Harry ran into the school, screaming for someone. He just stood there in the entrance hall, screaming. Ginny was beside him, his spell still levitating her. But he could feel himself slipping, the sound of even his own screams were becoming distant. The spell he and Hermione had done, it drained him. And the adrenaline rush he had had felt moment ago had faded. He heard only the faint echo of footsteps before he fell into the darkness.

********************************************************************************

Ron sat in silence. He watched Hermione in the bed next to him. She lay, sedated, completely unmoving. The memory of her screams echoed painfully in his mind.

God, what was happening to them?

Hermione skin was pale, her eyes sunken. There were dark circles under her eyes.

He didn't even want to know what he looked like.

None them had got any sleep for a while now.

And Harry-

Ginny-

He forced the thought from his mind. He couldn't think of it right now. It'd drive him mad.

It already had.

Silent tears that he had held back before streamed down his face. Hermione screaming- it just- it had broke him in two. In a way, the rest of it had all seemed unreal, nearly untouchable. Like all the other times. It was hard, but they had got away.

But the screams.

It shattered him. This time was different. It wasn't like before, it would never be like before. Even if they all survived it, it wouldn't matter. It was there, it would be there, hanging over them for the rest of their lives. And there was no way to stop it. They may survive it physically, but now, they were all burnt out. It was too much. The fighting. The loss. The pain.

He had finally snapped them.

Voldemort had been right all along. He constantly tried and tried, instead of just knocking the people he wanted dead, he got to their family, loved ones, friends.

Eventually, he had to strike a nerve.

He was fuckin' right.

"Poppy! Poppy! POPPY!" Ron jumped, hearing the screams from down the hall, accompanied by frantic footsteps.

Seconds later, Professor McGonagall and some various other people came running through the door, just as the Matron came out of her offices.

"Wha-"

It was then he noticed, levitated behind them, two limp figures.

"Oh my God..." Ron whispered.

Ron stood there, frozen. It seemed the teachers were all going in slow motion. His sister and his best friend were laid on the tables. The voices in the room were vague and distant.

All he could do was watch.

"Leave Harry, he's okay..."

"Come here..."

"She's not breathing..."

"No heart rate..."

"Amoreous Tomborio..."

"It didn't work..."

"Try again..."

"Still no heart beat..."

"Oh God, can't you do something! My sister's going to die!" He screamed.

One of the people looked up and walked to him.

"Ron-"

Sirius' voice reached his ears.

"Ron, come on-"

"No, she going to die, don't let her die-"

"Ron, stop-"

Ron tried to walk forwards, but Sirius stopped him.

"She'll die-"

"Ron, re- Stop!"

"We have a heart beat..."

"She's breathing..."

Ron stopped fighting Sirius. Instead, he turned and ran out the door.

********************************************************************************

Harry sat watching Hermione sleep. He had woken up a few minutes after being brought into the hospital wing, and after being looked over by Madam Pomfrey, he had slept. But now he was awake.

He watched Hermione slumber. She looked so- so- tired. Of everything. Just like he probably did- like shit. But still, he could help but think how beautiful she was. He smiled inwardly at this thought, but he couldn't bring himself to think it was over, and they could just relax.

It was just starting.

He gently stroked her hair, tears welling in his eyes. Okay, so they were alive. He was okay, Ginny was- well alive.

But no one knew how long that was going to last.

She lay in a bed at the far side of the hospital wing. They had managed to stabilize her, but it was only a matter of time. At best, she'd be crippled for the rest of her life.

****** "Another girlfriend in a wheelchair, Potter?"****

The mocking words came to him.

He shook his head.

"No... Dammit, no!" He slammed his fist against the wall. The sound reverberated through the silent room, and woke Hermione.

"Harry?" Her voice was quiet nearly a whisper, like she was hoping for something that she knew wouldn't come.

"I'm here, Herm."

"Harry? Oh my God..."

She fell into his arms, shoulders shaking with her uncontrollable sobs.

"Shh... I can't stand it any longer in here. Come on..."

He picked her up without any trouble, carrying her out of the room. She clung to him, her fingers digging painfully into his shoulders. He paid it no heed as he, checking to see no one was around, headed down the hall and entered the den. He lit the fire and all of the candles without his wand and sat down on the couch with Hermione still in his arms.

He just sat there in his arms, something he though he would never do again, lying in that forest.

'This has to end soon...' He thought bitterly as Hermione continued to sob in his arms.

And silent tears slid down his cheeks as well.

For what they'd lost.

And what they would lose.

********************************************************************************

Madam Pomfrey lay slumbering in her private chambers. She hadn't slept for hours, due to the fact that she had so many bloody patients. She was jerked from her well-earned rest though, by the shriek of an alarm.

She swore loudly, running out of her chambers into the infirmary.

The hospital wing emergency ward-alarms had gone off.

********************************************************************************

Professor Albus Dumbledore could not sleep. He sat at his desk, staring down into the pensieve. He smiled at the memory he had brought up, and remembered the day quite clearly.

**@***@***@**

"And now I call your co-valedictorians, Headboy and girl, James Potter and Lily Evans."

They both stood, smiling at each other and went to the front.

"Well, here we are..." Lily started.

"Seven years..."

"After all the work..."

"All the Pranks..."

"James!"

"Come on Lil. You even helped us with some of them..."

The whole hall erupted in laughter, but James continued.

"So we thought... You know to celebrate it all, and since we can't get in trouble..."

Most of the teachers had their head in their hands at this point, or angry scowls on their face. Dumbledore just smiled, waiting to see what would happen.

"What could they do to us anyways... I mean, we're leaving tomorrow..." Sirius now stood up, joining the other two at the front.

"So why not another prank?" Finished Remus.

Everyone looked up. No one had seen him slip away. He was sitting in the far corner or the hall, on a tiny ledge up by the enchanted ceiling.

"We do know a lot more about this school than anyone would think..." Peter said, from where he was standing right behind the Ravenclaw table.

"You'll see..." Lily laughed. She snapped her fingers, and the whole hall went black.

Dumbledore chuckled in the dark. Yes, that group was a clever one. They had even managed to extinguish the Enchanted Ceiling.

Suddenly, at the far corner of the hall, small figures began to appear, like a laser light show.

"There once was a time, when, yes, even we were innocent." James' voice came from the darkness.

Everyone laughed as cartoon-ized versions of the five of them appeared.

"But, that obviously didn't last, now did it..." Came Lily's highly amused voice.

The hall erupted in laughter once more as another figure appeared, chasing the four Marauders. It was unmistakably Filch, due to the cat that followed closely behind.

"Ah yes..." Came Sirius' dramatized sentimental voice. "A legacy was born..."

"We do have some favorite pranks, though..." Peter said.

"Like the time we managed to enchant all the cutlery so that they'd disappear whenever the Slitherins touched them..." Remus laughed.

An image appeared of several students eating with their hands because they had no other choice.

"Or maybe the time we persuaded all four portraits that guard the entrances to the common rooms to only let in the people with size 8 feet."

"That one was my idea." Sirius laughed as an image of the long line-ups outside each common room came up.

"And then there were the last six Defense against the Dark Arts teachers." James said. "They always were a lot of fun. Especially Professor Luna."

"Lunatic, more like it..." Remus added.

"Yes well... We had some fun with him."

Another image appeared. This time it depicted the unfortunate teacher, flashing bright pink. It had taken all the teachers days to try and figure out how to get rid of it.

The whole hall was in stitches laughing by now.

"So now, for one of last-" Sirius began.

"Notice the 'one of'" Lily said. "You're not safe yet."

"Hardly." Sirius continued. "But as I was saying, as one of our last little pranks, we go to an old fashioned standard."

"I'm sure you'll find it quite entertaining. Just a reminder, though. Please wait until the count of three."

Suddenly the whole hall was full of light. And in front of each student sat a particularly large piece of cake.

Scrawled across each piece was something in icing. They all read:

For Severus Snape

"Oh screw it," Sirius yelled.

"Three!" Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all yelled at the same time.

The whole hall erupted in laughter as Severus Snape was plastered with, well... a lot of chocolate cake.

"Food fight!!!"

Professor Dumbledore went to grab for a handful of jello when he heard a bell ringing.

"Where's that coming from..."

And then he realized it wasn't part of the memory. He pulled his mind from the pensieve.

The hospital wing emergency ward-alarms were ring.

He stood and head as fast as he could toward the hospital wing.

********************************************************************************

Harry didn't know how long they stayed there. Hermione's wracking sobs eventually calmed to silent tears, but she never moved from his arms. But tears never came for Harry. He stared ahead, attempting to clear his mind. The room reverberated a painful silence, and it was smothering. Harry was drowned in it, until his best friend burst through the entrance to Gwynedd's Den.

Harry looked at Ron. He was chalk white, an expression of total shock on his face. He looked almost lost, and completely terrified at the same time.

Harry looked up at him, questioningly.

"Ginny." Ron whispered. "She's gone..." His voice seemed far off, like he wasn't anywhere near them.

"What?" Harry stood, looking at him. Hermione looked up at him from the couch, a stricken look on her face.

"She's dead..." He whispered, as if he didn't believe it.

Harry felt his chest tighten, the beginnings of panic.

"What? She can't be... I mean- we can- We have the cauldron... We'll uh- we'll bring her back... We can-" He spun, and in the midst of his panic, realized something. "Oh Shit... Oh shit, oh shit, or shit..."

"What?" Ron asked, alarmed.

"The cauldron. It's gone! It's fuckin' gone!"

Ron fell into the chair behind him, a defeated look on his face. He brought his knees up to his chin, staring ahead. Finally, inevitable tears began to slide down his cheeks.

"Dammit! Dammit!" Harry yelled the words as loud as he could, kicking the leg of a nearby table.

Hermione stood silently, alarmed by Harry's outburst. She walked forward slowly. They stared into each other's eyes for a second, and Hermione pressed her palm against his tear-stained cheek.

"She died because of me, Herm... She died because of me..." He said, pressing his hand on top of hers. "You died because of me... My parents..." She fell to the ground, his shaking legs no longer able to hold him. "It's my fault... It's my fault..."

Hermione knelt down next to him, tears burning on her skin. She gripped his hand and sat silently, unable to speak. But she could think. They all could, even through the tears, the shock.

They all thought the same thing.

This is never going to end.

But drowning in their tears, that day in Gwynedd's Den, there was something they didn't know.

They were wrong.

It would end.

Too soon.

********************************************************************************

That took me a while. It was hard to write, my apologies. (Another part of it was that FF.net's been kinda screwed. I've decided to finish this soon. It will be no more that 30 Chapters, probably less. Yes it will have an ending, not happy, like in the fairy tales, but an ending, where everyone comes to terms.

But not everyone like it.

So year, the next Chapter will probably be pretty short, but it and Chapter 26 will be uploaded at the same time, and there is a particular reason for it. So relax. Hopefully it will be up soon.

Please review, though I don't really deserve it...

Love ya,

~Danie

P.S. Another reason this hasn't been up was I was away for a while due to the British Columbia Summer Swimming Association (BCSSA) Provincial Championships. I swam two events, to relays actually. We did pretty well, knocking 3-4 seconds off our times, even though we came 5th and 7th. But that's still not bad. But Swimming's over, so I have more time to write. That is, I will have to deal with school, though...