I can't help but wonder how different things would have been if I had just noticed her. If I had asked her to the ball in fourth year, instead of chasing after Cho, a chase which was inevitably a lost cause, things might have turned out better than they are now. Why hadn't I asked her? Perhaps it was I was too wrapped up in the tournament to notice anything or anyone but myself and just getting through it alive. I'm not entirely sure, but look back to that moment as my first mistake as far as Hermione Granger is concerned.
My second mistake is overlooking her, in my pursuit of Ginny Weazley, my best mate's sister, a move that would end only with heartache and Ron's fist in my face. I only stepped back from Hermione, because I knew Ron liked her and Hermione seemed to have gone completely mad for him. Just watching those two dance around the issue for the last three years, too stubborn to just go with their feelings, or was it perhaps that Hermione was waiting for someone else to ask her out, like, say, me?
It was she who was there for me the most, holding my hand when we farewelled Dumbledore and even then it was hard to suppress the rush that filled my body aching for her touch to be more than just comfort. I wanted so very bad for her to see me, Harry Potter, not as the "boy who lived" or the tri-wizard champion, or the git whose but she had to save every time, because I'm too head strong to listen to her logic. I wanted her to see more than that. I wanted her to see someone who could love her, like no-one else ever could.
My third mistake was sitting by, watching her cry herself to sleep every night, after Ron left us to find the Horcruxes, and not do anything. I never made a move. I was too scared. Then Ron came back and I stood by and watched him slip back into his regular pattern of taking Hermione for granted and again, did nothing.
Now she is immersed in battle, along with the rest of the DA and the Order, risking her life for everything I stood for and for everything this world stands to lose, while I charge through the forbidden forest to meet my death. He is waiting for me, thinking that I will give him the pleasure of a fair fight. I know what I must do, for without Hermione's love I have nothing left. I will submit, but I know that he cannot survive if I do not. So I stand face to face with the wizard who killed my parents ready to meet the fate that should have been mine long ago.
My last thought as the green light penetrates my soul is that although, I know she'll weep, at least she will be able to move on with her life and I am glad that I had not burden her with my love and I realise that what I thought were mistakes and missed opportunities to love her were for the best. I clutch the stone in my fist, as he utters the curse and without so much as lifting my wand to defend myself against it, I fall to my death, knowing that the world and the one I love will be better off because of it.