As All Love Stories Go

A/N: Well, here's my entry for the Felix Felices competition. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything here. J.K. Rowling does!

Rated PG just to be safe.

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It had been exactly five years since the death of Albus Dumbledore. Five years since one of the most powerful wizards of all time had lifelessly fallen from the Astronomy Tower at the hands of the former potions master, Severus Snape.

In honor of Dumbledore, and the time in since he passed away, a memorial was to take place; one that commemorated him and reminded everyone that it had been a half a decade now since his departure. It was to take place in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Among those who were attending this event included none other than Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Ron Weasley was also planning to make an appearance, along with the rest of his red-headed family.

If this saddening memorial had taken place less than a year before, it would have frightened and fearful people in the audience. Since the war against Lord Voldemort had ended about four months ago now, relieved, albeit saddened and tired, magical people crowded the place.

Witches and wizards started to file into the place at around 2:00 in the afternoon. The Great Hall had been set up with a podium with what seemed like hundreds of chairs facing it. Around the podium were tables set up with magical photos of Dumbledore and other famous people. All around the room, black curtains and drapes flowed from the ceiling.

At around a quarter of three, a young woman and man stepped through the doors to the Great Hall. Both around twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, they slowly made their way to seats near the front, tightly clutching each-other's hands. The female had long, thick, brown curls flowing down her back accompanied with chocolate brown eyes. The male, on the other hand, had thick, untidy, longish black locks with emerald green eyes that were hidden behind black glasses. Both had worn and saddened expressions on their faces.

The woman leaned her head on the man's shoulder. “Harry,” she whispered. “Are you sure you're going to be okay?”

Harry nodded as he lay his head atop of hers. “I hope, Hermione.”

Hermione smiled gravely. “Way too much has happened since Professor Dumbledore died.”

“I know,” Harry said. “Way too much.”

Yes, “way too much” stuff had happened to the famous boy-who-lived (or the “Chosen One”) since the headmaster of Hogwarts had died atop of one of his own towers. All six of Voldemort horcruxes had been found and destroyed, and the Dark Lord himself was also laid to rest. (this time, for eternity.)

It had not been easy work finding the remaining horcruxes. There might have been only four left, but Voldemort being Voldemort had hidden them very well.

The first one took exactly six months to find. It was the real Slytherin Locket, the one the Merope had once owned. It was actually hidden in a place that Harry owned: Grimmauld Place. It was the same item of jewelry that had proved impossible to open in the summer before fifth year, when they had found it while cleaning. Together, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had figured out a way to open the locket magically, which proved to not be the right thing to do, for it allowed the hidden piece of Voldemort's soul to escape quickly. Thick and dark, it visibly swirled around the trio's heads, like smoke. It had eventually risen high above them, weaving in and out of the ceiling's rafters. Finally, thanks to Hermione's Freezing Charm, Ron's long arms, and Harry's strong defense against the dark arts skills, the three successfully managed to bring the soul fraction down to the ground, and destroyed it.

A year and a half later, the trio found themselves on an island near Australia looking for buried treasure-literally. The fourth horcrux, which was the cup that belonged to Hufflepuff, was said to be buried in the ground in a golden treasure test. This was according to a map they found in Grimmauld place not long after they destroyed the locket. Unfortunately, though, the map was not labeled, so they did not know where exactly it was showing. After many months of research, they finally figured that it displaying an island very close to Australia. So, the trio headed off to there and then started looking. It took another month just to locate the correct spot. Then, it took another couple of weeks to get past the heavy enchantments placed all around the chest. One of those spells affected Ron badly. So while Ron lay unconscious near the tent they had set up, occasionally sputtering unintelligible sounds, Harry and Hermione worked around the spells until they reached the bottom of the pit the chest was buried in. After opening it, they found it to be filled with dozens of different-sized cups, all with the Hufflepuff logo inscribed on them. Using Harry's memory of what he saw in Dumbledore's pensive in his sixth year and Hermione's logic, they figured out which was the right cup to destroy.

Now there was one more horcrux to go before Nagini and Voldemort himself. The problem, though, was that they did not know exactly what it would be. All they knew was that it would be an item that once belonged to either Rowena Ravenclaw, or Godric Gryffindor. They figured, though, that it would most likely be from the former, seeing as Voldemort probably couldn't stand to touch anything that once belonged to Gryffindor. So, after many more months of research, they found what would have been a perfect item to be a horcrux. It was a pure silver ring with a huge blue sapphire set in the middle of it. An “R” formed of more sapphires was on the right side of the silver band. It was said that it did not exist, but the trio knew better. Exactly two years and eight months after destroying the last horcrux, they found the ring in an abandoned library in Ireland. It was in a false book. Hermione smashed the jewel up against a wall. Harry then took it from her and threw it all across the room where it shattered completely.

After that there was only one more horcrux to go before Voldemort himself. And that of course was the Dark Lord's huge snake, Nagini. The trio knew that once they found the snake, they would find Voldemort close by. Nearly two years after the Ravenclaw ring was found, Nagini was also discovered. This time, it was very close to Hogwarts which meant one thing: Hogwarts was going to be attacked.

Less than two months before that final attack, Ron and Harry destroyed Nagini. It wasn't easy, since the snake was poisonous and Ron almost died in the process. He ended up becoming severely injured by the snake's toxic venom and had to go to St. Mungo's, where he stayed for nearly six months trying to recover. Thus, he did not take part in the final battle.

When Hogwarts was attacked exactly four years and eight months after Dumbledore died, it was ready. The remaining students in it fought bravely and miraculously, there were only two casualties on the Light Side: Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley. (It was rumored that in Harry's absence the two had gotten back together. The Death Eaters, knowing that Ginny was once Harry's girlfriend, tried to kill her and Dean attempted to save her and died in the process.)

Harry and Voldemort had been locked in a fierce wizarding dual for what seemed like hours before Harry destroyed the Dark Lord once and for all and survived. As soon as he did, he slowly started to make his way back towards his former school. As he got closer, he noticed a figure running towards him. It ended up being Hermione, who had tears in her eyes along with a really odd look that Harry couldn't name.

“Harry, Ginny's dead!” Hermione had bluntly stated.

“What?” Harry had asked in disbelief.

“Harry, oh Harry, Ginny was killed by Bellatrix Lestrangle!” Hermione had shook her head sadly.

Harry was devastated, but not in the way he would have been if he had really been in love with her. No, the kind of grief he felt was the kind one would feel for a family member.

Everything surprisingly turned back to normal pretty quickly. Funerals were held for both Ginny and Dean, and all of the Death Eaters turned up to be dead, including Bellatrix, Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, and Wormtail. Repairs were made to Hogwarts and the tension and fright that had been placed in everybody's minds was lifted.

And now, only four months later, the five-year memorial service was being held for Dumbledore.

With her head still on Harry's shoulder, Hermione stared down at her hand, where a beautiful diamond engagement ring sat proudly on her ring finger. It was not given to her by Ron, who everyone had thought would be the one to marry her. No, it was actually given to her by the man sitting besides her, Harry.

Hermione had been the one to comfort Harry once Ginny died. Thinking that he had still been deeply in love with her when she had died, Hermione frequently talked with him, helping him get over his grief. She realized not long after, however, that Harry was completely over her. Their talks suddenly turned brighter and longer. They started to exchange looks that only people who are in love exchange. And they found themselves almost always in each other's arms.

Harry and Hermione realized that they were in love with each other and had been for a long time. They had simply ignored their feelings for each other, taking them to be very platonic. Because of this, they had looked for other people to be in love with, but then realized that they were basing that on feelings of family love.

So then, exactly two months ago, Harry had asked Hermione to become his wife. She had instantly agreed, and here they are now.

Hermione smiled again and looked up at her fiancée. Harry grinned back at her and kissed her briefly. The two of them were planning to get married in three months.

Hermione looked down after a moment and put a hand over her stomach. Rubbing it gently, her mind wandered to what would happen in around seven months. Harry glanced down at her hands, and put his own atop of hers.

“We're going to be married, and we're going to be parents,” Harry whispered to Hermione.

“I know, isn't it great?” Hermione said with tears in her eyes.

“Of course,” Harry said softly. “And we're going to be together for a long, long time.”

“We're going to be together forever.” Hermione laughed.

And of course, as all love stories go, the two lived happily ever after, just as they had hoped.

The End.

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A/N: Sorry if this seems really rushed and stuff. I kinda had to finish this in a really short amount of time if I wanted to get it up now, so I could enter it in the Felix Felices competition. I hope you like it and will consider rating and voting on it! And as always, I would appreciate it if you reviewed this story and took the time to check out my others.

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