Draco had returned and he was very much alive. Of all the things, it was that which comforted me the most. The Malfoy were huddled together, obviously unsure if they should remain or leave, but no one paid much attention to them.

So far, no one had paid attention to me, either. I had expected the Aurors to come charging at me first chance. I had expected for my wand to be snapped and for me to be dragged off to Azkaban. I doubted that I would have even put up a fight. But they had not and I was sitting here, in the Great Hall, as if I belonged to the victors of this war.

Potter was still making his rounds, got pulled aside by these or that people even though he seemed so exhausted that I feared he might fall asleep as he spoke. But he never did. He smiled and comforted and shook hands. I could not hate him. I wished I could, but I could not. He was a hero and did what heroes did: defeat the villain.

They had dragged Tom's body outside and I did not know what had happened to it so far. I wondered what would happen if I saw it, if the tears that I waited for would finally come. Until know, all I felt was the frightening numbness.

I got up, ignoring the curious gazes of the Malfoys and gingerly walked over to him.

"A word, Potter?"

He looked up and then back to the family he was just talking to. The mother looked at me with wide, frightened eyes. I managed a cold smirk that made her avert her eyes.

Potter mumbled a quick apology and then pulled me aside. "You don't need to make it worse for yourself."

"It can't get worse, anymore," I said. "What did you do to the body?"

"We laid in a chamber off the Hall, I guess the teachers will-"

"I want to bury him," I told him curtly.

"Well, sure, you-"

"On the grounds," I added.

Potter seemed perplexed for a moment and then he energetically shook his head. "No way."

"It doesn't have to be prominent. I'll be fine with the deepest part of the Forbidden Forest if it has to be so, but I want him buried on the grounds."

"Why?" he inquired, clearly exasperated. "How am I ever supposed to tell anyone we buried Voldemort at the same place that we buried Dumbledore-"

"If I'd bury Tom next to Dumbledore, he'd probably return to the living just to slaughter me," I bit back. "I want him on the grounds because this is the only place we ever had a real home. I'm sure you understand."

He did understand; I saw it in his eyes, but I also saw the defiance.

"I can't allow that."

"I know that he had to die," I said. "If you recall, I even helped. But now he's dead, so let him find peace."

"I saw what he became," Potter said. "Because of what he did to his soul. He won't find peace. If he had regretted it, even a bit, maybe he'd have had a chance-"

"But he did," I retorted.

Potter stared, completely taken aback at my response.

"He did not kill me, he did not torture me – he showed mercy. Don't you see? He regretted what had happened to us. But he could not become whole again, here, because all those parts of his soul were already dead and you can never bring back the dead."

"But-"

"No but," I said gently. "Now, all of him is dead and he can patch himself together!"

The boy looked as though he could not quite believe what he heard. Maybe he even thought I was a little crazy. Perhaps I was. But I knew exactly what I had seen.

"In the forest," Potter said finally. "There's a clearing. It's where I first saw Voldemort in my first year. About fifteen minutes into it. It's really hard to miss if you stay on the path-"

"I can show her."

I looked over my shoulder. Draco Malfoy was standing behind me, arms crossed in front of his chest. Again, Potter seemed at loss for words.

"Then that's settled," I said.

"Yeah," Draco said. "And on that note, Potter, I'd like to have back my wand."

To my great surprise, Potter just handed it over. "Thank you for the lending."

"I'll make you pay some other day."

Even when Potter showed us to the room, even when I stepped inside and saw the body, the tears did not come. I stared at the lifeless shell of Tom and wondered why I was not sobbing.

Draco tested his wand by lifting the body into the air and then he strutted outside, motioning for me to follow him.

"Lorraine?"

I stopped and raised an eyebrow at Potter.

"I... I still have this," he said and handed me a disastrous piece of jewellery. It was blackened and the once beautiful embossment was barely recognizable. Yet there was no doubt as to what he had just handed me. The locket.

"I thought maybe you'd want to... it was a family heirloom, kind of, so I thought maybe you-"

"Thank you," I said. "It means a lot."

I pulled it over my head and then tugged the locket under my robes. Then, I hurried after Draco, who was impatiently waiting for me behind a hedge on the grounds.

"Didn't want us spotted," he muttered for an explanation.

Potter had been right. We barely walked fifteen minutes into the forest when Draco suddenly stopped on a small, dark clearing.

"That's it," he said and set the body down. "How are we doing this?"

"The right way," I said and with a wave of my wand, I produced to spades.

"Six foot deep, you know the drill," I told Draco, who looked incredulously at me.

"If he knew you're burying him the Muggle way-"

"I need to feel something, Draco," I said earnestly. "And if it's only exhaustion."

Silently, we both dug into the earth, deeper and deeper, before we could finally lower him into it. It felt wrong, somehow, to cover the grave up again, to let earth fall onto him and so I went with the easy option this time. Magic closed the grave in seconds and then I stared, frozen at the small elevation before me.

"Here," Draco said suddenly.

He had created a wreath of flowers in all possible colours; bright and beautiful, more gorgeous than I could have ever thought up.

It was then that tears came. As I laid the wreath upon the grave, the tears started rolling down my cheeks and before I knew it, I was on my knees, sobbing. I buried my face in my hands and then I screamed, because it was too much. Because Tom was gone, no matter if I buried him, or believed in his ability to stitch himself together. He was gone and he was never going to come back.
I screamed my frustration, my despair and my grief and then I cried and cried until there were no more tears left.

It felt like hours before I was finally able to pick myself up, just to see Draco leaning against a tree, watching over me.

When he realized I had stopped, he took a tentative step toward me. "I am... very sorry," he said and I believed him without a doubt.

"Why are you even here?" I whispered. "You must hate him."

"I'm here," he said thoughtfully, "Because we have to take every ally we can get."

Lorraine Riley was one hundred and three years of age when time finally caught up with her. Till the day of her death, she never took of the locket. And every night, it gave her the most beautiful dreams.

And we're done. Guys, this feels so strange. It's been a journey of almost two years since I first published Didn't You Know and now it's just done. It's really strange.
I'd like to thank you all, for your reviews, for your support, even for simply reading this story. Thank you very much.

Now that this is complete, I'm going to be publishing the sequel to On The Fence very soon, so if you don't know that story yet, check it out or stay tuned for the sequel if you do.
If you are into Once Upon A Time, I have a story for that, which I'm currently updating and it didn't get a lot of reviews so far, so if you enjoy that kind of story, it would be great if you could go and give that a look, too.

Thank you all again, I hope you enjoyed the ending of this story and I'll hopefully "see" you again. Until then, have yourself a lovely day :)