She had managed to avoid him thus far but it had only been a couple of days. She came home early and went almost immediately to bed so that she could feign sleep when he came in and left in the morning hours before he woke.

It was stupid and she knew it but if she had one flaw it was pride. She honestly wasn't jealous of Ron and Susan, not any more than she was jealous of anyone else. The fact was she wanted all that they had. She wanted to live in England with all her friends and her family, she wanted a proper home not a hut, she wanted children and she wanted a proper marriage. She wanted Charlie. But she wasn't about to admit it, least of all to him. It had been she who demanded that it was kept quiet, that they continue to act like friends in front of his family. To turn around now and announce that she definitely had feelings from him, the nature of which even she didn't understand yet, would be terrible. Even worse, if he didn't feel the same, she would be humiliated.

There was no denying how she felt though. Nobody had ever found it so easy to make her feel happy. She looked forward to seeing him more than anybody else even though she knew he would be there in the house every morning and evening without fail. When he hugged her she felt so safe, like his arms formed some kind of shield and, while she was there bad things didn't happen.

A siren rang out across the hospital with a volume that could burst eardrums and Hermione was shaken out of her thoughts with a start. Suddenly fear gripped her heart, that alarm was used only in emergencies, it summoned every available healer to the emergency room because there had been a bad accident.

She abandoned her lunch tray along with all the other healers in the dining room and sprinted down the corridors to the emergency ward, heart in her mouth. Charlie's face swam in front of her vision.

She was the first to reach the ward; it was full to the walls, every bed occupied and people crying out in pain – the stretchers slid out of sight at the far end of the great hall, there were so many – the smell of antiseptic made her nose sting – so many dead, people she had known, people she had spoken to, hugged, laughed with only hours before and the screaming. Would. Not. Stop. – She could hear one man yelling in agony and her stomach rolled as yet another stretcher was carried past, this patient had red hair – Walls trembled, she could still hear spells being fired, there were people buried under the rubble, she helped Madame Pomfrey apply pressure to one person's wound as attempts were made to heal the poor girl before she slipped away completely. She felt a tricked run down her face from her temple to the corner of her mouth and tasted blood and dirt, she fought not to retch – Felix was there, his hand on her shoulder, talking to her but there was a roaring in her ears and she was shaking, her face and hands were tingling, she couldn't breathe –

"Hermione!" said Felix sharply "Charlie's alright, his arm got burned but he's already been patched up and sent back out again, are you alright?"

She nodded vaguely, the panic about Charlie was subsiding and she could see where she was now and the funny looks people were giving her. Poppy was calling for her help, tending to the screaming man. She grabbed the nearest Medical trolley and wheeled it as fast as she could amidst all the people running around.

Between them she and Poppy managed to give the patient a generous dose of pain relief and sleeping potions, so that he slipped into a kind of painless stupor while they dealt with his minor injuries. There was a nasty deep cut on his thigh though which, despite its depth, did not bleed. Instead it was coated in an acid purple liquid, forming a light foam on his skin.

"Poison" Poppy whispered "I think it's the Peruvian Vipertooth"

"Clean it up" Hermione replied in a hushed tone "and we'll give him a bezoar"

"It won't work if the poison has spread very far"

"We've got to at least try"

They did, cleaning him as best they could. It took so long that the rest of the ward had all but emptied by the time they were done. The other patients had all either been sent home or moved to other wards to recover. All this time the two of them carried on working, mopping him up, giving him pain relief and trying desperately to find something to stop the poison spreading. He had started to mutter under his breath.

"Has he got a girlfriend or something?" asked Hermione, "somebody should be with him"

Polly shook her head "I only know him by sight, his name's Jasper. He's worked here for more than 20 years but he keeps himself to himself mostly, doesn't have anyone as far as I know, they sent out letters to family as soon as he came in"

Hermione eyed Jasper's thigh. They had cleared the poison from the wound but now there was a clear purple line tracking up his leg, there was nothing more they could do. By 9pm he had started to mutter and they had run out of antidotes to try, the poison had tracked above his hip and by 10 he was completely unconscious.

"You can go home" said Hermione "I'll stay with him, he shouldn't be alone at the end"

"I'll stay with you"

"You've been here since early this morning; you need to go home and rest"

"But you-"

"Go on, you look tired, it won't be much longer"

Poppy gave in and left. Hermione sat in a chair next to the bed and rested a hand on Jasper's, an hour or so later he stirred in his sleep, his eyes opened very slightly and he looked at her.

"I'm dying aren't I?" he croaked, she bit her lip, "don't lie, I can handle the truth"

"yes" she nodded "we've done as much as we can, I can give you lots of pain relief, you won't feel anything"

"That's something then…why are you crying?"

"I'm just sorry you had to die and that it was only me here"

He took a deep gasping breath in "it had to happen eventually and I don't need any sympathy" there was a pause "my wife died 11 years ago, you know, it'll be nice to see her again"

A tear slipped down her cheek "it must be wonderful to love somebody that much"

He nodded "and painful, but I never regretted it, Amy was the only person who made me feel like I could fly with only a smile"

"I'm sure she loves you very much too"

"You don't think your husband loves you?"

"It's an arranged marriage…it's complicated" she took a deep breath "but I think I could love him"

"tell him" he wheezed "life's too short not to, If he doesn't feel the same he's an idiot" she giggled through her tears, his eyes started to slide shut "thank you for staying" he murmured "it's nice to have a friend at the last"

Within a few moments he was unconscious again and not long after that he passed away with little fuss or bother, in much the same way as he had lived. She held herself together long enough to clean him up one last time, to call a head healer to deal with the rest and to tidy up. She tried to move onto another patient when she felt a hand on her shoulder

"Mrs Weasley" said the ward sister "you've done enough, how long have you been here now?"

Hermione frowned as she tried to make her brain work "18 hours I think" she croaked

"Time to go home now, you look ill and there's nothing more to do. Take the day off tomorrow and we'll see you on Monday. Now go home. No arguments."

Hermione slumped. She left the hospital, forgetting to get her coat or handbag, not noticing the biting wind she stumbled back to the house. She didn't have her keys so she knocked repeatedly until Charlie came to the door, looking panicked.

"Where have you b-" He took one proper look at her and dragged her inside "Hermione you look awful, where's your coat?"

"I don't know" she shivered "I forgot it"

He grabbed the blanket on the back of the sofa and wrapped it round her shoulders, igniting the fire in the hearth and piling cushions on the floor in front of it before guiding her over to sit down on them. "Have you eaten anything today?" he was so worried

She shook her head "not since breakfast but I'm not hungry"

He ignored her and, returning after a few moments presented her with a mug of tea, a bowl of soup and a bread roll. "please eat something" he said, sitting down next to her and watching her carefully. She started eating and found that she was actually hungry, virtually tipping the bowl into her mouth to get every last drop.

"I'm sorry" he blurted out "you don't have to tell me everything and I shouldn't have been all accusatory like that"

She put her bowl down "no I'm sorry, we promised each other when we got married we'd tell each other everything and I haven't done that. It wasn't anything that big really, I was just a little homesick and jealous that everybody at home seems to be in love and having babies and everything. I'm not unhappy, I promise."

There was a pause in which they both stared at the fire.

"I was so worried about you" he said quietly "Felix said you went all faint in the hospital and you've never been back this late before"

She shook her head "I always come back in the end. I'm fine now; it was just being around all that noise and feeling completely helpless, it took me right back to being in the war." She wrapped the blanket slightly tighter around herself "a patient died today"

He drew her into a tight hug "is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head "just hold me like this. I always feel better when I'm with you, it's like coming home" she snuggled into his chest.

He took a deep breath "Hermione, I wanted to tel-" but he stopped, she had fallen asleep in his arms, more peaceful than in days.

A/N: Quite possibly the longest update I've ever written but I hope you both like it very much, once again the support from you all means far more to me than anything else and to prove it I am posting this update at midnight having sat and written this one for you since 3pm almost continuously, I wanted to update as a kind of New Year present so I hope everyone loves it...see you in 2012!