Ron walked into Hogwarts' Great Hall, where the funeral would take place, holding Annie with his left arm and taking Isabelle's left hand in his right. The girls were dressed in beautiful matching lavender dresses (ironically, mum's favourite colour).

As he reluctantly walked to the front of the hall, memories swamped him. They had shared so many special moments in this amazing place. The place where they had been sorted into Gryffindor; the place where they watched Harry's name come out of the Goblet of Fire; the place that Hermione loved and knew so much about. It would end the same place it had started: their beloved Hogwarts, her favourite place in the world.

Ron thought there was something wrong. The place looked much more dismal now – the bewitched ceiling that Hermione was always so fascinated by had been un-enchanted for the funeral, revealing the Hall's dull and gloomy original ceiling. It didn't feel right.

There were a huge number of people waiting to go inside the Hall, but Ron wanted to spend a few moments in private with his wife.

When they reached the front of the Hall, they saw it. It was her coffin. Hermione lay peacefully inside. Ron was trying very hard to maintain his composure for the sake of the girls.

Isabelle squeezed Ron's hand and started crying. Her eyes looked tired and sad. Ron crouched and enveloped both of his daughters in a tight hug, all three of them crying. He knew Annie was too little to understand, and that it would take some time before she could fully grasp the fact that her mum was gone, but he also knew that Isabelle perfectly understood what had happened.

As this was happening, Ginny and Harry were making their way to the front of the hall as well. Ginny, dressed in black, was sobbing quietly, and a grieving Harry was trying to comfort her, his arm wrapped around her.

When Harry got to the front of the hall and saw Hermione, his best friend, in that coffin, he couldn't take it. Ron had stepped away from his girls and was looking desolately at his wife as well. They both raised their heads and looked at each other. In an instant, they were hugging each other fiercely, sobbing into each other's shoulders.

"I miss her so much, Harry," said Ron, between sobs.

"I miss her too," said Harry.

And they just stood there, crying, for several minutes, until Ginny's voice brought them back to reality. Her face was red and blotchy. She was sitting in one of the hundreds of chairs that were set up in the Great Hall for the funeral. Annie and Isabelle were sitting with her too; Annie at her left and Isabelle at her right. She had her arms wrapped around them, trying to comfort them.

"I think we should call the others inside," she said.

"Gin," said Ron, "do you think we can do something about the ceiling?"

Ginny paused for a moment and looked directly into Ron's sad and tired eyes. She took out her wand and with a swish and flick, the ceiling transformed to imitate the beautiful, bright day outside the castle's walls. Ron couldn't help but think how much Hermione would have loved it.

It seemed to Ron that every person in the wizarding world was there. The Minister for Magic, the heads of the different departments of the Ministry, their classmates, and all the Hogwarts faculty members were in line, waiting to pay their last respects to his wife, the brightest witch of her age. The one that stood next to Harry and him in the final battle and saved them on numerous occasions; the one that became head of the Ministry of Magic's House-Elf Services Department (a department she had insisted on creating right after she got out of Hogwarts) and helped hundreds of house-elves; most importantly: wife, friend, and mother of two beautiful little girls.

When McGonagall's turn to see Ron arrived, she gave him an affectionate look far different from her usual stern expression. After a rather stiff hug and quick peck on the cheek, she told him: "It will be all right. You are going to get through this. You know she wouldn't want you to shut yourself out of the world. Those girls need you, and you need them." Ron just nodded, fresh tears coming out of his eyes due to the significance and truth in McGonagall's words. Those words gave him strength.

"Thank you," he said, his voice barely over a whisper.

After greeting what seemed a million people, Ron sat down in the first row, next to his girls. Those girls were the only thing that he cared about; they were his pillar of strength. He looked like he was in some kind of trance, his eyes staring blankly at the coffin. He didn't blink. He didn't move. He just sat there, holding his girls close: his treasures, the only thing he had left.

Then Harry got up.

"Twenty years ago, I met Hermione on the Hogwarts Express. She befriended me from the start, no questions asked. Throughout the years, our friendship grew stronger, and she was always there when I needed her. I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for her.

"She was an extraordinary person, and I'll never forget her." He stopped briefly to swallow the lump in his throat. "I know you would want us to move on, but it's not that easy, Hermione." He was crying now. "I will miss your presence every day," he said, looking teary-eyed at her coffin.

The only thing that could be heard in the Hall was sobbing. Ginny was crying again, and Ron - well, Ron was oblivious to what was happening around him.

When Harry ended his speech, Ron got up and hugged him. They never thought they were going to experience this nightmare. Then he began to speak.

"I never thought she could be gone. I never thought I would have to say goodbye."

Annie was listening to her dad from Ginny's lap, sobbing quietly. Harry was embracing Isabelle; she was calm now, but her eyes were swollen from all the crying.

"She was so young and full of life," he continued. "She was taken from my side too soon. She was very brave, but scared about what would happen to-," Ron paused, choking back an impending sob. The entire crowd in front of him was silent. Ron cleared his throat quietly and glanced at Annie and Isabelle. Then he closed his eyes for a moment, sighed, opened them again, and continued speaking. "What would happen to her little girls once she was gone."

"She was so smart, and sweet, and kind. She was always making me read Muggle books," he said with a small, almost unnoticeable smile. "I loved it when she did that. I will never stop loving her." His voice was filled with pain and grief.

"If you knew Hermione as well as I did, you would understand why. Antoine de Saint Exupéry, my favourite Muggle writer, said: 'If someone loves a flower of which just one sample exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that's enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars.' My Hermione was unique. She was my flower. I took care of her, I spent time protecting her. That's what made her so special. That's why I'll always love her so much."

A bright light surrounded the coffin, and in seconds, Hermione was gone.