While the war raged on around the Hogwarts castle, Harry was running through the hallways gripping his wand tightly as he held it out in front of him, waiting for an attack. He looked around widely in every direction knowing that Voldemort could come out from anywhere. Finally, Voldemort apparated right in front of him and fired a spell at the younger wizard. Harry managed to fire a spell of his own right back at him, and a stream of green and red lightning collided with each other before Harry managed to deflected the curse upwards, nailing the ceiling above them.

A massive piece of concrete was blasted off the castle and it came crashing down between the two of them. Gaping at the luck that nothing had landed on him, Harry quickly scrambled to his feet and began running through the hallway to buy himself more time. Hopefully by now Hermione and Ron had found Nagini. The snake needed to be killed in order for Voldemort to finally die.

Harry ran up the stone staircase of the bell tower when Voldemort once again appeared in front of him. Voldemort threw a spell at Harry that the younger man barely managed to deflect but it had caused the bridge he was standing on to give away and he crashed to the floor below him. The wind was momentarily knocked out of him but before he could get up, his wrists were restrained by two thick ropes before another wrapped itself around Harry's neck. Harry gasped for air as he felt himself being lifted up into the air. He then saw that the ropes were actually pieces of Voldemort's robe.

The Dark Lord dropped him back on the walkway, right in front of him. He grabbed Harry's hair and threw him face first into the wall before backhanding him. Harry fell to the floor and was then kicked in the ribs. He gasped for air and crawled away, trying to get back to his feet. "You were right-" Harry began but Voldemort struck him in the face again. "When you told Professor Snape the wand was failing you," Harry forced himself to say the words. "It will always fail you."

Voldemort tried to curse him but again, the wand did nothing. It further enraged Voldemort as he stood above Harry.

"I killed Snape!"

"But what if the wand never belonged to Snape? What if the allegiance was always to someone else?"

Voldemort grabbed Harry around the throat and lifted him to his feet. For a long moment, he glared at the young wizard before finally asking; "Why do you live?"

Harry glared right back at him. "Because I have something worth living for." Voldemort had no response and Harry used it to his advantage. ""Come on Tom. Let's finish this the way we started it...together!"

Harry then quickly grabbed Voldemort and they both fell off of the ledge. They flew around crashing into several parts of the school as they fought each other. By this time, both armies had stopped fighting each other and watched the battle between the two of them. Finally, in the courtyard both Harry and Voldemort slammed into the ground and in the process, their wands flew out of their hands. Elsewhere in the castle, Hermione was still searching for Ron. They had gotten separated from one another when a small group of Death Eaters attacked them right after Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem had been destroyed. Luna Lovegood screamed for Hermione to run once he saw that Nagini was slithering up behind her.

"Ron!" Hemione screamed. "Where are you!?" A hiss caused Hermione to look behind her to see that Nagini was still coming. She fired a curse at the snake before taking off as fast as her tired legs could run.

Harry and Voldemort glared at one another before crawling over to their wands. As soon as they both had a hold of their wands, simultaneously, they fired spells at one another which collided. By this time, Hermione had run down the stairs of the front entrance of Hogwarts, followed by a hissing noise causing her to scream. Neville Longbottom pushed himself through the crowd and saw Hermione rush down the steps with Nagini gaining on her. Hermione tripped but just as Nagini lunged forward to strike, Neville swung the sword he had been carrying which sliced through the middle of the snake, causing it to disappear into a puff of black smoke. Meanwhile, everyone else watched as Harry and Voldemort continued their duel.

Voldemort sent a green light towards Harry, but the spell was pushed back by a red lightning. The spells colliding with each other which caused an explosion that made a shockwave, sending Voldemort and Harry flying into the air and slamming them into the ground once again. They both slowly got back up and shot the same spells at each other again.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light hit Voldemort in the chest but the spell from Voldemort's wand hit Harry as well.

"HARRY!" Hermione screamed.

Voldemort fell backwards and slowly turned to dust. Harry fell to the ground, unmoving and silent. His eyes remained open. Everyone ran over to him. Shock was etched onto all their faces as Hermione kneeled down to Harry and checked for a pulse...he didn't have one.

"He's alive, isn't he?" Neville asked as others gathered around. "He has to be."

Hermione couldn't answer. She just sobbed into his chest.

"Oh no." McGonagall covered her mouth as tears began to flow from her eyes as she and everyone else around realized the Boy Who Lived had given them all the ultimate sacrifice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The med-wizards and witches from St Mungo's arrived with a fleet of healers and nurses to take care of the injured. Hermione had lost count as to how many times they levitated people to the infirmary. Everything just came to a standstill. Those who had fought against Voldemort had gathered in the Great Hall where the dead were being kept. The bodies of the dark wizards were being piled up on other side of the hall. The Malfoy family were seated at the end, a little far from the bodies. They had turned on Voldemort at the last minute, so they were being spared from being arrested. The other dark witches and wizards that had been stupefied were held up magically with a small group of aurors guarding them.

Hermione just looked lost as she kept wondering how she was going to tell Ron that his best friend was dead. She kept looking towards the entrance, waiting for him when finally, a young man with a red head of hair walked through the entrance. However, it wasn't Ron, it was his older brother Percy...and he was carrying a body over his shoulder.

As Percy walked, he eyed the ones who had died in the battle. He saw Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey. He laid Ron down next to them.

Hermione covered her mouth when she saw him.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed. "Ron, wake up!" She fell to the ground and began to shake him. "Ron, this isn't funny, get up right this instant!" When he didn't stir at all, she put hands on his face and began to sob helplessly. "Ron…" she choked on the word as her tears began to flow. "I… I…"

Percy sank to the floor beside Hermione and watched as she tried to get Ron to wake up, even though it was hopeless. Ron was dead.

"Ron, you can't be dead. I love you."

The last time Hermione had cried was after Malfoy called her a mudblood for the first time back in their second year. After that, she never cried, not even when she went for days without food while the trio were trying to find the Horcruxes. Not when Ron left them, not when she saw Ron go out with Lavender Brown. She was always the one that did the planning...but now, she was broken. Harry, Ron and her, it had always been the three of them. Now she was the only one left. For some reason, Hermione never believed that it could happen despite how dangerous things had become. She always believed they would get through this.

"What happened?" Hermione finally managed to ask the older Weasley.

"Antonin Dolohov killed him." Percy lied. "But I got him." Percy had killed him too.

Hermione sobbed into Ron's chest.

"No, no, no."

Percy ignored her and just looked at Ron's face. He then reached out and gripped his hand...

XXXXXXXXXXXX

He had always been a heavy sleeper, but for some reason Percy woke up that night. It was a little past midnight. He lit a candle and headed downstairs for something to drink. Once he reached the first floor, Percy spotted Ron on the couch already occupying the sofa, curled up under a blanket of his own.

"Ronald?" Percy questioned causing Ron to jump. "What are you doing up?"

Ron gulped, nervously. "I was...hungry." He responded but the little boy wasn't a good liar and Percy saw right through it.

"What's really wrong?" He asked, concerned while sitting down next to Ron.

He really didn't need to ask. His little brother had been petrified ever since the twins had turned his teddy bear into a spider. It was such a cruel thing to do, even if Ron had broken their toy broom. Ron was only four and a half years old. Fred and George were now paying for it dearly. They were only getting cereal and mushy bananas for breakfast and liver and onions for dinner for a week. They were grounded indefinitely and were told if they wanted a new toy, they would have to save up the money to buy it themselves.

"Sorry I scared you." Percy said.

"I wasn't scared."

Percy smiled. "It's okay to be scared. We all have our fears. Everyone is afraid of something."

Ron bit his bottom lip.

"Spider." He softly said.

"What?"

"I saw a spider in my room. Crawling on the floor."

"You can't sleep with a spider in your room?"

Ron shook his head.

"I don't blame you." Percy responded. "I don't like spiders much myself."

Percy gently took Ron's hand and guided him back upstairs. First, he got the thickest book he from his bedroom before entering Ron's room. With the lit candle, he looked about until he saw the spider Ron had told him about and squashed it with the book. Ron stared at him, amazed. After that, he got a tissue and scrapped the dead spider up before throwing it in a wastebasket. Ron smiled brightly at him.

"I'll stay with you, if you want." Percy offered.

"You will?"

"Yeah. No other spiders will be able to slip past me."

Percy began staying with Ron every night to help him get over his fright. He had become Percy the spider-slayer. Percy enjoyed spending so much time with his little brother. Fred and George actually started to become jealous because Percy wasn't reading to them at night anymore. He wanted them to know that he was still angry with them for what they did. Ron was convinced that nothing could hurt his older brother. Arthur was happy to see both of his sons becoming closer, but he didn't want the four-year-old to get the wrong idea about Percy.

"Percy does feel pain." Arthur explained to his youngest son one day. He remembered a time when Percy tripped on his bathrobe on his way down the stairs. He popped right up and didn't shed a tear or even show that he had been hurt. He was far too proud to let anyone see that. "He can take more than most people can, but no one is impervious to pain. And he does get afraid, just like everyone else."

That got Ron wondering. That night when Percy laid down next to him in bed and pulled the covers over them, Ron asked;

"Percy?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you afraid of?"

The older boy stared at him before looking up at the ceiling.

"I'm afraid of heights."

Ron's eyes widened at the admission. "Is that why you never play Quidditch with Bill and Charlie?"

"Sort of," along with that, Percy really never had interest in the sport. He never rode a broom. It just wasn't for him. He then explained; "I once had this nightmare, that I fell from this great height. But when I hit the ground, I just kept going. I kept falling I was going deeper and deeper through the core of the Earth. Until I finally reached this giant pit of fire. It was like I was going to land inside of a volcano. Right before I landed in it, I actually woke up screaming."

Percy stared back at his younger brother again. "You know, I never told anyone that." He realized. It was bloody embarrassing. Fortunately, it never happened again.

"I'm not afraid of heights." Ron bragged.

"Oh yeah?"

Ron nodded.

"I'm afraid of falling from heights."

That actually caused Percy to laugh. An idea then came to him. "Hey, we're going to get the twins back for what they did to your bear."

Ron perked up.

"How?"

"We're going to give them a taste of their own medicine."

"Won't we get in trouble?"

"No, we'll just tell Mum it was a prank they did that backfired. She'll believe us, trust me." That was the consequence of Fred and George being troublemakers. Mum always suspected them when something like that happened.

Early the next morning, Percy mixed together a bucket with self-concocted slime. He set it up over their bedroom door. Being sure to be silent so they wouldn't hear the commotion and wake up. Fortunately, much like himself, Fred and George were heavy sleepers. Percy tied some yarn around the handle of the bucket and the doorknob. He had rigged a pulley system, so that the bucket would be above the door, not giving off where it was to anyone coming out of that room. The pulley system would assure that the moment someone pushed open the door, the bucket of slime would come down on that person's head, ensuring that the person would be completely coated with the slimy green substance.

Ron giggled as Percy let him stay in his room as all they had to do was wait. Sure enough, the moment Fred and George opened the door the bucket tipped over and the twins were coated in the thick green slime. They both yelled out in disgust as Percy and Ron laughed. Percy held out his hand for Ron to slap as he assured him that no mattered how many times the twins bathed, they were going to stink for days.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He let go of Ron's hand as Hermione continued to sob uncontrollably into his chest. Percy stood up and turned to leave but by this point, Kingsley had come over to him. He had a grim look on his face as he put a hand on Percy's shoulder.

"Where are you going to go?"

Percy stared at him.

"Home." He simply said.

He was going home. As he turned and began to walk away from all of this destruction, a smile came to his face as Percy thought to himself ;

'They're all gone.'