A/N: Thank you all for your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. I want to give a special thank you to Snamione4life, who has literally binge read this whole story in less than a week and commented on every single chapter! There are many more of you who have been with me since the beginning and have been writing reviews throughout this whole story. I cannot be more thankful to you all and I will make sure to thank you all at the end of this fanfic. However, for now, here is the next chapter! Enjoy! :)

A/N: Potential mentions of sexual assault, self-harm, violence, bad language and other sexual situation.

Chapter 49 – Telling The Order

Hermione and Severus were the last to enter the large downstairs lounge, and everyone immediately went silent. They wanted to know her story, and she felt that she was finally able to tell it. The only thing that was putting her off was Albus Dumbledore, who was going to be sitting directly opposite her and she knew that he was going to attempt to be intimidating.

Hermione grimaced; she sat in the seat that had been left for her to sit in, at the front of the room with everyone sat in a semi-circle facing her. Severus took the seat that was vacant towards the back on Hermione's left. She could hardly see him.

She tried to begin to speak but found it difficult with Dumbledore staring at her, not even blinking.

"Are you alright Hermione?" Minerva asked from her right.

Hermione gulped, she noticed Kingsley sat in the front seat of Severus' row.

"Kingsley, can I be a pain and ask you to swap seats with Professor Snape?" She asked him.

Kingsley looked confused but agreed to her request, meaning that she could now see Severus, who was sat diagonally to her left in front of her.

She moved her chair so that it was angled directly in front of him.

Dumbledore went to halt her.

"Excuse me Miss Granger but your seat was placed there for a reason. Now, you have your back to half the room. I feel it would be better if you placed the chair back" Dumbledore said, he did not want her to be looking away from him as she spoke.

She addressed the headmaster, and those she now had her back turned upon.

"Forgive me headmaster, it's just this is a difficult story for me to tell. Professor Snape already knows this story in its entirety, so for me to face him, it's just like me retelling him a story he already knows. It makes this process slightly easier for me, that's all. I don't mean to be rude to the rest of you, but I would feel more comfortable if I was to sit like this. I also have my head of house in my eyesight and also Mr and Mrs Weasley who have treated me as if I were their own daughter. These people are the ones who I have always felt confident in talking to, so I wish to face their general direction as a way of keeping me calm" she reasoned.

The rest of the room agreed and the Order members behind her encouraged her by stating they did not mind that she have their backs to them.

Dumbledore nearly had steam coming from his ears as he watched her get her way, and face towards Severus and Minerva.

"That's better" she remarked as she sat.

"Now I can begin" she declared.

"Last August, I was told that for my own safety, I was to stay here at the Order headquarters and for my parent's safety, they would be taken to a safe house. I agreed and, once my parents had given their consent, I was brought here and it was decided that because I was underage, Professor Snape, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black would be watching out for me until the Weasley's and Harry arrived a week or so later. However, a few days after I arrived here, Sirius Black had gone out drinking, and Professor Snape had to go and find him and bring him back to this safe house. Which he did. However, in Black's drunken state, he made his way into the room which I was staying in, and he bound me to the bed so I couldn't move. I begged him to stop, and not to do anything, but he just carried on and then he sexually assaulted me. He then left me in the room, and I passed out from exhaustion. After that night, I was too scared to say anything and didn't know what to do. However, there was an Order meeting a couple of days later, so I decided to tell Professor Dumbledore and he told me that Sirius Black was too important to Harry and that he wasn't going to do anything. He also said that I should keep quiet if I wanted Harry to win this war. However, I started having night terrors and as Professor Snape was staying in the room next to mine, he heard me screaming and eventually got annoyed with it and demanded that I tell him what was going on. So I did. He helped me psychologically, and he even took me to a muggle hospital to get checked out for any damages..." she told her story, and nervously took in the faces of those around her.

Some Order members kept their faces blank, others looked horrified, others looked ill. Molly was in tears, and Arthur looked at Hermione encouragingly. They still could not believe that this had been going on under their noses, and they had not noticed a thing. Severus held her eye contact and gave her secretive smiles of reassurance. She didn't dare look at Dumbledore.

"Then what happened, Miss Granger?" Moody asked.

"Then I spent the rest of the summer fairly normally, with the Weasley family, Harry, and other Order members mooching about. I knew that Sirius Black was less likely to try something, especially with Professor Snape knowing about it all, Professor Snape placed wards around my room after he found out, so he would be alerted if anyone other than me tried to enter my room. However, Professor Snape was called back to Hogwarts a couple of days before the students were due to arrive back at school – apparently this is normal so the teachers can have meetings and be debriefed and such. As soon as Professor Snape had gone, so was his protection, and Sirius Black did not waste any time in coming after me again. He sexually assaulted me again. I gave up at that point, I felt nothing, I just wanted to die, I grabbed my razor and I slit my wrists, I don't really remember much else after that, I think I just completely shut down" she whispered, tearing up slightly. She could've cursed in that moment; she had promised herself that she wasn't going to cry.

It took her about an hour to finally finish her whole story and she sat quietly, waiting for someone to indicate what she needed to do next.

Moody finally stood up and slowly approached her. He levitated his chair and moved it so he was near her.

"Miss Granger, would you mind if I ask you a few more questions?" he asked her.

She hesitated and glanced towards Minerva.

"And why does she need to answer these questions?" Minerva asked the man sternly, she stood up and moved so she was right by Hermione and took her intimidating stance behind the girl.

Moody looked at Minerva's displeased face and hesitated before nodding.

"It's for when Black goes on trial. We can use it as evidence" Moody told her.

Minerva nodded sceptically.

"Fine, but if there is a question that she does not want to answer or there is a question that I feel is unfair or I disapprove of. She will not answer. Is that clear?" Minerva asked rhetorically.

Moody quickly and subtly looked towards Dumbledore and then back to Minerva. Minerva, Severus, and Hermione noticed.

"Unfortunately, you do not have that authority however; I will consider rewording the question or asking a variation of it, if the question is a little difficult for her to answer. Does that satisfy you?" He asked Minerva.

Minerva shook her head.

"Well, you don't have much of a choice" Moody said getting annoyed.

"Actually I do, since Miss Granger's parents passed away in December, I am Hermione's registered, legal guardian. As she is underage, this will all need my consent. If I do not agree with the way you conduct this 'interview', I will deny the Ministry my consent. Now I ask again, am I clear?" She said angrily, in the way that made her students uncomfortable.

Knowing that, legally, Minerva was in the right, Moody agreed to Minerva's terms much to the disapproving look of Dumbledore. Clearly he hadn't realised that Minerva had been legally declared as Hermione's guardian, and he had now backed himself into a corner.

Hermione waited for Moody to begin.

"Miss Granger, just to clarify, you said that Sirius Black sexually assaulted you, are you sure that the interaction wasn't consensual in any way?" Moody asked.

Hermione gritted her teeth.

"I'm positive" she confirmed sternly.

Moody nodded.

"Last summer, there were rumours circulating around this house, and after you started back at school, that you had a crush on Sirius Black. Can you prove that there was no relationship between the two of you?" Moody asked.

These questions were shockingly bad, it was like he was trying to find something to doubt her and use against her. She repressed the urge to huff at the questions.

"Nope, none, I met Sirius Black for the first time, in my third year on the night he was detained in one of Hogwarts' towers after he had broken into the school, not long after he escaped Azkaban. The next time I saw him was when I was brought here for the summer. That's hardly enough time to form a trusting, physical relationship with someone who is practically a stranger to you. Also, I've never had any interest in Sirius Black romantically, that was a joke made by the Weasley twins as a way of teasing me, and trying to piss me off. Which is their natural behaviour, so do not condone them for it. However, everyone took the comments seriously, and no one wanted anything to do with me and so, they accused me of being a slut and a whore but the reality was the complete opposite. So no, I have NEVER had any close connection to Black" she said.

The questions went on. They were pathetic! Hermione couldn't believe that they even classed as legitimate questions that he had to ask her. However she calmly answered every question put to her and if anything, the questions only helped towards her case as they encouraged her to be specific on particular bits of information that she had been a bit vague about in her original explanation.

"Now more recently, there was an article written about you by Skeeter in the Prophet. Do you have any idea how that information got to her?" Moody asked her.

Hermione knew she had to be careful about how she answered this question.

"I'm afraid I don't sir, not entirely anyway. When I discussed this with Professor Snape, he suggested that Skeeter was on friendly terms with someone who worked inside Azkaban and that this person was feeding her information" Hermione said, she looked over towards Severus.

"Yes, Miss Granger is correct. The Skeeter woman is notorious for her affairs with Death Eaters. One of them is Antonin Dolohov and Skeeter told me that Dolohov had told her some of the information" Severus answered.

"But, he would not have known some of the more personal information Severus" Dumbledore interrupted.

Moody agreed.

"That's what I thought, so I set up a dinner appointment to try and convince her to tell me who gave her the information. She said that she wasn't entirely sure because she had been sent an anonymous letter containing the information and, because that letter corresponded with the information she had received from her lover, she deemed it correct and so used it" Severus added.

"It seems convenient that she doesn't seem to know who sent the letter" Moody said.

Severus nodded.

"Again, that's what I thought. So, I convinced Skeeter that accepting anonymous letters could be dangerous and to let me check it over for curses and dark spells and such. She let me. I subtly read the letter and gave it back to her" Severus said.

"And how did that help?" Moody asked.

"Well, the information in the letter did contain the privy information that you were talking about. However, it was the handwriting that I found most interesting" Severus replied.

"What was interesting about the handwriting?" Moody asked.

"Well, whilst I was reading the letter, I made a copy of it and I gave Skeeter back the copy and I kept the original myself. That woman may be a Slytherin but when you are plying her with flattery, she can be dreadfully stupid and careless, and she did not notice the difference. So, I have the original letter. What's wrong with the handwriting? Well, why don't you take a look at it yourself?" Severus said as he fished the letter from his pocket and handed it to Moody.

Moody looked at it for a moment before looking up, aghast, at Dumbledore.

"This is your handwriting Albus" Moody stated.

The room gasped as the Order members turned to look at their leader, who now looked entirely defeated.

"You gave out secret Ministry information?" Kingsley asked angrily.

"Now Kingsley-" Dumbledore began.

"Don't you dare make excuses for your actions!" Minerva shouted, causing the whole room to go into silence.

"You have done enough you pathetic old man! You have perverted the course of justice Albus, and an underage schoolgirl has suffered because of it. Well enough! Moody, you had better sort him out" Minerva yelled in her thick Scottish accent.

"Albus, what the devil possessed you to give out top secret information? How about I go and tell Voldemort all of our top secrets, eh? What you have done Albus, almost caused every single Azkaban worker and Ministry official to be interrogated; they all almost lost their jobs when the information leaked out. But nobody suspected the complete, aloof, Albus Dumbledore, because nobody had seen him for months, and nobody knew what he was doing. For someone who wants to see justice for muggle-borns in the wizarding world, and to stop a psychopath hell bent on destroying the world, you have a funny way of demonstrating it" Moody snapped aggressively at the old man.

"I did it because we need Sirius Black!" Dumbledore defended himself.

"I know he has done a dreadful thing, and I know that it is despicable of me to try and defend him and make excuses for his actions, but he is a powerful wizard and we need all the help that we are able to get for this upcoming war" Dumbledore said.

"Whilst that may be true Albus, you are not permitted to get involved with the affairs of the Ministry justice system, you are not Merlin, Albus. You are not invincible, and unfortunately the Ministry is struggling as it is at the moment due to everything that is going on. It's a power struggle Albus, it's a miracle that Fudge and the Ministry has not been overturned yet, so whilst they still have that small amount of control, they are going to exercise it. You thought that by doing all of this, they were going to let Sirius Black go? You're insane Albus, the Ministry have spoken about this and they have already ruled that it is not in their best interest to let a convicted murderer, and now rapist, walk free among the public, without the correct proceedings and trials that are put in place. Now that we know where the information has actually come from, Sirius Black is now in deeper shit than he was before! You've always got to interfere, haven't you Albus? If you hadn't interfered, Black would've been trialled already and likely not convicted, due to lack of evidence. However, now that this meeting has taken place and all us Ministry officials now know the truth, the trial will take longer. You cannot expect us to help you Albus, we are all under a binding oath! Now that we all know the truth, we are going to have to abide by that oath, and it is highly likely that Black will be sentenced" Moody explained.

Dumbledore just stared at everyone in the room, they were all looking at him as if they were seeing him for the first time, they were seeing him for what he was, a manipulative, old man. Everyone was watching him, except Hermione, she refused to look at him, she was too scared to. She wanted nothing more than to hug Moody, and thank him, but she knew that would probably be the worst thing to do at that moment.

Moody then turned to Hermione.

"And you Miss Granger, you should have mentioned something far sooner than you did. It can also be argued that you're perverting the course of justice yourself after keeping this information secret for almost a year" Moody warned her.

Hermione went to open her mouth but Severus stepped in before she had a chance to get a word in.

"Excuse me Moody? This girl has got nothing to, or nobody to, answer to. She has done absolutely nothing wrong. She told Albus, he did nothing. She told me but I could only help so far because of a ridiculous oath I made to Dumbledore when I became a spy. She told Lupin but he did not believe her, in fact, he went so far to journey to the school and tell the headmaster that he did not believe. Lupin then stood by and watched as she was punished because she had told the truth. She confided in Draco Malfoy, who supported her without judgement, and the two have been the closest of friends ever since. She then told Minerva but again, Minerva was bound by oath to the headmaster, and could not say anything to anyone either, so she supported Miss Granger as much as she could instead. Then Miss Granger's little friends, Potter and Weasley, found out. For a while they were not sure who they believed and not long after that, the school, the rest of you, and the world, found out and were all, once again, against her. The poor girl tried several times to say something, to get help, but she was repeatedly denied it to the point that she believed herself unworthy of help, to the point that she felt that she deserved what had happened to her. I do not know who you think you are, speaking to her like that Moody, but I can assure you that you will not do it again. She told everyone she felt she could confide in, and almost everyone turned against her. Hell, even two Slytherin's were willing to aid her when her own house would not. You accuse her of perverting the course of justice? I can assure you now Moody, if Albus tries to use that as a defence for Black, or if you use it as something for consideration, I can provide evidence against it, every step of the way. Am I clear?" Severus said in his voice that he reserved for students when he wanted to terrify them. It was almost a promise and Severus looked directly into Moody's eyes for a few moments, both men unblinking, before Moody backed down.

"Duly noted" Moody grumbled.

Hermione looked up then and took in the facial expressions of everyone else in the room. Molly was in tears and Arthur was still comforting her. The Order members who were part of the Ministry looked as if they were trying to take in all the information they had just been given. Dumbledore looked as if he was about to throw a childish fit. Severus was standing, still looking angrily at everyone in the room. Minerva had her hand upon Hermione's shoulder and Remus looked remorseful and Tonks…

"You knew?" Tonks whispered loudly in the silence of the room.

Every head swivelled towards the young woman, and her werewolf partner. Tonks looked absolutely distraught, she had known for ages that something was wrong; she knew that Remus knew something. However, she was completely unaware that Hermione had gone to Remus and outright told him, and asked him for help.

Remus cringed but nodded.

"She told you? She actually told you what was going on and you did nothing, you didn't even consider it? What were you thinking? This is Hermione for Merlin's sake! Has she not proven herself trustworthy? What happened exactly? How long have you known? I want you to tell me now" she demanded.

Remus sighed.

"She told me the day the kids left to go back to school after the summer. I was not sure what to believe so I approached the headmaster and together, we concluded that she was just…attention seeking…and I told Albus that she should be punished for such lies and then I watched as she was stripped of her prefect badge and issued detentions. The whole time her eyes were on me, pleading, begging me to just listen to her. I almost relented but held firm in the end. I regretted nothing until I learned that it was the truth" Remus told everyone honestly.

Tonks stood up, there were tears in her eyes now and she looked disbelievingly down at her lover.

"You've known this whole time and you never said a thing? Even if there was just an inkling of doubt, you just shoved the problem to the side thinking it would go away" she stated.

Remus was looking up at her, into her eyes and he nodded. He was done telling lies, he was done feeling sorry for himself, he needed to do what was right and he was not going to hold back the truth this time.

Tonks immediately slapped Remus, hard across the face, and promptly stormed out of the room, her hair was so red, that some of the Order members cringed at whoever was to face her next.

"I think we have had enough for today. There will be an official Order meeting at eleven this evening so everyone has the day to digest this new information and so we can discuss further matters later. Unfortunately Miss Granger, as you are underage, we cannot allow you into the meeting tonight, although I am sure there will be some mention of this morning's events. However, I can promise that Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall will be permitted to reveal any information to you that we feel is necessary for you to know about your situation. Does this sound fair?" Moody asked her.

Hermione nodded, she just wanted to get out of the room now and go and take a nap. All the Order members filed out of the room, leaving just the Weasley's, Minerva, and Severus in the room with her. Molly and Arthur gave her a hug, and told her to speak to them should she wish to, they also told her how brave she was and how proud they were of her before they left the room. Leaving only Severus, Hermione, and McGonagall in the room.

McGonagall spoke.

"I'm proud of you Hermione and you have nothing to worry about, we will make sure you're alright. However, all this aside, I expect the pair of you to exhibit better control at the breakfast table. Should I ever see your trousers in that state again Severus, I will be casting hexes so that you can never reach that state again. Am I clear?" McGonagall praised Hermione but also reprimanded Hermione's and Severus' breakfast activities.

Severus blushed bright red, as did Hermione, but at least Hermione was able to giggle when Minerva winked at the both of them before leaving the room too.

"Well that was humiliating" Severus said. Then he looked at Hermione.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders, but I am also exhausted. I think I might go and have a few hours' sleep before the others arrive" she told him.

"Let's go, you can sleep whilst I read a book and mark some essays" Severus told her as the two headed up to their bedroom.