"How can Pfixy help Sirs?"
"Fetch the Headmaster. Tell him we need him immediately."
It was, thankfully, only about 10 minutes before Severus heard the knock on his door, and Albus' voice beyond. He waved his wand, admitting the Headmaster to his chambers. He was aware that they presented quite the sight, with Hermione in a peaceful sleep on one couch and the evidence of a struggle and tear-stained face, and the both of them looked worse for the wear too.
Draco had a bloody nose, a black eye, and a bruised cheek. Severus, himself, had two black eyes and a busted lip. Neither man had been able to dredge up the energy to heal themselves, despite being more than capable of doing so. Albus took in the scene with weary eyes. "What has happened, dear boys?"
Severus sighed, and straightened out of the slouch he'd adopted. Taking a deep breath, he began. "Honestly, Albus, we don't know. She ran head-on into Draco in the corridor leading to the hospital wing, already in the grip of a total flashback. He got her down here, and even the two of us couldn't calm her down. As crude as it is, we were forced to knock her out." He leaned forward, and put his head in his hands.
Albus raised an eyebrow. "You didn't have to hit her did you? I can't imagine you were able to get to your wands." Severus chuckled as Draco answered for him.
"Certainly not!" He sounded so outraged that Severus had to release a short bark of a laugh. The glare Draco sent the other man's way did nothing to make Severus suppress his mirth. "Severus keeps a few mild sleeping draught for Hermione's nightmares. We managed to get her to swallow one of those. The point, Albus, is that something triggered this flashback. We need to find out exactly what it was so that it does not happen again. Worse than that, we need to make sure it was not some kind of attack."
"I have to assume it was something pretty big, Albus. Hermione hasn't been having nearly as many nightmares, and she was getting more comfortable around more people. I can't imagine something small caused this. I could, of course, use Occulmency, but I do not want to violate her any more than she has already been." Severus hated the idea of having to forcibly enter Hermione's mind, but if this was indeed an attack, then time was of the essence. If there was an attack, they needed to find the culprit before anything else could occur.
Severus watched as Draco stood and started to pace the room. He could see the wheels turning the the man's mind. "I doubt that her memories are going to be particularly clear on the matter. Occulmency will allow you to see her memories, yes, but only from her point of view. Maybe a Pensive?" Draco trailed off thoughtfully. Severus sat upright, and saw the twinkle in Albus' eyes.
"What an ideal solution! I shall go and retrieve mine, unless you have one Severus? No? Alright, I'll be back soon. How long will that potion last?" Albus did appear quite proud of Draco's idea, and Severus rather agreed with him.
"We will be able to wake her with a charm, otherwise she will sleep about 4 hours. If you would, Albus, retrieve Madam Weasley? I believe Hermione will be more comfortable with this whole issue if she were present." Severus answered the headmaster, and returned his elbows to his knees, and his head to his hands. After the headmaster left the room, Draco moved over behind the couch and laid his warm hands on his shoulders. Severus reached up and grasped one hand with his own. They stayed like that for a few moments before Draco broke the silence.
"We are going to get her through this Severus. We will do what must be done to see her whole and healthy. If this was an attack of some sort, we will make sure that whoever it is pays." Draco spoke in a hushed tone, and Severus could hear the anger behind his words. He took Draco's hand from his shoulder, and pulled it around to place a kiss on Draco's palm.
*~*~*~*~*POV Shift*~*~*~*~*
"I know we will Draco. I know. It's just," Severus sighed, and his head dropped. "She is supposed to be safe here. Of all places, she is supposed to be safe at Hogwarts, with us. If this was an attack of some sort that triggered her flashback, then..." He shook his head in frustration. Draco realized just how furious the Potion's Master was, to be unable to put into words what he was thinking. This quite anger was something Draco had never seen from his friend. Even through his own anger at this – so far – imaginary attacker, Draco realized that he was very glad Severus' anger was not aimed at himself.
As repentant as Severus Snape, ex-Deatheater, may have been, there was still a reason he became a servant of Voldemort in the first place. Severus was a deadly man, and one who never even needed to raise a wand to kill you. For both Severus and Hermione's sakes, he hoped they could somehow keep Severus from doing something they'd all regret. Of course, if it wasn't an attack it was all a moot point. Draco couldn't help but think that it had to have been, though. He knew Hermione, and she was strong. Severus had told him about the first few flashbacks early on, but through sheer stubbornness Hermione had tackled the triggers with the same tenacity she showed in her research. That is to say, she didn't stop until she had the answer, and in this case, eradicated each trigger.
"When she was having flashbacks in the beginning, did she ever have one so complete? Was there ever one you couldn't pull her out of?" Draco needed to be sure of what his instincts were telling him.
"No. The closest she ever got were when she woke from nightmares, and it only ever took a few minutes for her to realize where she was. Not one was so bad that she couldn't see her physical location. You were right earlier, Draco. This wasn't some simple trigger. For such a complete flashback, someone had to touch her. The only question now is, was it just something that surprised her, or was it an assault?"
*~*~*~*~*POV Shift*~*~*~*~*
Ginny moved quietly through the hospital wing, restocking. She was humming a merry little tune, and her thoughts were wandering. She had taken the second Monday of the school year off to go down to the ministry to deal with her marriage. She hadn't dared take time off that first week, as they needed to process all the first year students. They had to confirm medical records and give them their initial physicals.
After arriving at the Ministry of Magic, she quickly ascertained the correct office to go to. After riding a moving set of stairs, and turning a few corners in different corridors, she arrived at the Office of Magical Marriage and Spousal Dispute. Ducking the flying memos and entering the office, Ginny looked to the receptionist. Listing her name in the ledger and taking a ticket, she moved over to take a seat and wait her turn.
An agent called for her after about thirty minutes spent in her seat, hands twisting in her lap and nerves lodging her heart in her throat. Following the plump, older woman into a private – and silenced – cubicle, Ginny sat on the edge of her seat, waiting for the agent's cue.
"What brings you here today, my dear?" The older woman smiled sweetly at her, waiting for her to speak. After taking a deep, clenching breath, Ginny began.
"I've come to file for an annulment of my marriage, on grounds of my husband's persistent adultery."
Sympathy flashed through the woman's eyes as her quill started on the fresh scroll laid out on the desk. She asked several questions, the first few identifying ones – and most about details of the marriage and the accused adultery. Ginny was careful not to admit to the woman whom came to tell Colin of her pregnancy.
Once the woman had all the information she wanted, Ginny was led into a back room, that appeared to be set up as a small court-room. A long table stood at one end of the room, three chairs behind it. There were two smaller tables in front of the longer one, separated by an aisle in the middle. The woman told her to seat herself at one of the smaller tables, and wait until her husband could be located and brought to the Ministry.
Two hour of hand twisting later, the doors opened. In filed the three wizards acting as judge in this matter, as well as her husband and two guards. Apparently, they had needed to go fetch him. Once all were seated, and Ginny had been on the receiving end of several nasty glares sent to her by her soon to be ex-husband, another man entered the room. He was carrying the truth serum, Versitiaum.
At that point, Colin had tried to, very loudly, object. "I want to know what I'm being accused of! I refuse to take a truth potion unless my wife does the same! What exactly has she told you! She just up and left me two weeks ago without warning! I want to know what is going on here!"
The head judge spoke. "Mr. Creevy, please sit down. Mrs. Creevy has filed for annulment of your marriage, citing adultery. You will take the versitiaum, so that we can conclude these proceedings. If you have an accusation to make in return, then your wife will also be dosed and examined. If the two of you are not aware, adultery is illegal in our world. If you are found to be guilty, your marriage will be dissolved, your wife will be awarded with half your communal property, and you Sir will be fined."
Colin had been shocked speechless, and the judge took that to mean he had nothing with which to accuse her of. It did not take long after that to find the truth, and for their marriage contract to be summoned and destroyed. Though it had broken Ginny's heart to find out for sure that she had been right about the cheating, right about it having started very early in their marriage, she left the ministry feeling very liberated. Not to mention not nearly as destitute as she would have expected should they have tried to divorce. In those cases, the one filing rarely got much of anything.
Ginny was smiling at the remembered feeling, and cleaning the windows with her wand when Headmaster Dumbledore walked in. He saw Ginny and immediately headed in her direction. As he approached, Ginny noticed that the look on the old man's face was far more upset than she had ever seen. Immediately, she was concerned. Ginny stopped the work she was doing, and waited for the headmaster to speak.
"Madam Weasley, Ginny – It has been requested that you join me in Severus' rooms. I'm afraid something has happened, and we feel it best that you are there when we wake Hermione." Ginny gasped.
"Professor – Albus, what has happened?"
"I am going to let Severus and Draco explain that to you my dear." Ginny nodded, and moved to follow Albus. It was then that she noticed he was carrying a Pensive. Dread gripped her heart, as the clues were adding up, and they did not bring her a positive conclusion.
She hurriedly followed the headmaster down a familiar route of hallways leading to the dungeons. They went directly to Severus' personal quarters, and the portrait swung open as the man on it saw them coming. Ginny entered, and immediately took in the bruises and bloody orifices the men had yet to heal. She drew her wand and moved towards them even as she took note of Hermione sleeping on the couch.
It didn't take her long at all to heal such minor injuries, and only seconds after that to turn to the men, demanding an explanation. "Would someone like to explain to me, just exactly what is going on here?"
"Hermione had a sever flashback, and we thing it would be wise to have a woman in the room when we wake her. We are hoping that she will be able to put the memories of the event in the Pensive, so that we may determine who, and if she was somehow attacked, or what otherwise triggered it." Severus explained the situation to her quite succinctly, and she found herself idly wondering why the headmaster couldn't have done the same. However, Ginny nodded and moved over to the couch that her best friend was laying on.
Ginny slid onto the couch, placing Hermione's head in her lap. Stroking the other woman's hair, the medi-witch nodded to signal the men that she was ready.
*~*~*~*~*POV Shift*~*~*~*~*
Hermione snapped awake, the nightmare still fighting to keep her within it's grip. She took a few shallow breaths before she felt someone stroking her hair. Looking up with bleary eyes, she saw long red hair and a pixie face. How did Ginny get into her quarters? She looked around as her eyes cleared, and amended her mental assessment. Okay, into Severus' common room, and for that matter how did she? She already felt that her throat was dry, and she was expecting her voice to be hoarse.
"Severus? Draco?" Indeed, she very nearly croaked out the names of her men. She noticed that the men were taking care that she could see them before the moved closer. She then also noticed that Professor Dumbledore was keeping his distance, but making an effort to also stay within her sight. While she was focused on him, her men had moved to the couch. Severus gently moved her legs to the floor, and sat where they had been, before pulling her into a sitting position. She felt Ginny get up, and saw Draco take her place. Severus held her hands, and was studying her face with concern written over his features. Draco placed his hands on her shoulders, and she felt how tense he was.
Hermione settled back into Draco's arms and felt him relax as she returned Severus' stare. "May I have some water? And then would someone please tell me what has happened?" At this point, all she could remember was dismissing her last class, and then that nightmare. She did not like how concerned everyone seemed to be. In her peripheral she saw Ginny going for water, and watched as Severus took a deep breath before he spoke.