That Really Bright Place

Hi!:) Well I'm mixing it up a little, and making this one Harry's POV. Thanks again for reviewing!

HARRY'S POV:

"That'll be $4.50." (A/N: I'm American, so I have no clue how to make the euros sign. Sorry) With a quick thank you, I bought the beautiful bouquet of orange lilies (Hermione's favourite) and headed up to her room. I wasn't planning to stay long, I was just dropping off the flowers and then I'd be on my way to work.

My heart dropped dramatically as I rounded the corner to Hermione's hallway and saw a sobbing Ron sunk to the floor with his head in his hands. My walk broke into a run immediately.

"Ron?" I knelt down the second I got to him. I feared the worst. "Is she-" I refused to let the words escape my lips. I was swarmed with the warmth of relief as he shook his head. He took a deep breath and sniffled.

"She's just in so much pain, Harry." He wiped away his tears and looked up at me. There was a brief moment between us where it was just silence. Ron decided to break the silence. "She was talking." My head snapped up. There was no way Hermione was talking. It's too soon.

"Then why are you so upset? This is great news!" I smiled.

He shook his head. "She said something that broke my heart." He let a few more tears fall. My face fell into a look of concern. "She said she was sorry."

"Oh, Ron-"

"It's not the fact that she said she was sorry, it's what she meant by it." He said in a voice so solemn that it scared me.

"What'd she mean by it?" He looked up at me with tears glistening in his crystal blue eyes.

"I just think she's apologizing for being in pain." He sighed deeply. "I just hate it so much that she feels like she has to apologize. Especially for something like that." He shook his head and immediately gestured to the vase in my hand trying to change the subject.

"Are those for her?" I laughed.

"No, they're for Lavender. Of course they're for her!" He laughed halfheartedly at my sarcasm. The first time I'd heard him laugh in a long time. I looked in Hermione's room to see her watching the small television above her bed. "I think I'll go say hi to her. Why don't you go get something to eat? You haven't eaten in a while." He nodded. I patted his back and walked into Hermione's room.

She immediately turned her head towards me and offered a small smile. In a hoarse voice that shattered my heart, she asked me, "Are those for me?"

"Of course they are." I smiled. I set the flowers down on the nightstand beside her bed and sat down in my chair next to her. I took her small hand gingerly and smiled at her.

"How are you feeling?" She shook her head and sighed.

"I'll tell you if you promise not to tell Ron. I don't want him to worry." I snorted.

"He's your husband, Hermione. Of course he's going to worry. He's making himself sick out there." She blinked rapidly, struggling to keep the tears inside. "Hey." I patted her hand lightly. "Don't be afraid to cry. You have every right to cry."

With that, she let the tears fall. What started as a gentle stream of tears soon turned to a violent waterfall of emotion. In that moment, time seemed to stop. I felt so useless as I rubbed soothing circles on her back. I wanted to wrap her in a hug only a brother could give and tell her that everything was going to be alright, but couldn't. She started to calm down a bit and relaxed. Silence filled the air as she just stared at me looking as if she were coming up with something to say to me. She finally looked up to the ceiling and I figured she was about to fall asleep. I was surprised when she spoke again.

"There were so many people." She said quietly, her eyes still fixed on the ceiling. I was taken aback by this. What did she mean by that? I had an idea of what she meant, but I wasn't too sure.

"There were so many people where, Hermione?" She finally looked at me and smiled.

"That really bright place. I went there when I saw you running toward me." I didn't know how to react to this. This was an entirely new experience for me. She swallowed and continued.

"There were all these people in this one little room, all of them I knew. Tonks was the first person I saw. She was really happy I was there for some reason. I guess I was still in shock, because I didn't immediately realize I was dead. She kept saying things like, 'It takes your brain about 5 minutes to die after your body,' and '4 and a half minutes to go!'" She started to tear up a bit at this statement.

"I wanted to stay there. There was no pain or suffering, I wasn't being excluded for being a muggle born, I was just….at peace." I started to tear up at her words. I had been there before. I had an idea of what she was feeling. She swallowed and continued.

"Tonks kept counting down, and I was getting a bit scared. I realized that you, Ron, Molly, everyone weren't going to be there with me." She sniffled. "That's when I remembered my brother. I figured that if I was going to die, at least he would be there with me." She arched her back and hid her face behind her hands. She started shaking uncontrollably and sobbing. I reached my hand out to touch her shoulder. I hated seeing her like this. Hermione was the strongest woman I'd ever met, and to see her break down like this was so painful. I swallowed and worked up the courage to ask her the question that had been lingering on my mind.

"Did you find him?" She tried to regain her composure and removed her hands from her face. She looked at me with the saddest face I've ever seen. A face of complete and utter pain. She took a deep and shaky breath, then closed her eyes.

"He wasn't there." She swallowed roughly, squeezed her eyes shut tighter and let out a small whisper that sounded like Oh God. I touched her shoulder and nodded encouragingly.

"I asked Tonks if she'd seen him and she said that he never showed up." She began to calm down. "That's when I suddenly felt myself falling. I fell through the white floor, through a bunch of clouds, through the ceiling of some kind of ambulance. That's when my heart started beating again." She smiled slightly.

Ron walked in as if on cue. He smiled his lopsided grin at me and I took it as a sign to leave. He needed to know what she had been through, and I didn't want to somehow cause any distraction. Plus, I was hungry as hell.

I got up, placed a gentle kiss on Hermione's forehead and walked out of the room. Before leaving, I looked in the room one more time to see them quietly talking as if they were having their first date. In that moment, it was like the entire world breathed a much needed sigh of relief.

So there's your look into what happened while Hermione was dead. Thanks very much for reading! Next chapters going to be sad. Sorry