Healing the Broken

Chapter 16- Harry Knows His Stars

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."