Chapter 11

This one is dedicated to all of you readers!! Thanks for staying with me through it all!! I love you guys!! -Katie

Recovering From Tragedy

Chapter 11

Harry POV

"How could something like this just…just…happen?!" I burst out. We were sitting next to Hermione's bed in Saint Mungos. Luckily Ron had blocked her artery so that she hadn't lost too much blood, but she was in critical condition. She had been removed from a general hospital to a "private clinic" by St. Mungo personnel after her condition had been stabilized.

The two accomplices had actually been muggles under the Imperius Curse. They'd been killed by the SWAT sniper fire. Their families were notified that they had been killed in a drive-by shooting.

As for the main man, he could not be found. He just simply…vanished. The store security camera had caught the whole episode on tape, but the man could not be identified. Neither in magic nor muggle records.

Ron just stared into space, ashen-faced. He'd been acting…quiet and reverent. But I guess that could be the fact that he was contemplating that he was alive and not dead.

"Ron…Ron…RON!!" He looked up. "Why don't you go home to Luna rather than holding vigil here? I'm sure she's anxious to see you again."

"No…I really shouldn't… I feel responsible…"

"Go." I said kindly. "You need some comforting and a warm bed." He rolled his eyes, nodded and got up to pull on his cloak.

"You'd better come home soon, too. You need the rest more than I do. I'll send mum and dad later so you can leave." He walked out without another word.

I sighed heavily. I didn't want to leave her. I felt so insecure about leaving her now, after everything that's happened.

I took her hand gently in my own and softly kissed it. She smiled slightly in her sleep. I smiled too and continued my silent reflections of how life is and how life could and will be.

Three Days Later…

Hermione was out of the hospital, finally. She was still in a rather fragile condition, so the doctors ordered her to take it easy and stay at home. That didn't please her, but we set Luna with the task of watching her and hanging out with her so that she would be guaranteed not to leave and go back to work or something.

I placed her in charge of finding a place in Kensington for us to live. I told her I wanted it at a decent price and it had to have a guesthouse for Ron and Luna to temporarily live in while Luna was still pregnant. I made a deal with Hermione that she could work part-time from home if she would watch Luna and rest when she felt exhausted. She agreed, sending an application to St. Mungos for in-home administrative work.

I was pretty reluctant but the day after she came home, I left for a week-long Anti-Dark Magic conference in Chicago, Illinois. I was VERY reluctant to go that far, but I had to for work, it was all paid for, and I'm getting a HUGE bonus on my paycheck for it. I just have to present what happened to a Ministry council to incorporate the findings into new Ministry legislation and programs.

Leave it up to Hermione, though. When I flooed Ron after 2 nights of being away, he said she had already found a home. It was a charming, moderate-sized home that was 3 floors (including basement). It was beautifully preserved on 2.5 acres of land with immaculately kept lawns and gardens. The home also had all the modern upgrades that beautifully incorporated old-world and modern designs. It also had a guest house in the back that was a charming cottage and it had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room, living room, 3 bathrooms, and a lovely office space for me to use.

The house was everything we needed and more. I was very pleased with what Ron told me and how Hermione's health was rapidly improving. So I relaxed for the rest of the week and came back home a happy man.

Back Home…

"Hello? Anyone home?" I took off my cloak and set down my bags next to the door.

"Hello Harry!! Welcome home!" Luna came out of the kitchen and greeted me with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey Luna! How are you holding up?" I hugged her back.

"Ugh! I won't be able to move around much longer! I feel so pregnant!"

"I'm sure it sucks." I said, grinning.

"It's no walk in the park. I just don't know how Molly handled being pregnant with 7 kids! Two are enough!"

"She is a work of wonder…speaking of works of wonder, where's Hermione?"

"She is in her room, taking a nap." Luna said. "She's been very good and eaten plenty and taken her medicines. She has also been around a lot and helping out around the house."

"Hmmm…" I replied absentmindedly. I didn't want her working that much while I was gone. I started towards our room.

"Do you want me to make you anything? You looked starved!"

"Oh! Umm…can I have a turkey cheese sandwich with an apple and some potato chips? Thanks sooo much!" I walked into my room.

HOLY COW!! Hermione was sleeping on the bed, fully dressed. There were books and notebooks stacked neatly in piles with labels on top of each stack. A couple books were strewn around her on the bed and both the computer and laptop were running and displayed pictures of our future home on the screen.

"Beautiful." I breathed. They were breath-taking.

I quietly unpacked my bags, went to Hermione, placed a kiss on her forehead and smiled before leaving the room.

Two Weeks Later…

When we actually arrived at the house, my jaw just dropped. It seemed more like a mansion or castle rather than a "home", as Hermione solidly referred to it. We had just come to close the deal with the owners of the home, and we ended up being invited to stay for dinner.

The family was HUGE fans of The Great Harry Potter and The-Smartest-Witch-of-All-Time. Literally! The kids took us upstairs to see their rooms. The boy's room was covered in pictures of me, me playing Quidditch, everything pertaining me. He even had a Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt replicas of the brooms I used. The girl's room was covered in Hermione, stacks and shelves covered in books (quite a few biographies and scrapbooks of Hermione as well as all of Hermione's favorite books).

We quickly closed the deal over a delicious meal of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn with a delicious chocolate mousse to round it out and left.

We quickly were moved into the house and got moving with our lives. I led a better career at the ministry and received a generous bonus (500,000) for writing a fabulous report on my findings during the conference in addition to attending it. Ron and Luna temporarily moved in to the guest house and were renting their apartment out to the family we bought the house from until they found a place of their own. Hermione was filing paperwork and doing administrative work for St. Mungos from the office in the guesthouse part-time and helping out with Luna while Ron was at work and right after he got home. She was terribly restless at times, but had come to terms that this was going to be a long-term thing (I didn't want her working, period, but this was the compromise we had come up with. Plus, I liked her working from home much better. She wasn't as tired and cranky all the time).

Hermione came up behind me one evening when I was working on paperwork (yawn) for the job, and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I relaxed into her arms saying, "Well, this is a surprise, Baby."

She smiled at the use of the nickname I used and said, "Baby, huh? You are the greatest wizard of all time, and the best nickname you can come up with is the most common name in the book."

The corners of my mouth went up into an involuntary smile. She was so cute when she was teasing me. I slid my chair back and pulled her into my lap. She giggled like a school girl and I caught her lips in a passionate kiss. My senses tingled when our lips met and I just let my emotions run wild. Before I could think about what I was doing, I ran my tongue over her bottom lip causing her to moan in pleasure. She opened her mouth and what started as a very innocent kiss (well as innocent as kisses are) turned into a tongue battle (which I won…heehee). After a few minutes, we broke apart desperate for oxygen. When I caught my breath, I leaned back in my chair and said "So, what do I owe the pleasure of having my incredibly sexy girlfriend in my lap and distracting me from paperwork that is due tomorrow?"

She smacked me upside the head saying, "Even after all those years of me telling you to get your work done early, you still insist on waiting till the last minute to get it done?"

"Well, its very boring paperwork, and my time could be better spent doing more important things."

Oh really, Harry. What could be more important then finishing your paperwork, so that you don't get fired?"

Instead of answering, I just gave her another sensual kiss that left us gasping for air. Then I leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, "I don't know, maybe making out with my girlfriend."

Hermione's face blushed pink and her eyes danced with excitement. Before I knew it, she was kissing me senseless. Her tongue darted in between my lips and explored my mouth. By this time I had risen off the chair and carried Hermione to the floor and gently laid her on her back, our lips never breaking apart. Suddenly, I had a flash of inspiration. I broke the kiss, leading to a moan of displeasure from Hermione. Not even thirty seconds later, that was changed to a moan of pleasure when I started kissing her neck. I butterfly-kissed my way down her neck and across her jaw line. I moved to suck on her earlobe and lick the sensitive part behind her ear. Her moans of pleasure got louder and her eyes were shut. Her hands were rubbing up and down my back under my shirt and ending up in my hair. My mouth had found hers again, just as she was unbuttoning my shirt. My hands had also found that she was also wearing a button-up shirt and I slowly started to unbutton them. Hermione just moved off my hands and ripped the whole shirt off. I was pleasantly surprised. I started moving my hands around her bare stomach. She smiled into the kiss. We broke apart for a second for air, and then started to kiss again. Our eyes were closed, her hands were rubbing my back, and I was just about to unclasp her bra when we heard…"Guys…dinner's read…HOLY CRAP!!" (A/N-for want of better words)

We broke the kiss to find Ron standing there with his mouth wide open and his hand covering his eyes. "Sooo…,"he began, his hand still covering his eyes, "Bad timing again huh?"

I growled at him, "You could say that."

He quickly exited the room. I looked at Hermione and said, "He always does that, doesn't he?"

She shook her head and conjured herself a new shirt. Turning to me, she said, "He's your best mate. And I do seem to recall that it was your idea to have him live here." I rolled my eyes. What would life be without Hermione there to rub it in your face?

She started out the door, purposely (at least I think) swaying her hips.

A/N- Hey everyone!! Sorry its, once again, been sooo long!! Truly truly sorry!! Mel and I have both had very busy summers and I've been dealing with large doses of drama over the past 3 weeks (band camp mostly) and dealing with the splitting of me and my boyfriend…which I'm trying to solidly move forward with life, but its been pretty difficult the last couple of days. But we also wanted to get a chapter out before school started before today (but my internet was being difficult and hated fanfiction for some unbeknownst reason) and as we move in to our Sophmore year, life is going to get INCREASINGLY difficult and its gonna be harder to write. But we will keep moving forward for you guys!!

Yea what she said and the fact that I'm writing my own story as well kinda complicates things a bit. (Which I recommend you all read…it's a very good story!! Hehe I've gotten a sneak peak!!) But just so you know, since we have been arguing nonstop about which job is harder, I'm going to take over the writing for the next couple of chapters. It'll be interesting.

It will be…so we hope that you guys will enjoy what we come up with in the future!! Oh, and Mel will hate me forever for mentioning this…but she also co-authored this chapter because I wrote this way back in June and I've been suffering writers block for an ending, so she begged me to let her finish and I obliged. So, thanks sooooooooooooooo much to Mel for the end to this chapter!! Love you all!! We truly do!! Thanks soooooooo much for sticking with us through everything!! We wish we could give you all huge hugs and delicious cookies I'm baking tomorrow!!

TTYGL (and stop giving me freaking credit for it!!)

3 Mel & Katie 3

PS- I found this great European group called Within Temptation and they've recently released 2 fabulous CDs and I thought you should all check them out. Songs I recommend (in my order of favorites):

-The Howling

-Angels

-What Have You Done (ftr. Keith Caputo) (Similar to "Bring Me To Life" By Evanescence)

-Stand My Ground

-Memories

I seriously recommend you listen to them all!! They are fabulous songs performed by a fabulous European group (I think they're from Holland…but I'm not positive)!! But I think you should all at least listen to them!! And I also recommend Evanescence for those you who have not listened to them (where have you been?!) They are both fabulous and talented groups and I recommend them both to you all!!

Lots of hugs and love!! Hope you all are/will be doing alright in school!!

-Katie