CHAPTER NINE
Summary: Hermione suffers a terrible attack and who should find her but one of Wizarding Britain's most eligible bachelors. The relationship that builds between them is one no one saw coming, but no one predicted the danger that would surely follow. Post-War. Rated M for a reason.
Disclaimer: I do not own canon events or characters, they belong to J.K Rowling. I am not making a profit from this fanfic, everything is purely for entertainment purposes.
Q&A
Thank you for all the questions regarding Hermione's attacker, but I'm afraid I can't actually answer them without giving the plot away, and it would ruin the surprise.
Page count: 5
Wood Estate - Wednesday 24th November 1998
Oliver stepped out of the floo and took Hermione over to the nearest corner suite and placing her down onto the cushion, just as Thomas and Merlin stepped through. Merlin jumped up and sat next to Hermione, whilst Thomas kneeled down in front of her.
"You know the process," he stated.
"Yes, I do, which means it's going to hurt like hell," she sighed.
"I'll leave you some Sleeping Draughts so you can sleep through most of the pain, Pain Potions can only be taken twice a day when on Skele-Gro, hopefully your leg will be healed by Friday, but like I said, it's likely to be a week before you can walk again."
"Why?" Oliver asked whilst Thomas set to work removing the shards of shattered bone from Hermione's leg.
"We're growing back bone and because it's new it'll be soft and more susceptible to injury, like a new born baby's skull. I can't put too much pressure on my leg otherwise it'll just snap and we're back to square one," Hermione answered.
"Alright, I've removed the bone, Skele-Gro time," Thomas spoke, "I took a detour home and grabbed a potion for you," he handed her the potion and Hermione grimaced knowing that it was going to taste horrendous.
She pinched her nose and took a large gulp, quickly swallowing it and she gagged at the taste. "That is foul, worse than your cooking, Thomas."
"Hey, there's no need to bring my cooking into this," he replied and she laughed at him. "How are you feeling?"
"I can feel it working already, but the Pain Potion you likely gave me when I was unconscious hasn't worn off yet, so it feels weird, like pins and needles."
He nodded, and then turned to Oliver. "Don't let her fall asleep for another three hours, I need you to watch her for me, she had a head wound and no matter the injury, the head is a vulnerable part of the body. If anything strange happens in the next three hours floo call me, if not then she can sleep."
"Alright," he nodded.
Thomas stood. "Well, I'll be back to check on you in the morning." He kissed her forehead, gave Merlin a scratch on the head and patted Oliver's shoulder before heading to the floo. "I ordered food for you, it should be through in about twenty minutes," he called over his shoulder before leaving through the floo.
Oliver looked at Hermione sadly.
"Will ye tell mae what tha' whole situation was aboot? It was obvious tha' it's happened befere an' The Minister said he thinks it's the same person tha' attacked ye."
"Oliver..." she sighed,
"Naw, a think it's fair tha' ye tell mae ev'rything."
She sighed once more, but this time in defeat. "Fine, I'll tell you," she agreed.
She pulled her legs up onto the corner suite and laid down on her side, Oliver walked over to the other one and sat down facing her.
"Bobby," he called.
"Master Oliver," he bowed, once he'd appeared in the room.
"Miss. Granger will be staying here, please unpack her belongings intae her room."
"Oliver," she scolded. "I can do it myself."
"Naw, ye an' a are gunna have a talk, stop tryin' tae get oot af it."
She scowled at him. Oliver picked up her beaded bag from the table and handed it to Bobby. Before Bobby could disappear and do his task, Hermione waved her wand, summoning her double blanket and a pillow from the bag. She covered herself with her blanket, almost like a cocoon, and she snuggled into it and sighed happily as she laid down and rested her head on her pillow.
"I missed my blanket," she mumbled tiredly, her eyes closing.
"Granger, don' fall asleep."
"I'm not, I'm just resting my eyes," her voice trailed off.
"Granger!" he yelled, her eyes flew open and she sat up looking around. She scowled at him. "Don' fall asleep, talk tae me."
She laid back down.
"After the war everyone was healing, fixing their businesses, fixing up Hogwarts, spending time with their families and loved ones, the Wizarding World was coming back together. I had been secretly training under Thomas and a few other healers, but mainly Thomas, this lasted for close to three years. I knew that I had a purpose in the war, I knew that I would see people hurt and I couldn't live with myself knowing that I wouldn't be able to help them and I knew that healers were in short demand during times of war, since there's too many causalities to keep up with. So, I decided I wanted to be a healer, to help people."
"After the Final Battle I spent a lot of time at Hogwarts' hospital wing and at St. Mungo's, helping wherever I could. A month Iater, I took my healer examinations. I didn't have to do an internship or residency since I had practical experience spanning almost three years. Several healers from St. Mungo's vouched for me, writing references stating they had witnessed my knowledge of healing, my healing capabilities and the number of patients I had treated, as did Thomas, as well as Madam Pomphrey, even Professor McGonagall and Lucius Malfoy Once it had been proven he was under the Imperius Curse, his opinion was credible. I had a total of ten references, eight healers, the Headmistress of Hogwarts and the head of the richest family in Europe."
"Quite a résumé," he nodded impressed.
She shrugged. "About a week after I got my private healing licence, I started receiving mail. That wasn't unusual, I always receive fan mail, it's directed to an office where staff reply to the letters for myself, Harry and Ronald."
That surprised him, but he supposed it shouldn't; they were the most famous trio in history.
"What was unusual was that these letters weren't redirected, they came straight to me. I opened them thinking it was a letter from one of The Weasleys. It wasn't. It was from a fan, I guessed to be male, at first he wrote about how much he appreciated what I did for the world. He wrote about how inspired he was by me, about how much my sacrifice had affected him. Nothing wrong with that, right?"
He nodded, but frowned.
"That's what I thought too, but the tone of the letters started changing, they became more personal, more obsessive. He started to talk about how beautiful I was, about the qualities in me he admired. He spoke about how lucky a man would be to have my heart. And then, it became more obsessive. He wrote stating that he was in love me, that I was his everything, his angel leading him to the light and away from the darkness. He started talking about how we were going to marry, about the children we would have, about Merlin having children to play with. That's definitely when I knew something was wrong, by this point I'd only had Merlin for about a week, he was only nine weeks old. Only Harry and Thomas knew about him. How did this man know about my dog?"
Oliver's frown deepened.
"The letters once again changed when I started dating, I had a relationship with Dean Thomas, he was in my year, Gryffindor," she said and he nodded, he vaguely remembered him. "We kept it quiet, it wasn't serious enough for it to be splashed across the pages of The Daily Prophet and blown way out of proportion. I hadn't told anyone, not Thomas and certainly not Harry or Ron. The letters changed once more, he was furious that I had cheated on him, that I had turned my back on him, betrayed him. He said that he could forgive me, but Dean had to go. I broke up with Dean within minutes of reading the letter."
He looked at her shocked.
"I was photographed with Harry and Ron on a night out, the next day I received a letter stating that he didn't like how close I was to them, he didn't agree with the relationship we shared. Now I don't see them as much as I'd like to, just to keep them safe and he hasn't mentioned them again. The letters stopped and I thought he'd left me alone. He hadn't."
"He broke into my flat when I was out, I had wards up only slightly more advanced than basic ones, and he'd broken through them. I packed up and moved to another flat. Bill Weasley is a curse breaker, I asked him to put wards up for me, he didn't question me and did it. I was still receiving letters and that's when I took them to Kingsley. He brought in Jolkins and Thomas was already aware that something was wrong. He broke me down until I told him everything."
"About a month after that, my second flat was broken into again and all of my photos that had any males beside my father in them were vandalised, I packed up and moved. I asked Bill to put stronger wards up on my new flat, I knew he was suspicious but he did as I had asked and he didn't ask questions. Harry, myself and Thomas were the only people to have access through the floo and only myself through apparition. Then I met you at the bar and I was attacked, we all suspect...no, we know it was him. Today was the third time he has broken through my wards, though this time he not only vandalised my photographs, but he stole my belongings and my knickers, the creepy bastard."
"It wasn't enough that he's ruined my life. It wasn't enough that's he forced me out of my home three times. It wasn't enough that he's the reason I'm afraid to leave the house alone because I know he's watching me. It wasn't enough that I can't see Harry or The Weasleys as much as I'd like to. It wasn't enough that he's vandalised my property and stolen from me, no, the fucking twat had to rape me too, I could've died had you not found me, so could've Merlin because he wouldn't leave my side."
He could see the tears falling down her face, but her voice hadn't wavered during her speech.
He looked at her softly. "A promise ye, he won't find ye here, we're not even in London."
"Where are we?"
"Scottish Highlands."
Despite her tears still falling her eyes lit up.
"Really?" she questioned and he nodded. "Can we see Ben Nevis?"
"Ben who now?" he asked confused.
"Ben Nevis, it's the tallest mountain in the British Isles."
"Well a don' know aboot this Ben Nevis, but ye can see a mountain from the other side af the manor." She looked delighted at the news. "We're also in the Muggle World, a bought the estate aff a widowed muggle, whose husband happened tae be a Muggleborn an' he inherited the estate from a rich great uncle or somethin' like tha', hence the house-elves tha' came with the property. Yer stalker won't think tae look fer ye in the Muggle World, let alone the Scottish Highlands." She looked thoughtful. "An' the estate already had wards up but when a moved in, a hired several curse breakers tae put up more advanced wards, there's various around the estate tha' a don' even know aboot," he confessed. "Not tae mention, naw one but Kingsley, Jolkins an' Thomas know tha' yer staying with mae. There's four reasons as tae why ye are safe here with mae, a could probably come up with more if ye like."
She shook her head.
"Ye are safe here, an' a won't let anyone hurt ye. Not again. A promise a will protect ye."