It wasn't long until word had gotten out that Ron was dead, Hermione had broken up with Seamus and that she was dating Harry. It was fine with them, it was none of thier business and most people didn't care about anything.The cleaning of the grounds was nearly done. Which meant that the proof of Ron's death was about to stare them in the face.
It was two weeks before they left from school, Harry and Hermione were walking out near the Quidditch Pitch. It was a beautiful day with no clouds in sight a soft breeze pushing at the trees. The hands held together walking as closely as possible they enjoyed the comfortable silence. Suddenly as they neared the castle Dean came up to them stuttering as he tried to make them stay put. Thinking it was nothing serious, maybe someone making fun of them, Harry launched foward closesly followed by Hermione.
The sight made them gasp, Hermione felt dizzy she leaned up on Harry closing her eyes. There he was, the boy who had never got to become a man, their best friend, Ron's corps was lying on a stretcher floating in the air. His eyes were closed and he had a serene smile, like if wherever he was he was happy. It was both horrific and beautiful. Hermione began to cry softly, she had not yet gotten to the point of accepting that the flame haired boy she had grown so close to was dead, gone forever, then again not many people do so fast.
The body was taken away from them, taking the sting from Harry's heart a little bit. Bodies were carried into the castle one after the other, into a secret room to be later taken away for funeral services and burials. Hermione stayed in Harry's strong arms for another few minutes occasionnaly a sob would shake her body but she was mostly just satying there for comfort.
They were going for another walk, now needing to be alone with their grief when a more joyfull surprise met them. They were again nearing an area of grond clean up, this wasn't a place of fallen rocks and other various pieces of the castle but their was damage including a long narrow hole. The wizards cleaning were pulling something from the hole. It seemed that whatever it was, it was too heavy for them to pull by themselves. They called Harry and Hermione over to them and the young couple went to get a hold of their wands they cast a charm on the object still engulfed by darkness to make it lighter. As the wizards pulled for a few more minutes the thing was brought into the light. The sight was enough to make the two lovebirds let go of the rope in shock. The wizards fumbled a little with the rope bringing the fragile figure of Neville Longbottom back into the darkness. They regained their composure and pulled on the rope once more, Neville was helped out of the hole. No one would ever know how Neville had survived over three months in a hole.
"Ne-Neville?" Hermione asked amazed.
"Hi Her-" he was cut of by his coughing "mione" he managed to finish with a ragged, parched voice. As he stood on shaky legs Hermione walked over to him and gave him a soft hug. Harry stood behind her one hand on her shoulder, the other ofered out to Neville along with a big smile. Neville returned the favour along with grabbing hold of The- boy-who-lived-to-kill's hand and shaking it with a confidence and pride so obvious in his eyes that it was so odd, no one had ever seen such raw emotion coming from this boys eyes. They walked him up to the Hospital Wing and stayed with him for the rest of the afternoon. Later that evening, when the sun had gone down and the moon shone brightly Harry made his way to Dumbledore's office for a long overdue visit.
"Come in Harry" Dumbledore's voice said before he could even knock.
"Hello Professor" he said to the aged man in front of him, a man who was slowly regaining all of the-boy-who-lived-to-kill's respect.
"Hello. It is nice to see you, I trust you heard about Mr. Longbottom, what a miracle isn't it?" The old man said with a twinkle in his eyes "By the way congratulations with everything, Harry"
"Thank you professor, yes I heard, I spent the afternoon with him. What, may I ask, is there to be congratulated for except killing Voldemort?" He asked respectfully.
"Well, your relationship with Miss Granger" he winked slightly " And I wanted to apologize for not trusting your judgement on Snape" he said casting his eyes downcast.
"Well Sir. It's quite alright, I understand, he had fooled many people." Harry said with a bit of edge to his voice. "But lets put this aside, I have a question I have been waiting for far too long to ask you this."
"By all means Harry go on" Dumbledore nodded at him.
"When I killed Voldemort, my scar leaked. It wasn't blood either, it was blueish maybe a little green. " harry said.
"Oh Harry, I had completly forgotten about that" he said " yes, I had a feeling you would ask me that. The liquid was the literal bond within your scar with Voldemort. It was the horrible mind concection with him and when he died, it was broken. It is a sign that you have completly gotten rid of him. He is dead, forever." Harry let out a breath. He was relieved of all his responsibility to the wizarding world, no more saving the world by killing Voldemort or getting killed and being the reason Voldemort took over the world again.
He left the office a while later to find Hermione and Ron. ' Oh no, not Ron' he thought ' when will it set in that he's gone?' he asked himself whipping a tear from his eye. At least He will live on forever, in my heart. "Because only when people forgotten are they really dead." Just like Dumbledore had said. He walked into the common room and looked around finding Hermione sitting by the fire in one of her favorite armchairs. Surprisingly she wasn't reading, nor writing, she was staring blankly at the fire. He stood infront of her and waved a hand gently before her eyes. She snapped out of her reverie.
"Oh hi Harry, do you want to know something strange?" she asked with a smile playing at her lips.
"Sure" he answered sitting on the armrest of her chair.
" Your scar doesn't even show in this light, I mean I knew it was paler but it doesn't even look like you have one." she smiled and he leaned in closer to her and she towards him. The kiss was short, sweet but filled with so much love it was amazing to anyone who was around them, the love left them in waves.
An owl tapped on the window in Harry's dormitory that evening occupying two less boys than before, Seamus and Neville looked as harry let the jet black owl in, it had a letter. It was adressed to all of them. They gathered around and read.
Dear students of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry,
We, the parents of Dean Thomas, invite you to his funeral service and burial. It will be held at the Church in Hogsmeade on sunday june 22th at 12pm.
Mr and Mrs. Thomas.
It was followed by many other owls that night, some for almost every student that had died. All as informal as the first. All except one, from Ron's parents. It had arrived near dawn, Pig carrying five enveloppes, One for each of the three boys and two for others. Each was personnaly written by either Arthur or Molly and adressed specifically to the receiver. Harry read his hoping no tto be blamed by the Weasleys for what had happened to Ron.
Dear Harry,
First off, thank you for sticking in there and killing Voldemort. Unfortunately some people weren't spared. Ron, god rest his soul, will always be with us although I wish he could have seen more of life. No Harry we do not blame you, he knew what he was doing when he left the school with his wand raised high. Ginny wrote to us to tell us and she was angry with you, but she will come around. Let her mourn. Anyways I was writing to you, on behalf of my entire family, to invite you to Ron funeral service next monday and we really hope you can make it, maybe afterwards you could stay for diner, how about it? We all send our love and we hope to see you soon.
Arthur
Harry was relieved to say the least and as he looked at his dormmates he knew he wasn't going to be alone for this funeral. With them and Hermione, he'd never be alone. He turned to the other two letters one for Ginny and one for Hermione. He ran down the stairs and into the common room seeing one of the girls he had to see, unfortunately it was the one currently not speaking to him.
"Ginny?" he asked softly
"What do You want?" she spat out sadly.
"Your parents sent you a letter..." he said handing it to her " I thought I should give it to you myself."
"Fine" she answered as she took it from him and quickly tore it open. She read through it quickly and looked up at him again. " so..." she trailed off " are you coming to my brothers funeral?" she asked in a monotone voice.
"Yes, I wouldn't miss it" he answered sadly.
"So I suppose you're staying at the Burrow as well, like my paretns asked you to, right?" she pressed on.
"Ginny, honestly I would want to spend time with your family and try to help in anyway I can to cushion the pain. I'll only come and stay over if you want me there." he said sincerely.
"Harry, I didn't really mean to get mad at you" she confessed tears in her eyes. " I just couldn't believe that you could have tried to save him and not succeded. I miss him so much" she said bending her head foward and crying into her hands.
" I miss him too" Harry said to the young red-headed girl. He took her in his arms and hugged her close " But be thankful that the war is over and inocent people won't have to die anymore." he added in a whisper. She nodded into his shoulder.
The next few days were spent in various funeral homes, bidding their final goodbyes to their friends. Out of the many funerals they had seen, Ron's would stand in Harry and Hermione's minds forever.
FlashBack
It was monday morning and Harry was getting dressed for yet another funeral, this time his feet were heavier as was his heart, it seemed everything was moving in slow motion. He tried to make his hair lie flat in vain. He tried to shine his shoes, he tried everything to calm himself down but nothing seemed to work. He colapsed on Ron's four- poster and as he got up Neville noticed and few tears falling silently down his cheeks. Hermione was getting dressed in the girls dormitory with Ginny, whom had taken the bed of one of the girls who had gone home during the darker times before the war. They too tried to remain busy as to not think about what they were getting ready for. Just like Harry, their preperations included tears and then Ginny ran into the lavatory to re- apply her make-up.
The two girls met up with the three sixth year boys to leave at 11 o'clock in the common room. They made their way to the Headmasters office from where they took a portkey to the burrow, the cemetary was only up the road a few minutes walk. They appeared and looked around, a few people seemed to be in the next room. They walked to the door-way and were greeted by all the remaining Weasleys and a few family friends. At 3 o'clock they left the house and made their way to the cemetary. The priest was there greeting the early guests. They all took seats near the front of the funeral area and Harry took hold of Hermione's hand.
"Thank you for coming here today," the priest began. " it is unfortunate to have to see you all under such horrible conditions, our brother, our son, our friend was taken away from us. God may you greet the soul of Ronald Billius Weasley" Everyone nodded their heads and repeated those words silently. " He was a very nice, loyal young man, who shall lay in our hearts forever. He played, he laughed and he teased as all young brothers tend to do. He had a very special life, short as it may be, he had a large, loving family; Friends that no one could compete with.." Harry squeezed Hermione's hand as she let out a loud sob. "He unfortunatly had a big burden to share and it took his life" Harry heard Ginny sob and saw her body shaking, he was glad to see that one of the twins wrapped an arm around her and held her close. " Our brother Ronald leaves behind a sister, Ginevera; five brothers: Frederic, George, Percy, Billius and Charles. He was a young, innocent boy whom will enter into heaven and watch over us all. He will rest eternally and stay with us always. May the soul of Ronald Billius Weasley rest in peace." People started getting up and expressing their condolenses to the Weasley family and hugging each in turn Mrs. Weasley seemed to not let any of her children stray more than three feet away from her, for fear of losing them too.
When the crowd had dispersed and left the cemetary, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione went back to the burrow. It was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon and Mrs. Weasley began making supper half-heartedly. A diner that wasn't up to her usual standards was not held against her as they all ate the bland fod without seconds and went up to bed. Harry fearing having to sleep in Ron's old room by himself, walked down the hall to the twins room and asked, slightly embarrased if he could stay there. Instead of laughing or making fun of him as they usually would have, they nodded and clapped him on the shoulder as they conjured a cot and the three went to sleep. Ron's gravestone's inscription burned into their minds as well as on the stone.
Ronald Billius Weasley 1985-2002 Forever in our hearts,
forever in our minds