Preface
I wish I could go back to the first day of that summer. That hot summer. That summer full of mystery and confusion. But also love, and more of it than I had ever known. I have never seen so much love as I did when we were all facing the idea that we may never love again. And that is a scary prospect. One that drives the least heroic of us to step forward and become more than a sidekick, but my own personal hero. I owe my life to the thought that love was to be lost and losses were to be those we loved. And that's what He wanted. He wanted to see love gone, love fallen through the cracks, the world devoid of love and everything good. But thanks to the love that survived even the harshest of threats, the most difficult of losses, and the largest battles- nothing will ever replace that summer.
The summer started off with a feeling of hopelessness and despair as we three traveled home on the scarlet train, the Hogwarts Express. I could see it in his bright green eyes that he had no intention of ever being on that train again. And I couldn't blame him. None of us saw what happened that night but him and none of us knew what would happen and we didn't know why it had to be him. As Ron and I struggled to reach him, struggled to console him, though we all felt the weight of the hole now occupying our hearts and spirit, I couldn't help but feel like we weren't the ones he needed just now. And I knew we weren't the ones he needed, but he would never admit that the person he needed the most was the one who loved him the most and the only one he couldn't let near him because of it. I'm a girl, I see these things. As I stared at him staring out the window, his hands running through his jet black mess of hair, as if trying to suck out the memories inside that head, I wondered why all I could think about was the boy whose shoulder I'd cried on, whose hand I had held as we all watched with broken hearts the burial of the greatest wizard who ever lived. But that was hours ago. Now we all looked at the gloomy prospects of our future.