Emerging from number 4 Privet Drive came seven Potters, each with their own guardian. Four got onto brooms, two onto thestrals, and one got into the sidecar of a motorbike. They took off into the night sky, each heading towards a different location. Not long after, they were being pursued by Death Eaters. There were jinxes, hexes and curses flying left, right and centre.
Hermione was on a thestral with Kingsley. They were both firing off spells at lightning speed, while dodging ones coming their way. So far they were doing very good, until one curse managed to slip through and hit Hermione square in the stomach. She gasped and doubled over in pain, nearly falling off the thestral. "It's a girl. This isn't Potter" she heard Bellatrix say . Suddenly all the Death Eaters stopped following them and went after the others. Hermione could see blood running down the thestral's side as she battled to keep her eyes open.
Once they landed, Kingsley immediately carried Hermione inside, wrapped a towel around her abdomen and took the portkey. It took all her willpower not to throw up as they spun to the Burrow. When everything stopped spinning Hermione grabbed Harry and hugged him. "Where's Ron?" she asked. "We don't know. You are one of the first ones back" Ginny answered. Hermione fought back the pain in her abdomen, using adrenaline to keep her standing. She refused to go lie down at let Mrs Weasley fuss over her, not until she knew Ron was safe. Her knees gave in the second after she hugged Ron. She remembered falling, then everything went dark.
Hermione woke up in Ginny's room. Ron, Harry, Ginny and Mrs Weasley were all looking down at her. "Hermione, sweetie, can you hear me?" Mrs Weasley asked. Hermione nodded. The events of the past few hours were all rushing through her head. "Is she going to be okay? What kind of curse was it?" she heard Ron ask. She didn't need to ask these questions, she knew. She wished she didn't, but she did, "Female Infertility Curse" Hermione whispered. "They used it to eliminate their options for the real Harry. It only works on girls. There is one for males as well, but the incantation for the female one is shorter" Hermione explained. Hermione hissed as Mrs Weasley wiped the blood away from the wound just left beneath her belly button. "You're going to be sore for a while, but you will be fine" Mrs Weasley said. "But she won't be able to have children?"Ron asked. Mrs Weasley shook her head.
*#*#*#*
Hermione couldn't wait for "a while" to pass. Every time she breathed or bent at the waist an unbearable pain coursed through her. It started in her lower abdomen and spread until even her fingers and toes were tingling. She should have been lying down, she should have been resting. There was still a long road ahead and she needed to save her strength, but she couldn't just sit there. She needed to move, she needed to feel like she was being helpful. Mrs Wesley gave her light jobs to do, just to keep Hermione from thinking too much. She just needed "a while" to be over.
*#*#*#*
Hermione laid crying on her bunk. Turns out "a while" was a relative term. It has been months and she was still sore, at least every time it was cold or she had to move. Considering it was winter and she was hunting horcruxes, that meant all the time. She was so mad at Ron for leaving. Couldn't he see how important helping Harry was? Couldn't he see how much she was hurting? Didn't he care?
Hermione had started feeling normal again. She could move around again with relative ease and get up without feeling like she was being disembowelled with a spoon. Then came November, and with it came the cold. Hermione's wounds hurt as if they were new. For every movement it took all her power not to scream out. The cramps became almost unbearable, but Ron was there. He took care of her. He brought her tea and hot water bottles to help with the pain and talked to her until she fell asleep.
Ron was the only one who could make her feel better. Ron knew how to help her, but he left her. Now that he was gone, she had to spend more nights out in the cold without any hot water bottles, and Harry didn't have much to say. Right now Hermione just felt miserable.
*#*#*#*#*
Nobody noticed just how badly injured and underweight Hermione was until after the war. Hermione was often very nauseous while they were on the hunt, and because they had limited resources she often ate nothing in fear that she might puke it all up again. Her ribs and collarbones stuck out against her pale skin. She was covered in burns and bruises from the vault in Gringotts. Beneath her bellybutton was an 4cm-long scar from the previous summer, next to it was a burn-like wound that the Cruciatus curse had left on her stomach. She had a similar one on her chest, beneath her right collarbone. On her left arm she had the word 'Mudblood' carved into her arm, and the wound was still scabbed over.
Fleur had tried to treat Hermione after she was tortured with the crucio curse, but didn't realise how bad it was. Only after the war did they see how close Hermione came to being tortured to insanity. She could relapse and have seizures or cramping fits that come and go for the next ten years. The scar on her arm would heal, but will never go away, and her uterus sustained pretty permanent damage. "We can try and remove some of the scarred tissue once she is fully healed and stronger, but now it will accomplish nothing" Madame Pomfrey explained.
A/N: Fred didn't die in this story
