They'd promised her that she'd have the best possible care. That she was in the best place for her west of the Rockies, some even said west of Toronto. Hermione didn't know, she just was supposed to trust them but she couldn't. Maybe it was just her exhaustion and paranoia getting to her, or maybe it was her Mother's instinct but she had a feeling something wasn't right. It kept going back to their original treatment at the hospital. By this point she'd come to accept and understand the Healers reasoning behind his accusations. The thing she wasn't comfortable with was his lack of follow up. He'd never examined Helena, whether it was for abuse or a medical ailment. Even when she'd protested and pulled Helena out of the room he didn't follow up. It hinted that they weren't exactly thorough.

Unexpectedly thoughts of a far of country began to resurface at the strangest times. When she was bathing in the small bathroom adjoining Helena's room or playing little games with her daughter to get her through a tough treatment, thoughts of England began poking into her thoughts. Places and people that she'd pushed aside so many years before came tumbling back, making her really think.

It didn't take her long to realize what she had to do and she decided she'd run it by Harry.

Harry had ventured in for his daily visit, to find Helena curled up around her favourite stuffed bear and Hermione snoring in the armchair. Her head was rolled to the side and resting at an odd angle against the winged back of the chair. She sensed the presence of someone though because she cracked her eyes open. Rolling her neck around to get out the kinks, Harry couldn't help but notice that her face had been imprinted by the textured fabric of the chair.

Hermione did the motherly thing first and checked to make sure all was well with Helena before she turned to Harry. It was evident that she had been crying now that he looked at her more closely.

"Oh honey," he pulled her close the him and wrapped his arms around her. She curled up now that she had somebody to support her and all but gave up for the time being.

"I'm taking Helena back to England," she said simply but dry eyed this time.

Bless him, he didn't argue with her, question her or try to convince her in any way, shape or form that what she was doing was a bad idea. Instead he nodded and comforted her.

They both had their reasons in thinking it was a good idea. Hermione was looking out for her daughters care, believing St Mungo's would be much more fitting place for Helena to be. Harry didn't argue because he knew that it would be painful for Hermione to return to her old life, but if the worst was to happen it would be beneficial to her to be close to her parents.

For the last three months since Hayden's death things had gone downhill. Helena had begun to react horribly to her treatments. People had told her that that was a good thing. That the children that didn't suffer through treatment, didn't have the intended results from that treatment. It had done little to comfort Hermione.

"When are you going to go?" he asked her.

"As soon as I can get things straightened out here. I guess I'll deal with the apartment later. I've already quit my job, so that's easy enough. I'll just pack what we need for the time being. Later when things aren't as bad I'll come back and collect the rest of the stuff from the apartment," neither of them commented on this. There was two was this could go and only one way in which they wanted it to. Neither of them questioned what she would do if Helena didn't get better. If she slowly deteriorated and Hermione couldn't get away for months or even years, or if she rapidly went down hill and succumbed to the cancer. Hermione didn't know which way was worse. If she was to be selfish she'd say the former, where she'd get to have a little bit longer with her baby girl. That wasn't fair to Helena though for her to have to go through all that pain and anguish dragged out over a long period of time. She couldn't think about this, she pushed the horrible thoughts away. Not now, not ever! Helena was going to pull through. She was a strong child, with an iron will. Not unlike her mother, or her father for that matter.

"Just tell me what you want me to do," Harry urged her, "I'm with you here."

"Thank you Harry," she mumbled, "you don't realize how much that means to me."

He thought he did though.

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A week later they were settling Helena into her ward at St. Mungo's hospital. It didn't take long for word of their arrival to spread throughout the hospital and the entire community for that matter. Not two hours later had the door been pushed open and in walked Ron. He stopped briefly in the doorway and hesitated before deciding he was there, he had to go in.

After Ginny's little escapades Ron had been thrust in the middle of a bitter battle. His two best friends or his family. Sadly his family out ranked his friends just in sheer number but also in location. After Hermione's escape to Canada he had been freed of the decision. This was the first time that Hermione had seen him since she'd stormed out of the Weasley's place years before. They'd owled a few times but hadn't kept it up consistently. She had wrote to him though after the birth of Helena and after her diagnosis. He had in turn sent cards and small packages each year on Helena's Birthday.

"Ron," Hermione jumped up and raced across the ward, pulling her red headed friend into the room, making up his decision whether to flee or stay for him, "Oh I've missed you so much," she gushed

"Yeah," he said glumly, "I'm really sorry Hermione," he untangled himself from her friendly hug and strolled over to Helena's bedside. He reached for her hand and clasped it between his own, "she's beautiful."

Hermione nodded, but for once she was dry eyed. There had been to many months of tears, "She had beautiful curly hair. You've never seen anything like it. It was all perfect ringlets, and was getting so long," she failed to mention the colour of her daughters locks. It had always been a slippery slope when she talked about Malfoy. Best to leave that detail out.

They caught up over the afternoon, and only when the sky darkened outside the window did Ron finally get up to leave. Helena had slept through the whole afternoon and that worried Hermione greatly. Her poor girl had less and less energy as every day went by.

After Ron was gone Harry got up to leave but not before saying, "I guess tomorrow you're going to have the whole army lined up to see you, for better or for worse."

He didn't have to ask her, she asked him, "Will you come? I have this horrible feeling that Ginny's going to show up tomorrow. You probably don't want to be here then, so I'll understand..."

How could he even think of his own pain when she was going through this horrible time? "Of course I'll be here. No question about it," he also figured that with Ginny's appearance would come another one not so welcomed. When Malfoy showed up-and he would-it wasn't going to be a pleasant atmosphere. You didn't get a friendly catching up session when he had just learned that he was a father. Harry wasn't looking forward to it for Hermione or for anybody in the ward that they were in. Hopefully they could put it off as long as possible. The stars wouldn't be with them though once again, because as fate would have it as they were discussing this a messenger was being admitted into Malfoy Manor.

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a/n So I just watched HBP and OMG it was so good. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of Harry/Ginny and the missing memory of was it Riddle's mother? Wow I need to go and reread that book. Good thing I have some holidays coming up. Anyway please please review. I really want to know what you think about this story. Thank you.