So sorry about the delay. There is no excuse. Hope some of you are still out there!

Thank you to everyone who have reviewed and pm me. You've helped me a lot and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to reply to all of you.

On the note of the delay however I'm not going to abandon the story, but I'm not sure what I want to do with it at the moment. Do you think I should continue to a final battle, the end of Harry's school years or end the story after third year? Also ideas are much welcomed.

This chapter is unbetad so I might update it later.

Chapter 14

Hermione and Harry looked at each other. Harry thought that Hermione did look much healthier than she had looked the last time he'd seen her. Her skin tone wasn't as pale as Snape's anymore and her eyes wasn't surrounded by big dark circles. However Harry didn't really know how she was feeling and if her stress levels actually had decreased; he had intimate knowledge of the brilliance of Madam Pomfrey and her remedies. Harry stood a bit awkwardly by the bed as he fought the urge to squirm under Hermione's gaze. Harry pulled at the side of his robe.

"Hello Harry." Hermione was quite cool, but she didn't seem as hostile as she had been all term. The sharpness of her tone had toned down. Harry took a stop forward bringing forward the bravery he as a Gryffindor was supposed to have and jumped right in.

"We've got a lot to talk about, don't we?" Harry said. At Hermione's nod he jumped right back in.

"I'm not really sorry about sharing my concerns with McGonagall Hermione and I understand if you're upset about it. I think you'll probably say you did the same thing with the issue about the broom. However I was afraid that you'd burn out from all the stress you were under and we've already talked about how much you're doing before." Harry tried to speak calmly but he was fairly certain that he was speaking much faster than he normally did. Hermione pursed her lips at Harry comments but didn't say anything.

"What did madam Pomfrey say?" Harry said after they were both silent for some very uncomfortable moments. Hermione's health was more important than their argument and Harry knew that they'd discuss it all sooner rather than later.

"Too much stress, so my magical core was unstable and the chemical balance in my body was off and such things. I hadn't eaten properly I guess as well, so I'm on a diet to get everything I need as well." Hermione picked on the comforter as she spoke. Harry took a step closer and sat down in the chair next to her bed.

"Hermione… I care a lot about you, you're one of the first persons to become my friend and see me as me and not how others view me. I know you thought I would act stupidly about the broom but why didn't you speak to me about it before?" Harry asked Hermione quietly. Hermione sighed and stopped picking on the comforter.

"I was so sure that you'd think the same as Ron that I didn't even reflect that you hadn't said anything about it. It's just that most of the time you just rush into things." Hermione said meeting Harry's eyes properly for the first time.

"I do know that I've had a habit of rushing into things before, but by the time you went to McGonagall I'd had the broom for half a day and still not mentioned riding it. You do this a lot Hermione. You assume things, like that I don't do my homework or that I'm always going to be the same as I was at eleven. You and Ron have the security of someone always loving you; your families are always going to love you. I don't have that, so you and Ron were so important to me that I became stuck as the person I came across as when we first met; if I acted differently you made sure to tell me it wasn't alright. Both of you did this. People change and grow up. I like reading, but I'm not as fond of research and schoolwork as you are Hermione." Harry needed to get all of this out so he took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry if I'm giving a lecture but you and Ron kept me on a very tight leech Hermione. Both of you disliked me speaking to other people, or doing something that neither of you were interested in. If I made a decision without you two you got annoyed, like changing subjects. Even then you assumed that I'd need to refer to your better judgement to decide. That's not how friends behave, I've learnt that this term. Friends support each other and help them to grow up. Of course people fight and worry, but friends do not behave as if the other person is less intelligent or not allowed to do perfectly normal things without their friend's permission." Harry finished a bit wary since Hermione looked furious.

"Well that is just…" she fell silent as she fingered on a letter on the bedside table. They were both quiet for some minutes as Hermione seemed to think what to say. She quietly started to speak just as Harry was thinking about saying something himself.

"My mom wrote a letter to me when she found out from McGonagall about everything. She was madder about not talking to you first then going to the professors. I guess it's about talking to each other. But Harry you never showed an interest in school and all your plans often fall apart so…" She fell silent again as she thought about it.

"I guess we need to think about it? You need to show who you really are and I need to pay attention?" Hermione said hesitantly. Harry wasn't completely satisfied with that but it was a beginning so he could live with that for the moment. After all he knew that things with Ron was far from resolved either. The damage from Harry's silence and Ron and Hermione's presumption would take time to heal.

They both agreed to resume their talk about their friendship (Ron's were included, but he wasn't really a person who valued long discussions). At the moment Harry filled Hermione up on the hearing, new guardians and Peter Pettigrew. His new found knowledge of his mother's friendship and more intimate things were not discussed. While Harry and Hermione had buried the hatchet for the time being, they were far from fine and the more intimate issues of Harry's new knowledge wasn't something he was comfortable discussing with her yet. Just like Harry's friendship with Ron would take some time to start to mend properly again. This was simply a different take on mending it. Besides Hermione's stress levels were included in this longer approach.

Just as Harry prepared to leave Hermione sighed.

"I guess what I'm most mad about is that they're making me quit two classes and have taken back the time-turner. I need to tell them which before term begins." Hermione muttered. Harry raised an eyebrow, thinking that this was probably reasonable since Hermione's stress had made her ill. He didn't voice that thought.

"Well it's your decision Hermione. But you really hate divination, right?" Harry said. Hermione nodded with pursed lips.

"And honestly for you muggle studies isn't really needed. It you wish to study how wizards view muggles you can join the muggle studies study group. A lot of the muggle raised in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are doing that. Penelope Clearwater told me that. She took the muggle studies owl despite not taking the class." Harry said quietly. Hermione looked at him mouth slightly agape, which she seemed to realise as she quickly closed her mouth.

"The study group sounds great. I'll admit that most of the material this year have been basic knowledge I already have and little about wizards view on muggles and their culture. Are… are you thinking about joining the group?" Hermione said the last bit hesitantly.

"I hadn't thought too much about it. Apparently most people join the group in their fourth year and go every second week. I want to make sure I have time for it with ten other classes and quidditch." Harry said. Hermione nodded.

"Thank you for the information. I am still not happy about quitting classes, but the knowledge that I've got an alternative is good to know." Hermione said and she and Harry looked at each other a tad awkwardly. They both said quick goodbyes as Harry made his way out of the hospital wing.

After he exited the hospital wing Harry walked around the castle a bit aimlessly. He passed the Grey Lady and the Fat Friar and greeted both before he found himself in front of the Ravenclaw common room. It was a bit like doing a round off of his friends. He spoke to Ron and Daphne this morning, with Daphne giving him an impromptu politics and media relations lesson. He supposed coming from a politically involved family did that to a person. Still he was thankful, politics were a weird world to him. No one seemed to say what they really meant.

Then he has spoken to Hermione (well he had spoken to the Tonks' and professor McGonagall, but they were sort-of-family and teacher) and now he was hoping he got to see his Ravenclaw friends. The rest of his friends, including his friends from the upper years, wouldn't be back until after Christmas.

As Harry stepped into the Ravenclaw common room he was for once not attacked by the exuberant Ravenclaw duo of Sheila and Jessica. The two were as mischievous as they were kind though so Harry looked around so that they wouldn't sneak up on him. As they didn't appear he walked up to Terry and Anthony. They were seated by one of the windows and while Terry was reading a letter, Anthony was reading a book about experimental spells. Anthony saw Harry's goldfish look and smiled.

"Don't worry, just theory right now. I'd like to do something like that later though. I wanted to become a scientist before I got the letter and I like looking things up and experimenting so…" Anthony trailed of as Harry smiled. While Harry didn't know Anthony too well, he was fairly sure that the boy who seemed to calmly observe everything would suit as a scientist just fine. He told Anthony so and got a smile in return.

Terry snorted and put down the letter. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Anthony.

"Well as long as you don't become a mad scientist, we can't have that. Seriously though, you'd be brilliant at it." Terry said. Anthony smirked at him.

"Yes just as you'd become a brilliant lawyer." Anthony said. Terry huffed.

"My father is a lawyer, but that does not mean that I will be one. In fact I won't be one." Terry said stubbornly.

"Why? Every time you say that you always talk about your dad but not why you would want or not want it." Harry said.

"Also you can see things from different perspectives which is a good qualification for a lawyer. Don't forget that I know that just as I read this for fun, you read trial transcripts." Anthony said and tapped on his book while Terry spluttered at them.

"You've got good critical thinking as well, Terry. That is 'an essential component in a lawyer's arsenal' as you said last week. You already know most of the terminology and always read the parts where your dad talks about his job first when he writes to you." Harry finished off with. He and Anthony high fived as Terry glared at them. Terry sighed as both of the other boys turned back to look as him with wide grins. The sarcastic boy for once didn't seem to have a snappy retort and pouted.

"Introducing the two of you to each other was a terrible idea." Terry finally said and went back to his letter after winking at the other two, who promptly burst out laughing. Harry felt the stress of everything, friends and who would be his guardians, fade away as they continued to talk about future plans and good books.