The Safehouse

Hermione looked up at Dudley with warm eyes and the smallest smile on her face. He leaned back down and kissed her forehead, before nuzzling their noses together. She settled down against him, her head on his chest and her arm around his waist. His arm was around her smaller body, and his free hand was idly playing with her hair. "You know you can't stay here tonight?" he asked reluctantly.

She nodded her head into his chest before pulling out her wand to Summon the fairy tale book Dumbledore had left to her. The book safely in hand, she turned it over to Dudley, placed her wand on the bed, and replaced her arm around his waist.

She cuddled into his warm body and listened as he read to her. He stumbled over some of the magical references, and she smiled at him as she forced herself not to reach up and touch her still tingling lips. She had only kissed one man before, Viktor, and that had been three years ago. Viktor had been worldly when it came to women, and, while he taught her the art of kissing and they had engaged in some heavy petting, she had still only been fifteen, and not ready to take the next step.

Hermione knew that Dudley was far more experienced than her, they had even had a conversation about it when a sexual reference on the telly went over her head. She also knew that he would never pressure her into anything she wasn't ready for or didn't want to do. It was one of the many things that put her at ease around him.

She fell asleep against him, and he stopped reading to her in favour of playing with a strand of soft, frizzy curls. Not too much later, he reluctantly woke her up and sent her to her own room in order to avoid waking up to his father's yelling again, but only after he gave her a short, soft, good-night kiss to make it up to her.

~~~@~~~~@~~~~@~~~~@~~~~@~~~

Hermione was on the ground, screaming out as she writhed with the pain of thousands of knives cutting into her. The curse was lifted and she looked up into the eyes of her captors, no feeling in the icy depths, save for those of the youngest Malfoy, who looked as though he might be ill soon.

"Look at me, Mudblood," ordered her tormentor. In contrast to the fair Malfoys, Bellatrix Lestrange was dark as dark could be, her own eyes swimming with mirth and rage at the position they were in.

"How did you get into my vault?" Bellatrix screamed as she pulled Hermione up by the hair, her silver knife scraping against the skin of her jaw and leaving a shallow, stinging cut in its wake; blood dotting the surface of her skin. When Hermione didn't respond, she pulled the knife away, replacing it with her wand. "Crucio!"

Hermione screamed until her throat had torn and her voice was gone as Bellatrix sent Crucio after Crucio upon her, trying to force information from her. She let go of Hermione's hair and let her fall back to the floor, the pain of hitting the ground barely registering as it intermixed with the pain of the Unforgivable Curse. When it became horribly obvious that Hermione was not going to give in to the pain and reveal anything to her, Bellatrix stopped what she was doing and let out a laugh that made the blood run cold in the veins of every person in the room.

She walked around the young woman, her eyes intent as her manic laughter turned into a twisted smile. Standing about three feet in front Hermione, she flourished her wand and pointed it at her face, screaming the words, "Adflictatonis Veratis!"

Hermione dropped to the ground, the pain in her throat from her renewed screams causing her to tear and cry just as much as the excruciating pain that was riding her body in waves. She had no idea what the curse used on her was, but it hurt much worse than the Crucio's had. The fact that she didn't know that there such a curse that could cause more pain than Crucio was her last thought before she passed out, falling into Draco, who quickly moved away from her unconscious from and let her hit the floor.

Hermione woke up with a jolt, the memories her dream contained still in her mind. She snuggled back into her pillow as she tried to think of happier things, her earlier kiss with Dudley first on the list.

A full hour later, Hermione was almost asleep when a sudden thought came to her and wouldn't leave, causing her to get up and pen a short letter to Harry, asking him to come over at the earliest time possible. With her mind relieved of this new thought, she fell back into an uneasy sleep.

~~~@~~~~@~~~~@~~~~@~~~~@~~~

That morning, Hermione gave the letter to the witch who had come to check up on them before she spent the rest of her time before lunch studying. After lunch, Hermione dressed in summer workout clothes- small, pale blue, terrycloth shorts and a white tank top- and went over to Dudley's room, where she knocked on the door.

When he opened the door and looked at her, his eyes seemed slightly shocked with her attire, but then he read the note she had written. "Will you teach me to box again?"

"Of course," he responded, his face splitting into a grin, happy that she was taking an interest in his favourite sport and hobby. She came into the room and closed the door while he pulled out his punching bag and stand from the corner and placed them in the centre of the room where there was a large open space. After he lead her through some warm-ups, she stood in front of the bag to show him her stance.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to get it. Eventually, he gave up on telling her what to do, and, instead, positioned her feet while he held onto her waist as he showed her how to centre herself. He held onto her slightly longer than necessary, his fingers massaging her skin through her clothes, but he pulled away sooner than he would have liked.

"Okay. We're going to start with a jab. Do you remember the moves from last time?" When she nodded her head, he ran his fingers through his short hair. "Well then, let's see it," he said, standing back.

She chewed her lower lip in concentration as she reached her arm out and punched the bag hard. Her hand was covered in a pair of his glove wraps, rather than actual boxing gloves, so he could watch the movements of her wrist.

"Not bad," he commented, "but you're forgetting your extension and follow through. Here, watch me." She moved aside, eyes watching him intently as he did the same move as her, only much more gracefully with his entire body flowing into it effortlessly.

As soon as she had gotten it right with one arm, she had to learn it with the other as well, while Dudley continuously corrected her stance.

They took a short break before they moved on to the hook. During the break, she went down to the kitchen and came back with a couple of apples and bottles of cold water.

An hour later, she had finally gotten her stance right, and had remembered her follow through, when she felt his hands wrap around her, lightly tickling her sides. She was in the middle of a punch and completely missed as she stumbled towards the large hanging bag.

He caught her, and, as soon as she had her balance, she whirled around, glaring at him. He responded by giving her a lopsided grin that was reminiscent of Harry's, and attacked her with his fingers. She tried slapping his hands away through her silent giggles. When she realised that that wasn't going to get her anywhere, she started to poke and tickle him back.

She was no match for his longer arms, and she found herself cowering away from him, tears of laughter streaking down her face. She backed away, still tickling him back to no avail, and eventually hit the bed with the back of her legs. She fell back onto the bed, her chest heaving in her breathlessness, and Dudley crawled on the bed above her, his face alight with his own laughter, as his hands took a hold of one of her sock covered feet, and he lightly traced her instep with his fingers.

She squirmed out of his grasp, pushed him down and straddled his waist while she held his hands down with her knees. She started tickling his sides mercilessly, a smirk on her face. Neither noticed the door open or a redheaded wizard enter the room.

"Hermione?" Ron asked in confusion, embarrassment, and, judging by the colour of his quickly darkening face and ears, anger.

Hermione had stilled where she was before slowly turning to the doorway. Ron gave her a pointed look, his eyes darting between her and Dudley.

"Having fun?" Ron asked, his voice hard. Hermione looked down to Dudley and for the first time, realised the position they were in. She pushed off of him so she stood on the floor, and turned to Ron with a smile on her face. Dudley sat up properly, and looked at Ron with an air of curiousness, wariness, and haughtiness. The last time he had seen any of the Weasley children, his tongue had grown to a tremendous size.

When Hermione nodded in response to Ron's question, ignoring his tone, Dudley broke into a small smirk while the wizard in question glowered. It was obvious to Dudley that he had competition. Hermione wrapped Ron in a hug, and, as he hugged her back, his fingers touched the skin between her shorts and tank top, making him notice that this was the least amount of clothing he had ever seen her in.

Hermione pulled back and looked between the two young men, her face slightly puzzled. It was Dudley who first figured out her dilemma. He stood up off the bed so he was next to her, happy that the constricting material of his jeans covered the erection that was the result of their tickle fight. He held out his hand to the redhead. "Nice to meet you. I'm Dudley."

Relieved that she didn't have to figure out how to make the introduction without speaking, Hermione smiled up at Dudley, her hand grazing his bicep. "Ron Weasley," came the reply, Ron's voice as tight as his face while his arms strained to keep his hands at his sides. Dudley let his own hand drop back down, one eyebrow raised out of Hermione's line of sight.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione mouthed to Ron, not noticing that her fingers had intertwined with Dudley's when his hand had lowered.

"He's in the den talking to his aunt." Hermione nodded with a smile before Ron continued on. "But what I want to know is just what is going on in here."

"I was teaching Hermione to box," Dudley responded matter-of-factly.

"That sure didn't look like boxing to me," Ron bit out, though it was obvious he was working hard to control his temper.

"Well, it did turn into a bit of a tickle fight," Dudley admitted with a cocky grin behind Hermione's back.

"Hermione, how can you even be friendly with him, after everything he's done to make Harry miserable?"

Dudley went to respond for her, but she put her hand on his chest and shook her head up at him as she moved to pick up her notepad. "Ron, I think I know more than you do about how Harry was treated, what with me living with his relatives and all. Mrs. Dursley is changing her ways and opinions, and Dudley has already done so. Don't you remember Harry saying how weird it was that he was being so nice last summer?"

As Ron read the words, his lips twisted in disgust. He knew that she was speaking the truth, but he didn't want to lose her to Dudley. If nothing else, he thought that she should be with a wizard, even if it wasn't him, since he didn't think a Muggle could really understand her. But, just because he thought that, didn't mean he was stupid enough to tell her so.

"Yes, I do remember. But you are my best friend, and I don't want anything to happen to you," he responded, concern in his voice though his eyes glared icily at Dudley, who rolled his own eyes.

"That's very sweet of you, but I'm not going to get hurt. After all, that's why I'm here, to keep safe and hidden," she wrote, her face wrinkled in distaste.

"Not what I meant and you know it."

Hermione was scrawling away at her response when Harry appeared behind Ron. "Hey, Harry!" Dudley said, slightly over-enthusiastically, bringing the attention onto his cousin rather than the current argument.

"Hello, Dudley," Harry replied slowly as he took in the tension in the air. "Am I interrupting anything?" Hermione tucked away her notepad and shook her head as Ron glared at Dudley.

"Okay," he said disbelievingly. "You wanted to see us, Hermione? Your letter was very vague."

She smiled brightly up at him and nodded before turning to Dudley. "Go," he said, rolling his eyes. "If you still want to learn to box later, you know where to find me."

"Thanks," she mouthed to him before she led her two best friends to her room.

"Did you and your aunt have a nice chat?" she wrote to Harry once they were all settled.

"Nice? I think so. Completely unexpected and surprisingly touching? Definitely. She apologised for how she's treated me, and she told me some stories of her and my mum from when they were little. She even told me about Snape. Apparently, the way he treated her helped to tip the scales of her jealousy and dislike."

"What?" Hermione mouthed, her confusion written all over her face before she changed back to writing. "What does Snape have to do with anything? How does your aunt even know him, she hated magic far before you went to Hogwarts."

"You mean I didn't tell you about Snape?" Harry said, shocked. Ron gaped at his friend; he would have imagined that being the first thing Harry would have told her.

"You told me he died. What else is there to say, unless he suddenly wasn't the one to kill Professor Dumbledore and it was really someone else Polyjuiced as him?"

"No. He did it because Professor Dumbledore made him promise. He knew that he was dying from the curse on the ring, and he didn't want Malfoy to become a killer."

"How do you know that?" she wrote, looking at her friends disbelievingly, though she could see in both their faces that it was the truth.

"Just before he died, he gave me some of his memories. It was how I knew that I had to die, though I wasn't expecting to come back. But he… he met my mum when they were kids, even before Hogwarts. He fell in love with her, and she was his best friend. Then, he called her a Mudblood in their fifth year, and she would no longer speak to him. He never stopped loving her. It was why Professor Dumbledore was so sure that he was on our side; that he would never go back to following the monster who had killed my mother."

"Oh, Harry," she mouthed, bringing her hand up to caress his cheek. She wasn't surprised that he hadn't told her before, as it must have taken him a lot of effort to come to terms with this new information. She was just glad that he was telling her now.

"So, what's this idea you had to see us about?" Ron asked, wanting to change the subject, though his curiosity on the matter had grown since Harry had brought it up.

"I think I know how to get my voice back."








a/n---- okay, so thanks to everyone who is still reading this after a what? four month hiatus? sorry about that, it was put to the side while my efforts were focused on By Reason Of Birth, which is in its 26th chapter on Granger Enchanted (the chapters are far shorter than these, lol). i had only put the first chapter here, but who knows, maybe i'll start adding to it. But the muse recently came back, and so voila! a new chapter.

and as always, thanks to lupie for betaing it for me.