A/N: Hi Again! Another attempt at this. Only a few mistakes fixed and some unnecessary repetition taken out… nothing major.
Empty
Chairs at Empty Tables
Lyrics by Claude-Michael
Schonberg and Alan Boublil
There's
a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty
chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.
Harry stepped into what was once the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the dust had yet to settle. As he looked around he found that all that was left were piles of rubble that were once the walls, shattered glass that had once been beautiful stained glass windows and piles of smouldering wood scattered on the floor which had once been tables and chairs that had held many a chattering and laughing student.
Here
they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here
they sang about tomorrow'
And tomorrow never came.
The war was finally over, but at what cost? So many lives had been lost; friends and family, adults and children alike. So many young people lost; so many people who had yet to really live their lives, who had been looking to the future. People who had dreams and ambitions just like him. He ventured farther into the Hall, slowly making his way towards the place where Gryffindor table had once been.
From
the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they
rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words
that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely
barricade at dawn.
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
As Harry stood among the ruin of the only place he had ever thought of as home, images of those he had lost in the Great War appeared before him, memories of happy times, where he had his friends to laugh with, to joke around with, and to get into trouble with. But those times were no more.
That
I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be
spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Harry watched as the images in front of him played out, showing his friends all laughing and joking, as they had done only a few hours before. He had lost almost everyone he had come to hold dear. Everyone he had ever loved.
Phantom
faces at the window.
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs
at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.
Harry desperately reached out for the images as they begun to fade before his eyes. Sinking to the floor as reality set in.
Oh
my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was
for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no
more.
As Harry sat among the rubble and wood he spotted a shimmer in the corner of his eye, something silver sparkling in the firelight. He turned his head slightly, thinking that it was probably just a shard of glass. There lying among the rubble covered in dust was a silver ring with a heart shaped emerald embedded between four diamonds.
"Hermione" he whispered as a single tear ran down his cheek. He picked the ring up and gently brushed the dust off he turned the ring around in his hands and read the inscription on the inside of the band 'Always and Forever' It had only been a couple of days ago that he had stood under their favourite tree out near the lake and proposed to her.
It had been right after the end of year feast, most of the students were still in the Common Room celebrating and making the most of the time they had left together. Harry and Hermione had snuck out of the castle. The sky had been perfectly clear and the stars had been shining brightly.
As he held the ring tightly in his fist memories of past times spent with Hermione flashed before his eyes, the first time he saw her on the Hogwarts Express, the night he and Ron saved her from the troll. He saw her lying petrified in the hospital wing, hitting her in the side of the head with a snowballl last winter.
Hot tears were streaming down his face, what was he going to do without her? She had been his rock, the only constant thing in his life. He'd lost everything, both of his closest friends were now gone, they had killed the only person he had ever loved, what was the point in staying here on this earth when he could be with the people he cared about most?
He remembered the first time he had asked her out, he had been so scared that she would say no, their first kiss, under the very tree where he had proposed
"Harry? Harry can you hear me?" Harry could sense that someone was kneeling down next to him; he could feel a weight and warmth on his knee and someone moving aside the hair in his eyes and caressing his cheek with their thumb. And that smell, he knew that smell! But no it couldn't be. Harry kept his eyes shut and looking towards the ground, tightening his grip no the ring in his hand.
"Harry, It's me"
"Hermione? N-no it can't be, she was … get away from me you're not her"
"Harry?" Hermione stared in shock at the man she loved. "Harry it's me" she said desperately.
"You're not her! She's gone, gone, she's not coming back" Harry begun rocking himself backwards and forwards as the tears streamed down his face. 'What am I going to do without her? How can I go on without her?'
"Harry look at me" she said forcefully, trying to pull his hands away from his tear stained face. "Come on Harry, don't do this, you'll just be letting them win"
"They've already won, I can't go on without her, and they were the ones who took her away."
"Harry, I'm right here, it's me, I'm right here, I'm not going to leave you" she said desperately, trying to get him to look at her, tears mixing with the sweat and dirt already on her face. "Harry, look at me damn it, Harry, it wasn't real. Don't let them win Harry, this is want they want, don't let them win!" She sank to the floor next to him sobbing.
Something inside Harry stirred at the sounds of Hermione sobbing next to him. He lifted up his head to find a brown haired girl sitting in the dirt next to him.
"Don't cry, please don't cry" he said hoarsely, as he gently placed a hand on the side of her face a pulled her hair away from her face. Harry blinked as he looked at her, "Mione?" he whispered, not sure whether to believe if she was real or not.
"Harry, it's me, you're not imagining things," she said softly, wiping the tears off her face with the back of her hand.
"I think that is the second … no third best thing I have ever heard you say" he croaked as he pulled her close and held her tightly never wanting to let her go "I thought I'd lost you" he whispered after several minutes. "I saw them …"
"It wasn't me; they forced someone to take polyjuice potion to make you think it was me. It was meant to distract you"
"Well their plan backfired. It only made me more determined to kill the bastards." He scowled.
"Shh" she said soothingly, placing a finger against his lips "It's over now and we're together, that's all that matters." Harry hugged her again.
"I think you lost something," he said, remembering the ring still held tightly in his hand. "I love you," He said as he took her left hand in his and slipped the ring back onto her finger. "Always" he whispered before kissing her.
"And forever" she added between kisses.
As the couple walked out into the darkening castle grounds hand in hand Harry could see a new light at the end of the tunnel. He knew that so long as he had Hermione by his side everything would be all right.
