AN: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters. Please remember Reviews give me life haha, in all seriousness though please review I do love to get your feedback.
Chapter updated 6/16/16 – TRIGGER WARNING FOR RAPE AND ABUSE! While the abuse is not explicitly described it is implied. I know it is not clearly stated but Harry and the rest of her friends are 17 so depending on your country this may be considered under aged.
It was the start of a new school year, the only time of year when my Aunt and Uncle let me ride in the car. This is only because they knew it would get me to Kings Cross Station for another year of boarding school a lot sooner than forcing me to walk would have, and that meant I was out of their hair sooner.
Now to any other person I'm sure the idea of being sent away to boarding school would be the worst thing possible, but to me it is heaven. It is the only place where I am allowed to see my friends, and I am able to get away from my bloody awful uncle. It's also a plus that it was where my parents met when they were in school. When we pulled up Dudley, my cousin pushed me out of the back seat straight onto the pavement nearly causing me to land face first and break my glasses. As I got up and inspected the damage my aunt and uncle pulled my things from the boot of the car and threw them next to me almost hitting me with a few of my bags.
As my uncle unloaded the last of my bags he and my aunt got back into the car as fast as they could and sped away promising Dudley they would take him to get some food since he was such a good boy during the trip. I laughed at this as I thought about the fact that he had done nothing but terrorize me the entire drive, from pulling my hair to calling me disgusting names. As they drove away I was left to get all my bags to the platform by myself, not for the first time. I grabbed a nearby luggage trolley and made it a game of Tetris as I piled all my things on it, pleased to have so many years of practice under my belt. With the cart loaded I set out for my platform as I started to get close I heard what sounded like my name being called.
"Harriet!" I heard again I turned to look at the voice that seemed to be calling me and saw my best friends running towards me with carts of their own, Ron's family following close behind.
"Ron! Hermione!" I called back and waved my arms at them partially to make sure they saw me and partially because I was so pleased to see them. "How have you guys been?" I asked giving them each a hug.
"Well Ron spent his summer playing soccer with his brothers the entire time." She rolled her eyes as if this was the most insane way for him to spend his summer. I couldn't help but smile at this since to Hermione anything that wasn't school related was the biggest waste of time during the summer.
"Oh yeah? Well Hermione spent hers doing homework." He said disgust in his voice. I just burst out laughing hysterically as my friends argued over who had wasted their summer break. This caused them to stop arguing and look over at me.
"What's so funny Harriet?" Hermione asked.
"Haha…I just missed this." I wiped away the tears forming in my eyes from all the laughing. "Come on we don't want to miss the train."
I ran off laughing as they realized I was trying to race them just as we had done every year. I was pretty far ahead when I heard them yelling to watch out I looked over my shoulder at them to see if they were yelling at each other when I ran into something myself. I looked to see what it was and groaned. It just had to be him I ran into.
"Hello Mr. Malfoy." He turned a cold gaze to me that sent a shiver down my spine.
"Ms. Potter."
"Sorry about running into you I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Clearly or we would not be having this conversation." He said his voice as deep and condescending as I remembered from second year.
'Was that a hint of a smile… no it couldn't have been, Malfoys don't smile. Ron and Hermione are catching up and that can't happen I need to win this year.'
"Of course Mr. Malfoy, now if you'll excuse me I need to get going I don't want to miss the train."
"Certainly Ms. Potter but please do slow down so that something like this does not happen again." I nodded my understanding and started off for the train again quickly checking that I had not lost my lead. They had gained on me considerably but I still had a chance of winning so I put all my effort into a final sprint and beat them to the train.
"So was that awkward?" Hermione asked as she reached the train as well.
"It was more odd than awkward. He was actually quite cordial and not as cold as he was in our second year." I answered confused by the change in Mr. Malfoys behavior from previous years.
"I will never trust that man he looks at you funny." Ron said reaching the train as well. He pulled us up onto the train from the platform and then he grabbed our things as well.
I rolled my eyes at Ron as we found an empty compartment and put in our luggage before we went back to say good bye to the Weasleys. After our good byes were done we went back to the compartment, Ron and Hermione on one side and myself on the other, and waited for the train to leave. We spent the ride as we usually did talking with each other and joking around. We tried to catch up with each other as well.
"Harriet? How come you never really tell us what you do over the summer?" Hermione asked as she scooted closer to the edge of her seat.
"Because I never do anything interesting I mostly stay inside doing chores." I refused to tell them exactly what I did because I wish I didn't know what it was I did myself. Hermione must have seen the guilt I felt, due to keeping a secret from my friends, on my face because she looked over at Ron and asked him to give us a moment.
"What am I supposed to do while you guys talk?" He asked the tone of his voice making it very clear that he felt put out by the two of us wanting to talk alone.
"I don't know go find your sister, or Nevil and hang out with them for a while. I'll come find you when we are done." She said with a gentle but irritated tone to her voice. Ron stood up abruptly and left the compartment slamming the door shut as he left. "Okay tell me what's wrong." She said as she moved from her seat to sit next to me.
"I don't want to talk about it Mione." I said trying to turn away from her to hide the guilt and shame that I felt. Mione being who she was though wouldn't give up.
"Harriet please I'm your friend and I'm worried about you." She placed her hand on my leg in a gesture that was meant to be comforting but it just made me flash back to the summer which I would rather forget. I jolted out of my seat in a fight or flight response.
"Just drop it Mione! I said I don't want to talk about, so I'm not going to talk about it!" This time it was me who left the compartment and slammed the door. I could feel the panic beginning to set in, so I made my way to the bathroom and locked myself in for the remainder of the trip.
When we finally arrived at Hogwarts and stepped off the train we saw all the new students being taken away by Hagrid to get the results of the sorting quiz that they took upon their acceptance to Hogwarts. The sorting quiz is what makes Hogwarts special. It is a quiz that every student must take so that they can be placed into a team, or house as we call them. These houses are meant to help students make friends more quickly because they have to work together to earn points for their house throughout their time at Hogwarts. The rest of us piled into the buses and were taken to the Banquet hall. Once we arrived we all went to our house tables.
"I hope the headmaster doesn't have a long speech this year. I'm starving." I said as we sat down.
"You say that every year."
"Leave her alone 'Mione. You know she's not the only one who doesn't want a long speech so that they can just eat." I smiled at Ron in thanks for standing up for me.
I looked towards the head table to inspect who our teachers were this year. Specifically, the P.E. coach as we get a new one every year, at least we have since I've been coming, I see there is one less chair than usual.
'Did they get rid of P.E.?' And then I see the one thing I didn't even know I needed to hope I would never see.
The school nurse Madam Pomfrey is missing and in her place...I gasp.
"Guys Look!" I whisper urgently as I'm pointing to who I can only assume is our new nurse. They turned and looked letting out gasps of their own.
"The headmaster can't be serious about hiring him! Maybe he's just visiting for the night?"
"Oh come on Ron you heard Harriet on the train earlier, maybe he won't be bad as a nurse." Hermione tried to rationalize.
Ron shrugged his shoulders, put an arm around my waist and pulled me closer. I pushed him way feeling a little uncomfortable with how protective he was being after his outburst on the train. For the rest of Dumbledore's speech about what the new school year would hold for us, the three of us just sat there not even paying attention when he brought out the new students telling them what house they would be in.
The only thing that broke us out of our silence was when the food arrived and we could finally eat. I dug in like it was the first real meal I had gotten all summer because honestly it was, all I got at my aunt and uncles were scrapes and that was only if they thought I had behaved that day. Once we had finished our food we were led by the head of each dorm to ours rooms.
As we got closer to the bathroom on our floor Hermione and I said our good byes to Ron for the night and went with the rest of the girls to the female dorms. Our dorms are a little different than most. First there are four different buildings one for each house, and each of the buildings has 7 floors. Each floor has one bathroom, a study area, and two massive bedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. The only difference between the floors was that the first floor also had a common room for all the students to hang out in. Each floor is dedicated to a single grade, and since this was our final year here we had the top floor as our living quarters this year.
Mione and I quickly settled into our new room as it was set up the same as every other room we had been given. Normally once we were settled we would go and meet Ron in the common room, but this year I just didn't feel up to it so I told Mione to go without me since I was just going to go to bed. I waited for her to leave before I changed into my nightgown and climbed into bed hopeful for my first good night of sleep in months. Unfortunately, I had strange dreams that night that ruined that hope. It felt like someone was caressing my body all night long. I woke up in the morning covered in a cold sweat from the memories that the dream had brought to the surface, so I quickly made my way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
I quickly got into the shower banishing such thoughts from my mind as I let it wander oblivious to the world around me. I though back on the years my friends and I had spent together in this building. I though back to when I first met Hermione and how odd I thought she was; I smiled at how close we had become over the years. My mind then wandered to the first few months of knowing Ron and how scared I was because he looked at me the same way that my uncle Vernon did, but unlike uncle Vernon Ron had never done anything to me other than be protective of me. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear when the door opened. All I knew was I was suddenly being slammed into the wall. One hand held my face against the wall while the other hand started to caress my body.
I felt the hands trail from my outer left thigh to my hip and up my waist before it finally grabbed on to my breast. I wanted to scream and tried to fight them off when I heard him whisper in my ear words I had heard so many times before during the summers from a voice much gruffer and angrier.
"If you scream or fight me in any way I will make your life a living hell." The words sent a shudder down my spine. I felt the hand on my breast move back down my body and stop on my hip the fingers massaging circles into my hip.
"For years you have been seducing me, prancing up and down the hall from the bathroom in your little towel. When you weren't doing that you were walking around the common room in your tiny shorts and short tank tops." The hand on my hip started to move lower. I thought what I had been through during my summers away from school would be the worst thing that I had ever experienced until I was forced to turn around and see the face of my attacker.