At That Moment

Chapter 3: Hermione

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K.R and various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

'NO! Not Harry!'

Not Harry! Oh, Merlin! Please, please let this be a dream, an illusion, anything but reality. I couldn't believe it. I refused to believe it. Oh, would this torture never end?

Tears started streaming down my face. I sobbed wildly, loudly, not caring whether anyone could hear or see me.

Just then I noticed Ginny standing still as a statue, horror and shock masking her face. She was not crying; I suppose she was past the point of tears. I rushed toward Ron, and held on to him. He patted me on my back, trying his level best to comfort me, but i could see that he was shaken badly too. I suppose to him it was like a horror movie: first Fred, then Harry. But to me the - the death - of Harry was twice as big a loss. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ginny glancing at Ron and I, an incomprehensible disentanglement of expressions masking her face. At that moment I was too confused, too perplexed to make anything out of it as the only words ringing in my mind were Harry, Harry but later on I could've sworn it defined jealousy.

I turned towards Ron, and lay my head on his shoulders, letting him stroke my hair, while all the time he was also silently crying.

I was both angry and sad at the way things had turned out...

As I let my flow of confused thoughts wander, memories flashed through my mind: Harry facing Voldemort in his first year ... Harry once more defeating Voldemort in his second year and unintentionally destroying a Horcrux ... Harry learning that that traitor Pettigrew had joined Voldemort without regret ... Harry bringing Cedric's body back from the graveyard ... Harry fighting Death-Eaters in the Department of Mysteries and having to deal with the shock of Sirius dying after knowing for only a couple of months ... Harry helping Dumbledore retrieve the fake Horcrux in the cave ... Harry hunting the rest of those Horcruxes to kill a monster of a man who led him to his doom ...

Harry had been through so much, much more than any seventeen-year-old boy had to go through. He'd never had the chance to live a normal life. And now he never would!

I had run out of tears now. In my mind's eye, I pictured a lifeless Harry being put into his coffin ... I shook my head hastily to get rid of the image. I watched as Ginny approached Harry's body alone. It was just in time that I stopped myself from following her. Because, even in the midst of all this, I knew that hard as this was for me, it was so much harder for her.

Instead, I turned towards Ron, yearning for his comfort. What I least expected to find on his face was there: puzzlement and more than a hint of happiness. Suddenly, without warning, he ran towards Ginny, yelling in a gleeful voice,

'He's gone! Harry's gone!'

It took me two seconds to register what Ron had said: two long-lasting seconds for it all to sink in. Then -

I will never, as long as I live, be able to describe what I was feeling at that moment. The intense relief that spread throughout my body - oh! It was wonderful! To know that your best friend, your brother's heart is still beating and that he's - alive! To know that he hasn't gone forever -!

It was like my heart was being threaded back into shape. The soreness was going. And the thought that Harry was alive was enough to make me run madly through the crowd, towards Harry, Ginny or no Ginny. I would do anything in my life but I could never bring myself to go through that moment when I thought I had lost Harry forever.

A/N: Okay, let me get a couple of things straight. First of all, I know it's been ages since I last posted anything and I'm sorry. My excuse: school started. Secondly, I'm not going to post any more chapters till I get a couple of more reviews because I honestly don't know if you guys like the story or not. I generally don't beg like this for reviews but I'm kinda desperate here. I don't like leaving my stories incomplete but with this one I'm not so sure. If you guys want me to continue than of course for you guys I will : )

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Update: May 25th, 2016

A/N: Good God, y'all! What was wrong with me! I've been going through all my stories and seriously, why was I so annoying back then?! Stopping a story just because I didn't get enough reviews? To everyone who knew me back then on FF, on behalf of my infuriating 15 year old self, my almost 20 year old self apologises.

That was a weirdly constructed sentence, wasn't it?

Anyway, I might update this story… let's see.