I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. I also have no beta or proof-reader (at least not a human one) so expect some mistakes from time to time.

Harry glanced nervously at his watch again, the same one that Mr and Mrs Weasley, his best friend's parents had given him just hours earlier for his nineteenth birthday. The timepiece shone in the light of the restaurant, gleaming with a bronze glow. Mrs Weasley's brother, Fabian Prewett had once worn this watch and had passed it on to his sister when he died. It made him feel like he had a family again.

Of course, the Weasley's had always been nice and kind to Harry, without showing the heaps of forced sympathy that could have come with the job. They loved him unconditionally, even though Ron's brother Percy had nearly socked him in the jaw when he 'broke his little sister's heart'. He still had a good rapport with the rest of the family though, even the estranged man, Charlie, who was studying rare and endangered animals and flora in Albania. His family weren't the most welcoming of him when he came back to England with a boyfriend after being away for nearly 5 years too, but they eventually got over it and he was asked back to introduce Michael to them all. They had been cordial and accepting of him since.

Harry knew that all of them were happy with him being a pseudo-family member and it brought more joy to him than anything he had ever known. That is why he had nearly burst into tears and/or song when the nine of them, not a single person missing had presented him with that watch that belonged to Fabian. They had given him a permeant spot in their family, their house and their hearts, even if Ginny still harboured some recognition of annoyance toward him.

Harry looked up and shook the pleasant memory from his head, seeing that someone had turned up next to the table.

"Oh, Harry, you are here! I hoped that I would be serving you tonight. This will be fun!" Harry sighed as he met Theo's eyes with an exasperated look.

"Seriously mate, can't you get anyone else to sub for you? Amy, or Brian, or hell, even Cassie, but don't tell her I said that?" Theo Davies laughed and shook his head, indicating his answer.

"Nope, Cassie took the night off, Brian is working on your normal station and Amy is swamped. I think that Mitchell might have been fired by Charity, he stormed out earlier, during his shift and no-one has seen him since. Thanks for that, by the way, he was a nightmare, especially after your argument." Theo nudged Harry's shoulder and gestured towards the host's stand, where a beautiful woman was standing, clad in a deep blue dress and wearing a sparkling necklace of white gems. Her hair was tied up into a bun and short ringlets were hanging down from it, accentuating her figure from the neck down.

"Is that your date, man? Christ, she's a looker, isn't she? Go get em'." Theo whispered to Harry whilst he got up and grabbed his jaw from its resting place on the floor.

"Uhh, Hermione? Are you sure that's you? My God, you look absolutely enchanting. Please, let's go…" He stopped short as he noticed her dress with a new angle; it was embroidered with silvery thread that shone as bright as the copper on his watch. The view was incredible, a sight for sore eyes, as Theo so aptly asked a few moments later as he was leading the two to the table. Sitting down, the sight of the dress, bar the top half and her necklace was obscured from view, though Harry's eyes lingered only on Hermione's face. If she was wearing any sort of makeup aside from the minimal blush and eye shadow, he did not notice, though his gaze followed her bright eyes. Though they were a deep brown, a colour not too dissimilar to chocolate, they shone with a renewed sense of wonder that could only be from seeing her friend.

"I'm sorry that I'm a bit quiet, you know how nervous I can get. I just-, I don't want to mess up and have this turn out to be a disaster and you hate me and then…" She said in quick succession. The nerves were almost charming to Harry, as they trumped his own ten-fold, but… He hated seeing Hermione like this, unlike herself: the one who obsessed over learning, helping people and above all, being the best person she could for the people around her. Although to counter this, Harry had a single thought, nay, a plan in his mind.

'Reverse the roles.'

Hermione had looked around the car park, anxious to see if Harry's car was already there yet. Though she knew it was technically his friend, Ron's, she knew from a little eavesdropping after college that Ron had already been banned from driving if he didn't attend a safety course, as, multiple times in fact, he had been caught speeding, even if it was under intoxication only once. Luckily no one had died in those instances, but he had got his just desserts. With glee and some degree of nervousness, she saw the dark green Volkswagen, remarkably in the normal spot, not the employees'. She mentally slapped her forehead in realisation: 'He obviously isn't working there tonight, he is just plain, old Harry. My Harry.'

So, upon entering the restaurant and seeing Harry in a smart shirt, formal jacket, and with no buttons undone, she sighed in both relief and contempt. She could practically hear her Grandfather now: 'Oh, she's got it bad, Matilda. Go get 'em, sweetheart.'

She smiled to herself and approached the stand, where Harry and a waiter immediately came to as well, both looking dapper, but Harry the more casual of them. Hermione saw Harry stop and felt his eyes raking all over her. Had it been anyone else, she would have broken their nose, just like Draco Malfoy in Year 9, but it wasn't. It was just Harry, the one she dolled herself up for, the entire reason for her wearing the expensive necklace and silky dress that Grandma had loaned her for this special occasion.

Harry stuttered and the waiter sniggered at him whilst leading them to their table, obviously amused by the befuddlement shown on both of their faces. He could tell that they were both out of their element, clear as day; they couldn't hide it well, after all. He left, his large frame shaking from laughter, with their drink orders ready to hand to someone. 'Hopefully someone behind the bar who can get us nice and drunk to forget that exchange' she thought with a blush adorning her pale cheeks.

"So, are you ready to finally begin this? It's been a long time coming, hasn't it?" Harry whispered softly, clasping her hands in his.

Harry had taken her hands in his own and finally started a conversation with his date. His extremely beautiful and wildly out-of-his-league date. To say that they were both nervous and extremely happy was an understatement, and they could both see it painted onto their iris' like a work of anxious art.

"I have to apologise for two things tonight, Hermione. Firstly, in advance, I am sorry for what Theo -our waiter- will be saying. Most, if not all of his conversation outside of 'here are your drinks/dishes' will be work anecdotes about me. He may also be quite open about how he makes fun of me, but I assure you, I can handle that." Hermione looked amusedly at him and nodded along, accepting that there wasn't a way out of the teasing, gawking and laughing tonight.

"It's perfectly alright. As long as I know the real you, it won't matter. Besides, I don't think that anything he says about you here can be nearly as bad as what I've heard about you at school. And in college. But that's all for another time. Now, what are we ordering, I'm starving."

"Well, the steak sounds amazing, but I don't know if I should. It's a tad expensive. The smoked salmon too…" She muttered to herself, unaware that Harry was watching her with an amused gaze. He tried to stop her multiple times, but she kept getting flustered and poking her nose back into the menu.

"Hermione, please, order anything you want. I have someone on the inside here, plus, I know the best dishes, and the steak…" he pressed three fingers to his lips and drew them away. "is fantastic here. Trust me, ma Belle." He intoned, counting himself lucky that he didn't mess up the pronunciation. Her eyes grew wide with shock.

"French, mister? What makes you think that gains you any points, hm?" She put her hands on her hips and tried to hold back a laugh and the blush creeping up her neck, the latter failing.

"Did it?" Harry pried, a smirk on his face.

"Just this once. By the way, you might want to take up French classes if that is how you want to play this little game. But I'm fine with English."

Their dinner arrived only half an hour after ordering, something that the restaurant prided itself on when advertising, so Harry and Hermione both ate their meals with the same fervour that they displayed when bantering with each other. Hermione avoided drinking too much wine with said dinner, but still drank 2 glasses along with her medium-rare steak. Harry, on the other hand, was driving them both home and so he avoided alcohol, even with his meal, leaving him less confident to counter Hermione, now that she was cheering up and sounding more cohesive, even with a few minor slip-ups. Every time she took a bite of her meat, she would sneak a glance at the boy opposite her and catch his eyes lingering on her face. Had he been less discrete, she would have thought him mildly intimidated, now though, it was plain to see that he was utterly baffled.

"Harry, are you alright? You seem a bit… distracted. Is there something on my face?" She asked with a whisper and a giggle. 'Damn, its back'. She thought as the un-Hermione-like noise came from her mouth.

"Nothing's wrong, I just can't believe that after all this time, we're finally on a real date. I don't want it to end, or for you to go." He tried to say it with less of a sad tone and more of a romantic or sultry one, but it came out just as desperate as he had hoped it was not. Hermione cocked her head and put down her fork, looking at Harry's eyes as though peering into his heart, searching for even an ounce of insincerity. She could find none.

"Good, because I don't want to end this quickly either. I'm in no rush to be away from you." The time was starting to get to the both of them, as was the meal and Hermione's wine. Luckily they were minutes from finishing and had Theo come over to present their bill. Hermione left to go to the ladies room as Harry paid.

"Just put it on my card. Oh and Theo, here's your tip." He gave the man a 10-pound note, crisp from his wallet. "I don't mind, besides, you've been... tolerable tonight, so here you go." A look of shock and admiration came from the waiter.

"Very well Sir. Just know that I will be bringing this up on Tuesday when you next come in. And everyone else will hear about the sweet things you did tonight." Theo said with a mischievous grin. Harry opened his mouth to respond but looked confused.

"I wasn't being that different for Hermione tonight, besides, how would you know what to compare it to?" Theo laughed lightly at him.

"No, I meant how sweet you were to me. Tolerable? I think I might go and cry tears of joy!" He mocked.

When Hermione returned, she was ready to leave and still looked gorgeous in her dress. The blue rook wasn't exactly the right place for it, at least, not on the lower floor. The second and third, however, were just right for it. The rest of the patrons, along with the pair, would not have looked out of place at a royal ball, let alone this restaurant. "Are you ready to go, Harry?" She asked, trying desperately to save him from the conversation with this 'Theo'. He seemed nice enough, but with Harry's track record, he was likely getting mercilessly ribbed about being here on a date. Harry mentally shouted a thank you to Hermione and she nodded as if she understood exactly what he had thought.

"Yes, let's leave, quickly." He scrambled out of his seat and lead Hermione from the restaurant. Upon looking back, Theo had a grin to match the Cheshire Cat, one that filled Harry with embarrassment, for he knew exactly what he was going to do.

"You do realise that he is going to tell everyone in the back and probably more about us, right?"

"Yeah, but why should it matter, you aren't embarrassed to be seen with me are you?" Hermione replied timidly, with a near whisper. Harry realised what she had thought and sprung quickly into action to repair his stupid mistake.

"Uh, no no no… no I just didn't think, that's all. I mean, I forgot for a moment that I was supposed to be taking it easy, being confident and it slipped my mind that they don't know you. I was being selfish, I'm sorry." He looked down at his shoes and suddenly found the pavement very interesting. What he didn't see was that Hermione had her hand to her mouth, trying not to let out a laugh. But then, a sudden absence of sound came to his ears and he turned, seeing Hermione slightly hunched over, clearly trying to suppress something.

"Oh, find something funny, did we?" He asked, feigning a mortal wound to his chest, or as Hermione saw it, his pride. Before she could answer, a shadow emerged from behind the nearest car in the park and started to charge towards Harry.

Whoever it was, they were fast, angry and well disguised, having brought a black mask and a hood to obscure his face. Harry didn't have time to react before the person crashed into him and started to rain down blows on his, well everywhere. Hermione was momentarily stunned and looked on horror before quickly snapping back to the scene in front of her.

"No, Harry!" She cried, before running over and pushing the assailant off her friend. He got up and tried to run at her with a roar in his throat, but he tripped over Harry's outstretched arm, which was already caked in dirt and dust. The man fell to the asphalt and a sickening crack sound came from his hand. Hermione saw the telltale sign of a pissed off person, a shaking fist. The other hand, the one not injured pushed him up and clenched itself into a ball.

"I… I'll kill you. I'll kill you! You stupid bitch!" The attacker screamed. He tried to take a step forward, but Harry had managed to pull himself to his feet and grab the man's hood, effectively holding him back from Hermione. He shouted at Hermione to run and she turned… but knew that she couldn't leave him. Not now, not when he needed her. Harry shoved the man after his hood fell and he landed by an overflowing bin, where he started to grab random objects from the top and toss them with ferocity at both of them. A lighter, a half-full can of beer, box after box after box, he threw at them, yet still, Harry tried to subdue him instead of running away. When out of readily available ammunition, the masked man rushed at Harry, again crying out a bloodcurdling scream of rage which made Hermione shiver to the bone. Harry caught him in a headlock but was simultaneously pushed back into the opposite car to the wall, which started the car alarm off. Hermione again tried to rip the man off her best friend but was thrust backwards by his aggressive hands, hitting her head on a lamppost, before limply dropping to the floor.

"Hermio- ackk!" His voice was cut off as the assailant closed his hands, the broken one included around Harry's neck. He struggled and clawed at the man's arms and hands, then he grasped at the mask and ripped it off in a desperate attempt to get free.

Then he saw the crazy, malicious eyes of Mitchell Johnson.

Harry was able to get a short amount of breath back as Mitchell spluttered from his face reveal. But it was in vain, for he punched Harry in the ribs, knocking more wind from his lungs. Though, just before Harry blacked out, the back door to the restaurant burst open, revealing three of his friends and quite a few customers who had come to investigate/gawk. Mitchell was shortly wrenched from Harry's throat as the boy gasped, trying to swallow as much air as he could. He could make out the faint form of someone tackling Mitchell to the ground, and another sprawled out over by a lamppost. His glasses lay half-broken on his face and his neck felt like it could snap like a twig covered in frost. Someone came over to him and supported his weight whilst another grabbed his arms and took him over to a bench near the lamppost. Harry quickly adjusted his glasses so that the cracked lenses better aligned with his eyes, then he saw it. The whole scene.

Hermione lay unmoving, save for a slow and shallow rise of her chest. She was alive! But her left arm had taken the brunt of the force of the push to the ground, whereas her head had nastily been hit against the metal post. It oozed blood before someone came over and pressed a damp handkerchief against the wound near her temple. Theo and Brian thankfully supported his weight enough for him to turn around and see Amy Higgins pin Mitchell to the asphalt whilst the deranged man spat expletives at her and cursed Harry and 'the fucking bitch' he had assaulted. Harry vaguely heard someone on the phone to the emergency services and shocked murmurs that passed through the steadily growing crowd. Then he saw Hermione's form shift and struggle. The worried man hobbled over and crouched at her side, holding her hands as she regained some form of consciousness. Her eyes were rapidly flitting around and her breaths sounded hoarse, strained and shallow.

"Harry, Harry?!" She wailed, trying to move her neck from where it was propped up on a stranger's arm. Harry moved around to the other side of her and held her good hand, feeling the tension and fear radiate through her touch.

"It- it's going to be ok, Hermione. Please, just- just stay here… stay with me. Alright? You'll stay with me?" He asked with panicked breaths, hoping that she could hear and understand him through her obvious hazy consciousness.

"Until the very end." She breathed, then let a tear fall from her cheek, which rolled down and onto his other hand.

Just minutes later, two ambulances and a police car drove into the car park and stopped just shy of the road. Paramedics and Police Officers swarmed around the crowd, the police dispersing the onlookers.

"Alright, I need everyone to back up, NOW!" One officer shouted to the people, apart from those that were tending to the injured or criminal. He then muttered a series of nonsense that meant nothing to Harry. He assumed he was calling the station or something equally important.

"Young man, we need to get you to a hospital, now. Can you stand up?" Once paramedic asked. Harry blinked and looked at Hermione.

"Yes, but I'm not leaving her side. I won't do it." Another paramedic shook his head and muttered something like "star-crossed lovers" then nodded to another man who was ready to bring out a stretcher. Hermione groaned once she was lifted onto the stretcher, then gestured to Harry's hand.

"Please, I want to see him." She muttered, her head swaying with eyes rapidly blinking.

"I'm sorry Madam, we can't do that, he needs to be monitored himself, but you can see him as soon as you're both ready and settled at the hospital. Promise." The man seemed to be sincere, but it didn't lessen her worries or make her feel more comfortable.

Wow, that was intense. I thought that the story needed a bit more than just relationship drama, so here you go.

Well done if you spotted the little reference to the Deathly Hallows there. James' line back to Harry. "Until the very end."