Sacrifice
A Harry Potter One-Shot
All around the two, bodies of dead Death Eaters lay. Their means of death were questionable at best, horrible to ponder at worst. Their bodies made an impromptu ring for the two enemies, one a seventeen year old wizard, the other a seventy year old dark lord. The battle had been one-sided, with nothing thrown at Harry touching him. Likewise, anything that came close to touching Voldemort would have the same effect. Any spell that came at them that would kill them, every spell fired thus far, would simply veer away.
"What trickery is this, Potter!" Voldemort yelled as another killing curse simply veered away from him, killing his last Death Eater who was trying to aim a blast at Harry from behind.
"I take it you read the letter I sent you?" Harry asked in return.
"Of course I read it!" he yelled. "I read that damnable prophecy and brought everyone here to ambush and kill you!"
"Thus playing right into my trap." Harry said, pulling out a black metal object from his pocket. "You know what this is, Tom?"
"Don't call me that damn muggle name!" he yelled, glaring at him. "And yes, I know what that damn thing is!"
"The prophecy was very clear, that neither of us can live while the other survives. For you to die, I must die. For me to die, you must die. However, not even suicide is the answer." Harry said, putting the gun against his head. He pulled the trigger, getting only a click. He then aimed the gun at Voldemort and pulled the trigger, getting only a click. After that, he aimed at a wall and pulled the trigger, getting the loud report of the round firing.
"Interesting." was all he said.
"All my life, I was looking for a reason to live." Harry said, lowering the gun. "I've been hoping that I might find some reason, and you know what I found?"
"That your life is worthless?" Voldemort asked sarcastically.
"That my only reason for being here is to destroy you."
"You stupid boy, you just proved it yourself!" he yelled. "Nothing you do can kill me, since you have to die at the same time!"
"Except the prophecy says that you can die, so long as I die." Harry said. "I have nothing worth living for. I was raised to never know love, just as I was raised to hate needless hate. I was a machine made by Dumbledore for the sake of keeping his hands clean."
"So...you now know that what I told you all those years ago in that room is true." Voldemort said, an evil smile on his face. "There is no such thing as love, boy!"
"You're wrong." Harry said calmly. "We could live forever, rule this world, with nothing anyone does to us stopping us. But I learned what love is, much to the annoyance of that old bastard. I learned what it means to love someone, what it means to love someone enough to do anything in your power to keep her safe."
"I am not interest in hearing about this love life of yours, Potter."
"And I also learned that keeping her safe so she can live her life with the person she loves is worth it." he said, raising the gun up. He shot Voldemort in the knee, dropping the self-styled dark lord to the ground. He fired another round into his right shoulder for good measure before walking over.
"All my life, all I wanted was for someone to see me as 'Just Harry' and no one else." he said, getting on his knees by Voldemort. "One person has seen me as that, and she loves someone else."
"The hell with you, Potter! I will come back!"
"Your horcruxes have been destroyed, save for the one in my head." he said, lying down next to the dark lord. He grabbed his head and placed it next to his. "But that will be taken care of now." he said, placing the gun to his head as well. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger while whispering a single name.
"Hermione..."
BREAK
Reports surfaced, starting as rumors, that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, had gone off to do battle with Voldemort following the wedding of his long-time girlfriend Hermione Weasley nee Granger to his long-time friend Ron Weasley. Those who knew Harry reported that Hermione and him had never once dated, nor showed romantic feelings of any kind toward each other. The new Weasley's honeymoon was interrupted after Harry had been missing for several days. After swearing on her life and magic that she had never dated Harry nor loved him in any way other than a friend and brother, they were both brought back to England to search for them.
It was a week later when Ron ran into the parlor room of the newly updated Grimmauld Place, Harry's wedding present, to find Hermione on her knees shaking in sobs as tears streamed from her face. He picked up the letter she had dropped to the floor and almost joined her as he read that Harry's will had activated. The news that his will had activated swept like wildfire after the Department of Mysteries revealed that Harry had died the night the new Weasley couple had been married.
At the will reading, it was revealed that he left half his fortune, amounting in the trillions, to Ron and Hermione. The other half went to Neville, who had three line continuation contracts thrown at him after coming of age.
It was two days later when the bodies of every marked Death Eater, Voldemort, and Harry were found. Reports were sealed on how he died, but within hours of the announcement of the bodies being found, the Daily Prophet revealed that Harry had killed himself, taking the dark lord with him. In his pocket was a small letter, addressed to no one.
I'm dying so they can live.
(A/N: I hate R/HR stories. Granted, I hate just about any story that doesn't either have a dead Ron or a Ron that acts like the stupid idiot with a negative IQ that he has in cannon. I've had this idea for a while now, where Harry is so in love with Hermione that he decides to die so she can live. Lets face it, in real life the hero never gets the girl. They usually die so that the girl can live. As to why Ron and Hermione are married while seventeen and eighteen respectively, it's because they married due to the war. Happened enough times in real life. If anyone would like to continue this [I don't know for what reason, but hey, whatever], at least let me know.)