asked.
                              
"Fine. It's not the first time Harry's stabbed me. He has vicious night terrors when he does manage to sleep."
                              
"Every time he sleeps?"
                              
"Yeah... every time."
                              
"How much sleep does he get?"
                              
"Only a few hours... every other day practically."
                              
"Hmm... what did the Mind Healers say?"
                              
"Strap him down and sedate him. Nothing helpful," Weasley growled. Granger seemed to let him talk, while she stared at Potter.
                              
"How did you get guardianship of him?"
                              
They both looked at him. Weasley hissed, "We sure weren't going to leave him with his abusive muggles, now were we?"
                              
"Abusive?" he queried. That was news to him.
                              
"Nothing like what your dad did to him," he seethed.
                              
"Ron," Hermione sighed. "Verbal and mental abuse mostly. They starved him and beat him a few times that we know of. His cousin... was the one who told us, we had to get them to sign off on it...."
                              
"And you had him declared... mentally incompetent?" he asked, a little surprised.
                              
Hermione grimaced. "We did. You have to understand that he was back there... all the time. He tried to kill himself so many times. After three days, he could check himself out and disappear out onto the streets. We spent days tracking him, when he did have a wand, and only found him when he had a lethal dose of muggle drugs in him. He would have died within minutes a few times. Plus... he let muggles....
                              
"Hermione don't..." Ron said, covering his eyes.
                              
Draco grimaced and prompted, "He let muggles do what...?"
                              
"Use him. And he found the worst ones that he could find. We didn't have a choice, unless you're arguing that we should have let him die and get passed around."
                              
"I'm sure he would have preferred dying, but I'll concede your point. Has anything helped?"
                              
"Not really. He doesn't like being touched or making eye contact. If you can get him to eat, he's better, but lately, we've had to magically administer nutrient potions. When he's upset, sometimes he curls into his bed and hides in the blankets."
                              
"Being warm and enclosed is generally comforting for most people. What do you do when you're with him?"
                              
"Talk mostly... we tried games... but he drifts out in the middle. Hermione got a muggle telly, which he watched, but random things would trigger him into an episode. Handcuffs, a knife, screaming... we couldn't find some, and it wasn't worth him trying to attack us every time."
                              
"He attacks you... unprovoked?"
                              
Hermione shook her head. "He tries to self-harm, we try to stop him and then he attacks us."
                              
"Ahh... right."
                              
"He can use Protego, wandless, so don't underestimate him. He's never used anything also offensively... except to push people away from him."
                              
"His magic is defensively used?"
                              
"Well, he does use it to escape, too. Can't tell you how many different wards are on my house, now. He used to walk through the walls. Impressive, really."