Hermione woke up in St. Mungo's on Monday, the night that he left. Rubbish timing if you asked Harry.
She had to stay there a few days afterwards, just so that her stomach could completely heal. With the help of some muggle stitches and other potions, they were able to heal her stomach quickly, but the potions wouldn't have worked if she was asleep.
She told him all of this... after he kissed her.
He had cried first.
"Harry, why are you crying?" Hermione asks, touching his face softly and brushing a tear away with her thumb. "I'm here now. It's all going to be okay."
Harry just shakes his head. "I thought I lost you." He says softly- so softly that he's afraid he doesn't hear him.
She does. "Harry, I wasn't going anywhere- not without you."
Harry leans forward and kisses her, pressing his lips softly against hers, as if he isn't quite sure that he's real. He's kissed her before, and those two times were great. But now he was afraid it was all a dream and Hermione really still back in St. Mungo's, asleep and pale and hurt and out of his reach. But she was most certainly in his reach now.
He kisses her with rhythm, and steadily, like he can never get enough. But he feels like he's robing her from her kisses, because he hadn't even asked her out yet. He wanted to ask her out in a big way- something that would take her breath away. But he couldn't think of anything big enough, and all he wanted was to be able to call Hermione his.
He thought about how late it was, and he pulled away from her. She blushes, looking at the floor and smiling, but then she pulls out his invisibility cloak from her pocket, handing it to him.
"You left it at St. Mungo's." She says. Harry takes it in his hands, running his fingers over the smooth fabric that feels like water running through his fingers, and grins.
He thinks again about how he wants to ask her out. How he wants to do it right now. And about how far it is past their curfew. He thinks about the night sky, dotted with stars by now, and the invisibility cloak wrapped around his fingers.
The he tugs on her hand, pulling her closer, and throws the cloak over them.
"Follow me." He whispers into her hair, making her shudder.
~~~~~
He had pulled her up all of the stairs in Hogwarts, up, up,up to the Astronomy Tower. He kicked open the door on the ceiling, extends the ladder, and takes her onto the roof.
"Accio Ron's blanket." Harry says, and within seconds Ron's blanket is soaring up to him, and he catches it, lying it down for the pair of them to sit on.
Hermione does, looking up at the sky. "Why Ron's blanket?"
"His is softer. And bigger. Mine is sort of... eh." Harry shrugs, looking at the sky as well. "I did a little more studying about the stars you know- I thought they were kind of pretty, and they were always out when I was taking watch back in our days in the tent." He lifts his hands- one to touch her shoulder, and one to point to the sky. "That one there is called Taurus. It's a bull. And that one is Cassiopeia."
"I read about her!" Hermione exclaims. "According to Greek legends she had been made a constellation by the sea god, Poseidon. Apparently she bragged that she was more beautiful than the fifty gorgeous Nereids that stayed in the seas with Poseidon, which made him mad. He set out a sea serpent on her town, terrifying and killing everyone. Cassiopeia ended up deciding that the only way to stop the serpent was to give up her daughter Andromeda, to be killed by the snake itself."
Harry stares at her in shock, and in... pride, maybe? He loved it when she talked about things like this. It was... entertaining, you could say. "So the serpent ate Andromeda, even though it was supposed to be a punishment for Cassiopeia?"
Hermione shakes her head. "No. Poseidon wasn't that cruel- he sent out a hero to save Andromeda and kill the serpent, and when Cassiopeia died, he made her into a constellation, but he did something so that she looked a little messed up- not beautiful. I don't remember what though."
Harry looks back to the sky. "Do you believe those things?"
Hermione scoffs. "Believe in them? No. Find it fascinating? Yes. It's just mythology, Harry. To believe in those stories would be to believe in the gods- which I don't. I believe in only one God."
Harry smiles. "Me too."
"Now, I believe you were showing me the constellations that you learned..." Hermione says, taking his hand and lying back against the roof. Harry does as well, and starts to point out the stars.
"Well, over here is the big dipper and little dipper- common ones, really. And then you have Capricorn which is supposed to be a goat with a fish tail, which you probably know, and Pisces- Pisces is supposed to be fish, by the way. I suppose you can sort of see the outline." Harry takes her hand, which he was still holding, and points her pointer finger, tracing the supposed path of the fish that the constellations made. "It helps you to trace them out, you know, to see it."
Hermione was listening to him, interested, but she couldn't shake the undying love that she felt for him right now. She always liked him, and had fancied him for a while now. She wished that they were officially dating. But honestly, if he was going to take her up to the roof at night to look at the stars and show off his astronomy knowledge, then surely he would want to date her soon...
Harry had wanted to bring her up here to ask her to be his girlfriend. But... it seemed like it wasn't big enough. He wanted the best for Hermione, and for some reason, he thought he could do better than a starry night sky and a blanket.
So instead, he enjoyed this time gazing at the stars with her.
"That's Hercules." Hermione says, pointing to another constellation. Harry had a feeling she knew the background to all of the constellations, just had a harder time identifying them.
"I hate Hercules."
Hermione turns her head to him, her mouth agape. "What? How could you hate Hercules? He saved-"
"Another poor maiden, yeah I know." Harry says. "I just... I feel like he- I don't know. Never mind. Forget I said anything." Harry stutters out, faltering to a stop at the end.
"No thank you." Hermione says. "Why don't you like Hercules?"
Harry frowns. "Because he intimidates me. He was such a 'hero' and everyone praised him so much- it makes me feel like less of a guy, you know? Kind of like that one time you told me that you hate those model magazines because they make you feel not good enough? Same thing."
Hermione turns over completely now, facing him, and he does the same. "But you are a hero."
"Yeah. But did I save some fair maiden? No."
"Yes you did." She looks down. "I might not be a fair maiden. But you're my hero. You saved me from a broken heart."
And then he kisses her.
~~~~~
He meant to sneak her back down the stairs and into Gryffindor Tower later that night, but he fell asleep. She did too- they were both really tired. But when he woke up, the sun was shining down on their faces and the stars were long gone.
Hermione sits up, stretching, and Harry does as well, pulling her to her feet. He glances down at the ground, which is far, far away, and thinks about all of the flights of stairs they would have to descend to get back down.
"I don't really feel like walking down the stairs." Harry says. "Accio Firebolt!"
Sure enough, within a few seconds the Firebolt is zooming across the green lawns to him, and he catches it, climbing on. He looks at Hermione, who looks hesitant.
"Just hold on to me and you'll be fine." Harry reassures her. "We're just going to be riding down to the ground- not very far, I swear."
Hermione reluctantly climbs on behind him, gripping his waist tightly. "This reminds me of when you and I rode Buckbeak." She says to him, and he smiles at the memory.
"Yeah... I didn't let you fall then, did I?" And then he kicks off the ground before she can respond. They soar through the air, and Hermione screams for a second in shock, but then calms down, willing herself to look at the ground. They weren't speeding through the grounds like she had thought they were, but instead they were carefully drifting to the ground.
Her feet brush the ground, and Harry steps off the broom, Hermione doing the same. And then he smacks his head.
"I forgot the invisibility cloak again!"
Hermione smirks and pulls it out of her pocket, handing it to him again. "Here you go."
"Ron's blanket?"
"Accio Ron's blanket!"
She catches it and hands it to him as well, and he smiles sheepishly.
"Thanks."
Hermione rolls her eyes, still smiling. "Yeah. Did you get a little excited with the idea of riding your broom to remember the things we brought up there?"
Harry laughs. "Why were you so scared to ride the broom? You crushed us all in Quidditch earlier this summer."
Hermione shrugs. "I need to be in control to feel completely at ease. I don't like the idea that you could speed up or do whatever before I even have time to react."
"What about with cars then? When your mum drives do you grab the wheel from the passenger seat and say 'I need to be in control to feel completely at ease'?" Harry asks, and she lets a small laugh escape from her.
"No! I just let her drive. Cars are different."
"How are cars different?"
"Cars don't fly!"
They had been walking up to the castle the entire conversation, and they were ironically passing by the Whomping Willow where Harry and Ron had crashed when she said that. "Actually, cars did fly in our second year- and then they stopped flying right there." Harry points to the spot where they had crashed.
Hermione punches his arm, which surprises him. He topples over to the ground, making her smirk. She helps him to his feet. "Just because I'm more lenient with breaking rules now doesn't mean I approve of you illegally flying a car across Britain."
Harry rubs him arm. "So you punch me?"
"You've taken worse- I believe you've had numerous painful encounters with Voldemort, which must hurt more than my little punch." She says. and Harry frowns.
"Little punch?"
"HARRY!"
Harry groans. "Keep walking, maybe she'll go away." He whispers in Hermione's ear, who turns around to see Cho running up to them.
"And if she doesn't?"
"Play dead." Harry says only half joking.
"HARRY! I've been calling your name- oh hello Hermione." She says the last part with a cool edge in her voice.
Hermione clutches her throat, stumbling backwards. She makes fake choking noises and then topples over, playing dead. She even sticks her tongue out for dramatic effect. Harry starts laughing, and laughs even harder at the look on Cho's face.
"Is she... playing dead?"
Harry laughs even harder, so she asks Hermione instead. "Are you playing dead?"
Hermione opens one eye. "Not playing. And who talks to dead people?" And then she sets her head back down, closing the eye again. Cho huffs and turns to Harry, red in the face.
"Harry, I wanted to ask- would you go to Hogsmeade with me?"
"Nope, sorry."
Cho scoffs. "What then? You're going to Hogsmeade with Dead Dianne over here?"
Hermione looks up. "My name is Hermione. Cho, you're a Ravenclaw- if you guys are so smart, then you should remember my name after knowing me for about three years."
"I know your name."
"Then why not call me Haunting Hermione?"
Harry butts in, still snickering. "Did you not think of that one?"
Cho scowls at the both of them. "Fine then, be that way. I'll just go talk to Rita Skeeter."
She turns on her heel and marches away, and Harry pulls Hermione to her feet. "She's talking to Rita!"
Hermione waves his worries off. "It's fine. I've learned not to open the hate mail- or at least to not be tricked into it. We'll be okay. None of our friends ever believe that junk anyways- it help us to figure out who our real friends are."
"You're really smart, you know that?"
She shrugs. "I've been told. Come on, I'm hungry." And then she pulls him up to the castle, where the smell of the food from the Great Hall is wafting out to them, Harry still thinking of a way to ask her out.