Stay with me always
Ron's loss
The dust slowly settled and the cheering set in. The boy who lived still lived and Lord Voldermort lay lifeless at his feet. The shock and joy of it finally being over rang through the Great Hall at Hogwarts school. Harry Potter turned the crowd of grateful bodies to embrace his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The two who had stood by him for the past seven years, but they were no longer beside him, he couldn't see them at all. He looked around wildly, pushing people back away from him. His eyes met those of Ginny Weasley as she too was searching frantically.
"Ron! Hermione!" Harry shouted and the crowd now quietened, the panic and fear in the young mans voice spreading into them. They withdrew, all looking around the hall, through the dead and injured bodies scattered on the floor. Then Harry saw across the room, amongst the dead and the rubble, a red headed boy, crawling to the side of a brown haired girl who lay unmoving.
"No." He breathed and rushed to them.
Ron reached Hermione, her breathing was shallow and there was a gaping wound across her abdomen and chest.
"Mione," Ron breathed and though his voice was low it echoed through the room. No one spoke, they dared not even breathe too loud, "Mione, please." his voice was thick with fear.
"Ron," Hermione whispered, her voice strained and barely audible, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I wasn't fast enough."
"You're going to be okay." Ron reassured her, they both knew it to be a lie.
"No I'm not, but you are." she told him.
"Don't say that." tears stained Ron's cheeks.
"I'm not scared Ron, did we win at least?"
"We won, Harry won."
"That's okay then and the family?" she asked.
"They're all safe."
"Good" she replied, her eyes blinked closed for a moment and then jerked back open. Neither of them registered Madam Pomfreys presence as she knelt to inspect Hermione's wound. They didn't notice as she shook her head sadly and walked away so they could say their goodbyes.
"Don't go, don't leave me." Ron pleaded frantically.
"Be brave Ron, live, live for me and the life we should have had." they were both crying now, Hermiones fingers twitched and Ron put his hand over hers, feeling the cold of the ring she wore.
"I can't, I can't go on without you, you're my everything, I love you." he told her.
"I love you Ron, you're my world," she coughed slightly, her breath coming in sharp gasps, "I least I can die a Weasley."
"I knew I'd marry you from the day I met you." Ron told her with a smile. She offered him a weak smile in return, which slowly fell and her eyes began to close. "No Hermione, stay with me." he screamed.
"Always." she whispered as her shut for the final time and her chest stilled with no more life left in them.
The room erupted into strangled cries and choking sobs, none louder than that of Ronald Weasley who held his wife's body tightly and prayed to whichever God was listening to show him mercy and take him to.
When he awoke hours later, in his bed with his family crowded around him, all crying in their own grief, and he felt his heart still beating in his chest; he knew, for him there was no God.