Hermione and Fred made their way down to the Hospital Wing for Hermione's first check-up with Madame Pomfrey. They walked down in silence, Hermione was far too nervous to start chatting but she had been surprised at how willing Fred had been to go with her, despite what he had said to her the night before.

"You ready?" he asked as they reached the Hospital Wing.

"Yeah, I think so," she replied and pushed the door open to get in.

Madame Pomfrey was just coming out of her small office as they entered the room and she stopped as she noticed them.

"Ah, Miss Granger you're right on time! If you'd follow me up to the end cubicle we'll get you settled for your examination. Mr Weasley what can I do for you?" she asked, turning her attention to Fred.

"I'm here with Hermione, she asked me to come."

"Right. Well don't get in my way. You can sit in on the examination if Miss Granger consents to it. Miss Granger?"

"I'd like him to be there." Hermione replied quietly, a little nervous to see her injuries for the first time since the attack.

"Follow me then." Madame Pomfrey told her and directed her to the last cubicle and gave her a gown to put on in place of her clothes.

Fred waited outside until she had changed and then returned with Madame Pomfrey once Hermione was ready. She winced a little as the bandages were taken off of her arm and she couldn't believe the mess that her arm was in. The word "mudblood" was carved into her forearm and the cuts were still open and bloody. She felt tears forming in her eyes at the sight of them and found herself reaching for Fred's hand for comfort.

"Professor Dumbledore would like to see your injuries to see what the next step is for your recovery, are you ok with that?" Madame Pomfrey asked after she had inspected them for herself.

"He's looking into my attack so he needs to see the damage that they did." She told the older woman who nodded and went to fetch the headmaster.

"You're sure you're ok with him coming to see you like this?" Fred asked her.

"My injuries are evidence, I need to do this."

Fred nodded and gave her hand a small squeeze before Madame Pomfrey arrived with Professor Dumbledore in tow.

"I trust you are well Miss Granger?" he asked as he stood at the end of her bed.

"As well as I can be Professor," she smiled in return.

"Good. Shall we proceed?"

They spent the next half hour assessing all of her injuries, from the rope marks across her stomach to the deep bruising across her left thigh. The worst, however, had to be the horrific word that was carved into her arm. It had been carved in with dark magic, although she had physically been doing it herself, which meant that it was more difficult to treat than a normal open wound. Instead, Professor Snape had been summoned to recommend and produce the correct potion for her to take to aid the healing.

"I haven't dealt with dark magic injuries for quite some time but that shouldn't make it any more difficult to treat. Professor Dumbledore?" Madame Pomfrey turned to the older wizard for his input.

"I believe that this may be a little more difficult to treat as it is due to the dark magic that created it. I think that the wounds will have to be cleansed of the dark magic first before it can heal." He concluded.

"What does that involve?" Hermione asked, almost too scared to hear the answer.

"We will need to treat the wound for dark magic by cleansing it, which is a rather straightforward process. Firstly we will need to have Professor Snape brew a cleansing potion to get rid of any magic that make have spread into the rest of your body. Once we're satisfied that the infection of dark magic is contained to your arm we will have to extract it and I do warn you that this can be a rather painful process. We will need to do it in several sessions and they will have to be done overnight here in the hospital wing. It should only take a few weeks should the treatment go well." Professor Dumbledore finished and waited to hear what she had to say.

In all honesty she was quite scared but she knew that it had to be done. So instead of complaining about how scared she truly was she swallowed most of her fear and told them that she was ready to begin treatment as soon as possible. Professor Snape promised that the potion would be waiting for her after breakfast tomorrow morning and left in a hurry to get back to the dungeons. Madame Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore bid her a good day, saying that they would return again tomorrow morning to begin her treatment, and she was left alone with Fred to get ready for a day of classes and normality.

"Are you alright?" Fred asked as he turned around to let her dress herself.

"I-I don't know." She sighed. "I'm so scared about all of this and I'm going to have to tell Harry and Ron otherwise they'll ask where I'm going when I come to get treated and it's probably going t hurt so much…" she had started crying without realising and instantly Fred was there, wrapping his arms around her and leaning her into his chest.

"It's going to be alright Mione, I promise. I'll even come with you if you want me to, only if it's not stepping a mark or you'd rather Harry and Ron were here instead. I made a promise though." He grinned at her as she pulled back to look at him.

"Thank you Fred, for everything. I really owe you so much and I just don't even know where to start!"

"You could start by stopping trying to shut us down when we're trialling new products?" he asked hopefully.

"If I don't see it then I can't stop it…." She trailed off, letting him figure out her meaning.

"Brilliant! How about some breakfast? It should have only just started a while ago."

"I'll see you down there, I just need a second to pull myself together," she gave him a small smile before he left her to it.

She made her way down to the Great Hall shortly after Fred, mainly so she didn't draw attention to them arriving alone but, she really had needed to pull herself together after hearing exactly what her recovery was going to entail. She found Harry and Ron about half way down the table, fully engrossed in a conversation about who would be the Hogwarts Triwizard Champion.

"Hermione!" Ron shouted, his mouth full of toast as he did so.

"How'd it go?" Harry asked a little quieter once they had moved to let her sit in between them.

"Fine I think. I'm starting treatment tomorrow, the sooner the better I was thinking."

"What's going to happen?"

"I'll tell you later, too many people to hear things here." She nodded around to the other students who were eating their breakfast.

Although she had no secrets to keep from the world, she had no desire for the entire Hogwarts student body to know the ins and outs of the treatment she was going to receive for her horrific injuries. Her fingers brushed against the fresh bandaging that covered her cuts on her arm and she flinched a little at the pain, she would be glad for this to be over so that she could move on from the attack.

Their first class of the day was Defence Against the Dark Arts and Hermione had never been so horrified during a lesson as she had been through Professor Moody's first class. He had shown them all three of the Unforgiveable curses and she found herself getting increasingly uncomfortable as the class progressed. He began with the Imperius curse, showing them the amusement first and then the more sinister side, that he could make the spider he held kill itself or do something particularly evil. When he turned to the Criciatus curse she felt her skin crawl as memories of her attack came flooding back to her. She could see Lucius Malfoy standing above her, casting the very same spell and she could hear her own screams of pain echoing in her ears. Neville was looking considerably uncomfortable at the front of the class as Professor Moody tortured the creature in front of his eyes. When Hermione could no longer take it she stood and screamed at him to stop.

"Stop it! Can't you see that he's upset!" she pointed towards Neville, who was shaking almost as much as she was. "There's a reason that these are illegal!" she shouted, hot tears now streaming down her face. Instead of sitting back in her seat she grabbed her bag and her books and left the class, her chest tight from fear. It wasn't until she rounded the corner from the classroom that she stopped, her breathing heavy as she realised she was having a panic attack. Harry came running down the corridor a few minutes later and nearly crashed into her.

"Moody sent me to find you and take you to see McGonagall."

"What!?" she managed to get out between hard laboured breaths.

"I'm just doing as he asked, come on." Harry led her down the corridor and towards the staircases.

They eventually made it to Professor McGonagall's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" They heard her shout at them.

They entered and she gestured for them to sit down.

"What do I owe the pleasure?" she asked them with a smile.

Harry handed over a crumpled piece of parchment that he had been carrying since he left class.

"Miss Granger is this true? Did you shout at Professor Moody?"

"Yes Professor." Hermione nodded. She was glad that she could now breathe normally after Harry had calmed her on the way to see their head of house.

"Would you care to explain yourself?" the older witch asked sternly.

"He was using Unforgiveable curses in the classroom in front of us. He-he was torturing the poor creature right in front of us, there's a reason that they're illegal! Neville was shaking because he was so upset!" Hermione finished, a little breathless again.

"Is this true?" she asked Harry.

"Yes Professor. But Neville was really distraught and from what I could see so was Hermione, which is completely understandable given what happened a few weeks ago." Harry finished.

"I am completely aware of Miss Granger's circumstances Mr Potter. I wanted you to clarify that Professor Moody was using those kind of spells in a classroom!" Professor McGonagall said, a little irate with Harry.

"Sorry Professor." He mumbled.

"Miss Granger are you alright?"

"Yes Professor. I really don't know what came over me." She explained.

"There's absolutely no need to explain yourself. I'm intending to go straight to Professor Dumbledore and ask him to have a word with Professor Moody. It is simply unacceptable that he performed these curses at all, let alone in front of school children who have been personally affected by it. Potter, take Miss Granger to the Gryffindor common room until your next class to have a breather. I'm going to see Professor Dumbledore now."

"Yes Professor," Harry replied and stood from his seat.

"Oh and Miss Granger? I was told that you'll be starting your course of treatment tomorrow. If you need any help with your studies or some time to recover come and talk to me, I'll sort it out for you with your other Professors."

"Thank you Professor, I'm hoping that won't be necessary though."

"Nonetheless, keep me updated with how you're getting on." Professor McGonagall smiled before shooing them out of her office so that she could go and deal with the incident herself.

Harry and Hermione returned to the common room and still had some time before their next class.

"So how was your chat with Madame Pomfrey this morning?" Harry asked her once they had sat down.

"It went well. She and Dumbledore and Snape are all helping with my treatment and it hopefully shouldn't take more than a few weeks. It was just a lot to take in this morning."

"You didn't have to go yourself you know." Harry told her.

"I didn't I-" she stopped herself as she realised what she had said.

"Who went with you?"

"Fred did." She sighed.

"Anything that you'd like to share there?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"No! I don't think so anyway!" she laughed and playfully hit him on the shoulder. "He told me he'd be there if I ever needed anything and I was going to go myself but when I got to the common room I was so scared that I couldn't go down myself. What he said went through my head and I just went and asked him. But I owe him for saving my life; I just haven't figured it all out yet."

"I get it. You know he didn't leave your side whilst you were unconscious. At one point I walked in and he was holding your hand. I think there's more to this than you being one of us. At least from Fred's point of view."

"What are you trying to say Harry?"

"I'm not saying anything, but maybe you should see if there's anything that Fred should be saying." He grinned at her.

Hermione burst out laughing and playfully hit him again. "Harry Potter the matchmaker!" she laughed and completely forgot about the morning's events, at least for a short period of time.

I'm having so much fun writing this, please let me know what you think! I can't wait for things to be moved along a little more with Hermione and Fred in the next chapters!

L x