Hermione could not decide which was falling harder, the rain that threatened to swallow her whole or the tears upon her face. The world around her seemed desolate, despite all of the cheering and the victory cries that sounded. She covered her ears, not wanting to hear any of it. She felt an arm surround her shoulders, and in a moment of terror, she flung it off and pointed her wand at the man.
"Hermione, what gives?" Ron said in a nervous voice. "Its over we won."
"Did we Ron?" she asked, looking back into the blazing inferno that withstood the rain. "Did we?"
"He's gone, Hermione," Ron said joyously. He raised his hands in the air, and the crowd yelled with him. "He's gone. Can you believe it?" She shook her head, wiping the rain from her eyes as more tears fell.
"No," she said, barely above a whisper.
"Hermione, what's wrong? He's gone, you should be celebrating," Ron said, moving toward her. She flinched backward, and her chocolate eyes grew stone cold.
"There is no reason to celebrate Ronald," she said, her eyes fierce with anger and pain. "He's gone, Ronald, he's gone and he's never coming back." Ron stepped back, shaking out of fear and panic. She concentrated her anger upon him, her anger that he let her down, like he had never before.
"Relax Hermione, its over," a commanding voice said from behind her. She turned to see Professor Lupin standing behind her, Tonks at his side. "He's gone." Tears were forming in his eyes as well, as Hermione finally collapsed in his professor, almost surrogate father's, arms. "I'm so sorry, Hermione."
"He can't be gone, he just can't," she said as Tonks knelt beside them, holding them both for the loss. "He promised me, he promised me."
"I know," Lupin said, as the rain poured upon them even harder. Ron stared at them, trying to put together everything. They had won, right? Harry had killed Voldemort. That's what he had set to do, and he had done it. The greatest threat to their lives was gone. They won right?
* * * * *
Hermione held the locket that was given to her only moments before the end. She head onto it for dear life. She sat between Tonks and Lupin, both of which were as distraught as she was, though she did not notice. She stared at the white empty coffin before her. Closing her eyes, she drifted away from the droning of some man that never knew her best friend, knew her love.
She felt someone nudge her side after what seemed like only a moment. She opened her eyes to see Ginny holding tightly upon the empty coffin. Tears were running down Ginny's face, that much she could see from here. Hermione shook her head, knowing the truth. Ginny love the Boy-Who-Lived. As final day came upon them, it was more and more apparent as she moved herself into the spotlight using such methods.
"Don't go," she cried onto the coffin. "Don't leave me, you can't leave me." She screamed. Her father pulled her gently off and lead her away, past Hermione. Ginny was still mumbling to herself as she passed Hermione. "Don't leave me... don't let me go... please don't leave me... don't let me go... please don't let me go... I can't bear it... don't let me go..." Hermione shook her head, wiping away the tears. Ginny was having a hard time, though Hermione did not sympathize with her. She felt like she should have said something to her, but was unable to bring herself to do it. Ginny could not let go of the Boy-Who-Lived, though she would in time. Hermione never would let go of Harry, the Boy-She-Loves.
Being helped up by Lupin and Tonks, Hermione felt herself being guided toward the coffin as the mass of mourners began to leave. She moved toward the coffin slowly, after Tonks and Lupin said their goodbyes. She wanted to be the last. The last one to say goodbye, as she was the last to see him alive. She wanted to be the last to see him on this earthly plane as well. Stepping forward, she ran her fingers over the Potter crest.
"Goodbye Harry, I…." Her voice trailed off as she tried to gather the courage to finish. Clutching his locket tighter, she continued. "I'm never going to forget you Harry. No man could ever measure to what you've done for me. I…..I love you Harry…and I can only wish that you could have been here to hear me say it." A lone tear finally feel upon the crest .
"H-H-Her-mi-mi-mi-o-neeeee," the wind seemed to moan as it blew back her black shawl. Her head snapped up, and the feeling of a hand over her own filled her with warm.
"Harry?" she said, asking the darkness in front of her to come forward.
The breeze came before it was gone, but the feeling, oh god the feeling of warmth upon her fingers as she brought them to her chest remained. However, in her hand was a single black rose that was not there before. A rose she clung now to desperately.
"Hermione, lets go," Lupin said, bringing an arm around her shoulders. She nodded, and clung to the rose she held so gently in her hand. There were no thorns upon this rose, and she could not help but choke out a chuckle.
One of the last things Harry ever said to her was that a rose without thorns was love. It killed her then to hear him say it, when she had thought it was about Ginny, but now…..now she longed to tell him that. To tell him those words.
As she walked along, she saw Ron coming her way, making her cling to the rose even more. Lupin held her stronger as Tonks moved to intercept the boy. He was still a boy in her mind, not even war seemed to change that. Harry had done his best to keep them out of most of the fighting, though Hermione was more than willing to help, he made them stay back, saying they were more valuable helping him there.
"I just want to talk to Hermione for a bit," Ron said, trying to push his way past Tonks.
"The lady wants some alone time," Hagrid said, blowing his nose with his handkerchief in one hand, and lifting Ron off the ground in the other. "Best give it to her, Ron." He said, blowing his nose. He placed Ron back on the ground, who looked mad, but wisely let it go. "You can rest in my hut `Ermione," he said, giving her a sad smile. "No one will bother you there."
The rose in her hand still, she ran over to him, seizing him in a bear hug. Hagrid was taken back in surprise and nearly fell over from her force. Harry had always told her she'd rivaled Hagrid with his hugs, and just as hungrily she hugged him, he hugged her back, giant tears meeting her own as they cried, both for their first real friend in a long time, now gone.
* * * * *
It had been nearly a month since the death of the Chosen One, and a month had passed since the ending of the celebrations in honor of the end of the Dark Age of Lord Voldemort. But for Hermione, it had been a month of watching the ghosts of her love play through the halls of her once beloved school as she tried to manage her pain. Sitting at her table in the library, she read deeper into fiction, knowing now that real life, what she so wanted to learn about, would mean nothing more to her.
"Hermione come on," Ron said, imploring with her to snap out of her funk. Her grades were the highest they had ever been, but her friendships were at an all time low. Her appearance was always a casual black, not a Gothic styling but always in mourning. She tore her eyes from the page as Ron spoke again. "You've got to move on, he's gone."
"No," she said, one hand going to the locket now around her neck, the other to the blackened rose threaded through her hair. She wore them constantly, and refused all advances to take them off.
"Hermione, please, seeing you like this is killing me," Ron said, pleading with her. "I love you."
"No, you don't," she said, turning the page of another hopeless romance novel.
"Yes, I do Hermione," he said, kneeling next to her. He tried to turn her head to look at him, but she refused to meet his eyes. "And I can't imagine a day without you. Please Hermione, I beg you to come back to us, to me." She could see the small motions of his hand going into his pocket. "I need you in my life, Hermione, and I don't want to spend another minute of it away from you." She turned at this, ready to yell at him some more, which at the moment he deserved for not even noticing her efforts for him to leave her alone. Instead she saw a box, with a ring in it. "Will you marry me?"
Hermione looked at him for a moment then at the box. "No." She said, her eyes growing watery.
"I may not make a great husband, but I'm willing to try," Ron said with a small smile, as if he didn't hear her. "I love you Hermione and-"
"No," she said, interrupting him. "I don't love you Ron, I don't think I ever can, not now, maybe not ever."
"But…." His face changed from happiness to confusion. "What about our sixth year?"
"Then maybe," she said, turning her face away from him so she didn't have to see the disappointment in Ron's eyes. "Not now Ron."
"But why?" he asked, as she stood up, him with her.
"Because I don't love you," she said, looking up at him. She touched his cheek gently as tears began to fall upon her cheeks. "And I don't think I could learn to Ron." She gave him a soft kiss on his cheek as he nodded. "I'm sorry." She said before turning and running off.
"He'd want you to be happy Hermione," Ron yelled, finally understanding. This did nothing to stop the tears and the pain from growing.
She slid behind a bookshelf, sliding to the floor as she covered her face with her hands.
"Don't cry Hermione," a voice that she long to hear said. She shook her head and felt the weight of a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be back, give me time." Her head snapped up at this. And a wind blew the shelves, blowing away the wisp with bright green eyes.
"HARRY!" Hermione cried out as the wisp disappeared. Ron came running around the corner to find her, her arms reaching out in the direction of an open door, one that he had never seen before.
"He's gone Hermione," Ron said, kneeling down next to her. She shifted away, from him, before standing up.
"He was here Ron," she said, straightening her skirt as she did. "He was here."
"Hermione," Ron stood as well, staring down at her. She turned to look out the door. "You're going out there, aren't you?" When she did not respond he let out a sigh. "Well, I guess one last great adventure couldn't kill me right?" He got a small giggle out of her at this, causing him to smile. The pain in his heart of not having his love was still there, he could feel it, almost taste it, but the pain of his love hurting was worse. He let out a sigh. "Lead the way." He drew his wand as Hermione drew hers, a black rose in her left hand.
Her steps were unstable, almost as if she was afraid of what was to come, the path beyond the door. Turning back toward Ron, she gave him a small trembling smile before gather her courage and stepping through the door. The smells of winter rose in her nose as she stepped cross the threshold of the door.
With a single step, Hermione felt the calming wind from the funeral surround her, words upon the wind rode around them. She twirled, spreading her hands around her as the wind whispered softly to them both.
"Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep."
The world, though icy to the eye, was warm to the skin and all the more comforting.
Hermione just smiled back at Ron, who just raised his hands. "Don't say it, just don't say it." She stuck out her tongue at him. She took a step toward the path the forest around them had laid, and the wind spoke once more, its breath almost airy, alive even.
"I am one thousands winds that blow, I am the diamonds that glint in the snow."
Hermione looked down at the path, a renewed breath in her.
"Damn, even when she's been crying her eyes out for weeks on end, she's ready to look for more answers," Ron said, shaking his head. "Harry, you better not be yanking our chains or I swear, I'll haunt you in my afterlife." He said allow to the world around them. With a silent prayer and an audible curse, he took after Hermione, a smile upon his lips. She was happy once more, and maybe, maybe she was right. Harry wasn't gone. He wasn't gone at all.
Hermione had stopped in the clearing, and as Ron passed through the edge of the forest, the world changed around them. He nearly stumbled into her as he looked at the now harvest gold fields that surrounded them. "Why is it even when you're dead Harry you can still pull off something like this?" Ron whispered, beginning to believe in what Hermione believed in all along.
She stood in the center of the field, breathing in the air once more, letting it consumer her every fiber as she spun once again. It was an air like the one she road with him as they flew, or rather she flew for the first time. Her wand was back inside her sheath, and her hands held the black rose close to her chest.
Above clouds gathered, and a steady stream of rain covered them. Ron rushed forward toward Hermione, transfiguring a tree limb into an umbrella as he went along. He held it out for her to take, already knowing she wasn't going to. "Hermione, you'll catch your death out here." She spun around only to turn and smile at him.
"Ron, he's here, he's here Ron," Hermione said. When he did not say anything, only let the umbrella drop to the ground, she turned to the direction of his gaze, over her shoulder. Emerald eyes peered out of the woods on the other side of the clearing, and vaguely, just vaguely rimmed glassed and wide smile could be seen.
"HARRY!" She joyously yelled running through the rain toward him. The outlined smile gave a smirk before disappearing through the forest once more.
"I am the sunlight on the ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain."
Ron looked back at the field smirking. Their answer to where he was a poem, most likely from a book. Figures. He let out a groan as he began to chase Hermione again.
Only a few steps into the forest, did the world around them change again. The forest that surround them ended upon a cliff, overlooking Hogwarts. It took Hermione a few moments to realize that they were truly outside Hogwarts, that this was no illusion. The air that rushed past her face was like nothing she had ever felt before. The view was breath taking, and she did the only thing she could think of. As the morning sun flitered through the clouds in the sky, as the breeze that surrounded her before spoke once more she knew.
"When you awaken in the morning's hush; I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight."
Standing tall on the mountain, she did the thing she longed to do since the funeral, since she first met the boy with the slightly broken glasses, but piericing emerald eyes.
"I LOVE YOU HARRY POTTER!" She screamed. "I LOVE YOU!" Tears that had been held back for so long, threatened to burst now at the very outburst. "I love you, please come back to us, to me. Please come back to me Harry, I need you."
She let her tears fall now, her words there, merging with his voice on the wind. The sounds of the birds, when she first heard them were happy, joyous even as they echoed through the trees and mountains. Now she could not find the words to explain the sadness that their songs held.
But was it truly sadness of mourning the loss? As Ron approached her, she thought of the times when she thought all hope was gone, that her Harry had left her for another, another who would not love her like she loved him.
The birds circled her as she felt someone come from behind her, circling her with a pair of arms. "He knows, Hermione." Ron whispered. "He knows." He closed his eyes, listening to the wind the surrounded them. He no longer needed to see to know that everything was going to be alright.
"I am the soft stars that shine at night."
Her tears only managed to fall harder as the arms around her tightened.
Night fell upon the scape before them as the birds took flight away from her. Hermione watched the birds fly away, dragging the blanket of night across the sky. She felt a hand run over her blackened rose, before resting on her head. The smile she wore did not falter.
"Every star is a dream granted, did you know that Harry?" Hermione said. "No more delusions, just dreams for us Harry. Only dreams for us."
Ron smiled as he opened his eyes once more. There was something right with Harry's words, and how Hermione seemed to be handling everything. Looking at her, Ron could see that she was right. Again. Like always.
Hermione looked down at the gravestone that had been placed next to Dumbledore's. She could not help the tears that fell upon his cheeks and the arms that held her. She tightened her grip on the hands that had woven their fingers into hers.
"Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die."
"Then why the hell did you take such a bloody long time to come back?" Hermione said, turning around. She wrapped her arms around the man who held her close now, staring into his emerald eyes.
"I had to find something," Harry said with a twinkle in his eye. "Something that I had lost on the battlefield. And since they basically plowed over it all, it took a bit of time."
"You pretended to die so you could find something? Mate, it better have been worth it." Ron said, taking a step forward. Though he words were angry, he could not help but smile at the scene before him. There was something right about the two of them, something that he had ignored for too long. "Now before I leave you two lovebirds alone….." Harry nodded and drew his friend into a one-handed hug. He never let go of Hermione as he felt his best mate begin to show the joy at his return.
In less than a moment, Hermione had gathered the two of them in a bear hug, knocking them to the ground in laughter and tears.
"Mate, you have no idea how good it is to see you again," Ron said.
"I have an idea," Harry said, as Hermione nuzzled her head into neck. The two boys shared a smile as Ron stood up.
"Like I said, I'll leave you two love birds alone for a bit." Ron looked back at them for a moment, passing through the doorway that Harry had managed to create somehow. He shook his head as he passed through the arch. Never in his life would he have though the two of them would get together. But now, after seeing the two of them like that, and how she reacted to Harry's death, his past thoughts were only delusions of grandeur. He never had her, but Hermione and Ron were too stupid to see it. With a smile, he left them. An hour later the rest of their friends would show up. Now was their moment.
"What were you looking for?" Hermione asked, wrapping her arm around his stomach. She found that there was no way she could get close enough to him, now that she knew he was back.
"Well, it was something that I planned to give you when I came won," Harry said, taking her hand in his.
"I already got your locket," Hermione said, taking it out of her blouse to show him. He kissed her lightly on the forehead, chuckling as he pulled back.
"The locket comes with a matching set." Harry dropped her hand as his went into his pocket. She felt him place a small box in her hand. Looking at him for a moment, her eyes traveled to the velvet lined back in her hand. The ring glistened in the moonlight as she felt his arm tighten around her waist once more. "I was hoping to give them to you."
"I'm hoping to accept," Hermione said. She looked up at him for a moment, feeling the emotion that had been welled in her for so long burst as she hugged him tightly.
"I'm back love," He said. She pulled back and kissed him with fury. She had never gotten the chance before, and planned to never miss the chance again. The fire burned in them both as she pulled back for air, attacking him once more. "And I'm not going anywhere with you this time." She smiled against his lips, nodding her acceptance of the statement before returning to more important things, mainly showing him how much she loved him. There would be time for words later.
"I love you Harry Potter." She said. "You're never leaving my sight again."
"Like I would want to?" Harry joked. He slid the ring onto her finger, clasping their hands together.
This was how it was supposed to be. Them together, underneath the stars, with nothing to bother them-
"Harry!" Ginny's voice cut through the woods,
Until someone thought it was a good idea. Hermione groaned as Harry stood up, offering his hand to Hermione. As Ginny came rushing through the path that she had walked only moments before, Hermione felt Harry pull her tighter to his side. He gave her a soft smile as he moved their joined hands to show the ring off to the mob that planned to attack them.
From the look on Ginny's face, Hermione knew that things would be rough. But the warmth of Harry against her told her things would work out in the end. And that made her smile even larger.
-->