A/N

Kate - No. Write your own story.

LiZz, and John, and MystyKitty, and allie, and Aerin Dragon Killer, and apostrophe, and Brittany, and ssv, and Maggie O, and Lover 5, and IzzyMalfoy, and Lady riley, and Karen JB, and emma leigh warner, and Duckymander- Thanks!

~*~* - Not fluff ... plot development.

NasserPotter - Who says he won't?

daleia - sadly, nope!

No 1 u wanna no - No. I've already explained this.

Joyce2, and RudyCholo, TeamExtreemGirl - Thanks for your thoughts!

ears91 - wedding is still on, for now.

American Mione - sorry no conversation, though it might be alluded to in the next chapter.

Hermione Green - You'll have to wait and see on that one.

Keebler-elmo - not all of the magics associated with the creation of the ring are dark, but some are like the curse making them hate each other if the ring is removed, etc, and so on.

Remember people this is rated PG-13. Sadly there will be no porn sex betwixed our magical lovers. Any future scenes will annoyingly cut off right when certain places join and no detailed description will be forthcoming. This does not mean we can't have any fun. See Chapter 38 for details.

Read On!

Chapter 37

Harry spent most of Saturday night in the office of the headmaster going over the castings and details of binding the spells into the jewel of the ring. For it was the jewel itself that was most important, the setting and band was secondary and held magic, while strong was not quite as vital.

So it was without great surprise that he woke at his desk in the study, wand still in hand and the last words of a spell on his lips.

"Harry?" a voice whispered at his ear.

His hand brushed at whatever was buzzing around his ear, trying to drive it off so he could go back to sleep.

"Harry," the voice whispered again. "I warned you," the voice giggled."

The following sensation was more than enough to wake him and almost make him fall out of his chair. It was warm and slightly wet and it was nibbling on his earlobe.

He held control of himself and smiled only slightly at the feeling, knowing it was Hermione, waking him with her favorite torture. However this time Harry snorted like he was still asleep and muttered, "Oh, Professor Umbridge, punish me, punish..."

He didn't get the last word out from the resulting slap across his back.

"I knew there was something going on between your two!" Hermione yelled in mock jealousy.

Harry shrugged, "Must have been the blood-letting quill that did me in."

Harry looked to where his watch should have been but remembered taking it off sometime last night and not know exactly whereabouts. "What time is it?"

"Nine o'clock. I thought I'd let you sleep in. I know you were up 'till all hours last night." she said sympathetically.

He stretched out a kink he had in his back from being slumped over the desk for at least four hours.

"I need to get going. Got to stop by Gringott's and pick up a jewel and Phineas' journal."

Hermione crossed her arms and stood vigil in front of him. "You're not going anywhere until you've had a bath and something to eat. I'm not having you drop dead at my feet because of malnutrition, lack of sleep and general stinkyness."

He stood, "Your wish is my command. I shall take a bath and you will feed me as I must journey out to battle goblins for my wealth that they have locked away. Deep in the bowels of London."

He kissed her valiantly and strode away to gather his bath things.

"Bowels?" she laughed.

He returned thirty minutes later freshly clean and his hair still dipping mildly. Hermione sighed as she watched him eat his breakfast with his shirt off wishing mildly that she was the glass he was sipping from.

She shook her head to break herself from falling into a repeat of last night's sausage pulling contest. She still blushed whenever she thought about what she was about to do to him. Surely she wasn't lying about the amount of research she had done into the area, and now she had a complete visual of Harry to play with in her mind, hour after hour. An up close and personal visual. Merlin, why didn't we put out the lights last night!

It was like every inch of him was burned onto the inside of her eyelids. For every time she closed her eyes, even for a moment, she could see him in all his glory, standing there.

"Thinking about something?"

She snapped out of her temporary fantasy, "Wha? Um ... no, nothing."

Then she looked down at his plate, "Are you finished already?"

He nodded.

She gaped, "But you only just sat down."

He looked from side to side for the joke. "Hermione, I've read through the entire Daily Prophet. Is your mind on something this morning."

Her face flushed. "No ... nothing."

Harry took the hint and left the subject alone.

"Who's going with you this morning." she asked.

"Er ...well, I'm just going to Diagon Alley. Thought I'd floo into the Leaky Caldron and get to Gringott's and back out before anyone notices. I don't need to bother Remus for such a short trip."

"Harry, you can't go by yourself." protested Hermione.

"I'll be there fifteen minutes at the most."

The stern look on her face told him that she wasn't letting him out of her sight. "I'm going with you, wait until I get my cloak."

He finished buttoning his shirt and made to tell her no, but she gave him another look which froze him in his tracks.

Two minutes later and a freshly cloaked Harry and Hermione stepped out of the floo at the main room of the Leaky Caldron. They took a quick look around for minions of Voldemort and made their way into back alley and tapped the assigned bricks that allowed entrance to the busy thoroughfare.

They made their way down the street and into Gringott's with only a few inquiring glances from passers-by. They were taken down to his vault and the goblin opened the large heavy door.

Hermione was still spellbound by the amount of gold Harry possessed. She watched as he made his way quickly to one of the shelves and opened a case or two before he found what he was looking for and waved her over.

"Any particular stone catch your eye?"

She looked at them and her eyes sparkled. "Are you sure these are safe Harry?"

He nodded. "Last time we were down here I had Tonks and Remus separate the questionable items in that locked box over there, " he pointed to a two foot square flat box that had a piece of parchment on top that had the words 'Magical Items?"

"Bit obvious isn't it?"

He laughed, "That's the point. Remus said he'd help us sort them out whenever we got the chance."

He poked her in the back. "A jewel, my lady?"

Her attention was back in the case. Every conceivable stone was represented and from what she knew about precious stones, which wasn't much, they looked very expensive.

"Does the type matter?"

Harry shook his head, "Phineas says no, but on the safe side, he said not to pick an emerald."

She frowned. "I like the green. It matches your eyes. That's what made me choose this ring. Oh, this is pretty."

The Emerald was forgotten for odd red looking stone. It wasn't dark enough to be a ruby. "What is this, Harry?"

"Dunno." He wasn't sure anymore if Phineas knew what was down here. Harry wanted to err on the side of caution where the stones were concerned. "Why don't you take the three you like best. I'll run them by Phineas and you can choose from there. I don't want to make any mistakes."

She agreed, "This one for sure ... um ... this is a ruby, and ... this one." The last she chose was a white diamond.

Harry produced a small velvet sack where she deposited the jewels. He cinched it shut and slipped it into his cloak pocket.

"Need anything else?"

Harry almost forgot. "Phineas' journal. I saw a box of books over there, it might be inside."

In short order they found the journal and a few other interesting books in the process of which Hermione chose one. They were in the vault for a reason and she didn't want to take the chance that they might be mislaid or stolen at Hogwarts. She could always come back and check out another, later.

"Here, one more thing." He produced another sack from inside his robes and Hermione wondered what else might be stuffed in there.

After filling a good amount of Galleons into the sack he handed it to Hermione.

She just looked at it. "Harry, you don't have to give me money. My parents send me enough to get along."

He shook his head. "In less than two months time we're going to be married. This is already yours, and I'm not doing this to fill your pockets or show you how much money I have. You already know." He tossed his head at the piles of gold behind him. "This is for anything you might think of for the wedding so you don't have to come to me and ask for money if I'm not around."

He smiled, "I want you to be happy and not worry about anything if you think it might make you that much happier to have it."

She took the bag, "I hate it when you make sense. I like the old Harry Potter much better when I had to point things out to him."

Hermione tried to tie the bag off at her hip. "How do you carry this around, it's so heavy?"

"Oh, forgot," he took his wand and brushed it across the Gringott's seal." The bag noticeably deflated and became much lighter.

"Much better, thank you." It was a good deal easier to tie off this time. "What did you do?"

"Got that the last time I was here. My back started hurting from carrying around so much gold and they provided this. Just stick your hand in and think of the amount you need, then grab. Supposed to work out perfect every time." He shrugged. "Hadn't had need to try it out yet."

Before they left the bank Harry took Hermione's hand and led her to the main teller. The goblin glowered and leaned over the tall desk he sat behind, "Yes, Mr. Potter?"

" I want to add my wife to my account and give her full access to my vault."

Hermione's and the goblin's eyebrows shot up at the mention of her as his wife. The goblin recovered first.

"Your wife, did you say?"

Harry nodded and pointed at his fiancé, "As of this December. I don't know when I'll be in again and I wanted to make sure she was taken care of, properly."

"We'll need her name and your key, Mr. Potter."

Harry turned and stared at Hermione. "Want to try it out?"

She sniffed before she realized that her eyes were burning. "My name is Mrs. Hermione Potter, pleased to meet you."

The goblin nodded and took Harry's key with what might have been considered a smile, for a goblin that is.

She giggled and wiped her face with a tissue which appeared out of nowhere from her robes. "That felt really weird."

************************

Harry stood at the door and looked out down the street and over at Knockturn Alley. He was sure if any dark wizards were to come from anywhere it would be there. The coast as relatively clear. With the time of year, Diagon Alley wasn't as busy as it could have been.

"Okay, let's go."

She took his left arm and they stayed in the middle of the street most of the way down until Hermione noticed something unusual.

"Harry ..."

"Yeah, I noticed it too. People are disappearing off the street."

He looked left at Quality Quidditch Supplies and then right. A flash of dark colored cloak moved past a door entrance to his right. He did the first thing he could think of and pushed Hermione toward the Quidditch shop.

Once they were safely through the door Harry slammed it shut and whipped his wand out, "Colloportus!"

The clerk came out from behind the counter, "Here now, you can't do that!"

Harry turned to him. "Get out of sight. Death Eaters!"

The man's face went ashen, but he was still rooted to his spot.

"Is there a back way out of here?"

He nodded nervously and looked past the curtained storeroom.

"Thanks, once we're gone they should leave you alone."

The clerk nodded nervously and looked back to the door. Seeing a dark cloaked figure standing there through the class they all heard the doorknob rattle.

Hermione pulled on Harry's arm and they steered past row after row of brooms, protection gear, and balls of various shapes until they heard an explosion from the front of the shop. They finally reached the back of the storeroom and found the door they were looking for. They opened it and were back on the streets of London before they knew it.

Harry pointed his wand at the door and muttered, "Colloportus!" locking the door behind them.

Hermione darted out into traffic and held her hand up effectively stopping a cab just short of hitting her. They jumped into the back seat and Harry almost yelled at the driver, "Grimmauld Place! As fast as you can."

"Who do you think that was?" Hermione gasped for breath, more from excitement than from any actual running.

"Dunno."

*******************

"Here is good," he told the driver, and passed him a ten pound note.

They unloaded in the middle of Grimmauld square and watched as the cab turned around and disappeared into the distance. Harry looked around to make sure they weren't being watched and thought of the address to number 12.

The house appeared squinched between numbers 11 and 13 and they pushed forward into the safety of Harry's inherited home. They stopped briefly and Hermione hugged Harry with relief.

He pulled away first. "I need to go talk to Phineas and get him to alert Dumbledore about ..."

She nodded and he was off to the main living room.

Nothing had changed much since their departure and he found Phineas portrait without any fanfare.

"Potter," he looked bored, "Running away again I take it?"

"Oh, shut up. I need you to take a message to Dumbledore immediately. Tell him we are safe at Grimmauld Place and there were Death Eaters at Diagon Alley, last seen at the Quidditch shop."

Phineas sighed. "Would you like me to tell him your underwear size as well?"

Harry pulled out his wand and flipped it in his hand about to stab it at the portrait.

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Minutes ticked off and he looked to the side to see Hermione pacing back and forth in the hallway deep in thought.

"Potter!"

He looked back up at Phineas. "What did he say?"

"Stay at Grimmauld Place for now, maybe the night, until he makes sure the area is secure. Order members will come to retrieve you."

Harry nodded, "Tell Dumbledore that Ron is the only person that can get into the house besides me and Hermione, he'll need to come with them."

Phineas sighed and nodded disappearing again.

He stood up and walked over to the hall taking Hermione into his arms. She heaved a heavy sigh, "When are we ever going to have a normal life."

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "Dunno, never had one to begin with."

She sniffed and made a production out of her next statement. "What are we going to do all night ... in this house ... alone?"