A/N: I beg all of you to forgive me for taking so long with this chapter. In the midst of a lot of personal issues to deal with in the last few months, my mind just could not do this last chapter justice and I could never compromise the integrity of these last words, especially for all those who have followed this story along with me.

But praise! The story is now finished! I do hope you all enjoy it! This chapter takes us back to the prologue, which you might want to reread because I have taken so long to wrap this up. No warnings for this chapter, just some mild spoilers for HBP.

Chapter 11

Today

A New Life

I open my eyes.

Two things register immediately; I'm outside…and it's raining.

The lone illumination that I hold in my hand struggles; cowering against its natural enemy as I attempt to reconcile the thoughts that are flashing through my mind. I will them to slow down, to allow me to make sense of them, analyze them…but they do not heed my desire.

Then a frail whisper floats by.

My head turns in its direction, and I respond, regardless that I am unable to locate the source of the voice. With a brief glimpse of the perimeter, I can now place myself outside of Hogwarts, and facing the Forbidden Forest. My memories assault me again and I know that I am staring, unable to focus on anything other then the images that are trying to tell me a story.

How did I get here?

There is only one thing that I know without doubt; something is not right.

Instinctively, my mind conjures the name that has haunted me since I was only a year old, but I stop. Somehow I know that he is not the answer.

Slowly, my memories begin to restore themselves.

Extermination.

Death of family and friends, everyone uniting and fighting evil, more death, suspicions and accusations, and more death still.

The whisper again, it startles me. I spin and whirl; yielding more forcibly. Still, I do not see anyone.

I crawl back inside myself, anxious to for my memory to reveal what happened next.

Fear.

Everyone is afraid. Even….

Suddenly I buckle under the weight of overwhelming grief. Just thinking his name makes me want to scream in anguish.

Draco.

My tears flow freely, disguising themselves as rain water, the same rain water that has me drenched and shivering.

At least I think that is the reason I am shivering.

Why do I feel this way? For reasons that elude me, I simply cannot remember.

And now he's gone, and the flower sits alone

Its dead petals sway as the wind blows

With impossible love that it once had known

One imperfect rose

I turn to make my way into the castle, and again I find myself wondering why I came here. To ground my thoughts, I feverishly repeat my old mantra and place my hand on the castle doors.

My candle finally surrenders to defeat, pitching me into darkness as once again I hear that voice. I erupt in a scream of frustration that has been building inside of me.

"WHO'S THERE!"

I would be surprised if I got an answer.

Flinging open the castle doors, I stride into the Main Hall…then stop dead in my tracks.

Dumbledore. I hear Dumbledore!

I quicken my pace, heading towards the Great Hall where Dumbledore's voice is joined by the cheering of hundreds of students. The only reason I am not running is because I am not entirely sure that I am not imagining all of this.

I reach the threshold of the Great Hall, and through the door the sounds of a normal day waft through. Dumbledore is talking about something, and the students are receiving the news with thunderous applause.

Had I been mistaken earlier? Could all of those memories been fabricated? Dreamed? Relief pushes confusion aside and I open the door to the Great Hall.

Everyone is here!

I scan the room, my heart swelling with pure joy as my eyes take attendance. My mind tells me that these people should not be here, but my heart ignores it. I was afraid that I would never see them again, and I have never been more thankful that my fears were exaggerated.

No one in the room has noticed my presence, and I could no longer wait for the Headmaster to finish his speech. I ran into the room, excited about greeting those people that I felt I haven't seen for an eternity.

As soon as my body crossed the line and entered into the Hall, it all changed.

Like a blanket that is ripped away, the image of the Great Hall that I witnessed from the other side of the door disappeared.

Now it looked condemned.

Windows were shattered and cracked, mold and mildew covered the walls and the floor was broken flagstone and dirt.

I'm confused.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around to find Hermione standing behind me.

Happiness floods my senses again as I crush her in a strong embrace.

"I'm glad to see you too, Harry."

I'm throwing question after question at her, not allowing her a chance to answer before the next flies out of my mouth. She just stands there, with a small grin, probably waiting for me to run out of breath.

Finally, I end my inquisition with one last question.

"Where are we?"

She looks down for a moment.

"That's hard to explain."

She leads me further into the Great Hall and we take a seat on a rusty bench.

"What do you remember, Harry?"

I tell her that I'm not sure. I can't seem to trust my memory because it seems out of sequence and incomplete. I have feelings of intense anger and sadness, but I cannot recall the memory that supports those feelings.

She watches me closely, nodding occasionally, and eventually she speaks.

"Harry, how do you feel?"

An odd question considering what I just told her, but I decide that she must mean physically and not mentally.

So I tell her that I feel fine.

"I ask because I need to show you something, and I need to know if you can handle it."

I reassure her that aside from confusion, I feel perfectly okay.

She takes my hand and guides me out into the Main Hall then down the hallway. So intent on the next destination, I did not notice the cheerful scene in the Great Hall reappear.

She leads me to the old, now unguarded, Gryffindor common room. Stopping, I begin to crawl through the portrait hole, but she holds me back.

"You have to watch; otherwise you will break the illusion if you enter the room."

So I watch, and immediately regret doing so.

I watch the events of that last night, that night with the confrontation with Ginny; and all of my memories righted themselves.

I remember.

I remember watching Ron fall into green death, Hermione pass out from strangulation, Draco dying as gracefully as he lived, Ginny and I dueling to the death and casting almost simultaneous spells, Hermione appearing and casting another spell that hits me a fraction before Ginny's, then Ginny's death.

All of this is playing out before me, like someone had turned my mind into a projector. But the movie continues, even when my memory has stopped.

I watch as Hermione steps over to my body and whisper. She staggers a bit, before making her way to the portrait hole. Her image fades before she reaches the exit.

Confusion returns with a fury. If I am dead, and Hermione is alive, how is it that I am now in her company?

"Harry, do you remember when I worked at the Ministry developing a new spell with Draco?"

I nod.

"That was the spell you just saw."

My face must betray my confusion, for she painstakingly explained it all to me.

Throat burning and vision unable to focus, she heard rather then saw the two other people in the room that were still alive. Based on the magical energy that hovered in the air that was filled with hate and anger, she guessed that the duel would soon reach the point of no return.

Forgotten and left for dead, she used this arrogance to her advantage. She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the sounds of the fight, and filtered all of her power to muster the strength to perform one last spell.

She took her cue when she heard dual death cast almost in tandem. Standing behind the one who had taken everything from her, she cast her secret spell to save the last thing that mattered. Her spell reached her best friend a moment before certain death, and she declares herself the winner when the one who truly deserves death finally succumbs.

A pyrrhic victory.

Working her way to her friend, she does not glance at the satisfactory death because she hasn't much time. Reaching her goal, she quickly whispers the necessary words to complete the spell. She feels tremendous disorientation, but fights to remain conscious.

She needs to find help fast.

I am in awe. I had always known that her power not only surpassed mine, but a vast majority of the entire wizarding world. She had accomplished the impossible.

Hermione saved my life…by fusing my soul with hers.

It was a derivative of the horcrux, redesigned to capture an unanchored soul upon release of death. She had known that her mind would shatter under the weight of the two souls that existed within, and she had hurriedly left Hogwarts to seek help. It was only her sheer determination and strength of mind that allowed her to find a muggle town. Hermione had found her way to the safety of a medical facility before her mind finally collapsed, securing her in here with me.

"I knew what I was doing Harry. I do not regret my choice."

I stared at her in wide-eyed disbelief.

Hermione sacrificed the one thing that she prided herself in the most…her mind.

For me.

Oh

Why me

For eternity

It's to be

Me

We live in America now, in a muggle hospital where Hermione sits all day in a semi-catatonic state. The doctors think of her as a schizophrenic because of the way our voices whisper to each other as her body stares blindly at the wall. They can only hear us when we venture outside the castle; the recreated fortress of Hogwarts that Hermione built in her mind allows us privacy from the real world that could never understand the true nature of her final gift.

Needless to say, we do not go outside very often, but it did answer the question of the strange voice that greeted me when I first awoke.

We will live our days wandering through our beloved castle, pausing to watch a memory through a doorway or window. The torment of only being able to see our friends and never interact with them will make our existence unbearable at times, even more so when we watch memories of those we loved. But we will always have each other.

This will be our life now, and I am honored that Hermione preserved my soul, allowing me to be with her until the end of our days.

I cannot think of a better person to be with.

The love and trust that Hermione and I share promises that we will enjoy this time together; giving comfort to one another when memories become too overwhelming. And though we will live in a perpetual November where rain is always falling, I know that one day we will all reunite with those who left before us.

I am more then satisfied with that.

I take my best friend by the hand, squeezing it ever so softly,

"So…what do you want to do tomorrow?"

The end!

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read and enjoyed this story! For those who left reviews to tell me your thoughts, a special place will always exist for you in my heart for making me feel so wonderful! It's really ironic that it took the words of a "flame" to bring all of this together. Funny how life works…

For those interested: I will be starting an LJ account where uncensored versions of my new story will be posted, oh yes…it'll be H/D. Plus, there is a special treat that comes with the next story. Nope! I'm no telling!

Chapters will be posted here as well, but sometimes the smut is too much for this little website to take, hence why I am starting the LJ account. I will update the "my homepage" link in my ffnet profile when it is up and running. I truly hope that some of you that have journeyed with me will continue to as I partake in my next story. Your words have always been an inspiration for me and I am not sure I can continue to write without them.

P.S. A/N: It is my birthday, and what a more wonderful gift then to leave a review!