Chapter 4: Harry

Harry gazed at the girl. He couldn't sleep and kept a firm hold of her hand. Hermione had remained in the same condition, unconscious and sweaty, her colour had returned to her. The sun was starting to rise over the horizon and the morning light shown between the gap in the curtain, illuminating Hermione in a magical glow. Harry sighed and stood up. He stepped downstairs and headed towards the kitchen. He had lost his appetite, but he set out a bowl of food for Crookshanks. He headed back upstairs with a washcloth and medicated water. He kneeled down beside her and took off the bandages that surrounded her stomach, chest, arms, legs and neck areas. He grimaced a little at the cuts and gashes that ruined her skin. He applied some of the medicated water on areas one by one. He then applied new bandages. A he applied water at the bites in her neck, he saw her flinch. He stopped immediately.

"Hermione?" he whispered and then placed the bowl elsewhere.

"Hermione? Can you hear me?" Harry started to shake her gently.

He was glad to see her reacting. Her hands were twitching and her brows were furrowing a little. Harry continued calling her name and shaking her a little. He was getting the same reactions, small ones, but good ones.

"Come on Herms, open your eyes!" Harry pleaded with her.

What's happening? Where am I? Why is it so dark? What's that shaking? Is it an Earthquake?

"…ione?" What? Who's that? That voice sounds familiar. So warm. So caring.

"…ione? Ca ou ear e?" Harry? Where are you? I can't see you!

"…on 'erms, ope' you eyes!" Eyes? Harry…I don't want to be alone! I want out! I want to see Varee and Crookshanks again! I hate this darkness! This is a nightmare! HELP!

With that Harry saw Hermione opening her eyes. 'She always had beautiful eyes.' Harry smiled. Her vision was blurry but she could still vaguely make out a figure in amongst the golden light from the sunrise.

"Herms! Thank god!" Harry said and slowly moved away stray strands that would obscure her vision.

Hermione wanted to utter some words, but her voice wouldn't work properly. No sound came when she moved her mouth.

"Don't try and talk Herms. Just relax." Harry said comfortingly.

Hermione's eyes slowly started to focus. She was taking in everything she could see from her point of vision. She started focussing on Harry; she could make out his messy hair, his bright green eyes under his round glasses, his lightning scar, and his relieved expression on his face.

"Harry…" Hermione whispered quietly.

"Shh." Harry smiled at the girl, "I'll be right back." Harry said swiftly turning around.

Hermione started to nod, but instantly stopped seeing as her head pounded. Her whole body ached and the realisation of what happened to her hit her hard. Her eye's opened wide and she felt so dirty and weak. She started to shiver and feel colder by the minute. She heard footsteps come upstairs. She turned to face the figure and nearly screamed.

"Herms, what's wrong?" Harry asked confused.

"Go away! Leave me alone! You've dirtied me enough!" Hermione yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Hermione?!" Harry asked confused.

"GO AWAY YOU BASTARD! YOU SON OF A BITCH! LEAVE VAREE AND ME ALONE! YOU'RE NOT HER DADDY!" Hermione yelled more, grasping her head and shaking, her long hair flaying everywhere.

"Hermione…what's wrong with you?" Harry asked quite angry but kept calm.

"NOTHING'S WRONG WITH ME YOU PRICK! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU IN MY HOUSE AGAIN! YOU DISGUST ME MALFOY!" Hermione yelled in rage. 'Malfoy?' Harry thought.

"I'm not Malfoy, Herms," Harry stated at the girl.

"What are you talking about!" Hermione snapped.

"You're hallucinating Hermione." Harry waved his wand and changed Hermione's vision on what it should have been. The world spinned a little and Hermione started to get dizzy. After closing her eyes, her hallucination of Malfoy disappeared and Harry stood in place.

"Harry…" Hermione gasped.

"Yeah Herms. It's good ol' Harry!" Harry said trying to lighted the tense atmosphere.

"Harry…I...I'm…s-s-sorry!" Hermione stuttered her shaking decreasing.

"It's alright Herms," Harry soothed her and held her in his arms. She was so cold, and was shivering with fright. He hated seeing her like this.

"I was so scared." Hermione whispered, breaking down in tears. Harry kissed her on her forehead.

"You won't be scared any longer, I'm here for you." Harry said and rubbed her back lightly.

"Thank you." Hermione said and melted in his embrace.

Harry was so gentle and loving towards her. He whispered soothing words to her and stroked her hair. Hermione cherished the kiss he gave her on her forehead. It was soft, gentle and sweet. Nothing like she had experienced after a long time. Even though she had thrown a fit of anger towards him, he didn't turn away. Within an hour or so, Mrs Weasley arrived. Hermione yelled at her until Harry calmed her down.

"Hermione, that's Mrs Weasley. She won't hurt you, and Malfoy is no where near here." Harry said, holding the shivering girl again.

Mrs Weasley hadn't taken the insults personally. She had expected them actually, but her face contorted as she finally knew who had caused Hermione so much pain. Hermione was reluctant at first to let Mrs Weasley touch her, but after Harry had comforted her saying Mrs Weasley wouldn't harm her, Hermione let Mrs Weasley check up on her. Mrs Weasley was gentle on her, and Hermione kept a firm grip of Harry's hand everytime she came with a thermometer or other medical equipment. After the check up, Mrs Weasley turned to Harry.

"She seems to trust you more than anyone right now. But, you need some rest yourself. I'll look after her while you rest." Mrs Weasley said. Harry refused at first but Mrs Weasley's stern look won the battle.

"I'm just going for a walk. I'm not too tired." Harry said.

"Wait Harry!" Mrs Weasley called, but Harry had turned into his animagus form and flew in a southerly direction.

"Don't do anything stupid Harry," Mrs Weasley whispered.

Many emotions ran through Harry, but the main one was hate. Extreme hatred towards Malfoy. He sped off faster. 'The bastard, how dare he hurt Hermione! And Varee, she's his daughter. Shit that's bad! He's been torturing Hermione for so long and she just let it happen. Why didn't she protect herself? She's a strong witch, she could take on Malfoy any day.' Harry thought. Harry started to fly even faster. His mind focussed on his destination. The Daily Prophet Office.

Once he reached the alley that led to the doors to the office, he transformed back to his human form. He slammed the door open and ran down the hallways he had ran not less than 24 hours ago. Many reporters looked startled at his outburst into the hall with many desks. Many startled faces looked at the raging Harry.

"Harry, darling!" Cho called out and stepped in front of him as he ran down the hall.

"Move Cho!" Harry nearly shouted, but kept calm.

"But we've a lot of catching up to do! I'm sure that's why you came here." Cho laughed airily.

"Dream on," he spat at the smaller girl.

"If you're here to see the Granger bitch, she's not here. She's off sick again," Cho snarled slightly.

"Firstly, NEVER ever call Herms a bitch. If I've ever met one, you've got to be the biggest one!" Harry shouted at the smaller girl.

"Secondly, how many times has Hermione been off sick?" Harry asked hurriedly.

"She's been off every second week since last year. I'm surprised I haven't fired her." Cho huffed and walked away.

Harry kept running looking at any name plaques that said Malfoy. None of them did. He ran into one of the three doors that lead to the editor's office. Surely enough, Malfoy sat there checking through many different papers. Surely enough, he looked up at the raging Harry at his doorway.

"Potter, what are you doing here?" he asked pleasantly.

"I'm here…to beat the shit out of you Malfoy!" Harry raged and held out his wand, directly at his chest. Malfoy raised as eyebrow.

"Really Harry, is this how to greet an old friend after two, nearly three years?" Malfoy asked surprised slightly.

"You have NEVER been my friend Malfoy and I there is no way I'd be greeting you for what you did to Hermione!" Harry yelled at him. Malfoy hid his smirk.

"Why'd you care so much for the mudblood anyway?" Malfoy grinned evilly.

"She's my best friend, and you treated her like dirt. You don't deserve to live. You nearly god damned killed her!" Harry spat.

"Well, if it's a duel you want, a duel you'll get!" Malfoy smirked and started to get out his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled. Malfoy's wand instantly flew out of his reach and somewhere beside Harry.

"You were always a crap duellist." Harry smirked and advanced upon him.

"I was better than you," muttered Malfoy.

"Yeah right," Harry remarked.

With that Harry lifted Malfoy up with his wand and slammed him against a wall. Malfoy moaned in pain.

"Hurts, doesn't it? It's a million times worse when you've already been raped countless times, with bruises and cuts on your back. Oh you should just imagine the pain. Hey, why imagine it?" Harry asked angrily and conjured cuts and bruises similar to those on Hermione's back onto Malfoy's back. With his wand, he started slamming Malfoy against the wall all sides of the walls. Onlookers were too shocked to do anything. Harry was a very powerful wizard for such a young age of 19, and they feared his wrath and didn't want to interfere. Harry glared at Malfoy.

"When I check on Hermione, she had a lot of damage done to her stomach and chest. Want to know how that feels?" Harry asked. Ignoring pleadings, Harry pulled back his spare hand. A force of air formed into a larger version of his fist. He then pushed it forward. It his Malfoy square in the chest and stomach and face many a time. Malfoy gasped as the air was knocked out of him. He fell into a heap onto the floor.

Harry walked up to him and pulled his head up by grasping his hair. Malfoy looked into Harry's raging green eyes.

"You're lucky I haven't killed you yet. If you ever lay a finger on Hermione again, I'll personally make sure you die a slow and painful death." Harry snarled and walked away. The crowd immediately parted to let the young wizard pass. They watched as he turned into his animagus form and flyaway. Some of the crowd went in and helped Malfoy, some stood at the gangway, extremely confused and some started writing about what just happened for the newspaper.

Harry headed back towards Hermione's house. He saw Ron flying on a broomstick with Varee to Hermione's and immediately flew up to him. Ron acknowledged Harry in the air. He knew Harry's animagus form by heart. He himself was animagus, he turned into a tiger, but he didn't turn into one right now for obvious reasons. They both reached Hermione's home and opened the door. Mrs Weasley stood on the gangway, tapping her foot. She looked slightly amused.

"Hi Ron, Harry. Thanks for bringing her here, Hermione wanted to see her badly." Mrs Weasley said.

"No problem mum." Ron said.

"Harry, you have fun?" Mrs Weasley asked smiling largely.

"Uh…not particularly." Harry smiled. Mrs Weasley had become somewhat of a mother to Harry. He loved he just as much as any other Weasley.

"Oh…but look at the headlines of the Daily Prophet." Mrs Weasley handed him the paper, and surely enough, there was a picture of him throwing Malfoy from wall to wall.

"Hermione and I had fun watching this." Mrs Weasley smiled cheekily.

"HARRY! You beat up Malfoy without me?! I'm hurt!" Ron said sarcastically.

"He deserved what he got." Mrs Weasley said. She took Varee and headed upstairs.

Ron went into the kitchen and prepared some tea. Harry received an owl from Percy…the Minister of Magic.

-Harry

Well, I must say I'm impressed. Mother told me of what the slime Malfoy did to Hermione. So I'm not being too hard on you. The rape isn't public yet, and I'm making sure it stays that way. But this doesn't get you off the hook. Malfoy can press charges on you. This is just a warning; NEVER DO THIS AGAIN! We can't really lock Malfoy yet until Hermione is up to fighting the court case. I'm sorry for all that's happened to her. Give her my love.

Percy Weasley

Minister of Magic. -

Harry knew this would happen, but he had been to caught up with his own rage. He received a few more owls from Fred and George who congratulated him for finally kicking Malfoy's ass, from Hagrid who sounded surprised but happy none the less and even one from Dumbledore. He smiled, as Dumbledore knew he did this for only good and personal reasons. Mrs Weasley came downstairs.

"Hermione's wanting to see you two." Mrs Weasley said as she made herself a cup of tea.

Harry and Ron raced upstairs. Hermione was smiling at her sleeping daughter and Crookshanks was curled up beside her. They both entered he room. Hermione smiled weakly at them.

"Hey Hermione." Ron said and hugged the girl gently. He felt how she tensed up but relaxed a little later.

"Ron, thank you so much for taking care of Varee. I owe you 5 Knut's." she said.

"Nah! This one's on me!" Ron replied.

"And Harry, I sure appreciate what you did. I wish I could've seen it personally." Hermione smiled. Harry just nodded, unsure of what to say.

The three friends tried to stay off the topic of the past incidents. They just chatted like they were back at Hogwarts, in the warm couches of the common room. Mrs Weasley soon came upstairs.

"Well, I'm going off. I'll see you all later." Mrs Weasley started.

"Wait mum! I'll give you a lift home. Um…Hermione, would you like me to take baby-sit Varee again?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded knowing that she wouldn't be able to look after her in her state.

"Ok. We'll be off then." Both Weasley's turned and left. Harry sat down on the chair that was previously occupied by Ron.

"Are you staying with me tonight?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Only if you want me to." Harry replied.

"I do want you to stay." Hermione whispered 'stay with me forever that is.' Hermione thought.

"Alright then." Harry said smiling at her.

"Hey…I'm hungry, want something to eat? I can cook some edible things." Harry smirked at her.

"Sure. I'm starved." Hermione replied.