And a day

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: see the fist chapter for cover disclaimer.

A/N:- well it's a bit of a surprise to me because I'll admit I've been in a bit of a funk lately when it comes to writing, but this chapter just seemed to flow right from the start. To give you some idea it hasn't been beta'd at all. It was written in four hours. I'm a slow writer, I could have done it quicker but I like to think my way through things to make sure they gel with what's gone before, or is realistic to the canon. I don't like to make massive AU changes without explaining them. Once more, with feeling Please Review, it really helps me with getting my arse in literary gear. I hope you enjoy it.

/ Room of Requirement \

Harry remembered waking up many different ways in his life. He'd woken scared, hungry and thirsty, more tired than he was when he'd gone to bed. He'd woken black and blue from one of his uncles punishments, locked in the cupboard under the stairs. Hell he'd woken up in circumstances no one would believe of an old man who'd spent his life in pursuit of adventure let alone a sixteen year old not even out of school. Things like waking up in a hospital bed three days after the wraith of his parents murderer had flown through his chest taking all of his energy with it at the culmination of his first year, or the fact that his second year was like something out of Cluedo. The man who killed the spectre of Voldemort and a thousand year old basilisk was none other than…Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets with the Sword of Gryffindor, the Sorting Hat and a Phoenix.

Thinking about it for a moment he had to suppress the urge to laugh himself silly, the urge didn't last for long though, not when he followed the thoughts a little further. Hermione had been right, taken at face value they had just been adventures right, no harm no foul and all that. On the other hand a suspicious person might question the timing of everything, like how in first year, Dumbledore just happened to leave the castle at the most inopportune moment, or that the people he'd left to safeguard the Stone hadn't even batted an eyelid when three children figured out their big secret. You'd have thought two eleven year olds and a twelve year old figuring out so much of the defences for their 'Precious' treasure might have had more impact, say like someone getting off their duff and checking said defences. They might have spotted the fact that Quirinus Quirell had gone through them like a hot knife through butter. They might not have done anything about it but then we three kids might have left well enough alone instead of putting ourselves in danger. The last thing that piqued my interest in all that was the fact that Dumbledore managed to turn up just as Harry was collapsing? If he was suspicious person he'd have to wonder, what timing the man had. Gone in time to give quirrellmort and opportunity to steal the stone and back in time to clean up the mess?

Now that he had the seed of doubt planted firmly within his mind he was reassessing the previous years with a clearer sight than ever before. Some might call him unlucky to have had such adventures, others might say he was lucky to have survived. Harry was coming to a different conclusion, once was unlucky, twice might be coincidence, but five years in a row? That had to be enemy action. The problem was figuring out who the enemy was, other than Voldemort and his Death Eaters that is. He was pretty sure the Ministry was out to get him, or at least certain parts of it were. He could name members of the staff here who were definitely out to get him and others who had left things to happen as they would, that should have acted especially as they had the authority to act. Things were happening in Hogwarts that any right thinking person would have nipped in the bud years ago, and yet things were only getting worse. Malfoy blatantly pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, in front of staff no less and nothing was done to curb him. Yet anytime Harry reacted in a manner that Draco deserved the staff couldn't wait to jump all over him, and so each time the ferret could go that little bit further in his persecution of the other houses without any fear of repercussions.

The headmaster of the school was a special case as far as Harry was concerned, it could just be that the old man was going senile or was suffering from some other disease that afflicted the aged and infirm. He doubted it was a case of incompetence though as the man had proven to be an astute politician and a powerful wizard. Though certain things seemed to have slipped past him in the past few years. Everyone said how powerful he was both magically and politically and yet he'd allowed a weak man like Cornelius Fudge to run all over the rights of people like Rubeus Hagrid even watching as the half-giant was sent to Azkaban? Harry wasn't sure what was going on but with every year that passed, with every 'accident' or 'adventure' Harry was subjected to it seemed things were getting worse and more complicated. He was getting confused with how convoluted things were getting and he knew that most of that was because he didn't have all the information he needed. He already knew that the old man was keeping a lot of information from him and even after promising to be more forthcoming in future. Then he'd promptly isolated Harry over the summer not telling him anything at all. It made him wonder what the headmaster was hiding. Where he could find that information was something he'd have to discuss with Hermione at a later time...

Finally having something pleasant to think on Harry broke out of his introspection with a smile. As ways of waking up went he'd have to admit he preferred this one. Having woken up naked and face down in a four poster bed wasn't that unusual, what made it unusual was the warm weight of his wife cuddling up to his body, her leg thrown across his to trap him in place. An errant thought had him chuckling hard enough that he managed to disturb her slumber.

"Hunh?" she murmured confusedly. "Wazz so funny?"

"I was just wondering if wives are like dragons," Harry chuckled at Hermione's outraged squeak before continuing, "in that they shouldn't be tickled when they're sleeping." The chuckling gave way to a grunt as she dug an elbow into him in her haste to rise. Thinking he'd offended her in some way he span over to attempt to stop her leaving and froze at the sight that met him. He had always thought she was pretty, in the way that a young boy might admit to it. In fourth year he'd decided that she was beautiful when she'd come down prepared for the Yule ball. Now, well now he thought she was breathtaking, he'd never seen her hair in such disarray before, so wild and untamed. The way her sleepy eyes surveyed him was so sexy he was trying to retrain himself from taking advantage of her already ravaged lips.

Giving that up as a lost cause Harry smiled at her, "Enquiring minds want to know," was the only warning he gave as his fingers closed on her ribs and began to tickle her mercilessly. Hermione's eyes widened as she read his intentions but didn't have time to react let alone escape. A moment later she was collapsed on his chest trying to squirm away from him in a way that Harry found he enjoyed much more than he did the sound of her unrestrained giggling. His fingers gradually stilled as one stroked the length of her spine and up into her hair so that when he began kissing her she would be exactly where he wanted her, not that she was arguing. His other hand began stroking patterns over her sensitized skin as he deepened the kiss in earnest.

Minutes passed and Hermione finally needed to surface for air, gasping, her heated gaze met Harrys' and flared as she saw the passion in their green depths, a passion she'd never seen before but now knew that if there was a drug in the world made just for her it was right here. This time she initiated the kiss and the world faded away as he became hers, and she his. Later, how much later they neither knew nor cared the two sated lovers finally broke apart.

Harrys' eyes raked across her naked body in admiration before hoarsely whispering, "Damn, you're beautiful!" Unknown to him the small niggling doubt about her femininity died a withering death under the heat of his admiration and she breathed out a contented sigh. If she had her way she'd spend this Sunday in bed just like this snuggled up against her husband, among other things she'd like to be doing. Her stomach had other ideas though, one that was echoed by Harrys' stomach a moment later.

"Looks like we're going to have to get some food," Harry said regretfully.

"Uh-huh. I suppose so, we'll need some of our clothes and somewhere to get ready," she was unsurprised when the room created the requested items. Well not the clothes since she recognised one of her favourite dresses and there was no reason why the room would recreate Harrys' hand-me downs. It was a pity the room couldn't do something about that she thought, but then nothing the room created could leave its confines. The thought of what would happen to Harry if he tried to leave with something from the room was rather intriguing, but knowing his luck half of Slytherin would be walking past just as the clothes vanished. One thing she knew for certain as she stepped under the shower water and was joined a moment later by Harry was that the clothes situation couldn't be allowed to continue and it was something they were going to rectify at their earliest convenience.

The shower took at least three times as long as was normal for Hermione, not that she minded, it was a highly sensual experience as Harry soaped her body, one that she hadn't been willing to forestall. Nor had she minded that he'd allowed her to return the favour before he'd melted every bone in her body when he'd slowly massaged the shampoo she favoured into her scalp. It wasn't the most blissful feeling he'd instilled in her in the last twenty-four hours but it was pretty close. She decided wickedly that his fingers were very nearly as magical as his wand and snickered at the intentional double entendre. She was almost purring like Crookshanks and could understand the part kneazles dissatisfaction when she stopped petting him when Harry finished washing her hair.

The smacking sound of his hand against her wet bum had her awake in an instant, and extremely indignant. No one should have to go from blissful to outrage in the space of a second and she swore that he was going to pay for that later.

"We'd better finish getting ready if we want to make it out of this room sometime today."

She wasn't sure that that was a bad thing but decided to humour him, besides she really was hungry. Wrapping a towel around herself she allowed herself to be led back to the bed where their clothes were. Ten minutes she'd been drying her hair when she felt Harrys' lips against the nape of her neck.

"I'll see you in a little while," he smiled as he watched her hair drying efforts falter.

"That is so unfair Harry," she complained about the fact that he was already to leave when she'd barely began to get prepared for the day.

"I could magic it dry for you," he offered.

"Don't you dare, I look like I stuck my finger in a plug socket if I try to use magic on it like that," she glared at him as he chuckled at the image.

"Alright, alright, I won't. I could stay with you while you get ready."

"Don't be silly, I'll be another twenty minutes at least. You go on ahead, it'll look less suspicious if we arrive separately in any case." It was one of the decisions they'd made that they would try to keep their changed status a secret as long as they could simply because it gave them room to move if people weren't prepared for the new freedom they had.

"Alright, if you're sure. I'll meet you down there," Harry said as he started towards the door. Changing his mind he turned around and walked back and leant down, kissing her hard he quickly rose.

"That's better. I'll see you in a while," he said as he once more walked away this time leaving a smiling Hermione in his wake. She could get used to this, and if she had any say in the matter she'd have the rest of their very long lives to do so. As the door closed she sighed contentedly, who could ever have imagined she could feel this happy. She'd hoped, but hadn't been sure that they could be happy together, but then she would have been happy anyway since she'd still be with the man she loved. Loved? Yes, before she'd had a little doubt as she had no real knowledge of love other than that of her parents and that was a different kind of love. The kind of love shared between man and woman wasn't something she could learn from a book, it was physical, it was emotional, if she was feeling particularly sappy, which she was at the moment, she'd say it was spiritual. These weren't things that could be felt from the pages of a book. Vicarious, definitely wasn't good enough when it came to what she felt for Harry. She'd been pretty sure she felt this kind of love for him for quite a while, but she'd not known how to take that next step to see if what she felt was real and if there was any possibility of him returning it.

There was the rub, the fear she'd felt that he didn't, couldn't feel the same way about her. She'd nearly done herself a great disservice and settled for a distant second best. Hell, she'd admit that Ron wasn't even second best, the way he acted around her he was only just slightly better than Malfoy at times. She would have found someone eventually but there would always be that niggling doubt in the back of her mind, a lingering 'What if,' that would have damaged any future relationships she might have had. Luckily that was no longer a problem, she wouldn't have to settle for anyone as she had the person she wanted, no needed to feel complete.

Acknowledging that she was married was going to cause even more problems though. People had had a hard enough time thinking that she was dating Harry during their fourth year, well to be honest it might have had more to do with the fact that Rita Skeeter had twisted everything that happened into the most noxious tale that evil woman could come up with. In a sense Hermione could admire the talent the woman possessed to tell a tale, to give bare bone truths and twist it into something completely different. That didn't mean that she appreciated being on the receiving end of it though. She wondered how the hopeful witches would take the fact that Harry was now married and off of the market. Some of them appeared to be fanatical enough to consider murder, they'd certainly resorted to some underhanded tactics when sending her hate mail before. Not that she would fall for those same traps anymore, she'd learned many detection spells since that time and nothing much could get past her. That didn't mean they couldn't but it would be a rare occurrence when it did.

She'd deal with that scenario when the time came and she was pretty sure that Harry would make his displeasure felt if things went too far, and with the way he was feeling after the loss of his Godfather she wasn't sure that 'Too far' was very far at all.

Having finished with her hair while she ruminated on the complex situation she found herself in she rose from the bed and dropped the towel she'd wrapped her body in in preparation of getting dressed when she felt a draught. Looking over her shoulder she could see that the door to the room was opening but there didn't seem to be anyone there. She didn't have any time to react before there was a flash of blue light followed by red and then yellow. She didn't see what happened after that as she was diving for her wand, rolling over the bed she came off the other side and crouched behind a wall the room provided. The bed behind her disappeared into the floor leaving her clothes behind as she peered at the door to see what was happening.

/ Harry \

Stepping out of the room Harry was preoccupied with thoughts of the night before and what it would mean for his, no their futures. He didn't have a clue what he was doing, or what he should do since he didn't have the best role-models when it came to marriage or family life for that matter. The one thing that was clear to him was that he needed to protect her, she had always been special to him, even if his feelings had only just become clear to him. He knew that he'd felt this way for a while, he just hadn't been able to label it. He'd thought what he felt for Cho Chang had been love but now, now he knew it was barely even a crush. That was a mere candle before the inferno of emotion he felt for Hermione.

Having lived an interesting life it would have only been surprising if Harry hadn't gained a sixth sense for when he was being watched with hostile intent. Since he had, his steps slowed until he was stationary as if a thought had suddenly struck him, he tried to look thoughtful as he surveyed the corridor in front of him looking for something out of place. He couldn't see anything but knew that that didn't mean much with magic. He could name four separate methods to become invisible and knew that there were probably others that he didn't know of. Something he did know was that there were a couple of creatures that could get close to him at any point, though it didn't feel like any of the house-elves he knew of. It didn't discount the possibility but it made it less likely. There was only one way to be sure though.

"Dobby?" he called out before whispering, "Appear behind me please."

"Master Harry Potter sir is calling Dobby?" the ecstatic elf cried as he appeared after a soft popping sound. This was the first time Harry had called him since last year and Dobby did so love to work for Harry that any chance was to be grasped with both hands.

Harry who'd turned around to face the elf was busy examining every inch of the corridor behind the elf even while he spoke.

"Er, yeah Dobby…I've got something for you to do. Can you help me?" Harry asked.

"Master Harry Potter is only needing to ask. Dobby is helping anyway he cans!"

"That's great Dobby," Harry stopped speaking for a moment when he noted a tingling sensation in the back of his head. Swinging around thinking he'd been cursed or something he looked around frantically before he noted the look on the little elves face, "Dobby?"

"Dobby is being a bad elves he is. He's knowing he is supposed to being free but he forgets that Master Harry is different now. He is forgetting Harry is of age."

Harry could tell that the elf was preparing to punish himself in some way so grabbed the small elves shoulder to hold him in place before he could head for the nearest wall to bash his head in, or whatever else the elf could think of.

"I don't know what just happened Dobby so why don't you explain? And I thought we covered you punishing yourself?" he felt kind of bad when he watched the elves ears droop even further.

"Oh, Dobby is such a bad elf. He is doing something really bad!!"

"Let me be the judge of that Dobby. So why don't you explain to me why my being an adult is bad," he asked.

"Master Harry Potter sir being an adult is not being bad, it is that Dobby is forgetting. Dobby is being so used to saying 'Master Harry Potter' this or 'Master Harry Potter sir' that, that he is forgetting nots to be doing that when Harry is being an adult!" the elf wailed. Harry knowing that this, whatever it was needed to be resolved or the elf would find a way to punish himself as soon as Harry couldn't see him. The feeling of being watched hadn't gone away but whoever it was didn't seem to be doing anything to attack him so that could wait for a moment. He'd still keep an eye out for it but Dobby was more important. He palmed his wand slowly as he knelt so that he was eye to eye with the elf.

"Why can't you say that when I'm an adult?"

"Because Dobby is supposed to being a free elf!"

"And you calling me Master Harry Potter sir, changed that?" Harry asked carefully.

"Yes! Master Harry Potter sir isn't saying to Dobby, 'Dobby you is not my elf'. Dobby missed it, he shoulds be knowing better, but then he is saying Master Harry Potter sir again and you is not saying Dobby is not you'se elf. Dobby is not a free elvses anymore. Dobby is Master Harry Potters elf now."

To say Harry was gobsmacked would be an understatement, something like this could only happen to him. A second thought occurred to him hot on the heels of that, "Oh crap! Hermione's going to kill me."

Thinking of his wife had him looking at the room of requirement as if he feared the wrath of Granger was about to be visited upon him. It took a second for him to realize what he was seeing….

/ Gryffindor common room \

He'd been waiting in the common room for a good hour, knowing that Harry hadn't returned to the dormitory last night. Eventually he'd come back and then they could go down to breakfast together. They might even wait for Hermione if they could send someone up to get her. She hadn't come down yet, she was probably stuck in some boring book about something no one really cared about and wouldn't want to come with them anyway. Besides he was hungry and while he'd wait for his bast mate there was no real need to wait for a girl. They took forever to get ready and he'd already been waiting long enough, he was starving.

The sense of martyrdom in the common room would have been enough to earn Ronald Billius Weasley a sainthood if anyone in the wizarding world followed the Christian religion. He'd never admit it to anyone but he'd been feeling rather put upon just recently. It felt like Hermione was avoiding him since the summerholidays, but that was ridiculous, he was about to ask her to be his girlfriend and he couldn't foresee any reason why she'd be avoiding him. She should be grateful really that someone was willing to treat her right, she wasn't exactly the prettiest girl in the school, even if she did have her moments.

Harry wouldn't be any problem either since Ron had been making his interest clear for months now and Harry hadn't done anything to counter the claim so Ron felt that his friend had endorsed him starting a relationship with the bushy haired witch. All that hard work he'd done over the last year or so was about to be rewarded. He'd put up with the know-it-all trying to shove her opinions down his throat for four years. She'd finally given up trying to share all that useless stuff and they had a chance now of being boyfriend and girlfriend now that he didn't have to deal with that.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the portrait open and was about to shout out to his mate and ask where he'd been when he noted the red hair of his younger sister. That was strange, no one would be spending their day inside if they could be outside playing Quidditch or at least spending some of the last warm days of the year outside in what passed for sun this far north.

"What are you doing sitting here alone Ron. I thought you'd be outside by now," Ginny asked, while she stopped herself on commenting on how much food he'd have consumed before he stirred himself to leave the great hall. It was lucky he was growing upwards so fast, because if he ever stopped growing taller then he was going to start growing outwards just as fast. By time he was thirty she suspected he'd be one of the best goalies in the Quidditch leagues. Not due to skill, but because he'd be able to cover all three rings without moving. Nimbus might have to design a heavy lifter broom for him but yeah, she could see it. With his fat arse up there his cherished cannons might even stand a chance of winning a game, she wouldn't lay money on it but they'd have a chance at least she thought as she smirked.

"Yeah, well I'll get there. I was just waiting for Harry to get back, dunno where he went last night but he didn't sleep in the dorms," Ron answered.

"Oh, Harry wasn't here last night either?" Ginny asked with a sinking feeling. She'd finally gotten over her crush and was ready to face Harry the man instead of Harry the 'Boy Who Lived' and it was probably too late. Unlike many other people she had always had her suspicions about Hermiones' feeling for Harry and it seemed they were being born out.

"What'd you mean either?" Ron queried.

"I just overheard Parvati and Lavender gossiping about Hermione, seems she didn't spend the night in the dormitories either…" she trailed off as she watched the colour drain from Ron's face and if she were any judge of a situation she'd have thought there was a rather large spider resting just beyond his nose he looked so scared. Before she could ask what was wrong with him, even if she suspected she didn't think he was grown up enough to actually be looking at girls as anything other than friends. Hell she suspected he still thought girls would give him cooties, he was out of the common room and heading for his dorm.

Not even bothering to look around he reached the trunk and flung open the lid and noted that the invisibility cloak was missing. Breathing a sigh of relief he found what he was looking for, the piece of parchment that had gotten them into and out of so much trouble over the years. Pulling it out he yelled the activation phrase and began a frantic search for Harry or Hermione.

Unknown to him his sister had followed him up to the dorm.

"Come on...Come on, where are you?" Ron called urgently as he pored over the map looking for any signs of the two.

Ginny was watching her brother carefully, if she was any judge he was looking at the Marauders map, which she was pretty sure belonged to Harry. That meant that the open trunk belonged to Harry as well and by dint of its location then the bed must be his as well. Normally she'd have berated her brother for borrowing things without asking but her brain had locked on the fact that she was looking at Harrys' bed and if nothing changed then this was as close as she'd ever get.

"They're not on here! Wait, where else could they…of course!" he exclaimed as he dashed out of the room leaving Ginny behind with her thoughts. He knew of only two places that the map couldn't reach and of those two he'd never take anyone he intended to shag to the Chamber of Secrets, unless he was trying to impress them with his bravery and the fact that he'd taken down Professor Lockhart. He'd carefully not mention the bit about his broken wand being responsible, or the fact that the man couldn't defend himself against a determined sheep if his life depended on it.

While Ron was heading towards the Room of Requirements, Ginnys' mind was heading from 'never' to 'when' in regards to Harrys' availability and what she'd have to do to ensure it. She didn't think compulsions would work, she remembered her brother saying something about Harry being able to throw off an imperious curse and that was the strongest compulsion ever created. If he could beat that she'd have to look carefully into either affecting Hermione or manufacturing a situation that could be misconstrued…the fragile girls ego would never survive that and…yeah, that would work.

Ginny touched the bed brushing her fingers over the quilt before trailing her fingers towards the end and walking towards the door with a content smile on her face.

/ Seventh floor corridor \

Harry watched as the door to the room of requirement opened seemingly of its own accord. He waited for Hermione to step out but that didn't happen, it was then that he saw a slight blur of motion and recognised that someone was disillusioned and entering the room.

Ron reached the seventh floor out of breath to find everything quiet, just as it should be. There was no door apparent which as far as he knew meant that there was no one in the room. He'd have to make sure of that though, pacing back and forth in front of the room thinking of the kind of room he wanted to appear, after he'd gone and back several times with no reaction he frowned. It seemed the room was in use and was also hiding the fact, something that shouldn't surprise him since it had done the same thing last year to hide it from the inquisitorial squad. If they hadn't been betrayed by that Ravenclaw they'd never have been found. His frown deepened again as he thought about what they could be doing to still be in the room at nearly midday, it'd be lunch very shortly for Merlins sake. It gave him a little hope really since everything he'd learned told him that shagging didn't take that long so they must be training or something.

Yeah, that was it, they were training because everyone knew Voldemort was back and Harry would have to face him sooner or later. The only problem with that theory was the question of why they hadn't brought him along. They were a team weren't they? They'd faced everything from Trolls to Voldemort together, it didn't make sense that they'd exclude him now. It was obvious to Ron that whatever they'd been doing last night must have tired them out enough that they didn't want to walk back to Gryffindor tower and he didn't even suspect how close to the truth he'd come.

Knowing that there was no way to enter the room if he couldn't make the door appear, well not without trying to destroy a section of wall within Hogwarts, which he was pretty sure would get him more than a detention, he sat back into a similar position to what Harry had done while waiting for Hermione the night before though this time the boy was watching where he knew the room to be.

He might have given himself a good reason why they were in the room but as the minutes slowly ticked past and turned into an hour Ron found his temper rising once more. He was just about reaching the end of his tether and attack the wall regardless of consequences, he'd be buggered if he could figure out just what the hell they could be taking that much time to do that didn't include him, when the door appeared as it swung open revealing Harry.

Ron couldn't tell at this distance but he thought there was something different about his mate, something about the way he moved. He looked confident as he began walking away from him, and was he whistling? Ron wouldn't have recognised Louie Armstrongs 'Wonderful world' even if he heard the original singer but he could tell it was a cheerful tune and wondered what had caused that. Training wouldn't do that, not once after a DA meeting had Ron felt like whistling so it didn't take more than a moment for his temper to flare again as he went back to his initial suspicion. He was glaring holes in his 'friends' back, he wanted so badly to go out there and flatten the bastard for betraying the 'code' even after Ron had spelled it out plainly for him.

His anger froze several seconds after Harry did, the sable haired youth simply stopped moving and stood completely still. Ron nearly panicked as his breath stilled hoping he hadn't been found out spying on Harry, wanting to smack his friend out was one thing, actually being able to do it was another. It was a rare occurrence for Ron to admit he wasn't as powerful a wizard as Harry but when it came to pure combat he doubted any student in the school could take Harry down. He was just too fast and as for his spell casting it was frightening how fast he could get spells to leave his wand. Deciding that he was too exposed to stay where he was without being found Ron tried the disillusionment spell and was a little surprised when it appeared to work.

Dobby's appearance was a bit of a surprise and he watched amused as Harry tried to calm the distraught elf down. Even though Harry was facing towards him he felt that his spell was good enough that he could move out of his cover if he was careful. He was going to try to get to a safer spot when the opportunity he didn't even know he was looking for occurred to him, he was invisible, Harry couldn't see him and he was distracted. He could find out what was going on in the room of requirement and put the whole thing to rest. Moving slowly he inched towards the door keeping an eye on Harry and the elf, it took a minute to cover less than fifteen metres but he'd done it, his charm must have been better than he thought. Standing as still as possible he grasped the door handle and began to pull, the door silently swung open several inches and what he could see through the gap caused him to freeze completely as the door continued to swing open now that he was no longer holding onto it.

Hermione…His blood began to boil as he watched the towel wrapped around her fall to the ground, unfortunately she was facing the wrong way so all he could see was a small sliver of naked skin, the bed covered everything below her waist and her mass of hair covered everything else. He was just processing the presence of a bed beside his naked friend when he felt something wrap around him, 'Bloody hell', some kind of binding curse had just hit him. He didn't have time to think about that though as Harrys' expelliarmus hit him and ripped the wand from his hand, a second later a bludgeoner of some description hit him and pushed him hard into the door frame causing something in his right side to give way with a sickening crack.

Harry heard the crack as something on his adversary was broken, he'd have felt some kind of remorse if he hadn't believed Hermione was in danger. The only person he could think of that would sneak around him and his friends was Malfoy and if it was Malfoy then he'd gotten exactly what he deserved he thought grimly.

"I got him Hermione," he said before he came level with the open door. The sight of Hermione crouched behind a wall peering in his direction.

"Harry?"

"I'm not sure, I felt someone watching me and I stopped to find out who it was. Didn't want to risk you stepping out into a Malfoy ambush."

"So it's Draco?"

"Don't know, he's disillusioned. If he hadn't tried to open the door I don't think I would have known he was even there. Finite Incantatum," Harry cast the spell extinguisher at the shimmering space that was wrapped in thick cords.

"Fuck!"

"Harry!" Hermione objected to his language before she got a good look at who had been revealed. "Oh crap," it was one of those occasions when swearing seemed appropriate. There was a difference between disliking someone and actually hating them enough to want to see them hurt. Malfoy…well she wouldn't have batted an eyelid if it had been the 'Amazing bouncing ferret' but Ron?

"We've got to get him to the infirmary," she shouted as she stood up.

"Um, tell you what Hermione," Harry smiled while his eyes travelled up and down her body, "You put some clothes on and I'll take the prat to see Madame Pomphrey."

"Eeep!"

Harry dragged Ron away from the door so that he could close it and give Hermione a little privacy, though he wasn't sure if he'd have to try and obliviate Ron now. Maybe it'd be quicker and safer to have him have an accident, easier to explain than a botched obliviation. Thinking of how Lockhart had turned out, Harry grinned at the thought. The arsehole deserved it, and was lucky in Harrys' opinion that he'd wiped his own mind because he was pretty sure he'd have gotten worse than that if the Ministry became aware of what he'd done to the rightful heroes. Ron didn't have that hanging over his head though, he'd been a prat and was proving himself to be an even bigger prat with his latest actions but…he'd think on it.

"Mobillicorpus," he incanted as he pointed his wand at the stationary form of his unconscious 'friend' and began heading towards the hospital four floors below. This was going to be hard to explain to the medi-witch, he didn't know how this could get any worse.

As he reached the seventh floor landing he looked down and winced, well he did ask…

/ To be continued… \

A/N:- I'm going to say right here and now, this is the way I see the characters. I can see them doing things like this given the situations they find themselves in. Though Harry is probably a bit more open to emotions than normally would be, I know because I was raised with similar levels of emotional abuse. I survived six years in my own personal Durzkaban and a year in the childrens home I was moved to for my own protection. I know what I'd do if someone like Hermione entered into a relationship with me like that.

Ginny is tailored off of her mother who we know wasn't above using potions to get the person she was attracted to. Question, if she had a choice of getting anyone with a potion, why Arthur Weasley? I mean, come on…she couldn't do better? Nothing against Arthur, seriously nice guy, but…addled much? Poor? Not exactly a cover model for Playwitch either. So why him when she had the rest of the school to prey on and a will to use potions to get what she wanted. Just a thought. At least Ginny has good taste, Harrys' everything Arthur's not. He's rich, famous, has political clout even if he doesn't know it. He's a nice person with a serious saving people thing.

Ron, well Ron is jealous. We've all seen it…you can't hide it, it's in black and white in many different books. In the seventh book we see him abandon his friends because of the fear they'll abandon him. So I fit this version of Ron into that mould, he lashes out because he fears they're going to leave him behind thus guaranteeing that they will want to leave him behind.

Who had made Harrys' day complete? Well you'll have to wait and see in the next chapter.