A/N: So unlike everyone else, I've given up hope on an H/Hr, and will be crying at around 11. :( But until then a girl can dream...
Hermione woke up to Harry holding her close to him. The situation was very uncomfortable on the small couch, but she was undoubtedly warm. She shook Harry awake even though she herself was in desperate need of a proper place to go to sleep.
"What?" Harry said crankily waking up from his sleep.
"I was going to ask you if you wanted anything. I'm sure there's some kind of snacks somewhere."
Harry glanced at his watch.
"It's three in the morning. Stay." Harry said pulling her closer.
"How about we both go visit Ennee instead?" Hermione asked compromising. She missed her like her own pet. Maybe even slightly more just because of the fact that when she picked the puppy up she didn't scratch her like Crookshanks did.
"Sure." Harry said abandoning the makeshift sleeping area.
They traveled the hospital making many wrong turns before fifteen minutes later they were in a sterile area where a bandaged Ennee was sleeping.
"I was so worried about her." Harry said quietly as he touched her soft fur.
"I'm so sorry Harry, this is all my fault."
"You didn't do it on purpose." Harry said.
When he had first arrived at the hospital he had thought differently, but a little time had cleared his head. He knew that she loved Ennee almost as much as he did.
They sat for a few minutes just watching her as she slept before they decided to leave. They headed back to the waiting room and gathered all their belongings before they apparated back home. She was aiming for one of the bedrooms apparently her stomach had other plans as they appeared in the kitchen.
She looked about for a second realizing she was not in her intended destination before she wrinkled her nose.
"Cook for me?" Hermione asked with a begging smile.
"It's three in the morning," Harry said, "the only plans I have is going back to bed."
Harry opened the cabinet and gave her a box of saltines and a bottle of water.
"It'll help you make it through until breakfast."
"Do you plan on cooking breakfast?" Hermione asked.
She was already disappointed that he refused to cook for her, but she wasn't going to let him off unless she knew there was something in this for her in the end.
"No," Harry said slowly, "I have to go back to Hogwarts and teach before the Christmas holidays."
"Can't you just skip tomorrow so we can talk?"
"I've already lost so many days of work Hermione, I have to be there. Lupin cannot keep filling in for me, and I can't keep waiting for you to either open up, or plan the wedding which is what those days are for. And I don't understand why it would be so hard for you to plan one if you are surrounded by them everyday."
"How about I take these crackers and you go to bed like originally planned?" Hermione suggested calmly telling him that she wanted the conversation to end. "Leave it until the morning, I doubt the neighbors enjoy our constant bickering."
Harry stepped into his class, and relieved Remus Lupin of his duties as substitute Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"Everyone says your leaving." One student shouted over the ruckus his unexpected appearance had caused.
"Why would you think that?"
"Well you haven't been here for a while." One student supplied.
"And besides since when has a Hogwarts professor been married."
"Enough!" Harry shouted quieting all of their protests as a new reason was introduced, " My job is to teach you how to defend yourselves and that's it. It's on a year to year basis so yes I can leave at any time I want to, as can the rest of you're teachers. It's my decision but just so you know I don't plan on leaving. And as far as the marriage goes I like setting precedents."
All of the students seemed to accept it, or at least they quieted not wanting to face his temper.
"So let's talk projects."
They all groaned. They had already been faced with so many projects that Lupin had given them as busy work supposed to further their knowledge but very tedious.
"Project or exam." Harry said.
He could admit that he had never been so tough on a class before, but they needed to be preparing for their NEWTS.
They all agreed on the project idea.
"So, Adriana's going to go around with this red bag and you're each going to pull out a box.
He waited as everyone received a gift and they all shook it wondering what it was which he warned them against. No other teacher had given them a present for Christmas. This was the last of their classes and in a week and a half's tune most of them would be going home to celebrate the holidays.
"Hold on," Harry cautioned, "This is going to test what you've learned so far in this class. You're mission is to run several of the revealing spells that you all should know by now and discover exactly what jinxes, hexes, and other magic is on the present. You must write a paper explaining the history of the spell. You are allowed to work on this over Christmas break but don't think for a second that it gives you permission to use magic in any other way. I guarantee that the Ministry will arrive at you're home. Understood?"
They all responded with a yes and he gave them the rest of the class time to figure out what was in the boxes. He had mad it very difficult and he didn't honestly expect half of them to get past several of the charms he had put on them.
Hermione took another sip of her coffee as she started putting the material for the latest dress together. That early in the morning "discussion" between Harry and herself made her realize how much work she had left behind.
Her own sewing machine was broken and her patience was running thin. True to his word Harry had left before she had woken up. So she arrived at her mothers soon after eight to get some food before she left for work at the office.
She also took his suggestion of learning how to cook and all her mother supplied her was about 12 cookbooks. She had looked at none of them but instead set to her current work. Her mind was completely on finishing a dress that she had all the time in the world to complete, it was in fact her own.
She had fears that at the rate things were going she would never get a chance to wear it. Her own doubts were starting to wear on Harry and he himself mentioned at the hospital that he knew what she was talking about when she broke the dishes.
She pricked her finger with the needle and added another Band-Aid to the already gauze covered hand. She took her work extremely seriously, yet she was starting to wonder if she needed a thimble or some kind of high protection gloves at the carelessness she was exhibiting.
Many of the customers she had ever had, told her that she had a knack for this kind of thing, even though she had never gone to college for it. She learned this skill from her mother and it had in fact been in her family for generations.
One of his clases had been dismissed and they were all carrying presents with them. She stepped in the classroom as some students, girls, held back to talk to professor. Not minding them Hermione sat at a desk before cleaning her throat making her presence known.
"We're talking now." Hermione said firmly.
Harry sighed as he instructed the students to leave for their next class.
"Alright, but you've got three minutes before my next class starts."
"Fine," Hermione said, "No, I started to wonder your intentions in wanting to marry me."
"Weren't those made clear?"
He looked back at the agreement they had made in the beginning, and as he thought about it he had not laid out any feelings towards it. All he did was propose the offer by a certain amount of time if they hadn't found that person they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with. In a way he could assume that's what she meant by those words. She thought that he was settling. And in a way it was like having a backdoor to get to a desired point.
"Harry, you know as well as I do the agreements of the pact. And the more I think about, the scarier it gets. I don't know how you think anymore after all of these years."
"Just ask then." Harry shouted.
He honestly didn't think he had changed that much between the amount of time they hadn't seen each other.
Harry hadn't realized how much his shouting at her affected her.
"I shouldn't have to." Hermione said starting to cry.
"Hermione.." Harry said trying to comfort her. He hated to see her like this. The war had softened her in more ways than one.
"I couldn't take you walking out on a marriage so if you want to just do it now." Hermione cried in a racking sobs as Harry pulled her into his arms rocking her back and forth trying to stop the tears.
"I'm not going to leave you now and I don't plan to in the future."
"I don't believe you." Hermione said weakly trying to fight against his arms around her waist, "but it doesn't matter obviously."
"It means the world to me."
"But you've got a class." Hermione said motioning to the kids that were starting to walk through the room as she tried to hide her tears from them. She could not stand students constant staring at her, she liked her life to be personal.
"I don't really care, I'm concerned about you, about us."
Hermione smiled at him, but just barely and he smiled back at her, touching her face asking silently if she was okay.
She nodded silently.
"So you still do understand me?"
She nodded again before she left the classroom, a barely visible smile on her features.
