Hermione looked up at the twins, she knew this was a losing battle. She knew it was when she heard about the display. Hermione knew that to them, there couldn’t be any harm to making a love potion a prank product, even if it was modified. She had a feeling they weren’t looking at the risks.
“Please don’t sell any more love potions. You don’t know what they’re being used for.” Hermione begged as quietly as she could in the bustling shop.
”Why should we-“
”Let you take away-“
”From our success, by-“
”Getting ride of-“
”One of our best sellers?”
Trying to ignore the leering gaze she had felt on her for a while now. She was terrified of him getting a hold of the love potions.
”You don't understand-“
“I think you’re the one not understanding, Hermione.” Fred stated, as both twins folded their arms over their chests.
Tears stung behind her eyes, but she shut down her emotions, her fear, before they could see it. “Don’t say I didn’t want you.” She whispered, before rushing to find Harry.
~~~~~~~~~~~
She stumbled down the hallway, gripping the wall tightly. Tears streamed down her cheeks in rivers. Every single part of her body ached in a way it never had before. her dress was torn, and she couldn’t find her underwear. Blood, and a liquid she knew wasn’t from her body, dripped down her legs. Another sob wrecked through her body.
”Hermione?”
She jerked up, spotting Harry standing at the end of the hallway. Her knees gave out, causing her body to fall to the ground. His pounding footsteps caused her to flinch back, more sobs spilling from her.
”Hermione-“
She looked up at her best friend, choking on her tears. “I tried to say no.”
Harry reached to pull her into his arms, only for her to flinch away. He knelt there, watching his best friend fall apart. He pulled his wand from his pocket and sent a patronus to Tonks. It took only a few minutes, before the witch was barreling down the hallways towards them.
“Harry, Hermione, what’s going onnn-“ Tonks question trailed off as she realized what exactly had happened.
”I tried to say no. I tried to say no. I tried to say no.” Hermione’s broken whisper filled in the silence. It was all the pieces Tonks needed. Her pink hair turned into red.
She turned towards Harry. “Who? How?”
”I think it was Cormac McLaggen. He’s had a thing for her since last year. Hermione thought she saw him buy one of the twins love potions. She tried to get them to stop selling them, but they wouldn’t.”
“We have to get her to Poppy.” Tonks whispered.
Tonks went to help Hermione up, only for Hermione to scream out and flinch away. It broke Harry and Tonks’s hearts to see this. “I’m so sorry, Hermione.” Tonks whispered, before she scooped her up and began to make her way to the hospital wing.
When they burst into the hospital wing, shouting for Poppy, Tonks set Hermione down onto a bed. Poppy bustled out from her office, gasping at the sight, before racing over.
”Oh, you poor dear. Who did this to you?” Poppy asked gently, waving her wand this way and that. “Love potion. There’s traces of it in her system.”
”It was Cormac. He was leering at her during Slughorn Party all night. They both disappeared a while ago, I just didn’t think this would happen.” Harry whispered.
”it’s not a standard love potion. This one has been modified, but also enhanced.” Poppy muttered.
”Hermione thought she saw Cormac buy one of the twins Love Potions.” Harry explained further.
Poppy tisked at his words. Tonks’s red hair burned brighter. “I’m going to go grab the twins and Minnie. They need to see what can happen when they don’t consider all the angles of a ‘joke’.” Tonks hissed.
"No." Their heads snapped towards Hermione, who was still hysterical but was starring directly at them. "Don't tell Fred."
"Hermione, they need to know-" Harry started, but was quickly shut down by her frantic head shaking.
"He can't know. He'll blame himself. He can't know it was me." She franticly spoke.
Harry, Tonks, and Poppy all had a silent conversation with each other, before nodding towards Hermione. "Alright. We won't tell Fred it was you; but they need to know that their product caused irreversible harm. Especially after you asked them to reconsider." Harry stated. After receiving a nod, Harry and Tonks headed out of the hospital wing so Poppy could work on Hermione in private. Harry stopped Tonks before she could race off to grab Minnie, waiting until they were further away from the hospital wing before speaking. "Make sure you bring both Fred and George here. I'm going to tell McGonagall what happened."
"Harry, what house is Cormac in?"
"Gryffindor."
"Make sure she knows who, and where he is." With that said, Tonks raced off down the corridors. Harry didn't think twice, before taking off in the direction of Minnie's office. It was on his way there, that he ran head first into someone.
"Watch where you are going, Potter." It was the low, drawl, sneer filled voice of his most hated professor.
"Sorry Professor, I need to speak to McGonagall." Harry hurried out, stepping around Snape.
"Not so fast, Potter. Why do you need to speak to your head of house?"
"Hermione was raped." He whispered, starring directly into his cold eyes. "You can search my head if you want, if you don't now you'll do it in one of our lessons. I don't care either way, but I need to talk to McGonagall."
"Miss. Granger was raped? Is she being tended to?"
"Yes. Madame Pomphrey has her now."
"How did it happen?" Snape demanded.
"Cormac slipped her a WWW Love Potion during Slughorns party." He explained, waiting for his professor to say something rude.
"Come. I'll escort you myself." Snape snapped, turning and flicking his cloak behind him. Harry followed, stumbling over his feet at first, before catching up. Harry and Snape arrive in no time. Snape quickly knocking on her door. When Minnie opened it, she was shocked to say the least. She immediately thought Harry had done something, if Snape was knocking at her door. Only to see concern in not only her pupils eyes, but her former pupil as well.
"What is it?" She asked.
"It's Miss. Granger, Minerva. She's been attacked." Snape stated clearly, brokering no argument over the subject.
"Attacked? How? Is she alright?" Minnie asked quickly, pulling her dressing gown tighter around her and stepping out of her room to follow them.
"She was raped, by Cormac McLaggen."
Minerva fell silent, as she processed this information. "How do you know this?"
"Cormac has been acting strange around her since last year. She spotted him at the twins shop over the summer, and saw him over by the love potions. Madame Pomphrey found traces of a love potion in her system."
"Where is Tonks at?"
"She went to get the twins. Hermione doesn't want them to know it was her who was attacked with one of their products. Let me rephrase, Hermione doesn't want Fred knowing." Harry explained to both professors.
"Why would she single out one twin?" Snape asked.
"So they are together." Minerva spoke up, nodding as if it all made sense on why her star pupil would say such a thing.
"They'll never forgive themselves once they know it was Hermione." Snape spoke up, nodding in understanding as well.
Harry didn't say anything, knowing that he would be telling one of the twins what had happened. It just wouldn't be Fred he told, but his own boyfriend who he was also secretly seeing. So, when they made it to the hospital wing, he wasn't surprised to see Fred, George, and an irate Tonks.
"Misters Weasley's, have you been informed on why you were brought here?" Minerva asked sternly.
"Not a clue, professor."
"Is everything alright?"
"A girl was attacked tonight. She was drugged by one of your love potions, and taken advantage of tonight. The culprit will be reprimanded in the highest degree, but because it was used with your product, Hogwarts will be banning any and all love potions produced by your shop." Minerva explained sternly.
The twins jaws dropped. "Is she alright?" They asked together.
"She is being tended to now. She has requested that you don't know who she is." Snape retorted.
"Who attacked her?" George asked.
"Cormac." Harry spoke up, starring directly at Fred as he spoke, before glancing at George and looking back towards the hospital wing.
"McLaggen?" They cried together.
"Yes. He bought one of your love potions over the summer." Harry added.
They were quiet for a moment, until Fred muttered. "So this is what she meant."
"She who?" Tonks hissed through her teeth.
"Hermione. She begged us not to sell the love potions. That we didn't understand the risks that could happen should someone take it unknowingly." Fred explained gently.
"We never imagined it would be something like this." George continued.
It was this comment that sent Tonks off the deep end. "That's because when it comes to shit like this, parties and dates, boys don't really tend to feel like they need to be aware of being slipped something. But women, girls, we have to all the time. Even at a restaurant when we're surrounded by family and other people, we still have the nagging thought in the back of our head on if someone slipped anything inside it. I'm not saying guys aren't at risk for shit like this, as this is more of a girl based product, but it's not often enough for it to be a stereotype for a reason. Of course Hermione thought about it! We live in a world where women have to think about it! Especially with this bloody fucking war! Hundreds of thousands of people, men and women alike, will be raped in this war. Just because Death Eaters can. It's another method of torture."
The tension that had filled the hallway grew as Tonks's rant came to an end. No one speaking anything.
"We want McLaggen." The twins spoke up.
"No." Harry spoke up in a hard voice, glaring at the two of them. "No. Tonks is going to take McLaggen with her to the ministry. They are going to handle him through the law. H-The girl, will inevitably decide what to do with him."
It was then that a scream came through the hospital wing doors. Everyone acting on instinct, burst through the doorway and rushing towards the scream. Everyone froze as they spotted who exactly was laid out on the bed.
"Hermione." Fred breathed brokenly.
Hermione had curled up on the bed, arms wrapped tightly around her knees. Fred rushed over towards her, not thinking of anything else other than to comfort her. Only for her eyes to snap open and flinch away from him. He froze, staring wide eyed at her. Poppy pushed through the crowed, bumping Fred off to the side, before trying to get Hermione to drink a potion. She frantically shook her head. "I don't want it." She screamed, trying to keep as much distance between her and the potion bottle.
"Hermione, it's just a calming draught." Poppy spoke gently, trying to sooth her into taking the potion.
Hermione buried her face into her pillow. Fred immediately jumped into action, crouching down to be eyelevel with Hermione. "Mione, look. I'll take the potion, it's just a calming draught." He whispered gently, waiting for Hermione to look at him. When she did, he made sure she was watching as he took the potion from Poppy and downed it. He definitely needing a calming draught. "See. It's just a calming draught."
"You sure?" She whispered brokenly.
"Positive. You can trust me." He whispered.
It took a moment, as Hermione examined him, before she nodded. Poppy summoned another potion bottle, and handed it to Fred. Fred uncorked it, before handing it to Hermione. She looked at it wearily, before downing it. Handing the bottle back, she settled down into her pillow.
"I'm sorry." She whispered to Fred.
Tears leaked from his eyes at her words. "You're sorry? I'm so bloody sorry, Hermione." He whispered.
"Not your fault." She whispered. "Love you."
"I love you too. Get some rest."
When he was sure Hermione was asleep, he began to sob. There was nothing anyone could do, to prevent Fred from blaming himself. Everyone knew that if they hadn't sold those love potions, Hermione wouldn't have been attacked.
"Don't go down that road, Fred." Harry spoke up.
"Why not?" He sobbed brokenly.
"Because I've gone down that road far to many times. I had to learn the hard why from Hermoine, when it comes to her being hurt from your actions. If she doesn't blame you, you have to accept that. Or she'll just be mad at you for being mad at yourself over it." Harry explained gently, holding onto Fred's shoulders.
"I should have listened to her about them." He whispered brokenly.
"You didn't know this would happen."
"But she did. I didn't listen to her. I always try to take what she says into consideration, and the one time I don't-" His voice broke off into a sob once more.
Harry, Fred, and George took up chairs around Hermione's hospital bed, while Poppy bustled around them. Tonks, Snape, and Minerva, all left to take care of McLaggen. Though Poppy tried to shoo them all to bed, Fred refused to leave. He stayed, propped up in an uncomfortable hospital chair, and promptly fell asleep from exhaustion. Harry and George excused themselves to the room of requirement. There, Harry recounted the story to George, who curled around his boyfriend as a comfort to them both. Neither one knowing what to say to the other to ease the heaviness in their hearts.
Hermione's eyes fluttered open, wincing at the sunlight that poured in from the windows. It took a moment for everything to come back to her, to realize where she was. When she did, silent tears fell from her eyes and dripped onto the pillow below her. She took a moment to just feel everything, before looking around the hospital wing. At first she didn't see him, then her eyes settled on the man she loved, propped up on a hospital chair, fast asleep. Her mind whirled, trying to process how he got here, and how he knew. Just then Poppy came over.
"You're awake." She whispered gently. Hermione nodded. "We went ahead and gave you another potion last night while you were asleep to get rid of any potential pregnancies. You might feel queasy from it, so just let me know."
She nodded again, clearing her throat before trying to speak. "Who knows?"
"Mr. Potter, the twins, Miss. Tonks, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape."
Hermione winced at the list. "And Fred-"
"He's been here all night."
With that said, the matron went back to her office. Hermione curled back up in her ball, as she tried to process what exactly had happened. She was raped. She knew this. It wasn't like how she had been told by muggle teachers, or adults, when they're drugged and raped. They tended to have gaps in their memories. Not her. Because it was a love potion, and a modified one at that, she remembered everything. How Cormac handed her a drink at the beginning of the party. When nothing happened after she took a sip, when he handed her another one much later, she didn't think anything of it. She remembered how he asked her to leave with him. She said yes, but she tried to say no. She remembered the walk all the way to an abandoned classroom. She could hear her thoughts, that they were screaming for everything to stop. She didn't want to do this. She had Fred. She was happy with Fred. She didn't want Cormac. She didn't want to have sex. But she didn't have any control over her body. She was his play thing. As he tore at her dress, stripped her down, and took her against the teachers desk. He whispered all these things in her ear, and her body reacted as if it were Fred touching her. But it wasn't Fred. It was sleezy Cormac. She couldn't fight him. She couldn't stop him. She was at his mercy. And she remembered every detail of it.
"Hermione?"
Her head snapped up at her name, locking eyes with the man she's loved since her third year. "Fred." She whispered brokenly.
She watched as he moved to reach for her, then second guessing himself, pulled back. It caused a broken cry to slip past her lips at the action. He thought she was dirty. She wanted him to hold her, and tell her everything was going to be ok, but he's pulling away.
Fred, watching the love of his life fall apart again, decided to forgo his original plan of keeping his distance. He stood from the chair, sat on the side of her bed, and pulled her up into his arms. His hands cradling her head against his shoulder, while his arm kept her against him. He sighed in relief, when her own arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione." He whispered into her ear. "I'm so sorry."
"I-I don't blame you." She whispered. "It was his fault. Not yours."
As she spoke, Fred's tears fell down his cheeks once more. "I love you, Hermione. None of this changes anything for me."
She sobbed loudly against his shoulder, holding him tighter. "Don't let me go."
"Never."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was almost an hour later, Fred and Hermione curled up together on her hospital bed, before others began to file in. Snape, McGonagall, Harry, George, Tonks, and Dumbledore stood off to the side of the hospital bed. Giving Hermione space so she didn't feel crowded, but also so she could see them all.
"Miss. Granger, I am so sorry that this happened to you. Mr. McLaggen has been taken into custody. It is ultimately up to you on how far this goes, but he will be punished no matter what. We have the evidence to out him away for a long time. However, if you testify, it would keep him locked up for the rest of his life, or The Kiss." Dumbledore spoke calmly.
"I don't want to testify." She whispered.
The headmaster nodded calmly. "There is one more thing you must know. Your parents will be brought up here to see you. Should you wish to get another story set up, you might want to have that done within the next hour."
"No. Don't get my parents." Hermione frantically said.
"It's Hogwarts Protocol." Dumbledore spoke.
"They weren't brought up the other times I was in the hospital wing." Hermione shot back.
"This is very different, Miss. Granger. Mr. Potter has already tried to sway our decision in this matter." Dumbledore spoke up, holding his hand up to silence her. "Professor McGonagall will be going to grab them in an hour. Have a story prepared should you with to have one."
Hermione sighed, burrowing back into Fred arms. "Do not tell them it was the twin's product. All their going to know is I was slipped a love potion, and taken advantage of. Do not tell them it was Fred and George's product." She spoke sternly and loudly so everyone knew. With that said, they dispersed, Harry and George sitting in the chair at her bedside, while the adults went back to their mornings.
"You should tell them it was us." George spoke up.
"No. My parents are already going to be freaking out enough, I don't need them screaming at the two of you on top of all of this. You're beating yourselves up enough without it." She stated, and that was that.
An hour later, the hospital wing doors opened again, and her parents and McGonagall rushed inside. Her parents rushed over, her mother sitting on the edge of her bed, while her father stood beside her. "My girl. How are you feeling?" Her mom spoke softly.
"I'm alright, mom." Hermione said, shooting a soft smile. But both of her parents saw right through it. As Fred stood up, making his way over to his twin, it gave Hermione all the wiggle room she needed to curl up and rest her head on her mothers lap. Just as she had done as a child. Her mother ran her fingers through her hair soothingly, while her father gently rubbed at her shoulder.
"Did they get him?" Mr. Granger asked the group sitting behind his small family.
"Yeah. He's going away for a long time, even without Hermione's testimony." Harry explained.
Mr. Granger nodded his head, look at the twins as he spoke next. "Which one of you is Fred?" He asked softly.
Swallowing nervously, Fred stepped forward. "I'm Fred. Nice to meet you officially Mr. Granger."
Mr. Granger looked Fred over once, before pulling him into a tight hug. The red head startled, stood frozen for a moment, before returning the hug. "We know it was one of your products." Mr. Granger whispered. "It's not your fault." And Fred, who had cried more in the last twelve hours, cried into the older mans shoulder. Mr. Granger soothing him, reassuring him, and just holding him. Fred Weasley was one that normally brought laughter and joy to others, but right now he was a man falling apart because of guilt and anger, and being put back together by relief and the comfort of his girlfriends father.
Once everyone had calmed down, and sat around Hermione bed, they told the Granger's what happened. They talked about Hogwarts, and how classes were going. The twins shop was also one of the topics of conversation, no one mentioned the love potions though. It became clear to Fred that only the Granger Parents and Fred would be the ones to know that they knew. Everyone collectively didn't mention how devastating this was for Hermione. No one discussed the recovery. Those with magic in the room, all had a feeling Hermione would push this down until after the war was over, knowing that this was the first event in possibly a long line of event to come. While the Granger's planned on ways to get their daughter to see a therapist to help process and move on from this event. Singular. For all those involved, it would be a long while before anyone was ok again.