Pairing – Harry/Hermione main focus – and odd mention of Ron/Luna too

Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter

Spoilers – Ending of DH

Summary – Ron has moved out of the flat, Harry now living on his own. Can Harry help Hermione move on from her misfortune? Will it ultimately bring them closer?

Here is some Harry/Hermione goodness for you all. It may not look like it to start with, but trust me it will get there… I hope you enjoy it! :D

Chapter One - Moving in, Moving on

It had been two years since Harry Potter had defeated Voldermort at Hogwarts, and life for Harry had become a lot more normal. With the media's interest now, thankfully Harry thought, starting to die down. Harry had just finished his Auror training and was now a full time Auror working for the Ministry of Magic.

Ron was also working for the Ministry, in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. A particular perk to the job was that Ron could get free tickets to various quidditch matches on some occasions, which made Ron's job all the more worthwhile in his eyes.

The two best friend's had got a flat together just on the outskirts of London, after the war had ended, whilst Hermione continued to live with her parents for a while. Hermione herself was in the three year process of training to become a Healer in St. Mungos. She had done two years already and was studying solidly, as usual, to complete her final year. Harry and Ron had both been very proud and supportive of Hermione, throughout her time of her studies, knowing she would go on and achieve the greatness that she deserved.

It was not just her career that had prospered; Hermione Granger had got herself a boyfriend, when the start of her second year of Healer training had begun, and Hermione had even moved into a flat with him six months ago. Harry, nor Ron for that matter, was that keen on him, but they kept quiet, as they knew he made Hermione happy and that was all they cared about.

Harry's love life had almost completely diminished after the war had ended. Ginny was no longer of romantic interest to him, this was something that had hardly affected the youngest Weasley, as she had fallen for another young wizard in her final year of Hogwarts. Harry had had a couple of girlfriend's in the past two years, but neither of them had lasted more than three months. Hermione and Ron had tried to set Harry up on a few dates but he had kindly rejected that idea, and just continued to stay single. Harry knew that the best plan in finding a girlfriend was to stop looking for one, he knew that love would find him when he least expected it.

It was no ordinary Saturday in January, today was what Ron and Harry considered as the end of an era. Ron Weasley was moving out of the flat. He was taking the huge step of moving into a house with his girlfriend of nearly two years, Luna Lovegood.

"Right Ron, is that everything?" Harry asked, as he put the last cardboard box by the front door, where they were currently standing.

"Yeah looks like it" Ron said, having a last quick scan around to check he had everything.

Harry, Luna and Hermione had spent all of Saturday helping Ron pack up all of his belongings into boxes, most of the boxes had been taken already and there were only a few left to transport to the new house. It was a sad moment as Ron was now all set to leave the flat, which he had happily called home, for the last time.

"Well I guess this is it then?" Harry said, with a smile.

"Yeah I guess so" Ron concurred.

Hermione chuckled "Oh for heavens sake, will you two hug already!" she and Luna were smiling on, as the two guys gave eachother a goodbye hug.

"Gunna miss you y'know, the place certainly won't be the same without you" Harry said, truthfully.

"No more midnight feasts" Ron said, sadly.

"No more television marathons that go on for two or three days" Harry remembered.

"And parties after Chudley Cannons win a game" Ron chuckled at the memory. He really was going to miss it.

Harry laughed too, before looking at Luna with a smile "You will take care of him for me, won't you Luna?"

Luna, Hermione and Ron laughed as did Harry.

"I promise, Harry" Luna replied, dreamily as usual "We had better go now Ronald."

"Yeah okay" Ron said, and thanked Harry and Hermione for all their help, before he and Luna grabbed the last of Ron's boxes and disapparated away.

Harry sighed as he retreated back into the much emptier living-room, Hermione following on behind.

"Are you okay, Harry?" she asked, concernedly as she stood in the doorway, gazing at Harry as he sat on the brown leather sofa.

"Yeah I'll be fine" he gave her a smile and encouraged her to join him.

"It's going to be so strange not seeing Ron here" Hermione commented, as she sat down next to Harry "When I come over to see you, and there will actually be food in the fridge now that Ron isn't here eating all of it" she and Harry chuckled before Hermione continued "and I might get to choose the film or TV show to watch, instead of Ron normally hogging the TV remote."

Harry laughed "Yeah…" They fell silent for a moment "Do you want to stay for tea, Hermione?"

"Oh Harry, y'know I would love to…" she said, apologetically "… but Chris and I have already arranged to go to the cinema. Hey, why don't you come with us? I'm sure Chris wouldn't mind."

"No it's alright Hermione" Harry replied, gloomily "You two go and have a nice time, I don't want to play gooseberry."

"Oh Harry, you wouldn't!" Hermione tried to assure him, but Harry still remained silent, she looked at him in more concern. "I don't want to leave you on your own, I feel bad." Hermione gave a thoughtful pause "I tell you what, I'll cancel my date and the two of us could get a takeaway or something, yeah?"

"No, no, I can't let you do that!" Harry said in protest, as he looked directly at Hermione "I can't let you cancel your date just to be here with me. Honestly Hermione, I really do appreciate you offering to spend the evening here, but I've got to learn to cope being by myself."

Hermione gave him a sad smile and rubbed his arm "As long as you're sure?"

Harry gave a reassuring smile "I'll be fine, now go on, go and make yourself look even lovelier for Chris."

Hermione giggled "Thank-you, I'll come and see you tomorrow, yeah? And if not I'll definitely call you."

"That'd be great."

Hermione kissed his cheek and they said goodbye before she too disapparated, leaving Harry in a very empty flat. All alone.

The next few days dragged by for Harry. Coming home from a hard days work at the Ministry used to be a happy occasion, as he would always have Ron there to cheer him up as the red-headed Weasley talked about things he had done, or said, of great amusement that day.

Both Ron and Hermione had separately come to see Harry during his first week alone in the flat, but neither had stayed that long as they had very busy lives and had other things to do themselves. Harry was feeling more and more depressed as the days continued. Buying himself 'meals for one' and waking up to find he was all alone in the flat, no conversation to be had. It just made Harry realise he needed a room-mate or, even better, a girlfriend.

Harry sighed as he closed the front door, it had been the fourth person he had seen who had responded to his 'room-mate required' advert in the local newspaper. They were all nice enough people, yet for some reason, none of them seemed right somehow.

Harry sat down in the living-room, his dismal dinner of chicken and rice on a plate lying on his lap, as he watched some boring game show on the television. Harry knew that Ron was spending an evening with Luna at The Burrow, whilst Hermione was at the pub with Chris and some trainee healer friends, so neither of them could have come round to keep him company.

As Harry finished his meal, the weather outside had turned from the dull cloud of earlier, to absolute torrential rain and a thunderstorm. Harry was thankful he had chosen to stay indoors rather than go out.

At almost 11:00pm, when Harry considered heading to bed for some well needed rest, he suddenly heard a loud knock on the front door.

Confused at who it could be at this time of night, Harry rushed to the front door and opened it to discover a very wet and dishevelled Hermione Granger, standing on the other side. Her mascara was smudged around her eyes that were very bloodshot, and some of the mascara had run down her cheeks due to the heavy rain. Her normally bushy hair was even frizzier than it usually was and dripping wet. Hermione's navy blue dress was completely soaked through and she was shivering from the cold.

"Hermione!" Harry said in shock "Come in, what happened?" Hermione gratefully came in and Harry closed the door "I wasn't expecting you; I thought you were out with Chris?"

At that instant Hermione burst into tears and she hugged Harry tightly, Harry felt extremely bewildered and it took a minute of gentle persuasion and comforting, for Hermione to withdraw from the hug, and to talk about what had gone on.

"We were at the pub with some of my Healer friends earlier this evening" Hermione started as they sat down in the living-room "and Chris said he wasn't feeling very well so he went back home, but not before insisting I stay at the pub and enjoy myself… so that's what I did" Hermione said quite calmly at first "and when I got home I … I found him in bed with the woman who lives in the flat downstairs!"

Hermione sobbed heartedly whilst Harry gazed at her, gobsmacked, not actually believing what he had just heard, but he stayed quiet to let Hermione continue.

"I just ran outside of the building… I didn't know what to do, or where to go!" Hermione then gazed at Harry with teary eyes "Yours is the first place I thought of…I just didn't want to go back up to the flat, I just couldn't face it!"

Harry, by this point, had a comforting arm around Hermione's shoulders, as she looked at him with so much misery.

"Why did he do it, Harry? What did I ever do wrong? I thought he loved me!"

Hermione dissolved into tears again as Harry continued to comfort her, silently thinking if he ever laid eyes on Chris again, he would either severely injure him or kill him for hurting Hermione so much.

Rage was bubbling up inside of Harry, but he said calmly to his distraught best friend.

"Hermione, Hermione, look at me" Harry said gently, and she gazed back at him "He is not going to get away with this, I won't let him. I cannot believe he would ever do that to you! Ron and I will sort him out, you mark my words."

"Harry, no, you can't! He could hurt you, or you could get into trouble with the police!"

"I don't care, he deserves what's coming to him! How dare he treat you like that! The good for nothing, two-timing rat!"

Hermione could see the anger in Harry's eyes and she wanted more than anything to stop it.

"Harry, please, don't do anything stupid! Please!" she begged.

Harry gazed back at those eyes, the eyes that held so much wisdom and love, just looking at Hermione's eyes intently seemed to calm Harry down. His heavy, angry breathing of a few seconds ago had relaxed back to normal.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do" Hermione said in despair "I don't want to go back and face him tonight, I just can't!"

"Don't worry" Harry said as he rubbed her arm gently "You are going to stay here with me tonight. You can stay in Ron's old room. I'll get the bed sorted and then I'll make you a nice cup of tea, yeah?"

"Oh Harry, I don't want to put you to any trouble."

"It's no trouble at all, Hermione" Harry insisted "Just let me look after you for once" he smiled at her.

Hermione smiled back at him and hugged Harry, tightly "Thank-you, Harry. I don't know what I'd do without you sometimes."

Harry grinned "You're welcome" and he kissed her cheek "Now why don't you have a nice relaxing bath? And your room will be sorted when you're out."

"Sounds great" Hermione said with another smile as she looked down at her still soaking wet clothes and back at Harry "I'm sorry I got you all soaked."

Harry laughed as he looked down at his clothes which were pretty damp from her hugs.

"Don't worry, I was going to put my pyjamas on anyway."

Hermione gave a small smile "I've got to change out of this dress before I catch pneumonia!" and she left the room, heading to the bathroom.

Harry went straight to Ron's old room and put new sheets, pillowcases and duvet cover on the bed ready for Hermione. He even rushed into the kitchen and as a cute gesture, put a chocolate on Hermione's pillow, knowing this would cheer her up a bit.

Hermione came out of the bathroom forty minutes later, her hair had been washed and she had dried herself, and her dress, with magic. Hermione had her dress back on and was carrying her heeled shoes in her hands.

"Harry?" Hermione said, as she came into the kitchen.

"Hey" he said with a kind smile "Nice bath?"

"Yeah was good, thank-you" she looked slightly awkward as she said "Harry, I need to go back to the flat. I haven't got a toothbrush or anything to wear to sleep in."

Harry raised his eyebrows in concern "But you said you couldn't face going back?"

Hermione shook her head, praying to herself that tears wouldn't emerge again "I really, really don't want to go back…but I can't exactly sleep in this dress now can I?"

Harry had a thoughtful expression on his face before he responded "Hermione, you don't have to go back. I can see you aren't ready, and I really don't blame you. If you want to sleep in something else, you can borrow something of mine."

Hermione's eyes widened slightly "Yours?" she laughed "Harry, I can't sleep in your clothes!"

"Why not?" he chuckled "Just go in my room and pick out a t-shirt and pyjama bottoms or something, it doesn't bother me. You can always use magic to make them smaller if they are too big for you."

Hermione was giving Harry an amused look "Are you sure, Harry?"

"Don't worry about it" Harry chuckled "Anyway, I'm going to make that tea, so why don't you go and find some jim jams?"

Hermione giggled and got up and went into Harry's bedroom. Hermione came out of the room five minutes later, wearing something that shocked Harry and made his eyes enlarge in surprise.

Hermione was standing there in his old Gryffindor quidditch team top, it was massively too big for her. It fell almost to her knees, brushing over her slender thighs.

Harry was so glad he had put the two mugs of tea on the breakfast bar; otherwise he would have definitely have dropped them on the floor as he continued to stare at her.

"Hermione!" he said in utter astonishment "Wh…wow! Blimin heck! You look…" he was blushing like crazy, something Hermione had noticed and giggled. "Where did you find it?" Harry asked, trying to hide his blush.

"In your bottom drawer" Hermione replied, and came to sit on a bar stool and took her mug gratefully "Thanks for letting me borrow your top and for letting me stay here tonight" and took a sip of her drink "and thanks for the tea" she smiled brightly at him.

"You don't have to keep thanking me Hermione, you're my best friend, I'm always here to help you, anytime."

Hermione smiled "I'm glad you said that, because I do need your help."

"Sure, what with?"

"Tomorrow, i'm going back to the flat. I need to talk to Chris; I need to know why he did it. I just, I don't want to go on my own."

Harry took her hand from across the otherside of the breakfast bar "Don't worry I'll be there. We'll go first thing in the morning."

...

That next morning dawned, and Harry was awake way before Hermione was. He showered, dressed and cooked breakfast and was just serving it up when Hermione appeared from the bedroom, bleary eyed and her hair a total mess.

Harry chuckled "Morning."

"Morning, Harry" she gave a small smile "Something smells good" she said, as she sat at the breakfast bar.

"Full English breakfast, nothing better to start a Saturday morning" he grinned.

"Thanks for that chocolate by the way" Hermione smiled, amiably "Was such a sweet gesture."

"Knew you would like it" Harry happily replied, and finished serving the food onto the plates.

Harry and Hermione's breakfast was swiftly interrupted by a knock on the front door.

"I'll get it" Hermione said, as she hopped off her bar stool and rushed to the front door, completely forgetting she was still only dressed in Harry's quidditch top.

"Har…Hermione?" Ron said, expecting Harry to answer the door, but was surprised to see it was Hermione. Then Ron suddenly noticed her attire.

"Who is it, Hermione?" Harry asked, as he came to the front door and faced a dumbfounded Ron, who was looking between his best friend's with his mouth hanging open.

"Would you both care to tell me, what the hell is going on here?"

...

*Dun dun dun* lol ooo a cliff-hanger! I am mean! : P

A review would make me very happy indeed :D go on, make it one of your good deeds of the day.