Thanks for everyone who reviewed :) As always I appreciate it and hope to see more. Let me know if there are any grammar mistakes that are annoyingly noticeable as you read. Enjoy :D
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and it's characters are not and never ever will be mine
Also there is a line or two that may be seen as stereotypical (and/or even insulting) but neither me nor the character I am writing for means it to be insulting, it was meant to poke fun AT the stereotype itself in a sarcastic way. I think we all know stereotypes sometimes fit, but definitely DON'T fit sometimes as well. Basically, our world is filled with stereotypes and I don't think we can just ignore them and pretend they wouldn't come up in everyday conversation because that would just be unrealistic. Alright I think that covers it, I was just re-reading and realized it may be sensitive to some people. Just wanted to put my two cents out there in case someone took it out of context and got offended over something not meant to be offensive at all.
There was the familiar feeling of adrenaline Hermione felt as she tore through the forest. She had no clue what had happened to Harry and Ron and could only hope that they had somehow evaded the snatchers. She stole herself behind a large tree and tried to keep her breathing slow and steady, but her heart was beating so quickly and loudly it made her nervous and on edge. She gripped her wand firmly, her ears perked to the slightest sound. . . the smallest noise.
She heard the cracking of leaves, the slow careful footsteps of her pursuer and she knew the snatcher would eventually walk past her hiding spot and see her. Carefully, she turned on the spot and before her mind could tell her any different she hopped out from behind and the tree and yelled "Reducto!"
The snatcher tried to dodged at once upon hearing Hermione, but needn't have bothered at all. The spell had not worked because the wand was broken in half- hanging loosely by a splinter swinging back and forth as if mocking Hermione. She gave it an unbelieving stare and realized to her horror that it was not her wand, rather it was Harry's. A wave of panic and guilt flooded her- how on earth could she have broken Harry's wand at Godric's Hollow?
It was obvious now that she was going to pay for this mistake in full. She saw the snatcher realizing Hermione's only defense was shattered as he sauntered closer to her. She turned and tried to run but caught her foot in a tree root and tripped instead. Before she could get up the snatcher reached her and grabbed her by the arms and turned her over.
To her horror, the snatcher had never been a snatcher at all, for as it removed it's hood the gaunt, looming face of Bellatrix Lestrange was found with a perfectly wicked smile plastered over her face.
"Picking up where we left off shall we?"
And, before Hermione could do anything her wrist was burning in pain and fresh blood was spilling from the old scar mudblood.
Except, it didn't stop there. The word was being seared new places: across her stomach, her foot, her neck, her cheek, in her scalp, down her fingers, under her nails, across her eyelids, on her lips. She was crying freely, her tears mixing with blood flowing down her body through her clothes and down to the forest floor. Barely able to see she glanced around the forest for any sign of hope and saw the faint patronus of a doe standing twenty feet away behind a tree watching. She wanted to call out to Snape, to beg him to help her, but he wouldn't have come if she had. His place was to wait it out, to give Harry information at the last possible moment and to play the bad guy until the very end. And Hermione's place, she knew as the thousands of cuts ran her body dry and raw, was to suffer and die here.
Bellatrix's wicked laugh rang through the forest and Hermione gave a strangled cry and woke with a start.
Immediately, her hands went to her face to as if she were half expecting the scar's to be running down her cheeks, but she only found frantic tears that had no doubt been shed during her sleep. She took a deep breath and wiped the sopping tears from her face with shaking hands.
She shivered and hugged herself with her arms as if trying to comfort herself when she heard the quiet shifting of sheets. She looked beside her to see the sleeping figure of Parvati only half covered in sheets no doubt because Hermione had probably thrown them off them in her sleep. She sighed and massaged her temples with her fingertips feeling suddenly drained. She glanced at Parvati, who looked undeniably beautiful in the morning light, before she got up from the bed and rummaged around for some clothes. She hastily pulled on some jeans and sweater, and made her way to the entrance to the tent but stopped at the entrance, turned back and went to grab her wand which lay on the bedside table. It was all gloriously in one piece and gloriously all hers.
She shook her head and left the tent.
It was a beautiful day, there was no doubt about that. She took a seat on a rock with her back to the tent, as if she were on guard duty and was waiting for some disturbance to pass by her charmed and protected camp. She pulled up her sleeve and stared at her scar. Of course she had tried to get it removed, but like some forms of dark magic the damage was done and unfixable. She would die with the mudblood etched across her skin just as Bellatrix Lestrange intended.
She shivered although not at all cold. Of course the dream was absurd, even while she was dreaming she knew what was happening was not real, but the adrenaline- the fear- felt so true. And, of course it was all connected to the forest. She had just broken Harry's wand when they had first come to the Forest of Dean, Harry had seen Snape's patronus in this forest, they had been chased and captured by snatchers which had led to her being tortured by Bellatrix-
"Hermione?"
Hermione reeled around, wand in hand and poised, before realizing it was Parvati who was rubbing her eyes in the bright morning light. She looked alarmed at the sight of the ready wand and held up her hands to her sides as a reaction. "Hermione, what're you crazy?"
"I, um. . ." Hermione held it loosely in the air feeling ridiculous now. She didn't know which emotion she preferred more- the dark brooding from moments before, or the embarrassment now. She lowered the wand and shoved it in her pocket her face flushing red.
"Are you okay?" Parvati asked slowly walking up to her. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing just a bit jumpy this morning. . ." Hermione tried to shrug it off, but her eyes couldn't quite meet her and they fell on her own scarred wrist instead which she hastily tried to cover her her sleeve with, but Parvati was too quick for her. She grabbed the scarred wrist stopping her, and Hermione flinched at the contact.
Parvati's eyes wrinkled in concern. "Hermione. . ."
Hermione didn't say anything for a long minute, but then unwillingly met Parvati's eyes. "I just had a bad dream," she said trying to shrug it off, but Parvati wasn't having it that easy.
"About this?" she asked pulling up what she had partially managed to cover with the sleeve and exposing the full scar.
Hermione nodded looking away, but felt Parvati's cool fingers travel over and under the letters and it didn't make her flinch like she thought it would.
"Did it hurt?" she asked quietly, the tips of her cold fingers running over it soothingly.
"She did it slow. . . she wanted it to hurt," Hermione started, not know why she was telling Parvati this as she usually liked to keep these things to herself. She didn't quite know what was compelling her to continue- whether it was because she actually wanted to talk about it or rather she didn't feel like putting forth the effort to evade it again. "She didn't want to kill me, she wanted to torture me. It- it hit nerves. The spell she used cut deep but didn't allow me to bleed out too much or else I may have died. . . like I said she didn't want to kill me. . ."
"It's a cursed scar?"
Hermione nodded. "I tried to get rid of it but, well, dark magic likes being remembered."
Parvati frowned, as she rubbed her thumb lightly over it, feeling the bumps and the ridges over her skin. "Who did it?" she asked softly.
"Bellatrix Lestrange," she answered slowly. "She had a flare for torturing," she tried to say casually but it fell short and ended awkwardly.
"Mrs. Weasley killed her," Parvati answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Yeah, yeah she did."
"You sound surprised," Parvati said giving her a small smile. "I was there too. . . you saved my best friend, remember?"
Hermione nodded and Parvati continued. "Lavender's lucky she just walked away with scars, but she hates them anyway, you know. She goes to great lengths to cover them up with make-up and when she goes out she wears her hair down so they cover the one's on her neck. She shouldn't though, I love them. I think it shows how brave she is."
Hermione didn't know what else to do, but nod again. Parvati grabbed her hand and stood closer to Hermione standing directly in front of her inches away. She brought her hand up to her lips and Hermione thought she was going to kiss her palm but traveled down instead and planted a firm kiss on her scarred wrist. When her lips left Hermione's skin, the scar grew cool with a breeze. "I love your scar, Hermione," Parvati said softly. "I think it's beautiful."
Hermione knew she was supposed to be thankful that Parvati was being sweet, but all it did was aggravate her. "Mudblood, Parvati? How is having mudblood scrawled on my wrist beautiful?" she asked her voice rising.
"Because," Parvati said calmly. "It shows how strong you are."
Hermione shook her head looking miserable. "No, Parvati. It's not like that, you don't get it. I-I'm not strong because she's still winning. I dream that she's back and she's standing over me and writing that foul, degrading word all over my body. I know she's dead," Hermione said her eyes watering. "But she's still there. And, it hurts so bad. I-I can feel it. It's like it's happening."
"Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere. My forehead, my cheeks, my neck, my lips. . ."
Slowly, but cautiously as if she were afraid Hermione would shoo her away, she brought her lips up to her lover's forehead and where she lightly kissed her, then trailed down her face to her cheek her nose sliding against her skin and pressed her lips there, before trailing down to her neck and finally to her girlfriend's lips where she pressed them firmly against hers.
"Bellatrix is gone," Parvati murmured after the kiss ended. "She's never going to hurt you again."
Hermione nodded. "I know," she sighed, sounding defeated.
Parvati frowned. "That doesn't sound like my Hermione at all. Really, what else is wrong?"
"You know when we were in third year and we had to do the obstacle course for Lupin at the end of the year?" Hermione hedged.
Parvati looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding.
"Do you know what my boggart was?"
Parvati shook her head, and Hermione tried to smile as if it were a joke. "My boggart was McGonagall telling me I had failed all of my exams."
Parvati couldn't help but crack a smile. "Well, that seems utterly terrifying."
Hermione smiled too. "It seems so silly, but I miss those days. My boggart wouldn't be anything close to that npw. . ."
"I don't think any of ours would be what it was when we were thirteen."
"What was yours?" Hermione asked not remembering.
"A mummy," Parvati smiled ruefully. "There's a story behind it," Parvati explained as Hermione raised an eyebrow. "When I was nine we went to visit the Egyptian tombs, and well you know, Egyptian wizards put all sorts of curses and precautions on their tombs. I mean it's a tourist trap so all the tombs are safe- there is some sort of magical barrier encasing them, but when you're nine years old and some kind of mummified inferi jumps out at you and the only thing blocking it from you is the promise of an invisible magical barrier some shady wizard ensured you about as he took you're money out front. Well, it was very terrifying. . . I screamed bloody murder and high-tailed it out of there. My mum was furious- she didn't want me to go in to begin with but I was really eager and my Uncle convinced her it would be okay," Parvati laughed at the memory. "I couldn't sleep for weeks. Made me wish I had stayed outside with Mum like Padma did."
Hermione smiled imagining a nine-year-old Parvati losing her head and running for her life from what seemed like an especially terrifying experience.
"Probably wouldn't be the same now," Parvati said thoughtfully. "Things change."
"What would yours be now?" Hermione asked curious, trying to keep away the thought of what her own Bellatrix-boggart would be like.
"Well," Parvati hesitated. "There was this death eater at the battle, and he umm, he tortured me a bit. We were in a deserted corridor and I think he wanted to play with me a bit be-before he killed me. So, he did the cruciatus curse on me, but it wasn't too long someone on our side came and saw what was happening. It was that one woman- the one they said was Lupin's wife. She saved me- I don't know if she killed the death eater or only stunned him- one minute my body is on fire the next minute it stopped and he was on the ground."
"Tonks saved you?" Hermione asked surprised. "Wait- who was the death eater? How come you never told me this?"
"I don't know who the death eater was, I never took off the mask. I guess it was Tonks who saved me- I never really met her. She just made sure I was okay then took off again. So Tonks," Parvati said the name considering it. "That's an odd name."
"Yeah, well her real name was Nymphadora, but she preferred Tonks."
Parvati nodded. "I think Tonks suited her better."
"Well, she would have been happy to hear it," Hermione muttered thinking to herself. "So your boggart would be that death eater?"
"Well I haven't come across any boggarts recently, but I'm pretty sure it would be him. It-it's not something you forget overnight is it?"
"How come you never told me before?" Hermione asked.
Parvati shrugged trying to play it off indifferently, but her body language told her that she didn't quite like what she was about to say. "You don't like talking about that stuff. . . with the exception of our first night together, Hermione, and when I thanked you for saving Lavender we've only vaguely mentioned things like that if at all. And, even then it was kinda vague. . . we never really went into specifics. I mean I never knew about Bellatrix."
Hermione opened her mouth, but then closed it not really knowing what to say.
"All I know," Parvati continued. "Is what everyone else knows. The rumors that went around, and the fragments of story that the paper put out, and what I saw that day. It's enough to figure that you, Harry, and Ron were heroes-"
"I'm not a hero," Hermione cut in lamely. "Harry did it. He was-"
"Like Harry and Ron wouldn't have gotten themselves killed without you," Parvati said pointedly. "Look, like I said, all I know are the rumors which is why I've been trying to get you to open to me. Hermione, what I have with you, I really like it and I really want to keep it. Today was the first time you opened up to me and, quite frankly, I think it's gonna help us more than hurt us."
Hermione nodded slowly. "Alright," she agreed.
"Good," Parvati said decisively, then she looked awkwardly away not knowing how to take the little victory.
Although it was a beautiful day out, there was a slight chill in the air that made Parvati shiver. Hermione noticed it and squeezed her hand. "C'mon," she said. "Let's go inside and shower, and maybe drop by the burrow after to grab that dress of yours."
Parvati instantly smiled and squeezed her hand back as her girlfriend led her into the tent. "When you say shower, you mean together, right?" she asked a little too eagerly.
"Please, Parvati, if you think I'm going to let you take another shower alone then you are sorely mistaken."
Parvati practically glowed from the affection and Hermione thought for the umpteenth time that week that she looked beautiful.
x x x
"So you didn't have a clue did you?" Charlie asked conversationally nodding toward the magazine on the table.
George laughed. "No idea mate. I wouldn't waste my time pursuing a lesbian, even though if there was a man to turn them straight it would be me." He took a sip of his tea and took a seat at the kitchen table, and lazily pulled the magazine towards him.
Mrs. Weasley had left, Ron was who-knows-where outside probably blowing up who-knows-what, and Mr. Weasley had been at work all morning. Charlie grabbed some toast and took a seat across from George at the table.
"Stop looking at that magazine," Charlie said. "You look weird when you look at it."
"I mean Parvati really is attractive," George said to no one in particular. "It's just really too bad she's snogging Hermione- not that Hermione trolls on looks, but I mean, I've known her forever she's like an annoying young sister version of Percy. . . especially when she became prefect," George added with an eye roll.
"Well, maybe you can pretend you haven't known her forever- you probably won't be seeing her as much with Ron being Ron," Charlie said pointedly. "How do you think he's going to react when he finally sees her?"
George opened the magazine thoughtfully debating whether to read the article on Hermione and Parvati or to actually search for his ad. "Ron has the delicacy of a mountain giant in a China shop when it comes to his feelings. He's gonna blow his lid."
"I hope I'm not around when it happens," Charlie said sounding miserable.
"Hey how long are you staying here?" George asked flipping through the pages looking for his ad. "Don't tell me this weekend here has made you grown reminiscent and now you want to leave Romania."
Charlie laughed. "Not quite I'm just here till the end of the week, but I'll probably be in town more often."
"Why?" George inquired casually flipping another page. "Curious how Ron blows over?"
"No, I uh, I spent some time with that photographer from the wedding the other night."
"Oh, Charlie I really didn't think he was your type, but good for you. I've always wanted a gay brother to tell me if my sweater matched my penny loafers."
"I was the talking about the witch you git, the one that did the wedding not the wizard who did the rehearsal."
"See you've got to be more specific, mate I've always thought you could swing either way."
"Ha ha," Charlie pronounced sarcastically. "I'm not the one trying to pretend that they're not looking for the article to see more pictures of the girl he wanted to shag."
"Not my fault she was a lesbian disguised as a straight girl-"
"Wasn't she dancing with Hermione at the wedding?"
"Yes, but she danced with me too-"
"Soooo, she's bi," Charlie consented with a grin. "And you just lost out to Hermione 'I-use-to-knit-hats-for-house-elves' Granger."
"She's not bi," George said shaking his head.
"I bet she is and she just prefers Hermione over you-" Charlie said insulting him like only a brother could. "I bet you ten galleons she is."
"I never took you for a fool but I'll gladly take money that walks so freely towards me," George said holding out a hand which Charlie shook vigorously.
When they were done shaking, Charlie looked from his hand to George's with a curious look on his face. "Mate, you got girl hands," Charlie said after a long moment.
"And you've got troll hands," George retorted immediately. "I think I got a callous from shaking them."
"Women like a man that does work with their hands. The talent easily translates to bed-"
"No, you're more likely to peel back their skin with those all those callouses. It's like the bad end of-"
But Charlie never heard what is hands were like because he was interrupted by a knocking on the door. "Better not be, Ron, that git should have a key," Charlie muttered getting up to get the door.
x x x
"Really, Parvati," Hermione started feigning irritation. "I still don't think I can see properly." They had just apparated outside the burrow and started walking the remaining short distance that separated them from the door.
Parvati rolled her eyes. "I didn't know you would take this so sorely, you had a great time- I could tell by the sounds you were making- you really shouldn't be complaining."
"I was having a great time until the actual showering happened," Hermione retorted blinking and rubbing her eyes.
Parvati sighed. "It was just a bit of shampoo," she said as she knocked on the door.
"Actually, it was a handful. Merlin I think I'll go blind," Hermione continued teasing wondering how far Parvati would let her take this.
Parvati rolled her eyes again with affection. "Alright, Hermione what are you after? What do you want me to promise I'll do for you?"
Hermione pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well. . . I can think of a few things. . ." she said slowly snaking an arm around her girlfriend's waist.
They were interrupted, however, by the door being opened by Charlie Weasley and Hermione casually kept her arm around Parvati much to Parvati's pleasure.
"Hi Charlie," Hermione said with a smile.
Charlie gapped at her looking surprised. He hadn't bargained on her coming this quickly. "Ron's not here, he went out," Charlie said automatically.
Hermione's smile faultered a bit. "I'm not here to see Ron. Parvati left her dress here by accident. We came to get it."
"Oh well in that case," Charlie opened the door wider so the two of them could enter. "Look though," Charlie said glancing nervously around them as if he half-expected Ron to appear out of thin air. "Ron's in a right mad state now. I would leave before he comes back," he said leading them to the kitchen.
"Why?" Hermione asked curiously as they walked in the small kitchen.
"Because of you, of course!" George said as a way of greeting. "I must admit I never saw it coming, but now that I think back on it I guess there were some signs. Hey Parvati," he added greeting her.
Hermione looked positively confused. "I don't understand."
Charlie gave her a surprised look. "It's obvious that he still likes you, and it's quite a nasty way to learn the news."
"What news?" Hermione asked impatiently.
"Hey, what's that?" Parvati asked glancing over George's shoulder at the open magazine.
George gapped at her. "You haven't seen it?" he asked sounding surprised.
"No," she said making a grab at the magazine. She thought she had seen. . . but now way it couldn't be. . .
George snatched it out of her reach and rolled it up. "It's nothing," he said hastily exchanging a glance with Charlie across the room.
"Yeah, it's just George's porn," Charlie said flatly. "You have to understand it's been awhile for him."
George shot him a nasty look.
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Hermione demanded impatiently.
George opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the back door creaking open and Ron coming in with his eyes downcast. He glanced up and looked surprised to see a full kitchen. His eyes narrowed from Hermione to Parvati before his face turned an unhealthy prune color.
"Come to rub it in, have you?" he asked Parvati nastily.