September 27, 1999

The next day, the Weasleys, Katie, Angelina, Harry, Fleur, and Victoire sat somberly in the waiting room. Charlie had yet to leave Hermione's side and the family watched as the healers ran back and forth to her room. Each time another healer ran in, a wave of panic washed over the group.

Just as Harry was about to get up and stop one of the healers that passed them, another mediwitch came from around the desk and called out for them.

"Family of Hermione Granger?"

When the whole waiting room stood up, the mediwitch's eyes grew large.

"I'm afraid only two can go back at a time." she stuttered.

"You boys go on. We'll see her later. Bill and I will see what we can find out about the curse." Arthur told Harry and Ron, motioning them forward.

They followed the healer to the door at the very end of the hallway that they had been watching for the past day. Before opening the door, the healer turned to them.

"Miss Granger is okay but she's very weak. Not only did she manage to drain nearly all of her magical core, but she lost a lot of blood...nearly too much. She also has extensive bruising on her back that's inconsistent with a suicide attempt. It looks like someone struck her there repeatedly. Because her core was so drained, and the extreme amount of blood she lost, we've had to place her in a magical induced sleep, otherwise her body won't be able to handle the healing process. The knife she used was cursed, similar to the one used by Bellatrix. We slowed the bleeding exponentially but haven't been able to get it to stop yet so be mindful of the bandages. A small consolation: she couldn't have done this to herself alone. Someone would have had to have been there for her core to drain that much." She turned and opened the door slightly, letting them in. "For what it's worth, I hope you find out who caused her to do this and I hope you kill them." She added, closing the door behind them.

They turned and looked into the room. It was large and colored various shades of nude. The large bed where Hermione lay was to the right and Charlie was sitting in a chair on the left side. He held her right hand up to his face and was muttering something under his breath to her. Large sterile white bandages covered her wrists and hands.

As they came closer, Charlie noticed them and spoke without taking his eyes off of her.

"I'm not leaving."

"You don't have to, mate. No one's going to ask you to. We just wanted to see her and maybe ask you a few things." Ron explained as they sat in the two chairs on the right side of the bed. Harry reached up and grabbed her left hand. It felt cold and rough. He nearly broke down there. It reminded him of their second year when she had been petrified, though this was much worse. This time, they could have prevented it if they had been paying more attention to her. Ron leaned forward and placed his hand on top of Harry's.

"She'll be okay. I reckon as soon as she wakes up, she'll be cross with us for being so worried." Ron told him, sitting back again.

"Why didn't you tell anyone, Charlie?" Harry asked without looking over at him.

"I think you both know the answer to that. You know how she is. She was so worried about everything everyone else was going through that she didn't want to be a burden. She wanted to take care of it herself. Besides, once I got her to the Burrow, she was so much better. I thought it was behind us. I thought I helped her. I thought we…" He trailed off before placing a kiss on her hand which he held between both of his.

"It's okay, Char." Ron consoled him. "But you're right. She was better at the Burrow and there's a reason for that." Charlie's eyes snapped to Ron's. Ron noted how swollen and red they were but opted to ignore it. "She was better at the Burrow because someone had placed a curse on her cottage and her parents' house. Bill found it and said it was a new one made specifically for Hermione. Someone targeted her. It wasn't your fault. You didn't do this, mate."

"Who?" Charlie demanded, turning his attention back to Hermione's face.

"There are Auror's are investigating it right now. As soon as we find out, we'll let you know." Harry promised.

Charlie took several deep breaths trying to reel in his magic. It wasn't often that a trained witch/wizard lost control of their magic, but it did happen. Especially when they were experiencing high stress or extremely strong emotions.

A knock on the door made them all jump, and Arthur stuck his head in. His face paled seeing Hermione, but he looked away quickly.

"Boys, Bill found out the details of the curse and the Auror's have news as well."

Harry and Ron jumped up and after placing a quick kiss on Hermione's forehead, they followed Arthur out the door. Charlie remained still as they left, his eyes staying trained on Hermione's face.

Bill stood in the front of the conference room in St. Mungo's detailing the curse that had been placed on Hermione's homes.

"This curse was created by someone with a deep hatred for the victim. It targets them specifically and singularly. It was embedded into the walls of their home and the home of the victim's parents. It appears to be based on the magic from a horcrux and uses the victim's greatest insecurities and self-doubts against them, slowly driving them insane. In this instance, it appears to have used the victim's subtle suicidal thoughts against them."

"How exactly do you know that?" One Auror asked.

"There were runes carved into the back of the doors of each home. These runes are used to shape and mold curses, so they do what the caster wants. Any questions?" Bill paused looking around the room. When no one said anything, he continued. "Right, I'll be turning this over to the Auror leading the investigation and I'll add my summary to the report at a later date." He said, as he stepped to the side.

"Thank you, Curse breaker Weasley." Hestia Jones said as she took his place. "We discovered that the cottage belonging to the victim was purchased through the Zabini Real Estate company. Mr. Zabini was brought in for questioning and it was discovered that prior to the victim moving in, the house was examined for dark curses by Malfoy Enterprises. We believe this is when the suspect had the opportunity to embed the curse into the house. Due to the nature of this evidence, Draco Malfoy has become our prime suspect. It appears he is on his way to France, possibly to his mother's summer villa. We already have a group of Aurors in route to capture him for questioning. Thank you."

Ron and Harry locked eyes before heading back to Hermione's room to tell Charlie. The door was open, and Harry and Ron could hear Charlie speaking to her. They moved closer to hear what he was saying. They looked at each other in surprise when they realized that Charlie was singing to her.

"I don't want to live without you

I don't want to live without you

I could never live without you

Live without your love"

Charlie stopped singing and laid his head on her leg, still clutching her hand. They could see his shoulders shaking slightly.

Ron nudged Harry with his elbow and motioned towards the waiting room, gently closing the door.

"We can tell him later. Besides we should go let mum and everyone else know what they found." Ron explained to Harry as they got further from the door.

Once the family had been updated, everyone took turns seeing Hermione in pairs and Charlie always refused to leave.