Chapter 7

Oh Boy, Hermione's first week at work was nothing short of frantic. St Mungo's was the most busiest hospital she had ever been in and in all honesty, she wondered how Luna managed to keep her bubbly personality. By the time Friday night had come, Hermione was ready to die. She arrived home to a bouncing Charlotte who had just received a birthday invitation for a party on Sunday. Hermione couldn't think of anything worse than being around twenty or so screaming four year olds but she knew she had to do it. Harry was already home as he picked her up from childcare and had been sitting at the dining room table when she walked in, he looked up and smiled and she greeted him.

"Hermione, there's a surprise upstairs for you." Harry smiled and Hermione looked at him quizzically.

She walked upstairs and saw a light on in the bathroom and when she walked in she saw that a bubble bath was waiting for her with scented candles and rose petals everywhere. The water had a warming charm on it so that it wouldn't get cold and she slipped in and relaxed instantly. After a while she heard a knock on the door and then heard Harry speak.

"Hermione are you descent, can I come in?" Hermione's huge bubble bath covered her completely but she was still a bit nervous.

"Umm I suppose so," Hermione sunk down deeper in the bath but Harry walked in and kept his face looking away and left her two hot towels that Dobby had prepared for her.

She was speechless, she wanted to say thanks but the words were stuck in her throat. It had been a funny week at home, Harry had been trying really hard with her. They still seemed to be strained with each other but at least the full on arguments had ceased. She made sure she sat down to eat meals with him and Charlotte which was one of his gripes in an argument so she made an effort.

Hermione walked down stairs and Harry was sitting on the lounge with Charlotte on one edge, they had left a gap in between them for her to sit down so she did.

"Thank you Harry I really needed that." Hermione smiled and Harry looked at her.

"Oh don't thank me it was Dobby's idea." Hermione felt a bit stupid but then Dobby came in with the most enormous smile he could manage and she melted.

"Dobby you are the most kindest little elf a person could know, thank you so much." Hermione leant forward and hugged him tightly and then jumped up.

"Oh Dobby I have a gift for you." Hermione went to her work bag that was hanging in the hall and she took out a gift and walked back to an anxious looking Dobby and passed it to him.

Dobby took the gift and ripped off the paper faster than the eye could see and took out the little jumper Hermione had knitted for him. It was made of multi coloured wool with a giant D in the middle. Dobby cried and hugged her again.

"I just finished it today at lunch Dobby so I hope you like it." Dobby blubbered all the way to his room about how wonderful Miss Minny was.

Harry, Charlotte and Hermione sat down to watch a movie and it was only about twenty minutes into the movie when Charlotte fell asleep so Harry carried her up to her bed and tucked her in. Hermione slid over to her side of the lounge and continued to watch the movie with Harry and it wasn't too long before she had dozed off herself.

The following morning Hermione awoke and felt surprisingly warm. Then the smoke in her mind cleared and she realised she was still asleep on the lounge but what was worse was that Harry had also fallen asleep and she was curled into his body.

Hermione started to panic as she didn't want Harry to wake up and find them like this but her legs were entwined with his and it would take a bit to get out without waking him up. Hermione had never woken up with anyone before, besides Charlotte but she didn't count, and she found it very arousing. A couple of Harry's buttons had come undone on his shirt and his chest was open to her, his face also looked so peaceful when he slept and it took every ounce of will power in her body to not stroke his cheek. He was very good looking and lately Hermione had been seeing another side to him but she still new that a leopard couldn't change his spots and she didn't kid herself that Harry wasn't going away for business trips at all, it was his womanising time. She had to remember all the stories Ginny told her. This revelation made Hermione slip her legs out and carefully stand up, she watched his face intently and when he didn't wake up, she turned around and went upstairs to her room. Harry watched her walk out of the lounge room with a serious look on his face.

Hermione stayed upstairs for quite a while and when it was obvious she wasn't going to be able to stay up there forever, she got Charlotte dressed for the party and went downstairs.

As she approached the landing she saw Harry dressed far too gorgeous for anyone's liking, standing at the door looking at his watch.

"For heaven's sake ladies we will be late for the party, come on." Hermione looked at Charlotte and realised she must have asked Harry to take her since he was ready.

"Oh sorry Harry I didn't realise you were taking Charlotte, you two have a good time." Hermione wasn't sure but it looked like a look of disappointment ran across his face.

"No No No Minny you have to come too, I want all of us to go, pleaseeeeeee?" Charlotte was adorable but that child could get her way sometimes.

Hermione also noticed she had stopped calling her aunt and thought she had better talk to her about it at another time, maybe it was something Harry had asked her to do.

"OK Charlotte lets go," Hermione smiled at her but very carefully avoided making eye contact with Harry. The three of them walked outside and got into Harry's black sports car.

They drove in silence and just before the house Harry looked at Hermione and smiled.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Hermione's eyes widened and her breathe caught in her throat.

"Why?" It came out a little more abrupt than it should have and what made it worse was that Harry just smiled and continued driving so she repeated herself, "Why do you ask Harry?"

"No reason you just seemed so tired after working all week, that's all," he still had that stupid grin on his face, and Hermione was this close to smacking it off him.

Harry pulled into a road that had quite a few cars parked in front of a house which had balloons everywhere. Harry parked and Charlotte was itching to get out so they started walking to the front door but Hermione pulled Harry back by his arm and he turned around to look down at her as close as they did the last time they nearly kissed. Hermione regained her composure and spoke.

"Harry none of these people know me or do they know of Charlotte's story and I don't give that information up too easily so if you don't mind please don't say anything," Hermione was almost pleading and then Harry smiled and leant into her and tipped the top of her nose and told her not to worry. It took about twenty minutes for Hermione's heart to stop beating it's way out of her chest.

The party was typical of a five year old, Hermione forgot they were all turning five now and this was one of the first. They were introduced to the little girl named Felicity and her mum who seemed fairly nice. Harry manoeuvred his way through the crowd with his hand on Hermione's lower back and the sensation was killing her.

Charlotte, Felicity and about twenty other children all played together in the garden while Hermione tried to avoid the inevitable questioning but surprisingly Harry managed to deter most of them. Obviously his charming good looks worked on them all.

"How old is your daughter?" One lady asked and Harry piped up and said she would be five in September and everyone nodded. Hermione excused herself to get a drink when a different lady approached her.

"Oh Mrs..." waiting for a response, "Granger, it's Miss Granger,"

"Yes, well Mrs Granger I have to say your husband is positively gorgeous, yummy actually."

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione was sure she didn't hear what she thought she heard. The lady looked at Hermione up and down and then adjusted her breasts and walked over to Harry with a self satisfied smile on her face.

Hermione shook her head, no wonder Harry got the reputation of being a womaniser, woman like that just threw themselves at him. Hermione looked around for Charlotte, quite sure she didn't want to watch Harry put on his moves, and she found her in the garden playing a game of pass the parcel. The music was playing and when it stopped the child who had the parcel had to tear off one sheet of paper. They were all squealing with delight until Felicity looked up and yelled out to two people who had just arrived. Hermione looked up and nearly died, of all the people in the world, Ron Weasley had to show up here. Hermione knew she had to get out before there was a scene.

Too Late.

Harry walked out looking for Hermione and at the same time Ron looked up and made eye contact with him.

Armageddon.

End of the world.

Total Destruction.

Yes that was the only way to explain it. Ron exploded, yelling obscenities across the garden, Harry tried to quickly leave but it wasn't falling into place and Hermione was in shock. Obviously Ginny was right, the Weasley's hated Harry Potter with a vengeance.

Hermione snapped out of the trance she was in and walked over to Harry and stood in front of him with both hands on his chest. She was trying to talk him down as she could see his temper rising and with the things that Ron was yelling it wasn't surprising. Ron drew his wand and Harry took his out ready to defend.

"Potter take your whore and get out of my sister in laws house."

Hermione snapped her head around and stared at Ron. He realised who she was from her visits at Christmas with Ginny and he stopped instantly.

"How dare you Ron, how dare you call me that. You bastard, if I had known this was a relative of yours there's no way in all of Hades I would bring Charlotte here." Hermione watched his face change as he quickly scanned the sea of children's faces trying to find the niece he had never met.

"Don't bother Ron, you will never have any contact with her... ever." Hermione walked over and took Charlotte's hand and they walked back to take Harry who was still standing in defence mode. Ron started walking towards her and Harry stopped him with a hand to his chest, "Stay away from my daughter Weasley, stay FAR away!"

Ron roughly shoved his hand away from his chest, "She's my sisters kid too Potter."

"NO," Hermione yelled and she turned around to Harry and handed Charlotte's hand to him.

"You listen to me Weasley, you stay away from us, you didn't even have the decency to attend her funeral. I wrote to you and told you she was dying and you out of all the brothers, the one she loved the most, you didn't come. You didn't bother so I am telling you, don't bother now, it seems that it is something you're very good at. You have no right to call her sister any more!"

Hermione walked away grabbing Harry's arm as she moved past him who had Charlotte in tow and they walked straight out to the car. Charlotte was being locked into her seat when a lady came out and Hermione recognised her as Felicity's mum.

"I am so sorry, I had no idea, please accept my apologies, Felicity's dad is Charlie, Ron's brother but I had no idea because they never talk about a sister, I'm very sorry." Hermione nodded and got into the car and Harry sped away.

Back at home everyone went their own way, Charlotte downstairs to play with Dobby, Hermione to have a relaxing hot shower and Harry, well they had no idea where Harry went. He dropped them off at home and then went back to his car. Dinner came and went and Harry still hadn't come back. Later that night, Charlotte went to bed asleep and Hermione was sitting on the lounge, the same one she had woken up with Harry earlier this morning and she waited. It was close to midnight when she heard him stumble in and she immediately thought he was drunk. She stood up and walked around the corner to see him holding onto the wall to support himself in the dark of the hallway.

"Had a bit to drink did you Harry, wasn't that responsible?" Hermione chastised him with her arms folded across her chest.

"Just go to bed Hermione."

For some reason something didn't sound right so Hermione waved her wand and the lights turned on and then she gasped. Harry was covered in blood and could clearly not stand up, by the looks of him he possibly had a few broken ribs and some other internal injuries.

"Oh Harry what happened?" she rushed over to him and he used her for support so she took him into the lounge room and laid him down on the lounge.

"Harry I have to run a diagnostic test to see what damage there is OK?" Hermione took his slight nod as a yes and she started her examination. She was right, he had 4 broken ribs, a punctured spleen and internal bleeding. She started the repair process but he needed rest so she levitated him to his room and covered him with some blankets.

She found out that he went back to the party to talk to Ron and try to convince him that he wasn't responsible for his fathers death. Well everything escalated and it basically went to hell from there and to prove he was telling the truth, Harry did not return one punch from Ron and taking Harry's injuries into account it seemed that Ron didn't hold back.

After spending the night on the arm chair in his room so she could watch Harry through the night, Hermione gave Dobby strict instructions to make sure he stayed in bed and Charlotte decided that was going to be her job. She took books and games into the room so they could do stuff together.

Hermione had a busy day at work, everything from broken arms to full on accidents so when lunch time finally came around she fell into the chair in the lunch room. Hermione laid her head down and thought maybe a quick cat nap was in order. She barely slept last night watching Harry and worrying about the events of the previous day.

"Had a hard night Healer Granger?" came a deep velvet voice from behind her and she sat up quickly.

"Oh hello Mr Malfoy, sorry yes I had a busy night."

"So it seems." Malfoy walked around in front of her and sat down on the other seat at the small table.

"Tell me Healer Granger, have you settled in ok? I know we were ridiculously hectic last week so I left you alone but now I want to know, how are you enjoying St Mungo's?"

"I am enjoying it very much thank you Mr Malfoy..."

"Call me Draco please." Hermione nodded and they continued to make small talk for the half hour that she had left of her lunch. She stood up and excused herself and then Draco felt bad that he had taken up her lunch. She told him that she was fine but he still felt bad.

Hermione went back to work and at least it was a quieter afternoon. Her and Luna had a chance to catch up while they were doing their rounds and she invited Hermione and Charlotte back over for dinner. Since the subject had been raised she thought she had better mention some thing to Luna.

"Oh Luna, can I ask you a huge favour?" Hermione looked down at her hands, feeling nervous. Luna nodded.

"Umm, Luna you are the only person here who knows about Charlotte. It wasn't required information on the application so I didn't find it necessary to add it and since we have different surnames, no-one has put the two of us together." Hermione waited and hoped that Luna would catch on.

"That's fine Hermione and I won't mention it to Draco either."

"Draco, no, oh, no what do you mean by that?" Hermione tried to sound sincere but in her ears she sounded ridiculous.

"yeah, yeah I get it, the boss-employee thing," Luna stopped walking and turned to face Hermione.

"Hermione, Draco has never looked twice at a staff member here before, he rarely comes out of his office and socialises, so I think he really likes you." Hermione didn't know what to say to that so she just nodded.

The weeks passed by uneventfully and work was going great. Draco had asked her out on so many dates and with all the declines she gave him, she was sure he would give up soon. She had lunches with him but no night dates. She wasn't sure why, it was either because of Charlotte that he had no idea that she existed, or it was Harry. She wasn't entirely sure why Harry but she knew he did play a part. For some reason she felt like she was cheating even though she had no relationship with Harry at all.

Hermione had settled into the hospital's routine and had gotten to know a few other members of the team. Jimmy was the courier boy who ran emergency stock around the hospital and was very nervous around pretty woman. Julia was Draco's secretary and looked like she had started working here when Hermione was born, but she was the nicest person and definitely kept Draco in line like a mother would. The other Healers were Mark, Steve and Michelle. The three of them had been friends from school and had eventually ended up working here at St Mungo's after all three separated over the years. Steve and Michelle got married and then Mark moved in with them and the three have been together for the last ten years. It was a strange arrangement but nobody questioned it. Hermione thought about it and realised that if anyone knew of her arrangement, they would also think it strange.

Harry healed quite well after his altercation with Ron. He thanked her sincerely for helping him through but she brushed it off. He worked away a lot but always managed to make it back on the weekends to spend time with Charlotte. Plenty of birthday parties came through childcare and when they realised that Felicity had withdrawn from the school straight after her birthday, Hermione and Harry relaxed a bit. Both of them attended the parties and from the outside it looked like the happy family they were, just not a family in the traditional sense. Harry enjoyed the times they were together as he could pretend it was real and that Hermione cared for him as much as he had come to care for her.

Little did Harry know his world was about to come crashing down.