Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter… The plot and some characters have come from my own imagination!

A/N: hello… another chapter… probably not as long as my former ones, but yeah it's done… Thanks for sticking with me all the way up to here! I'm kinda guessing that every one who's made it this far actually likes this story so yea… Don't forget to leave a review when you finish reading this! Thanks, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as I'm sure my friends do (: D Tasha, Dori… I think I'm going to dedicate this to you guys… The only people who argued with me to continue this every day! Lol, hope you're happy with this one Dori… Have you waited long enough?)

Chapter 10 – Love, Always and Forever

Harry was woken abruptly the very next morning by, with no given explanation, by Madame Pomfrey. He had asked quite repeatedly what was happening but the medi-witch had just continued to run around the wing preparing things, potions, vials, clothes, anything she may need. However, no matter how many times Harry would ask, the reason was quite clear. Hermione's body had gone rigid in Harry's arms during their sleep. Her face was pale and slightly purple around the eyes.

Harry had stood in his place, a few meters from the bed as he watched Dumbledore come in. He spent a few minutes looking over Hermione and the he whispered some instructions to Madame Pomfrey then hastily rushed out the Hospital wing with out a word to Harry.

He had watched from afar as the setting began to unfold. Hermione had woken up from her slumber and was being treated with anything Pomfrey could offer. Dumbledore had returned with Professor Snape, who was cautiously handling a large cauldron full to the brim with some sort of thick purple substance. Dumbledore had quickly created a large fire in the hearth near Hermione's bed and then helped Snape place the cauldron over the fire.

Pomfrey helped herself to some of the purple potion, which was now bubbling over the flames, and placed some in a goblet. She gave the cup to Hermione and let her gulp down its contents before rushing off again.

Snape left as fast as he had arrived. Dumbledore was about to follow his lead but Harry stopped him. "Professor? Sir, why don't you send Hermione to St. Mungos? I'm sure they can do more for her there!"

Dumbledore sighed. "I'm afraid they're no more help than we are here. Madame Pomfrey's sister is one of the head medi-witches at the hospital and she's already talked to Poppy. It's best that Hermione stays here, closer to her friends and family. Somewhere she recognizes." Dumbledore bent over slightly until he was eye-to-eye with Harry. He placed his hand on Harry's right shoulder and gave him a curt nod. "It's best this way Harry. I'm sure you will understand."

With that, the headmaster left the hospital wing leaving Harry to stand alone while Madame Pomfrey who was scurrying around the room while Hermione prepared to fall asleep once more.

Hermione sickness seemed to have brought a bond to all students. Well at least some of the Gryffindors became friends with the most unlikely people.

Blaise Zabini continued to eat meals with his new friend, Jessie, and fellow Gryffindors. No one really said Blaise was not allowed to sit with them at their table, at least they haven't told any one but their selves. Blaise was pretty much accepted at the table. The Gryffindor, surprisingly, found a new friend in Blaise.

For the past couple of days, Madame Pomfrey was making sure Hermione was getting enough helpings of the purple potion before she would fall asleep. Dumbledore wanted it guaranteed that Hermione would have enough of the potion in her before the coma begins, because once she's in the coma there would have been no way for anyone to feed the thick liquid to her.

Harry had been spending as much time he possibly could with her, before and after classes. He would bring in his homework to the Hospital Wing and Hermione would gladly help him when needed. And most of the time, Harry would eat with Hermione.

The pile of presents grew steadily as each day passed. More and more students came to see Hermione, bearing gifts of all sorts from books to candy, and cards to toilets. Fred and George thought it would have been highly amusing to send a pink toilet with Hermione's face all over it and the word "Get Well!" flashing around the toilet. Fortunately for Fred and George, the twins had cleaned it before they sent it or else Pomfrey would have confiscated it and all their work into decorating the toilet would have been wasted. Of course now they have a new line of products.

'Instead of sending that special person a card or you can't think of anything to send as a gift,
why not send them a toilet?

Now in stock with various birthdays, get well and wedding anniversary gifts.'

Hermione's parents were always with Hermione, so Harry got the chance to get to know them a little better, Mr. and Mrs. Granger even offered to be Harry's dentist in the future. Harry now knew the Grangers eating habits and such. Funny enough, they all seemed to dislike peas.

However along with the knowledge of everyone's likes and dislikes, Hermione did continue to grow sicker. Harry knew that it wouldn't be long now till Hermione fell into the coma, so he wanted to make sure her days before it were still happy.

The walls of the castle seemed to carry the pain and misery growing in Harry's heart. The castle appeared to have been affecting all the students and staff in the school. The time between and after class, and the meal times with all the population of the school grew quieter. People understood the depression spreading from the hospital wing to the rest of the school. Every one felt for Hermione. She was the one, people in her class, or those younger and older, would come to for help. She wasn't named the brightest witch in her age for nothing, even if it sometimes came with the annoying bits.

Younger students looked up to Hermione. The staff looked on Hermione to set an example to the class. The teachers always did enjoy seeing Hermione understand everything that was thrown at her and her fellow classmates.

Each house was affected by Hermione, this included the Slytherins, but Merlin only knew why. They too seemed to have been silent, not so eager to annoy and bully younger students.

Obviously, the Gryffindors had it bad. Just like the Hufflepuffs, the Gryffindors were about to loose someone dear to them.

Jessie walked into the Hospital wing and waved to Harry. She sat down next to him on the empty chair. "Hey, how is she?" She whispered, for fear of waking Hermione up.

Harry bookmarked his page in his book with his finger. He shook his head. "I don't know. I just came in and Pomfrey isn't telling me anything yet. Hermione's been sleeping ever since I came in but she's not exactly starting that coma stage… yet."

Jessie nodded. It was all she was capable of doing at the moment.

Harry stared in silence for a bit, thinking, pushing things around in his mind trying to remember what he was going to ask Jessie. The light bulb finally clicked on, Harry let out an 'oh, yeah' and whispered, "I was wondering if your mum had received the ring yet. Mr. and Mrs. Granger told me that they had changed their delivery address to your house, seeing as they're here rather than at home."

Jessie shook her head. "I don't think so. If she did she would have sent it over here with my dad's owl. Why?"

"Nothing, there was just something else I bought, so I was just wondering if the two things arrived at different times." Harry shrugged. "Any ways just give it to me as soon as you get it, okay? That would be great."

"Okay sure…" Jessie shrugged. "Tell Hermione I came by and said hi."

Jessie and Blaise sat across from each other in the library together, working silently on their potion's essay. Blaise tried to get a few words in but Jessie would just continue to shush him before he could finish a sentence.

She knew what he wanted to talk about; she just didn't want to discuss the subject. For the past couple of days, Blaise and Jessie became friends no one thought it was a bad notion, even if Blaise was in Slytherin, but everyone knew that Blaise and his entire family never really had a side in the war. The Zabini's were always neutral.

Blaise had been trying to get her and Draco to talk with each other, but neither of them wanted to. Of course, Blaise didn't really blame Jessie for not wanting to talk to Draco, but he felt that Draco shouldn't be the one to have an excuse not to talk to Jessie. And he knew Draco wanted to.

"You know, you should really talk to him!" Blaise whispered, keeping his eyes on his work.

"Shut up, Blaise." Jessie whined. "I've already told, I don't want to and besides if I do, it's not like he's going to talk to me."

"Ah ha, so you've been thinking about it, 'eh?" Blaise looked up form the large text book and grinned.

Jessie shook her head, and then her eye caught the long bright hair of her female Weasley friend. "Hi, Ginny!" She waved.

"Hey! I've been looking for you." The redhead sat down besides Jessie on the empty seat and handed Jessie an envelope. "This came for you. An owl just landed in front of me and it had your name on it so I decided to find you and bring it to you." Ginny turned, slightly and faced the Slytherin boy. "Hi, Blaise." Ginny muttered shyly.

Jessie smiled. Seems like Miss Weasley's starting to fancy Mr. Zabini over here. "Thanks, Ginny." She ripped open the letter and read the contents inside. The further Jessie read down the page, the wider her eyes grew.

Ginny turned back to Jessie to see what she had found so interesting. "What did you get?"

"My brother, Landon, is in Hogsmeade this week. He says he's applying for a job here at the school and he wants to see if we could meet up!" Jessie jumped in her seat.

"You have a brother?" Blaise asked. "You never told me that. All you said was that you grew up with your mum and dad in Canada."

"Well yea, I did grow up in Toronto with my muggle mom and dad. But, I had actually moved there from the states, which was when my brother was living with us." Jessie corrected. "My muggle mom, is actually my step mom. My real mother died when I was 2. She was killed by a death eater. You see, she and my father worked as aurors. My mother was one of the best in her division; she and my father worked all over the states. However, when my dad found out my mom was murdered by one of the death eaters, he couldn't stand living in the US anymore. My parents had spent a lot of time together all over that country so staying there after my mothers death really hurt my dad. I guess it was one of those situations where you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"And your brother? What happened to him?" Ginny asked eager to know what happened next.

"He ran away from home a few days after he found out. He was 12." Jessie sighed. She had really told anyone before. She did mention some of it to Draco, but then again he probably wasn't listening. "My dad found out he used the Floo Network at his work and wound out at my grandmother's house in Glasgow, Scotland, so my dad just let him stay there thinking that it would have been best. We haven't seen each other in a few years, we usually just write to each other, but oh my gosh, this is great!"

Ginny smiled happy for her friend. "Oh, right!" She exclaimed excitedly. "This came with the letter." Ginny handed Jessie a deformed parcel. It looked like there was a long, thin box inside with a smaller square box sitting roughly on top of it in the middle. The whole thing was wrapped in a blue sort-of wrapping paper. Thee letters HP were scrawled on the top.

"Oh, great! Thanks!" Jessie stood up from her seat and collected her belongings and hastily threw them into her bag. "I've got to go! I'll see you later Blaise. Bye Ginny."

"No, wait! I'm coming with you!" Ginny got up and followed Jessie out the library. "Bye, Blaise."

Jessie chuckled when the younger red head caught up with her. "Awww, Ginny. You like Blaise, don't you?" Jessie laughed harder when Ginny didn't say anything and had just started to blush. "Oh, that's okay. At least you're not the first to fall for a Slytherin. So what, you want me to ask him if he likes you?"

Ginny smiled at Jessie. "Well aren't we getting in the mood here. So eager to help out another friend or two, eh? Well, you didn't do too badly with Harry and Hermione, now did you?"

"Well there was nothing much for me to do. Some one just needed to give the two a push from the back, I just so happened to do just that." Jessie smiled, proud of herself. "How about you? You like Blaise, right? So why don't you talk to him or something?"

Ginny shrugged. "He probably doesn't like me…"

"How do you know that? You've barely even talked to him, unless you count the 'Hey, Blaise' or 'Bye, Blaise', but you don't even say hi to him unless you happen to come up to him while I'm standing there telling Blaise to shut up." Jessie sighed. "You too should talk. Really!"

After a moment or two, Ginny nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah I should talk to him!"

"That a girl!" Jessie paused. "Wait… what about Dean?"

Ginny shrugged. "I dunno… we haven't been talking much since the last Quidditch match. He's found a groupie in Romilda Vane. I never see either of them with out each other. Honestly, it doesn't bother me. I don't even like Dean anymore… Anyways, thanks for talking, Jess. I'll see you later." Ginny turned to head back to the library but then stopped and faced Jessie. "By the way, Jess. You should really talk to Malfoy. I know you want to. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole school knew, but that's beside the point. You should talk to him. It might be good for you, it might not. At least you'll get over it. And, you never know, you two might actually become friends or something."

Jessie nodded her head. "Sure, I'll see you later."

"Okay, bye!" Ginny turned, walking confidently towards the library, where as Jessie walked in the other direction towards the Gryffindor tower thinking about what Ginny had just said.

-- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - --

Harry jumped. He had been trying to read some of the ancient volumes of Poisons he had found in the library hoping to find a solution for Hermione, when Jessie came running through the portrait hole yelling out his name. "What's wrong? Why are you looking so happy?" He asked.

Jessie jogged around the end of the couch and sat down by Harry's feet. "Here, you go!" Jessie smiled ecstatically.

Harry eyed the package in Jessie's outstretched arms.

"Apparently, it arrived a few minutes ago. Ginny just gave it to me in the library" Jessie handed the parcel to Harry and ran off to an empty Gryffindor table and pulled out a piece of parchment and quill.

As Jessie started to write, madly attacking the letter, Harry quickly ripped off the neatly wrapped wrapping paper. Inside were two velvety purple boxes. One was a long thin rectangle, the other a small box big enough for a ring. He opened the smaller of the two. Harry smiled. It was perfect. He quickly got up and walked to the portrait hole.

"Where are you going?" Jessie looked up from her developing letter.

"I'm going to see Hermione…" Harry said plainly and left the Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry walked into the Hospital Wing without much sound. He sat in his usual chair by Hermione's side and looked into her pale face.

Hermione's eyes opened slowly and stared into Harry's vibrant green eyes. "G'morning! Or is it Afternoon now? I just keep sleeping; I never know what time it is… Harry, are you okay?"

Harry nodded and took in a deep breath, and clearly whispered, "Hermione… You know I love you so much, right?

Hermione nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going. "I love you too, Harry!"

Harry smiled and put his hands into his pockets. He pulled out the longer one and opened it. Harry looked at it. "I wanted to do something special for you on Valentine's Day or at least buy you something really, really nice, but seeing as how I couldn't really do anything for the first week before Valentine's Day, I didn't really have much choice but lie in bed." Harry pulled his chair up to Hermione's bed. She sat up straight looking eagerly at the velvety box in Harry's hands.

"I thought this would have been nice, since Jessie told me you've had your eye on it for a while now." Harry turned the box around so Hermione could clearly see what was inside.

Hermione gasped, her eyes grew big. It's the necklace. Oh, it's perfect! Elegant, but simple. "Harry… O my… Where did you get this? It's beautiful!"

Harry smiled. "Remember the day you were looking for me, but then found me in the Dining Hall with Jessie and Ron, the day I got released from the Hospital Wing? Ron and I went to muggle London to find you this. Of course Ron wasn't much help, but yeah… Do you like it?"

"Do I like it? Of course, I love it." Hermione gushed. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

Harry's grin grew bigger as he stood up to put the necklace around her neck. "Oh and before I forget…" Harry pulled out another velvet box, except his one was much smaller. "It took me a while to find this, but I managed." Harry opened the box and showed Hermione its contents.

Hermione gasped once more. Inside was a beautiful gold ring with a green emerald that matched the colour of Harry's eyes sitting in the middle of it. The emerald was of two hearts overlapping one another and on either side were two small diamonds.

Harry pulled out the ring and held it under the light for Hermione to see. Hermione took the ring gently in her hand and found that there was an inscription on the inside. Love, Always and Forever.

"That was the ring my father gave to my mum when he proposed to her. Remus said my mother never really went anywhere with out the ring. However when my parent died, someone found the ring and sold it for quite a bit of money. Apparently, Sirius and Remus got it after my mum died and Remus said I should have it." Harry took the ring back from Hermione and looked at it. With out any hesitation Harry slid the ring onto Hermione's thin finger. It fit perfectly. "I want you to have it." He whispered.

"With this ring, I promise you, you will be alright. You will not die for my mistakes. I swear to you, Hermione, you will see the end of this. No matter what, you'll be okay. I swear to you. You will live to see the end of the war and will continue to live afterwards. I promise you on my life. I will do everything in my power to save you." Tears escaped from Harry's eyes.

"Oh Harry!" Tears started to slide down Hermione's cheeks. She couldn't be happier. Hermione tightly wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and pulled him closer to her body. She gave him a kiss which never seemed to end. "I love you Harry!" She whispered.

Harry smiled and buried his head into her shoulder. "I love you, Hermione. Always and Forever."

A/N: there you go… now click the little button on the bottom left of this window and post a REVIEW! Okay... yeah I'm weird… I know : )

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