tragedy like juliet
harry potter | ; hermione/fred | 530 words| pg-13 | oneshot —
like juliet meeting her death, she geniunely thought they'd make it.
disclaimer; i don't own harry potter. if i did, it'd be a hell of a lot different—draco and hermione would be a thing; pansy would be with fred; fred wouldn't be dead, ginny would have died in his place; harry would have died to change the world and save it; luna would be with george; etc.
a/n; although i like the draco/hermione pairing out of everything, i somehow did this.
she envies how he isn't afraid sometimes. other times, she's worried that he'll end up in a situation he can't get out of, something horrible. he'd be okay. says a voice in her head. if that ever happened. surely, he would.
although his brother had been one of her best friends, and his own brother—and although he wasn't as close with him as he was with his twin, wouldn't he have—neither of them realized that ron had been looking at her with strange eyes. by then, it was so painstakingly obvious—like the fact that her eyes were a normal, everyday brown and his hair was just as red as the other members of his family—that it wasn't like they could come out with the relationship now. ron wouldn't be happy. it'd be worse if he found out accidentally, though. she voiced her thoughts to fred, who leaned back, sighing loudly in the all too quiet library. she found herself shushing him, unneeded however, because the witch librarian had already shot him a glare.
she realizes how he's always afraid once. he just chooses to hide it under a face of practiced cool. and she worries more.
ron catches them and it's like ships crashing together, or maybe planets, because of that fucking look on his face and—it's like someone froze them in motion—he breathes out, heavily. "you two ..." he trails off and fred blinks, loudly. (can a blink be loud?)
the friendship and family ties are mended because god-knows-why and she finds herself reeling as she watches ron and harry sneak off together to do some stupid thing and gripping fred's hand, practically hyperventilating and she can't speak but fred knows for some reason. he probably has the same fears as the ones that plague her mind, unstoppable, in the middle of the night.
she leaves ron once he gets inside the chamber and goes to find fred. ron can handle his own self, it's right time, and she needs fred right now—more of a want, really, but she'll call it a need—and she blinks back dust and tries not to get killed. she finds him and she battles with him, staying by his side.
they die together and it's tragic and it's romeo and juliet. they're like tonks and remus, and probably other couples as well, during the final battle. she's gripping his arm with one hand and her other hand is holding her wand but it's more relaxed and tight at the same time and harry finds himself letting out a strangled sob and ron's doing the same. harry should be used to death but fuck he isn't, isn't, isn't. and percy tells them that fred died laughing and hermione died smiling at fred, and harry's not sure who falls to their knees first; him or ron.
harry goes out to meet his death and it should be sad that in a corner of his mind, he realizes he'd be okay with that.
harry goes out to meet his death, and leaves ron staring behind, his youth shattered and at a loss on what he was supposed to do next.