My Heart Belongs To You…Again

Chapter Six: People in Love

Harry was finally allowed to leave after another week in the hospital, just to be safe. Hermione had taken great care of him, and he was nearly back to normal. He couldn't really walk on his own, but he was fine other than that.

Hermione was doing one last check on him before releasing him. Another healer was in the room to ask Harry some questions to make sure he could take care of himself.

"Now Mr. Potter, do you live alone?"

"Do house elves count?"

He knew Hermione would have something to say about that, but she laughed. "No Harry, house elves don't count."

He shrugged. "Then no."

The other healer looked concerned and shook his head. "Mr. Potter in your type of injury, we heavily advise that you stay with someone and try to take it very easy on yourself. We don't want you to take a spill down the stairs and risk more injury. Is there anyone who you could have stay with you for a couple of weeks?"

Harry had been watching Hermione while the healer was talking, so it took him awhile to process everything. Hermione looked up at him and had a thought pop into her head.

"I can stay with you."

She spoke to Harry instead of the healer. She wanted to be there to help Harry. They had regained a lot of what they had lost over his stay in the hospital, and Hermione wasn't ready to let him go yet. She wanted to be able to talk to him whenever she felt like it. She liked giving him a big hug every night and receiving one back before going home. She liked returning in the morning and watching him sleep until he woke up. She didn't want any of it to leave.

Harry was surprised she had said that. He wanted to ask Hermione but didn't know if she was ready for that. It wasn't like they would move their relationship up a level, but she would have to take care of him. Harry wanted to rely on her more than anyone else though. He was so happy to have her back in his life he didn't want to let go. He liked her there all the time. He had missed her so bad all this time, and he finally had her back.

"Would you? I mean, do you mind, you know, taking care of me and everything?"

She smiled. He was so cute when he worried. "No of course I wouldn't mind. I would love to."

The healer smiled. "Great. Hermione just has to finish and sign the release forms, and you Mr. Potter are out of here."

He got up to leave to give them some time. Hermione was sitting right next to Harry, holding his hand. The healer smiled. He knew there was something else there. It was so obvious in just the way they looked at each other. But they probably had no idea. People in love. Geeze. He hoped they would figure it out sometime and left the room.

"Hermione, are you sure you don't mind taking care of me?"

She smiled. "I'm sure. Do you not want me to? Or did you have someone else in mind instead?" Her smile dropped. Please say no, please say no!

He smiled at her. "Of course. I didn't have anyone else in mind. Plus I really wanted to ask you, but I wasn't sure if you would be ok."

Almost instantly, her smile came back on her face. "I'm glad. So, what are the plans? I mean, how are we going to do this?"

"Well, I was thinking that you could stay at my place, since it's so freaking big. Not that your's isn't nice, which I bet it is." He started to worry, until she gave a reassuring smile. "I mean, I have some house-elves," she gave him a glare that could have scared Dumbledore, "who are paid and get time off. The whole 's.p.e.w.' thing stuck with me so I decided to make it as easy as possible on them. Plus, they can quit whenever they want. They all may someday…except for Dobby. I swear, he's going to be with me until he dies. So is that ok with you?"

"Yup, works for me."

He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed his back. "Now that it's all settled, could you sign those papers so I….we can go home already?"