Pity
She had been thinking of him for hours.
Ever since hearing Harry's rendition of what he'd seen and heard as he stood paralyzed at the top of the lightning struck tower, she had thought of nothing else. One fleeting thought of how horrific it was to lose the greatest and kindest wizard of all time before her best friend's eyes had immediately been replaced with an image of a boy.
That boy had not left her mind since.
She felt sorry for him. She had known from the day she met him that despite his beliefs and demeanor he was not a killer. Part of her understood that even he knew that and that he'd been forced to try, with the threat of the lives he cherished on the line.
She did not blame his determination.
Nor did she blame his desperation.
With her mind she remembered him running and the way he had looked so pale and so terrified. Had she known what he had moments ago intended to do, what Snape had done in his place, she did not think she would have attacked or punished him for it.
She would most likely have done nothing but stare or continued to fight the others in the name of Albus Dumbledore.
"I pity him," Harry said weakly from the dormitory window's ledge, drawing Hermione from her thoughts. "Malfoy, I mean."
"Why?" Ron questioned bluntly, looking at Harry as though he was touched in the head.
Hermione remained silent for only a moment, staring thoughtfully passed Harry's head to the darkened sky outside.
"Do you think Voldemort will punish him?" she eventually asked, her voice so quiet and soft.
The two boys fell back into silence and without a thought Hermione brought her hands to her lap and with a silent prayer she crossed her fingers for a boy she could no longer hate.
