Take a Bow
The flowers are all faded now
Along with your letters
They will never see the light of day
Cause I'll never take them out
"I can't do this anymore!" Hermione screams and she throws her arms up in dramatic defeat as tears fall down out of her beautiful brown eyes. "I can't pretend this isn't going to happen, Harry!" Her voice cracks and she falls to the floor, onto her knees like she's about to pray but I know she isn't.
Her sobs are loud; they seem almost deafening in the small, once cosy room that is the room of requirement. She is on the floor, wearing only a silk robe and the scene is heartbreaking. I watch her, knowing what emotions she is experiencing but there is the truth that Hermione needs support and I cannot support her if I am a screaming, sobbing mess, like she is currently. My sweet, logical Hermione has tumbled under the pressure of Ron and Ginny's not-so-secretive desires. She knows, as do I, that we are not allowed to be together.
For two years, we have fought that notion. It has bought us nothing but pain and misery. We have seen this coming for so long and we are not ready – if we ever would be – to say goodbye to all that we know now. Because of the expectations and demands of other people, we must bury the past behind us and live a lie, a lie that we will believe to be truth.
A lie that we already hate.
I want to sweep her off the floor, to hold her in my arms and tell her that everything is going to be fine but I know, as does she, that it is never going to be okay again. Bitter tears well in my eyes as I slide off the silky covers, naked as the day I was born, and sit next to Hermione. Her body is almost convulsing with the force of her sobs and God, I hold her tight. I don't whisper a thing.
There's nothing I can say to make this better.
And there's no turning back
It's for the better
Baby, I deserve more than empty words
And promises
I believed everything you said
And I gave you the best I had
Oh.
Time is ticking. Each second that passes by is another stab in my heart, a constant reminder that our time together is drawing to a close. The terrible claws of Fate are to rip us apart soon and there is not a fucking thing we can do to stop it. The note that we received, the one that destroyed everything, is lying on the floor in my peripheral vision. From where we are sat, the writing is a blur but the words are burned into my mind.
I will never forget.
Closing my eyes, I bury my head into Hermione's curly hair. I smell the strawberries, a welcome distraction, and the tears that are shining in my eyes slip out and into it. I grab her hand tightly, never wanting to let go but we know what we must do.
Together, we stand and I sit her on the bed. Her face is blotchy, her eyes red rimmed and her face is wet with tears but she is so beautiful to me. I grab my wand from its place on my bedside table and mutter a Glamour Charm to cover it up. Hermione wouldn't want them to think she had been so weak as to cry, after all. I agree with her; I don't want them to see how much this hurts inside.
Her eyes tell me that she is broken. I am pathetic to have allowed them to hurt my Hermione.
She tells me that she wants to get dressed on her own. Slowly, she slinks off to the bathroom and I am left there, naked. My body is controlling me. My mind is a maelstrom of pain, rage and sorrow. I cannot remember how I got dressed but by the time Hermione is ready, I am sitting on the bed desolately, thinking of better times and happy memories.
She opens the bathroom door as she walks delicately over to me and sits next to me. "Oh, Harry," she whispered, "How could we have screwed up so badly?"
I'm asking myself the same question, Hermione.
So take a bow
Cause you've taken everything else
You played the part
Like a star, you played it so well
Take a bow
Cause this scene is coming to an end
I gave you love
All you gave me was pretend
So now take a bow…
As we walk through the halls of Hogwarts, I feel like we are walking through the Hall of Shame. We are holding hands for what is destined to be the last time. Dumbledore's Office is our destination. We walk there quietly. We don't talk.
My mouth is dry and my hands are sweaty but Hermione is there and she is too beautiful for this. I can hear her sniffling but she knows that she is safe because of the Glamour Charm. Instead of the rage I should feel, I feel nothing. I am a void of nothing.
The gargoyle that guards Dumbledore's Office comes up at the end of the corridor. I hear Hermione's breath become laboured and stressed, as does mine. Squeezing her hand tighter, we start walking the final stretch to the beginning of a meaningless existence. Just as the gargoyle is in touching distance, I stop her and pull her to me, our lips meeting.
When our short kiss is over, I look into her eyes.
"Hermione…" I do not know what to say. I feel that whatever I say won't be enough to console her but this is my last chance to say something before the world becomes daunting and unwelcome. I stare into her eyes long and hard.
In the midst of the moment, I pluck up some courage and I whisper, "I love you, Hermione Granger."
The future's about to change
Before you know it
The curtain closes
"Now, Harry, surely you understand that this…affair with Miss Granger cannot continue?" He says it like he's sorry, like he's been there before. He hasn't. Ever.
Albus Dumbledore is a fucking liar. He looks at me with those big, bespectacled blue eyes, trying to force me to his opinion. Minister Scrimgeour also sits there in his pristine royal blue robes looking official and nonchalant. I want to scream at him until I'm panting and blue in the face but Hermione's here and I can't loose control in front of her; it's not polite.
"Yes sir." There's nothing else I can say. Our Fate has been decided since the note arrived. The note that both Dumbledore and Scrimgeour signed.
Screw them.
"And do you agree to the conditions of the note?" Scrimgeour asks, his hands steepled in front of him in a distinctly Dumbledore fashion. His near yellow eyes shine as they look at me, completely ignoring Hermione, who sits in the chair next to mine, trembling.
I cannot show enough malice in my smirk. "I don't appear to have a choice." I blink at how hopeless my voice is, how devoid of life it is.
We all know that my statement is true.
Take a look around
There's no one in the crowd
I'm throwing away the pain
And you should know that your performance
Made me strong enough
Hermione's presence is a constant. She has not spoken a word but she is there and that, in itself is enough. The silence that follows my statement is like a verbal attack at my eardrums, it seems so loud but there is not a sound. Tension is thick in the air, like a knife could slice through it and then some. My hands grip the chair rests until my knuckles are white and painful. It is the only restraint I can think of that somewhat stops me thinking about murdering both of the bastards in the harshest way possible.
I cannot think of anything harsh enough.
What they are going to do is inhumane. They have no right to do this – they have no right to stop our relationship but they feel they must and we can only comply. After all, what good would our love be when we are brain dead in Azkaban? People without souls are unable to love, to feel.
"You understand that this is necessary?" Dumbledore frowns at my shrug, "It is for the Greater Good."
"Whose greater good is this, Professor?" Hermione speaks, her voice crystal clear though the volume at which she speaks is barely above a whisper. Her voice does not tremble, it does not betray the fear that I know she is feeling.
"Everyone's, my dear."
So take a bow
Cause you've taken everything else
You played the part
Like a star, you played it so well
I look at Dumbledore. He is stressed, not because of what he has done. He is merely stressed because I do not see his opinion as fact. Dumbledore is not always right, he has just been correct so many times that he has become arrogant.
"Children," He is trying to be superior. It does not work. "Your relationship causes many problems for many people and it is simply too destructive to be allowed to continue. I must admit, however, that your ability to hide this relationship for over a year is most magnificent. It is obvious that you wish to remain a couple but, Harry, Hermione, sometimes, for the good of everyone, it is simply better to forget."
I sigh. There is nothing I can do. We are both helpless. Our wands hold no power against theirs and even if we were reckless enough to strike, we would surely face a punishment of the same calibre of what they had threatened us with regardless. Still, I am unsure whether I would rather face the dementors or the back stabbing face of democracy. He had saved them all, twice, and they just couldn't let him be happy, could they?
And by taking away Hermione, in the way that I know her now, is essentially taking away my happiness. "And, after we all forget, what happens then? What is destined to happen, old man?" I sneer, feeling white hot anger seep through my depressive thoughts.
Take a bow
Cause this scene is coming to an end
I gave you love
All you gave me was pretend
So now take a bow…
Scrimgeour and Dumbledore share a glance, silently communicating about my somewhat aggressive behaviour. It is scaring them.
"You will find suitable partners that suit purpose and fulfil your duties to the Wizarding World." Scrimgeour says scathingly, lowering his steepled hands and clenching them into fists.
My voice is low and dangerous. "I defeat Voldemort. I saved the fucking Wizarding World. Don't I deserve some happiness?"
"No."
Well it must have been slight of hand
Cause I still can't understand
How I could never see
Just what a fool believed
Mmmm
Don't trust them, don't believe. They're waiting for the moment that they can condemn you, waiting for the moment they can show their true colours. We don't see it, do we, until it's too late? It's all smiles and rainbows but then, it's anger and thunder. You have to give it to them, their facades are perfect. They are the best and worst kind of actors.
Hermione, don't blame me, will you? I didn't see…I didn't know. I couldn't see beyond the smiles and congratulations to see what unthankful bastards they were. It's too late now, though, and I have failed to protect you. I have failed.
I believed in the facades of Dumbledore and Scrimgeour and I thought they'd let us be.
God, I couldn't have been more wrong.
But the lies they start to show
Tell me how does it feel to know
Right now that I won't be around
So baby before I put you out
All those promises I made, all the fantasies we had. They won't happen. I glare at both the men and I feel the fear in Hermione changing into the righteous anger that I also feel raging inside me. They ruined everything.
You can delete our memoires; you can make us into your pawns. We can't stop you. You're the bloody Minister of Magic and the fucking Chief Warlock of the Wizagmont. In this game of political power plays – the ones that this issue is based on – we are nothing compared to you two. We don't care if we screw up politics but you do and apparently, you have the right to do this to us.
Do what you want to do. It's not like we'll remember anything.
I think that's the point, isn't it?
Take a bow
Cause you've taken everything else
You played the part
Like a star, you played it so well
Take a bow
Cause this scene is coning to an end
I gave you love
All you gave me was pretend
So now take a bow
Both men take out their wands, pointing one at either Hermione or I. Their faces do not show regret or any remorse. I suppose they wouldn't – they are politicians. Time passes slowly and all I can hear is my heart pumping through my ears and the anger is consuming me.
Neither man's arm trembles, either. This is probably nothing new to them. Just all in a day's job.
How can they live with themselves?
They look at each other and nod. Cruelly, Scrimgeour, who has his wand pointed at Hermione, fires the curse at Hermione. I yell as the colourless spell hits her and her expression turns blank. I see red but I cannot move from my chair. There are ropes binding me.
Dumbledore is about to shoot the same spell. I look into his eyes – there is no emotion. I remember shouting something, anything but he does not yield as he moves his hands to perform the wand movements.
In slow motion, I look over at Hermione. She is asleep. She has forgotten the past two years we spent together, all that we dreamed. Thankfully, though, they have allowed us to keep our knowledge of spells and such. They have only deleted our special moments and anything to do with our relationship. Apparently, they are implanting new memories that fit into a story that everyone else has been told. I can only assume that they are under Compulsion Charms, too.
Hermione is smart, though and I hope, somehow, that she figures the grand scheme all out.
Outside of my thought train, Dumbledore finishes his wand movement and the tip of his wand begins to glow. I know that I am only seconds away from loosing all my memoires. Memoires of better times fill my brain, circling around like a hurricane, so fast that I cannot see them but I feel the warmth of love that radiates from them all.
I will not remember any of these moments.
"Obliviate!"
'Take a Bow' by Leona Lewis. I do not own the song, nor J.K.R's fabulous book series. Thanks for reading.