Title: Flesh and Steel.

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Harry fails in the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, with tragic consequences.

Poppy Pomfrey was finishing up her weekly examination of Harry's condition, with Hermione sitting in a slightly overstuffed chair watching the exam. They were in Harry and Hermione's living room rather than the Hospital Wing in deference to Harry's privacy. Harry was sitting in just a pair of boxer shorts while Poppy was listening to his artificial lungs. Hermione was dressed in what had become their own unofficial 'uniform' of soft black slacks and a black tank top. Harry's slacks and tank top were in a pile next to him. As had also become their custom, in the privacy of their own suite of rooms, neither used their concealing glamour spell.

"Your lungs seem to be functioning well. No inflammation or soreness around the joints for your arm or legs." Poppy said, half to herself. "Ok, you can put your clothes back on now."

"You know Mione would have called you the second anything did go wrong, right?" Harry said as he began to get dressed again.

"Of course." Poppy responded. "But agreeing to perform these weekly checkups was the only way I could prevent the other staff being able to barge in here without any notice. These rooms are now considered to be a medical area and I can control access."

"And we very much appreciate it, Poppy." Hermione said.

"Plus I am still extremely fascinated by all this. I have not learnt this much since I was a student here." Poppy added with a slight grin.

Madam Pomfrey started to collect her things and Hermione approached with two folders of papers.

"Here are our assignments for the week." Hermione said.

With Madam Pomfrey the only staff member with regular access to the pair, the Professors would send assignments and receive their work through her, even though Harry was technically being taught every subject by Hermione.

"I will pass these along." Poppy replied. "Thought you might like a look at today's Daily Prophet."

The MediWitch put the paper down on the table and left. Harry and Hermione moved over to the two-seater couch and sat down, with Hermione holding the front page so they both could read. There were two major stories on the front page. The one 'above the fold' had the headline 'Six Million Galleon Man – Is This The World's Richest Wizard?' accompanied by the smiling photo of a tall Wizard with brown hair that was greying at the temples who was cutting the ribbon at the opening of a store in what looked like Diagon Alley. They quickly skimmed over that article.

The other article was more relevant to the two teens with a headline that read 'Has Hogwarts Cracked Limb Regrowth Problem?' and showed two photos of Harry, the first was his broken and bleeding body in the arena of the First Task with Hermione and Madam Pomfrey busily working over him while the second photo was from after the Second Task where Harry was walking back to the Castle carrying Gabrielle against his chest supported by his left arm. They scanned the article, which was mostly conjecture, but well thought out conjecture and quite logical from a Magical perspective if one did not know about Hermione and her Technomancy. The majority of the article provided a history of the problems faced by Witches and Wizards in the past when they had tried to magically regrow limbs and then tactfully posed questions, without bias, about the possibility that these problems were now solved. In a rare show of Journalistic integrity for the Daily Prophet, the article did not draw conclusions (i.e. tell everyone what they should think), instead asking their 'dear readers' to wait for further information as it became available.

Harry and Hermione sat relieved that, for once, there was an article in the Daily Prophet that was fair and balanced but knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the students sent a letter to the paper about the show Harry had put on during his one return to the Great Hall, so they decided to get in ahead of the game and write a letter to the Prophet themselves. The actual letter was written by Harry, with a lot of input from Hermione, and it explained that they had not cracked the limb regrowth problem, but instead Harry was the trail patient of 'A newly developed Magical process to improve the usefulness of artificial limbs under the supervision of Magical Medical Professionals'. Harry went on to explain that he could not reveal the details due to 'concerns over the unknown long term effects of the procedure but I am grateful to the developers for saving my life'.

After several review by both Harry and Hermione to make sure that it sounded heartfelt but did not give too much away, they sent Hedwig with the letter to the Editor of the Daily Prophet.

"What is it, Harry?" Hermione said, not looking up from the book she was reading.

It was evening and they were relaxing, having finished their lessons for the day and had been getting good scores on the work they had been submitting to the Professors.

"Sorry. I was just wondering how you got your prosthetics." Harry said, not looking Hermione in the eye.

Hermione got up for the recliner that she had been sitting in and sat next to Harry on the couch.

"It happened when I was seven." Hermione began and then paused. "Perhaps I should start at the beginning. I was not born as Hermione Granger. I'm not adopted or anything. I was born Hermione Marie Knight. My father is William Knight."

"William Knight. Why do I know that name?" Harry asked.

"He was a massively successful and powerful businessman. He was considered one of the five richest and most influential men in the country. A group of criminals decided that they were entitled to a large portion of father's wealth." Hermione explained. "They figured the best way was to kidnap his darling little girl. Me."

Hermione was scared, cold and hungry. She was just seven years old, but she understood that this whole situation was not about her but about her father. That did not make her captivity any easier. It was hard being as intellectual as Hermione was. A part of her wanted nothing more than to curl up and cry for her daddy, but another part realised how lucky she actually was that these kidnappers were professional in treating her reasonably well.

The door opened and she was momentarily blinded by the bright light, having mostly been kept in darkness. A silhouetted figure came into the room and Hermione tried to crawl away from him.

"Hermione Knight?" the man said. "Rohirrim."

Hermione stopped backing away when she heard the password that her father had established. The man came forward and shot the chain that was securing her to the wall with his pistol.

"We're here to get you out." He said, leading her out into the corridor.

Out in the corridor there were two more men, who were covering the corridor. All three are dressed in dark clothes and covered in weapons. They started moving through the corridors. As they passed through the corridors, there were doors at irregular intervals. One of the doors opened suddenly as they passed, and a man rushed out and took down one of the rescuers with a sledgehammer to the head, then he brought the hammer down on Hermione's left shoulder, pulverising it, before he was riddled with bullets from the two remaining rescuers. The gunfire, however, caught the attention of the kidnappers.

After a quick run through the halls, the kidnappers caught up with them. One of the rescuers turned and began firing at the pursuing kidnappers.

"Go. Get her out. I'll cover you." The rescuer who had turned shouted.

The other rescuer was dragging the semi-conscious and injured Hermione through the final hall towards the exit. Just as they reached the door, Hermione felt a burning pain in her side and became oddly fascinated in a new, strange, vaguely star shaped red mark that had suddenly appeared on the door in front of her. Then everything went black.

"I woke up four days later in hospital. My dad paid for the best surgeons and the latest experimental prosthetics." Hermione explained. "He also sold all his businesses and changed our name to Granger to prevent anything like that ever happening again."

"Oh god, Hermione." Harry said in shock.

"By the time I got my Hogwarts Letter, the prosthetics had broken down and needed to be replaced four times. The new ones I got just before I came to Hogwarts only lased to the Christmas break. At that point I created my first attempt at a technomagic version. Those lasted till March of First Year. I perfected them last year. It is my latest versions that formed the basis of yours." Hermione concluded, tears welling in her eyes.

Harry simply sat there and embraced Hermione in a gentle hug, letting her cry out the emotion.

TBC…