~**I split this chapter into two because of how long it was. A lot will happen during this summer, so I was unable to cover it all in one since my chapters are usually 2500-3500 words. Thank you all so much for all of the wonderful reviews you've been leaving for me and for sticking with this story!
~The song in this chapter is called "Not Falling Apart" by Maroon 5~
My Dad practically dragged me out to the car in an exact repeat of when he picked me up last summer. This time I sat in the front seat, listening as he lectured me the entire way home about how "boys are evil and will only use me to get in my pants." I almost laughed at the absurdity of it all; the married man with a girlfriend lecturing his daughter about the evil ways of boys, when he was the prime example of how 'evil' men could be.
"Hold on
Hold on
We're on
Our way
I'm not falling apart"
We pulled into the driveway of our house and I felt dread start to overtake my body. I watched as my Dad parked the car
and then got out to get my trunk from the backseat. I got out also and made my way to the front door, trying to open it
but finding it locked. I remember thinking how odd it was that my Mum hadn't come with Dad to pick me up, or that
she wasn't at the door to greet me. I started to get a very ominous feeling; did my Dad do something to my Mum?
"Hold on
Hold on
We're on
Our Way
I'm not falling apart"
My Dad walked up and unlocked the door; he walked in and set my trunk down in the entryway. I looked around and saw how
clean the house was; it didn't even look lived in. Turning to Dad, I steeled myself and asked "Dad,
where's Mum?"
"I don't mind
Falling in the water
I lay under the waves
I don't mind
Falling in the water
No one ever notices me
I lay under the waves"
I watched his facial expression harden into one I had not seen before. He grabbed me by my hair and flung me to the
ground, towering over me, breathing heavily with wild eyes that bore right through me. I lay shaking on the floor,
almost knowing what would come next. "You're no-good slut of a Mother is gone. This is my house, do you
understand? Don't ever question me again!!" As I sat shaking my head yes, he glared at me, looking at me like
I was something disgusting rotting on the floor. Just when I thought he was going to walk away, he turned back to me
with his fist drawn back...
"I'm not falling apart
Not falling apart
Not falling apart
Not falling apart
Not falling apart..."
When he hit me, it felt like every bone in my face broke. I immediately rolled over so that my back was to him and I
was shielding my face so he couldn't hit me again. I lay there, hunched over and shaking, waiting for the next
blow, when suddenly I heard a quiet 'pop' in the room.
"Get away from her!" boomed the voice of Professor Dumbledore, my savior. Not daring to look up, for fear my Dad would see the relief on my face, I lay there listening to the conversation. "Mr. Granger, I am a very laid back wizard most of the time, but if you take one more step towards your daughter you'll regret it!"
I heard my Dad laughing; it sounded so sinister to my ears, making my blood run cold. "I'm not the one who'll regret it old ma..."
I heard a thud and peeked out of the slit between my crossed arms and saw my Dad laying stunned on the floor. I tried to get up but my face started throbbing in pain and I cried out, laying my head back onto my folded arms. I felt two hands gently grasp my shoulders and lightly pull me up off of the floor. I slowly opened my eyes to see Dumbledore standing in front of me with an expression of sympathy on his face.
"I'm so sorry I didn't get here before he struck you Ms. Granger" he said, trying to pry my hands off of my face.
"H-How did you know about my Dad?" I asked, barely able to form the words because of the pain in my jaw.
"After your Dad dragged you out of the station, Harry spoke to Mrs. Weasley about what was going on in your home and she contacted me as soon as she could." He stared into my eyes for a moment, making me a little uncomfortable.
'Harry told?' I thought to myself, feeling my chest tighten. How could he do that? He swore to me he wouldn't say a word about what I told him. I knew he thought he was being a hero, but didn't he realize that this was my family? Where was I supposed to go if my Dad was arrested? I had told him everything in confidence, and he had broken that confidence by telling Mrs. Weasley everything.
Dumbledore pulled me out of my thoughts as he said "the muggle police are on the way. I'd like for them to see you before I take you out of here; why don't you get anything you might want to take with you from upstairs and pack it up so you'll be ready to go?"
"Ok" I said quietly, turning to make my way upstairs to my room. As I reached the top stair, I heard sirens pulling up in front of the house. I heard Dumbledore mumble something, probably making sure my Dad wasn't stunned when the police came in, before he opened the door for them. I went into my room and quickly packed everything I would be taking with me, wherever I was going. I made my way downstairs and came face to face with one of the police officers. I heard him gasp as he took in my appearance; I realized I hadn't looked in the mirror in my room while I was up there.
"Did your Dad do that to you?" he asked, studying my face closely.
"Um, y-yes he d-did" I said, cringing at the pain caused by talking. I proceeded to tell him everything that had happened since we had been home and he wrote it all down in his notebook.
"So you have no idea where your Mum could be?" he asked.
"N-No" I had replied "I haven't seen or heard from her since I was home for Christmas." He wrote that down also and nodded his head.
"Ok, we'll get you to the hospital and have that looked at" he said, motioning towards my left cheek.
Dumbledore walked up and said "that won't be necessary. I'm the Headmaster at her boarding school, and I intend to make sure Ms. Granger is well taken care of. As soon as you're finished questioning her, I'll be taking her to be checked out, I assure you."
The officer nodded in understanding and said "that would be ok, I guess. She is old enough to have a say in where she goes." He looked at me expectantly and I said "I would like to go with Professor Dumbledore."
"Ok then, I don't have anymore questions for you right now, so I guess you can leave." I tried to smile at the officer, but only managed to cringe as pain shot through my cheek.
I watched Dumbledore hand the officer a slip of paper as he said "if you need to contact Ms. Granger, you can leave a message for her at this number. Let's go Hermione" he said, motioning for me to follow him. I was surprised at his use of my first name.
I saw him turn toward my trunk and quietly mutter a spell to make my trunk weightless. He picked up one end and motioned for me to pick up the other. We walked out the front door and started down the street; I never looked back once.
I sat in the car thinking about what I had possibly just done. I know that telling Mrs. Weasley was right, but how would Hermione take it when she found out? I knew what I did was in her best interest, but she was always so afraid that other people would find out what was happening to her and think less of her because of it. I could only hope and pray she would forgive me.
We pulled into the driveway and I got out right away, going to get my trunk and carry it inside. As I walked into the house and started to make my way up the stairs, Dudley had stuck his foot out and tripped me before I made it to the first step. I fell onto the stairs, twisting my wrist slightly as I used it to stop my fall. "Thanks a lot Fugley" I growled, glaring at Dudley. Uncle Vernon walked up behind me and smacked me in the head hard saying "watch your mouth boy."
Closing my eyes for a second to try and calm myself down, I got up off of the stairs and picked my trunk back up, walking to my room. As soon as I had put my trunk down, Aunt Petunia called me downstairs to make dinner. Sighing, I made my way back down to start my summer of slavery.
As the days went by, I was kept busy with yard work and house cleaning, along with doing dishes and cooking all meals. I had sent Hedwig with a letter for Hermione the day before, but she still hadn't returned with a reply yet. Her delay only caused my worry to grow.
I dragged myself up the stairs to my room, yearning for my bed after working in Aunt Petunia's flower bed all day. I had just finished doing the dinner dishes and had finally been dismissed for the night. I walked into my room and flopped down onto the bed, exhausted and dirty, when I heard the whooshing of wings and knew Hedwig was back. I sat up and watched as she flew from the door of her cage and landed next to me on the bed. I took the letter from her outstretched leg and unrolled it, hoping against hope that Hermione wasn't mad at me.
What I saw when I started to read the letter made my face fall. The letter wasn't from Hermione, it was from Ron.
Harry,
Hi Mate! How have you been? Are the muggles treating you ok? I'm writing in response to the letter you sent Hermione. She's staying here for the summer. Dumbledore brought her here the night we came back from Hogwarts. She looked really bad Harry. She had a huge purple bruise on her cheek along with a cut up near her eye. Underneath her eye was all black and blue also. When I asked her what happened, she just ignored me and told me to leave her alone. Mum fixed her up, so she looks quite a bit better now. I don't know what happened between the two of you, but she flat out refused to write you back. Did you two have a fight or something? She keeps muttering something about breaking a confidence or something; do you know what she means? Anyway, Dad talked to Dumbledore and he said it was all right for you to come and stay for part of the summer also. Dad's going to try to pick you up the day before your birthday. I'll write again to let you know for sure. You might want to write Hermione again, maybe explain things if you understand what's going on with her. She won't tell me anything; Ginny either for that matter. Just don't expect her to write you back. Hope to see you soon!
| Your friend, Ron |
I crumpled up the letter and threw it across the room. 'I knew it!' I thought, berating myself. Hermione was
mad at me for informing Mrs. Weasley about how her Dad treated her. What else was I supposed to do? Just let her Dad
beat the shit out of her? I wondered what would have happened if Dumbledore hadn't gone to get her; she had only
been there a couple of hours and it sounded like her Dad had already went after her.
I got out a piece of parchment, my quill and ink. I sat down on the floor of my room and placed everything out on the floor. I started writing a letter to Hermione, explaining exactly why I had told Mrs. Weasley everything. I wrote how much I cared about her and didn't want to see her hurt. I wrote how I already missed my best friend, and asked if she would ever talk to me again. I finished up the letter by writing 'I'll understand if you hate me Hermione, but please remember that everything I did, I did with good intentions. I can't stand to see you hurt; now that you're with the Weasley's, you're safe.' I signed my name 'with love' and rolled it up, putting it on Hedwig's leg. "Please get that to Hermione as fast as you can girl" I asked my beloved owl, who nipped my finger lightly and took off out of the window once again.
"I hope you'll forgive me Hermione" I said aloud, pacing my room and thinking things over. Realizing I was still filthy from my chores, I made my way to the bathroom to take a hot shower, thinking about her the entire time.
I sat in Ginny's room, reading the letter Harry had just sent to me; I could taste the salty tears that had fallen onto the corner of my lips. I looked around the room and wished that I was home, in my own room. Harry just didn't understand, no one did. Yes, my Dad was a monster, but he was still my Dad. Where was everyone when I was six and all of this started happening? The neighbors knew what was going on, yet none of them ever knocked on the door to see if my Mum and I were ok; no one ever called the Police. So now here was Harry, thinking he was helping me out, when in reality he had torn my family apart. He grew up with an abusive uncle and no one ever tried to help him either. It was different for him though; they weren't the ones who brought him into this world. He just didn't understand.
I sat staring out the window, thinking over everything that had happened in the past two weeks. No one knew where my Mum was yet, or even if she was alive. All of our neighbors remembered seeing her three months ago, but no one had seen her since.
My Dad had been sent to prison for two years; he could be out in a year on good behavior. That would mean that I would have to return home next summer. A cold chill ran through my body at that thought; if he was angry at me before, what would he be like after I sent him to jail? Harry really had no idea what he had done.
I crumpled the letter up into a ball and tossed it across the room. I didn't want to think about Harry right now. I needed to worry about myself for a little while; I hated the person I had become. I always yelled at Ginny and I pushed Ron away every time he tried to talk to me. These people were my friends; they were the only friends I had left. If I wasn't careful, I'd end up bitter and alone, like my Dad.
Wiping the tears from my face, I took a deep breath and looked at the crumpled up letter Harry had sent that was on the floor. I wasn't ready to forgive him just yet; maybe when he came to the Burrow in a few weeks we could talk things through. Right now, too many things had happened for me to just be able to forget them. I stood up and straightened out my clothes; I must have looked a mess, which was appropriate because that's what I was on the inside. My feelings were so jumbled lately that I didn't know how I felt about anything anymore. Figuring I'd start trying to heal myself, I walked out of the room to find Ron and Ginny, hoping they would forgive my horrid behavior of late. It was time to forget about Harry for a little while and concentrate on myself and the friends I had right in front of me.
~A/N> I know, you're probably thinking "what the hell is wrong with Hermione?" Her life's been
turned upside down, and instead of blaming her Dad, she's blaming Harry. Just keep in mind that there will be happy
times, it's just going to be down the road a little. That is why I classified this story as angst, but there will
be romance, I promise!!