AN: Yes, I know this is short. I wrote this after watching the Remembrance Day programme on TV, and it overwhelmed me so much I felt it deserved a story. So this is for those who died in the First and Second World Wars. You deserved so much more.

In Memoriam

'Hermione, Hermione, wake up.' Parvati was shaking Hermione's shoulder. 'Quick, get dressed. We need to go outside now. It's time. The second of May.' And that's when Hermione remembered.

She got dressed quickly into plain black robes, then grabbed her wand and hurried out of the dormitory. She felt numb, and some of the students around her looked slightly ill. But that didn't prepare them for what they were going to be faced with next.

As they filed out through the Entrance Hall and into the grounds, it was almost pitch black, lit only by a few flickering flames that guided the way. The night wasn't alive like it usually was – it felt dead, quiet, and full of regret. Hermione wanted to cry there and then.

But then, as she continued, she saw people. She was overwhelmed by the sheer number of them: it seemed that the whole wizarding world had come to Hogwarts. A lot of them wore plain black robes and had their heads bowed. Her and the rest of the eighth year walked steadily towards the front. Hermione could see so many people she recognised, yet there were even more who she couldn't see that weren't there. The people who wouldn't be there ever again.

Hermione saw Ron and Harry and broke away from the group to where the two boys had saved her a seat. She was going to say thank you but stopped herself: they would know what she meant. Now didn't exactly seem the time for speaking.

Soon people stopped arriving and Professor McGonagall walked up to the front. Clearing her throat, she said,

'Would Harry Potter please come up to the front?'

No one spoke, even though Hermione knew that everybody, including her, had been expecting their Headteacher to give the speech. Even the Slytherins said nothing. She stood back as Harry walked past her, not looking at anyone. She knew how hard this must be for him. He reached the front, and still not looking up, began.

'We are gathered here today, in memoriam, in remembrance, of the seventy seven innocent witches and wizards who lost there lives one year ago today, during the Second Wizarding War. But let us also not forget those who were injured, or those who died in the First Wizarding War. None of them deserved it, and we all know that. But we loved them dearly, and that is what matters most. And in the words of the great Albus Dumbledore:

'"Do not pity the dead, pity the living. But most of all, pity those who live without love." Thank you.'

Silence. A well-planned silence, but a silence that was missing something. And Hermione knew what the silence was missing. Taking a deep breath, she pointed her wand up and whispered,

'In Memoriam.'

Her wand shone with a tiny blue light in the pitch black sky, alone in a world full of sorrow. And that was when Ron looked at her, and she looked at him, eyes sparkling with tears.

'I love you,' she said.

'In Memoriam,' he whispered.

And soon, the hundreds of people that stood around her had pointed there wands up a the sky and whispered the same thing, and soon the sky was filled with many blue lights, like stars.

Little beams of love shone brightly in the night.