They both looked incredibly handsome decked out in all the finery the Wizarding world considered proper attire for a wedding.
They had all gathered up in Ron's old room in the Burrow for a last moment of quiet before the large celebration. The guests were starting to arrive and the entire Burrow was in an uproar. An enticing aroma of food wafted up from the kitchen downstairs, mingling with the scent of newly picked wildflowers.
-
"It's quite a fuss they're making over this," Harry muttered.
"This is a big thing, Harry," Hermione told him.
"I know, it's not like I could have missed that fact with all the preparations around it," he answered with a smile.
"And, 'Mione, it's not like it's something one of us would be doing alone." Ron said. "No matter how appealing it might seem," he muttered under his breath.
Hermione giggled and elbowed him softly.
"I'm sorry, I always worry, even when there's no need."
"Ah, it's a part of what makes you, well, you," Harry told her. "And we do appreciate it."
"From time to time," Ron added. This time it was Harry's turn to elbow him, not so softly this time.
"Boys, stop arguing!" she laughed at them.
"Men, if you please, Hermione. We're all grown up now, aren't we Harry?" Ron asked with a glint in his eye.
"Indeed we are, even if 'Mione seemed to have missed it. We cut quite dashing figures nowadays if I may say so myself," Harry told her, keeping his face serious.
She couldn't help herself, she laughed until her stomach ached. Both Harry and Ron had to refrain themselves from supporting her, knowing full well what kind of reception that would get, what with the wrinkled clothes and all.
"I love you both"
She could see them looking at each other and grinning over her girlishness. She could hardly keep herself from hugging them, damned be the messiness in clothes and make-up sure to follow. Instead of giving in to another of her impulses she closed her eyes to calm herself down. "I love you both so much," she told them again.
-
She remembered telling them that on the eve before what was later dubbed the Last Battle. With something so bloody, so costly in lives and foremost, victorious, the papers seemed to think it was their duty to name it. It was all so stupid. It didn't matter that it was the first and last large clash between two opposite forces in something that had more assembled guerilla warfare filled with propaganda than a war.
She also told them that they were best friends and would always be by each other's side, come what may. Told them that they would see each other grow old, see their own children grow up in a world were none of this was necessary. They'd looked so tired and so forlorn by then that she promised them that. She told them she loved them and promised them a future.
It all turned out to be a lie, a false promise that she had no right to give, because only one part of the trio ever left that bloody battlefield again.
When she opened her eyes she could still see the same beautiful, sunny view that Ron's old room in the Burrow offered, but there were no longer anyone else in there, nor had there been. There were no signs of life, nothing that would indicate that anyone lived in this room, or had, for that matter, entered it in a long time.
She knew that disappearing inside her own mind wasn't helpful but there were days when she didn't think she could survive without doing it.
And what girl could be without her best friends on her wedding day?
-
A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews would be lovely and appreciated.