Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
A Sky Full Of Stars
III
"Are you alright?"
Harry's voice shook Hermione out of her torpor. She was sitting next to the window of her room, looking dreamingly at the outside of Shell Cottage. They were here since two days, and she was slowly recovering, not fast enough in her opinion though.
Hermione turned her attention toward Harry, and smiled at him.
"Yes, I'm as fine as I can be given the circumstances. How are you?"
"Fine, I guess...," he sighed and sat on the bed next to her armchair. "Ron is with Bill, they are strengthening the spells around the house.
"Do they need some help?," Hermione asked while doing a movement to get up.
"No, it's fine, I've already asked," Harry calmed her, a hand over her forearm. "Are you really alright? I mean, your neck and everything."
Hermione sat once again, and nodded slowly. "Yes, it's fine. Fleur took care of me, and she did an amazing job."
It was the first time since their unexpected arrival at Shell Cottage that they were alone together, and the young woman could almost feel the difference between them. When they were alone, every word seems to be a challenge, every movement was understood differently; It was like they were scared to be next to each other, scared of the electricity between them.
"And what about your other wounds?"
"I don't have other wounds," Hermione chuckled. "Thanks Merlin for small miracles."
"She used the Cruciatus Curse on you, Hermione," Harry let out in a breath, gazing intensively at her.
"I know," she simply said, her eyes escaping Harry's gaze. "But it's not a big deal."
"You can't fool me, Hermione. I know how it feels..."
He took her hand into his, bending over to do so, just to see Hermione shaking her head vehemently.
"I'm sure that it was different. Voldemort is stronger than Bellatrix, and..."
"I heard your screams."
Hermione didn't intend to cry; she cried a lot the previous days, and she thought, naively, that she was almost dried inside, that no tears could escape from her eyes anymore. But when Harry squeezed her hand a little harder, she started to sob uncontrollably, her head bent down, not wanting to be seen in a moment like this.
Harry did what she thought he would do: he didn't move. He just stayed here, his hand around her own, caressing the palm of her hand from time to time. He just waited for her to stop, for her to calm down. Ten minutes were necessary for her to do so, and when her sobs started to calm down, Harry handed her a handkerchief.
"Better now?" he slowly asked, moving his hand to her knee to give her the opportunity to wipe off her tears.
"Yes, thank you."
A silence then settled between them, and to Harry's surprise, it was Hermione who broke it a few minutes later.
"It was awful," she began in a shaking voice, still not daring to look at him in the eyes. "I mean... I thought that it wouldn't stop, that she would continue until I die. I thought about so many things. I lost hope, Harry, and I realise that I wanted to die for a moment or two, just to make it stop.
"Somehow, when her dagger was next to me, I thought that it would be a good idea to just take it, you know, just because I didn't want to give her the satisfaction to kill me. If I had to die, I didn't want her to be my executioner."
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Harry simply said, and Hermione realised that he thought that it was his fault.
"Don't be," she said before smiling at him. "It would have happened anyway, even if I wasn't with you. Or who knows, it could have been worse."
"How are you feeling this then? I mean, the aftereffects..."
"It's harder than what I thought it would be like. My body is constantly sore, and... it still hurts. It's not the same kind of pain, of course, but it hurts. It's even worse during the night," she admitted, wiping off a lonely tear on her right cheek.
"Maybe that Fleur can help you with that, she had some amazing ointments."
"I've already asked her. She needs at least three or four days to prepare the good one, but I'm not sure if we have the time to wait."
"We can wait. We are not going to leave this house until you're better."
"It's not a big deal if we ca–"
"We are going to wait," Harry interrupted her. "Come here."
He got up, and invited Hermione to do the same. A second later, she was into his embrace, his lips gently kissing the top of her head. She felt same, like every time she was with him, close to him.
"Thank you," she muttered, her face close to his chest.
When she tried to get free from his embrace, she looked up at him and realised that his lips were so close from hers, so close... Harry slowly caressed her cheek, and for a second, she thought that he would kiss her. Just for a second. The second after, Ron's voice reached their ears, and they swiftly moved away from each other.
"I'm coming," Harry said in a low voice, answering to Ron.
With a last look full of unsaid things, Harry left the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
XxX
"Did you travel well?"
Hermione tried to smile at him, but she soon realised that she couldn't manage to give him a real smile. Her expression was close to a grimace, and she quickly abandoned this idea.
"Yes, everything went well, thank you."
"I didn't think that you would really come, to be honest," Harry let out, before heading to the desk to take a pile of parchments.
"I'm just here to do my job, nothing more."
It was the truth, wasn't it? Even if a small part of her had expected to see him after all these years – a masochist part of her, of course –, she was just here to do her job after all.
"I guess that you were as excited as I was when you learned that you were supposed to work with me," the green-eyed wizard said sarcastically while reading his files, not paying that much attention to her.
"Of course, I wouldn't let an opportunity like this slip through my fingers."
Harry suddenly looked up at her, and put his files back on the desk.
"You've changed," he noticed, letting his gaze going from her face to her feet.
"And so have you," Hermione admitted in a breath. "Getting older suits you well."
She inwardly rolled her eyes when these words escaped from her mouth: the last thing that she wanted to do was to compliment him, and she just did it.
But Harry was quite right: she'd changed. Her hair was slightly lighter than usual, and her former untamed mane was now shiny and disciplined. She was a littler taller too, but not as much as Harry was. Since the end of the War, she had gained a few pounds, something that she needed after having lost so much weight while being on the run for almost a year.
"When are we going to work together then?," Hermione interrupted the flow of her own thoughts, suddenly thinking about what she was supposed to do here during a week.
"Now, if you want to follow me," Harry swiftly said before heading to the door.
Hermione followed him, doing her best to walk at his pace despite her high heels.
"Where are we going to?"
"I guess that the first place that you want to see is Mr. Tellington's office, am I right?"
"You are," Hermione whispered, hoping that they weren't far from this place.
Eventually, they arrived in front of the office of the accused Auror, and Hermione gave Harry a side-glance.
"Are you going to be with me the entire time?"
"Trust me, it's not a pleasure for me either. But it's my job as the Head of the Auror office, and yes, I have to be with you the entire time," Harry sighed, his expression undecipherable. "Come in."
Hermione swallowed hard; she had never liked to be spy on during her investigations, and it would be even harder with Harry Potter next to her. Without a single word, he sat in the armchair in front of Mr. Tellington desk, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you waiting for to look for the evidences that you need?," he asked her like she was the dumbest person in the world, his fingers drumming at a rapid pace on the arm of the chair.
"Nothing," Hermione said back, her head up. She wouldn't be intimated by him, not in the slightest.
With as much pride as she could, she tried to avoid his presence in the room and started to look into Mr. Tellington files. She did it for at least twenty minutes, doing her best not to be too disturbed by Harry's attitude, but his ceaseless sights didn't help her to do so.
"Will you be over soon?" he asked with a disdain that she didn't know he would be capable of.
"I'm working," Hermione retorted without even looking up from the parchment that she was reading. "If you're not happy with it, you can send another person, I really don't mind."
Actually, she would be more than pleased to have someone else looking after her. Even Argus Filch would be better than Harry at the moment.
"It's my job," Harry grumbled.
"Then do it without disturbing me, please."
He didn't say another word, and Hermione continued to work in silence, looking at him from time to time. Despite the fact that he was almost continuously frowning – a perfect sign of his annoyance toward her –, Harry was still handsome, as handsome as in her dreams. They didn't occur that much, – the dreams –, but when she had one of them, Hermione couldn't focus on her job for almost two days. She always was disturbed by them, and always thought that it was a sign that she needed to come back, just to talk to him, to explain everything.
But she had never been able, never had the courage to do so.
Of course, Hermione didn't find anything valuable in Tellington's office after two hours of research.
"I need to talk to his co-workers."
"I'm here, right in front of you," Harry sarcastically grinned. "What do you want to know?"
"I'd prefer to talk to you later, if you don't mind. You are the Head of the Auror office, and your interview could be decisive."
"Alright," he said, not wanting to argue with her. "I'll lead you to the other Aurors then. But be aware that not all of them are here at the moment, they are on a mission. The rest of my co-workers will be here at the end of the week. I guess that it explains why you are going to stay so long among us."
Hermione got up from her chair and took the few files that she thought would be valuable in the future.
"Let's go then."
Thank you for reading this story. I hope that you like it so far and that you're not too disturbed by the flash-backs. If you are, don't hesitate to say it, since it's the first time that I write a Harmony story like this one. :)
More soon!
