It's too late. For so many things, but mainly for the truth. No one would ever really know him, the real person hidden underneath the carefully molded facade. A facade built up over years of memories and feelings of anguish, of things that had been done and couldn't be taken back.

No one knew him like you did. He never let anyone close enough to see the fear, the pain, the anger, the bravery and, yes, even kindness inside him.

Except you.

You have to laugh, inside anyway, at the fact that the person who was able to break through his walls, was the one person he was least likely to let in. Ever. And yet you got in. And there was no turning back then.

Now you sit on the cold ground and pray to whatever higher power might be listening. You pray that this all turns out to be a nightmare. Pray that it is a morbid joke of some sort. Even in your grief you can find the irony in that and, again, you laugh. He doesn't joke. He never did anyway, so why would today be different?

Which means that this is real, and more painful then you'd like to admit. It shouldn't feel like this. This was the man you hated. As tears start burning your eyes you realize that he's also the man you respected, more than anyone else. The man who taught you the dark arts you would need to win in the final battle. Who taught you about yourself. He was an unlikely ally, but the most invaluable.

And now, at a time when all you want is to go to him, to celebrate a well deserved and long awaited victory, one that he of all people would gladly rejoice in, all you can do is hold tight to his lifeless form. You whisper your thanks over and over again, for his help and his friendship, hoping that somehow, somewhere, he will hear you.

The tears that had been threatening to fall, now flow freely as your friends begin to gather. A comforting hand is placed on your back but all you can do is shake it off, because there is no amount of comfort that can bring him back to you. And they'll never understand. They didn't know him like you did.

And everyone will all be able to move on with their lives. No one will feel sorrow everyday when he crosses their mind. If he does. And no one will feel tears in their eyes when they mix a potion, or pass by the dungeons. No one will ever remember his smile.

Except you.