Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine. The original HP Characters and situations are not mine.
Hidden Beneath
Chapter 10-Too Much To Handle
Hermione felt her heart jump up into her throat as she looked at Lavender Brown who had an awfully cruel smirk playing upon her lips.
"I didn't think you had it in you Herms, to actually cheat behind Ron's back." Lavender lifted her hand and inspected her fingernails; she was due for another manicure. "Well, I wonder what he would have to say about something like this." She lifted her head and smiled sweetly at Hermione, almost too sweetly.
A large lump was forming in Hermione's throat and she felt it hard to breathe, "You don't know what he does." Her voice was barely audible.
"I don't have to know what he does to see that you are an ungrateful little wretch who is just using Ron!" Lavender's face scrunched up and she was yelling, completely enraged now. "Once he leaves for a few days, you turn around and mess with another. How disgusting! I would spit on you but I don't want to waste my precious fluids on a low, small person like you!" The sign of hate was clear in Lavender's pretty blue eyes.
"Whoa now!" Harry had to interject; he would not let another person abuse Hermione. Ron was bad enough.
Hermione felt short of breath. The world was spinning, faster and faster. She looked over at Lavender who continued to argue with Harry. There was a ringing in Hermione's ears. Lavender had no idea what she was talking about; Ron would constantly hit her, constantly called her names. He never has shown any amount of love to her, ever. She couldn't take this. This was way too much to handle.
"Oh you have no right to say anything." Lavender turned her glare upon Harry cutting him off. "You are in it just as much as she is. How can she cheat on such a wonderful, honest, hardworking person like Ron! She is a whore; she is not fit to be with him. Not at all!"
"SHUT UP!!" Hermione was breathing hard and fast. "ENOUGH!!"
The sound of Hermione's shouts bounced and echoed off the walls, Lavender shrieked a little not expecting it. Harry turned and looked at Hermione, her face was really flushed. She in fact looked ill.
Hermione glared long and hard at Lavender. The blonde gulped, there was something not quite right about Hermione, she looked ready to kill someone.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!" Hermione shouted. "ANYTHING!!" Her breathing was increasing. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HE DOES, EVERYDAY, EVERY MINUTE!" Hermione was unaware of the massive tears that were streaming down her cheeks. It was hard for her to take a breath. Harry knew she had problems, he knew they were really bad, but until now he really had no idea how deep her emotional trauma was.
Lavender looked upon Hermione wide eyed, not saying a word.
Hermione continued, "HE HURTS ME! ALL THE TIME!! I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM!!" She screamed out so loud that it finally brought a few professors and other students around to see what all the trouble was about. As people began to collect in the hall, Hermione finally fell, landing on her knees. Her world continued to spin and it went black.
"Hermione!" Harry rushed over to her body that was lying on the floor.
"What is going on here?" McGonagall demanded looking down on Harry and then up at Lavender.
"I don't know," Lavender was still staring at Hermione. "She just went crazy, started shouting and well..." She took a breath. "And passed out, it was really strange."
"Is that what happened?" McGonagall looked down at Harry and he nodded. "She should be taken to the hospital wing."
"I'll do it Professor." Harry effortlessly picked up Hermione and started carrying her up the stairs towards the hospital.
Two figures from around the corner had watched the entire thing, their heads hung low. They felt bad, really bad.
******
Harry rushed Hermione into the hospital, sat her down on one of the beds and went into the back office to get a nurse. Not even a second later, Madame Pomfrey and a nurse hurried out with Harry and immediately attended to her. Madame Pomfrey looked up at Harry.
"I'm afraid you'll have to leave, go on scoot." She tried to shoo him away and the nurse got in his line of vision.
Harry craned his neck to try and see what they were doing to Hermione, "Is she going to be okay?"
Both the nurse and Madame Pomfrey looked and Harry and said, "Out!"
Reluctantly, Harry slowly turned and walked out of the hospital wing.
Two days later Hermione was still resting peacefully in the hospital wing. With strict orders to eliminate any stress, she slept nearly all the time, only waking to visit the lavatory or to eat.
Down in The Great Hall, Harry had hardly eaten his lunch; his soup was getting cold as he stirred the spoon in it basically just playing with it. The table shook and that sloshed some of the soup about and out of the bowl while two bulky figures sat down across from Harry.
Annoyed, Harry looked up at them, "What do you two want?" He snapped.
Crabbe sighed, "We're sorry about Hermione." He looked down at the table.
"Yeah, we saw what happened." Goyle didn't lift his eyes, afraid to glance at Harry. "We had no idea it had gotten that bad."
"We had no idea it was happening like that at all." Crabbe finally looked up at Harry. "Is there anything we can do…to you know…help?" Crabbe's face flushed. The two of them were not known for helping anyone but themselves.
"You two want to help Hermione?" Harry was skeptical.
The two boys nodded.
"But I thought you two were working for him?"
"Well…" Crabbe started to say. "We were but some things just aren't right, and beating up a girl is one of them." Goyle replied.
Harry smiled a little, "Well it's nice to see some people think that way." Harry bit into a cracker. "So what did you two have in mind to help Hermione?"
"We intend to keep Weasley away from her, by force if necessary." Goyle leaned back a bit.
"Personal body guards, I like that." Harry pushed his bowl away; he was not going to eat that. "And just what is something like that going to cost me?"
"Nothing, we want to help. Honestly we do." Crabbe smiled. It was almost strange not seeing a conniving smirk or an empty look on his face. Both boys actually seemed to be fairly decent. For Harry and Hermione things were definitely starting to look up.
"Can we go and see her?" Goyle sounded almost excited.
"I don't see why not," Harry stood. "I'll in fact go with you."
Both Crabbe and Goyle nodded knowingly, "Still don't trust us with her do you Potter?" Crabbe replied.
"It's okay, we're used to it. People don't think that we are capable of being friendly. We have that whole dim wit look about us." Goyle added.
"Oh, it's not that..." 'Not anymore,' Harry kept that comment to himself. "I just want to see how she is doing myself."
Both Crabbe and Goyle smiled great big wide smiles. They liked the idea of being trusted, and followed Harry up to see Hermione. Half way up the stairs both large boys stopped.
"Wait, we'll be right there." Goyle announced and looked at Crabbe. "There is something we should do. We won't be long.
Crabbe nodded, agreeing with Goyle as if he knew what was going on in his friend's mind.
Harry wondered if those two spoke telepathically, since they seemed to understand each other without words. But he just shrugged, "All right then, I'll see you there I suppose." Harry continued on up the stairs.
Hermione was sitting up in the bed reading one of her textbooks as Harry came through the door. She looked over at him for a moment then back at her book.
"Hey Hermione, how are you feeling?" Harry pulled a chair over and sat down
Hermione took a breath, "Just fine I suppose." She closed the book roughly and looked at Harry, "I completely lost it, didn't I?" Hermione sighed.
He nodded, "Yeah." He looked down at the blankets.
"I hate it, I hate everything I am." She sniffled.
Harry leaned over a bit, lifting his hand cupping her cheek. "Don't hate yourself; you've done nothing to deserve this. No one does."
"Then why do I feel it's my fault?" Her eyes were watering, she kept blinking to try and keep the tears away.
"It's a natural reaction when you're always blamed, you get that feeling that you're just not worth living that you're better off dead." Harry watched Hermione's eyes close as she breathed in. "Hermione, you need to tell someone about what's been happening to you."
Hermione's eyes slammed open looking directly at Harry and he dropped his hand from her cheek, "No… I can't."
"You won't even begin to get the help you need if you don't tell an adult."
Hermione shook her head, "You don't understand. I can't tell…I can't. He'd kill me." She was very scared of Ron and what he would do if he found out she told someone.
"You never mind that, Ron Weasley is not going to hurt you. He'll go to prison and you'll be safe." Harry wanted her to tell someone who had the authority and the way to see that Hermione will never be hurt again.
"I don't know." She glanced down at her hands.
"Please do this." Harry was practically begging.
Hermione lifted her eyes to his, "I'm scared."
Harry moved a bit wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into the comfort and safety of his embrace. "I know, but it's the right thing to do. It takes a lot of courage to stand up for yourself and to ask for help, even when you're life is threatened. Doing the right thing isn't always easy, but I know you can do it."
"What if you're wrong?" Hermione rested her head against Harry's chest.
He threaded his fingers through her hair, "I feel it in myself that I am not wrong, I know you have it in you to rescue yourself."
Hermione looked up at Harry and was about to say something when the hospital wing door opened. Both of them turned their heads to the door, pulling away from each other. Hermione held her breath. This was it, everything was over.
Crabbe and Goyle came through the doors carrying a large basket; both Harry and Hermione gave off a huge sigh of relief. Harry was ready to attack if it was Ron coming through the door. Harry would have attacked if it were Ron. The two boys lugged the huge basket over to Hermione's bedside smiling.
"We've brought you something." Crabbe said as he helped Goyle lift the basket up onto the bed.
"What's this?" Hermione was truly interested, but was also wondering why these two were bringing something for her.
"It's some food, lots and lots that you won't believe your pretty eyes just how much we managed to fit into this basket." Goyle grinned which in turn caused Hermione to smile. "We figured this hospital food is just plain awful, so we brought you something that is actually edible."
"You two didn't have to do this." Hermione looked at both of the boys in awe
.
"We know, but we wanted too." Crabbe said as he took a long piece of French bread from the basket.
Once again the door opened and all four heads turned to see who it was. Sure enough in came Ron Weasley and he looked a bit upset. Hermione took a deep breath, she was going to tell him it was over, that she did not want to be with him anymore. Harry stood as Ron approached the bed looking at the four of them; he looked like he was thinking of what to say.
"So what stupid thing did you do to land you in here?" Ron controlled his temper a lot considering there were a few people around.
Hermione looked down at her hands, her fingers gripping the blanket tight, "I didn't do anything."
"I expected you to meet me at the train station, but no I come back here to hear that you're in the hospital. So what happened?"
"I passed out, that's all." Hermione kept her eyes lowered, she couldn't do it. There was no way he would let her leave.
"That was it, you fainted ?!" Ron scoffed. "Figures you'd do something idiotic like that. You were probably studying too hard, stupid really."
Harry could tell from the way she was holding her shoulders that she wouldn't be able to tell him. He would have to give her a little push. Harry cleared his throat and Hermione looked at him, Harry gestured with a tilt of his head and with a raise of his brows, he saw Hermione take a deep breath.
"Um Ron…I have uh to tell you something important." Hermione turned her gaze upon Ron she could tell he was mad. He had no good reason to be mad; he was behaving like a child. She hated that.
Ron looked irritated, "Well what is it? I don't have all day you know."
Hermione kept her gaze locked on his in determination, "I don't think…that we um… should…be together anymore."
"What?!" Ron, infuriated, took a step forward ready to strangle her the Muggle way, but a long loaf of bread got in his way.
"Take a step back from the lady." Crabbe demanded holding the French bread much like a sword blocking Ron's way.
Ron glared at Crabbe, "What's the meaning of this? What are you doing you glob of fat?"
Without warning Crabbe whacked Ron on the back of the head with the bread, it turned out the bread was a tad stale so it hurt a bit.
"What the hell did you do that for?!" Ron rubbed the back of his head.
"Don't call me names," Crabbe whacked Ron again just for good measure.
Ron growled, "Cut that out!" He turned his angry glare to Hermione, "Why would you want to do such a foolish thing as leave me?!"
"I'm tired Ron, I'm so tired of it all."
Ron was fuming, his blood was boiling so hot he would blow his top. "This wouldn't have to do with him." Ron jerked his head toward Harry, "Now would it?"
"It has nothing to do with him," Hermione took another breath, one to steady her nerves. "It has to do with me."
"You're such a selfish bitch." Ron snapped.
"I'm the one that's selfish?!!" She suddenly yelled out.
Ron stepped forward again, "Don't you dare raise your voice at me!" WHACK, Ron was hit on the back of the head again. "OWW!! Would you stop that?!" WHACK
"I would start showing some respect to Hermione if I were you Weasley." Harry replied with a smirk, "Those two seem to be whack happy."
With Ron holding his head with both hands, he turned and looked at both Crabbe and Goyle who each had a French baguette in their hands, and huge happy grins on their faces. His eyes narrowed, "How dare you two betray me and go against me like this! I'll have your hea-" WHACK
"Ron it's over, I don't ever want you to come near me. Ever again." Hermione said interrupted Ron and the other two boys.
"Whatever, you're such a worthless piece of shit, who'd want you anyway." Ron was starting to feel a little dizzy from being hit on the head.
"I don't need you Ron; you were the one who needed me. But I will not be your toy anymore." Even though Hermione was afraid of Ron and was shaking on the inside, she somehow found the courage to keep saying how she felt and not show that she was afraid of him. Grumbling Ron turned, cursing quietly under his breath and left the hospital.
Hermione looked so very exhausted to Harry, and he moved over closer to her and took her hand in his. "That was the very first step, and it was good. Now you need to tell someone about what he has done. He can not get away with this." He saw Hermione nod.
"All right Harry, I will."
Ron walked through the halls thinking, his face was etched in anger. She would regret that decision, oh yes. He would make her pay and dearly.
"Ron." Lavender shouted through the hall running up to him. "I didn't know you were back, why didn't you come and find me?" She smiled adoringly.
Ron spun around and glared hard at Lavender, "Not everything revolves around you, the sooner you realize that the better."
Lavender was shocked as he had never spoken to her like that, "Ron, what's the matter, are you all right?"
"No I'm not." He said plainly.
"Well maybe if you talk to me about it, we can solve your problem." She smiled.
Ron just shook his head, "I don't want to talk about it. It doesn't concern you."
"Ron if it concerns you it concerns me too," she was insisting.
A loud growl erupted from him, "How thick is that head of yours? Can't you grasp the simple idea that I don't want to talk to you. So get away from me and leave me alone." He turned around to leave.
"But Ron I…" She tried to stop him and put her hand on his shoulder. Without warning Ron, almost faster than the speed of light, spun half way around slamming the back of his fist into Lavender's cheek, sending her sliding across the floor on her back.
"Serves you right you little tart." He spat out cruelly and continued on his way.
On her back, Lavender was shaking as the tears were almost violently falling from her eyes. She was so confused. What had just happened? She turned over on her side, curling up into a ball.
After being sent by Harry and Hermione to find someone of authority, Crabbe and Goyle rushed back into the hospital wing with the first Professor they could find which happened to be Professor Snape.
"What seems to be the trouble?" Snape asked looking at them.
Hermione glanced up at the professor, "I have a confession to make." She saw Snape's brows come together as the concentrated on what she was going to say. "I've been having a really bad problem, and I didn't know what to say or how to say it. But well…I…" Her eyes were stinging with the sensation of fresh tears forming. "Ron Weasley, he would…he." Hermione concentrated hard; she had to get it out. "He hurts me."
Harry, Hermione, Crabbe and Goyle both looked at the Professor's expressionless face. Would he even believe her? Hermione paused, waiting.
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Well that's it for chapter 10, I hope you all enjoyed it and remember to Review. Stay tuned for the last and final chapter of Hidden Beneath.
Thanks, Ryoko Blue ^.^