Chapter 2
Hermione reached over to take her book off her bedside table but as she moved it, she knocked her half empty glass of water to the floor. It smashed against the hardwood floor and the water covered her neatly lined up shoes and trainers, and some paperwork she had yet to file which had found a temporary home on the floor.
'Oh, bloody hell!' she shouted a little too loudly. It wasn't the smashed glass that bothered her; that she could mend in an instant, it was the water seeping into her pile of papers that was the problem, especially when she couldn't remember the incantation for the drought charm. As she was sitting up to sort out the mess on the floor a quiet knock on her bedroom door met her ears.
'Hermione, are you all right?'
'Yeah, I'm fine, just broke a glass.'
'Oh, ok. Can I come in?'
'Yeah, sure,' the door opened and the silhouette of her housemate met her gaze. Although Harry Potter had stopped growing in height he was still tall, not as tall or lanky as Ron, but still a reasonable height for a nineteen-year-old man. His usually messy hair was worse after three hours in bed. As he moved into Hermione's wand light she saw that his eyes weren't properly open.
'What happened?' he asked.
'I was picking up my book and I knocked the glass to the floor. Did it wake you?'
'Not really, I wasn't exactly asleep, got my heart racing a bit though,' he patted his bare chest which was very toned considering he didn't do a huge amount of exercise.
'Well, I'm sorry.'
'That's ok, I knew nothing was seriously wrong when you started swearing!' she smiled, something he didn't see her do a great deal these days. 'Are you going to fix that? Or are you going to risk getting glass in your feet?' She raised her wand.
'Reparo.' The glass reformed perfectly on the floor. She picked it up and replaced it on her bedside table. 'I can't remember the drought spell to dry that up. Can you?' He smiled at her and took her wand from her hand. She looked at him as he performed the spell non-verbally and when she next looked at the ground it was dry. 'Thanks.' Noticing her pile of papers was wet he summoned them to him and performed the charm that sent a jet of hot air out of Hermione's wand.
'You know, I think Ron's been a bad influence on you. You never used to be one for swearing.' Again she smiled.
'I know, but it has to be said Ron swears a lot less than he used to, maybe I was a good influence on him.'
'On all of us, Hermione. They wouldn't have let us move out of first year at Hogwarts if you hadn't made us revise.' He puts his arm around her and gave her a hug. 'These are dry by the way,' he added, handing the papers back to Hermione.
'Thanks,' she took them from him and replaced them on the floor. 'So why couldn't you sleep?' she asked Harry.
'I had too much coffee earlier,' he replied. She turned to face him, a questioning look in her eyes. He looked at her knowing she didn't believe him. 'Ok, I had a bad dream.'
'Which one? Or was it a new one?'
'It was the one where Voldemort had me under the Imperius curse and he made me kill you, Ron and Ginny.'
'Oh, it was that one.'
'Yeah, I'm ok though, they're becoming less frequent so don't start worrying again. You have enough to deal with without my problems.'
'Harry, how many times have I told you that our individual problems have always become each other's problems? It's what being best friends is all about.'
'Yeah ok, ok, I know. So why couldn't you sleep?'
'The usual.'
'Thinking about Ron?'
'Yeah, I just keep thinking we've missed something so simple. There has to be a perfectly logical explanation as to why he wasn't woken up yet.'
'Hermione, he's in a coma, we've tried everything. The healers at St. Mungo's have tried everything. It's up to him now. He has to wake himself up.' She looked at her feet dangling six inches off the floor.
'I know, I just feel so helpless and I miss him so much. When I think of all the times at school when we ignored the way we felt and we could have been together, I get so angry with myself.' Her voice broke on her last word and she closed her eyes to stop the tears spilling from them. Harry put his arm around his friend.
'Hey, now come on. Don't think like that. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it doesn't help you feel any better. He will wake up when he's good and ready, and then you'll have the rest of your lives together.' She pulled away from his hug.
'Merlin Harry! You've got us married already and we're not even twenty yet!'
'Are you telling me you've never thought about it?' he asked with a twinkle in his eye.
'Ok, so I have but don't tell Ron that, he'll stay in that coma for years if you do!' She smiled.
'That's more like it. Do you think you'll be able to sleep now?'
'I dunno, how about you?'
'No idea. Look, do you want me to sleep in here so you've got company?'
'If you don't mind.'
'Not at all, your bed's nicer than mine anyway!' They both got under the covers with Harry lying behind Hermione, his arm around her waist giving her comfort.
There had never been anything but friendship between Harry and Hermione. Hermione loved Ron and Harry loved Ginny, end of story, but when you're the celebrity Harry Potter, who's living with a woman he has always been close too, it was hard to escape the constant rumours about the two of them. If the press could see them now, they'd have a field day. But luckily they couldn't, so Harry concentrated on falling asleep. The comfort they found in each other worked, as twenty minutes later, they were sound asleep.
