As I struggle through writers block with my other fics, I'm hit with a ton of other ideas for short ficlets. Since I read OOTP, I noticed how much Harry had changed… then this idea came to me. Don't get mad, artistic liscence and all that!
Hope you like it! When the Rain Stops
The rain would stop eventually.
That's what Hermione Granger told herself as she walked away from Ron Weasley, Ron with the bright hair darkened by blood and dirt, Ron with tears streaming down his face as he held his best friend in his arms and screamed to the heavens.
Harry Potter was dead.
She couldn't care less.
The final battle was over, had been for weeks. Harry Potter had survived to destroy Voldemort with his own hands, but not in time to save everyone. Certainly not in time to save former classmates, ones who had spit at him and called him names. And certainly not in time to save the girl he considered a traitor, the one he vowed to love forever.
Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe.
Their names would haunt her forever.
Draco Malfoy.
Tears choked her, but she ruthlessly held them back, she would not cry, not for him.
Ginny Weasley.
She was numb to the sound of her name.
b*Flashback*b
iHermione sobbed as Harry paced in front of the six people in front of him. A cold look was in his eyes, Voldemort was dead, but a battle raged on, these six were the cause of that battle. Other 'Gold fighters' as they called themselves watched as their leader surveyed the broken and bleeding captives.
"You have all been captured in the midst of battle, the rebellion you tried to start has failed and you have been caught. You all admit to being in league with Voldemort, do you not?"
"You know we do, Potter." Malfoy sneered. He tried to curl his upper lip, as he had done so many times in the past, but flinched as the cut deepened and blood started to pool in his mouth.
"You are the six that were Voldemort's young counsel?"
Parkinson snorted, "Young? We are in our twenties, Potter, a perfect age to work for Voldemort, our parents are either in Azkaban, or dead."
Harry went on, as if she had not spoken. "Since we are in the midst of a battlefield, there is no judge or jury to try you, I have been given permission as the leader of the Gold Fighters to decide your verdict. Do anyone of you wish to speak before I decide your sentence?"
Crabbe and Goyle sneered at him, Parkinson glared and tossed her hair, and Zabini chuckled under his breath and spat at the ground at Harry's feet. Draco straightened his shoulders resolutely.
"We have nothing to say to you, Potter, you've made your decision, now stop wasting our time."
Harry's eyes flashed, then he turned to the second girl in the group.
"And you?" He asked softly, walking closer to her, "Do you have anything to say to me? Do you, Weasley?"
Ginny glanced up at her former boyfriend and smiled sweetly.
"Go to hell, Potter."
Harry stepped back and his eyes were cold once again.
"So be it." He said viciously. "I, Harry Potter, leader of the Golden Fighters, who fight on the path of justice and right, do hereby sentence Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley, charged with the crimes of murder, conspiracy, and treason, with death." i
b*End Flashback* b
He killed Draco then, Hermione remembered, killed Ginny's lover right in front of her, and had smiled as Ginny dropped down on the ground next to Draco, crying and holding his body close.
He performed the killing curse on Blaise next, and Hermione had sobbed in anguish as the smart Slytherin boy, Head Boy of her seventh year, dropped down with his mouth half open and a shocked look on his face. Then it was Pansy, then Crabbe and Goyle. Then, when it was all done, he killed Ginny Weasley.
b*Flashback*b
i"You killed them!" Hermione screamed as the rain poured down and mixed with her tears.
"They killed defenseless people, Hermione, it had to be done." Harry was calm now, the bodies had been taken away and all that was left was puddles and mud.
"They had to be taken to trial!"
"We had a trial."
"That wasn't a trial! That was murder!" Hermione was shrieking, her voice thin with shock and grief.
"They deserved to be executed." Harry responded with calmly.
"They were people!"
"They were animals!" He shouted, rising from where he had sat on a tree stump. "Get that through your head, Hermione, they killed people, they ruined people's lives, they destroyed my…"
Hermione shook her head in disbelief, "This wasn't about them killing people was it Harry? This was about Draco… and Ginny."
"Don't be foolish."
"It's true! You couldn't stand that she tossed you over for him, could you! She had started seeing him to get secrets, but then she fell in love with him didn't she? You had your heart broken because she fell in love with your greatest enemy, and you killed her!"
"She was a traitor to Dumbledore."
"She was in love!"
"As was I!" Harry took a step toward her, his face red from screaming. "I loved her! Loved her with all of my being and what did she do? She fell into Malfoy's bed with the slightest provocation! That filthy bastard had his hands on her and she came back to me with the excuse that it was for the mission. Then she told me, said that she had to be with Malfoy, said that she loved him." Harry was shaking with fury and glared at his hands. "I could have killed her right then, but I sent her off, told her to think it over, and what does she do? She kills Colin Creevy and brings his body to Voldemort, to show her loyalty." His hands were clenched so hard that Hermione could see all the blood drain out of them. "Filthy whore."
"That doesn't give you the right to murder her!" Hermione managed to get out through her grief.
"She was executed, for the crimes she did, she was punished."
Hermione grabbed her wand out of her cloak pocket.
"As will you Harry Potter… for the murder of six former students of Hogwarts, I sentence you to death."
Harry only had time to look up in confusion before she said the words.
"Avada Kedavra."i
b*End Flashback*b
Ron must have called the authorities, Hermione mused as a dozen Ministry officials surrounded her, how very practical of him.
He had shown up just a bit too late, Harry was already dead when Ron had run up, limping a bit from a twisted ankle. He had asked Hermione what happened and she calmly told him, stopping only briefly when she got to the part where Harry killed Ron's only sister.
Poor Ron, Hermione thought to herself, he's all alone now, doesn't have anyone to hold on to… Ginny's dead, Harry's dead, and I'm surely going to be sent to Azkaban for killing the Boy who Lived.
The rain stopped as Hermione's hands were charmed together and her wand was taken away, they stepped in puddles as she was escorted to the Ministry's carriage and she wondered what Azkaban was like.
Hopefully Ron would come and visit her.
She dearly wished to see him again.
