AN: Hello! This is my very first story and I hope you all enjoy. It's a bit of an AU, and Hermione was captured and imprisoned throughout the entirety of the summer before 7th year, and Harry freaks out and makes her go back to Hogwarts instead of continuing with their plan of leaving and finding the Horcruxes. Other things: Harry defeats Voldemort shorty after the conversation with Hermione asking her to go back, THIS STORY COULD BE TRIGGERING - there is mention of rape. I am not JK and I am not making any profit from this story, I do not own anything besides the plot.
An All-Encompassing Storm
Darkness. That's all she could remember as she woke up in what felt like the first comfortable position she had been in for months. Everything was blurry, and there was a pounding sensation pulsing through her entire forehead that reached from ear to ear that was quite annoyingly making it difficult to hear the snippets of the hushed and angry whispers in familiar tones around her. And that's when the realization hit her- the frightening realization that she shouldn't be hearing any familiar tones right now, and she most certainly should not be feeling any sort of comfort at all. Questioning her sanity and also her safety, she forced herself to be as alert as possible, feeling an intense urge rush forward and through her body. Running on pure adrenaline, she tried to force herself into a standing position. Tried, because when she expected to be able to stand on the frigid and hard floor with her arms still attached to the wall with cuffs around her wrists, she only made it to her knees and fell flat on her face.
Thankfully, she realized, that she landed face first on a bed, with the same bedcovers as the ones in Grimmauld Place she distantly thought, and not the floor she expected to be on in the first place. The whispers around her suddenly stopped and she let out a loud groan and questioned what was going on as she finally fully opened her eyes. "Hermione!" She heard and whipped her face towards the person who was calling her name, once again in a familiar tone. The sight her eyes were met with instantly made them water with excitement and relief, something that she was starting to wonder if she would ever feel again. The weight of her situation, her imprisonment, her torture and humiliation that she thought would never end, vanishing with one look into those piercing emerald eyes she had come to know and love over the years. Harry came to sit next to her on the bed and helped her sit up properly all while she was trying to throw her arms around him in an almost neck-breaking hug. When she finally had succeeded in giving the hug, she looked up over his shoulder to see another familiar face, one that was freckled with baby blue eyes and a lopsided smile that she couldn't help but feel a wave of affection for. She scrambled off the bed and attempted to throw her arms around Ron's neck as well but gave up after a few seconds of feebly trying to reach it and settled for squeezing his waist instead.
"How-"she had started incredulously but Ron looked down at her while trying to untangle himself from her to get her to sit back on the bed and cut her off. "It was all Tonks. She was in disguise as she went into Knockturn Alley following up on a tip that a wizard she had been hunting for months now was hanging around one of the shops lately. She walked in and overheard a conversation between two completely dense Deatheaters talking about you out in the open. She took their wands and put them in a full body-bind before the gits even knew what hit them!" At this, Ron's eyes lit up with excitement and Hermione found herself exasperatedly hoping he wasn't exaggerating anything now, as she wanted the full details of what happened so she could properly process everything. "Took them back to headquarters and had Moody question them until they were so scared he had to scourgify the urine from their pants twice." Ron stopped as he seemingly contemplated something to himself before he continued, "He's a right terrifying old bloke isn't he? Anyways, as soon as Moody told the Order where you were, everyone was ready to bust down the doors to the Manor and take you back." Now fully seated and into a comfortable position again resting her head on Harry's shoulder, she immediately raised her head at the mention of everyone wanting to storm the Malfoy Manor, which had not quite discretely become Voldemort's lair, in alarm. Sensing her distress, Harry cut in.
"Not that we did!" Harry scowled as he continued, "Moody banged his bloody stick on the kitchen floor and gave us an ear-bashing - told us all to stop behaving like a bunch of brassed off prats and to sit down so we can figure out a plan." Hearing this, Hermione visibly settled, and once more laid her head on Harry's shoulder. "So…" The boys looked at her expectantly and seemed confused as to where she was leading this sentence and she found herself amused that they hadn't changed much during the months that she was gone. Asking with a prompting, and maybe slightly aggravated tone, "So what did you do then?" The confusion cleared from their faces in such a way that distantly reminded her of the sun peeking out from behind the clouds during a particularly dreary day, quite appropriate for her situation she mused, and Ron once again spoke.
"Oh, Moody snatched some hair off the captured Deatheaters and made polyjuice potion. He and Harry had Kreacher apparate them into the dungeon. Think he said something about the guards questioning what they were doing down there before Moody had all five guards stunned before they even had a chance to fight back." Harry decided to interject, "And while he was doing that, I blasted the chains from the wall and grabbed you before Kreacher apparated us back right into this room. Didn't even take the time to take them off you, just wanted to get in, get you, and get gone. You've been here ever since then, just sleeping for two weeks. Gave us a right scare the first days you were back though." Hermione looked at him questioningly and he seemed to be conflicted about something before slowly saying, "Hermione while you were sleeping you sort of…went barmy a few times while people came in to take care of you." Now there was no question if her tone was aggravated when she demanded, "What are you on about?" He let out a deep sigh and looked uncertainly at Ron, who nodded, though she could clearly see the hesitation in his eyes, like he was almost apologetic for what was about to come out of Harry's mouth. "When someone would come in to change you or wash you, you…sort of went mental." He winced and Hermione guessed he was recalling the memories. "You would scream and went absolutely mad, scratching and attacking whoever was in with you. Tore up the room a couple particularly nasty times even, left it in complete shambles. It got to the point where someone was only allowed in with an auror, it was bloody scary to be honest."
Hearing all of this, Hermione felt her strength draining out of her, not because she wasn't strong enough, no never that, but because for the first time in her life, Hermione didn't know an answer. She didn't know how to respond, or what to say. She couldn't remember anything much from her imprisonment - everything was a blur, and the more she tried to think about it the harder her head pounded and the sharper of pains she got. With the realization that for the first time she just didn't know, Hermione went numb. She changed positions and laid her head in Harry's lap and stared straight ahead blankly while he stroked the hair away from her forehead absentmindedly looking down at her with concern before locking eyes with Ron, silently communicating and coming to the decision they had been debating about before Hermione had woken up.
He slowly lifted her off his lap and jerked his head towards the pillows, motioning for Ron to grab one, and then slid it under her in replacement of him. "Hermione, love, we're going to get you something to eat and let some of the others know you're awake." Harry waited for a response, one that he expected he wouldn't receive but was holding out hope for anyways, and after another few moments decided to just leave her for a bit and return later with the others a few at a time. He imagined she would want to talk to Tonks and Moody right away, so he planned for them to go first, right after giving her enough time for her to come around again. Ron walked out of the bedroom door and headed down to the kitchen where the others were, Harry following right behind but not without looking back at his best friend one more time. He whispered apologies that he hoped she could hear somehow and promised to never put her in this type of situation again, the decision he and Ron coming to earlier being the only way he could think of properly accomplishing that. Harry just hoped the inevitable storm upon breaking the news to her wouldn't be as all-encompassing as he expected it to be.