Walk the Shadows

from this man, not when he looked like he had swallowed poison himself. Instead she said, 'Will you tell us?'

Professor Snape shook his head swiftly, but then . . . 'I will not give you details, as I said earlier. You neither need them nor deserve them. But you should know this, before you hear from anyone else . . . and Harry has given permission for me to tell you. When we were captured the second time, while I was still unconscious, they started torturing him. He was hit with so many curses, I could not count them all even after I woke. I have only Madam Pomfrey's record of his injuries as any proof of what happened. He still managed to hang on through all of that,' the Professor said, and Hermione imagined she heard a note of something odd – pride? – in his voice, 'and rallied again when he realized I was conscious at last, though I've no idea how he knew, as he was still blind . . .'

He shook his head and waved his hand again, as if aggravated with himself, or his inability to get through his telling. 'He knew I had woken, and tried to be brave, for me.' Hermione heard the pride for certain that time, and perhaps a bit of awe mixed in for good measure, but then the Professor clenched his jaw, his hands clutched at the arms of his chair so hard she thought he might break it, and the tic on his jaw line jumped madly.

His next words came out in a rush, though each one was bitten off as if it caused him actual pain. 'But then they raped him. Lucius Malfoy and the Dark Lord raped him, with Bellatrix Lestrange as their mad audience, and he broke.'

Already in tears, Hermione stared in shock, the breath slammed out of her, before she sobbed aloud. 'Oh, my God, Harry!' She wrapped her arms around her middle, to try and hold on to some semblance of . . . of rationality. She was supposed to be rational, for god's sake, but all she wanted to do was scream and hit something, something hard, if she could, and then kill Lucius Malfoy and Voldemort herself, strangle them with her bare hands! Not rational at all. They had raped him??! 'Oh, my God,' she sobbed again. 'Oh, Harry . . .' Harry, who had never done anything to these people, to anyone! Who had only tried to be good and kind and . . . how could they!?! Why couldn't they just leave him alone???

She hardly felt it when Ron wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, but she let him anyway, and it wasn't till he held her so close that she realized she was shivering. Crying and shaking and getting Ron's shirt all wet with tears and her runny nose. Oh, Harry . . .

'Shh, 'Mione,' Ron whispered, rocking her, and she wondered when he had gotten to be so comforting. She let him comfort her, and wondered how they were ever going to comfort Harry. Who was there, for him? Who had ever been there for him? Not his relatives, if they were the type to lock him up and beat him and starve him, and not even her and Ron! No matter how much they wanted to, they had never gotten past the walls Harry built around himself, and no wonder! If he never had anyone to trust, anyone to help him, was it any wonder he could not even trust those who said they were his friends?

Ron patted her back softly. 'It'll be all right, 'Mione, you'll see. He's safe now.' Ron raised his voice just a little. 'He's safe now, yeah?'

'As much as he can be, Mr. Weasley,' Professor Snape said, tonelessly. 'He had a . . . run in with Mr. Malfoy a few days ago in another attempt to kidnap him—'

'Oh, my God!' cried Hermione. If she had to hear about one more thing happening to Harry, she was going to never stop crying. She was going to break, right along with him.

'—At which point, Harry rendered the man a squib,' the Professor finished, as if he had not been interrupted.

'A . . . what? A squib?' Ron sat up straighter, and Hermione followed suit, wiping fruitlessly at her eyes.

'Yes, Mr. Weasley, a squib. Pushed far enough, Harry employed some kind of Legilimency against him – I am still attempting to discover just what exactly he did – and destroyed Lucius Malfoy's magical core. He will never use magic again.' Professor Snape smiled cruelly. 'He has also been disowned by his family, and is currently being hunted by both Ministry and the Dark Lord. So, Harry is safer than he was a week ago, at least.'