Harry looked down at the photograph in his hands. It had been handed to him by Colin's mom, it had been one of the few photographs of Harry and his friends to survive the Death Eater attack against their home.
"He would have wanted you to have it," she had told him before pressing it into his hands.
It was an early photograph, from his fifth year. Luna, Neville, Hermione, Ron, and him were joking around after a D.A meeting; you could see Dennis in the background. Harry smiled softly, true the war had just begun, but back then there was still an innocence to his friends and him. Looking at the photograph, Harry became acutely aware of just how much the war had taken from him. A tear threatened to fall, but Harry pushed it away. There were still so many funerals to attend, he couldn't afford to break down now.
Harry suddenly became aware of a hand on his shoulder.
"it seems so far away doesn't it?" Hermione asked as she sat next to him in the grass facing towards Colin's gravestone. "He shouldn't have died, so many of them shouldn't have died. They, we were just children and we were forced to take on adults because the adults on our side couldn't get their shit together!" Hermione ranted.
"Language Hermione," Harry said with a sad smile reminiscing about how Hermione had always been on his and Ron's case about their language. She might never be on Ron's case about language again.
"It's just not fair or just! Harry," she implored, "we lost our childhood. I refuse to allow another generation to go through what we did."
Harry just nodded before bending down towards the photograph. "Do you think we'll ever be able to smile like this again? Those of us that are left?"
Hermione looked at him, sadness in her eyes, a sadness that wasn't present in photograph Hermione. "No, no matter how far away we are in time from this war it will always affect us. I suspect there will never be another photograph with such carefree laughter or happiness. There'll probably always be a shadow of some sort in our eye kinda like Mad-Eye."
Harry sighed before leaning over onto Hermione's shoulder, "How is Ron doing? Ginny?"
"They're still at St. Mungos. I don't think they'll ever be totally whole again. Ginny's been through too much and Ron, I don't know if he can un-see what he saw. He's still in shock and it's been 3 weeks. Being attacked by the brains in 5th year doesn't help."
"No, I suppose it doesn't." there was silence as both reflected back on the events that had forever changed their friends.
"Hermione, I want to stop this from happening again. Do you have any ideas?"
"Well, I suppose we could look in the library at the law books."
"There's the Hermione I know and love." Harry smiled softly, "you know, I don't think we'll ever be whole again, but maybe, if we ensure this never happens again it will help the healing."
"Do you think we could get the D.A together again to spear head this?"
"Yeah, they out of everyone would be willing to ensure that no child has to go through what we did."
Harry stood up before helping Hermione up too.
"Never again?"
"No, never again."