Memo: Here you go. Got to run to English to watch Psycho
"Patronum," Hermione said to the Fat Lady who swept into a curtsy before opening. Hermione was glad she still had the password to the Gryffindor Common Room. She had nowhere else to go and she was surely not returning to anywhere near Malfoy while his hormones were still on a rampage.
She climbed inside quickly and listened to the portrait shut behind her. She saw that Harry, Ron, and Ginny were all hanging out in the Common Room. She gave them a brief smile and approached them.
"Hello," she said and sat down next to Ginny. They all said hi to her, and then they were silent. They were awkward in behaviour. Hermione was growing tired of their odd ways when she was around. What had happened?
Why was everything so strange with them now?
"So how are things?" she asked. They shrugged and mumbled some answers. There was another awkward silence as they all adverted their eyes from Hermione's expectant ones.
"How are you?" Ginny asked and placed a hand carefully on Hermione's. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. She looked Ginny deep in the eyes and saw that worry and concern was practically rushing from them in waves.
There was no way that she could know. It was impossible.
She looked at Ron and Harry; both of them eyeing her with the same care and hurt. This wasn't right. She had worked so hard to avoid stares like this. She wasn't going to let her friends treat her as if she was admitted into the hospital on her deathbed.
"What's wrong with you three?" she asked and tried to be clueless. Her voice betrayed her and gave away the fact that she was nervous. Ginny took a shaky breath.
"We know that you're sick," she said quietly. Hermione pursed her lips tightly and her eyes narrowed. She lost all colour in her cheeks and even her hair seemed to go flat. She looked almost defeated.
They were silent, watching Hermione slowly grasp the idea and not even saying a word. Ron opened his mouth several times to say something. He planned on saying something sweet and funny. Something that would let Hermione know that he was there for her and always would be, no matter what was wrong. Still he was afraid that his voice wouldn't come out as calm and reassuring as he would want and would instead crack with fear.
"How?" Hermione asked quietly, ringing her hands in her lap anxiously. She needed an answer; she couldn't bear being treated like this.
"I saw your medicine," Ginny said. Hermione looked up at her and narrowed her eyes once more, only this time it was with anger.
"You went through my things?" she asked, her voice seething with anger and frustration. Ginny paled and looked down, taking her hand from Hermione's and avoiding looking at her. "How dare you?" Hermione growled through clenched teeth. She shot venomous looks at Ron and Harry who sat silent and dumbfounded.
"Hermione," Harry started to say.
"Don't Hermione me! I don't want to hear it, Harry!" Hermione snapped, surprised at the anger and strength in her voice. "You three had no right to invade my personal life!" she hissed. Ron shook his head, staring at Hermione in disbelief.
"It's called being a good friend!" he objected. Hermione shot a death glare at him and he cowered at her anger. He mustered up his courage and didn't back down from her icy glare again.
"No, it's called invasion of privacy. It's called being nosy," she snapped back at him. "I didn't tell you three for this exact reason!" she cried out, grabbing fistfuls of hair and staring at the floor. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and her shoulders trembled as she held back the tears.
Ron stood and walked around the back of the couch and placed his hands on her shoulders. The pain and tension in them was so obvious he was surprised she hadn't broken yet. Hermione was so beautiful and so strong.
Whatever was happening to her she didn't deserve.
He rubbed her shoulders carefully and she lowered her head farther as if she wanted to curl up into a ball and hide from the world. As if she wanted to disappear.
That's when he saw it. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes and didn't realize he looked like a beached fish. A deep slash followed along her hairline perfectly, purple and swollen, black veins making him feel nauseous. Black stitches went along through the slash, sealing it tightly together, causing the skin to pucker. It almost looked as if someone had scalped her and then re-stitched it back on.
He grimaced but did not falter in the motions his hands made on her shoulders.
"Hermione, please just tell us," he said quietly. His voice quivered like a leaf in the gentle fall breeze. Ron couldn't even look down at the angry slashes along the back of her head. It was the most horrific sight he had ever seen.
"You don't understand, Ron. I can't. You don't know what's wrong with me... you don't have the slightest idea," she said and felt her body shudder again as she held back the tears.
She then sat up straight, her hair hiding the cut as if it were never there. Her silky hair rushed against Ron's hands and he continued to knead her shoulders.
She put a hand on his and gave it a gentle squeeze in thanks.
"Hermione whatever you think you have to hide from us, you don't. We're here for you," Harry reassured her and leaned in. "But we can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong," He said simply.
Hermione looked up at him sadly and he got a good look at her. He could tell whatever was happening to her was getting worse as the days went by. She had looked slightly troubled and underweight at the beginning of the school year, sure. He had just figured she had problems at home. Now the bones in her face were slowly beginning to jut out of her skin.
The swollen dark circles beneath her eyes were puffy and purple. Her lips looked swollen... only... he shook his head, getting rid of the thought that she had been kissing someone. She looked alone and frightened, and as if she were hiding so many secrets in those dark brown eyes and she refused to let any of them out.
"I... I'm... I'm... I can't," she said and covered her face to hide a sob as she rushed from the Common Room. Ron stepped back, shudders overcoming him.
Everything he had held back when he first saw the back of her head sliced open was now spilling out
"In the name of Merlin... oh god... oh dear lord..." he said nervously and hugged himself, trying to stop the shaking. Harry stood, staring at his best friend oddly.
"What's going on? What happened?" Harry asked. Ron looked at Harry, looking rather sickly.
"Hermione..." he mumbled and then squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at them as if trying to rid himself of some sort of dream or vision.
"What?" Ginny demanded of her older brother. He looked at her and then at Harry. He swallowed the dry lump in his throat.
"She had... this thing on the back of her neck..." he said and traced a line across his hairline. "It was... oh my god it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. It almost looked as if someone had scalped her and then sown it back on!" he said. He then went pale, his eyes bulging from his head. "You don't think... you don't think that she was tortured over the summer, do you?" he asked.
Ginny gasped and Harry let out a terrified groan.
"Is that what she could be hiding? I mean, she never actually said she was sick. She just asked how we knew... I mean... what if... what if she was captured by Voldemort or something..." Harry mumbled and then took handfuls of his hair and yanked out it, letting out an angry cry. "That must be why she doesn't want me to know! Because of what Voldemort has already taken from me... she knew that if I knew what had happened I'd never forgive myself..." he groaned again.
Ginny let a terrified cry escape her lips as tears pricked at her eyes.
"Oh Harry... imagine what might have happened to her..." Ginny gasped. Ron hid his face in his hands to hide the tears from his best friend and baby sister. The girl he loved, captured and tortured by Voldemort and his foul followers... the thought made sobs rush through him.
"We can't rush to conclusions," Harry said though tears brimmed his eyes and he could feel it down to his core that it was exactly what had happened to her.
br How could he have let this happen? How? He was supposed to be the one to protect Hermione! Now she was being tortured by Voldemort while Harry spent his entire day moping about because the Dursley's had made him lock Hedwig up again.
"We're not RUSHING to anything, Harry!" Ron snapped angrily. "I mean, we've been in school for more than a WEEK! I think we've spent bloody well enough time thinking this over!" he snapped, ignoring the fact that tears were relentlessly spilling over his paled cheeks.
"We need to see Professor Dumbledore," Ginny said quietly. They looked at her.
"Do you really think that he'd tell us anything, Ginerva?" Ron snapped angrily. Harry glared at him and Ron mumbled an apology, still obviously flustered about the thought of anyone hurting Hermione.
"I suppose he is our best shot," Harry sighed. "I hope we can be persuasive enough," he laughed airily and then shut his eyes tight, blocking out images of Hermione screaming as Voldemort slowly cut off her scalp, stripping her of her bushy hair
He felt a dry heave come over him.
"Then what the BLOODY HELL are we waiting for?" Ron shouted at them and then stormed angrily from the Common Room, Harry and Ginny tagging along behind.
They were all horrified and disgusted with themselves and what had happened to Hermione... but then again they could be wrong, couldn't they? If she had been tortured by Voldemort...
How did she manage to escape alive?