What Words Can Do (TOMARRY)

Year 5 ∆ Part 4

Merry Christmas!!

Guess who's also going to be updating on Tuesdays!

Also, warning: This chapter talks about rape.

Hermione Granger knew she'd been distant from her two best friends, but she'd never thought it got to the point where their trust in her had faltered. So it came to a surprise to her when they cornered her in the library, sat her down, and began interrogating her.

Harry's eyes had been red and puffy, his face tear stained. Ron casted sympathetic looks toward his best friend every once in a while, and almost looked angry.

"Did you rat out Tom to the Ministry?" Harry asked almost sadly. He couldn't believe he was having to do a full on interrogation. Especially on one of his best friends. When he asked Ron, it had been simple. Ron was a horrible liar. Hermione on the other hand, could twist the truth. Ron and Harry both knew this.

"Of course not, Harry," Hermione answered, her voice calm and sincere. "You were happy with him, and that's what mattered. I would never do anything to ruin your happiness."

"You've been rather distant from us lately," Ron accused. "You didn't write to us at all over the summer. Doesn't that sound a bit suspicious?"

Hermione casted a look down to the table, wondering if she should tell her friends the truth. In the end, she sighed before stating simply, "Things happened." She knew the boys would question her, but she didn't want to talk about it. The memories were horrid, to the point where she had to see a therapist about it.

"What things?" Ron and Harry both asked. She sighed, coming to the conclusion that they were her two best friends and they deserved to know. But she wasn't about to explain in the middle of the library. Hermione led them to an empty bathroom, forcing the tears brewing in her eyes away, and beginning to explain.

"So a family had moved in the house next to ours. They had a son only a year or two older than me. We began hanging out a lot. At first it seemed like we had a lot in common. He told me he enjoyed reading, we even talked about a few books. It was nice being able to talk about books with someone. No offense, but you two never read anything unless it's life or death. Or potions.

Anyway, things were good for about a month of the summer. I was happy. Growing up, I never had any friends in the muggle world, so this was a change for me. But then everything started happening.

He told me that he wanted to meet up with some friends that lived here. That was fine with me. He told me that I could come. I agreed, not knowing what bad could happen. We walk to a nice house where there were some people outside. He led me inside and that's where everything happened. I'd ranter not go into details, but some rather . . . graphic things happened."

"Did he rape you?" Harry asked. Hermione only nodded. Harry turned toward Ron, "Can you leave for a minute? I'm going to help 'Mione get through it, but it can be overwhelming if there are more than one other person." Ron nodded before leaving.

Harry sat Hermione down on the floor. She was crying, remembering what had happened. Harry wiped the tears away, sitting down across from her so that their knees were touching.

"Accept the memories," Harry muttered. "If you accept them, they don't become as bad. When you try to deny them, that's when they're worse. So take a deep breath and say the date of the rape."

Hermione did as told, taking a deep breath in. "J-July 3rd," her voice faltered slightly.

"Good," Harry smiled, wiping away more tears. "Now say the name of the person."

"Casper Newby."

"Repeat after me, but instead of using my story, use your own. Vernon Dursley has raped me many, many times over the years."

"Casper Newby raped me on July 3rd," Hermione said, not realizing what Harry had just told her. Harry felt himself sigh inwardly at that fact. "Thank you, Harry. You have no idea how long I've wanted to tell someone."

Harry only smiled, standing up and helping Hermione as well. He wiped away her tears once more before leading them out of the bathroom. Ron had left a small note for them outside the bathroom.

Went for food.
-Ron

"Oh, Ronald," Hermione shook her head, chuckling slightly with a small smile.