Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
By Wunderwolfiehhr
No no no please no no
Hermione Granger watched in horror as her best friend, Harry Potter was dying in front of her eyes. He was only seventeen years old and he didn't even get a fight, just a booby trap with his name on it. A small cottage that the Death Eaters rigged with high explosives was all it took. No, no guns-a-blazing ending for the Boy Who Lived. He died in the mud in some field in a godforsaken part of England.
"Mione' , please listen to me,"
Harry's voice was faint, but lucid. When Hermione looked him she didn't see the seventeen year old Harry, but the awkward eleven-year old who she met six years ago. She blinked away the tears and shaking , lowered him to the ground and she felt them collectively sinking into the soft earth.
"Take my hand, Hermione, please"
She did , feeling the life slowly being lost there.
"Don't worry , I'm not going to leave just yet, we have but a little time to talk. "
Harry's hand weakly squeezed hers. "You, my Hermione, my first true, loyal friend, deserve truth."
Hermione had Harry's head in her lap and her hand was stroking his bloody cheek. Silently, tears streamed down her face and she could feel herself shaking.
He coughed , and continued , "I love you, Hermione Granger, I've loved you since that day on the Hogwart's express. I always loved you. I understand that you don't love me, that your heart is with another, but you must let me die in peace. Please stay here, Hermione, I don't want it to end like...this..I've failed the one person that showed me love."
Hermione was shocked - Harry? Loving Her?
"You...love..me?" Hermione said brokenly.
"Hermione, love, it's always been you. Ever since that day on the Hogwarts Express."
"Oh, I was a fool about it, wasn't I? ...Didn't help that a bloody textbook came between us, or that I nearly kissed you on Buckbeak in third year."
Hermione could only nod silently as she held him in her trembling arms.
" I remember when I was packing up, leaving Hogwarts for the last time and I saw something beautiful and horrible-the Mirror of Erised. Oh, how it tainted me, love"
Hermione knew what that mirror did, projecting an almost unobtainable fantasy upon the viewer.
"I saw you. Me... Our...our c-cc-ch-children.A beautiful place. That's the image that kept me fighting...kept me alive..*cough* till now . He gestured lamely.
Harry's voice was fading , but it didn't matter. Hermione's lips touched his. Six years of pent-up affection,hormones, and stolen moments distilled into one gentle caress. She kissed him fiercely , albeit chastely. She imagined for a moment, rather childishly that, maybe, just maybe she could bring him back to life. True love's kiss and all that.
But fairytales were just that: sagas of escapism The world cares very little about mere humans and their petty woes- their joys, their hates, and their strife; all were inconsequential.
But to Hermione Jean Granger it was everything. Her universe shattered before her eyes and the flame of hope was extinguished forever
She didn't want to wash her lips again so she would always be able to feel Harry on her forever.
Harry whispered "just as wonderful as I always dreamed" and briefly his eyes found Hermione's brown orbs. They then closed forever.
O children, play in the barn or dale
But stray from the farmer's field
For in there the lovers sleep silent
And they lie there still
Upon time's hill
By earth's gentle caress
Which puts young martyrs to rest
-Post-War children's rhyme