Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All credit goes to J.K. Rowling. Please don't sue me, I can't afford it.

Author's Note: Bending the storyline where Fred and Ron change places on the death scene. Fred lives, and Ron dies. I really like Ron, and I think he's really sweet, so that's why I don't want him to be hateful in this fic like he is sometimes. I don't like where they make him a cheating jerk. So I killed him off... :-( Instead, his death adds to the story, so... Also I'm killing off a few characters and adding a few in. Yada yada yada.

Ron looked at Percy with glee.

"You actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don't think I've heard you joke since you were-"
The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, 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 nor 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! Ron! No!"
And Percy was shaking his brother, and Fred was kneeling beside them, and Ron's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.

Hermione sat up from her nightmare in a cold sweat. Reliving that horrible moment that nearly tore her into small bits. It had been two years. She had completed her seventh year with Ginny, as if trying to run from the war that had happened a few short months earlier.

She had never set foot in that part of Hogwarts where her Ron had perished since.

It killed her inside. Just a few hours since there first kiss, and he was taken from her. Ripped from her soul and mind.

Her mind. The only thing that was keeping her from going insane. The War had taken it's toll on the remaining two of the Golden Trio.

"But we're no longer a trio," she reminded herself, biting back tears and snuggling under the covers again. "We'll never be whole again."

She couldn't sleep after her dream that recurred every night. Sighing, she sat up again and walked over to her desk in her parents' house, who had also been found in Australia and had been murdered in cold blood. Her wonderful, muggle parents.

Taking out a piece of parchment and a quill, she quickly scribbled a short message and tied it to her sleepy owl before sending him out the window.

Dear Harry,

Would you and Ginny mind if I came over and stayed for awhile?

I need a break.

-H

A few minutes later, she heard rustling of wings at her windowsill. She pulled her owl back in and read the return note,

Darling 'Mione,

Of course. Come anytime.

~Harry and Ginny

Hermione smiled, and sniffed before reading the P.S.

P.S. Nightmares again? There is a potion for that, my dear. We have some more waiting when you come.

"Thank you, Harry." she whispered to herself, before turning to her open trunk and loading it with books.