Prompt : metal
Word count : 374.
Hermione gazed down upon the collection of mourners at her graveside. She watched those closest to the coffin especially; her parents, a mass of redheaded friends, Harry and Neville, the shock of white-blonde which indicated Luna.
They wept, some knelt on the sodden grass, clinging to each other for support. It should have been nice to know how much they loved her, but it wasn't.
She wished she could tell them that it had been nothing.
It hadn't been quick and painless by any means. Before consciousness had slipped from her grasp, the constant ache of losing litre after precious litre of blood as it spilled slowly from the wound in her stomach, had been terrible. The waiting on that cold, dark pavement as she prayed somebody would find her before it was too late, knowing no-one would, had been awful.
But it had still been nothing, nothing compared to what it could have been. Compared to the endless, searing pain of the cruciatus curse, of being tortured by an invisible force until you couldn't even remember your own family and lucidity was but a distant memory, of dying before she had seen most of those she loved safely through the war, not knowing if they would succeed without her …
Compared to that, the cold, metal blade, when her friends were far away and safe, had been a blessing. It was a physical death, carried out in an alleyway by a figure hooded not in black robes but a grey sweatshirt, for a mobile phone which she didn't own and currency that would forever puzzle him.
She watched as the man who would have been her husband scattered a handful of soil on the deep chestnut wood of her coffin.
Then the woman who would have been her bridesmaid.
The man who would have been her best friend even when they were both old and grey.
The man who would have taught her children at Hogwarts.
The woman who would have regaled her with stories of nargles at dinner parties.
She wished she could tell them that by far the worst part of dying was being separated from them.
She wished she could tell them, one last time, how much she loved them.
A/N: What did you think?
There are a ton more of these drabbles on my profile, if you like them (most are happy, though). Also, there is a poll there and the link to a one-shot/drabble contest I've set up, the closing date of which is September 1st and I need more entries, so be quick :D