She stood in the window, the wind hopeless in its attempt to dry the tears that streamed unchecked down her face; the jagged lines of salt remained as a testament to its unseen, unwanted, and ignored efforts. The world as she had known it was ended, lost in the sands of time, doomed to remain only as a bitter-sweet memory. The fallen were to be laid to rest in the hours before sunset, nothing but a marker defaced by a clique to serve as a reminder: "Gone, but not forgotten", "Will be sorely missed", "A loss to mark generations", "Gone too soon", and so on. Heroes all, it will be said at the ceremony, bits and pieces of the deeds of the dead and the residual happiness will slowly evaporate into the pits of despair. At least, it would in her case.
Her sobs clogged her throat, choking her in a fashion she was want to continue; the loss of air, the possible loss of life, all a dream in her current state. One she would give almost anything to fulfill. Survivor's guilt she heard them whispering, the shock of it all is wearing off; she will be able to cope after a time. That talked around her as though they knew what she was going through, as though they WERE her. What do they know? The only one with even and INCLING was the lone red-haired girl who had long since achieved her goal of aversion.
They had done it. Completed the goal shared by generations, saved the entire wizarding world from the one who would have destroyed their society and killed over half of their population… and every last muggle in existence. What was the cost? The whole of society mourned the loss of Dumbledore, but too few cried for the house elf, many more would pretend grief at the death of two-thirds of the Golden Trio, and there was only one left feel the absence of the two muggle dentists whose only folly was to birth the brightest witch of recent memory. The lone survivor, Hermione Granger.
All of the reading, all of the research, all of the sacrifice for nothing. It may have helped save the wizarding society, preserve the flawed and ultimately corrupt system of government; but it had not saved her best-friend and it had not saved the one person she felt she could spend the rest of her life with. She had no intention of going to the service, her grief was her own and not to be put on display.
She left the building, moving hurriedly with no thought to stealth and aparated to the lake where the sword had been gifted Harry. She walked on water until she was reached the very middle and waited until the darkness had fully set in. She lifted both her face and her wand to the sky whispering a spell under her breath, letting the magic that had gone wild inside her flow off into the atmosphere. A trio of lights shone brightly far off in the heavens, her permanent tribute to those she loved that were forever lost to her.
She lowered her wand, capturing the sight in her mind as she slowly breathed out and closed her eyes before plummeting into the cool watery depths below her. She made no attempt to rise to the surface… the one thought that flowed through her mind as the blackness engulfed her was 'finally'.