A/N: Sorry for the delay. To be honest I've had this chapter written for a while but school kind of got in the way of editing and posting. My bad. Thanks to those who reviewed. WARNING: There's no Draco or Hermione in this chapter but these events are pivotal and we will get back to them in the next chapter. Also as the title indicates, there is a rape in this chapter; nothing too graphic though.
Chapter Fifteen: The Rape of the Lotus
Luna Lovegood languidly lay in the Malfoy garden, taking in the lovely scents that the flowers sprouted from their beings. Despite all the obstacles that were appearing in the way, all the complications and moments of despair, Luna was perfectly content. Things could be better, she knew, but before they got better she made sure to keep Ronald under control, seeing as he was losing his patience more often than ever and she made sure to find comfort in his embrace or she feared she'd lose her senses.
Blaise, Draco, Hermione & Ileana had been gone for three days now and everyone at the Malfoy home, except Luna was on edge. She tried her best to cheer everyone up but no matter what she did, they kept being in a conjoint foul mood. As Luna pondered these things she felt quite frustrated that her clairvoyance hadn't done something about it.
Luna had kept the secret for years and had only recently told Ron about it. Before the war she had had a vague gift of clairvoyance and after the war it had only gotten stronger. What once used to be vague visions of faces were now full pictures of situations. The visions, however, were few and often occurred with long periods of time in between. It frustrated her to no end that she couldn't access her mind and foresee any events useful to herself and everyone at the home. But just as she thought that, her wish came true and she saw something very important:
The house was lovely. Warm yellow walls glowed in the darkness. The house was in chaos. There were picture frames shattered on the floor. There were people in the kitchen: a man was throwing a woman on the floor as he roughly kissed her. He brushed the woman's long black hair out of her face and revealed a set of frightened brown eyes. The man then ran his hands all over her body. He lifts up her skirt and unbuttons his pants as he continues to kiss her. A bright line shines.
Luna came out of her vision and tried to vividly recall what she had seen. The house in the vision wasn't one that she had seen before and because the picture frames was shattered she wasn't sure who lived there. What she was sure of was that a woman with black hair was being assaulted. The worst part was that she could recall all of the details of her face. All she saw was black hair and brown eyes. She ran up to the house, ignoring Ron's desire for a kiss and found Harper in the living room.
Harper looked up at her with worry as she took in Luna's panicked and disheveled state.
"What's wrong, Luna?"
"I had a vision and someone's going to get raped."
"Whoa-whoa, wait. You had a vision?"
"Yes! And I want to help but I can't see who's getting attacked exactly. I need your help."
"What can I do to help?"
"I have no idea but I need to focus my mind more to see if I find something."
Harper thought for a moment and then recollected: "Maybe I could use Legilimency on you?"
"It wouldn't work on visions."
"No, but it would on the details."
Luna shook her head. "I've asked Ron to do it and it's just not possible."
Harper frowned. She didn't want to do what she was thinking of because it wasn't strictly speaking legal but then they've all been doing something illegal by becoming Inked and that had gone on for years. She sighed.
"Luna, I know a way for me to meld my mind with yours and I can look through everything. You'd have to trust me, however and really focus on the vision. If you do that I'll be in your vision and it'll be like I'm there. I don't know if it'll work but it's worth a shot."
Luna shakily nodded.
"Lay on the sofa over there and I'll sit on a chair next to you."
"Ok."
Ron came into the room and looked at Luna with worry in his eyes.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Lu?"
"Hold my hand Ronald. I'm frightened."
"Okay."
Luna did as Harper had asked of her and Ronald stood by her and held Luna's hand as Harper took a seat. Luna thought of the terrible vision she had had and Harper started concentrating her entire mind on melding with Luna. In about two minutes, Harper felt herself inside of Luna's mind.
There she encountered a house in disarray and a man throwing a woman on the ground in the kitchen. Right off the bat, she could tell who he was-it was Dean. She then quickly moved around Dean to confirm that her suspicions had been right and her eyes widened when she saw the poor broken flower being assaulted. She then quickly escaped Luna's mind and once she did both Luna and Ron looked to her for answers.
"Contact Harry Potter. Immediately."-Harper said.
"Why? What's wrong?"-Ron said.
"It's Padma. Dean's going to attack her."
The three got up and briefly argued about which way to contact him. The three were all talking at the same time until Ron whistled loudly and told them all to shut up. He conjured his Patronus and sent it with the emergency message praying that Harry would get it on time.
Harry James Potter was a happy man on this particular day. He had been in love for quite some time and he wanted to make it official. He wanted to propose to his lovely Padma. The proposal had been in his plans for ages but it wasn't until last night that Padma's father (after a week of consideration) had finally given Harry his blessing to marry his daughter.
Mr. Patil was thankful that Harry was the hero of the Wizarding World, but there were a few obstacles in his giving his permission and this had caused a delay in Harry's plans. The first thing that bothered Mr. Patil was simply that Harry was not Indian; no matter how modern the world got, some traditions were just hard to let go. This fact was later considered irrelevant after serious persuasion from Mrs. Patil. There was no objection in terms of stability for Mr. Patil knew Harry to be more than able to maintain his daughter safe and give her a good and economically stable home.
The large obstacle was quite simply that Harry and Padma had moved in together without his permission and were living in sin. It was very difficult for the man to accept that his daughter had been defiled and deflowered before reaching the marriage bed. This led to a serious conversation between father and daughter about her feelings towards The-Boy-Who Lived (he was very careful not to let slip the real reason he was having this conversation with her). After that conversation and some drawn out consideration, Mr. Patil gave Harry his permission.
As such, Harry was now happily attending to his work at the Auror office after having picked up the engagement ring he had gotten Padma out of his vault at Gringotts. His plan was to simply arrive home with a dozen pink roses (her favorite), grab her and just say it…just come out and ask her. Padma was just as simple as he was when it came to how she liked to live and he knew that she would love him all the more for proposing in their home as opposed to proposing in public whilst doing an elaborate and overly romantic gesture. Unfortunately for Harry, and up until this moment unbeknownst to him, he wouldn't be able to propose that night.
It was in midst his happiness that the terrier Patronus appeared in his office. He knew it was Ron so he paid all the attention in the world to its message.
"Harry, go home. Padma's in danger!"
As soon as he heard those words, he quickly ran to the fireplace in his office and apparated home.
Padma Patil was not a very superstitious woman. Though she knew all the superstitions her mother believed in, she never really believed them herself. But today, one said superstition had been plaguing her and as such she had been nervous the whole day.
After finishing Hogwarts, Padma surprised her family by deciding to become a writer. At first she wrote short stories for The Quibbler as she and Luna had become friends and Luna was interested in having stories published in her family's newspaper. With these stories she had gained a bit of a fan base and decided to write a novel that was rapidly published and a success in wizarding communities all over the world.
It had been after the success of her novel that she had bumped into Harry on a trip to Diagon Alley. She literally bumped into him as she had been walking with a pile full of books on her way to the register in Flourish and Blotts. When she bumped into him all her books fell to the ground and he, ever the gentleman helped her carry all of them.
To this day Padma still laughed at the fact that she and Harry had asked each other out at the exact same time after they had exited the bookshop. There had been some blushing at that occurrence and a murmured "Yes I will go out with you."
A few days later the two tried, in vain, to go to a popular Italian restaurant in Diagon Alley. It was a failed attempt not because they couldn't get a table (because that had been settled right after the host saw their faces), but because despite the years past, Harry was still followed by the press when he was on a date. This was on top of the fact that Padma was now a hot commodity thanks to the success of her book and was also being watched like a hawk. So many camera flashes had gone off in their faces that Harry grabbed her and they apparated out of the restaurant. They popped up right at the London entrance of The Leaky Cauldron.
Harry and Padma walked a few streets in muggle London to make sure they weren't followed and then hailed a cab, which then took them to the small and quiet restaurant where they would have their first date. They had wound up at a small pizza place, shared a medium pizza and tried some beer all the while laughing at the events prior to their finding a place to themselves. They found that they had much in common and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. From then on in they became inseparable.
A year had passed when Padma had asked Harry to move in with her. He smiled brightly and said yes and when he did the couple decided to buy a new house in a muggle neighborhood in the country. This way they could both have the quiet life they wanted. They had moved into the home only a month ago and they enjoyed it loads.
Today, the house had brought Padma a bad feeling. Her mother always had a problem with cats, feeling that it was bad luck to gaze upon one in the morning and to see it coming towards her when she was leaving the house. Padma always thought this was nonsense but this morning, as Harry walked over to the mailbox to get their muggle mail and she saw a cat walking towards him she got a chill all throughout her body. She kissed Harry good-bye before he left to his office and remained in a state of unease the rest of the morning.
It was during lunchtime that it happened. Padma was still nervous but she started making herself some lunch so that she could get to work on her new novel. As she prepared her food, she heard the door open and turned around to see who it was. She came face to face with Dean Thomas.
She sighed in relief for she was unaware that Dean had gone mad and was unaware that her sister had gone mad. She said hello to him and asked what he was doing here. Dean seemed in a complete daze when he saw Padma and said nothing.
"Dean, are you ok?"-Padma asked.
It took him a while, but finally, he uttered: "I love you, sweetheart."
"Dean, you barely know me and I'm in love with Harry."
Dean didn't process any of the words she had said for he was completely confused and thought that he was standing in front of Parvati. This belief then caused him to throw himself on her. Padma screamed and searched her pockets for her wand and panicked when she remembered that she had left it on her bedside table. She grabbed the bowl she was mixing her salad in and hit Dean over the head with it. The hit on the head didn't deter him at all from his attack of her.
In Dean's mind he was doing the regular foreplay he did with Parvati and she was, as always, playing hard to get and fighting him until he entered her and her reactions would change. But that was in Dean's mind…in reality Padma feared for her life. She wished more than anything that she could contact Harry but she couldn't at the moment.
Dean pushed Padma down to the ground and kissed her. He then ran his hands through her body and attacked her neck with his mouth. Padma tried to push him off with all her strength and scratched at his face and arms but that only urged him on. Eventually Dean lifted Padma's skirt, pinned her arms down with one of his hands, ripped off her underwear with the other and then proceeded to undo his pants.
Padma had panicked before but now she was just incredibly desperate to get Dean off her. She let out a scream that pierced the silent air and went throughout the house as Dean did the unthinkable and violated her.
It was at that precise moment when Harry arrived and threw a stinging hex at Dean, pulled him off (or rather kicked him off) of Padma and cast a Petrificus Totalus. As Dean lied stiff as a rock, Harry was completely preoccupied with attending to Padma. He leaned down to gently sit her up and she stiffened at first but then relaxed knowing that Harry had just saved her and that he would never hurt her.
Harry pushed her skirt down and undid his Auror robe and wrapped her in it. His eyes were near tears as he held her in his arms.
"I'm so sorry I didn't get here sooner, Padma. This is all my fault."
Padma sniffled and in a hoarse voice, she said: "It's not your fault Harry, it's mine."
"How is it your fault? You've done nothing wrong, flower, nothing!"
"If I had had my wand it wouldn't have happened. I was asking for it."-She said looking away from him.
Harry gently took her chin in his right hand and turned her face to look at him. "You didn't ask for this Padma. Not at all! You're the smartest, sweetest, kindest, most beautiful woman inside and out that I've ever met. I have no idea why Dean did this but I will get to the bottom of it."
Harry grabbed Padma into his arms and took her to the bathroom, sat her down on the edge of the bathtub and drew her a bath. As he did a thought entered Padma; she voiced it.
"He kept calling me Parvati."
"Dean was calling you by your sister's name?"
Padma nodded. She then continued: "How did you know to come home?"
"Ron sent me a Patronus. I'm going to have to send him an owl. Give me a second I'll be right back. After the bath we have to go straight to St. Mungo's. Ok?"
She nodded at him and watched as he went to get some parchment and a quill. She briefly smiled as she acknowledged that Harry was always taking care of her-especially in her time of despair. It showed how much he truly cared.
The bath was now full of water and Padma undressed and carefully got in the water feeling sore all over. Harry came back in less than a minute and watched over Padma as he wrote Ron a brief owl. When Padma winced, Harry dropped the quill and went over to her and gave her a small bottle of pain potion he had grabbed from the medicine cabinet.
"Thank you, Harry."-She said before gulping the pain potion down in one swig.
Harry nodded and quickly finished his letter and went into the living room to hand it to their owl, Archimedes. He tied Dean up before he awoke and called his assistant Aidan to take him off to Azkaban and to come file the rape report at St. Mungo's once the bastard was locked away. He then went back to Padma and after she got dressed they rapidly popped over to St. Mungo's.
Ron and Luna read the letter Harry had sent them, wrote him a reply and then went to Galatea for help. Galatea knew for a fact that Dean's plan was to get Harry to tell him where they all were but it was nonsensical because despite what Parvati and Dean believed, Harry and Padma hadn't bonded. A letter was then sent to Hermione and company so that they could be aware of Dean's attack. Unfortunately for all of them, they were stuck in their respective hiding places and they simply hoped that now that Harry had been involved, they could get some help without getting arrested themselves for committing an illegal act.
As Padma was treated by one of the lead healers, Harry's assistant was getting the statements Harry had to make about the assault. It was during this that Harry received Ron's letter.
Harry,
I knew she was in danger because Luna had a vision of it. I'm not going to go into details of how she saw it but needless to say we were worried.
It's been partially my fault that you're in this mess. See during our sixth year at Hogwarts, Hermione, unknowingly committed an illegal act and performed the True Love's Pledge with Malfoy. Basically, she's bonded to him in a way she never could be with me and got married to me despite the fact that he had left her, that he played dead and that she still loved him. When Malfoy came back she reunited with him and I allowed it because I've been unhappy in my marriage with Hermione and she has been with me. We've merely been best friends masquerading as lovers and when I realized that (for I knew Hermione had known it long ago), I also bonded with someone and that was Luna.
Nevertheless Parvati Patil has a vendetta against all of us. Her main reason is because her ex lover, Blaise Zabini left her and she became obsessive. That being said because she wants to destroy all of us, it's pretty clear that she harbors a deep envy of all our relationships. She tried to kill a few of us in a mad rage and luckily we sent her to St. Mungo's and she's been locked in the loony bin so to speak. Dean, in turn, has been Parvati's lover for a long time and he's madly in love with her. I'm not an expert, but if I had to guess, Dean was either following Parvati's orders or doing something to please her.
Either way, this has all been a matter of the Society of the Inked, as we call ourselves. I know I am risking being arrested for doing this illegal act, but it's better if you hear from me what's really going on and why you've been attacked. Dean wants to get rid of us and he thought that you had bonded with Padma and would know where we are.
If there's anything else you need, do not hesitate to come visit me. The address has been charmed so that only you and Padma can see it.
Sincerely,
Ron
P.S. Luna says hi.
Harry was very well aware of the fact that his two best friend's had a warrant out for their arrest and he had been asked to stay out of it for conflict of interest. He just never thought that their problems would find their way to him. He now hated the fact that he was forced to choose between reporting Ron and Hermione or doing what, in this instance, he thought was right by putting away people that had done harm to others. It took him a minute, but everything became clear. Parvati and Dean had to be locked up-no matter how hard it would be to explain to Padma that he had to lock up her sister.
