December 25, 1997
Hermione woke slowly, feeling the bed move slightly as Harry jostled it moving out from underneath her. Her thoughts were hazy but she hoped that he hurried back to bed to keep her warm; the warming charm had worn off sometime in the night. The mattress bounced slightly and pain lanced through her hip and her eyes flew open, sleep no longer clouding her mind. The day before rushed back to her and she realized that Harry was finally awake. She sat up as quickly as she could without causing herself any pain.
Harry was sitting on the side of the bed, shirtless, with only his boxers on. She had had to strip him down to get to bite on his leg and his clothes were scattered on the floor. His hand was feeling the bandage taped to his chest while his other hand reached for the glasses that were on the table next to the bed. Her hand reached out to touch his shoulder and he turned to look at her briefly before raking his hair back from his forehead.
"Harry, how are you feeling? Do you hurt anywhere? I couldn't find anything on the diagnostic but it didn't pick up the horcrux burning into your chest either," she questioned him. He didn't answer her and her hand slid down his back, resting on his lower spine so she could carefully scoot closer.
"Harry?" she said.
His eyes were fixed on his broken wand on the table next to the bed and Hermione inwardly cursed herself. She should have left it in the kitchen so he wouldn't see it first thing. She really needed to know how he was feeling, needed to know that he wasn't feeling any ill effects from the snake's venom that had been injected into his leg. He was still silent and she had a feeling that his anger was going to be explosive and it was going to be bad. Needless to say, she wasn't disappointed.
"What the fuck happened to my wand?!" Harry positively roared. His whole body was tense and he spun around to face her, his eyes full of fury. Hermione let her hand fall from his back and pulled back, giving him space.
"It broke. I'm not sure if it happened when you jumped in front of me or if it happened when we fell out of the window and you landed on top of me. I suppose there's no way to be sure," she told him softly. Harry stood and picked up one his shoes and threw it across the tent, hitting the wall in the kitchen. Hermione started just a little at the action, clearly not expecting it. She opened her mouth to apologize but he held his hand up, anger still on his features.
"Just don't, Hermione. Don't say a word. I know it isn't your fault but this is fucking bullshite! My wand is broken and it was the one thing that protected me against You-Know-Who, the one thing that kept him from killing me outright. Now what's to stop him from just murdering me the second he sees me?" He picked up the other shoe and threw it after the other one.
Hermione wanted to tell him to calm down, that he had his father's wand and that it would hopefully work for him, that she would be there with him, but she found that she literally couldn't speak. She watched Harry search the chest of drawers for clothing and throw them on. He spoke as he got dressed and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't tell him to stop.
"I just want to go calm down, 'Mi, leave me be for awhile," he told her. With tears in her eyes, she watched him throw a cloak on over his clothing and head for the opening of the tent. He breezed through and left Hermione still on the bed, still upset, still unable to speak, and still in pain. All she had wanted to ask him was if he would help heal her but he had gone before she had figured out how to let him know that she needed him to. She was still unsure as to why she was physically unable to speak. It was frustrating and the pain was overwhelming and she just wanted to to say fuck it all.
Hermione laid herself back down gingerly, hoping that Harry would calm down quickly and come back in. It hurt her pelvis if she moved too quickly and if she breathed too deeply, her ribs felt as though she had been stabbed. She laid there and let her mind wander over the events of the last night, wondering just what she could have done differently to ensure that his wand hadn't been broken.
Truthfully, there really hadn't been anything different that she could think of. Harry had thrown himself in front her of her faster than she could react, there was no changing that. Maybe if she had cut the head off the damned snake rather than just injure it but there was no guarantee that that was even possible since it was suspected to be a horcrux and needed the Sword of Gryffindor to be killed. Maybe if she had done something other than conjure a huge rat to keep Nagini busy while she tried to get Harry to safety?
Hermione shook her head as she got up carefully, tired of second-guessing herself, hating that she let Harry make her doubt her own actions. She refused to lay in bed and wait on him while he was throwing a tantrum; she would get up and do the best she could until he returned and acted his age. She had done the best she could at the time and hopefully he would realize that after he got over the shock of his wand being broken. He had acknowledged that it wasn't her fault but she still felt as though he was blaming her. After all, what was a broken wand in comparison to dying on the floor of woman's home that smelled of rotting flesh?
Hermione was still covered in Harry's blood and smelled of Nagini's disgusting injury; washing the sheets of their bed was going to be her first order of business after a shower. Now that she was sitting on the edge of the bed, she could see that her ankle was enormous. It was clearly sprained, probably not to have weight put upon it, so Hermione once again sighed. This was already going to be a trying day.
Her wand came out and she conjured a little machine that she had seen once in the muggle world, a doo-dad with wheels that you bent your leg and rested it on. It made it easy to walk with but her hips still ached terribly. Hermione made sure to gather her clothing for the day, making sure that it was loose pajama pants and a jumper, not even bothering with a bra. She wasn't even sure that her chest could handle the constriction of a bra at the moment; she was positive that she had some broken ribs.
Hermione managed to make it into the bathroom and strip off her own pajamas without any problems. She was even able to get into the hot spray and wash herself as long as she was seated on the small ledge the back of the tub provided. It made her pelvis scream in agony but she washed as quickly as she could so it would just be over. Once she was finished, she got out and dried herself off with her wand, making it a little easier on herself. She did manage to see the bruises across what would pass as her kidneys and spotted a large one on the left side of her rib cage, telling her that earlier assessment of having broken ribs was most likely correct.
Hermione dressed as carefully as possible, leaving her feet bare, mostly because she wasn't sure that she would be able to get a sock over her ankle without bringing herself a considerable amount of pain. After leaving the bathroom with her leg propped up on her little conjured cart, she headed for the bed to clean the sheets. While she hadn't noticed the stench before, now that she was clean, it was more than obvious. He wand appeared again and she cast the cleansing charm several times, once on the sheet, once on the duvet, and then once overall on the entire bed. The last thing she wanted to smell when she went back to bed was Nagini blood and rancid sweat.
After their bedding was handled, Hermione knew that she needed to handle some breakfast. She hadn't ate since breakfast yesterday; she had been far too worried about Harry to eat yesterday and not to mention, she had been in too much pain. Now, she was already on the move and she was afraid that if she stopped moving now, she wouldn't start again. She started for the kitchen and decided to go with something easy, something that she could send out to Harry. Even if he was acting like a child throwing a tantrum, he still needed to eat. He hadn't ate in just as long as she had and he had staved off the effects of a serious venom.
Hermione cracked a few eggs in a skillet and fried them up hard, melting slices of cheese on them. She toasted bread as well, making egg sandwiches, easy but filling. She kept one for herself but plated two for Harry and put a stasis charm on them. Since he had told her to leave him alone, she was sure that she couldn't go outside with him either; therefore, she levitated them out the entrance of the tent and hoped that he found them before the spell landed them on the ground. She supposed that if they landed on the ground, it would be his own damn fault.
Hermione settled on the sofa with a book and ate her egg sandwich. She ate it quickly but filled up just as quickly. Since basically starving for a month, she found that her appetite wasn't as big as it used to be. The Gryffindor levitated her plate to the sink and did her best to concentrate on her book, the children's story that Dumbledore had left her that she was still working on translating from Ancient Runes to English. She was halfway through and was still unsure as to why the Headmaster had gifted her this specific volume.
For hours, she sat there and worked. She made it through a couple stories in the book when she realized that her back was starting to ache from not moving. Hermione cast a tempus charm and realized that it was early afternoon. Harry still hadn't returned and she hoped that he was safe out there. Deciding that he was probably hungry, Hermione rose painfully to her feet, stretching her back as carefully as she could without causing further injury to her pelvis and ribs.
The Gryffindor rolled back into the kitchen and started to put together another simple meal, something that wouldn't be too difficult to make in her state. Roast beef sandwiches came together quickly and once again, she sent two out to Harry. She settled on the couch again but this time, she couldn't concentrate on the children's book. Rather than push on and try anyways, Hermione summoned one of her all-time favorite books that had belonged to her mother and started it for the probably the hundredth time.
Hermione lost herself in the world of Mr. Darcy for several hours, completely forgetting about the pain in her body and the fact that Harry was still outside acting like a complete child. She was halfway through the book when her belly growled again and she cast a tempus only to realize that it was six o'clock at night and it had once again fallen to her to make the meal. Her ankle throbbed painfully and she considered taking a pain potion. She had been putting it off because their supplies were limited and who knew when they would be needed at a later date for something more serious.
Hermione pulled herself to her feet and once again rolled herself back into the kitchen to make something for dinner. Since she had gone with easy for the first two meals of the day, she supposed that she should put some effort into this meal, if not for Harry, but for herself. She decided that shepherd's pie was easy enough but was warm and would keep her full. It normally wouldn't take her long to put it all together but since she was a little handicapped, it took twice as long.
The timer had just dinged and she pulled it from the oven when the tent flap opened and Harry stepped through. He had a sheepish look on his face and Hermione just glared at him. He sighed and took a seat at the table, folding his hands under his chin. Hermione stood behind the counter and plated the food, sending his plate to sit on the table before him. Her plate followed and she rolled out from behind from the counter. Harry's fork clattered to the table and he shoved away from the table.
"What the fuck, Hermione!?"
-O-
Harry sat outside in the cold, warming his hands at the fire he had built with his father's wand. Surprisingly, it worked well for him. Not as well as his own wand but enough to get by. He wasn't angry with Hermione but he was so mad that his wand was broken. It was the one thing that he could count on to save him from Voldemort if they came face to face; Dumbledore had told him about priori incantatem and how they had brother wands. Neither could kill the other while they used their own wands.
His leg ached where Nagini had bitten him; Hermione had healed him as best she was able, that much he was sure of but it would likely take a few days for it to heal completely. He was still tired even though he had slept all day the day before and all night. His chest was sore but he hadn't looked at whatever wound was there. He knew the horcrux was gone so he assumed that it came from it. He should have asked Hermione if she had it but once again, he assumed that if they had lost it along the way, she would have told him immediately.
Breakfast and lunch had been delivered to him, levitated out to him where he could catch it. He was honestly surprised that Hermione hadn't already come out and berated him for acting like a child. He knew that he needed to go back in and apologize to her for acting like he was but he wanted to make sure that this behavior was completely out of his system. The last thing he wanted to do was take his anger out on her and make her think that he somehow blamed her for his wand. He was sure that she had done the best that she could after he had passed out.
His mind turned to the boy he had seen in Bagshot's house in the photo with who he was sure was Dumbledore as a young man. It was strange seeing him that young, especially without the crooked nose. He had been trying to work out just how this boy fit into the vision he had seen of Gregorovitch in September and why a wand mattered to Voldemort. Maybe he was searching for a wand that would beat Harry's? Not that it really mattered now since his wand was broken.
Times like this, Harry missed Remus. He missed having someone to talk to about things, things like how it was going with Hermione, how she was going to be mad at him for being a prat that morning when she had likely just been worried about him. He missed having someone to give him advice, someone to guide him through all things magical, things that he and Hermione weren't that experienced in.
Mostly, he was just feeling sorry for himself. He was feeling melancholy because of his wand and missing his parents after seeing their home. Finding his father's wand had been a wonderful surprise and discovering that it worked for him was nice. Purging his emotions about them being gone was something that was supposed to make him feel better, not empty. However, that's how he was feeling and he hated it. Maybe he needed to go inside and make peace with Hermione so he could hold her close. She always made him feel better and right now, he wanted to feel like he wasn't alone in this world.
Harry finally stood, putting the fire out with a douse of water from his father's wand. He probably wouldn't ever consider it his, at least not without a long time of use. He stopped outside of the tent and took a deep breath, hoping that Hermione didn't give him too hard a time, even though he knew that he deserved it. She had been worried about him and he had just gone off on her and then left. He deserved for her to be a total bitch to him but he really hoped that she wasn't. He just wanted to hold her close, feel her against him, and fall asleep.
Harry stepped inside to see her pulling something out of the oven. He felt guilty that she had cooked all the meals while he had been sulking. He was usually better about helping out and hoped that she wasn't thinking that he was slacking off like Ron had. He shot her a sheepish look as she started to plate what looked like shepherds pie. Her cooking skills had really come along since he had taught her how to cook and he liked almost everything that she made these days. She levitated his plate to him and he picked up his fork while she did the same with her plate. It was when she rolled around the counter on some sort of platform with wheels, her leg propped up on it so she could move, that he dropped his fork and stood so fast that his chair fell to the ground behind him.
"What the fuck, Hermione?!" He yelled at her. She glared at him as she gingerly took her seat. Harry found himself getting more incensed at the fact that she wasn't answering him. After she took her seat, she propped her foot up on the platform and he saw that her ankle was enormous. Fury erupted across his features and he yelled at her again.
"Answer me!" he growled. It looked as though she was finally able to take a breath.
"You arsehole! You told me not to say a word before you stormed out of this tent like a small child and I haven't been able to say a word all day," her voice trembled slightly and Harry could see that tears were forming in her eyes. Harry shook his head in confusion.
"But how, I don't understand, I can't order you around," he implored to her. A tear fell down her cheek and she swiped it away angrily. She picked up her fork.
"I don't know but I couldn't speak and I couldn't go after you because you told me to leave you be," she told him. She covered the level of emotion in her voice by taking a bite of her food. Harry took a deep breath and for the first time wondered just what the fuck had happened after he had passed out. He felt like a complete piece of shite for being so self-involved that he hadn't even considered that Hermione had been injured trying to get them away from that monster of a snake. When had he become just like Ron? Harry opened his mouth to speak but Hermione held up her hand to stop him.
"Just eat, Harry. You can heal me afterwards," Hermione uttered, sounding exhausted. Harry sighed and started eating, guilt nearly eating him alive.
He didn't eat nearly as much as he should have but he was eager to finish so he could heal the girl he loved. After she pushed her plate away, he put their plates in the sink and set them to wash. Hermione stood carefully and he watched her move to the bed to take a seat. He moved so he could kneel in front of her and laid a gentle hand on her knee. She looked up to meet his eyes and he could see that she wasn't angry at him but that didn't that he wasn't angry at himself. She deserved better from him and he had promised himself that he was going to take care of her.
"Tell me what happened and what hurts," he ordered her. Hermione sighed.
"My ankle hurts, I think my pelvis is cracked and I'm pretty sure that a few ribs are broken. After you went unconscious, I attacked Nagini with a letter opener. I conjured a huge rat and it kept her busy while I blew out the window. I was going to try to levitate you out of it but she ended up throwing me into a wall. We'll just say that we both ended up getting thrown from the window and you landed on me. I apparated us out of there as soon as we hit the ground," Hermione explained. Harry sighed and raked a hand through his hair before turning guilty eyes to her.
"Hermione, I owe you so much better than this. I never wanted to be like Ron and that's exactly how I've been today. I was so full of myself and acting like a child that I never even considered that you could be hurt or that you were worried. I was throwing a tantrum and I need to grow up. I need to be a man, there's a war to fight, and you deserve a man that can take care of you. I'm so sorry and I hope that you can find it yourself to forgive me," he begged her. Hermione sighed and leaned over slowly to kiss him softly. He cupped her cheeks and held her like she was the most precious thing in the world. She was the most precious thing in his world. When he pulled away, he could see the love she had for him shining in her eyes.
"I'm going to take better care of you, kitten. I can't afford to be a kid anymore. You always take amazing care of me and it's time to return the favor," he promised her. He stood and brushed her curls back her shoulders.
"Lay back, kitten. I'm going to cast the diagnostic on you to make sure that's all that's wrong with you," he told her. The trusting look in her eyes almost hurt, knowing that even though she had been in pain all day because he was such a prick, she still trusted him to take care of her.
Hermione laid back carefully and he cast the diagnostic on her just like she had taught him that day she had fallen through the floor in Wool's Orphanage. Hermione watched the runes as they danced above her body and after they had all disappeared, she sighed.
"They're all easy to fix, we won't need the potions. I want to save them for emergencies if we can. These are the spells you need to cast to fix everything," she told him.
Harry sat there for almost ten minutes learning the spells that she was teaching him so he could cast them on her. The ankle was simple enough, as was the pelvis since it was only cracked. The ribs took a spell that required a little more complicated wand movement, mostly because they were cleanly broken and they wanted to make sure that they didn't puncture her lung. After Harry was certain that he had learned the spells, Hermione nodded at him, trusting that he would heal her without fail. She closed her eyes and smiled softly.
"You can do this, Harry, I believe in you," she assured him. Harry nodded, even though she couldn't see him, blowing out a breath that he didn't even know that he was holding.
Harry held out his wand and began with her ribs first, getting the most difficult out of the way first. It took a few minutes to do the spell and after he completed it, Hermione took a deep breath to see if it had taken. She opened her eyes and grinned at him.
"It worked. It doesn't hurt to breathe anymore," she told him. Harry smiled down at her, more confident now that he knew the hardest of the spells had been successful.
Harry raised his wand as he moved further down her body and started to cast on her pelvis. It only took a minute or so to cast this spell and when he was finished, she wiggled just a bit and smiled happily at him, telling him that he had been successful. Without a word, he moved down and looked at her poor foot. His wand started moving above it and he chanted the spell, hoping against hope that he did it right. For some reason, her ankle affected him the worst. He watched it shrink in size to where only her fine bones remained, the discoloration all gone. He dropped his father's wand to pick up her foot and press a kiss to the inside of her ankle, happy to see that it was once again back to normal. Hermione sat up and hugged him close, smile on her face.
"Thank you, Harry. I'm thankful you were able to heal me," she whispered in his ear. Harry pulled back just enough to kiss her, not softly but certainly not savagely either.
"You never have to thank me for taking care of you, baby, I should have done it long before now," he whispered in her ear.
Hermione kissed him again, her tongue reaching out to tentatively trace the seam of his lips. Harry groaned and thrust his tongue into her mouth, tangling it with hers in a show of domination. While Hermione was quite adept at taking control now, she still preferred it when he took over their love making. His hand reached behind her and cupped the back of her head, holding her exactly where he wanted her. He took the wand in his hand and gave it a wave, vanishing their clothing so there was nothing left between them. They were skin on skin and it was heaven.
Hermione's hand fisted in his hair and tugged it, something that he found that he loved. It was getting long, product of many months since his last hair cut. Hermione had actually told him how much more mature it made him look so he was considering keeping the look. When she gave it a sharp tug, he growled into the kiss and nipped her lip. His lips moved down her neck to suckle at her pulse point, leaving a mark there. Even though Hermione's hands were buried in his hair, she did nothing to guide him, know that he would likely spank her arse or delay her orgasm.
His hand trailed up to lightly tweak her nipple; he didn't want their coupling to be rough. He wanted it to sweet and touching, to reinforce how much she meant to him. She gasped at the sensation and he decided to reward her, bending to take the peak in his mouth. He suckled at it roughly, tugging lightly at it with his teeth. Her hips thrust lightly into his and even though he would normally have punished her for that, he wasn't going to tonight.
Releasing her breast, he moved downward, aware that he was moving fast. After the day they had the day before and the emotions of the day today, they needed to be close. He buried his nose in her cunt and he inhaled deeply, savoring the musky scent of her. It reminded him of home and made him hungry at the same time. He went even lower to dip his tongue inside her to taste her sweet honey, tongue-fucking her tiny hole.
Her knees spread wide without prompting now and her hands pulled at his hair. After sucking up what nectar she had to offer, he moved up to lash his tongue at her pleasure pearl, enjoying how she lurched at the action, moaning and gasping when he sucked relentlessly on her nub. He reached out with one hand to press down on her belly, keeping her in place, while the other hand moved to her pussy, three fingers pushing inside her so he could fill her while he flicked and sucked away at her like she was a feast for Christmas dinner.
Harry knew the second that she let loose, her orgasm crashing over her. Her cunt spasmed around his fingers and pulled them in deeper while pushing fluid out around them. He continued to flick his tongue at her nub until she shoved his face away because it was too sensitive; however, this did nothing to stop him from lapping away at her liquid desire. She did nothing to stop him from licking away at her entrance. In fact, she stroked his hair while he did so. When he had finally gotten enough, he pulled away and wiped his chin moving directly to her face so he could kiss her deeply. If there was one thing that he loved about Hermione, it was that she didn't mind the taste of herself on his tongue. Ginny had hated it and refused to kiss him afterwards. Hermione never seemed to mind.
After a long kiss that seemed to rekindle her passion, Harry positioned himself at her entrance. He would have loved to have his cock sucked but tonight was about her. He had been as arse and he needed to make it up to her. At least two earth-shattering orgasms were the least he could do for her. He bent and kissed her briefly once more before he grasped her hips and thrust into her sharply. She gasped in pleasure, her legs instantly coming up to wrap around his hips so she could spur him on.
Harry tried to take it slow and easy, sure that her hips would be tender since her pelvis had been cracked. However, he could feel her hips rise up to meet his own and he was reassured that he wasn't hurting her. He could hear how juicy her pussy was when he would bottom out in her and it felt so fucking good, knowing how hot and wet he made her. Hermione's cunt would always feel like home.
Harry gripped her hips in his hands and drove into her like a man possessed, and honestly, maybe he was. He realized today that not only had he almost died the day before, she had almost died trying to save him. While he could be happy knowing that he had died saving Hermione, he couldn't be happy knowing that Hermione had died trying to save him. It wasn't a reality that he was comfortable with and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that it never happened again.
His love was panting in his ear and her heels were digging in his arse, urging him to go faster and harder. Harry did his best to comply without hurting her, driving into her like a man possessed. He could feel her walls tightening around him and he hoped that he would last long enough for her to claim her pleasure. She felt so unbelievable amazing that he knew he wasn't going to last much longer.
His kitten detonated around him just moments later, her cunt clenching down on his cock, milking him of every last drop of seed his balls could produce. He spasmed on top of her for several minutes, making sure that he had every last drop inside her, not sure why this was important, but knowing somewhere down deep that it was. There was a fleeting thought that she wasn't protected but it was dismissed just as quickly. He collapsed on top of her and her arms circled around him to hold him to her, enjoying how close he was.
Harry rolled off of her a few minutes later, afraid of crushing her. She didn't let him go far, no further than the embrace of his arms. He shot her a questioning glance when she wouldn't let go of him to even let him cast a cleansing charm and she looked at him sheepishly before releasing him.
"I'm sorry. I was just so scared that I lost you last night that it's been hard to let you out of my sight, let alone out of my reach," she confessed. Of course, her confession made him feel worse about his behavior but he made it better by reaching for his father's wand and casting cleansing spells on the both of them. Once finished, he put it away and pulled her tightly into his embrace. He kissed her face several times over.
"Now you're not getting away. You're stuck with me all night," he promised her. Much to his surprise, she looked quite pleased.
Hermione snuggled into his side even further and threw one of her legs between his own and he tucked the duvet around them. Even though he was exhausted, he waited until he heard he deep and even breathing until he let himself relax. He owed Hermione a good night's rest and that was what he was going to make sure she had. She had given up her good nights rest the night before to make sure that he was going to live.
After the day she had had, it was the least the he could do. After all, Hermione was worth it.