Hermione woke up with worried eyes surrounding her. She wasn't fully aware of her surroundings yet, so she blinked and tried to move her head in order to see who the eyes belonged to. That was a bad idea. She closed her eyes tight, ears ringing. The first sound she heard was a baby squalling. She opened her eyes again, trying to locate the source of the sound. Then, her hearing started to kick in again, and she could hear her name being called softly. It must be one of the pairs of worried eyes. Slowly, slowly, she re-entered the world, and realised that it was Harry. "Harry!" she croaked, and tried to reach towards where the voice was coming from. She felt a hand clutch at hers and soon felt wet hot tears.

"I thought I'd lost you", said Harry. "You've been in a coma for nearly a month". Hermione was shocked. A month? A whole month? How was that even possible?

"What happened?" She asked. A new voice joined the conversation, Dr. Watchout.

"Well, you see, occasionally after a Metamorphmagus is born, the effort of giving birth is so draining on the mother that it leaves all of her systems depleted. The baby takes so much energy that it leaves its mother sapped of every nutrient in her body, which of course affects all of the systems in the body. In many cases, the mother doesn't pull through, but you've got a strong will to live, Miss Granger. I do believe you'll be all right. Now, that doesn't mean that we're letting you out of here any time soon, mind you. You've got a lot of recovering to do. Speaking of recovering, I'm going to need to ask you all to leave." He started shooing and ushering everyone out the door. By this time, Hermione could see that Ron, Emily, Lily, James, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ginny, and Draco had all been around her bed in addition to Harry. She heard the squalling sound again, and saw that Harry was holding a baby. Their baby.

"I need to see my baby" She stated simply. Dr Watchout continued hurrying everyone to the door, but Harry stayed back. Hermione gave the doctor a look as he tried to herd Harry to the door, and he decided to let Harry stay back. "Sirius" she breathed as Harry put the tiny baby in her arms. Immediately, he stopped fussing and looked quizzically up at his mother.

"That's the quickest he's ever calmed down for anyone!" Harry said. The tiny family sat in silence for a few minutes, relishing their togetherness. Hermione looked from Sirius's face up to Harry's, and was somewhat surprised to see that they were wet with tears. "I thought I'd lost you, Hermione" he croaked. "It was the worst feeling in the world. I knew that Sirius would have grown up happy and healthy. Everyone's been so great, Mione. They really have. Mum and dad, especially mum, just dote on Sirius. They love him to bits! The four of us have been splitting time between here and Grimmauld Place. Mum and dad decided to just move in with me and Sirius, seeing as you were here and their old house is a bit of a shrine now. It's been going well." Harry trailed off briefly, looking lost.

"And?" prompted Hermione. "You've been talking about everyone else, but what about you, Harry? How have you been?"

"I can't live without you, Hermione. I can't. This past month has been so terrible. I kept seeing things that I wanted to show you, and reading facts that I wanted to share with you. I miss your sarcastic smile, and your curiosity at and zest for life. And Sirius has been so interesting to watch and spend time with, and I wanted you to be there with me. I wanted you to see everything. I felt like I was dying, coming here every day and watching you lie here, inert on this bed. I knew before, but I am completely sure now that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Hermione, will you marry me?"

Hermione herself was in tears now as she choked out a resounding 'yes'.