Welcome back to the story. This chapter is...light hearted when compared to the chapters so far. There are no large triggers in it.

Hermione will be lying through her teeth about what happened to her. Nobody will suspect a thing.

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Hermiome grabbed her beaded bag, dug around in it for clean clothes and her vial of dittany. She healed what she could of her wounds, but made sure to leave some bruises on her arms and face. She was just in a battle at the ministry. Then, she rubbed a little of the potion into the wounds that remained. The whip marks were almost completely gone, save for the ones that had dug so deeply that they had bled. Even those marks were reduced to scratches that she could excuse as Crookshanks having a particularly awful fit. Giving her torse a final look over, she yanked her clean clothes on. She was oddly grateful that she preferred one style of jeans and preferred rich colored tops; it was less likely that any one would notice that she had changed, especially considering that her two closest friends were males and everyone who had seen her today had just gone through battle.

Feeling slightly awful for leaving without saying thank you to Meira, she took off down the hallway. As soon as she was outside the hospital, she walked to an alley and behind a dumpster. With determination, she thought of a certain bathroom at the Ministry of Magic that she had used when Harry had his trial for mistakenly turning his aunt into a human balloon. When she landed in the bathroom, she was relieved to find it empty.

Hermione washed her hands and threw water on her face. She felt extremely dirty and just wanted to shower. That want, no, need, would have to wait until later. For now, she had to go see what was happening now that Voldemort was dead. She peeked out of the bathroom, and when she saw that the hallway was clear, she started walking towards the main atrium, making sure to look confused.

"Hermione!!! Thank Merlin you are alright! What happened to you!?!"

Hermione fought with all of her considerable brain power not to lash out and fight when she felt herself being wrapped in a bear rug from behind. She knew it was just Ron, her sweet, loving Ron, but being grabbed without warning was terrifying. She could not stop her body from reacting before she had flinched.

Turning her around, rather too quickly, Ron put his hands on both her cheeks and stared at her. "I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you? Let's get you checked out by a healer." With that, Ron promptly pulled her by her hand across the atrium towards what she could tell was a triage area.

Hermione froze in her tracks. If a healer ran a diagnostic on her, the swelling of her vagina and ass would be detected. The mediwitch would see that she had scratches all over her torso; she would see that there are still welts across her nipples. Most importantly though, the diagnostic spell would also detect that she had been healed within the last hour. The healer would want to know why. This was triage after battle, there was no such thing as privacy. Hermione would not go over there.

"Ron." When Ron kept pulling her forward, oblivious to her feet not moving, she tried again. "Ronald." Her voice was coated with fear and desperation.

Ron whipped around at the sound of Hermione's voice. He had never heard that kind of fear coming from her. He immediately stopped trying to pull her forward and rushed back to her, craddling her face in his large palms.

"'Mione? Was it is? Do you need help walking? Are you in that much pain? I can tell that you are exhausted. Is that it? Are you just tired? Maybe you're hungry. You're in luck. I'm pretty sure Mom has intentions of making enough food for all of wizarding Britain."

Hermione's jaw dropped. She couldn't help it. Ron had never been this attentive to her their entire friendship.

"I'm just very tired, Ron." She punctuated that statement with a yawn. "I came around surrounded by prophecies and couldn't hear anything. Even as I walked in the direction of... well... here, I couldn't hear anything. And then, I get here, and there is no battle. I'm confused. I feel like I missed something, and you know how much it bothers me to not understand. What onn Earth happened?"

Ron stared at her, and then he pulled her close to him, wrapping one hand into the curls at the back of her head.

"Oh, Mione. We won." Ron's grip got unbearably tight, and then he quickly pushed her slightly away by grabbing onto her shoulders. "Apparently the prophecies breaking triggered an alarm. Aurors were here almost instantly. The Death Eaters weren't prepared for battle-trained wizards. They were incapacitated almost immediately. The only two that got away were Dolohov and Crabbe Sr, the fucking wankers." Hermione whimpered at the mention of her abusers, but tried to school her features. "Hey, Mione, it's okay. No major losses on our end. George lost an ear, and Mad Eyes magical eye is missing, but no one died."

Hermione sighed in relief. No casualties. Not for them. They could live their lives in peace. She wouldn't have to worry about war when she was taking her NEWTS. She slowly looked up at Ron with questions in her eyes. She had to know. Voldemort dying was the only reason that she hadn't been subject to even more abuse.

"Ron... Ron, how did Voldemort die?" Ron flinched at Hermione's use of the name, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. The man was dead for crying out loud.

"It was spectacular. What a way to go out. I mean, not that He deserved that cool of a death, but still. Anyways, Harry and Him were stuck in this whirlwind kind of thing and both oblivious to the commotion around them. But a bunch of Aurors surrounded the thing and then cast some kind of counter spell to the whirlwind. Then, the whole lot of them, probably fifteen, all cast spells at Voldemort. A few were killing curses, some just jinxes or hexes. A few disarming. It was wild, Mione. It's like Voldemort couldn't defend himself. He didn't even react, didn't raise his wand. He could only stare at Harry, and Harry had this evil grin on his face. You would have loved the performance of magic, Mione. You would have poured over it for hours. Voldemort basically just... exploded for a second, but then instantly returned to human shape. Dead on the floor. It's over. It's really over."

Hermione was crying and hugging Ron closer. She couldn't believe she had missed that magic. Getting hit with that many spells would disfigure anyone. What made Voldemort return to human form after exploding from the force of the magic?

"I... I don't understand how that happened? Does anyone have any answers on why his body reacted that way?"

"Mione!"

"That has to be a new thing for magic. Have eye witnesses been interviewed?" Her mind was racing a mile a minute. She couldn't make sense of what happened to her, not really. But this, she could focus on this. She was a 16 year old with a brilliant mind. What happened to her body would not define her.

"Hermione!"

It was at that moment that Hermione realized she was still rambling out questions, though she had no idea what they might have been.

"Good. You're brain stopped yelling for a second." Ron gave her one his trademark oafish smiles. "If you really don't need to get checked out, let's still go over and make fun of George. I bet he's making jokes right now."

Hermione couldn't help but to giggle, but as she had gotten away with being questioned for the time being, she was aware of her body. She may have healed the whip marks and the bruises. She may have scourgified herself. But the reproductive system, it was complex. She knew that. So she hadn't healed it at all, and she hadn't done an internal scourgify. She didn't know if it was safe. When her mind settled from thinking of ways to keep her alive and to lie to her friends, she noticed the burning inside her and the chafing that her crotch was getting from simply walking. But, if she wanted to keep her sexual abuse a secret, she would have to put on a show.

"Oh. I'm sure George is cracking countless jokes. Hopefully they aren't too bloody. You're mom would not like that."

Ron stopped walking and looked at her.

"You know, you fit right in with us. You always have. I always kind of thought you were barmy because you liked school so much but could crack jokes with the rest of us."

Hermione was stunned. Ron had actually thought something through. She just smiled up at him and reached out for his hand. She was more than surprised when Ron pulled her into his chest, cupped her face, and pressed his lips feverishly against hers. Her first instinct was to scream. Her second instinct was to push him away. Her third instinct, once her mind and body recognized it was safe, was to deepen the kiss.

They must have only been kissing, at most, for ten seconds, when they heard coughing. Ron turned such a brilliant shade of red that he clashed horribly with his hair, and Hermione was so embarrassed at being caught kissing that she felt tears well up. Luckily, she blinked them back to see who was in front of her: the entire Weasley clan minus Charlie. Fred had his arm slung across George's shoulder, completely disregarding the blood on George's shirt. Molly and Arthur were beaming at her. Ginny looked humored, and Bill and Percy just looked they wanted to go home to the Burrow.

"What are you two doing!? We just had a monumentuous moment in the family and you completely disregard it for a snog!" Fred whined in good humour.

Hermione just sputtered as she stared at him and George. Poor, George. Having your ear removed couldn't have been the best of fun. She just hoped it was as painless as possible since she didn't know what had actually happened.

George grabbed his stomach and laughed. Only to start hitting Fred in the chest with the back of his hand and exclaiming, " We're no longer twins" and then shoving his finger into his earlobe-less ear "See! Mom can finally tell us apart!"

"Get your finger out of your eye this instant! Do you want to have to get healed again!" Mrs. Weasley chided her son.

George gasped and ran to Mrs. Weasley. It was only 5 steps at most, and the entire Weasley clan quietly laughed when Mrs. Weasley in her regular exasperated tone asked George what.

"Do you think you could just knit me an ear on my Christmas sweater this year? oh! Year rhymes with ear! Anyways, then I will have 2 ears again! Just make sure it's the right one, yeah? I don't need two left ears!"

All of the Weasley except Molly and Percy roared with laughter. Leave it to George to be ridiculous. Fred leapt onto George's back and messed up his hair.

"Yeah, mum! He doesn't need two left ears and two left feet!"

"Oi! I'll have you remember that I danced better than you at the Yule Ball last year."

George and Fred desolved into one of their legendary wrestling matches only to get distracted when they heard Harry's laugh followed by him yelling echoed through the atrium.

"That's rich! You think my grand plan was to... to what... get even more famous??? Try to get money out of the government that did nothing to believe me this last year??? I don't want your fucking Order of Merlin!"

The entire atrium of people immediately fell into uncomfortable silence. Even the injured seemed to be stifling their moans of pain due to the situation involving Harry, the Minister of Magic, and some high ranking members of the Wizengamot.

Fudge sputtered. Never in his life had he been met with such disrespect, let alone from a 15 year old.

"I'll have you know, boy, that the Order of Merlin is no small thing. We want to hon..."

"I don't want to be honored! I want to be a child! I want to go out on a date. I want to not fight the battles that should never have been mine!" Hermione had silently settled next to Harry. She saw Fudge sigh in relief, thinking that she would talk Harry down.

"Minister of Magic Fudge. I mean no disrespect. But Harry has every right to be angry." Fudge was instantly furious again. "Maybe he should not be humiliating you in front of all these people, but you allowed the press to humiliate him to an entire nation for an entire year. You blatantly slandered his name because you were scared. As we are children and have our OWLs coming up in 2 weeks time, I would think it would be in your best interest to send us back to Hogwarts." When Fudge did nothing but stare at her slack-jawed, she had enough.

"Open the floo network to each House common room. Now. I tire of being here. We have fought the adult's battle because they were to daft to do their jobs. Let us return to school."

Ron, Harry, Fred, George, and Ginny were all incredibly upset that she was demanding them go back to Hogwarts, especially because she used exams to bargain with.

Fudge was too tired for this crap. He would deal with these insubordinate children after exams. The recipient didn't have to be willing in order for them to give out Order of Merlins. For now, he just wanted to get the Ministry back in order by cleaning up the mess and taking stock of what was broken, especially the prophecies.

"Alright, Miss Granger. Fine. Go back to school. We will deal with this matter later."

As everyone walked away from the confrontation, Harry mumbled under his breath, "no, you won't" and looked like he wanted to re-enter the screaming match.

Hermione just grabbed his arm and hulled him to the closest fireplace. Once there she shoved him into the fire, threw floo powder in it, and yelled "Gryffindor Common Room." In a flash of green fire, Harry was gone. She glared at the Weasley's and stepped in herself. After about 10 minutes, all the Gryffindor's that had barrelled into the Ministry were back where they belonged, their common room.

"Thank Merlin it's late. We didn't have to explain to a full common room why we were using the floo." Hermione stated.

Everyone stared at her. Trust Hermione to state something that absolutely no one else was thinking.

"What happened to you, 'Mione? One second you were behind Neville and I, and then you were just gone." Harry stared at her. He had been so worried about her, but then Voldemort showed up and he had to concentrate on what was in front of him.

Hermione froze. She had stupidly thought that Ron's questioning was all that would happen.

"I... I don't really remember getting separated from you guys..." That wasn't a lie. She had no idea how she got to Dolohov's dungeon. She supposed it was probably with an Imperius. "Somebody probably sneaked up on us. You two were so concentrated on what was happening in front of us." Harry and Neville instantly looked ready to argue. "Not that... not that I'm blaming you." But in that instant, she did blame them. She blamed them for shoving her behind and keeping her out of the fight. If they hadn't fallen into the idiotic masculine trait of protecting a female, maybe Dolohov wouldn't have got her... maybe she wouldn't have been raped.

"Okay. You got separated. You were missing for 4 hours 'Mione! What happened?!?" Harry was screaming and grabbed her shoulders. She could see the fear on his face. He had thought she was a casualty.

"I don't know what happened!" If one more person grabbed her tonight, she was going to lose her mind. "I woke up on my stomach surrounded by prophecies. Everything was dead silent. I couldn't hear anything. Nobody was around! I had to wander my way out. It felt like it took ages. I guess it did." She was disgusted with how easily the lies rolled off of her tongue. She was a liar. She was making the conscious decision to become something that she hated.

Harry stopped gripping her shoulders so tightly and yanked her to his chest, murmuring into her hair, "I thought I had lost you. I thought you were the one casualty. I can't lose you, 'Mione. You're my sister. One of the few things I have." Harry's voice was cracking. All of the Weasley's plus Neville were watching on. They all seemed to agree that her disappearance had been incredibly jarring to them.

Hermione worked to disentangle herself from Harry. "I'm fine. I promise. Nothing really happened. I was just knocked out. They probably recognized that I'm a formidable foe. That's it. They wanted to take me out of the fight."

Ginny stared at her. "If they wanted to take you out of the fight, they would have killed you."

Everyone nodded their agreement, and Harry again put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her to arms length. Hermione knew she had to say something, but what? Ginny was right, of course. Quick thinking was her specialty, but telling lies was not. She decided to go with a bit of the truth. After all, Dolohov had told her that he wanted to destroy her mind to hinder Harry, but that killing her would leave Harry seeking vengeance, which would have made him more powerful and focused.

"Maybe they just wanted to make me feel bad. You know... for missing the battle. If there had been casualties, I would never have been able to forgive myself. I wouldn't have been helpful. I'm positive that they didn't think that they would be defeated today."

That statement seemed to appease everyone, and they all nodded and murmured that it made sense. The murmuring was only punctuated when Ron let out a massive yawn. He turned a dull red from interrupting the quiet murmurs. Hermione couldn't help but to sigh with relief.

"Ronald is right. We need sleep. Tomorrow, we should all study. We can meet up in the library."

Hermione was met with groans from everyone, "Or outside. We can sit by the Great Lake. But we do need to study if we wish to prepare." With that, Hermione started walking towards the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories. When her foot hit the first step, she yelped. Ron had grabbed her wrist and yanked her down into him. His mouth crashed against her's. He broke apart and instantly started rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. George and Fred chuckled behind them.

"I'm... I'm just really happy that you're okay." Hermione's heart broke even more; she was anything but okay. "I... I see you. We can give it a real go."

Hermione smiled and patted Ron's cheek. Before tonight, she would have loved him for saying that. Now, she couldn't imagine being intimate with someone. Love should be allbaring. She couldn't keep her trauma a secret if she wanted a relationship to workout. Without looking back or waiting for Ginny, she made it to the fifth year girls' room and entered as quietly as possible.

As soon as Hermione closed the door to the sleeping quarters, she rushed to the bathroom and fell to her knees in front of the toilet. Her body heaved up everything inside her. When she finally stopped dry heaving, she removed her shoes and clothing, all while staying crumpled on the ground. When she was naked, she crawled to the showers and turned them on. All she wanted was to be clean.

Several minutes passed while Hermione just stared at the water. If she washed her body, would that be like washing away the pain, or would it wash away everything? Would she wake up and Dolohov would be just an extraordinarily bad nightmare?

Whatever this shower caused, she needed to get her crotch cleaned up, and that would only happen with a lot of hot water. Hermione slowly crawled into the shower and winced when the hot water hit her back. The water instantly turned her skin pink, but she stayed under the flow of water. Maybe the hot water would burn away the memories. Staying on the ground, Hermione started to scrub her crotch. The pain was horrendous, but she would bare it just to be rid of Dolohov's and Crabbe's essence on her body. She leaned forward and spread her cheeks, allowing the burning water to beat against her ass.

When Hermione felt that all of the chilli oil residue and the touches of Dolohov were burned off of her body, she wrapped her arms around her stomach, bent over her knees, and sobbed.

Hermione must have fallen asleep mid cry because she was awoken by Lavender screaming her name. Her first thought when waking up under the stream of shower water was, "how am I going to explain this?"

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