A/N: Chapter Warning – Bad Language, discussions of sexual assault and cutting

Chapter 11: A Meeting, an Examination and Trouble

Severus Snape strode down the corridors of the castle, in search of one bushy haired girl that he needed to speak with. He had been wandering around for almost an hour when he came to a halt.

'You're becoming stupid as you get older Snape' he mentally chastised himself.

He turned and headed towards the one place he was certain she would be, in the library. When he got there, he began looking in every hidden crevice of the library in hopes of finding the young girl.

He eventually came across a hidden corner, one he often utilised as a student when he wanted to escape everybody else. His heart stopped as he took in the sight before him.

Hermione Granger was sat staring blankly at the wall in front of her, there was no emotion on her face and there was no light in her eyes. He knew that look, one he had seen reflected back at him in the mirror many times before, it was defeat. He had to restrain himself, all he wanted to do was go to the young witch and take her away from all of this and somewhere he knew that she would be safe forever. But he knew that couldn't happen, so he tried the next best thing that he could think of.

"Miss Granger" he addressed her, trying not to feel guilty at the way she had jumped when his voice shattered the silence.

She looked at him, not sure what to think or how to respond but she didn't need to worry about that. Severus had given a slight pause, to see if she would respond to him, but when it was obvious that she wasn't going to, he swiftly moved on.

"My office in an hour" he told her sternly. He didn't wait to see or hear her reply, he turned on his heel and left.

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Severus was slightly nervous, he wasn't sure if he expected her to show or not. He waited impatiently for her, he had even prepared tea and some cakes for him and the girl, and now he was playing the waiting game.

He looked at the clock and sighed, he had told her to be here for ten minutes ago, maybe she wasn't going to show or maybe she'd encountered problems.

Then, there was a knock at the door. He quickly got up and tried not to run to the office door, or look too pleased as he began to open it.

"Sorry I'm late" she whispered, as he opened the door and immediately moved aside so she could enter.

Severus directed her over to his desk where he had prepared the afternoon tea. He pulled the chair out for her and helped her in, and that was when he had noticed.

She had bits of rolled up pieces of parchment in her hair. She looked like she had been ambushed on her way over.

Hermione had noticed the direction of his gaze and reflexively put her hand to her hair and pulled out a couple of the parchment balls. She looked down, ashamed and embarrassed of such a weakness.

Severus studied her, and realised he had been spot on with his assessment; she had been taken as a joke by the student body. They had apparently thrown things at her, that they knew would get all tangled up in her hair. Severus felt his heart break for her, he knew what she was feeling and he knew what it was like to be the butt of the joke of everyone around you. He stood up and went over to her and immediately started to thread his hands through her hair and removed any offending pieces from it.

He did not stop until he knew all pieces had been removed, and he then took his seat at his desk and looked at her. He was going to get to the task at hand and talk to her about what he had actually asked her there for in the first place.

"I had an interesting conversation with Mr Malfoy earlier" he began.

She looked at him curiously, wondering where he was going with this.

"He informed me of some events that took place on the train ride here, and he was quite concerned. I reassured Draco that I was aware of the situation and that I was assisting you, but then he told me some information that has worried me deeply" he told her.

She stared at him, holding her breath, she knew what he was going to say and she already felt bad. He had done and risked so much for her already and she didn't want him to feel like she was taking advantage of his kindness.

"Miss Granger? Is there something you would like to tell me?" He asked her, giving her the opportunity to open up to him before he took over.

When she made no response, and continued looking down at her hands in her lap, he knew that this was going to be his job to get her to talk about it to him.

"Mr Malfoy mentioned that a certain event had happened twice. I only recalled you mentioning that it had happened once, this leads me to believe that something occurred after I left. Please tell me" he almost begged her.

She looked at him, her eyes had teared up and her bottom lip had begun to tremble. She didn't want to take advantage of his help but she knew that she needed it.

"He did it again" she whispered.

"On Wednesday night, after you left" she confirmed, whilst biting her lip.

She was immediately startled when Severus' teacup exploded. She looked at his face, and noticed how angry he looked, it was making her nervous and he saw how much he had scared her and he relaxed, he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable in his presence.

"I apologise for that, I'm not angry with you of course" he said, embarrassed that he had lost control of his magic for a moment.

Hermione sniffed, trying not to cry. She was so sick of crying, of feeling like this. It was easier to just switch off her emotions altogether rather than try and control them.

"Dear girl, please tell me what happened" he asked her.

So she did, she told him everything that happened after he had left headquarters and she told him everything that had happened since. He shook his head and cursed himself for not being there to look after her. How could he have been so stupid?

"Are you in any pain?" He asked, remembering the hospital visit and all that damage he had overheard the nurse talking about with her.

She hesitated, and that was all the potions master needed to know. He stood up and went to his supply cupboard and fished out some pain relief potions and the salve he knew she had used the last time. He gave them to her. She took the potions gratefully and put the salve in her bag to use later.

"Do you need a contraceptive?" Snape asked.

She nodded, and so he got her one of those as well. He couldn't understand how the same thing had happened to the poor girl twice. It was beyond comprehension and it was far beyond unfair.

They then sat and had tea and cakes in comfortable silence. Snape was plotting Black's gruesome death in his head, and thinking of how he would make the dirty dog suffer before getting to plead for mercy and beg for death. He grinned evilly at the images his mind was conjuring.

Hermione looked at him, and worried when he grinned.

Severus refocused his attention on her. He then asked her how her time back at the castle had been, and she had told him about the rumours and how she had been alienated and isolated from her house and other students who believed Harry Potter was god's gift.

Severus had heard the rumours of course, but he wanted her to tell him, he wanted for her to speak freely with him and hopefully share her worries and burdens and he wanted to help her through that.

"Do you need any medical assistance?" Severus asked gently hoping that she wouldn't flee.

She looked at him and shrugged. She didn't know what damage had been done; she knew she couldn't go to Pompfrey as that would raise unwanted questions and suspicions, so she didn't know really what to do.

Severus was having the same realisations as her, he also knew St. Mungo's would be too public and it would be all over the prophet within hours. He also knew that he couldn't just whisk her off to a muggle hospital without questions being asked. There was only one option left, and he was sure that she wouldn't like it.

He cleared his throat a little awkwardly.

"Would you allow me to assess you?" he asked, his voice held a tone of uncertainty.

As a teacher, Severus had basic healing knowledge, and as a potions master he had more knowledge in healing; as potions were always bound to go wrong and he needed to know how to deal with that. As a Death Eater, Severus would assist the broken and the damaged bodies, who had been used as entertainment at revels and so had superior knowledge in that area and knew exactly what to look out for. He was unsure of what her response would be, she trusted him and she knew all he wanted to do was help her but the bottom line was, he was male and that was probably con enough for her at this stage.

"Yes" she agreed, voice wavering slightly and she looked at him emotionless once more.

Severus was surprised at her acceptance, and was immediately nervous about what was going to happen now. He mentally prepared himself for the examination and transfigured a chair into a bed that was similar to what he had seen at the hospital. He conjured a sheet, hoping that she would feel as though she had some privacy. He also grabbed as many different healing potions that he could find and he mentally recited all the healing spells he knew in his head for internal healing.

Hermione was biting her lip, she was nervous that he would be disgusted with what he saw and would never want to speak to her again. Logically, she knew that she trusted him and that he would deal with this in a professional manner in order to help her as much as he possibly could.

He told her he was ready when she was, and he cast some cleansing charms on his hands and put on a pair of latex gloves, and cast a cleansing charm on those as well.

She nodded her consent, and began to undress from the waist down and Severus turned and faced the opposite direction to give her some privacy.

When she was done she climbed onto the bed and slipped under the sheet, she mentally prepared herself.

'It's only Severus, he's kind and gentle and you trust him' she told herself over and over. She alerted him that she was ready, and Severus turned to look at her.

He looked at her, she looked so small, scared and unsure that he all he wanted to do was scoop her up and rock her in his arms.

He moved towards where she lay, and sat at the end of the bed where her feet were. He told her to place her feet flat on the bed so that her knees were bent. She did as she was asked.

"When you are ready Miss Granger" he told her gently but firmly, trying to emphasise that all he wanted to do was help her.

She hesitated for a moment and took a deep breath; she then slowly separated her knees and eventually spread her legs open as wide as they would go.

Severus wanted to smile reassuringly at her but didn't want to put her off, she needed this medical and he knew the best way to do this was to detach himself from the situation and pretend that this wasn't a student or a friend, but someone who just needed his help.

With that he looked down and began to assess her damage. He gently worked on her and gave her potions and healing tonics where necessary. He quickly placed a numbing charm on her when he realised she had been torn in places, and he magically stitched the tears and set them to heal. Once he was done, he placed the sheet back over her modesty, and moved away from her to give her a few moments to come round from what had happened.

When she did come round, she looked at him, wanting him to tell her what was wrong with her and if there was anything that she needed to do.

"There was some tearing that should heal up soon, there was bruising but I have placed salve in the necessary areas in hopes of getting the bruising to fade. Also, I gave you a muscle relaxant in hopes that you will not feel any discomfort whilst the pain potions do their job. You may find you need to visit the lavatory more frequently than normal over the course of the day, but should be fine by tomorrow" he told her, giving her the information that he knew she wanted.

Hermione nodded.

"Thank you" she whispered awkwardly.

"Dear girl, how many times do I have to tell you not to thank me? I would do this in a heartbeat for you" he whispered back.

She smiled at him again, and indicated that she wanted to get dressed again and get off the bed. As soon as she was dressed, Severus transfigured the bed back to a chair and got rid of anything that might remind her of what had just happened.

He then turned to her and offered her another cup of tea, which she drank. Without a word she stood up and went over to where he was stood, looking out his office window. She hugged him and without hesitation, he hugged her back and smiled at her, knowing that she would be alright, at least physically for now.

"I know that wasn't pleasant for you, or what you expected to have to do today, but I am no longer in any pain and that's all thanks to you" she told him still hugging him.

He relaxed and smiled at her.

"Anything for you dear lady" he whispered to her.

Then he grabbed her wrists in order to pull her arms away from his person, but something made him pause. He dismissed it at first but couldn't help but question what he had felt.

'There's no way that she's-' his thought was cut off as he began to turn her hands over, in order to take a closer look at her wrists.

Hermione realised what he was trying to do and immediately began to fight him, trying to stop him from seeing what she knew he would find there, but it was too late. Severus looked at her wrists and then he looked at her.

"Hermione" he whispered her name for the first time.

"When did this happen? Why did you do this to yourself?" He said angrily, not at her but at the circumstances surrounding this.

She shook her head, she didn't know what to tell him, she barely remembered actually doing the cutting itself and only remembered the disappointment when she realised she had survived her attempts. She let the tears fall.

Severus was panicking.

'There was no way he would let this continue, she wasn't going to do this to herself anymore and he wasn't going to let her. He would place her on suicide watch if he had to' he thought.

His thoughts were cut off by another knock on his office door.

The pair froze and immediately separated. Hermione covered her wrists and Severus flicked his wand to vanish the tea set and anything else that resembled a merciful man.

"Enter" he said in his intimidating voice.

"Ah professor Snape, I just wanted to ask you a few questions if you are not too busy" it was Umbridge, who was looking down her nose at Hermione and looking at Snape expectantly.

"Apologies Madame, let me just deal with this student, and then I am at your service" he told the pink toad.

"Miss Granger, you need to come up with a better project title than that. It is far too easy and simple, these are your OWLS, and I will not be lenient. You may go, I will invite you back to discuss this" he told her sternly.

Hermione gulped, she knew he wouldn't just let the cutting go, and she cursed herself for being so careless that she would let him find out. She nodded in respect to her professor, and with facades back in place, she left Severus alone at the clutches of the evil hag fluffed up in pink.

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As Hermione raced down the corridors back to the library, she couldn't help but think about what had happened in Severus' office. He had healed her, he had seen her most private areas, and he had not turned away from her in disgust. What's more is that she didn't feel uncomfortable with him looking at her down there, she felt relaxed and knew he wouldn't hurt her. She trusted him completely and would forever be appreciative of his kindness, no matter what. She would help him in return when he needed. But right now all she could think about was how much she was going to tear strips off Draco the next time she saw him.

As she wandered around the corner, she bumped into someone unexpected and was completely unprepared for it.

"I need to have a word with you in private" he told her sternly, and he turned his back and began walking, expecting her to follow.

She sighed, this couldn't be good. But she followed him nonetheless, intrigued by what he wanted to say to her.

As they walked into the ornate office, he sat down behind his desk and looked at her expectantly. She looked around and noticed Remus stood to the side and looking at her almost guiltily.

"Please take a seat we have much to discuss Miss Granger" began Albus Dumbledore.