AN1: Thanks a GAJILLION for the reviews from the last chapter!!! They made me smile!!

Unfortunately, I cannot promise consistent updates—which most of you have learned already—but I will try. As long as I remain on fanfic, I will try to never, EVER, anymore let an in-progress story of mine go for over a month without an update.

Disclaimer: I only wish that I owned Harry Potter!!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Flashes of light were everywhere, coming from every direction and in every color. A jet of green light barely flew by his left ear. He whipped around in anger.

"Petrificus totalus!" The body of one of the Carrows—the brother, Draco couldn't be bothered to remember his name—fell to the ground. He barely resisted the urge to spit on him. Finally, after what seemed like hours of fighting, the voice of Potter came magically across the grounds.

"It's over. Lord Voldemort is gone, forever." He paused at the roars of joy that arose at that statement. "Please, take the injured to the Hospital Wing. Extra healers have arrived from St. Mungo's ready to care for them."

Draco's heart soared. It was finally over. The battle was won. But at what cost? There were bodies strewn everywhere, from both Voldemort's side and the side of the Order. Hermione! Where is she?

Draco made his way through the thin haze of fog over the battlefield and looked for Hermione in the aftermath. Suddenly, his feet flew out from under him and he fell to the ground. "What in the hell—?" Draco's already pale face got five shades whiter with a tinge of green at the sight of the body next to him. It was Colin Creevey, that annoying sixth year who had stalked Potter with a camera all of second year. He had been decapitated and there were several pieces of torn flesh handing from his chest. Greyback's work.

His stomach turned and Draco retched into a nearby bush. He hastily wiped off his mouth with the sleeve of his robes and continued to look for Hermione. He would come back for Colin's body; right after he found Hermione.

"Hermione! Where are you?"

He strained his ears carefully, listening for her to reply.

Draco called her name again, this time, with more worry in his voice. Why wasn't she answering him? Could she be—no. He refused to think it. Hermione was a resilient creature. Voldemort himself wouldn't have been able to take her down. He kept that thought in his mind as he walked about looking for her.

"Hermione!" His spirits rose when he saw her, but they quickly dropped when his weary, war-torn eyes took in the sight of the injured female before him. The best he could say about her condition was that she was in better shape than Colin; but only because of the fact that she was still alive, and that she didn't have her head parted from the rest of her body.

Her face was slashed and her left leg was clearly broken. She had a wound on her cheek and there was an enormous gash extending from her left shoulder down just above her chest and ending at her right shoulder. And protruding right below her heart, there was a small silver dagger that he recognized to belong to Bellatrix. The only thing that prevented Draco from further emptying his already empty stomach was the fact that Hermione needed him.

"What happened to you?"

She tried to speak, but he cut her off. "No, it's better that you don't talk. I'm going to get you to the Hospital Wing. They'll take out the dagger and mend you, you'll be good as new, just with some new scars."

"I'm so...glad...that we won." She spoke feebly and even that seemed to drain her of all her strength. "Tell Harry and Ron something for me? I—"

"Hermione, no, don't talk like that, you'll be able to tell them yourself." Gingerly, he lifted her up in his arms and began to make his way to the castle.

She smiled faintly at his attempt to convince her that she wasn't dying when they both knew better. "Sword...basilisk venom...dying..."

"It's okay; I can get you to the Hospital Wing! You're going to make it." The tears he had been holding in finally fell down his face. "Please, Hermione, don't give up. Don't leave me. We can finally live together, in the open. Don't leave me. I-I love you, so much."

"...I love you, Draco."

Her last words were spoken and she shuddered. Hermione's breathing stopped and yet, her eyes remained open. But she wasn't there anymore. Draco's scream was loud and pained; it pierced the night and was heard throughout the grounds. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look for the source of the saddest sound they had ever heard.

"Why did you leave me?" Draco sobbed as he held the lifeless body of his love in his arms. "Why?" he choked out.

He screamed again, and this time, people bowed their heads.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The next day, nature seemed to be completely oblivious. It seemed unfair that they sky was so blue and that the sun was shining too brightly. It was disgusting. Didn't they realize that the love of his life and the best thing that had ever happened to him was gone? Had died in his arms? Obviously not. But, he reasoned mentally to himself, Hermione wouldn't want the day to be sad. Never. She always believed that it was ridiculous how sad funerals were. They should be a celebration of a life, not a mourning of . She'd want her funeral to be happy, just as I know she wants me to be.

That was much harder than it sounded. He didn't know how he could ever be happy without her in his life.

The funeral was due to start in ten minutes and everyone was sitting on the chairs, waiting for it to begin. Draco noticed that Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley, along with Mrs. Granger were crying silently into handkerchiefs. Even Harry and Ron had suspiciously red eyes. Draco felt in his pocket for his wand and felt a little box that he'd been storing in the pocket of these trousers for ages. In a snap decision, he walked up to the casket and took the ring out of its box. He stared down at Hermione's pale, lifeless (and now mended) body and suppressed the urge to cry. Not here, not in public. He knew that it wasn't the best thing to do, but somehow, he knew that she would like it; so he slid the wedding ring on her finger: the ring that he had planned to propose with just after the battle. He hadn't thought that he'd lose her.

From behind him, he heard someone—Mrs. Weasley, he hazarded a guess—blowing their nose into a handkerchief. She probably knew what he was doing. He didn't care. With a small smile, he smoothed Hermione's bushy hair back behind her ears--just how she liked it--and turned away from the casket.

The moment he sat down, the wizard who was to speak about Hermione went to the front and began to talk. After the first five minutes, Draco couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't bear to listen to someone say words that didn't connect to Hermione in the least: Valiant, bold, heroic, and loving, the epitome of Gryffindor. They were all true, but she had been so much more than that. It took all of his resolve to stay there and wait to see her lowered in the ground.

He remained there long past everyone else's departure, still not having said a word all day. Not to Mrs. Weasley, who engulfed him in the biggest hug he had ever received in his life, nor to the lost looking remains of the golden trio—now duo—who sort of nodded awkwardly in his direction.

Only once everyone else had left did he let a lone tear slide down his cheek and fall on the freshly upturned dirt.

"I love you."

He conjured a sunflower—the essence of Hermione: simple, beautiful, and bright—and laid it on the mound. In a hoarse whisper, he said his final goodbye and walked from the grave.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN2: Due to the poopy logic of my friend, this chapter was a sad one. I'm sorry. But...now, you can eat brownies to feel better!

Or better yet, review and then I will give you a large platter of cyber fudge brownies and you will have my eternal love and the promise of a way happier chapter next time!