Love and Loss
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Summary: Hermione tells the story on what she feels. Slightly AU
This is my story of my love, my loss, my happiness and my family.
I was in love in my sixth year…No. I was in love in my first year, though I didn't know it at the time. I was in love through my sixth year and into my seventh year. The morning of graduation Ronald Weasley proposed to me, that was when I realized that this was true love. True love, as if in the storybooks, I was the happiest I had ever been in my whole life.
We married on July 27th – four days before Harry's birthday -- it was a small wedding. Or that's how we were hoping it would be. But in the end the whole Weasley clan was there, (including Percy), Remus, Tonks, and most of the other order members. Even Draco Malfoy showed up. (I am pretty sure that it was more of 'free food' than wishing to see Ron and myself get married.) By that time, he had decided he couldn't keep killing muggles and muggleborns when in fact he was in love with a muggle. Of course, that is a completely different story and one I will not tell now and may not have the right to tell, ever.
Albus performed the ceremony, Harry was Ron's best man and I had Ginny and Luna as my maids of honor. By then Fred and Angelina were married and had six-year-old twins, a girl and a boy. Their daughter, Kat, was my flower girl and their son, Jonathan, was Ron's ring bearer.
One month later I found out that I was pregnant. The day I gave birth to my little girl was the day I came to understand happiness. We named her Mora Anouke. Mora was my great, great aunt, who I dearly cherished and Ron came up with the name Anouke who is the Egyptian goddess of War. We found it suitable given that we were in the heart of one.
When the final battle came Mora was seventeen months old and I was three months pregnant with our second child. Ron did not want me to be there, but I knew I had to be. For everyone else was.
The battle was horrible. I saw the loss, I saw the pain, and I saw the death. So many people died defending our side. Tonks was the first, she died because of me. When Lusicas Malfoy aimed the killing cures at me she moved in front of it, there was a look of pried on her face when she died. I'll never forget that look.
The final moment came when Harry and Voldemort stood before each other and dueled. Everyone stopped and watched as they went after the other individual. In the end Harry died killing Voldemort. I still don't understand why he had to die, when all he ever did was try to live.
Three days after the final battle, the wizarding world started picking up the broke pieces. There were so many funerals to attend; I don't think I would have been able to see them through had it not been for Ron. The very first one was Harry's. Most of the wizarding world showed up and ended up crying. People stood up to talk about him and how much he grew through the years. Ron was one of them, I would have but I couldn't bring myself to stand up. That was the day I knew what real loss felt like.
Ron talked about the day they had met on the train to the last time they had said goodbye before the final battle. How they had shared everything, from Ron's family to Harry's invisibility cloak. He also went on to say that Harry would have wanted us to move on with our lives, not to dwell in past. Remember everyone who gave there lives for our cause, but don't let them run our lives. He ended his speech by toasting Harry Potter, the boy-who-will-live-in-our-hearts-forever. Everyone in the audience stood and toasted him also. As Ron walk off the stage Remus stood up and started applauding him, soon everyone was on there feet. He got to his seat, picked Mora up and set her on his lap, took hold of my hand and squeezed it. There were tears in his eyes.
After his funeral Ginny came up to me, and through her sobbing, told me that she was six weeks pregnant with Neville's child.
I couldn't believe it, I was so happy for her. She and Neville had gotten engaged three weeks earlier and had planed to get married after the war was over. Neville was in St Mungo's for an unheard of curse that Belletrix Lestrange put on him just before he killed her.
Ron, Ginny, Luna, Percy and I went back to our house. When we got there I put Mora down for her nap and made tea. As everyone sat around the kitchen table, Ginny told Ron, Luna and Percy the news. Percy stood up from the table and picked Ginny up and swung her around in a circle. We all started laughing; that was the first time we had laughed in a long while.
Two months later things started going back to normal. Neville got out of St Mungo's he was still was under observation (no one had yet to discover what the curse had been), but we could only look at the happy things. Now Ginny and him were planning when there wedding will be taking place. Fleur was trying to convince Ginny to have a double wedding with her and Bill. Neville thought it was a good idea, but Ginny couldn't bring herself to make a final decision. I think she was still holding onto the past, the time when we were all still in school.
Finally, Mrs. Weasley got Ginny to agree saying that it would be especially wonderful to have both her oldest and youngest children married at the same time.
As she stood up at the alter and said those wonderful words 'I Do' was the moment I saw Ginny Weasley finally let go of everything bad that had happened in the last decade or so. She was free from everything, I was so happy for her.
My tale ends here. I have told you what has happened to my friends, my family and me. I hope that one day you find love, happiness and a family of your own. I even hope that you will feel loss, whether it is a small amount or life changing, just so you will appreciate what you have all around you.