"Mr. Potter." A voice called out in frustration but Harry wasn't even vaguely aware of it. "Mr. Potter!" The voice tried again with an even more agitated tone. A loud cough filled the room and Harry looked up in surprise to see a healer in lime green robes who was scathingly glaring at him. He moved away from the sleeping girl, as he watched her relax into a deeper sleep.

"Mr. Potter, visiting hours are over!" The healer stated bluntly, using his hands to practically shoo Harry out of the room. It reminded Harry of Madam Pomfrey he always assumed it was just her that kicked out her patient's visitors but it must be a trait of a healer. He took one last glance at Hermione and left.

As he walked down the busy street a rather obnoxious ringtone distracted him from his thoughts.

"Fred?"

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Hermione woke up and felt disorientated from all the potions that had been pumped through her system. She looked around for Harry and hoped to find him sitting there in the chair but felt a wave disappointment to find it empty. It then occurred to her that the visiting times were rather short, shorter than she had anticipated. A healer in all too green lime robes walked through the door.

"Miss Granger, how are you feeling?" His voice was soft and gentle and not in the same frustrated tone he had to use with Harry.

"Better, I think." She hesitated before making her response, uncertain if she wanted to know more of the truth. "What exactly have I done?" She attempted to sit up and the pain hit her in the sides making her flinch. Ignoring the burning feeling she tried again, a triumphant smile crossed her once she finally sat up.

"You were severely burned, you were lucky they found you so quickly." He paced to the other side of the room, and started to prepare another potion. Hermione hoped it wasn't another drowsy concoction. "I doubt very much the scarring will be permanent, but you won't be able to go home by yourself for several weeks. You've managed to burn the majority of your torso and your hands got quite a brunt of the fire too. However in about two weeks the soreness and redness should subside and they'll be fully functioning." He carried on chopping up the ingredients that Hermione recognised as a burn salve. Something she could make in her sleep in her opinion. Once he finished he dropped them into the cauldron and the contents seemed to creep up into a boil and into a sticky paste. It smelled of mint, the kind of mint that her parents would make her rinse her mouth out with after brushing. The mouthwash her childhood friend tried and it made his eyes water because he wasn't used to it.

"But…My parents… Two weeks." She moaned letting out a sigh of defeat. There was no way that she was postponing her search for that long. She slouched back into the bed. The healer walked over to her bed and took her hands in his he started to gently apply the sticky paste all over her hands. A cool feeling washed over her, as the healer gently massaged it in until it disappeared. He then picked up with wand and quietly muttered a quick scougifycleaning the excess paste off of his hands. She watched as delicately wrapped the bandages around her hands debating if she could alter them with magic.

"I think, that you should ask Mr. Potter to stay here for a while." The healer continued to bandage her hands up, whilst he gauged her reaction. Hermione looked up at him with a begrudged look. "I don't mean to intrude, but it seems to me that you need someone right now. He seems to care about you, and I think that you need him to stay a little while."

Hermione sat still as she silently listed all the reasons that she didn't want him to stay.

"I couldn't ask him that. I want him to get on with his life. After everything he's been through, I don't want to be the burden that delays him." She sorrowfully stated. "I want him to go and finish his training. He doesn't need to worry about me, I can look after myself." Hermione looked at him defiantly in the eyes as if challenging him.

The healer began to mutter something that sounded like for someone so smart, she sure can be dumb as he moved from her bed. He tilted his head up as he noticed Harry leaning upon the doorframe. The healer put one finger to his lips to shush Harry, with a slight twinkle in his eyes. Harry looked puzzled but gave the healer a small nod of his head.

"Sorry I didn't catch your name?" Hermione said trying to change the subject and focus on something, perhaps she could quiz him on the most effective temperature for boiling the burn salve/

"Healer Guiscard, and stop trying to change the subject." He laughed, however she wasn't particular amused. "Just ask him to stay, Miss Granger. He cares for you. You need that care right now." He let out a low laugh. "I can see that you need the company for your own mental well-being too, before you go completely mad. Like it or lump it, you need someone. If Mr. Potter is willing to look after you, you would be out very promptly. I'd go and fetch your discharge parchments now rather instead of next week. You would be able to recover and start looking for your parents." He backed away from the girl, knowing what response to expect, he looked over at Harry- who could see exactly what Healer Guiscard was doing.

Hermione prepared herself again to lecture her healer.

"I am not his burden …" She continued on that she was independent and she'd yet to see Harry creep further in the room. Harry went to stop her pointless lecture but the healer eyed him to let her completely finish before he could appear within her sight. "Harry should go home and carry on with his Auror training. This is what he has dreamed of for years. I'm his best friend, I can't be the one to ruin it for him. " She had made the habit of nodding her as if each nod confirmed and approved of every lie she said, making it more believable to her. "I refuse to be the one …" Guiscard rolled his eyes at the girl as Harry looked shocked by her response. Guiscard quietly patted Harry on the back and left the room.

"Harry cares, I know that. But I want him to go back home, I'm not going to be the one- his burden that holds him back, he deserves to finally start his life, and not be just a pawn in the great grand scheme of things. Just leave me alone, please. " It had been a long a trying conversation that she was no longer in the mood to continue, plus the guilt of what she had said was starting to nag her. She closed her eyes and hoped for sleep and then tomorrow would come, and she'd be healed a little more.

Harry walked over to her bed

"Hermione." He said gently, her eyes snapped open and new wave of guilt stronger than before consumed her.

"Harry. What are you…?"She paused confused again, she hated this place. Never in her life had she been confused so many times except in this room. "Harry, how much of that did you hear?"

"Hermione, I don't care about my Auror training. That will always be there for me, that opportunity isn't going vanish, friends come first. You'll be pleased to know I'm almost done now anyway, passed everything with flying colours." He said proudly, Harry could see by the look on her face she still wasn't convinced. "You are one of my best friends. I'm staying and there's nothing you can do about it. Besides would you really deny me the opportunity of settling into my new apartment, would you?" He grinned a little. Harry then sat down on her bed, and flinched as Hermione punched his arm with a rather hard force.

"Harry James Potter!" She cried, trying to restrain herself from batting him again. "Why would you do that? What about Ginny?" He looked at her with a weak smile on his face. "Oh, I see you just thought you'd take off here, buy an apartment and not think about her? That fire must have caught you too, and taken half your brain with it." Her hands covered her face, as she shook her head this wasn't what she wanted.

"Ginny, will be here in a few weeks anyway her big Quidditch tour remember? You said you'd go, promised in fact." Hermione bit her bottom lip. "I bought the apartment for several reasons. One being my job has actually moved here. Two, Ginny's job is going to be here. There's a few others too but we'll get to those later. "Her face went blank. "Hermione, about your letters, tell me that they aren't full of lies. Look me in the eyes Hermione and tell me that all those letters were true." He stated. She went to open her mouth and closed it again. "That's what I thought."

"You look absolutely awful." He said dragging his hand through his hair.

"Well aren't you charming .How did you know that it was all lies?" In a quiet voice she asked.

"There was a picture of you in the daily prophet, someone found you. It was a tiny article, like it wasn't supposed to be there. We only saw it a couple of days ago. We started making travel arrangements as soon as we saw it."

"Oh," Was all she could muster to reply she thought she had been more careful.

"Now for the bad news." Hermione groaned she knew what was coming and she didn't like it one bit. "You will be discharged this afternoon, as long as you come live with me for the remainder of my training which now takes place in Bellgurrier Gaiden." He merely stated.

"Thank you."

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Healer Guiscard discharged Hermione that afternoon but only on the condition that it was into the care of Harry. She was desperate to see her apartment, as soon as she set foot out of the hospital she practically begged Harry to take her there. After much debate between them Harry with much reluctance agreed to take Hermione down to her old scorched apartment.

The walls had burned to ground the remains of the debris were in a charred pile that spread across the floor. Their structure was the only evidence that had once been walls there. The area where her desk had been turned into grey sludge resulting from the ashes being mixed with the water, when they had battled with flames to put it out. Hermione stood still there wasn't a single paper left, not even a photograph. Her entire flat had gone up flames and had destroyed any possible leads that she had.

"I'm really sorry Hermione. We tried everything we could to put out the fire and to get you out." He held her in his arms, knowing that she was likely to break any second. "Hermione, look at me?" He swiftly moved his hand from her back up to her chin tilting it gently up. "We will find them; I won't leave you until we find them." He promised her, he dropped his hand and moved to hold her once more, as she buried her head in his chest.

"Come on, let's get out of here. The ash is still in the air it can't be good for you or me."

"Harry…"she whined. He held her close and kissed her forehead in a brotherly manner, before dissapparating them.

After her stomach had stopped churning from the apparation she opened her eyes. The pair was outside of old stone building with five arches acting as entrances into a empty space, perhaps an old theatre. Above the arches there was a well weathered engraving, with small flecks of gold paint spelling out Bellgurrier Gaiden Station.

Hermione looked at Harry confused, a look which he returned to her. "Wait." He spoke. "You don't have a clue where we are. Do you?" His eyes darted back to hers, to challenge her to lie, as she had done in so many of her letters.

"No, I haven't been here before. Nor do I have any clue where we are." She stated.

"You've been living here for how long?" He rhetorically asked her, as he beckoned her to follow him under the middle arch. "Hermione, you've never stepped foot here before." He stated rather than questioned. "This is Melbourne's equivalent of Diagon Alley. You'll see though it's rather different. I was sure you would have at least read about it." She swatted his arm, and she caught gleam in his eyes, similar to the twin's when they'd found a new prank to pull. How she missed them, and the rest of the Weasleys.

They walked forward until they reached a Victorian style iron gate. The swirls in the silver gate intricately entwined to form a rather delicate but beautiful structure. She struggled to see the top of the gate due to it's ridiculous height. .

"It's a bit like St. Mungos." He said, interrupting Hermione's trail of thoughts. "They've used the old station as their entrance." He looked over at her, knowing that she didn't hear him; he shook his head and quietly chuckled to himself.

He muttered words to the supposed man tucked away in a little box on left hand of the gate. Harry then muttered several incarnations as he tapped several parts of the of iron which came to life, they unravelled the swirls creating enough space for them to walk through. The pair walked through and the ironwork immediately snapped back with a clank.