AN: Disclaimer; some of the lines are direct quotes from the book, you'll know which section, they may not be exactly alike since they're translated from my French copy of the book but they're there.

AN2: Ok the first part of this chapter turned more into a kind of writing study. I basically rewrote the torture scene in Hermione's point of view and made some slight changes to fit my timeline.

Chapter 8: April 1998

Narcissa hesitated before ordering Greyback to take their prisoners to the dungeon.

"Wait! All…But the mudblood."

Bellatrix grabbed Hermione's hair and pulled her to the centre of the room, throwing her to the floor. The others were led out. Hermione made to sit up but was roughly pushed down by the wild-eyed witch.

"Where did you get the sword?" Bellatrix yelled, sending out the cruciatus curse before waiting for an answer.

Hermione screamed as her body twisted, she had never felt such pain. It felt like thousands of red-hot nails being hammered into every nook and cranny of her body at the same time. The first couple of times she was put through the curse she only screamed, not finding the capability to speak. Then, wanting the excruciating pain to stop, she told the truth; "We found it…We found it… PLEASE!"

"You're lying, vile little mudblood, I know it! You broke into my vault at Gringotts! Tell me the truth, tell me the truth!" Another curse. "What else did you take? Tell me the truth or I swear I will carve you with this dagger!" Another curse. "What else did you take? What else? ANSWER ME! CRUCIO!"

Finally, Bellatrix made good on her promise, she sat on top of Hermione, leaned forward for a moment, then laughed as she turned to carve her arm.

To save herself, Hermione fabricated a lie. "We saw it for the first time tonight! We never went to your vault… It's not the real sword! It's a copy, only a copy!"

While thinking about the answer, Bellatrix sent another curse, this one made Hermione feel like her body was on fire. She turned her head to look at the Malfoys, pleading with her eyes, but Draco's head was turned, his face a sickly white, Narcissa was staring at her coldly and Lucius seemed to be enjoying himself. The spell ended and Hermione collapsed, exhausted after so many spells, as her tormentors called for the goblin to be brought up.

She heard the goblin being tortured but she didn't care enough to move her aching body. She was relieved when he confirmed the sword to be a copy. Then she heard high-heeled footsteps briskly come towards her. She braced herself for another spell.

It never came, instead she heard a door slam open and Ron yelling "Noooo!" She opened her eyes and saw Ron and Harry come into the room. Her eyes fluttered shut again before she was roughly grabbed and pulled up, a knife at her throat.

"STOP OR SHE DIES!"

Hermione, on the brink of conciseness could not follow the events in the room, she was one moment on the floor, covered in debris, the next she was being dragged. Eventually she felt the familiar nauseating feeling of apparition. As Hermione's feet hit solid ground, she fell and vomited up what little she had in her stomach. Before she finally passed out, while not knowing how they came to be in the presence of the house elf, she realized something was very wrong with Dobby.

***April 2004***

Hermione shot up, panting, and flopped back down on her bed, pushing her hair back. She closed her eyes and counted, slowing her breathing. The war, the Department of Mysteries, their fugitive days, and the final battle, all remained with her, but mostly her terror stemmed from that day. Bellatrix had been acquitted for her torture. She didn't understand why but by the time Bellatrix's trial came around, she didn't care. She just wanted to forget.

After her nightly nightmares, Hermione usually calmed her breathing, drank a glass of water and went back to bed. However when they were at their worst, she was incapable of calming herself. Most mothers with this problem would stay up the rest of the night or read a book, but Hermione went to cuddle with her daughter.

Tonight was one of those nights. No matter how high she counted, her heart wouldn't slow, her terror sealed her airway and the world spinning. She managed to stagger to her daughter's room. Kiki was already sitting up in bed, her eyes questioning her mother.

The sleepy girl put the tips of her fingers to her mouth and brought her hand in front of her, her palm down, then she clenched her fist and put her index to her forehead and while moving her hand away she bent, unbent and bent her finger. 'Bad dream?'

Hermione nodded and lay down next to her daughter, kissing her forehead. As they settled, Hermione showed Kiki her hand, which was bent in the classic 'I love you,' the girl aligned her hand with her mother's 'I love you too.' Her girl snuggled into her and before long she was asleep.

Kiki understood this simply in the sense that if she had a nightmare then she could sleep with mommy the rest of the night and if mommy had a nightmare then mommy could cuddle with Kiki. However her mother saw it differently. From the day she brought Kiki, home every time she would wake up from her night terrors, Kissara would be crying. At first, she thought she was screaming in her sleep and waking the baby up, but when Nymphadora came over for a week (an attempt to introduce Teddy to his grandfather's world) Dora said she didn't scream in her sleep.

The young mother realized then that her girl could sense her strongest nightmares, therefore she paid more attention to her daughter's moods. It seemed that while the girl had her own emotions, they were also subtly influenced by those around her. So to comfort both herself and her daughter, every time she had a night terror, she would bring her little one to her bed. When Kissara was three, the girl would stay up when her mother went to get her, so Hermione got her an adult-sized bed so she needn't wake the girl completely in the middle of the night.

Hermione smiled as she looked at her special girl, her breathing had slowed and just as she closed her eyes, she remembered what Bellatrix said to her as she leaned down;

"I'm sorry, get to the vault"