Harmony Bond (Completed)

Chapter 27: Wrapping Fifth Year

The Potters arrived back in their apartment at Hogwarts and almost literally collapsed from exhaustion. The night had been a long patrol, ending in their final successful goal, but it had taken a lot out of them, especially Harry. Hermione couldn't believe how tired her husband felt now that the adrenaline had fled his body. She put an arm around his waist and led him to their bath, opting rightly for the tub rather than a shower as she stripped him down. As his shirt came off, he grimaced and she gasped at the new bruise that appeared along the line of his old injury.

Harry?

I think I might have pulled something during one of my twists to get away from Nagini.

You think?

I may have to beg my lovely wife to rub some salve into my back.

Hermione shook her head and finished her duties as she lowered him into the water before stripping down and joining him after adding some healing potions to the water. She had to admit it felt quite good to her as well. The battle might have been short, but it had had strained her as well. That was something Tonks had told them early on, the action was usually a few short minutes of terror that left you breathless and trying to remember it all afterwards. As she started to soak, Hermione remembered their friends and reached for her wand to cast a quick patronus toward the Gryffindor dorms to find Ron. The message was a simple reassurance: Returned, all is well, talk tomorrow, pass the news. With the message sent, she refocused on Harry.

They soaked for a good while and even dozed for a few minutes before Hermione helped Harry out and dried them both off. She was more exhausted than what she wanted to admit, but she knew that at that moment she was the stronger of the two of them. During the actual battle, Harry had done what was needed and now it was her turn as she arranged him on the bed on his stomach and began to massage the salve into his back. They were running low and she would need to get more from Madam Pomfrey. That would require an explanation that wouldn't be easy. Oh well, something to be dealt with after a bit of sleep. Once Harry's back was done, she crawled in next to him and they were soon both asleep.

The following morning came all too soon considering it was past midnight when they had finally fallen asleep. Hermione decided to indulge and called Dobby to bring them breakfast. With the late night bath, showers were skipped, meaning they were able to stay in bed until mere minutes before class. Harry was still quite stiff, but with another massage, he insisted he could manage since he wouldn't have Defense class that day. Their friends were all waiting for them outside the apartment before first classes and Hermione decided there was time for a quick, five minute meeting as everyone ducked in.

"Alright everyone, we don't have much time. No questions right now. Harry will give you the synopsis and then we have to run."

"Um, alright. We did the regular patrol as usual and there were a couple of Death Eaters apparently out looking for mushrooms. My snake calling gave them a scare and we decided to do what we did with the other Death Eater and I summoned them, except I messed up and put a bit much force in it to override the outer wards. I also didn't realize that my parseltongue had been heard by Nagini and she was close. So, anyway, I summoned the two Death Eaters, pulling half a hillside of dirt and grass with them. That knocked them out in the process, and then I had the snake coming up behind me that I had to fight. My drills on snake movement saved me and I managed to get out of the way. I wrenched my back, but it worked. I summoned the sword and with Hermione's help to keep Nagini distracted, I took her head off. A black mist came out with a screech and then some green blood as well. It was nasty. Then we dropped the DMLE portkeys on the Death Eaters. Since I tore up the hillside and we also had a mess of a giant snake left around, we decided to start a bit of a forest fire, just standard fire, to cover our tracks and then portkeyed back."