This is my first Fan fiction, so I would be grateful if you could give me feedback on what you think – no flames please, but pointers would be great!

Disclaimer – I own nothing, it all belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling – lucky woman!!

The Nightmare begins

BANG!!!

All around the castle the walls shook from the explosions of spells shooting between the good and evil. Hogwarts Seventh Years, Harry Potter and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were in the front line fighting off Hundreds of Death Eaters. Ducking to miss an unforgivable curse Hermione called to Ron

"If we can just get through this last group we will be fine!"

"I hope your right Hermione, I really…" but Ron couldn't finish the sentence because just at that moment the Dark Lord himself decided to grace the trio with his presence.

"Well, well what have we here, could it be Harry Potter and his merry-men?" smirked Voldemort, aiming his wand at the three and stopping on Hermione.

"Leave them alone Voldemort, it's me your after, not them – You know the prophecy as well as I do – there's no point in harming them." Harry shouted above all the spells and explosions.

"That is of course true Harry, but you see, I have come to the conclusion that as we don't need them in our little wand fight, there's no point them taking up valuable space on the side lines"

At this point Voldemort raised his wand and aimed at Ron, who stood in front of Hermione to shield her from the Dark Lord.

Looking around for a means of escape but finding none, Ron could see the remains of the battle, Death Eaters were scattered everywhere, stunned or dead, among them were the bodies of a few of their friends who had joined in the battle with them to fend off the Dark side but now were lost forever.

Slowly, Voldemort raised his wand hand, and muttering some incantation, swished his wand and cast the spell at Ron. Seeing the Spell fly towards him, Ron felt behind him to find Hermione's hand, grabbing it, his last words were.

"Hermione, look after Harry and my family please, tell them I love them, but most of all Hermione, I love you with all my heart!" and with that the spell hit him, he doubled over in pain then disappeared from sight.

Waking up in a cold sweat, Hermione sat bolt upright in her dark bedroom. Looking at the clock on her bedside table she groaned, reading 4.30am. Knowing she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again after the dream, she decided to get up and take a long hot shower.

Walking across the landing to the bathroom, Hermione saw the photographs on the wall, they were of happy times at Hogwarts during their sixth year when Ron and Hermione had finally, to Harry and Ginny's relief, declared their feelings for each other. Her favourite photo was of herself and Ron sitting by the lake during the summer months, Ron with his arms draped around her shoulders as she leant back onto his chest.

Feeling the tears well up in her eyes, Hermione carried on to the shower, switching on the water and letting the hot steam fill the bathroom.

While washing her hair, she let her mind wander to that event six years before when Ron had disappeared from her life and Harry had defeated Voldemort.

They had never found Ron's body; it had simply vanished into thin air. In some ways it gave her hope that he was at least still alive. After years of searching though, she still didn't know what spell Voldemort had cast on him.

Getting out of the shower, and getting ready for her day shift at St Mungo's Hospital, Hermione reflected on how much she missed Ron, She saw Harry and Ginny a few times each week and she had made lots of friend at work, but none of them made up for the loss of Ron, the only man she had loved, or will ever love for that matter.