Dear Wizarding Britain

Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.

A/N on 8/21/2021: I found a typo while rereading this chapter to refresh my memory for starting on the next chapter, so if you've already read this chapter, there has been no changes to what happened, just fixed a "she" to a "he".

The weeks passed and Hermione finally felt comfortable enough to sleep on her own at night and be around Fred and George during the day. Little by little she started to become more like her old self, devouring books in the library as quickly as she could lay a hand on them. She was still somewhat skittish, but she was doing loads better than she had been when she had first arrived at the island.

Meanwhile, Harry had spent the nights tossing and turning, unable to sleep restfully since the night he had the twins enact his revenge against Malfoy. He was plagued with dreams of his mother telling him how disappointed she was in his behavior and the way in which he had handled his revenge against Malfoy.

Needless to say, the nightly dreams he had over and over where his mother was disappointed in his actions caused him to lose sleep, as the guilt on his conscience weighed heavier and heavier with each passing day. He had to resort to the use of glamours during the day, so that no one would notice the bags under his eyes.

In the midst of his most recent dream/nightmare, Harry's dream self argued back this time, rather than sit there and listen to Lily Potter tell him over and over again about how big of a disappointment he was and that she didn't die for him to turn into someone as cold-hearted as Lord Voldemort. Harry's dream self protested vehemently against that notion; however, Lily Potter had had enough of his denials and slapped him hard and said, "I will make you live to regret this for the rest of your life, Harry James Potter, if you don't fix this right now. I dare say that child has learned her lesson quite thoroughly by now."

Harry woke up the next morning with a red handprint across his face on the same cheek that Lily Potter had slapped his dream self. Harry slouched his shoulders in defeat and said softly, "Fine, mum. You've made your point. I'll talk to the twins and try to work out a plan to get Malfoy out of there.

"So…" Harry started slowly, as he found Fred and George alone together.

"What can we —"

"— do for you —"

"— oh fearless, leader?" Fred and George asked in their normal twin speak.

Harry rolled his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck, indicating to the twins how nervous Harry was about the topic he was going to talk with them about.

"Well," Harry said slowly, and tried to swallow back his nerves. Finally, he dropped the glamours to show the twins the state of his health.

"Damn, Harrikins, who the hell slapped you hard enough to leave a hand-shaped bruise?" George asked in fascination.

Harry cleared his throat and mumbled, "My mum."

"…"

"Yes, I know how that sounds, but she's been visiting in my dreams ever since we went through what we did to Malfoy and she didn't take too kindly to my talking back to her last night." Harry said with a shrug, trying to make it seem like it wasn't any big deal that his dead mother slapped him, but the twins knew better.

"Yeah, well, we haven't exactly felt all warm and fuzzy since we dropped her off with that brothel dude either," Fred said with a sigh. George nodded solemnly in agreement.

Harry gave a small nod and asked, "How hard do you think it will be to locate her and get her out of there?"

Fred and George exchanged looks for a second and after some form of nonverbal agreement, Fred said, "Well, we added a tracking spell to that magical artifact that we picked up from Knockturn Alley."

Harry raised an eyebrow at that, but remained silent.

"I know we didn't agree to that, but we were already feeling guilty for going through with it to begin with, but we didn't think we had a chance in hell of changing your mind about it, so we added the tracker so we could formulate a rescue of all the girls there, not just Malfoy." George said quickly, before taking a breath.

"I'm not complaining, George, I'm actually relieved that you thought to do that." Harry said gratefully. Dipping his head in shame, he added, "I'm sorry I was so bullheaded that you felt that you couldn't talk to me about it."

Fred and George both clapped him on the shoulders from either side of him and Fred said sagely, "We understood why you were so angry, Merlin, we were angry too. But in hindsight, maybe we shouldn't make any major decisions in the future until we've had time to get over our anger long enough to think it through."

Harry smiled and said, "You're probably right." Which caused Fred to preen while Harry laughed.

After a couple of minutes, Harry said soberly, "We'd better hope that Hermione never finds out about what we did, she'd likely kill us."

The twins gulped in unison and nodded in agreement.

Since Harry was still a few months away from being considered an adult in the wizarding world and therefore would still have the trace on him if he used magic away from the island, the twins were once again having to deal with the Malfoy situation on their own.

The three of them had waffled back and forth about what to do with Malfoy once rescued. Bringing her back to the island was out of the question because of Hermione's presence there, not to mention they expected her to be frightened to death to be around Harry and the twins, considering they were the ones that were responsible for her current circumstances.

In the end, they decided it would be best to contact the authorities anonymously with the location of all of the girls that needed to be rescued. Before notifying the authorities, though, they decided they should first find Malfoy and remove the magical artifact from her and her handler, so that the artifact did not prevent her rescue. Their plan was to replace it with a fake, so no one would notice anything out of the ordinary.

Fred and George arrived at Malfoy's location under disillusionment charms, first they found Jax and did a quick switch of the artifact that was linked to the one on Malfoy. Next they stealthily made their way to Malfoy's room, the sight that greeted them made the guilt hit them tenfold. Malfoy was chained face down on the bed, completely naked, arms chained behind her back, over the metal bar that was connected between the head and footboards, legs spread out into a split at the edge of the bed with one foot tied to the headboard and the other tied to the footboard for ease of access. Additionally, there were obvious signs of whip marks, from where she had been whipped into submission before being left to sleep all tied up.

Fred swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat as he saw the result of their chosen revenge upon Malfoy, who they remembered had been renamed Angel by her current owner. They were suddenly reminded that she was only a sixteen year old, regardless of how she had behaved when she had been male and what her intentions had been for Hermione, she was still a teenager. Perhaps it would have been better if they had just dropped her off in the middle of muggle London to let Fate decide what to do with her after they had fed her those potions.

Quickly, they hit her with a sleep charm to make sure that she didn't wake up while they switched out the artifact with the fake, noticing the dried tear tracks on her face as they did.

Swallowing back their guilt, they completed the switch and apparated out with twin pops.

A few hours later, they stood outside the building and watched under disillusionment charms while law enforcement officers broke down the door and took down the perpetrators, and then watched as medical personnel were brought in to help the victims.

They stayed until they saw Malfoy/Angel being carried out on a stretcher, presumably because she didn't have the use of her legs after being tied up the way she was.

After the last victim was loaded up to be taken away, George turned to Fred and said, "I could do with a strong drink."

"Agreed," said Fred grimly.

Angel woke up with a whimper. "Shh, it's alright, sweetheart." She heard a feminine voice say soothingly, "You're safe now, dear. You're safe."

Angel, who had long since stopped thinking of herself as Draco, forced her eyes open to look around, not daring to hope that her rescue wasn't just a far off dream. Blinking, she slowly took in her surroundings and noticed she was located in what looked like a hospital. She sagged in relief, her rescue hadn't been a dream then.

Her eyes finally settled on the person sitting at her bedside, the woman who had apparently been the one who was trying to soothe her fears as she woke up. She had light brown hair and a kind face. If Angel had to guess, she'd believe the woman to be about in her 40s. The woman gave her a gentle smile as she asked, "How are you feeling, dear?"

Angel swallowed thickly, trying to fight back the tears that wanted to build up at the woman's concerned tone. "A little sore," she managed to whisper.

The woman nodded, "Well, considering the position you were found in, I'd be surprised if you weren't a bit sore."

Angel's face flushed in embarrassment when she remembered the position that she had been forced to stay in day in and day out. She had been untied every few hours to allow her to use the loo, but then she was tied right back up afterwards.

"My name is Mrs. Murdock," said the woman. "I'm a representative from the local battered women and children's shelter. I'm here to help you in any way you need," Mrs. Murdock explained. "Can you tell me your name?

"They called me Angel," Angel replied softly.

"Oh," Mrs. Murdock said. "Is that the name your parents gave you?"

Angel shook her head no, but then she couldn't very well tell Mrs. Murdock her real name, so she whispered, "I didn't have a name when that man, Jax, bought me, so he named me Angel."

Mrs. Murdock was speechless for a moment, but chose to press on. "Do you want me to call you Angel, or would you prefer to choose another name?"

Angel thought for a moment, but shook her head and said softly, "For better or worse, my name is Angel now. I don't want to choose a new name."

"Very well," Mrs. Murdock said with a nod. "Can you tell me how old you are?"

"I'm sixteen, ma'am," Angel replied.

And on and on the interview between Angel and Mrs. Murdock went. Angel said she was an orphan, but didn't remember much of her life before being purchased by Mr. Jax.

After a couple of hours, Mrs. Murdock noticed how tired Angel seemed to be getting, so she promised to come back to see her the next day and encouraged her to get some rest.

As Angel laid down to go to sleep, she thought about how she came to this point. At first she wanted to curse Potter and the Weasley twins for what they did to her, but upon further reflection, she didn't feel as if she had the right to be angry with them, considering what she had been planning to do to Granger while she was still Draco. So for the first time in her life, she chose to let go of the grudge that she could have held on to. She was going to make the most of the life she had left. She may not have her magic, she may no longer be the rich heir to the Malfoy family, but she now had her freedom and she would be grateful for it.

THE DAILY PROPHET

POTIONS MASTER FOUND DEAD AT HOGWARTS

By: Rita Skeeter

Dear readers, it has come to our attention here at The Daily Prophet that Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House, Professor Severus Snape was found dead in his living quarters after having missed all of his classes for the day.

Investigations are forthcoming; however, the preliminary reports indicate that he may have been the victim of an Unbreakable Vow.

Headmaster Dumbledore was not available for comment.

See page 2B for more on Severus Snape's life and accomplishments.