Disclaimer: I don't own anything it all belongs to the talented J.K. Rowling, and the title it from a Roswell episode. The title chapter is from the song "Sullen Girl" by Fiona Apple.
A/N: I'm nervous about this cause this is my first real HP fic. I'm trying to make sure everything matches up with the books but if you see any mistakes please let me know. Feedback would be worshipped. Constructive criticism is welcome but please make sure it is constructive. So please review and let me know if anyone is reading this, thanks a lot. I hope you enjoy.
Leaving Normal…
Prologue: "And he took my pearl/ And left an empty shell of me…"
Looking back, she realized that it only really took one moment; one hastily made decision, one night—to change a person's life. To change a person. Irrevocably.
Something like this wasn't supposed to happen to a girl like her. A good girl. A smart girl. A witch. Reputedly one of the smartest witches Hogwarts has even seen, and a formidable enemy because of that. Her world was at war, though it might not fully acknowledge it yet. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had come and back and almost killed one of her best friends. And yet—it didn't matter. Not now. Not after that night.
It had been foolish, she realized that now, but it was too late to take it back. It was two weeks before the school term was supposed to start. The next day she was going to the Burrow as usual, and she was nervous, she had spent a lot of the summer worrying about the boys in her life. Secretly she thought of them as her boys, Harry and Ron. They were her best friends but those two words couldn't even begin to describe their complex relationship. So she had gone out late at night for a walk, walking had always helped her clear her head.
It was just after midnight and the moon shone brightly. Hermione was walking in a park just a few blocks from her house. It was a park where she had played as a child. It had always been a safe place to her, a place that held innocence in the air.
But not any longer.
She was sitting on bench daydreaming when she heard a twig snap behind her. Her hand went automatically for her wand but found it wasn't there. Of course it wasn't there. She was at home and an underage witch not allowed to practice magic outside of school. Of course she didn't have her wand.
And then it happened. She fought, fought as hard as she could, in the days coming she would look at the bruises on her body as proof. Proof that she had tried. But she failed.
Hermione Granger had failed.
Hermione Granger had been raped.