After the disastrous results of the Tournament, once Poppy is allowed to treat Harry she tries her best to heal his injuries and administered a dose of dreamless sleep potion to allow Harry some rest.
She should have known better though. Harry Potter always found ways to do the impossible - in nearly 4 decades of her career as a mediwitch, Poppy Pomfrey was stunned when a student managed to break from the effects of dreamless sleep potion and did *dream* if the poor boy’s experience could be called that. For hours he kept repeating his words while still asleep - please don’t die Hermione, don’t leave me alone; I love you -over and over again.
Unknown to Poppy, the girl who Harry so desperately called out to in his sleep wasn’t too far away as she hid under Harry’s invisibility cloak, weeping softly, unable to decide how to react to Harry’s words, for his obvious pain and fear broke her heart, his admission brought a joy that she thought she’d never know, for the boy she loved, was admitting he loved her too.
Hermione didn’t know if Harry would acknowledge his feelings for her ever when awake, knowing his loyalty to Ron and his crush on her. She didn’t want to drive a wedge between the two boys yet again but she’d be damned if she’d let Harry himself deny his feelings and drive them apart now that she knew that he loved her too.
Dumbledore’s diktat to abandon Harry after his horrific experience before they were set to leave Hogwarts just ensured that Hermione was resolved even more and knew what she had to do. With muggle means at her disposal, Hermione asks her parents to hire two personal PO Boxes for herself and Harry to communicate over the summer. On their ride back she had hugged Harry tightly slipping in an envelope in his pocket and whispered to him to check it out once he was alone.
Once back at Privet Drive, Harry, in the privacy of his bedroom read Hermione’s letter and learned how Dumbledore intended to have him left alone to his own devices. Hermione informed him that she had hired two PO Boxes and gave him the information required to access his and how to send letters to her as well as told him to maintain a rouse he just send her a letter every two weeks with Hedwig ranting about how she and Ron have forgotten him and are ignoring him and to do the same with Ron as well. The rouse would work only if Harry sounded pissed off enough in his letters. She had also slipped in around 50 pounds to him, apologizing for being unable to slip him anymore since she had used hers on books and didn’t have anymore at school along with her phone number as well as that of the clinic of her parents so he might call her if and when he needed and asked him to make sure to do so using public phone booths so his relatives wouldn’t be a problem.
Over the course of the summer, Harry follows the plan to the letter as he worked hard to run errands for the Dursleys, running to get groceries every chance he got just to drop by at the post office. Lucky for him, Petunia falling and ending up with a broken hand made his task easier to fool the Order members keeping an eye on him. The ignorance of wizards helping him when none of them wondered why he had to collect and drop off mail from the post office himself when running errands. He even managed a schedule to call Hermione after exchanging the notes into coins at the post office every two days for a couple of minutes from within the public phone installed within the post office itself, enchanting the workers there with the cute love story unfolding in front of their eyes.
When he finally found himself alone with Hermione at Grimmaulds Place, the two friends embraced to their hearts content as he thanked Hermione profusely for once again saving him and his sanity with her letters and calls. When Hermione simply smiled at him and told him that she could never abandon him for anything in this world Harry did the bravest most impulsive thing he had ever done - he kissed Hermione until they were both breathless. Stunned by his own audacity, he was about to apologize to Hermione when she breathlessly confessed she was in love with him and kissed him for all she was worth, prompting Harry to own his feelings for her too
