Hey, so this is my first ever fanfiction story and I'm hoping you guys will like it and be nice to me :) Constructuive critism is always welcome, but saying you hate it isn't helpful so please don't. I've tried to make sure it's all grammatically correct, with good spelling but if something is wrong ... sorry. I'll repost the warnings just incase - this is a suicide fic and has the death of a major character in it. It does mention in passing same sex relationships and Hermione and most of the Weasleys aren't shown in a positive light. If any of this doesn't appeal to you then I ask you not to read it as I don't want to offend anyone. Hope you like it, happy reading. Arwen'shellsong

The Great Hall was silent as everyone stared at the two figures standing in the middle. The teachers were sat at the head table some with varying degrees of shock on the faces, others had a resigned look. It was a similar picture among the students as some were horror struck and others (namely the Slytherin's) seemed to be enjoying the show immensely.

"What do you mean I'm to come with you?" Harry shouted in the face of Deloris Umbridge and her three Auror escorts.

"Well, Mr Potter," she replied in her simpering voice, which all in the hall could detect a layer of hidden malice and excitement in the undertones "you are to be escorted to the Ministry of Magic where you will be questioned about your involvement with the terrorist who formally identified himself as Lord Voldemort and then you will be handed over to your fiancée, Baron Berverick whom will take you to a prearranged destination where you will be married post haste."

The sinister smile on her face told Harry all he needed to know about this Baron, and that was that it would not be good for him to meet him let alone marry him. The man's gender was not a problem for Harry, as he had known for sometime that he was bisexual and it was this that caused Hermione to reject him, claiming that he was disgusting. Interestingly it was Ron who had stuck by Harry even when the other Weasley's had turned their collective backs on him after Ginny kicked up a fuss, under the false impression that when he returned from the Horrcrux hunt that he would sweep her off her feet and into marriage where he would buy her everything that she had ever wanted. Harry had been forced to tell her in no uncertain terms that marriage was not in his immediate plans; he had just regained his freedom he didn't want to lose it so quickly after the final battle had been won.

The ensuing storm that the family had conjured with the media involvement and vicious rumours they had spread gave the Ministry the opening they needed to pull a stunt like this, whilst the public's opinion of him was suitably low, getting him out of the way once and for all.

"I don't know any Baron Berverick, and even if I did I certainly wouldn't marry him!" Harry countered.

The Ministry official if anything looked more smug at this statement, she adopted a sympathetic tone that set Harry's teeth on edge. "I know, Harry, but unfortunately due to the tragic loss of your parents and godfather," She paused almost savouring delivering the news to the teen currently shaking with barley suppressed rage before her "and in accordance with the new Ministry policy of all orphan's under the government's care requiring a longer period of childhood to adjust to having such a traumatic experience so young in life. The Acting Minister of Magic, myself, decided it was best for you to be assigned into the care of a more mature gentleman, with the social influence to see to that all of your needs are met. Of course, the Baron felt it was a more established role of a spouse that you needed rather than another so called parental figure (something the Ministry quite agreed with) and so we arranged a legally binding eternal marriage contract between you both."

"You can't do that!" the furious voice of Ronald Weasley could be heard as he marched up to the group stood in front of his best friend. Squaring his shoulder's to them his stance suggested to everyone that he was more than willing to escalate this fight. "I've heard about Baron Berverick, the last time he was in the news it was because he was accused of killing a fifteen year old boy whilst he was taking part in the Baron's, so called, pleasure games. He only got off because the Russian Ministry couldn't find anything more than circumstantial evidence, but everyone knows he did it!"

"Mr Weasley, you would do well not to accuse a high powered man of crimes he did not commit, unless of course you wish to join Mr Potter in a cell in Azkaban, which is where he will be going if he doesn't willingly come with us." The senior auror replied quite calmly in the face of Ron's anger.

Harry whirled around to the back of the hall and to the teacher's sat there "Professor McGonagall, surly there's something you can do? Please, anything?" Looking her former student in the eye, Harry could see that she thought the situation hopeless. The look she gave him was one similar to that when he walked out of the Great Hall to find the last Horrcrux, like she was resigned to never seeing him again and only sorry that she couldn't do more. "I'm sorry, Mr Potter, I truly am but there's nothing I can do."

"Well then, now that that's settled, Mr Potter why don't you go and pack your things?" ordered the toad faced witch.

In a state of shock Harry felt his body move without his consent towards the large doors that guarded the entrance of the Great Hall, relieved when he felt the weight of Ron's comforting arm settle around his shoulders. "I said Mr Potter, Mr Weasley" the squeaking tone that irritated everyone in the room, sounded again. Harry didn't hear Ron reply but he felt the arm briefly lift from his shoulders and an intake of startled and amused breath from the room at large, convinced him that his friend did indeed respond.

They travelled in silence through the maze of corridors and moving staircases on their way to the Gryffindor Tower, a journey on any normal day would seem fairly quick but today seemed take an hour and at the same time no time at all. Harry had only felt this feeling once before, when he had journeyed into the Forbidden Forest to face Voldemort to die. Apart of his mind told him that he was being ridiculous as this was nowhere near as bad and he had every chance of finding a way out of this situation later, but another altogether more significant part of him had given up. He couldn't carry on fighting the world anymore, the constant battles of people changing their opinions of him as quick as the wind changes, the deaths of his loved ones, the war and now this had broken something inside him. He was so tired that the effort of keeping moving was monumental, he was unsure of when he had made his decision or even if he made one at all, but he knew he needed sleep. Now he just had to convince Ron.

Without him being aware the two boys had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Ron said something that sounded distant and muffled to Harry. The portrait swung open revealing the warm red and gold glow the common room gave off, though Harry could feel nothing but cold. They climbed the stairs to the seventh year boy's dorm and went inside. Harry immediately went for his bed and sat down on it facing the door and Ron, he watched as Ron's mouth moved forming his name in a silent plea to gain his attention, but he could hear nothing.

A dizzying rush of warmth and movement bombarded Harry as a flood of noise crashed into his ears penetrating his confused mind "HARRY!"

"Ron?" his voice sounded hoarse even to himself.

"I'm here" smiled Ron sadly, "well come on then you can't be going to this new life with out any of your things can you?" he carried on in cheerfully upbeat voice though every word was hollow to them both. "Let's see what will you need, clothes, shoes probably a few books to pass the time …"

"Ron …" Harry whispered.

"toiletries can't forgot those, those are important, shampoo and toothpaste and stuff …"

"Ron…"

"yeah, yeah you'll be wanting to take the photo album and the invisibility cloak and your firebolt and the map you should take the map for sentimental value …"

"Ron…" Harry sighed looking up at the red head that was frantically moving about the room shoving things in the open trunk at the foot of his bed. Seeming to finally run out of steam Ron turned to face Harry; he had tears running down his face.

"Ron, I can't do this …"

"Of course you can" Ron interrupted again in the same cheerful tone "we can always write and the guy's quite old so he'll probably die soon anyway, hey I could always send you something by owl to slip into his tea, or something, I bet Snape's got some really horrible stuff left in his storeroom, I could sneak down and get it and send it to you and you could…"

"Ron, I can't do this, you know I can't, I'm tired, too tired. I promised myself that I wouldn't give up during the war and I didn't, I came back for you guys, to finish him off. But now I'm tired and I want to sleep Ron, I just want to sleep, somewhere calm and peaceful where I can rest, do you understand?" Belatedly Harry realised he too was crying.

"What if I came with you, you know we could … we could think of something" Ron chocked out. But Harry was already shaking his head.

"You know that won't work." Ron's half nod was all the confirmation Harry needed.

"There's a will at Gringot's everything I had will go to you, you'll be able to do all the things you've ever wanted to but never had the chance. You could go and see China, to that place where they had the first type of Quiditch." Harry smiled up at him.

Ron let a half sob pass his lips unwillingly as if in response to Harry 's attempt at humour "We were supposed to go see that together, you promised, how will you know what it looks like if you don't go?"

"Write me a letter, I've never not read a letter you've sent me." Harry looked into Ron's face his now clear of tears and Ron could see a sort of peace that had settled on him. "I want you to go down to the Great Hall and tell them I'll be waiting outside, okay? I don't want you to be around when it happens or they'll blame you. I'll give you five minutes." He nodded to Ron. Stumbling across the dorm Ron paused at the door he looked back at his best friend smiling for the last time.

"You were more like my brother than any of the others could be, you never thought of me as second best." This said Ron quickly hurried out of the room slamming the door shut behind him, just in time to miss the response of "I love you too, Ron."

Harry looked around the room he'd used as a home base for the last eight years, he briefly smiled at the memories he had accumulated here, before he closed the lid on his trunk and walked out of the dorm, common room and tower. As he let his feet take him through the familiar twists and turns of the corridors, his mind focussed on the past faces, names and feelings they flashed through him as he walked through every memory that had happened during this route though he couldn't have described a single one. As he climbed the well worn steps of the astronomy tower his mind turned towards those he would be seeing soon, Remus who had asked him to be a godfather, Sirius who wanted to take him away, Dumbledore who had believed him where no one else would, his Dad, so brave he'd faced Voldemort to protect his family and his Mum, his beautiful Mother, who had protected him even beyond death. With each step and thought Harry felt a weight that had been on his shoulder's start to lift, by the time he reached the top of the staircase and was crossing the open area, climbing over the railing he felt as though he could finally breathe after years of choking.

By the time he jumped he felt like he was flying.

Ron entered the Great Hall feeling numb; he felt nothing as he told Deloris Umbridge that Harry would wait for her outside. He felt nothing as she bad mouthed him and dragged her group outside to go and fetch him. He felt nothing when he heard the shriek of anger or when the entire hall filed out to see what was the matter, or when their reactions varied from shock to sadness to anger to celebration at the sight of Harry lying on the grass the same as his mentor had two years before him. He even felt nothing as they moved the body to the hospital wing and escorted the students back to the Great Hall. When they started talking about a great funeral being arranged with everybody being invited, then Ron felt something, then Ron felt anger.

Years later he cannot tell you what he said that day only that nobody tried to stop him when he left with the body and apparated to Grimmald Place once outside of the wards.

He laid the body upon the master bed, put a preservation charm on it and went to make himself a drink.

It was three days later when Ron woke up and realised the glasses that he had fallen asleep with in his hand were laid on top of a map of China that Harry had kept. That morning Ron woke up and smiled, he walked into the master bedroom, sat in the chair at the vanity table, and looked at Harry as he spoke. " I want to say thank you, for everything, but mostly for sitting in a train compartment of the first day of school and listening to a stupid kid who had no idea what he had. I want to thank you for sticking with him, no matter what he did, and for helping to put him back into place when he got out of it. I want to thank you for everything you gave me, and for letting me know you and for letting me coming along on that crazy adventure. But most of all I want to say I love you and I will miss you." With that said Ron kissed Harry's forehead.

He burned the body and scattered the ashes on a mountain top in Whales that he had been camping on as a child, Harry had seen the picture and commented that it was beautiful. Ron then picked up his newly acquired firebolt strapped the luggage on the back and took off across the channel; he could always stop off in some places along the way to China.

The End

Hope you liked it, please review and tell me what you thought. Thanks.