Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

...After Happily Ever After	By : Lissa & snowblind12 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 25739 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling. I make no money off of these stories. This is just fun for me.

Chapter List
- 23
- 24
- 25
AN: I hope this chapter alleviates some of your pain, my loves. It certainly helped sooth my aching soul. I might take about a week long hiatus after this. I have school work to accomplish, but this story called hard to me to give you these chapters this week. I had to listen.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You’re Miss Granger’s fiancé?” The healer raised a surprised eyebrow, instantly recognizing the spy and hero from the war. That was almost twice her patient’s age. And if she wasn’t mistaken, her teacher?
“I am. Can I see her?” Snape was maintaining his control just barely. He glanced at the petite, dirty blonde-haired Healer up and down as if to assess her worth.
“I’m Healer Nox. Feel free to call me Laura, if you prefer.” She reached out her hand. Snape looked at it a moment and then met her unremarkable brown eyes. Hermione’s are much prettier. The Healer dropped her hand when it became obvious he wasn’t going to shake it and cleared her throat. “Please follow me.”
Snape and Kingsley followed the middle-aged healer to a secluded waiting room where she beckoned them to sit. “Miss Granger is… Well, I’m sorry to say she has been through a most horrific ordeal.”
The knuckles of his hands whitened as he clutched the arms of the uncomfortable plastic chair. “What…exactly…do you mean?” His voice was low and menacing.
She glanced at the Minister and back to Snape. “Are you sure you want him present?” she asked cautiously.
“Yes,” Snape replied. “He is a good friend to both me and my fiancée.” He waved his hand, dismissing her concerns. If this statement surprised Kingsley, he did not let on.
“I am going to list Miss Granger’s injuries. I want you to realize that she is stable. We are treating everything as quickly as we can. None of her injuries were life threatening or permanently disfiguring with the exception of one on her forearm.”
“I could care less what she looks like,” Snape brushed these comments away. “Tell me.”
The Healer dropped her gaze for a moment, collecting herself. She followed the news, the reports. She was well aware this man was exceptionally brave and well-guarded. Still, saying these things aloud. Hearing what somebody – likely many somebodies – had done to the woman he planned to marry... Her stomach turned.
She took a steadying breath and started. “Miss Granger was repeatedly sexually assaulted over the period of the last ten days.” She kept her tone calm, cool, and slightly detached. She ignored his grunt of surprise. “She was diagnosed with internal vaginal bruising and lacerations and two second-degree labial tears. She was sodomized and had a third-degree rectal tear.” She watched Snape’s face drain of all color and he buried his face in one hand. The Minister blinked, a look of horror crossing his face. She remained persistent, wishing to complete her unsavory task so their torment could end.
“Her attackers carved the word ‘Mudblood’ into her left forearm. It was quite deep, but she fortunately did not sustain any damage to her tendons. It will scar, but she reported she had already had this scar – that they had reopened the old wound.
“She is experiencing malnutrition and dehydration and reports weight loss. Her right shoulder tendons and muscles were horribly strained – a very bad sprain, I would call it. Because of this, she is experiencing slight nerve damage in her shoulder plexus and will have strained use of this extremity until it’s fully healed which will take a few days. She had three fractured ribs on her left side, two on her right along with heavy bruising. Both wrists were fractured; digits four and five on her right hand were broken. Her left cheekbone was fractured and she had a hairline fracture at the base of her skull.
“She was riddled with abrasions and lacerations over almost every inch of her body – it’s obvious she was beaten. She reports use of BDSM instruments: canes, paddles, riding crops, tawse, and the like. Most of the abuse from these ministrations was concentrated across her buttocks and the backs of her thighs. It is obvious she was suspended by her wrists for long periods of time.” Through her report, Snape’s face hardened more and more. A fire lit in his eyes that made her a little breathless with fear. Here, however, he made a strangled sound and stood, striding to the small window that overlooked the street. She paused momentarily, letting him come to terms with what she had told him thus far. His hands were clasped behind his back tightly, knuckles white with the exertion. His shoulders were squared and his back ramrod straight. She could see the tension trembling through him, his anguish rolled off him in waves.
She took a deep breath and continued. “She reported being put under the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses. A memory charm was detected, but we have been unsuccessful in breaking it.” She took a deep breath, grateful she was able to control herself. She had never in her life seen such a horrible case of sexual torture.
After a few minutes, Laura felt compelled to speak more. “Mr. Snape?” He reluctantly turned and met her eyes. The pain she saw there made her heart stutter. “She has asked for nothing but you since she arrived. Demanding to know that you are alive and unharmed. She remembers everything. Her immediate concern was not for herself, but for the fact she had to leave you behind in the middle of that café, unconscious – not knowing your fate. She was absolutely terrified for your well-being. She reported the same story you gave almost word for word, but was able to tell us what happened after you were stunned.
“By all rights, Miss Granger would have every excuse to be a shell of a human being. I have never in my life seen such devotion and determination in this type of victim. She blew me away with the clinical calm she has over what she has been through. She insisted on giving me a full account of what happened in the café to relay to the aurors. She is the definition of a soldier - an elite soldier.”
Snape felt a lump rise in his throat. Even through his pain and fury, pride bubbled in his chest. Yes, she was a fighter. Her strength was unparalleled. Just as Harry had declared; just as Minerva had insisted.
He cleared his throat and gave a short, grateful nod. “How are her injuries being treated?”
“Most of them have been healed quickly and with relative ease. All fractures were sealed and she has been given a dose of Skelegrow. I do recommend she wears a wrist brace on her left for a few days, that one was a little more severe. All lacerations and abrasions were healed immediately with magic and treated with an external potion cream; most look weeks old. Her more intimate injuries were healed in the same way. The more severe contusions should be gone within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, the lesser bruises within the next four to eight hours.
“The carving on her arm will continue to need treatment through the end of the week and will fade to a pink scar. Right now, it has been closed, but is still quite angry looking. It was being bandaged when I was summoned to meet you.
“She has been given potions to prevent infection, potions to treat possible sexually transmitted diseases, a potion to prevent sepsis due to the rectal tear, a hydration potion, a vitamix potion, pain potion, and a blood replenishing potion – her arm was cut today and she lost quite a bit. We can teach her a glamour if she wishes to conceal the scar.
“We were unfortunately unable to obtain any physical evidence, it had all been charmed away.
“Her emotional state…” She trailed off, wanting to word this just right. “To be honest, her emotional state is unbelievably stable in light of what she has experience. I would recommend counseling for it to be monitored for at least the next six months.”
Snape closed his eyes in relief. Of course that brilliant brain of hers held on. Why did I ever doubt her? He opened his eyes again and pinned the Healer with a significant stare. He had only one word. “Pregnancy?”
Laura blanched just a bit and his heart sank. “It would be too soon to detect a pregnancy if it has already been established. Miss Granger reports she had been using a daily ovum blocking charm for your intimacies. However, with no wand she was, of course, unable to use it. I have explained her options to her, she has not made a decision.”
“And those options are?”
“A termination potion if she’s pregnant and does not wish to carry the child.”
Snape couldn’t help the jerk of his head. She would never terminate a pregnancy, it was in her nature to protect the weak. He knew her too well. “Surely there’s something she could take now to prevent a pregnancy.”
“We have a potion she could take to prevent implantation as long as it has not yet occurred. It would not affect an already established pregnancy. She’s more informed on her monthly cycle than any other teenager I have ever met. She reports being on day fifteen of her cycle and that her normal ovulation pattern is day eighteen. I am afraid that pregnancy is a very real risk.”
She watched this larger than life man slump forward, back side resting against the windowsill. Both of his large, slender fingered hands covered his face in seeming exhaustion. The Minister had not spoken a word or made a movement during their entire conversation. After a few beats of time, Snape looked up at her. “Can I see her?”
“She’s awaiting you anxiously.”
“Severus, I will return in the morning to get her statement. I cannot imagine speaking with her tonight.” Kingsley Shacklebolt’s voice sounded very controlled, but his look of abhorrence was not able to be hidden. “Please make sure she rests. I fear our questions will be very difficult tomorrow; she is the only witness in these crimes. If there was any way I could spare you both, you know I would. We need her testimony, Severus.”
Snape gave a wordless nod of his head. He understood. He knew she would as well.
Healer Nox stood. “This way, Mr. Snape.”
Panic crawled through him as he followed the woman down the hall. For the first time in his life, he felt unsure of what to say, how to react. They paused outside a closed door and he watched the Healer’s shoulders lift and drop in a deep sigh. “Mr. Snape?” She whispered. “Can I give you a few words of advice?” She turned to look at him.
Irritation crawled up Snape’s back, but in the back of his mind something niggled at him, urging him to listen to the witch. He gave a brief nod.
“Let her set the tone, don’t try and force anything on her. Treat her the same way you always would. Don’t act like she’s fragile or broken. She just needs you right now, not the version who is devastated by something out of your control. She needs the version of you she loves.”
Snape’s lips parted in surprise, but he was grateful for her words of advice.
Laura turned back and knocked gently on the door. “Come in!” Hermione’s voice sounded scratchy with lingering pain.
Another quick whisper over her shoulder. “I forgot to tell you her vocal chords are raw, they will heal quickly enough.” Then she opened the door. “Miss Granger, there is someone here to see you.”
Hermione’s eyes immediately found Severus’s. A strangled sound broke from her throat and she pushed herself to sit all the way up in bed, reaching for him – both arms outstretched like a child begging to be picked up into their parent’s arms. “Severus!” Relief, love, anguish, and longing were just some of the emotions that crossed her face. After the briefest of pauses to take her in – She’s really alive! – he crossed the room in large steps, pulling her to him, up onto her knees; he tried to remind himself to be gentle, but he was so relieved.
Her face pressed into the side his neck as her fingers dug into his head, one at his temple, the other around the base of his skull. “Oh, Gods. I thought you were dead.” She sobbed into his neck, pressing soft kisses there. “They wouldn’t tell me what happened to you!”
He didn’t trust his voice, just pulled her more firmly against him. His hands touched her – her hair, her shoulders, her spine. He needed to make sure she was truly there. They moved to cup her cheeks and he pulled her away from him gently. Her face looked much the same, save a light shadow of a bruise along her jaw. She was freshly showered, curly hair still damp. She smelled heavenly.
She moved to kiss him, but he held her in place firmly, needing to drink in her lovely features. Her eyes were bursting with knowing, her face lovely, her hair wild. Her grateful, sweet expression clouded with doubt when he held her back from kissing him a second time, pain slicing the light in her eyes. “Can you still love me? After what they did?” The whisper was broken. He jerked, her question taking him off guard and shocking his heart. A growl left his chest even as tears sprung to his eyes.
“What a question, you stupid girl!” Then his mouth was on hers. She sighed into him, melting into his embrace. He pulled back and started covering her face with love. “I was in agony without you, Hermione. Agony. I thought I had lost you forever.” He brushed kisses along her jaw, across her cheekbones. Another to the bridge of her nose, the sensitive spot between her eyebrows. More to her eyelids – kissing away tears – another to her temple. He worshiped her face with gentle, loving caresses of his lips, his fingers stroking the contours of her delicate features. Her hands gripped his wrists and she leaned into his ministrations, needing the affection. Finally, he rested his forehead against her and sighed. Obsidian eyes staring into the perfect shade of brown.
Two hours and a shouting match with a couple Mediwitches later, both Severus and Hermione were snuggled together in the enlarged hospital bed. Hermione was refusing the sleeping potion and Severus was just so thrilled to be holding her again that he was letting her get her way.
The bed was tilted in a semi-seated position, Hermione was curled into his side. Her left hand was lacing and unlacing the fingers of his right, their other arms tucked under each other. She rested her head on the apex of his shoulder and chest and he leaned a cheek against the top of her head. They had not talked over-much, and had only exchanged a half dozen kisses or so. Touch seemed to be what she needed more than anything. He would give her what she needed.
“I hear that busy brain of yours, pet,” he murmured. “Please tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I will shortly. I’m still working on it,” she replied. He felt her small smile even though he could not see her face.
There was another five-minute lapse of silence where the hand not being played with hers trailed light touches up and down her spine. He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Finally, she sucked in a deep breath and he knew she was preparing to talk.
She pulled back and motioned for him to get comfortable, indicating she wanted them to be able to see each other’s face. He turned to his side, sliding one hand gently over her hip, caressing soothing circles onto it with the pad of his thumb.
“I have to ask you to do something for me. Something that will be really hard.”
He searched her face for a long minute before he replied. “If it’s within my power, it shall be so.”
She nodded, releasing a long, shaky breath. She met his eyes with a fierce determination. “I need you to give me doubt.”
He looked confused and her eyes dropped. A moment later a tear dropped off her chin. He tilted her chin up, wiping the tear; concern lined his face. “Hermione?” He needed her to elaborate.
“I…well. I’m sure you’ve thought this already, but…” she took another breath. “I could be pregnant.” Her voice was so small, so low, her eyes so full of mixed emotions it put a pin in the bubble of his anger.
“You could be,” he acknowledged.
She gave a stiff nod and sniffled. Another tear tracked down her cheek. “I might not be, though. I typically ovulate on my eighteenth day. Sometimes on my seventeenth. But…Severus.” Her voice was agonized. “If I am I…I couldn’t…” She swallowed hard. “I just couldn’t…” She couldn’t even say the word. She wouldn’t be able to terminate the pregnancy, it was just not in her nature. She knew that he knew what she was trying to say. She repeated her opening line, and he finally understood what she was asking of him. “I need you to give me doubt, Severus.”
His eyes closed to hide his pain and anger from her. Pain for her torment, anger for her tormentors. He disguised the gesture by leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead in tender affection. She wanted him to give her doubt as to the parentage of her potential child. To claim the child as his own and never contest its paternity. He answered cautiously, but with assurance. “Tomorrow, love. Let’s give you one more day to heal.”
Her eyes searched his for a moment before she nodded. She pressed a chaste kiss to his lips in silent thanks and curled into him again. They continued with their silence, content to just bask in being with each other. A short while later she spoke again.
“You will be with me during my interview tomorrow?”
“If you want me there.”
“I do.” She sighed, sliding her palm over his chest lightly. “You will hear everything, though. Are you sure…?”
“I am.”
“Tell me what happened here?”
“I can’t, not yet. I am ashamed of myself.”
She pulled back, her face flooding with surprised concern. “What do you mean?”
“I am ashamed with how I behaved. I shut down. The pain of your loss was too great.”
“Oh, love,” she whispered, tracing his brow gently with the backs of her fingertips. “You are allowed to be sad. You are allowed to try and protect your heart. You are allowed to fear. Has no one ever told you this?”
Her words of forgiveness could not have been more perfect. He captured her gentle fingers in his hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Thank you.”
“Do you have my ring?” she murmured, pressing a sweet kiss to his jaw. “I want it back.”
The first real smile to cross his face in days pulled one from his sweet witch. “I do.” He untangled himself from her, sliding out of the bed. “I kept it on me the entire time. I’m intrigued to find out how you got it into my breast pocket.”
“I got them talking,” she answered, watching him dig in the pocket of his frock coat. He returned to the bed and took her left hand, sliding the ring to its home. It would stay there until the day she died.
“Are you ready, Miss Granger?”
“I am.”
She watched as the Auror – Banks was his surname – set his wand to record before taking a deep breath and starting. “I was unconscious when we arrived. When I woke, I was in a four-walled room with a two-way mirror next to the door. The walls were white, the floor tiled. There was a cot, a sink, and a toilet. Much like a Muggle prison cell. I was given no clothing. The cot had a pillow and a small blanket. You have an account of my injuries?” The auror nodded.
“There were fourteen men. Three were what I would consider elderly – sixty plus. Grey hair. All between five foot nine and six feet tall. One had a tattoo of a wand on his left bicep. Seven men were between thirty-five and forty-five years old. Two were under five-foot-seven. Three were between five-foot-seven and six-feet. Two of these men had tattoos. The first had black hair and a skull and cross bone on his left pectoral. The second had dirty blonde hair and an iron cross with the words “Illegitimi non carborundum” in a crest surrounding the bottom between his shoulder blades. Two were six-foot to six-three. One of these men had a large birth mark across his left inner thigh, he had red hair.” She continued her descriptions. Severus marveled at her calm and detailed recollection.
“You never saw a face?”
“Not a single face. All voices were distorted, the same as in the café.”
“Did all the men have a dark mark?”
“No. Six did not.”
“They all sexually assaulted you?”
Here she paused, swallowing back bile. She took a sip of the water that had been placed in front of her, sucked in a deep breath, and answered. “They did.”
Severus swore. She flinched. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, gently touching the side of her face.
“It’s okay.” She reached up and snatched his hand, squeezing it gently.
“Are you positive about the number? About your recount?”
“I am.”
“How did you escape?”
“I didn’t. They let me go.”
Both men gaped at her.
“Why?” The auror was looked at her with an expression of awe.
“When I got them talking at the café, one of them told me what their plan was. I played into it.”
“How?” Severus seemed cautiously proud. She glanced at him and gave him a sad smile.
“They told me that they were going to break me. He said to me: ‘When we’re through with you, you’re going to wish we had killed you. Before we’re done with you, you will be begging to die. Instead, we’re going to break you to pieces. Then we’re going to return you so destroyed that it will break him.’ Him, of course, being you. So, I let them think they broke me.”
“How?” he asked again, his voice was strangled.
“For the first few days I fought like hell. I attempted to steal wands. I rarely stopped making noise. I raged. I screamed. I threatened. I hit, and scratched, and bit, and spit. I didn’t sleep. I told them they’d never break me. After my ‘period of courage.’” She used her fingers to make air quotes. “I let myself act like I was breaking down. If I was alone, I stayed silent. My fighting became weak, more halfhearted. I didn’t talk as much. I stopped screaming while they assaulted me and cried more. I slept. By day eight, I stopped resisting. Of course, I didn’t participate by any means – I just didn’t do anything. I barely said anything. I stopped eating the food they brought me. I stopped trying to clean myself up. Day nine I asked to die; I begged to die. Day ten I barely said anything. The only reaction they got out of me on day ten was when they told me they were going to cut my arm open again. My reaction was shock more than anything. I wish I had controlled that better.
“Of course I couldn’t control the pain, so controlling my reactions to it was exceedingly difficult. I figured this helped me. It was genuine. I chose ten days because it was believable. I have a reputation for being exceedingly stubborn, but I could have held out another ten if it had been needed. I’m grateful it wasn’t. They think they did their worst; they think they did what they promised. They did not. They played right into my hands. Where I could not prevent the things they did to me, they did not control me. I controlled them.”
Banks flicked his glance to Severus, eyebrows having disappeared into his hairline. “She’s terrifying.”
He wasn’t joking, but this statement caused one of those real, rare, devilish grins to cross the face of the man she loved. His reply was one infamous word. “Indeed.” Hermione actually had to bite back a true laugh. She cleared her throat instead. She didn’t want Banks to think she was cold hearted or insane.
“Don’t get me wrong, please.” Her eyes pleaded with the man as he turned his attention back to her. “You need to know that I have been deeply affected by this. It was quite literally the nightmare of my life. I will never be the same person again.” She felt Severus’s hand slip onto her thigh and squeeze gently beneath the table, his smile had disappeared. “However, I am clinical enough to realize the opportunity I had. So many Muggle-borns have already died because of these men. So many of my kind murdered. Children. Oh Gods -” Sobs threatened to overtake her and she had to pause for a moment. She brought her elbows to the table and dropped her crumbling face into her hands. Severus’s hand tightened on her leg again with encouragement.
When she was in control of her emotions, she raised her face and started again. “I knew that I had to make the best of my situation and gather the information I could. I had been given a guarantee that I would come out of this ordeal alive. I didn’t have to fear for my life, therefore, I could be strong. I could bring back as much knowledge as possible to help bring these fuckers down.” Her eyes flashed and she paused for a long moment. Then, she turned her head and looked straight into her fiancé’s eyes, her face filled with deep pride. “I won their game.”
Review Responses:
Luna Rose: It's been a rough few chapters. I hope this one helps. Thank you so much for your love. I was so thankful for your comment on Snape's "everyone I love dies" line and my brilliance. Man...that made my ever-loving day. xx
Misstress: I like Lucius both ways. I'm in love with OracleObscured's "Quartet" where Lucius is stunningly written. Another wonderful Lucius story is "The Bespoke Witch" over on FF .net. Fabulous story. I will try and take a look at yours! (I'm not a big guy/guy fan, but I'll give it a go. I like to read what my fans write!) I'm glad you saw the value to the previous chapter. Thank you for your comment of it being enjoyable even though it was dark and unsettling. It helped a lot.
Snowblind12: Eek! I love Lizzie and Draco's first date. That was one of my favorite parts to write. I agree, Lizzie and Draco are much better together. Ah...poor Ron is friend-zoned again...
Nightstar: I know, I know. Tought stuff. Snape will certainly want to...we'll see if Hermione will let him.

Thank you all so much! The review the last few days just poured in and I am utterly grateful for them. All my love! xLD
- 23
- 24
- 25
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

...After Happily Ever After