AN: apologies for the late posting Hope you like it.
Chapter 23 – Keep your Guard up
Hermione tossed a look towards Fleur, she was white as a ghost and the hand that was setting her coffee mug on the counter had a slight tremble to it, Hermione offered her a reassuring smile. She hoped it was a reassuring smile, it was the best Hermione could muster up as she imagined she looked as good as Fleur did. Hermione did not relish the thought of seeing Ron face to face again but took comfort in the fact that Ginny would be there. Ginny might kill him but at least she would do it before he got to Hermione.
Ginny, who had seen Hermione's glance at Fleur, considered her best friend curiously, was there something between Hermione and Fleur? She couldn't be sure but one thing she was sure of was that Ron was getting nowhere near Hermione, she would kill him first, he had caused too much damage to all of them. Ginny slipped a hand into Hermione's and squeezed it, Hermione squeezed right back, grateful for the reassurance. Over the years since Ginny had returned from the Chamber of Secrets, these hand squeezes had taken the place of Pep talks between the two, neither of them need to hear the words, they just needed to know that their best friend had their backs, and they did.
Luna beamed at Fleur, her pride could not have been any clearer had she said the words, which she didn't, Fleur nodded a 'thank you' at Luna and headed for the door in the kitchen that led out to the back yard. Ginny and Hermione followed, there had been no prior agreement about who would go first to check the safety of the Floo and Shell cottage but Fleur and Luna seemed to have it in hand as she and Fleur stood in the fireplace wands drawn and Fleur grabbed a handful of floo powder and threw it in the flames announcing her destination. Just as the green flames shot up and engulfed them Fleur's eyes locked with Hermione's and they held contact until the flames whisked them away.
Ginny looked at Hermione and her stomach actually twisted, "Say the word Hermione and I will disappear with you. I mean what I am trying to say is you don't have to go through with this, if you are not up to it I mean." Even as the words left Ginny's mouth she knew that Hermione would never run from this, she would fulfil her destiny no matter how misguided it may be. In response Hermione squeezed Ginny's hand, it was all she could manage, Ginny's offer was incredibly tempting and was just what she needed to lift the feeling of dread that had settled like a hot stone in the pit of her stomach. Hermione let go of Ginny's hand and drew her wand. Ginny also drew her wand then reached out and grabbed a handful of floo powder as they both stepped into the fireplace and they too were engulfed by the emerald flames.
It was at that precise moment that Bellatrix made her move, the only sign that Hermione go that she was in trouble was hearing the witch's demented cackle before the word "Crucio" was uttered. As soon as Hermione heard the cackle she grabbed hold of Ginny and held on for dear life. Ginny had no idea what was happening as fireplaces shot past them while they hurtled towards their destination. She did the only thing that she could think to do, she wrapped her arms around Hermione and kept Shell cottage clearly pictured in her mind.
The two witches tumbled out of the fireplace to the sounds of Hermione's blood curdling screams. To her credit Ginny did not let go while her friend writhed in pain in her arms, Ginny frantically looked around the room for Fleur, the last time this had happened Fleur had stopped it but the Veela was nowhere in sight. Luna, Ron, Fred and George looked on in some sort of stunned horror as Hermione's scream went on and on, seemingly forever. She began to claw at her own skin and all Ginny could do was try to stop her from hurting herself while she rode out whatever it was that was happening. "FLEUR!" Ginny screamed but it was in vain, if Fleur had heard Hermione's screams she would have come running already, she turned to Luna, "Patronus to Fleur" was all the red headed girl could get out.
Luna caught on to Ginny's idea and sent a patronus to Fleur, seconds later the blonde burst through the door, wand in hand. She sank to her knees beside Hermione and Ginny and cast 'legilimens'. Bill was on her heels shouting at the Ron and the twins to provide an explanation for what was happening, which they were clearly not able to give. Letting the sheer pandemonium that broke out in the room since she entered fall away, Fleur entered Hermione's mind to find Bellatrix torturing Hermione. Fleur fired curse after curse at the demented witch, when one of the hexes hit Bellatrix hard enough to knock her away from Hermione, Fleur stepped between them and backed up towards Hermione.
"HALF BREED BITCH!" Bellatrix yelled at Fleur who was pushing Hermione back to make distance between them but holding her wand up defensively at the same time. Fleur's shield spell was up the instant Bellatrix fired a hex in their direction, the hex bounced off the shield and reflected back at Bellatrix, cutting a decent sized gash in her face.
Bellatrix was livid and Fleur knew that she was in trouble, she turned to Hermione, "WALLS," she yelled at her trying to get the young witch's attention. Hermione was a shivering wreck on the floor and while Fleur was turned towards her Bellatrix took a chance and fired off three hexes in quick succession, two hitting Fleur and one hitting Hermione. A great gash appeared across Hermione's face and blood began to make its winding path down to her chin and drip onto the floor. Fleur dropped down and shook Hermione "'Ermione! Walls!" she said with urgency whole Bellatrix cackled on. Hermione looked into Fleur's eyes and the only thing there beside sheer terror was anguish and agony, but there was also a tiny spark of recognition. Fleur stood and fired at Bellatrix relentlessly until she could not see her because Hermione had finally got her walls up.
Fleur brought herself out of Hermione's mind and back into the livingroom where the scene was bedlamic, Luna and Bill were both holding back a twin each, Fred and George were screaming at Ron asking him what he had done to Hermione and Fleur, Ron was crying and covering his head, protesting his innocence all the while. Ginny was desperately trying to quell bleeding on both Hermione and, much to Fleur's surprise, on herself. Hermione appeared to slipping into some kind of shock and Fleur knew better than to stop touching her, for she knew that for whatever reason her touch seemed to ground Hermione and strengthen her mental walls.
"ENOUGH!" she shouted to the room at large and that one word at such a volume from Fleur had the desired effect. "Fred, George, release your brother and fetch some towels," she ordered her tone leaving no room for argument. "Ronald sit!" she almost spat the order as she indicated the chair in the room that was farthest from them, Ron practically ran to where he had been ordered and sat. Luna, now free of the burden of holding back a homicidal twin, came over to join Fleur, Ginny and Hermione on the floor. Hermione was still shaking, her face stained with tears, Fleur cast some non verbal spells, one to heal the gash in Hermione's face and the rest to clean the vomit and other mess that Hermione had made while being subjected to the cruelty of Bellatrix. Neither Ginny nor Luna said a word while Fleur worked and when the spells were complete Fleur seemed to relax more as she settled Hermione's head in her lap and stroked her head. She turned to the other two witches, "Et is very important that she remains in contact wiz me fore ze time being," Fleur explained and the two witches nodded in understanding.
"What can I do Fleur, can I heal you?" Bill asked tentatively, still standing in the spot he was when the twins left the room.
"You can leave zis room Bill, I am very angry wiz you and you can consider zese wounds your fault, 'ow dare you put a silencing charm on ze kitchen wizout telling me" Fleur answered coldly though her face flushed with rage. She tried to control her emotions as she knew logically Bill had no idea the consequences his actions would have had, but she was quietly seething at him because she would have heard Hermione sooner, she would have been quicker to protect her.
Luna raised her wand and cast healing spells on Fleur, closing the gashes in her arms so that they were now just angry red scars. Fleur flashed her a look of gratitude while she continued to stroke the hair out of Hermione's face.
"You are my wife! Of course I wanted to speak with you in private!" Bill reasoned, his voice echoing his feeling of injustice at being blamed for these event.
"William!" Fleur yelled and Hermione jumped in her lap, Fleur bent over Hermione and whispered and apology and reassurances to her. "William, please just stop, I am here to ask you for a divorce but zere are much more important zings going on here zan ze breakdown of our marriage. Please stop acting like a spoiled leetle boy and do as I ask and leave me, for now." She said in a soft voice that did not reflect the words that she spoke. Fred and George had re entered the room and had heard every word Fleur had said and they, like every other Weasley in the room, turned red in embarrassment. Fleur worried at her lip and looked to Luna and Ginny pleading them to help her.
It was Ginny who came to her rescue and got to her feet, "Come on Bill, Fred, George, traitor, let's get some breakfast." she said and headed to the kitchen, everyone of them followed her and Fleur closed her eyes and said a silent prayer of thanks. Luna handed her a towel and she took it and began to wipe off some of the blood that was on her. Luna squeezed her shoulder gently and left the room.
Tears sprang to Fleur's eye's she had not meant to lash out at Bill that way, truth was she was afraid, afraid for Hermione, afraid of losing her and afraid of having that conversation with Bill. Her body shuddered as she tried to mask the sobs that welled up in her chest, she felt wretched as she was supposed to be comforting Hermione. Hermione stirred on Fleur's lap and Fleur put a hand down to still her, but Hermione was recovering from the trauma she had endured and she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She did not say a word she simply wrapped her arms around Fleur and held her as she cried.
After a few moments Fleur pushed away, "I am sorry 'Ermione," she said to her, her face blushing with shame but her sentence was cut off by Hermione's finger on her lips.
"Shhh, it is fine, they will assume it is me crying so don't worry about them and I am ok now, thanks to you. So what does it matter?" Hermione told her.
Fleur wiped her face and took a deep breath, "I snapped at 'im, 'e probably 'ates me now." She explained.
"Well if he hates you for that then he was never good enough for you to begin with. But I don't think he will." Hermione offered as comfort and her statement made Fleur smile as she was reminded of what a truly great heart Hermione had.
Fleur reached forward and swept a stray lock of hair behind Hermione's ear, "What 'appened?" she asked the brunette.
Hermione tried to remember the events that led to the attack, "I think it was the floo, she attacked me as soon as Ginny threw the powder, I did not even know that my defences were down." she explained.
Fleur nodded, travelling by floo required a certain amount of magical mental work and that could have caused the gap in Hermione's defences, she sighed this meant that they could not travel back to Grimmauld place by floo, but more than that it meant that Bellatrix was watching Hermione's every move laying in wait like a wolf waiting to attack its prey. "We will deal wiz it when we need to leave ok?" Fleur asked and Hermione nodded once in response.
The motion was enough to bring forth a wave nausea and Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath fighting the urge to vomit with everything she had. Fleur rubbed her back unsure of how to help other than remaining quiet until the wave passed. When Hermione regained herself she tried to stretch her legs out from underneath her and flinched, it was clear that she was in incredible pain.
Fleur helped her up onto the couch, "Ginny!" Fleur called and then she pulled the throw blanket from the back of the couch and covered Hermione with it. Ginny entered the room and came over to the couch, Fleur took Ginny's hand and joined it with Hermione's. Ginny instantly knelt down beside Hermione but gave her full attention to Fleur. The blonde pulled her wand and showed Ginny the wand flourish required, Ginny mimicked Fleur's movements precisely without being asked until Fleur was satisfied, she then cast 'legilmens' and entered Hermione's mind, and waited patiently. Seconds later Ginny joined them and all she could do was stand and stare.
Ginny marvelled at the inside of Hermione's mind, she also could not believe that she had picked up the spell so easily, Harry had told her of hours of practice with Snape before he mastered it. Fleur waited for Ginny to get over her initial wonder then walked over to the wall, "Ginny, zis wall is what iz protecting 'Ermione from Bellatrix, she iz not strong enough to maintain zis wall on 'er own. I 'ave been 'elping 'er wiz zis. My mistake was not telling you about et sooner." Fleur explained.
Hermione stood as far back from the wall as she could, she was afraid of the horror that was laying in wait behind it. Ginny looked from Fleur to Hermione and then to the wall. "How do I help?" she asked and as she did so she walked over to the wall and put her hand to it. Although she could not explain why, Ginny marvelled at the fact that the wall not only looked like a wall but it felt as solid and rough as a wall as well.
Fleur smiled at Ginny, she was smart, logic dictated that the wall was metaphysical and therefore she had to touch it to gauge how 'real' it was, Ginny really was demonstrating her intelligence by testing the wall. "You know 'ow to do a shield charm, yes?" Fleur asked the redhead. Ginny nodded in response, "Ze principle is ze same, zough a little more complex," Fleur explained.
Ginny considered what Fleur was saying, "In principle, so you mean it draws the same magical energy and requires the same focus?" she asked.
Fleur smiled at Ginny, "Exactement!" she exclaimed delighted that Ginny had picked this up so quick, she looked at Hermione, who just shrugged her shoulders. "I 'ave been 'elping 'Ermione by giving 'er some magical energy and by 'elping 'er focus." Fleur explained.
Ginny looked at Hermione and then back to Fleur and then back at the wall, "So Bellatrix is behind this wall in the same way that we are here?" she asked, Fleur nodded. "And outside of this...environment Hermione can draw energy and focus from us?"
Fleur looked at Hermione then answered, "She can wiz me, we 'ave not tried et wiz anyone else but..."
"the principle is the same?" Ginny finished for her and she was grinning. Fleur smiled too and Hermione rolled her eyes at them. Fleur left Hermione's mind and Ginny followed.
"Do you know how smart you have to be to pick that stuff up?" Hermione asked Ginny and the redhead dropped her eyes to the floor as a flush crawled up her face, "don't do that, I have been telling you for years you are one of the smartest people I know, I'm just hoping that you will listen now." Hermione explained. Ginny gave a faint nod.
Fleur stood and took a step back from Hermione, it became very clear that Ginny almost immediately lost her focus in the room. Fleur looked to Hermione raising an eyebrow in question. "My wall is intact, Ginny How are you doing?" Hermione asked.
Ginny looked like she was day dreaming shook her head a little, "That is weird, but I'm good." She replied with yet even more wonder in her voice. Fleur nodded and went into the kitchen. She felt that now was as good a time as any to test Ginny's connection with Hermione, if this worked they would teach Luna too, if she was willing. Fleur grabbed a plate and threw a couple of pieces of toast on it along with a hardboiled egg. She took the plate over to the counter aware that every set of eyes in the room was watching her. She pulled out a tray and set the plate on the tray, she then poured a coffee and 2 pumpkin juices. Fleur rifled through a cupboard that she knew to be a medicine cabinet of sorts until she found the pain potion she was looking for and placed that too on the tray.
Fleur picked up the tray and turned back to the table, "'Ermione will need about an hour to recover, zen she and Ginny would like to speak with you Ronald Hermione will guarantee your safety as long as you do not make a move to cause either of zem 'arm. Bill while zey are talking, I would like to sit and talk wiz you starting wiz an apology for my unkind words, would zis be acceptable to you both?" she asked though it sounded more of an order. Fleur had noticed that when she was with Bill she had to take charge more often than not, it was one of the reasons she had known that her marriage was not going to last the test of time. She felt more like his mother than a partner, she felt different with Hermione. She shook her head to push the thought away and turned her attention to Bill and Ron.
"Sounds good Fleur," Bill answered and he had seemed to visibly relax too.
Fleur turned to Ron who just nodded, the poor boy looked terrified, but he had made his own bed. Fleur carried the tray back through to the living room. Luna looked to the twins, "Well boys, it looks like we have some free time, however shall we entertain ourselves?" she asked the twins with a knowing smirk on her face.
Fred choked on some pumpkin juice but George was on the ball and shot to his feet, "Well we have some new products for you to have a look at, upstairs...in our room..." he stumbled over the words but Luna smiled serenely and got to her feet, the three of them went up the stairs.
Fleur set the tray down and handed the pumpkin juice to Ginny, "Drink eet, you will need it to regain your strength and magic," Ginny drank the entire glass without protest. Next Fleur handed Hermione the pain potion, followed by a piece of the toast, Hermione scowled at both items but a look from Fleur was enough to prevent her from arguing. Fleur looked satisfied as Hermione drank the potion and ate the toast, for herself she took a swig of her coffee as she handed Ginny the second glass of pumpkin juice and shelled the egg which she split in two and gave half to Hermione.
Once the food was done, Fleur put all the dishes on the tray (Ginny finishing the toast and Fleur's coffee) and pushed it aside. "Ginny you 'ave an 'our more or less if you want to take a nap, zen I will 'elp 'Ermione for now." Fleur said. Ginny nodded and then promptly curled up on the floor and went to sleep.