The battle was over. This single thought bounced around her mind but was never really absorbed. How could the terror and the hatred and the fighting all be over? Hermione's wand clattered to the floor and she followed it. The rubble was piled up from collapsed walls and her body was hidden from view behind it. All around her there was an almost perfect semi-circle of Death Eaters. She had killed most of them, the others fled when they felt their Dark Marks disappear. Her hip burned and her legs and arms were scorched and bleeding. Yet somehow she found the strength to push herself back onto her feet, clutching her wand tightly. Slowly, she made her way down to the Great Hall, carefully ignoring the dust and the scorch marks from spells which had missed their targets.
The doors of the Great Hall were gone. The hinges swung gently in the midnight breeze but no one seemed to notice. Hogwarts students and Order members milled around. Some were sitting up and being healed by Madam Pomfrey. Others just sat and stared at those lying dead around them, the sheets covering the bodies coloured with the individuals former house colours. The Weasley family sat about halfway up the Hall. The grief on their faces would have made Hermione's heart twist had she not been so distracted. There were two bodies. Two Gryffindor sheets covering two people. Hermione began to cry as her brain caught up with what her eyes had been desperately trying to tell her. George, Charlie, Bill, Ginny, Percy and Mr and Mrs Weasley all sat in a loose circle. Someone's missing. Her brain shied away from the answer, refusing to believe it. The world would not be so cruel as to do that. Not to those who had already lost so much. She had seen the wall when it had collapsed on Fred and had already understood he was dead. But the second body… Slowly she crept up the hall until she was standing over Ginny's shoulder. The sheet shad been pulled back to show the faces of the two boys. Fred was smiling slightly as though he found death the strangest joke of all. The other boy had floppy, red hair and freckles and he looked…peaceful. Hermione wasn't even aware of walking away. It was only when she came to rest on the bottom of the staircase that her brain comprehended something other than the final look on Ronald Weasley's face.
Harry found her like that, curled up on the stairs staring at her shoes. He wrapped himself around her, trying desperately to find some comfort in her slender frame.
"What happened?" The words could have been spoken by a computer for all the emotion she put into them. Harry pulled her into his lap and buried his head in her hair, ignoring the blood and soot which clung to it.
"A killing curse. It bounced off one of the Order's shields and hit Ron. It was just after Voldemort fell. We don't even know who fired it. Ron didn't see it coming. He felt nothing." Hermione lay limp in his arms, barely blinking. He wrapped his arm around her waist and felt the blood dripping from the wound on her hip. "Hermione, you're bleeding. What happened?"
Hermione was good with questions and she answered on automatic. Harry even felt her arms twitch as though she meant to raise her hand.
"Remus bit me. He was hit by a befuddlement Jinx. He didn't realise it was me. It's not too bad really."
Harry felt his world contract. First Ron dead and now this…? Voldemort had timed the final battle to coincide with the full moon. If Remus had bitten her then she was infected. She was broken. She was…asleep. No. Not asleep. She had fainted. Slowly Harry got to his feet, cuddling Hermione to him as he walked down the stairs to the hospital wing. He laid her down on a free bed, the room having been extended magically and extra beds added to accommodate (fr) the wounded. Harry kissed her forehead and curled up next to her. Everything just became too much. He closed his eyes and slept.
People were starting to get worried. The Chosen One and the Gryffindor Princess still hadn't woken up. They were kept under stasis spells to stop their health deteriorating. It had been a week since the Battle. The dead were removed from the castle and the rebuilding had begun. The Hospital Wing was allowed to shrink back to its original size as its patients left. Their wounds had been treated. The Weasley family had been devastated to discover Hermione's lycanthropy. Harry didn't have any wounds. Aside from cuts and bruises he seemed to have more mental injuries than physical. Madam Pomfrey had tried to separate them, to different beds at least. But Harry Potter had a death grip on his friend and refused to let go. So they shared a double bed together as the world waited for its saviours to wake up.