Nobody Cared Enough !

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 17 (Pt 2)

14 Oct 1991, Monday

Hermione woke at the wee hour of four in the morning to the sound of someone gently snoring to her right. She moved her head and regretted it immediately as pain blossomed within her skull. She let out a strangled whimper.

There was a sharp sound of chair legs scraping against the floor as the snoring was cut off. A hand touched her shoulder, the warmth reassuring her.

"Do not move, child," a deep voice purred against her eardrums. Hermione sighed and resisted acknowledging the voice with a nod. "I will get you a pain potion."

The hand was gone with the sound of robes swishing gently across the floor. That's when Hermione realised her eyes were still closed. Very cautiously she opened one eye a crack and was glad to find that the light was dim. She opened the other one just as Professor Snape brought a phial to her that was slim at the top, round at the bottom. He seated himself beside her then slipped an arm under the top of her shoulders, supporting her neck and head as he tipped the phial to her lips.

"All of it now, Miss Granger," his voice was soft as brushed silk and Hermione was very glad he wasn't speaking above his normal volume.

The pain reliever was absolutely dreadful tasting, but Hermione did no more than grimace and close her eyes at the taste. She opened her eyes just as her teacher lowered her back against her pillows. She blinked as he Vanished the phial.

After a moment she asked, "Where does it go?" The pain reliever drifted like a cloud through her limbs and skull leaving behind a pleasantly gentle euphoria.

Snape returned to his chair and smirked at her question. "Are you under the impression that everything Vanished disappears into nothingness?" he asked, keeping his voice quiet.

Hermione sighed, happily. The pain reliever felt goooood. "That wouldn't really make sense, sir. It's not psycho... physic... uhm... it would be against the Law of Physics, wouldn't it?"

"I forget, Miss Granger, that you have more intelligence than the average first year." He leaned back in the chair and stretched out his legs. "To Vanish something is merely to send it to another location. Banishing an object returns the item back to its atomic elements."

"When do we get to learn that magic?" she asked.

"Miss Granger," he said in a firm tone, "as much as I would like to indulge your desire for knowledge, I need to ask for knowledge from you." Hermione winced and drew her blankets up to her chin. "I know it is unpleasant to think of what happened, but we need to know. We also need to know do you know who did this to you?"

Hermione wouldn't reply at first, but then she asked, very timidly, "What did they do to me?"

Snape began to count off the girl's injuries, "Your left leg was broken beneath the knee. You had multiple cuts on your arms and legs along with at least a dozen bruises. Your right eye is healing well from having been badly bruised, and you suffered a mild concussion."

Hermione sniffled and a tear dropped down to her pillow. Snape leaned forward, dabbed at the tear with his handkerchief, and then gave it to her. Hermione crushed the handkerchief in her hand and closed her eyes. "They did something else." More tears flowed from under the closed lids at that confession.

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose. He had hoped that the final humiliation had occurred after Hermione had lost consciousness. She was all too aware, it seemed, of precisely what her attackers had done to her.

When it appeared that Hermione had gotten herself somewhat under control, he leaned forward slightly and asked, "Miss... Hermione, can you tell me who did this to you?"