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Harry woke to the tell-tale sounds of being in a hospital or some other place where medicine or healing was performed..
The all too familiar clean scent of medical grade antiseptic, the soft sound of busy people trying to work but be quiet at the same time, and finally the stiff hard vinyl-like mattress on the bed with its practical but slightly rough white-white sheets.
All these factors screamed hospital, infirmary or care ward.
He tilted his head to the side; his body ached all over but was pain free, a sure sign that he had undergone bone knitting or bone regrowth potion therapy.
He had had several encounters with such treatments in his time since joining the magical community and the disconcerting feeling of being in discomfort whilst being without pain had become a reassuring friend that whatever damage he had endured would be healed.
Raising himself in the bed gingerly, his reformed bones and joints popping loudly as they were used for the first time. He looked around the room he was in and took in his surroundings carefully. It was clear that wherever he was he was not in Hogwarts nor was he in the local muggle/magical hospital.
He spotted Tonks sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. Her eyes were closed and her head rested loosely on her shoulder, a loud and rather unladylike snore confirmed his suspicion that she was asleep.
Harry smiled softly to himself.
He had literally run into the woman several times during his first and her final year of Hogwarts. But it was not until last year that he had really gotten to know her.
She had become a wonderful friend to him. Her vibrant personality matched her hair. Her metamorphic abilities were the centre of conversation at times. She had striven to become an Auror and serve the people of Magical Britain by hunting down evildoers.
The last he had seen of her was at the station at the end of the school year. She, as well as several other members of the order had escorted him home and had had words with Dursley's.
"After Sirius..."
Harry stopped suddenly as it all began to come back to him like a torrent.
The Ministry of Magic, Sirius's death, Dumbledore telling him of the prophesy and then forcing him to go back to the Dursley's for the summer... the attack in his bedroom whilst he slept.
The last memory eneded in pain and a haze as his Uncles words reverberated in his mind.
"No" he whimpered, "not again, he did it to me again."
Shame, fear and a sick bile-inducing revulsion inundated his mind as he remembered his Uncles drunken assault.
Tears came unbidden as he pulled the bed streets close to his body, a subconscious act to hide away from the world.
A hand touched his shoulder and he instinctively flinched away.
"Harry it is OK, you're in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, a wizarding hospital located in London."
Harry turned and looked up at Tonks, now awake and standing at the side of his bed, a worried expression plastered on her face, her normally vivid purple or pink hair, a dull mousy brown.
She reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Tonks... he did it to me again." Harry groaned pulling the sheet higher.
"Again?" Tonks asked, "He did this before?"
Harry paused and lowered his head as more feelings of embarrassment and humiliation washed over him.
"Yes" he said softly, mortified that he had just let slip a secret he had never wanted known to another person.
He felt Tonks hand clench more tightly on his shoulder.
"He is gone Harry." Tonks stated coldly, "I killed him while saving you, he was blown through a wall and cut into a dozen pieces by cutting spells. He can never hurt you again."
"That still does not make me feel better." Harry sobbed and rolled into her arms.
Tonks had woken to the sound of Harry's voice.
She moved to his side and noted his tears. She had reached out her hand to comfort him with her touch but she had felt him flinch away from her as if suddenly burned or shocked with electricity.
Thankfully once he had seen that it was her she had been able to make contact and thus feel his distress through his non-verbal body movement, after a while of slowly caressing his collar bone he relaxed and even leaned into her gentle touch.
Then came a revelation she had dreaded and hoped to not true or ever confirmed. That time was not an isolated incident. That the sexual assault she had intercepted was not the first but one in a long line of abuse, torture and rape.
She leaned down and embraced his body, feeling him tremble and rock back and forth.
After a time, when his tears slowed and his movement stilled she felt it time to ask the questions that needed to be asked.
"When did it all start?" She asked gently.
Harry stopped moving, "Just after I started going to school. He called it my extra special punishments. Payment for the food he was wasting on me."
Tonks gasped, "Why… how could he do this?"
"Aunt Petunia was having problems... down there... and she suggested to my Uncle use me in the meantime to satiate his needs." Harry replied "But even after Aunt Petunia got better, it still continued."
Tonks felt harry shudder violently once more.
"Every time Aunt Petunia had a head ache or didn't feel like being with my Uncle… I was taken from the cupboard and... and..."
Tonks held him more tightly and softly crooned in an attempt to calm him.
"It's over…" she said softly "he is gone, gone for good. There is no need to say anymore."
"It will never be over." Harry spat.
