The Epiphany Of The Elms

by XxMoonlitShadowxX

This story is a rather dark story that is a take on the marriage law type of fanfic along with aspects of identifying soulmates and soulmate traits. I will warn you it is dark to start off with, but will get lighter as time goes on just as the characters in the story will begin to heal over time. This is a somewhat realistic sense of the aftermath of war and love.

1. Chapter 1

The Epiphany Of The Elms Chapter 1

Prologue

The moon rose high in the sky that night as the last of the flames from the battle died down. It was then eerily quiet except for the sobs of those who had lost and the moans of those were about to lose. The stench of blood and death sat heavy in the air as they looked around and took in the grim sights before them. Hermione and Ron had found Harry and Ginny with Ron's mother who was sobbing heavily over her husband's dead body. Her son's Percy and Fred lay beside him, just as cold and as lifeless as their father. Many others lay about in the grassy field as the last of the embers burned out for good. Never again would there be such agony in this world for the three children who had become adults far too quickly. Harry held Ginny who held tightly to her mother's shoulder's as Ron stood stoically behind them. A lone tear fell from his blue eyes as his hands began to shake with unease. Hermione's eyes fell to his calloused and bloodied hand before she took a deep breath and grasped it in her own. Her friend jumped at the contact, but managed to give her the saddest smile she had ever seen. It was over. The war had been won. But at what cost? The lives of those who had been lost were too great a loss for them to even fathom on how they would continue on. But there they stood. In the middle of the moonlight with a small, but subtle spark of a hope that had been lost but would soon be found. The time had come for joy to reach the world once again.

End Of Prologue

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It was a dark and cloudy day as Hermione stood with Ron's hand still clutched tightly in her own as they watched his father and his brother's bodies being lowered down into makeshift graves. The funeral preparations had been rushed. Nothing had been concrete. But one thing was for certain. Hermione's heart had died along with those she had lost on that battle field and she truly thought that it may never awaken once again. The life that once filled her veins had seeped out along with the warmth of her body as she stood shivering and wrapped in Molly's grandmother's old wool shawl. Ron's hand tightly gripped her own as he let out another sharp breath, before taking another deep one and regaining his stony façade. It had only been six hours since the setting sun had washed over the smoky battle field's horizon and for them to be able to witness for the first time in their lives, exactly what the true price of war was. Seeing the bodies of their friends, relatives, other students laying strewn about the field and all over the crumbled remains of the once great castle made Hermione's stomach churn with a sickness that she knew would take months, even years to quell.

Ron and her had been each other's rocks throughout this difficult time and she had been pleasantly surprised at his willingness to comfort her even though she knew all too well that it was he who needed the comfort the most. He had already lost his father and two of his brothers. His mother was left a widow and he and his other siblings had lost one of their best friends. His heart clenched hard in his chest as he looked over at George who gripped his mother's shoulders tightly as he stood next to the dead family member's caskets. Charlie and Bill stood next to them as if attempting to guard them from the onlookers who watched their reactions carefully as the two caskets were lowered down onto the bottom of the grave. The Weasley men would be buried in a mass grave that had been created for the dead after the battle that had only ended hours before. There was little any of them could do in terms of a service or any type of acknowledgement for the ones who had died seeing as how it was almost as if the living had died along with them.

Ron gave Hermione's hand a tentative squeeze and hoped to Merlin that she could feel some of the thankfulness that he felt towards the curly haired witch who now leaned into his shoulder. Glancing up from the graves, his eyes raised towards the remnants of the battle field where buildings and the forest that lay around them were burnt almost to a crisp and the wind that rushed through their entire beings blustered about almost as if to say, "peace has come." It was the end of a long and hard war and the few remaining death eaters that had managed to not have been executed after the battle were currently in Azkaban awaiting their death sentences. Ron glanced over to the small flash of platinum blonde hair that he could see out of the corner of his eye. Draco Malfoy and his mother stood silently away from the crowd but near enough to hear the sobs of Molly as they clutched tightly to each other in a small act of comfort knowing all too well the loss that the mother Weasley was feeling.

Draco and his mother had been spared death in exchange for their agreement in testimony against their father and the others who had held them captive for so long. Ron looked up and met his former blonde enemy's eyes and saw the look of sympathy and understanding that passed between them. Both of them had lost someone they had loved, even if sometimes the people that they had lost had driven them mad. Ron swallowed hard trying to remember the relationship that he had had with his father and two dead brothers. He, Hermione and Harry had been gone for so long on their journeys that he hadn't seen or heard from his actual family in months. This was the first time that he had seen any of them since he had found them immediately after the battle's end. And all he could think of were the words, "I'm sorry." He was so sorry to them for not being there when they needed him but he was sorry also for not needing them all the same. He licked his now chapped lips and avoided his older brother's eyes as he looked away from the sight of his grieving mother and brother and over at Harry who was clutching his younger sister tightly in his arms. Harry was now seen as the savior of the wizarding world. He had conquered death and the violence that had surrounded their world for so long. He would forever be remembered as the one who had vanquished the darkness and brought hope and light back into their now grieving world. But where was that light? Because as Ron looked over at Harry who shakily stood with Ginny shivering against him, he couldn't find any light in the eyes of a broken boy who looked just as lost as Ron knew they all felt. What now? Where did they go from here? What happened next? These questions weren't going to be answered for some time. But Ron could only hope that one day, they would be for the sake of himself and everyone else that stood in the crowd of mourning witches and wizards. The sounds of other families grieving over their dead loved ones echoed across the glades of grass that lay just outside the castle walls and Ron's eyes held steady towards the sun that was slowly rising over the horizon and said a prayer that one day, life would be within them again.