/ TRIGGER WARNINGS: DOMESTIC ABUSE, SELF-HARM, ALCOHOL ABUSE
(none will be explicitly described as events but will be commented on/mentioned/insinuated/etc.) /

"I'm guessing you didn't catch anyone up here then," George said, stepping into the astronomy tower and looking into Fred's pensive ocean eyes. "I just saw Hermione and Malfoy go past, smart of you not to signal me, really. I don't want to be on either of their bad sides – not that Malfoy has a good side." He sauntered over to Fred, nudging him to draw his attention away from the night sky. "What were they doing up here anyway? Took them long enough to leave after you walked in."

Fred sighed, turning and scraping his back against the rough stone wall as he slid to the floor. He contemplated what he should be telling his twin. He told George everything. There were zero secrets between them, ever – even when it was something that the other twin didn't really want to hear about. But… how could he tell George about this? How could he tell George that they failed as friends and older brothers? Hermione saved all their asses in the war, only to be ignored and abused by the people she held close to her. George, sensing that the mood was much more serious than he anticipated, sobered his grin and sat next to Fred, placing a reassuring hand on his knee. After a few more seconds of silence, George probed him, "You didn't…catch…them up here, right?"

Fred clenched his hands into fists until he could feel the bite of fingernails against his palms. "Yes and no." He hunched over, letting the tension out of his body and trailing his finger along the irritated crescent marks on his skin. It was only right for him to tell George everything. "I did catch them up here, George. But apparently a lot more has been going on than any of us knew about," Fred finally admitted, looking up at his twin through ginger fringe, worried for his response.

George's eyes widened at the answer. They flashed in fury briefly before he controlled his expression and shook his head, running a hand through his messy locks. "I'm assuming there's a reason you're not furious that you found Hermione cheating on Ron, then?" He asked with a nervous chuckle.

Fred stalled. "Did you… did you take a good look at her?"

George screwed his face up a little in thought, "Who, Hermione? She ran past me pretty quickly, I only just realized it was her when I saw the back of her head," he answered, words colored with confusion.

"The next time you see her, take a good look at her," Fred replied, shuddering at the memory of Hermione's yellowed bruises and lifeless eyes.

George frowned, becoming irritated with Fred's apprehension to tell him the truth. "What are you talking about, Fred? I know what Hermione looks like."

Fred jumped up, his expression flushed with rage. "I'm telling you to look at her because her eyes look dead, dammit, and Ron's the one that did that to her!" His eyes skittered around the room, panicked, as his mind raced through all the times he should've noticed when something was wrong. He grew more and more manic, eyes flickering back and forth as his thoughts tumbled over one another before he snapped and threw his fist at the stone wall, cursing when he felt his skin split. "Fuck!"

"Shit," George muttered, scrambling to his feet with his wand ready to fix Fred's broken hand. "You know I'm not that good at healing spells, Freddie," He whispered, voice interlaid with concern. He traced Fred's bloodied knuckles, gently repairing the severed skin. "I fixed the cuts, but that's gonna bruise up like a bitch." He let Fred's hand drop as he placed his hands on his twin's shoulders, looking into the identical, drowning eyes. "Please, just tell me what's going on. I've never seen you so worked up about something before," he implored, resting a hand on Fred's cheek so he couldn't turn away.

Fred blinked, George quietly halted the tear's path with a brush of his thumb. "Ron has been beating Hermione, George," he said, voice hoarse with emotion. He ripped himself away from his brother's caress. "He's been beating her and none of us fucking noticed!" He raised his fist to punch the wall again but George was quick to intercept, pulling Fred into his arms as he completely fell apart. "How could we let this happen to her!" he sobbed. "How could we not see that our own brother became a monster to a girl who deserves the world!"

George stood there silently comforting his brother for as long as he needed to, his own tears streaming down his freckled face. "They all changed after we left, Freddie – the world changed. Ron certainly wasn't raised to ever lay his hands on a woman," he sighed, "But who knows – maybe the war affected him more than we thought. How are you so sure that this is happening?" He questioned hesitantly. George hated to doubt his twin, but he couldn't stand to accuse his little brother of something so severe without being absolutely certain it was happening.

Fred sniffed, pulling away as the remnants of his tears dried on his face. "You don't understand; you didn't see her," he intoned, blushing with embarrassment. "She and Malfoy were both…naked…when I got here. She had bruises all over her, some of them looked like they were a week old." George raised his eyebrow as if to imply that's not all Fred saw. Fred reddened even more but continued, "She didn't even bother to cover up when I walked in, it's like she didn't care enough to allow herself that dignity. And she just looked so, defeated, I've never seen that look on Hermione before." He looked down. "At least, I've never noticed before," he finished, speaking to the floor rather than his twin.

George sighed, throwing a brotherly arm around Fred's shoulders. "Of course it's not right that someone's beating Hermione," George replied, eyes flashing, "and I'm going to fucking murder whoever it is – but how do we know that someone is Ron?"

Fred shrugged George's arm off, opting instead to pace the tower to calm his mind. "Malfoy is so protective of her; why would he lie about something like this? And if it wasn't Ron, don't you think Ron would've noticed Hermione's covered in bruises?" Fred asked, shuddering at the thought that Hermione and his little brother had most likely been intimate.

George laughed without humor. "As much as I love Ickle Ronniekins, he's not exactly the most observant bloke we know," he stated, crossing his arms defensively. "Besides, she's probably covering them with charms during the day – it would make sense as to why no one apart from Malfoy knows."

Fred halted, another idea suddenly coming to mind. "Really though, if this is happening, why hasn't Malfoy stopped it yet?" Fred questioned, looking at his twin with wide eyes. "All they would have to do is go to a professor and within hours whoever it was would be in custody."

"There has to be more to the story than what we know right now," George said, grabbing Fred's arm and pulling him out of the tower. "We can interrogate Malfoy tomorrow, but for now, we just have to lay low. I'm sure there's a reason no one's said anything yet, and if we want to help Hermione we have to know all the sides of the story, okay?" George stressed, knowing that Fred's big heart and spontaneous attitude might get more than just them in serious trouble this time.

Fred nodded as they walked through Hogwarts' silent halls. "You're right," he agreed, swallowing back more tears. "I just can't bear to think that someone is hurting Hermione and none of us have noticed."

George's eyes hardened in the darkness. "I know, Fred. Me too."

The next morning the twins rose with the sun so they could snag their ideal seats in the Great Hall at the fifth, smaller table designated for the eighth years. Fred and George slid into the seats at the end, hoping everyone would think they were plotting and pass by. They were unusually silent as they ate the miniscule amount of food they could stomach, each bite settling like a rock. They watched as the hall slowly filled up with bleary eyed students, but particularly kept an eye out for their fellow eighth years. Finally, Hermione, Ron, and Harry stumbled in, shortly followed by Malfoy and Zabini.

Malfoy locked eyes with Fred as they passed, eyebrows raised in question. Fred nodded once in assurance, and Malfoy let tension out of his posture he didn't notice was there before. As Malfoy and Zabini slunk into their seats, the twins tried to observe as much as they could surrounding Hermione without coming off as suspicious.

At first glance, everything seemed to be normal. Ron said something that both Hermione and Harry laughed at as they all filled their plates with food. Harry's green eyes shifted into the distance to stare at Ginny, who was taking her seat at the Gryffindor table. She felt his stare and turned to wiggle her eyebrows at him, making his face flush happily as he grinned back at her. While this was happening, Ron was speaking quietly to Hermione, who had a small smile on her face. They were holding hands on the table. Hermione turned to a book as she started to eat while Ron talked quidditch with the nearby boys.

George frowned. "Everything seems to be fine, Fred. Are you sure there's something wrong with them?" he asked, paling in sudden thought. "Maybe Malfoy just made up a lie so you wouldn't tell Ron about the affair."

"Then why the hell does she have bruises all over her?" Fred hissed, leaning forward. He remembered the nature of their conversation and threw up a wandless muffliato with his right hand. "How else would that be explained?" he huffed, sitting back in his seat. "There has to be something we're not seeing." He turned to look at the golden trio again, a glint of determination in his eyes.

Their eyes raked over the scene again, but still, nothing seemed to be out of place. Finally, Fred zeroed in on something out of the ordinary. "The book," he breathed.

"What?" George asked, eyes darting to Hermione's book but clearly not seeing what Fred had.

"Hermione's the smartest witch of our age. She can finish a large tomb in under a day!" Fred exclaimed as quietly as he could within the confines of the spell.

"Yes…and?"

"She's been on the same page for the last five minutes, George. Look at her eyes, they aren't even moving – she's not reading," Fred concluded, face falling as he realized what this meant. This fact did indicate that something was drastically wrong. Hermione read through everything in her life – even when she and Harry and Ron were forced to go hunting for horcruxes.

They looked at her more closely. Her plate, which had been full at the start of breakfast, was oddly portioned, as if someone were silently banishing parts of her meal. Not that it mattered much – they hadn't witnessed Hermione take a bite of anything at all, they only saw her pushing her food around her plate. Her hair, while still wildly curly, seemed uncharacteristically limp and dull. Her skin was paler than the twins were used to seeing it, since Hermione usually spent her summers basking in the sun. Whether her skin was due to stress, a lack of sun, or a poor diet, they weren't sure. She hunched in on herself as if she were trying to climb inside of the book she had open next to her. In fact, everything about Hermione was slightly cowering away from everyone around her, apart from the hand that Ron still held above the table. Her knuckles on that hand were almost white.

Just then, Hermione muttered something to Ron and clearly went to go stand up. Ron's eyes flashed with anger for a brief moment as he halted her escape, before they softened and he spoke to her under his breath. Hermione nodded at whatever he said, causing him to smile at her and kiss her cheek, letting her up from the table. She gave him a small smile in return that was anything but genuine as she scampered out of the hall, looking like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Fred tried desperately to get her to look at him as she passed, but she averted her eyes as her shoulders sunk even more.

George and Fred looked at each other, "Something's definitely wrong with them," George spoke first. "It looked like Hermione asked him permission to leave…" he trailed off, disgusted at the thought.

Fred's eyes hardened as he clenched his fists. "If he really did that to her, I'm punching his lights out," he affirmed, no argument in his tone. His eyes ghosted over to Malfoy and Zabini. "Maybe Malfoy can give us some answers," Fred said.

"I think he owes us some answers at the least. Let's send him a note," George suggested, getting a quill and a small piece of parchment out.

Early on in their Hogwarts years, the twins developed an untraceable way to send notes in class without being caught – it was out of necessity. Their professors always tended to split them up. George scribbled out a note on the parchment, slid it to Fred for approval, and then waved his hand over the words. They dissolved into the parchment and appeared on the table directly in front of Malfoy.

They knew it had worked because he flinched ever so slightly as his eyes briefly flicked downwards.

We need answers. Meet us in the abandoned Charms classroom in 5 minutes. – F&G

Malfoy nodded once to himself and said a few hurried words to Zabini, who waved him off in favor of enjoying his breakfast and flirting with the girl next to him. He left the hall at a hurried, yet casual, pace, specifically not looking at the twins as he passed.

George dissolved the muffliato. "Guess we better go get our answers," he sighed. The twins gathered up their stuff as casually as they could muster, pushing each other here and there for effect as they joked their way out of the hall.

Neither noticed Ron's eyes watching them as they left.

"You'll have to teach me that spell, Weasleys," Draco announced as Fred and George entered the room. His eyes narrowed. "I also thought I told you not to tell anyone, I guess I asked too much of you to keep a secret from your other half," he sneered, gesturing to George with a flip of his hand.

"Oh, calm down Malfoy," Fred replied, throwing his bag on an empty chair as he hopped up on the nearest desk. "George would never do anything to hurt Hermione, and it'll be easier for me to help you both if we're both in on it." His eyes softened after a second. "Really, Malfoy, we want the same thing here – I would never put Hermione in any danger."

Malfoy nodded as he relaxed slightly, Hermione's safety truly was his first priority now. He sighed and leaned up against the professor's desk, arms crossed defensively over his chest. "So what exactly is it that you want to know?" He inquired, icy mask firmly in place. "We don't have much time before classes start."

George held up a hand, "We just want to know one thing, Malfoy. If this is all happening, why hasn't anyone tried to stop it?" Fred and George both leaned forward slightly, as if preparing to attack Malfoy in the case that it was all a lie.

"Because it's not as simple as that sounds, Weasley." Draco replied, rolling his eyes. He got up and started to pace the front of the room, gesticulating wildly. "She won't tell me many details at all, so I barely have a grasp on what's going on – just what I've pieced together myself. I'm assuming the abuse started not long after the final battle. It's been going on for so long that he has Hermione convinced she doesn't deserve anything better, and I know whenever she manages to get enough strength to fight back, he just threatens the people she cares about until she backs down." He took a large breath, as if debating something, stopping directly in front of them. "I know she hasn't told you this, but she found her parents after the war."

Fred gasped, jumping up from the desk. "What? Why wouldn't she say anything? We were all under the impression that she was still looking for them!" He exclaimed, feeling his mind reeling again after everything he was hearing.

Malfoy locked onto Fred's expressive blue eyes with his emotionless ice ones. "She didn't say anything because they're dead. The death eaters hunted them down while she was on the run, and she blames herself for it."

George sucked in a breath. "So that's why this is happening. She's just let so many things pile on top of her and now she's drowning." He shook his head, trying to get to the heart of what they were asking. "This still doesn't explain why you aren't helping her out of this."

Malfoy leaned up against the desk again and put his head in his hands, defeated. "I'm helping her as much as I can. That's still Hermione, just as stubborn as ever. She'll hex me if I try to do anything because she's worried Ron will take out his anger on someone other than her. Even if we got Ron away from her she would still be completely broken." He swallowed nervously, turning away from the twins. "And I'm worried about what she'll do to herself if we let that happen."

Fred stepped forward to reach out to him, eyes kind. "You mean like those marks on your arm, Malfoy?" He asked gently.

Malfoy's eyes snapped up as he yanked his schoolbag from the ground. "I'm not a part of this, Weasley! Do not drag me into it." He stormed over to the door and ripped it open, pausing in the doorway. "We need to build her up again, to get her to see that she deserves more and that scumbag doesn't have any power over her. If we just get him sent to Azkaban right now, knowing her, she'll blame herself for it even though he deserves it." He looked over his shoulder directly at Fred. "And you don't want her to think she's responsible for tearing a hole in your family when they already almost lost you."

With that, Malfoy left, leaving Fred and George with an uneasy feeling settling between them.

George turned to Fred, raising an inquisitive eyebrow, "So what did you mean when you asked about the marks on Malfoy's arm?" he asked, attempting to diminish the uncomfortable thickness in the air that was a result of the reminder of Fred's near-death.

Fred sighed, collecting his bag. "Malfoy needs help too, even though he won't admit it," he answered, not knowing how to explain his concern for the Slytherin properly.

"So, what are we going to do about it?" George wondered, shouldering his bag as they left for Potions.

Fred shrugged. "I'm not really sure at the moment." He turned to his twin and gave him a small, depressed smile. "But I'm sure we'll think of something."

/The updates aren't really on a schedule as of right now, but I'm trying to get the chapters out quickly for the couple of you that are watching the story (thank you guys!). I'm sorry the chapters are a bit on the shorter side, once I'm completely finished I'll probably combine some of them to make it easier to read.
As Always – VV/