Summary: "Because they're here and he's here and he doesn't ever remember his wishes coming true before. And, he thinks, it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen." Moments (including OotP, DH, and post-DH) of comforting Harry-Hermione friendship. Definitely Ron-Hermione and Harry-Ginny pairings.

AN (1): Recommended listening: "Oats We Sow" by Gregory and the Hawk.

AN (2): So, I haven't written in a little while on here (I've been working on a poetry collection for my University :D), but I was feeling this little drabble here, so I decided I'd kick it out and post it. I feel the need to say again that this is Harry/Hermione FRIENDSHIP - it'll keep things less confusing. (I feel the weird need to be pro-cannon, lol.) Anyways, hopefully you guys enjoy these little snapshots! (Oh, and it's fairly obvious I don't own Harry Potter, lol.) Anyways, please, please review :D

Here

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.
- Henry Miller

...

"Hey," Harry mumbles.

Hermione smiles gently, looking pale but much better than the last time he'd seen her. "Hi."

"How are you feeling?" It comes out halted and he's sure he sounds terrified.

"Better," she tells him resolutely, though he sees how tenderly she holds herself, protecting her ribs at all costs. She's the only one still left in the hospital wing, the unspoken curse still affecting her.

He sits down at the edge of her bed. "Good."

She smooths the blanket over her legs, for once at a loss for words. "Harry, I'm... sorry."

He shakes his head. "Thanks," he mumbles.

"If you need to talk about S-Siri-"

"Hermione," he says, but gently.

She nods, accepting. "I'm just here, whenever, okay?"

Harry takes a deep breath, taking in her gentle brown eyes and small chin, her lips. He realizes fleetingly that she's very grown-up and very beautiful. "I thought you were..."

Her brows knit together. "What? I'm always here for you, Harry. You know that."

He studies his shoes. "When you got hit with the curse. I, I thought you were, you know, dead." The last word comes out a startled whisper.

Her eyes get big. "Oh," she lets out. "I, I..."

He meets her eyes. "It was one of the scariest things I've ever felt."

She swallows. "Well, I, I'm not dead," she mumbles.

He can't help but feel his lips pull into a small smile. "No, no you're not." It's comforting, for an odd reason, that he's heard her confirm this aloud. He adds, "I hear Ron was panicked the first time he saw you afterwards."

She blushes. "He's loyal, isn't he?"

Harry grins. "I think it's a little more than that."

Hermione shakes her head, but Harry takes her hand. "He'll come around eventually. He's a git."

She laughs, not once wincing or grasping her ribs.

"I'll see you soon, Hermione."

She nods. "Thanks, Harry. For, for, you know, everything," she finishes lamely.

"You're my best friend, Hermione."

She smiles, a lopsided, crooked grin that reminds him of their first year together, young and happy. "Say hello to Ron for me!"

He waves. "He'll be in later."

She waves too, her crooked smile still in place, sitting back and lifting a gigantic textbook onto her lap happily, only wincing once.

He's here and she's here and he realizes it matters more to him than maybe anything else in the world. And it's beautiful.

…

"You look better," Harry says, sitting next to her lone slumped form on the beach.

"I feel a little better, thanks." She doesn't look at him, instead drawing little swirls in the sand.

He puts a bowl in front of her, on top of her swirls.

"What's this for?" she asks softly.

"It'll help your arm. Murtlap essence."

She meets his expectant gaze. "Nothing's wrong with..."

"Hermione," he cuts her off. "At least let me see."

She shakes her head, tucking her left wrist even closer to her stomach.

"Please. I'm going to see it eventually, Hermione. You need to take care of it."

She looks at him, her eyes full of tears. "You can't tell Ron, okay?" she whispers.

"He's going to -"

"I'll tell him when I want." Her determined and bossy tone is so Hermione he can't help but agree with a nod.

She peels back her cardigan sleeve, and he takes in a sharp breath, taking in the mudblood for the first time. "Hermione..." he breathes.

She pulls it back from his hand, pushing her sleeve down with enough force to make her wince before she can compose herself again.

"It's, it's..." she turns and wipes tears quickly from her cheeks.

"It's hateful," he says quietly. "It's hateful and awful and horrid, Hermione, but-"

"What, Harry?" she asks shrilly, angrily. "It's there and it'll always be there."

"But," he continues calmly, and she scrunches her nose, "but it means that you're stronger than all of that, because you're here. You're here, Hermione."

She bites her bottom lip, her brow creasing in an attempt to hold back tears.

"And you're, you're beautiful, Hermione. No scar can take that away."

"You would know," she says, before cracking a smile.

He laughs gently, wrapping an arm around her. She settles her head into his shoulder. "Exactly. After all of this is done, I'm planning on becoming a super model."

She giggles softly. He gently reaches for her sleeve, and she lets him, allows him to roll it back and place her arm in the soothing murtlap essence.

"Can you go get Ron?" she asks softly but resolutely after a few quiet moments.

Harry nods. "I'll be right back."

"Harry?" she pauses. "I, I need to do this alone."

He smiles softly, understanding. "He'll tell you exactly what I did, Hermione. Probably in more passionate -" Hermione blushes - "terms. But he, he..."

"He'll come around," she supplies with a smile.

Harry grins.

He's here and she's here and maybe, for now, that's all that really matters.

He thinks - a few minutes later, as he watches the small silhouette of Ron wrap Hermione in an embrace, as he watches her even smaller shadow shake with sobs that he knows she needs to cry (and not in front of him), then watches them sit back, finally, still and peaceful, against the sun setting into the orange-tinted waves - it's one of the most beautiful things he's ever seen.

…

Crack!

"Merlin, Hermione!" Harry shouts, while Ginny frantically tries to straighten her blouse.

Hermione doesn't seem to care that Harry and Ginny are entwined on their couch, though, storming into the kitchen in their flat, shouting, "He's such an idiot! Bloody hell!"

Ginny's eyes grow big. Harry manages to hold back a laugh - hearing Hermione curse is inherently funny.

"I'll, uh, I have to..." Ginny stutters.

"Go," Harry assures her, and Ginny Disapparates without another word.

Hermione blasts plates with her wand, repairing them quickly before blasting them again.

"Hermione," Harry says cautiously, taking a few steps closer to her. "Let's just put that wand-"

"Harry Potter, do not tell me what to do with this wand," she seethes.

"Okay, okay." He holds up his hands in surrender. "You keep your wand and just, start by telling me..."

"What my git of a fian-" she stops abruptly.

Harry's eyes are huge. "Fiance?" he chokes.

Hermione promptly blasts a large bowl.

Harry barely notices, though. "He asked you to, to marry him?" he gulps. "Ronald Weasley?"

An entire cabinet shatters this time. Harry takes that for a yes.

"And you said yes?"

"OF COURSE I SAID YES!" she roars, and Harry fears for his entire flat now, the kitchen table splintering in front of his eyes.

"Then, Hermione, what... what's the problem?" he asks feebly.

She turns on him, her wand pointed and her eyes blazing. "He forgot the Silencing Charm. At my parents' house, Harry."

He fights back a grin.

"So we're, you know..."

"Celebrating?" he supplies with a smile, to which she rolls her eyes but nods.

"And then my parents - my parents - come in! And then," she suddenly puts her wand down, pointed straight towards the floor, "Ron and I, we had a big row. A loud row," she adds.

"Did he, uh..."

"He thought it was funny!"

A chair crashes apart. Harry would have happily burst into laughter if Hermione had not been destroying his kitchen with a more-than-angry wand. "It's, it's a little funny, Hermione."

"It is NOT!" she shouts, and breaks apart another chair. Ginny was going to kill him, he thinks fleeting. Harry just finds himself standing there, trying to process everything and not get hit with a variety of powerful curses (accompanied with loud swearing in English, French, and - what Harry guessed - some Ancient Runes as well).

Suddenly, he sees Hermione's face light up in a smile, and a burst of laughter escapes her lips.

Harry grins, relieved, as she starts laughing as hard as her small frame would allow her. "I'm engaged to Ron!" she bursts. "Me, Hermione Granger," her eyes fill with tears, "engaged to Ronald Weasley. Engaged!"

Harry doesn't know whether or not this is particularly what she should be laughing at, but it's better than her blasting apart his kitchen, so he doesn't try to interject.

"I'm going to marry him! He's going to be my husband! Hermione, Hermione Weasley!" She dissolves into a fit of giggles, sitting down in the only chair left intact, doubling over with laughter that has turned silent.

Harry stares, confused and a little scared still, but walks over slowly. "Hermione?"

She looks up, still clutching her wand, tears pouring from her eyes and a crooked smile on her lips. She looks as young as her twenty-three years and happy, and suddenly, Harry is bursting with joy for his two best friends. He quickly wraps her in a hug before she can resist (or jinx him), and he can tell she's not laughing anymore.

She's crying.

"It's okay," she whispers, her face close to his as he steps back from their hug.

He knows she means so much more than the (idiotic) fight she and Ron had just gotten in. He knows she means time. Their future. Marriage. Kids. The world outside the painful one they'd grown up in.

He knows she means life.

"Yeah," he says, "yeah. It's okay."

They're both startled by a crack in the drawing room, followed by a, "Please don't jinx me, Hermione! I really am sorry!" by Ron and Ginny's soft, "Ronald, you really are a git."

Hermione and Harry grin. "In the kitchen!" Harry instructs.

Ron walks in first, attempting to show his chivalry is still intact by appearing to protect Ginny from Hermione's anger, who rolls her eyes before she sees the state of her flat.

Hermione runs towards Ron, and he engulfs her in a kiss, murmuring, "I'm so sorry, love. Bloody hell, Hermione," whenever they take a breath.

Ginny starts shouting, "What the hell happened to my kitchen? Harry Potter, you were supposed to stop her! Big bad Auror, can't even stop a poor Ministry worker!" all while shooting counterjinxes around the disheveled room.

There's a SHUT THE HELL UP! from the flat below them.

Harry looks at his best friends snogging each other senseless, looks at the love of his life, shouting at the top of her lungs, her face as red as her hair, counterjinxes flying around them.

It's loud and chaotic. But they're here and he's here.

And, he thinks, it's maybe one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.

…

"How are you?" Harry asks softly and honestly, helping Hermione clean the drawing room in she and Ron's house from their farewell party for James, Albus, and Rose.

Hermione takes a deep breath, turning to Harry. Her eyes are exactly the same, eyes that Harry knows Hugo inherited. "I'm, I'm good," she says after a moment of consideration.

"Strange, isn't it?"

She nods with a small smile. "I remember telling Ron that I wanted this moment for her, and I, I do, I just..." she trails off, vanishing a spilled butterbeer.

"You'll miss her," he says quietly.

Hermione nods, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and wiping a few tears from her cheeks. "She's my daughter."

Harry smiles softly. "She'll be fine. More than fine, actually. She'll be brilliant."

"I hope so," she whispers.

Harry shakes his head. "I know she will, Hermione." He takes her hand, and she meets his eyes. "She's just like you."

A smile pulls at her lips, crooked, making her look younger than she was. She wraps her arms around Harry. "Luckily she'll have James and Albus to monitor and keep out of too much trouble," she laughs through tears.

He laughs, letting her go and helping her take down a Hogwarts! banner.

Albus, James, and Hugo come bounding in, shrieking and chased by Ron and Teddy; Ginny, Rose, and Lily following behind, giggling. Hermione scolds the boys (and Ron) for tracking mud in again, and Ginny joins in. Ron sends Harry a furtive help me glance as Hermione starts in on another row before changing her mind and kissing him instead, and Ginny rolls her eyes. Rose glares at James, correcting him with an exasperated reference to Hogwarts: A History. Lily giggles uncontrollably as Teddy tickles her, and Hugo joins in with a peel of laughter, so like Ron with his lanky build and red hair. Albus catches Harry's eyes amid all the chaos, green meeting green, with a smile.

It's his family. It's life, more than he'd ever dreamed. Because they're here and he's here and he doesn't ever remember his wishes coming true before.

And, he thinks, it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

AN: Happy summer and please review! :D