Love on the Run

A/N:  This short fic was written in response to a post on the Challenges board by Shortman_83 and will be divided into two parts.  This is my first post to the fanfic side, so please R&R.

Harry and Hermione made their way up the few short stairs to the front door of Number 12, Grimmauld Place having finished their daily morning run just after sunrise. Their moments were slow and stiff and their breath labored.

Hermione turned around and sat on the top step. “I honestly don’t see how you’re still on your feet, Harry. I feel like I’ve been under the Taratallegra spell for an hour straight.”

Harry just stood, leaning against the door. “The difference is that I’ve been doing this for a month now. This is only your third day. Moody and Tonks came up to me and offered PT since my first day at the Dursleys.” Harry slumped his shoulders, dropped his head, and sighed. “It’s been a good way to keep my mind from thinking about what I did to Sirius.”

Hermione stood and walked to Harry, touching his shoulder to comfort him. “Harry, it wasn’t your fault, and deep down you know it. So it’s best not to dwell on it.”

“Yeah, I know. I just can’t help but think about it sometimes.” Harry drew a deep breath in an attempt to regain his composure and looked his friend in the eye again. “Well, we better hurry up and get inside. If Mrs. Weasley sees out in the open like this, she’ll go spare.” The two entered the house sharing a comfortable smile and made their way to the kitchen for a drink.

After taking a few bottles of chilled water from the charmed icebox, the pair of teens settled themselves on opposite ends of the sofa in the drawing room. Hermione spoke first, breaking the easy silence. “Harry, did Ron ever tell you why he didn’t go with us on our runs after the first day? He told me that he wanted to use the time to study. Like I’m going to buy that story.”

Harry chuckled before speaking, “No, he hasn’t said a word to me about it. But he still swears that his legs are going to fall off any day now. He’s just not a morning person I guess. Ever since I’ve known Ron, he’s valued two things above all else: Sleep and food.”

“Too true.” Hermione grinned for a second, but her face suddenly contorted into a grimace as she straightened her leg on the sofa and let out a pained hiss and growl.

“What’s wrong Hermione?” 

Hermione gave out another pain-induced hiss.  “I’ve got a cramp in the arch on my foot!”

Without a moments’ thought, Harry reacted quickly, pulling off her sock and trainer and began massaging her foot. Hermione’s painful face began to relax and sighed in relief as the pain began to fade. “Oooh, that feels good. A little lower…mmm. Much better.”

Her tone changed to one of cheekiness, “If I didn’t know better Mr. Potter, I’d say you have a pair of magical hands—Pun intended.”

“How about we put your hypothesis to test.” Harry said with a playful smile and continued in a husky voice. “Roll over.”

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From Harry’s POV

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“Roll over,” I told her.

”Is she…blushing?!  No, no, no.  That can’t be it.  Hermione doesn’t blush, at least not that I’ve ever seen.  Her face is probably still flushed from the run this morning.”

“I’m… uh, quite comfortable where I am, thank you.”

”That’s my ‘Mia-- Stubborn as ever.  Sometimes you don’t know what’s good for you, do you?”

“It wasn’t a request,” I told her firmly. I then turned foot over in my hand to let her know that I was serious.  She looked a little surprised but complied.  I then stripped her other foot of its shoe and sock and started rubbing the foot that had the cramp.

“You should start feeling better after today, ‘Mia.  The third day was the worst for me, and after about two weeks, you shouldn’t be sore anymore at all,” I told her after few minutes had passed.  I felt her tense up for a second before turning her body fully to look at me. She her pierced though me as if I had done something wrong.

“What did you just say?” She asked.

Not liking the tone of her voice, I replied, “I said, ‘The third day was the worst for me.  You shouldn’t be so achy after today.’”

“No, no, no.  Not that.  You didn’t call me by my name.  What did you just call me?” She asked, firing another question.

Inwardly I cringed, bracing myself for the onslaught that was to come. I knew she hated people butchering her name and all that, but was that harmless little nickname really that bad?

“Oh that.  I, um… I called you ‘Mia.,” I hesitantly admitted.

Silence, they say, is golden, but I would settle for pewter or bronze at this point.  And she’s frowning, not good…

“Hermione?  Are you okay?  Hello?” 

“Oh bloody hell, this is not good at all.”

“Hermione?  I asked if you were okay?”

She jumped briefly before answering, “Oh… Oh yes, I’m fine.  I was just thinking.  That’s all.”

I started to try and explain myself, “I… I’m sorry Hermione; I should’ve asked you first.  It was just a name I thought of when I was thinking of you when summer started, well not that I was thinking of you all the time—well, I guess I thought of you quite a bit.”  Harry took a quick breath to get back on track, “But anyway, you have a long name, and I just wanted to come up with a nickname that I thought sort of fit you, and well… that’s how I came up with it.”

”Merlin, that was lame—even by my standards. At least I won’t be on the receiving end of one of Ginny’s famous Bat Bogey Hexes… or will I?”

“So do you mind if I call you that sometimes?”

Like the dawning of a new day, her face finally broke into a smile and my worries just seemed to melt away.  “No, I don’t mind.  Just don’t do it around anyone else, okay?  If Ron found out, I’d never hear the end of it.”

“I wish she’d smile like that more often.  God, she’s beautiful when she smiles.  Of course she’s beautiful all of the time, but that smile just leaves me so… so… speechless.”

“Deal.”

She rolled back over with a wide smile on her face, and I went back to massaging her feet.