Ron's P.O.V
We arrived in the Great Hall to find it filled with scattered students, teachers, and families. A few people sat at tables attempting to eat the breakfast spread that the remaining house elves must have prepared, but they were failing miserably. The majority of the Great Halls' occupants stood around the center of the hall; around our fallen heroes. They stood around where our friends, family and allies still lay. I caught sight of my own family and, when the others fell silent, I knew that they had seen me too. They were all next to Fred. George sat next to his lifeless twin staring at his brothers' chest, no doubt looking for the rise and fall that would tell of Fred breathing, living, waiting for him to sit up and shout "Gotcha'!" but the light had faded from both of their eyes, Fred wasn't coming back and George knew that. We all knew that. The next person I noticed was my distraught mother, crying hysterically into dads' chest as dad carefully watched George, expecting some kind of outburst maybe, but George was empty. I doubted that he could react in any other way than he was. I wouldn't have been surprised to find out the he was concentrating solely on the task of breathing, but even that seemed tiring. Percy was sitting on a chair, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. The air around us became thick and we made our way towards the horrific scene. As we came closer, I became aware that Percy's' entire body was shaking with the force of the sobs that were escaping his chest and I noticed that Bill wasn't even present. I decided that I would ask about that later, now wasn't the time. By the time we got to the others, both Ginny and I were crying. Ginny was the first to cry, I only know this because I heard Harry muttering to her so I turned around. The tears were slow, controlled, and she was looking straight ahead, my best friend urgently trying to calm her. I looked back towards my family and noticed that George was now crying. George, the funny man was crying. George, the man that was constantly joking. George, the man that only ever cried tears of laughter. George made it so real, so inescapable. I had to cry. The tears flowed freely down my face, not stopping, no matter how hard I tried. I heard a quiet sob from somewhere beside me and turned to investigate. Hermione had started crying as well, yet she was the one that took my hand. She was comforting me.
"Hermione, what are you-" I tried to ask, but she cut me off.
"I know that it must be far worse for you. Don't be afraid to cry. I'm right here," she murmured quietly while stroking my arm with her free hand. This increased the ferocity of the salt water droplets that were already streaming steadily over my freckles and past my cheeks.
"Thank you," I managed to croak out as I tried desperately to stop crying. I needed to be strong for my family, but the kindness of Hermione's words had really touched me, rendering my efforts fruitless. When we got to the small gathering of my family, chairs were flying around the room and arranging themselves in neat rows on either side of the dead. Professor McGonagall raised herself purposefully from her seat at the head of the hall and stood in front of the podium ready to speak. Everyone had fallen silent and was watching her; Mum still leaning on Dad and Percy now looking up from his lap. The only person in the hall that didn't turn their attention to McGonagall was one ginger man, lost in his grief and missing a whole half of himself. George was still watching Fred's chest, ever waiting for him to suck in a sudden breath of air, but no such luck. Everybody that was watching McGonagall was clearly expecting a speech, considering the way she stood with pride and how everyone had started quietly muttering to one another; wandering what the Professor was going to say. When she said nothing, the murmurs gradually died and Professor McGonagall said two simple words that in any other situation would mean nothing, but now drew a collective gasp from the whole room. She spoke the words with such finality that it was heartbreaking. "It's time."
It was time to say goodbye for the last time. Silently everyone took their seats. We sat at the in the back row to make the ceremony easier to tune out. We didn't want to say goodbye. When I thought everyone was seated I heard a commotion from the center of the room. I looked around the heads of people in front of me to find that my little sister was frantically trying to pull George up from the floor where he still sat next to Fred.
"George please, we have to move," Ginny pleaded, but George refused to budge.
"I can't do it. I can't leave him Gin." His voice was monotone and contained no emotion what-so-ever. This frightened Ginny and she began to cry as the entire hall watched in silence.
"George, we have to, we have to." Ginny was using all of her effort to attempt to pull him up, but to no avail.
"Gin. He needs me. What if he wakes up Gin? What if he wakes up and I'm not there? What'll he think then? He'll think that his own twin's abandoned him, won't he Gin?" George responded in the same tone as before.
"He isn't going to wake up. He's never going to wake up George, he's dead!" The realization of the truth of her words caused Ginny's knees to buckle and she collapsed in a messy heap of snot and tears. The scene before me was gut wrenching in ways that I had never experienced before and I knew that the people around me felt the same when I heard several sobs from random places in the sea of people that packed the Great Hall. When nothing happened, Dad got up from his chair and made his way to Ginny, rallying Hagrid as he went. When the two reached the appropriate place in the hall, dad scooped Ginny up into his arms and Hagrid did the same to George; with a lot less struggle than was expected. When they were all seated, Professor McGonagall began to speak; it was at this point that I tuned everything out. I could vaguely hear McGonagall's words but they made little sense and I concentrated exclusively on Hermione's breathing pattern, counting every breath she took, until her breath hitched, signaling that she had begun to cry for the second time. I looked around for the source of Hermione's discomfort but discovered that it was nothing physical so it could only have been what McGonagall was saying. I reached out toward the only woman I'd ever loved and wrapped her securely into my arms, blocking her ears, and letting her cry into my chest before listening to tidbits of information from the grieving professor, taking the time to process it all. I heard a blur of names, all slurred together. We had lost over fifty people. How many of them did I know? Probably all of them. How many were underage? Probably most of them. How many of them died at the hands of evil? Died, purely because Tom Riddle wanted absolute power? I could answer that one with certainty – All of them.
When the funeral service was over, we followed Mum out of the Great Hall and to the edge of the school's grounds so that we could apparate home, where we would hold a private funeral for Fred and the Lupins. There are no words to describe the relief that washed over the room when McGonagall announced that the families of the dead could take the bodies of their loved ones home for proper burials and send-offs. Mum had been ready to argue up a storm if the school had denied possession of the bodies to their families, no matter how many times we reassured her that the school would never do that.
Ginny was the only one of us that couldn't apparate alone, so Mum was going to arrange for her to go with someone but before she had even said anything, Harry had taken Ginny's hand and was reminding her to breathe.
"Harry dear, would you?" Harry nodded at Mums request then disappeared with my little sister in tow. They'd been gone for less than a minute but Mum was already gesturing for me and Hermione to go next and when we didn't, she resorted to saying "Off you go, then!" in a rather stern voice, so we did.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing a few feet away from the rusty back gate that would allow me into my field sized garden. I looked around but no sign of Harry or Ginny. They must already be inside the house. I sighed and started to take a step forward but as I did, Hermione materialized in front of me and I stumbled into her, causing us both to fall over rather ungracefully. As we fell, she somehow managed to turn herself around so she ended up landing on her back, with me on top of her. I pushed myself up onto my hands so that my full weight wasn't on her and looked her in the eyes. It wasn't awkward like you'd expect it to be, it was comfortable. Neither of us had a problem with our current situation.
"Mione' what happened earlier? That was nothing like you. You would never let someone touch you like that, or kiss someone like that." The question had been at the back of my mind since we'd had our little snogging session that morning. It really was nothing like her.
"I knew that you were very upset about... everything. I wanted to take your mind off things." I could see the sadness in her eyes. "I hate seeing you so upset."
"That doesn't explain why you let me touch you that way." I stated.
"Ron, you already know I love you-" I cut her off.
"Yeah, but that still doesn't explain it Hermione. You can't possibly love me enough to let me hold you like that." It made absolutely no sense for such a beautiful, intelligent and perfect woman to love me.
"Ron. I let you because it was you. I would never let anyone else touch me. Only you, because I love you. I love you more than anything and I wish you'd understand that," she sighed. I sighed right back.
"That can't be right. I love you more." I gave her a cheeky wink and pulled us both up just as Mum and Fleur apparated behind us.
"What are you still doing out here? Oh, get inside for goodness sake!" Mum shooed us into the house where we found Harry and Ginny sitting at the kitchen table talking about little Teddy Lupin.
We all sat down and waited for somebody to speak, but no one did. That's when I realized that Dad, Percy, George and Bill weren't there. "Where are the others?" I asked after clearing my throat.
"Bill 'az gone to collect Ms. Andromeda Tonks and little baby Lupin. Your father and brothers 'ave, well,..." Fleur hesitated so Mum finished for her.
"They volunteered to bring Fred and the Lupins back." She looked like she was about to cry. I felt Hermione's hand squeeze mine under the table.
"Oh," was my simple response. What else could I say?