A/N: This little plot bunny hopped onto my lap and into my head. I heard the Mourning Dove's song and I couldn't help but think of this. Random inspiration, but it works. Thanks to sarah and SiVChiK101 for reviewing on A Flicker of Hope. Setting: This is in early September, so Hermione is almost twenty. Just to clear that up.
Coooo, coo, coo…
She'd heard it so many times.
Coooo, coo, coo…The song haunted her, destroyed her, killed her inside every time she heard it. But she couldn't stop listening. It hurt too much to stop listening. Yet she believed it hurt more to listen…
Coooo, coo, coo…It was a reminder of all the things she'd had to endure, all the things she'd done wrong. It was a heartbreaker, a love song, that she couldn't get out of her head. As a child, she wondered how such a sweet lullaby could be so sad…
"Mummy, why is it crying like that? What's making it cry?"She couldn't breathe.
"Why's it so sad? What happened, Mummy? How come it's crying?"She remembered. She remembered the innocence of a child. She remembered the changes that killed all of the innocence inside her. But she wasn't sure how she became what she was. It was six months…
"In case we don't make it alive tonight, Hermione, I love you."
"I know, Ron, I love you too…"
It had been two years that night. Two years since the admittance of feelings had taken place. Two years they'd been together. Two years. Now she was alone.
Coooo, coo, coo…She remembered the last moments, the last kisses, the last, 'I love you's.' She could recall the last time they made love, and the final time she woke up next to him. She remembered it all.
She wanted to forget it all.
Cooo, coo, coo…
She saw him, lying there, lifeless and empty. She saw detachment on his face and the blankness in his eyes. She wanted to shake him awake, do something, anything, to bring him back to her. Hopelessness.
Six months.
Coooo, coo, coo…She sighed as she looked out the window. She would never be whole again. No one could undo the pain she went through. At nineteen, she had already lost so much. So, so much.
She put her hand on her swelling abdomen where her child lay resting. The only hope she had left. Her child, due in November. 'No.' She corrected. 'Not my child. Our child. He would be so happy now…'
She looked out at the darkening sky. The sorrowful song still captivated her, but even with it, the brightest star did not waver. A gentle wind went past her, caressing her face, and she heard his voice.
"Be strong, my love."
She would be strong. She would be strong, for him, and only him. Her love.
The song kept singing. Forever singing.
The Mourning Dove.
Coooo, coo, coo…
A/N: Good? Bad? Tell me! Reviews make my day!;)