Hello my lovely readers!
I am terribly sorry for the delay on this update!
Between Job interviews for me; my Beta doing her very best to find time we both have struggled a little to get you this chapter updated.
We both are working really hard and hopefully before I start my new job we can post one or two more.
Thank you again to everyone who has left me fabulous reviews for this story and also for The Veil!
I LOVE your reviews!
So enough of my fluffy chit chat and enjoy!

XOXO
Natstar

SHATTER ME

Chapter 6

The week before Hogwarts started, Hermione pushed and argued with her Healer to allow her to be ready for Hogwarts with the rest of the students. She still couldn't walk unassisted but it was not going to deter her. Her father also was not the only one that was reluctant to let her go, yet when they tried to argue with her she asked her father and the healer how was she to start her sixth year if she wasn't there. Hermione was determined to try and start the year as normal as possible. Even though the healer still had advised against her using any magic until she had more strength. As much as Hermione argued she still tired quickly when she exerted herself. Her father went as far to ask her how she would learn magic if she could not practice it practically? Hermione said that she could still get ahead on the theory work and catch up the practical separately. Nothing would deter her.

So now she was dressed sitting in her wheelchair with Remus, Tonks, and Bill Weasley at Kings Cross station, who had volunteered to be escorts for Harry. Sirius had just seen Harry onto the train; both he and Moody, along with the twins, were still on platform nine and three quarters, keeping an eye on Harry and waiting for Hermione to come through. Remus stood behind her chair and Tonks had a trolley with her trunk and the cage with a hissing Crookshanks. Bill stood nearby keeping a lookout.

Remus bent down and whispered "Ready?" She nodded staring directly at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Remus began pushing forwards the barrier rushing towards them. Hermione took a deep breath and they passed through the barrier. That was when it went wrong. The magic in the barrier rushed through her. Her face was suddenly white, her forehead beaded in sweat. The last thing she saw was the scarlet of the Hogwarts express and the startled face of Sirius as he ran towards her as she slipped from the chair passing out.

Hermione was falling through a fractured grey landscape through shattered fragments. She tumbled through the jagged greyness looking at the shards as they flew past. Each of the shards seemed to be like a fragment of a film. In each of them she realised there was a common theme. A handsome black haired man with intense storm grey eyes.

Through each of the shattered fragments Hermione saw this tall handsome man as a boy, as a teen and as a grown man. She blushed as she saw moments where he was holding tightly to a curly brown haired woman, breaking a table in the throes of passion, lying naked on the beach counting stars, dancing a tango in a crowded room.

She didn't know if she was floating or falling through this shattered dream. Her eyes kept being drawn to the coloured shards around her. She saw a little boy sitting in a bed with frightened eyes. She saw a teen in the same room lying on the floor covered in blood. She saw his grey eyes light up each time he looked at the curly brown haired woman. She saw those same eyes stare out of a fragment in madness.

The fragments drifted past, Hermione was afraid they would cut her. She tried to move past them but they seemed to move around her on their own going one direction as she went another through the fragmented grey landscape she was in…

Hermione groaned slightly and shifted. She was horizontal, lying on something soft. Beside her something was beeping softly. She could hear voices but could not make out anything that was said. She lifted her hand to rub the sleep from her eyes and realised something was attached to it. She groaned again, finally recognising where she was.

The healer heard the change in the beeps and hurried back into the room. The sounds of voices grew louder briefly as the door opened and closed. Hermione blinked a few times to look around. She was connected to all the muggle medical devices she had only just managed to disconnect herself from a few weeks ago. Not good. She realised that she had pushed too hard. The look on the healers face as she moved around the bed checking the devices and her patient said it all. The healer bent and raised the bed so Hermione could sit up a little.

The door opened again and in the doorway stood Sirius. She could practically feel the anger and anxiety as it rolled off him in waves. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. He stepped into the room and slipping his hands into his pockets. Behind him was Remus, a look almost equal to Sirius, yet his face briefly showed some relief that she was awake.

The healer looked between her patient and the two men and took her leave, shutting the door quietly behind her. They stood at the end of her bed on either side. Not that Hermione could do anything; she could feel how weak her body was. Hermione took a deep breath. She still had a back bone where it counted.

"What happened?" her voice lacked the strength she hoped for. Instead, her question came out timorous. She watched their reactions. Remus ran his hand though his hair briefly, stepping forwards. Sirius merely stood there, yet she felt like his presence in the room made him look taller and intimidating.

"What happened Hermione? You effectively demonstrated that you are extremely unfit to handle any form of magic right now." Remus's quiet voice cut through the intense silence. She could feel the scolding tone, she flinched. Sirius snorted. The first sound he had made since he had stepped into the room. Hermione found she could not meet his gaze so she kept her eyes down at her hands as they twisted painfully together.

"You came through the barrier to platform nine and three quarters and your body responded to the magic by falling into a fit." Sirius seethed, as soon as he began to talk he began to pace.

"And then," Sirius pivoted and strode towards her with predatory grace, putting his hands on either side of her he crooned, "In order to get you help we were forced to bring you back through the barrier."

Hermione's eyes widened. The barrier made her faint passing through it once. Going through it twice?

"You stopped breathing Hermione." Remus's aggrieved voice came from behind, yet Sirius filled much of her vision she couldn't see anything else. Hermione made the mistake of looking up at Sirius and her eyes were locked into the swirling grey of his.

"I nearly. We nearly lost you again." His voice crooned at her. Hermione felt like she couldn't breathe again. It seemed to have shown as the machines around her began beeping louder and erratically. Sirius let out a snarl and moved away from her. She noticed Remus now leaning against the window sill watching her intensely. It was when she noticed that the sky outside was dark. Hermione's brow creased as she looked past Remus into the dark sky.

"H- How long?" Her voice was definitely trembling now.

"Three days." Remus answered her. Her face paled. She was unconscious for three days. She had well and truly missed the start of term. She felt like she had been punched in the gut. Then another thought shot through her head. Her parents! Hermione didn't realise she said it out loud until she noticed both men move to stand either side of her concern written on their faces.

"No, they don't know Hermione." Remus said. She looked confused the way he said it. Remus flicked a glance up at Sirius before returning to look sadly at Hermione. Hermione flicked her gaze between them, but neither was giving her any cues, until Sirius took her hand into his.

"You-Know-Who came across some information regarding you." Sirius said softly. Hermione could only stare into those stormy grey eyes.
"He personally visited your parents the day you were meant to return to Hogwarts. He had thought. He had been told you were going home instead of trying to board the train. We had Aurors watching your parents but unfortunately no one survived. Including your parents."

Hermione's hand was now squeezing Sirius's tightly. She thought if she had been standing she would have collapsed. She felt dizzy and light headed. She couldn't hear anything. The beeping of the monitors faded out, she couldn't think or see.

"Breathe, Hermione." Remus voice broke through as he grabbed her shoulders suddenly. Hermione took a shaky breath in. Remus reached around and put a mask over her as she began to hyperventilate. She felt there was too much maleness around her and she couldn't breathe. The Healer rushed back in moving Remus out of the way. She didn't say a word as she pressed some buttons increasing the drip flow into her hand. Hermione's grip on Sirius's hand slackened and her head drooped as the sedative pumped through her.

Sirius watched as the sedatives put her back to sleep. Hermione had just come through something that was incredibly harrowing and now her parents were killed by the Dark Lord's own hands. For the first time since Hermione had returned from the veil, he hoped that she would be given some time before those memories began to surface. He was sure he would lose her completely otherwise. Hermione sighed in her sleep and a tear leaked out from one of her closed eyes rolling down her cheek slowly, leaving a salt water path in its wake.

Remus sat heavily in the chair by the window, sighing heavily. He wished that he and Sirius did not have to give Hermione that news; especially after he watched her slide off her wheelchair as soon as he had pushed her onto the platform. He felt responsible for Hermione's current state of health even though Sirius, Tonks and everyone waiting and guarding outside this room told him otherwise.

"Should we have waited?" Sirius asked his friend quietly as they watched Hermione sleep.

"No. Better to do it now and allow her time to spend her time healing both emotional and physical wounds." Remus rubbed his eyes. He had barely slept as he was one of the volunteers to act as a guard for Hermione as she recovered in St Mungo's until she could be moved.

"She is going to ask what information that had made You-Know-Who suddenly want her." Remus stared at the bed blinking.

Sirius snorted, "Even Dumbledore thinks that telling her that You-Know-Who found the memories Hermione herself had obliviated from Wormtail is not a great idea."

"I don't even want to think what lead to him being targeted for such an amount of punishment for You-Know-Who to find it." Remus rubbed his eyes again.

"Moony go and get some rest. You look absolutely buggered." Sirius had turned his dark gaze towards his friend. Remus groaned and stood, stretching. He moved back to Hermione's bedside and kissed her forehead gently. He nodded to Sirius and took his leave. Sirius settled in to watch over for a third, and hopefully a final time.

She was lying in a hospital bed. She could feel that her face was wet and hugged a book close to her chest. She knew if she opened the book her heart would shatter into a thousand pieces. It was already shattered. The room was dark but she felt a presence like someone was watching her. She looked at the door. A man she felt a familiar twinge pull inside her, and an overwhelming sense of guilt. He had his wand pointed at her. All she wanted to do was just let it all end.

She shut her eyes blocking the room with the man from her view. And waited. Nothing happened. Hermione could feel herself crying out as she felt the pain pulling hard at her. She cried out into the night her voice full of sorrow for everyone she had lost. She felt in that moment she had lost it all…

Sirius awoke with a start. Hermione was curled up on the bed keening. Tears were leaking from her eyes. The sight of her crying in such sorrow had him blinking back his own tears. Movement at the monitors alerted him to the night healer who checked on her. The Healer noted he was awake. Who wouldn't be hearing Hermione cry.

"She is still asleep." The healer said matter-of-factly as she wrote on the chart. Sirius merely raised an eyebrow at the healer.

"It's the sedatives. She still has a strong enough dose in her system she is not likely to wake until tomorrow morning." The healer explained. The healer replaced the chart on the end of the bed and left Sirius to sit and watch as Hermione shifted in her sleep. Her lips were still moving, as if she was talking quietly to someone. Sirius's head was drooping when she sat up suddenly in the bed.

"Remus. I- I don't have anything black to wear tomorrow." Hermione mumbled, before she lay back down curling back into a ball as more silent tears leaked out from her closed eyes.

Sirius stared at Hermione. He had thought that she was dreaming about her parents. But his mind flicked back to when he was shown Hermione's memories as she had travelled through his past in brief moments. She was dreaming of those times. Her memories were unlocked as she fell into unconsciousness. He knew that they must fade as soon as she awoke or she would have already started to ask questions.