AN: Hey guys! So I've been thinking of this plot for a while now and I can't get it out of my head so I decided to do my first multichapter fic! I got some aspects of this plot from a fellow RPer on Tumblr by the name of ronald-gingerboy-weasley, whom I was doing an RP based on this with. I really hope you guys like this and please review so I can get better! Thanks guys!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Harry Potter or the italicized words in the beginning. I took the section from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So basically some of this belongs to Joe. But I do own the plot! :)

Life ain't always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down,
It can break your heart...

he air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart. Harry felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms: He heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them—

And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: He was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding copiously. Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame not curse could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had been in his life…

And Hermione was struggling to her feet in the wreckage, and three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood.

"No— no — no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!"

And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.

Hermione stumbled on the wreckage as she approached the group of redheads, her eyes glazing over with sad tears. Her small hand covered her opened mouth, unsure of what to think. How could Fred be dead? She looked down to look at his crumpled body, his legendary smile still painted on his lips. All around her the chaos seemed to mute, if only for just a moment. Her chest began to ache and it took her a moment to gather her thoughts and push through the grief. Moving her eyes upward, she saw Ron and his grief beginning to be justified by his anger. His hands were shaking as he gripped the robes of his brother, his bright eyes began to dull and become glazed over. Hermione stepped forward hesitantly, biting her lip as she looked at him. Before she could say anything, jets of green light began to fly through the area and she knew that it wasn't safe. She knew that if they stayed there, they would have the same fate as Fred.

"Harry, we have to go!" Hermione yelled over to him, motioning to the group around Fred. "We can't stay here!" She said before shooting off numerous spells as a way to cover the others.

Harry seemed to get back on the same track as he rushed over to Fred's body. "We got to go. C'mon, Ron!" He said, said pulling at his best mate's arm. He knew that he was hurting. They all were. But they had to get up. "C'mon, help me get him somewhere safe." He added and with that, Ron and Percy helped Harry carry Fred's body to a small area behind a nearby statue. He couldn't look down at the body. He couldn't come to the conclusion that here was another person who died for him. His jaw tightened as he focused on hiding the body.

Once they had Fred's body hidden, Harry turned only to find Percy running off with his wand held high, screaming "ROOKWOOD!" before he disappeared behind a corner. Harry turned to the others to find Hermione, with incredible strength, pulling Ron away from his brother's retreating form.

She had pulled Ron behind a tapestry. They seemed to be wrestling together, and for one mad second Harry thought that they were embracing again; then he saw that Hermione was trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy. "Listen to me–LISTEN RON!"

"I wanna help–I wanna kill Death Eaters–" His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage and grief.

"Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please–Ron–we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione.

Ron nodded, his throat constricting as he managed to push down his grief, his hands squeezing hers for a moment. Hermione gave him a small, watery smile before leading him back over to Harry. "Okay. Okay, so what now?" He questioned to Harry.

"The snake. We need to figure out where Vold-" Hermione was cut off as a jet of green light brushed by her head.

She whipped around, her wand stretched outwards to see Bellatrix Lestrange smirking madly. "Well if it isn't little miss mudblood." She purred softly, sending another shot of green light towards her. She quickly dodged it and sent a spell towards her. She tilted her head to glance at Ron and Harry, who'd both raised their wands. "And poor Freddie. Seems he won't be able to go home with dear old mummy." She cackled, sending another curse her way.

All the sudden, there were about half a dozen Death Eaters blocking the boys from Hermione. Smaller battles began to commence behind her, red and green jets of light being exchanged as the owners dodged death.

This continued for a few minutes, each spell being dodged or bouncing off and hitting the wall. Harry and Ron had managed to take down all of them except for Dolohov in their own battle. But they were unable to take him down for good. In their own battle, Hermione stretched out her wand to send another assault towards the woman who tortured her, but her footing was jarred and she stumbled backwards. At that moment, Dolohov shot a spell forcefully towards Ron. He ducked out of the way, his wand outstretched to return the attack when he heard a rumble from behind and was instantly bombarded by large pieces of stone. As he ran forward, he felt a large stone land heavily on the back of his leg. He let out a shrill of pain when the stones sharp edge dug into his leg, stationing him on the ground.

Hermione turned as she heard the sound of his pain, her eyes meeting his for a moment. Before she could turn back to her foe, Bellatrix took her chance and sent a strong jet of green light towards the young witch. It sunk into her back, her eyes going wide for a moment before her chocolate iris' faded to dull. Ron screamed as he watched her fall to her knees, her eyes glazing over. She slumped onto the ground, her wand falling from her hand and her breathe ceasing.

"Seems Mudblood won't be seeing dear old mummy either." She cackled, sending a wink towards Ron before running off singing, "I killed Hermione Granger!"

It all seemed unreal to him. No, it was a dream, a nightmare. Anything other than reality. With all he could, he shoved the stone off of him. He crawled on his stomach towards the body of his best friend. His girlfriend. His soulmate. He heard Harry sniff behind him before the thuds of running footsteps. He glanced up to find Harry running off in the near distance and sending the Killing Curse to hit Bellatrix square in the back. Ron couldn't help the malice from lacing his small happiness when she went crashing to the ground; she had killed too many to have no punishment.

Harry finally came running back, barely glancing at Hermione's body as he helped Ron get the stone off of his leg.

He hissed in pain as he brought himself up to his knees, but he would gladly take the pain of his leg rather than the emptiness and the hollowness that he was feeling as he looked down at her body. He laid her across his lap, holding her close to him. The tears fled down his cheeks. He didn't bother to hide them.

He had forgotten that he was in the middle of a war. He had forgotten everything. He looked down at her wide eyed expression, his teeth biting down on his bottom lip. He held her head gently, brushing away a stray curl.

He felt a grip on his arm, becoming tighter as he restrained. "Ron." He turned his head slightly to see Harry looking not at him, but at her. His lip was trembling and his eyes were bloodshot. His grip became tighter on his sleeve, like Ron was the only thing holding him down.

He returned his gaze towards the girl in her arms. He felt Harry knell beside him, his hand gripping her cold hand. Ron's thumb caressed her cheek softly with his thumb as a tear ran down his long nose and hit her cheek. "H-Hermione…"