It Was Never Supposed to Be Easy

“Ginny! No!” I screamed, watching her fly to the still Harry. She was screaming, just screaming. Her grief, her anger, ripping her apart with each breath she took to scream again. Voldemort laughed. His back arching in mirth, his fight with the Boy That Lived finally over.

He was no longer alive, and with him, so was our hope for a new world. A world without fear.

‘But…now…now he’s mortal….’ whispered a voice.

“Now he’s mortal.” I echoed.

“Ginny, come back! Ginny!” I yelled again. We needed a plan, we hadn’t known that we’d get this far. We had come, marching to our deaths. We had never known that we might’ve won.

Something shifted behind me.

I spun on my heel, my heart racing in fear to see the slick hair of Draco bending over the quivering Ron.

“Ron!” I shouted. “Ginny!”

I turned again. Ginny had flung herself at the lifeless boy, lying so oddly on the floor. He looked as though he might’ve slept. His eyes, half closed. Staring lifeless. On the floor.

“Oh, Harry.” I heard Ron mutter. “That was never supposed to happen.”

This seemed like an odd response to the death of his best friend, and it drew my attention back to him. I dropped to my knees, wrapping my shaking arms around him, pulling his head to my lap. Draco looked at me sadly, the jealousy clear in his eyes.

“Draco…please?” I moaned. Ron was so weak, staring at his sister’s grief, at Voldemort’s laughter, and then finally, at my face.

“Hermione.” He whispered, and then, I saw something that made my heart drop.

Ron’s lips were red. Not the usual cherry, but red. I touched them and the red came away, staining my fingers.

Blood.

“Oh…God.” I moaned, tears filling up.

“He’s bleeding on the inside.” Draco whispered, his eyes on me.

“He’s going to die if you don’t help me!” I screamed, letting my guilt, my fear fall on his shoulders. I looked frantically around, looking for help. Seeing nothing but the man who killed my friend Harry, and my…love. My love, Ron.

I loved Ron.

I loved him, I always had. Why it took this long, I’d never know, but now, when it might be too late.

I felt my heart give, I felt my shoulders break into shakes, my eyes overflowing, falling onto his pale cheeks.

Ron smiled, a hand brushing at a tear that had fallen on his eyelashes. “Hermione.” He said again, this time louder.

I vaguely saw Draco pick up the knife, saw him turn it over in his hands.

“No, Ron. Lie still. I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Harry?” he asked.

I sobbed loudly, refusing to look at his still form, still lifted up by Ginny’s arms.

“Ron!” she yelled, looking at her motionless brother.

“I can’t…” he moaned. “I can’t feel…”

Ginny looked up at the man that had forced Harry to death and she laughed.

“He’s not dead.” She whispered.

“You’re as mad as he is, brat. You filthy blood traitor. Even now, can’t you feel his warmth fade, his soul slowly drift away from your worthless arms.”

“He’s not DEAD!” she screamed again. Beside me, Draco stood.

“He is, and soon you’ll join him and his stupid, foolish mother.”

Draco had disappeared, to where, I did not know. I only had eyes for the girl defiantly screaming at the man looming over her.

Voldemort raised his pale fingers…

“No!” I screamed, I frantically felt for something, anything to defend Ginny with. My free hand scrambling for a rock, for something to throw at Voldemort. Even as I looked, I knew it would be hopeless. Nothing could distract this madman.
“Hermione?” Ron whispered. His hand felt in his pocket and he pulled another vial out. He held it to my face.

“Take it.”

“Wh-at is it?” I stuttered.

“For…Harry. You’ll know.”

“Ron!”

“Hermione, did you ever love me?” he asked blankly. He coughed and a dribble of blood dripped down his lips, staining his pale skin.

I touched it and then leaned forward to whisper to him the truth.

I was so close to him, even in the frantic moment it was just us. My hair fell over out faces, shielding us. I held him in my lap and then I lifted a finger to smear away the blood.

“Ron…I loved you then, and I love you now, and tomorrow, when this is all over, I will still love you.”

He smiled.

“Promise?” he asked.

Instead of answering, I took a breath and kissed him on the lips, already cold with what I feared might be his death.

I kissed him once more, and then I looked at him. A single tear had tracked its way down the filth on his face. Somehow, we had forgotten the doom looming over us, we had forgotten the room.

We had forgotten until the silence.

Voldemort had crossed to the window, in the act of calling his Death Eaters. He stood there, as if frozen, and then he turned, slowly.

Draco stood in front of him, his back to me.

A shadow passed over Tom Riddle’s pale face and then he looked down, not at Draco, but at his own bloody chest.

“Even the great must fall.” Draco whispered.

He dropped the knife, the silver hitting the floor with a clang that rang throughout the stunned room.

“Even the great are mortal.” Draco said, looking into his master’s dying face.

Tom Riddle moaned a great moan, and then his pale fingers reached for his wand. Instead of hurrying away, Draco stood still.

Tom Riddle caressed his wand. He stared at it, and then he slumped to the floor, dead.

Draco raised his chin, turned slowly, his shoulders squared. He walked slowly, deliberately, out of the room, and out of the open door. We sat there, in silence, listening to an unexpected hero’s footsteps fade, and then finally the front doors creak open and then close.

And he was gone.

“Blimey.” Ron said, watching the doorway.

“Ron!” screamed Ginny again.

He started and then turned to look up at me once more. “Hermione the vial!”

“What?” I asked.

“The vial, give it to Harry!”

“Ron…he’s dead.” I whispered, feeling my chest pull again.

“Just do it!”

I looked at the blood red potion, and then at Ginny.

Harry was dead.

“Hermione!” Ginny yelled. “Get over here, now! We’ve wasted time, we only have minutes left!”

“He’s dead?” I asked.

“NOW!” yelled the brother and sister, in perfect unison.

I eased away from Ron’s heavy head, and I crawled to the silent form of Harry Potter, my friend.

This couldn’t be possible. No spell could reawaken the dead.
I pried off the top.

This was pointless. We needed to get Ron to St. Mungo’s. We needed to do something for the living, not for the dead.

I tipped the vial into Harry’s mouth, guiding the thick potion through his parted lips.

“He’s dead?” I asked again.

We waited. And waited. And waited.

Harry looked no different. With each passing minute Ginny’s sobs grew louder.

“It’s all my fault. I brewed the potion. It must’ve been to strong. Or we waited to long. But…”

“What?” I asked again.

“It’s the Living Death Potion.

For the drinker will lie as dead.
The clear stealing through his veins as though the vilest death.
Red as blood, to sit and wait. Until the drinker’s heart awakes.””

“What?” I asked, so confused.

“He was only supposed to die for a few minutes. Just enough time for someone to finish off Voldemort. The potion freezes the body, the heart until the red is given. But it’s tricky…”

“What if it’s too late?” I asked, an inkling of understanding finally surfacing.

“It’s not supposed to work. It’s just a myth, you know? But he got lucky once…” Ron whispered, feet away. “We thought…”

I walked to him, carefully pulling his body to a sitting position. He slipped his arms around my waist, and I leaned my head on his shoulder, my face wet with tears.

Ginny was sobbing now, her crying reaching epic proportions. She was draped over his body, her heart broken beyond repair.

We sat there, for how long; I’ll never be able to guess.

“Ow…Ginny, Merlin’s Pants! You’re heavy.”

For a moment no one said anything, so stunned that we couldn’t react. Then Ginny was screaming, pulling Harry to his feet, and he was laughing, and they were crying. I gasped, disbelieving. Watching Harry swing Ginny around, her hair flying behind them, like a ribbon that Ron once gave me.

Ron was laughing weakly, the bleeding inside was clearly taking its toll, we had to get him to a Healer and fast. But looking at Harry fling himself around the two of us, and hearing the two of them laugh, I knew it'd be all right. It finally would be all right.

Harry smiled at me, leaning forward to kiss my cheek.

Harry Potter.

The Boy Who Lived. Again.

***
Psh, little 'ol me? Kill Harry? How COULD you think that?
Epilogue as soon as I can. I'm going out of state, and I've got a psych test Mon. So...as soon as I've finished my study guide.
<3