Author's Note: I'm not 100% sure where this has come from tonight, but I was struck with a sudden inspiration to write and I didn't fight it. So here we are.

Birthday GiftFic for Issacswolfsbane (Neddy)

Part of the 2017 New Years Resolutions Challenge (many resolutions)

Hogwarts Assignment #7

Charms - Write a story that takes place directly after the battle of Hogwarts. Focus especially on how the survivors might feel. [Extra Prompts: (setting) Great Hall, (action) Grieving, (word) Death, (genre) Hurt/Comfort]

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.

Rock

Done.

Yes, that was exactly the word for this situation. She was done.

Daphne Greengrass stood in the middle of the Great Hall. She was filthy, bloody, bruised and injured. Her legs shook with exhaustion, her wand still gripped tightly between numb fingers. Her dirty blonde hair fell straggled around her face and her blue eyes were tired. She stood alone, almost central, taking in the waves of grief around her. She was a lone rock in the rushing river of sadness as friends, relatives, lovers moved from body to body. Some wailed, some sobbed, some stared, silently haunted by their own demons.

Done. She really, truly was done. Done with the cowardly hiding, with the lies and the indecision. She was done with standing by and letting herself be party to this appalling treatment of life, any life, magical or not.

Daphne's family had never really picked a side in this war. They had done their best to remain neutral in it all, hedging their bets on their bloodline if Voldemort won and their neutrality if he lost. That wasn't good enough. Had they just acted, thrown their weight in with the light then perhaps there might even be one less life lost today. Or maybe there would have been one more.

Daphne sighed, a long drawn out sound filled with her own grief. Grief for what might have been as well as for what was now lost.

"You came back."

Daphne started, shrugging off her pensive thoughts and focusing once more on the here and now. Of all people, Hermione Granger stood in front of her. The other girl looked just as exhausted, as bloody, as bruised. Her eyes were red raw from crying, Daphne knew she had lost so many people tonight, had been through so much in the last 12 hours never mind the last 12 months. She couldn't comprehend why this Gryffindor hero would be paying her any attention.

"I-" Daphne opened her mouth and sputtered out the start of a sentence. She was surprised to find her voice so weak and strangled. "Yeah, I did," she whispered. "I did leave with them," she continued not knowing where the words were coming from, "but I only got so far before I realised-" Daphne paused. She looked up and met the fierce eyes of the lioness. "I realised I couldn't stand by anymore, I had to stand up and be counted as something other than a coward. Everyone thinks that Slytherins are evil, but we aren't. We're cunning, sly and quick thinking but that doesn't mean evil. I wanted to stand up and be counted, on the right side."

Hermione smiled, it was barely a quirk of her lips and it was as weary as the day is long, but it was something. A sparkle came into her dark eyes. "You have been, Daphne, I saw you." Hermione nodded to a spot behind Daphne, looking beyond her. "You weren't the only one."

Daphne's brow creased into a confused little frown and she turned, following the other girl's line of sight. There he was, over against one wall, as stoic and alone as she was. Another rock standing still in the flow of grief and death. Suddenly, Daphne forgot about Hermione and started to move, she joined the flow allowing it to carry her over to the other lost soul in all this chaos.

"Theo," she whispered. He looked small, smaller than she had ever seen him. Theo had always been quiet, another secondary Slytherin just like her, but his personality has always shone through warm, green eyes, bright with life. Those same eyes looked at her now, dark and deadened.

He mouthed her name, seemingly unable to find a voice. Daphne looked to where he had been staring and felt cold spread through her. It was a body. The body of a Hufflepuff boy, a child. He must have snuck back in to join the battle. It had been his first and his last.

She said nothing. Simply sliding down the wall until she was shoulder to shoulder with her old housemate. Her new found like-minded comrade. She tilted her head until it came to rest in the crook of his neck and together they sat, rocks amidst the tide of anguish.

Please leave a review, I'm trying to find a way back into writing and I would be grateful for your support.

Much Love, MaryandMerlin x