Chapter 8

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At exactly 6 am sharp the next morning Ginny Weasley, soon to be Potter, was let past the reception desk at St Mungos. Hermione kept a brisk pace directly behind her all the way to Harry's room a few floors up.

As soon as Ginny was through the door and saw the Harry's eyes were open and he was sitting up in the bed she flew across the room and into the bed along with him.

"Thank Merlin, thank merlin" she repeated while hugging him tight, and showering him with kisses.

"Hi Gin," he said, wincing as she squeezed him again. "Hey Hermione" he added, noticing her by the door.

"Glad to see you up, Harry. We were both really worried about you" Hermione said but stayed near the door feeling a bit like she was intruding with them both in the bed having a moment.

"All good here" Harry gave her a thumbs up. "Fit as a fiddle."

"Okay, well I'll leave you to it. I need to get back to Hogwarts anyways" she said as Ginny went back to checking over her wizard.

"Bye Hermione" Harry got out between a couple kisses.

"See you guys later," Hermione said, closing the door behind her leaving them alone.

Harry's entire body was sore and Ginny's smothering was more painful than reassuring. "Easy Gin, I'm a little sore." he winced as she pushed off of him.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry. Should I get a healer?" she was already almost out the door.

"No, no, I'll be alright" he tried to reassure her as he sat up in the bed.

She moved back over to him, sat in the chair beside the bed, and dragged her large red canvas bag into her lap. "Do you need anything? A softer pillow?" she was rummaging shoulder deep in the bag. She proceeded to pull out pillows in different sizes and thicknesses, as well as half a dozen different blankets. "If your cold?, or maybe just a little chill?"

Harry reached over for her other hand holding the bag and grasped her fingers "I'm fine, truly. I don't need anything but you sitting here with me"

Ginny looked up at her wizard and let the bag drop to the floor at her feet. "Okay, I'm just so relieved you're okay" She squeezed his hand gently and Harry could see the worry in her was turning into anger. "I thought this almost dying shit was over!"

"I didn't almost die. I was cursed in the field less than 24 hours ago and I'm good now."

"Then what exactly happened? 'Cause we got through the stupid war, and I did not sign up to be getting married to a reckless wizard who doesn't care that he comes home to me every night!" Her eyes were flaring and her hands had flown to her hips making Harry flinch.

Harry proceeded to tell her exactly what happened from the moment his team had shown up at the warehouse until he blacked out. Thankfully Ginny seemed to calm down with the new information as her mind was processing the problem.

"That was one hell of a curse you guys triggered when Kennedy pulled those wards down." Ginny was chewing on the tip of her thumb. "How did the relief teams take it out?"

"I don't know yet, I just work up"

Ginny grimaced "Yeah, sorry"

"Do you know how the others are doing? Banks.. she was in worse shape than I was?" Harry asked, his voice full of worry.

"I'll see if I can find out" If anyone was going to get the healers to talk around here it was Ginny Wealey.

"Thanks" Harry leaned forward and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He loved his fiery witch, even if she could be a bit overbearing at times. He looked around the room and spotted a fresh set of clothes and shoes, no doubt also thanks to that witch.

Moving around and getting dressed was stiff but thankfully not painful for the savior of the wizarding world. The only thing he couldn't find in his pile of things was his Darmeter, he really hoped it hadn't been lost at the warehouse. It would take a long time to make another one, if he could find another dark crystal to be compatible. It was one thing that really gave him an edge in the field beyond his gut feeling for dark magic.

Ginny walked back into the room and flashed him a smile, obviously happy to see him upright and moving around. "You are free to go, Healers' approved." She took a few steps towards him and continued "Banks is still out but she's going to be fine. Kennedy was never admitted as the team found him still conscious and were able to put him in stasis so quickly. He's already back at the ministry."

Harry let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear" he took the last couple steps towards his witch and took one of her hands in his own. His other hand reached for her cheek and he leaned in to touch his forehead to hers. "Thank you for being here"

She wrapped her arms around him, more gently than earlier. "Love you"

"Love you" he pulled her back far enough for a kiss, and as soon as their lips touched he felt the familiar need to be as close to her as possible. She brought her arms up and around his neck, her right one immediately going into his hair causing his spine to tingle.

Their kiss deepened and they both felt the need to be closer after the close call of the day before. His hands were roaming her back, and that perfectly toned ass when he pulled away slightly "Gin, as much as I would love to keep this going, were in the middle of St. Mungos."

She groaned as he removed his hands from his explorations. "There's a door for a reason, love" she argued and moved back in to resume kissing him.

"Yes, without a lock" he took her hand and kissed the top, "Also, I need to get my report in right away, I'm surprised no one has come looking for it already."

Ginny rolled her eyes at him "Fine, but you owe me."

"Happily"

"Do you want me to come with you to the Auror office? She asked, gathering up her bag and shoving the extra pillows and blankets back into it.

"No, can't look like I'm that easy to break, or I'll never hear the end of it" he said as they headed out of the room and down the hall. "I'll see you at home later"

"I'll pick up some takeaway from the Thai place you love. So don't be too late." She turned to apparate home and added a quick "You owe me !" before disappearing with a small pop.

Harry smiled to himself as he apparated into the Atrium at the Ministry. He spent the few minutes it took him to make his way down to the Auror office to organize his memories of events, pulling out his note taking quill, and note book. The little black quill flew over the page as he dictated the events of the previous day as concise as he could remember them. He did not bother looking up from rereading the last few jot notes as someone followed him into the lift.

"Like old times eh, Potter?" Harry looked up from his to see a head of near white hair.

"Ha, yeah" he responded somewhat tentatively to the wizard who used to be one of his enemies.

"I'm not going to bite," Draco said, with the side of his mouth creeping upward obviously happy to still have an effect of the golden one.

Harry let out a small chuckle and responded with a touch of sarcasm, "Suuure."

"Later Potter" Draco stepped out of the lift and did not even bother to turn around

"Later Malfoy"

Since the war the two wizards had managed to come to an unspoken agreement to tolerate each other, almost civilly, but they would never be friends.

The Auror Office was a buzz of activity as Harry walked in. He received a number of well wishes, and shoulder claps from his fellow aurors, and other ministry workers.

"Perfect, you're here!" Kennedy jumped up from behind his desk, and slid his hand into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a silver and crystal device that Harry immediately recognized.

"Thank you, I thought I lost it" Harry took his Darmeter from Kennedy and held it tight to his chest like an old friend. He went to sit down at his desk, pulling out his notebook to start working on a proper report of events.

Kennedy was already back shuffling through papers standing over his desk. "We gotta go, they'll be wanting to hear from us an hour ago."

"Shit, I haven't even had time to start putting together a report" Harry sighed, and quickly grabbed his notebook to follow Kennedy towards the briefing room.

The briefing room was large enough to fit three rows of raised bench seating on either of the long walls, with room for a worn wooden table that took five or six long strides to walk the length of. On the far end the wall was covered with a map of Great Britain full of little moving flags with information scrolling by.

Harry could only imagine how packed this room had been during the war, and now only a handful of aurors were working, notes flying in and out of the room. One grazed the side of Harrys' head before being caught by the current head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, Earnest Doro.

Doro spotted Harry and Kennedy walking towards him "Ah good, we've been waiting for you. Is Banks back yet?"

Harry blinked at his superior, still slightly caught off guard at the pace with which information flows around the wizarding world and how fast witches and wizards can be healed, even after so many years of living in the wizarding world. "Sorry, Sir."

"No harm done," he responded, waving them closer to the end of the table. " Now, why was it that a backup squad was not called yesterday in a more timely manner?" Doro was a tall muscular wizard with tanned skin, dark hair and looks that made it too easy for him with the witches. Easy for the wizards to like him too Harry thought.

"It happened quickly, Sir." Harry responded and proceeded to quickly report on their findings from the warehouse the previous day until the point at which he had blacked out. When he got to the part about the curse they had triggered a small blond lady from curse breaking, Harry had only met in passing, stepped in to continue the briefing.

"It was a consummation curse, with a rather nasty duplication component. We are able to fairly quickly neutralize it with an air vacuum containment charm." She stated while showing snapshots of the ink blobs contained in invisible cubes, a few still the icy blue colour from the freezing curse.

"Good work, as always Heather." Doro said with a smile to the curse breaker. "And have you found the counter curse yet?"

"Working on it, Sir," she responded.

"Good, good. That was a pretty hefty curse protecting a seemingly empty building," Doro continued. "Not to mention the wards your team dismantled before triggering it Potter."

"Yes, sir. There was nothing about the area or the wards that gave any indication that it was anything more than routine" Harry added.

"And your recovery team, Causway?"Doro asked the remaining small group of Aurors. A short round middle aged man jumped up from the bottom bench.

"We didn't find much." Auror Causeway said and handed out a few copies of his report around the few at the table. "We took some photos of the symbols that were found on site, they look like ruhns of some kind, its already been forwarded to the code breakers."

A few others stepped into the conversation to speculate about the curse and the rune codes.

Harry looked down at his report and immediately recognised some of the symbols as the same ones that had been on that small bit of parchment that he had found in the basement of the abandoned house a few weeks back.

"Umm Sir," Harry interrupted their chatter and pointed to a bit of code in Auror Causeways' report. "This looks very similar to a bit of odd looking runs that we found recently. We're still waiting for the report from the codebreakers, might be a connection."

Doro picked up the parchment Harry was pointing to. "Let's step up that request to Urgent, and take a look at the report again from where you found this."

"Yes, Sir." Harry and Kennedy said simultaneously.

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If there was one thing Hermione was sure of by the time she made it back to Hogwarts iit was that Ginny and Harry were definitely going to be the next crazy loving big Weasley family to grace the Wizarding world, even though they would technically be Potters.

Seeing Ron as she was leaving St. Mungos had been a surprise. Since their breakup there had been awkwardness, and even coldness from him, aside from the few times she had been drinking and slept with him out of habit. Hermione had been choosing to avoid him since the last episode of stupidity over a Christmas party the year before last. Working with his brother at Weasley Wizard Wheezes had not been a good influence on him, making too much money and partying away had turned him into even more of a tosser.

But, he had looked happy and healthy that morning, and she was glad for him to be starting to put his life together, especially after Auror life turned out to not be for him. Ron had been so excited to tell her about his new Muggle Born Assistance venture that he had forgotten to be awkward and cold. He even invited her to lunch "because I'm desperate for your opinion 'Mione!" She had been so astonished by his friendliness that she agreed to lunch without thinking, and didn't get the chance to reconsider as he took off to visit whomever he was there to see.

Hoping lunch wouldn't be a mistake, Hermione took a deep breath and looked at Hogwarts around her. The castle was just waking up for the day and the morning glow of the rising sun was peeking between the column of stone as she walked through the courtyard. Hermione couldn't help but take pause to enjoy the beautiful time of day around the castle. Winter was truly setting in now and the chill in the breeze was starting to promise snow, another reminder of how little time she had left this year to catch up with her brewing.

With a sigh Hermione fiddled with the time turner in her pocket trying to decide on going to her private quarters to study, or straight to the Potions classroom to get started on her prep for the next few. She chose studying, aiming for her private quarters further down in the dungeons. She hoped she could also squeeze in a nap, before turning back the clock to teach her classes.

"Tisk, tisk, Apprentice Granger. Out all night with a certain eligible redhead?" Magnus asked from his portrait on her door while wiggling his eyebrows. All three of his otters surfaced in the lake of their painting, as if also interested in her answer.

"Very funny Magnus, Pepper Up please." Hermione refused to answer his insinuation, and stepped into her sitting room.

Hermione removed her outer robe and unbuttoned the top few buttons of her deep indigo uniform, content that she still loved the colour and fit after wearing it for the past few years. She didn't miss the school robes and bright red one bit.

Moving over to her desk Hermione sat down to review where she had left off in her studying and called for her assigned house elf Trixie.

"What can Trixie do for Apprentice Granger?" the pint sized young elf asked her.

"Ham and cheese melt and tea please Trixie"

"Yes, yes, you look like you needs food" and popped off to the kitchens.

Hermione looked over her short list for her final research project;

1, Reverse Insanity from Torture (Cruciatus Curse, NL parents)

2, Dark Curses without known counter curses (Dolohov's Curse, HG and The Dark Mark, SS)

3, A full cure to the Lycanthropy Curse or an easier to brew Relief Potion.

She scratched off the first option since Professor Snape was already working on a potion of some kind around the Cruciatus curse. It would be way too much to have to ask him for assistance on her finals as well as help brewing her 4th and 5th year required potions.

Working on something to cure Lycanthropy still made her nervous about the testing phase, too many good witches and wizards died in the process of researching the Wolfsbane that she drew a strike through that one as well.

That left her with her second choice; Dark curses without known counter curses, like her own large scar across her chest thanks to Dolohov. She pulled a stack of books off her personal library shelf next to the desk, set out a fresh parchment, dipped her quill and began.

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Severus sat at the head table for breakfast, noting that Miss Granger was not present. Probably off swooning over Potter, Merlin forbid the boy from taking care of himself for once. Minerva had made sure to inform the entire staff that their Hero was back on his feet saving the Wizarding world as soon as she sat down in her usual Headmistress' spot in the middle.

His body was tight this morning, nightmares plagued his sleep more than usual. His body had suffered too many years of Crutiatus abuse, Bellatrix would be so proud. Hot showers were the only place he felt relief anymore, especially during the colder months in the dungeons. He would sooner go back to teaching potions than moving out of his quarters, and into the Defence Teachers quarters. Thankfully when Slughorn came back to teach he was happy to take them back, "Better light, Severus! A man needs sunshine."

Severus left the great hall for the dungeons, and was just about to round the corner going back to his quarters when he heard the familiar click of the only full time female dungeon resident's boots. He paused.

"Tisk, tisk, Apprentice Granger. Out all night with a certain eligible redhead?" Magnus, the nosy man in the portrait on her door, teased.

"Very funny Magnus, Pepper Up please." Hermione responded, not exactly denying the allegation.

Why the brilliant witch continued to stoop so low as to be in a relationship with that dunderhead Severus could never understand. What on earth would they even talk about over dinner together? Maybe he's just a good shag. That thought had Severus cringing and reprimanding himself from thinking about the Weasley twat's' love life. Granger was a full grown witch, a fact Minerva kept reminding him, and can do what she pleases.

Said witch slipped into her rooms, and Severus continued onwards towards his own.

A/N- I hope your all enjoying, some reviews would be wonderful to keep me inspired and feel the love... or hate lol :)