7 YEARS LATER

St. Mungo's was always busy. Whether you were working the day shift, the night shift, on weekdays or on weekends. Right now, as a trainee mediwitch who was coming to the end of her training, I was stuck doing the early morning shift.

I collapsed into the breakroom and closed my eyes, hoping to be able to get some sleep. Only it appeared that I was asking for too much. One of the other trainee mediwitches, dropped into the seat next to me, jostling me and forcing me to sit up.

"You look exhausted," She said sympathetically, still looking fresh faced despite having worked for 6 hours already.

"I am," I muttered, making myself wake up. Maybe I could get some coffee? "I just helped deliver a set of twins and the total delivery time was nearly 4 hours, only to be forced back into the delivery room for another birth."

"It's a pain to work in the maternity ward," she agreed before straightening up. She became visibly more excited. "You'll never guess who's just been admitted to the hospital – Harry Potter."

I felt my heart plummet, all sleep leaving me only to be replaced by an overwhelming sense of worry. "Harry Potter's in the hospital," I repeated faintly.

"Oh it's nothing serious," she said dismissively. "He was just caught on the wrong end of a fiendfyre during one of the auror missions – he's getting his burns treated."

"Why do you sound so excited?" I asked suspiciously, looking over at the clock to see that my break was officially coming to an end. Rising to my feet, I heaved a sigh and straightened up.

"I've always had a crush on him," she admitted bashfully, "But I mean he's already got a girlfriend – one that he's not revealing to the public because he doesn't want her hounded by the press like he is. Isn't that romantic?" She gave a wistful sigh and I rolled my eyes.

She lost herself in a fantasy and I took the chance to leave her. I was making my way back to the maternity ward when someone called my name. One of the more senior mediwitches approached me and handed me a file, telling me that I needed to attend to one of the patients.

"I think there's been a mistake," I said, looking down at the file and seeing the room I had been assigned to. "I'm supposed to be working on the maternity ward today."

"Not anymore," she said impatiently. "You've been reassigned. The patient refused to get treatment on anyone apart from you. Now get a move on."

Making a face at her back, I headed to the room. Opening the door and walking in, my eyes instantly went to the patient lying on the bed. I rolled my eyes, making my way to the bedside.

"Harry James Potter," I said crossing my arms over my chest. "You refused treatment from any other mediwitch?"

"What can I say?" He said, using the pillows to prop himself up. "We rarely see each other because we're busy working to become fully qualified – I took the chance to see you."

"Well rumour has it that you're burnt and waiting unnecessarily could lead to scarring." I turned to prepare the burn salve. Honestly, only Harry would think of delaying treatment.

"Even if it does scar that's fine," he said dismissively, "I'm used to walking around with a scar anyway."

Picking up the salve, I turned back to face him. "Harry-"

"Besides, it's only on my chest and no one needs to see that apart from you." He looked at me when he said it, determined to get a blush out of me. And it worked. I flushed red, all the way to my ears. Seeing my reaction, he grinned.

"Harry," I complained and he relented. "Right I need you to strip your shirt so I can get to the burn. Do you need some help?"

"Do I need my girlfriend to take my shirt off for me?"

"Merlin Harry," I muttered as he took his shirt off. "Are you drunk?"

He didn't bother to answer me and I set to work on the burn. Slathering the salve generously on the burn, I sucked in a breath through my teeth. Merlin, he'd said that the fiendfyre had accidentally nicked him but it didn't exactly look like that –

I looked into his eyes, my hand coming to a halt.

"Do I want to know what the mission was?" I asked quietly, waiting for him to say something. There was only a silence. "You won't tell me?"

He gave me an apologetic smile and I resumed my treatment of his burn. When I had finished and began to pack up, he caught my left hand in his. I looked up at him curiously only to find his eyes narrowed at my hand.

"Harry?" I asked cautiously.

"Where's your ring?" He demanded, trying to hide his oncoming frown.

"I have to take it off when I'm working," I explained, pulling my hand from his to continue tidying up. "It's regulation."

He frowned fully now. "But how are your male patients supposed to know that you're off limits then?" I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms. He swore under his breath, realising what he'd said aloud. "I hadn't meant to say that."

"Clearly."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "But you clearly have no idea how beautiful you are and I can't have someone trying to steal you away from me."

"Flattery will get you everywhere Potter," I said with a smile. Turning away from him I checked everything over one more time to make sure nothing was wrong or needed tending to. Truthfully I knew that everything was fine but I wanted to spend some more time around him.

"Maybe I should tell the press?" I heard Harry wonder aloud and I rolled my eyes.

"I need to get back to work," I announced, pulling him from his thoughts. He frowned but nodded.

Leaning towards him, I gave him a small kiss. I pulled away from him, smiling when he could no longer keep his frown.

"Happy anniversary Harry," I said gently. "I know you were annoyed that I'd have to work today so we couldn't do anything but I'm glad I got to see you today. I'm even going to pretend that I don't know that you got hurt on purpose so that you could come and see me."

I went to pull back only for him to pull me back into another kiss.