~Quick warning for the squeamish: It's the Battle of Hogwarts. Expect injuries and description of blood and the like.~
Ron tried to kiss her. She turned her head at the very last moment, but she could not forget. Ron tried to kiss her.
To be fair, at his concern for the house-elves, she'd dropped quite precious basilisk fangs and leapt on him, but . . . She was proud. And happy. He cared. They were but a few moments from death, had just escaped death, were about to run back into death's way. It would take a miracle for everyone to survive the night, and the nagging in the back of her mind said it was already too late for everyone to survive.
But he tried to kiss her.
Kiss her.
She pretended not to notice, hugging him all the tighter. It wasn't strange. She wouldn't let it be, because Ron was her best friend, damn it, and he wasn't allowed to kiss her so he may as well get used to it.
Harry cleared his throat, prompt enough for Hermione to speedily extricate herself and hastily exit the Room of Requirements. Ginny was gone. She doubted either man with her was surprised by that, but Harry cursed under his breath regardless. Also gone were Malfoy and his unfortunate compatriot, hopefully going to go slink down to the dungeons to hide. Hermione scanned the corridor, and her feet had her moving toward the nearest duel, nearest voices.
Percy had returned, though they had not yet heard where, exactly, he'd vanished to. He'd mutter about the Department of Mysteries and 'surprisingly cozy' before his family had descended on him with hugs and tears and jests. Fred the first in a long line.
Hermione would never forget the smiled he'd given her over Percy's shoulder, the ways his eyes had lit up. His family was whole again. Hermione knew it was all he'd ever want in life, when all this was over. He'd seen too much and missed too much and he just wanted everyone there.
She didn't blame him.
Hermione turned down the corridor to the duel raging between Percy and Fred and two Death Eaters, one of which was the fake Minister, Thicknesse. She wanted to help, more than anything. Urgency beat into each of her steps, her heart thrumming faster as fate descended.
Something was wrong.
Fred and Percy were smiling and laughing, their enemies defeated, but something was very wrong.
The ring on her finger burned as it started to glow. Her mind met Fred's. Her feet carried her into a reckless sprint down the steps toward him.
They'd never used the rings so close before. He whirled to face her, took one measly step closer to her.
What is it?
The world tore apart with thunder and dust. Hermione was in the air, jumping from the third step to the landing where Fred and Percy stood, when it happened. She stayed in the air, flung backward against the opposite wall before gravity took her, dropping her hard against the stone. Dust welled and covered the hallway in an instant, filling her mouth and turning the broken world grey. Something crashed down atop her, but she couldn't be bothered.
"No – no –no!"
Not Fred. She crawled to her feet, managed a step, and fell to her hands and knees. Her vision swayed as she searched for him. Rubble and dust. She needed copper- copper and gunpowder and- and-
The world was grey. Dust, she knew. Her future seemed grey. Flowers for a grave. A secret carried to it. The wrong Weasley calling her 'wife.'
Grey. Nothing. A ring she kept in a box in a box in an attic to be uncovered by a nosy child who did not have his smile. A photo book she cried over whenever she started to forget his face. Sleeping on his twin's couch when the secret finally caught up to her, knowing she should have had more.
"No!"
Not Fred. Not Fred. She muttered it to herself as she dragged herself forward. Not Fred. Not Fred.
She refused. She would not live in a world without Fred. She would not exist in a world without color.
She didn't care who it was she was begging. She would beg them all, demand and scream and curse.
Percy dragged him out from under the rubble. His skin was grey with dust save twin streaks down his cheeks and neck. There was a hole in the wall.
Fred. Hermione whispered it to the space their rings had forged between them. It was dark, empty. Grey.
She would never set foot in the Burrow again.
Never go to Diagon Alley.
Never breathe again.
Not Fred. Not Fred. Not Fred.
"Please," she moaned, very differently to the way she had done so previously. She reached Percy as he shook Fred's shoulders.
"Fred," he whispered. "No."
She slipped her hand through his hair, streaking copper with red and grey. "Fred, please."
"Wait," Percy grabbed her other hand, covering it with his as he placed it to Fred's chest.
There was a dreadful, horrible, awful moment where he was still, completely and totally still.
But it was only a moment.
"Fred?" Hermione carded her hand through his hair again, letting Percy touch her waist and drag her further over Fred. "Fred, hold on. Just- Just hold on-"
Her fingers were cold, though she didn't realize it. She didn't notice that the red in his copper hair was her blood. Didn't notice that her jumper was slowly turning scarlet. The puddle beneath Fred, the blood pooling, was more hers than his. The wall had driven a wedge of stone into her side, and her desperate movements had dislodged it. Blood pumped steadily down her hip to her leg.
Percy noticed, though Hermione was too busy muttering spells to. Spells to speed Fred's healing. Her wand lay on the ground behind them, but she touched Fred's forehead and muttered them regardless. Percy couldn't tell if any of them took. She was out of her mind, and Hermione Jean Granger had quite the mind to get out of.
"We need to get help," Percy said quickly. He stood.
Just as Death Eaters started through the hole in the wall, having deemed it settled enough.
There was an odd moment. Hermione kissed Fred's cheek and buried her head against his shoulder, while Percy made heavy, awkward eye contact with the first Death Eater climbing through.
The Death Eater's eyes flicked to Hermione, who, even disheveled and covered in dust was identifiable by her wild head of hair alone. Percy saw that recognition. He went for his wand, but it had been blown out of his hand in the explosion.
The Death Eater had a wand.
"Hermione!"
"Avada kedavra!"
"No!"
.o0O0o.
Next part in roughly an hour or so, comments done there.
