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Author's Note: Thanks you guys for all the nice reviews! This latest chapter was a very nice one to write. I was inspired by one of the most romantic songs I have ever heard. It is by Etta James and is called "At Last". If you haven't listened to it before, do so. I think it fits this chapter very nicely. I hope you enjoy…
Chapter 14
At Last
At last
My love has come along
My lonely days over
And life is like a song
Ooh, at last
The skies above are blue
Well my heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream
That I could speak to
A dream that I could call my own
I found a thrill
To press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Well
You smile
you smile
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine at last
Etta James (At Last)
"Harry?"
My hands froze on the doorknob as I heard my name. I hadn't just heard what I thought I heard, did I? Did Hermione really just say my name? I was probably just imagining it because I wanted to hear it so badly.
"Harry?" she asked again, somewhat hoarsely.
Within two seconds, I had crossed the gap between the door and her bedside.
"Hermione," I whispered, taking her hand in mine, watching as she opened her eyes, and took in the unfamiliar surroundings. She tried to sit up in her hospital bed, but winced in pain as she did so.
"Don't try and move," I said soothingly to her.
"What happened?" she asked me. "Where am I, Harry?"
"You don't remember?" I asked her, stroking her hand softly.
She opened her mouth to answer, but stopped as we heard the sound of the door opening. Her mother peeked her head around the door.
"Is everything alright, Harry?" she asked me. I stood back from Hermione's bed so her mother could see her daughter, awake and alert. When she saw, she brought her hand to her mouth and let out a sigh of relief. Hesitantly, she walked inside the room, almost unsure as to whether or not what she was seeing was real.
"Oh, sweetheart," she said, standing on the other side of Hermione's bed. "You're awake!" She took Hermione's other hand and brought it to her face.
"Mom, what happened?" Hermione said, looking back between her mother and me. "How did I get here?"
Her mother and I exchanged a look, not sure what we should say to her.
"You, um, were hit by a car," her mother said, tears streaming down her face. "You don't remember that?"
Hermione shook her head.
"Well, what do you remember about what happened, sweetie?" her mother asked, leaning in to caress her daughter's cheek.
Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment as if she was willing herself to remember the events of the night before. She closed her eyes for a second and then opened them, and with her eyes shining with tears, she looked at me.
"I remember Harry," she said softly. "He came to see me. I was so happy to see him. We had such a great time, didn't we?"
"We sure did," I managed to choke out.
She smiled and continued. "We went to the planetarium and we danced underneath the stars. It was almost magical. We danced to the most beautiful song, too, and we kissed."
Nearly overcome with emotion as I listened to her recall what had happened, I instinctively leaned over her and planted a kiss on her forehead. As I did so, she put her hand up to my face and touched my cheek and her hand lingered on my face for a few moments. It seemed as if everything melted away, and it was just she and I in that room.
"I hadn't been that happy in a long time," she whispered.
"Me, too," I said, softly. She gripped my hand tighter.
"We were walking to the bus stop, right?" she asked me. I nodded. "And my necklace, I lost my necklace. I turned around to get it. Oh, Harry! My necklace."
"Shh," I said, reaching into my jeans' pocket to pull the silver necklace out. She beamed at me as I handed it back to her. "Good as new, see?"
"Harry gave this to me, Mom," she said, turning to her mother. "I'm sorry I lied to you. I really am. I just knew that if I told you where I got it from, you'd have been very upset. This wasn't the first time, he'd visited me. He came once before. You're not mad, are you?"
Her mother gave a chuckle as she looked at the necklace.
"No, of course not," she said. "None of that matters now. What matters is that you are alive and with us now."
"Am I going to be okay?" Hermione asked.
"You, um, had some internal bleeding," her mother said. "They took you into surgery to stop it. You have a few cuts and bruises, but no broken bones."
Hermione took all of this in, quite bravely and I couldn't help marveling at how calm and strong she was as she listened to what had happened to her.
"Harry," she said, turning to face me again. "You're okay, aren't you? You weren't hurt?"
"Well, I'm doing much better now that you're awake," I said, letting out a soft laugh. "You had us all pretty worried, you know?"
She smiled at me and then I saw her look beyond me, over my shoulder. I turned to see what she was looking at and saw Ron standing in the doorway, along with Lupin.
I felt my stomach lurch as I saw the look on Ron's face. Had he heard all that Hermione had said? Had he heard what we'd done? Had he heard that this hadn't been the first time that I'd visited her? The look on his face was almost indescribable---it seemed to be showing a range of emotions all at once---he looked angry, he looked sad, he looked anxious.
"Ron?" Hermione whispered, a smile playing at her lips. "What are you doing here?"
He tentatively stepped forward toward her.
"Hi, Hermione," he said. "You don't think I'd stay away? Did you? I mean, you and I both know that I couldn't be a prefect without you nagging me all the time."
"Oh, those poor first-years, you must be merciless," she said. "You need me there to rein you in, you know?"
Ron laughed and brushed past me. I reluctantly let go of Hermione's hand as he nearly pushed me out of the way. I watched as he took Hermione's hand in his and cupped it.
"Hermione," he said. "I'm so glad you're going to be alright."
"Me, too," she said. "I missed you so much. I missed you and Harry so much."
Ron opened his mouth to say something else, but a man came through the door. He wore a white lab coat and carried a clipboard. He was followed by a stern looking nurse.
"Dr. Stevens," Hermione's mother said. "Look who's awake."
"I see that," Dr. Stevens said. "Hermione, it's nice to meet you, properly."
Ron stood back so that Dr. Stevens could shake Hermione's hand.
"Nice to meet you, too," Hermione said, her eyes twinkling.
He looked around at the lot of us, crowded into Hermione's small hospital room. The nurse spoke up and she reminded me so much of Madame Pomfrey as she forcefully ushered us all out of the room so the doctor could fully examine Hermione.
"We'll be right outside, Hermione," I said, winking at her.
She smiled at me. "You'd better."
As we walked out, I could see Ron rolling his eyes at me. This pretty much confirmed for me that he'd heard everything. We stood outside the room for a few moments. Dr. Granger left to go downstairs to find her husband to let him know the good news.
There was an awkward silence between the three of us. Ron and I were trying not to look at each other. He stood on one end of the hall, with his arms folded, looking everywhere but in my direction. I, on the other hand, stood against the opposite wall, looking down at the marble tile floor. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lupin standing in between us, looking back and forth at us. No one said a word until Lupin cleared his throat.
"We'll have to be getting back to Hogwarts, soon," Lupin said. "Our window to get back ends in
about an hour."
"Alright," I said, wishing for any way that I could stay here with Hermione, but knowing that I'd already
used up my second and third chances. Both Lupin and Dumbledore had gone out on a limb for me on this, and I
couldn't take advantage of their kindness. It wouldn't be fair.
Ron simply nodded.
"So when were you going to tell me, Harry?" he blurted out a few seconds later.
"Tell you what, Ron?" I asked.
"Tell me what?" he asked. "Tell me that you'd sneaked out of school before to see Hermione. That you let me worry about her when all along you knew how she was doing? That you'd spent the evening with her last night, dancing and kissing under the stars? May I ask when you fell in love with Hermione? Was it right after I told you that I was falling for her?"
I opened my mouth to respond to his tirade, but Lupin held out his hand.
"I understand that you two need to talk about this, but this is not the time or the place," he said forcefully. "You need to remember where you are and think about the girl in that room. It won't help her or anyone else if you start fighting right outside her door."
Neither one of us wanted to admit he was right, so neither of us said anything, we just went back to our respective conditions against the wall, pretending that the other one wasn't there.
"Alright," Lupin said. "That's excellent."
Another awkward silence was broken when the Grangers reappeared.
"Dr. Granger," Lupin said. "I never had the chance to meet you before. I'm Remus Lupin. I taught Hermione during her third year at Hogwarts. You have a very smart girl in there. She's probably the cleverest witch I've ever seen."
Lupin held out his hand for Dr. Granger to shake. For a second, Dr. Granger stood there looking down at this man, who'd just called his daughter the one thing he'd tried to deny her of for these past few months.
To my surprise and to his wife's relief, he shook Lupin's hand.
"Nice to meet you," Dr. Granger said. "Hermione told us a lot about you, too."
"I'm glad that she's going to be alright," Lupin said.
Dr. Granger just nodded. I watched with shock as he and Lupin continued to talk, albeit only simple pleasantries, but it was a start. Maybe, just maybe, Dr. Granger was coming around.
A few moments later, Dr. Stevens came out of the room, and looked at us. I said a silent prayer that he would have good news for us.
"Her vital signs are all strong," Dr. Stevens said. "She's still a little tired and sore, but that's to be expected after the trauma she's sustained. We'll need to keep her here for a few days, but I think she's going to make a full recovery."
"Thank you so much," Dr. Karen Granger said, giving the shocked doctor a hug and kiss on the cheek. There was an aura of happiness around, even Ron and I forgot our momentary row as we reveled in the news that Hermione was going to be just fine. Hell, even her dad managed to shake my hand. This was progress, even if we still had a long way to go.
"Can we see her?" I asked.
Dr. Stevens nodded. "Yes, but keep it short. One at a time. She needs her rest."
Her parents went in first. Lupin reiterated that Ron and I were to stay only a few moments as we were due back at Hogwarts soon. Reluctantly, we agreed. I was the last to visit with her. When I walked back into her room, she was yawning.
"Well, that's a vote of confidence," I said, my heart speeding up at the sight of her.
"Sorry," she said. "It's not you, I promise."
"I understand," she said, watching me as I sat down beside her bed. I took her hand in mine.
"We're going to have to go back to Hogwarts real soon," I said.
She nodded.
"I don't want you to go," she said. "I never want you to leave again."
"If for some reason, you can't come back to school, Hermione," I began, my voice cracking as I tried to say what I wanted to say. "Don't you give up on me, okay? I will find someway for us to be together. We've been through to much to watch it all fall apart now."
"Harry," she said. "You don't need to worry about me, okay? You have so much more on your plate to worry about than whether or not I'll be back at Hogwarts, okay? You have to get ready for your N.E.W.T.S, you have to be prepared for V-voldemort. Don't worry about me."
She had begun to cry again, and she looked away from me.
"You don't get it do you?" I asked, gripping her hand tighter. "None of that means anything to me? If I don't have you, I don't care about any of it."
"Harry-", she whispered.
"I, um," I stammered. I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't know if they could convey all that I wanted to tell her. They were three little words that meant so much, but seemed to mean so little in comparison to how I really felt about her.
"Yes?" she asked softly.
"This isn't an easy thing for me to say," he said. "Because I've never really known what it was, you know? I've never really had it before, but I think I found it in you. It didn't just happen last night, either. It's been there all along."
She looked at me, her eyes willing me to go on.
"What I'm trying to say," I began, "not so eloquently, is that Hermione Granger, I love you."
"Harry," she said, her eyes shining with tears.
There was a soft knock on the door as Lupin opened the door.
"I hate to break this up," he said, "but we have to get back now, Harry."
I turned around to look at him. "I'll be right there."
He nodded and closed the door. We were alone again. She was crying. I was crying.
"Well, you're at a loss for words," I said, trying to make the situation lighter.
She shook her head. "No, I'm not. I love you, too, Harry. More than you'll ever know."
I leaned in and kissed her softly, not wanting the moment to end.