Cast Aside

Love and More Difficult Conversations

Chapter 19

Rose coloured light pouring in through the wide, sitting room window woke Hermione the next morning. Blinking thickly, she shifted, pressing her still tired eyes against George's bare chest and yawned. When she peeked up at his face, seeing that he looked to be sleeping peacefully, she smiled and relaxed back against him. As the house was miraculously still quiet, she ran her fingers over his now solid shoulder and let her eyes flutter closed.

It had been a long night, just like she'd known it would be. After their conversation, they'd kissed a bit longer until the pain in his shoulder became constant and nearly unbearable. Unable to do anything else for him, Hermione had kicked off her shoes and laid down beside him. The physical and magical closeness seemed to give him some relief but neither of them had gotten much sleep.

Relishing the warmth of him and the even rise and fall of his chest, Hermione tried to banish thoughts of all the things they would have to deal with that day. Before Molly had come to tell her that George was awake, she and Fabian had been checking the wards. What they'd found had made her so angry she had felt dangerously close to a burst of uncontrolled magic. It had been a welcome distraction to pour all of her focus into George.

"Do you think I could get a pain potion with breakfast, love?"

Dropping a kiss on his chest, she leaned up to smile at him. He smiled too, squinting down at her as he ran his free hand through her hair. "Let me check your shoulder first." She pulled her wand from her back pocket and sat up. "How does it feel?"

"Better. The squishy bits are sore but that awful deep bone pain is gone finally."

"Hmm." She scrubbed the last of the sleep from her eyes as she read the diagnostic charm. "The bones are done. Everything grew back together correctly." Canceling the charm, she banished his sling, frowning slightly. "I wish I could say you're good as new but..."

Flexing his left arm, wincing slightly, he sat up too. "Well, the bones are." He rolled his shoulder once. "And I can live with the scars, Hermione." Reaching up, he ran a knuckle along her jaw and looked thoughtfully at her lips. "But I think I really might die, right this very moment if you don't kiss me again."

She scoffed in amusement. "Be serious, George."

A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Oh I am. Completely serious."

"Well..." Hermione leaned closer. "After I worked so hard to keep you around yesterday, it'd be a shame to lose you now when I could save you so easily."

His smirk widened. "That's good to hear."

Hermione brushed her lips against his in a chaste kiss that he deepened, sliding his hand along her cheek and pulling her closer. The same absurd happiness she'd felt the first time, and every time after, overwhelmed her. Carding her fingers through his hair, she knew that despite any misgivings about their relative safety, this had been the right decision. Eventually pulling apart, he tipped his forehead against hers and sighed. "I love you, Hermione. I only wish it hadn't taken me almost dying to tell you."

Tracing her fingers along the scars from his shoulder and across his chest, she kissed the corner of his mouth. "We were both being a little silly." She looked up into his brown eyes, so close to her own. "I love you too, George."

He smiled softly and made to lean in for another kiss when they were interrupted by a black and white blur leaping between them and a gleeful shriek of "Jasper!"

Snatching up her cat in surprise, Hermione looked up in time to see George scooping a sleep rumpled Percy into his lap.

"Jasper sleep me!"