Graduation

Hermione was still gone; Ron could never convince himself completely that she wasn't coming back. But for her sake, he had to keep going. Sometimes he thought about quitting school, and then Harry would convince him to stay. Only four months left, only three months left, only two months left.

Ron had nothing left to do now, so he would often sit in the common room for hours doing his homework and doing it well. Despite all the class he had missed, he reached the head of his class. Graduation was soon, one month left.

They were in Transfiguration again. Ron was turning into Hermione. He took notes like a madman and knew the answer to every question. It seemed as though he had filled the empty places in his soul with random facts and trivia.

They had taken the N.E.W.T.s last week. And their name did them justice: they were both nasty and exhausting. Ron had spent the whole two days before studying and he actually did quite well. Now they were only in class because the teachers didn't want every seventh year wandering the halls all day.

Professor McGonagall was nice enough not to give them any work, so she was instead making them practice Apparating. No one could Apparate to get inside the castle, but once you were already there, it was possible to go short distances. Ron was going to take his test when school got out. He was actually pretty good at it, but the wizarding laws said you had to be supervised when practicing before you passed the test. People kept on appearing and disappearing in different areas of the classroom, except Neville, who kept on coming in through the door when he Apparated into Professor Trelawny's room.

The bell rang and the students Apparated back to their desks to collect their belongings. "Oh, Mr. Weasley, can I see you for a minute?" Professor McGonagall called.

"Go ahead, Harry," Ron said. "I'll see you at lunch." Ron took his bag and walked up to Professor McGonagall's desk.

"Mr. Weasley," she said when everyone else had left the room. "I'd like to congratulate you on your excellent score on the N.E.W.T.s. You got 112%! Not quite as well as Miss Granger would have done, but still the highest grade of all the seventh years!"

"Umm, thanks."

"That's not all. The student who receives the highest grade is supposed to give a speech at the graduation ceremony."

"I - I have to give a speech?"

She nodded. "You'll need to submit it to me or Professor Dumbledore by the day before the ceremony. That means you have a little over a month."

* * *

Ron sighed and looked up at the trees. It was particularly windy today, and he was shivering in just a T-shirt and jeans. He looked up at the castle, trying hard to think about anything but Hermione. After all, he only had one week left to write his speech and he had no idea where to begin. The only thing that stuck out in his mind from the last seven years was her death, and he couldn't write a speech about her.

Harry ran up behind him, struggling for breath. "Ron!" he gasped. "I figured you'd be out here." Ron didn't slow his pace, so Harry walked quickly behind him. He had to take large steps to keep up with Ron, who was good six inches taller. "Don't you want to come in for dinner?"

"In a while," Ron replied.

"You working on your speech?"

"Trying - I can't seem to think of anything important to say. What do you think I should say?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I'm no writer."

Ron shook his head. "Come on, it's cold. Let's go in and eat."

So they did, and after dinner, Ron involved himself with a game of Exploding Snap with Dean and Seamus. The speech was forgotten in the back of his mind.

And so it went for days like this. The seventh years had no more to learn and there was no homework, but Ron kept neglecting his speech.

Finally, it was two days before graduation. Ron sat down in the common room, a blank piece of paper spread out in front of him. Even when Neville challenged him to a game of wizard's chess, he declined. He had to finish the speech and give it to Professor McGonagall before the end of the next day. He sat at the table, pondering and reflecting on the years past. The common room emptied. Even the last procrastinator finished studying and went to bed. But Ron still sat there. He glanced out the window and saw the full moon beginning to sink into the horizon. It was almost morning and he still had nothing.

By the time Harry came down the next morning, Ron was asleep at the table, his head lying on the blank sheet of paper. Harry shook him awake.

"What is it?" Ron mumbled.

"It's breakfast time," Harry answered.

Ron sat bolt upright. "Oh, no! I fell asleep without finishing the speech!" He groaned. "Oh, now what am I going to do?"

"Why don't you just wish everyone good luck in the future? It doesn't have to be long. The ceremony will last for hours anyway."

"You're right." Quickly, Ron gathered his things and they went down to breakfast. Ron jotted down his idea as Harry ate. Ron hardly ate anything anymore - maybe a bit of dinner, but that was all. He had lost weight. He was sick, but he didn't know if it was from HIV or grief.

During the break that day, Ron headed down to Professor McGonagall's office and handed her his draft.

My fellow classmates, congratulations on making it to the end of seventh year. It's been a long and hard journey with sleepless nights of homework, seven different Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, and a few burns from Blast-Ended Skrewts.

But we finally got here. But the important thing is the future. What are you doing in your future? Working, starting a family, playing sports?

The future is very important because if you don't know where you're going, you'll probably never get there.

The speech went on like this for two more pages, so naturally, Professor McGonagall loved it.

"This is wonderful," she said, handing it back to him. "Why don't you practice reading this tonight so you'll be ready tomorrow morning? And don't worry - I'll just call you up when it's time to speak."

Ron took his speech back to Gryffindor Tower and read it over a couple of times. He turned in early - he hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

And finally it was graduation day - their last day at Hogwarts. They all dressed in their best black robes and pointed hats and sat alphabetically in chairs on the stage that had been set up in the front of the Great Hall. As they filed in quietly and orderly, Ron spotted his parents sitting out in the audience. To no one's surprise, the Dursley's hadn't shown up to congratulate Harry.

Ron didn't listen as Professor Dumbledore made a speech and he didn't listen as each of the Heads of Houses said their bit. But finally he was drawn out of his stupor when Professor McGonagall announced, "And now, I present to you Hogwarts' top scorer on the N.E.W.T.s with 112%, Gryffindor Ronald Weasley."

Ron's stomach lurched as he stood up and his paper crumbled as his hand clenched it. Professor McGonagall smiled at him as he walked to the podium. "Don't be nervous," she whispered.

Ron took a deep breath and spread his papers out on the podium. He cleared his throat, looking out at the audience.

And in the crowd, he spotted the two people he had least expected: Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Suddenly, he thought of the perfect speech, and it wasn't what he had written in front of him.

He looked up at everyone, a puzzled expression on his face. Then he picked up his speech, crumbled it up, and tossed it behind his head onto the stage floor.

People began to chatter, and Ron could hear Professor McGonagall gasp loudly.

"I don't deserve to be making this speech," he began, "but I get to because I got the highest grade on the N.E.W.T.s, which supposedly makes he the smartest kid in my class. But I'm not the smartest or the hardest working - no, that was Hermione Granger.

"Hermione should be making this speech. But she can't. She's dead. She died from AIDS. Most of you don't know what this is because it doesn't affect you. But anyone with a Muggle background knows - AIDS is a disease that affects your immune system and makes you unable to fight off simple diseases like a cold or the flu.

"But this speech isn't about Hermione. It's about graduation. Sure, I still get depressed when I think of her, but life goes on. Many of us will be going on to jobs at the Ministry or at schools or playing professional Quidditch. But Hermione won't. Me? When I imagined being out of school this time last year, I thought about proposing, getting married and settling down. But that dream is gone for me now.

"I don't really know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life; some of you probably don't know either. So here's my advice to this year's Hogwarts graduating class: live life to the fullest because you never know when your life - or a loved one's life - will end. So when you go on with your life, remember this - there's no day but today."

The crowd sat in shocked silence for a moment. Then Professor Dumbledore started to clap, and the whole Hall exploded with applause. Ron looked out at the audience, teary-eyed Mrs. Granger smiled at him and clapped.

That speech was better than anything he had written in two pages.

At the reception, Professor McGonagall came up to him. "Well, Mr. Weasley, that's not quite the speech I expected."

Ron looked down at his shoes, inching their way out from hand-me-down robes that we getting too small for him. "I'm sorry, Professor. I just-"

"It's alright. We all miss her."

Harry found his way over followed closely by Malfoy.

"Good speech, Weasley," Malfoy said.

"Thanks," Ron replied, smiling.

"What?" said Harry, looking confused. "That wasn't the idea I gave you."

"I know," Ron answered. "But I thought of what I really wanted to say when I got up there and saw Mr. and Mrs. Granger. That speech wasn't me, Harry. I only wrote it because I had to."

"I'm going to find Ginny," Malfoy said. "I think her exam should be over by now."

"Okay," Ron called. "See you later. You are coming, right?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll be there!"

Harry looked at Ron. "What am I missing here?"

Ron smiled. "A lot. I'll fill you in with a short version for now. Malfoy and I spent a lot of time together in the hospital wing - he has HIV too."

"Him, how?"

"He'll tell you if he wants - it's not my business. He and Ginny have been going out in secret for some time now. He's coming to our little graduation party tonight - then Ginny'll break the news to the family."

"And you're okay with this?"

"Sure. Malfoy's not so bad if he's not hanging around with his Slytherin buddies."

Harry's jaw dropped. "You've changed, Ron, you've really changed."

"I've had to, Harry. But I think now I'm going to be alright."

"I don't know if I like it."

"Harry-" But Harry began to walk away. "I'll see you tonight, right?"

"We'll see," Harry replied.

~*The End*~