Let Me Dream, Let Me Stay.

Her sniffles brought him out of his memories, his eyes flooded with tears as he remembered all the good times the two had had together before his untimely death, a tragedy in itself. The two stood on the lawn of Hogwarts, watching as the shallow graves were dug for the rows upon rows of the dead, all killed brutally by the Death Eaters, or by curses rebounded by the side that had been deemed the winner, but had lost too much to truly be the winner. She grabbed his hand on impulse as heavy footfalls signaled people coming across the once perfectly tended to lawn. She looked up at him with watery brown eyes, her entire frame shaking under the weight of a sorrow no shoulders could ever bear. “Do you think your family is here?” She asked, her voice shaking. He looked at her with blank eyes, as if he couldn't comprehend what she was saying. She cleared her throat, tears falling free from her dark eyes, her cheeks black from the makeup she had cried off her eyes. “You know, to collect the … the …” Her voice broke, her lips unable to form the last word. He looked down at her, and cautiously wrapped his arm around her, looking out across the lawn.

There was broken debris from the castle every which way, with broken wands and clothing strewn over the neatly kept lawn, which had been stomped into dirt and the tears of those who had sunk to their knees and cried as they found the bodies of their loved ones. It was dark out, with the sun just beginning to rise in the east. Her hands were cold in his, and she seemed to shake from the cold wind that blew from the direction of Dumbledore's broken grave, the marble shattered across the island where he lay. It seemed that everywhere they looked, something was broken and someone was crying. There was no hope for survival on a broken front.

He could hear her slip to the ground, her thighs smack against the rough ground and her inhaling increasing. She was hyperventilating. He made no move to help her. He was numb, in a world of his own. He had lost his best friend, and a girl who had made his entire world livable. She was his beautiful girl, with her dark brown hair that she always tied behind her ears when she was irritated, and her dark eyes that stared at him intently with each word he spoke. He didn't want to live without her, nor him either, but now he had to learn how to. Tears threatened to spill over his eyes, and he stared straight ahead again, until he heard her clear her throat, her tears done falling from her pale cheeks. He bit his lip, turning to face her as she suddenly grabbed her stomach, turning over to the side and vomiting onto the lawn, her cries still audible through her gagging and coughing. She was drowning in her own misery and self pity, everything she had loved and cared about these past months had been ripped painfully from her fingertips. Fingers that had once held the hand of the boy she had truly loved now gripped the necklace strapped around her neck, a sign that she would never be truly alone. Her best friend was visible through the arches of the school, the shoes she had obsessed over for months visible just barely, their white soles shining in the dark night of the worst battle Hogwarts has ever seen.

Nothing seemed real to the two, nor to anyone who was there that night. Everything that they could feel was numb as even their bones grieved for their dead, and those who had been lost lay cold and motionless in the graves that had been almost carelessly dug fro them in the hurry for more space. His head was spinning. There were too many he loved dead. He must be dreaming, and he closed his eyes, waiting for his brother to shake him awake and tell him it was time to start work again. But instead, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and a man with red hair emerged around his back, his tears dried to his cheeks.

“Come on, son,” The man said, a sigh leaving his thin lips. “It's time to say goodbye.”