Chapter Thirty Two

Laurel sat at her desk in her office, and realised that the secretary in the waiting room had dropped off mail for her. Upon looking at the five names that stared up at her from folded parchment, she couldn't help the flutter of nervousness in her stomach as she recalled that session over a week ago. It was with some trepidation that she opened the first one.

Dear Healer Laurel Donnelly,

It is with regret that I inform you that I can no longer participate in these therapy sessions. They have gotten to the point where they are too stressful for me to abide and stress in my current state is not healthy at all. In order for my pregnancy to be less at risk I can't be under any additional stress, and this would qualify as such.

I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me the space and time to speak about things that were hard for me to speak about. I never felt pressured into speaking, and you attempted to provide a safe and accepting environment. That's all I could have ever wanted in a therapist, so I wanted to thank you for that, and to ensure you that my discontinuation of sessions is in no way a reflection or a result of your skills as a Healer. Keep doing what you do – you're amazing.

Hermione Granger-Weasley.

Dear Healer Donnelly,

I am writing to tell you that Ginny and I no longer think that attending these therapy sessions will be useful. We are more than pleased with you as a therapist, but the environment has grown quite hostile – through no intentional fault of your own – and it is no longer welcoming to us. We feel that as a group we have gone as far as we can with you, but would like to retain your services for individual and couples therapy when we require it. Please let us know if this is possible.

Warmest Regards and Best Wishes,

Harry and Ginny Potter.

Dear Miss Donnelly,

I'd always known that having Malfoy and I in the same room was a mistake. We never could get along and I never expected that to change. So maybe I was setting myself up to self-destruct because he was around and I wasn't optimistic. You helped me get over some of my issues and I want to say thank you for that.

But I'm done. I can't be in the same room as Malfoy, there's way too much anger there that I think I have to deal with by myself first, which is where I think the problem here stemmed from. I'm sorry but I just can't.

All the best,

Ron Weasley.

Dear Healer Donnelly,

After our explosive session last week, I took some time to reconsider the effectiveness of the therapy. I have decided I will no longer be attending the sessions. I no longer think they will work, considering how detrimental the last session was. I was a Death Eater, and I bullied people when I was in Hogwarts relentlessly. This makes it difficult for people to see me as a husband, father, and businessman. I have tried to move beyond what happened in the past and apologise for it, but it has, understandably, not been received very well. It is best if I stop with the group sessions and continue our individual ones when needed. Please let me know if this agreement is acceptable.

I wish to offer my thanks for your work with me, and for the advice you gave Astoria. She's been sleeping better since, and we both appreciate that.

Sincerely,

Draco Malfoy.

Laurel sighed and collected all of the letters, placing them in a file along with her other notes and observations. She slipped a few sheets of parchment – this time with the St. Mungo's letterhead – and started to write.

Written Report "Kumbaya Experiment"

All clients involved with the endeavour of the group therapy experiment did achieve some progress:

Ronald Weasley – made some progress in terms of realising he had depression, and that it was not normal. Was able to reconcile some of the destructive feelings he had toward Mr. Malfoy, with his wife's help. He was able to express and reconcile feelings of inadequacy because he was the youngest boy in a large family and never had anything that was his and his alone. He did not feel like he was valued, and his family was not valued in higher wizarding circles due to their lack of traditionalism, which labelled them as blood traitors. He accepts that people can change, but was unable to fully reconcile the knowledge and feelings unfortunately, and as a result still harbours much anger toward Mr. Malfoy. In part this is due to these feelings being cultivated from a young age from his parents and the school, and compounded by his depression and PTSD later on in life.

Hermione Granger-Weasley made fantastic progress, particularly near the end of the sessions. Was holding back much throughout the experiment, more so because she was afraid of hurting other people through her words. She made progress in regards to her parents and feeling lost with how her relationship with them had changed due to her heroism. She managed to have a breakthrough in several areas closer to the end of the experiment: with her feelings of inadequacy in the wizarding world, the realisation that she had, in fact, resigned herself to her death during the war, and the feelings of isolation she felt in school. All of these areas stemmed in some way from muggleborn, and clearly there was residual resentment involved and present from her time in school. She faced much adversity and overcame it.

Draco Malfoy made progress in some areas. He knows how to anticipate and work through his panic attacks. He faced some animosity within the group, which prompted the main focus of this experiment; how to overcome such animosity in others to work as a group and help one another heal. This was not as successful as the personal breakthroughs that each client had. Draco had started to get over his attitude about everyone disliking him on sight, and that he had things to contribute. He was able to be very vulnerable in speaking about his father and the potential abuse he suffered, and the jealousy he experienced in school when confronted with the less regimented ways of his other classmates. He was unable to reconcile with the loss of his second child due to its recent occurrence.

Harry Potter seemed to make the most consistent progress throughout. Starting with the initial sessions, he seemed to be the peaceable one, trying his best to keep everyone calm and honest. This is very in line for what I expected from him. He wanted to group aspect of the therapy to work, and I'm fairly sure he had misgivings about that. He then proceeded to make progress on the aspects of his Headmaster, his relationship or lack thereof with his relatives, and realising the markers of his PTSD.

Ginevra Potter held her cards quite close throughout the experiment, but she did make progress. She reconciled her feelings of abandonment in regards to Harry leaving to his death without saying anything. She's somewhat reconciled her feelings of resentment toward her family about the way she was grieving about Fred's death. She's reconciled her memory loss from being possessed by the diary in her first year, and came to terms with the lack of compassion she received over likely traumatic events.

Ultimately, this experiment was a failure because there was no true overall reconciliation, though there was some individual progress and reconciliation. I cannot do anything else for them as a group, as the animosity was greater than I, and likely they, expected it to be. They still have progress the make as individuals and as couples, so I have offered myself to them for counselling of any kind, should they need it on their path of mindfulness. I think they have come a long way from the children and teens they once were, but because they are victims of a war, they still have far to go.

Healer Laurel Donnelly

A/N: Annnnddd there we have it! That's the end. I know it might not have been the happiest ending you were looking for, but this was the only way I could forsee it ending.

I'd just like to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed. It means so much, considering I never expected any reviews at all - this was just a return to writing and creativity that I needed, and just decided to post it.

I will be returning to Getting to Know the Greengrasses (GTKTG) and will be sporadically updating Aftermath as well. After I finish GTKTG I will start writing my Laurel centred story.

If there is anything you'd like to see me write, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Much love
Midnightamant xx

P.S. - Replies to Reviews

mandiecandie: I totally agree with you - they were basically child soldiers, so how can they really be the perfect families the Epilogue described? I think JKR just really wanted to find a way to satisfy everyone with that ending, really, and make it full circle because now they're the parents sending the kids to Hogwarts. I was actually thinking that some of the people in this fic (Draco/Astoria, Harry/Ginny, Hermione) would actually have some one on one or couples sessions. I'll mix in other people from the Potterverse as well. But this is all just very much in the beginning stages. I can't write two long stories at once, so I need to finish GTKTG first.

manitou2422: Yeah something like this could really just go on forever. But I really want to get back to GTKTG. Thank you so much for your kind reviews throughout!