A/N: A look at the amazing friendship that the Golden Trio shares. I fail at writing HP characters, which is weird considering I love them so much.. oh well. Enjoy.

At the beginning, they were alone.

x

She was never really just your average girl. Top of her class for everything; always ridiculously keen to answer questions at school. She didn't have too many friends, for peers shunned her for being a bossy know-it-all. She didn't care, because why did she have to change to fit society's view of how little girls should be? Books were far more interesting than dolls and frilly ribbons, anyway.

When her letter came, a pair of very shocked dentists almost had heart attacks. Hermione Granger was equally shocked, of course, but so excited - so many new things to learn. The thought of going into a whole new world where she didn't know anything scared her, but for the first time, she loved the idea of a magical adventure.

x

He knew he shouldn't have felt alone in such a big family, but he did. He loved his brothers and his parents and his sister - he loved all his family (except for Auntie Muriel; she was horrible), but he always felt so overshadowed. Stuck between all his older, more admirable brothers, and his one precious little sister. And then there was the pressure of living up to Bill and Charlie and Percy's great feats. Sometimes he envied those children with no siblings who actually got a bit more attention from their parents, who actually got something that wasn't second or third or fourth hand.

When his letter came, it was nothing new, just another piece of parchment carried in by another owl. But Ron Weasley couldn't keep the smile off his face as he contemplated going on a real journey, where he could become a real hero and outshine all his brothers.

x

And then there was the skinny, scrawny boy whose world consisted of a dark, cramped broom cupboard under some stairs. He didn't think much of it, didn't feel sorry for himself any more, because it was all he'd ever known and he'd long since grown used to it. He had accepted that all he could have in life was shouted abuse from his uncle and aunt, and nights haunted with flashes of green light that he would never decipher.

So when Harry Potter's letter came, it was more than just a glimmer of hope into a new world. It was a wide open door into a happier place and a real home.

x

No one would ever have thought three such different people would have become such good friends. After all, they disliked - hated - each other at the start. But there really are some things you just can't go through without becoming friends afterwards.

x

Seven years later, and things have changed so much.

The three of them are inseparable now. People don't talk about the Boy Who Lived anymore without thinking of his two best friends.

They've been to hell and back together. They've been ripped apart, by Death Eaters or by their own selves, but they've always made it back together.

But now, things are looking bleak, bleaker than they've ever seemed. Hogwarts is on fire and so many of his loved ones are dead and Harry doesn't know what to do. This is his home, and now it's a pile of flaming rubble, littered with bodies.

Everyone thinks he's got some magical plan that will save the day. He thinks he should have one, too. What kind of Chosen One is he if he's cowardly standing around with no idea what to do?

Ron and Hermione are the only ones who understand, but that doesn't make it any easier for them either. They try, though. All three of them try and focus on the happy memories, just like they were back in Dumbledore's Army, conjuring Patronuses for the first time.

"We can do this," Ron tells them. "We've done everything together. Why not this?"

x

Harry wishes that had been true. The dark trees of the Forest surround him and cut him off from the rest of the world. It almost feels like Ron and Hermione, and Ginny and Luna and Neville are already gone.

This walk is the hardest thing he's ever done. He thinks how strange it is that to put one foot in front of the other can be harder than infiltrating a Ministry full of Death Eaters, or escaping from the very clutches of Voldemort himself.

He forces himself on into the darkness, where nothing but death awaits.

He's not alone. His friends, and his loved ones, are with him.

x

When a new sunrise blazes over the destroyed grounds of Hogwarts, they know they've done it.

The crowd is so loud and Harry really just wants to get away from it. He and Ron and Hermione escape the pressing crowd and find solace in the quiet grounds, illuminated by the morning's first rays of sun.

"It's over," Harry says, with such disbelief in his voice.

The war that they were born into, the war they had no choice but to fight. It's over at last.

They started off so different and so alone and they're together now. Nothing can separate them, because they've defeated the undefeatable, they've won the unwinnable battle together.

The three friends sit on the soft lawn and watch the sun rise over the great Hogwarts castle, and over the beginning of a new world they they helped shape together.

x

Hermione Granger's still the same studious girl she's always been - in fact, she knows she's going to come back next year to finish her last year of school, the year that was ripped away from her by the war. But she's changed. She's found strength inside of her that she never knew she had. She's found people who care for her, and people she cares for, too.

x

Ron Weasley's finally proven to himself that he is worth something, that he's not useless. That he, too, can be a great hero, remembered in the stories forever. He's best friends with the Boy Who Lived and in love with the most amazing girl in the world.

x

And Harry Potter has discovered so much it's unbelievable. He has a family of people he loves. He's found incredible friends when before he had no one. He has, for the first time, found a home, a place where he belongs. He's saved the whole world, when just seven years earlier he was still just a skinny boy living under some stairs.

x

Because if true friends stick together, anything can be possible.