Into The Lion's Den| Hermione poly fic| Book 1

Chapter Ten

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Mentions of abuse and rape in this chapter. Italics are Bulgarian.
___

Hermione

The jury stared down upon her, where she sat, in the center of the room. She could already feel her throat closing, and her eyes burning. Blinking the tears away she lifted her chin, digging within the pit of her stomach for her inner lioness.

"If the victim willing to testify against the offender?" A bird-like woman asked, dipping her head to peer over her thick framed glasses at the girl. Who at the moment shook like a leaf, her eyes scanning the room.

"Yes Ma'am," she whispered, holding down the sob that threatened to spill into the open space before her.

The woman took a small look down at her paper, "When did Mr. Weasley's abusive tendency towards you begin?"

"Well," Hermione began, holding herself, " When the war was over we started dating, and everything was okay. He was sweet for the most part."

She paused gathering her memory, "Of course he had trouble coping after the war, most people did."

Her eyes were glassy and she stared at her arm, fingers curling around the sweater.

An older man spoke, "Please continue, Ms. Granger."

She gazed up at the man, "He started saying things I never knew he thought about. He would trap me in his room sometimes. In the beginning I would be able to Stupify him. Soon he took my wand and hid it from me. He never tried to go beyond my limit at first."
She inhaled rather sharply and sat up straight as a rod.  "Around the end of June is when he first, well, harmed me.

I had come into my flat to see him laying on the couch. We had fought the night before. I told him to leave. He got really mad, and he started to come towards me. He took me by the upper arm and threw me back against the door," her fingers ghosted over the back of her head, "I hit my head so hard that I couldn't scream. For maybe the next week he babied me. After that he never let me alone with any if our friends. He would try to get me to do, uh things for him. Once when I said no, he, he-"

Sho had to stop and slap a hand over her mouth. She didn't want to fall apart before the prying eyes of ministry officials.

The bird woman's face had softened significantly, "Would you like a glass of water, child?"

Hermione nodded. A few months later a young man placed a glass in front of her. He smiled apologetically. She mouthed a 'thank you'.

"He grabbed me by the hair and he forced me to," she made a face and a wave of disgusted understanding swept over the old faces in the cathedral like room.

Hermione told the rest up until the feast. She could feel all of the pity that shook through the room like thunder. Viktor came to her side as soon as she had made a concluding statement.

She wanted to fall into the floor and die there, at least then she wouldn't feel sick.

"Hermione," he pronounced her name the best he could. "I do not pity you, My little lioness. You survived that. You are not a thing to be pitied."

She tugged her bottom lip into her teeth, biting hard enough to smart. Viktor may not be the smartest man ever to life but he is no stooge. "Thank you, dear one."

He only tilted his head, that puppy dog smile painting his lips.

_____
Sorry for the short chapter. I promise to make a really long one soon.