If all we are is just machines,
Then we must be the cogs,
Inside the wheels of change
We must be more than just machines,
We can't afford to hide
We must embrace the pain
Crown the Empire "Machines"
—-
Chapter Two
Any one travelling by floo powder or apparating for the first was a horrible experience. Hermione felt like she was spinning and stretching in all sorts of directions. The feeling of not being able to breathe was very common and can be scary for first timers, and Hermione was indeed scared of feeling like she couldn't breathe.
She had no idea what was happening. She remembers the fire place but now she couldn't see anything. Everything was slipping away from her.
They arrived in the emergency room of Saint Mungo's.
The ward was packed with witches and wizards with severe injuries, most from playing Quidditch or trying to tame magical creatures they shouldn't near in the first place. Healers were running around trying to help as many patients as they could.
Bellatrix looked at the girl in her arms and saw she was passed out. The witch assumed Hermione fainted from travelling through the floo network.
The younger Black sister gawked at Hermione's injuries before trying to flag down a Healer. None took notice. The four of them walked over to the Healer's station and luckily there was Healer nurse sitting at the counter.
The woman immediately sat up from her.
"What happened?"
Bellatrix leaned across the counter, not wanting others to hear. "She was raped and attacked."
The woman's eyes bulged out of her head. She called over a female Healer and took Hermione from Bellatrix's arms.
The dark haired witch tried not to pull Hermione back to her.
"We need to get this girl to the female assault ward ASAP," The Healer nodded, summoning a bed and placing Hermione on to it before pulling the bed with her to the ward, the Healer nurse looked back to Bellatrix, "I'm going to take you all to the ward's main office and have you fill out medical forms. After that I'm going to need you to fill out a witness statement of what happened while I contact the Auror's Department."
Bellatrix nodded. The Healer nurse started walking out of the ER, Bellatrix started following her but felt Narcissa grab her arm. She turned to look at her quizzically.
"I'm going to take Draco home but I will bring some clothes from Ragnhild's shop for Hermione and then you and I are going to talk."
Bellatrix waved her off. "Yeah, okay."
The Healer nurse called out to Bellatrix and Narcissa went back to the floo network.
As Bellatrix caught up to the Healer nurse she could vaguely hear her nephew talking.
"Is Her-My-Oh-Knee sick?"
RG*RG*RG*RG
Hermione was in a state of being awake and asleep. She wanted to open her eyes to see where she was but didn't have the strength to do so. Her mind wandered back to earlier tonight, wanting her parents to be with her.
She remembers her father Marcus Granger and mother Emily Granger taking her out to dinner in London. They took the bus to Bermondsey but the bus terminated a few blocks away from their apartment. They had to walk through the bad part of town. She remembers hearing someone calling out for help in an alley. Then it all went black.
Bellatrix was sitting the desk in front of a different Healer nurse. She tried to explain to the woman that she found the girl, she wasn't Hermione's mother.
"Do you know the girl through a family friend or?" The nurse prompted.
The witch sighed. "No, I told you that I was walking through muggle London, found the girl in an alley being raped, I saved her, bumped into my sister and then we came here. I have no idea who her family is. Just ask my sister, she probably knows Hermione's surname at least."
The nurse fell silent, rummaging through the draws for different paperwork for Bellatrix. Bellatrix watched as the woman took out an even bigger stack of forms for her to sign. She groaned.
"Well in that case Mrs LeStrange, if we can't get in touch with the girl's relatives soon we're going to have to release her into the Muggle foster system until someone finds her."
Bellatrix's jaw dropped. After everything that poor little girl went through they were just going to ditch her. Bellatrix shook her head.
"No, you're not sending the girl out there by herself. I will take care of her until you or the Aurors find the girl's relatives."
The nurse sighed and walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled another stack of forms.
"The forms are going to take a while to get processed at the Auror's Department but as the law states in these circumstances you can have temporary guardian custody over the girl. Please sign here and here."
While Bellatrix was signing all these forms, Hermione was slowly regaining consciousness.
She saw an older woman looking down on her, wearing white robes.
"Hi Hermione, I'm Healer Elizabeth Taylor. Do you know where you are?" Elizabeth's voice was so soft and kind. Hermione liked her.
The little girl shook her head. "No."
Elizabeth smiled. "That's okay. You're at St Mungo's hospital. Do you remember what happened?"
Hermione scrunched her face up. All she could remember was a person calling out for help and then everything going black. "No. Sorry"
Elizabeth patted the girl's shoulder.
"It's alright sweetie, you don't have to apologise. Do you mind if I check your ow'ies and make them better?"
She shrugged, starting to feel the pain from her injuries. "Okay."
The Healer smiled and took out her wand. "Now if you don't like me touching your ow'ies just let me know and I'll stop, okay?"
"Okay."
Earlier when Hermione was still unconscious Elizabeth changed the girl's clothes and put a patient's robe on her instead. She felt her stomach drop to the floor as she saw all the injuries on Hermione's body.
She did the rape kit test while Hermione was still unconscious, not wanting to freak the girl out and cause more trauma.
Elizabeth carefully pulled back the robe and mumbled some healing spells on the non-severe injuries.
It stun but Hermione didn't make a sound.
After using the spells Elizabeth grabbed a small cup and a potion, pouring a small amount of it in to the cup.
"Here, this will help."
Elizabeth helped Hermione sit up and handed her the cup. Hermione scrunched up her face at the smell of the potion. Elizabeth giggled.
"I know it's smelly and tastes a bit funny but trust me it will help a lot."
Hermione sipped it slowly and pulled a face. "Eww." Elizabeth made sure Hermione finished it before grabbing medical ointment from the tray next to her.
"Now this is going to sting a little bit but it will help make those bigger ow'ies better."
Hermione nodded, looking slightly alarmed.
RG*RG*RG*RG
Bellatrix and Narcissa were waiting in a private room next to Hermione's. Healer Taylor told them that they had to wait until she fully assessed Hermione's injuries. Which Bellatrix could deal with even though she wanted to make sure the girl was okay.
What she didn't want to deal with was her sister berating her for doing a test mission, given to her by their father, for the Death Eaters.
"Are you out of your mind? What if father is doing it to deliberately set you and Rodolphus up for failure?"
"Cissy-" Bellatrix groaned.
Narcissa cut her off. "I thought you said that you didn't want to be like father, especially after everything he has done to us!"
Bellatrix snapped her head to the left, glaring at her sister. "If I wasn't out doing that stupid test tonight Hermione would have ended up dead like her parents."
The blonde woman shut her mouth.
A heavy silence fell over the two sisters. Narcissa clutching the most muggle like clothing she could find from her friend's shop and Bellatrix clenched her fists together.
"I'm not…. Look I don't know why I agreed to the test but for some reason I thought it would keep father from coming to you and Lucius. You and I both know Lucius is terrified of father and he would have signed up in an instant to keep you safe." Bellatrix explained softly, looking at the white tiles on the floor.
Narcissa closed her eyes and felt the guilt from yelling at her sister eat away at her. Her sister was trying to protect her and her family. Bellatrix was always trying to protect her from father and mother.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you, I should have realised you were just trying to protect us."
"Rodolphus too." Bellatrix said, looking at her sister.
Narcissa smiled at that. Rodolphus was a sweet and caring man, she was glad her sister married him.
"What are you and Rodolphus going to do now?" The blonde witch asked.
In all honesty Bellatrix had no idea. Cygnus could come after them and kill them if he really wanted to, regardless if she becomes a Death Eater or not. Then there was the question of how they were going to look after a muggle child. Their world was completely different from the Wizarding world.
"To be honest I don't know. I'm not entirely sure if being a Death Eater is the right thing to do but father… and then there's taking Hermione in and looking after her until a family member of her's appears. It is a messed up situation."
Narcissa gave her a sympathetic smile and wrapped her arms around Bellatrix.
"Regardless of what happens at least Hermione will be safe with you and Rodolphus… I'm glad you're taking her in."
Bellatrix smiled. "Thanks."
There was a sharp knock on the door before Healer Taylor came in.
"You two can come and see her now."
RG*RG*RG*RG
Bellatrix sat beside Hermione on the bed while Narcissa sat at the end.
The girl had spent the last half hour crying after hearing her parents were dead. Bellatrix and Narcissa held her until she passed out again. Their hearts went out to the girl. Hermione was still sleeping next to Bellatrix.
Elizabeth was explaining to them that they would have to bring Hermione in to the ward again tomorrow at lunch, due to the limited trained staff in the facility. St Mungo's had very few trained Healers in sexual assault cases.
"Also we did managed to get in contact with the Auror's Department but unfortunately, like us, their unit that deals with sexual assault victims have a limited schedule so they will be here tomorrow."
"Okay," Bellatrix nodded "When we can we leave tonight?"
"We still have some questions for Hermione after she wakes up. Once she answers them then you can leave."
Narcissa sat up from the bed. "I should probably get some more clothes for Hermione then."
Elizabeth perked up at that. "Oh if you're looking for some muggle clothes there's a store on the ground floor that sells them. A muggle born named Michelle owns it, tell her that I sent you. She'll give you a discount."
RG*RG*RG*RG
An hour later Hermione eventually woke up again and Elizabeth proceed with the questions, occasionally making the girl laugh for the time that night.
Bellatrix and Narcissa found out from listening to Hermione that the girl's birthday was on September 19th and she was turning four this year. Making her older than Draco and his best friends by a year. Other than that they notice she struggled to remember certain things, whatever they were neither witches knew.
"Well that's for tonight. I will see you tomorrow Hermione."
Hermione waved the Healer goodbye as Elizabeth walked out of the room.
Bellatrix carefully picked Hermione up and followed her sister down to the floo network.
"Thank you for looking after me." Hermione said, looking at both witches.
They smiled at the little girl, whose white skin was marred by cuts and bruises.
"It's our please sweetie." Narcissa cooed.
Once they arrived at the floo networks they apparated to LeStrange Manor, as Bellatrix's home couldn't be entered through the floo network.
For the second time that night Hermione experienced the unpleasant feeling of magical transportation.
RG*RG*RG*RG
They arrived at the large wooden front doors of LeStrange with a resounding pop. This time though Hermione didn't faint.
A elf house by the name of Hopkey opened the door. Hermione almost shrieked at the sight of the house elf.
"Bella what's that?" She exclaimed.
The sisters looked at each other wide eyed. Hermione is a muggle-born. This changes things.
Hopkey looked at the girl befuddled. He couldn't understand why the girl was so upset.
"Mistress LeStrange, Master has been worried about you. Should Hopkey attend to the guests?"
Hearing all the commotion from the living room Rodolphus got up from the leather couch and ran to the front door.
"Could you run a hot bath for us please Hopkey." Bellatrix demanded.
Hopkey bowed and disappeared.
Rodolphus stood in shock as he watched his wife walk in to the manor with a girl in her arms. Noting Rodolphus's presence Narcissa took Hermione in to her arms and walked up the stairs to the bath.
Bellatrix walked to her husband hesitantly.
He was flabbergasted. He didn't know what to make of the situation. He knew Bellatrix was doing a test but he thought she had to find Pettigrew not a little girl.
"Who-what…. Bellatrix what the fuck?" He almost yelled.
Bellatrix put her hands up. "Rod, babe, I can explain."
He looked up the stairs and back down again. "Please do… what in Odin's name happened?"
"I trying to find Pettigrew but I came across Hermione in alley way when she was…." Bellatrix felt tears prick her eyes, finally feeling the weight of what happened tonight, "She…" Bellatrix trailed off, wiping the few tears that escaped down her cheek.
Rodolphus pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back. "Ma cherie?"
The dark haired witch sniffed. "She was being raped Rod, I couldn't leave her there." She sobbed into his chest.
Rodolphus felt as though someone stabbed him in the chest. Who could do such a thing to child? He held her tighter and continued rubbing her back gently.
Everything felt too real now.
She tried to remain neutral for Hermione's sake because she hated seeing her cry, muggle-born or not. She wanted it so much to be a dream but it wasn't. She couldn't imagine how Hermione was feeling.
"Shh, shh, it's okay now, she's safe now, you're safe." He whispered gently in her ear.
As much as he hated Cygnus forcing them to join the Death Eaters he was glad that Bellatrix was there to save the girl.
Upstairs Narcissa was helping Hermione was herself in the bath, not caring if water splashed on her. She was quite surprised to see so much dirt after the Healer tended to Hermione. Maybe she didn't want to make Hermione feel uncomfortable, Narcissa reasoned.
It was quiet in the bath room except for the occasional sound of water splashing on the ceramic tub.
Hermione's thoughts drifted off back to when she and her parents were walking through the decaying streets of Bermondsey.
She remembers her father's voice, talking cheerfully about helping making Easter eggs. She couldn't remember who the eggs were for but she knew she felt happy about making them. She remembers her mother laughing at something her dad said.
She recalled her dad picking her up and putting her on his shoulders. Her mum playfully warned her dad not to drop her.
They had to turn down a dark street and then it started raining. They started running down the street, laughing in the rain but they stopped suddenly. Hearing a man crying.
Hermione didn't know why everything went black at that point. She just remembers waking up in the hospital and that her parents died..
Tears stun the honey topaz eyes and Hermione burst into tears again.
Narcissa tried to comfort the girl but she kept sobbing.
A knock on the door startled the young mother momentarily before saying come in. Bellatrix walked in and immediately came to Hermione's side when she saw the girl was crying again.
"It's okay sweetie, you're safe now." Bellatrix said soothingly.
Hermione hiccuped. "I miss my mummy and daddy."
Bellatrix hugged her, not caring if she got wet. "I know you do."
The sisters looked at each other, not knowing what else to say to the poor girl. How do you comfort someone who just lost their parents and was raped.
Eventually Hermione calmed down again and the witches tended to her.
Rodolphus and the elves were prepping the guest room for Hermione. He wasn't too sure if Hermione liked teddy bears but he knew Draco and his friends adored them so he put them on the bedside table, hoping that would cheer up the girl.
"Lilly could get the healing and pain numbing potions for me please?"
Lilly bowed and summoned the potions with a snap of her fingers. She placed them on the bedside table on the right hand side.
"Thank you Lilly."
Toby, the second oldest house, bowed before Rodolphus. Rodolphus looked at the elf. "Oui, Toby?"
"Does Master want Toby to prepare some tea for young Miss Hermione?"
"Oui, and make that three cups of tea Toby, two French Earl Grey and black tea with milk and sugar for Hermione."
Toby disapparated to the kitchen to begin brewing the cups of tea.
RG*RG*RG*RG
Hermione sat on a stool in front of the bathroom mirror, getting her hair brushed by Narcissa while Bellatrix cleaned up the bathroom.
Like Bellatrix, Hermione had thick curly hair that was incredibly hard to brush through. Watching her sister try to brush her own hair for many years Narcissa felt grateful that she didn't have the same problem with her slightly wavy hair. She could only imagine the horror of cleaning out lumps of curly hair from the drains.
Though Hermione's hair was slightly more tamed than Bellatrix's hair and the colour was different.
Hermione had light brown whereas Bellatrix had dark hair. Though it possible Hermione's hair will become darker with age. Maybe her hair will look like Rodolphus's, Narcissa thought.
Once satisfied that Hermione's hair was perfect Narcissa announced she was done.
Hermione smiled, liking that her hair was neat again. "Thank you Cissy."
The three of them walked out of the room and Narcissa had to depart ways because of how late it was. She gave Hermione a hug and told her sister to owl her in the morning.
Rodolphus walked out the guest room.
—
A/N: So that's chapter three rewritten
Probs not my best work to be honest but with the way I unfortunately wrote these early chapters I do have to be careful of how much I write in each chapter. I almost wrote something that was revealed later in the story and for any newcomer I am trying not to confuse you too much. Though it's going to be hard.
I do apologise in advanced for the strong coarse language and the confusion between the rewritten and old chapters.
As someone who grew up in a shit hole of a town and a family way too comfortable with swearing, a lot of cuss words will pop up. So I'm sorry for my weird Australian upbringing.
