Forgive. 2
A/N I know my writing isn't very descriptive and the last chapter wasn't very long but there's a reason for both. I know on some stories it's best to be descriptive and have nice long talks about Hermione's bruises and how she got them but I see last chapter as a sort of prologue to the real story which is how she is around her friends and how some people deal with this.
A/N2 now, it was kind of 3 am when I finished that last chapter so I didn't really want to put anything like this in it so I'm doing it now. This story is a loose interpretation of the Young and abused challenge. It's supposed to be set during Hogwarts and Hermione's supposed to have an abusive boyfriend, not husband but I had this scratching at the back of my mind for a while now and that challenge just gave me the incentive to write it. One more thing, I chose the name Marcus because it means Warlike and D'Arcy because it means descendant of the dark one. And he just seems evil to me….
A/N 3 sorry about this but I'm about ¼ of the way done with the chapter and I noticed that I keep slipping into first person…I'm just going to do it all that way. Different from the first I know…sorry
Disclaimer: The only things that are mine are Marcus D'Arcy, Jamie Lily D'Arcy, the new baby's name (not revealing it yet), and the plot. Everything that you notice from the series is JK's.
The last thing that I wanted to, or expected to, hear while walking past a joke shop was my full name. It scared the shit out of me. I stopped in my tracks and tensed up. It was a man, I knew that much, I didn't know who but didn't want to risk it so I just stopped doing anything. I nearly stopped breathing. I realized what it probably was. Marcus told me not to coddle Jamie, that she was a big girl and didn't need to be held. So I placed her on the ground in front of me. My breathing was erratic and there was a deer in the headlights look on my face I knew as he came closer. I tried my hardest not to cry as I heard him stop behind me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me around. I was so tense at this point that I was beginning to shake.
"Hermione?"
He was taller then Marcus, I only came up to this guy's chest, I came up to Marcus' shoulder. I relaxed only slightly, there are ways of changing you're height. I didn't relax fully until I looked into the face of a familiar stranger.
"Fred?"
It was. Fred Weasley, ½ of the Weasley Twins. He gave me the warmest smile I've gotten from a male in a long time and threw his arms around me. I stiffened again and winced as he irritated a nasty bruise on my upper arm that Marcus had given me just the day before…I could tell that this one would take a while to heal. He seemed to notice this and pulled back a bit with a confused look on his face, that's when he noticed Jamie.
"And who's this little angel?"
She was peaking out from behind my legs like any normal 5 year old would do when meeting another person. I smiled slightly (for the last 4 years my smiles haven't even came close to my eyes, I didn't want to irritate Marcus) and pulled my daughter from behind me.
"This is my daughter, Jamie Lily D'Arcy."
He looked up at the name. He noticed something that no one else had. Of course he would, he knew the person I was thinking of when I named her such. Fred smiled and crouched down to her. I couldn't help it as fear flashed through my eyes.
All men are created equal…I've heard this phrase before. It flashed through my mind as Fred stretched his hand out to shake Jamie's. If that's true then Fred was just as likely as Marcus to punish me or Jamie for anything…I wouldn't let that happen.
Just as I was about to pick up Jamie and run Fred spoke. It was simple what he said to her and it knocked me out of my thoughts completely.
"Hello Jamie dear, I'm Fred. You can call me Uncle Freddy if you like."
Never had anyone said something so simple, so caring to her in my presence. I wasn't allowed to go on family gatherings with Marcus and Jamie and I didn't know how other adults treated her. I looked into Fred's eyes and knew that all men were not created equal.
Fred Weasley was different.
But that left the rest of them. I couldn't hide the shiver as the thought crossed my mind.
I studied him for a while, looked in his eyes and noticed the shear joy that he had just knowing that he was meeting the daughter of a dear friend of his. After he shook Jamie's hand he stood up abruptly. I flinched and waited for the blow before I remembered that Fred was different.
"Where's the hubby?"
That one sentence brought everything crashing down on me. I began to look around wildly thinking he's here. Oh God, he hates it when I talk to other men, I'm so going to get it when he sees me. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights again because Fred was looking at me with concern. Oh God, he's going to kill me. He said that he would the last time.
"What's wrong Herms? Did you lose him or something?"
It's amazing how everything can be changed in an instant. One sentence made me freak out and this next one brought reality crashing back. He was in Dublin, hopefully. Wondering where we are. I didn't leave a note. I just left.
"He had a lot of work to do. He's coming in about a week."
That would buy me some time to get a place of my own away from here. Suddenly I was very aware that we were standing in the middle of Diagon Ally, where anyone could listen to what we were saying.
"Where did you come from?"
He looked a little dazed at the abrupt change in subject but he must have noticed the way I was looking around and caught on. I always knew the twins were smart.
He pointed at the joke shop I had passed. I didn't even notice its name until now, Weasley Wizard Wheezes. It was their joke shop. When I had left England they only had one branch and it was in Hogsmead. Now it appears that they have two, maybe more.
"Would you like to see it?"
"I'd love to."
I was so proud of them, I never thought at all about their business partner. I knew Harry had given them a large sum of money at the end of our 4th year and was steadily supplying them with all they needed. I just never thought that he would have shown such and interest in the shop as to help with customers.
And Fred just never thought to tell me that he was.
As I walked into the shop with Jamie in toe I came face to face with the boy, no man now, which I was steadily hoping to avoid.
He didn't notice me though, thank god, at least he didn't until Fred said something. I was beginning to think I was wrong about him.
"Oi! Harry look whose back in town."
I was really tired of being in those damn headlights. Over the years I had fantasies about what it would be like to see Harry again. I would meet him on the street, he would notice me, give me a huge hug, twirl me around, and take me and Jamie away. He wouldn't hurt me as badly as Marcus, just a slap here; yank there when I wasn't doing what I was supposed to. Life would be wonderful and I would try my hardest to be good for him.
Then there were the nightmares. I would meet him on the street and instead of him hugging me and twirling me he would scream at me and hit me. He would tell me he hated me and that I didn't deserve any type of happiness. It was my entire fault that I was with Marcus and he wasn't going to help me in the latest. He would tell me I deserved it and walked away.
After a few of those the fantasies faded away.
Suffice to say I was terrified of how he would greet me. Tears sprang to my horror filled eyes as he turned to look at me. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of letting me know how bad I was. I scooped Jamie up and ran out the door.
I didn't know where I was going I was just running. Trying to get away from it all. I was crying, Jamie was crying. Poor little thing didn't know what was going on.
I could hear him behind me screaming my name. Oh God, he was chasing me. I ran faster and harder, my breath coming out in gasps as I was pushed to my limit. Suddenly I heard a tone used so many times and I stopped in my tracks. In those first few years when I ran, he always caught me and when he did it was worse. It was better that I just stopped.
"God Damnit Hermione stop already!"
I clutched Jamie to me trying to protect her as much as possible. What was I thinking running like that? How stupid could I be? This was all my fault. I looked around and with horror I realized that I was in a deserted part of diagon ally. It looked like there was a tornado or something that came down here once. All the shops were damaged and the ground was in shambles. I'm surprised I didn't trip and fall. He must have noticed how I was looking around because the next few words took a little while for me to register what he was talking about.
"This is where it happened."
It? What happened? Then it hit me. The final battle. He was here, Voldemort was not. One less man for me to worry about. But there is still the one behind me and for some reason I'm so much more worried about him then I ever was about Voldemort. I shrieked when he placed his hand on my shoulder. I went down on my knees and started crying.
"Stop, please. I'm sorry; I'll be good I promise. I'll be good, don't hurt her please. She didn't know it's my fault. I'm sorry I ran please."
I knew that wouldn't change anything, I had said the same thing to Marcus many times but he just told me that it was my fault and that if I was to learn, I had to be punished.
I rocked Jamie more for my comfort then hers. I was just wishing that he'd get on with it. The waiting was killing me.
It was then that I looked up to see him crying. CRYING. What was he so sad about? He probably felt bad for having to punish me. But he had to. I ran.
"Hermione,"
That was when in knew. Harry was different too. The look in his eyes, the way he said my name. He was different, and that scared me. I could handle the punishments, I was used to it. What I couldn't handle was the way he was looking at me now. Pitying me. There was no reason. Every woman went through what I went through. It was just another cross to bear. Harry's was Voldemort, women's were punishments. That was how the world worked. I knew. Marcus told me.
I think I started crying harder when I learned that he wasn't going to hurt me. That still didn't stop me from flinching as he threw his arms around me and Jamie. I almost forgot how good an actor he was. But the hug reminded me of the one Fred gave me and I loosened up and hugged him back with one arm, the other still hanging onto Jamie. She had stopped crying, I think she's asleep. Odd.
Harry squeezed me tighter and I cried out. For the second time today that bruise hurt. He pulled back and lifted up my robe sleeve. For some reason I didn't want him to see the hand shaped bruise on my arm and tried to stop him but it was no use.
"Hermione, who did this to you?"
"It was my fault, I wasn't careful and I broke a dish."
I looked down. I didn't want him to know how bad I was. This was my first real friend, I didn't want him to know that everything I did was wrong and I had to be punished nearly every day. I didn't want him to know the real me.
Something made me look into his eyes. There was an understanding there. Oh god, he knows. He's going to leave me here now. Or worse, take me back to Marcus. God please please.
He stood up and helped me up. I looked at Jamie and noticed that she was asleep. She probably cried herself to sleep. God she was heavy.
Wordlessly Harry took her from me. The look in his eyes told me it was going to be ok but I wasn't so sure.
"Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."
He started walking and I knew he was expecting me to follow. I had no idea where we were going or what was in store for me when we got there, all I knew was that he has my life in his hands in the form of a little 5 year old and I wasn't going to let him walk away with it.
How could I know that many miles away the front door of my Dublin home was being opened and Marcus was coming home.