A/N: This fic is one I was thinking about before the HBP came out, but now it's sort of solidified. If you haven't yet read HBP (Shame on you) then be warned that there are spoilers here. There is also explicit and sometimes non-consensual sex and violence. If you are old enough and mature enough to deal with that, read on. Otherwise, don't blame me for ruining the book or hurting your psyches. Please review.

Special thanks to:

Kichou: for being the first reviewer.

Michele1985: for the nice comments.

ashley48506: you're right, but the notes did warn of the spoiler…

jinxblessed: she called him that in an attempt to appeal to his human side and make him see her as a human being…

Bookie: thanks for the compliment. I'm working on how I'm going to have that happen. I trying not to ump POV at all, which makes it hard to have them do something without her.

Celeste Noir: thank you!

Lateral Thinker: another thank you!

It's so nice to know someone is reading…it means a lot to an author when people review.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. You all know that.

"Hermione?" They called looking around. They hadn't seen my huddled form, yet. Looking at each other they came all the way into the room. "Tom did say he hadn't seen her leave, right?" Fred said to his twin.

"I thought so." George answered. Then apparently hearing my sniffle, he looked into the dark corner where I was crouched onto the floor in a ball. "Hermione! Oh my God! What happened?"

Looking up, I saw George's concerned eyes first, full of shock and anger and fear and hurt and…empathy? With a sob I convulsively tried to cover myself more, but the movement woke a fierce pain. The room swam, and I passed out.

When I next dragged myself into consciousness, I found myself lying in a comfortable bed. I was dressed in a jumper that was much too large and a pair of boxer shorts. I still felt sore from the battering I had sustained, but looking at my wrists, my bruises were much faded already.

Allowing my awareness to expand and encompass the entire room, I noticed the moon was up. Hearing soft snores, I noticed one of the twins was asleep in a chair next to the bed. Sleeping, I couldn't tell which twin it was. I did realize where I was though, since I clearly was not in my room at the Leaky Cauldron.

I decided to try and sit up, but it hurt more than I had thought it would, causing a soft moan to escape me.

Even that barest hint of sound caused the twin to wake.

Slowly, as if he knew that a sudden movement or loud noise would upset me, he came over to the bedside. Gently, he took my hand in his, and turned it over, looking at the miraculously fading bruises. Carefully, he sat on the side of the bed, being close enough to talk quietly, but far enough away that he didn't touch me.

"Hermione, I know you may not be ready to talk yet, especially to me and Fred. We don't really know you that well. But when you want to talk, we'll be here for you. I healed you as best I could. I had to learn a lot of simple healing charms when we were working on the Snackboxes. You're not 100, but you're not bleeding internally, your bruises are fading, and no broken bones. If you want, we can take you to St. Mungo's, but I want you to know we're not going to force you to do anything. I went ahead and brought your stuff from the Leaky Cauldron, but I only told Tom that you decided to stay with us. You're in my room, and you can stay here as long as you want. I can bunk in with Fred."

"George…you don't have to do this for me. I should stay at the Leaky Cauldron…or go back to my parents' flat…I don't want to be in your way…especially during your holiday rush…or spoil your Christmas."

"Hermione, please, don't. We may not have been as close as you are with Ron and Harry and Ginny, but we are still your friends and fellow Gryffindors. Do you want me to take you to St. Mungo's?"

At this, I started to cry again. I couldn't bare the thought of talking a stranger about this. I didn't even want to talk about this to the people I loved. I wanted to vomit at the thought of Harry and Ron finding out about this, and if I went to the hospital I know they eventually would. St. Mungo's was bound to tell the school and my parents, and then McGonagal would tell them thinking I needed their support. And what would they think of me? Harry would try to be supportive, but he already has so much on his plate, what with the war and hunting down the horcruxes and everything. And Ron would go ballistic.

Would Ron go ballistic at me, though? Like he did when I dated Krum? Even though we broke up, part of that was because our physical relationship was so awkward, like kissing a brother. At least it had been for me. But what if he thought I had wanted to have sex, just not with him? What if Malfoy had been right? What if I really was curious about sex enough that I wanted to experiment? I mean, not the way it had happened, but with someone I wasn't married to? After all, that was what I had told Ron. That I wanted to wait until I was with the person I was going to be with forever. Would Ron support me? Or fight with me? Cause right now I couldn't stand the thought of fighting with him.

Maybe I should owl Ginny. She'd be supportive. She'd help me get through this. She's not naïve and innocent, no matter what her brother's think. And she knows how to keep a secret from them…

I realized that my brain was going in circles.

"I'm sorry, George, what did you say?" I had completely lost my train of thought.

George looked at me, even more worried. "I asked if you would like me to take you to St. Mungo's. Would you?"

"Um…no. I don't think that's a good idea right now." I was getting tired.

"Do you want me to owl Harry and Ron, and, you know, ask them to come down?"

Horrified at the thought of them finding out about this, I started to cry sitting there in the bed with the too big jumper on. "No George, please, promise me that you won't tell anyone. And you won't let Fred tell anyone either." I hoped he could understand me through my sobbing.

Gently, so as not to hurt my bruises or to startle me, he put a long arm around my shoulder and drew me to his chest. "I won't Hermione. I think you need your friends, but I won't force you into anything. I promise." With that, he leaned down and kissed the top of my head. He made a move to stand up but I reached out and put a hand on his cheek.

"Please, George, can you stay a while? I don't really want to be alone right now."

"Of course Hermione. Just let me tell Fred you're awake and that he should find us all some dinner." He rose and left the room. I looked under the covers and saw that I had been bathed and dressed in the twins clothing. I smiled at how huge the jumper was. I tried not to think about Fred and George taking care of me, like that though, seeing me naked…although I was pretty sure I wasn't the first naked woman they'd seen. After all, they had both been pretty popular at school, and from what Ron said, had quite the social life now that they were adults and living away from home.

Just then, both twins came back into the room. "Pizza or Chinese?" Fred asked.

"Umm…pizza." I decided.

"Pizza it is!" Fred said with a grin. "Be back in a minute!" He went tearing from the room.

A few minutes later Fred returned to the room carrying a muggle pizza box and some bottles of butter beer.

"Hermione," Fred said, "I want you to know that when you are ready to talk, we'll be here for you. We are formidable allies, after all. And we still have our beater's bats…" he raised his eyebrows and grinned at me.

At the thought of the twins beating Malfoy with their bats I smiled for the first time since…it…happened. "Can we eat first? I'm starved…" I stalled, trying to buy myself time. I took a piece of pizza from Fred and a butter beer from George. While we ate, the twins took turns telling me about some of their latest inventions at the shop. The normal conversation helped to calm my nerves, and the twins didn't seem to expect me to do more than nod and look attentive. They also didn't seem to notice that I was mostly playing with the piece of pizza. When I'd finished my piece of pizza and they'd finished the rest, though, the conversation began to lag and George started giving me expectant looks.

"Look, Hermione, I know that you don't really want to talk about what happened today…well…yesterday now….but I really do think it will help. You know that Fred and I have been full members of the Order for a little more than a year now, but I don't think anyone ever really told you what we've been doing."

Fred shot George a warning look. "George, wait. Hermione, I agree with George that we need to tell you what we've been doing lately for the Order, that it may help you to trust us. But first I'll need your word that you won't let this go any further. And that includes Harry, Ron, and Ginny. I think it's only fair that we share our secret, and I think it will help you understand…but…it cannot go any further."

"Err, Fred, um…of course I will keep your secrets…" I was confused. I had known they had been made members of the Order, but I didn't know they'd been doing any missions. And I didn't want them to get into any trouble for my sake. But I must admit I was curious…I also did not see how their work for the Order would have anything to do with my situation. But I also thought that maybe if they could trust me with their secret, I could…well…open up a little.

"All right. Remember, you can't tell anyone." Fred looked at me closely.

With a sigh, George started explaining. "Well, 'Mione, of all the full members of the Order, we, that is to say Fred and I, are the only ones really comfortable in the muggle world. We're the only ones capable of passing as muggles. Partly because we are friends with some of the muggle-born or raised wizards, like Harry. Partly because we have grown up around Dad's fascination with muggle culture. But I think mostly because we have spent a lot of time in the muggle world doing research and collecting supplies for the shop. The only other member of the Order who is as comfortable in the muggle world is Tonks." George paused, and Fred took up the thread.

"Tonks' job as an auror, though, and her assignment to Hogsmead and Hogwarts was much too important for the Order to ask her to go wandering in the muggle parts of Britain. So, that's what we do. Our main task is to read through police reports and newspapers and contact the victims. Basically, we want to see how many of them are muggle on muggle acts of violence versus muggle baiting from the Death Eaters."

With a deep breath, George started talking again. "Even with the Prophet and Ministry accepting that Voldemort's back, they aren't reporting all the crimes against muggles that his followers are perpetrating. Only the murders get reported. Probably because they'd have to do a special edition of the paper that only reported crimes otherwise. So we have been talking to muggles in our spare time and collecting their stories about the Death Eater attacks to use as evidence if we ever win this war. And then we do what we can for them…heal them, usually, and oblivate them…" George trailed off.

Fred picked up the thread. "So, we have been hearing a lot of stories of torture, both using magic and through simple beating…and also…well…a number of rapes. I have a feeling that in 11 or 12 years there are going to be a number of muggle born witches and wizards at Hogwarts." He looked me in the eyes, and I could still see the pain there, that he'd had to hear all these stories and couldn't do much to fix these people's problems. This wasn't the Fred I remembered from school.

I looked at George and realized he was subdued, the pain in his eyes echoing his brothers. Of all the shocks I had received as a result of this war, I think this was the most shocking. The twins had always been so full of life and mischief. They were so serious now. I sighed.

George echoed it. "Hermione, the reason I thought you should know this is that you are not alone in what happened to you. And we've seen the after effects enough to have a pretty good idea of what that was. I'd like you to tell us as many of the details as you can, so that I can add it to the list of payments I'm going to exact soon. It's hard enough seeing a stranger broken and bloody. But to see you, our brother's best friend, our fellow Gryffindor…someone is going to pay. Nothing you can say will shock us. Nothing you can say will make us think it was your fault. Please, tell us what happened…"

A/N: I have begun the next chapter, which will include their reactions to Malfoy. I thought about continuing this one to include that, but decided that it should stand alone. I hope you enjoy...