She would always remember that day. The smell of the smoke still rising from the collapsed building. The sound of crying over the mangled bodies strewn across the battlefield. The feeling of another hand clasped in hers, a lifeline, pulling her back to reality, while simultaneously feeling completely alone in the world.
She would remember that day because it was engraved in her. It was part of her being. Just like the ministry, just like Malfoy Manor, just like Godrick's Hollow, just like every other thing that they had been through since they were eleven. She never thought that some boys she had met on a train would have changed her life forever, lead her on a never ending series of misadventures that would change everything, set her further apart from everyone else, make her a leader, a caretaker, a sister, a confidant, a friend.
She had seen a lot of things someone her age should never have to see- things no one should ever have to see. She had lived through it all, but she never thought that she would see such evil and devastation on this scale. Now that she had, all of her infamous logic and knowledge failed her. She didn't have any advice, or plans, or even words of comfort to offer. She was numb. If it weren't for the feel of a cold hand in hers, the occasional squeeze bringing her back to life every so often, she wouldn't be sure if she were really here to experience it. There it was again, the squeeze of a hand, pulling her back to the horrendous, life altering present that would now be her life. When she looked at him, all she saw was the boy from the train. How many years ago was that now? It felt like a lifetime. She saw taped up glasses and too big clothes on an undernourished boy who looked like all happiness had been sucked out of him by life. She knew that what actually stood there now, grasping her hand was that boy, a little taller, still too skinny, with cracked glasses. His eyes seemed like they held all of the sadness in the world, as if he had carried everyone's burdens on his shoulders, which in a way he had. Is she looked closely, she could see some content, the sense that he knew this life of pain was over, and that he was about to embark on the life of a normal boy, with normal worries and problems. She could tell that he had been set free, released of his nightmarish past that seemed to haunt him wherever he went. She also saw that he was looking back at her with a sad smile, as if he was reading her thoughts. Then he said the words that brought her back to life;
Go find him.
