Harry Potter and the Secret Nurse

Chapter Five
Lost Time

Harry woke again in Hermione’s arms. He felt empty, like something he had grown uso wao was torn from him. This was not the wonderful warm feeling that always comforted him from Hermione’s touch. A panic was overcoming him as he realized he could not lift his arms.

“Hermione!” Harry yelled.

Again he called her name as he began to cry from the sheer terror of the helplessness of not being able to move. Hermione was woken by Harry’s screams and she whipped out her wand to perform the Invigorate charm on bois ais arms.

“It’s alright, Harry, you’ll be alright,” Hermione tried to comfort in a hurry.

Quickly Harry felt the control of his arms return to him. Desperately he embraced Hermione as he tried to fight off a panic that felt like it could destroy his mind. It settled as Hermione rocked Harry, then he felt shame for letting something get the better of him, and he cried. Hermione did not judge him, nor did she feel a hint of shame. With her hand over the side of the bed she felt around for a facecloth, found it, and cleaned off Harry’s face with it.

“Hermione? My legs?” Harry asked.

“Harry, I was told it would be best to leave your legs for a while,” Hermione explained, “We can get them moving, but you may not be able to control them, yet. You’ll just fall down and crash into walls and stuff. It’s too dangerous.”

“How am I to get around?” asked Harry.

Hermione sat up a little to give Harry a clear view of the other side of the room. Harry raised his headsee see a wheelchair sitting there.

“It’s temporary Harry, you won’t be in it for long,” said Hermione.

Harry looked for a moment, sighed, and asked, “I take it that thing is magic?”

“Yes, to get up and down stairs and stuff,” said Hermione, “We can do that with any chair to levitate you anywhere, but it’s best to use a wheelchair so you can wheel around the muggle world like a regular cri- patient.”

“Hermione, I can’t move my arms properly,” said Harry, “Is something wrong with the spell?”

“No Harry,” said Hermione, “It’s going to be like that for a while. You’re going to have to exercise your arms and hands to regain control of them, properly. We’ll have to work on them every day.”

“Hermione! I can’t go to Hogwarts like this, what am I going to do?” Harry cried.

Hermione embraced Harry to comfort him as much as she could, “Harry, we’re going to get through this. You will get on your feet again. I swear, if I have to drop out of school for a year to do it, then that’s what will be done.”

Hermione held Harry’s face and looked right into his eyes.

“I am NOT LEAVING YOU,” said Hermione, “Got it?”

“Got it,” said Harry.

Hermione held Harry’s head against her chest.

“Well, if we do lose a year of school, I guess we can go to classes with Ginny,” said Harry as he began to perk up a bit.

“Ginny has good friends, Harry,” said Hermione, “It wouldn’t be that much of a hardship to adapt to.”

“Yeah, well, let’s not write off this year just yet,” said Harry.

Hermione kissed him asked, “You ready for breakfast?”

Harry nodded and Hermione got off of him to let him try to sit up on his own. It was a bit of a struggle but his arms managed to right Harry up on the bed, then he grabbed his legs with his hands to pull them over the edge of the bed so he could sit on the end. It broke Hermione’s heart to watch Harry struggle this way, but it had to be done. Harry had to learn coping skills on his own. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and looked to Hermione as to what to dw.
w.

“Call the chair over,” said Hermione.

“Hey you!” Harry called out across the room.

The chair turned to face Harry like an eager pet.

“Get over here,” said Harry.

Obediently the chair scampered across the room and settled right next to Harry. The armrest facing the bed collapsed to allow Harry to slide from the bed and onto the chair. To hold the chair in place the wheels locked down until Harry was through struggling into the seat. Once he was in place the armrest raised and locked back into position again. Harry immediately could feel that this chair was very much alive.

“Is thing going to rocket me all over the place?” asked Harry.

“It can, if you ask it to,” said Hermione, “It knows a lot of tricks and can get you out of trouble if you’re stuck anywhere.”

“Yeah,” said Harry, “But with if the Slytherins decide to curse the damn thir orr order it to hurl me down a flight of stairs?”

“You just sat in it. It’s bonded with you know. No one can tamper with it, Dumbledore told me so,” said Hermione.

“Dumbledore was here? I mean, he saw us together? In the bed?” asked Harry.

“He’s being pretty liberal about it,” said Hermione, “He... accepts it. No, he welcomes it. We’re together now Harry, no interference. I still think we should be discrete, but that’s just how it is.”

“Well, let’s see how this thing handles a staircase,” said Harry as he tapped the chair, “Take me to the kitchen.”

Before the chair pulled out Hermione held him back and said, “Harry, this chair will move as you tell it to, but you really should use the wheels. Your arms need the exercise.”

Harry winced a bit and said, “I’m kind of shagged from hauling myself out of bed.”

“How about I push you?” asked Hermione.

Feeling like the new chair was a little fun, Harry let Hermione wheel him out. It handled the staircase by levitating a few inches off the ground and Hermione guided in down to the hall floor. They could hear from the closed dining room that there was an Order meeting going on and stopped to talk to the portraits.

“What’s up?” asked Harry.

“Morning briefing,” said the portrait of Sirius.

“I bet they’re talking about last night,” Harry whispered to Hermione, “Cripes, the whole wizard world must be going nuts right now. Sirius, what is the Ministry doing right now with the Order to track down the remaining Death Eaters?”

“I’ll tell you if you really want to know, Harry,” said Sirius, “But the Order would prefer I didn’t.”

“Hey, it’s his house,” said Hermione.

“No Hermione, wait,” said Harry, “Maybe we shouldn’t, I mean, it’s my home but it’s their Order. We wouldn’t appreciate it if anyone went poking around the DA. Let’s just leave it and get something to eat.”

Hermione dropped it, she and the portrait of Sirius glanced at each other over Harry’sangeange break from character. Harry half expected to see Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen cooking something up since the Order was in the house. It was a bit of a struggle, trying to manoeuvre this chair that had a life of its own through the kitchen, until he figured out it could levitate to let him reach the cupboards.

“Harry, I’ll take care of that, you get the cutlery,” said Hermione.

When Harry opened the cutlery drawer, he noticed his hands had a hard time separating the knives and forks he wanted. He asked Hermione if they could just have cereal and toast so he would only have to sspoospoons. When Hermione poured the cereal, she noticed Harry put out dessert spoons by mistake.

Hermione discretely changed the spoons and asked, “Harry, about that talk back there with Sirius, that doesn’t really sound like you.”

Harry wheeled his chair up to Hermione, took her hand and looked into her eyes, “Hermione, Voldemort is dead. The Ministry is wor working with the Order, the Death Eaters have to be on the run. I’m just.... I’m sick of it. The war, you know? I just want to work on us.”

Hermione kissed Harry and said, “I understand. That’s very mature, Harry.”

Done with breakfast, Harry and Hermione went out for the day to tour around London. Harry wanted to go to Gringotts to arrange to have a bankcard so he could buy some muggle goods. Gringotts didn’t issue cards to use in bank machines so they arrangor Hor Harry to have a line of credit in a muggle bank. Then he arranged for a tour of the Black vault just so he and Hermione can have fun riding the vault cars. When they got there Harry just asked to go back without looking inside.

“Just wanted to make sure it was there,” said Harry as he giggled with Hermione.

Funny enough, the goblin did not consider that to be an odd request. Harry was getting adept to his chair as he wheeled his way around London, checking out electronic stores for pricing on laptops with wireless access. He was becoming very aware of just how little wheelchair access there truly was in the muggle world. It was very frustrating that he could not use magic just to go up a simple flight of stairs in full view muggles everywhere.
On the way back home they stopped by a store to pick up groceries. Harry discovered under the seat of the chair there was a basket that could carry goods and they filled it with food to take home. Members of the Order greeted them when they got back. Professor Lupin, Mad Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Nymphadora Tonks all stood in the hallway. It had only been a few weeks since Harry had seen them all, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Tonks, who was badly injured last month in a duel with Death Eaters, was on her feet and embraced Hermione like a school chum. Of all the present members of the Order she was the closest to their age.

“Where’s Mr. and Mrs. Weasley?” asked Harry.

“Oh, you won’t be seeing them until August,” said Tonks, “They’re actually visiting relatives in Scotland right now. I should have figured they had loads of relatives up there, all that red hair. Say, Harry, Dumbledore will be here any minute, he’s says he wants to speak to you.”

Harry fought the urge to rudely smirk that’s a switch and said, “Oh, great. We’ll, uh, we’ll be in the kitchen. We have to put this stuff we bought in the cooler.”

Tonks stood there, adoring the sight of Hermione caring for Harry as she pushed him in his wheelchair away down the hall.

“Isn’t it lovely to see them together like that?” said Tonks.

“I swear it’s like having James and Lilly back,” said Lupin.

“A lot of people are going to be saying that,” said Kingsley.

Tonks tried following Harry and Hermione around the corner to the galley to see if she could catch a glimpse of them stealing a kiss but Lupin pulled her back.

“C’mon,” said Lupin.

“Aw, but they’re soooo cute,” said Tonks.

“You heard Dumbledore, let them be,” said Lupin.

Hermione was putting butter and milk into the fridge and asked Harry, “What do you think Dumbledore wants to see us for?”

“Maybe it’s our OWL grades,” said Harry.

“They’re not due for more than a week,” said Hermione, “Maybe he just wants to see how you’re doing and say hello. That’s all.”

Harry sighed and said, “He explained why he had to avoid me last year. Voldemort was possessing me and Dumbledore knew that whenever I was near him, Voldemort might try to use me to kill him, but that of course now that Voldemort is gone I guess we can freely meet all we want.”

“And meet we shall,” said Dumbledore as he stood at the kitchen entrance, “To make up for lost time.”

Harry and Hermione turned to see Dumbledore standing there and caught a little off guard, and greeted him in a bit of a panic.

Albus Dumbledore raised his hand and said, “I just want to appraise upon you, that the unmitig act act of bravery you two shown last night has most certainly turned the tide of this war in our favour. The Death Eaters have lost control over the Dementors and they have returned to an ancient ground in exile, that is gratefully devoid of muggles and most wizards. Most Death Eaters are on the run, and the Ministry is on full guard against them.”

“What of Voldemort?” asked Harry as he was being concerned for Hermione, “Surely everyone must know he’s dead by now, but does anyone know the truth as to how-“

“The general word among the Ministry and magical world is that Voldemort was killed by magical means of his own design in his mad quest for power,” Dumbledore said as he interrupted Harry, “The general belief among the Death Eaters, is that I am solely responsible.”

“But that would make you their greatest target,” said Harry.

“If the Death Eaters want to bring the fight to me, then I will most certainly welcome it,” said Dumbledore, “It would help bring a swift end to this horrible conflict has has cost so much to so many on both sides. However, I did not come to just speak of the war. I suggest you two put that behind you and concentrate on other things. Now, follow me upstairs, there is something I wish to show you.”

Whenever Dumbledore wanted to show you something, it was usually a big deal, and this was no exception. The thiloorloor was transformed to something a lot more liveable since last year when the house was infested with magical pests. Dumbledore showed them the master bedroom, a much more delightful looking place with warmer colours than the rest of the house, and he suggested to Harry and Hermione it would be a much nicer place for them to stay than the room being used as a makeshift dormitory.

As the left it Harry whispered to Hermione, “He expects us to sleep in there, but, did you notice it only had one bed?”

Hermione shushed Harry and whispered, “Hey, it’s a big bed.”

At the end of the tour, like a big finale, Dumbledore introduced them to a large bath.

“If you shut the door, it doubles as a steam room,” said Dumbledore.

“It’s just like the prefect’s bath,” said Hermione.

“Yeah, it even has those little bubble taps with the different colours,” said Harry.

“How do you-? Oh, Ron must have told you about it,” said Hermione, “I didn’t think he ever used it.”

Dumbledore got their attention and said, “These gifts are a small payment for the great efforts you have done for this world, please enjoy them. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must return to Hogwarts, and make arrangements for Harry’s stay at Hogwarts in his condition.”

“Professor, How am I supposed to attend classes and do magic like this?” asked Harry as he tapped his chair.

“That’s a very special chair you have there, Harry,” said Dumbledore, “And it’s very familiar with the Hogwarts grounds, it served me well and faithfully during my tenure as charms professor.”

“You were in a wchaichair?” asked Harry.

“For nearly ten years,” said Dumbledore, “An Aperio spell went wrong for me, curiously when I was investigating Tom Riddle’s involvement in missing magical artefacts during his final year.”

“You taught classes from this chair?” asked Harry.

“Aye, as did some professors before me,” said Dumbledore.

“It’s that old? But it looks so modern,” said Harry.

“It has been transformed, over the ages, to adapt,” explained Dumbledore.

Hermione asked how old the chair was, and suddenly it shook in her grip.

“Ms. Granger, you know better than that. It is never polite to ask a lady her age,” said Dumbledore.

Dumbledore gave the armrest of the chair an affectionate pat and said good-bye.

“So, when do you want to give this a try?” asked Hermione as she admired the bath.

“I haven’t showered since yesterday,” said Harry as he took off his shirt, “Might as well right now.”

Hermione put her hand on Harry’s shoulder and asked, “Harry, do you need help undressing? I mean, don’t worry about privacy if you think-”

“I’ll be okay,” said Harry.

Hermione looked at Harry’s chair and said, “I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with you undressing in the presence of a lady.”

After Hermione left, Harry felt a little cowardly about not letting Hermione undress him, he didn’t want her to think he was uncomfortable with her being around him while he was naked. Harry got out of the chair and sat on the edge of the bath. Successfully he got his pants down to his knees, but he wondered how was he going to take them off if he couldn’t bend his knees to reach his feet. Then the chair came forward, and the armrest reached out and grabbed the bottom of Harry’s pants and backed up to pull them off.

“You are helpful, aren’t you?” said Harry as he smiled at the chair, “I feel a little shy. I’ve never been undressed by a lady before.”

The chair spun excitedly and Harry took his underwear off the same way again with help from the chair, then lifted his legs into the tub. After Harry laid his glasses down on the edge, he wondered how to climb in safely. He was a little startled as he realized the part he was sitting on was lowering itself into the water. Harry had seen automated chairs lift crippled people into baths in the muggle world, and figured this must have been the simple magical equivalent.
The water was as lovely as he imagined. Harry shifted himself to the middle of the tub, as his lighter weight in the water made it easy for him to move around. It was almost like being normal again, and Harry figured he would be doing a lot of muscle training in the water. The soap nozzles were fun to play with, and Harry scrubbed himself down with multi-coloured soaps. He gave up quickly as he found out his hands still had trouble doing what he wanted them to, then Harry just resigned himself to sit in the tub and enjoy the soak. He wanted to relax.
Hermione open toor oor and called in. Harry said he was in the tub and heard the door shut, then to his great surprise he heard Hermione climb into the tub behind him and she sat right up behind him in the water.

“Uhm, Hermione, I’m undressed,” said Harry.

Hermione leaned into Harry and said, “I didn’t exactly bring my bathing suit either.”

Harry felt what must have been Hermione’s breasts touching his bare back and he held his knees together.

“Eyes front,” said Hermione, “I’m going to scrub your back and wash your hair.”

Harry’s head was absolutely swimming with erotic images of what Hermione must have looked like, sitting naked right behind him. Her fingers on his back did make him relax a little as she scrubbed. Hermione leaned out to fetch some soap. Harry, out of the corner of his eye he caught such an excited glimpse of her flesh, but only a brief one.

As Hermione soaped Harry’s hair she asked, “Why didn’t you turn the Jacuzzi on?”

“I didn’t know it had one,” said Harry.

“It’s over there on the other side,” said Hermione and she pointed.

“I don’t know how to work it,” said Harry.

Hermione said she would turn it on, but before she made her way in front of Harry she asked, “Harry, just how well do you see without your glasses?”

“Terrible. Lousy,” said Harry, “Even if I had them on, they’d be all steamed up in here, wouldn’t they?”

Harry could see well enough as Hermione waded over to the far side of the bathing pool. The control was a simple knob and when Hermione turned it the bath came alive with delightful jets of water cing ing and bubbling everywhere. When she turned around to come back Harry timidly held his head down like a gentleman so not to leer at her on the way back. Hermione almost laughed at Harry, and figured he would be a little more open with time as they would bathe together again in the future. Hermione again sat behind Harry, took a bucket and rinsed off his head.
For a while they sat in the bubbles, then Hermione reached for something over the side and revealed she had brought her wand with her.

“Did you want to work on my scars some more?” asked Harry.

“No, not right now,” said Hermione, “Something else.”

Hermione leaned right up against Harry and embraced him from behind with her left arm, then with her right she brought her wand around his front. Then she put the light coloured wand in the water and near Harry’s groin.

“Hermione?”

“Harry, you have needs, don’t be ashamed of them,” said Hermione as she stirred the water, “Delectatio.”

Harry braced himself, but nothing happened.

“Harry?”

“Yes?”

“Delectatio, did you want to learn it?” asked Hermione.

“I uh, YES,” said Harry, “But I thought Delectatio was to use on yourself, you know, when there was no one else around to... pleasure ...you.”

“It is but it’s very dangerous to first learn it that way,” said Hermione, “It says the spell can go out of control when you’re first learning. If you do it to yourself, and not know how, properly, it could get stuck in a cycle.”

“So you should practice on a subject?” asked Harry.

“Yes, to break the spell when the subject has had enough,” said Hermione, “I figure we could get started tonight after the Order thinks we’ve gone to bed.”

“Uhh, yeah, that’s a great plan,” said Harry, “But what about the underage wizard law?”

“McGonagall gave me clearance for the summer to use magic to help make you better,” said Hone.one.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure she had no idea we had the Connubium Charms book when she gave you clearance,” said Harry.

“Yes, well, that’s too bad,” said Hermione, “I’d like to hear someone try to argue it’s bad for you.”

“Yeah, well, alright then, tonight,” said Harry, “Say, if they really do teach this to seventh years, just how the hell do they arrange partners?”

“They must have paiup, up, it’s the only way,” said Hermione.

“I wonder who’s done who?” asked Harry.

“You think about that while I get dressed,” said Hermione.

Hermione climbed out of the bath as rinsed herself off under a wall nozzle that served as a rinsing shower. She caught Harry trying to glimpse at her as he held his head low in the bath.

“Eyes front, you!” said Hermione.

“It’s just a blur to me, Hermione,” said Harry.

“Yeah, right,” said Hermione.

“Sexiest blur I’ve ever seen.”

A towel flung through the air and landed on Harry’s head. Hermione said she left some fresh clothes and underwear for Harry on his chair and left. The chair was helpful in getting dressed again, but drying off proved to be very difficult. Hermione had to finish Harry’s hair for him after he left the bath. They spent the rest of the day exploring the library. Harry mostly sat on a large couch and read the Connubium Charms book. Hermione enjoyed the whole library until she heard someone coming up the stairs,

She looked at her watch and yelled, “Oh shit!”

Hermione grabbed the charms book from Harry, who protested, and shoved the book into a locked cabinet at the bottom of the shelf. Quickly Hermione told Harry to pick up the healing charms book she left on the couch as she grabbed a random book off the shelf to make it look like that’s what she had been reading the whole time. Professor McGonagall entered the room.

“Ms. Granger,” asked McGonagall, “Are you ready for your lesson?”

Hermione took her wand from her pocket and said, “I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

“Excellent,” said McGonagall, “Mr. Potter, I’m afraid we’re going to need that book.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” said Harry as he held it up for the professor, “It’s a great read.”

Professor McGonagall looked at the page Harry was reading and asked, “Infections and boils?”

“Yeah, fascinating,” said Harry, “All that puss.”

As soon as Hermione left the room, Harry felt a little off. Examining the books on the shelf didn’t make him feel any better. He just did not like being alone. Going along the shelves he saw a book near the top titled “Schooling of Aurors”. For a moment he forgot he was in his chair and tried reaching for the top, then was cruelly reminded he was welded to the spot. The chair levitated Harry up until he could reach the book.
Instead of going back down, Harry asked the chair if it could fly him around a bit. For a while, it cheered him up flying around the upper floors of the house, paying a visit to Hedwig in the attic, but eventually it reminded him it was not his broom, which he could no longer ride. He settled back down in the library and settled into the large couch he was sitting on earlier. He just couldn’t bring himself to read anything as he began to sulk.