Hermione rushed up the stairs, with Ron close behind her. The noise woke Hugo and Roland, who poked their tousled heads around their door.

Going in to Rose's room they saw Jane lying on the bed. She had curled herself into a foetal position, arms pulled up protecting her head. She was breathing very fast, hyperventilating. Her body was still shaking and twitching uncontrollably.

'It looks like epilepsy to me' said Ron. 'I'll call a Healer.'

'I HAVEN'T GOT EPILEPSY, YOU FOOL!' Hermione shouted, panic almost overwhelming her. She took a deep breath to calm herself and crossed to the bed.

'Jane! Hermione! Can you hear me? Look at me!' There was no response, so she turned to Rose who was staring and looked close to tears. 'Rose, what happened?'

'I didn't…it wasn't…'

'I know. But tell me what happened, I need to know.'

'I was doing my make-up and she was reading then I heard her drop the book so I turned round and she was like this and I didn't know what to do so I went to the door and I called you.'

'What book?'

Rose picked the book up from the floor and handed it to her mum, who went suddenly white. She showed it to Ron, who put his hands over his eyes and muttered 'Oh no!'

Hermione sat on the bed and pulled Jane on to her lap, cradling her in her arms, as she would a baby.

'It's OK, I'm here. Shh now, everything's OK.'

'I don't want to go back.' Hermione could hardly understand what Jane saying as her breathing was still wild. 'I want to stay here with you and Rose.'

'Shh, shh. Everything will be fine. Did you read the book?'

Jane managed to nod her head, even though she was still shaking violently.'

'Tell me, was it Chapter 9?'

Jane let out a whimper, as if in pain, and Hermione looked up at Ron with wide eyes. He looked completely at a loss for what to do next.

'Oh I'm so, so sorry. I didn't even think you'd see anything like that. Where did you get the book, Jane?'

Jane just burrowed deeper in to Hermione's shoulder and continued whimpering.

'We went in to Flourish and Blott's today, mum. I didn't see her buy anything though.' Rose suddenly had a horrible thought. Jane must have bought the book whilst she was looking through the fashion magazines. 'I'm sorry.'

'It's not your fault Rose, honestly it isn't.'

'But what is it, mum? What's in this Chapter 9 that's so terrible?'

'It…it…' Hermione had to bring her own breathing under control 'says what happened to us during the war.'

'But she knows that already. I told her you fought, and you're heroes, and the Order of Merlin and everything. She knows.'

Hermione looked at Ron again, pleading with her eyes for help. 'That's not the whole story, Rose' said Ron, quietly.

'So, what…did happen?'

Hermione saw the boys standing in the doorway, looking scared. 'Go back to your room, everything's OK.'

'What's wrong with Hermione?' said Roland. 'I want to stay.'

'Let them' said Ron. 'Let them stay, they should know too.'

'We…didn't just fight in the war' whispered Hermione, her eyes filling. 'Other things happened as well, terrible things.'

'Don't let them, please. Make them stop.' Jane sounded almost as if she were begging.

Hermione gripped her tighter and made more 'Shh'-ing noises. 'It's Ok, you're safe now.' Without knowing quite why she put her hand over Jane's ear, as if trying to protect her. 'We were captured, Ron and I and Harry.' She had to stop to compose herself. Ron sat down beside her, putting his arm around her shoulder.

'They took us…and…and…they…Oh, Ron, I can't do this.' Hermione's face was wet with her tears; her soul was being ripped apart.

'You can, Hermione. You're strong, you're bigger than this.' His face was so full of that tenderness she loved more than life itself that it gave her the strength to face her worst demons.

'They took us, and they tortured me.' Rose screamed, and Hugo and Roland cried out and held each other. 'They used the Cruciatus Curse on me, again and again. I was begging them to stop, but they wouldn't. I wanted to die.'

Jane was hugging her and crying again. 'I don't want to go back.'

Roland was shaking his head, as if he could rattle his thought together. He looked at Ron, uncomprehendingly.

'But you were there. Why didn't you stop them? Why didn't you take her place? WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM!'

He flew at Ron in a mindless rage and Ron, despite his strength, had trouble holding him. 'WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM? WHY WERE YOU A COWARD?'

'He couldn't' said Hermione. 'They couldn't stop them; they were locked in the cellar. But they escaped, and they came to save me. They could have run away, but they didn't. You risked your life to save me.'

Roland stopped his struggling. 'I did? I saved you?'

'Yes, you were so brave, and you carried me out of there. You did it, you saved me.'

Jane lifted her head up to look as well. 'Ron saved me? It was Ron?'

'Yes' said Hermione. 'Because he loves you.'

They came together, all six of them holding on to each other and drawing strength from each other, and slowly, slowly their tears subsided.

Hermione gave Jane to Ron to hold whilst she went down stairs to make a sleeping draught for her. She decided to make enough for Hugo and Roland, as well. They would all need help to sleep after what they had heard.

Whilst that was brewing, she made up a simpler calming potion for her and Ron and Rose and carried six cup upstairs on a try. She made the boys drink theirs first, then saw them safely in to bed.

'Was I brave, Hermione?' said Roland, as he laid his head on his pillow.

She smiled at him and stroked his cheek. 'Of course you were. You're a Gryffindor, through and through.' He slept.

Hermione went back to Rose's room with the rest of the cups. Jane was still in Ron's arms, and still shaking and sobbing. Rose was sat next to her, stroking her hair. 'Drink this now, all of it' said Hermione.

'What is it?' said Jane, hiccoughing the words out through her sobs.

'Just something to make you feel better. Drink it all up now.'

Before she fell asleep Jane looked up in to Hermione's eyes, her face still full of fear. 'I don't want to be tortured.'

Hermione hugged her. 'Sleep now, you're safe here.' She looked across to Rose, who was still looking pale and drawn. 'Are you OK?' Rose nodded. 'Do you want to stay here tonight? I can make you a bed downstairs.'

'I'm alright, mum. I'll stay here in case she needs me. I said I'd look after her today.'

Hermione crossed to her daughter and gave her a hug. 'Don't blame yourself, Rose. You didn't do anything wrong.' She held Rose's face in her hands and looked in to her eyes. 'Wanting to stay with her tonight, wanting to look after her, that's something you can be proud of.'

-o0o-

Hermione lay in Ron's arms, feeling completely drained. She'd never spoken to anybody about what had happened to her at Malfoy Manor that day. Even she and Ron had never discussed it properly. The story had got out in to the public domain through one of the snatchers, who'd turned Ministry Evidence to try and save his own hide. Hermione had not co-operated with Worple on his book, none of them had. She tried to get him to tone down what he'd written, but without success; he knew that part of the story was guaranteed to sell books so he'd made it as explicit as possible.

'We can't make her go back, Hermione. Not now.'

'We have to, Ron. We know she goes. You can't change time like that.'

'She's so young. Can't we do something to help her, or to make it easier for her?'

'No, we can't. They'll all have to face it, just like we did.'

'But we didn't know; she does.'

'She won't either, Ron. They're not different people, they're us. Something must have happened to make us forget. We've already been through this when we were their age; we came here, but we don't remember it.'

'That might make sense to the cleverest witch of her generation, but you've lost me completely.'

'You don't have to understand it, Ron. Just always be here for me.'

They slept.

-o0o-

Only Rose lay awake, looking at the sleeping form in the next bed, deep in thought. Although her mum had said it wasn't her fault, she felt it was. She was supposed to be looking after Jane, but she gone off to look at some stupid magazine instead.

She'd never realised. She thought war must be a glamorous thing, full of heroes and great deeds. Of course people died, she knew that; Uncle Fred and all the others on the wall at school. But for the rest, they'd survived, and she'd always thought that meant nothing special had happened. She and her friends would talk for hours about some little triumph, like making a boy look stupid or finding a new way to arrange their hair, so why hadn't her parents gone on and on about the war?

Jane started to moan and move around in her bed. Rose got up and went to kneel beside her, stroking her hair and making quiet calming noises in her ear. 'Ron…you saved me' said Jane, who seemed to calm down after that and settled back to sleep. She looked so little, and was so naive. She'd never kissed a boy, and didn't even know how to order coffee.

Her mum was old, but Jane wasn't. She was young, younger than Rose was. She did a quick calculation in her head. Jane had said she had just finished third year, so this must have happened …she would have been seventeen or eighteen. Just two or three years older than Rose was now.

Rose had always considered herself to be experienced and worldly-wise. Her mum, well what did she know about anything? She was too old. Yet tonight she'd heard her mum talk about love. Could that be true? Had mum and dad ever been in love like she was with Scorp?

''… did you have to make such an exhibition of yourself in the corridor? In public? Throwing yourself at him?'

Didn't everyone who had a boyfriend make it as public as possible? You wanted everybody to look at you, didn't you? Had mum and dad never acted like that?

Maybe they hadn't. Maybe they'd never had the chance, because they were fighting a war. Not really being heroes at all, but being frightened and captured and being…being…She couldn't bring herself to say the word.

'No wonder her mum's always disappointed in me. But she can't honestly expect me to compete with that, can she? But…I don't have to, do I? She said that…well Jane did. "… just do your best for you, not me…"'

'I've not though, have I?' Rose wiped away a tear. 'I've not let mum down, I've let me down.'