A/N: Fanfiction dot net is having a blinder. And then I had a blinder as well. It should all be fixed by now but honestly, I replaced the chapter with a different story all together, then the correct one so maybe give it a minute before trying to read the whole thing.

I also did not forget to mention the football as a whole. I didn't mention it on purpose lol English people are very very used to the feeling and we definitely didn't deserve to win at all but still. Let's just focus on the pretty ladies.

-0-

There was a thumping in her brain that she tried to move away from, but a hand stopped her. It was cold and she leant into it a little.

"Minerva?"

She couldn't speak, her tongue felt heavy but she tried to blink herself awake.

"Min, come back to me?"

She blinked again and winced against the light.

"Hang on," that sweet voice came again. "I'm dousing the candles."

The bright light dimmed and Minerva relaxed as the pain faded. She stopped fighting and tried to let the wakefulness come to her.

"Can you speak?"

"Just about," she croaked.

"Min, it's Hermione. Let me get Poppy."

"Stay," Minerva whispered, holding out her hand.

There was a pause but Minerva had the patience of a saint.

"You want me to stay?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"Stay."

That smaller, colder hand slid into hers and she sighed. Hermione was there and she could sleep, somehow knowing she was home.

-0-

Minerva woke properly, later, and found Hermione sleeping with her cheek resting on their joined hands. The younger woman's hands were warmer now and she rejoiced in it. She winced as her head thumped and held still to avoid exacerbating the issue. The weight of Hermione's head on her side was comforting in a way she hadn't noticed before.

She could hear Poppy pottering around outside and closed her eyes again to prevent them from being disturbed. Poppy came closer and began her checks but Minerva had no concept of time and couldn't bring herself to be worried about it either. She luxuriated in that space that existed outside of normality, despite the pain keeping her quite aware of her head, at least. After Poppy had checked on her and left, she blinked open her eyes again and stared down at Hermione. Her actual brain hurt and she wasn't sure how to go about clarifying whether she really had experienced everything she had, or whether she'd dreamed it.

A concussion-laced, wonderful, fever dream.

She shifted carefully to avoid disturbing the younger woman and immediately froze. There was tenderness in some parts of her that would not have been there after a dream. A sticky feeling between her thighs that she could not account for. She rolled her shoulder experimentally and felt the pull of a fresh wound and her heart soared, even as her brain swirled. She had no idea how it had occurred but, according to the soreness she hadn't experienced in a long while between her legs, it had been very real.

She must have moved enough to disturb Hermione as she sat up suddenly and stared.

"Minerva! You're okay?"

"Fine enough," she said gruffly, smiling groggily to take the edge off it. "Are you?"

"Me?" Hermione squeaked. "You got bludgeoned. I had to perform brain surgery."

Minerva's eyes widened and she reached up to her head.

"Don't touch it," Hermione said, a little less panicked as she reached for the wandering hand. "It's alright. It wasn't minor, but it's okay now. We sealed it up last night, so it's still a bit fresh. The Wizarding World has the most amazing medicine."

Without asking, Hermione got up and poured a glass of water and brought it back to the bed. Again, without asking, she slid her hand beneath Minerva's neck and helped her take a sip. Minerva shivered as those hands grazed the wound on her neck.

"Better?" she whispered.

"Much," she muttered as she nodded for more. "I will be more so if you get me out of here?"

Hermione frowned.

"I can't," she whispered, glancing away. "Without Poppy, I don't know what we would have done. She saved your life. It would be very poor of me to repay that by stealing you away. We should probably have taken you to St Mungo's but she let me try first."

Minerva watched the pain present on Hermione's face and decided that she didn't like seeing it there. She took the hand that had just relinquished the glass and kissed it gently.

"Alright," she chuckled. "I suppose I shall stay right where I am."

"Thank you," Hermione whispered. "I -"

Minerva hadn't known what to expect but Hermione bursting into tears over her wasn't one of them. She sobbed and fell on her chest, almost clinging to her as she cried. Minerva panicked for a minute or two before remembering Other-Hermione's care and affection.

She had never been a fortress of solitude in Hermione's company. Hermione was forever touching her, gently caressing her, squeezing her fingers. It was as if she couldn't help it. Minerva even recalled a time, back when Hermione had been a student at tea with her on a Sunday afternoon, she'd fallen asleep on the sofa. Lulled into slumber before she'd had the forethought to send Hermione back to her dormitory, she'd thought she'd been dreaming, but looking back now and knowing what she knew, she wasn't so sure. Now, she was pretty sure she really had felt those soft fingers running through her hair as she slept. And the blanket that usually lay on the end of her bed, tucked around her with care.

It seemed so obvious now.

"It's alright," she whispered, returning the favour and running her fingers through Hermione's hair. "I'm perfectly okay. Thanks to you and Poppy, I'll be right as rain in no time."

It was not as easy as it should have been. She untangled what she could but the health of Hermione's hair was secondary to what it was telling her.

"How long have I been out?"

"Four days," Poppy's voice supplied the answer from inside the curtain. "You are extremely lucky Hermione knew what to do. Otherwise, you'd be at St Mungo's and William would be very angry with you as they probably could not have done what she did, third year apprenticeship notwithstanding."

Hermione picked her head up and Minerva smiled proudly at her. She was blushing as she wiped away her tears.

"Poppy is downplaying her role. She talked me through it. But," she winced. "I knew you wouldn't want to go. I needed you to be okay. I needed you to wake up afterwards."

"You were right to," she smiled. "Thank you. Both of you."

Poppy gave her another check over and told her she had to stay at least until the lunch bell, but Minerva, for the first time ever, was unconcerned. She'd apparently been away from her desk for days; what was one more morning. As Poppy retreated, Hermione pulled away as well. Minerva, however, did not let her.

"Are you busy?" Minerva asked cautiously. She reached for her and Hermione frowned as she looked down at her reaching hand.

"Sorry?"

"I just," she frowned and pulled away but Hermione grabbed hold of her like she would disappear. "Am I keeping you from something? If you stay? Your coursework? Or -"

"No, Min, you're not keeping me from -" She shuddered. "No, I'm free to be here for as long as I need to be."

"You're sure?"

"Min -"

"Come here then," Minerva muttered. "You look exhausted and I'm obviously going to have to be here for a little while longer. Nap with me."

Hermione's eyebrows rose towards her hair as she stared. She glanced above Minerva's eyes and then back again.

"I'm not doolally," Minerva chuckled. "I had an odd dream which I may tell you about at a much later date. It clarified some things for me, but I am not crazy. I believe I'm actually more in my right mind than I've ever been."

"I -"

"Get in," Minerva chuckled. "I will explain later, but for now, you're exhausted and I cannae fight. Will," she tried to put on her most pathetic face. "Will you come here?"

Hermione stared for a while longer and Minerva let her. Their eyes searched one another's for answers to questions they wouldn't dare to speak until Hermione finally found her courage.

"You're a bloody weirdo, sometimes, you know that?" Hermione teased softly.

From anyone else, the rejoinder might have hurt, but from Hermione, she could almost feel the love in the words.

"I have been told, once or twice, but never from one as lovely as you."

It made Hermione pause but she said nothing. At this point, Minerva was fairly certain that Hermione thought she was addled. It suited her that Hermione was indulging her so she didn't argue. Instead, she opened her arms and Hermione slipped off her robes. She was left in a soft jumper with a very lovely pair of slacks as she got in. It wasn't quite as easy as it could have been; Minerva didn't have it in her to widen the bed and she didn't have the wherewithal to talk Hermione through it either but it created something she hadn't anticipated fully.

After nearly losing the younger woman off the very edge she was perched on, Minerva pulled Hermione into her arms and held her close, and tight. Hermione snuggled into her arms and everything went quiet. Minerva's heart was thumping happily but Hermione shuddered and Minerva realised she was trying her best to cry as silently as possible.

"Oh, darling. Don't cry! I am quite alright. I only have a lingering headache but that is surely to be expected. I promise," she said, pushing the hair back from Hermione's face to meet her eyes. "I am very much myself."

"The way you dropped," Hermione shuddered again. "You just dropped, Min. The noise! I just -" her hands gripped Minerva's gown. "I was so scared." Minerva kissed the forehead beneath her chin without thinking but Hermione wasn't finished. "I had to cut you -" She looked up at her and Minerva sighed sadly. "I had to -"

"I am perfectly fine, thanks to you," Minerva whispered while she cupped Hermione's cheek. "I am so sorry that I didn't listen to you," Minerva sighed. "I'm sorry that I caused you pain."

"I know you're going to do whatever you want to do, Min," Hermione whispered. "I know how much you love Quidditch and how much you love the boys. And I know that I'm not anyone; especially anyone that would be permitted to tell you what to do but please -" She looked up at her beseechingly. "Please don't ever do that again. I can't -" She sobbed. "I won't -"

"Hermione, look at me?"

She shook her head but Minerva recognised something she'd never noticed in her Hermione before. A tearful fear. Her heart broke that she had been so oblivious that they could have had all the things that the other couple had already been blessed with, but she decided right then and there, she would get to it, providing Hermione thought the same. And she wanted to make a start now.

"Love?" Minerva said softly. "Look at me."

Hermione stopped breathing and had it been any other moment, Minerva may have made a joke, but she didn't. She looked at the younger woman as seriously as she'd ever been and cupped Hermione's cheek again.

"You just -"

"Love," Minerva whispered again. "I am so sorry for not realising. And I am sorry for not listening to you; the most sensible part of me. And I am so, so, sorry I put you through this but please." She let her forehead rest on Hermione's and stared into beautiful big brown eyes that were wide with shock. "Please always be the one to tell me what to do? You are the only one that I would permit and in time, I might even realise that you are the best part of me and listen to you fully. If," she swallowed and tried not to let the hope burn too brightly. "If you might have me?"

Hermione stared until Minerva began to wonder whether she really did bump her head enough that she had dreamed it all until a soft hand cupped her cheek and she met Hermione's eyes again.

"How long have you known?"

"A couple of hours."

Hermione blinked and gave her a look but Minerva just grinned at her. Hermione stared for a little longer and then she laughed. She leaned up and kissed Minerva softly, but desperately. Minerva made a noise of surprise but rallied quickly. She reciprocated and moaned as a tongue started to trace her bottom lip.

"Get me out of here -" she whispered as she pressed kisses all over Hermione's face. "I promise I will behave. I will lay as stiff as a board if you would only kiss me again."

"Oh my god, you're a hopeless romantic? I would never have guessed that? But no, we're not leaving until Poppy says you can." Minerva laughed with Hermione and accepted the soft kisses she got in return. "I love you, Min. I know it's not really conventional to say that so early, but I'm in love with you. I just wanted you to know so you understand what I'm feeling -" Minerva's breath caught as Hermione kissed her palm and placed it just above her heart where her heart was thumping. "I love you."

Minerva rubbed the skin beneath her palm with her thumb and smiled.

"If you only knew," Minerva chuckled. "How deep my love for you goes. I didn't know. I couldn't -" She shook her head. "Couldn't see."

"You see now," Hermione whispered. "And in time, I hope you will tell me how it came to be."

"I will tell you. It is embarrassing and altogether awkward to tell you, my love, but I will, if you want to know."

"Min," Hermione said quietly. "You know you've been out for 4 days, right?"

"I do," she chuckled. "Well, I knew I was out but I know, now, that it was 4 days."

"So, something happened in the time you crashed off your broom and woke up now?"

"It did," Minerva blushed. "But I don't want to tell you while we're here."

"I am utterly intrigued," Hermione chuckled. "Did you have a sexy dream?"

Minerva blushed hotly and Hermione's beautiful laugh rang out through the ward.

"You saucy minx! You totally did!"

It was Minerva's turn to laugh and that is how Poppy found them, not too long later.

"No Quidditch. Ever," she hissed disapprovingly. "Your incision has healed but you must be careful for a while. It's small and I suppose it will just be added to the litany of other scars you already have. But," she sighed with a frown. "You are, remarkably, fine. Take it easy for a few days, alright?"

"Thank you Poppy," Minerva said genuinely as she sat up with only a little wince. "For patching me up, but for being so forgiving when I do unintelligent things."

Hermione snorted into her side and she bit back a grin as Poppy rolled her eyes.

"You are bloody hopeless and I love you. Get out of here and don't you dare come back."

"Thank you again!" Minerva called as Poppy stalked away muttering under her breath. She turned her attention to Hermione and kissed her softly as she looked up at her. "Now will you help me escape?"

Hermione laughed as she helped her stand.