A/N: Somehow, the chapters keep getting shorter... Here is the last part, enjoy and thanks for reading!
Part 3
Ron has come back and yet another horcrux has been destroyed, this time by the sword of Gryffindor he wielded. Yet his departure has sown seeds of doubt in their friendship, and she can't escape the haunting thought – what if he left again? Ron came back, and the atmosphere isn't quite the same as before, and Hermione buries herself in books while Neville dreams of a mass of black hair glimpsed from across the marketplace. In their tent, as Ron sleeps, Hermione and Neville bury themselves under her blanket and look at the photo album Neville always carries. There are no recent pictures; the last one was taken by his father. It shows two babies in a playpen.
And as they get taken to Malfoy Manor, as Bellatrix Lestrange calls her Lord to announce their capture, Neville still seems to fight only for one person. Is this only curiosity, or is it the much vaunted "love at first sight" Hermione so despises? Perhaps just fantasy, the imaginary hero he wanted when he was small, Neville confesses to her.
But it doesn't deter him, and Neville fights not for the wizarding world anymore, but for another glance into clear eyes.
And while Death Eaters swarm the school, while Hogwarts becomes a battleground, Neville finally gets – only the beginning of an answer, really, but one he desperately wanted.
And he kneels next to Severus Snape in the dirt of the Shrieking Shack, looks into the eyes of he who once was his enemy as memories flow and seep into the disjointed floorboards, and in that moment they, the wizarding hero and the bitter potions master, finally find a common ground as Snape murmurs: "My son Harry –"
He has already become too weak to continue, but Neville has understood, and Hermione knows that if Neville survives, if he against all odds vanquishes Voldemort, he will go back to a peaceful haven and, for the first time, approach Harry – and then perhaps he will spend the rest of his life by the side of the Boy Who Died.
-Fin-