Disclaimer: You know already.

This story is dedicate to my Grandmother, who passed away on 22-1-2005

To flamers: I don't take kindly to flames so back off, if you know what's good for you.

Thank you for your reviews!

To those who ask about why there isn't the group commenting after entries: The reason is…. I didn't write them because I don't know what to write for the group's comments. I'm so sorry!

missradcliffe, thewriterscafe: Err…

Chapter 28: 20th of September 2003

Dear Diary,

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! Strange that how fast time flies. A year ago, I was Mrs Krum (well, I still am but who cares?) and was walking alone on Diagon Alley when I bumped into Harry, who grew up to be a handsome and capable young man. Now, a year later, we are together, living in peace.

On my birthday, I woke up on our bed and found that Harry was awake, lying beside me and was looking at me.

He smiled. "Morning, Hermione."

I smiled back and looked at him. Oh my, he looked certainly tired. He had dark circles under his eyes. I was wondering back then if he slept at night, then where did he get those dark circles from.

Harry had changed out of his night clothes and was wearing his collared black shirt and jeans.

"Why are you completely dressed?" I asked.

"Well, today is your special day; I have decided to take you out."

"Really?" I asked and got up, "Then in case, I better go and change…"

Harry suddenly put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back to my lying position. "Whoa, wait a minute, not now, you still need your breakfast."

"Then I will get up and make breakfast…" I said, trying to get up. But Harry's grip was firm. "Harry, let me get up so that I could make breakfast!"

"You don't have to, I have already made it." said Harry. "Wait here."

He let go of me and went out of the room. I remained on our bed but I got up to my sitting position.

A minute later, Harry came in, with a tray of food. He smiled at me and put it on our bed. I looked and realised that he had made two set of scrambled eggs, two strips of bacon and orange juice.

Harry grinned. "Breakfast is served, madam."

I sat closer to the tray and Harry handed me a fork and knife. I was about to dig in when I thought of something. "What if we dirtied the bed?"

"Never mind, just a bit of magic will do." said Harry.

We started breakfast in bed. Harry's cooking was great as usual (no thanks to the Dursleys, who forced my darling to cook breakfast for them sometimes).

"I could need this special treatment every morning." I said, grinning.

Harry looked horrified. "Every day? Oh no! Back to the days with the Dursleys!"

I pushed him playfully. "I'm just kidding!"

Harry gave a short laugh. "I know. And I'm telling you, you will get this only on your birthday."

"Aww…" I said in disappointment.

"Wait," Harry thought for a while. "Oh yeah, and also on our wedding anniversary, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day…"

"Mother's Day?" I asked in confusion.

"When you become a mom a few years later." he said, grinning.

I struck out my tongue at him. "Now you are thinking too far into the future, we are not even married yet!"

"But we are," said Harry and his face went serious, "soon after your divorce."

We stared at each other for a while before we smiled. We didn't need to say anything but I knew what we were both thinking. After my divorce, we will be able to marry each other freely! Oh that will be so wonderful…

After breakfast, I put on my white shirt, grey pullover and jeans. Then we were off for the day!

Shopping in the muggle world was great; you didn't have to worry much about witches and wizards. Harry and I held hands as we walked (Harry didn't drive) down the streets of London like pure young muggles. First, we went to the Tower Bridge… well, near the end of the Tower Bridge and we viewed London through the telescope (you know, the one which tourists had to put coins in if they wanted to view London). Harry and I had plenty of muggle coins, so we could use it as long as we want.

Then we wanted to get to Piccadilly Circus, where we shopped all we want. So guess what we did? Took a muggle bus (we certainly didn't want to take a Knight Bus, it's too, I don't know, rough). We hadn't taken a double-decker bus for years, I usually got around London in Dad's car when I was younger and Harry seldom went out when he lived with the Dursleys.

It took us quite a while to get to Soho, but we made it and the first thing I saw after we got off the bus was an ice cream van.

"Harry, I'm going to buy ice cream, do you want one?" I asked.

Harry smiled and nodded. We went to the ice cream van and asked the lady for two ice-cream cones. Eating our ice creams with one hand and continued to hold on to each other with the other, we continued to walk. As we could not go into shops with ice creams in our hands, we just went window-shopping until we had finish.

Before I could have my last bite, I saw something at a book shop that made me quickly gulped the last of my ice-cream and ran all the way to the shop.

"Hermione… hey!" cried Harry.

Poor Harry, he was left behind by me. Hee hee… but I couldn't help it, Diary; reading was one of my favourite pastimes…

I watched through the display window and my gaze lay upon on a book entitled, "The Mysterious Death of King Tut". I had read about King Tutankhamen before, he was the pharaohs of Egypt who died mysteriously at a young age of 19. Egyptians pharaohs were just so fascinating.

Forgetting completely about Harry, I went right in and asked the lady at the counter about the book. I bought it and came out, delighted over my latest purchase.

I was busily looking at the book's back cover when someone grumbled, "Oh no, I'm being dumped for a dead pharaoh."

I looked up and saw Harry leaning against the bookshop's window, his arms folded. I gasped and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Harry…"

Harry just rolled his eyes and didn't say anything.

I bit my lip, kept my book properly and went to him. His face was almost as dark as his shirt.

I placed my hand on his arm. "Harry, darling, please, I didn't mean to leave you behind like that, and you know what a bookworm I am…" I said.

Harry remained silent, and then he turned his head away from me.

I felt cold, Diary, don't tell me that he's mad just because I leave him behind?

"Harry?" I asked timidly.

Silence.

"Harry," I said worriedly. "Don't ignore me like that…"

Silence.

"Harry…"

Harry suddenly turned his head at me and grinned. "Ha, gotcha!"

I nearly fainted. "Harry, you…" I slapped his arm, "scared me like hell, you…." I continued slapping.

"Eeow! Okay, I'm sorry! Hey!" said Harry and laughed as he tried to dodge my slaps.

I stopped and Harry tried to catch his breath. "I'm sorry to scare you, but it's bit annoying of you to leave me behind at a sight of a book."

"Sorry," I said, "but it's an interesting book."

He looked at it. "What's it about?"

"Oh, King Tut and his death." I said, expected Harry to be in awe.

But he didn't. He just went, "Who?"

"Honestly, don't you read?" I asked impatiently.

"If you grow up with the Dursleys, you really don't get to read anything else beside school textbooks, simply because your relatives won't buy storybooks for you." said Harry dryly.

"Oops, I'm sorry, Harry…" I said.

Harry smiled. "Never mind," he said and tapped the tip of my nose with affection, "just tell me about the book later."

I smiled back and held his hand.

We continued to shop. We bought this big puzzle (with 500 pieces) featuring a fully-grown unicorn. It glowed in the dark so I couldn't wait to see what the whole thing looked like when it was completed. Then I bought Harry a brand new jacket.

When we stepped out of the fashion shop, we felt something wet on our cheeks and we looked up.

"Oh no, it's raining!" I cried.

Harry grabbed my hand and we ducked back into the shop. The rain got bigger once we got in. We saw shoppers through the window, running for shelter and some had their umbrellas opened.

"Now what are we going to do?" asked Harry.

I shrugged helplessly.

"Do you need an umbrella, sir?" asked the shop owner.

"Yes." said Harry.

"I have them for sale, why don't you buy one?" asked the man.

"Really?" Harry looked delighted. "Great!"

The man showed us the umbrellas. They were small, but the size was big enough for us. Harry bought a deep green one and we went out of the shop. The heavy raindrops kept falling onto the umbrella. Harry and I held on tight to each other to keep ourselves covered as much as possible. We walked on the street, trying to find an empty alley or something, so that we could just Disapparate back to our house.

As we walked together beside the road, Harry put his arm around my shoulders and asked gently, "Are you cold?"

I shook my head and smiled.

That was before a car came, ran its wheel over a puddle of water…

SPLASH

The water jumped up on me, leaving me totally drenched.

"HEY YOU MORON, WATCH WHERE YOU ARE DRIVING!" yelled Harry in anger after the car.

"Oh no," he groaned at me, "you are completely wet!"

I shivered. "I'm okay. Look, there's an empty alley there, we could disapparate from there."

Harry nodded and supported me to the alley. When we reached there, we closed our eyes and concentrated on our location.

CRACK

CRACK

I opened my eyes. We were back to our home. Harry closed the umbrella and put it aside before he lifted me up in his arms without telling me.

"Harry, what…"

"You need a nice warm bath, we both do." said Harry and he carried me up to the stairs.

Once he put me down in the bathroom, he went to turn on the tap so that the hot water would flow into our bath tub.

"Take off your clothes, Hermione." said Harry.

I nodded. "You too." I said and took off my pullover.

Harry took off his clothes and turned off the tap. He gave a "you go first" gesture towards the tub. I smiled, stepped forward and into the tap. Harry came in after me.

"Ah, much better." said Harry, sighing with pleasure.

I lifted a bit of water in my hand and applied it on my shoulder before all of it ran out from my hand.

"Hand me the shampoo, Hermione." said Harry.

I reached for a black bottle which was his shampoo.

"No, I mean yours." said Harry.

I looked confused but I reached for my shampoo, which was a violet-coloured bottle. I gave it to Harry and he opened it. "Turn around," he ordered, "I'm going to wash your hair."

"What?"

"What?" echoed Harry. "You don't want me to wash your hair?"

I didn't say anything but turned my back against him. Wasn't Harry the sweetest guy in the world, Diary? (smiles)

Soon my head was covered with bubbles as Harry applied the shampoo on my hair. I felt so comfortable with the warm water against and Harry massaging my head that I almost felt like falling asleep. I felt great Diary, Viktor had never done this to me before. In the past, if I went back home wet from the rain, Viktor would shout at me for dirtying the floor and ordered me to go and take my bath.

Harry was completely different. He was caring towards me. That's why I loved him.

After our long bath, we changed into dry clothes and cleaned up the living room floor together. Harry looked through the window at the rain and sighed. "And I thought that we could spend the whole day outdoors."

"Oh come on, Harry, we could still spend our day INDOORS." I said.

"Hope that it will stop by the time evening comes. We still need to celebrate your birthday at the Burrow, you know." said Harry.

"I know. I heard Mrs Weasley have baked a birthday cake for me." I said. "Oh well, I'm sure that even the rain doesn't stop, we will celebrate inside Ron's house."

Harry didn't say anything.

"Come on, Harry, let's get to work on our puzzle." I said and before Harry could say anything, I went to unwrap the plastic that's covering the puzzle box. Then I took a flat cardboard to place on the floor.

Without saying anything, Harry came and sat down right beside me.

We spent a long time on the puzzle and had a bit of argument about which piece goes where from time to time. Either Harry gave in to me or vice versa. As the time went by, Harry and I proceeded from sitting to lying on our stomachs on the floor as we worked on the puzzle and ate our lunch (sandwiches) at the same time. So, with our shoulders rubbing against each other occasionally, we continued to work silently.

I was working on one of the corners of the puzzle when Harry suddenly leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

"Hey, why did you do that for?" I asked in bewilderment.

"Nothing, I just feel like kissing you." said Harry. "You looked beautiful when you are concentrating on your work."

I blinked. Viktor would never do that. But then again, he was never an affectionate husband. I smiled at Harry. "Thanks."

Then with his face so close to mine, I could see the dark circles clearer. "Harry?"

"Hm?"

"What's with the dark circles under your eyes?"

"W- oh! You will know later." said Harry and picked up a puzzle piece, ending the subject.

When the puzzle was only 20 percentcompleted, I grew tired of it and we kept it. We could finish that anytime. I wanted to read my book but when I took it out of the shopping bag, I went, "Oh no!" at the sight of it.

It was wet by the rain. I guessed the umbrella didn't help much.

"What?" asked Harry.

"My book, look." I said, showing him the cover.

Harry snorted. "Piece of cake." He waved his hand and with his wandless magic, he dried the book and it was good as new.

"Thank you, Darling." I said and went to our sofa. I sat on it and flipped to the first page.

"Hey, what do I get for drying up your book?" asked Harry, sounded rather hurt.

I laughed and put my book on the table. "Come here." I said, patting the space beside me.

Harry got up from the floor and made his way to me.

"I," I said and put my arms around his neck after he sat down, "thank you for drying up my book, helping me on my puzzle, washing my hair and most importantly," I smiled at him, "celebrating my birthday with me."

With that, I kissed him. I could feel Harry smiling against my lips and he kissed me back. Then he ran his fingers through my hair. He then pushed me down flat on the sofa.

"Oh well, I could still read tonight…" I thought and tugged on his jeans when I heard the clock in the front room struck 3 times.

My lips left Harry's and I realised that it was still day time. I quickly put my hands on Harry's chest and pushed him gently. "Not now, dear, we still have a party to go later."

Harry looked rather disappointed but he smiled and said, "Fine. Let's keep our energy for tonight then." He pushed himself off me and I got up, adjusting my shirt and patted my hair. Harry handed my book back to me.

"Harry, sit beside me. I thought you want to hear about it." I said.

Harry sat back down and put his arms around my shoulders as I leaned back comfortably on him and opened my book.

By the time we finished reading (and Harry read a bit too), it was 6pm. The party started at 6pm, so Harry and I quickly got up to disapparate to the Burrow.

"You go first," said Harry. "So that people will think that you come from Krum's house."

I nodded and disapparated.

It was still raining slightly when I appeared in the front room at the Burrow. Once I appeared, all the Weasleys turned around and smiled at me. Mrs Weasley came running and hugged me as tight as she could.

"Oh, happy birthday, dear Hermione!" she cried.

"Thanks." I said when she released me.

"It's still raining outside, so we will just celebrate your birthday here. I hope it is not too crowded for you…" said Mrs Weasley worriedly.

I looked around. The place looked the same as usual, just that the place was full of Weasleys.

"No, it looks cosy." I said sincerely.

"Hey, Hermione, where's Harry?" asked Fred. "Where's my future son-in-law?" he joked.

I shrugged. "Where's your daughter then?"

"She's at home with the babysitter. She simply refuses to come, Merlin knows why." said Fred. "And since there's a babysitter, Angelina and I left all of our kids with her."

"Oh…" I said.

"Now let's get the birthday cake!" said Mrs Weasley, looking at the clock before she went to the kitchen.

CRACK

Harry appeared, with a gift box in his hand.

"Hey, Harry!" called Ron.

Harry waved at the Weasleys before turning back to me. "Hello, Hermione, long time no see."

I stifled a giggle and said, "Long time no see."

Mrs Weasley came out with a vanilla cake with strawberries. Then she placed them on the table among the Weasleys.

Then I realised that something was wrong.

"Mrs Weasley? Where's Ginny?" I asked.

"Yeah, and where's Neville?" asked Harry.

Mrs Weasley sighed. "They couldn't come. Neville is seriously ill and Ginny has to take care of him. But don't worry, Ginny told me that he's going to be ok and asked me to carry on with your party." added Mrs Weasley.

"How could she?" I asked. "I couldn't carry on if she is at home, taking care of Neville!"

"Hermione, you don't expect her to dump Neville and come here, do you?" asked Ron.

"No, I mean, how could I celebrate if Neville is sick and Ginny's at home?" I asked.

Silence.

"Oh I'm glad that you think of that." said Mrs Weasley, sighing in relief. "I was wondering a few hours ago whether I could talk to you to postpone the party or something. I treated Neville as if he is my own and I simply don't have the mood to celebrate if he's sick."

"Let's postpone it to next week," I said, nodding, "and go and visit Neville now…"

"We already did," said Percy, "a few hours ago. He certainly doesn't look good."

"Then in that case, Hermione and I will go and see him." said Harry seriously. "Come on, Hermione."

When we arrived at Demeter Drive, it was already night and a wall lamp lit up beside the front door of the Longbottoms. I went straight ahead and rang the doorbell.

No response.

I frowned.

Harry moved back until he could see the upstairs window. "The bedroom is lit." said Harry. "Try again."

I pressed the doorbell again, with a bit of urgency this time.

Then the door suddenly opened. I gasped at the sight of Ginny. Her hair was in a mess and she looked extremely tired.

She blinked at me slowly. "Hermione?" she looked behind me and saw Harry. "Harry? I thought you guys are…"

"The party is being postponed, Ginny," I said, "how do you expect me to celebrate if Neville is sick and you are at home?"

"Oh." said Ginny.

"Can we come in?" asked Harry. "We want to see Neville, if it's ok."

"Sure." said Ginny and stepped aside.

When we arrived to the second floor, we could hear Neville coughing violently. I cringed at the sound, Neville sounded terribly sick. Ginny ran ahead of us and into her bedroom. Harry and I looked at each other before we looked timidly through the door.

Ginny was sitting on the bed, rubbing her husband's chest gently, as if she was trying to comfort his weak lungs. Neville's face was pale as chalk. His brown, slightly curly hair was in a mess. His eyes were close and his lips were dry. He looked like he was dying.

"Neville, look who's here." whispered Ginny.

Neville turned his head to us and opened his eyes. Once he saw us, he blinked at us and wore the same expression as Ginny's just now.

"Hermione? Harry? But I thought…"

"The party is postponed." I interrupted.

"Oh," said Neville and closed his eyes. "I supposed it is my fault, isn't it?"

"It isn't your fault to be sick, Neville," said Ginny. "Hermione, could you give me that blue potion and the spoon on the bedside table? Thanks."

I took the bottle and spoon from the table. Ginny helped Neville to sit up on the bed and she took the items from me. She then poured the potion into the spoon.

We watched as Ginny fed Neville the potion and when he's done, Neville lay down and he said, "By the way, Hermione, about the divorce papers…"

"You don't have to bother about that now," I said, "you just take your rest."

"But I want to tell you that," said Neville, "they will be ready in 2 months."

I gasped. "Really?"

He nodded and smiled weakly. Then he struggled to get up, "Maybe I could show you some of the documents that are ready…"

Ginny quickly pushed him down. "Oh no you don't, you need your rest." she said in a tone that reminded me of Madam Pomfrey. "I won't let you search the drawers for them."

"It's okay, Neville. Hermione could wait until you are done with the whole thing, right Hermione?" asked Harry.

I nodded in agreement.

Neville was silent. Then he lay down on the bed. "All right then. By the way, Hermione, happy birthday."

"Yes," said Ginny and she smiled at me. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks."

"By the way, we have a gift for you." said Ginny and opened a drawer on the bedside table.

"No, your help on the divorce papers is good enough." I said to Neville.

"That doesn't count." said Ginny and she got up, presenting me a box. "Please accept it."

I glanced at Harry and he nodded. I smiled and took it. "Thank you."

"Hope that you will like it," said Neville and he started to cough.

Ginny rushed to him and patted his chest.

"Well, I guess we better leave now. Neville, take good care of yourself." said Harry.

I nodded in agreement. "And Ginny, do take some rest, you look tired."

Ginny shook her head. "I'm not."

"If Neville recovers by next week, maybe you could attend the party." I said.

Neville nodded. "We will."

We got home and straightaway I unwrapped my gift while we were in the bedroom after we had taken a bath and changed into our nightclothes. I went "oh my gosh" at it. It was a red rose, made of glass. I wondered whether the Longbottoms made it by magic, it looked so real. It even gave out a sweet fragrance when I smelt it.

"Beautiful," said Harry, smiling. "As like you."

I smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks." I placed the rose near the window, beside the real rose that Harry gave me.

"Now it's my turn." said Harry.

"Huh?" I asked, looking at Harry.

He smiled. "Close your eyes, Hermione."

I raised an eyebrow.

"It's a surprise." he said quickly.

I closed my eyes. Then I hearda boxbeing opened and closed.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now." said Harry.

I opened my eyes and saw a beautiful belt resting in Harry's hands. It was completely handmade, weaved from thick strings of all shades of blue. At the end, the strings were separated, hanging freely like a mini blue waterfall.

I took the belt and admired the work. "It's beautiful…" I said in awe.

"Do you like it?" asked Harry.

"I love it! Where did you buy it?" I asked, wrapping the belt around my waist, trying to see whether it fitted.

To my puzzlement, Harry shook his head. "I didn't buy it."

"Then…" I looked at the dark circles under his eyes and my mouth dropped open. "You made it by yourself!"

Harry nodded.

"But when…"

"I made it during late nights while you were asleep." said Harry and smiled. "Hope that my handiwork isn't too bad…"

"It's great." I said and in delight, I flung my arms around him and hugged him tightly. The belt dropped from my hand and onto the floor. "Oh thank you so much, nobody has gone so much trouble making something for me, not even Viktor!"

"Viktor is a bastard." muttered Harry as he hugged me back.

I giggled.

"Happy birthday, Darling." whispered Harry. "I'm so glad to have such a wonderful person like you in my life. I can't wait to marry you."

I released him. "I can't wait either." I said and kissed him. He kissed me back and pushed his tongue through my parting lips.

I moaned and I felt weak at my knees. I fell back on the bed, pulling Harry down with me.

As Harry planted his kisses on my neck and placed his hand on my breast, I thought that's no better way to spend a birthday with the love of my life.

"Imagine," I said hours later, "just two more months and I will be free."

Harry and I were lying on our bed, completely naked under the sheets. I had my head lying Harry's chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. Harry had his left arm around my shoulders, holding me close.

"Hmm-mm." said Harry. "And you could finally throw away that wedding ring of yours."

I lifted my left hand and studied my wedding ring. It looked normal on the outside but when you looked at the inner part of it, it had the words: "V.K (Viktor Krum) loves H.J.K (Hermione Jane Krum) forever" on it.

Forever. Yeah right. The only reason why I was still wearing was to let outsiders think that I was still Viktor's wife.

"I'm going to chunk it into the ocean after my divorce." I said.

"Fine with me." said Harry.

"Then you could buy me a new one." I said.

"I could buy you a diamond ring." said Harry, smiling.

"Just a small diamond will do, I don't like diamonds that are too big…" I said.

"Maybe I will cut it in a shape of the heart. Then I will engrave inside, hm…" Harry stopped.

"How about HJP and HJG forever?" I asked.

"Too long."

"Harry and Hermione?"

"Too common."

"HHr forever? H for your name and Hr for mine."

"Can do."

"Then I want to be married in a garden. Or on an open field." I said.

"You mean an outdoor wedding?"

"Hm-mm. Then we could invite everybody, Ginny, Neville, the Weasleys…"

"I want Ron to be my best man."

"Then Ginny can be my bridesmaid…" I said and giggled. "Oh my, I could just go on and on!"

Harry kissed my forehead. "You should be, otherwise I might think that you are not willing to marry me."

Ginny reported to me today that Neville's condition had improved, great! We were delighted. Now we could celebrate my birthday next week together.

I'm willing to marry Harry, I really am! I want to be Mrs Potter and be happy until my death!

Take that, Viktor.

Got to go, Harry is calling me to do the puzzle.

Hermione