Author's Notes: This is a one-shot fic that takes place about 3 years after Harry graduates from Hogwarts. It's pretty much one scene. Background information is provided in the beginning of the story. WARNING: This story contains graphic violence and character death. If that's not your cup of tea I suggest that you read a different story, I won't be offended. Please feel free to offer constructive criticism. Flames are deleted. Enjoy.
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Upon graduating Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, moved into a flat together, in London, not far from Grimmauld Place, where the Order of the Phoenix made their headquarters. The three best friends trained to become Aurors and battle the evil that they knew existed in their world. However, after training was finished, Ron was attacked by a group of Death Eaters and was brutally murdered. Since his death, Harry and Hermione's blooming romance evolved into a serious relationship.
No more than six months ago, Harry proposed to Hermione. They looked to their upcoming wedding with hope, love and nervousness. Did this make them an even bigger target for Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters?
Word had been spreading that Lord Voldemort was planning his next move. Harry and Hermione had been having the same old argument all over again.
"Hermione, my love," Harry Potter said to his future bride. "I want you to leave London. I want you to go far away from here. The battle has begun."
"I won't leave you," the beautiful and dedicated woman Hermione Granger had grown into declared to the man she loved more than anyone else. This was the man she was planning to marry in just a few short weeks. "The time has come for us to stand our ground against You-Know-Who and I refuse to leave you to face him on your own."
"This is your last chance to leave here! Get out, Hermione! Flee the country! Change your identity! I will find you when all of this is over!
"This war has started. Only hard times are ahead of us. I have to try and change the world. He'll come after you and I don't want you facing him. I want you safe."
"You are the best. You have to be the best. And the time for you to shine is now. But I'm not leaving your side. When your number is called and you fight to save us all, I will be right by your side."
"I only want you to be safe, Hermione."
"But-"
Hermione Granger, soon to be Hermione Potter, didn't get to finish what she had started to say. Harry, who had spent the last week frustrated, and trying to convince his love to go into hiding, suddenly grabbed her in his arms and kissed her passionately. He pulled her body close to his until there was no air between them. They breathed air in and out of each other through their kiss, circulating life, and love, throughout each of their bodies. He made a motion to slip his hand, currently tangled in her hair, under her shirt in an attempt to remove it from her body. Miss Granger would not be distracted.
Pushing him away, she began the argument again. "You've got to change the world. Don't let your emotions get in the way of the bigger picture. I will be safe next to you. I'll be protected by you and you by me. I know it'll be hard. I know the pressure you're under right now. I know that since Ron was killed you've been worried about this day. But don't let that get in the way. Ron was ambushed by Death Eaters when he was alone, unprepared and not expecting it. We know the time is now. We won't be alone, we'll have each other. We have our friends: Albus, Minerva, Fred and George, Molly and Arthur, Remus, Tonks, Hagrid, even Mad Eye Moody will have our backs.
"We won't be alone. And we know what's in store for us. Some people we love dearly won't make it." Harry made a gesture that suggested he was trying to stop her. "No. Let me finish. It will be hard; but we will win. We have to win. This is our time. It's our fight. We've been training for this battle for more than 10 years, even though at times it seems like our whole lives. It needs to end. And it won't end until You-Know-Who has been defeated.
"I know you want revenge for Ron's death. I do too. We'll get it. And we'll do it together. Side by side, just like he would have wanted. Promise me you'll let me do this. Don't shut me out right now. It's almost over. Promise me we'll go and do this together."
"As much as I don't want you there, as much as I want you far away and safe, as much as I don't want you anywhere near Voldemort when I face him; I'm scared to death of doing it without you. I love you. You're my world."
Harry stopped and looked away and out the window. He saw the people on the streets, mostly happy and unaware as to what was going on. Thoughts of the prophecy passed through his head. Visions of Hermione hurt, or worse, dead, flashed through his brain like a sadistic movie.
"But I'm inevitably alone in this. I have to kill Voldemort. I have to be the best. I have to change the world. This is my chance to stand up to him. It's my revenge. Not just for Ron, or my parents, or Sirius, but for everyone. This is my battle, Hermione."
"Don't do this," she begged. "Don't use that as an excuse. Don't hide behind the prophecy. I will give you a choice. Choose wisely. Either you let me in and I'm by your side through all this or you don't. I'm still an Auror. I'm still part of the Order. No matter which choice you make, I will be at the battle. And I will do everything within my power, which is quite extensive, if you haven't forgotten, for our side and for our cause. Your choice: next to you or where you can't stop me.
"I'm leaving now. I'm going down to Headquarters. I have work I need to do. Stay here a little while and think about all this. This is the last time we're having this argument. Come and find me when you've made your decision."
She walked over to him and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips and breathed the words "I love you" into his skin. Stepping back he whispered "I love you too. I'll see you in a little while."
His beautiful bride walked out of the room. Seconds later he heard the door of their flat open and close. She was gone.
She needs to be kept safe. She needs to be far away. But she won't stay far away. She's going to be there no matter what. It's her right; she's put a lot of work into this. But this was his fight, wasn't it? This was his chance to stand up and be heard, to finally be taken seriously. No. It wasn't. It was never his chance. All along it was their chance. He would fight beside her. He would do anything for her. He couldn't let her go. More importantly, he couldn't let her out of his sight.
"My time isn't now, our time is now," Harry said out loud. He threw on his cloak and ran out of the flat to look for her. He wanted to find her, hold her, kiss her and tell her he didn't want her away from him ever. They would be together for the rest of their lives.
Harry turned the corner and almost became physically ill when he saw the scene in front of him. It was his bride, his love, in the hands of Lord Voldemort. She had her back to his chest, he held her across the shoulders. There was a knife at her throat.
"This is what happens when you let those you love out of your sight," warned Lord Voldemort, slicing her throat open. The blood went everywhere as her body dropped to the floor. As her dying body struggled for air, he knelt down next to her, trying fustily to stop the bleeding, crying and looking into her eyes.
"I'll always love you, Hermione," he sobbed as her body stopped struggling and stopped moving.
"Stand up," said the icy voice of the man who took away everything Harry Potter had ever loved.
Tears streaming down his face, anger boiling inside him, he slowly stood up and faced his enemy, leaving the one person he loved above all else dead on the ground.
"Did I hit a nerve? The time is now, Potter. You and me. Right here. Right n-"
Harry Potter leapt at the neck of the man in front of him, bringing them both falling to the ground. Lord Voldemort was caught entirely off guard. There was no wand for the man formerly known as Tom Riddle. There was no concentrated wandless magic. That is impossible when the only thought racing through your body is 'must breathe.'
"You took my love," Harry said, squeezing even tighter around the man's neck. "You took my life. Now I'll take yours."
Voldemort couldn't breathe. He could barely think. He tried to shove Harry off but as strong as Lord Voldemort was, he was no physical match for a man younger, and as angry, as Harry Potter was at that very moment.
Then suddenly there was a cracking sound and Lord Voldemort was no more. Harry had snapped his neck and Voldemort lay dead on the floor.
"You killed him," an airy voice said from behind. Turning around, Harry saw the ghost of his dead love. "You killed him with your bare hands. You killed him for me. Your parents weren't enough. Your friends weren't enough. Sirius wasn't enough. Ron wasn't enough. It had to be me. You needed me with you. As much as I wish we could have spent a lifetime together, this was the only way. It's over, my love. Now you need to go on. I'll be waiting for you."
And she disappeared.
"It's finally over," Harry Potter said. He slowly walked away from the stench of death and walked toward Grimmauld Place. "Now what?"