Disclaimer – Isn't mine.

Chapter 6 - Enough

Malfoy walked back from the library the next evening, swearing colourfully in several different languages. Crabbe and Goyle had left him there saying they were going to the kitchens and then hadn't returned. Malfoy vowed to detach their limbs when he found them.

Now normally walking through the school corridors late a night by himself wouldn't have worried him but the Gryffindors had been extremely quiet that day and a foreboding feeling had been with him since his second class. The look on the Weasel's face at dinner had been telling in itself.

He scanned the corridor in front of him, breathing a sigh of relief that is was empty and moved quickly down it. Four steps later everything went black.

He heard whispering as he returned to consciousness and sent out his senses to see if he could work out where he was before opening his eyes. It was dark, he could tell that without even looking. There was barely any light, not enough to slide through the thin skin of his eyelids. He felt cold and after further investigation he realised he was almost naked.

It got worse.

He could feel the cold metal shackles on his wrists holding his hands out beside him and rough timber under his back. He was chained to the floor, naked except for his underwear, in a room of who knew what. This was very bad.

'Hey, he's awake.' A voice said suddenly.

Oh yes, very bad.

He was chained to the floor, nearly naked, and in a room full of Gryffindors. Gryffindors he had taunted just the day before in probably the worst possible way.

'Malfoy, open your eyes.' Came another voice but the Slytherin ignored it. Suddenly he had a bucket of freezing water dumped on him. His jolted upwards, wrenching at both shoulders as he screeched like a banshee. 'I told you to open your eyes.' Came the cold voice of Hermione Granger who was standing in front of him, wand drawn.

Malfoy's eyes practically fell out of his head. He wouldn't have put it past the Weasel to try something like this, but Granger? The Mudblood lived by the rules.

Hermione's eyes narrowed as if she knew what he was thinking. 'Get him up.' She growled and suddenly Malfoy found his hands being yanked upwards and had no choice but to stand. He plastered an indifferent expression over his face as he took in the Weasel, Longbottom, Finnegan, Thomas and surprisingly the Weasel Twins standing around the room.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' he snarled in a fit of bravado, especially considering his current predicament.

Hermione glanced at Ron before smiling, quite maliciously Malfoy thought absently. 'You Malfoy.' She said slowly. 'are a sneering, sarcastic, arrogant, obnoxious, immoral, repulsive, abhorrent little toerag.' The others in the room looked rather impressed at Hermione's vast vocabulary. 'and you are about to find out just how expensive that filthy little holier-than-thou, nothing can touch me attitude of yours really is.'

'You can't do this.' Malfoy yelled indignantly.

Hermione smiled that hideous smile once again, 'Oh yes, I can.' She told him as the others in the room pulled out what looked to be beaters bats. They weren't going to curse him; they were going to beat him. It was then that Malfoy noticed that Hermione was using his wand so there would be no way to prove Priori and he began to realise just what the consequences of what he had done were going to be.

'My father.' He began before having the breath forced out of his lungs as a beater's bat landed hard on his chest.

'You have no father, Malfoy. Here you are responsible for your own actions; your precious Daddy can't help you anymore.' Hermione said darkly, smiling again as another swing from a beater's bat landed on his kneecap, shattering it instantly.

Malfoy screamed and dropped, the shackles around his wrists the only thing holding him up.

'Aww, did that hurt, Ferret.'

Malfoy whimpered.

'Too bad.'

Another blow landed on his shoulder and pain lanced across his back. 'I can't believe you would do this.' Malfoy gasped, blinking and swallowing as he tried to fight down the pain.

Hermione stepped closer to him, fixing angry brown eyes to his own. 'Why? Because we're Gryffindors?' she laughed bitterly. 'You hurt one of our family, Malfoy. You hurt him so badly he almost died and then you had the gall to boast about it. To boast about how proud you were that you had done it. You're just bloody lucky Neville won't allow us to kill you or I would slowly remove your organs myself, one by one, with a spoon!' She was yelling by this point and took several moments to calm herself. 'What you did was reprehensible. You treated a fellow human being, a fellow wizard, lower than an animal and allowed others to do the same without even lifting a finger to help. And all because you were jealous. At least Voldemort has a reason to try and kill Harry. He knows Harry is going to destroy him. But you.' She had to stop again, the disgust so evident in her face and voice that she had to take another breath. 'You just did it for a chance to get back at Harry. To get one over on him. To better him at something; using something so vile as rape. Well how much better does it feel now?'

Another blow landed and Malfoy screamed again. Hermione stepped back and left the boys to it. She stood silently by the door to the room, idly twirling his wand in her fingers as the others, even the usually mild mannered Neville, rained blows down on every part of his body.

Malfoy prayed for anyone to save him but he knew it wouldn't happen. He didn't believe he was still at the school. The presence of the twins attested to that. If they had come onto school grounds there was no way this could have been kept a secret and he knew that there were secret passages out of Hogwarts and then Portkey's to almost anywhere.

The beating stopped and Malfoy gasped for breath. He hoped they were finished but then he felt his mouth yanked open and a vial of potion forced down his throat. He thought it might be a pain killer but he should have known better, even from Gryffindors. He screamed again as the potion burned its way through his body. He knew what it was. He remembered feeding it to Potter several times and watching in glee as the green eyed boy had writhed in agony.

'Please.' Malfoy rasped out.

Hermione was beside him again. 'Do you think that will work, Malfoy?' she said snidely. 'Did it work when Harry said it? I doubt it. You probably just laughed.' She snapped bitterly. Malfoy tried to move as far away from her as the shackles would allow. 'Oh no, Ferret, we still have so many surprises for you.' She drawled, sounding so much like himself. 'Of course they might not be surprises seeing subjected Harry to each and every one.'

Malfoy, if at all possible, paled further. 'Oh Merlin, no.' he breathed.

Hermione scowled at him. 'Oh Merlin, yes. See we know what you did, Malfoy. We know everything.' That said she waved her wand and one of his hands was yanked down and placed on a table that had been conjured just in front of him.

'Please no. Don't please.' Malfoy begged but to no avail as a bat came flying down, shattering the bones in his hands. The Slytherin screamed and passed out, waking moments later in excruciating pain to Hermione's Enervate.

'Harry didn't get off that easily Malfoy and neither will you.' She said curtly. It was only then he noticed his other hand had been released but there wasn't enough time for him to move it before the bat came down once again.

Malfoy's scream was more a groan as his raw throat gave up. His entire body was in shock, black and blue, blood oozing from numerous cuts and welts. Just how many broken bones he had he didn't know.

'Please stop.' He pleaded softly, as tears poured down his face.

Hermione glanced at the boys and nodded. As one they stepped back. 'We are going to stop now Malfoy.' She said quietly. 'Not because we think you don't deserve this but because we refuse to sink to your level of depravity. Consider this a warning, a minute taste of what you did, and a promise of what will happen if you even think of doing it again. Remember this, ferret, next time you are at one of those joyous little meetings of yours, remember this. Did you enjoy it, and if not do you think the person you are doing it to is enjoying it? And for once do something about it you weak, snivelling little sycophant, and prove that you really are a man and not just an arse-kissing servant of a mentally deranged psychotic.'

Once she had finished she removed the shackles and dropped the wand at his feet, all six silently leaving the room. Malfoy heard a door close and then all was silent and he curled into a ball and cried.

Once they were downstairs Hermione broke down and Ron quickly wrapped his arms around her. 'You did good, Hermione.' He said softly. 'He had to know what he did. He was proud of it. He had to know how bad it was.'

Hermione nodded into his shoulder. 'I know.' She sobbed. 'I just kept picturing him doing that to Harry.'

Ron hugged her tightly and turned to his brothers. 'Thanks Fred, George.' He said quietly as Hermione tried to compose herself.

The twins smiled wanly. 'Not a problem, right Gred?'

'Of course, Forge, Harry was part of our family.'

Ron smiled back at them. 'All the same, having you here helped.'

Fred nodded and glanced at his watch. 'We should all get going. It almost three am and you lot have to get up for class in a few hours.'

Seamus groaned. 'Oh shut up. I want to sleep for a week.'

'Me too.' Neville agreed. 'I couldn't sleep last night after what Malfoy said about Harry.'

'Come on then.' Dean said, holding the trap door open. They waited a moment as Fred and George apparated away with a crack, taking the bloody beater's bats with them before slowly climbing down into the tunnel and leaving the Shrieking Shack silent apart from the racking sobs of its sole occupant.

Snape stalked back down to his rooms. The entire day had been abysmal and it was only the second day of classes. His godson hadn't been to any of his classes and none of the Slytherins had seen him since the evening before. On top of that the seventh year Gryffindors had not only arrived late to their class but two managed to fall asleep, one melted a cauldron, one blew one up and the other, Granger no less, botched the potion up so badly it stank out the entire classroom and the classes for the rest of the day had to be held in his private lab. All in all the man's current mood had been likened to a bear with a bee up its arse.

'Aconite.' He growled at the portrait guarding his room. He now had to alert Lucius that Draco was missing. It couldn't have got any worse. Well he didn't think it would until he heard a whimper coming from his bathroom and stalked in, ready to let fly at whoever had had the gall to invade his rooms, only to find his godson, bloody and beaten, huddled under a ragged blanket, running his hands under what seemed to be freezing water, in what he figured could only be an attempt to numb the pain, looking at the state of them.

'Draco, what on earth?' he bellowed. Malfoy's head shot up and he grimaced.

'Severus.' He breathed raggedly before passing out.

Snape didn't even bother asking. He could guess what happened. Instead, he grabbed his godson and walked rapidly through the ever-darkening halls towards the hospital wing. The door banged open startling the medi-witch who glared at him as she calmed the homesick first year currently in the bed.

Snape ignored her, stalking through the ward and into a private room. The very room Harry had been brought to in fact.

What in Merlin's name?' Poppy said in a horrified whisper as she quickly closed the door behind her. Again Snape ignored her, leaving the room to fetch the potions he needed before returning. By that point Poppy had realised he wasn't going to answer and set about mending the broken form on the bed as best she could.

'Good god.' She murmured as she finally caught sight of his hands. 'It wasn't…' she trailed off, her head lifting and eyes locking with the potions master.

Snape shook his head as he continued sorting through the various vials of potions on the table. 'No, it wasn't. I believe it was retribution.' He said quietly.

'Retribution? For what?'

Snape glanced at his godson, checking the boy was still unconscious before speaking. 'Mr Malfoy has a terrible habit of speaking without thinking.'

'But still that shouldn't have brought on this sort of attack.' Poppy insisted.

'Depends what was said.' Snape murmured.

Poppy's eyes widened. 'He admitted it?' she said incredulously.

Snape nodded. 'To Potter's friends and dorm mates apparently. Last night. From what I heard he seemed quite proud of the fact. Idiot boy.' He added.

Poppy stopped what she was doing and stood up. 'He admitted raping Harry?' Snape nodded. The medi-witch's jaw clenched and she snatched her wand off the table and practically ran from the room.

'Get back here woman!' Snape bellowed after her. Poppy spun at the door to the main wing, her eyes flashing in anger.

'Get that monster out of my hospital wing this instant, Severus Snape.'

The expression on the potions master's face became icy. 'You're a medi-witch, you have sworn to look after the sick and injured, so get back here this instant. He's still in pain.'

Poppy glared right back at him, hands on her hips; looking most remarkably like Molly Weasley considering she didn't have red hair, was about five inches taller and sixty pounds lighter. 'Heal him yourself. Take him to St Mungo's and strike me off, I don't care. But I refuse, with every fibre of my being I refuse. I am not treating that!' She finished in a yell before marching from the room and slamming the door behind her.

Snape growled, glaring at the first year who was watching the exchange in curiosity and now, no small amount of fear, before spinning on his heel and stalking back to the private room.

He gathered his godson up once more, wrapping him in a sheet before moving back through the hospital wing and into Poppy's office.

'St Mungo's.' he called out and stepped into the now green flames.

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The uproar after he arrived was great, Lucius arriving almost only minutes later after having been alerted by the hospital staff.

'Who did this?' the blond aristocrat snarled.

Snape shrugged, trying to calm the other man by keeping his voice quiet and his mannerisms composed. 'We don't know yet.' He admitted. 'I found him in my chambers like this and he hasn't spoken since.'

Lucius' eyes narrowed dangerously. 'Surely you must have some idea. There is barely a place in that blasted castle that isn't covered by a portrait.'

'It didn't happen in the castle.' Snape said bluntly. 'The wards would have been triggered if it had. One cannot cause this much damage without them going off.'

'How did they get him off school grounds? It had to be someone he trusted. Draco wouldn't go with just anybody.'

'Not if he were conscious anyway.' Snape murmured.

At that point Albus swept into the room. 'Severus, what happened?'

Lucius turned on him before Snape could answer. 'What happened, Dumbledore,' He spat acidly. 'is that once again you failed to protect a student. You allowed him to be taken off Hogwarts grounds and tortured.'

Albus glanced at Draco who was now sleeping peacefully unable to really feel any guilt for the boy who had, after all, brought it upon himself. 'Would you like me to put tracking spells on them, Lucius? That way I could tell where they are at all times.' He said dryly.

Lucius' jaw clenched at the unspoken accusation. All three men knew Draco had left several times at the end of last term to attend Death Eater meetings even if it wasn't said aloud.

Albus spoke to Snape although his eyes remained firmly fixed on the blond man in front of him. 'Has Draco said anything about who attacked him?' he asked.

'Not directly, no.' Snape said quietly.

'But you have some idea.' Lucius finished for him. 'Who was it Severus? Who dared to attack a Malfoy?'

'I do not know as of yet, Lucius.' Snape said firmly. 'I only have suspicions. I won't accuse anyone without proof.'

'Tell me who they are, Severus.' Lucius insisted. 'I will get you your proof.'

Albus actually growled. 'And we all know how you will accomplish that.'

Lucius' expression darkened. 'Do not toy with me old man. My son has been attacked. No one would blame a man for trying to protect his son.'

Dumbledore's jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed as he became visibly angry. 'Then it is damn lucky that Tom killed James Potter all those years ago, otherwise you would be running for your life.' He spat nodding once to Snape before marching from the room.

Lucius glared at the retreating back, it taking several moments before he could calm down. 'The bond is strong between him and Potter, isn't it.' He said finally.

'What did you expect?' Snape gave an exasperated sigh.

Lucius glanced at his son before speaking. 'I never expected Albus Dumbledore to fall from his pedestal of perpetual politeness and use the word damn for one thing.' He drawled.

Snape snorted. 'Do you blame him?'

Lucius raised an imperious eyebrow and Snape decided he'd had enough.

'Don't look at me like that Lucius.' He snapped. 'What you did was wrong. What you let Draco do was wrong. What our Lord did was wrong. If he wanted to kill Potter he should have just done it and got it over with instead of torturing the boy and treating him like an animal. There may be muggles that deserve it but Potter is a wizard, and a powerful one at that. He didn't deserve what was done to him.'

Lucius' eyes had a calculating gleam. 'You sound as if your ideals have changed, Severus.' He taunted.

Snape glanced once more at Draco before looking back at the boy's father. 'You're wrong again, Lucius. I'm probably the only one whose haven't.'

Lucius opened his mouth to speak but Snape cut him off. 'Good evening Lucius. I will be back in the morning.' And with that he stalked from the room, knowing that it would be less than an hour before he felt the summons that could well be his last.

When he stepped out of the headmaster's floo he found himself facing five sets of Hogwart's robes which happen to belong to the five Gyffindors he had just been thinking about.

'Albus?' The raised eyebrow in the headmaster's direction seemed to convey the question Snape didn't want to voice.

'Apparently you gave them detention this evening and when they turned up and you weren't there, they came looking for me.' Albus explained.

'Yeah, thanks a lot, Hermione.' Ron mumbled quietly but not quietly enough for a man who can hear when a potion is hot enough just by listening to the bubbles burst.

'No, Mr Weasley.' The potions master sneered. 'You should be thanking Miss Granger. I wanted to speak with the five of you anyway, and with the mood I'm in right now if I had to go looking for you there is no telling what I might do to you when I found you.' The anger and malevolence dripped from practically every word and each of the Gryffindors swallowed nervously.

'Severus.' Albus scolded.

Snape ignored him. 'What did you do to Draco?' his voice deadly.

'We didn't do anything to the ferret.' Ron snapped back before dropping his eyes. Snape's own eyes narrowed as he looked at each of the boys in turn, all of whom were fidgeting nervously and wouldn't look up, before landing on Miss Granger, who stood defiantly glaring at him. Slowly she pulled out her wand.

'We didn't do anything. Check my wand if you like, Professor.' She said boldly.

Snape gave her a malicious smirk which morphed into an evil smile as she flinched. 'I don't need to see your wand, you foolish child.' He growled. 'Legellimans.'

'Severus, no!' Albus yelled, coming swiftly around the desk but he was too late. Snape had ripped through the girl's mind, images of the events the night before flashing in his eyes as Hermione cried out and clutched her head, her knees bucked underneath her and she sank to the floor.

'What the hell did you do you bastard?' Ron hissed as he pulled Hermione to him.

'Severus, what on earth were you thinking?' Albus admonished. 'You can't do that to a student.'

'Unless it's Harry.' Came Hermione's tearful mutter as Ron helped her shakily to her feet.

Severus just stood there glaring at the five. It was a death glare of Vesuvial proportions and one that promised Gyrffindor House, and all five of them in particular, enormous amounts of lost points and any number of public tongue lashings with some of the potions master's most creative and yet vitriolic vocabulary.

As if trying to hold in the anger he was currently feeling by not even unlocking his jaw he turned to the headmaster. 'I want them expelled. All of them.' He ground out.

'You have no proof.' Hermione said challengingly.

'None you can use anyway.' Seamus added.

'And you just Legellimised a student without their permission in front of witnesses.' Neville finally spoke up, cowering slightly as Snape turned his glare directly on the young man.

'They are correct, Severus.' Albus interrupted before his potions master caused Neville to wet himself. 'I have checked their wands for Priori but you are quite welcome to do it yourself if you wish.'

Snape looked calculatingly at the five teenagers and knew that with the astute Miss Granger in the mix they would have covered every base. He was about to say no when a chilling scream tore through the air. Ron and Hermione both paled as the other three boys looked around them fearfully. Albus had only moved two steps towards the portrait when Snape let out a pain filled grunt and clapped his hand over his left forearm.

'Severus, go.' Albus said, moving quickly towards the portrait.

'I'll be back.' Snape said curtly heading once again for the fireplace.

He grabbed a handful of floo powder but before he could throw it in, the portrait from Albus' rooms was flung open and a near hysterical Harry flew through it.

'No.' he cried, catching sight of the potions master standing by the fireplace, floo powder at the ready. 'Don't go. He knows. Lucius told him. Don't go. He will kill you. Please.' Harry pleaded, not seeming to notice his friends were even in the room.

'Harry.' Albus said quietly and Harry jumped, instantly clasping the headmaster's hand. 'Don't let him go, Albus. Please forbid him to go. I don't want anyone else to die. Please tell him.' Harry voice became quite fervent and his face wrought in anguish as he pleaded with his guardian to stop the other man.

'Severus I think you should stay here, at least for a bit until Harry can tell us what happened.' Albus said calmly. Severus sighed, dumping the floo powder back in the dish and dusting off his hands as he pulled out a vial and rolled up his sleeve, dumping the contents over the red raw Dark Mark.

'That should hold it for a little while at least.' He said bluntly.

It was then that Harry finally calmed down enough to notice the others in the room and he scuttled sideways into the corner, tripping over several chairs in the process. What would have been quite comical in other circumstances certainly wasn't here as Harry wedged himself into a ball, wrapping his arms tightly around his legs as his eyes darted fearfully between the portrait to his rooms and the door outside, both of which were now closed.

'No. It's not them. It's not them.' He whispered over and over again.

Ron comforted Hermione who burst into tears, Snape shifted uncomfortably and Seamus, Dean and Neville just looked at him in horror. Albus immediately raised his wand and turned everyone's robes into a light grey.

'Harry.' Albus said gently.

Harry kept up his mantra, eyes still darting wildly.

'Harry, listen to me. These are your friends. You remember Dean and Seamus and Neville don't you?' Albus said soothingly, edging close enough to Harry to lay his hand on the floor between them. 'Shh Harry. It's alright. They won't hurt you.' Harry eyes widened and he reach out and snatched the headmaster's hand with his own before pulling it close to his chest. His breathing slowing as he visibly calmed.

'That's it. Good boy. Take a couple of deep breaths and listen to me.' Albus went on softly. 'You're safe here, Harry. No one can hurt you. I won't let them.'

'Safe?' Harry whispered, his eyes finally stopping to rest on the blue ones in front of him.

Albus smiled. 'Yes Harry. Safe here with me.'

'Safe.' Harry whispered again as he scuttled closer and leaned up against the headmaster who continued rubbing soft circles on the back of Harry's hand.

The Gryffindor's horror quickly turned to wonder as, with Dumbledore's soft promises of protection, Harry calmed considerably, and while he made sure to keep the headmaster between himself and them he did look up several times and give them a small smile.

Albus glanced at Hermione and nodded and she quickly herded them from the room, each bidding Harry a good night before closing the door behind them.

The five walked silently back to Gryffindor Tower each lost in his own thoughts until Dean finally spoke. 'We are in big trouble aren't we? With the war I mean.'

'There is no way Harry can take on You-Know-Who like that.' Seamus added sadly.

Hermione looked ready to let fly at them but was stopped by Neville's calm voice. 'I wouldn't write Harry off just yet if I were you.' He said with a knowing smile. 'Most definitely not.'