Welcome back, my lovies. I hope you enjoyed your double chapter day.
After the first time I was raped, I completely forgot about it after a week. I still acted like a rape victim, but I didn't know I was one. My brain obviously didn't think I could handle it.
Hermione won't forget, per say, but her actions will infuriate you. Hermione is strong, but this is the one thing that will continuously break her.
Hermione's eyes blinked open, and she was immediately aware of the warm water pelting her bare skin. Great, she had fallen asleep in the shower. With that knowledge, it stood to reason that one of the girls had awoken her from her shower floor slumber. She looked over and saw Lavender standing in the doorway with a towel thrown over her shoulder and a hand on her hip.
"Honestly, Hermione. You really need to learn when to call it a night. I mean, really? You do this at the end of every year leading up to exams and whenever we have a big assignment." Lavender had hung up her towel and now started to strip down. Hermione just watched her from the floor of the shower and rubbed her temple.
"I do not do this all the time." Hermione huffed out.
"Oh, yes, you do." Lavender said as she pulled her shirt up and off, throwing it onto the floor. "It's like you don't remember you have a bed. Brightest witch of our age and all that my left arse cheek." Hermione winced. Lavender was gorgeous and self-confident. Hermione only held an ounce of that confidence, and she knew that it would be even worse now.
"If you do not get out the shower, Hermione, I'm calling a house elf to drag you out of it. Who knows how long you've been there." When Hermione started to move extremely slowly, Lavender had lost her patience with the bint.
"Get out of the shower! Don't you have studying to do or something." Hermione rushed to stand when she heard the ire in Lavender's voice. She was instantly scared she was going to get hurt.
Lavender watched her scamper up with great satisfaction. Hermione was so easily intimidated by a good bitchy statement. Lavender couldn't help herself, she looked over Hermione's body, just to prove that she was the better looking of the two. What she saw made her freeze. Hermione's arms were littered with healing bruises, with faint circles around her wrists. Her body wasn't even the worst part. Perfectly horizontal scratches ran across Hermione's breasts, some even bisecting her nipples. Those weren't even the only scratches on Hermione. There were more littering her abdomen. Hermione saw Lavender staring and instantly cowered.
"Keep that beast of yours in check, Hermione. No one will want you if you have scars everywhere." Lavender bit at her, but unbeknownst to Hermione, she knew was those kinds of scratches were from, a whip. She hadn't taken care of her mother's back for her entire life not to recognize what mediocre healing did for deep whip marks. Hermione Granger had been whipped, but if she didn't want to talk about it, Lavender was fine blaming the beast. After all, she had seen what that creature could do with his claws.
Hermione accioed a towel and wrapped it around her tightly. With a murmered "I'll try," Hermione left Lavender to her shower and went to her bed.
Harry and Ron found Hermione hunched over a book in The Great Hall with a quill tapping against her nose. They had wandered in around 10 am and couldn't help but wonder how long she had been here. Harry sat down on one side and started to butter a piece of toast, while Ron sat down after a kiss to the top of Hermione's head. Her only reaction was an involuntary twitch. Both mumbled good mornings, but neither got a response. They decided to ignore her nose in a book and talk about what would come next.
"It's going to be weird next year for sure. Nobody is going to be trying to kill me. I can just be me." Harry said as he scooped scrambled eggs onto his toast.
"Speak for yourself, mate. No person might be trying to kill you, but don't you forget about all those exams." Ron grumbled out around a piece of bacon. "We just have our OWLs and she's already freaking out about NEWTs in two years."
Harry and Ron laughed together at that. Hermione still showed no signs of removing her eyes from the tome in front of her.
"I wonder what the sentencing will be for everyone caught?" Harry murmured. He didn't want to be overheard. People were bound to learn today that Voldemort had been defeated, but he didn't want to be the one to tell them.
"The Dementor's Kiss, I reckon," came the garbled response from Ron. "I don't think it can get much worse than that, but I hope Dolohov and Crabbe get worse."
Hermione heard the names and froze--her quill stopped tapping and her eyes stopped moving. Everything about her person stood still, including her brain. All to soon, Hermione's body came back to sensation, and she could feel the whip lashing across her body. She couldn't help it. Her shoulders dropped forward and her arms wrapped around her stomach. Ron was instantly reaching for her.
"'Mione! You alright?" Hermione's only response was to shake her head meekly as flashbacks from the torture raced through her mind. "I knew I should have made you be seen. Let's get you looked at. Madame Pomfrey will set you right."
Harry murmured in agreement. If he had known Hermione hadn't been checked out by a healer, he would have raised the same hell at her that he had been raising against Fudge.
"Honestly, 'Mione. That was incredibly irresponsible of you. Who knows what kind of dark magic was flying around last night? We are going right now." Harry was not losing his best friend to her stubbornness. He slammed her book shut and started gathering all of her things in his arms.
"Harry! I'm fine! It... I'm really fine. This has nothing to do with the Battle." stammered Hermione. "I need to study!"
Harry simply started walking away. If she wanted to study, she would have to follow him all the way to the Hospital Wing to get her things back. He knew once Madame Pomfrey saw the state she was in, Hermione would be forced to stay.
"You need to be seen, 'Mione. I was an idiot for getting too caught up. We're going. Mum would kill me if I let something happen to you."
Hermione saw no way out. Part of why she didn't want to go to the hospital wing was because she wasn't sure if she could walk. Her boys weren't giving her a choice, though. She would have to stand and walk. She braced her hands on the table and stood, wincing at the remembered pain of yesterday, not to mention the stiffness from sleeping on a tiled floor.
Ron was instantly at her side, wrapping an arm around Hermione's waist. He wanted to just carry her to the hospital wing, but he figured he enjoyed having all of bits and not getting screamed at. As it was, Hermione fought against him anyways, demanding that she could do it herself. But when she stepped out of his hold, she stumbled directly into the last person she needed to see, Malfoy.
"Wasn't good enough for you to get my father thrown in Azkaban? Now I have to go change. You got Mudblood all over them." Malfoy scoffed down at her.
Ron and Harry were infuriated. Ron pushed Hermione behind, not noticing that she was shaking like a leaf on the Whomping Willow, while Harry whipped out his wand.
"Your father mad his choices, Malfoy. I was not the one trying to murder children last night."
Hermione whimpered. Malfoy could easily find out what Dolohov and Crabbe Sr. had done to her. Crabbe might already know and have been instructed by his father to take advantage of Hermione, to keep her in her place. If Malfoy found out, it would be the end of everything.
"I...I'm sorry, Malfoy. I should... should have looked where I was going. I... It won't happen. I promise. I'll... I'll be good." With that, Hermione stumbled her way out of the Great Hall and towards the infirmary. She just needed to get away.
Ron, Malfoy, and Harry just stared after her and then at each other.
"What have you done to her?!?" Ron was screaming in Malfoy's face. Hermione did not apologize to anyone unless it was a professor. She certainly would never apologize to anyone from Slytherin. "You had to have done something!"
Malfoy was stunned. What had gotten into Granger. She didn't apologize, not to him.
"I didn't do anything." Malfoy smirked at the dunder-twins. "Perhaps she finally learned her place was beneath me." Saying the words made Malfoy sick. Hermione was brilliant. She always had been, but his loyalties began with his father and ended with Slytherin. Gryffindor's princess was out of reach, no matter if she was the only one who could match his intellect.
"I don't believe you! You did something to her! What was it!" Ron was fuming. The only reason Malfoy hadn't been pummeled yet is because Harry had ahold of Ron's arm.
"Mate. Let's go. You saw Hermione. She probably collapsed on the floor." Harry tried to start pulling Ron away, but it was tough going. "Ron, come on! Help Hermione. Be smart."
"Yes, Weasley. Take advice from Boy Wonder. Go help your little Mudblood." Malfoy tried not to wince. That was twice today he had used the slur, and he had wanted to get away from it. After all, it has been some time since Malfoy saw Hermione that way.
Harry glared at Malfoy for making this even harder.
"If you touch a hair on her head, Ferret, I'll come for you." Ron then tugged his arm out of Harry's grasp and marched out of the Great Hall after Hermione.
Harry and Ron found Hermione slouched against a wall not far from the Great Hall. She couldn't seem to stop crying, was rubbing her chest, and kept whispering "please, I'll be good. Please stop" over and over again.
Harry and Ron took one look at each other, and then Ron scooped Hermione up into his arms. The only response Hermione gave was to wail louder that she would be good. Ron and Harry were so confused where this was coming from, but just assumed that her mind was playing tricks on her. As it was, they just kept rushing towards the Hospital Wing with Harry running ahead to alert Madame Pomfrey.
"Madame Pomfrey! Madame Pomfrey!" Harry ran into the infirmary screaming for the medi-witch.
"Mr. Potter. If you don't quiet down right now, I will bar you out of here! My patients are resting!"
"Please, Madame Pomfrey! Something is wrong with Hermione! Ron's carrying her up right now!"
The terror in Harry's voice instantly got Madame Pomfrey on the move. She immediately set her magic to ready a bed with fresh blankets turned down so that she could immediately tuck the poor girl in. Being tucked into a nice, warm bed always made people feel better. Just as the sheets finished being turned down, Ron burst through the doors with a screaming Hermione in his arms.
Madame Pomfrey was shocked. It sounded like the poor girl was being tortured. When Mr. Potter said something was wrong, she hadn't been expecting this.
"Quickly, Mr. Weasley, put Ms. Granger in the bed. Right here. Gentle now." Harry gave her a look at that, he doubted Hermione even knew where she was, let alone if she would care if Ron was being gentle enough.
Madame Pomfrey rushed forward and pulled the blankets up to Hermione's shoulders, not that they would stay there for long as tremors kept wracking Hermione's body.
"Please, you have to help her!"
"Mr. Weasley. What do you think I do in here all day! Of course I'm going to help her!" Madame Pomfrey scoffed at the idea of not helping one of the most beloved students to ever walk through Hogwarts' halls. "I know she was there last night on your foolish misadventure. Was she checked out?" She did not miss the glare that Mr. Potter shot Mr. Weasley.
Ron, for his part, did look sheepishly at the floor.
"She said she was fine... I was just so happy she had turned up. I... I let her talk me into not being seen."
"Humph. You should have forced her into. Well. She's here now, so no matter. Out" Madame Pomfrey started shooing them out past the curtains. They both protested vehemently, but when stinging jinxes started hitting their feet, they quickly back up and watched the curtain whoosh shut in front of them.
Alrighty. I decided to cut it here so you could have this chapter. Ron seems great right now, but pretty soon, the Ron bashing will arrive. Malfoy has lived most of his life in this forced persona under his father, so his change will be slow. By the beginning of sixth year, though, Malfoy will be infatuated with Hermione.