Chapter 14: Diluted Pain

Author's Note: Hello again, and thank you to anyone who has reviewed the last chapter. I just wanted to point out that right now it is the 20th October 2013 at about 8:23 am and following on from Friday, in England it is our half term holiday and so I will probably be able to get up a couple more chapters. The original intention was for this story to be perhaps finished by Christmas or the end of December but I have realised that it might now be early January. I will try to get everything up as quickly as I can though. You may have noticed in the past three chapters there has been somewhat a running theme and I apologise but this will be continuing into this chapter as well, I have only just realised that this is the case and so sorry once again and it probably will not feature again for a while. Anyway thanks and here is chapter 14!

August 14th 2005

Night time. For the first time in a few months. The past month had been filled with uninterrupted sleep for both Ron and Hermione. No ridiculously late nights talking about the baby – or maybe just one or two, no morning sickness at ungodly hours. Nothing. It was one of the things that they both knew very well that once their daughter was born such thing as turning the lights out and forty winks would no longer exist for quite a while and so they were attempting to make the most of this time.

Ron was particularly heavy sleeper, he always had been. Unlike Hermione, who always found it difficult to drift off, he was out like a light as soon as he hit the pillow nine out of ten times. In a to some extent, comatose state if he was not woken he could easily sleep for hours, resulting in endless dreams. If he ever was the first one awake like Hermione did, he often just lay there wondering what his wife was dreaming of at that time, usually he guessed that it was probably something to do with books or spells or something like that, but he wondered if like it was in his mind at the moment if maybe she ever dreamed about their soon to be daughter. This was one of the times where they were both sleeping peacefully, and in the dark of the night, everything was perfect.

Until Ron heard the scream.

His eyes flew open quickly upon hearing the ear piercing high pitch, drawn out sound and he sat up in bed, hoping that maybe he had just started to have a nightmare come on. It was almost pitch black and he could not see but all he knew was that he could hear the sound once again. Immediately he knew that it must have come from Hermione and turned the bedside light on suddenly. She was tossing and thrashing around whilst still asleep, sweat covering her forehead and in spite of being in a state of sleep, tears were gathering underneath her eyelids. She had had a nightmare of this nature once before since they had been together, six years ago back in 1999 but even then she had not had a reaction anywhere near close to this.

"Let go! Let go of me!"She cried out, her breathing heaving as she turned erratically in her sleep.

"Hermione..." He trailed, shaking her shoulders gently but it did not seem to work. "Hermione..."

"Not Ron, leave him!" She continued and seemed to scream loudly once again, as if in agony, and Ron tried to search to see what was causing her to be pained before her left arm caught his eye. Where the word "mudblood" had been carved into her lower forearm, the scar had reopened and deep red blood was rapidly covering her arm, the sheet below her and the side of her pyjama top. In that moment he realised that he was terrified, not just for her, but because of the baby as well.

"Hermione my love, please wake up." Ron said trying to wake her with difficulty and she shrieked.

"Please! Let go! I didn't do anything." She cried.

"I DIDN'T TAKE IT! PLEASE!" She begged

"Please, wake up, please..." He trailed and shook her once again before finally she awoke.

"R-Ron." She spluttered her voice cracking before she broke down right before him. Her sobs gradually became heavier and louder as she cried even more. Ron quickly wrapped his arms around her and held his wife for a few moments, stroking her forehead delicately. "My... my arm." She stated looking down at the blood spread across it, completely covering her pale skin. The limb was trembling violently as the rest of her body shook whilst the tears fell.

"Sssh, it is alright, it is alright." Ron reassured her but knew that they were both worried and scared as she continued to cry. He had not seen her cry like that in a long time, a very long time. There had been many tears in the past year, with their ups and downs but never so much as this. Instead of doing anything else, he climbed out of bed and walked around to Hermione's side before holding a hand out in front of her.

"Come with me."He whispered and she too climbed out as Ron wrapped an arm around her waist, her left arm in between them as he led her towards the bathroom down the hall. As he guided her to the bathroom counter, she rested her back against it before he reached into the cabinet for a bottle of antiseptic. Slowly with some cotton wool, he wiped away the blood that was still spreading across her arm as she hissed in pain.

"Sorry." Ron mumbled, looking up at his wife who had winced.

"No, I am the one who should apologise. I am sorry about tonight." Hermione sighed

"Hermione, you do not have to apologise, it isn't your fault – the dreams." Ron told her and she shook her head.

"But it is isn't it? I have not had a dream as bad as that in seven years – this one was worse than the last one. I admit that there was a few times that I did have dreams about that day at... you know where... but they have never been that bad." Hermione said.

"I promise you that it is not your fault, sweetheart, and it never will be your fault." Ron said as he held a bathroom towel tightly on her forearm as if to stop the blood from continuing to spread. He glanced up at his wife, who was pale faced and very quiet, almost as if she was going to pass out at the sight of the blood. As he kept the towel pressed on her arm, Ron could feel her shaking, he had noticed it when she had finally woken up but then it had stopped, or so he thought. It was not obvious when he looked at her perplexedly but he could feel it, he could feel how scared she was.

"Hermione, you are shaking." Ron stated and she glanced up, as if having not realised how much she really was.

"I know. Sorry about that." Hermione apologised.

"No, no it is fine. I am just worried that is all." Ron informed her, "There you go, I will just put the bandage on and that is it." He wrapped the muggle bandage around her arm and fastened it into place securely. By now he could see that she had notable calmed down, but tears were still streaming down her face endlessly, still in shock.

"Thank you, Ron." She told him, sniffing.

"No problem, my love, no problem." Ron replied, wiping the tears from under her eyes with his thumb a small smile spread across her lips as he did this and Ron knew that that was a sign of reassurance. "Do you want to talk about it?" He knew that this was not the best question to ask but he could only really hope.

At first she responded with a shake of the head, but then began to nod in reply. "There is not really that much to talk about. It was the same as last time it happened, where we were back in Malfoy Manor and it was just me and her. I was telling her that we had not taken anything but she would not listen and carried on. But then it changed and she brought you into it as well and began to torture you too. It is not exactly something one likes to think about."

It took a while to find some words, but eventually he spoke. It was easier than last time this had happened, but also much more difficult as well. On one hand, went she had been having the dream, it had happened once before and so he knew how to deal with it, and yet on the other, this was more violent and somewhat disturbing and there had also been a baby added into the equation. "You scared me." Was all he could say.

"I did?" Hermione said worriedly

"I was scared for you, and the baby..." He trailed and her eyes widened. "You were tossing, and turning, and screaming and crying and I just could not help but be worried about what could happen." He gestured towards her slowly increasing in size stomach and Hermione immediately understood what he meant. Although they had got past the stage where the most unfortunate of possibilities could take place, there was always a chance that something could happen, and this was a fine example of how that could have happened more likely then than ever previously.

"Can we go and see a healer tomorrow, just to check that everything is okay?" Hermione croaked looking into his eyes and Ron instantly could relate to how she was feeling.

"Of course we can." Ron told her and for the first time since she had awoken, Hermione really smiled. "Are you wide awake now? I am not saying that it matters though, actually it is a good thing. It might be best if you do not go to sleep for a while, just so that you do not reopen the scar again."

"Can we just sit downstairs and what the news as the sun rises. It will not do so for about another hour but still." Hermione suggested and Ron nodded

"Sure. It might be quite red for a few days, but does not matter really." Ron told her.

"Why so?" Hermione questioned.

"Because in some ways it makes your beauty even more powerful." He kissed her forehead.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So what brings you two here?" Lily Moon, Hermione's healer questioned. Ron and Hermione glanced at one another, not knowing who should really start talking first, or how they were going to put the events of the previous night a few hours before into a context for Lily. She already knew about some of the things that had happened on that day at Malfoy Manor seven years before. She knew that Hermione had been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange, but that was it. Lily had no idea about the scar on Hermione's left arm or what it read or how she had essentially been tortured so much that she had become unconscious. Maybe it was a time to start saying some of these points before anything else related to this could even happen.

"Firstly, we are sorry that this is sudden as we know that we are not supposed to be having another appointment for two weeks but this could not wait." Ron started

"It is no problem at all, but you do sound very concerned. What has happened?" Healer Moon said furrowing her eyebrows perplexedly.

"Do you remember how when we first came here and met you in January, I told you that I had been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange?" Hermione asked

"Yes. I hope you do not mind, but I wrote in down in your medical files for future reference." She replied

"Well, it had something to do with that." Hermione continued

"I woke up, in the early hours of this morning to find Hermione screaming and tossing and turning. She kept calling out things and seemed to be getting worse and worse. It went on for a while and then when I finally managed to wake her up, she was in a bit of a state. We were both concerned as to whether the baby was alright, given what had happened." Ron told her and Healer Moon appeared to understand where they were coming from.

"I think that we should check the baby, just in case. I do not want you to worry, but I am a little bit concerned given what happened." Lily said and Hermione got up on the bed and lay down. Instead of using the normal muggle machine, she got her wand out and muttered a spell, much the confusion of both Hermione and Ron. "I would use the normal machine, but this might be easier in the case of looking for any damage or harm."

At the words, Hermione immediately tensed up and Ron reached for her hand. "Don't worry love, she will be fine." Ron told her and Hermione realised that that was one of the first times either of them had really refereed to the baby as "she". Usually it was "the baby" or "our daughter" but it was clear that now slowly but surely, they were getting used to the sudden change.

"Well, I would not worry. Everything seems to be fine." Healer Moon told them and it was clear that they both visibly sighed. "Can I ask you a few more questions?" She then went on to ask after Hermione had rolled down her top and sat back down in the chair next to Ron, her fingers interlocking with his as she nodded in response.

"Of course."Hermione said

"How many times have you had these dreams?" Lily questioned and Hermione knew that that was an easy question to calculate and answer.

"From my knowledge, and also from Ron's knowledge, I have only got like last night twice, one of them being last night and the other being a few months after the end of the war. I have had dreams about it but they have never been anywhere near as bad as those two though. That has happened a few times, and that again was just after the night that that happened, Battle of Hogwarts and in the few months and year after the war finished but other than that never at all, until now." She sighed and Healer Moon nodded.

"There is not that much that can really be done, it is just one of those things where we have to hope that it does not happen frequently. One of the reasons it could have happened now is probably because of the hormone imbalance whilst you are pregnant. However, I do have a potion that might help you sleep a lot better than you have been. We will have to watch out though because of what has already happened in the past and what is on your medical records." Lily told them.

"Can I ask you something as well?" Hermione said quietly and Lily gestured for her to continue.

"I know that one of the reasons it took so long for us to conceive was because of being tortured but I know that we discussed that it could be genetic as well given that my parents had a lot of difficulty – in particularly my mother when it came to having children. Is there a chance that I could pass that on to our daughter?" She asked and Ron suddenly looked awkward and uncomfortable being the silent participator in the conversation and from what Hermione could see probably would have rather have left the room.

"More likely than not she will. However there is also a chance that she will not at all. Bearing in mind, she is not due until early next year and it will be quite a while after that before if she does have children she does, but time changes people psychologically and physically so it might not happen. I guess we will only know when she grows older."Lily said.

"Thank you." Hermione informed her before they both left quietly.

XXXXXXXXXX

Ron walked slowly along the shady road. It was mid August and so normally it would have been considerably warm for Great Britain but this year it had not been much too many people's relief. Instead it was rather cool underneath the shady trees on the leafy avenue leading up to a very familiar place, it was not as familiar to him as it was to Hermione but still, he had always felt a lot more welcome that he had originally ever expected. He wondered if that was because he had never had a minor blip and cursed either of them, but he had never had any reason to and never would as they were both genuinely lovely people who were just as curious about Hermione and Ron's world as Ron was about theirs. It also turned out that the man was the one of the only people who had ever beaten Ron at Wizard's Chess. He was a very quiet, intelligent and kind man who had a visible and intriguing sense of curiosity. The woman was unbelievably caring, also very intelligent and a humorous person and Ron could clearly pinpoint the places where his wife had got her traits from.

Eventually, he approached the door of 24, Carlisle Avenue, rang the doorbell and then waited for somebody to open the door, providing that anybody was actually within the house. After a few moments he could see a distorted figure through the frosted glass with long dark slightly bushy yet wavy hair getting closer. As they turned the lock and opened it he realised that out of the two people that occupied the house, this was the person he was looking for.

"Hello Ron, what a pleasant surprise." Helena Granger beamed

"Hello, Helena. Do you mind if I come in?" Ron asked and she could see by the slightly quiet tone in his voice that something was not quite right.

"Of course I do not mind, please..." She trailed holding the door open and closing it behind him as he headed through the hallway and she lead him into the kitchen. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Tea would be lovely please." Ron smiled, remembering how Helena Granger's tea reminded him of how his own mother had always made it. After a few minutes, she sat down opposite him at the small kitchen table, and slid the mug across to him gently. "Thank you." He said quietly.

"Is everything alright?" Hermione's mother asked and Ron was surprised that she had established that within him so quickly.

"How do you know?" Ron croaked and Helena chuckled at his question

"Ron, I have known you for seven years, I knew about you for seven years before that as well and you are married to my daughter. After a few months once we had arrived back in England from Australia, you two both seemed to at times just merge into one another. What's happened?" She enquired and Ron sighed

"Do you remember how she used to have nightmares just after we had got back from getting you and Robert from Australia and she had after the end of the battle?" Ron asked and Helena nodded, "Well, she had another one last night. I woke up to find her tossing and turning and screaming things out loud and then the scar on her arm..." He continued before Helena cut him of suddenly.

"Wait... what scar on her arm?" Helena asked

"Has she not told you about the scar?" Ron said and Helena shook her head, remembering that after a few years Hermione had given in and had told her parents that she had been tortured by Bellatrix he decided to continue with his explanation. "She got in on... the night we got captured and she..." He said not being able to bring himself to finish the sentence.

"When she got tortured?" Helena asked reaching for his free hand and squeezing it before he squeezed back. "Yeah." He replied

"I know it does not seem possible from your point of view, but the scar reopened. She was scared, I was scared and I didn't really know what to do. We were scared mainly because of the baby as well, suppose she had been hurt. I didn't know what to say to her or what to tell her. What do you do in a situation like that?" He asked and there was a moments silence before Helena spoke once again.

"It is a girl?" Helena questioned smiling.

"Yeah, it's a girl." Ron beamed quietly.

"I honestly don't know what to say to you. I remember when Hermione was very little, she would have nightmares a lot, but they were never really about the conventional things that Robert and I would have ever really expected like spiders, ghosts, monsters, witches even. Perhaps she never really got the latter in particular because it turns out that she is a witch. But they were things that nowadays you really would expect her to be scared of, I remember when she was eight, there was one about her books flying away or someone burning all of her favourite ones, or failing a test or exam. She would always pull through bad times though. You are both brave, strong and wonderful people and you will pull through this one in time too." She said softly and Ron nodded

"I know she will."

Author's Note: Yet again, I'm very sorry that this has taken a while. Hopefully I will get another chapter up within the next week as it is finally the half term holidays. I know that there has been a running theme of Hospital visits in the past four chapters (this was coincidental by the way) but I promise that is highly unlikely to feature again for a while. Anyway thank you and PLEASE REVIEW!