What Shall We Die For

Prologue

Harry Potter, a seventeen years old boy, sat by the fireplace as he watched the flames dancing in front of him. The Burrow was silent and without the fire burning, the house would be in complete darkness. All the Weasleys and Hermione Granger, one of Harry's best friends, were asleep or simply acting like it. He, on the other hand, couldn't walk up the stairs into the room he was sharing with Ron, his other best friend.

From the moment they entered the Burrow, Harry had went straight to the fireplace. He didn't know why, but it was the only place where he felt safe. He had not been able to eat all day long and he didn't know if he would have been able to eat anything at all. He had seen one of his friends die in front of him without being able to help him. For weeks, his friend had fought for his life and this evening, he had stop battling and gave up.

He had not been able to let out one tear like the others had and it wasn't because he didn't feel anything, he just couldn't let them out.

"Harry?" A small voice took him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see Hermione standing there.

He never said a word and she came and sat next to him. He didn't need to let out any word for her to understand him. She was the only person he had been able to cry freely around. On several past occasions, he had cried in front of other people, but not like he had with Hermione.

"It's going to be alright, I promise." She suddenly said, holding up the tears that started to form in her eyes.

And the moment came around Harry, his first tears came out and wasn't able to stop them.

"Come on now, you need to get some sleep for tomorrow." She added on as she helps him up. "He deserves that much."

He nodded, still not able to pronounce one word. He followed her upstairs and while she entered the room where she slept, he entered his and closed the door after he made sure she had closed hers.

He then turned around to see Ron fast asleep on his bed. His friend was mumbling in his sleep, as his sleep seemed to be constantly disturbed because of dreams. Harry silently went onto his own bed without taking the time to take off his clothes and closed his eyes trying to get some rest.

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When he got up the next morning, Harry had watched the black cloth in front of him before finally put it on. He had joined his friends in the kitchen, but his never touched his plate. No one was speaking, as their words would have probably been caught in-between constant sobs. Molly Weasley was occupying herself by filling all the plates with much more food that they could handle. She watched her children as they ate and thanked God that she never had to go through the pain of losing one of them. But still, every day, she feared that something could happen to them and she knew that this fear wasn't about to stop.

"It's time to go children." Molly Weasley had told everyone.

The group of people all got up at the same time instantly and followed her into the living room and stopped in front of the fireplace, right where Harry stood the previous night. Arthur Weasley grabbed the pot containing the floo powder and handed it towards Harry, Ron and Ginny.

"The rest of us will apparate there." He told them. "Just say Mr. Anderson's house. He lives next to the cemetery and is already warned of your coming."

"Alright, dad." Ron replied grabbing a hand full of powder. "We'll be fine."

The old red haired man nodded as he pulled away from the fireplace as Ron entered it.

"Mr. Anderson's house!" The boy yelled and disappeared in the green flames.

"Go on, Ginny." Her mother said pushing the young girl towards her father.

And grabbing the powder, she entered the fireplace and yelled the same words that her brother previously said.

"Harry?" Molly said softly to the boy standing next to her. "Are you sure you are up to this? We could always make you apparate with us."

"No, I'll be fine." He sighed before grabbing the powder and re-doing the exact same as the previous two.

When he felt his feet being on solid ground again, he opened his eyes to find a very old man pointing towards the door where Ron and Ginny stood. He let out a small thank you before joining his two friends. He followed Ron and Ginny who had started to walk towards the cemetery. As the reached the end of the cemetery, hundreds of people stood in front of them, all wearing black clothing, tears tumbling down their faces. A few familiar faces came into view as they saw Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas sitting with Seamus' mother and Lavender Brown crying uncontrollably in Parvati Patil's arms.

Harry was glad that the ceremony was outside. He didn't care that the gray skies were warning them of rain to come.

They found the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione and waited with them for the ceremony to begin. Not too long after that, an old white haired man appeared as everyone gathered around the dark red coffin.

"We gather here today to give thanks for the life of Neville Longbottom, who shared his life with us and died on August 29 of this year, at the age of 18 years old. It is in his memory that we gather and for his life that we are thankful…"