Helping Hands
Authors Notes and disclaimers: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. Also, I would beware that there will be mature content within this story, so if you are opposed, please do not read.
On with the Story:
Summary: What made Hermione the quiet studious bookworm we all know and love? A haunting past and a recent experience may be the one thing that Hermione and Severus need to move on with their lives and get past the memories that keep holding them back from relationships. This story will eventually be HGSS and GWDM my two favorite pairings.
Chapter One: Secrets Revealed
Year 1998: Hermione Granger's 7th year at Hogwarts
She was sitting on the train lost in thought. Thoughts of the upcoming year, as she was made Head Girls and thoughts of the past. A past that she had tried to not think about for many years. Luckily the Head Boy and Girl had their own compartments on the train so no one would interrupt the memories she was trying to hold back. She loved her friends, but right now she was not in the right state of mind to listen about the most recent Quidditch equipment and maneuvers.
FLASHBACK
A young Hermione Granger is sitting at the picnic table with her parents and their neighbors the Cole family. The two families had decided to have a picnic to celebrate the upcoming summer months. The summer being the most popular time for dentists and doctors because all the children now had time to come in for their yearly checkups.
"Daddy? I am finished eating. May I please be excused? I am tired" five year old Hermione asked her father.
"Of course pumpkin. Go ahead upstairs and lay down."
Hermione did just that. It took only a few minutes for her to fall asleep. Sometime later, Hermione was awakened to Patrick sitting on her bed. Instantly Hermione became scared. He had looked at her throughout the entire picnic and it made her uncomfortable.
"I want you to be quiet and say nothing. If you say anything to anyone I will make you pay." Patrick proceeded to slip under her covers and begin raping her. Hermione, being too young to understand what was happening to her did not fight because she was scared of what this bigger boy would do to her.
After he had finished he said, "Remember not a word to anyone."
END FLASHBACK
Hermione was brought out of her memories by a loud knocking on her compartment door. "Hermione are you okay? We've been knocking on your door for several minutes," Ginny Weasley asked. "Why are you crying?"
"It's nothing Ginny, just some pent up emotions that I need to deal with that's all. So how was your summers?" She asked Ginny, Ron and Harry.
"Well I only stayed a day with the Dursley's this year. I was excited about that. It seems I only need to be in the house for twenty-four hours for the protection charm to take effect. I spent my time with Remus and Tonks learning some defensive skills to show the DA this year. I also have been staying with Ron and Ginny at the joke shop these past two weeks." Harry explained.
"Yeah, Fred and Geroge hired us for the summer to watch the shop while they experimented some new products and developed others. It was a good time, wasn't it Gin?"
"Sure if you like that sort of thing. I however had more fun preparing for my exams. You know Dumbledore told me that if I studied hard and passed equivalency exams I would be able to jump up to seventh year. Honestly, I don't know why you never tried doing it Hermione. It was fun learning my sixth year information over the summer. I passed with flying colors, well except for potions. Snape's was a hard test to pass, but I managed."
Hermione was excited for her friend. "Congratulations Ginny! I am proud of you. I bet your parents are as well. See what happens when you apply your brains to something other than quidditch boys?" Ron and Harry both grumbled in their seats. "And I never really thought about passing out of any years Ginny. Maybe I enjoyed learning it all so much that I didn't want to miss anything the professor had to impress upon me."
The truth is that Hermione wanted to stay away from her home for as long as possible. Her parents never learned of what Patrick had done to her. She also had no intentions of ever telling them. Of course there had been signs that something had happened to her, but her parents didn't really notice. All they saw was their normally social daughter begin to study and read a lot. They assumed that their daughter only wanted to do her best before the school year would begin again.
With Ginny being a seventh year now, Hermione finally had someone to study with who was not completely obsessed with members of the opposite sex. Of course, there was bound to be the occasional gossip, but Hermione could handle that. In all of her seven years at Hogwarts has she ever felt that she could open herself up for a boyfriend. Perhaps she could change that this, her final year.
"So do you know who the Head Boy is?" Ginny asked.
"Actually I'm not sure. Knowing my luck, it is probably Draco Malfoy or someone equally as horrible. My only hope is that whoever it is, I can manage to get along with him because we are going to be sharing common rooms and patrolling duties."
"Oh boy, the Granger brat is the new head girl" Draco thought as he overheard the conversation. He had come to see who he would be working with this year. "Just what I didn't need. I thought that I would get to relax and get rid of my fake attitude for a little while now that I won't be in the hell that is the Slytherin Common Rooms. Honestly I should have let that damn hat put me in Gryffindor like it wanted to, but no I had to do whatever father wanted me to do even then. Always the same thing. He chose everything for me including who I would be friends with. Maybe I will be able to change that this year even though I have to live with Hermione." Draco stopped eavesdropping and continued on his way of patrolling the corridors of the train.
"You guys should get back to your compartment. We are going to be at Hogwarts soon and you should change into your robes. I also need to patrol the corridors once before we arrive and finish working on my specialty field proposal draft. It doesn't hurt to start early." Hermione ushered her friends back to their compartment and said hello to everyone as she passed and asking how their holidays went. It seemed like just a few minutes later that they had arrived at Hogwarts for their final year as students.
AN: So this is the first chapter of my first fanfic. I hope you stick with me as lately I have had writers block and have not had the desire to write for years. This story is hopefully the beginning of many more to come. Hope to have the second chapter up in a few days. Please review I really want to know what you think about the story.