Everything

Outside of the window, rain poured down, its gentle tap-tap rhythm trumpeting out into the quiet of the dormitory. She was sitting at the sill, head pressed to the glass for its cooling effect, her normally beautiful eyes blinded by tears. She had seen it, seen him go down fighting, and blinded by love that would now go forever unrequited, ran from the scene of the Final Battle.

She was not sure how, but the fighting ended up not being on the school grounds as she would have expected it to be, but in a clearing in the Forbidden Forest. Dumbledore had invoked very old magic to insure of this. She still had no idea how her mentor had gained so much knowledge of how wizarding battles had occurred in the beginning days of wizardry, but only assumed that if…when…she reached an age such as his, she would know as much also.

The tiniest jets of green and red from far away flew back and forth through the miniscule droplets settling on the window. The battle would go on forever if that was how long it took for either Voldemort or Harry to kill one or another. Then, bound by yet more magic, the battle would stop, never to be revisited again by anyone or anything. Hermione marveled at it all, really, how so alluring all of this new knowledge had been when Harry had whispered it to her just hours before, while they were preparing to battle.

But none of that mattered anymore, because hopefully, it would all be over soon, and the dead could rest in peace. Dead. Her thoughts stopped short. Yes, she imagined he was dead. Whether or not this was a fallacy, it only brought the tears to her eyes faster, imagining the probable truth. She resumed the sad gazing out the window.

All of a sudden, her eyes blazed green, reflecting the largest and brightest Killing Curse she had ever seen, and somehow she knew that the fighting was over and Harry had triumphed once again. Slowly, they started trudging out of the Forest, the dead and immobile floating along all around them. She would not look at them. She couldn't bear it. A flash of bright red walking amongst the muted earth tones. Percy, probably. She wouldn't think of it.

Her eyes shifted to the sky, and she stayed like that for a while, almost afraid to look at the bent and broken beings who had been through hell and back that night. Suddenly, she heard hurried and clumsy footsteps on the stairs. Hurried breathing. A Reflecting in the window. Red hair. She slowly turned around. Blinked. Broke down. She had seen him fall. It wasn't possible, just wasn't. But there he was. Her speculations had only been a fallacy after all.

She was in his arms. Oh, how she had longed to be in those arms just one more time only a few short moments before. Now, each second felt like a lifetime as they sank slowly to the ground. She looked up at him; her tears had subsided. She turned his head to face her, still in disbelief, but the feeling was immediately quenched when she looked in his eyes. And there, lost in them, she uttered one word. "Fred…" He was her everything, and everything was right again.