Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday. I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes. I'm coming home. –P Diddy.
I let out a painful breath, my chest constricting in pain and rage. I wanted to bring Bellatrix back to life so I could kill her myself. I was envious of the fact it was my mother who had gotten that honor now. That bitch had touched my Hermione, she'd carved that terrible word into her arm and forced her to wear it.
"She etched it onto me with an enchanted blade in an attempt to make me talk. It backfired on her though, it reminded me of Umbridge and how much I hated her. It actually is one of the reasons I didn't break." She finished softly, her eyes distant. She blinked and shook her head, her eyes coming back into focus. I could see her pushing her emotions away, becoming the uncaring, logical prefect. "It's my opinion that whoever is attacking other muggle-borns is aware of this scar. And that would mean they were in that room."
No one said anything at first, I couldn't and it didn't look like anyone else was able to either. Harry and Ron had locked gazes on her, a look of horror, hurt, and love in their eyes. They clearly hadn't known either.
"Who all was there?" Kingsley asked after a long moments, his soothing voice gentle.
"The Malfoy's, Bellatrix, Greyback, Scabior, and two cloaked Death Eaters. I never saw who they were, Bellatrix bound them in their cloaks."
"It wasn't the Malfoy's, they all have an alibi. Bellatrix, Greyback, and Scabior are all dead as well. It had to be one of the other two. Can you think of any distinguishing features they had?"
"They were extremely tall, but I was on the floor so my judgment is off. They were the same height as Greyback roughly." She said, her eyes growing distant. Her hand moved back under the table and I felt her reach for my hand. I grasped hers tightly, rubbing the back of it with my thumb, wanting to bring her some sort of comfort even it did hurt that she had kept that from me. I understood why, she was ashamed, but she must have known I wouldn't care.
"They were broad shouldered, more so than Greyback, they were the ones that actually carried us into the Manor. One smelled of pipe smoke, the other smelled of gunpowder. They were good at disillusionment charms, because I couldn't see their faces when they- I couldn't see their faces." She finished lamely, her voice threatening to break. My chest tightened even more and I found myself moving closer to her, thankful that we were sitting on a bench instead of a chair. I moved my free arm and wrapped it around her, holding her close and tight.
I didn't know what those #$% (again, not even a high enough rating for the language I'm thinking of.) had done to her, but I knew that I had one goal in mind now. I was going to hunt them down and show them what pain really meant. I'd learned excellent methods of torture during the war (I'd been the test subject a few times. You'd be amazed how many Death Eaters we had chasing us in Potterwatch.) but none of it would be nearly painful enough for what I was feeling.
I was scaring myself with how badly I wanted to hurt them.
"Do you think you could identify them if we find them?" Kingsley asked gently, his eyes caring. Hermione gave her head a stiff nod, leaning into me slightly.
"This is invaluable information." Kingsley said, looking at Sturgis. He nodded his head and stood, motioning to Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus. They all rose as well, and apparated as a group, leaving the rest of us in unsure silence.
"Unless there is anything else anyone has to report, then I declare this meeting at an end." Kingsley said, looking around. No one said anything so he dismissed us. I stood up quickly and glanced at Fred who nodded his head. I gripped Hermione's hand tightly and twisted into the air, dissapparating us to the flat. I didn't relinquish my hold on Hermione, instead I pulled her towards my chest, wrapping my arms around her and trying not to tremble.
She was stiff in my hold for a moment, standing defiant and proud until she felt that I was shaking, and she broke. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her head in my chest, crying her heart out onto my shirt as I held her. My own tears fell down my face, wetting her hair as I bent over her, trying to protect her with my own body, wanting more than anything to merge us, to take her pain from her and rid her of the memories that haunted her. I wanted to kill the men that thought they could touch her, I wanted to rage around and break something, but I couldn't. The trembling, weeping witch in my arms needed me, and I would not leave her.
"They tried to rape me, George." She cried out, clutching my shirt as thought it was the only thing keeping her from falling. I tightened my hold on her and felt my stomach turn as my legs threatened to give out. I needed to sit.
I held her to my chest for a long moment and then scooped her up bridal style, carrying her to our bedroom before setting her on the bed and climbing up beside her. I shot a spell at the door to lock it and make sure no one could hear this conversation.
I pulled her into my lap and held her, rubbing her back as my own tears continued to fall. She wept bitterly against me, an endless flow of heartbroken tears. "They ra-ran their ha-han-nds over me, they opened my robe and to-touched me." She cried out, holding me close and burying her head in my neck. I couldn't speak, couldn't find any words past the rage and love and pain building up in my chest. I just held her close and ran my hands up and down her back as I rocked her.
"I was so worn out that I couldn't fight them, I couldn't fight back. Bellatrix was go-going to le-let them do it." I leaned my head back against the head board of our bed and clenched my eyes, trying to get control over my own tears as I pulled her even closer. I couldn't think of anything else I could do to comfort her from so much pain.
"I'm so sorry!" She gasped out, pulling away from me and burying her head in her hands. I sat frozen for half a second before I pulled her hands away from her face and repositioned us so that she was looking at me.
"No, don't be. I love you so much, Hermione. This doesn't change that in the slightest." I said, stroking her face with my thumbs. "That was in no way your fault. I'm not angry at you at all. I could never be angry at you for that. I want to kill those bastards who thought they could touch you. You're my wife, and no one is ever going to hurt you like that again as long as I'm here." I promised, looking into her dark eyes and seeing the pain there. It was enough to drive me mental. I was seconds away from hunting down every pureblood and hexing them, regardless of if they were guilty or not.
"Can I do anything to help? Anything to make it even slightly better?" I questioned, brushing her hair away from her tear stained face. She looked at me with her beautiful eyes and gave her head the slightest nod.
"Touch me, show me they weren't successful. Show me that you love me, help me forget." A lump in my throat prevented me from speaking as I looked at her, so I settled with showing her by pressing a tender kiss to her lips.
"I love you Hermione." I whispered to her as I lowered her down to the bed. "You're mine, and I'm never letting anyone touch you again." I promised, covering her body with mine as I slowly began to show her that I loved her. I caressed her body, tenderly showing her how much I loved her, and hoping it would help her forget the pain.
I was still going to kill those bastards though.
-o-O-o-
I woke up later that evening, holding Hermione close to my chest as I looked around. I blinked a few times to clear my eyes and then looked down at her, bringing my hand up her arm slowly, stroking the skin there.
She'd been so broken and I'd never had a clue. How had she managed to hide all of that? I'd sworn to myself a while ago that I was going to help her heal, I was going to bare the pain, but I'd let something as big as that pass me by. How had I not noticed?
I leaned my head back down against my pillow and held her tighter to me, fighting tears that had risen up in my eyes.
I was supposed to protect her, but she kept getting hurt anyway. My mind was going over, in detail, each of the times Hermione had cried since we'd become engaged, and I realized I had never seen her cry so much until then.
"George?" a quiet voice came from the door. I looked up in surprise and called quietly.
"Come in." The door cracked open and Fred stuck his head through. We were both covered so he stepped all the way into the room and leaned against the door frame, looking worried.
"Is she alright?" I dropped my gaze from him to Hermione, studying her still sleeping form.
"I think she will be. She was carrying a lot of pain from that, Gred." I said, my voice constricted.
"You didn't know?"
"No, I had no clue. How are we going to deal with that? How do I know if she's keeping things like that from me?" I asked, begging my twin for an answer. I needed to know, I couldn't bear to let something like that happen again. He met my eyes head on, sympathy and sorrow in his as he shook his head.
"I can't tell you, George. I had the same problem. The only thing I know to do is be honest. Tell her about you. If you're completely honest with yourself, then she'll open up to you."
It wasn't the straight up answer I wanted, but it made sense. I tried to be honest with her, but I did tend to keep things in. Usually until I burst, and then the entire neighbor hood heard about them.
"Think she'll be up for some dinner soon? Ange fixed some soup, cheddar I think. She said it was Hermione's favorite in school."
I looked back down at my wife and studied her again. She looked peaceful, untroubled even. My arm tightened around her possessively as I gave my head a small nod. "Yeah, I think she'd be up for some. We'll be out in a moment." He nodded his head and turned to step back out of the room. "Oh, and Fred-"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks." He smiled and nodded his head.
"Any time, Georgie." He shut the door behind himself and I turned my attention back to Hermione.
"Love," I called softly, stroking her face affectionately. She inhaled and pressed into me, slowly opening her eyes.
"Hmm?" She asked sleepily, smiling at me.
"You ready to wake up? Ange has fixed us some dinner if you're interested." She blinked and nodded her head, nuzzling her cheek against my chest before pulling back and sitting up. She stretched before slipping off the bed and grabbing her robes back up. I watched her head towards the bathroom with a small frown, trying to gage how she was feeling. I pulled my clothes back on while she left and straightened my hair. She came out of the bathroom a moment later, fully dressed and smiling softly. She crossed the room towards me and wrapped her arms around my chest, giving me a warm, tight hug.
"Thanks for earlier, George. I'm sorry I never told you." I hugged her back, unable to respond past the lump that had just taken residence back up in my throat.
"GEORGE!"
Fred's voice broke me out of the revere I'd fallen into and I dropped an arm from Hermione before running out of the room, pulling her with me as I headed toward my twin. He was holding a letter in his hands, which were shaking badly. The bottom of it had been stained red, as though whatever was inside was leaking. He looked up at me with a white face, his eyes wide and unseeing.
"What is it?" I asked, noticing Angelina was behind him, looking ready to faint.
"It's…" He trailed off and I didn't wait for him to finish. I stepped forward and ripped the letter from his hand, noticing it was addressed to me. I opened it up and peered inside before promptly feeling the urge to throw up.
It was a severed human ear.
A/N:* Comes out with hands raised* Don't hurt me! I promise I will not end the next chapter with a cliff hanger, but come on, that was a brilliant place to end :D
On another, unrelated note. I forgot to tell what was like my hubby and me, oh, can you ever forgive me? It was George dropping the rings. He totally wiped out at his brothers wedding and lost the rings. It was hiliarious! Also, in the last chapter, the game about saying please was based off my real life ;)
Also, don't forget, the Harry Potter World Cup is currently in Round 2! This is a contest that MTV is hosting to decide which Harry Potter character is the most popular. I, being the undying Weasley twin fan I am, am voting for Fred and George. CUrrently, George is pitted up against Ginny, and GEORGE IS LOSING! We can not let this happen! George fans, we have to get him back in the lead! To help you need to go to: "moviesblog . mtv . com / tag / harry-potter-world-cup /" (take out the spaces) and vote for George! We can't have him lose this early in the game!
Now, enjoy and leave a review! Seriously, I will post tomorrow, please don't hurt me for the cliffy. *Backs away slowly with Protego*
VOTE FOR GEORGE!