Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is in any way mine. Nor shall it ever be.
A/N: All my continued thanks to Nutters4Potter; Phx-Songbird; bbmetater; WALIXELA; sweet-tang-honney; and knitchick for their reviews and to everyone who has been reading and reviewing and helping me along! Hope you all like it!
I am officially on the hunt for a beta now, so hopefully that will happen soon. In the mean time I will update what I have, and then work to go back and fix what needs fixing. Thanks to everyone who has been sticking with this imperfections and all!
End transmission
-me
Her throat was so dry, and she was struck by the after taste of potions. "Se-Severus?" She really hoped he was there, she needed him.
"Shhh. It's alright Hermione, I'm right here. We are right here for you alright." It worked; his heart was lightened at the thought. She would be okay, physically she would be fine. She would live. She would still know who he was. She said his name, his name.
"Mrs. Weasley. My name is Healer Plackett; I have been taking acre of you dear. I am going to need to do a few diagnostics, and then if you are up to it I have some things I need to ask you about what happened, alright? We will give everyone a chance to go grab a cuppa' while we make sure you are recovering as you should be. They can come back soon, assuming you feel up to the company." He knew she would have questions about the baby and what had happened to her and he felt it better to talk to her about it without an audience.
"Water." She croaked. Molly was already at her side with a cup as soon as the word passed her lips.
"Here you are dear, ice chips. No need for you to sit up for sips." Molly tried to control the emotions in her voice as she placed ice chips into Hermione's parted lips for her. She had been in enough hospital rooms and had given birth enough times to know that ice chips work better than straws sometimes.
"Thank you Molly." She had a million questions, and hadn't even bothered to notice who else might be in the room. She was terrified at the thought that her husband may have come.
"Think nothing of it dear. We are all so sorry. Whatever you need 'Mione. Why don't we let you talk with the Healer and we will back alright, we will let Harry know you are awake now, is there anyone else you want here dear?" Molly knew that she had to get out of there soon before she blubbered all over the poor girl.
"Just, could you get George here?"
"No need love. You think they were going to keep me away from my best girl? I'll be here. You rest, we'll all be here." Molly and Arthur murmured their agreements and told her they were there, and they loved her before the three Weasley's left her alone with Severus and the healer.
"Hermione." Severus wasn't certain what to say. He wasn't exactly experienced in bedside vigils. "I'll just."
"NO! Stay please. Stay." Her throat was still raw and her voice was cracking. She was scared and didn't want to be alone.
"Hermione. Are you sure? You need to be examined and perhaps it is best if I go wait with the others." In reality he wasn't sure he wanted to leave her alone at all and the thought scared him, it was so unlike him, and yet had become more and more commonplace where she was concerned.
"I know, but please stay. Severus I'm scared. Ron, he." Tears were streaming down her face as she prepared to open up about what had been happening in her marriage since it began.
"Shhh, I know. I know. I am so sorry Hermione. I am so so sorry. If you wish me to stay I shall alright. But you need to let Healer Plackett look at you." He moved around and took the seat Molly had vacated.
"Alright Mrs. Weasley?"
"Hermione, please, not Mrs. Weasley, just Hermione." She briefly wondered where her husband was as she asked the healer not to use his name.
The healer lifted his wand above her head and intoned a spell. A light yellow glow seemed to envelop her head with a small pink twinge near the scar that marked her where the skull plate now resided. "Wonderful, Hermione, simply wonderful. The 'lenio cranial premo' potion seems to be working very well, we are lucky that Mr. Snape here was able to find the reference to it. There is still some minor swelling here, but that is to be expected, and is far more than I had hoped for. So much better, and Dr. Terrington was talking some nonsense about 'shilts' or something." The old man beamed at her, happy to see his patient recovering so nicely. "Alright, Hermione, can you answer a few questions for me?" She nodded. "What is your full name?"
Of course he had to ask that first. "Hermione Jean Granger-Weasley, soon to be just Granger." She would have laughed if she wasn't in so much pain.
Severus however snorted. "Of Course."
"Very well, and do you remember anything that happened? Do you know what brought you here Hermione, how you came to be so gravely injured?" The old man's heart broke for the young witch, like so many before.
"The water boiled over." It was a simple statement of fact, and those four words carried such venom and hatred that both men's eyes snapped to Hermione, a thousand questions in their gazes.
"Excuse me? The water boiled over you say? I am not sure I am following this." The healer almost hoped she didn't remember much of her ordeal, but knew that any information she could talk tell them would help the Aurors put away whoever had done this to her, her husband from the sounds of it.
"I was making pasta for dinner and my husband," the word was snarled rather than spoken, "came home early and surprised me. That was when the water boiled over. That's what set him off this time. Oh, and he accused me of sleeping with George. With George of all people! That's rich, really. Though it doesn't really take much to set him off these days actually. But after this time I'm done. I can't survive this any longer. I don't even recognize myself." She stopped and ran a hand over her face trying to hide her shame. "So if that bloody bastard is here you can tell him to go home to his mistress. I just, oh gods!" She paled, and grabbed at her womb. "The baby, oh gods the baby. Please?" Everything that had happened came rushing back at her, crawling from her flat, falling down the stairs, the pain, and the blood. There had been so much blood.
Severus couldn't speak. He just closed his eyes and dropped his head. He was saved from having to answer when Healer Placket took up one of her hands. "Hermione, I am so sorry. We did everything we could dear, but the child was still born. We had to perform an emergency cesarean when you arrived because the blood loss was such that we couldn't keep your levels high enough even with blood replenishers, and we had to work to heal the rest of your body. Your body was attempting to forcefully expel her and your cervix was taking quite a bit of damage. I am so sorry; it looks as though a blow to your abdomen was sufficient enough that it caused her heart to stop. We are quite lucky that we didn't lose you both. I promise you that if there was anything else we could have done for her we would have." He looked down at her and slowly shook his head.
Hermione's sobs were silent but her entire body shook from the force of them. "I was going to have a daughter, he killed her. She was all I had Severus. She was all I had."
"I know Hermione, I know." There was nothing else to say. So Severus sat quietly at her bedside for a while as Healer Plackett gathered more potions for her to take.
Hermione quietly cried for the loss of her daughter until she heard someone talking to her from her left. "Hermione, all the scans indicate that you are healing nicely, though I imagine you are still in some pain, and I would like for you to take some dreamless sleep for now, I'm afraid you will have to take 'SkeleGrow' as well and it would be easier on you if you just slept through that alright. We also have been keeping you on a veritable cocktail of pain and healing potions that we will continue with for the next few days alright. Why don't I see if I can find your family and send them back in for a few minutes before you go to sleep alright dear?" He set a tray with various vials down on the left side of her made and started to make his way out.
"Thank you Healer Plackett. I know you did everything you could. Would you mind giving us a few minutes before you send the rest back in?" He just nodded silently and left Hermione alone with Severus.
Hermione turned to the quiet man at her bedside as she heard the door close. "Severus, thank you so much for finding me, for being here. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you now. Isn't that odd? Who would have thought that you would turn into the man I trust most in my life." Severus remained silent, but couldn't hide the small prideful smirk on his lips. "I am so stupid Severus. I should have told you, I know you knew, or at least suspected what he was doing. I just, I really wanted to believe that if I could give him a baby it would be better. I am such a horrible wife Severus; I could never give him what he needed from me. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't. And we were all so messed up after the war. and Ron, he just never handled it well. I thought it would get better, if I tried harder he would get better. I am so sorry Severus." Hermione broke down into sobs then and covered her face in her hands. Severus who had no idea what to do with a crying woman sat there in solemn silence willing her to know he cared. "Oh Severus." She chocked out between sobs. "I am" hiccough "such a" hiccough "mess" hiccough.
Severus put a fist to his mouth. Even pale, bald, and bruised she looked adorable trying to talk through hiccoughs. "Hermione, you are so strong, a lioness remember? Where's that Gryffindor spirit that never fails to test my nerve? You can and will get through this. I will be here, as will others I am sure. "Though I dare say you shant be needing anymore hair potions for a while Hermione. How will I ever keep the business afloat?" It was their usual teasing banter, it was the only way he knew to talk with her and he hoped it helped to pull her from her depression, if only momentarily.
"Oh Merlin Severus! Look at me, I am such a mess. At least it won't take me half my day to comb through that monstrosity now." She gave him a small little smile that held so much promise. "Thank you Severus. Thank you for being my friend; I don't know what I would do without your snark to bring me out of my funk sometimes."
Severus was about to tell her that it was he that was grateful, that her friendship had meant so much to him this past year but the door was opened emitting four red heads and a very downtrodden Harry Potter.
"'Mione!" Harry screamed her name like a prayer as he ran to her side.
"Careful Harry, I'm a little sore." She loved Harry, but sometimes he just didn't think, and as he stood above her with his arms wrapped around her putting pressure on still tender bruises she couldn't help wishing his brain was as big as his heart.
"Oh shite 'Mione, I'm so sorry. I just, I was so worried about you. We all were. They said you wouldn't be awake for days if at all. 'Mione I am so sorry, this is entirely my fault." He had tears running down his face and he shook with gratitude that she was awake and fear that she would hate him for not seeing what was going on.
"WOULD YOU JUST QUIT IT!" She shouted at the entire room. "All of you! It's enough. This isn't any of your faults. Do you really think that if I didn't want you to know you would have? Did you really think I couldn't keep a secret? Huh George, is that it I can't keep a secret? Funny thing George, Ron thinks we are having an affair." She smirked as the juice he had been sipping shot out of his nose and he started to sputter. "Oh straight laced little book worm know it all Hermione couldn't keep anything to herself so it must be a failure on your parts then? Is that it? I have more secrets than I know what to do with, and I am sorry it had to happen this way, but I am damned happy this particular secret is no longer mine to keep." She looked at all the shocked and guilty faces around the room. She saw Arthur shaking his head. "I didn't want you to know Dad. I didn't want you to so you didn't. I do know how to lie you know." She turned her attention back to Harry. "Harry, when were you supposed to notice and swoop in to play the hero again? You are a daddy now, to a little boy who lost his parents fighting for this world. You have a wife, and a job, and more charities than I knew even existed. You are busy living your life Harry; I do not blame you alright. You need to understand that. As for Ron. Ron hid things well, and he managed enough to function at work, and honestly, no one can see him when he stands next to you Harry, they never have. I was always the only one who did, and maybe that's why I put up with it for so long, I still saw that boy with the smudges on his nose. He was my first love, but he isn't that little boy and he needs help, but I will not stick around while he gets it. Thank you all for coming, really, I love you all, but I think I need to take my potions and get some sleep now."
Severus looked at her in awe, so happy to see a bit of the spark that had been missing in her for so long. He knew she was exhausted and decided to give her a minute with her family before she went to sleep again. "Hermione. Rest. I will be back tomorrow to check on you alright. If there is anything I can do to be of assistance, please do not hesitate." He wished he could tell her more, but even if the room wasn't full of Weasley's and a Potter he wasn't sure he would be able to articulate anything else.
"Thank you Severus." She gave him a soft smile and watched him walk out of the room, leaving her alone with the others.
"I am so sorry. I wish I knew what to say. Thank you all for being here for me." She was afraid to lose the Weasley's and she wasn't sure she would be able to handle that.
"Oh think nothing of it dear." Molly told her as she sat in the chair Severus had vacated. "We are just so happy you are going to be alright. We love you like a daughter sweetheart, and that doesn't change just because we raised a pig for a son. I am so sorry for what he has done to you dear, we are all so sorry. And I know you don't want to hear it, but we are. Now when you get out of here you can just come home with us so I can take care of you alright dear?" Molly told her as she patted her hand, trying to hold back her tears.
"Oh, Mum. I love you too. I think though, that it's best if I maybe go to my parent's house for a while. Think about what I am going to do. I just, I need some time Mum." She hoped they understood that she just wanted to be alone for a while as she tried to pick up the pieces of her broken life and grieve for a daughter she never knew.
"I thought they were still in Australia dear, but oh, never mind. Whatever you want. We will just leave you to rest then alright dear. Come on Arthur, lets get home, I am rather tired myself, it has been a long day." Both Weasley's kissed Hermione on the forehead before leaving; allowing her to spend a few minutes with her friends.
"Australia Hermione?" Harry looked at her in confusion. "Why didn't you tell them the truth? How many secrets do you have to keep? They love you, they would love you still if they knew your parents were dead you know. I can't believe I didn't realize they didn't know. Why don't they know?"
"I didn't want their pity, I don't deserve it. It's my fault really, and I don't want to talk about it alright. Harry, Ginny thank you both for coming. Ginny you didn't have to come all the way back for me, but thank you. I will see you tomorrow yeah?" They each nodded. "Alright, would you mind terribly if I spoke with George for a minute? Go see Teddy, give him kisses from his Auntie Hermie."
"We will, get some rest Hermione. We love you so much you know. Rest, we will see you in the morning." They each kissed her on a cheek and saw themselves out, leaving her to talk with George.
"Hey love." He hopped down off the counter he had been seated on and went to her side. "So the bloody prat thinks we're shagging like bunnies 'eh?" He couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh yes, it seems that you are just all I can think about these days, I find I must confess my undying love. Please say you'll have me George?" She was smiling widely at him and batting her lashes exaggeratedly.
"Oh be still my heart. If only I could, but you see I am in love with another. Seriously though, you know you are one gorgeous bird, and bloody brilliant, which I will have you know, turns me on to no end." He told her.
"Just not in women though?" she asked.
"'Fraid not, perhaps if you had been born a male, but unfortunately. You do know I love you 'Mione. You are the best friend I could ask for." He smiled and took her hand in his, leaning down to give her a soft kiss.
"Oh I know George, I love you so much, but you aren't really my type either and I think if I never wake up next to a red head again it will be too soon. So how is lover boy these days? I feel like I haven't seen him in ages." she was one of the few people George had ever confided in about his relationship, and it likely wouldn't have happened if she hadn't gone looking for him in his flat when she showed up to meet him for lunch last year to find the shop empty. Figuring he had gone upstairs to get something she let herself into his flat and was greeted by a sight she would likely never forget. She always knocked these days, though she loved to tease him about it.
"Oh, he's well. He's worried about you, you know, he sends his love. He would be here but." He left it at that, they both knew he couldn't be there. "He works so hard, sometimes I think he really wants to quit, he never asked for the job in the first place, but it's his so he is trying to do his best."
"You should tell them George. I'm not the only one keeping secrets theses days. You parents would still love you, and even if you can't shout your love for each other to the world, you should at least share it with the people who love you both. Think about it alright. And tell him I love him and will stop by soon alright, but I really am tired George. I think, I think I just want to sleep for a while okay." Her eyes were heavy without the potion, and she really wanted more pain potion.
"Course love, you just rest. And I'll be sure to tell him tonight, I promised I would go there from here, not that I sleep in my flat ever anyhow, but he still made sure to tell me to come. Take care of yourself love, I just don't know what I will do for lunch with you in here, and the food in this place is dreadful." George leaned down and gave her another soft kiss before leaving her to sleep. She quickly uncorked her vials and was asleep before he made it to the door.