N/A: Today's chapter is purely just the healing process. The last two reviews mentioned it and in fact, I wanted to write it like that since the beginning. See the end of chapter for more info!

As soon as Hermione was back in the world of consciousness, she wished she rather stayed on the edge of death. As soon as the adrenaline stopped circulating her veins, she could feel the pain. Ron sat Hermione up and leaned her chin on his shoulder to take up her hair and tie it up with a hair tie that Hermione had around her wrist. Then, making sure he had her consent, he took her coat off. Hermione's eyes darted towards the huge stain on her left sleeve, hoping that Ron wouldn't notice and lay back down with his help and a little wince. Fleur, who was gone in the room next door now came back with a proper blood-replenishing potion that was generally good for the after effects of torture as well.

'Hermione, you're going to have to drink this now,' Ron said, taking the lead and snatching the vial away from Fleur, who didn't protest and went towards Hermione's abdomen to inspect the wounds on her body. With a few little gags, the potion went down successfully and Hermione's face gained a little colour. Ron moved away so Fleur could roll Hermione's jumper and the shirt beneath up. Ron's jaws parted and his chest froze as his windpipe cut his air supply off. Hermione's chest seemed like someone splashed it with red and blue paint. The most significant was a massive bruise on Hermione's right side. Apparently, Fleur had been staring in the same direction.

'I think there might be a broken rib,' Fleur said silently and took her wand. There were pieces of glass embedded into Hermione's skin. Some of them were as large as a thumb and sharp as a shaving razor while some were fairly small and barely visible. Fleur realised she couldn't take out those large ones with magic, because it would tear them out, leaving the skin open and vulnerable. Hermione cried out in pain as Fleur took the largest piece of glass from the chandelier and pulled it out carefully with her fingers. Blood started pouring down from the wound and Fleur quickly sealed it off with a simple charm. Ron sat by Hermione and let her dig her nails into his whenever it hurt, feeling the pain his love had to go through. When all the huge shards were out and the big wounds cleaned out, Fleur cast an Accio to summon the smaller parts and the dust from Hermione's skin. Ron was stroking Hermione's hair by now and looking what Fleur was doing. She gave Ron a meaningful look and before he could figure out what was happening, Hermione screamed out shortly but loudly in pain.

'It's the rib, Ron, it's really broken. I had to make sure,' Fleur said quickly, putting her hands up, defenceless as Ron rised up from the bed, giving her a bad look. 'Please, just help me and hold Hermione up,' Fleur demanded. She knew Ron didn't like that Hermione was hurt and maybe blamed himself for it, which Fleur was unable to justify since she had no idea what happened at Malfoy Manor, but she was still the one healing Hermione and she was a bit cross with Ron for doubting her abilities. However, Ron took Hermione by her shoulders and sat her up while Fleur took a roll of clean canvas and wrapped Hermione's chest into it.

'Ribs can only be left to rest, we can't do anything about it,' Fleur pointed out, disappointment in her voice. 'But we have to make sure those semi-healed cuts don't get infected. She said importantly.

After asking what else hurt, Hermione showed them her foot, which was sprained. A well-performed Episkey and a bandage could do the trick. A similar thing went for the damaged fingernails and her crushed hand, which Hermione didn't even notice at first, because it was muffled by the pain of her rib and mainly her left arm, which was still left untreated.

Hermione still hoped the moment wouldn't come. Changing. She was ready to argue that she could sleep in her clothes just as well as in pyjamas, but deep down, she knew Fleur was not going to buy it. And so it came that they saw the huge stain of dried blood on Hermione's sleeve.

'Please no,' Hermione stuttered. She didn't want them to see what Bellatrix carved into her skin. It made her feel a way she has never felt before. Useless. Worthless. Unloved. Alone. This was her place. Being a Mudblood that is below anybody else. Hermione started crying again, remembering Bellatrix pushing her down and compressing her pelvis with her knees. She could feel the knife cutting into her flesh again. Her body jerked and Hermione gave a cry. Her eyes were closed the whole time and when she opened them again, she realised she wasn't fully conscious. Her arm throbbed, but the sharp pain that took her over before was gone. Ron and Fleur had worried looks on their faces.

'Hermione, we need to see the wound and we need to try and fix it,' Ron said, pleading Hermione with his eyes. Hermione shook her head, cradling her arm to her chest unconsciously. She knew it couldn't be healed. But then, initially brought the arm over to Ron.

'I'll be very careful, okay?' Ron assured and took the rim of the sleeve of Hermione's jumper, pulling it up in a fluent, but slow motion, revealing the letters, one after one. Hermione turned her face away, unable to watch. Ron could feel bile coming up to his mouth. In that moment, he made a mental promise to kill Bellatrix. He couldn't deal with this. The letters spelled out Mudblood. Fleur was just staring at the new beads of blood emerging and trickling down Hermione's forearm. The wound wasn't fresh anymore. All Hermione's injuries closed up a little already, except for this one. Fleur knew it was done with dark magic and she had to deal with it later. So far, she could only wrap it in bandage as though a weak attempt at making it disappear. Ron hugged Hermione and held her to her chest so she could feel his heartbeat and hoped that he could calm the sobbing girl in his arms down. And once again, he felt all the blame for this.

N/A: I've got a few possible ways of where is the story going to go. Either I can make it canon like what was the most likely thing to happen...or I could go completely off...or something inbetween. That's where you come in and I would appreciate to know what you think. Any form of appreciation appreciated! Reviews keep me going :)