Ch15

Harry groaned. He heard a little squeak from somewhere close by, followed by the distinctive sound of Elfish apparition. He frowned, but then as the pain in his head, and everywhere else for that matter, spiked, he tried to relax as much as possible; a seemingly impossible task when everything nerve ending in his body felt as if he had been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse for no less than an hour.. What the hell...

Eventually, through the mire of pain, he heard hurried footsteps approaching and a familiar voice said, "Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr Potter."

Harry forced eyelids that felt distinctly bruised and swollen, open, before slamming them shut again with another groan of pain. Poppy knew immediately what the problem was and she berated herself for not taking the necessary steps to prevent her patient suffering added discomfort.

"I'm so sorry, Harry," said a contrite Poppy as she spelled the lamps to emit a much softer light.

Harry tried to lift his right arm, but more pain sliced through him, this time from below his neck. "What happened?" he rasped, his throat feeling as if he was wearing a cut-glass bow tie...on the inside.

"We were hoping you could tell us," said a different, but just as familiar voice.

Snape. Harry tried again; he opened his eyes and this time was able to keep them open, though they watered spectacularly and even though it hurt like hell. He felt like hell. He could see two blurry figures in front of him... one mostly white and the other mostly black. "Why," he rasped again, "am I at Hogwarts, and in the Hospital Wing? What happened?"

Severus stepped up to the bed. "We don't know what happened, Harry. Yesterday afternoon, Ginevra Weasley fire-called the Hospital Wing from your kitchen—"

"Oh my God, Ginny!" Before Poppy or Severus could prevent him, Harry had tried to thrust himself into a sitting position, only to fall back moaning as all his aches and pains coalesced into a bunch of nerves being consumed by Fiendfyre, and the nascent nausea he had been experiencing since he regained consciousness , intensified.

"Oh God!" he breathed and the next second, it felt as if he was turning himself inside out as he began to vomit.

"Severus, some help please." Poppy was brisk efficiency for the next several minutes as she spelled painkilling potions and an anti-emetic into her patient, and fussed, checking his vital signs and injuries, while Severus with only a slight moue of distaste held a bowl in position while Harry heaved, again and again, long after the meager contents of his stomach had been evacuated.

"You will have to lie still, Harry, or I am going to have to ensure you do so. You have an extensive list of injuries, not least being a fractured skull and severe concussion. If that is not enough to be going on with, there are other rather numerous injuries to your face and eyes."

Harry shut his injured and rather sore eyes as Poppy's litany continued. "And then there is your arm, which must remain immobile for several more hours if you do not want there to be permanent damage."

"Where's Ginny?" asked Harry in a tired whisper, totally ignoring Poppy's admonishments. The pain he was still experiencing was obvious from the drawn skin around his eyes and his stark pallor. Poppy knew that if young Mr Potter didn't feel so absolutely dreadful, he would have been out of that bed so fast, they wouldn't have seen him for dust.

Poppy pursed her lips. She most definitely didn't want her patient focusing on anything other than his own recovery. But knowing Harry as well as she did, she knew he would continue to obsess over Miss Weasley and her daughter. "She and her daughter are in the other side ward," she reluctantly told him.

"I need to see her."

"She's sleeping at the moment. They both are. It is very late, Harry. Perhaps in the morning, when you should be feeling much better, you can see her."

"Is she okay? Is Bonnie okay?"

"They're fine." Poppy patted Harry on the shoulder. "Now, I need to check on my only school-age patient, and you, young man, need to get some more rest." Harry listened to her receding footsteps and her whispered words to Severus as she passed him, ordering him not to be long, as Harry needed his rest.

But Harry had no intention of resting. He saw the black wavering shape that he knew to be Snape move closer to the bed. "Severus..." he said quietly, but with a degree of urgency that had the Potions Master frowning in consternation and resignation. "Severus, I need to be with Ginny when she wakes up." He hissed in a breath and grimaced with pain as he forced himself into an upright position again. Severus put a restraining hand on the younger man's uninjured shoulder.

"Harry—"

"No! Listen to me!" Harry hissed, trying to shrug the offending hand off. "If she's here, then she didn't come voluntarily. Did someone stun her to get her here? What about Bonnie?"

"No one stunned Miss Weasley. She was... she was—"

"She was what?" Harry was becoming more agitated the longer the exchange continued. "She was asleep? Unconscious?"

"She was slightly out of it, certainly, but not because anyone did anything to her."

Harry opened his mouth to speak again but Severus raised his voice slightly to head him off at the pass. "Poppy is of the opinion that she was suffering from shock."

That silenced Harry.

"What happened to send her into shock, Harry? Did she see what happened to you? What did happen to you?"

Harry was no longer so eager to talk; for in the last few seconds, the recollection of what must have happened to have left him in this condition rushed through his memory bank like a train through a tunnel. He recalled his wand sliding out of his back pocket, seemingly of its own accord, he recalled spinning about and seeing that powerful wand pointed directly at his face, being held by a very angry, and very out of practice, redhead. He remembered seeing the wand moving in a furious, tight circle and he remembered seeing Ginny's lips moving as she muttered the incantation for what he knew was her famous Bat-Bogey Hex. He remembered he didn't even have time to open his mouth to try and stop her in her tracks.

Then there had been nothing until he'd awoken a short time ago. Battered, bruised, and in quite significant pain. Ginny had certainly done a job on him, but he wasn't going to tell anyone that. He refused to look directly at Severus; he wasn't going to take the chance of being Legilimised.

"I don't remember," he said, his eyes focused on the blurry ceiling. "Have you any idea where my glasses are?"

Severus knew misdirection when it was directed at him, but he wasn't going to push for answers at the moment, when it was quite obvious Harry wasn't going to open up willingly. The boy was going to recover, even if he had sustained injuries that wouldn't have looked out of place for having been inflicted by a Death Eater at the height of the war. So, if Harry didn't want to share, then who was he to push the envelope?"

Besides, Severus was pretty sure he had worked out what had happened. Earlier, when he had left the Great Hall after dining with Minerva, he had descended to his quarters where he had treated himself to another single malt whisky that hadn't been transfigured from wine. As he relaxed, a rogue memory had begun to take shape in the far recesses of his mind.

Ginevra Weasley had definitely been a talented young witch, and if he was not much mistaken, more than one of his Slytherins had been hexed by the girl at one time or another. She had been a talented exponent of the truly repellent Bat-Bogey Hex.

The memory had coalesced into fact when he remembered that he had once given her detention after he had actually witnessed her casting the hex on Blaise Zabini. The results had been truly repulsive... and indisputably spectacular.

But he too was not prepared to venture any closer to a subject Harry was just as determined to bypass. The young man certainly would not thank him. So instead, he answered Harry's question. "With injuries such as you have sustained to your face, Potter, do you really think your glasses are going to be useful to you ever again?"

Harry groaned.

"Poppy can produce a temporary, usable pair for you. She's already planning to attend to it in the morning."

"Wonderful." Harry chanced a quick glance in Severus' direction, but just as quickly went back to contemplating the ceiling. "If someone was willing to Floo to Grimmauld Place, I have a spare pair in my bedside drawer."

Severus let loose an inelegant snort. "And by someone, I gather you mean me?"

"If it wouldn't be putting you out too much."

Severus snorted again. "I imagine I'll never hear the end of it, if I don't comply."

"The Floo is warded, so—"

"Minerva and I between us just managed to undo the wards. We Flooed back here; it was the quickest way to get the three of you here."

"Can you go now, Severus?"asked Harry, obviously not interested in small talk. "I really need to be with Ginny when she wakes and I'd like to be able to see her."

"Why is it so important that you be with her."

"She will panic big time if she finds out she has been taken away from Grimmauld Place. The only people from her magical past she has seen since she left three and a half years ago are Ron and Hermione. And that was rather fraught for the most part."

Severus was silent for several tense seconds. Harry knew he was being subjected to one of Snape's intense looks. Finally, much to Harry's relief, he said, "how do you plan to get past Poppy?"

Harry wilted with obvious relief. "With a little help from my good buddy, Severus Snape."

Even though Harry couldn't see, he was sure that Severus had just executed a truly impressive eye-roll. As he turned to leave, he said over his shoulder, "by the way, Potter, I have to tell you that I find it irritating in the extreme when a student, whom I always liked to think of as mediocre, makes life so very difficult for two extremely competent teachers from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; one day you're going to have to tell me just how you constructed such an impressive series of spells to prevent unwanted persons invading your home."

HPGW

Against his better judgement and because he had no desire for either Harry or himself to be on the receiving end of one of Poppy's blisteringly furious tirades, Severus silently re-entered the Hospital Wing at two AM after his clandestine trip to Grimmauld Place. He had resigned himself to helping Harry because he knew the young fool would strike out on his own without his assistance.

He handed over the glasses to a suitably grateful young wizard, and after spending a futile couple of minutes trying to talk the boy out of his planned course of action, he grudgingly set about countering the monitoring and protective enchantments Poppy always erected around her patients, all of which Severus was well acquainted with. He then cast a Muffliato Charm in the direction of her office before assisting Harry—who had to lean rather heavily on the taller wizard,—to traverse the short distance to the other side ward. Severus knew Harry must be in severe pain and he had to admire his stamina and determination.

Before deconstructing the enchantments so they could enter the second side ward. As soon as Harry had entered and seen Ginny and Bonnie curled together in the bed, he staggered across the small room and lowered himself onto a hard chair situated in a corner. He stared greedily at his fiancée—please God, she still wanted to marry him after he had been such a prat—while he waited for Severus to spell the lamps to burn a little brighter, and vanish the railing from Ginny's side of the bed. After telling Harry he would wait outside, Severus shut the door and left the little family alone.

Harry got unsteadily to his feet and lowered himself awkwardly onto the edge of the bed. For a few minutes, he watched Ginny breath, softly and deeply, and then, unable to help himself, he reached out with his good arm and stroked her beautiful, mussed hair. Ginny had her arms wrapped around Bonnie, her face buried in the little girl's neck; Harry stroked her hair for a moment longer and then he gave that up to run a gentle finger down a silky cheek.

"Well, Gin," said Harry softly, as he continued his gentle caress, "you certainly taught me a lesson." Ginny sighed and turned her head ever so slightly towards Harry's stroking finger.

"Only next time you feel the need to cast a Bat Bogey Hex at me, please do me a favour and use another wand; any wand, sweetheart, I'm not fussed. Just not mine."

Harry bent forward, grunting a little with the pain as he put pressure on his arm where it was immobilised in a sling across his chest, and replaced his finger with his lips. Ginny sighed and Harry gently blew in her ear before softly calling her name. He watched as her brow furrowed and when he blew in her ear again and repeated her name , Ginny moaned softly and rolled part way onto her back.

"Ginny, wake up, love." Harry ran a finger tip across the slightly parted seam of Ginny's lips. The furrows in Ginny's brow deepened a little and she tried to turn her face away, but Harry prevented her by taking her chin in a gentle grip. He tapped her cheek again and spoke a little louder. "Come on Gin, wake up. You don't need to stay asleep anymore. I'm okay... I promise you I'm not angry, so there's nothing for you to worry about." He brushed another feather light kiss across her lips.

"Poppy said you were in shock, but you didn't do any permanent damage." Harry had automatically lowered his voice, though he knew the only one who was close by was Severus, and even if he could hear, Harry knew he wouldn't say anything to anyone.

"I really am okay now, so pen your eyes for me, love." When there was no discernible reaction, Harry continued to cajole in a quiet, comforting voice. He once again traced the seam of her lips with a gentle finger.

"No one knows what happened, I promise you." Finally, Ginny reacted; she reached up and even with her eyes shut, she unerringly grabbed Harry's marauding finger. He grinned and carried her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. "Are we back in the land of the living, Miss Weasley?" Harry asked, threading his fingers with hers and this time, kissing her knuckles.

"Ha...Harry?" Ginny's voice was husky, as if she hadn't used it for days rather than hours.

"Yeah, Gin. It's me, love."

Reluctant eyelids tried to open; Harry watched rapid eye movement beneath tissue thin, delicately hued lids, before they reluctantly opened, shut, and then fluttered open again. Ginny's gaze remained unfocused until Harry again whispered her name and raised her hand to bestow another kiss on her knuckles. Ginny's brow creased anew and after a moment, she turned fully onto her back; her gaze became less hazy and she managed to focus on Harry's bruised face.

She gasped and Harry smiled at her. "Hi."

Immediately, tears appeared and she reached out with her free hand to stroke Harry's face. "Oh, my God, Harry," she whispered, tracing the length of his neat nose with a trembling finger. "You're back together."

Harry grinned. "Yeah. I fared better than Humpty Dumpty."

"Thank goodness for that."

Harry grinned. "So, you know what Humpty Dumpty's fate was, do you?"

Ginny nodded and she tried to retrieve her hand so she could push herself into a sitting position, but Harry refused to relinquish it.

"I need to sit up," she said, groggily.

"You need to stay lying down."

"No, Harry, please let me..." Harry, who hadn't taken his eyes off Ginny's face watched as her face froze before a look of dawning horror and fear crossed her features. With a sudden burst of strength, she wrenched her hand out of Harry's grasp and determinedly tried to push herself up. She slapped at him when he would have prevented her again.

Her breathing had become agitated and her voice was bordering on hysterical when she cried, "Where's Bonnie? Harry, where's B..."

"Shh, Gin, she's fine... she's right next to you." Harry indicated the other side of the bed and instead of battling to sit up fully, Ginny instead wedged an elbow on the mattress and twisted around to face where Harry was indicating. The only thing protruding from under the covers was the velvety smooth roundness of one of Bonnie's cheeks and a tangle of silken blonde curls that half covered the rosy pink, chubby flesh.

A ragged sob escaped Ginny and she draped herself over her daughter and planted relieved kisses over her cheek and head. Harry, becoming increasingly uncomfortable twisting sideways on the edge of the bed, wandlessly summoned the wooden chair from the corner. He gratefully lowered himself onto the chair from where he watched the two most important girls in his life with a half smile adorning his lips.

"I've been told she's under another sleeping enchantment, but that she'll wake after a concerted and deliberate effort to rouse her."

"Poor baby," whispered Ginny; she fingered a corkscrew curl away from her daughter's cheek, and after gazing at her child for another thirty seconds, she rolled onto her back again. "She seems to have been spelled asleep more than she's been awake since..." Her brow furrowed. "What is the time?"

"Umm... I imagine it's about two-thirty in the morning. Seeing the question in her eyes, he added, "Monday morning."

Ginny nodded and sighed and before Harry could stop her again, she managed to push herself to a sitting position, adjust her pillow and lean against the metal rungs of the bed head. She looked around the small room. "I gather this is the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts?"

Harry nodded.

"Good ol' Professor Snape." Ginny sighed again and then she placed her hand over the back of Harry's where it rested on the bed. He turned his hand over and threaded his fingers with her smaller ones.

"I can't believe that you and he are friends. After everything he put you through when you were a student here."

"Fun times," Harry said musingly. "But he did save my life more times than I care to remember."

"And you saved his in the end."

"Yeah." Harry raised Ginny's hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, all the while looking into her beautiful, warm, brown eyes. It couldn't have been plainer that he didn't want to discuss Severus Snape anymore. Ginny took the hint, and she stopped talking; instead, she gazed back at Harry. Her heart swelled.

Ginny was different in one respect, to almost every female in the Wizarding World over the age of eight: those unnamed witches were in love with the notion of Harry Potter, the Saviour of the Wizarding World, while she was in love with the reality that was Harry Potter. She had never stopped loving him; even while telling herself she hated him, she loved him. Even while she had mentally thumbed her nose at him, Ron and Hermione by seeing Draco Malfoy, she had loved him. Even while she had been giving birth, she had cried over the fact that Harry was not the father of her child.

But now, if she hadn't ruined everything again, her wish was finally going to come true. She was going to marry the man she loved and he was going to be Bonnie's father. And, if she was not entirely mistaken, from everything she had heard between Harry and Hermione back at Grimmauld Place, she thought—hoped really—that he must love her back.

As Ginny stared into those mesmerising green eyes, she knew that she was doing Harry a disservice. It wasn't just the evidence of what she had heard between him and Hermione yesterday, it was there in every interaction between them since he had found her in Simon's coffee lounge, in everything he had done for her and Bonnie.

And now he was looking at her as if she was the most beautiful, the most wonderful witch in the whole of Wizarding Britain. It was as if the scene in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place had never happened... as if she hadn't nearly killed him in her frustration and temper.

Harry lifted their entwined hands and stroked her cheek with his index finger. "What are you thinking?"

Ginny couldn't stand the guilt any longer; she twisted her hand out of his grip and raised a shaking finger to stroke his bruised cheek. "Oh, Harry," she whispered in a watery voice, "How could I have done such a thing to you?"

"You didn't do anything that I didn't provoke you to do."

"What?" she scoffed. "You provoked me to smash your face in and break your arm?"

Harry pushed an errant lock of hair away from Ginny's cheek. "Ginny—"

"I know my magic is rusty, but you'd think that'd mean the hex wouldn't have been very effective. Instead, I nearly killed you." Tears were pouring down her face now and Harry couldn't stand it; he awkwardly pushed himself out of the chair and sat on the bed again. From this position he could pull her into his arms.

She came readily, but she couldn't stop the tears. Harry's pyjama top made a good towel and he didn't care that she cried long and hard. He figured she needed it; this crying jag was probably about four years in the making. He whispered words of comfort and stroked the length of the hair that he loved so much.

Finally, Ginny sniffed loudly and lifted her head. She couldn't look at Harry so she made a performance out of looking for a non-existent tissue in her sleeve. Harry opened the drawer in the bedside cabinet and retrieved the tissues he knew Madam Pomfrey kept there. He extracted several and handed them over. Ginny gave him a watery smile then tended to the ravages wrought by tears and, not to put too fine a point on it, plenty of snot!

"Your pyjama top took the brunt," she said in a slightly husky voice.

Harry shrugged. "I won't melt, and it'll wash."

"Well," she said with a soft snort, "I suppose it's only fair that I give you some of my bodily fluids, as I went out of my way to cause you to lose a fair amount of yours."

"Gin, that's enough."

"No, it's—"

"Yes it is. I was a prat, you lost your temper. No one is to blame but me."

Ginny opened her mouth to contradict him, but Harry cut her off again."I remembered what you did Ginny, and while I was waiting for Snape to return from Grimmauld Place with my spare glasses, I thought long and hard about why you cast that Bat Bogey Hex at me..."

Ginny opened her mouth again, but Harry silenced her, this time by leaning forward and putting his hand gently over her mouth. Vivid green eyes bore into liquid brown velvet ones, and Harry continued determinedly. "You said something that I didn't like, and so, instead of giving you the courtesy of hearing the rest of what you had to say, I acted like a sulky teenager and went to walk out on you. Not only to walk out on you, but to leave Bonnie on a charmed swing that, if I had stopped to think, I knew you would not be able to reverse."

Harry removed his hand and Ginny dropped her eyes to stare unseeingly at her blanket covered lap; she began to shred the soggy tissue.

"Will you tell me now what you were going to say before I threw the hissy fit? I'll stay right here, I promise." But at that moment, there was a soft knock on the door and it opened to reveal Severus.

Harry closed his eyes and he cursed fluently under his breath. "Not now Severus."

"Yes, Potter. I'm afraid, now. Unless you want to face the wrath of Poppy Pomfrey." Harry cursed again, and then amazingly, Ginny giggled. Two dark heads turned towards her. Harry couldn't believe what he was seeing and what he had heard. Ginny..., his distrustful, reticent Ginny was actually not shrinking into herself in the company of a wizard who had been a presence—an unpopular presence—during her years at Hogwarts, and who was now standing at the foot of her bed.

Severus inclined his head. "Miss Weasley. I'm pleased to see you restored to full health after the rather traumatic events of the day."

Ginny's burst of giggling finished as quickly as it had started and she bit her lip. Harry was sorry to see the return of her usual reserve and timidity. But then he experienced his second shock in less than thirty seconds, when Ginny took a deep breath and returned Severus' greeting with an inclination of her own bright head. "Thank you, Professor. I gather we have you to thank for coming to our rescue."

"Your fire-call set things in motion; and yes, I was the first on the scene. I'm afraid I had to put your daughter to sleep as I did not want her to become hysterical when a strange man descended upon her."

Ginny smiled a genuine smile of gratitude. "Thank you for rescuing her from the elements and Harry's charm."

Another nod, and then Severus was all business. "I'm afraid I am going to have to break up this little heart-to-heart, but if Harry isn't back in bed in two minutes and all the charms back in place, my life will not be worth living. So, Potter..."

Harry looked ready to argue, but Ginny put her hand on his slightly damp chest. "Go to bed, Harry. You're the one who needs to recuperate. I'll come to you in the morning."

"But—"

"First thing, I promise. I assure you, even Madam Pomfrey won't be able to keep me away."

Harry sighed deeply as he prepared to stand. Before he could gain his feet however, Ginny grabbed the front of his pyjama top and pulled him towards her. "This will keep you going," she whispered against his lips and then she initiated a kiss full of wonder and promise."

Severus, with barely concealed impatience, waited at the door, staring off into the dimly lit, main ward, giving the pair another few seconds to do what they felt it necessary to do. Merlin forbid! He was turning into a romantic nitwit! He made a mental note: the next out of bounds, randy pair of students he ferreted out on his rounds was in for a real treat. There was only so much romance he could witness and there not be repercussions. His stomach could only tolerate so much cloying sweetness.

GWHP

When Poppy swept into the side ward housing Ginevra Weasley and her daughter the next morning, the young mother was tickling the little girl who was laughing almost hysterically and squirming in an effort to evade the marauding fingers. It was several seconds before Ginny realised someone had joined them, and the laughter etched on her face slowly dissolved and the tickling ceased.

Bonnie quickly realised her mother's attention was no longer engaged and she pushed herself upright, brushing her unruly curls out of her eyes. When she saw the lady dressed in the funny clothes, standing at the end of their bed, she was suddenly overcome with shyness, and she mushed her face into Ginny's stomach. Ginny wished she had the option of hiding her face away, but what she had set in motion yesterday with her actions, made it necessary that she now grow a backbone...earlier than she had intended, certainly, but there was no point putting things off any longer. She had seen and spoken with Severus Snape, and now Poppy Pomfrey was the next person from her old life, apart from Ron and Hermione, that she was going to interact with.

Poppy smiled at Ginny. "Miss Weasley, I am pleased to see you fully alert this morning. How are you feeling?" She inclined her head towards Bonnie, and her smile grew wider. "It appears this lovely young lady is no worse for her adventure. Severus had to cast a light sleeping charm on her so she wasn't frightened when he countered the charms on the swing and got her in out of the cold."

Ginny was aware that she had to feign ignorance; it wouldn't do for Madam Pomfrey to find out that she had been visited in the middle of the night by both Harry and Snape. "She's fine," she said. "And so am I. Thank you for taking care of us."

"I didn't have to do very much. You just needed to rest to get over the shock of seeing Mr Potter so badly injured."

"How is Harry?" asked Ginny, her guilt kicking in again, but taking the opportunity now that the subject of Harry had been raised, to ask about him.

"He slept comfortably. I haven't seen him since three this morning, when I needed to administer some potions. I thought I would attend you first."

"Mummy!" Bonnie had lifted her head when Harry's name was mentioned, though she still avoided looking at Poppy. "Is Harry here? Can I see Harry?"

"Soon, baby. Madam Pomfrey has to check Harry is all right first."

Bonnie took her courage in hand and she scrambled up to kneel on the bed and face Poppy."

"Where is Harry?" she asked in her piping, childish voice.

Poppy smiled at the beautiful child. "He's just across the way," and she pointed in the direction of Harry's room.

"Now, I'll just check you both over." Poppy drew her wand and approached the bed, but before Ginny could prevent her, Bonnie slid off the other side of the bed and ran from the room.

"Bonnie! Come back here!"

HPGW

Harry didn't think it would have been possible, but after leaving Ginny and leaning on Snape all the way back to his room, he had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow; he didn't even remember Snape leaving his room. Madam Pomfrey woke him after what felt like seconds to force-feed him some more Skelegrow and, when she had asked if he needed pain relief, he was ashamed to admit that he did. Sleep from that point was deep and dreamless.

He was not aware of what dragged him out of Morpheus' embrace, but when the door was thrown open and a very small whirlwind rushed in, he was fully awake and pushing himself upright.

"Harry!"

"Bonbon!"

Bonnie skidded to a stop and digging her elbows into the mattress, she lifted her little feet off the floor and swung them back and forth while yelling, "Up, Harry, up. Up!"

Laughing at the exuberant antics of his favourite three year old, Harry quickly ascertained his pain level, and finding himself virtually pain-free, he quickly slipped his arm out of the redundant sling, and leaned over the side of the bed to swing Bonnie up and into his arms.

The little girl knelt on his belly, threw her arms around his neck, and proceeded to plant kisses all over his face; in the dull light—the drapes hadn't been opened—and in her exuberance, she failed to take note of his discoloured face

In the midst of all this enthusiasm and laughter, Harry wasn't surprised when Ginny and Poppy appeared in the doorway. Ginny looked slightly harassed and Poppy, a tad disapproving; it was obvious that she was unused to dealing with very young children. The matron advanced on Harry and the hyped-up child bouncing all over him. Ginny followed her and stepped up to the bed to retrieve her daughter.

"Bonnie, you can't make all that noise," admonished Ginny. "There are sick people in here and you'll upset them, yelling like that."

When she reached for Bonnie, Harry, while making surreptitious adjustments to his position so that pointy little knees wouldn't render him incapable of becoming a father at some future date, kept his eyes riveted on his fiancée's beautiful face. He said, "It's fine, Gin—"

"Harry's not sick, Mummy. Are you Harry?"

Harry laughed and cuddled her close. "No, baby, I'm not sick."

But Poppy had had enough; as she swept across to the window and drew the darpes, she said, "I would appreciate it, Mr Potter, if you would allow Miss Weasley to retrieve her daughter so that I can examine you." She cast an all-encompassing glance over Ginny and her daughter. "I was preparing to examine these two, but I might as well save myself the trouble: it is patently obvious they are well recovered from their ordeal."

"I'm fine too, Poppy," insisted Harry. In the process of levering himself upright, Harry had automatically used both arms, and when pain hadn't rendered him insensible, he knew the Skelegrow had worked its magic.

"See..." he lifted his arm and put it through a series of movements, "Full movement restored with no pain." Poppy's lips pinched into a thin line and she raised a disbelieving eyebrow. Harry felt like his teenage self trying to convince the matron that he was well enough to leave the hospital wing.

"Okay, maybe there's a tiny bit of discomfort."

"Hmm," sniffed Poppy. "A little honesty for once from you, Mr Potter, when speaking of your health, is certainly a novel experience. But I still wish to examine y—"

"Harry, what's wrong with your face?" Bonnie interrupted the mean sounding lady and she tentatively poked the bruising around Harry's eyes and cheeks. Poppy hmmphed and crossed her arms.

Harry did some quick thinking. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ginny biting her lip. "I fell over on the stairs at home, baby, and hit my face. I broke my nose, but Madam Pomfrey here fixed it for me."

And now, Miss..." Poppy had decided that enough was enough; she was going to take charge and become, once again, mistress of her domain. With brisk efficiency, she scooped the little girl up and deposited her in Ginny's arms before Bonnie knew quite what had happened. Poppy crossed to the door and pointedly held it open.

"If you wouldn't mind waiting outside while I examine my patient."

Ginny and Harry looked at each other over a squirming and protesting Bonnie. "I'll come back as soon as Madam Pomfrey's finished," promised Ginny and before Harry could respond, she had hurried off with her burden and Poppy had closed the door. Harry listened as Bonnie's protests faded and then they quieted altogether; he assumed Ginny had re-entered her own side-ward and closed the door.

Poppy took her time examining Harry: she put his arm through a full range of movements and checked the sensation all along its length, as well as in his hand and fingers and in his shoulder. She ran her wand over his face and head and was finally satisfied that all his broken bones were fully healed, though she told him that she wished him to remain in the ward until dinner time so she could be sure that there were no side effects as a result of his concussion. If all was still well, he could then leave.

"I'll have breakfast sent up for you and your two ladies, but I want you to remain in bed. Miss Weasley and her daughter can visit with you, though I would like you to get some rest and not have that rather excitable little miss climbing all over you."

Harry only just managed to hold in a snort of laughter as he wondered exactly what excitable little miss Poppy would rather not climb all over him. Though he was quite happy for Bonnie to use him as a climbing frame, he would be ecstatic for her mother to use his body any way she wished.

While Harry waited for Ginny and Bonnie to rejoin him, a couple of house-elves popped in and pushed Harry's over-bed table into place and conjured another small table and two chairs which they set close to the bed. Within seconds of them popping out again, Ginny and Bonnie arrived and breakfasts appeared for the three of them.

But Ginny ignored the food; instead, she rounded the end of the bed and came up on Harry's other side. It seemed that Bonnie too was uninterested in breakfast; she was trying to get Harry's attention so he would lift her onto his bed for more early morning calisthenics. Harry however was caught up in a pair of liquid velvet eyes that gazed down at him with, if he was not much mistaken, an expression filled with... God, he hoped it was the same thing he saw in his own eyes when he gazed at himself in his bathroom mirror after a night filled with dreams of this beautiful woman.

Ginny cupped Harry's stubbled jaw with cool, soft hands and before he could do more than open his eyes wide, she leaned forward and covered his lips with hers. Everything: Bonnie and her demands, breakfast and its accompanying, delicious smells, and the fact that anyone could enter the room at any moment, receded into the background for both of them.

Ginny may never have initiated a passionate kiss before, but she realised that no effort was involved; she didn't have to think, it was instinctual. Harry groaned against her mobile, succulent lips. She was turning him into a puddle of testosterone-riddled flesh and blood, and when he reached up to thread his fingers through her glorious hair and gently pull her down onto the bed, they even forgot about Bonnie as they finally addressed their mutual need for physical contact.

GWHP

Ginny finally dragged her mouth away from Harry's; she leaned her forehead against his for a second and then pulled back and gazed into his eyes. She stroked his cheek with a possessive finger. "If you hadn't decided that I was just trying to placate you because I felt sorry for you after hearing what Hermione said, we might have been able to do this..." she kissed him again, "much sooner. And we certainly wouldn't be catching up on lost time in Hogwarts' Hospital Wing."

"I admit it," Harry whispered as he pulled Ginny's head back down so he could perform some follow up treatment on her lips. "I'm a moron." He felt Ginny smile against his lips.

"Yes, you are," She pulled back again and stroked a finger across the bruising on his left cheek. "But you're my moron. And just so you know, moron isn't on a par with foul-tempered harpy."

Harry took Ginny's hand in his and kissed her palm. "No more apportioning blame. The whole episode is over and done with, so how about we let it go. All right?"

Ginny took a deep breath and nodded. "Deal." She leaned forward and speared her fingers through his messy hair. "Your morning hair isn't really any more untidy than your afternoon hair, is it?"

Harry laughed. "And this is news?"

"Well, no..."

"Blame my dad. He had the same hair. But my mum fell in love with him anyway."

"Well, I'm afraid that isn't going to happen here." When the smile slowly began to slip from Harry's lips, Ginny let out a gurgle of laughter. She took his face between her cool hands again. "It's not going to happen, Harry James Potter, because I'm already in love with you."

Harry's burgeoning smile contained enough candle power to light up the whole of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. He reached out to drag Ginny down onto his chest when a small voice had them both freezing in place.

"Mummy, why are you and Harry always kissing now?" Two heads slowly swivelled around and two pairs of eyes that reflected a combination of anxiety and guilt, alighted on Bonnie. The little girl was standing with her elbows resting on the bed, her little face framed by her two hands as she viewed the antics of her mother and her beloved Harry. It was apparent that she had been watching them since Ginny had walked around the bed and first kissed Harry. They realised at the same time that they had totally forgotten about the little pitcher with big ears—and eyes—in the room.

"Umm—"

"Is it because you love Harry the same as you love me?"

"Umm—"

The bright eyes, so like her mother's focused on Harry. "And do you love Mummy too, Harry"

"I do baby." Harry was finally able to speak coherently. "I love Mummy very much." He squeezed Ginny's hand and both adults held their collective breath as they gazed at their tiny judge, jury and Merlin forbid... executioner, waiting to see how she was going to react to this revelation.

The large, unblinking eyes moved between Harry and Ginny and when they both thought they might explode as a result of their combined stress levels, Bonnie said brightly, "Okay." And then, hardly drawing breath, she added, "Mummy, I'm hungry."

Both adults shut their eyes and released their breath gustily. Harry kissed the back of Ginny's hand. "What a neglectful mother you are," he whispered. "Go and feed your starving daughter."

Ginny tried to look offended, but it didn't come off. She leaned forward and delivered one final, devastatingly sensual kiss to his lips before rounding the bed again, settling Bonnie onto a chair and presiding over their belated meal.

When everyone's hunger was appeased, Ginny didn't need any encouragement to climb onto the bed and snuggle up to Harry. They held hands and spoke in loving whispers as they finished their tea and idly watched Bonnie draw in a scrap book with pencils supplied by one of the ever-helpful and indulgent Elves. Harry and Ginny had just begun to indulge their recently awakened appetites for each other when there was a peremptory knock at the door.

It opened immediately Harry bade the visitor enter. At the sight of Minerva McGonagall, Ginny went very red; she sat up like a shot and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She was prepared for the little blonde missile that launched itself into her lap and hid her face. Ginny wished she could hide her own mortification by hiding her face against Harry, and sensing this, he put a proprietary arm around her shoulders and pulled her back against his chest.

"Minerva, hi."

Minerva came closer to the bed and stood with her hands folded at her waist, and, Harry noticed, a decided twinkle in her eyes. "Well, Harry, you're certainly looking much more human today." She then focused on a still mortified Ginny. "And Miss Weasley, I'm delighted to see you safe and well. It has been a very long time."

TBC...