Chapter 3

Severus was chopping at the bit to go after his apprentice, Avery Binns. He was once a student in his house but still he never thought that anyone from his house was capable of rape. Not since he was the head of house. "So you just expect me to stand back and not do anything?"

Albus looked at Severus with a look of curiosity twinkling in his eyes. "What I want to know is why you're so concerned for Miss Granger."

"I'm concerned that she isn't the first he's done this to." Severus snapped. He couldn't let that old fuddy duddy find out about his feelings for Hermione. Even he wasn't ready to face them.

"Oh don't give me that rubbish, Severus. I've known you since your school days."

"Bollocks! Just tell me what you want or I'll go about finding him and punishing him in my own way, damn you." Severus wouldn't have been surprised if smoke was coming out of his ears. He was worried for other girls, but more so for Hermione.

Hermione tried to sleep but she was too sore to do more then lay on her back. Plus the whispers of Harry and Draco were keeping her awake. She just wanted them to shut up or go into their room. She had refused to tell Harry anything and would have told Draco to keep his mouth shut too but she knew it would be pointless.

"Do you want me to get you another pain potion, Mi?" Ginny asked from her seat by the fire.

"No, I'm fine. Why don't you go distract the boys? Their whispers are starting to get on my nerves." Hermione asked of her friend.

"Are you sure? I know how you hate to sleep on your back." Ginny walked over to sit on the edge of Hermione's bed. She held Hermione's hand as pain washed across her face. She flinched a little at the grip on her hand but she didn't mind. Her pain was nothing compared to what Hermione was feeling. "Mi, what else did he do? You seem like you're in more pain then you should be."

"I honestly don't know. Maybe a potion went wrong and it did something to him and then it got on me. Or maybe he did a soundless curse." Hermione looked away, she didn't want to see the tears or pity in her friend's eyes. "I'm sure Professors Snape and Dumbledore will figure it out."

"Alright, but you call me if you need anything. I'll go distract the boys for you." With that Ginny left to go drag her boyfriends into their room.

Hermione slowly pulled herself into a sitting position. She smiled at Ginny's crazy relationship. No one understood how she could love both boys and how both boys didn't mind sharing her. She didn't understand it much but knew that in their own weird way, it worked for them.

She stared off into the distance, not really focusing on anything. She never imagined that she would ever face what she had just faced, especially at Hogwarts. As she started to worry about her classes and what the students would say, Crookshanks jumped onto her bed and nuzzled her hand, wanting attention. She obliged him and continued her thoughts allowed.

"What am I to do, Crookshanks? Do I hide in my room under and figuratively burry my head in the sand or do I face the whispers and gossips? Lord knows I've had enough of that with the rumors of Draco and me. But this is ten times worse then those, because it's true and some may turn it into me regretting sleeping with him and that I'm lying." She dashed away her tears as they streamed down her cheeks.

"Why would I lie about something so awful? I would never do that, damn it! No better yet damn him! Bloody bastard!"

So Hermione subsided and just continued to pet Crookshanks. Before she knew it she was fast asleep. Her head resting against her headboard and Crookshanks resting on her lap, she managed to have a dreamless sleep, even with forgetting to take the potion the medi-witch gave her.

The same could not be said for Severus.

That night he tossed and turned in his four-poster bed. His sheets where getting tangled with his legs as he dreams of running towards Hermione, trying to save her but it seemed the faster he ran the farther away she got. He could see Avery Binns, his potions apprentice, laughing like a lunatic as he leaned over her.

Even his wand seemed to have no way of helping him. He shot every curse he could think of; even the Cruciatus Curse did nothing to stop him from tightening his grip on Hermione's throat. He screamed over and over for him to leave her be. To not touch the witch he was falling in love with. Just as Avery pointed his wand at Hermione's chest, Severus jumped in hopes that he could pull the man's hand away before he said the killing curse. Not caring that he might be to far away. He had to try; he had to save his witch!

Severus came a wake on an oath as he fell from his bed and hit the floor. "Bloody hell!" He stood up and brushed off his silk pajama pants and his bare chest. He didn't even bother climbing back into bed. He knew there was no chance of him sleeping. Not until he caught Avery and made sure Hermione was safe.

"Avery better find a good hole to crawl into. Once I find him I'm going to make him beg for mercy!" He growled as he stormed from his bedchamber to his office slash library, where he poured a generous helping of Firewhiskey and threw it back in one swallow. Then he poured another, sat in the chair in front of the fire, and nursed it until the morning light.