Disclaimer: Harry Potter and co are properties of J.K.Rowling I don't own them in any shape, size or form. The lyrics used in this story are from Westlife's "I wanna grow old with you"

Harry looked across the table at the girl sitting facing him. Tonight he had to tell her how he felt about her. Beside him his friend Ronald Weasley was sitting with his girlfriend of a month, Luna Lovegood talking. It still amazed Harry how a person with the emotional range of a teaspoon could propose to the girl of his dreams while Harry still hadn't.

He remembered asking Ron about it one day while they were playing chess

"Ron" asked Harry "How were you able to propose to Luna without getting cold feet at the last minute and without the fear of rejection"

Ron had looked up at him with sudden wise eyes "Harry a bloke has to go through that and more if he wants to have the girl of his dreams but in the end we follow our hearts"

Harry had nodded wondering when his friend had got so wise when Ron had delivered the blow "Speaking of which when are you going to tell Hermione that you love her? Otherwise you will regret letting her slip through your fingers for the rest of your life. Believe me."

Harry had been looking at him slack jawed when Ron had made a move, announced "Checkmate mate. And close your mouth before you start catching flies"

Then seeing Harry was still shocked Ron had gripped his shoulder and said "Don't worry mate except for our close friends no one else knows" before leaving in search of Luna.

Harry was brought out of his musings by Hermione's voice "Harry" she'd asked and by the time it took for him to pay sufficient attention she'd asked

"Harry are you alright?"

"Of course Hermione" he had replied and could feel himself about to start perspiring when she'd narrowed her eyes in that thoughtful way of hers 'please believe it Hermione"

"Are you sure Harry because for a moment there you looked as if you were thinking of committing suicide"

Ron choked on his food and while Luna was patting his back "Sure I am" Harry told her glaring at Ron

"You guys are acting strange all evening" Hermione told them with a cute frown "are you sure?"

"Sure Hermione its just plans for he upcoming quidditch match" Ron told her coming to Harry's rescue

And Harry said "Hermione you will come to the room of requirements for the lesson planning won't you"

"Of course I will and if you ask me that question one more time Harold James Potter I swear I will hex you so badly that you won't be able to sit for a week"

And she had Harry mused a week later having just killed a few death eaters and looking at their corpses littering the ground

It was the memory of the last time he had seen Hermione that kept him from going around the bend even after having killed quite a few people knowing he could never clean the blood from his hands

He flew to the top of the tree and rested against the bark, it had ceased to be uncomfortable after the first two days.

He dreamed of that night.

Hermione had walked into a dark room of requirement and after it was lit by candlelight he could see her chocolate brown eyes which he loved

And then after handing her a bouquet of golden roses he could see that Hermione was shocked

Harry had led her to the table and after seating her told her "Hermione I love you." looking at her eyes widen further he thought 'might as well be hung for a cow rather than a sheep' "In fact I have loved you for a long time and always will. Oh Hermione you are the first person to ever truly trust in me and stand by me through everything. And Hermione I can understand if a girl as great as you cannot fall in love with me"

Taking a deep breath he wanted to tell some more he was cut off by a pair of very soft lips possessing his own, he put his arms around her and poured all his love behind that kiss.

Unbidden a song in CD she had presented him for his birthday came to his mind

I wanna grow old with you

And looking at her he realized it was true but unless Voldemort was destroyed there was no chance for both of them to live together

"Oh Harry" she'd told him with tears of joy after they had come up for air "I love you too. I always have and always will"

And looking at her he smiled happy in the knowledge that someone loved him for him

I wanna die lying in your arms

Then taking her hands they had danced to the soft music that had started playing

And when he looked into her eyes some more lines from the song flashed into his mind

I wanna be looking in your eyes
I wanna be there for you
Sharing everything you do

Then they had had the wonderful dinner prepared by Dobby with Hermione's laughter filling his ears

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The next day Harry woke up feeling a bit refreshed he knew with each passing day he was getting closer to Voldemort

He wondered how his friends had reacted to the letters he had left for them, the letters he had written before leaving in the pretext of home work

Ron's was a letter thanking him for being his first best mate and asking him to take care of Hermione if he died

Hermione's letter had been a lot harder to write

He still remembered each and every line he had written it was not something he could forget easily

Dear Hermione,

Knowing you, you are probably going to be very angry with me once you get this letter. But I can't let you risk yourself for me again. Seeing it once is enough to give me nightmares for the rest of my life if I live. If I die only my body will perish but if anything happens to you Hermione my soul will die with you.

Hermione as I write this letter I know there are a lot of things I should tell you but this parchment can hold only so much. Hermione you were the first person to ever hug me and the first person to kiss me as far as I can remember. I am sure my mom and dad must have, but hey as you know the only thing the bloody boy who lived remembers about his parents is how they died. Must be peachy to be me huh Hermione? Though you were the first person to not look at me as the oh so famous celebrity, with you I always was Harry Potter the boy wizard. Hermione I want you to promise me this that you will move on with your life if I die you are a very special woman and if I don't get you someone better definitely deserves you. Also if I die I have named you and Ron beneficiaries in my will but to you I also leave all the things that were of sentimental value to me and my parents. You are the only one who knows that I would have given up all my gold in Gringotts to have my parents back with me just for a day and hearing them say that they love me. And once I am where my parents are I will tell them what a special woman I chose to be their daughter in law if I had lived. But most importantly I want you to remember this

'When I was born I know my parents must have really loved me and then till I met you there was almost no love for me from anybody and the irony of my life is that if I die I will know a woman out there loves me with all her heart. At least I will die happy, knowing somebody really loves me for me. thank you for loving me Hermione I will never forget you'.

And he had signed it

'With all my love for you Hermione the only person who loved me for me. I love you and I always will-Harry Potter the boy who lived for everybody else but just Harry to you'

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Another day
Without your smile
Another day just passes by
But now I know
How much it means
For you to stay
Right here with me

With every passing day that was how Harry had felt, it was now a week and a half since that night and he felt weary of all the killings he had to do if he didn't know better, he would've thought Voldemort was playing. But he knew it wasn't so thanks to the training he had done.

He really wished that he could hold Hermione in his arms once more, after spending time away from her his love for her had only increased and the way he missed her was like a physical ache

The time we spent apart will make our love grow stronger
But it hurt so bad I can't take it any longer

The next day he was confronted by Voldemort

"So Harry Potter we meet again and this time I see you don't have your friends with you, no problem my followers will take care of them. Let's duel shall we?"

He couldn't believe his ears he was so angry that he started the first spell he could think of

"Phloxmenti!" and a stream of fire sped towards Voldemort

After a long duel Harry lay on the ground about to die. In his mind's eye he could see his parents waiting for him with open arms when suddenly he saw Hermione smiling at him and saying "I believe in you Harry! Come back to me" and he could hear Voldemort saying with a smile in his voice "And after I finish you your friends are next"

A thousand miles between us now
It causes me to wonder how
Our love tonight remains so strong
It makes our risk right all along

Harry suddenly felt something struggling to get out of him at the mention of killing Hermione and he didn't fight it that time

The last thing Harry saw was a bright green light blazing out of him and hitting Voldemort who looked shocked before sinking into darkness

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Harry could make out voices in the background he didn't know who it was and he wanted it to stop. His eyes felt glued together and he opened it only to close it again at the bright light that hurt his eyes he tried opening it slowly this time and he saw a mass of bushy brown hair resting on his hand and she was crying

"'Mione" he croaked out and his throat felt like sandpaper

This time he heard Ron shout "He is awake!!" only to be shushed by Madame.Pomfrey but all he could see was Hermione who looked at him with swollen eyes and looking as if she was contemplating between strangling him and kissing him but in the end she threw her arms around and sobbed on his chest which had a lot of bandages.

Harry just ran his hands through her hair and looked at Ron who looked as if he would happily strangle him himself then abruptly he spun around on his heel and left

"Hermione…."he managed again "Please don't cry"

She didn't seem to be listening and continued crying until he lifted her head and gently kissed her only she didn't let go and clung to his lips as if her very life depended on it.

Harry could have happily gone on kissing her but was interrupted by Madame.Pomfrey "Ms. Granger!" Both of them jumped apart at the sound of her voice "Mr. Potter is hurt and I am sure that even though he must like kissing you he has to take his potions" she continued in a gentle voice and if Hermione didn't know better she would have thought Madame.Pomfrey had been crying

After the potions had been administered Harry listened to Hermione as she chewed him out for leaving her and Ron behind and then in amore subdued voice told him "Oh. Harry I killed people you know. And the worst part is I don't feel bad about it as much as I should. If you don't love me now I understand" looking at the floor as if she suddenly found it more interesting

Harry just lifted her head and kissed her hard "Oh Hermione" he breathed as they came up for air "I killed many more than you and I never wanted you to do that. But I will never stop loving you." And she cried again telling him over and over that she loved him

Things can come and go I know but
Baby I believe
Something's burning strong between us
Makes it clear to me

Harry fell asleep with a smile on his face and Hermione lay beside him

Madame.Pomfrey watched it from her office wiping away tears; she had never seen a couple more in love than the two of them. And she had never seen a couple who had been through more pain than these two. She will never forgive Voldemort for driving children to kill, for turning them into warriors in a war that should never have started in the first place and for all the people who died, she looked at Draco Malfoy and sighed he had had to kill his own father. Then watched as Ginny Weasley of all people came and sat beside him and watched with even more wonder as he hugged her hard and cried like a child on her shoulder. She felt weary and was about to go into her room to catch up on some much needed sleep whenshe suddenly saw a golden glow emanating from Harry and Hermione and realized the significance 'their souls have bonded' she thought with wonder before leaving

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A few days later Ron and Harry were sitting beside the tree beside the lake Luna had taken Hermione inside the castle after saying that she needed her help with something, when Ron started talking

"You know Harry I could have cheerfully strangled you after I finished reading the letter you left but more than you what really worried me was Hermione. She just stood there not showing any reaction; Hell! I would have been happy if she had thrown a tantrum but all she did was just stand there her eyes expressionless

And later for a week she used to disappear for long periods of time I mean I took some books from the room of requirements to help Luna and me protect ourselves if anything happened but she was like obsessed. Remember third year" he asked and at Harry's nod continued "Only thing was this was ten times worse than that, she spent so many hours in there that I was really worried. Nobody could get her out. Then a week and a half after you left suddenly she comes bursting into the common room looking like murder and telling that death eaters were upon the castle. Well all the students fifth year and above were there with wands drawn and wouldn't you believe it ferret boy was right there with the rest of us I thought he would be on the other side of the door then he looked at Ginny as sappy as you please and he started fighting" there had been a tinge of disgust in Ron's voice as he had been telling about Malfoy

After a second Ron shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and continued "I am getting off topic. Well anyway Me, Luna, Ginny, Neville and ferret boy stood in the forefront but Hermione she was right behind the teachers and looked so scary that even Mc Gonnagall didn't say anything and as soon as the death eaters came in she started killing them like a mad woman. It was as if she believed by killing them you would be safe well I killed a few people myself but Hermione looked like the Grim reaper it was in a way amazing to watch her! In the end we lost a few students, ferret boy was fighting his father in a corner, Neville was against Rudolphus Lestrange and Hermione was facing Bellatrix and then she started I don't know what she told Hermione but suddenly Hermione fired a crucio at her you know that Bellatrix's threshold for pain was quite high but Bellatrix was thrashing around and everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing to watch those two and you could feel Hermione's hate radiating off her in waves and we could hear her shouting "Harry will not die! I believe in him! He will come back" nobody could even get near her! I mean even Voldemort couldn't have got near her and believe me Dumbledore tried she stopped only when Bellatrix was dribbling saliva on the floor like a baby" Harry was shocked even though he didn't show it outside those were the exact words he heard before he had killed Voldemort.

Ron continued oblivious to Harry's internal struggle "But in the end it was a colossal victory for our side Neville killed Rudolphus, Bellatrix is insane and Voldemort is dead. Take care of her Harry" he had said when he saw the girls approaching "She is a very special girl"

Harry had looked at Ron. Ron didn't need to tell him that, he knew.

He knew why he had heard Hermione's voice in his head a few months later as he was waiting for Hermione to come up the aisle. It was because they were soul mates and had bonded their minds when he had proposed

His heart skipped a beat as he saw his radiant bride coming towards him on her fathers arm

"Harold James Potter do you take Hermione Jane Granger to be your lawful ……….."

"I do" he had told the minister smiling at Hermione as she told her soft "I do"

And when he was asked to kiss the bride he had willingly obliged amidst a few chuckles at the way he had gathered Hermione into his arms he kissed her unaware of the widening of the eyes of the audience as the golden light surrounding them had broken all the windows in the church.

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Many years later

"Mom. Dad" told a black haired man with messy hair and brown eyes "Meet your latest grand child Evangeline Adelaide Potter"

Harry just smiled as his wife took their latest grandchild and kissed the soft skin

He smiled as he thought about their song

I wanna grow old with you
I wanna die lying in your arms
I wanna grow old with you
I wanna be looking in your eyes
I wanna be there for you
Sharing everything you do
I wanna grow old with you

He had grown old with her sharing both her joys and sorrows and he considered himself a very lucky man as he thought of how since his marriage every morning the first thing he had seen were those beautiful chocolate brown eyes

He had been with her during the birth of their children. The eldest James Sirius Potter with his mother's brown eyes and his black hair and two years later a girl Lilliane Jane Potter with her father's green eyes and her mother's brown hair

Now five grandchildren later Harry knew he was blessed

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A few years later Harry James Potter and Hermione Jane Granger aged 180 died in each others arms in the middle of the night just as their song had said and joined their parents in heaven. The first thing both of them saw was Lily Potter's beautiful smile "Welcome son I am so proud of you" and they waited for their friends to join them