Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine - he's all Hermione's. Oops, my bad. I mean J.K. Rowling's. The only thing I own is this lovely (?) drabble.

Author's Note: I wrote this for my friend Coco. She gave me a prompt (which was angst in chaos seconds before the war), a prompt, and I wrote the rest.

This contains lots of weird angst and much sap. If that's not your thing, then don't read the fic.

- - -

She doesn't want him to leave.

It's time, he has got to go save the world, but she just can't let him go. She can't she can't she can't.

He pleads for her to let him go, to not beg him to stay, and if she did ask him to, he wouldn't stop himself from staying there with her, protecting her. But they both know he's got to protect the world too, and if anything happened to her he would never forgive himself; he would blame himself and only himself and die; he can't live without her. He just can't. If she dies, he does, too.

- - -

And so she lets him go. She watches as his black, disheveled hair and slim figure disappear from view and she finds herself longing to go after him. But she doesn't. Because she knows how important this is to him, to them, to the wizarding world, for him to fulfill the prophecy and save the world from evil. After all, good always triumphs over evil. She has to smile faintly at that.

Then all hell breaks loose. She bites back a scream and gets ready; he taught her to always be prepared.

She fights back with every ounce of strength she's got, and when it's not enough, she fights back with love; it's the greatest and worst weapon mankind has. The thought of him keeps her going and fighting to the end.

- - -

The most powerful wizard falls and all is silent. Everything has turned ugly and heartwrenching. She bites back the tears that threaten to fall at any moment and helps people back onto their feet. She closes the eyes of those who had fallen and fought bravely, comforts those who are sick with grief and heartbreak, and helps rebuild everything. She can't believe it went on this far - and they had won.

She senses him nearby and forgetting what she was doing before, she runs over to him and tackles him with a bone-crushing hug. Tears fall from her eyes; she can hear his steady heartbeat.

And they find themselves crying; for those who had fallen, for the end of all things and a new beginning, and for each other.

She doesn't need to say in words how thankful she is that he's alive.

She just is.