A/N: Nothing you recognize is in any way mine. Nor shall it ever be.

Here we find the extent of Hermione's injuries. It is not a pretty picture. All my thanks! Hope you are enjoying it as much as I enjoy writing it. If not, well, who asked you….kidding.

End transmission

-me

Severus arrived at St. Mungo's with Hermione and nearly fell to his knees with the girl in his arms while he screamed for help. He knew she was barely hanging on and there was no telling if they would be able to save the baby. Before he could even register what was happening Hermione was being whisked away on a floating stretcher by a whole team of healers and nurses.

Severus wanted to hit something. He wanted to hurt whoever had harmed her like this, and it sickened him to think it was her husband. He was sure it was. He had known for a year he had been beating her. He had argued with her on occasion about it. She always made his excuses for him though. Now his friend was barely alive, and if he hadn't been there, making that delivery, he hated to think what could have happened. He hated to think of her dying alone, and the base of the stairs, naked. Gods, he hadn't even registered she was naked until then. There had been so much blood, and vomit, and he had been so scared it hadn't even occurred to him that she was nude. He made his way to a chair in the waiting area, no doubt Aurors would be there soon, and he wanted to see if her husband was among them.

He had been there nearly an hour when Harry Potter strode into St. Mungo's with Auror Dawlish and a man Severus didn't recognize. They stopped at the information desk but quickly turned towards Severus. Dawlish and the man Severus assumed was his partner headed off down the hall, likely to see if they could get information on Hermione's condition. Harry came and pulled a chair up in front of Severus and turned it around so he could sit with his hands resting on the chair back while he took his statement.

"So Professor," Harry started "they told me at the desk that you brought an unnamed woman in, that she had been attacked and that it was not known if she would survive. Is that accurate?"

"Dear Merlin man, did they not tell you whom I carried in here?" He knew it wouldn't help to scream at the boy, but he hated this, sitting here answering to The-Fucking-Boy-Who-Lived-To-Be-Clueless.

"No, they said she is unresponsive, and frankly I think they are all a little afraid to speak with you." Harry told him, stifling a small laugh, knowing it was inappropriate to laugh when he was investigating a crime.

"Hermione." Severus breathed her name, barely said it loud enough to be heard, but it was enough.

Harry was on his feet in an instant, wand at the ready; ready to curse or bind even he wasn't sure. "WHAT? What the fuck happened Snape? Where is she? And why the fuck did you bring her here?" The chair he had been sitting in was toppled over and skidded across the floor with the force of Harry's rage.

Severus ran a hand through his hair which had fallen free of its binding in his hast to bring her to St. Mungo's. "Her husband happened to her. And she is lucky I was making my delivery to her when I was or I could have been too late, I may have been as it is, she was barely alive when I found her."

"What do you mean Ron happened? What has he got to do with it? He would never hurt her. He LOVES 'Mione. She is all he has!" His anger was barely contained as he contemplated what his old professor was saying.

Severus was seething now, so angry that her supposed closest of friends had failed to notice what had seemed so obvious to him, even before she became more to him than another client at his shop. "He has been beating her for a year at least, so nice of you to notice Potter. I suppose you also failed to notice his dalliance with girl who tends his brother's shop, it is the talk of Diagon Alley, has been for quite a long time, though doubtfully as long as he has been sneaking off with her."

Severus could see the cogs spinning in Harry's head as he catalogued everything he had noticed out of place over the past years. All the smiles that never reached her eyes, the way she would flinch when someone hugged her. He thought it was just about what had happened to her at Malfoy Manor, gods knew none of them were quite the same after that night, but she had been through so terribly much. He never even considered she was hiding abuse from him. He never could have thought his best friend capable, yet somehow looking at his former Potions Professor, seeing the man so drawn and so obviously afraid for his friend, he knew it to be true. His best mate, his partner, had been abusing his wife, the third of their Golden Trio. "Please, Snape," he began, with his head in his hands "tell me what you know. What was she like when you found her? What did he do to her? The baby?"

"I got there to drop off her potions, she hasn't come out of that flat in nearly two months. I think she found out about the little shop girl he sees. I have been delivering what she needs to her most weeks now. When I got there she was barely conscious, naked on the floor at the foot of the stairs by the entry. I am glad I was the one to have found her; she wouldn't have wanted anyone to see her like that. From what I could tell her skull was cracked, likely in a few places, there was boot tread visible on her cheek. Her arms were at odd angles as were her legs, she was bruising from what I could see through the blood, and the vomit. I, the baby, I don't know. She was bleeding so much, most of the blood was pooling from between her legs. I don't know if she was pushed, or if she fell, but I remember seeing some blood on the stairs, she didn't get down on her own two feet, that much I am certain. As for the rest we will have to wait for a healer." He was quite visibly shaken by the time he finished telling Harry what he had seen.

"Like hell we will wait for a healer. Come on. Being the Bloody Boy-Who-Lived has to be worth something. I want answers. Then I want to know where the bloody hell her husband is. Let's go Snape. Someone's gonna need to take your statement anyways, no way I can take this case now. If it turns out Ron did this he will be lucky to be found by someone else." Harry was tearing off down the hall demanding to know where Hermione was.

"That boy had better hope I don't get to him first" he said to no one as he followed Harry off down the hall in search of the battered woman he had grown to be so fond of.

When he caught up with Harry he was leaning against the wall outside of the doors leading to the Critical Damage ward speaking with an old healer who reminded him of a clean shaven Albus Dumbledore, his knees were buckling as he slid down the wall and cried into his hands. It wasn't a good sign.

"Hermione?" Severus was almost afraid to ask. He didn't have so many friends that he wouldn't feel the loss of this one terribly.

The old healer that had been speaking with Harry turned to him to answer. "Ah, you must be the young man who brought her in. Good thing that, she is in a bad way, sorry to say. She is going to make it though. You are Mister Snape are you not?" At Severus' nod he continued "Well then, as her emergency contact I can tell you of the extent of her injuries."

Severus would have been content to listen to what ever the old man had to say but he couldn't seem to hear anything past the fact that she had put him down in her files as emergency contact. When on earth had she done that? Why had she done that? "Sorry, I seem to have misheard, did you say I am listed as her emergency contact?"

"Yes, yes. Once we figured out who she was, hard not to notice when one of the saviors of the Wizarding World is in your hospital, we looked up her charts and sure enough her husband and Mister Potter here are listed as next of kin, and she has One Master Severus Snape listed as emergency contact. Now as I was saying, her injuries are quite severe, and numerous. We are still uncertain what all was done to that poor girl, but the side of her skull is crushed in, and until we get that fixed we can't administer the SkeleGrow needed for her limbs without risking severe damage to the brain, though frankly it is still uncertain as to whether or not she will even wake up, let alone what mental faculties she will retain after the trauma she has been through. Additionally she has three cracked ribs, one of which punctured the right lung. And both of her ulna fractures, as well as her right wrist. Her left femur is completely beyond repair and will need to be re-grown if and when we are able. She had mild burns on her back, and restraint marks on her wrists and ankles. I am afraid she was also brutally raped. Lastly, she was unfortunately in the late stages of labor when she arrived, her body could not have handled the birth vaginally, certainly not without her conscious to help it along, and we had to perform a cesarean. The child was still born." You could almost see the old wizard's heart breaking for the young girl barely hanging onto life and the child she had lost.

Severus couldn't do anything but nod and say "I understand." He took a moment to collect himself before he asked for more information. "What is being done for her now? Can I see her?"

The old wizard knew that Severus had trained as a healer in order to get his Potions Mastery and so he nodded his assent, leading the dark man through the doors towards Hermione's room. They left Harry outside the ward to deal with his warring emotions. The old healer answered what he could as they approached her room. "She is sedated, and being kept on a steady stream of blood replenishing, healing, and pain potions. Classic trauma cocktail until we can do more. The cesarean went smoothly all things considered, though we had to do it without her consent, and she will no doubt be distraught if and when she comes to. That, and what other wounds we could were knit closed and we have applied dittany to the wounds to help with the healing from the outside, while the potions do their job inside. Her knee was dislocated, so we were able to set that while she was out and her ribs and the ulna fractures were able to be mended. Her wrist and femur will have to wait until we can repair the damage to the skull, and get the brain swelling down. There is a squib we have worked with before. He has been called in."

Confusion was evident on Severus' face as he contemplated what a squib had to do with this. "Squib?"

"Yes, a Dr. Terrington. His father is a muggle and he was raised mainly in the muggle world. He is now a surgeon, and we consult on occasion and he works within the muggle hospital to assure that witches and wizards brought in are transferred accordingly. I expect he should be here soon, we have seen an injury similar to this on occasion, usually quidditch accidents, and a dragon tamer once if memory recalls. We will work together for the procedure, if he agrees it is possible in her case, it may not be." He stopped outside of a door, and put his hand to the handle before turning to Severus. "Are you sure you want to see her now? She is sedated, and it is not a pretty sight."

"Yes. I am certain it can be no worse than what I have been seeing in my head since I found her." And he steeled himself to follow the doctor in the room. The sight that met him served to reignite his anger. Hermione lay in the hospital bed, nearly as white as the sheets, though there was a grey and ashen quality to her usually creamy skin that was horribly un-natural, especially against the starchy white linins. Her head had been shaved so that the damage to her head could be assessed; there were healing cuts visible all over her face and head, likely from her fall down the steps. Both arms were bandaged from midway down the bicep to her palms in an effort to help the broken ulnas in her forearms to heal properly. The rest of her was covered, though he could tell that the swell of her abdomen no longer held a child. He knew that would be the worst of it for her. She had never admitted to the abuse, though she knew he held his suspicions, but she had confided that she wasn't sure she would stay if it hadn't been for the baby. After the torture she received at the end of Bella's wand she wasn't sure she would ever be able to conceive, and he knew as her potions supplier and friend the lengths she had to go to in order to have this baby. She had already suffered an ectopic pregnancy shortly after she had married that left her with only one viable fallopian tube. This child had been all the hope she had left. He wasn't certain she would have the will to go on without her baby. Severus wanted to kill the bastard who had done this, who had killed his own child.

Severus continued to inspect her from the door way for a moment before moving to a chair at her bed side and whispering in her ear. "I will not let him harm you again, Hermione. I am so sorry I did not stop this long ago. I have worked so hard to keep everyone at arms-length, even those insufferable ones I have come to care so much for. I had hoped that the boy wonder would step in and play hero again, but I was foolish. I knew. I knew what that bastard did to you. I am so sorry Hermione." As he sat back in the chair, feeling utterly defeated he heard the door open, and looked up to see a young man in white lab coat step in.

"Severus, this is Dr. Terrington. He is going to need to inspect Mrs. Weasley, and then we will see if we can get her skull mended. Hopefully with the pressure that is being applied to her brain removed, her swelling will go down and we can get her well again, though it will be a lengthy recovery none the less" The old healer explained.

"What is this procedure exactly? What does it entail?" Severus wanted to know, as he clasped his hands in front of his face, elbows resting on the arms of the chair.

It was Dr. Terrington who chose to explain. "If it is indeed a viable option, Healer Plackett," Severus realized it was the first time he was hearing the old healers name, he hadn't even bothered to ask "will handle the spell work, a severing charm will open her scalp to allow access to the skull at which time I will surgically remove the portion of damaged skull and replace it with a prosthetic plate, which Healer Plackett will apply with a permanent sticking charm, which will be both faster and less invasive then screws. If we work quickly we can have her skull repaired and the scalp knitted closed all within twenty minutes. It should be another matter of hours before the swelling in her brain recedes enough to give us an accurate picture of the likelihood of her recovery, at which time we can re asses her brain function."

"Now Severus I shall have to ask that you go back to the waiting room, and perhaps collect Mister Potter, if he is still where you left him. Dr. Terrington and I will need to get working and we can't have anyone in here visiting until she is in recovery." The old man laid a hand on Severus' shoulder as he spoke to him.

"Thank you, Healer Plackett, Dr. Terrington. I have work to do, I shall be in my Apothecary, should she be of need of more potions, feel free to call on me. Good Day. I shall return in two hours time, hopefully she will be on her way to recovery by then." And with that Severus stood and left the men to try to heal the ashen girl on the bed.

Severus walked quickly down the hall and back out into the reception area searching for Potter. He knew he was going to need to give a statement to the Aurors, and was sure Boy Wonder would like to know the details of her condition. Potter, he was sure, was in no shape to see her, not like that.

He remembered the first time he had decided enough was enough and asked her about the abuse she was receiving at the hands of her husband. Like so many battered women she had made excuses and tried to claim to have developed into a world class klutz. He knew that wasn't the case, she was the epitome of grace. Her reflexes had been honed during her year on the run during the war, and fighting had toned her body into that of an athlete, removing any traces of the soft quiet book worm. Anyone who knew what they were looking for could see the changes war had wrought in Hermione, she was a warrior. To see her so beaten had driven him mad; he had wanted to shake her, to scream at her, and lately to simply hold her close. She had survived so much, only to be beaten down time and again by her husband. In the months before her pregnancy he had noticed her frame was shrinking, she had been losing weight, and nearly seemed to be collapsing in on herself, shrinking away from life. He had kept his opinions to himself, friendly they might be, but he was not her confidant, he had doubted she had one. He knew there was little anyone could do if she didn't ask for help, so he sold her potions and salves so that she could hide her shame from the world and worked to be her friend. He could understand the desire to conceal your weakness from the world, to hide away the marks that burn into your soul. It wasn't just the mark forever on his forearm but the memories of bruises he hid as a child. He remembered helping his mother apply bruise salve when she was too tired and weak to do it for herself. To see this once strong girl, this woman, a savior of the wizarding world, to see her hiding the same type of pain was unthinkable. He wished now he had pushed further. He may not truly understand his feeling for or his friendship with the young woman who had once been a tiring know-it-all, but he did not want to lose it now.

He found Potter in the waiting area talking with Dawlish and his partner. He caught snippets of their conversation as he approached.

"…hasn't been heard from since he left the office this morning. He was supposed to have been headed to The Burrow to inform his parents of the developments into his brother's case. He never showed."

"Has anyone told Molly and Arthur yet? They should hear it from someone they know." Harry asked of Dawlish.

"As far as we know Kingsley has decided to step in and inform them, with the attack on Weasley's wife and Percy's arrest this morning he thought they could use a friend more than a rookie Auror. Not that I don't have history with them myself, but I'm the senior Auror on this case, and we are now a man down in the department, so he wants me and Mickey to track down Weasley and bring him in. It isn't looking good Harry." Dawlish ran a hand through his hair, he knew this was hard on Harry, one of his best friends may not make it, and the other was suspected of putting her in that condition. "We are going to run the lead you gave us on the shop girl. See if that pans out at all. Send a patronus if he shows here, though, if your information is correct I don't think that he will. We tried to tell you Harry. I know he's your best mate and all, but he isn't right. I hope Hermione pulls through. It's just sick, what was done to her. Makes me want to get home to the missus and worship her. Take it easy Harry, go get some coffee. You've been pulled from the case officially, but we'll keep you in the loop alright."

"Thanks Dawlish, Mickey. Let me know what you find. I'll be here all night, I'm sure."

Severus waited for the Aurors to step into the floo before he sat next to Harry. "Potter. What was that I heard about Percival being taken into custody? Surely that has nothing to do with this?"

Harry barked out a bitter laugh at that. "No, not directly. Percy the prat strikes again. We got an anonymous tip a while back that Percy was marked. We had all seen his arms, never a mark in sight. In any case, being marked doesn't mean you're guilty of anything save being a desperate fool and a bigot." A glance at Snape's quirked eyebrow and the accompanying glare told Harry he had better work to backtrack that last bit. "I, uh, that is to say that people make mistakes, and being marked does not in itself mean you are guilty of any crimes, Sir."

"Indeed."

"Well this morning we busted a drug ring that's been infusing muggle drugs into calming and invigorating draughts, Upsie / Downsies they are being called on the streets. It's been giving us some serious issues, and it is believed that it is being distributed on the muggle market as well, and that is going to be a real mess for us. It's nasty stuff. We tracked down a low level supplier in the muggle theatre district, what used to be a prop shed or some sort outside of the New Red Lion Theatre in Islington. Had all kinds of wards on the place, found plenty of the new drugs, and their muggle counterparts, and we found us a girl. Lorraine Wellington is the muggle sister of a witch who disappeared during Umbridge's 'Muggle Registration's'. Apparently, that's how she met Percy. She's a looker that one, an actress. Apparently after the war Percy tracked her down. He confessed to killing her sister on Umbridge's orders, along with other 'non-complaints' and told her that he was planning on killing himself, but wanted to find her, to give her family closure before he died and took that secret to his grave. She listened to his sob story of his repentance, his return to the light. He told her about Fred, watching him go down. Girl ate it up, took him in and gave him a few ways to make the pain go away. Sex and drugs. Apparently pillow talk turned to business plans and he helped her find someone who could brew, and understood the basic elemental properties of the ingredients well enough to find a workable formulae for the potion combinations. This was well over two years ago. They are just a small part of the operation, and it goes deep into both the muggle and wizarding worlds. She told us where to find Percy, and his mark. And he has one, he just covers it." Severus cocked his head at this, it was well known there were no ways to remove the mark, and glamour's and potions were useless in covering it. "Theater make-up. Apparently muggles use it to cover tattoos and the like all the time, hell of a lot more coverage than typical muggle makeup, and longer lasting too. We just never looked close enough. Well, we had enough to bring him in at the least. Did just before noon today."

"And what has this to do with Weasley and Hermione?" Severus couldn't care less if Percival Weasley was into drugs, frankly he could be screwing monkeys in his spare time and Severus wouldn't bat an eye, he just wanted Harry to get to the damned point already. "That was a lovely little exposition truly Potter, your vocabulary has grown exponentially since you were my pupil, does this loquacious monologue have a damned point? Or were you under the impression that the habits of young Percival matter an ounce to me? Get on with it Potter!"

"I'm getting to it. See, Ron was there when Percy was brought in. Percy started screaming at him that if he was going down for drugs he was taking Ron with him. Said he could take Ron down with all he knew. Ron was sent home while Percy was processed. He was supposed to stop at the Burrow and talk to Molly and Arthur about Percy, and I told him to get it together. I thought Percy was just trying to get some of the pressure off him, but now." Harry rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and Severus could tell he was berating himself for not noticing more when it came to his best friends. Severus always thought he was too self-centered to notice the world beyond himself and his so called destiny. Perhaps his assessment of the boy was justified.

"So Weasley was likely taking these new drugs for a while, depending on the muggle drug that had been fused with the invigoration draught, which is my guess for what he was taking, the boy was certainly far from calm, it could explain his aggression. Even still what I saw in hospital room just now. If it was him, Potter, if it was, and I find him first, Azkaban would be worth what I would do to him. Death Eaters killed their toys before they broke them that badly. She may yet not make it. She should be in surgery now." Severus stood up, he was not one to wait idly in a hospital reception area, he was a man of action, and he wanted answers.

"She's in Surgery, what, what surgery?" Harry was stricken; she had already lost the baby. A girl he was told. What else could possibly be going on?

"Yes, a muggle surgeon, a squib really, he is working with her healer to complete the restoration of her skull, they will have to remove the parts there were smashed in when her husband kicked her in the face. There is no guarantee that it will solve the issue of her brain swelling, or that she will be the same girl she was when she wakes up, mentally that is. I am more than certain the girl you knew is gone anyhow. Emotionally there is no way she will ever be the same. The tortures she has been through were bad enough, but she loved that child, and that monster killed it. She will not take that news lightly. It could very well be the issue that breaks her. I recommend having her put on a suicide watch when she awakens. Keep me appraised. I have elsewhere to be." With that he was gone in a swirl of black robes, as oppressing as his teaching robes had ever been, and in this setting, under these circumstances they were many times more intimidating. Harry never got the chance to ask more questions. Severus wanted answers and he wasn't willing to wait for the Boy wonder and his Auror pals to find it first.

A/N: Thank you for reading. Hope you liked it. Review please!

All my love -LILY