Revenge Part III

Sequel to Revenge Part II

2451 words

Rating: M

Hermione sat on the old wooden bench in the Weasley's back meadow and watched the sun set over the fields. From where she was sitting, she could hear the noisy bustle coming from inside the Burrow. There were so many people and yet Hermione had never felt so detached from all of them.

Unconsciously, the fingers on her right hand drifted over the faint scar on her right cheek. Even though the skin was now nearly completely smoothed over, Hermione felt it tingle as she drew out the jagged flesh with her forefinger.

Seven months later and she could still feel the quick slash of knife that had altered her face forever. Hermione shivered as a tingle ran up her spine.

Remembering her counsellor's words, she took in a deep breath with her nose and exhaled through her mouth. Once. Twice. All the while, her fingers were clenched into tight fists next to her.

"Mione!"

Hermione jumped from the call of her name. She rapidly turned around, her heart clamoring to escape from her chest at the startle. Even when she saw the familiar figure walking towards her, it continued thumping against her rib cage.

The sun bounced off Ginny's red hair and Hermione was immediately flashed back to that night.

The flames.

She could feel them licking at her skin.

Warmth and heat hitting her…suffocating her so much that she couldn't take air into her lungs.

Her eyes were open in the barest of slits and even that stung with unimaginable pain.

Hermione looked around, disorientated. Where had she dropped Draco's wand? Where was it?

And then an even more alarming thought entered her mind. Where was he?

Swirling around, she turned to face the area in which she had cursed him with his own wand. The whole area was alight with flames. His body invisible through the fiery inferno that was steadily creeping closer to her.

Sobbing, Hermione quickly turned back around and dropped to her knees. With her heart set to burst from her chest with the adrenaline pumping through her body, she scrabbled around blindly on the floor, searching for that one piece of crooked, thin wood that would be her savior.

There was a blast behind her and Hermione cried out in alarm. Her hands moved to protect her head as her body instinctively curled up into a fetal position. When she felt no curse hitting her, she whipped her head around.

Her whole body froze for a moment as she saw a black figure standing in the entrance of the room she had been forced to remain in for the last three hours.

Crying out in defeat, she immediately stood and stepped backwards, arms splayed out in front of her, ready to fight Draco.

And then the most miraculous thing happened. The wand which had been pointed directly at her chest, started to sprout jets of water around the room.

Hermione watched the action in a daze before she realised that this was her chance to get out…While Draco was busy trying to crazily quench the flames.

Standing up on her shaky legs, she immediately ran towards him. When he moved to stop her and caught her in his hold, she beat at his head and chest with small fists.

"Mione…Mione! It's me!"

Swaying, Hermione momentarily stopped her actions as she heard the strange words. Looking up she saw not the grey eyes that would haunt her for the rest of her life, but an emerald green pair. Eyes that would save her.

She slumped in Harry's arms and not a second later she felt a familiar squeezing as Harry apparated them both to safety.

"Hey, you okay?" Ginny asked as she came within normal hearing range.

Hermione couldn't respond. Her gaze fixated on the fire surrounding Ginny's head.

"Mione." Ginny repeated as she took a seat next to Hermione.

It was the touch of Ginny's hand that jolted Hermione out of her memories. Flinching and being unable to mask it, Hermione saw Ginny immediately retract her hand. A mixture of sorrow and exasperation danced across her delicate features.

"Sorry." Hermione said belatedly.

Ginny merely studied her for a brief moment before shaking her head. "Forget it." She said with a half wave of her hand.

Hermione had to force herself to remain fixed in her position as Ginny's hand treaded dangerously within her personal space. She didn't want to see that look of frustration again.

A look which was becoming all too frequent in the last few months. A look, which asked just how long Hermione would flinch or startle at every little thing? A friend's casual touch. A friend's casual call of her name when Hermione was engrossed in her memories.

Memories of him.

She wanted to scream. Yell loudly and ask her Wizarding family on when they had allocated a period of time for Hermione to get over that night and move on. When they had decided that the time had come for them to no longer help her willingly, but because she was a burden. A burden that they didn't know how to help anymore.

"Ron told me about Tuesday night."

Ginny's voice broke through and when Hermione registered the words, she stiffened and her cheeks flushed in mortification. Ginny must have seen the betrayal in her eyes because she hurried to explain.

"Please don't blame him Hermione. I badgered it out of him. The two of you have been avoiding each other all afternoon." Ginny hesitated before continuing. "I…just…why? Why would you... when you know you aren't ready yet?"

Hermione smiled sadly before turning to look at her friend in the eye. "Because it's been seven months…And I should have moved on by now."

When Hermione saw Ginny move to shake her head at her words, Hermione halted her actions. "Don't Ginny. We both know it's true. It's just…I can't…" her voice broke at the end of the sentence.

Her heart broke when she saw Ginny make to place a comforting hand over hers, before deciding it would be a bad idea and moving her hand back to her own lap.

"I can't forget it Ginny. Everything is stuck in my head…Every time I close my eyes…Every time I blink; my mind goes back to that night. I can still feel everything that he did. I see it every time I look in the mirror. I feel his hands every time someone touches me. Why isn't that gone by now? It should have gone." Hermione cried silently.

Scrubbing away the tears on her cheeks, Hermione took in another few breaths.

"I thought if I slept with Ron…then…my body would…I don't know, realise that not everyone wanted to hurt me. I thought that if I felt Ron's touch then I could forget his."

"It didn't work." Ginny stated.

Hermione shook her head in agreement. "It was all I could do to keep my body still, inside of letting my panic escape. As soon as Ron kissed me I wanted to hurt him…but I fisted my hands and let him continue. If I could just get to the end…"

Hermione felt sick as Ron lowered his body slowly over hers.

"Are you okay?" he asked her unsurely.

With tightly shut eyes, Hermione simply nodded her head in rapid succession. When she felt Ron's lips touch hers, coaxing unsuccessfully for her to part her own lips and let him in, Hermione forced her body to relax.

A whole excruciating six and a half minutes later, when Ron had thrust into her body for the last time, Hermione took in a deep breath.

That breath quickly turned into a choked cry. That choked cry quickly turned into body wracking sobs.

Ron immediately leapt off Hermione. "Mione?"

Hermione snagged the bedsheet so it covered her naked body, tears falling from her eyes so rapidly that she could barely make out Ron's form.

"P-Please…Leave…"

"Mione. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Shit." He muttered to himself. "Do you want me to get Ginny?"

Hermione shook her head strongly. She didn't want anyone to see her like this.

"Please…Just go." She begged.

"I can't leave!" Ron said as he charmed his clothes back on before reaching out a hand to comfort her.

Hermione let out a keen cry that had them both flinching away from each other.

"Please! GO!" she yelled.

Not a second later she heard Ron's pop as he apparated back to his own apartment.

There was silence for a minute as the two watched the sun dip that little bit lower over the horizon.

"It wasn't fair on Ron." Ginny finally said quietly. "He feels like he raped you or something."

"I know." Hermione whispered painfully. "I was going to talk to him today…but I didn't know what to say. I'm so embarrassed."

"It will get better." Ginny said firmly.

"No, it won't. Because he's still out there somewhere. He's watching me Ginny. I can feel his stare. Even now… I'm scared." Hermione admitted ashamed.

"It's okay to be scared. And you don't have to worry about him. The Auror's will find him. And with the patrols they've set up…he won't get within touching distance of you, ever again." she reassured.

Hermione scoffed. "These are the same Auror's who were going to leave me trapped in a burning building because they weren't sure of the risk in rescuing me? The same Auror's who told me that he'd died in the fire? The same Auror's who have gradually pulled back with their patrols because they don't have the manpower to spend on one case."

Hermione sat numb as the Auror's talked to Harry and the Weasley's. No…they weren't talking…they were arguing about something. She could tell from the stretch of their mouths and the angry body language.

The Auror's hand were outstretched…in a placating manner. They were moving up and down, almost willing Harry and the Weasley's to understand something.

In the next second they had given up and turned to talk at her. Hermione could only make out one long garble of noise when they spoke. When they stared at her, evidently waiting for a response of some kind, Hermione just stared back at them blankly.

Giving up after a short time, Hermione watched them dissapparate.

It took her a good two hours to work through the haze and actually take in what Ginny was explaining to her.

Not two hours after that, when Hermione was sat alone resting in one of the bedrooms in Harry and Ginny's apartment, an unfamiliar bird flew up to the window. Depositing its letter, it quickly lifted its wings and flew away again, not waiting for an owl treat or a sip of water.

Picking up the discarded letter that lay by her feet, Hermione unfolded it and read the short words.

"Hello love. Miss me?"

"He's out there Ginny. Just because he hasn't sent another note in months doesn't mean he's given up. He wants me with him or he wants me dead. He's biding his time until he can get to me again."

"We still don't know if the note was from him. It could have been sent from some wierdo who wanted to scare you. And besides, we're still here. Harry, Ron, Mum, Dad." Ginny reassured.

"I can't live with you forever. Eventually I'm going to have to move on…I think that it's time I left." Hermione whispered.

"Okay, we'll help. We can find you an apartment close to ours and then with all of us setting up wards, you'll be living in the safest place in the Wizarding World."

Hermione shook her head at Ginny's mistaken impression. "I meant leave the Wizarding World. Go back home…to my parents."

Ginny gasped. "Hermione, no. You can't leave."

"I can't stay here…Y-You don't understand. Ever since then…my magic…it's going crazy. I can't control it anymore."

"What?" Ginny exclaimed. "Why haven't you told anyone?"

"I've spent my whole life trying to prove to everyone that I belong here. In this world. That I may be Muggle-born but I can do magic just as well as any Pureblood. If I said that I can't even do the simplest of spells then…"

"…But going back to the Muggle World?"

The sun dipped completely beneath the green fields. "The Muggle World doesn't have him in it. That's all I want."

ooo

Four Years Later- Muggle London

Hermione sat on the old wooden bench in Hyde Park and watched her daughter frolic around happily. She could hear the noisy bustle from the other young children whose families had decided to make the most of the late September warmth and picnic outside too. The bustle faded from Hermione's head as she focused in on her daughter's tinkling laughter.

The sun bounced off her red hair and Hermione stiffened before straightening from the cocoon of her husband's arms.

"Love, is everything alright?" he asked, concern weaving into his tone.

Hermione shook her head before smiling at her husband. "Yes. I-I think I was remembering something."

She felt her husband stiffen before he moved to bring Hermione back closer to him. "What is it?" he asked.

Hermione tried to remember but as usual, all she was left with was a mesh of haziness. "I've lost it." She said as she shook her head.

Placing her head on her husband's warm chest, she sighed.

"I thought I saw a woman's face. She had Rose's red hair. I wish I could remember who she was."

"Love, don't go pushing yourself. You know what Dr Santiago said. Your memories will come back when the time's right. Just be glad that you're actually here. The pictures of the car accident." He shuddered before continuing, "I hate thinking about how close I came to losing you…And Rose."

"I know...it's just frustrating." Hermione admitted.

She let her husband's fingers soothe her as he ran them through her curly hair and massaged her nape lightly. Hermione's gaze fell back onto her daughter and she thanked God that Rose had survived the accident. Losing her memories was something she would gladly endure if it meant her daughter lived.

"Maybe I have ancestors from Ireland." Hermione mused idly. After all; it was the only explanation to her daughter's red hair when her parents were blond and brunette.

"Maybe."

Hermione felt her husband shift as he reached into the back pocket of his jeans. When he extracted a thin piece of crooked wood, she glanced up at him amusingly.

"What's that?"

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Nothing for you to worry about love. Close your eyes."

Hermione's eyes twinkled in amusement before she conceded. Her husband sure did like his funny little games.

"Obliviate."

Author's Note: Review? And feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Until next time, Curiositykils