Chapter Two
Hermione woke up slowly, cautiously opening her eyes, and sighing with satisfaction to see that she was sleeping indoors, and not in her trusty tent. She sat up and her aching muscles groaned in protest at being moved from the comfortable bed after five months of sleeping on rough terrain and hiking through deserts and mountain ranges. She blinked when she saw the clock and realised she's slept through the whole night and morning. She didn't remember taking her boots off the night before and guessed that she probably hadn't, the boys had probably heard her come in and taken care of her. She smiled, and headed across the room to the en-suite bathroom. Her smile widened as she saw the large bathtub was full of hot water, a note floating mid air above the tub.
`Mione
Thought you might want a long bath. I enchanted it to stay warm till you drain the water. There's a robe on the back of the door.
X Harry
Hermione unceremoniously dumped her dirt-encrusted clothes on the floor and sunk into the hot water, her eyes closed, and felt the twinges and aches in her muscles begin to relax. She loved her job, travelling the world researching magical creatures, but after three months in Egypt working with Sphinx's in the desert and then several months in the mountains of Peru tracking a subspecies of the Sphinx she knew what her one luxury in life would be…a warm bath every day. It was what she missed most about civilisation, other than her friends and family of course, but she was in contact with them regularly, and on Harry's order she reported in by owl to him and Ron every other day without fail so they knew she was ok. They were so overprotective at times, but now coped well with her expeditions. Her first expedition they'd wanted to come with her, but she'd glared at them until they let her go, but they had checked up on her continuously, both finding flimsy excuses to be in Ireland near where she happened to be working with the elders of a group of Leprechauns.
She pampered herself, smiling to see the boys, or more likely Ron's girlfriend Lavender had stocked up on all her favourite products and she happily sniffed a new bottle of her favourite shampoo. An hour later Hermione forced herself to get out of the bath as her stomach grumbled reminding her she hadn't eaten much for the last day and a half. She grabbed a fluffy white robe from the back of the door and wrapped it around her, retrieving her wand from the pocket of her trousers on the floor she quickly dried her hair and even took the time to curl it into soft waves. She looked at herself properly in the mirror for the first time in weeks and was happy to see she looked healthy, with a warm tan due to her time in Egypt, and a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Getting bored of her own company and anxious to see her best friends she headed out of the bathroom and walked towards the kitchen. She stood for a moment watching Harry as he stood over the stove, cooking what smelled deliciously like bacon. He looked good, standing at six foot, his black unruly hair hanging in his face as always, dressed casually in jeans and a black t-shirt. She ran at him and as she approached he turned at the last minute and picked her up into a tight hug laughing.
"You trying to kill me `Mione?" He laughed, putting her down. She grinned back at him.
"I missed you too." He said, looking at her.
"Come on. Eat." He dished some food up on a plate for her and put it on the breakfast bar in front of her while he began to cook some more food for himself.
They sat and ate breakfast together, chatting, filling each other in on all the details they hadn't had time to exchange in brief owls.
"You look good Hermione." Harry said as he cleared their plates away.
"You too Harry. But something's up, I can tell!" She said teasingly, wondering what Harry was keeping from her. He turned and smiled at her.
"I never can keep things a secret from you…but you'll have to wait a little longer…I'm going to tell you, Ron and Lavender about it together. It's nothing bad though…" He said mysteriously. She looked at him and could tell he wasn't going to give in and tell her yet so she flopped onto the sofa wondering whether she should tell him about the owl she'd received last week…if she told him it would effectively mean she'd made a decision though, and had she?